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    This day in search marketing history: February 6

    Written on February 6, 2023 at 6:29 am, by admin

    Google AdWords announces Enhanced Campaigns

    In 2013, Google AdWords announced Enhanced Campaigns. This major update was designed to simplify campaign management across multiple devices and increase adoption rates of mobile advertising among small and medium-sized businesses.

    Among the notable changes:

    Google planned to upgrade all campaigns in June 2013 (though the full rollout would actually begin July 22 and would take several weeks to complete).

    Read all about it in The Big AdWords Update: Enhanced Campaigns Puts The Focus On Mobile.

    Also on this day

    Happy 15th birthday to Google Maps, the company’s second most important product

    2020: Google introduced a refreshed version of its app for Android and iOS with some new features.

    Now, get your Google Shopping ads on Gmail, Discover, YouTube

    2020: Google kept finding more places to show Shopping ads as merchants prioritized them over text ads.

    Google Search Console to consolidate Search Performance reports to canonical URL

    2019: Starting at the end of March 2019, Google would change how the Google Search Console Performance reports counted metrics.

    Google My Business supports hotel check-in and check-out times

    2019: Google would display that information to searchers looking for more information about those times.

    Google officially announces the new Google Search Console is available for everyone

    2018: The beta version had reached nearly everyone as of a couple of weeks ago.

    Google removes tappable shortcuts from search app

    2018: Less than a year after it launched, Google removed the shortcuts offering quick answers on weather, sports and entertainment info.

    Bing explains how AI-powered intelligent answers can show users two points of view for the same query

    2018: Bing believed there were many questions where getting just one point of view was not sufficient, convenient or comprehensive

    Quora adds more contextual & behavioral ad-targeting options

    2018: Quora offered more options for behavioral and contextual targeting to either narrow or widen audience targets.

    Google makes it easier to see and share publishers’ real URLs from AMP pages

    2017: The AMP header area would display a link or chain icon, what it called the “anchor” button. Clicking on this would make the publisher’s direct URL appear.

    84 Lumber and Avocados From Mexico among Super Bowl advertisers that stood out in paid search

    2017: Both advertisers opted to drive users to their own sites instead of YouTube.

    Google Maps updates Android app with real-time traffic info, nearby places & bus schedules

    2017: Swiping up from the bottom of the Google Maps app home screen on Android displayed a Places tab, Driving tab and Transit tab.

    Google Confirms Making “Tweaks” To The Search Results But Says No “Update” To Announce

    2015: Google said he latest update the SEO community noticed was not related to the Penguin or Panda algorithms.

    Google Removes “How Can I Join ISIS” Autosuggestion

    2015: Google censored out the Google autocomplete results to show ISIS for the search term [how can I join].

    Bing Ads Rolling Out Updates To Quality Score Reporting

    2015: Changes were designed to make quality score easier to use as a guide to where to focus your optimization efforts.

    Yahoo Gemini Gaining Mobile Search Share, But Not At Google’s Expense, Yet

    2015: The spike in Gemini traffic appeared to come almost entirely at the expense of mobile ads served by Bing.

    Google Penalized A Germany Agency & Their Clients For Link Schemes, Says Matt Cutts

    2014: He added that Google would be going after more Germany link schemes in the near future.

    Google Requiring Some Business To Reverify Their Listings Or Be Removed From Google Maps

    2014: Some business owners received emails from Google requiring them to reverify their listings within three weeks or their listings would be deleted from Google Maps and Google+ Local.

    Two New Link Analysis Tools Available: OpenLinkProfiler.org & WebMeUp.com

    2014: Two new link tools were available for those looking to analyze their own links or competitor links.

    Google’s “Olympic Charter” Logo Stands Up To Russia’s Anti-Gay Legislation

    2014: The logo included a quote stressing that the official Olympic Charter was against discrimination and using the colors of the rainbow gay pride flag.

    Update: “When Do The Olympics Opening Ceremonies Start?” Now You CAN Ask Yahoo

    2014: Yahoo inserted a Search Shortcut that displayed not only the live start time but the TV broadcast time at the top of the search results.

    Google On Will They Ever Remove PageRank From The Google Toolbar?

    2013: Matt Cutts said the “writing is on the wall” for this feature. Google would remove Toolbar PageRank just over three years later, in March 2016.

    Australia’s Highest Court Relieves Google Of Liability For “Deceptive” Search Ads

    2013: The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission sued Google six years earlier, claiming that certain travel-related ads appearing in search results were misleading.

    Has Google Overtaken Naver In South Korea?

    2013: Despite reports that Naver controlled somewhere between 70-80% of the search market in South Korea, StatCounter was showing Google soundly defeating Naver since February 2012.

    Google Buys Channel Intelligence For $125 Million

    2013: Channel Intelligence offered a range of services built around data management and product feed optimization.

