The media sector performed well in 2009, recovering $200 billion of value, or 63 percent of what it lost in 2008, online content providers and distributors made up more than half of these gains, according to a new report by consulting firm Oliver Wyman. The largest gains were in China, where the media sector market value increased by 200 percent....

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month, Intel had a lot of things going on. For one, they introduced a whole new family of Intel Core Processors. They also had a cool proof-of-concept device on display. This was something they call the Intel Infoscape. Infoscape is a giant display featuring cubes of information,...

If you are one of those people still skeptical about the business uses of social media, you may be interested to know that Google's Social Search is no longer just an experiment. Though it does have the beta tag on it, it is now mainstream. This is something we've all known would come sooner or later, but now it's here. Have you established...

So the other day, I was talking to a client about a new project they want to begin in the next couple of months. From their mindset this project is going to be huge and may redefine their organization in the coming years. As part of this new project they want a sophisticated web presence. They read off a list of different social networks and...

Earlier this month, Polaroid announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Lada Gaga, which will see the pop superstar serving as the company's creative director for a specialty line of Polaroid Imaging products. This was highlighted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which WebPronews attended. While we were there, we had...

On January 27th Steve Jobs unveiled Apples latest “it” product, the iPad. Essentially the iPad “fills the gap” in between smartphones and laptops. One question remains to be answered, is there a need for a device to bridge the gap in between the two technologies? We're not sure yet, but there is one thing we know, the iPad...

We know, we know: many individuals will view this as an invasion of privacy, or at least a potential cause for embarrassment.  Still, you may find it interesting to learn that a bathroom scale is now able to inform Google Health (along with users' Twitter followers) of a person's weight. No one's kidding around here.  According to an...

Delicious has introduced some new features. These come in the categories of bookmark display options, tag options, and bookmark browsing. Bookmark display options have been combined into one place - just to the right of the Tagbar, and just beneath the bookmark count. New features here include a privacy filter, a send recipients option, and an...

State laws that ban cell phone use and texting while driving fail to reduce accidents, according to a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI). HLDI researchers calculated monthly collision claims per 100 insured vehicle years for vehicles up to 3 years old during the months immediately before and after hand-held phone use was banned...

We recently discussed how social media complements the news industry, and how a study has even found news to be a top priority of Twitter users. Facebook wants to let users know that it can also be used to keep track of news, when you set up a news list. This isn't so much a new feature, as it is a way to use the social network that you may or...

Given the way in which the iPad's dominated this week's tech news, rumors about all other sorts of touch-sensitive technology were bound to spread.  Still, there may be something to the excitement about Chrome OS responding to touch, as a Google employee sort of set off the hubbub. Here's a disclaimer: what was said today didn't come near a...

Everybody wants free money, right? Well, here’s one way to get it: find a bug in Google Chrome or Chromium, the open source code database behind the browser. Google is offering intrepid developers from $500 for pointing out “select interesting and original vulnerabilities.” The maximum award is $1337—no, seriously. You guys...

Google has launched the Google Apps Script in Google Apps Standard Edition, meaning that it is much more broadly available now. Previously, it was only available in Google Apps Premier and Education editions. It was released back in the summer. Google Apps Script starts in the spreadsheets of Google Docs. It lets you create sheets to read and...

Security experts who either weren't inclined to do Google any favors or actually wanted to cause a little mischief now have good reason to help the search giant out.  Google's implemented a rewards system for finding bugs in Chromium. People who report an eligible bug should receive at least $500 from Google by way of thanks. ...

Microsoft saw Windows 7 carry them to a strong fourth quarter last year—but its Online Services division (home of Bing) didn’t see a boost, according to the official reports. Microsoft emphasized Bing’s growth and the fact that their search advertising somewhat offset other losses, but the division still operated for a...

Finding your perfect affiliate program is tough: more often than not this is done by plenty of testing. However the only problem with that method is lost time: you can't test each and every affiliate program that seems to be related to your niche because this means that you will spend months in testing before you start accumulating income.

The Federal Communications Commission recently began an inquiry into exorbitant early termination fees in mobile phone carriers’ contracts. The investigation began when Verizon raised its early termination fee to $350 (from $175) for smartphones. Now the FCC is making the inquiry formal and full-blown—they’re asking the four...

Here’s are some metrics that should concern those inside of Twitter: The number of new users per month is down 20% since its peak in July 2009. The average Twitter user has just 27 followers, down from a peak of 42 80% of Twitter users have tweeted fewer than 10 times The percent of active Twitter users is down to just...

The FBI has announced it arrested a man on Thursday for allegedly selling hacked cable modems that provided free Internet access. Matthew Delorey, 26, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence on each count of 20 years in...

Sites are buzzing today about what appears to be a misleading product video Apple has produced to sell its iPad. An eight-minute clip on YouTube depicts NYTimes.com on the device at about the 2:04 mark. The clip shows The Times' Video section fully rendered, including a Flash element that sits above an article in the newspaper's Travel...

eBay announced  that starting March 30, it will be "lowering the cost of selling for sellers of all sizes," a notion that is heavily disputed. The company claims it will introduce its lowest insertion fees ever, and that may be true for the lowest-priced auctions, but many are claiming prices are higher. Just read through the...

Update: According to Nick O'Neill at AllFacebook, there is a "slight privacy oversight" (which he also says is "not a minor bug") that lets users view the latest apps that their friends have been using. He notes that Facebook will probably resolve the issue before full launch. Original Article: Facebook will be...

Domain name registrar and web hosting provider GoDaddy appears to be really making a name for itself based on controversial Super Bowl ads. In fact, one could ponder whether or not the general public would have such a distinct idea of what GoDaddy even is, if it were not for its Super Bowl controversies. Something tells me that's just fine with...

A new study commissioned by Microsoft is about, of all things, googling yourself. I guess that if someone had used the phrase “binging yourself” there may be laws about that in many states but the irony of this is not lost on me. At any rate, the study shows that there aren’t as many people keeping an eye on what their personal online...

Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black, or a heart-warming story of a bad guy that’s now fighting evil? Social network Tagged.com has been the subject of many email spamming complaints in its life. Now the company has been awarded $210,975 in a default judgment against a spammer. In a ruling issued earlier this week, a U.S....

YouTube recently started experimenting with renting video content as a potential new way for content producers to make money, which led to the question: will YouTube be the place to rent movies in the future? YouTube kicked this initiative off by offering a few independent films from Sundance, an experiment which some saw as a failure, but...

Americans who play online games like "World of Warcraft" and "EverQuest" generated $2.8 billion in subscription revenue in 2009, and are on track to pay an annual $5 billion in game subscriptions by 2015, according to a new report by market research firm Pike & Fischer. The number of online gaming paid subscribers, which...

The best ad - from the perspective of both users and advertisers - is often something that will immediately let the two sides connect.  Google's taken an intelligent step forward, then, by allowing businesses to include clickable phone numbers in their mobile ads. This should save people who want to call companies a fair amount of time they...

Google has introduced a new feature for its mobile Image Search offering. The feature is "Popular Images," and lets Android and iPhone users browse popular images (go figure). The Popular Images feature comes in the form of a link just under the search box on the Google Image Search page. When clicked, it brings up a categorized list...

Update: Google has announced that annotations are now available for all accounts after a phased roll-out. Original Articles: Google announced a new set of features for Google Analytics at SES Chicago. New features include annotations, custom variables in advanced segments, custom variables in custom reports, a new analytics tracking code...

Award winning BBC comedy personality, Peter Serafinowicz, has released a video in which he shows the “latest revolution from Apple, the iPad”. What did you think of the video? Let us know. I’m sure by now you’ve figured out this isn’t the real iPad… well I guess it could be as this one doesn’t...

Everyone needs to shorten a URL sometimes. Whether it’s to prevent long URLs wrapping in emails, to hide affiliate links or to make links look neater in newsletters or on web pages, a URL shortening service comes in handy. These are simply tools that take long URLs and reduce them into fewer characters to make a link that is easier to...

If you are aware of SAS, a company located in Cary, NC then you understand or have a need to understand business analytics. As the largest privately-held software company in the world, SAS often flies under the radar because what they do isn’t sexy. Instead, it is necessary. Necessary business functions don’t get the same attention or play...

I'll bet this is one of the best SEO reads you'll see for a long time. Some real great information and ideas on things like algorithm changes, penalties/filters, Google sitelinks and so much more.

Don't be shocked if one or more shrines to Windows 7 are erected in Redmond today.  Microsoft released its quarterly earnings report this afternoon, and thanks in large part to the new operating system, the company's numbers look quite good. Analysts thought Microsoft might report something like $17.84 billion in revenue and earnings per...

We’re sure you’ve either seen or heard about “General” Larry Platt’s American Idol audition, Pants On The Ground. Not sure how you could’ve missed it, as it’s been everywhere… it was even sung by the Minnesota Vikings after they defeated the Dallas Cowboys during the NFL playoffs. Pants On The...

Amazon.com today reported strong fourth quarter profits that beat Wall Street analyst's estimates. The online retailer said its net income increased 71 percent to $384 million in the fourth quarter, or 85 cents per share, compared with $225 million, or 52 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2008. Net sales increased 42 percent to $9.5...

Politicians are perhaps not the best people to talk to about privacy; they intentionally thrust themselves into the spotlight, and can be responsible for annoying commercials and phone calls that bother the rest of us at home.  Still, Facebook arguably accomplished something today by discussing privacy with six politicians and the CEO and of...

What do you know? Dynamic Logic’s 2009 Ad Reaction (PDF) survey shows that consumers may not hate social media ads after all. A series of surveys took a look at the popularity of social networking as well as ad reception across various media. The December 2009 survey of 2000 US adults found that 59% were involved in social networking and...

Google's made an announcement regarding Unicode, and believe it or not, there's something for everyone here.  Programmers should be interested to know that Unicode is becoming more popular at a rapid pace.  Normal Google users, meanwhile, will be happy to learn that searches should now turn up additional useful results. Let's start with...

The Federal Communications Commission recently began an inquiry into exorbitant early termination fees in mobile phone carriers’ contracts. The investigation began when Verizon raised its early termination fee to $350 (from $175) for smartphones. Now the FCC is making the inquiry formal and full-blown—they’re asking the four...

Bing said today it has added new features to make it easier for users to search for and find financial information. Bing says it has developed a "stock and funds pages" which covers most U.S. stocks and funds. The Bing Search Blog offers more details. "To see the stocks and funds you are interested in simply enter a ticker in the...

Bruce Clay - Friday-recap-geek-love-edition Ad Ops Online - ses-announces-newcomer-programme-for-london-2010Marketing Facts - Jim Sterne on social media marketing and Web analyticsSocial Media Marketing - Interview with Jim Sterne on social media marketingLatitude Group - Latitude seo ppc experts to speak at ses london 2010Mycustomer - Jim Sterne:...

Although Nexus One sales estimates haven't exactly blown everybody's minds so far, it seems that the cell-phone-you-can-only-buy-from-Google experiment is going to continue.  Motorola's co-CEO announced today that his company is working on device for it. According to Scott Moritz, co-CEO Sanjay Jha said while discussing Motorola's Q4...

The latest SEO tool is not an automated submission device or some web page analyzing script.  It’s the thesaurus on your desktop.  No thesaurus?  Better get one soon.  Google has just announcedthat it has made great advancements in reading synonyms.

Search engine firm Startpage, and its E.U. brand, Ixquick, has released a new proxy service that allows Internet users to surf the web in privacy. The proxy lets users browse websites anonymously, without sharing any private, personally identifiable information to the websites they view. When users conduct a search on Startpage they will see a...

Discovery; where SEO starts… Long before you start to worry about actually ranking content, you need to get it into the index. And of course, to do that, your content needs to be found. In the world of information retrieval this is, appropriately enough, known as ‘discovery’. This in itself can be known as a few things including ‘data...

Maktoob may not be a site with which many American search experts are familiar, and similarly, Yahoo's name probably isn't something Arabic-speaking individuals are used to seeing on a daily basis.  But an introduction of sorts has occurred, as Yahoo Search is now powering Maktoob, which is the largest online Arabic-language community. Yahoo...

If you know Tamar Weinberg, you know, she knows, social media. If you don’t know Tamar Weinberg, then when I tell you she’s the community and marketing manager for Mashable–the #1 social media blog in the world–you’ll believe that she knows social media. So, you’ll probably want to jump on this opportunity to...

Scott Brown made headlines with his one-day "Money Bomb" fundraiser that became a week-long phenomenon raking in millions for the newly-elected Senator from Massachusetts. Now, Republican primary candidate for Senate in Florida, Marco Rubio (he's running an increasingly tight race against Governor Charlie Crist) is using a similar tactic. That's...

Online shoppers experience more website slow downs and other problems completing transactions during popular shopping periods when traffic to retail websites peaks, according to a new survey by Equation Research conducted on behalf of web performance firm Gomez. At stake is the $1,050 that each online shopper spends annually, according to the...

Simply put, there are no shortcuts. If you want to get Wiki links for yourself or your clients you have to put in work. Here are some great examples of how (and how not) to get yourself sniffed out.

Here’s are some metrics that should concern those inside of Twitter: The number of new users per month is down 20% since its peak in July 2009. The average Twitter user has just 27 followers, down from a peak of 42 80% of Twitter users have tweeted fewer than 10 times The percent of active Twitter users is down to just 17% The data comes...

Last year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada investigated Facebook as a result of several complaints.  Then the Privacy Commissioner made some recommendations, Facebook followed them, and all in all, both sides remained quite friendly.  Only now another probe's been launched, and the privacy advocate sounds less patient...

Barnes & Noble has acknowledged it has received a subpoena from New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for information concerning an investigation into online retailers who link customers to discount clubs that charge hidden fees. The world's largest bookseller said it wants to stress to customers it is not one of the retailers who...

Today, January 28th, is variously recognized as the Feast Day of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Julian's Day.  It's Data Privacy Day, too (or Data Protection Day in Europe), and to celebrate this last occasion, Google has published its Privacy Principles. Google has five Privacy Principles, and does indeed consider them important enough to...

Things might be looking up for Yahoo, which just posted its best quarter since Carol Bartz took the reins a year ago. They earned $153 million (11 cents per share) in Q4—a huge improvement over the same quarter last year, where they saw a loss of $303 million (22 cents per share). And Yahoo might have even done better, if it weren’t for...

It’s rare that Google gets trumped on news but with all the Apple iPad (insert your favorite disgusting nickname here) hoopla from yesterday the announcement that Google’s social search is now in beta for all to use kinda slipped by. After a little reading on the subject there may be a good reason for this. In other words, Google maybe...

All of the talk of paywalls for online content that gets the bulk of the attention by the ‘press’ is focused mainly on large publications like the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. These publications have international readership and have significant influence when it comes to coverage of the major events in the world as well as in...

As we discussed before, Internet-ready vehicles were one of the more interesting themes throughout the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. One vehicle in particular that WebProNews got an up-close look at was the 2011 Ford Super Duty, which the company refers to as a "contractor's dream." Checking out the truck, it's...

Twitter claims not to be taking an active role in the dispute, but it's definitely applauding developers who try to make Twitter.com available in China and Iran.  Ev Williams endorsed workarounds and rejected compromises while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos. According to John Gapper, Williams said, "We are partially...

RDFa, which stands for Resource Description Framework in attributes, is a W3C recommendation, which adds a set of attribute level extensions to XHTML for embedding rich metadata within web documents. While not everyone believes that W3C standards are incredibly necessary to operate a successful site, some see a great deal of potential for search...

The value of social media to business and Internet marketing is often hard to determine. But Facebook would like to help. Yesterday at OMMA Social, Facebook’s direct response solutions manager Brian Boland announced a conversion tracker tool from the most popular social network. Designed to complement Facebook Connect, the tool is already in...

Social media is an all-encompassing term used to describe any of several online channels that utilize the technology to facilitate social interaction through written, visual, or audible communication.

Twitter is making sure that they are not left out of the year of mobile / local / smart phone etc, etc by announcing a new trending service that helps users figure out what might be the buzz about things in their neck of the woods. More and more we are seeing people getting drawn back to their lives on the move rather than behind the computer...

We already know that 84% of marketers plan to shift some of their direct marketing budgets to social media. Now, a new report from the Society of Digital Agencies suggests that 50% of marketers will shift budgets from traditional to online media. Not only that, but the highest priority for this newly allocated budget is social networks: Now,...

Facebook is getting to the level of ubiquity that is only afforded a few things in this life. It seems as if everyone is on the service to one degree or another. If someone is not on it they have heard about it and have likely gotten some ribbing about not being involved. Very few people leave (although a friend of mine recently did because he...

Chrome Seo for modern search engine optimizers, search engine marketers and webmasters. Now more than ever seo is tied directly to the live web and real-time actions. Blog farms and scrapers, gave way to mass social spam and vote rigging. Brokering links was safe, then unsafe for Google whitehat seo, and everything in between. Page rank was...

The hubbub over comScore's payment requirement for its direct-measurement service, and its subsequent squabble with Quancast brought to the fore issues that have long been on the minds of site publishers and measurement firms. For background, check out my story, published yesterday. But what do media buyers think about this stuff? I asked Derek...

Identifying new search term trends before they get really competitive is an easy way to get traffic. Here are a few ways to spot them: First, you might come across something noteworthy in your day-to-day life.  For example, let’s imagine Kanye West was wearing orange fluorescent high-top sneakers when he stormed the stage at the...

That’s right, folks, you’re all once again about to lose your right to use SEO to refer to . . . well, anything. Back in 2008, one “intrepid” “SEO” decided he’d trademark the term and impose standards on the rest of us. That didn’t pan out, so someone else has taken up the case. Or not. Apparently...

A great visual guide detailing the various apsects of affiliate marketing.

Six months after Google said that Apple rejected a Google Voice app for the iPhone (Apple maintained that the app was merely under review, a process which usually takes about a week), Google has finally decided to circumvent the ban. VP of mobile apps engineering Vic Gundotra told the Crunchies Voice would get on the iPhone “one way or...

I always love reading what other PR experts are saying, and I think it’s important to get outside opinions and to learn from others. With that in mind, I present you with 25 tips from 25 PR experts. Enjoy.

Excellent post by a 12 year old wiz-kid. 17 important things to do after starting your wordpress blog!

