Yesterday Facebook launched a new app called Paper, which is a simplified, prettier version of Facebook. The new app is optimized for reading longer articles and watching videos similar to Flipboard. It is also customizable, giving users the ability to choose between categories such as \u201cTech\u201d or \u201cHeadlines\u201d.\u00a0 It is a smart decision for a company whose biggest problem may be brand fatigue, but its success among the public is yet to be determined.<\/p>\n
Source: Slate.com<\/a><\/p>\n Reuters is reporting that Google is close to reaching a settlement with the EU on a three-year antitrust probe. Google has been close to reaching a settlement twice before, so this time around is far from a guarantee. A decision is expected within the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n Four new frames and two new sunglass shades were recently unveiled by Google. This comes after numerous surveys showed that many people would be too embarrassed to wear Glass in public. The latest projection for a widespread consumer launch is late 2014.<\/p>\n Source: Marketing Land<\/a><\/p>\n Google has purchased DeepMind for $400 million. DeepMind\u2019s mission is to harness the power of machine learning tools to improve our daily lives. Many speculate the purchase is part of Google\u2019s continued plan to improve the Knowledge Graph.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Watch<\/a><\/p>\n Some are hailing a new deal between Samsung and Google as a breakthrough. In a statement the two companies declare they have \u201cfurthered their long-term cooperative partnership with a global patent cross-license agreement covering a broad range of technologies.\u201d The agreement resolves patent disputes through cross-licensing.<\/p>\n Source: Marketing Land<\/a><\/p>\n A new bill reaching Israel\u2019s parliament would asses a 7% tax on revenue generated from search engines. The goal behind the tax is to subsidize local content publishers and is not exclusive to any one particular company. Israel isn\u2019t the first country to consider a tax like this and may not be the last.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n Google has a new feature in the OneBox when searching for the distance between locations. It\u2019s called \u201cAs The Crow Flies\u201d and it gives the distance between locations. If the distance is drivable, for example from Milwaukee to Miami, the OneBox will display the driving distance. But if you search for the distance from Milwaukee to Melbourne, you’ll find out that poor crow has to fly 9,763 miles.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n A new study analyzed 1.5 million keywords to determine how many blue links were on SERPs compared to multimedia and ads. 88% of the results contained organic search results. 34% of the time, those keywords contained results with images, news, or shopping results attached. Lastly, 55% of SERPs show nine or more ads per page.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Watch<\/a><\/p>\n This week, The Search Agency released its Quarterly State of Paid Search Report with Q4 performance data.\u00a0 Highlights include: paid search spend rose 37.4% year over year and CPCs have been on the rise for several quarters now, with the largest growth coming from mobile traffic. They also report clicks among Bing ads have dropped 20 percent year over year, which is contrary to what RKG reports.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n RKG\u2019s Q4 2013 Digital Marketing Report reveals some great insights into mobile paid search performance. Among them, smartphones and tablets accounting for almost a third of paid search traffic. Tablets accounted for 71 percent of mobile search spend, with iPad holding the highest share of that tablet traffic.<\/p>\n Source: The RKG Blog<\/a><\/p>\n Holding company Vringo used old patents to sue Google in December of 2012, winning 30 million in a jury trial. Recently, they got the payout they were originally seeking. Google is to pay out a 1.36% running royalty on US revenue from AdWords. The total value of the win is unclear, but could be up to 250 million annually.<\/p>\n Source: ArsTechnica<\/a><\/p>\n According to AdGooroo\u2019s database of search advertising activity, over 1.5 million companies used paid search advertising in the US in December. The majority of the companies were using Google AdWords. Unexpectedly, over 45% of those can also now be found on Bing.\u00a0 Although that percentage might seem high, there is still relatively little overlap between Google and Bing, with just 156,000 advertisers on both engines. Looks like Bing has plenty of room for growth.<\/p>\n Source: The AdGooroo Blog<\/a><\/p>\n Matt Cutts announced that Google is taking action on a French link network called Buzzea. An unspecified German link network is next on Cutts’ list of link network violators. Rather than fighting Google on the issue, Buzzea has called it quits and posted an open letter on their site.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n A date selector tool is the newest feature available in Google\u2019s Knowledge Graph carousel. This feature will only display on relevant queries such as hotel-related searches. The price shown in the carousel will change based on the selected date range.