International Video Search Arrives

June 29, 2007 – 4:09 pm

Now that online video has become mainstream in the U.S., video portals are venturing abroad. Does this represent a new opportunity for online marketers? Let’s take a quick look at the new developments:

YouTube

Google will be rolling out navigation, framework, and domain names for localized versions of its market-leading YouTube video portal. Right now, YouTube is already home to thousands of foreign-language videos. The rollout will allow YouTube to put those videos front and center, giving each country its own unique portal.

The initial rollout covers Brazil, the UK, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands , Poland and Spain.. YouTube is also signing content deals with major TV networks in these countries, and is also making deals with soccer teams to provide highlights and news coverage.

MySpace

MySpace is also solidifying its video offerings under a new banner, MySpace TV. The new site will launch tomorrow, offering a revised mix which promotes professionally-produced content (NBC, Fox, Sony) alongside amateur videos. In a classic me-too move, the new site will launch with international versions from Day 1 (15 countries, 7 languages.)

Marketing Potential

Since most of the developed world has higher broadband penetration than the U.S., it’s likely that these localized portals will take off quickly, driven by media buzz and viral linking just like here. This represents a tantalizing opportunity for U.S. marketers with an eye on global markets.

Global SEO is already seen as a low barrier to international markets, because competition levels in most countries are still much lower than they are here. If video takes off, then the viral linking that drives traffic to those pages could pay-off for marketers in a big way, as online audiences get their first exposure to text-based websites via their video counterparts.

By Sherwood Stranieri | Posted in MySpace, Organic Search, SEO, Uncategorized, Video Search | Comments (1)

Search Matters Weekly Search = $array[]

June 28, 2007 – 8:06 am

If you really think about it a Quantum leap is almost infinitely small. Discuss.

Dust off the O’Reilly PHP manual and get ready for a linkdump(). Just add your own while{} to this, loop, output, rinse and repeat.

  • [0] => Blogs are the new Rolodex, baby. Boost your career with your blog network you tech savvy internet writer, you. (Boston.com)
  • [1] => Ripped from the headlines: How Law & Order, Quantumleap and whole bunch of other pop culture references can teach you about Social Media and Networking. (SMO)
  • [2] => This is the sound of me patting myself on the back. We’re in the BIG LIST, baby! (TopRank)
  • [3] => The future of PR and Online Reputation Management is looking a little Mad Max-y. (MySER)
  • [4] => Hilarious PPC ads. Who knew that broad match really meant a way to find chicks. (SEO Refugee)
  • [5] => Don’t over promise your PPC results to clients. It’s not polite. (aimClear)
  • [6] => 21 Essential SEO tips and techniques that are sure to make you the bestest SEO. EVAH. (SE Land)
  • [7] => SEO pricing. What should you be paying? DUDE. IXnay on the ICEpray. (SEOmoz)
  • [8] => Get paid for your Yahoo Publisher ads in PayPal. That reminds me, I keep getting these nice emails telling me my PayPal was hacked. (SE Roundtable)

Stay tuned because next week I’ve got a date with Ruby On Rails. Hubba hubba.

By Francis | Posted in Adsense, Google, Internet Marketing, Linking, Microsoft, Overture, PPC, Paid Search, SEM, SEO, Search Engines, Search Marketing, Search Matters, Search News, Social Media, Text Ads, Web 2.0 | Comments (0)

Searchers Spend More

June 27, 2007 – 3:19 pm

There’s an interesting article today over at eCoustics.com (by way of Marketing Pilgrim) discussing the findings of a recent Yahoo/ChannelForce study looking at how the Internet and search engines affect in-store purchases of electronic shoppers at big box stores like Best Buy and Target.

The article outlines several key findings from the study, but by far the two most interesting findings are:

  • The Internet is the top resource for researching digital cameras and televisions
  • Consumers who use search engines to research a digital camera or television spend, on average, 10% more on their purchase in the store than non-searchers.

What makes these findings so compelling is the fact that, in addition to confirming many of the things we already know about searcher behavior, they serve as a convincing example of search engines reaching beyond the SERP and influencing offline decisions.

Obviously, these findings aren’t particularly shocking if you work in search. However, for those unfortunate few who don’t work in search or Internet marketing, this study shows, quite convincingly that the web, as a marketing medium, is still growing and something that marketing professionals ignore or stumble upon at their peril.

Check out the eCoustics.com website for more information on this article.

By Jason McGovern | Posted in Internet Marketing, Local Search, Paid Search, Search Marketing | Comments (0)

The New Ask.com: Part 3

June 21, 2007 – 9:57 am

This is the third and final installment of our assessment of the new Ask.com. As the resident linguist here, I will discuss some of the natural language technologies that have been foregrounded in the new interface. And, as a member of the paid search team, I will discuss the impact of the new design on paid search.

As a natural language processing geek, I am always eager to see new technologies that help guide people from the keywords they initially typed-in towards what they actually wanted. People’s initial queries may take some serious massaging before yielding the intended results. Translating one’s ordinary English desires into effective search-engine-ese, can be quite a challenge for your typical, non-elite search engine user (i.e., not nerds like us).

AskJeeves.com was originally built around natural language processing technology from Alta Vista, back before the tragic murder of dear old Jeeves by the Algorithm. The idea behind it, and the reason why it had “ask” in the name, was that it supposedly interpreted ordinary, natural-language questions and delivered relevant search results. The problem is that it is damn hard to provide results based on the answer to your question, rather than based on your question itself. When I type in “Which President is on Each Bill?”, I am not really looking for pages that contain some combination of the words “which”, “president”, “is”, “on”, “each” and “bill”. Rather, I am looking for pages with the text “$1 George Washington”, “$2 Thomas Jefferson”, “$5 Abraham Lincoln”, “$10 Alexander Hamilton”, “$20 Andrew Jackson”, “$50 Ulysses S. Grant”, etc. As we well know, the easiest way to find information on a search engine is to type in exactly what you’re looking for– that is, not your question, but your answer. Short of such miracles, the folks at Ask hoped to provide a more comfortable user interface by allowing people to “ask Jeeves” questions in the same way they might talk to a real butler, intern, or personal assistant.

Read More »

By Ehren | Posted in Ask, CPC, Organic Search, PPC, Paid Search, SEM, SEO, SEO Best Practices, Search Engines, Search Marketing, Search News, Universal Search, Web 2.0 | Comments (1)

Search Matters Weekly Search Nougat

June 21, 2007 – 8:34 am

NINJAS are crafty

Just like the nutty sweet paste in the middle of your afternoon candy bar, this week’s search links will pack a powerful burst of sugary energy to get you through the rest of the day. Unless you’re allergic to nuts; in which case, that tingling you may be feeling is probably anaphalixis. Two words. Black coffee, 9-1-1.

  • Ask asks a Ninja. I would ask a ninja where I could get those sweet shoe/socks with the two toe holes that look like foot mittens. Footens!. (SE Watch)
  • Maybe Google’s collection of user behavioral data will be used to make the user experience better instead of to maximize their ad sales. Yeah, not so much. (SEOmoz)
  • Yeah, so you’re linking, but are you blog linking. Share the love. (aimClear)
  • Google free Friday’s. “I guess I picked the wrong day to quit drinking…” (SE Land)
  • Remember Google’s face match? It’s so CSI. (SE Roundtable)
  • How about using optimized video for PR? Edge = cut. (SEO Book)
  • Write with soul. Like if James Brown and Elizabeth Barret Browning had a kid. Who ended up being a soulful writer? That doesn’t really work like I wanted. (Coppyblogger)

Also, 3 quick ninja facts:

Facts:

  1. Ninjas are mammals.
  2. Ninjas fight ALL the time.
  3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.

That’s it for now. Two things. White chocolate is not chocolate at all and what ever happened to the marathon bar? Discuss.

By Francis | Posted in Adsense, Blogs, Google, Ninjas, PPC, Paid Search, Search Engines, Search Marketing, Search Matters, Search News, Video Search | Comments (0)

How do you identify a true SEO partner?

June 20, 2007 – 8:11 am

Rewind one year ago when you, as the company’s marketing manager, sent a detailed RFP encompassing the requirements and expectations for the development of your company’s new website to some of the best agencies around. Somewhere within the technical and design requirements - tucked between defining your “target audience” and listing your “usability requirements” - you included a short snippet stating that your new site must be ‘search engine friendly’. Or perhaps you took a more aggressive posture and required your site be ‘fully optimized’. Good for you. You were smart enough to include Search Engine Optimization or “SEO” in your website RFP.

It really came as no surprise that each and every agency responded positively to your SEO requirement. These are highly successful agencies with experience, talent and a track record for building world class sites after all. Of course they would optimize your website. Why wouldn’t they? They’re designing it and developing it and you’re paying six figures for it. Put a check mark in the SEO complete category, right?

Unfortunately here’s the reality. Read More »

By Ian Bardorf | Posted in SEM, SEO, SEO Best Practices, Search Marketing, Search Matters | Comments (0)

The New Ask.com: Part 2

June 19, 2007 – 8:17 am

We’re confident ‘video killed the radio star’ and we have now learned the algorithm killed Jeeves - but where does that leave us with the Ask.com search results? In The New Ask.com: Part 1 Francis discussed the aesthetics of the new interface and SERP pages. In Part 2, I’ve taken a high-level look at couple of the features in Ask & Google and made some comparisons.

Suggested Keyword Phrases
Both Google (in their friendly toolbar) and Ask (in their homepage search box) will offer a user suggestions relating to their search query, which can sometimes be helpful in providing you the search results you really want. The related search terms also give you an idea of how other people are searching. In the early stages Ask’s Search Suggestions seem to be lacking in data. Take, for example, a search for ’seo blog’:

Google ‘SEO Blog’ Search Suggestions

Ask ‘Seo Blog’ Search Suggestions

Not all of the results are so bare, but it’s something to definitely keep in mind if you plan on using that functionality.

