Apr 22
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 22, 2008
in Search Engine Roundtable
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Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Apr 22
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 22, 2008
in Search Engine Land
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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:


  • Yahoo Q1: 9 Percent Growth Overall, 19 Percent In US Segment, International Down 11 Percent
    Yahoo just released Q1 earnings. Here’s the top-line: Revenues were $1,818 million for the first quarter of 2008, a 9 percent increase compared to $1,672 million for the same period of 2007. US segment revenues were $1.3 billion, a 19 percent increase compared to $1.1 billion for the same period…

  • Former Googlers Ready Mechanical Zoo Social Recommendations Engine
    CNET writes about a new “stealth startup” from former Google News product manager Nathan Stoll. The new site “Mechanical Zoo” is reportedly in alpha right now. Here’s how CNET’s Stefanie Olson describes its intended function:…

  • Search Illustrated: International SEO Tips
    Search engine optimization can extend far past domestic versions of the major search engines. Some globally-focused companies want increased visibility in country-specific search engines outside of the U.S. market. This week’s infographic illustrates some tips and best practices associated with successful international optimization….

  • Google’s Releases More Public Transit Info, Other Green Initiatives For Earth Day
    You’ve seen the Earth Day logos, now comes several Earth Day related announcements from Google. The most significant of those involves the expansion of Google Transit to nine new US locations, including San Francisco, Denver, Millwaukee, Ann Arbor and Holland, MI, Kansas City, MO, Framingham and Cape Cod, MA. Here’s…

  • Earth Day Logos From The Search Engine Industry
    As I posted earlier this morning, here is a quick compilation of logos for Earth Day from the search industry….

  • All Eyes On Yahoo Earnings Today
    Today after the stock market closes Yahoo will report earnings. Silicon Alley Insider offers a preview based on sources cited in the NY Post: “Several sources close to Yahoo! said the company will not blow the lid off earnings, but will likely beat analysts’ expectations of 9 cents a share…

  • Yahoo Including Facebook Profile Images In Search Results
    The Digital Inspiration blog is reporting that Facebook profile images are now appearing as thumbnails in general Yahoo search results (as opposed to image search results). I tried several times to find the images, using different people’s names along with related phrases including “Facebook profile,” and was unable to duplicate…

  • Google Yet To Make Headway On Cookies Pledge In Privacy Debate
    Google and the other major search engines have all been criticized in both the US and Europe over privacy issues and consumer data retention. More generally there’s an intensifying debate about behavioral ad targeting and privacy occurring on both sides of the Atlantic. The European authorities have been considerably more…

  • Google StreetView Sees Expansion In Europe, With Automation Of 3D
    CNet speculates about expanded Google StreetView coverage in Europe and the coming automation of 3D mapping for Google Earth and, perhaps, the desktop. Google’s StreetView project is definitely global and there have been sightings of the camera-equipped vehicles throughout Europe. It’s thus only a matter of time before the major…

  • Ratings Service Faceoff: Search Share Compared, June 2007 To March 2008
    I’ve now compiled the latest search popularity stats from Hitwise, Compete, comScore and Nielsen Online. That means it’s time to put them all together once again, to see what a "panel" of ratings services agree on — and don’t agree on — in terms of search engine popularity….

  • Nielsen: Google Continues High But Others Rise In Share
    Continuing from previous search stats from Hitwise, Compete and comScore, Nielsen Online is now out (PDF file) with search engine share figures in the United States for March 2008. Similar to Hitwise and comScore, Google remains at a high but unlike some of the others, Microsoft and Yahoo come…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

Web Analytics

Other Items

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

Apr 22
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 22, 2008
in Search Engine Land
Comments Off

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:


  • Yahoo Q1: 9 Percent Growth Overall, 19 Percent In US Segment, International Down 11 Percent
    Yahoo just released Q1 earnings. Here’s the top-line: Revenues were $1,818 million for the first quarter of 2008, a 9 percent increase compared to $1,672 million for the same period of 2007. US segment revenues were $1.3 billion, a 19 percent increase compared to $1.1 billion for the same period…

