July 25, 2005
Local Search : Maps Make It Happen
The new Microsoft Virtual Earth, which joins Maps.Google.Com, is the clearest presentation yet of the fact that search (paid and hopefully organic) is going local in a big big way.
Look at the image below, and marvel at how nicely the list of bookstores is displayed, and each bookstore is 'pinned' on the map. And yes, they change as you scroll around the map.
Would you want to be a bookstore left off of this list? Neither will anybody else. Would you pay to be listed first? Lots of companies will.
Some Virtual Earth Reviews and comments: here, here, here.
July 24, 2005
Yahoo Updates Search Results: Film At Eleven
Search engines update their algorithms all the time - listings move up, listings move down, listings appear and disappear. For years, only a small handful of people have known or cared. But now that tens of millions of dollars in parts of the economy that get attention are impacted, algo updates are news.
Today, it's only news.com. They tell of the update and all the ensuing screaming and chearing. Of course the webmaster and seo forums are full of opinions too.
But this is going to get a lot bigger. We're going to see Algo reports the way we see Box Office Weekend Opening Receipts reported in the not too distant future. And with it, all the problems with the SERPs which the engines right now don't really have to answer to anyone on, will suddenly be of interest to Katie Curic and Chris Matthews. It won't be long before we'll be hearing exchanges like this:
(Matthews): "But why sir, do I not find 'Pep Boys' when I search for 'brake fluid', but instead find 'brake-fluid-discounts.com' a clearly inferior website?"
(GoogleFlak): "You see Chris, our algorithm takes into account hundreds of factors which impartially..."
(Matthews): "But one site is clearly better than the other - Can't I trust you guys to figure that out? Am I getting railroaded here because of payola or cheating of some kind... Your engine is driving the American Economy! Don't you have a responsibility to get it right?"
(GoogleFlak): "Sure Chris, and millions of satisified searchers come back every day because they're pleased with the quality of their results."
(Matthews): "Do those people know the games that are going on behind the scenes? The kind of manipulations we just heard about in that report from David Schuster. When I had John McCain on this show yesteray he was mentioning Congressional Hearings. Is that what it's gonna take to get accountability and for you to get this stuff right?"
I've said for a long time that Google and the other engines are having their cake and eating it too. They make their money off the appropriation of the content of others, their algo encourages millions upon millions of otherwise useless web pages to be created, they avoid real questions about optimization with the vapid advice to 'do things for the users, don't think about us', and most importantly their results are amazingly full of junk and highly ranked irrelevance. We're just past July 4th, but the fireworks are still to come.
July 21, 2005
Links List
* Kevin Lee on Google Adwords Changes (clickz)On August 2, Google will implement changes to the AdWords system that will affect all Google advertisers. The changes address two major areas: status or "keyword state," and the AdRank algorithm.* Blistering fast broadband coming via Cable Modem? (cnet)
Broadband Internet access via TV cables could reach 100 megabits per second as early as next year--50 times faster than the average broadband speeds now offered to cable TV homes.* Tom Peters on how small guys can beat huge guys. (adrants)
This time he has a list of 16 MUSTS in order for the little guy to eat the BIG GUYS’ lunch.* Brands: Think People Not Things (longtail)
Product-centric brands represent promises about products (or retailers) – “buy this product from us because you can trust that it will be a quality product at good value.” Customer-centric brands offer a radically different promise – “buy from us because we know and understand you as an individual customer and we can tailor an appropriate bundle of products and services to meet your individual needs better than anyone else.”* Wall Street Crybabies - Costco Tells Street To Go Lump It (wonderbranding)
My God. A business that puts its employees and customers before the Almighty Profit does exist. Isn't it amazing that a simple thing like that would create cult-like customer loyalty and $40 billion in revenue... with almost no advertising?
Search Market Share Q2-2005
Real data about who's searching where in Q2 2005: * Google - 5.65 billion U.S. queries (37.6 percent) * Yahoo - 4.65 billion queries (30.4 percent) * MSN - 2.39 billion queries (15.6 percent) * AOL/Time Warner - 1.41 billion queries (9.2 percent) * Ask Jeeves - 934 million queries (6.1 percent) - Via ecommerce timesJuly 18, 2005
Links List
* Changes to Google Adwords (searchviews) * BetterPPC for Google Adwords (affiliatetip) * SEO and PPC Tools (SEObook) * How Americans Search (sagerock) * Lead Generation Dashboards (b2b lead gen blog) * Link Popularity via Article Marketing (masternewmedia)Blogging BPM: Business Process Management Blog from CommerceQuest
Another business blog we're working on for and with a client has been live in the world for a number of weeks now, so we wanted to talk about it a little bit.
CommerceQuest is a Business Process Management Software developer, and their new blog is called "CQ on BPM". It's about how business process management (or BPM) helps companies to better manage processes and behind-the-scene stories and ideas about selecting, installing, and using BPM software.
It's primarily a corporate blog, with input from the sales and marketing staff of the company, but there's also a regular CEO column from Mike Forster called 'Outta The Blue' and a series of 'guest bloggers' from across the BPM industry.
Like any young blog, CQonBPM is just getting started and has great ambitions for the future. We think it's off to a great start and look forward to helping along the way.