Today something exciting happened to me. Google replied to an email I sent them. Not only did they reply, but the response I got was exactly what I was looking for – you see, they read my question, and actually answered it!

This is a first for me, as the first response I always get is some auto-generated form response that doesn’t come close to addressing the original question. After several days of email tag, the question is eventually answered.

The problem with this response I got was that it isn’t really the answer I was hoping for.

We all know that Google does not allow the same keyword to be live in more than one AdGroup or Campaign. This is common sense because if they did, you could essentially have multiple ads appearing at the same time under the same search.

But what happens if you throw in the wrench of having each of these unique campaigns target different geographic areas? In my mind this should work – unsure I thought I would check with Google before putting in the time to set everything up.

My Question:

“I may be setting up a new account in the coming weeks that will target 12 different geographic locations.

Essentially I will be creating 12 campaigns, one for each specific geographic location. The Ads will all be similar, with the main differences being the geographic location mentioned in the ad. Each of the 12 campaigns and their corresponding AdGroups will target the same Keyword set.

Will this work?”

Their Answer:

“…As you are aware if you have the same keywords across multiple campaigns, in
this case twelve, only one ad (the better performing one) from the twelve campaigns will show. Hence, setting twelve campaigns each with a unique geographical location and having the same keywords will not be feasible…”

In short, it won’t work. Perhaps this little adjustment to the AdWords system would make perfect sense, and may even happen some day – but I’m not holding my breath. I will happily give credit where credit is due – Thank you Genevieve for actually reading my question and answering it without simply pulling a response from your database.

Have you ever come across a blog, forum, or other interactive site where you only wanted to post a single comment and then move on, only to be forced into registering and providing all your info, and finally saying, forget it?

Yahoo would like to put an end to this through the use of OpenID according to a TimesOnline report Thursday. OpenID is a system that allows internet users the ability to use a single login across multiple websites.

OpenID has been around for a while now and currently has more than 130 million subscribers, but to date, none of the biggest web properties have embraced its services.

“Raj Mata, director of memberships at Yahoo!, said: “This is another step forward for the open web. It is a hassle for users to have to log in to different sites. Often you have to register an account with a site – which you won’t remember – just to post a comment. We think this reduces the barrier to entry.”

While I for one can see the massive benefits of a single log in system giving access to all your favorite sites, I can also see the potential security nightmare. It doesn’t take a programmer or security expert to know that a system like this is probably not without its holes, especially if used on a wide scale.

“The whole thing is fantastically dangerous until you can introduce cryptographic methods which ensure that the whole procedure is not phishable,” Ben Laurie, an independent security expert, said.

While Yahoo noted that all relevant security issues have been addressed with the latest version of the OpenID protocol, time will tell if the initiative will be a success.

According to a recent CNN Money report published Thursday, more than 75% of American web users viewed at least one video online with an overall average time spent of 3.25 hours per person.

Google, during November, held on to a 31.3% market share when it comes to video services including YouTube and Google Video, which is a 2% increase over stats for the month of October.

With a total of 9.5 billion videos viewed back in November, and nearly 3 billion of these on Google properties, it is a wonder why Google has not yet capitalized on the money making opportunities these massively popular sites provide. While a variety of ideas have been put out there such as pop-ups & pre and post roll ads, very little has been done to date.

I suppose it is just a matter of time and as video popularity continues to grow on the web, ads will become an unavoidable reality, so we may as well enjoy it as is, while it lasts.

Years ago MSN stopped displaying Google AdWords ads in favor of their own PPC advertising platform, MSN Adcenter. So why, after all this time have they begun to display AdWords ads again?

On Tuesday Jon Henshaw blogged an interesting find: A search for the phrase “colorations paint” brought up the standard MSN Adcenter ads at the top, a typical #1 & #2 listing for DiscountSchoolSupply, and a rather interesting third and fourth result. Sitting at #3 for this phrase appears to be Google. The URL indexed a link generated for DiscountSchoolSupply’s Google AdWords account! Read more…

An interesting article posted last week at Bloomberg, noted that China can’t spell Google, and that this may be playing a role in Google playing second fiddle to Chinese search giant Baidu.