Read More »

By Sarah | Posted in Ask, Google, Search Engines, Search Matters, Universal Search, Web 2.0 | Comments (2)

Search Matters Weekly Search Panoply

June 13, 2007 – 9:45 am

Break out your Mortimer Ichabod Marker you wordsmiths, you. It’s time for another edition of weekly search links. I’ve been getting some resistance from the upper echelons on the quality and tone of these weekly posts, that perhaps they are not moving in the direction originally intended. But I think we’re on to something here. Therefore, I will not deign to discontinue my current tradition until I’m forced to do so. Heaven knows, I’ve been accused of recalcitrance, intractability, defiance, mulishness and downright fussiness, but I have never doubted the erudition - nor the encyclopedism - of our learned readers. We have a connection dear reader. To paraphrase the Bard -’Your smarts are redonk. For reals.’

  • How to identify those illusive long-tail patterns. (SEOmoz)
  • Guess what? Headlines don’t sell. Products do. Write headlines (ad text, ect) to engage not pander. (Copyblogger)
  • EveryScape knits together all photos of a place and provides a 3D world viewer that scares the crap out of me. I need to clean my apartment. (SE Land)
  • Use Adwords to help plan your keyword strategy. Well, yeah. (SE Roundtable)
  • Mirror, mirror on the web, which of your domains did you think were dead? (ClickZ )
  • Want more links? Why not just ask? (SEO-BH)
  • Page Rank expained. Kind of. Oh, well not really in fact. (SEL)

Next week: Well, we’ll see won’t we?

By Francis | Posted in Adsense, CPC, Google, Search News | Comments (0)

Fortune 500’s Way-Too-Lite Online Advertising

June 11, 2007 – 2:21 pm

Fortune 500 companies have always approached online advertising with a bit of hesitation. Yes, they do search - but not until smaller players had done it for years. Yes, they do blogging… ditto. A familiar pattern, one that’s driven by caution, and the need to explain their actions to shareholders.

A recent article on MarketWatch suggests that this caution might be exaggerated to an unhealthy degree:

There is a growing divergence between how consumers spend their time and how advertisers allocate their marketing budgets. Last year, U.S. consumers spent nearly a third of their total media-consumption time engaged with online or interactive media, a dramatic increase from just two or three years ago. At the same time, Fortune 500 companies allocated only 6 percent of their marketing budgets to online media in 2006, up from 5 percent in 2005

6% budget versus 30%+ mindshare? Quite a discrepancy. What’s happening here - are these companies being misadvised? It’s possible, but considering the number of online acquisitions we’re seeing by big ad agencies, it’s not likely that they’re downplaying the Web.

The Fortune 500 need to sit down with their vendors and re-evaluate how they allocate their funds and their attention. Yes, it’s hard to concentrate on a $1 million AdWords spend when you’re also responsible for a $100 million TV campaign. But maybe that split, in and of itself, deserves a second look.

By Sherwood Stranieri | Posted in Internet Marketing, Online Advertising, Search Marketing | Comments (3)

The New Ask.com: Part 1

June 11, 2007 – 7:58 am

New Ask.com Interface

Behold the new and, in our opinion, improved Ask.com. Now more Web 2.0-er! With all the talk about GUS and it’s impact on search, this quiet little launch might have gone unnoticed, except for that fact that SEO’s notice everything. We’re methodical like that. We took a look at the new interface and the results pages - even the quality of the results themselves - to see if the fancy new Ask was worth its salt or if it would leave us wondering where the hell Jeeves was.

The first thing you notice is the slick “clean style” interface. The palette is very minimalist and even offers some Web 2.0 glossy buttons to change your search stream. Speaking of Web 2.0, most of the changes that you make to the interface happen through an AJAX fade in dialog box, so you never leave the page. (except if you create an account). This is pleasing enough and not as utilitarian as Google, but wait. See that little link for skins?

Ask with skin applied.

Booyah. “Timber Brume” skin applied. So far, it looks like you can only use their predefined skins, but it’s still pretty cool. Customization is very Web 2.0.

Next up is the search results. The old Ask results page, which was just a variation of the Google (et al) SERP, is now a 3 column SERP with multiple channel results that’s very reminiscent of A9, but much cleaner.

Ask SERP.

Click for a full view of the page.

As you can see, the ubiquitous SERP look and feel is not present. The 3 column approach actually appeals to the multi-tasker Web 2.0 part of me. On the left, the search box - normally found dead center - now presides over a column of suggestions that will allow you to expand or narrow your search accordingly. The middle column contains the organic and sponsored results similar to the old Ask (sponsored results on the top and bottom) and is pretty straight forward. However the right column pulls in image search results, an encyclopedia (wikipedia) result, the local weather, and news and music results (Different searches actually load any or all of these options depending on the result set).

Well, that’s part one of our Ask analysis series. So far I like the interface and the result sets, although sometimes the right column fails to load for certain searches (which I’m sure is just a bug that Ask will address soon). I also would like to say Web 2.0 a few more times. Web 2.0, Web 2.0. Web 2.0. There. The next in our this series will be a deeper inspection of the result sets and a comparison with Google results. . Now on to The New Ask.com: Part 2.

By Francis | Posted in Ask, Search Engines, Search News, Web 2.0 | Comments (1)