Search engines

Rick Santorum Has a Dirty Problem with SEO, and He’s Made it Worse

February 15th 2012

The gay rights protest site “Spreading Santorum” now eclipses the official Santorum campaign site on the major search engines. Its a text book case bad SEO decisions, and the power of offensive though apparently resonate free speech.

What Google +1 Means for Digital Marketers and Google’s Future

April 1st 2011

Google +1 is a critical priority to Google. Here’s why this still thin beta may still be the biggest shift of the year in search marketing. Spoiler alert: I see this as the gating event for repackaging Google’s many services as to a social network. And that’s a pretty great idea.

Why Google Can’t Mix Matter and Anti-Matter: Keeping Organic Results Pure

March 14th 2011

Google is in both the Rankings and Advertising business. That’s a problem because while both these activities shape opinion, they do so in mutually eroding ways.

SEO Is to Marketing as Day Trading Is to Finance

March 2nd 2011

Google wrapping SEO in moral terms of “back and white hat” is nonsensical, as SEO gamers are competing in an inefficient market of Google own making. And, once a single firm games Google, its competitors must follow suite or cede substantial website traffic to less ethical players.

Why Is Google Stalking My Friend Anna Bolotovsky? (Litigators,Take Note)

November 29th 2010

Has Google made a privacy slip-up? Imagine finding your real gmail use portrayed on CNN. No matter what terms of use say, isn’t privacy inherent to providing a suitable email service?

More Digital Marketing Investment: Marin Gets Funding, Hearst Buys iCrossing

June 10th 2010

Last week, buying lead management companies was all the rage.  Now Marin Software, a Paid Search (SEM) Marketing Platform, completed another financing round, bringing in $11 million.  (That’s $33 million for them to date.) And SEM agency iCrossing has been purchased by Hearst Media for a reported $325 million. The deal could increase to more than […]

Google and Topeka Swap Names for a Day: Trademark Hilarity Ensues

April 1st 2010

Last month, the mayor of Topeka, Kansas, stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. Now Google has honored that gesture by changing its name name to Topeka for April Fools’ Day. This makes Bill Bunten the Mayor of Google and Eric Schmidt the CEO of Topeka, Inc. Of course, […]

Facebook’s Version of the Retweet Has Arrived

January 15th 2010

This evening, Facebook rolled out a feature that lets users repost each other ’s shared items, with a “via” link attached for attribution back to your friend. All you do is find a posted item in your news feed and click “share” as shown to the right just below my post. This adds a post […]

Google Adds Option to Play Video as Part of Search Listings

September 10th 2009

Finding videos via search isn’t new, but playing them inside ad listings is. For example, if you enter the word “Fame” in Google, you may have the option to play the movie trailer, which will roll surrounded by all the other search results. Google expects increasing video in ad results. This gets searchers to video […]

Is It Criminal for Minors to Use Google? Could Be.

July 10th 2009

There is a growing disconnect between the legal staff who write terms of use for websites, those who operate the site, and site visitors. I’ve come to believe that each level of disconnection introduces new sets of legal risks, which this story only start to illustrate. Chris Soghoian observed in CNET that Google’s terms of […]