Recent Mobile Search Updates

February 5th, 2010 by Amanda Chaney  


If you live a lot of your life online, you probably noticed all of the conversation surrounding updates in the mobile search industry recently. I have taken the liberty to sum some of them up for you.

New mobile ad targeting options. Some of you may already be advertising via mobile search… If you are one of those early adopters, you will be happy to know that you may now target by specific mobile devices, or by mobile carriers. This will be beneficial for advertisers with a message tailored to a particular mobile phone type or carrier.

Clickable phone number in adWords Mobile Ads. A big trend with mobile search, is the fact that many users are trying to find a quick address or phone number. A new feature was recently made available that makes the phone numbers in mobile ads clickable. Searchers can find the phone number they are seeking quickly and easily, and can click to call directly from the ad. Another feature is that the phone numbers and ads are location based, so you’d be calling the nearest location.
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Best Week Ever: Haiku, Hovercards & Foursquare Help

February 5th, 2010 by Renee Revetta  


Best Week EverImage by macwagen via Flickr

The rundown of this week’s social media events…

The new press release: Twitter Haiku

OK I’m sure you’ve all heard about it by now, but this week, Sun Microsystem’s Chief Executive, Jonathan Schwartz, quit by tweeting a haiku.

1. It’s liberation for all other Fortune 200 bosses to just up and resign in 140 characters.
2. It’s a revolutionary use of haiku (bet his middle school English teachers are proud).

New Facebook Ad Layout

Be on the lookout for overall Facebook UI updates, and among those, Facebook is also changing the layout and design of ads.  Advertisements will increase from a maximum of 3 ads to 5 ads per page and their current vertical format will switch to a horizontal one. The increase to 5 ads per page leaves advertisers wondering about positioning information.

Google’s self-serve advertisement system for example, provides information about the average position that your ad is being displayed. Facebook in contrast provides less information about ad positioning.

IMHO Facebook should emulate Google and provide advertisers with more information. With 400 million users, more advanced ad feedback would make advertisers very happy. If you’re an advertiser, check out your ad data to see if this affects your campaigns once it rolls out.

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Top Ten Rules for Creating and Managing Your Business

February 4th, 2010 by Janet Driscoll Miller  


Last week, I had the privilege of guest lecturing at my alma mater, James Madison University, for professor Rusty Greene’s class in the School of Media Arts and Design. Professor Greene had asked me to share my advice, as an entrepreneur, for creating and managing your business.

After I completed the presentation deck, I realized that these tips might also be helpful for those in the SEM/SEO community who have a small business or are considering starting one. So, without further ado, (from the home office in Charlottesville, Virginia) here are my top ten rules for creating and managing your business:

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The Underlying Implications of Suggested Search

February 4th, 2010 by Paige Payne  


When on the topic of Google’s suggested search feature,  typically a majority of the conversation focuses on the shock and [insert adjective that has nothing to do with anything useful/intelligent] effect suggested search results can have.  Some examples you are probably already familiar with, or that you may want to check out are those such as Mashable’s Top 10 Funniest Google Suggests Results or perhaps Funny Google Suggest results: Who searches Google for this stuff? | Xatal.

Often, suggested search results (like the ones below that I found on Xatal’s blog) leave us with a similar thought:

is google

Maybe we, the end users, do all too often fall victims to the coined phrase:

google it

Whatever the case may be, believe it or not the Google Suggest feature can actually provide some great insights for PPC.

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Best Week Ever: Google’s Social Circles, Giant iPhones and Local Trends

January 29th, 2010 by Renee Revetta  


Google Inc.Image via Wikipedia

Read on for a review of this week’s hilarious and surprising events in social media.

Google goes social

You’ll want to pay attention to this. Google announced new social search features on Wednesday. One of the features is your social circle, compiling your contacts from across the web in one place. Surprise, surprise, Google knows everything about you. It knows your friends, and your friends’ friends, comprising your social circle.

Google suggests creating a Google Profile, and so did we a while back, but we’re reminding you again, that Google Profiles are a good idea. They’ll have a big impact on your connections and linkability within your circle. Also, be prepared to start seeing friends’ photos in your image search results. Stay tuned, as things will most likely evolve as the release of Caffeine hovers above us.

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