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n OneBox, a form of Google\u2019s Knowledge Graph, is attempting to answer more complex questions. In many instances the answers are more detailed as well. It\u2019s far from being a perfect system, as there are multiple examples where the search results lower on the SERP provided better responses.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n Cutts has said that sites upwards of 15 years old will not maintain their rankings forever. Sites that have never been redesigned, old user interfaces, and those that have never added new features are the ones most at risk. Cutts believes all sites need upgrading, tweaking, and improved user experience to remain competitive. Those who fail to do so may be surpassed by new sites with better user experiences.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n Although online display advertising is the fastest growing advertising medium, growing more than 32% in the first three quarters of 2013, it still only holds 4.5% of overall advertising market share. TV advertising remains number one at 57.5%. This could start to change in 2014 with media companies reaching for a cut of TV ad dollars, such as Twitter and its Amplify program. \u00a0Overall advertising grew 3.2% to hit $234.5 billion at the end of Q3 in 2013.<\/p>\n Source: Marketing Land<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Need a refresher on how and why to advertise on Twitter? Lisa Raehsler has got you covered!\u00a0 In her recent post for Search Engine Watch she explains the ins and outs of Twitter advertising.<\/p>\n Analysis by: Lisa Raehsler, Search Engine Watch<\/a><\/p>\n PPC Chat has posted a transcribed version of Matt Umbro\u2019s live chat on the ethics of remarketing. Topics of conversation include user perspective of remarketing and aggressiveness of remarketing messages for sensitive topics.<\/p>\n Analysis by: PPC Chat<\/a><\/p>\n Sitelink extensions in paid search ads, as we know, play an important role in the success of ads. Google recent posted an article about how to be sure you are using your sitelinks to their fullest potential. It discusses some best practices for sitelinks as well as tips on reporting on and testing them.<\/p>\n Analysis by: Matt Lawson, Inside AdWords<\/a><\/p>\n Jon Ball at Search Engine Land reviews link building basics, reminding us that we need to pursue links that are not only impactful today but will also have an impact in the future. When analyzing any link consider relevance, link type, authority, location, and gut instinct.<\/p>\n Analysis by: Jon Ball, Search Engine Land<\/a><\/p>\n A website needs to be intuitive to navigate and you need to ensure it is going to work across all devices and platforms. But after that a trickier task is ensuring the site is easy for Google to index. Kannav Chaudhary of Search Engine Journal examines the most popular web design styles and how they affect SEO.<\/p>\n Analysis by: Kannav Chaudhary, Search Engine Journal<\/a><\/p>\n The publishing industry is usually the front runner when it comes to new content techniques and products. As an SEO consultant, you can learn a lot from them. Sarah Kershaw highlights some of her big takeaways.<\/p>\n Analysis by: Sarah Kershaw, The Moz Blog<\/a><\/p>\n A recent post on Search Engine Watch gives powerful tips for writing headlines that Google will love. They\u2019ll also explain how to write headlines that people will click, read, and share. The big takeaway is to write headlines that mix keywords for context with story elements to encourage clicks.<\/p>\nGoogle And EU Close To Reaching Settlement<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Google Unveils New Frame Designs For Google Glass<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Google Buys London-Based AI Company<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Patent Deal Reached Between Samsung And Google<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Israel Hopes To Impose Taxes On Google<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Google Has A New Search Trick<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How Many ‘Blue Links’ Are There?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Q4 2013: CPCs Up, Bing Down<\/h3>\n
Latest Research On Mobile Paid Search<\/h3>\n
Google To Pay For Infringed Patents<\/h3>\n
Bing Close To 50% Paid Search Adoption Rate<\/h3>\n
Another Link Network Bites The Dust<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Date Selector Now Available In Knowledge Graph Carousel<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Google Attempting To Improve OneBox Answers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Matt Cutts Warns Old Sites May Lose Current Rankings<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Online Display Ad Spend Trend Up In 2013<\/h3>\n
Notable Commentary<\/h2>\n
You Probably Won’t See During The Super Bowl<\/h2>\n
Twitter Advertising Guide<\/h3>\n
The Ethics Of Remarketing<\/h3>\n
Better Sitelinks = Better Ads<\/h3>\n
Analyzing Link Quality
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\nWhat Web Design Means For SEO<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Take Note Of The Publishing Industry<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Writing Headlines That Work<\/strong><\/h3>\n