This Week’s Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff

Google Breaks Own Rules Promoting Chrome, Penalizes Itself, Some Hilarity Ensues

If you search for “browser” right now in Google, there will be one notable absence in the SERPs: Google Chrome. Google ran a sponsored post campaign that paid bloggers to write expectedly positive reviews of Google Chrome, got caught by SEO pros, and swiftly flogged itself with a drop in PageRank and a temporary disappearance of the Chrome site in Google’s SERPs. Talk about starting 2012 off on a positive, not hypocritical note. Source: Search Engine Land

Google Enhances AdWords Email Collection Efforts

Google is testing email collection straight from advertisements above the organic rankings. They have tested this formatting before on the side ads, and Google once again fed their “we test everything” line to the Internet marketing world. It’s also a part of Google’s increased testing on lead-generated AdWords formats, as the opt-in is a pay-per-lead process. Source: Search Engine Land

Google’s Monthly Recap Highlights ‘Megasitelinks,’ Image Search, And More

Google’s most recent monthly search recap sheds some light on their most recent search developments. These include Megasitelinks, an internal project aimed to improve the algorithm used to pick sitelinks, image search improvements, which adds weight to pictures on authoritative websites, and byline dates that reflect more accurately when the article was published. Source: Search Engine Land

Yahoo Hires PayPal President As New CEO

Scott Thompson, the current president of PayPal, has been hired as the new CEO of Yahoo. Thompson has a strong background in technology and product development, and for now it looks like Yahoo will not be attempting to sell itself. Thompson enters Yahoo faced with a multitude of challenges, including the general question of where to take the company as a business. Godspeed You! Chief Executive Officer. Source: Search Engine Land

Return Of The Yahoo Rich Ads

Mentioning Yahoo Rich Ads elicits the same nostalgia Tupac felt when he penned the classic, “Old School.” OK that may be an exaggeration, but PPC Ian has pointed out the return of an ad format in Yahoo and Bing that accentuates your brand/trademark ad presence in SERPs. He offers some commentary on their resurrection as well. Source: PPC Ian

The Technology Patent Wars Continue

Google has acquired 217 patents through IBM, involving a wide range of topics and technologies, including email management, online calendars, and the exchange of web applications through different devices. The most notable patent involves a “Semantic Social Network,” which would help Google+ find people sharing your interests or need for expertise without their profiles explicitly displaying that desired word. Source: Mashable

Sortable.Com Offers Heavily Targeted Search Results For Products

Sortable is a start-up search engine with a twist that could very well turn it into a major player in the online shopping industry. Based on what users communicate to Sortable as important, the search engine serves up products that are completely tailored to what the potential buyer values. This helps users bypass the filtering process on Google, Bing, and other product search websites. Source: Mashable

Similar Music, Movie Tastes Win Facebook Friends, But Books Are Another Story

In another predictable sign that society has been on a consistent swan dive towards Hades, a recent study from three Harvard researchers found that people are most likely to friend others on Facebook if they have similar interests in movies and music, but books, not so much. According to the study, Facebook users have a relatively low chance of influencing their peers, somewhat disproving the conventional wisdom of marketers that people are more likely to trust a recommendation from a friend than an advertisement. Source: Mashable

Sweden Has Their Own Flying Spaghetti Monster Religion

Have you ever heard of the Church of Kopimism? Whatever your religious leanings may be, this Swedish-based faith undoubtedly shares some of your personal beliefs. The Church of Kopimism beliefs information sharing is “holy,” and its value increases exponentially when it is apportioned amongst others for free. Sweden recently recognized Kopimism as a formal religion, and it’s unknown whether Sean Parker is a high priest. Source: Mashable

Notable Commentary

With New Year’s Resolutions

Rand Fishtrodamus Offers Eight SEO Predictions For 2012

After running through the accuracy of his SEO predictions for 2011, Rand Fishkin runs down an eight pack of hypotheses for the upcoming year. Holding himself accountable, Rand created a scoring system to grade his predictions for the previous year, and vowed to not make predictions for 2012 if the score fell below +1. He made it…at +1. Analysis By: Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz

2012 Local Search Predictions

The string of this year’s prediction posts is reaching its end, but localized search is an especially important topic for any SEO that wants to be relevant 366 days from January 1, 2012. On an interesting side note: we are currently entering the dragon…year, that is, according to the Chinese calendar. Analysis By: Chris Silver Smith, Search Engine Land

Two Easy Ways To Claim Victory In AdWords

Different clients view ROI in very different ways, but they all share one common measurement of victory: profit. Tom Demers offers two “quick win” reports that can automatically boost the success of your PPC campaigns on Google AdWords. Analysis By: Tom Demers, Word Stream

A Litany Of AdWords Experts Share Their Knowledge

We love listening to expert advice, right? Word Stream has collected 13 interviews with masters of the PPC arts and compiled them all into one organized post. Interestingly, the subjects were chosen based off their success, as measured by Word Stream’s AdWords Performance Grader. Analysis By: Elisa Gabbert, Word Stream

How Google+ Is Out SEOing Facebook, Twitter, And LinkedIn

Google+ is kind of like that coach’s kid in Little League that was somehow always batting first, despite his wild wacky inflatable arm flailing tube man-like hand-eye coordination. Despite its infancy in age compared to Facebook and Twitter, its profiles are ranking much higher than the other social profiles when you search for someone’s name on Google. Cyrus Shepard discusses some of these implications on SEO strategies. Analysis By: Cyrus Shepard, SEOmoz

How To Read Smarter And Increase Comprehension

Living in the Internet age, there is a dump truck of information flooding our brains each day, courtesy of the virtual written word. Lifehacker has a smart post that offers advice to improve reading comprehension and better organize how you view and interpret the written English language. Analysis By: Alan Henry, Lifehacker

Double Conversions With A Great Tagline

You know your company has an awesome slogan when someone takes the time to parody it. A great slogan or tagline can almost double your sales on a good day, and there’s a process involved in coming up with a memorable one that sticks with people long after they’ve made their first purchase. Analysis By: Roger Dooley, Neuromarketing

When Statistical Reliance Goes Wrong

We work in an industry that relies heavily on data to interpret the trends and actions we are viewing from users, as well as the return on investment of a project or service. However, there’s a tipping point where confidence in statistical measurements turns to vanity. Analysis By: Andrew Anderson, Adobe Industry Insights

Pinterest And Retailers Should Split A BFF Necklace

Pinterest is a social network skyrocketing in popularity, allowing people to collect and share images, quotes, recipes, and anything else worth a recommendation under their name on the Internet. Compete Pulse suggests that its biggest marketing value is found in the realm of retail. Analysis By: Jen Duguay, Compete Pulse

Tips For Creating A Perfectly Intriguing Message

In marketing and in life, the way you present something often determines how many people are listening to you. Kare Anderson offers some helpful tips for crafting a memorable message to get your point across. Analysis By: Kare Anderson, Harvard Business Review

An Attempt To Find Lost Google Analytics Keyword Data In Google Webmaster Tools

In an attempt to shore up some (not provided) keyword data, Ian Lurie tried an experiment: comparing Google Analytics keyword data to Google Webmaster Tools Search Query reports. What he found was, in his phrasing, comparing the two is more like matching “cats to turnips” versus “apples to oranges.” Analysis By: Ian Lurie, Conversation Marketing

Best Practices For Small Businesses And Customer Interactions Through Social Media

The whole concept of using social media as a public relations mouthpiece for corporations has become a major hit among Fortune 500 companies. However, small businesses may have some advantages because of their relative size and the generally better sentiments people have towards them. Melisas Zieger has a few pieces of advice for using social networks to your fullest advantage as a small business. Analysis By: Melissa Zieger, Microsoft Advertising

It’s A Bird! It’s A Plane! It’s A 56-Year-Old Technological Genius!

Hey kids! Have you ever wanted to build, leave, and then preside over the resurgence of a major technology company? Does the prospect of creating personal computers that are both elegant in design and usability, while requiring no anti-virus software? Do you dream of the day where you can display subtle arrogance while showing off the latest version of a popular product you had a hand in creating? Act now to get this freakishly life-like Steve Jobs action figure and begin building your business model now! Disclaimer: Get this action figure while supplies last. Analysis By: Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo