Mar

16

Search Engine News Updates: March 08-13-2010

Filed Under (SEO) by eBrandz Editor on 16-03-2010

Welcome to another weekly edition of Search and Social updates where the battle to claim supremacy between tech titan continues — the picture is changing — search engine colossus Google acquired “DocVerse” to compete with Redmond Vole!, also Google unfurled some improvements for their popular Reader application; And after Google’s recent push in TV advertising, Microsoft’s Bing takes on Google in TV advertising campaign in the UK, in addition to gaining search share in the US, also Microsoft revamped its MSN, and many more interesting Search Engine Optimization news from across the web…
Google Targets Microsoft Office Plugin With DocVerse Acquisition

Stepping up its battle against Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. hoping to gain strong footing as a leader in cloud-computing, last week upped the ante by announcing the acquisition of DocVerse — a startup…

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Microsoft Releases First Android Version Of Tag App

There is no love lost between Microsoft, the company behind the Windows Mobile OS, and Google, which has not stopped the Windows-maker from creating an Android-based version of its Tag application…

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Google Reportedly Testing TV Search With Dish Network: WSJ

Search engine behemoth Google reportedly appears to have set its sights on the television set-top box carrying out a modest test in conjunction with Dish Network Corp., The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday…

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Microsoft Launches Major UK TV Advertising Campaign Aims At Mocking Google

Microsoft is about to unleash its first multimillion-pound UK TV ad campaign to promote its search engine Bing, as part of a major marketing push designed in a bid to steal Google’s dominance of the UK search market share…

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Google Releases Animated Public Data Explorer

Search engine titan Google on Monday unveiled its latest visualization venture from Google Labs experiment called Google Public Data Explorer that empowers people to explore various public data and create their own interactive charts and graphs…

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Microsoft Begins Rolling Out Revamped MSN Homepage

Around four months back the Redmond software giant Microsoft offered a preview of its redesigned MSN homepage. Now as the MSN team has had time to test out different features and designs, and Microsoft on Tuesday formally began rolling out its latest MSN homepage…

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Google Opens Business Apps Store For Developers

Just as we reported last month, Google has finally opened up a new online app store for Google Apps called Google Apps Marketplace today, continuing its push into the enterprise, providing a venue for third-party, cloud-based applications to supplement Google’s own online applications…

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Bing Gains US Search — Up 37% Since Launch

Microsoft’s efforts to promote its new Internet search engine Bing appears to be yielding fruits — at the expense of partner Yahoo, but it still remains well behind a so-far unbeatable foe in its battle with Google Inc. According to latest figures from market tracking firm comScore, which shows Redmond software giant’s Bing is making significant inroads against Google and Yahoo in the U.S. search engine market…

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MySpace Revamps Site To Rekindle Growth

As Google attempts to make inroads in the social networking world with Buzz, now MySpace, once the 500 pound gorilla of social networking, with shrinking audiences, deep layoffs and two management shake-ups, has been in retreat for over a year — but the company’s new co-presidents are seeking to turn the site around with a new look…

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Google Bundles Reader With Play For Visually Discovering Great Content

In an aggressive attempt to demonstrate more of what is available via its RSS reader, Google on Wednesday launched a new, labs experimental interface dubbed as Google Reader Play. The new tool aims to simplify things and empowers users to view content from their RSS feeds in a more stylish way…

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Yahoo Enters Into Hollywood Adds TV, Celebrity Shortcuts On Search Page

Yahoo has made its way to Hollywood, it will soon be the hub for information about movies, TV shows, and the celebrities who star in them. Yahoo’s search results have gone Hollywood with the announcement of new search shortcuts for TV shows and celebrities…