Guest posting is one of the most effective ways to promote your blog, meet new audience and build valuable contacts. Therefore most A-list bloggers guest post and that’s why if you are a blogger, you should too. This post will help you to start: it lists some useful, yet lesser-known Google search tips that will let you find valuable guest...

Great article written by Alan Bleiweiss. These methods that can be applied to any site that involves drill-down navigation.

So you are the new unencumbered AOL that has pushed its ship away from the Time Warner dock back in January. You are underway on a new journey that is supposed to reposition the company and put new life in the once iconic running man’s engine. In order for that to happen one would suspect that having the right people on the ship who plan to...

Hi Kalena Just wondering what your view was on PR being dead – it’s what a lot of SEO professionals are saying. I guess I’m curious also because it seems it’s the only way to be able to track any kind of progress with our linking campaigns. What are your thoughts? Is PR...

If you are wanting to learn about SEO & SEM then the following resources collected by Sam Tilston may come in useful.

As most of you already know, StumbleUpon made some significant changes to the interface last year that weren’t received very well by the SU community. Besides changing the look and feel of SU, they made other major changes, including taking away the ability to share en mass to all of your StumbleUpon friends with only a couple of clicks...

Minimalism seems to be a hot topic these days and rightly so. People like clutter-free living and getting things done. After listening to a recent podcast between minimalist Leo Babauta and problogger, Darren Rowse, I started thinking about how I could apply minimalism to my internet marketing operations.

Everyone in the SEO industry knows and understands that most websites cannot live by on-site optimizations alone. After you perform your keyword research, complete your analysis of competitors who rank well for the terms and phrases you want to rank for, and highly optimize your site for optimal search engine placement, you are left with the...

Danny Sullivan provides some free advice for Microsoft's Bill Gate regarding his blog and it's less than stellar rankings in the search engines (including Bing).

While we all like to believe the mantra "build great content" there's no denying that content farms are playing an increasingly important role in content of the web. Here's a nice overview of how it's being used.

"Michael "Graywolf" will use #lavalamps and #beanbags in half of his Google related tweets. Sugarrae might curse, possibly.""Matt Cutts still won’t be talking for Google.""the essence of things will stay the same"Just some quotes from an absolutely fabulous post by Ruud Hein. Must read!

Originally when launching Mahalo, Jason Calacanas claimed that it would be spam free and that SEOs would have to pay.

Social Media and conversion is one of those questions I think about all the time. The foundation for my analysis lies within the presentation I held at Searchmeet in 2009. It is all about baby steps, looking for small conversions leading to the final goal of a financial transaction.

Twitter quietly rolled out a new feature today that enables users to choose a regional preference for viewing trending topics. Called Twitter Local Trends, the new functionality gives users the option to set their regional location and view trending topics happening in their part of the world. For example, one of the screenshots pictured shows...

Organisors To Host Informal Evening For Colleagues and Professional Peers In Interactive MarketingJanuary 22, 2010 -- Search Engine Strategies (SES) London is to host an informal and spontaneous evening open to people involved in interactive marketing. SES London Meet and Greet will be held at The Hilton London Islington Hotel Bar on Monday 15th...

A 400% increase was obtained from a total of eleven experiments, which were carried out at five different stages of the conversion funnel. Some of the changes made were very specific to Voices.com’s business, but others tend to work for most businesses.

Hi Kalena Is it absolutely necessary to remove numeric parameters from a url such as: www.site.com/keyword/category213.html to ensure the page is indexed and if so, why? Thank you Lana Hi Lana The URL you provided doesn’t contain any parameters. It’s a flat HTML file so search engines shouldn’t have any problems indexing...

How to create snowball effect with your Tweet and get plenty of Retweets

Gmail users love to kvetch about how bad ads on the service are. Ostensibly targeted to the content of an e-mail message, these placements are typically off the mark in terms of matching a person's interests, her purchase intent, or even the context of a message she is reading. Well, that may be about to change -- if only slightly -- as Google...

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading: Apple, Microsoft Discuss Giving Bing Top iPhone Billing BusinessWeek Microsoft search engine may become default on iPhone. Apple Sees New Money in Old Media WSJ More details on upcoming tablet device and Apple's talks with book and magazine publishers. 140 Proof Rolls Out Ad Network For Twitter...

My article so I think it's great!  :)  How To Write A Killer Blog Post.  I welcome feedback!

You may remember that Search Engine College launched a free search engine marketing training initiative last year for charities and not-for-profit organizations worldwide. If you missed it, we’re offering 25 charities per year the opportunity to learn search marketing skills at no cost, to help them make the most of their limited marketing...

Ask.com-owned Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com are extra clean today. Users checking out either of those sites today will notice unique branding from detergent brand Cheer. The entire homepages of both sites are blue and sparkly, just like the "sparkling bright" washing liquid. And, yes, you can still search for naughty words. I tried. It...

Every year closes with summaries of the top stories as well the predictions for the year ahead. Heading into Twenty-Ten, I contributed to several prediction roundups including Junta42, ContactCenterWorld, ZDNet, among others. What I didn’t do however, is write about the endless predictions for the future of marketing, media, business, et al....

Hi Kalena I run a website about SEO. I use Google Analytics to check some parameters in particular traffic sources. Once I noticed that a big part of traffic came from a porno website. Does it mean it’s some kind of “black hat” technology and someone try to discredit my website? And what is your advice about how to avoid...

You can now share your Facebook friend’s posts in a similar manner to the way you retweet a post in Twitter. According to Mashable, Facebook rolled out the new feature called “Via” yesterday. It lets you repost a friend’s shared items with attribution. The Mashable post explains how it works: “To try it, just go to a...

The majority (82%) of parents and children (75%) who play video games are familiar with the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings system, according to a new survey by The Harrison Group conducted on behalf of Activision. Additionally, 63% of parents with children who play games consider themselves gamers with the number increasing...

Perpetrators of click fraud are getting sneakier and sneakier. Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman has uncovered one of the more diabolical click fraud schemes known to be hatched. As he summarizes it: Here, spyware on a user's PC monitors the user's browsing to determine the user's likely purchase intent. Then the spyware fakes a click...

During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Boxee made the beta version of its free software publicly available for download. Boxee's software brings together video content (and photos, music, etc.) from various web sources as well as your hard drive and circle of friends from social networks all into one interface that you can use to...

In college I got a minor in Art History, a topic that I wish I could study more. At the time I had no idea that I would one day work in the marketing industry. Now, I see tons of overlapping concepts of art and marketing. I think I will discuss some of these ideas every now and then in this weekly column. In marketing we use artists and designers...

Fair warning: this is not a report upon which you should rearrange your stock portfolio.  Please don't even bet anyone a significant amount of money.  Just the same, Carol Bartz appears to have given a hint that she's interested in acquiring Yelp. Brian Womack recently interviewed Bartz, and at one point, asked her about buying the site...

Real-time search engine OneRiot announced a new "real-time ad network" today. It's called RiotWise, and the company says its designed to help developers monetize their apps. "2009 witnessed an explosion of apps and services catering to users of the realtime web," says Tobias Peggs, GM of OneRiot. "RiotWise is the way to...

According to reports, Red Cross' text-messaging campaign for Haiti has now well-surpassed $8 million in donations. But nonprofits like Red Cross and World Vision certainly aren't the only folks out there putting in time or money (or both) for the earthquake victims. Coke, American Airlines, UPS, eBay, and countless average citizens on Facebook,...

Publishers could be losing between $2.75- 3 billion due to online book piracy, according to a new report from Attributor. Attributor's FairShare Guardian service monitored 913 popular books in 14 categories in the fourth quarter of 2009.  FairShare tracked the number of successful downloads completed for each of the 913 titles on four file...

We are always looking for new applications for social media outlets right? How can we get our message out to more people? How can we create community amongst customers? How we can get 40,000 people to follow us as we escape from the law? Whoa, wait a minute. That last one doesn’t seem very ‘marketing’ oriented does it? Well,...

Rumors of MySpace integrating Facebook Connect have circulated since October. And now it looks like they’re coming true: MySpace’s Fan Video site allows users to login with either MySpace or Facebook accounts. The Fan Video site itself takes professional music videos and inserts your profile picture prominently. The site also features...

Google filed a submission on its own and one jointly with Verizon to the FCC for its proposed rulemaking docket. Google says its goal is "to keep the Internet awesome for everybody." "There's a lot of awesome stuff on the Internet: Cats talking LOLspeak. Iranian dissidents tweeting. Live traffic updates. Science experiments,"...

In case you’ve forgotten, 2009 was the year the FTC decided to go after mom bloggers (and other bloggers) with $11,000 fines for not disclosing reviewed freebies, sponsored posts or other relationships with companies—or not. Despite the fervor over the FTC’s new guidelines, the fact is that they were designed to target a specific...

Twitter is flooded with the same content from the same two dozen blogs.  There's a lot of great info on the web waiting to be discovered.  So, I chal­lenge you to find 10–15 blogs that are not ranked in the top 150 on AdAge's Power 150 List, or within Technorati's Top 100.  Read more to see the additional rules for the challenge.