    Super Bowl Commercials 2013 Edition: For Search Visibility, Most Brands Bought AdWords Too

    2013: Eighty percent of brands bought AdWords for branded searches and 50% bought AdWords for commercial taglines.

    Google Maps Adds Ski Resort Trail Maps For Android & iPhone

    2013: The new feature overlayed lifts and trail maps for 38 major ski areas in the U.S.

    Find Content Quicker On The Go With Twitter’s New Mobile Search & Discover Upgrades

    2013: The Search, Discover and Connect tabs were all updated.

    Google Instant: Only On When Your Computer Can Handle It

    2012: If you went to the search preferences it would say Google Instant was only enabled when “my computer is fast enough” and then showed whether Google thought your computer was fast enough.

    Report: National Marketers Love Local, Fail At Basic Tactics

    2012: Insufficient funding, a lack of education or just plain ignorance were the factors behind the flawed national-local approaches.

    Bing Webmaster Tools Adds Markup Validator

    2012: The tool scanned for HTML Microdata, Microformats, RDFa, Schema.org and Open Graph.

    Yahoo Launches Mobile-App Search (For PCs) In The UK

    2012: As an app search tool, it was quite nice. Neither Google nor Bing offered anything comparable in their main search engines.

    Under Threat Of Being Blocked Google, Facebook Comply With India’s New Internet Censorship Rules

    2012: The law made online publishers potentially liable for the acts of individual users and third parties.

    A Google Super Bowl Ad? Eric Schmidt Hints At It

    2010: His tweet suggested that Google would run its first major broadcast television commercial during the Super Bowl.

    Another Survey (Incorrectly) Predicts Google Could Lose Search Crown

    2009: Forrester Research had concluded that Google, for lack of user loyalty, was vulnerable to being dethroned and that another “Google killer” was lurking just around the corner.

    Privacy Critics Don’t Give Google Enough ‘Latitude’

    2009: An example of overreaching in an effort to gain (media) attention.

    Google Offers A Peek Into Its Internal Eye-Tracking Studies

    2009: An interesting look into how Google tested its search results pages and how searchers interacted with them.

    Search In Pictures: Google Doodle Wall, Ask.com On Labonte’s Helmet & A Google Boat?

    2009: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

    The Latest From Jerry: Stay Focused, Yahoos!

    2008: No real news other than Yang telling employees no decision had been made, proposals were being evaluated, and people loved Yahoo.

    Berkowitz Had Hoped To Turn Around Microsoft, But May Find Himself In “Turnaound”

    2008: Several internal groups were slated for leadership changes.

    Google To Fight Baidu In China With Legal Music Downloads?

    2008: 7% of Baidu’s traffic was to access free music, but Baidu had been a target of copyright actions because of this.

    Ask Launches BigNews

    2008: It was similar to Google News, with a side of Digg.

    Searching For Southern Tornado Maps

    2008: There wasn’t much map content about the tornadoes that tragically tore through the Southern U.S.

    SphinnCon Israel 2008 Recap

    2008: Coverage of first SphinnCon event in Jerusalem, Israel.

    Google Hiring In Africa

    2008: The company was hiring in its Nairobi, Kenya headquarters and opening new offices in several Africa countries.

    What Yahoo’s Panama Update Means For Searchers

    2007: With the new ad ranking system in place, Yahoo hoped people would start looking at the results more as a whole.

    Keyword Research And Consumer Demand

    2007: How marketers were using search volumes to help conduct research and development, launch new products and predict potential product success based on perceived consumer demand.

    Google’s Pen Flatlines For Ask, Parody Of Recent Capacity Problems

    2007: They described the flatlining of the Google pen to cause “considerable inconvenience and loss of data.”

    IAC Earnings Drop But Ask.com Grows

    2007: IAC’s profits dropped 98 percent in the fourth-quarter.

    Search Engine Land: January 2007 Statistics Review

    2007: How Search Engine Land was growing.

    Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

    These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

    < February 5 | Search Marketing History | February 7 >

    The post This day in search marketing history: February 6 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    This day in search marketing history: February 5

    Written on February 5, 2023 at 2:27 am, by admin

    Moz upgrades its Domain Authority metric

    In 2019, SEO tool Moz announced an update to how they measured Domain Authority (DA).

    Basically, DA is a score, from 0-100, that “predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages.”

    Curious about what changed? Read all about it in Moz upgrades controversial ‘domain authority’ metric.

    To be clear, Google does not use Domain Authority to determine ranking. “We don’t use domain authority at all in our algorithms,” according to a tweet. by Google’s John Mueller.

    I bolded that part above because the DA metric has caused confusion within the SEO industry, as many have basically assigned it value as a meaningful SEO metric, akin to the old visible Google PageRank scores. And you will often see it in spammy SEO and link building emails.

    Even Rand Fishkin, who created the metric, essentially disowned Domain Authority as something he didn’t care much about anymore (“I know. I created it, but still”) during Milestone’s Engage conference in August 2022.

    Also on this day

    Justice Department homing in on Google Ad Manager in antitrust probe

    2020: The feds were interviewing publishers and ad-tech rivals about whether Google has too much control “over the monetization of digital content.”

    Tripadvisor’s new ‘Review Hub’ lets restaurateurs manage reviews from multiple sources in one place

    2020: The subscription-based product could also be used to identify review trends across sites.

    Video: Jim Boykin on how link building has evolved over two decades

    2020:  In this installment of Barry Schwartz’s vlog series, he also chatted with Boykin about Google penalties, algorithm updates and the importance of featured snippets and people also ask for SEO.

    5 takeaways from Google’s Q4 2018 earnings for search marketers

    2019: Google executives discussed search experience, campaign, device and performance updates.

    Google adds new SEO Audit category to Chrome’s Lighthouse extension

    2018: The popular auditing tool used by developers and search marketers enabled users to run basic SEO checks against site pages.

    Google dedicates engineering team to accelerate development of WordPress ecosystem

    2018: Google’s partnership with WordPress aimed to jump-start the platform’s support of the latest web technologies, particularly those involving performance and mobile experience.

    Google Search Console AMP report error now corrected

    2018: “Major content mismatch” were due to a processing error on Google’s side. 

    Google Has Penalized A Link Network In Japan

    2016: After being quiet for over a year on link network penalties, Google said it had penalized a large, Japanese-based link network.

    AdWords App For Android Now Supports Universal App Campaigns

    2016: New conversion columns were also available in the latest update.

    Sorry, No Emoji Allowed In Google PLAs (Frown Face)

    2016: Google updated its store name guidelines in the Merchant Store policy center to specifically cite emoticons and emoji among its don’ts.

    Search In Pics: GoogleBot Costume, Google Maps Peghog & Fancy Google Coffee Maker

    2016: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

    Official: Twitter To Give Google Access To “Firehose” Of Tweets

    2015: Twitter confirmed that it had a deal again to supply Google with access to its full stream of tweets.

    As Apple-Google Deal Expires, Who Will Win The Safari Default Search Business?

    2015: Would it be Bing, Yahoo or Apple itself that supplied Safari’s search engine?

    Marketers Spent $4 Billion On Click-to-Call Advertising In 2014 — Report

    2015: Lack of keyword attribution created a “blind spot” for search marketers.

    Google App Indexing Statistics & Errors Being Emailed To Webmasters

    2015: Google Webmaster Tools email notifications drove app deep linking awareness in terms of errors and impression and click statistics.

    It’s Done: Google Settles Search Antitrust Case In Europe

    2014:  Google escaped any significant fines or penalties. More coverage: Wow! See How Much Screen Real Estate Google Is Giving Rivals In Its EU Antitrust Settlement

    Google’s Latest Manual Action Penalty: Spammy Structured Markup

    2014: How to get it: marking up content that was invisible to users, marking up irrelevant or misleading content, and/or other manipulative behavior that violated Google’s Rich Snippet Quality guidelines.

    Official: Google’s Sridhar Ramaswamy Takes Over Ads & Commerce As Wojcicki Heads To YouTube

    2014: Ramaswamy and Wojcicki shared the title of SVP, Ads & Commerce, and had been jointly running the ads division for the prior year.

    SEMPO Search Survey: Nearly 70% Of Agencies Say Client SEO Budgets To Increase In 2014

    2014: Only 47% of respondents from within a company said there would be a significant or, at least, some increase to their SEO budget.

    Yelp Reports $233 Million In Revenue For 2013, Up 69% From 2012

    2014: Active local business accounts on Yelp grew to 67,000 in 2013, up 69% year-over-year.

    Microsoft’s $15 Million Check-in: Will Redmond Buy Foursquare?

    2014: Microsoft had reportedly signed a multi-year agreement to license Foursquare data for both mobile and Bing on the PC.

    Bing Launches New Winter Olympics Search Features & Counter To Track Gold Medals

    2014: When Bing users searched on specific sports and athletes the search engine would include Olympic-related schedules and content in its search results.

    “When Do The Olympics Opening Ceremonies Start?” Search Engines Compete To Answer

    2014: How Google, Bing and Yahoo stacked up in this Olympic effort.

    Telenav Thinks Scout Can Take On Google Maps

    2014: Apparently because Scout had higher user ratings than Google Maps in the Google Play store at the time.

    Will A Google Crackdown On Shady Search Toolbars Hurt AVG & IAC?

    2013: Either they needed to change their ways — and become much more transparent and easy to use — or they would apparently need to look elsewhere for ads. More coverage: IAC: We Comply With Google’s Toolbar Standards

    Survey: Half Of Small Businesses Never Update Their Listings Online

    2013: 70% of SMBs said they didn’t have the time to manage listings on all of the sites that consumers use.

    Study: Are Public Record Ads Placed On Google Racially Biased?

    2013: The study found that ads associated with black identifying names were more likely to have ads with the word “arrest” in them than ads that were associated with white identifying names. 

    Dilbert: SEOs Control Content On The Web

    2013: A Dilbert cartoon once again took a jab at SEOs and what they do or can do.

    When Is the Super Bowl Start Time? The NFL Finally Gets It Right

    2012: In past years, organizations like the NFL, the playing teams, and the failed to show up in search results because none of their sites answered the question.

    Turning The Tables On The Google Toolbar & Disclosure Claims

    2012: Google didn’t seem to occupy any higher ground than Microsoft when it came to using data gathered from browser add-ons to improve its own services, including its search engine.

    What Time Does the 2011 Super Bowl Start? A (Continuing) Lesson in Search Visibility

    2012: The NFL and FOX were still nowhere to be found.

    Google Recommends The Competition On Your Business Place Page

    2010: The content block, called “Nearby places you might like,” appeared below reviews on the place page and show up to 10 recommended businesses.

    Microsoft Extends Bing Search Deal With Facebook

    2010: Deal included a more robust Bing search experience on Facebook. Also, Bing would power Facebook search outside of the U.S., to all Facebook users, worldwide.

    Siri: Not A “Search Engine” But You Might Use It Like One

    2010: The highly-anticipated iPhone app was intended to enable you to do more with your voice and your phone in fewer clicks or moves.

    Super Bowl 2010 Winners: Google, Yahoo & Bing Are Ready

    2010: All three had Super Bowl shortcuts/oneboxes in place.

    2002 In Review: Google Powers AOL; AdWords Go Cost-Per-Click

    2010: Major events from the year 2002 in consumer search.

    Google Earth Adds World War II Imagery

    2010: Y could compare, side by side, the earth as it is today versus how it was during World War II.

    Search In Pictures: Bing Hat, Yahoo Balls & Yahoo Karate

    2010: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

    Google Continues AdWords Product PlusBox

    2009: It was still a limited beta to test the effectiveness of engaging potential customers for advertisers.

    Google Books Search Goes Mobile

    2009: If you viewed the book on a mobile device, they would try to extract the text using OCR and show you plain text, not scanned text.

    A Bad Month For SEO’s Reputation

    2008: Although the bad reputation issue had been out there for years, demand for SEO services was as strong as ever.

    MicroHoo: Boon Or Bust For Yahoo?

    2008: There seemed to be mounting cynicism and detachment among Yahoos.

    2008 elections

    Google Releases New Link Reporting Tools

    2007: You could view and even download thousands of links to your site via Google Webmaster Central.

    Google’s Click Fraud Team Writes On Commonly Raised Concerns

    2007: They analyzed IP address, duplicate clicks, and various other clicking patterns to detect click fraud.

    Searching For Super Bowl XLI

    2007: Although there were improvements over 2006, this year was still lacking in terms of integrating their offline and online ad efforts.

    YouTube Pulls Videos That May Not Violate DMCA Law

    2007: Google didn’t know whether a video was infringing. It simply knew it was reported as an infringement.

    Krillion Launches ‘Actionable Local Search’

    2007: Krillion helped consumers find where they could buy products in their markets after conducting online research.

    Major UK Mobile Companies Look To Start Mobile Search Engine

    2007: The companies included Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia and Cingular.

    FAST Introduces Private-Label Contextual Ad System

    2007: It let publishers manage and serve their own advertisements, bypassing Google, Yahoo and other third-party contextual advertising services.

    Will Tagging Replace The Dewey Decimal System?

    2007: 28% of internet users had tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts.

    Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

    These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

    < February 4 | Search Marketing History | February 6 >

    The post This day in search marketing history: February 5 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    This day in search marketing history: February 4

    Written on February 3, 2023 at 10:06 pm, by admin

    Microsoft’s bid to buy Yahoo, Day 4

    In 2008, there were some big developments following the news of Microsoft’s bid to purchase Yahoo. 

    Google wasn’t happy about the news. The company objected, suggesting that the move would hurt what it called the underlying principles of the internet: “openness and innovation.”

    There was some ironic back and forth, as Google had spent the past year arguing that it should be able to acquire DoubleClick, which Microsoft argued against because it would make Google too dominant in online advertising.

    Meanwhile, was Yahoo considering an alliance with Google? And why did Google CEO Eric Schmidt call Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to offer Yahoo help?

    And what about post-acquisition “integration” issues? Local, maps, and mobile were areas where both companies had made significant investments but also had significant duplication and redundancy.

    Microsoft sounded pretty confident the deal would happen. As Kevin Johnson put it:

    Dig deeper:

    Also on this day

    Enhanced conversions: Google tests global site tags with automatic collection

    2022: The global site tag could now automatically collect the information (e.g., email, telephone number) that a user submitted on the website.

    Microsoft Bing adds automobile and car search features

    2022: There were links to the MSN Autos marketplace in the knowledge panels for these car-related searches under “learn more” and “shop used cars” right above the car specifications.

    Google expands phrase match to include broad match modifier traffic

    2021: Phrase match would expand to include additional broad match modifier traffic and support for broad match modifier would end.

    5 takeaways for marketers from Google’s Q4 2019 earnings

    2020: For the first time, the company disclosed YouTube advertising revenues.

    Hitwise halts some reporting services in wake of Jumpshot’s closing

    2020: Hitwise informed its customers that daily, weekly and monthly metric updates were on pause until further notice.

    Filter, sort, bulk manage product groups in Microsoft Shopping soon

    2020: Scripts were also coming to Shopping campaigns in Microsoft Advertising.

    Bing doesn’t show ads for queries around Super Bowl commercials, while Google does

    2019: The company’s primary goal was not to drive revenue and chose not to monetize search results.

    Survey: Local SEO an ‘artisanal’ discipline dominated by small agencies

    2019: Roughly 53% of firms doing local SEO had 10 or fewer clients.

    Google Adds JSON-LD Support For Structured Data Markup

    2016: Google started supporting JSON-LD for structured data markup for reviews and products rich snippets.

    Google Revamps Mobile Travel Search Results, Almost Making Web Results Irrelevant

    2016: Once you clicked on the “more destinations” button, Google led you into a travel search experience that made it harder to view organic search results.

    Bing Updates Android & iOS Apps To Enable More Finding With Less Searching

    2016: The idea, according to Microsoft, was to help users “find” and “do” faster.

    Google Expands Webmaster Documentation Around Reconsideration Requests

    2015: Google clarified and expanded on their reconsideration request documentation for those who had been hit by a Google manual action.

    Report: Google Will Get Access To Twitter’s Firehose Again

    2015: The agreement came 3+ years after a similar arrangement ended. It would make tweets easier to find via search.

    Google Answers Now Showing Blue Icons Linking To Publisher Sites Or More Google Answers

    2015: This had been done previously for easter eggs and Google’s own content, but now it worked for third-party publishers.

    Bing Ads Discusses 3 New Initiatives: Native Ads On MSN.com, Mobile Ad Formats, Remarketing

    2015: The company’s foray into native advertising would harness intent signals from Bing Ads.

    With Nadella’s Appointment, The “Search CEOs” Now Run Google, Yahoo & Microsoft

    2014: For the first time in ages, the three major search companies in the US were all run by CEOs who either came out of a search background or had a solid understanding of it.

    Google AdWords To Roll Out Flexible Conversion Counting, Says Goodbye To 1 Per-Click, Many-Per-Click

    2014: Converted clicks = Conversions (1 per-click) and Conversions = Conversions (many-per-click).

    Google’s DoubleClick Search Ramps Focus On PLAs And Ecommerce With New Commerce Suite

    2014: The suite was comprised of two new capabilities: Dynamic Product Listing Ads creation and Product Listing Ads optimization.

    Google Showing Large Video Embeds In Some Search Results

    2014: Searching Google for video-related content would return a large, playable, video directly at the top of the search results.

    Google Maps App Now Continually Searching For Faster Route

    2014: The app would notify you if a faster route was available while you were in transit.

    Beyonce, Blackout, Ravens And M&Ms — What We Searched For During Super Bowl 2013

    2013: Viewers turned to their devices to ask [why did the lights go out], [superdome power outage] and [what caused power outage].

    Bing: Why Google’s Wrong In Its Accusations

    2011: Bing said it has search signal, not Google signal.

    Yelp: 35 Percent Of Searches Mobile Now

    2011: The mobile audience on Yelp was more active and engaged than its PC audience.

    Search In Pics: Google Sweden License Plate, Yahoo Beach Sandals & Google Privacy Cup

    2011: The latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

    Google Maps To Add “Google Store Views”

    2010: Google Store Views would allow people to virtually walk into the store, off of Google Street Views.

    Yahoo Sells “Non-Core” Asset HotJobs For $225 Million

    2010: Yahoo would continue to have a career site, but it would be powered and populated by Monster.

    2001 In Review: Search Engine Marketing Gets Respect, As Does Search Generally

    2010: Major events from the year 2001 in consumer search. 

    Google Latitude: Share Your Location On Google Maps

    2009: More coverage: Google Latitude Turns Maps (For Mobile) Into Social Tool

    Google Android Phone Finds Its Voice (Search That Is)

    2009: Google was rolling out voice search on the Android platform via the new software update.

    FriendFeed Improves Search Features

    2009: You could use the advanced search features and then subscribe to that search via RSS.

    Internet Explorer 8 Search Now Showing Instant Answers From Live Search

    2009: Instant answers were shown for searches related to financial information, weather conditions, movie show times, calculations, equations, conversions, and definitions.

    Yahoo Starting To Roll Out “Search Pad” Feature

    2009: The application automatically collected sites and content as users conducted online research.

    Google’s Influence In The Oval Office

    2009: Google was the “fourth-largest corporate source of campaign cash” for President Obama’s presidential race.

    Virtual Earth’s First 2009 Imagery Update

    2009: The major updates included the new Digital Globe satellite imagery they recently licensed and “bird’s eye” photos of Paris, France. 

    IAC Troubles, Ask.com, And Post-Yahoo Search Share

    2008: IAC claimed the legal battle for control of IAC’s board was impeding the company’s ability to effectively operate.

    Microsoft’s Prize: Big Yahoo CPMs, Largest Display Share

    2008: Yahoo ranked as the top site with just under 19% of US online display advertising.

    Google Releases New Urchin Beta

    2008: For those who required server-based analytics.

    EU Prepares “Objections” To Google-DoubleClick Acquisition

    2008: The European Union’s antitrust regulator was likely to impose conditions or ask Google for concessions in order to bless the acquisition.

    Google Files Screenshots Of Compensation Tool With SEC

    2008: The tool modeled the potential value of Google equity awards, including transferable stock options.

    From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

    Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

    These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

    < February 3 | Search Marketing History | February 5 >

    The post This day in search marketing history: February 4 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    Make the switch to GA4, or Google will do it for you

    Written on February 2, 2023 at 6:06 pm, by admin

    If you get Google’s Analytics emails, you may have already gotten the word. But ICYMI, Google has once again reminded us that Universal Analytics (UA) will stop processing data on July 1.

    What’s new is the email states that starting in March, any customer who does not set up a GA4 property with basic settings, Google will configure one with a few basic settings consistent with the existing Universal Analytics property; this includes certain conversion events, Google Ads links, and existing gtag or analytics.js tags.

    Opt-out. If you don’t want Google automatically creating GA4 properties for you, you may opt-out via the instructions in this link.

    Here is what the email says.

    Subject: We’ll soon configure Google Analytics 4 for you

    Hello.

    Universal Analytics standard properties will stop processing data on July 1, 2023. To maximize historical data and to ensure that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) meets your specific needs, we recommend you make the switch to Google Analytics 4 now. This will give you the opportunity to customize the setup including using the latest site tag.

    For any customer who does not set up a GA4 property with basic settings, starting in March, we will configure one with a few basic settings consistent with the existing Universal Analytics property; this includes certain conversion events, Google Ads links, and existing website tags.

    For Universal Analytics customers whose websites are tagged with gtag.js or analytics.js (including through tag management systems like Google Tag Manager), we will create a connected site tag that will reuse existing tags when possible to send traffic to the new GA4 property. If you do not wish to have a GA4 property created and configured based on your Universal Analytics property and existing tags, you may opt-out.

    Their ‘Learn More’ CTA directs to a Google Doc page that I don’t have access to.

    The notification also appears in a yellow bar at the top of some Analytics accounts. Shameem Adhikarath noticed it last night and posted it to Twitter.

    New notification from @googleanalytics . On July 1, 2023, this property will stop processing data. Starting in March 2023, for continued website measurement, migrate your original property settings to a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property, or they'll be copied for you.. @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/qWzOdmqhGV

    — Shameem Adhikarath (@shemiadhikarath) February 2, 2023

    Why we care. With the discontinuation of Universal Analytics standard properties on July 1, 2023, advertisers need to switch to Google Analytics 4 to maximize historical data and take advantage of the latest analytics capabilities. If they don’t, Google may create a GA4 property for them with basic settings, which may not meet their specific needs. Therefore, to ensure accurate tracking and analysis of their advertising efforts, advertisers should make the switch to Google Analytics 4 now and customize the setup as needed.

    The post Make the switch to GA4, or Google will do it for you appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    Meta blames weak advertising demand, rivals for Q4 2022 revenue decline

    Written on February 2, 2023 at 6:06 pm, by admin

    Weak advertising demand and competition from TikTok and other rivals yielded lower fourth quarter revenue and profit for Meta, Facebook’s parent company. 

    Ad revenue was down 4% to $31.3 billion at Meta’s advertising-supported properties, including   Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Advertising revenue was 97% of Meta’s total revenue in the quarter. 

    Ad revenue in North America was flat, declined 16% in Europe and 3% in the Asia-Pacific. Revenue increased by 5% elsewhere (“Rest of World” in the table below). 

