This Week’s Industry News
Compiled By Rocket Clicks
Google Unveils AdWords Targeting By Congressional District Just In Time For Political Season
A new, very impressive feature in Google AdWords now allows political candidates (and pretty much anyone that uses AdWords) to target campaigns to a specific Congressional district. This is especially cool for non-politicians/political hopefuls if you happen to sell products or services that may cater towards the general demographics of either political persuasion. It’s also interesting because you can view the crazily gerrymandered parts of our country.
Source: Search Engine Land
Gmail Results Show Up In Google Search
Google recently announced they are integrating Gmails into search results depending on the query. The emails are placed in the top right corner of the screen and are contained within a collapsible pane. Part of this rollout includes displaying Gmail contacts and travel arrangements found in your inbox.
Source: Search Engine Land
Google Has A Very Long Path To Travel If It Wants To Beat Out Amazon
Much like Bing’s own futile effort to provide a search alternative to Google, and Google’s own exhaustive social initiatives aimed at knocking Facebook and Twitter down a peg, Google Shopping has an incredibly long ways to go before it overtakes Amazon as a product shopping destination.
According to a recent Forrester report, 30% of online shoppers begin their product/service research at Amazon. In contrast, Google is the starting point for only 13% of online consumers, despite holding a 24% to 18% lead in this category in 2009. Amazon’s 19% share of e-commerce revenue has been on a consistent crescendo since 2001, when it only occupied 9% of online shopping revenue.
Source: Search Engine Watch
Search Not As Big On Mobile Devices
A new study conducted by Nielsen shows that search isn’t as integral a part of the mobile universe as it is online. Mobile users more often directly navigate to websites and apps rather than utilizing search engines to find information. While Google is still seeing huge growth in mobile search, the findings demonstrate that users approach mobile differently than PCs and search engines will need to continue to adapt to those changing behaviors.
Source: Search Engine Land
Steve Wozniak Warns Against Cloud Computing Dependence
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is wary of the cloud’s swelling popularity. When the popular computing/storage option grows to cumulonimbus-size in the next few years, Wozniak believes the ramifications will be “horrendous.” Wozniak reasons that the cloud takes away the freedom to control things you own, whereas storing something on a personal computer at least guarantees you are the sole beneficiary of that program, software, etc.
The irony is that Wozniak is the chief scientist for Fusion.io: A company that works to improve the cloud experience and overall cloud performance.
Source: Search Engine Journal
New York Times Looking To Dump About.com
The New York Times Co. is considering the sale of struggling About.com. The company is getting closer to a deal that would see the website sold to Answer.com for $270 million. The About.com arm of the New York Times Co. was largely responsible for the operating loss of 143.6 million the company posted last quarter.
Source: Mashable
YouTube Is Now An Extinct iPhone App…And Google’s Happy About It
Would you believe that Google is rejoicing in Apple’s decision to eliminate the YouTube app on its iPhone home screens? As it turns out, both sides wanted the agreement to expire mostly Google could not monetize the app (Apple controlled the paid advertising), and Apple is always happy to get rid of any interaction its users have with their main smartphone competitor. The only loser here seems to be the users, but so it goes.
Source: CNet
Notable Commentary
Ready For Retweets, +1s, And Likes
A Rulebook For A/B Testing As A Marketing Science
Anyone that starts out an Internet marketing column with a Sherlock Holmes quote is fine with us. Uri Bar-Joseph says we should treat A/B testing like Mike Tyson’s Punchout: There’s a champion and a contender, and only one can advance to the next round. He has a rulebook 8 points deep to help guide your next A/B test.
Analysis By: Uri Bar-Joseph, Search Engine Watch
Video Content Smart For eCommerce Sites
Adding video content to your ecommerce site can bring a big boost in search engine results and sales. Videos not only help shoppers make purchasing decisions, they make ecommerce sites more unique in the eyes of web crawlers and consumers alike. Videos also lend themselves to be promoted via social media.
Analysis by: George Aspland, Search Engine Land
Five-Minute PPC Account Audit
Noran El-Shinnawy offers a quick and effective way to audit PPC accounts in five minutes.
Analysis by: Noran El-Shinnawy, Search Engine Watch
Is Your Link Building Bringing In Links Faster?
Sometimes it’s hard to gauge whether link building campaigns are in fact helping you acquire links faster than you would naturally. This Youmoz post (now on SEOmoz) walks you through how to determine if your aggressive link building strategies are actually paying off.
Analysis by: Justin Goodman, SEOmoz
