This Week’s Industry News
Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff
Matt Cutts Says Not To Worry About Duplicate Content, Because Matt Cutts
Matt Cutts kicked off this week with a very “wha…?” webmaster question-and-answer video. When asked whether duplicate content, such as privacy policies or terms of use on various pages, Cutts said it’s nothing to worry about unless it’s spammy. Obviously, there are all kinds of other questions to ask after hearing this answer, but let’s just close our eyes and take a nap.
Source: Search Engine Land
Bid Adjustments Reports Now Available In Analytics
Bid Adjustments reports from AdWords enhanced campaigns are now available in Google Analytics. The reports are found in the Advertising section under the traffic sources tab. The reports are aimed at assisting advertisers when analyzing the performance of each bid adjustment within a campaign and can be segmented out by time of day, device and location.
Source: Search Engine Land
Apple Buys Location Data Company, Cares About Improving Maps
Apple welcomed Locationary and HopStop to its crazy family this week, hoping to use the location data management startup and local search site to improve its running punch line of a mapping system. The move is expected to help Apple stave off the Google Maps revolution by better filtering good and bad information about a given location.
Source: Marketing Land
You Have To Pay The Troll Toll To Eliminate This Patent Troll
No one likes patent trolls, and it appears one of the biggest has been eliminated. This week an appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling that two patents owned by Eolas Technologies are void. The patents concerned technology that, among other things, reside in the backbone of the Internet, as well as Amazon, Google and Apple. Rejoice!
Source: Ars Technica
Google Drops In The User Satisfaction Rankings
The results of a ForeSee survey conducted for the American Customer Satisfaction Index are not so great for Google and the other major search engines: user satisfaction for the category as a whole is at its lowest levels since 2003. The good news for the search engines: social media sites fared worse. Users’ differing responses to advertising in the two verticals may be at least partially responsible for the different ratings.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Gmail Replaces Spam With Ads
You may have noticed something new in your new Gmail inbox’s Promotions tab: ads that look like emails. As part of a limited beta, Gmail is now offering an iteration of Sponsored Promotion ads that appear in line with the inbox instead of on the right rail. The ads run on a CPC model, and when users click they are invited to watch a video, fill out a form, or click through to a landing page.
Source: Marketing Land
Publishers Love Native Advertising
90% of online publishers either already offer native advertising on their sites or are considering offering it this year, that according to recent research from eMarketer. While the definition of the term “native advertising” is nebulous for site owners – including everything from publisher tweets to same-domain-hosted creative – it seems that (nearly) everybody’s doing it.
Source: Marketing Land
Google Drives A Ton Of Internet Traffic All The Time
According to a Deepfield study, Google is involved in 25% of all U.S. Internet traffic at any given time. This is quite an increase over the 6% reported in a 2010 study, and is likely related to the skyrocketing amount of Google servers deployed nationwide. The study also found that 60% of the Internet touches Google at one point every day, and Netflix is its closest bandwidth rival, although Netflix use operates in peaks and valleys.
Source: Search Engine Watch
Google Helpouts Bring E-Commerce To Live Video
According to a Mountain View tipster, Google is developing a video e-commerce platform that leverages its popular Hangout tool. Entitled “Helpouts,” the program allows businesses large and small to create profiles and sell directly to customers via scheduled or impromptu video chat.
Source: Tech Crunch
Hopper Comes Out Ahead In Legal Proceedings, For Now
For now, it appears Dish has come out ahead in the legal war over their ad-eliminating Hopper DVR. TV networks have considered Hopper the bane of their existence for some time, with Fox and NBCUniversal suing and petitioning the courts for an order to remove the Hopper from the market until their trial date. That request was initially denied and upon appeal the court again confirmed its ruling. The lawsuit against Dish can still move forward, but the appeals court did find Dish is likely to succeed on a fair use defense.
Source: Arts Technica
Facebook Stock Reaches Highest Price Since May 2012
Why is May 2012 significant? Because it was the inaugural month of Facebook’s existence as a publicly traded entity. Facebook’s stocks closed Thursday at nearly $38 per share, due to the announcement of obliterated earnings expectations Wednesday afternoon. It also helped that mobile revenue accounts for 41% of its ad business, and that’s expected to grow.
Source: All Things D
Chipotle Intentionally ‘Hacks’ Itself As A Marketing Strategy
Something tells us this is going to be a thing with a lot of companies for the next year or so.
Source: Marketing Land
Google’s Chromecast Looks Pretty Awesome
In addition to unveiling their next generation Nexus 7 tablet, Google introduced the Chromecast HDMI dongle. For $35, you can plug it into your TV (provided it’s compatible), and instantly watch and control videos, music, movies, and anything else media-related from any Wi-Fi enabled device. The best part is that it’s compatible with Apple, Android, and any other device of these capabilities.
Source: Ars Technica
Notable Commentary
Fit For Your ‘Priority’ Gmail Inbox
How Gmail’s New Look Changes Email Marketing
Hint: It’s not particularly good news, so take a breath and click through with reserved interest if you are an email marketer.
Analysis By: Matthew, MailChimp
Everything You Need To Know About Enhanced Campaigns
Now that Enhanced Campaigns are the law of the land, Ginny Marvin corrals a cornucopia of resources that you can use to get your campaigns up to snuff. Even if you’ve already made the switch, there’s probably something here for you as the article includes over a dozen useful links to explanations of new features, bidding strategies, ad testing, segmentation and more.
Analysis By: Ginny Marvin, Search Engine Land
The Knowledge Graph Is Unkind To Accuracy, Compared To Local Results
Mike Blumenthal uses 10 points to explain why the Knowledge Graph, which increasingly shows up for business and brand-related searches, is far more problematic than Google’s local search results.
Analysis By: Mike Blumenthal, Blumenthals.com
Myths About M Dot Subdomain Mobile Websites
Has Google been subtly hinting at their impending disdain for sites featuring the m dot mobile site method of construction? Not so, says Bryson Meunier in a wide-reaching article explaining why the popular mobile site build is likely to stay relevant and respected as Google’s mobile algorithm changes.
Analysis By: Bryson Meunier, Marketing Land
The Brain’s Learning Process Is Gradually Being Replicated In Computer Algorithms
An article on the Simons Foundation website takes a fascinating look at how computer learning processes are helping scientists understand how our brain works. The most important thing to note, however, is that these learning digital processes are already in your smartphone (e.g., Google Now, Microsoft Voice Search).
Analysis By: Natalie Wochover, Simons Foundation
How To Increase Email Open Rates With Better Subject Lines
The new Gmail inbox has email marketers flummoxed. However, Chris Hexton has five simple subject line tips that can influence your open rate, regardless of whether the email is buried under the Social or Promotional tabs.
Analysis By: Chris Hexton, Unbounce
Digital Marketing Is Far More Comprehensive Than Organic Optimization
If you only care about organic and non-branded traffic, you could be in trouble. James Brockbank explains why.
Analysis By: James Brockbank, Search Engine Journal
6 Steps To Getting More Out Of Your Traffic And Keywords
While growing traffic numbers are a good indication that your SEO efforts are succeeding on some level, it’s of little consequence if that traffic isn’t converting. Ken Lyons at Search Engine Watch lays out 6 steps for improving the return on your best and worst performing keywords.
Analysis by: Ken Lyons, Search Engine Watch
Creating Scrolling Charts In Excel
Sometimes you need to visualize traffic trends over a long period of time. Enter Excel scrolling charts! Annie Cushing at Marketing Land guides you through the process of creating scrolling charts in Excel.
Analysis by: Annie Cushing, Marketing Land