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Mar

09

Search Engine News Updates: March 01-06-2010

Filed Under (SEO) by eBrandz Editor on 09-03-2010

Welcome to another weekly edition of Search and Social updates amidst numerous legal issues — though the activity in Search Engine Markets were nimble but, search engine Goliath Google, Bing, Yahoo made the headlines. Google acquired photo-editing application “Picnik,” while extending its click-to-call capabilities to smartphones. While Microsoft introduced the most innovative application called “Skinput” also acquired geo-mapping company Navizon, and Bing has now announced its search with better AutoSuggest feature and Yahoo extended collaboration with Facebook Connect and YouTube rolled out Auto-Captioning feature for all, and many more interesting Search Engine Optimization news from across the web…
AOL Disposes Of Affiliate Network Buy.at

The U.S. Department of Justice and European Union last week bestowed their blessings on Microsoft’s search alliance with Yahoo…

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Google Adds Online Photo-Editing Service Picnik To Its Arsenal

Keeping up on its promise to pursue small acquisitions — Search engine giant Google on Monday announced that it has just added Picnik.com, a Web-based application that empower users to import, edit and store photos online to its arsenal…

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Bing Integrates Autosuggest Feature To Search History

Microsoft has announced today that its flourishing Bing search engine is now supporting query history in its Autosuggest feature. Indicating that Bing does not only analyze your usual search behavior based on earlier searches if you have your search history enabled…

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Google Expands Click-To-Call Ads With Phone Extensions On Smartphones

Just a little over a month ago, Google unveiled click-to-call phone options in local ads on smartphones.  Now, in an attempt to further its mobile-ad facilities, Google is now improving on its mobile ad arsenal by expanding its new click-to-call ad options to national advertisers…

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Microsoft Obtains Navizon To Power Mobile Geolocation

Software major Microsoft Corp., today announced that it has inked a licensing deal with geo-positioning startup Navizon to offer geolocation for mobile users…

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Google’s Chrome Browser Beta Delivers Instant Translation, Improves Privacy

Google’s making sure that Chrome’s dominance is a global phenomenon, using a uniquely Google trick: The Mountain View company on Tuesday said that automatic translation is the most latest feature it added to Google’s Chrome browser, for instant machine translation of webpages…

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Google Ditches SearchWiki, Debuts Stars To Personalize Searches

In an attempt to deliver more personalized search experience, Google today unleashed yet another way to give users a more novel feature — marking search results with cutesy, yellow star icons, called Google Stars, allowing them to mark their favorite or best query results or map…

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Microsoft’s Innovative Skinput Gadget Turns Human Arm Into Touch-Screen Display

Ever since the immensely huge success of Apple’s touchscreen devices that has revolutionized the way we communicate with electronics, Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, along with Microsoft’s research lab have developed and innovative gadget called “Skinput,” an experimental device that turns the skin of your arm to act as an input device…

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Google Introduces Disaster Proof Backup To Protect Apps Data

Cloud computing remains somewhat vulnerable when it comes to security, and many of us take the disaster readiness of servers and data centers for granted. But for IT admins from both small and large companies, being prepared for disaster and emergency situations is complicated and expensive issue…

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Yahoo Weaves Facebook Connect With Contacts Import Ability

Last December, Yahoo announced that it would be unfurling deep integration of many of its popular products and services with Facebook Connect, essentially outsourcing all things social to the world’s most popular social network. Today marks the fulfillment of that promise of this partnership, with Yahoo Contacts now connected to Facebook…

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YouTube Extends Auto-Captioning Feature To All Users

Google owned popular video-sharing site YouTube, on Thursday in a remarkable development announced that it is unveiling its auto-caption feature for millions of deaf and hard of hearing Internet users, to all English-language videos on the video-sharing website…

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Mar

03

Search Engine News Updates: February 22-27-2010

Filed Under (SEO) by eBrandz Editor on 03-03-2010

Welcome back to the another week bundled with many a milestone in the Search Engine Marketing world where Microsoft and Yahoo! Deal got approved by both the U.S. DoJ and the European Commission. Then there was Yahoo’s alliance with Twitter to boost its social networking features. But, the biggest of all was about the European Commission putting Google in the Dock for their potential anti-competitive practices and, besides that Italian court charged three Google executives for privacy violations and more…
U.S., European Regulators Grants Green Signal To Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal

The U.S. Department of Justice and European Union last week bestowed their blessings on Microsoft’s search alliance with Yahoo…

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Google Finally Completes On2 Video Codecs Acquisition For $124.6 Million

Global search leader Google, has finally finalized its acquisition of video compression technology vendor On2 Technologies in a $120m deal which will expand the web giant’s online video capabilities…

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Google Expands Maps Platform For Businesses In Thirty African Countries

Google has announced the launch of Google Maps in Ghana and 29 other African countries where it was not previously available…

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Google Spruces Up DoubleClick’s Ad Platform For Publishers

Google just yesterday released a revamped version of its ad-serving platform DoubleClick for Publishers, with a revived interface, more statistics, improved ad-delivery algorithms and a new API for developers…

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Yahoo Tweedles With Twitter To Boost Social Features

In an attempt to lure back Web surfers who are spending more time on social networking sites, Internet portal Yahoo Inc. has inked a deal with Twitter to integrate Twitter’s real-time content updates across both properties…

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Google Hit With Antitrust Investigation By European Commission

Google is once again confronting a new round of scrutiny from antitrust regulators, for possible anti-competitive behavior by the Mountain View search giant, following complaints from three European search sites filed against it, Google revealed in a blog post Tuesday…

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Google Execs Convicted In Italian Abusive Video Case

Global search leader Google slammed with another surprising and severe setback in Italy on Feb. 24, when a Milan court in a landmark ruling establish that the three company executives guilty of privacy offenses in association to a contentious video clip uploaded on Google’s YouTube…

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Twitter Struck By Another Phishing Attack In A Week – This you????

Twitter members have been once again targeted on Wednesday with what appears to be the second phishing attack in a week, which displays a message that says “This you????” followed by a link that directs to a fake Twitter log-in page, according to a security blog post…

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Google Upgrades Six New Gmail Lab Features, Five Others Flunk Out

Google is best-known for introducing a plethora of nifty little features through Labs that make the email platform more attractive and easy to use. Well, yesterday, Google announced that six new features has been culled from the experimental Labs and will become standard features of Gmail…

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Google Adds “Nearby” Search Options Panel Based On Location

Amid growing concern about the privacy implications of location-based services, the move is latest in location-based features for the search giant. Google on Friday announced a new “Nearby” location-based search filtering capabilities to desktop computers…

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Feb

24

Search Engine News Updates: February 15-20-2010

Filed Under (SEO) by eBrandz Editor on 24-02-2010

Welcome back to the another week of furious activity in the Search Engine Marketing world as we mine the web for gold and pull out a few nuggets. Barely a week has passed yet as the internet is abuzz with a lot of buzz about the new product from the Google’s stables – Buzz. Also, Microsoft unveiled its iPhone rival – the Windows 7 Phone series and Adobe released its AIR for smartphones and more…
Google Modifies Buzz Settings To Tackle Privacy Flaws

There has been quite a buzz ever since Google unveiled “Buzz” their new social networking platform on February 9. Over the weekend, Google Inc. moved quickly and issued a mea culpa, after its first attempt to quell a growing outcry of criticism over Buzz’s privacy issues…

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Google Takes Street View’s Cameras To The Slopes Of Winter Olympics

If you considered the Google Street View trike was weird, now get ready to take a run on the bobsleigh course, the official Street View snowmobile. Google’s new Street View micro-site for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver has taken to the slopes with the launch of Google Snow View…

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Microsoft CEO Unveils Game-Changing Windows Phone 7 Series Software

After three years of dodging questions over why it was so far behind Apple’s iPhone; At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft has reappeared from the backseat of the smartphone war to front and center, unveiling an impressively redesigned Windows Phone 7 for the first time…

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Nokia, Intel Gets “Cozy” On Mobile Software Race

