This Week’s Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff

Hourly Conversion Stats Now Available On Google AdWords

After much demand, Google AdWords now features conversion stats broken down by the hour. This will help to tailor ads and campaigns around the most effective time of day for conversions. This new feature can be found in the Dimensions tab under “Hour of day” view.

Source: Google AdWords

Call Metrics Reports Now Feature Caller Area Code

There really isn’t any new data here, besides the caller area code, but it’s a step in the right direction to be providing us with more insight into the details of individual phone calls resulting from different AdWords campaigns.

Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog

Mahalo Cuts Staff By 10% After Google Algorithm Change

Mahalo President Jason Rapp and founder/CEO Jason Calacanis recently announced that the “knowledge sharing service” is reducing their staff by 10% in the wake of Google’s algorithm change aimed at content farms. The site has experienced a reduction in traffic and revenue since the tweak, but their videos receive considerable attention from YouTube. Expect the “how-to” site to focus a lot more on video instructionals to compensate for the loss.

Source: CenterNetworks

Ad Preview And Diagnosis Merge As One

Google AdWords has announced the integration of an ad diagnosis display in the Ad Preview Tool, which now shows whether or not your ad is showing up for a given keyword search and the reason why/why not. This has made the Ads Diagnostic Tool obsolete, and thus Google is eliminating the separate function.

Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog

Google Acquires Cyber Security Firm Zynamics

Google has announced it just bought Zynamics, a German software security company founded in 2004. The company emphasizes reverse engineering, or analyzing malware and other software lacking source codes. Google’s motive, according to a press statement, was that Zynamics’ skills and tools will focus their attention on protecting Google users’ computer security.

Source: CNet

Tonight’s Top 10 Good, Bad, And Ugly Facebook Stories

Since the inception of MySpace, there have always been amusing stories about hypothetical social media users that do some strange things with their online image. Well, Oddee has compiled a list of the top 10 “One time, on Facebook…” stories that are a mixture of funny, sad, stupid, and light-hearted happenings that point back to the world’s most popular social media site.

Source: Oddee

Notable Commentary

Brewed On Experts’ Keyboards

If I ‘Like’ Something, Will I Stop Learning?

Remember when your parents found out that you were infatuated with Transformers or My Little Pony? If so, you might also recall that for the next five birthdays and four Christmases all that you received as gifts were Transformers /My Little Pony or Transformers/My Little Pony related items. Sure, the blankets, pajamas, bubble bath and action figures were cool the first couple years but after a while you really wanted a more diverse collection of toys or…cologne.

Check out this extremely interesting article that questions if you “liking” something on social media sites is producing something similar by severely narrowing what shows up in your search results.

Analysis By: Adam Ostrow, Mashable

Ian Lurie’s Basic Guide To Consistent SEO (If You Build An SEO Template, They Will Come)

We all know that content is king, but having a template that makes your royal content easier to find is also pretty important. Check out this short article from Ian Lurie that outlines the basics of SEO and emphasizes the importance of consistency with your keywords, linking, and title tags.

Analysis By: Ian Lurie, Search Engine Land

Talkin’ Site Architecture

Does your site host great content that is glowing with great information that is incredibly useful to your visitors? Next let me ask if that glowing and informative content is easily accessible to your visitors. If it is, great! If it isn’t, take a look at this article that teaches you how to retool your site architecture to allow users the clearest path possible to your best content.

Analysis By: Richard Baxter, SEOmoz

Is Google Truly Open?

Last October, when speaking about the differences between Android and the iPhone Steve Jobs criticized Google’s Android OS for masquerading as an ‘open’ system when he believes that it is not only not ‘open,’ but also frustrating and fragmented. No matter which side you are on, take a look at this short article to see who else is questioning how ‘open’ Google truly is and if the question actually matters.

Analysis By: Dan Frommer, CNN