The last eBay-centric article to appear on WebProNews concerned mobile transactions during the holiday season; the company was quite proud of its stats and had made some noise about them.  Now, there's essentially been outside confirmation of its impressive performance, as eBay was declared the 2009 Mobile Retailer of the Year. Mobile...

Rumors of MySpace integrating Facebook Connect have circulated since October. And now it looks like they’re coming true: MySpace’s Fan Video site allows users to login with either MySpace or Facebook accounts. The Fan Video site itself takes professional music videos and inserts your profile picture prominently. The site also features...

Nielsen, Hitwise, and comScore are all in agreement, so onlookers can perhaps declare it official now: Google had a good December.  comScore, the member of the trio that most recently released its search market data, didn't put Google up by a whole lot, though, and unlike the other firms, saw Bing gain ground. Here are the facts related to...

Google recently announced that it was launching a new feature for Google Docs, which would allow users to upload and store any kind of file. What may not have been clear, however, is that this new storage from Google isn't limited to just Google Docs. The company is saying that Gmail and Picasa storage can also be used. Google Docs Product...

U.S. sales of video games, which includes portable and console hardware, software and accessories, generated revenues of close to $19.6 billion, an 8 percent decrease over the $21.4 billion generated in 2008, according to The NPD Group. Retail sales in the PC game software industry also saw declines, with revenues down 23 percent, reaching $538...

The first Matt Cutts Answers Questions About Google video of the year has been posted, and in it Matt addresses links from Twitter and Facebook, after talking about his shaved head again. Specifically, the submitted question he answers is: Links from relevant and important sites have always been a great way to get traffic & acceptance for a...

Popular press release distribution site BusinessWire, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, is offering its services for free to companies and organizations who are contributing to the aid of victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Such companies can push out free news releases with offers pertaining to supporting services, information, operations,...

According to Mike Arrington of TechCrunch, "multiple sources have confirmed" that Twitter is readying the launch of a new set of tools to let third-party sites easily integrate with Twitter. He calls this the company's response to Facebook Connect. This wouldn't be the first offering from Twitter that provides functionality similar to...

Yahoo has made some improvements to its Finance Search interface. Yahoo Finance Search is now including results from the web, and can uncover details on companies and executives, find info on private companies, and help determine what companies are associated with topics, Yahoo says. Every page of Yahoo Finance has a link that says "Finance...

I was one of 10 that got interviewed by Arnie Kuenn (Vertical Measures) including Rand Fishkin (SEOMoz), Dave Wallace (SearchRank), Jeramie McPeek (head of social media for the Phoenix Suns) - along with MANY OTHER amazing marketing minds.  The interviews are insightful, and I feel this is worth a Sphinn. Here is the whole set that Arnie did over...

Procter & Gamble said today it would begin piloting an online store this month in an effort to improve brand loyalty and sales. P&G has tapped ecommerce firm PFSweb to manage the online shopping site called the "eStore." P&G said PFSweb will own and operate the eStore and exclusively feature P&G products to consumers in...

Yahoo's board of directors has gained another member.  Sue James, who's spent most of the past 35 years working for and with Ernst & Young, joined it earlier this week, and became Chair of the Board's Audit Committee at the same time. James's resume is rather impressive, indicating a deep understanding of tech organizations'...

Google has launched search suggestions based on geographical location for iPhone and Android devices. This is currently only available in the United States. "Typing a query into the search box on a phone can often be slow and difficult," says Google's Mobile Engineering Team. "For this reason, relevant search suggestions that...

Update 3: Now the State Department is quoted as saying it will issue a formal "demarche" to the Chinese government. From the Register: "We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early next week," US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told...

Nielsen watches just how much time people spend on the sites of the top web brands in the world. It makes for some interesting viewing. Just seeing the numbers from the chart below makes it obvious why some sites have the success they do and raises questions about some others. Here is one of the Nielsen charts (there are a few others not...

I just scanned the last six posts here at MP and they all have the Google logo attached to them. What’s strange about this story is that while Yahoo is announcing an improvement in their paid search offering it still relates to Google. As for bing? Where are you? The company that is having their search platform replaced by you is making more...

Despite the early rough sledding for the Nexus One device, Google is moving on and making improvements to local search on your mobile device. Recently the “Near me now” feature was added which helps users learn what kind of products and services are within striking distance of their current location. While not as sexy yesterday Google...

Due to a new development, you may be able to either thank Google for getting China to censor less information, or blame the company for starting World War III.  The reason: the White House has sided with Google in the free speech and hacking conflict that cropped up this week. According to John Letzing, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs...

U.S. software retail sales fell slightly by just over 1 percent for the 2009 holiday season, according to The NPD Group. Sales for the 5-week holiday period totaled $278 million dollars, up from the 13 percent decline during the 2008 holiday season. The operating systems category showed the strongest improvement during the holiday season,...

Google has introduced some new features for its recently launched Place Pages for local businesses. Most notably, businesses can now instantly (close anyway) post data to their Place Pages from Google's Local Business Center dashboard. If you log in, you can post updates, coupons, announcements, etc. that will go live in minutes. It isn't hard...

Did you get the sarcasm in that one? If a picture is worth a thousand words then Yahoo, bing and Ask.com must be saying “Oh crap, not again!” 250 times right now. Experian’s Hitwise shows why. As we talk about often it’s not even that Google is on top anymore. That’s a given. In fact, its dominance is what makes the uninformed cry...

Google Local Business is getting some pretty heavy attention these days. Why wouldn’t it? With 2010 being the “official” year of mobile and with Google having its own phone (although they would like to see other people have it as well) there is much to celebrate. Of course this isn’t without its issues such as listings being hijacked...

Yesterday, Nielsen reported that Google performed well in December, and today, Hitwise seconded the assessment.  In fact, the two firms also agreed that both Yahoo and Bing lost market share, which has made Google's lead all the more impressive. Hitwise determined that Google controlled 71.57 percent of the search market in November. ...

comScore has released the top 15 ad networks based on their reach among U.S. Internet users in December 2009. The ranking found AOL Advertising remains the top ad network, reaching 187 million U.S. Internet users, or 91 percent of the total audience, followed by the Yahoo Network (180.9 million) and the Google Ad Network (178.1 million). The...

Talk about kickin' a man when he's down. Perhaps fueled by Senator Harry Reid's recent negative publicity regarding allegedly racist statements made about President Obama, his possible opponent in the Senate race in Nevada, GOP hopeful Sue Lowden, wants to "Kick Harry Reid Out of Office." And her primary campaign is already running the ads and...

Next week Yahoo will update its Sponsored Search product with two new features, which the company says will provide advertisers with more transparency into and control over their accounts. Yahoo's Network Distribution feature will let advertisers run ads on Yahoo search pages, partners' sites, or both. Those who run ads on Yahoo's entire network,...

In a financial sense, Google's acquisition of YouTube has never made a lot of sense; the site, which sold for $1.65 billion, hasn't even turned a profit on a quarter-to-quarter basis yet.  But according to a prominent analyst, that's about to change. Doug Anmuth, who works for Barclays Capital, said today in a note, "[I]n 2010 we...

By now, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the reasons to use Twitter for your business. However, most conversations on the subject rarely offer specific strategies for using Twitter for your business, and instead they consist of vague statements like connect with and engage your audience or build your brand.Today, we’re going to take a look at...

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas wrapped up this past weekend, but the experience will be felt throughout the year as the companies that demonstrated upcoming products release those products to the world. One of the companies presenting at the event was Verbatim, and they have some new portable data devices on the way. WebProNews...

With all of the press in the gadget and Internet marketing world last week around the introduction of the Google Nexus One smart phone you would think that there would be a rush to buy them. Appears that is not the case, at least not initially. My theory is that while there was all kind of chatter amongst the industry, they would be the most...

Google has decided to stop censoring its search results in China as mandated by the Chinese government—even if that means shuttering their search business there. The Chinese government has responded, reminding us all that they’re in control of the Internet in China, and nobody else should get any ideas from Google’s...

Unless you live under a rock, you are probably at least somewhat familiar with the current controversy regarding NBC's shifting of late night television talk show programming that appears to be leading to an uncertain future for current Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien. I'm not going to get into that whole story here. While he is not the only one...

Google seldom comments on click through rates on its flagship AdWords product. It is, after all, where they get most of their income. With millions of searches performed every day, however, the rate doesn’t have to be very high for them to clean up. And, as it turns out, it’s not. In a thread on the Google AdWords Help forum, Google...

Haiti earthquake Twitter updates are helping people keep informed about what is going on in the country as well as providing information on ways to make donations. The American Red Cross said on Twitter that it had already received nearly $3 million for earthquake relief in Haiti. People can help by texting "Haiti" to 90999 and making...

American Idol may be only two episodes into its ninth season, but the show already has a big online hit on its hands.  63-year-old Larry Platt performed a self-written song called "Pants on the Ground" last night, and hundreds of thousands of people are talking about his energetic routine today. Platt's song pretty much defies...

Love any articles giving solid advice about marketing/analytics/data on Facebook.  This is one of them, especially if you have, or are attempting to build and market a Facebook Fan page.

The most powerful marketing campaigns are often the ones that we as consumers can identify with or connect to in some way. One way that businesses invoke such a feeling from potential customers is by telling a story with their marketing. This is called (appropriately) storyteller marketing. Dana Todd of Newsforce recently sat down with...

