While online advertising as a whole has been seeing immense growth, its video component has always lagged behind. However, there are signs that this may be changing soon. Recently, video ad company LiveRail released their quarterly report on the state of online video advertising. They predict that industry spending in the US alone will go past the $1 billion mark in 2010. While that’s still a small fraction of the $36 billion total projected online ad spending for that year, it represents a net increase in market share for video. (more…)
Twitter has recently added the nofollow tag to all links left on the users’ bio field. This change has been the object of much controversy in both the SEO and the Internet marketing industries. Why? Because many suspect Twitter to have succumbed to Google’s pressure.
How did this story begin?
Everything started when David Naylor published a Twitter backlink tip on his blog. That same day, Matt Cutts — yes, you read it right — sent an email and a twit to Twitter’s co-founder Evan Williams, regarding Naylor’s post. (more…)
Google has just taken one more step in its quest for world domination: now it has its own web browser, named Chrome. According to the Official Google Blog:
We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.
Just look at what’s been recently published on the Official Google Blog:
Today we’re excited because Google Suggest will be “graduating” from Labs and available by default on the Google.com homepage. Over the next week, we’ll be rolling this out so that more and more of you will start seeing a list of query suggestions when you start typing into the search box.
So, the Google staff claims to be excited about this news. Now should we be excited about it as well? I’m going to share with you some random thoughts (and predictions) on this subject: (more…)
Google has announced that over the coming weekend it would be implementing their Google Suggest suggestion feature on the main page of Google. Suggest in essence feeds you propositions for a search term in real-time as and when you type. It is indeed an exhilarating and innovative feature; with many an implication to Search Engine Optimization as exists today.
The ‘long tail keywords’ is what is going to effect a change on Search Engine Optimization in a big way. Long-tail keywords are characteristically 4 to 6 keywords in length. And these are words that in all probability will not come into sight on Google Suggest. Google will only show comparatively popular keywords based on what was recently typed.
It all boils down to convenience, and for some people, picking up their hard-earned AdSense earnings thru Western Union Quick Cash is the way to go. No more waiting for checks in the mail or for bank clearance. Now, Google has added even more countries for this payment method, including Bulgaria, Egypt, Lithuania, Morocco, and Taiwan, bringing the total number to 14. If you’re interested, here’s the full list of countries currently in the program: (more…)
People are spending more and more time on the Internet, and yet most companies are slow to spend their advertising dollars online. As the undisputed leader in the industry, Google is trying to find ways to lure more ad spending on their network by improving their product offerings. After acquiring DoubleClick and retiring its referral ads program, Google made another announcement about its advertising arm. In a bid to enhance the functionality and quality of their ads, the following features are going to be made available in the coming months: (more…)
Did you notice that Google and Digg have been sharing several headlines lately? Take a look at blogs, news sites and forums on our industry and you’ll find several references either to Digg’s acquisition by Google or to Google’s experiments with a Digg-like SERP interface.
Despite the fact that Google gave up on the Digg deal (for good or only temporarily?), the googlesphere is still excited about this topic. But…
Does Google need Digg?
Is Digg an essential tool for Google’s Internet dominance arsenal? It doesn’t seem to be the case.
* Google is already used by the vast majority of websurfers. Digg, despite its popularity, still looks like a small club dominated by a few privileged members.
* Digg lacks diversity; most links on it are of a geek-oriented nature. Google, on the other hand, can lead users to any type of site they want to see. This efficiency is the reason why it rules the search engine market.
Do Google users need Digg-like features?
How would those impact our search experience? Would such features give us the power to find more (good) sites in less time?
* Perhaps Google intends to use our own votes as a basis to bring us more customised results over time. However, isn’t it what our search history is for? At least, this is what’s been implied by a post at Google’s Official Blog.
* If you think a social voting system could effectively reduce manipulation of search results by suspicious webmasters… forget it. All social media sites are manipulated in some way (bury brigade anyone?). Why would a “social Google” be different?
Let’s see how the whole Google-Digg (or “Giggle,” as suggested by some good-humoured guys out there) case will evolve — if at all. Whenever I find any substantial news on this thought-provoking subject, I’ll write more about it.
While researching for the blog on PageRank I was about to publish in place of this one, I landed on Patently-O, a patent law blog that had this post: The Death of Google’s Patents?
It would be interesting to know what you all think about this development.
For the longest time, traditional news wires have been the preferred choice when it came to disseminating information. They can send releases where it matters – newsrooms, trading desks and websites – quite fast. But although they may be efficient, they can also be costly. Calls for alternative means have been getting stronger in the past few years, thanks in part to the rapid development of the Internet. Just recently, the US SEC has finally responded. Companies may now solely use their websites and blogs to meet public disclosure requirements under Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), as long as they follow a new set of guidelines to be released by the commission. Chairman Cox has this to say: (more…)
