A couple of weeks ago, Leslie Rohde from WindRose Software was minding his own business when a user of their signature tool, Optilink, emailed him to ask about the 404-page generated when querying Google. Read more…
Imagine this scenario. Too tired to cook after arriving home from a long day at work you call your local pizza shop to order two large pizzas and a bunch of soft drinks. You dial the number as usual and, instead of the familiar voice of Tony, the owner/pizza champion, a younger voice comes on the line. Read more…
Google is introducing site-targeting for paid-advertisers in a bid to perfect their golden-egg ad-distribution network AdWords. Yesterday Google announced a limited beta test of a unique feature to AdWords, a system allowing advertisers to choose where their ads are displayed by selecting the sites or pages they will appear on. Billing will be done on a cost per thousand (CPM) impressions basis. Read more…
“What’s the use of a good algorithm if you can’t change it?” Dr. Who (The Fortune Program)
Search engine optimization firms tend to have unique relationships with their clients. Like our colligate cousins in the web design field, our clients often see our services as one-time events. Once the initial SEO campaign is completed and websites have achieved Top10 placements, some clients are content to go about their business assuming their placements are going to stay in place. In many cases, they do. A website that has been optimized by a good SEO can prove difficult to dislodge, even when these placements are targeted by other SEOs. Read more…
Yahoo had a pretty good day yesterday.
Yahoo reported better than expected revenues in a first quarter report issued early yesterday. Yahoo’s earnings from January 1 to March 31 were $205 million, up from the $101 million they reported last year. Excluding money shared with search partners such as MSN, revenues were up almost 50% to $821 million.
Wall Street analysts had expected revenues around $797 million. When monies paid to search partners are included in Yahoo’s quarterly revenues, the number rises to $1.17 billion.
Yahoo has several revenue streams resulting from years of content development and numerous advertising programs. Paid-search in the form of contextually delivered ads makes up the greatest part of their income, responsible for about 45% of annual revenues.
Yahoo showed growth against every standard used to rate it. Domestic revenues in the US increased by 37% to $819 million from the $599 million reported last year. International revenues increased a dramatic 124% to $355 million from $159 million in early 2004. Yahoo Japan also posted record revenues last quarter, showing a 34% increase in revenues over the same period last year.
Google Labs has released the beta version of what might become the application that changes Google’s relationship with its users forever. My Search History (beta) is an opt-in program that records your Google search history and where the search results led you, making that history available for personal viewing on any computer. Users who sign up for the service will learn a lot about how they use Google. In turn, Google will learn a lot about every user as well. Read more…
Yahoo has officially dropped the Overture brand name from its paid-search products. The company announced plans to drop the Overture name in the North American market at the beginning of March. Yahoo will phase out use of the brand internationally in the coming months though they will retain the Overture name in Japan and South Korea. Read more…
Adobe Systems Inc. has announced an agreement to purchase Macromedia for approximately $3.4Billion in stocks.
Adobe and Macromedia both make software for the creation of web documents. Adobe’s most famous product is the document security software Acrobat. It also makes the popular website editing software GoLive, and image editors Photoshop and Illustrator. Read more…
Over the past week, SEOs and SEMs have noted some significant changes in the search engine results delivered by Google. Google appears to be actively cleaning its listings by targeting sites using suspicious link-building techniques. A couple of well-known search engine marketing sites have vanished from Google results under keyword phrases they dominated just last week. Read more…
What is happening behind the scenes at Google these days? Trying to figure out exactly what is happening behind the closed doors of the Googleplex is much like trying to get solid information on the Illuminati. One can find lots of rumour and conjecture but there are a very limited number of individuals willing or qualified to offer a credible quote. For obvious reasons, Google does not allow its employees to talk to the media without first obtaining several levels of permission. Read more…
