MSN Search vs Google vs Yahoo!
MarketingProfs has published my article: “How Does MSN Search Stack Up to Google and Yahoo?.” This one is different from my last week’s article on MarketingProfs (“What Web Marketers Must Know About the New MSN Search“), in that it’s a side-by-side comparison of the top three search engines — essential stats, tolerance levels for “worst practices” etc. You need to be a premium MarketingProfs subscriber to read it. (If you’re not, it’s time to open up your wallet! Their premium article library and the virtual seminars are well worth it…)
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Posted by stephan of stephan on 02/09/2005
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Filed under: Google, MSN Search, Yahoo
Google Maps
Geez, I just posted an amalgamation of Google news, then a day later they launch another new service — Google Maps. I can’t seem to keep up with all the cool stuff that Google Labs pumps out. I love the way you can pan around by clicking and dragging with the mouse. Check it out!
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Posted by stephan of stephan on 02/08/2005
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Filed under: Google, Local Search, Maps Google, Google-Maps, Local Search, Maps
Latest Google happenings
- Google’s estimated numbers of search results per query aren’t to be trusted? Hmm… kinda looks that way. Certainly Yahoo’s numbers appear to more believable from this little study.
- Google releases an API for Google AdWords – an Application Programming Interface for manipulating your AdWords account programatically without having to do screen scraping. Way cool!
- Google unveils new “nofollow” link tag. Yahoo and MSN follow suit. I’m dubious that this is going to do anything to squelch comment spamming, but I thank Google (and Yahoo! and MSN) for giving us website owners better control when we link to sites that we don’t want to share the “search engine juice” with.
- Google more than triples its word limit on search queries to 32 words. Good work Google! The 10 word limit was one of my pet peeves. Now I can finally run queries that have a pile of site: operators all separated by ORs. Now please Google will you let me further refine link: queries with additional operators? (Yahoo! and MSN support the use of other operators with link:)
- Google launches Google Referral program, an affiliate program that pays $20 per referred AdWords customer. Sounds kinda cool, but I can’t imagine I’ll make nearly the cash I make as an AdSense publisher…
- Source code released into the public domain for getting the PageRank of a page automatically in PHP. Not that the Toolbar Server can really be trusted anymore to serve up anything resembling the actual PageRank score used by Google’s ranking algorithm…
- Google loses another trademark lawsuit in France relating to selling AdWords ads against trademarked terms. Ouch, that smarts!
- Google earnings for 4th Quarter 2004 top $1 billion. Makes me sorry I don’t own Google stock…
- How To Destroy Google With $100 Million? – a flawed idea, but it does make one think…
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Posted by stephan of stephan on 02/07/2005
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Filed under: Google, News Google, Google-News
Catalog Age article: Microsoft is Gunning for Google
My article, “Gunning for Google,” has just been published in this month’s issue of Catalog Age magazine. As of today, it is now live on their site. Enjoy!
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Posted by stephan of stephan on 02/06/2005
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Filed under: Google, MSN Search
What would you ask the leading SEO gurus?
We’ve got a great line-up for the upcoming Thought Leaders Summit on search engine optimization that I’m organizing for MarketingProfs.com: Mike Grehan, Barry Lloyd, Jill Whalen, Christine Churchill, Ammon Johns, Eric Ward, Ian McAnerin, Cam Balzer, Alan Rimm-Kaufman, and Brian Klais.
I’m working up a list of questions to send to our panelists in advance. Here are some questions that initially came to mind for me:
- What can/should be done to get rid of search engine spam that isn’t already being done?
- Are the search engines taking the right approach to comment spam with the href rel nofollow tag? If not, how should it be handled instead?
- What is the definitive list of no-nos that an SEO must refrain from in order to be considered ethical?
- Are there any SEO tactics that you think are misconstrued as unethical but are actually acceptable?
- Is buying PageRank ethical? Is it dangerous?
- How would a buyer of SEO services go about ascertaining whether a potential vendor is ethical?
- What is a fair price for SEO services? How is SEO typically priced?
- Is it ethical for an SEO to make guarantees?
- What are your “top 10” most effective optimization tactics?
- What is it that sets a top performing SEO apart from a run-of-the-mill one?
- Who are your SEO heroes? (can be individuals or companies) Why?
- What are your favorite search engines? Why?
- What should one do to make a solid business case for SEO?
- What’s wrong with the SEO industry today?
- What do you think will be the major issues for the SEO industry in 2006?
- The worst kind of SEO customers do what sorts of things?
- What’s wrong with search engines today? Are any search engines doing anything wrong or inappropriate?
- What will search engines look like in 5 years? What will the SEO industry look like in 5 years?
What would you, dear reader, add to this list, if you could pose any SEO-related question to this illustrious panel?
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Posted by stephan of stephan on 02/06/2005
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Filed under: Searching
New MSN Search officially launches. What does it mean for you?
Microsoft officially launched their new MSN Search today, as anticipated. Bill Gates makes the announcement on the MSN home page with a prominently positioned “Letter from Bill Gates,” complete with photo. (although I prefer these photos of him).
This is good news for marketers. Microsoft’s new search technology offers a new channel for reaching your potential customers. Taking advantage of this new channel isn’t hard, either. The tried-and-true search engine optimization tactics work as well if not better on the new MSN Search as they do on Google and Yahoo. These tactics include keyword-rich title tags, keyword-rich body copy, links from ‘important’ sites and keyword-rich text in the links from those sites.
In my just-published article on MarketingProfs, I reveal some critical factors for success in the new MSN Search, including:
- the power of the anchor text of inbound links (“MSN bombing”)
- MSNbot’s level of tolerance for complex URLs (i.e. how many parameters in the “query string” are too many)
- how to obtain a list of backlinks for your site
- …and more
You’ll need to be a MarketingProfs premium subscriber to read the article. A version of this article is coming out in this month’s issue of Catalog Age magazine. It’s not online yet on Catalog Age’s site, but I’ll post a blog entry once it is.
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Posted by stephan of stephan on 02/01/2005
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Filed under: MSN Search
eMarketer report on why people click on paid search ads
eMarketer has just released a new research report, Search Engine Marketing: Search Users and Usage. The report gets inside the heads of searchers to better understand why people click on paid ads.
David Hallerman, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report, states:
“The good news is that the growth of paid search ad spending is flattening out. Yes, you heard me right. That’s good news. In an industry once-burned by bubble-and-burst expansion, Internet advertising is best served when its most effective vehicles show steady, and less hyped growth.”
“As the paid search market matures, involved companies will look for additional ways to build their bottom line through search. This will include greater spending on tools such as search engine optimization, which boosts organic search rankings, and broadening the paid search base with superior implementation of local search, contextual advertising, and vertical search.”
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Posted by stephan of stephan on 02/01/2005
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Filed under: Paid Search
