Google's IPO and SEM: Predictions

Google's IPO and SEM: Predictions:

Increased contextual inventory

Increased search inventory. Media hype over Google's IPO has increasingly more people trying Google, and even the Internet in general. The entire search engine marketing (SEM) space will see increases in search inventory as new searchers come online

Smarter searchers. Media focus on Google will result in the public learning how to search more intelligently. This may accelerate the current trend of longer search queries (searchers using more keywords in a phrase). This shift in behavior will force marketers to embrace campaign management strategies that align well with searcher behavior. Broad campaigns and broad match listings will become the norm. XML paid inclusion, the automation of ad creation from data feeds, site crawls, or programming scripts/spreadsheets,, will increase

More advertisers, consequent higher costs (CPCs). Marketers who are either sitting on the SEM sidelines or just dabbling in it will begin to understand SEM's true power. This trend is already underway as engines, agencies, search optimizers, and nonprofit organizations such as SEMPO, AIM, and the IAB educate the marketplace on search's value.

Ironically, because SEM is a zero-sum game, the return on investment (ROI) on both paid and organic search for all participants will drop as the marketplace learns more about and adapts SEM. The auction marketplaces for search clicks will become more efficient, and competition for organic search engine optimization (SEO) positions will require more work from internal IT and marketing staff, SEO agencies, and consultants."

Product enhancements

Government scrutiny on the industry.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other government agencies are busy fighting e-mail spam, with limited success. Although the FTC has released disclosure guidelines relating to the labeling of paid search listings, thus far the level of scrutiny has been relatively low. Google's IPO and the related media visibility, in combination with a major election year, could result in additional guidelines and event regulation. Links explaining what sponsored links are may become larger and more prominent. The resulting FAQ pages may be more standardized. If the scrutiny is high enough, regulation could even extend to organic SEO practices (though I doubt it).

CitySearch teams with Overture | CNET News.com

CitySearch teams with Overture | CNET News.com: "CitySearch said Thursday that it has signed a deal with Yahoo's Overture Services to run the latter's paid ads in its local search listings for select cities and categories.
Overture specializes in selling advertising links that accompany search results on sites such as Yahoo and MSN. Under the deal, Overture ads will appear in categories where CitySearch has available ad inventory, such as home services, professional services and medical specialists. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The move comes little more than a year after CitySearch, which is owned by InterActiveCorp, introduced its own advertising service to compete with Overture on a local level. The company unveiled a pay-per-click ad service, called Local Pay for Performance, which reflected the business model of Overture's national ad network. CitySearch sought to match up advertisers with consumers searching for local dining, entertainment and shopping services. Advertisers pay for the ads only when people click through.
Under terms of the deal, Overture ads will appear as 'sponsored results' when a customer uses CitySearch for conducting a local search.
Local search has been the rage of late. Last month, Google launched what it called Google Local, a service that helps Web surfers find local businesses by typing in a search term and a city name.
The market for local advertising online is small, but analysts are predicting it will eventually take a larger chunk of the $12 billion overall market for local ads in the United States. CitySearch had been talking with Google about a partnership."

Google Adding Image Ads to AdWords Search Engine News Journal

Google Adding Image Ads to AdWords Search Engine News Journal: "Google Adding Image Ads to AdWords "

Google AdWords Support: "My image ads

�How do I create an image ad?
�What are the image ad requirements?
�What do image ads look like?
�Will you show image ads on Google?
�What are image ads?
�How do you decide whether to show my image ad or my text ad?
�Why is Google offering image ads?
�How are image ads different from traditional banner ads?
�Where are my images stored?"

SEO to the limit : E-consultancy.com

SEO to the limit : E-consultancy.com: "Removing session Id�s from online shops / forums (in my own case) and other dynamic websites. This could be considered a form of cloaking as it often involves a referrer check (user_agent/IP). If it is Googlebot, drop the session id. If it is a human with a browser, generate a session id. Session ids are a definite way to make your site invisible on the search engine results pages. Word still hasn�t got round yet to some major corporation webmasters about the real damage session ids can do to a ranking. �We need to know the full click paths of our visitors� is a common statement. �You aren�t going to get many visitors if you don�t do something about the session ids� is my usual reply. A little programming could solve the majority of problems online shops for example have at getting deep crawled and indexed. Google has officially said it regards the removal of session ids as valid search engine optimization. "

Google blog somewhat less than 'bloggy' | CNET News.com

Google blog somewhat less than 'bloggy' | CNET News.com: "Google has officially started publishing a corporate Web log, keeping up with the Joneses it aspires to serve.
On Monday, the search engine started publishing a diary of corporate musings, as it seeks to promote a new, simplified tool for user Web publishing through its Blogger division...

the effort is apparently not as offhand as one might think. In a move that seems out of character with the informality of blogging, Google edited itself in a Monday note about the Mountain View, Calif., company's recent expansion to Bangalore, India. In an earlier, more lighthearted version of the posting, Google said too much has been made out of U.S. companies outsourcing jobs in India. A later version of the note, posted Tuesday without identifying the changes, takes a less opinionated tone over what is a topic of heated political debate."

Link to google blog: Google Blog: "Insight into the news, technology, and culture of Google"

John Battelle's Searchblog: More S-1 Grokking: Google Purchases Ignite Logic, Inc.