A few stories ClickZ editors are reading: Symbian OS Has Highest Mobile Click-through Rates TechCrunch December data show Symbian users click more than people with Android and iPhone devices. AP, Yahoo Near Deal on Content Use Wall Street Journal Negotiations may help resolve how news orgs work with major Web companies. Old Billboards in...

Google Analytics and Server-Side Analytics programs tend to update daily, leaving you behind the curve on social media promotions that can fizz out in the first few hours of launch without close attention. Here are 3 examples of solutions using free real-time analytics services like Clicky to get extra mileage out of your campaign.

Matt Siltala lays out the key reasons why business owners need to get on board with the Yelp bandwagon in 2010 once and for all...

Surely Google should not be changing my search results based on how it thinks folk in the US spell a word? Especially when it impacts the serps to favour US companies.

No doubt you’ve heard by now of the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti this week. If you’ve visited Google.com since then you’ll see they’ve given up some home page real estate to highlight the tragic event. The home page now features the following sentence: “Information, resources, and ways you...

A proposed amendment to a UK bill would give Google and other search engines immunity from copyright claims, basically giving Google permission to copy anything it pleases.

Reactions to Google's announcement about a possible withdrawal from China have been mixed so far; there have been objections from individuals who think its absence will deprive the Chinese people of information, while others approve of what they consider a moral stand.  But Baidu's investors probably aren't too conflicted, as the company's...

Online music video service, Vevo, was the most visited U.S. website in the entertainment-music category in December with more than 35 million unique visitors, according to comScore. Partners in Vevo include Universal Music Group, Sony Entertainment and investor Abu Dhabi Media Company. The site is powered by YouTube. Vevo says its top ranking is...

Google announced today that AdSense for Domains is now using optional keyword hints more often. Keyword hints are provided by the user, who enters keywords into a field to assist Google in the targeting of ads for potentially ambiguous domains. Google's Randy Heath explains: These keywords are suggestions supplied to Google by domain owners about...

Google has long complied with the government-mandated censorship required to operate in China, despite criticism from human rights and freedom of speech advocates. However, Google may be changing their tune, based on a blog post yesterday. Google’s new approach to China is far more open—and at least partially because a Chinese cyber...

December's supposed to be a month of miracles, and - at least in terms of gaining market share - Google seems to have pulled off a minor one.  New Nielsen stats show that the search giant increased the distance between itself and competitors by a considerable amount. Nielsen put Google's share of the U.S. search market in November at 65.4...

It's ok to say "no" to Twitter if that's your thing. There's a chance that it just doesn't fit into your strategy or help you achieve your goals. That's cool. However, if it is your thing, you may be interested in how Google ranks tweets. That is if search marketing is your thing. Do you see Twitter as important to an effective search...

Realtor.com, the website for the National Association of Realtors, has launched a Real Estate Search iPhone app. Users can search for every property listed on Realtor.com by price, location, property type, MLS ID number, square foot, lot size, open house events, distance from a user's current location and age. The real estate iPhone app allows...

Back in October, Google was second to the punch, falling behind Bing as they both announced real-time search deals to include Twitter results. (And it didn’t help that Bing was already testing live results and Google was months away from the integration.) But now Google’s real-time results are live—and they’re talking about...

Some people use their Facebook account like another email address, logging in, checking their messages, and logging out.  Others just add a couple of friends, skim a few status updates, and call it a day.  But data from Pingdom proves that Facebook does a far better job of engaging people than other social networks. Pingdom recently...

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sony introduced a new "personal Internet Viewer", called the Dash. This is a device that you can put on your nightstand or your kitchen counter, and access web content via Flash-based applications. While attending the show, WebProNews stopped by Sony's exhibit to get a closer look at the...

We are always looking for new applications for social media outlets right? How can we get our message out to more people? How can we create community amongst customers? How we can get 40,000 people to follow us as we escape from the law? Whoa, wait a minute. That last one doesn’t seem very ‘marketing’ oriented does it? Well, that’s because...

Less than half (43%) of Americans say they read a daily newspaper, either online or in print almost everyday, according to a new report from Adweek Media and Harris Interactive. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Americans say they read one at least once a week while 81 percent read a daily newspaper at least once a month. Ten percent say they never...

It looks like Harvard may turn out to be the epicenter of all things from the social web. Urban legend has it that it was there that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg borrowed discussed developed the true beginnings of today’s social networking giant. Now foursquare has struck a deal with the school to have a ‘branded’ version of the...

Google has made an adjustment to the way it handles display URLs for AdWords ads. This is the URL that appears within the ad itself, that users see before they click on it. The adjustment is for sites that sit on shared or hosted domains. The idea is to make it more clear to users exactly what they will be clicking on. On the Inside AdWords...

Google made big waves in the mobile industry early in the year, and the effects of those waves are being felt quite hard by some users. The Nexus One's release has gotten off to kind of a rocky start. The issues plaguing customers of the much-anticipated Google phone have been widely publicized. Most of the gripes have dealt with Google's...

Google's situation in China appears to be the biggest story to hit the tech industry in some time, at least in terms of discussion. If you're not up to speed, we covered Google's announcement here. What it boils down to is that Google may shut down its operations in China, where it has been censoring search results. Google is now taking the stance...

Over the past year or more, you have probably heard your fair share of people telling you that you need to use Twitter if you hope to have business success. It's true that there are a great many opportunities and potential benefits to using the service, but do you have to use it? Well, that depends. Is Twitter Necessary? Tell us what you think....

Win-win-win situations don't crop up too often, but Facebook and McAfee seem to have orchestrated one on a very large scale.  The two companies announced this morning that they've partnered to provide Facebook's users with free security software. Any or all of Facebook's 350 million users can now visit the "Protect Your PC" tab on...

Netflix said today it has reached an agreement with Nintendo that will allow Netflix members who own a Wii to instantly stream movies and TV shows directly to their TVs. Netflix is scheduled to go live on the Wii this spring in the United States at no additional cost to Netflix members who have a plan starting at $8.99 a month, a Wii console and...

As news of Google's China situation dominates headlines, the company has also announced that it is turning on https access for Gmail as the default (Gmail accounts were hacked in China, in case you haven't read about that yet). Https, which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is used to provide encryption and secure ID. Back in 2008...

Google has again shaken the Internet tree in a way that will raise more than a few eyebrows. In a nutshell, Google is reassessing its working relationship with the world’s largest potential market, China, as a result of recent security breaches. How this plays out over time could have significant impact on how China and the world get along...

Google released a stunning blog post that details a "sophisticated and targeted attack" on Gmail that "resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google". Google notes that the attack was not just on Google infrastructure but also on more than twenty other companies from various industries. Google states that they are...

For example Twitter, where gazillions of bots [type A] follow other equally superfluous but nevertheless very busy bots [type B] that automatically generate 27% valuable content (links to p-nis enlargement tools) and 73% not exactly exciting girly chatter (breeding demand for cheap viag-a).

Google’s worst-kept secret phone finally launched last week. Despite the fact that details about the phone have been leaked all over the web for months, the Nexus One was officially revealed at a good old fashioned press conference at Google headquarters in Mountain View. Referred to by Google staff as a *Super Phone*, the Nexus One is...

The rumors about Yahoo selling Zimbra have finally become fact.  Today, VMware announced that it's acquired the open source email and collaboration specialist, and although the financial details weren't disclosed, corporate representatives on all sides of the transaction seem pleased. Let's start with someone who works for the buyer. ...

The search engine landscape is ever changing. We covered that. However, while there are multiple players involved in facilitating that change, there is one that drives it far more than the rest of the competition. Obviously, we're talking about Google. Is there a point where adapting to Google's changes becomes impossible? Share your...

Consumers want online retailers to be more interactive and offer more personalization features according to a new a survey from IBM. The changing economy has led to a smarter consumer who uses technology to make more informed buying decisions, exchange information with others, make purchases on-the-go and shop multiple channels. More than...

The online space is certainly trying hard to cut the apron strings associated with traditional media techniques and practices. It can be hard though, to completely separate from something that may still have value. Think about how nice it was (or still is) to go back “home” and get that meal that you just can’t make on your own. While you...

Microsoft is not the only one with some new offerings in the way of health search today. Google has added a slew of new cities to its Flu Trends product. The move is timed well, as the company acknowledges that it is National Influenza Vaccination Week. "Since the strain of influenza that is active (H1N1) is novel, no one knows exactly what...

Today, the Apache Software Foundation gained a new sponsor: Facebook.  Facebook is a gold sponsor, too, which means that the social network expressed its support for open source software by volunteering to donate $40,000 per year to the ASF. Cynics shouldn't waste their time looking for an ulterior motive.  Facebook won't get much out...

Today Microsoft announced some new health search capabilities for its Bing search engine. The "decision engine" is now providing more content from new partners and instant answers with "hard-to-discover data", the company says. Users can find instant, specialized information about illnesses, treatments, medical facilities,...

Usually it’s with some of the most popular social communities like Digg, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, etc. How many social media enthusiasts and search marketers actually stop to consider their Google profiles though?

U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and National Safety Council President Janet Froetscher today announced the creation of FocusDriven, a national nonprofit organization designed to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. The group will be led by Jennifer Smith, who has been an advocate against distracted driving since her...

