Typing AdNetwork.com into your browser takes you to a Bing search page which then prominently features an ad for the Google Ad Network from Google Adwords.
AdNetwork.com
I am so confused!
Which company is trying to get into who’s business?
Archive for the ‘Google’ Category
AdNetwork.com
January 8, 2010If Google Doesn’t Want Searchers To Find Web Designers And SEOs; What Does Google Want Searchers To Find?
January 1, 2010Matt McGee wrote an interesting post about how geo-modified searches for web designers and SEOs no longer produces a one / two / three box, seven or ten pack set of local business listings in Google.
The title of McGee’s post – “Google Doesn’t Want Searchers To Find SEOs & Web Designers” also begs the question and the title of this post: “If Google Doesn’t Want Searchers To Find Web Designers and SEOs; What Does Google Want Searchers To Find?”
Since its unlikely Google would ever answer the question directly, I think screen shots of the same searches McGee ran might shed some light on what searchers and small business owners can expect to find going forward in lieu of finding one box, two / three / seven or ten packs of web marketing or online advertising related local business listings.
Below are the results I found when searching for “web design seattle” and “seo seattle wa” albeit while searching from Colorado.
Web Design Seattle
What if any similarities could you find between the the two sets of search results?
SEO Seattle WA
If yours is one of the many types of marketing or advertising firms which ultimately may be affected by these recent search results changes, what actions if any should you be taking to minimize these new potential risks to your business?
Bing Local Search Marketing… In Google
December 11, 2009An email with Microsoft / App in the subject line generated the following Adwords ad from Microsoft’s Bing no less…
Bing Search Local – Oklahoma City Mediterranean Restaurants. Reviews & Maps Of Local Restaurants
Bing Local Search Marketing in Google
To both Microsoft’s and Google’s credit, the email body contained the word “Apple” which I guess could loosely be construed to mean… “I am hungry and I want to eat Mediterranean food?!”
One problem though – in this particular case the keyword “Apple” referred to computers not fruit.
Bing Decision Engine
Both search media and search advertisers still have further to go before they can predictively decode and match which context determines where their keyword ads will be shown.
Google Real Time Search Results Exclude Google Brand?
December 7, 2009With much fanfare, Google has launched its version of real time search incorporating Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Blog updates into their search results.
The following video shows how Google answers the “What’s happening right now?” and the “What’s happening nearby?” questions (please forgive the Slumber Inc. soundtrack).
Entering keywords into Google and selecting Anytime produces an amalgamation of relevant news and web results while selecting Latest often produces a condensed version of the Tweet Stream.
Google Real Time Search Anytime
Such doesn’t appear to be the case for one particular brand – Google.
Google Real Time Search Latest
Selecting “Latest” in Google’s real time search for “Google” produces not a list of Tweets containing Google but instead a ho hum list of relatively tame looking mostly Google owned sites.
Google Real Time Search Latest
Purely a coincidence?
Must be a fluke here on my computer.
Surely its one or the other.
Why otherwise would real time searches for Yahoo produce Tweets containing Yahoo but not those searches containing Google?
Yahoo Real Time Search Google Results
Does the same thing happen to you when you search for Google in their real time results?
If so, the lack of Tweets about Google in Google’s real time search results must be the result of a bug.
Introducing The Latest Google Product: TinyURL for Google Accounts
November 6, 2009Well it doesn’t exist yet, but should – Google’s answer to TinyURL.com – the Google URL shortener.
Why should Google enter the URL shortening business?
I think a better question is: “Why not?’
If anyone could and should be in the url shortening business its Google.
Having a shortened url under a custom domain extension like .Google (dot.Google – custom brand name domain extensions will become available next year) would create more visitor traffic and page views which in turn would create more advertising inventory for Google to offer to Adwords advertisers.
Making the new Google’s shortened url service available to Blogger accounts would be a good place to start.
As it stands now, everytime a Blogger account holder wants to share their blog post, Google’s Blogger service generates a rather lengthy and unwieldy Google domain address.
Google Blogger Follow Share
Assuming the blog’s title is more than a single word, this renders most Official Google blog posts incapable of being shared directly with Twitter because of Twitter’s 140 character limit.
Share This Post
More often than not, Google Blogger account posts’ title and domain addresses far exceed the 140 characters available for sharing a blog post directly with Twitter.
Thus, the Google domain address has to be shortened which is an inconvenience to say the least.
Google then shortens their domain’s address to one other than the Google’s brand – the Bit.ly brand.
Share Blogger With Twitter
This process then requires opening a new browser window, copying and pasting the Blogger address into Bit.ly – what a pain in the browser!
Bit.ly is a great service but there is no reason why Google couldn’t make this whole process several steps shorter while retaining a bunch of traffic that was their’s to begin with.
To take this a step further – why doesn’t Google just co-opt the best form and functionality the url shortening industry has to offer and then distribute its shiny new TinyURL shortening service to all Google account holders through their Google Accounts dashboards?
