The Inside Adwords Blog has announced Google Adwords Demographic Bidding Beta.
Search Engine Watch provides a link to the Beta sign up page, however when I tried to get to it I got a “problem loading page” error.
By adding Demographic Bidding, Google Adwords will help brand managers and their advertising agencies reach more of their target audience.
Since Wikipedia is the 8th most visited web site according to comScore, I thought I would provide the following sources and definitions for”wiki” I found while searching Google.
* A website or similar online resource which allows users to add and edit content collectively.
Multiplatform Glossary
* A collection of web pages that can be edited by a group.
Cornell University
* This is a website that includes the collaboration of work from many different authors. A wiki site allows anyone to edit, delete, or modify the content on the web. (The first wiki creator named the site after a chain of buses in Hawaii; Wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian.)
Technology Initiative Grants
* A generic name for a web-page which anyone can edit quickly without having to learn HTML. Wikibooks
* A wiki (IPA: or ) is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring.
Wikipedia.org
Google has posted its annual Zeitgeist recapping the most searched subjects of 2007.
Zeitgeist’s definition according to Princeton University’s Wordnet lexical database is:
(the spirit of the time; the spirit characteristic of an age or generation)
Google’s “Top of Mind” chart reveals the eternal nature of questions and the essence of all search engine queries – mankind’s ongoing search for answers and meaning.
The top searches from the “What”, “How” and “Who” categories coincidentally are questions about some form of “Love”.
Compete.com has released their December 2006 – December 2007 list of websites their data shows have had the greatest percentage change in monthly visits.
The niche socialization and peer centric categories continue to increase their penetration and share of the internet audience.
Who would have guessed “user generated adult video content” sites like R e d T u b e and Y o u P o r n would top their list?
It will be interesting to see – what if any – new website categories appear and break out over the course of 2008.
Or will social, peer and user generated content websites continue to command the market’s attention?
The Winners are:
R e d t u b e. c o m
IAmFreeTonight.com
PodShow.com
YouPorn.com
TechCrunch.com
DateHookup.com
Pronto.com
CafeMom.com
Veoh.com
LinkedIn.com
Reddit.com
HealthTalk.com
StumbleUpon.com
Squidoo.com
WebKinz.com
Flixster.com
SixApart.com
Fling.com
WordPress.com
Weather.com
Google is now showing ten results for businesses under city, retail and service related queries instead of three.
This does two things:
1. It provides local businesses more exposure in local related searches. This in turn may aid Google’s efforts to generate more locally targeted advertising from retail and service businesses.
2. It reveals the lack of forethought shown by most businesses when it comes to choosing their free yellow pages category when ordering their phone line. If I had not spent years studying potential yellow pages categories for both mine and my client’s businesses, I too probably wouldn’t have given it much thought either. The data displayed under each query is only as informed as the person who placed the original order with the phone company.
In the following example under a Google search for “marketing oklahoma city” you can see about half of the businesses listed are probably not in the business of providing “marketing” services in Oklahoma City.
However, in a search for “marketing consultant oklahoma city” you can see nearly all of the businesses listed likely provide marketing consultant services in Oklahoma City.
Fortunately my business listing – Advanced Marketing Consultants – appears within both searches today.
Yes, every business with a phone line will probably now appear in a local search result.
One question remains – will their listing be shown to the right audience?
Google News has added a new gadget to track several forms of 2008 Presidential political media activity.
The gadget grabs political videos, news, maps and blogs of candidates from both parties.
You can pick one or all of the past and present Presidential candidates you want to follow.
The candidates with feeds available are:
Democrats:
Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton
Christopher Dodd
John Edwards
Mike Gravel
Dennis Kucinich
Barack Obama
Bill Richardson
Republicans:
Rudolph Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Fred Thompson
I set this new Google political news gadget up under its own tab titled “2008 Presidential Race” in iGoogle to reduce its information footprint and reduce the overload that can occur when I try to digest the Google News home page.
comScore Media Metrix has released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for December 2007.