  • Former Googlers Ready Mechanical Zoo Social Recommendations Engine
    CNET writes about a new “stealth startup” from former Google News product manager Nathan Stoll. The new site “Mechanical Zoo” is reportedly in alpha right now. Here’s how CNET’s Stefanie Olson describes its intended function:…

  • Search Illustrated: International SEO Tips
    Search engine optimization can extend far past domestic versions of the major search engines. Some globally-focused companies want increased visibility in country-specific search engines outside of the U.S. market. This week’s infographic illustrates some tips and best practices associated with successful international optimization….

  • Google’s Releases More Public Transit Info, Other Green Initiatives For Earth Day
    You’ve seen the Earth Day logos, now comes several Earth Day related announcements from Google. The most significant of those involves the expansion of Google Transit to nine new US locations, including San Francisco, Denver, Millwaukee, Ann Arbor and Holland, MI, Kansas City, MO, Framingham and Cape Cod, MA. Here’s…

  • Earth Day Logos From The Search Engine Industry
    As I posted earlier this morning, here is a quick compilation of logos for Earth Day from the search industry….

  • All Eyes On Yahoo Earnings Today
    Today after the stock market closes Yahoo will report earnings. Silicon Alley Insider offers a preview based on sources cited in the NY Post: “Several sources close to Yahoo! said the company will not blow the lid off earnings, but will likely beat analysts’ expectations of 9 cents a share…

  • Yahoo Including Facebook Profile Images In Search Results
    The Digital Inspiration blog is reporting that Facebook profile images are now appearing as thumbnails in general Yahoo search results (as opposed to image search results). I tried several times to find the images, using different people’s names along with related phrases including “Facebook profile,” and was unable to duplicate…

  • Google Yet To Make Headway On Cookies Pledge In Privacy Debate
    Google and the other major search engines have all been criticized in both the US and Europe over privacy issues and consumer data retention. More generally there’s an intensifying debate about behavioral ad targeting and privacy occurring on both sides of the Atlantic. The European authorities have been considerably more…

  • Google StreetView Sees Expansion In Europe, With Automation Of 3D
    CNet speculates about expanded Google StreetView coverage in Europe and the coming automation of 3D mapping for Google Earth and, perhaps, the desktop. Google’s StreetView project is definitely global and there have been sightings of the camera-equipped vehicles throughout Europe. It’s thus only a matter of time before the major…

  • Ratings Service Faceoff: Search Share Compared, June 2007 To March 2008
    I’ve now compiled the latest search popularity stats from Hitwise, Compete, comScore and Nielsen Online. That means it’s time to put them all together once again, to see what a "panel" of ratings services agree on — and don’t agree on — in terms of search engine popularity….

  • Nielsen: Google Continues High But Others Rise In Share
    Continuing from previous search stats from Hitwise, Compete and comScore, Nielsen Online is now out (PDF file) with search engine share figures in the United States for March 2008. Similar to Hitwise and comScore, Google remains at a high but unlike some of the others, Microsoft and Yahoo come…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

Web Analytics

Other Items

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

Apr 22
Yahoo Q1: 9 Percent Growth Overall, 19 Percent In US Segment, International Down 11 Percent
in Search Engine Land
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Yahoo just released Q1 earnings. Here’s the top-line:

Revenues were $1,818 million for the first quarter of 2008, a 9 percent increase compared to $1,672 million for the same period of 2007. US segment revenues were $1.3 billion, a 19 percent increase compared to $1.1 billion for the same period of 2007. International revenues were $510 million, down 11 percent vs. 2007.

These results beat consensus estimates but are mixed.

