Archive for February, 2009

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Google Affiliate Network Blog

February 18, 2009

Yesterday while searching through Google blog properties, I came across a Google blog I hadn’t yet seen: The Google Affiliate Network Blog.

However, when I arrived on the site its home page was blank.

Google Affiliate Network Blog

Google Affiliate Network Blog

What is the Google Affiliate Network?

For Publishers:

Google Affiliate Network enables advertising relationships between publishers and advertisers.

As a Google Affiliate Network publisher, you can add an advertiser’s banner or text link on your site. When a transaction, such as a sign-up or purchase, occurs through one of these affiliate links, Google Affiliate Network will track the sale and pay you a commission or bounty.

For Advertisers:

Google acquired the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate operations in March 2008. Together, we’re creating new opportunities for monetization, expansion, and innovation in affiliate marketing.

Performics was founded as the first full-service affiliate network in 1998 and was acquired by DoubleClick in 2004. Today Performics Affiliate operates as Google Affiliate Network and remains committed to delivering affiliate channel growth for advertisers and publishers.

Today the Google Affiliate Network Blog was repopulated with its most recent post: “Update Your Google Affiliate Network Sign-in to a Google Account.

Google Affiliate Network Blog

Google Affiliate Network Blog

However, in the time since the Google Affiliate Network blog’s content went missing, its Feedburner reader count dropped from 661 to 631.

The post that went missing still isn’t displaying in iGoogle feeds either.

iGoogle Feed

iGoogle Feed

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Google Maps Increases Results from 10 to 1000

February 17, 2009

The Google LatLong blog announced Google Maps has increased search results from 10 to 1000.

1000 Google Maps Results

1000 Google Maps Results

From Google Maps:

…we’ve added a search layer for local search results that activates when there are more relevant results than we can show on one page. Instead of just plotting the first page of business results on our map, we plot more of them as small circles. You can click on the circles to get more information about the businesses they represent. The top ten results will still appear in the left-hand pane and as pins on the map.

According to Greg Sterling and comScore, Google Maps recently surpassed MapQuest with 42.3 unique visitors compared to MapQuests 41.5 million unique visitors in January 2009 to become the most visited maps site on the web.

Surely this new addition of data to Google Maps will continue to increase its traffic, sessions and page views to further solidify its lead over MapQuest .

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Job Search Engine Indeed.com

February 17, 2009

I read a piece about job search engine site Indeed.com on Tech Crunch today and thought I would give the site a try.

Indeed.com searches job sites to produce and serve lists of jobs posted by what type of job ( job titles, keywords or company name) is available where (city, state or zip code)

Indeed.com Job Search Engine

Indeed.com Job Search Engine

Indeed.com’s job search produced a list of jobs by locations as promised, however I was more interested in their Google Trends like data snapshots.

Although Indeed.com’s latest data appears to be from the third quarter of 2008, I found its Job Trends search tool and Job Postings per Capita map both useful and interesting.

To put their Job Trends tool to the test, I searched for social networking, search marketing and banker job trends to help visualized demand for each type of job.

Indeed their graph delivered the results I was looking for – social networking jobs available are on the rise, search marketing jobs are trending consistently while available jobs for bankers are decreasing.

Indeed.com Job Trends

Indeed.com Job Trends

Indeed.com’s Job Postings Per Capita is also an interesting visualization of demand. The Job Postings Per Capita map illustrates the number of job postings per capita in the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the United States by dot size. The bigger the dot the more jobs posted per capita.

Although job postings online and Indeed’s ability to aggregate them may be a function of the propensity of a market to post jobs online more frequently than not, the map may provide job seekers job availability insight by market.

Job Posting Per Capita Q3 2008

Job Posting Per Capita Q3 2008

When Indeed.com releases their 4th quarter data, I will revisit the above Job Trends chart to see what has happened to each of the three job categories.

Surely, job postings for bankers will have continued its decline.

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Posted in Indeed.com, Job Search Engine, Job Trends | 2 Comments »

Google Adwords Retiring Business Pages for Mobile Ads

February 16, 2009

Today while logged into my Adwords account, I received the following message stating Google will be shutting down their Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ads.

Adwords Business Pages For Mobile

Adwords Business Pages For Mobile

From Google Adwords:

AdWords Business Pages for mobile ads are being retired. As the first stage, you will no longer be able to edit your mobile Business Page after March 23. Please make any necessary changes before that time.

For posterity’s sake, below is a redacted Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ad:

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ads

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ads

While in my Adwords account, I clicked through to the Adwords Help Center to learn more about Google’s decision to retire this particular program but couldn’t find one.

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Help

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Help

My guess?

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ads is being retired due to low enrollment and use.

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Posted in Adwords Help Center, Google Adwords | 5 Comments »

Google Maps Local Business Center YouTube Tutorial

February 15, 2009

The Google Earth and Maps team has posted a video tutorial on YouTube for business owners looking to verify or append their business listing data in Google Maps.

From the Google Lat Long Blog:

Local Business Center allows business owners to edit the content of their existing listing, or to add a brand new listing to Google’s local database.  By ensuring that basic information is up-to-date and providing additional details, like photos, hours, and coupons, business owners can stand out on the map to attract more customers.

Update your Google Maps listing in Google’s Local Business Center.