“Internet addresses in China are based on the Hanyu Pinyin system that translates Chinese characters into roman letters. Sounds such as “gle” don’t exist.”

“G-O-O-G-L-E is not a normal Chinese spelling and people don’t pronounce it right,” Kai-fu Lee, Google’s president for Greater China, said in a Nov. 30 interview in Beijing. “Most people call us `go go.’”

As a result Google acquired the ‘G.cn’ domain to help users who misspell Google’s name.

China holds the internet’s second largest market with 162 million users, and Google only sees approximately 30% of this market, compared to Baidu with 61%. Credit Suisse Group estimated that in 2006 only 1 percent of Google’s revenue was generated in China.

The issues surrounding online privacy have been a hot topic on the web lately, and Ask.com has taken the concern a step further with the introduction of AskEraser.

Ask announced the launch on Tuesday in their official Blog. This new feature added to the Ask site provides control for the searcher over how their search activity data is handled. At any time users have the ability to turn on the service which will result in their search data being removed off the Ask servers within a number of hours. Information removed from their servers will include search terms, clicks, IP addresses, and any user or session IDs.

Using AskEraser could not be any simpler. When visiting Ask.com you will see an “AskEraser” link at the top right corner. Clicking this link will bring up a window explaining the service and provide you with a button to turn it on. Once on, the link at the top right will expand to offer you an on / off toggle.

AskEraser is all part of the move to expand the end user’s privacy. While it may be a smart move for Google to follow suit, I suspect this feature is one they may not move towards.

In an effort to compete with Google Maps and Google Earth, and to capture the traffic of one of the UK’s most visited websites, Microsoft has purchased online mapping service Multimap for an undisclosed sum.

According to a press release issued by Multimap on Dec 12, “Multimap will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft as part of the Visual Earth and Search teams in the Online Services Group.”

“The addition of Multimap enhances Microsoft’s position as a leading provider of mapping and location platform services,” said Sharon Baylay, general manager of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “This acquisition will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business and presents a huge opportunity to expand our platform business beyond the U.K. and globally. We are thrilled to welcome Multimap onboard.”

Multimap is among of the UK’s top 100 tech companies, and is one of the leading online mapping services. Their services include street-level maps, road maps, door-to-door travel directions, aerial photos, and links to location information and services.

According to a press release issued Tuesday morning, metasearch has signed a deal to extend its multi-year agreement with Yahoo, allowing them to continue displaying Yahoo text based advertising (Yahoo Search Marketing) and their organic web search results.

“Yahoo!’s unique partnership with InfoSpace provides an important opportunity for us to help connect advertisers with online audiences that use metasearch for their searching needs,” said Dean Stackel, Senior Vice President Business Development for Corporate Partnerships. “This partnership is a key component of our broader strategy to enable advertisers to efficiently reach highly targeted – and therefore highly valuable – categories of Internet users.”

Infospace includes a number of branded sites including Dogpile, WebCrawler, and WebFetch. The exact terms of the agreement were not noted in the press release.

Last week I wrote how Google had removed literally thousands of malware sites from its search results. (see Google Results Malware Free?)

Shortly after that post, Google had put out a request to its users to help them fill in the gaps and completely rid the results of dangerous websites. Google posted the request last week in its Online Security Blog Read more…

Google and the state of Florida are collaborating to implement new search features for Floridians, and really anyone looking for government services online, according to a press release issued Monday on Florida Governor, Charlie Crist’s website.

This public-private partnership is an innovative way to improve the accessibility of state information for all Floridians,” said Governor Crist. “I am grateful for this chance to join with Google to further develop Florida’s leadership in delivering open government services to the people of Florida. By empowering Floridians with the tools they need for easier access to state agency Web sites, we are allowing them to truly take ownership of state government”

This new partnership will allow Google to work with the state to gain access and index data otherwise not visible to the search giant. Much of the content searched for by users can not be reached by search engines due to the method used to store information within the database.