Click to continue reading…

Apr 22
Unleashed: Building A Community Workshop by Sage Lewis
in Search Engine Guide
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by Liana Evans

Sage Lewis of SageRock.com heads up this community workshop session.  Sage is well know for building up a community through his popular videos that can be found out on his YouTube channel.

With this workshop Sage really begins with YouTube and how you can easily upload video.  Using a small video camera, the new Flip video and even a video camera on a cell phone you can easily start a video show or channel.  The thing to remember is “Being Perfect is the Enemy of Good Enough”.  Sometimes we are our own worse critic. 

Most people just want the information, so they aren’t going to be critics of the video quality, your hair, how your voice sounds.  Only few and far between criticize about this type of stuff.  Your followers will criticize you about wrong facts though, so make sure you have the fact of the content you are presenting right.

To encourage your community to start to build make sure you allow comments.  You can moderate them, but make sure you allow them.  If you don’t, it seems like a one way conversation and people won’t really want to join your community.  Allowing video responses helps too.  (Sage also demonstrates adding a “live” video response during this session.)

YouTube makes it really easy to optimize your videos.  Making sure you’ve got a pretty descriptive title, and a description with a URL (even though they are nofollowed) in it as well as adding tags.  Tags are very important in YouTube, so make sure you’ve got the right tags for your videos.

The nice thing about YouTube is that you can promote it through Facebook, MySpace, Deliciou and Digg.  It’s really simple to share your videos through other networks, but a quick hit of a button your video can be published into your profiles on these types of site.

From here Sage moves over to Facebook and how it also is a great place to start building a community.  Facebook allows you to share your videos, photos, links, blog entries and things you do on other networks with your friends.  Facebook also allows you to create groups, and groups are a great place to build communities as well.

Facebook also allows you to add videos like YouTube does as well (add them through live feed or uploading).  This can be another way to promote building a community through video.  The key though is to be active in  your community

Final thing that Sage points out is that it’s about participating.  Whether it’s leaving comments,  or responses or even writing on someone’s wall, it lets someone else know you’ve been on their site.  These are basic building blocks of community building.

Want more from your web site?
Search Influence can help! Targeted Traffic. Increased Revenue. Results Guaranteed. Customized Internet Marketing you can afford.

Apr 22
Former Googlers Ready Mechanical Zoo Social Recommendations Engine
in Search Engine Land
Comments Off

CNET writes about a new “stealth startup” from former Google News product manager Nathan Stoll. The new site “Mechanical Zoo” is reportedly in alpha right now. Here’s how CNET’s Stefanie Olson describes its intended function:

Click to continue reading…

Apr 22
Former Googlers Ready Mechanical Zoo Social Recommendations Engine
in Search Engine Land
Comments Off

CNET writes about a new “stealth startup” from former Google News product manager Nathan Stoll. The new site “Mechanical Zoo” is reportedly in alpha right now. Here’s how CNET’s Stefanie Olson describes its intended function:

Click to continue reading…

Apr 22
Unleashed: Viral Marketing Workshop
in Search Engine Guide
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by Diane Aull

How to create ideas that spread

It’s about creativity.

What is viral marketing?

Content designed to build buzz: you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get placement. It can be really cheap. The cost is in the idea, not the promotion. Other people do your promotion/placement for you.

Why does it work?

  1. People distrust ads
  2. People trust friends
  3. People trust strangers (online — they can build credibility via blogging, YouTube, website, etc.)

The cost is in the idea

The challenge is in coming up with an idea worth talking about.

Viral content creates brand evagelists. You give people a reason to talk about your product. They get a sense of importance. Having them talk about your product for you increases your credibility — it’s not just advertising.

Driven by passions — people are sharing

  1. 89% share by email
  2. 24% share business or personal finance info (so viral is not just B2C; can be B2B, too)
  3. 63% share content at least once a week
  4. 25% share daily
  5. Only 5% won’t share at all

Pitfalls

Lack of Brand/Growth Control: Sometimes what takes off isn’t what you think will. You have a hard time controlling it once it gets out there “in the wild.” It can go out of control and you need to be prepared and ready to accept that.