Google Local Business Center

Google Local Business Center

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Posted in Google Earth, Google Maps, Local Business Center, YouTube | Leave a Comment »

Doodle for Google Contest

February 14, 2009

For those of you who haven’t been using Google today, their home page features a Valentine’s Day themed logo.

Gxogle Valentine's Day 2009

Gxogle Valentine's Day 2009

Google is also using their artistic logo display as a method for announcing their Doodle 4 Google contest.

From Google:

Welcome to Doodle 4 Google, a competition where we invite K-12 students to play around with our homepage logo and see what new designs they come up with. This year we’re inviting U.S. kids to join in the doodling fun, around the intriguing theme “What I Wish for the World.”

Parents and teachers can register for the Doodle 4 Google contest here.

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Microsoft Searching Elsewhere for Local Business Listings

February 13, 2009

Searching Microsoft for local business listings?

Microsoft Local Business Listings

Microsoft Local Business Listings

Microsoft is too – over at Yahoo and Google.

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Posted in MSFT, MSN-Windows Live | Leave a Comment »

New Google Adwords Updated Interface Graph Option Metrics

February 12, 2009

I have been using the Google Adwords Updated Interface for several weeks now and have come to appreciate its speed and data display features.

I opened my first Adwords account March 5, 2002 and if I recall correctly I think the Updated Beta version – excluding the initial Adwords product and then the addition of the My Client Center dashboard –  is just Google’s second incarnation of their Adwords account interface.

New to this latest version of Google Adwords is Graph Options viewing of account data.

Adwords advertisers can view one or two of their campaign’s metrics from within their account under any of their campaign tabs.

Being able to drill down into an Adwords account and visualize data whether in ad groups, keywords, networks or ads saves both clicks and time.

Google Adwords Updated Interface Graph Options Metrics

Google Adwords Updated Interface Graph Options Metrics

With Graph Options Metrics buttons advertisers can see a combination of two sets of data at once.

The nine account performance metrics available within Google Adwords new Graph Options are:

Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Avg. CPC, Cost, Avg. position, Conversions, Cost/conv. and Conv. rate.

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Posted in Google Adwords, Graph Options Metrics, Updated Interface Beta | Leave a Comment »

Google Adwords Beta: Latest Browsers Only

February 11, 2009

My trusty MacBook Pro hard disk drive failed and I have had to switch to an older box to try and work on while my hard disk drive gets replaced.

Its easy to forget just how far computers and browsers specifically have come in the last few years until you have to try to get any work done on an older machine!

Browser page load times take an eternity.

In the time it takes for one of these pages to load on this old box, I could have completed three other tasks on a newer machine.

Which brings me to the subject and point of this post: The new Adwords Updated Interface will not work with older browsers.

Should I now thank my Apple MacBook Pro for failing because it gave me this topic to cover?

I can still log into My Client Center in Google Adwords and access my clients’ data because my personal Adwords account was the only one to get the Adwords Beta Invite.

More from Google Adwords about use with older browsers:

The updated AdWords interface may not work properly in your web browser. We are working hard to add support for more browsers. Until then, please use Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, or Chrome to manage your campaigns. The updated AdWords interface may be slower on older versions of Firefox. For better results, we recommend upgrading to Firefox 3.

Indeed Google. Firefox’s Beta 3.1 worked fine just a few days ago when I was working on my MacBook Pro.

I bought my MacBook Pro to get and run all of the latest and greatest software.

Unfortunately, I didn’t upgrade this old PowerBook G4 which requires Mac OS 10.4 to run Firefox 3.

I have Mac OS 10.3.9.

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Posted in Google Adwords, My Client Center | 1 Comment »

Argh! MacBook Pro Hard Disk Drive Failure

February 10, 2009

A post about a hard drive failure on this blog is off topic but then again without the portability and performance of Mac laptops, I would not have been able to write or publish my thoughts here as consistently as I have been able to.

If the next several posts tend to ramble or run far afield from search marketing, its because I am having to work on one of my older and slower laptops.

I have already had to replace a warped battery on my June 2007 MacBook Pro.

Now it looks like I am going to get to replace the hard disk drive too.

I bought my MacBook Pro before the Mac Time Machine back up product was invented.

I wish I had a real Time Machine now so I could go back before my drive failed and back up the last several months of data which I failed to do.

However, if I had a Time Machine – Mac or otherwise – I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to write this specific blog post!

Yeah.

Over the course of several months during 2008, I reorganized all of all my back up media chronologically and alphabetically so I could layer new data on top going forward without having to think about where to put or file it.

As a result, I have all of my files organized and backed up in a manner so I can find and access work I have produced on any one of my six Apple computers since I first bought my first Apple IIci in 1989.

Of course and I am sure is often the case sans Time Machine, I haven’t been backing up my new data since Christmas due to time constraints.

Of course, all of the projects I have been working on recently are the most important.

The local Apple store has my MacBook Pro now.

I am supposed to get my machine back within three to five days.

If I were to take a crack at predicting the future, I would guess the first application I will be buying for my newly repaired MacBook Pro will be a copy of Mac Time Machine.

This whole ordeal has wore me out and messed with my rhythm.

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Posted in Apple, Mac | Leave a Comment »

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