Category: Archive

Google puts out a lot of useful videos through its Webmaster Central YouTube channel. If you are a regular reader of Murdok, you have probably seen some of them covered here. They generally offer helpful advice for webmasters that have questions about ranking in Google’s search results.

Something about celebrities combined with Twitter is just a magnet for headlines and mass media attention. Perhaps it is because our society has an unhealthy obsession with celebrities, and Twitter (and really just social media in general) is turning the web as we know it into a never-ending "stream" of information.

Let’s admit it: Flickr, which should have beaten Facebook to the punch, fell way behind in terms of letting its users tag people in their photos.  However, Yahoo’s photo-sharing site has now caught up, and in a couple of respects, outdone what many regard as its chief rival.

Yahoo is discontinuing its paid inclusion service, Search Submit. This was revealed at the iProspect/Range Online Media Client Summit on a panel moderated by Danny Sullivan. Sullivan’s Search Engine Land received the following statement from Yahoo:

MySpace is making a big push to reposition itself in the social networking space by introducing a number of new music offerings.
The social network has rolled out what it calls a new comprehensive MySpace Music Video experience, a MySpace Artist Dashboard, and the ability for users to now purchase music on iTunes.
"Artist Dashboard and Music Videos are an important step forward in our mission to define the future of how content is socialized on the Web," said Owen Van Natta, CEO of MySpace.

Update: Bing has now made the announcments and Google has announced a deal with Twitter too. Google’s Marissa Mayer writes:

Coca-Cola has launched a social media campaign that will send three bloggers to more than 200 countries over the period of a year.
The campaign called "Expedition 206" is part of the beverage makers Open Happiness marketing effort launched at the beginning of the year.
Coca-Cola has selected nine finalists and is allowing fans to make the final decision by voting for their favorite candidates on the Expedition 206 website through November 6. Fans can vote once each day during the three-week voting period.

Twitter CEO Evan Willams made some comments at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that have some Twitter enthusiasts in debate. He reportedly said that he wants to retire the Suggested User List (SUL) as the company prepares to launch its highly anticipated "Lists" feature.

Yahoo has partnered with WPP’s GroupM Entertainment to help marketers incorporate their brands into original online programming.
The programs will appear across Yahoo’s network of media properties, including news, sports, finance and entertainment.
"Marketers need big, ground-breaking ideas that engage and delight consumers, and this partnership with Yahoo! will enable them to create unique high value relationships," said GroupM Entertainment Worldwide CEO Peter Tortorici, who will administer the partnership for GroupM.

Google has released a new Website Optimizer Experiment Management API. This means developers can utilize Website Optimizer for their own applications and experiments.

Website Optimizer is a tool from Google that allows users to perform simple A/B and multivariate testing on websites to see what works and what doesn’t. Murdok discussed the tool at length earlier this year. Here is a webinar video that will familiarize you with it as well: