Google has been taking some big hits recently, stock fell 37% from the peak last November, a handful of high-profile departures, ComScore reported that click-throughs were down 0.3 per cent year-on-year in the US, and a shift in how the company works may be costing Google just what made it great.
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Yet again my Google Adwords account is being moved to a new set of account reps, my third set in 4 months! I'm starting to feel like a ping pong ball, my business and optimization needs keep being batted around from one group to another now. First moved to a new group in late December, by February finally having them on the same page and understanding our needs only 5 days later to be moved to a new rep. and have to start the process all over again!
A month goes by…Then I get the word my account is being moved to yet another account rep group this time we’re given 866 numbers and the general Google email addresses! I feel like I’m dealing with Yahoo!, I don’t particular care for their customer service either.
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There’s been a bit of buzz lately about the slowdown of traffic and clicks on Google’s search and ad network. Some are blaming Social Bookmarking and Social Networking sites for this shift. They’d be right. As more and more people start logging into the social networking sites Google begins to lose them to the fascinating world of social networking search engines, bookmarking and media sites where users can find content that is new, fresh and interesting and comes with references from ‘real’ people.
The IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) predicted a shift in ad spend from Google Adwords to social networking sites last year. A shift that will now move more quickly and probably at a higher rate then predicted now that the traffic is moving at such a rapid pace.
Last week LiveJournal users went out on a content strike, for the entire day users created no new content or made any new comments on the site. Even though Livejournal users were trying to make a point to the new owners they were conscientious of the network’s stability to be sure that users didn’t go too far during the strike.
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The LiveJournal Content Strike is still on for today, Friday, March 21st. However, it seems that the demands of the group are already being addressed by LiveJournal and compromises being considered.
In a post LiveJournal the community owners try to clarify their decisions and apologize for not taking the user’s needs into their decision making process.
Is a community site a community even if its users don’t communicate? That’s the question for Livejournal users on Friday, March 21st when a User Content Strike begins. The strike is being spearheaded by member beckyzoole. Users are encouraged to not post any new content or comments to LiveJournal from midnight GMT to midnight GMT on Friday in an effort to get the attention of the new owners of Livejournal to meet their demands.
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Or will it be the death nail? Yes it’s official the EU oks Google/DoubleClick after the U.S. oked it in December, now it’s time to really see how Google is going to use this acquisition. How will Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick change how Google Adsense works? Or will Google be changing how DoubleClick does business?
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We’ve all done it, Googled yourself or someone else out of curiosity? We use Google to look up just about everything but is Google now the only place people go for information? Elementary schools are teaching students to utilize Google to find information for just about everything. What ever happened to using the Library? Looking up information in an Encyclopedia or other text?
Is Google going to eventually be the only reference space for people looking for information? What would you do without a search engine to look things up? Could you remember how to use texts for research?
Are you a Google Addict?
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As reported Google ad drop may not signal problems There seems to be a decline in the click thru rates on Google ads of late. ComScore reported a 7 percent decline in consumer click thru on Google ads in search results in January, while Hitwise reported that traffic going from Google to retail sites continues to rise.
In my experience there is always a drop off when you compare January to December on a click thru basis. November and December are the two highest click thru months for Google Ads due to the retail business for the holidays. How is this really news that could drop Google’s stock by 4%? It’s a ridiculous comparison.
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Hitwise reported a remarkable demographic shift between the users of Yahoo! And Google. Yahoo! Users have always been seen as the older demographic but this report shows that it is actually the Google users who are older but also the bigger spenders in the audience. This is no surprise!
Four years ago the PPC industry saw Yahoo! Users as the older and larger converting audience. That was back when Yahoo! Ads were syndicated across Microsoft Search and others. After Microsoft’s decision to begin their own PPC advertising program the high conversions we once saw with Yahoo! Dwindled a bit. So it isn’t surprising that Google would fill that void.
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The news of Google’s Ad Shares falling this week with further speculation on Google’s fourth quarter down to 40% from 50% in years past, see Google's U.S. ad share drops for first time in two years for more details.
Google’s Ad shares may not be climbing at the same rate as years past but they are still climbing. However, the slow down could be expected. The IAB, Forester and Gartner have all predicted increased advertising on Social Networking sites for 2008. This is not a surprise as the Social Networking sites have grown the advertising is becoming more sophisticated and targeted giving advertisers a huge potential audience for ads.