    The decline was attributed to “weak advertising demand, which we believe continues to be impacted by the uncertain and volatile macroeconomic landscape,” by Meta CFO Susan Li. 

    Strategy shift for Facebook and Instagram content. “Facebook and Instagram are shifting from being organized solely around people and accounts you follow to increasingly showing more relevant content recommended by our AI systems,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the company’s earnings call. 

    Reels growth. Zuckerberg also said that Reels plays across Facebook and Instagram have more than doubled over the last year, and the social component of people resharing Reels has more than doubled on both in just the last 6 months. 

    The challenge for Reels is “improving monetization efficiency, or the revenue that’s generated per minute of Reels watched,” according to Zuckerberg.

    The future for Meta ads. Meta will continue to monetize WhatsApp as well as messaging ads by utilizing an in-app feature allowing consumers to interact directly with businesses.

    Apple’s App Tracking Transparency measures still reducing revenue. “I think what I would say is there is still certainly an absolute headwind to our revenue number,” Li said when asked whether Apple’s ATT (app tracking transparency) measures were reducing revenue. 

    “Having said that, we are lapping its rollout and adoption, and we’re making progress in mitigating the impact due to a lot of the work that … I just talked about, including the different advertiser tools, including ad formats that bring conversions on site and including the longer-term AI investments in privacy-enhancing technologies.”

    Dig deeper. You can review the earnings transcript on Meta’s Investor Relations site. 

    The post Meta blames weak advertising demand, rivals for Q4 2022 revenue decline appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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    Google’s search quality raters protest for higher pay

    Written on February 2, 2023 at 6:06 pm, by admin

    Dozens of Google’s raters, seeking raises and access to benefits, rallied at the Googleplex in Mountain View yesterday, with the goal of putting an end to “poverty wages.”

    Why we care. Google has said it uses as many as 16,000 raters – and about 5,000 are based in the U.S. As a group, Google’s human raters help ensure the helpfulness, quality and relevance of search results by identifying potentially harmful results, spam, outdated information and all the other elements that go into what is now known as E-E-A-T. 

    Protest in Mountain View. The goal was to deliver a petition, signed by more than 600 workers, to Google SVP Prabhakar Raghavan (who is responsible for Google’s Search, Assistant, Geo, Ads, Commerce, and Payments products). 

    They wanted Raghavan to meet and negotiate with the workers. The group, however, was stopped by security, according to KPIX, a CBS-owned Bay Area news channel.

    Alphabet Workers Union tweets about the protest. In a Twitter thread, the Alphabet Workers Union laid out their case for the raters, noting they are “responsible for training, testing & evaluating search algorithms. Their work makes Google billions while they get paid pennies.”

    The group noted that Google’s raters can’t get benefits, such as health insurance, paid sick leave or parental leave.

    Raters provide an invisible service to Google, rating the quality of Google search & Google ads—products that make billions for the company. 

    Yet, Google has denied these workers access to the company’s own “minimum standard” of pay and benefits for “extended workforce workers.”

    – @AlphabetWorkers

    Raises for raters? At least some of Google’s raters reportedly were given a raise this year. 

    Historically, we know U.S.-based raters (who are actually employed through subcontractors) were paid as little as $10 an hour up to $14.50, which is lower than the $15 an hour minimum Google pays to its TVCs (temporary, vendor and contractor staff). (For additional context, California’s minimum wage is $15.50 per hour and the U.S. minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.)

    “We’re Google’s lowest-paid workers,” Michelle Curtis, one of Google’s quality raters, told MarketWatch in an interview. “But we play a vital role in its growing source of revenue.”

    However, in an interview with Search Engine Land in 2012, we learned that one quality rater was making $14.50 per hour. That means that this most recent “raise” for today’s raters merely put them back to the same pay level some raters were earning over a decade ago. 

    The bigger picture. The protest comes not long after Alphabet, Google’s parent company, announced 12,000 layoffs that impacted employees and contractors. 

    However, those layoffs followed a two-year period of massive hiring, as Google’s headcount went from 119,000 employees in 2019, to 150,000 by the end of 2021. As of September 2022, Alphabet had 187,000 employees.

    Dig deeper. Google ‘rater’ contract workers rally at Mountain View headquarters to demand higher pay by Kelsi Thorud.

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    Microsoft revises multi-channel advertising approach and discontinues bid modifiers for audience ads

    Written on February 2, 2023 at 6:06 pm, by admin

    Microsoft has revised its multi-channel strategy, which will be accessible for all advertisers on February 21st. Additionally, the audience ad bid modifier will no longer be visible in your campaign settings.

    Microsoft says “Instead of using positive or negative bid modifiers to manually adjust participation in the audience network, all you need to do is define your goals, and Microsoft Advertising will fully optimize your campaigns across channels. This will help you more easily manage your campaigns and find the best users in every auction to drive a strong ROI.”