Measurement challenges: You need to know what you intend for the viral content to do. Burger King “subservient chicken”. Took some heat from traditional marketers because they didn’t see how it was going to sell more chicken (it didn’t even mention the BK name, and for the first couple of weeks, nobody knew it was BK behind it). But it wasn’t about selling chicken, but awareness. They wanted to get their name in front of college age people who weren’t thinking of BK. As it happened, though, in the end their market share in that age range went up, 9% sales increase each week.

Creating the idea

  1. What are your customers passionate about?
  2. What hasn’t been done?
  3. Will your audience risk their reputation to spread it?

The flow of conversation

When you look at daily blog posting volume on Technorati and compare it against major news events, you can see spikes and dips that correllate to what’s going on in the world. You can see the things that make people say “I need to get out there and share my thoughts.”

What gets people talking is things that impact them, not just cheaper price or shiny new color.

Tips

  • Need an eye-catching title. You have to catch their attention quickly. The presentation will make a dramatic difference in whether people even click on it, much less forward it on.
  • Make it spreadable. The less work it is for them to spread it, the more likely they are to spread. Give them explicit link(s) to pass the information on. Offer them a reward. (Example: CafePress — tell five friends, they each get a $5 off coupon, and you get one too).
  • Exploit motivators. Example: “Invitation Only” to build exclusivity. By making GMail “invitation only” in the early days, the invites became more desirable. Google also asked people to donate their invites to “GMail for the troops.” Another idea: give select people a “sneak peak” — you can get their feedback, and it builds word of mouth before you even launch.
  • Leverage existing networks. Most people have 8-12 immediate influencers in Real Life. Dozens, hundreds of secondary influencers. So reach out to key influencers. Find out where they are (email lists, discussion forums, topical blogs, etc.).
  • Get ad space without buying an ad. Example: widgets. These are small programs that can sit on your blog or your website and offer neat functionality — things like “recent visitors” from MyBlogLog or display of “my most recent photos” from Flickr. People can click on these widgets to check out the community/site behind the widget. Another example: quizzes. People take your quiz, fill out some answers and get a badge they can put on their blog/website (“What percent evil genius are you?”)
  • Be prepared for rapid growth. It may not happen — you don’t have to have immense traffic to have a successful viral campaign. But sometimes it does happen, and it’s hard to predict when it will. You don’t want your server crashing, you don’t want to run out of free samples (or be stuck giving away so many free samples you can’t stay in business). It’s far worse to back out of a campaign (example: Starbucks discount coupons. Caribou Coffee stepped in and got a ton of great press when Starbucks discontinued campaign, all because Starbucks wasn’t prepared for campaign to go viral.)

Types of campaigns

There’s no set way of doing it. Different ideas will work for different companies/products/etc.