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Rumor has it Google may be looking to acquire Plaxo for roughly $200 million. Plaxo has a tool to manage contacts and users' email address books. But the company’s user acquisition strategy (Read SPAM) has only succeeded to alienated many would-be users. Although Plaxo has tried to clean up its reputation by reinventing itself as a social network with the launch of Pulse last summer. Plaxo still has a largely negative reputation among many people.
Google would likely integrate Plaxo functionality into its Docs suite of applications aimed at enterprise users. While Pulse could be joined with Orkut or become the backbone of a new, expanded Google Profiles and would integrated with Google's OpenSocial platform well.
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Internet users know where those ads are and many of them avoid even looking at them. But Ad Fatigue could be to blame for Google’s low 4th Quarter numbers. With a 15% decrease in growth from last year’s ad clicks Google may have something to worry about with its ever increasing ad network.
Google has no trouble getting clicks on its search ads because a much higher percentage of people who click an ad from a search result have purchasing intent. While those who are reading a news article on a Google content syndication site or watching YouTube videos is much less likely to click on the ad because that is not the behavior they are utilizing the site for.
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Over the last few months there have been increasing reports of Malware and Phishers attacks utilizing Google to hack and spam users. Making us twice about the links you click next time you search.
Search engine spammers have ramped up their efforts to ensnare the unwary Google users. In response Google removed tens of thousands of malicious Web pages from its index.
But as quickly as Google can remove them there are thousands more ready to go up as these malicious spammers keep pumping out the pages.
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Google has a policy of keeping its different departments in silos thus not communicating or working together. But the lack of connection between the different parts of Google leave many questioning how long the expansion can last.
When dealing with Google’s different departments you get a closed feeling that one hand really doesn’t know what the other is doing. The Advertising products departments like Adwords and Adsense don’t even really understand one another’s products or services. So when Google has a presentation on its newest and greatest products but has no engineers and can’t answer questions about any products outside the few they wanted to discuss it really doesn’t instill a lot of confidence.
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The SEO community has been buzzing about a supposed “Position 6” Google SERPs punishment pattern where pages which, should dominate the organic SERPs somehow place at lowly #6. Google reps have previously dismissed the notion.
I’ve been tracking the conversations over the past month but until I read Danny Sullivan’s SEL post I wasn’t sold on the idea that this was even remotely a realistic notion. Learning that his impression is that Position 6 is real, has made me rethink the issue.
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A just-released Sapient study shows marketers plan to increase spending on social media marketing this year, where they anticipate higher ROI than both digital advertising and email marketing. Numbers showing a 30% spend on search while a close 21% on social networking!
I find myself spending much more of my time and energy on social networks rather then my Google Adwords programs. Social network traffic is on the rise and therefore increasing my traffic without costing me anything but time. I’ve also found that social network visitors are much more specific in what they are looking for and therefore a better audience for my sites.
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Reports that YouTube had caved to Cruise and the Church Scientology removing video clips of Tom Cruise's appearance and speech at a Church of Scientology event in 2004 seem to be greatly exaggerated! Scientology claims materials about it fall under copyright, leading to a DMCA takedown request sent to various sites posting the video, including YouTube. However, I just found the video on YouTube a few minutes ago.
Google created a version of iGoogle optimized for iPhone, the iPhone interface URLis http://google.com/ig/i, but iPhone users will be automatically redirected.
The interface displays each iGoogle tab in a single column. The Gadgets and feeds are closed upon opening, but can be opened fully and utilized the same as they are on a computer interface.
Panasonic announced yesterday at the Consumer Electronics show it will work with Google to develop televisions that can be used to easily watch Internet content. The TVs will let consumers browse and watch YouTube videos from their TVs.
Shades of WebTV and the AppleTV? Currently the model is to allow Panasonic’s TVs to stream YouTube video content and access Picasa photos. But this could be so much more if they can just pull the internet content to be watchable on the TV without connecting to a computer or other device like the AppleTV and WebTV.
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First Jason Shellen of the Blogger and Google Reader team leaves for Livejournal.com and now Kevin Fox, a UI designer who worked on Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Reader and Nathan Stoll, a product manager at Google News as well as New York sales vet David Hirsch announce plans to leave Google for other companies.
