Google Products results showing in right hand Sponsored Listings.
While doing a bit of searching today, I stumbled across some obvious testing.
A search for “cell phone batteries” brings up a page of results with what appears to be Google products in the right hand column listed under “Sponsored Listings”.
So a few questions immediately came to mind:
Is this actually Google products results?
and..
How much will this affect PPC?
Is this actually Google Products results?
It seems like it is, The first result for the Nokia battery being sold at 6pm.com shows up in a “Shopping” results page, however the rest do not appear on first page. So how is google making the descision as to what is being displayed?
How much will this affect PPC?
We already know that any image or movie shown in SERPs is given more attention and therefore more clicks. That being said I can see PPC campaigns taking a major hit due to this change. Users as it is try to ignore our PPC campigns whenever possible. They now have the ability to just glance at a image vs. reading a couple lines of text before dismissing our ads.
I am on the fence about this one. Google Products is great, its free, and its pretty easy to maintain and acheive results. PPC is of course most sites bread and butter, its a simple process thats been around for ever, spend some money to make some money. That being said seems like a poor business descison on behalf of Google. If this takes hold they will efffectivly be reducing the ammount of PPC overall.
Twitter’s Working on Big Brother API err Geo API
Twitter is leveling up. Biz Stone ( @biz ) recently announced in a blog posting that they are working on a Geo API. Ryan Saver ( @rsaver ) is lead on this project and has been involved with WhereCamp and is enthusiastic about other location tracking services. Biz states that the API will allow tweeters to add the latitude and longitude to their tweets. This feature will be turned off by default so tweeter will have to enable the Geo API to make use of its Big Brother like features.
Twitter’s Working on Big Brother API err Geo API
Biz follows up however by stating:
“However, if people do opt-in to sharing location on a tweet-by-tweet basis, compelling context will be added to each burst of information.“
When I first read that line, I giggled. Sounds like this is what all us marketing types have been waiting for, the ability to target tweeters by location… Duh, thats what the whole new API is for right. So if I take a local dentist on as client whom wants to reach out to his local market, Twitter has just provided the means to make it happen. Sure there has been a few other online tools like NearByTweets and Twellohood, but as Biz blogged, the location field currently can be filled with anything, I could put that I am from the Vatican if I really wanted.
So I see this as a new method of spam for this shady marketers whom will bog down twitter with their short url filled messages that no on really reads. And for us not-so-shaddy marketers an awesome tool to bring local market bases together for a directed reason. Personally I already have a few ideas for this Geo API.
How is it going to change you Twitter marketing?
Bing and Yahoo: What About Paid Inclusion?
So there’s currently a bit of an up roar, Microsoft and Yahoo as most everyone should know by now are jumping into bed together. You can read more about it at http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/080201-070804/ if your unfamiliar with whats going on or have been living under a rock.
Photoshop to Wordpress Conversion Tool
Smashing Apps one of the blogs on my daily read list recently wrote about a nifty tool that will make designers lives a bit easier. The tool is named Divine, and like its name, its godly.
“Tweet” – Twitter @username #hashtag Wordpress Plugin
I went looking for a Wordpress plugin to that would link to Twitter @usernames and $hashtags. The first result that looked worthwhile was Tweet.
#michaeljackson / Michael Jackson’s Death has Broken Twitter
First off, my heart truly cries out at the loss of such a figure in our lives. It must be said the he will live forever in his music and his fans. I am sure his family feels otherwise however. They should however take notice that his passing has broken twitter. The cry out from his fans is simply overwhelming one of the largest social networks on the internet. RIP Michael Jackson.
Adwords finally explains “Other Unique Queries.”
May 19th Google said that they are finally going to listen to all the Adword Professionals that have been pleading to have the “Other Unique Queries” explained. “Other Unique Queries” encompasses all the low volume queries that are reported in the Search Query Performance report. Most users of Adwords will likely be unaffected by these changes but those sites that are bringing in large amounts of paid traffic will finally get to pinch all their pennies and reduce some unneeded overhead.
Korea Times Says Conficker is a Hoax.
The
However KISA officials are still stating that it is far to early for computer users to feel safe from any possible Conficker related threats.
My suggestion is to download FSMRT or F-Downadup from F-Secure. It is a free command line removal tool. Instructions for use is included in the download.
April Fools: Is the internet really the place?
So Google has its April Fools Day joke yearly. This year its CADIE. CADIE is a “Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entit,” or something. CADIE claims that she can no longer let humanity ruin that which is Goolge. It is although somewhat happy, cheerful, and free of any of malicious acts right? Sure its just a joke, and everyone knows they should expect it since its April Fools, but the question that poses itself in my mind, “Is this really what the internet is for?”
Should Google the trusted source for “facts” on the internet be playing with the minds of the general public? I don’t think its very helpful in creating a trust relationship.
A Flickr tool that is actually useful.
While doing some of my daily blog reading I happened across a very insightful blog Using Photos to Build Inbound Links written by Matt McGee. This got me thinking of course that it would be extremely helpful to my company to take advantage of Flickr. So I began putting together the beginnings of my “plan of attack.” Select images that the public will make use of, simple enough. Find a tool that will help manage my interactions with Flickr, easy right? Wrong, I have played with many Flicker tools in the past, but all left something to be desired. So I began my search with a specific goal in mind, a tool that would allow me to sync my local images with those stored on Flickr without loosing any of the EXIF or other Metadata. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong. Lets take a look at a few of the Flickr upload/sync tools. Read more