  • Humor: Probably the most common type. Pros: often can spread quickly and leaves a positive association with your brand. Cons: tough sell to the executive crowd; there is the potential to offend; doesn’t always fit with your brand.
  • Breaking news: Pros: establishes credibility, doesn’t require a ton of creativity. Cons: can take a lot of time (don’t always have breaking news happening when you need it), may not fit with your brand.
  • Debate: Must offer a friendly challenge. Pros: done right, it can gain respect from people who disagree with you; gain links from those who find conversation intriguing whether they agree with you or not. Cons: you have issued a challenge and you don’t know for sure what the response will be.
  • Attack: DO NOT DO THIS. Jenn has only seen one company that made this work (Apple with their “I’m a PC/I’m a Mac” campaign). Pro: can get alot of attention. Con: attention may not be good. The reason the Apple ads work is because it works with humor, walks the fine line by attacking but in a nice way. They also made different versions of the ad with different people/messages in each country/culture where they run the campaign. It’s a very very tricky thing to pull off.
  • Be a resource: It works because you educate and inform. Pros: you become a recognized expert; high visitor return rate. Cons: you need excellent writing skills, and it’s very time consuming. Example: Search Engine Guide. This is the kind of thing they do every day. Great deal of growth via word of mouth.
  • Fear: Have to be careful — not as dangerous as an attack campaign, but still carries risks. Fear is a motivator, though. Pros: solve the fear and you win; people will want to know more. Cons: if you don’t deliver on the solution, you’re in trouble.
  • Freebies: This is the one most people think of. Pros: everyone likes free stuff; gives people a chance to try your brand. Creates brand evangelists. Cons: impacts your bottom line — there is a cost associated with giving away free stuff. Idea: send freebies to “key influencers” instead of giving away to the world. Example of Stormhoek winery giving away 100 bottles of wine to key bloggers (as mentioned by Mack Collier in his Blogging for Business presentation yesterday).
  • Ego: To make it work, make it personal. Pros: if done right, scores big links. Cons: do too much and it loses effect; suck up too much and it sounds phony. Example: Dove “Real Women” campaign — their “Evolution” video on YouTube showing all the Photoshopping done on a model’s photo before she appears on a billboard. Became one of the most watched videos on YouTube. Appeals to women who might have felt inadequate compared to models: basially says we think you’re beautiful without all this Photoshopping. Appeals to ego. What’s also great about it is that it sparks parodies, which reach audiences who would not have seen the original.

Planting the seeds

So, how do you get the word out?

  • Email: tap your existing resources, send out to a few and let them spread.
  • Search Engines: use them to find sites related to your topic. Search for a competitor and check their backlinks and get your content in front of those who are linking.
  • Blog search: Use blog engines to find topically appropriate blogs. Technorati is a good resource with a lot of good information about the blogs listed there. RSS subscribers, Facebook/Twitter friends, email list, etc.

Number one rule of pitching a blogger: read their blog (and the comments from their readers). You don’t have to read the whole thing all the way back through their archives, but you do need to read enough to be familiar with their topic/style. If you don’t pitch them well, they may well let the world know about it. No pestering, follow pitch guidelines they may have posted, use real language (not PR-jargon, buzzwords, etc.), develop a friendship before you pitch them (follow them on Twitter, comment on their blog, etc.), don’t send out a mass e-mail with no personalization, don’t try to pretend you’re somebody you’re not (be transparent if you make/sell the product — don’t try to pretent you’re just a happy user). It’s a respect issue.

A Practical How-To

Jenn then covered the thought processes behind the video campaign they created for the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, showing the detailed steps they went through to brainstorm and develop the idea.

Main things to think about when planning a viral campaign:

  • What do customers like about you?
  • What do customers not like about you?
  • What is your biggest challenge?
  • What sparks online conversation?
  • What kind of site sends the best visitors?
  • What motivates your customers base?
  • What do you wish people said about you?
  • Can you create/embrace controversy?
  • Do you have an underlying story?
  • Are you connected to a news story?

Then take an assessment of your available resources, what you can do, what allies you have and what they might be able to do for you, what favors you can call in, etc.

Be sure you understand the costs of the different ideas you’re considering.

This is where having those pre-existing relationships with key influencers comes into play. You need those in place before you launch campaign. SEG was able to get the word out much better/quicker because of their existing relationships.

Want more from your web site?
Search Influence can help! Targeted Traffic. Increased Revenue. Results Guaranteed. Customized Internet Marketing you can afford.

Apr 22
Search Illustrated: International SEO Tips
in Search Engine Land
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Search Illustrated - A Column From Search Engine Land Search engine optimization can extend far past domestic versions of the major search engines. Some globally-focused companies want increased visibility in country-specific search engines outside of the U.S. market. This week’s infographic illustrates some tips and best practices associated with successful international optimization.

Click to continue reading…