John Battelle's Searchblog: More S-1 Grokking: Google Purchases Ignite Logic, Inc.: "le Purchases Ignite Logic, Inc"What is Ignite Logic, Inc.? It's a startup which helps law firms set up web sites. But why buy them? Hey, if you have good tech and processes to get a law firm's site up and running, one might imagine it just might scale to the entire SMB market (and beyond). Recall my "Incubation Platform" post - about how Google might leverage its platform to let others build on top of their infrastructure? You thought I was smoking something, eh? Nope.

Google Overhauls Blogger

Google Overhauls Blogger: "Today's upgrade adds new features to Blogger, most of which have been in high demand from users. New features include:
Posting via email: Users can now publish to their blogs from any email-enabled device, including cellular phones and PDAs.
Comments: Enables people to invite their readers to respond to blog entries.
Profiles: Enables Blogger users to share information about themselves so readers can learn more about the people behind the blogs, and discover others who share similar interests.
Other new features include 26 new templates designed by leading web designers, and unique URLs for each individual posting. Williams said that the primary reason for creating unique URLs was to make them easier to link to.
That may be true, but it's also likely that unique URLs for each posting will make them more search friendly -- not to mention making it easier for Google to gain a better understanding of each posting for targeting its contextual paid listings. "

Google's man behind the curtain | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

Google's man behind the curtain | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: Some computer scientists suspect that PageRank is dead, because Internet marketers have managed to exploit it by creating false popularity for their sites. Is that true? Has it been altered, or is it playing less of a role?
The point of view that PageRank is dead is kind of a very static view of the world. It will always continue to be a part of our ranking scheme but, over time, as we develop new ideas on how to do ranking, as we tweak existing ideas, as we think about new ways to have them play together--the role of any one of the techniques that we use will obviously change.

Are there any other algorithm techniques that you are using that are playing a bigger role?
Well, there are certainly other techniques that we are using. Talking about it is the trickier part. In broad terms, techniques we use fall into, like, two or three categories, and one is we try to understand and leverage human intelligence. We look for signals that people put in to indicate intelligence, like deciding to link from one page to another or annotating text with the description of what the text is about.

Google preps new tool to juice revenue | CNET News.com

Google preps new tool to juice revenue | CNET News.com: "Search engine leader Google is close to releasing new tools that could expand its profitable keyword-advertising business and fuel growth as it prepares for a highly anticipated initial public offering, according to sources familiar with the plan.

The technology aims to enable Google to examine the Web sites of large advertisers and to develop automated lists of keyword combinations that are likely to turn up in search queries, the sources said. If successful, the system will match more searches to advertisements, and thus boost revenue.

Google is preparing new tools that could expand its profitable keyword advertising business and fuel growth as it prepares for a highly anticipated initial public offering. The new system will match more searches to advertisements, creating new revenue as well as risks by increasing Google's reliance on automation.
More stories on this topic An analysis of search-engine advertising suggests there is significant room for growth in this area. Only 40 percent to 45 percent of the 120 million Internet searches a day in the United States are currently linked to an ad, according to research firm ComScore Networks. But such a service could also create new risks for Google, which has stumbled in the past with automated advertising efforts."


Google preps new tool to juice revenue | CNET News.com: "The technology aims to enable Google to examine the Web sites of large advertisers and to develop automated lists of keyword combinations that are likely to turn up in search queries, the sources said. If successful, the system will match more searches to advertisements, and thus boost revenue."Google wants to take the technology even further. Its proposed service would allow marketers to pay to have a Web page examined more often for inclusion in sponsored listings, according to one source. Instead of having to bid on thousands of keywords, a large advertiser--such as Amazon.com--could rely on Google's search technology to automatically create connections between its Web pages and related search queries. Amazon would pay Google to examine thousands of its pages and to serve an ad whenever the software deemed it appropriate. Amazon would pay an amount previously bid at auction for those pages, whenever people clicked on its listings.

In this scenario, a Web surfer who searched Google.com for "Stevie Wonder" might see a sponsored listing for "Stevie Wonder at Amazon.com," for example. Amazon may not have bid on those granular keywords, but Google's crawlers will have found CDs and books on the musician during the engine's indexing and will have automatically placed an ad based on that query.

Mind over machine?
By contrast, Overture takes a slightly more human approach to advertising. It employs slews of account managers who help marketers invent new keyword combinations to drive people to their online stores, according to an Overture representative. It also offers technology that lets marketers measure the effectiveness of their search campaigns, as well as of campaigns via e-mail, Google or banner ads.

"We work with advertisers closely to make sure they're bidding on the most possible keywords," said the Overture representative.

Google has faced criticism of its automated marketing tools in the past. In one case, it served up an advertisement for a suitcase maker in a news article about a murder investigation in which body parts were discovered in a travel case.

Nevertheless, ad-matching technology could become essential as search queries get more complex over time. And as Web surfers get more savvy, they tend to enter more search terms for better results, according to search experts.

"The limitations of search-engine marketing are the burdens on marketers. Managing keyword campaigns is a nightmare...and lots of keywords are left on the table," said James Lamberti, a research director at ComScore. "A move from a manual to a highly automated process will be the next big shift for the industry."