In a company of 16,000 employees this may not seem like much but these are veteran Google employees in key development programs. It seems odd that they would want to leave, or is there something on the horizon at Google that made them think moving on is a good idea? Is Google no longer “The place to work”?
With the New Year comes a new algorithm from Google. Google’s new algorithm is two fold. 1. Artificially promoting recent web pages, 2. picking up on a querie spikes and activity regarding topics.
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This year may mark the year ‘Google grew up’. This year marked Google’s biggest year to date, launching new products, services, and ad revenues alone not to mention the new acquisitions. Diversification seems to be Google’s theme for 2007 and marching into 2008 we look forward to those products forthcoming.
Just a small list of Google’s accomplishments/announcements for 2007
• Google personalizes search with the iGoogle Homepage.
• Google Enhances Local Search.
• Google Mobile Starts Running AdWords
• Google Declares War on Paid Text Links
• Launches Android, Mobile Platform
• Gphone prospects
• Google going wireless? Plans for 700 MHz spectrum
• Google Analytics updates
• Google Wemaster tools updates
• Google Office updates
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Jason Shellen formerly with Google, as part of the Blogger and Google Reader teams will be moving the LiveJournal where he will be Vice president of product development.
Shellen brings a wealth of experience to his new role, having previously worked for Google’s New Business Development team. During his time at Google he was the founding product manager for Google Reader, one of the most popular blog readers available online.
As a LiveJournal user myself I am excited about the prospects with someone like Shellen coming on board with LiveJournal especially after the acquisition by SUP. It will be interesting to see if the addition of Shellen helps smooth out the operations in any way. And how his vision for LiveJournal will help the social community grow and evolve in 2008.
Google’s biggest acquisition to date has gotten the FTC’s stamp of approval today rejecting any current or potential competition concerns. FTC's opinion Google's acquisition of DoubleClick is just one more sign of strong competition in the online ad serving space.
I’m not sure how the FTC made their decision but I have to say that comparing a Google DoubleClick acquisition to Yahoo's acquisition of Right Media; AOL's acquisition of ADTECH AG and TACODA; WPP Group's acquisition of 24/7 Real Media; and Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive and AdECN Inc is like comparing Buckingham Palace to a Victorian house…this isn’t the average acquisition.
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So it’s official, Google has been named one of the lucky 96 received the FCC’s blessing to bid in the 700MHz auction under the name Google Airwaves. But right on Google’s heels is Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, Allen's Vulcan Spectrum. These two are probably the most publicized and interesting rivals to be part of this anonymous bidding process which takes place on Jan. 24.
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Google has unveiled new upgrades to the webmaster tools. This latest update includes content analysis and sitemap details which allow webmasters to pin point pages with optimization problems. This can eliminate potential issues that could affect the site's ability to be crawled and indexed; resulting in better indexing of the site by Google and other search engines.
The Content analysis summary features three main categories.
• Title tag issues
• Meta description issues
• Non-indexable content issues
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I heard this phrase during a Today show segment on Google co-founder Larry Paige’s wedding over this past weekend. I thought it was a very interesting question.
What started out as search engine competition between the software giant and a search engine has grown into a full-fledge competition in multiple markets. They go head to head over everything from global mapping platforms to the strategy of gobbling up competitors and technology companies to merge into their existing products. Google of today is looking much like the Microsoft of the ‘90s.
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In noodling around the web looking at articles, blogs and commentary on Google I’m finding more and more that their motto “Don’t Be Evil” isn’t their characterization any longer. Everything from conspiracies theories to concerns over Google’s over-zealous acquisitions and new market products and strategies fuel the fire.
First Google accepts China's demands to censor search results, against Google’s philosophy of an open internet. When Google bought DoubleClick many yelled foul with concerns about the monopoly the two ad serving giants together would become meanwhile with DoubleClick came a company called Performics, a search engine optimization company, sparking accusations of hypocrisy.
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Well it’s already begun OpenSocial still in its zygote stage is now officially part of the advertising medium for monetizing the web! Today I sat in on a Newsgator Web Conference entitled “Monetizing OpenSocial”
With a projected $7.5 Billion in online social networking ad spend by 2011 to 200 million users globally it is every advertiser and content owner’s advantage to leverage OpenSocial. And with average CPMs on social networking sites rising with the demographic detail available on users there is a push to monetize and utilize OpenSocial as quickly as possible.
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