    Driving new changes. Microsoft conducted research on accounts utilizing both search and audience traffic and showed that advertisers get the best results by combining their efforts on Microsoft Search and the Audience Network. Their findings reveal that people who view a brand’s ad on both networks visit the website 2.6 times more frequently compared to those who only see the ad on search. Microsoft says this increased website traffic also leads to higher conversion rates, with users converting 6.6 times more frequently. This highlights the importance of utilizing both search and audience together, as reaching the same user through multiple channels can increase engagement and sales.

    Early testing. Microsoft has been piloting the new multi-channel approach over the past year. “After strong beta results, we’re rolling out this experience to all advertisers. Our results show that accounts already using multi-channel management have seen 14% higher conversion rates at 21% lower cost per acquisition (CPA).”

    More Microsoft changes and updates. Microsoft has been making an effort to improve its ad platform significantly. Last year they announced ambitious plans to double the size of its ad business to $20 billion, though no specific timeframe was given.

    But some brands are still unsure. Their FY23Q2 earnings reported that advertising spend declined slightly more than expected. Mass layoffs also impacted about 5% of its 220,000 workers. But despite a mediocre performance, ad revenue still increased by 5%, and LinkedIn revenue was up 14%.

    It could be possible that the number of changes and updates Microsoft has made over the last year was enough to increase revenue. With Google continuing to push automation and taking away advertisers’ control, advertisers could look at Microsoft as a hail Mary.

    Dig deeper. You can read the announcement from Microsoft here.

    Why we care. Microsoft provides innovative tools, channels, and creative options to advertisers. Utilizing both search and audience together could lead to higher performance and drive lift in your campaigns. However, without more widespread adoption of the platform, these advancements may not reach their full potential.

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    ChatGPT Plus launches, it costs $20 a month

    Written on February 1, 2023 at 1:54 pm, by admin

    OpenAI announced that its highly-anticipated paid version of ChatGPT has launched. Called ChatGPT Plus, it will only be available for people who live in the U.S.

    Despite earlier pricing rumors reported in the media, ChatGPT Plus won’t cost $42 a month. It will cost $20 per month.

    People who have been on the waitlist for the paid version should expect an invite “over the coming weeks.” The company also said it plans to “soon” offer the service in additional countries.

    What you get for $20 a month. OpenAI said the paid version will offer three benefits over the free version: 

    Why we care. ChatGPT is a technology that has several use cases in search marketing, whether it’s for SEO or PPC. So if you’ve found yourself unable to use ChatGPT because the service was at capacity, now you have the cure – and it will cost you $20 a month. 

    The post ChatGPT Plus launches, it costs $20 a month appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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    Webinar: 4 disciplines for SEO teams to drive performance by Cynthia Ramsaran

    Written on February 1, 2023 at 1:54 pm, by admin

    How do you make sure your SEO team is working on activities that will make the most significant impact on your goals? Have you ever set goals only to realize a month or two later that no one has been keeping track of progress? Have you ever reached the end of a year and felt you’ve made no progress on your organic growth targets? Also, is organic growth the only target to measure?

    In this webinar, Craig Bradford, COO of SearchPilot, will show you how to set and achieve better goals using the 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) framework.

    Register today for “Drive Performance With These 4 Disciplines for SEO Teams,” presented by SearchPilot.

    Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.

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    Google Maps removed policy-abiding reviews from Local Guides

    Written on February 1, 2023 at 1:54 pm, by admin

    Google has accidentally removed legit, policy-abiding reviews submitted by Local Guides from Google Maps. Google acknowledged the issue and said it is working on reinstating those reviews over the next few weeks.

    What happened. According to Google’s Local Guides Connect blog, Google said they are “constantly improving our moderation system to keep policy-violating content off the map.” With those efforts, Google said its “protections took down more than expected policy abiding reviews from a set of Local Guides.” Google added that they “acknowledge that this change has affected a lot of your accounts,” and is working to restore the reviews that were impacted.

    Fixing the issue. Google said, “as part of our efforts to resolve this situation, we have launched an update to our protections to fix them.” Google added that the search company “will also automatically reinstate” any of the policy-abiding reviews over the “next few weeks.”

    What if your review is not reinstated. Google said if your policy-abiding review is not reinstated, then you can submit a request through this form to challenge the decision.

    Why we care. If you noticed your reviews are not going through as a Local Guide, Google says to continue to post reviews as normal, and they will automatically fix the issues. At least, you can hope Google does, and if not, you can always request Google to manually review your submission.

    So you may see a number of reviews previously not listed on your business show up in a few weeks when Google reruns its review protections.

    The post Google Maps removed policy-abiding reviews from Local Guides appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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