Last week, a post on the Predictably Irrational blog described the differences in what boyfriends and girlfriends were looking for their beloveds to do based on Google Suggest. Google Suggest can provide hours of fun. Just spend some time at Autocomplete Me or QuestionSuggestions. But can it provide useful audience analysis for understanding our customers, [...]

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Why does accuracy matter when measuring marketing effectiveness? Accuracy matters because in today’s world, marketing decisions are made on data. The best creative is not the one that makes us laugh the hardest, and it’s not the one that we remember for the longest period of time. No, it’s the one that produces the most [...]

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Econsultancy just released its annual Web Analytics Buyers Guide, and in conjunction with its Online Measurement and Strategy Report forms an in-depth analysis of the marketplace over here in the UK. On the whole it makes for very interesting (and heart-warming) reading.
That is, unless you are a paid-for web analytics provider residing at the [...]

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Google is making its intentions in the real estate vertical more clear. Speaking this week at Inman Real Estate Connect, an industry conference, Google’s Sam Sebastian reportedly said: “We’re actively looking to acquire one to two small real estate companies a month.”
(Update: We now understand that the Realtor.org blog post linked above may have misquoted [...]

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Over the past year, I’ve moved more and more of my data over to the cloud — in particular, to being stored with Google. I’m rethinking that, in the wake of Google’s statement that it was the target of a sophisticated hacking attack. Further, I’m wondering if this entire episode — GoogleHack, for want of [...]

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Google has revealed that the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were targeted last December in a hacking attempt. That, along with other issues, has convinced the company that it will no longer censor results China as the Chinese government wishes.
In particular, Google has willingly allowed self-censored its search results since January 27, 2006, [...]

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7 Ways To Conquer Natural Search When Google & Bing Face Off In 2010
When it comes to search marketing, the Big Three is about to become the Big Two.
The deal heard round the world this past July comes to fruition in 2010—and the much-anticipated partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo! will have significant implications for search [...]

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It’s been noticed that new Associated Press stories — hosted by Google itself — are no longer appearing in Google News. It’s true. Since Dec. 24, Google has no longer added new AP content, something the company confirmed with me today. I received this statement:
We have a licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits [...]

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The company I work for, SLI Systems, specializes in site search—searching products or content within a single website. That’s all we do. For example, try searching Search Engine Land using the SLI-powered search box at the top of the page (but wait until you finish reading this article first!). As a result of our focus, [...]

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In less than two months, Search Engine Land’s SMX West search marketing conference will happen from March 2-4 in California. Anyone who is even remotely connected to gaining visitors, customers and driving sales should be attending. Experienced search marketer? Newbie? Web developer? Designer? Involved in public relations? Traditional marketer? There’s good stuff for all these [...]

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The 1950s classic Japanese film Rashômon by Akira Kurosawa is an exploration of human perception, truth and how there can be widely differing accounts of the same event. The film’s plot revolves around the rape of a woman and murder of her husband and is told through dramatically differing accounts of four witnesses. The stories [...]

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Google’s recent introduction of Place Pages within Maps came closely in sync with some key adjustments in the factors used to rank local search content. The combination of changes has resulted in Wikipedia abruptly emerging onto the scene as a highly influential factor. I’ll describe what appears to’ve happened, and how it can impact local business rankings.

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Many headlines yesterday about two bloggers who received visits — and subpoenas — from the Transportation Security Administration after publishing a security directive that was emailed to them anonymously. The source used a Gmail account. So did Google get a subpoena, too? The company says it can’t comment either way, sending me this statement:
We don’t [...]

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The way that the “Google Phone” rumors and later Nexus One blogging played out probably mean that when Google finally announces the device on January 5 (in all likelihood) there won’t be much news. I could be quite wrong of course. Regardless, I imagine the event will be interesting — something like “a year of [...]

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The mobile web is a fascinating space that is still in its infancy. If the current capabilities of mobile devices are a sign of things to come, I can only imagine what will be possible five years from now.
Here are 10 reasons I think that anyone with an online presence should establish a [...]

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