Nokia and Intel at the Mobile World Congress, on Monday said they have forged an alliance in a new clash of the operating systems with the joint creation of MeeGo, to power sophisticated smartphones and netbook computers, in an attempt to catch up with Apple and Google…

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Google Delivers MySpace Status Updates To Real-Time Search Results

Google and MySpace have taken the real-time plunge. During a search event in December, Google introduced its Real-Time Search service, which already is a useful feature that utilizes updates from various sources like Twitter and FriendFeed. Now, MySpace, which has been trying to keep pace in the real-time, has been added to the service…

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Adobe Announces Full-Featured AIR 2.0 For Smartphones — Android First

Adobe Systems, hard at work is preparing a mobile version of (AIR), on Monday announced making improvements to its popular Flash video player that promise to enhance the experience of watching video on a mobile, and said it would support Google’s Android phone platform…

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Microsoft Selects AT&T As Preferred Windows Phone 7 Carrier

In an unusual turn of events, Microsoft Corp.’s recently unveiled Windows Phone 7 at the World Mobile Conference, announced that AT&T will be the premier carrier with all four U.S. carriers and several international ones…

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Google Acquires Mobile E-mail Startup reMail For Gmail

Barely a week ago Google acquired social search engine Aardvark, and today, the Mountain View-based company once again makes headlines with yet another acquisition. This time the global search leader has acquired e-mail startup “reMail,” which is responsible for developing a powerful email search application for the iPhone…

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Google News Opens Up “Living Stories” To The World

After delivering traffic since its launch in December, Google is bestowing new life to “Living Stories,” the news research project that it began experimenting with the New York Times and the Washington Post will now be publicly available to provide a deeper user engagement… Read More

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Google Buzz Slammed With Class-Action Suit From Harvard Student

Enjoy it or ency it, Google Buzz has dominated tech headlines since its launch last week. A Florida woman on Wednesday filed a class-action lawsuit against Google’s latest real-time social network tool, “Google Buzz,” accusing that the new Buzz violates the privacy rights of Gmail…

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Nov

18

First Look at Google TV ads

Filed Under (SEO) by prasanna on 18-11-2009

I just received invitation from Google to try out Google TV ads. Anybody interested in Google TV ads can apply for beta test here. Below are few screen shots on how to setup TV ad camapign. Please click on individual pictures for larger image.  Read the rest of this entry »




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Mar

05

Dean Bloomfield (DigitalGhost) interview on SEO/ SEM, Social Media Optimization and his take on Paid links.

Filed Under (SEO) by milind on 05-03-2008

This is transcript of podcast interview with Dean Bloomfield (DigitalGhost). The transcript has been modified and edited for clarity and for better reading. Dean Bloomfield is a well known SEO, copywriter and is popularly known as Digital Ghost. He is moderator at Webmasterworld. Milind Mody is CEO of Search Engine Optimization company eBrandz. He writes articles for industry magazines like Search Marketing Standard and Website Magazine. Read the rest of this entry »




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Sep

07

eBrandz Annual Function

Filed Under (SEO) by admin on 07-09-2007

Yes, it’s that time around a year when we organize our annual function. eBrandz was launched in 2003 and therefore we would be completing our 4 years on 9th September. This time we have organized our workshop at “The Great Escape” water park. The date is set to 8th September i.e. tomorrow. We would have small presentations from management and key team members. After that, whole day would be dedicated in having fun and enjoying the water park rides. The function would be starting at 10 AM and would end at approximately 5:30 PM.

It would be fun and we are very excited for the day!

Venue:

Parol – Bhiwandi Road,
Off Vajreshwari Road,
Bombay Ahmedabad highway,
Virar (East).
Thane, Maharashtra, India.
Time: 10:00 AM
Date: 8th September, 2007




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Jun

25

Google AdWords Extends Pay Per Action to More Advertisers

Filed Under (SEO) by admin on 25-06-2007

Few days ago Google AdWords, extended their Pay Per Action pricing model to include more advertisers. In March they introduced Pay Per Action model and it was available to select advertisers only. Now they have extended this model to include more advertisers. So exactly which advertisers are getting these invitations and what is the criteria?

