Internet Explorer 8 Pops Up In Beta
The answer to the question “how long until IE8 will be ready for download” turned out to be 3pm ET today.
KY Rep. Seeks To Ban Anonymous Blogging
First rule of politics for incumbents: During an election year, try not to highlight your general uselessness, especially if you share a name with a famous football player, because people will notice.Second rule of politics for incumbents: If you go to the trouble to introduce a bill, be prepared to defend it until the bitter end, even if you know in your heart it will never pass, not in a million years, unless futility somehow becomes a desired legislative virtue.
Hitwise Shows Social Graphs To Marketers
New Hitwise data illustrates what we all already knew: people are liable to use more than one social network. The accompanying report gets into some of the interactions between networks, though, and how marketers may react.
Search Or Content Ads? A Marketer’s Dilemma
One of the issues presenting itself after Google’s new focus on quality search ads—CPC inflation, expected higher conversions, reported lower publisher payouts—is the question of which gets more bang for the buck, search or content ads?
Blended or Universal Search?
Michael and I had the opportunity to attend the SMX (Search Marketing Expo) last week in sunny Santa Clara, CA.
Google Tests Site Links Feature
I was tipped off today by a WebmasterWorld thread that Google is testing their Site Links feature that includes a search box right under the Site Links. See the screen capture below:
Only 44% Of Online Shoppers Are Happy With Company Web Sites
A majority of online shoppers (74.5%) said they use a company’s Web site to get information about a product or service, but less than half (44%) said the information met their needs a new study from ServiceXRG, "Influencing the Online Experience," found.The study surveyed around 1,000 companies and online shoppers to find out how people use search for online support, do product research and take part in shopping activities.
Gary Gygax Departs For Ethereal Plane
Gygax co-created Dungeons & Dragons, a roleplaying game that likely occupied some time for the geeks you know today. We bid farewell to him.
Page Load Times Affect AdWords Quality Score
Thanks to the diligence of a marketer (i.e., not to an announcement from Google), it is now known that Google instituted a new factor in determining the quality score for AdWords ads: landing page load time. In brief: slow landing page load times negatively impact quality scores, which increases minimum bids and ad placement rankings.
Street View Competitor Gaining Strength, $7 Million
When people talk about Google Street View, the conversations tend to focus on either privacy or its undeniable "neat" factor. Thanks to Google’s success in other areas, profitability just doesn’t come up. But EveryScape has built its business around similar virtual tours, and the company just raised $7 million in funding.