How can we create a better name for ourselves.

Today Facebook launched a feature that some would consider long overdue. They now let you reply to comments via email. In other words, when you get an email notification alerting you that someone has left a comment on one of your status updates, you can simply type your reply in the email and hit send, rather than having to leave your inbox, go to...

Two weeks ago, it looked like Google might have been . . . well, fibbing. Back in June, the search engine announced that they would no longer redistribute “link juice” around nofollowed links, effectively deprecating the practice of PageRank sculpting. But late last month, it looked like the technique was still effective when SEOmoz...

An announcement related to data storage and the cloud has come out of Mountain View today, and people who've never heard the word "GDrive" may be very impressed by it.  It's possible that consumers who are familiar with the term will be extremely disappointed, however. Here are the facts: Google Docs has received a significant...

Each month we've been looking at Twitter's growth in terms of new user registration and number of Tweets. Last month we saw a decline in the number of new Twitterers in November continuing a trend that began in July. In December, however, new Twitter user registrations leveled out. Number of tweets grew significantly, and the number of tweets...

After a challenging 2009, the technology sector will see a recovery in 2010 as businesses and governments in the U.S. and around the globe begin spending again on information technology, according to a new report by Forrester Research. After declining 8.2 percent in 2009, U.S. IT spending will grow 6.6 percent in 2010 to $568 billion. Global IT...

Give people what they really want - Answers. Jennifer's guide on how to research and execute question-based content for link building.

Google has been granted a quite interesting patent for "Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising". The company filed the patent back in the summer of 2008. The abstract reads: Techniques for identifying groups of features in an online geographic view of a real property and replacing and/or augmenting...

It looks like Deutschland has a bee in its bonnet about Google. Apparently it is using the dreaded M word “monopol” which, according to Google’s own translation tool is the German form of the English word monopoly. The Germans are concerned that Google is looking like Microsoft and they are not happy. Somebody needs to get in their Mercedes...

Late yesterday, Yahoo Southeast Asia got what may be a big leg up in the social networking arena.  Yahoo Southeast Asia established a partnership with Friendster that will see the two entities doing a great deal of cross-promotion in the near future. Friendster has over 90 million registered users, and about 90 percent of its daily traffic...

Google announced that Google Friend Connect features are now available for the Drupal and Joomla content management systems. This means that content publishers using these platforms can integrate Google's product, which basically turns your site into a mini social network. "Now that Friend Connect is integrated with these popular open...

Looking to fine-tune your e-mail marketing program? (Or need a good excuse to head to a warmer climate and attend the NFL Pro Bowl too?) Check out ClickZ's full day training workshop on Monday, Feb. 1, in Miami Beach. ClickZ Expert contributor Jeanne Jennings, an e-mail marketing consultant based in Washington, DC, and Tamara Gielen, an...

"So much gets said about SEO and its relevance or even legitamacy. Most of this is purely linkbait, and the SEO crowd is all to quick to fall into the trap. The arguements fall into three basic camps."

Someone with a very interesting political background will soon be in charge of Google's corporate communications.  The company's hired Jill Hazelbaker, who's worked with both John McCain and Michael Bloomberg in the past, to replace Matt Furman. A quick note about Furman's departure: according to Jessica E. Vascellaro, he's leaving on his...

PubMatic said today it would extend its ad network optimization technology to include mobile advertising. The company said it would use its real-time optimization technology to help publishers maximize revenue from their mobile ad inventory. PubMatic's technology helps online publishers get the most revenue from their advertising space by...

Maybe you can have too much of a good thing. As the Internet allows advertisers to slice and dice large segments of desirable markets into thinner, more defined slices it also creates something that is much less desirable: smaller profits. How is that you say? How is it possible to make less on my advertising spend when I am advertising directly...

Google gives you plenty of really good tools at the moment to predict the traffic to your website from Google rankings. In this post I will show you how you can make a guestimation of the %age of traffic that a particular rank will give you

DaveN: "This to me is one of the worst things in the industry at the moment, and I really hate it with a passion". Very shady tactic, indeed.

AOL is moving rapidly to close offices in Europe, in keeping with statements made by CEO Tim Armstrong last week. Separate reports in The Guardian and Spiegel Online described the cuts. Four German offices will close, in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich. In the U.K., the company is also planning an unspecified but significant number of...

According to vacancies posted on Twitter's corporate site, the social network is looking to hire a number of staff to help with its monetization plans. The firm's recruitment page lists a number of new positions, including a "Product Marketing Manager, Monetization," and software engineers for "Monetization Infrastructure." The job descriptions...

Find out how to add value to your blank review pages and ultimately make each page useful.

The SES Program Team is now accepting speaking proposals for SES New York. Please remember to fill the form out completely, including a description of what you would like to speak about. Please note that proposed sessions may be channeled into a panel format in order to give exposure and analysis of a wider variety of speakers and approaches. As...

Hi Kalena I was just wondering, does a longer URL registration period have a positive effect on a site’s search engine ranking? Thanks, Louisa Hi Louisa Google has confirmed in the past that both domain age and ownership history may impact the way a site is handled by the algorithm, albeit slightly. But what you’re asking is whether...

If you ever set out to collect personal email addresses at a tech gathering, here's a tip: generally speaking, you can save time by typing or writing out the "@gmail" part before approaching people.  But Compete provided a bit of a reality check today by showing that Hotmail remains in the top spot overall. Andrew Pearlman - who is...

More than half (51%) of holiday shoppers across 11 countries used their mobile phones for in-store activities such as comparison shopping, getting peer feedback, product information and coupons, according to a new study by Motorola. The survey found 64 percent of GenY (age 18 to 34) shoppers used their mobile phones for in-store shopping-related...

Back in 2008, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear announced that he wanted to shut down 141 Internet gambling sites in the state in an effort to stop unregulated online gaming. He filed a civil suit against the domain names and asked the court to force the sites to block access to Kentucky users or give up control of their domain names....

Starting in mid-March, Yahoo Shopping will no longer be a solo act.  Yahoo announced today that it's arranged to have PriceGrabber take care of some of the technical details, and it'll be able to make one more cutback thanks to the adjustment. A post on the Yahoo Developer Blog explained, "[W]e have decided to enter into a strategic...

In an attempt to give our readers some real world application of all this social media theory swirling about we will be occasionally speaking with some real people who do the real work. How about that? Today we look at social media and the sports world. Regular readers of this blog know that I am a bit of a sports fan. I say a bit because I am no...

The Marketing Executives Networking Group is a group of 2000 marketing executives (10 points if you already guessed that ) at the VP level and higher. Recently, the group’s leadership asked members to name their favorite blogs by non-MENG members—and guess who was part of the top 20? Oh, I guess the title kind of gave it away,...

We in the online world take every opportunity to turn our nose up at traditional media like newspapers because they are so 1900’s. Just take a look over the past year of posts that I have done and I at times can lead that charge. For the record, I do not relish in the fact that newspapers are going by the way side in many ways. I see that...

The SES Program Team is still accepting speaking proposals for SES London through January 15th. Please remember to fill the form out completely, including a description of what you would like to speak about. As always, priority consideration is given to end-users/practitioners offering hands-on/project-based knowledge, customer facing...

For many in the online space these days the words “Facebook privacy” would be called an oxymoron. Then of course there would be the usual calling others at Facebook morons and then it would get worse from there but I digress. Michael Arrington recently interviewed the poster child for the “Privacy? What privacy?” movement,...

Back in November we talked about AOL’s need to trim their headcount by some 2,500 people. At the time the hope was that enough would walk away from their positions to avert the need for playing the bad guy and actually firing anyone. Well, according to All Things Digital the numbers didn’t quite add up with that plan and now AOL needs to start...

As marketing professionals, we usually have to justify ourselves to our bosses, our clients and everyone in between—especially in the less-tested, sometimes-hit-or-miss arena of social media. But now Ad Age wants accountability, too, as they ask “if you’re getting enough out of all the volunteer work you do for Biz & Ev and...

Keyword Research is an obvious first step in researching a niche for yourself or for a client. Keywords, and their results, make up the terrain of search marketing – and knowing the terrain (and who else is playing in it) helps us navigate up the mountain (and determine when the mountain is maybe too crowded to climb).

Social Bookmarking sites aren’t a huge mystery.  If you think there’s some “special formula” to the Digg and Reddit algorithms, for the most part: you’d be wrong.  Sure, there’s an algorithm at work there, but before you make that attempt at the front page, you need to work on the 2 major pieces necessary for success: great content,...

A dangerous notion from Zuckerberg. From the Guardian "Talking at the Crunchie awards in San Francisco this weekend, the 25-year-old chief executive of the world's most popular social network said that privacy was no longer a "social norm".   "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but...

This is a great review of Backupify.com which I've never used but am jumping on today - so much info outhtere and its scary to think a wrong click could make it all go away....also scary how much info is out there :)

Social media news aggregation sites help people find great content from their favorite sources without having to weed through all the other sub-par content to find it. This is done by a democratic system of voting and homepage promotion for these stories.

Be sure to check these Twitter streams out.

With SEOMoz releasing their top 500 link-receiving domains, I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of ways you can acquire links from the top 50 or so of those domains. Tread lightly though, as there are some pretty black-hat strategies uncovered for getting links from the likes of Flickr and AOL.com

Kaushik Will Deliver Keynote at Search Engine Strategies New York to Be Held March 22-26, 2010 NEW YORK, NY, January 11, 2010--Avinash Kaushik, well known analytics evangelist for Google Inc. and author of the newly published book Web Analytics 2.0, will be featured in a free Search Engine Strategies (SES) webcast to be held Tuesday, January 12,...

A guest post on the Trail from Mark Thompson that looks at issues, tools and methods for dealing with duplicate content/scraping and plagerism. A great job, and I especially like the tool round up. Give it a read and a Sphinn if ye please

For many in the online space these days the words “Facebook privacy” would be called an oxymoron. Then of course there would be the usual calling others at Facebook morons and then it would get worse from there but I digress. Michael Arrington recently interviewed the poster child for the “Privacy? What privacy?” movement, Facebook founder...

We in the online world take every opportunity to turn our nose up at traditional media like newspapers because they are so 1900’s. Just take a look over the past year of posts that I have done and I at times can lead that charge. For the record, I do not relish in the fact that newspapers are going by the way side in many ways. I see that they...

The list is here: the 100  Most Influential Online Marketers of 2009. Discover the movers and the shakers of SEM in 2009.

Infomation about the new Search, Analytics and Social Media conference thats taking place in Manchester, UK in April with key note speakers including Joost de Valk, Richard Gregory and Jon Myers.

You can make a beautiful, well-structured site that contains excellent content, but it isn’t going to make any money unless it starts getting visitors.

It seems Google Local Business listings have a hole bigger than the Grand Canyon, last week I exprienced one of my clients listings being hijacked and the loss of thousands of visits. In this blogpost I explain what happened, how they did it and how to fix it! In the desperate hope that Google will close this spam hole..

If you’re a Twitter fan, you probably already know that the second annual Shorty Awards are underway. If not, then let me explain. The Shorty Awards are a celebration of excellent Twitter content, as voted by the community. Voting is now open in 27 official categories such as tech, humor, weird, government, news and art, but votes are also...

So the other day I logged into LinkedIn and went to my Inbox to view some messages. There I saw a connection request that I had obviously rejected back in November. I don’t like accepting request on LinkedIn unless I have met the said person face to face. So it’s not unusual that I would have rejected someone’s request. However,...

Can text-to-voice translation -- and vice-versa, voice-to-text -- be the godsend that short-message service (SMS) and mobile e-mail marketers have been waiting for? iSpeech would like to think so, as the company on Friday announced its soon-to-be-released upgraded smartphone app that's designed to let on-the-go users listen to text messages and...

It’s been more than two years since Google’s last big big to enter a government-regulated offline business. They offered some $4.6B for wireless spectrum in an auction in 2008, but it seemed that the multi-billion bid was merely a ploy to get some of their demands for the spectrum met. But that’s not quite the case with...

I've been complaining about the embarrassing state of cpc network ads selling belly berry diets and teeth whiteners for some time now. But I may just have to bite my tongue from now on, at least when it comes to these ads appearing on US sites. While browsing Russian current events coverage (a personal interest of mine) I stumbled onto Moscow...

And I don’t mean job security for Carol Bartz. Yahoo’s BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) is a popular, free way for developers to access the Yahoo index and to implement Yahoo search for your site. With the pending Microsoft-Yahoo deal outsourcing the search business, there has been some concern over whether BOSS will be...

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been almost one year that Carol Bartz has taken the top position at Yahoo! She officially celebrates the one-year mark next week but is taking a look back at what was probably a whirlwind event no matter how much experience she brought to the table. Bloomberg reports that Bartz recently gave herself an...

What’s with Google and their constant upgrades and innovations? What is it with these guys? You would think that they are trying to improve and stuff. The latest, and personally I think one of the coolest, service introductions is the “Near You Now” feature on Google.com for mobile. It’s pretty simple. Your location is known by Google...

If you are easily the number 3 horse in a three horse race does it do you any good to start saying negative things about how you race? Probably not. In fact, it’s probably better for you to act a little more confident, train a little harder and do something that will move you out of the basement. This horse I am referring to is Microsoft’s...

Hi Kalena In the past, I made sure I was not logged in to Google when I checked my Client website standings in search. But, now are we going to have to clear *Web History* and Disable customizations every time we want to check our client’s rankings manually? This article claims that Google’s new ‘cookie’ extends...

Baidi, China's major search engine and Internet presence, is partnering with Hulu investors, Providence Equity Partners, to launch an ad-supported online video service in China. According to a press release issued this week, the pair are currently in the process of licensing premium content to populate the site, including movies, popular TV...

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading: Publicis Shops Form Kraft Foods One Team AdWeek MediaVest, Digitas teams unite to serve client's global media needs. AOL In Talks with Mashable ValleyWag Gossip blog claims AOL wants to buy the world's largest tech blog. Some Publishers Aim to Monetize Twitter Feeds AdAge As celebrity tweeters cash...

As it sought to aggressively cut costs toward the end of last year, AOL had hoped it could entice 2,500 people to accept buyout offers. It turns out that didn't happen, and as a result the company will soon conduct a round of layoffs designed to bring its expenses into line with its cash flow. How many will get pink slips is unclear. One report...

I've got a fairly long "decade of SEO in review" article for you today. I thought about splitting it into 2 parts, but decided it would lose a lot by doing so. I hope you'll make it all the way through because I tried to make it as interesting and humorous (at times) as possible.

Heads up, Sphinn users: We've just posted an updated set of Sphinn Guidelines. Sphinn began by operating under what Danny Sullivan called his Common Sense Law. In the beginning, the approach was "to have as few rules as possible and build them up organically as they seem to be needed." As the Sphinn community has grown, we've built up those...

A new mobile Internet use report reveals a surging consumer appetite for content on handheld devices. No shocker there. A bit more surprising is the speed with which the device landscape has diversified, forcing marketers to grapple with more complexities in how they plan mobile campaigns. In 2009, mobileʼs share of Web consumption jumped 110...

It's crunch time for opponents and supporters of gay marriage in New Jersey. Tomorrow, the NJ State Senate will vote on a bill allowing gay marriage. In favor of gay marriage, Garden State Equality is running display ads through Google's network linking to a YouTube video on the organization's channel, which features 94 videos uploaded in the...

What I really like about that post is that Alisa is talking from experience – this is priceless. Therefore I recommend all (especially new) bloggers to give this post some serious thought.

Rebecca Kelley at 10e20 outlines different exceptions where she feels deleting comments, reviews or feedback is justified, then asks "What do you guys think? When do you think it’s okay to remove user-generated content, and when should you leave it be? Share your thoughts below!" Great followup to the article about Domino's Pizza possibly...

While 2009 is fresh in our minds, here are our thoughts, observations and recommendations for link building success in 2010 from your four Link Week writers

Google is no longer a search company. That’s right – the launch of an online mobile store yesterday to sell their new smart phone means Google has crossed the threshold from search company to consumer electronics retailer. The Nexus One was officially revealed at a press conference at Google headquarters in Mountain View yesterday, but...

Congratulations! You’re hired… It’s a huge step in your SEO career to be hired for an in-house SEO department. Now it’s time to plan your in-house SEO strategy carefully, so you can secure your position and give your company what they’re looking for: tangible results from your SEO expertise...

With the official launch of Google's Nexus One, the worst kept secret in the tech space, everyone's weighing in on this evolution of the smartphone market. Here's a sampling of the most interesting commentary on the device: Google Won't Advertise The Nexus One On TV Silicon Alley Insider Online marketing is the focus during the product's launch...

Believe it or not, inquiries about online advertising from 2010 election campaigns are already trickling in. I just got off the phone with Diane Rinaldo, VP of Sales at leftie political/news site Talking Points Memo, who told me that some political campaigns are already looking ahead to general elections, and asking for "hard info" about running...

On December 30th, 2009, Selena Gomez (better known for her role as Alex Russo on the TV show "Wizards of Waverly Place"), visited Daireds Salon and Spa Pangea for a haircut. Later, she tweeted about the positive experience to her 1.3 million followers.

As 2009 came to a close, Google managed to get SEOs riled up for one last controversial topic. For some time, SEOs and web designers have been noticing that Google has not been showing local listings in search results for queries related to their businesses - even location-specific ones. Should SEOs and designers be worried about local listings?...

Social media is gaining greater acceptance across all levels of business from the SMB to the multi-national enterprise. No surprise there. What is beginning to play out though is the fact that the space is new and evolving. As a result, some of the techniques or tactics that seem to be the ‘norm’ are now being seen a bit differently. Why?...

The past year set a new record for malware creation with 25 million new strains, according to a new report by PandaLabs. The latest surge of activity included new examples of banker Trojans, which accounted for 66 percent of all new samples, as well as a number of fake antivirus programs. During 2009, spam was also highly active, accounting for...

Last night, Google announced that it filed a submission to the FCC, asking it to designate Google as one of potentially several administrators of a "white spaces" geolocation database. Back in November of 2008, the FCC approved the use of these White Spaces, or unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels, for public wireless broadband...

It appears that not just the Year of Mobile is being christened this January but new competitive lines are being drawn as well between Internet giants Google and Apple. Yes, it’s time to officially deem Apple an Internet company in my opinion but you are always free to disagree. According to All Things Digital Apple is preparing to announce a...

Spring Design, the makers of the Alex eReader device, announced it has entered into an agreement with Google, which will see it gaining access to over a million Google Books. Alex users will be able to read these books online or download them using the Android-integrated browser and search applications. "We are pleased to work with Spring...

Jon von Tetzchner has stepped down as CEO of Opera, though he will remain with the company full-time in a "strategic and independent" capacity. Opera has appointed Lars Boilesen to take his place as CEO. Jon von Tetzchner co-founded the company fifteen years ago. Boilesen has held executive positions at Alcatel-Lucent where he was CEO...

Real estate website Zillow.com said today it broke multiple records for site traffic and user activity in 2009. An average of 8.2 million unique users visited Zillow each month during 2009, which is an increase of 57 percent year-over-year. "2009 was a wild year for real estate, with continued home value declines, government intervention,...

An investment group with significant ties to Hulu may now be ready to help a similar site launch in China.  A report's connected Providence Equity Partners to both Baidu and a new online video destination. Let's start with a little history.  Once upon a time (or in mid-2007, to be more exact), Providence Equity Partners invested $100...

Apple is reportedly set to acquire Quattro Wireless for $275 million. This is according to the generally reliable Kara Swisher of BoomTown, who claims to have the information confirmed by several sources. Quattro Wireless is a mobile ad network similar to AdMob, which is in the process of being acquired by Google. Reports suggest that Apple was...

A great story by Glen Allsopp sharing how guest blogging earned him money and reputation.

Like many bloggers, I have already started reading some “predictions” for 2010 - which often take lessons learned for 2009 and project them into the next year. For my own part, I have done these sorts of blog posts before and the tough thing is to highlight things which will be relevant not just on the first of the year, but...

Ever since my last year’s post on the differences between the Facebook fan page and Facebook group (which needs an update by the way), people are contacting me with various questions related to the topic. One of the most frequent questions is about the most effective ways to promote a Facebook fan page. So here you go: the most effective, not...

If you're anything like us, you've been neglecting your usual news diet over the last couple weeks. While we all know that neglect doesn't extend to ClickZ (perish the thought!), we've put together the below summary of our recent stories on the year that was and what lies ahead in 2010 -- just in case you missed any of the excitement. 2010 Will...

As Facebook employees went back to work this week, they may have been smiling more (or at least less frowning less) than most other people returning from vacation.  Their site performed admirably over the holidays, actually attracting record-breaking amounts of traffic. On Tuesday, we documented the fact that Facebook received more traffic...

Free Press and a number of other consumer groups are calling on federal antitrust authorities and Congress to investigate agreements among large media companies to stifle competition for online television programming. In a report, Free Press details how giant cable, satellite and phone companies and many programming networks, led by Comcast and...

At the moment, the Zimbra homepage bears a "BUY ZIMBRA" button and a stamp reading "a Yahoo division."  But according to a new report, a sale of Zimbra (and not just a Zimbra product) may soon take place, making "a VMware division" a more accurate statement. Kara Swisher wrote earlier today, "Yahoo is close...

Answers service ChaCha announced today that it has closed a $7 million E round of funding. The service lets users go online, call, or text questions on mobile phones and receive answers "within minutes" for free. The service has an iPhone app and lets people ask questions via Twitter as well. This round of funding might be particularly...

Movie social networking site, Flixster, said today it has acquired movie review site Rotten Tomatoes from IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corp. News Corp will receive a minority equity stake in Flixster as part of the deal, financial terms were not disclosed. Both Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will continue to be available to Internet users...

Tomorrow is the big day: the invite-only Google Android event. While we’ve all pretty much assumed they’re going to tout Android and reveal the Google-sold Nexus One phone, there’s always the possibility that Google will surprise us all. Google’s Nexus phone was first “leaked” in December after they distributed...

Seesmic announced today that it has acquired Ping.fm. This is a service that has half a million active users posting daily from various devices by sending email, text messages, and chat. "Ping.fm is compatible with every single Internet device in the world, which why it has become so successful among thousands of users," says Seesmic....

Update: Some Facebook users are reportedly now seeing a new Facebook design that looks like the screenshots here. The design is similiar to the one below, with some slight differences. Original Article: Reports and screenshots have surfaced indicating possible further design changes to the Facebook home page. These changes would include an...

The founders of Infegy have used their Social Radar, a social analytics and research platform, to take a look at brands in 2009. They call their report the Top 50 Social Brands of 2009—but I’m not convinced. On their blog, Infegy says the Social Radar analyze[d] millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter...

A while back, Google launched an extensions gallery for its Chrome web browser. Ad-blocking add-ons are among the most popular for Mozilla's Firefox, so it stands to reason that they will be for Chrome as well. With Google's primary source of revenue being its ads, a lot of talk has surfaced about Google letting people block its own ads with its...

Smartphone owners are more comfortable making purchases from their handsets, but poor mobile site functionality is still a frustration for many, according to a new survey by Compete.  While m-commerce is set for strong growth in 2010, consumers are still more likely to abandon mobile purchasing on sites that are not optimized for the...

Last month, Google acknowledged Apple's importance by releasing a beta version of Chrome for Mac.  New statistics show that Google sort of put Apple to shame, too, however, as Chrome passed Safari in terms of market share. The stats come courtesy of Net Applications, and according to the organization, Internet Explorer remained very much on...

Even if you haven't used Spotify, there's a good chance you've heard of it. The service's description goes: "A world of music. Millions of songs on your computer, on your mobile and available offline. Brought to you ad free." People in the US have been unable to use the service so far. There has been talk that this may soon change upon...

Vermont residents may want to start giving a little extra thought to whether or not they like the way Google does things.  It seems that Matt Dunne, the Manager of Community Affairs at Google, is trying to become the state's governor. An important note: Dunne hasn't sworn to turn Vermont into one giant Googleplex.  There's been no...

Customers of the largest online retailers are more satisfied than ever according to ForeSee Results' annual report on holiday shoppers. The ForeSee Results E-Retail Satisfaction Index (U.S. Holiday Edition) jumped 7 percent to 79 on the Index's 100-point scale, a new all-time high. Websites for Macys, SonyStyle, The Gap, The Home Shopping Network...

Just as many of us get back to work after the holidays, Twitter has some new people starting work with the company altogether. Twitter reportedly has ten new people (most starting today), and some of them have interesting backgrounds, which could have interesting implications for the company's future. The one new hiring that is drawing the most...

Google must know something that we don’t. Why else would they be SO open in their new move toward transparency as to allow for extensions on Chrome that, gulp, block the very lifeblood of their money printing operation? Well, considering the market share that Chrome currently has (around 40 million users) and the mindset of someone likely to use...

It looks like Twitter is gearing up for a big year as they announce several (as in around 10) new hires to start the new year. While official numbers of total employees are tough to come by (last I saw put it in the range of 150 but I will not stand by the accuracy of that number) it is obvious that Twitter is looking to have a big year. Let’s...

Google has put together a one-minute guide to using its Search-based Keyword tool. The tool was launched just over a year ago in beta. It lets paid search advertisers see what keywords they may be missing out on based on searches on their site. "Millions of people use Google each day to find products and services by searching on various...

From Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis January 3, 2010. Well, hopefully no one out there is this bad off but one never knows. Here’s to a good 2010 to all regardless of what happens with da Google.

Using a special animated logo, Google has paid tribute today to the English physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton who was born on this day in 1643. It’s widely recorded that Newton *discovered* the concept of gravity (and the resulting science of physics) as a result of observing apples falling from a tree. In tribute, the...

The cat has at least started to come out of the bag with regards to the long-rumored "Google phone"; details about the Nexus One have been leaking for weeks.  It looks like the rest of the figurative feline will soon appear, too, as a T-Mobile announcement and invitation to a Google event were issued today. Let's start with the...

Today is, for better or for worse, the last day many people will have off before heading back to work or school and resuming normal life.  And if you have lots of stuff to do, good luck.  But if you're a bit bored - maybe still stuck at a relative's house or just out of books to read - here are some of the "Most Stumbled Sites of...

I have to admit that I spend way to much time at this site. Some may think that I have some sick, twisted obsession with complete losers. But I like to think that it’s my way of appreciating humanity’s potential, by witnessing their lack of success. You see, whenever we fail, we are given a golden opportunity to then rebound and...

Google's empire hasn't exactly crumbled, and to be honest, the average person will probably never even realize what's happened.  But what's happened is this: for just the second time in its history, Google's lost a domain name dispute. Google submitted a complaint about a site called Groovle to the National Arbitration Forum (which ICANN...

In a recent article, we looked at some predictions from Nielsen for advertising trends in 2010. These included optimizing media convergence being a top priority, new models emerging to take advantage of smartphones, more cross-media ad campaigns, an increase in commercialization of social networking hubs, and more interesting and interactive...

Rush Limbaugh was released from the hospital today and says doctors found nothing wrong. It makes you wonder if the thousands of hysterical people wishing Rush Limbaugh death on Twitter are feeling a little foolish. Probably not. :) Below is the video of Rush speaking to the press about his good health:    Taking a look at...