It’s available to only those advertisers who are receiving more than 500 leads per month either in their CPC (content network campaign) or CPM (site targeted campaign). And one must already have AdWords conversion tracking code installed on their website.

So if your AdWords account is showing more than 500 leads in last 30 days then you should expect an invitation from AdWords to start Pay Per Action (PPA) campaign.




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Jun

11

History of Search Engine Watch

Filed Under (SEO) by admin on 11-06-2007

There is a very nice article published by Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land. It covers the history of Search Engine Watch, how the website and SEW forums came into picture and finally the entry and exit of key members including Danny Sullivan. Click here to read complete article.




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Mar

20

Google Adwords Launches Pay Per Action Beta Test

Filed Under (SEO) by admin on 20-03-2007

Inside Adwords recently posted about the new Pay Per Action model for it’s Adwords advertisers. They are calling advertisers to participate in Pay-Per-Action beta test. The detailed description of the post can be found here.

Rob K. who is the product manager for Pay-Per-Action at Google describes in more detail about the new model. The important thing here to notice is that the new model is not applicable to search network but instead it is only available for content network. Another important thing here to notice is that they have used the word “Publishers choose specific pay-per-action ads“. This means that publishers are given more control about whether or not to select the “Pay-Per-Action” ads. This means that if your cost per acquistion is kept at very low level then most of the publisher may refuse to display your ad on their inventory.

Pay Per Action is a model where you only pay when a visitor takes desired action on your website. As an example let’s say if a bank website gets a lead from it’s contact us form or lead form then it can be considered as an action or conversion. Similarly for an online store if someone purchases online then it can be considered as an action or conversion. So the action can vary from website to website and from industry to industry. It’s more closer to affiliate kind of model where you pay only for actions and not on number of visitors or clicks.

Let’s see the pros and cons of the new AdWords model:

Pros:

1) You pay only for actions and not on number of clicks. So if your AdWords campaign is turning out to be expensive then this is a good model to give it a try.

2) No more worrying about the number of junk clicks you have been getting from content network.

3) Tracking is made simpler by using the Google AdWords conversion code.

4) More encouragement for quality traffic with Pay-Per-Action model.

Cons:

1) The Pay Per Action model is available only for content network. For users using only search network will still have to rely on the regular pay per click model.

2) Publishers have more control. This may or may not be a good thing for advertisers. For certain advertisers who are working on low margins will keep low Pay Per Action price. The publisher will favour higher pay per action ads which means, advertisers with low margins will face difficulty in finding publishers to display their ads.

3) You have to pay fixed price if the desired action takes place on the website. So it is imperative that the fixed amount is selected appropriately. In Pay per click model the bids are adjusted so that you pay only 1 cent higher then your next competitor. So even if you set your maximum CPC (cost per click) to $1 but in reality you may be paying less than $1 per click.

It is a good move from AdWords point of view. The program is limited to only Content network so this will encourage advertisers to use more of Google content network. Since there has been lots of complaint from advertisers in the past for Google’s content network, a lot of advertisers now a days completely turn off their content camapigns and keep their ads running only on Google search network.

Secondly this program encourages competition to pay fixed amount for a particular action. This means publishers will only favour ads with higher cost per acquisition amount. This in turn will compell advertisers to stretch to their maximum to stay in the competition. Maximum fixed amount means more dollars for publishers as well as Google Adwords.

Google is just asking advertisers to participate in beta test. For interested users who wants to participate in this beta test can fill out the following web form here. Even after you fill out the form, Adwords will later send invitations only to few selected advertisers. There are two conditions for beta test. First you must be an advertiser located in USA and you must already have installed the AdWords conversion tracking code on your website.




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