According to comScore’s Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking: “Advertising.com continued to lead the Ad Focus ranking of ad networks and sites accepting advertising, reaching 86 percent of the more than 183 million Americans online in December. Specific Media gained four spots to capture the fourth position reaching 77 percent of the online population. Collective Media gained seven spots to position 14, while Amazon.com climbed three spots to 34. YuMe Video Network, About, and Disney Online all entered the ranking this month capturing positions 37, 44, and 48, respectively.”
comScore’s Top 50 Ad Focus list is a great overview of the internet advertising market.
It also serves as a great starting point and road map for any business looking to expand their marketing presence online.
The following are the Top 50 Sources for Marketing and Advertising your business online according to comScore Media Metrix:
1. Advertising.com**
2. Yahoo! Network**
3. Google Ad Network**
4. Specific Media**
5. Yahoo!
6. ValueClick Networks**
7. Blue Lithium**
8. Tribal Fusion**
9. Google
10. Casale Media Network**
11. AOL Media Network
12. DRIVEpm**
13. MSN-Windows Live
14. Collective Media**
15. interCLICK**
16. Traffic Marketplace**
17. Yahoo.com Home Page
18. adconion media group**
19. Tremor Media
20. AOL
21. 24/7 Real Media**
22. Burst Media**
23. ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**
24. AdBrite**
25. Centro
26. Vibrant Media**
27. MySpace.com*
28. CPX Interactive**
29. Ebay.com
30. Gorilla Nation Media
31. Undertone Networks**
32. MSN.com Home Page
33. YouTube.com
34. Amazon.com
35. AdDynamix.com**
36. Ask Network
37. YuMe Video Network
38. Business.com Network
39. Ebau.com Home Page
40. Kontera**
41. PrecisionClick**
42. Mapquest
43. Walmart.com
44. About
45. The Nabbr Network
46. Facebook.com
47. Weather.com
48. Disney Online
49. Vizi Media**
50. Real Cities Network
Over the past several months I have received telemarketing calls from MerchantCircle.com.
Each call has come after hours with the caller leaving the following voice mail message:
“Calling to let you know that after searching Google, a satisfied customer found your website on MerchantCircle.com and gave you a positive rating for being a good local business. To see your rating, go to MerchantCircle.com and enter your business telephone number into the blue box. Again, that’s MerchantCircle.com.”
Although flattered, I am highly certain after having visited their website after each voice mail – no such thing occurred.
To Merchant Circle’s credit, using an auto dialer to drum up local advertising business is somewhat innovative but in my particular case whom does MerchantCircle.com think they are kidding?
I received the following email today from a friend who thought I should know about it.
Subject: FW: better than google
If Google had a black screen, taking into account the huge number of page views, according to calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.
In response, Google created a black version of its search engine, called Blackie, with the exact same functions as the white version, but with lower energy consumption–Spread the word:
How do you tell a friend the information they thought was important and valuable enough to pass along to you was instead misinformation?
That what he thought was noteworthy was just a more sophisticated form of email spam promoting yet another product?
Blackle was not created by Google.
A simple Who Is search would have stopped the flow of misinformation, but apparently my friend doesn’t know how to search domain registration records – something those in the business probably take for granted.
Blackle does however use Google’s Custom Search Engine.
Even more ironic, a recent study confirms an all black display may actually consume more energy.
According to Will Rogers, “An ignorant person is one who doesn’t know what you just found out.”
Doesn’t a person’s having search skills or not now define a new type of ignorance, another dimension within the ever expanding Digital Divide – a dignorance?
Google Hot Trends USA is an excellent tool for monitoring daily news stories but labeling searches Volcanic, On Fire, Spicy, Medium and Mild might need to be rethought.
Searches for Taylor Bradford today are labeled “On Fire”.
This is troubling because Taylor Bradford, a student athlete at the University of Memphis, was shot to death to Sunday in his car on campus.
I am sure the smart folks over at Google can come up with a more sensitive way of categorizing and describing news related searches for the recently departed.
This is the second death in the last week to reach “On Fire” status in Google Trends.
Search Marketing Communications 