For now, it looks like Google has finally figured out social media. According to a study by Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com, the Google + population reached 10 million people on Tuesday, and will most likely double that by Saturday. Obviously there will be a decline in growth as the Law of Diminishing Returns manifests itself over time, but the more users pick up Google +, the more Facebook starts feeling under pressure. On that note, cue Queen.
Source: CNet
In the wake of Google Chief Economist Hal Varian explaining the gap between clicks on position #1 above the search results and position #1 on the side bar, Google AdWords has added a “top vs. side” segment report feature. The new option allows you to explore your ads’ locations and clicks deeper than ever before, and provides brand advertisers with more clarification into which campaigns using brand terms push an ad above the search results.
Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog
Google recently announced that they are making some minor changes to the way the Google Display Network campaign settings work that will affect campaigns that meet these criteria:
Previously, ads were ineligible if a user added keywords but did not specify relevant placements, audiences, and topics. That is no longer the case. Google has changed it so that ads will now start appearing across the entire Display Network based on keywords. For more information on the topic there is a link to the AdWords Blog post below.
Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog
Way back in May, Google announced that tablet targeting options would be rolling out soon, and well, the time is now. Find the option under the Networks and Devices section of the settings tab and start to target your little hearts out. One great feature is that you will no longer be confined to only targeting for Apple’s iPad, as you now have the option to target to all tablet devices.
Read more about the specifics of tablet targeting and Google’s lofty projections for tablet sales in the near future over at the AdWords Blog.
Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog
Google set a new personal best for revenue in the second quarter with $9 billion, increasing their total growth since 2010 to 32 percent. Some of the highlights include $6.23 billion stemming from Google-owned sites (a 39 percent increase over 2010’s Q2), and $2.48 billion through AdSense from Google partner sites (20 percent increase over last year).
Source: Search Engine Land
Bing’s search share grew .2 percent between May and June to control 30.2 percent of the total market. This figure includes the Bing-powered Yahoo! traffic, but of the two Bing has shown a consistent pattern of growth over the past few months. However, mobile search isn’t included, which gives you the sense that Bing won a battle but is still losing the war.
Source: TechCrunch
While Google + is getting the majority of coverage, Google is stealth developing a web-data exchange program. Entitled “DDP,” the exchange aims to allow publishers and third-party providers an arena to offer their targeting data to advertisers interested in buying certain demographic segments. Google is ambiguous about the project’s timeline, but did say they plan on releasing some of the features within the next few months.
Source: Ad Age Digital
Google + will soon integrate company “Pages” into its social network, although the launch date is still up in the air. This is a smart (and obvious) move by Google, on par with Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan’s decision to start marketing The Dark Knight Rises more than a year before its release.
Source: Search Engine Land
Losing two of your three founding brains just three and a half months into your existence is not good for any company, especially a startup like Color, an iPhone and Android photo sharing app. The only remaining founder is CEO Bill Nguyen, who now presides over a company that has received multiple bad reviews for its confusing user interactions.
More and more Color is fulfilling the startup prophecy that it’s probably a bad idea to raise a bunch of money ($41 million), develop the product behind closed doors, and then release it to a potentially indifferent public.
Source: ReadWriteWeb
Pandora is gambling that a shift into the social networking world will pay off big time for the company and its investors. The service is available to Pandora One subscribers ($3 per month), and free users will soon gain access to the feature that has butterflies fluttering in TechCrunch’s stomach. Wired breaks down each of the new social additions with some good analysis.
Source: Wired
LinkedIn is now standing on the silver medal platform at the social network Olympics thanks to 33.9 million unique visitors in June (a half million increase from May’s traffic numbers). MySpace, the previous placeholder, saw a reduction of 1.4 million U.S. visitors between May and June. Apparently Justin Timberlake isn’t bringing MySpace back.
Source: CNN
PDFs often are not optimized for viewing on a web setting, and converting them to an HTML format can hurt the overall look of the document. With PdfMasher, that conversion has been made a ton easier so the format and style remain the same even in e-reading form.
Source: Lifehacker
Specifically, the New York Times continues its investigation into Google by looking into lead gens and businesses that rank on Google Search through its Places feature. Google claims this practice predates Google and has been an issue in the Yellow Pages for some time, but it’s interesting to read into some issues that have arisen as Google expands its web reach.
Source: The New York Times
Google + has been in the headlines constantly over the past two weeks, but it has yet to build out a defined role as an advertising and business platform. Glenn Gabe attempts to explain and predict some of those inevitable integrations, emphasizing that Google + could change search, social, and behavioral targeting as we know it.
Analysis By: Glenn Gabe, Search Engine Journal
Most of the buzz around Google + has been positive and encouraging for Google’s continued attempts to step into the realm of social media. However, nothing is perfect, and Jessica Dolcourt has a good piece of analysis that investigates some of the current (and potential) issues people will have with the fledgling social network.
Analysis By: Jessica Dolcourt, CNet
A PPC professional at Search Engine Journal details his troubling experience with black hat PPC techniques. The situation is fairly interesting and worth a read in case you notice a clients’ campaign costing twice as much per conversion despite a 50% decrease in daily conversions.
Analysis By: Mike Boudet, Search Engine Journal
Todd Nemet discusses common technical SEO issues people see with Microsoft’s IIS and .NET setups, and provides four ideas for remedying the situation.
Analysis By: Todd Nemet, Search Engine Land
We’ve seen infographics detailing the demographic usage trends of social media stalwarts Facebook and Twitter, and thankfully Mashable has added a LinkedIn-fographic to the list (Get it?). Long story short: LinkedIn is everything we think it is, in terms of business networking and professional use.
Analysis By: Charlie White, Mashable
Rand Fishkin has an interesting post on the SEOmoz blog describing how SEO work has changed since 2003 and how recent trends have increased SEO responsibilities over the last 2.5 years. He discusses recent Google updates and how the shift toward social media has added to the amount of work needed for SEO.
Analysis By: Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz
Dan Ariely takes a very smart look into how and why online companies suck customers in and get them to trumpet their cause. Ariely uses social psychology, marketing, and conversion rate optimization in his analysis, making this piece even more of a must read.
Analysis By: Dan Ariely, Wired
It doesn’t look like Google’s search engine dominance is going away anytime soon, but Search Engine Watch has a good piece of analysis explaining some findings that reveal quality industries worth targeting on Bing.
Analysis By: Jonathan Allen, Search Engine Watch
As the AP Stylebook is to journalists, so goes this post for anyone who writes about or interacts with social media websites. This is of interest to journalists as well, considering a few of these guidelines are drawn from the updated AP Stylebook.
Analysis By: Kerry Jones, Bluegrass
Family friend of Rupert Murdoch and chief executive of News International no longer holds one of those positions. Take a look at this article from the Guardian that discusses Rebekah Brooks and her position in the phone hacking scheme that has many in an uproar and Brooks out of a job.
Analysis By: Lisa O’Carroll, Guardian UK
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