Google Accounts URL Shortener
Between offering the new Google url shortening service to Blogger and Google Account holders, Google would surely realize the birth of a signicant new traffic generating property – the shortened Google URL.
The Attention Wars
October 27, 2009Now playing on a screen near you – The Attention Wars.
Some time ago I wrote a piece characterizing Microsoft’s offer to buy Yahoo as their attempt at reinforcing and fortifying the habits of computer users to remain on Microsoft owned property.
Not because Microsoft needed Yahoo for additional desktop market share but because Microsoft needed Yahoo’s search audience share and still does.
Why?
Microsoft doesn’t want to lose any more attention, audience or keystrokes to their now main strategic rival and desktop franchise threat – Google.
I also thought Microsoft’s offer was dubious at best – offering just enough money to get everybody’s attention including half Yahoo’s board of directors – but not enough in the end to cause Co-Founder Yang to surrender his baby.
The whole act was really a masterstroke on Microsoft’s behalf.
Because as we all now know, Yang was excommunicated for not agreeing to sell while Microsoft also got to add the latest chapter to their Embrace, Extend and Extinguish playbook.
I digress…
Anyway – as the web has matured every large internet property has become visitor retention focused – ie., motivated to retain what audience and attention they have.
Hence, the recent introductions of new web homepages for each of the three largest internet audience properties – Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
In case you hadn’t noticed, each property has recently introduced a more sticky homepage.
Google has introduced their “fading” home page.
Google Attention
No links are shown on the page until a user mouses over the links.
The Google home page links “fade in” only after a cursor moves onto the page.
This may not seem like much of a change, but over the course of a day and with it 100s of millions of users – the amount of additional time spent collectively by visitors on the Google home page will increase.
Bing’s Home Page Picture
Bing Attention
Even before Bing became Bing, Microsoft had added an eye catching image to their homepage with several pop up boxes throughout the image to capture and retain searchers attention.
I am not sure what direct branding effect this will have on the Bing brand, but it will definitely increase awareness and recall for each of the images featured on their home page.
Yahoo My Favorites
Yahoo Attention
Yahoo moved “My Favorites” to their home page’s left rail in the hopes of both increasing their users attention and keystrokes.
I suspect Yahoo’s efforts will achieve both.
Expect to see every media company with a screen presence whether on the world wide web, television or mobile phone going to ever greater lengths to try and capture the growing more elusive with each passing day audience’s attention.
At Least Yahoo Is Trying…
October 20, 2009A search for Google on Yahoo produces rather interesting results.
Yes, the top result is an ad for Google from Google.
However, the next result although innovative is quite biased in nature:
“You could go to Google. Or get straight to your answers here.”
Yahoo Google
Apparently navigational search ie., “google” is alive and well at Yahoo.com.
To Yahoo’s credit, a search for advertising in their “search here” box does produce a top sponsored listing result for Yahoo Search Marketing.
Yahoo Advertising Search
Yet curiously, organic search results for Yahoo marketing are nowhere to be found while Microsoft Advertising appears fourth in Yahoo’s search results.
Doesn’t Yahoo’s absence from their own search results for advertising mean Yahoo is in need of some help with their site’s own Search Engine Optimization?
Superpages Promoting Google and Yahoo Paid Search
October 17, 2009While logging into my Superpages.com account I noticed a promotion for paid search products from both Google and Yahoo.
SuperPages Google Yahoo Ads
Although I am highly certain there are significant benefits available to advertisers who use Superpages to place Google and Yahoo advertisements in their behalf, I not as certain what benefits beyond a percentage of advertising spend Superpages.com will receive for sharing their advertisers with Google and Yahoo.
Authorized Adwords Reseller
Top 50 Web Properties
October 16, 2009comScore has released its September 2009 Top 50 Web Properties list by unique visitors.
From comScore:
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in September with 165 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 160 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 133 million visitors. Facebook.com held its #5 ranking with 95 million visitors, while ESPN climbed 9 spots to #30.
Top 50 Web Properties
I wonder how many of the top 50 web properties and their ad generated revenues it would take to match and surpass Google’s advertising revenues?
Fast Forward: Google and Wharton School Join Forces To Educate Marketers
September 23, 2009Google and the Wharton School (the oldest business school in America) have joined forces and formed Fast Forward an online resource for educating and empowering marketers.
Google Wharton School Fast Forward
From the Fast Forward YouTube Channel:
Marketing is in the midst of a complex transformation. As consumers become more technologically sophisticated and choices multiply, marketing must adapt. Tune in to viewpoints from industry and academic thought leaders to acquire inspiring, empowering and actionable insights.
Google and The Wharton School have partnered to gather and provide quick perspective on managing the change in the marketing landscape. As we explore what will define success through marketing’s continual evolution, we aim to share ideas and lessons learned to help keep us all better informed and effective as the game – and conversation – rapidly progresses.
The following Google Experiments in Digital Creativity is an example of the content now available from the Google Wharton school Fast Forward project.
Search Marketing Communications 
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