This Week’s Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Clicks

Google AdWords Updates Location Targeting

Location targeting is a constantly refined feature in Google AdWords, in part because users continue to want localized results and advertisers want to cater to those needs. Some of the most recent updates to location targeting in AdWords include:

Multi-point/polygon targets will be eliminated from AdWords, effective at the end of 2011. If you currently use this feature, you can do so until the calendar turns over, at which time AdWords will migrate all polygon targets to a nearby city or map points with a radius.

The “Show address in the ad” feature is also on the chopping block. AdWords location extensions will now be required if you want your business address to display on a map point. All of these changes will officially take place after July 8, so you have time to update your account(s) as needed.

Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog

Google Wallet Now Available For Android Users

Google Wallet was unveiled on Thursday, with Google touting the smartphone development as a catch-all way for customers to store credit cards and purchases, redeem coupons, and collect loyalty points for using the app. The program is currently only available on the Android platform as long as you’re a Mastercard or Citigroup customer, and retail partners include Macy’s, American Eagle, and Subway, among others.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, PayPal filed a lawsuit against Google the day of Google Wallet’s debut, citing stolen trade secrets. At the center of the lawsuit are two former PayPal employees who just happen to be major executives behind Google Wallet’s development and release. The free app is currently in the testing phase in San Francisco and New York, but is slated for a nation-wide release in the early summer.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Yandex Gets A Big Boost After First IPO

Yandex, the big search engine out of Russia launched its IPO on Tuesday, and saw its value jump by 55%. This is due in part to its expected popularity amongst the region around the former Soviet Union.

Don’t expect that massive growth to continue too long though – Yandex is hot in Russia, where it holds 65% of the search market, and competes well with Google in emerging search markets. But there are strong doubts that it will see any major expansion in markets that weren’t once Soviet allies.

Source: Daily Finance

Apple Is One Record Label Away From Ruling The Music Cloud With An Iron Fist

The Cloud Music Race has seemingly been won by Apple, who has licensed music from all but one major record label (Universal Music Group) so users can store and stream their music from Apple’s cloud servers. If Apple can’t completely convince Universal to jump on the bandwagon, Vegas odds are pretty high the label will do it anyways from fear of missing out on the opportunity.

Apple may announce the cloud music streaming service at WWDC on June 6, and very well could offer something Amazon and Google can’t: the choice to “scan” your library for music as opposed to uploading every independent song. This would make Apple’s service much, much faster than Amazon or Google’s.

Source: Business Insider

Chrome, Firefox Test Browsers, Minus The URL Bar

Google and Mozilla are currently experimenting with a minimally visible URL bar in their Chrome and Firefox browsers. A main driver for this new development is the expanding netbook and tablet market, where screen space is a commodity. The future of a smaller URL bar is still ambiguous, and it could result in a push back from users that rely on the URL as a reference point for their navigation on the web.

Source: PC World

JC Penney Released From Google SERP Prison

After a 90-day sentence in the Google SERP maximum security facility, JC Penney has been released back into the real world of relevant Google search queries. JC Penney had come under fire for their black hat SEO strategy that was giving the retail company a major boost in relevant (and irrelevant) search results.

Source: Search Engine Land

Sony Security Broken In Greece

Like a bad goalie in hockey, Sony simply can’t stop anything from slipping by their security net. On Tuesday, Sony discovered a breach at a music-entertainment unity in Greece that impacts 8,500 user accounts, and also found two lesser security breaches in Thailand and Indonesia.

In the words of the opposing hockey team’s fans: “Sieve! Sieve! Sieve! Sieve! Sieve!”

Source: Wall Street Journal

Google Giveth £150,000, And Google Taketh £150,000

For whatever reason, a U.K. Google AdWords user received a £150,000 credit voucher instead of the £100 he expected. The advertiser notified Google, where multiple customer service representatives then assured him the glitch could be resolved with no extra issues. To put it simply, a massive string of issues happened, and multiple fraudulent charges and credit problems later, Google gave the advertiser another £100 AdWords credit voucher. Talk about messed up customer service.

Source: UK Progressive

Google Docs Now Lets You Pivot

Do you love pivot tables? Do you love Google Docs? Do you wish both were joined together as one? Is your cat making too much noise all the time? If so, Kitten Mittens…I mean, Google Docs is now offering pivot tables. You’ll be smitten!

Source: Google Docs Blog

Chinese Prisoners Forced To Farm For Gold … In World Of Warcraft

Imagine Cool Hand Luke working manual labor all day and then being forced to sit at a computer screen all night “gold farming” on World of Warcraft so the prison guards turn a monetary profit off the virtual credits and experience. What we have here is a failure to pwn.

Source: Mashable

Huntin’ And Killin’ With Mark Zuckerberg

Every year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a point to study or do something out of the ordinary each day. In 2009 he wore a tie every day, and in 2010 he studied Mandarin. In 2011, Zuckerberg chose a very Ted Nugent-like task: only eating animals that he kills. I immediately picture Zuckerberg acting like John Hammond’s nephew in the poaching scene from The Lost World.

Source: Mashable

Notable Commentary

Hotter Than The Approaching Summer

Following The Path of Spam, From Inception To Your Inbox

This is a fairly long document (as is the case with most scholarly research papers), but the information about spam and its value chain is extremely interesting.

Analysis By: University Of California-Berkley, San Diego, Robert Siegel and Michele Norris, NPR

Mobile Reading Grows Up

This slideshow contains a TON of information backing up the assertion that, as the use of mobile devices increases, people are also reading more books, articles, emails, and everything in between on those devices.

Analysis By: Kent Anderson, The Scholarly Kitchen

SEO Auditing Your Web Site, Technical Style

There is a lot of information to digest here, but the technical side of SEO is extremely important, and makes this article well worth your time.

Analysis By: Geoff Kenyon, SEOmoz

Free Online Brand Awareness From SEOmoz!

If SEOmoz is fittin’ to give you free insight, you take that insight. Every marketer wants to know their brand’s overall brand awareness and satisfaction, and SEOmoz outlines five free tools to help you out.

Analysis By: SEOmoz, Marketing Pilgrim

Trends In Mobile Internet Usage

Google released an interesting market study into what people are doing when they’re using the Internet on their smartphones. Apparently 20% of mobile Internet users are driving at the same time.

Analysis By: Frank Reed, Marketing Pilgrim

If You’re Over 30, You’re Probably Too Old To Launch A Startup

SV Angel, an investment firm, released a study detailing demographics and other tidbits of information about startup companies and their founders. One of the most endearing quotes from analysis of the study is as follows: “Old people suck at startups.”

Analysis By: Jay Yarow and Kamelia Angelova, Business Insider