On May 12, Google presented Searchology 2009. During the event, the second of its kind, the search engine announced and released a number of new search features. The first Searchology event was held in 2007 when Google announced the launch of Universal search. This year's presentation was similarly monumental in the way new features will expand the role and functionality of search. Coverage of the event and new features can be found across the Web.
Search Options
Search users will immediately see a change to their Web search results through Google Search Options. Perform a Google search and select "Show options..." below the search box on the results page. A myriad of new filtering and display options are now available. From the main SERP, filtering can be done for videos, forums, reviews and time periods. Result display can be enhanced with images from the page, more text, related searches, a timeline and the new Wonder Wheel as briefly described below.
Images from the Page
In Matt Cutts's Searchology recap, you can see a number of the new features in action, including images from the page. Notably, searching with images from the page reorders search results, presumably giving preference to pages with prominent images. This new feature highlights the ability of Engagement Objects™ to improve visibility.
More Text
Selecting the "More text" option displays a longer snippet for results. With this, site owners are given an additional opportunity to show relevant topics and keywords to users. Users gain the ability to better vet search results directly from the search page. This feature doesn't appear to modify the order of standard Web search results.
Wonder Wheel and Timeline
The timeline has been available for some time, showing up for select search results after coming out of Google Labs. Previously an experimental feature, the Wonder Wheel is a display option that visualizes relationships around a search phrase. Both features are now easily accessible for all queries through Search Options.
Rich Snippets
Much buzz has been made over the rich snippet feature. The enhancement displays additional data through Meta data from microformats. Rich snippets for reviews and people are currently supported, with more categories to be added in the future.
Google Squared
Google Squared has not been launched to the public, but it was announced during Searchology and may be released at the end of the month. The feature organizes results in spreadsheet format to add visual structure to their ever-growing database.
Shuffles
Many execs in the search engine industry are making a change to social media this month. Former AOL executive, Mike Jones, will become the COO of MySpace, while former Googler Douglas Bowman has taken a job at Twitter. Fellow Google employee Priti Choksi has moved to Facebook.
Former Yahoo Music exec Dave Goldberg has taken up residence at SurveyMonkey. Former Adobe exec Bryan Lamkin has headed on over to Yahoo. Meanwhile, Yahoo will cut another 600 to 700 jobs after a lackluster first quarter.
It has been announced that Oracle will be buying Sun Microsystems. Oracle and Sun announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun for about $7.4 billon. Meanwhile, Disney is buying what is reported to be a 30 percent stake in online video site Hulu. This means that full-length episodes of ABC shows will now be available alongside content from NBC and FOX.
Digg is ending its two-year exclusive ad-selling relationship with Microsoft a year earlier than what the deal was set for. Starting in July, Digg will be solely responsible for all custom ad deals, along with a large portion of its standard ad inventory.
Wolfram Alpha, a "computational knowledge engine", was previewed at the end of April. Its live public launch will be broadcast tonight, May 15, on Justin.tv. Google also entered the data visualization arena with its Public Data feature.
Sound Bytes
If you like what you've read in the SEO Newsletter, there's more Internet marketing expertise where that came from. Check out SEM Synergy every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern and Noon Pacific on WebmasterRadio.fm. Bruce Clay and the other hosts discuss industry news, SEO tactics and marketing trends, while expert guests share their insights on methods, best practices and upcoming events. Check out the show schedule below for a look at recent shows and upcoming topics.
May 6
(Listen Now)
| Local 10 Pack Results | Jordan Kasteler | Search Industry News |
May 13
(Listen Now)
| SEO All-In-One For Dummies | Christopher Hart | Competitive Analysis |
May 20
(Coming Soon) | Wolfram Alpha | Barbara Baker | Google Challengers |
May 27
(Coming Soon) | Link Building Tactics | Todd Malicoat | Link Building Secrets |
Got something to say? Contact the SEM Synergy team and share your thoughts, comments and questions. You might even hear your question answered on the show.
Shindigs
eMetrics Summit London and SMX London are joining forces for the Search Marketing Expo May 18-19. For those in the U.S., SMX Advanced will take place in Seattle June 2-3. Use the discount code smx15bruceclay to receive 15 percent off the cost of registration.
Search Engine Strategies Toronto takes place June 8-10 while PubCon Europe will be in London on July 4.
Affiliate marketers can attend Affiliate Convention Denver June 17-21. Attendance for affiliate marketers is free. Also free, the e-commerce and affiliate marketing virtual conference eComXpo will be July 8-9.
Forrester Research is presenting a number of marketing and strategy workshops throughout May and June. Email, e-commerce, mobile and recession marketing are all featured topics in locations including Massachusetts, New York and California.
PPC Classroom LIVE is happening in Las Vegas May 28-31. Search Engine Strategies presents basic to advanced SEM Training in New York City on June 16.
SEOToolSet Training courses are scheduled around the world. Next up:
- June 9-11 (standard) in Long Island, NY
- July 13-17 (standard and advanced) in Simi Valley, CA
- July 21-23 (standard) in Cape Town, South Africa
Attaboys
Google and Yahoo both announced efforts to make analytics data more accessible. A Google Analytics API has been launched, allowing developers to use Google Analytics data in new and innovative ways. Yahoo updated its Web analytics tools with new demographic metrics and more in-depth conversion process data. The analytics suite is available to search and display advertisers with an account manager.
Online advertising solution DoubleClick unveiled Network Builder, a product that lets publishers build and manage a partner's ad network. MySpace has opened up its local business review service, MySpace Local, to the public.
Several mobile marketing developments took place this month. Residents of Washington D.C. will be the first in the U.S. able to access free digital TV broadcasts on mobile devices. Google Product Search went mobile and is now available on Android phones and the iPhone. Android developers can look forward to the improvements and refinements to Android 1.5 SDK, also known as the Cupcake update.
In March, online video site Hulu moved up the ranks to become the third most popular video property. It was led by Fox Interactive Media with Google sites at number one. Also that month, Yahoo sites ranked as the top display ad publisher, followed by Fox Interactive Media and Facebook.
A new search engine, Hoongle, was launched that uses Google search results while donating resources to the UN World Food Program for every search performed. And this month we learned that both Yahoo and Google hire goats to mow their lawns.
Word on the
Wire
It appears that MSNbot 2.0 may have been disregarding robots.txt and no index Meta tags. In the UK, Ask.com has resurrected Jeeves the butler after research showed the character had 83 percent brand awareness.
The FTC is bearing down on companies that track user info and behavior online, declaring that self-regulation has not yet been effective.
In a victory for network neutrality advocates, Time Warner Cable has put on hold its plans to implement consumption-based tier pricing.
A study in the UK suggests that only five to seven percent of social network users are likely to join brand-sponsored groups or communities.
Google rolled out a new feature called Google Me which allows users to set up a profile that shows up in Google search results.
Google and YouTube accounts are now being linked. New YouTube users will have their Google accounts automatically linked, while old users can link their existing accounts. Google Video has been redesigned so that users can watch videos from the search results page. Now, videos can only be uploaded through YouTube and no longer through Google Video.
YouTube is notifying content producers that they should not include ads in their videos without YouTube's permission. Meanwhile, YouTube now features videos from ad partners without indicating them as such. This has raised questions over YouTube's transparency.
The South Korean government is dissatisfied with Google's decision to turn off comments and video uploads on YouTube Korea. In response to a South Korea law that would require Google to collect the names and resident numbers of commenters and people who upload videos, Google opted to disable the service altogether.
Some sharp SEOs noticed that Google's updated referrer string includes ranking data; however, the search engine may not support this data in the future.
Danny Sullivan sorted out whether or not PageRank passes from domains that have been purchased, acquired or expired.
While it has long been allowed in the U.S., Google will let advertisers bid on trademark terms in a number of countries, including the UK. An alliance of search marketers, Alliance Against Bait and Click (AABC), has formed to rally against search ads that target competitors' brand names.
News reports continue to circulate about how close Yahoo and Microsoft are to coming to a search advertising deal.
Beginning June 15, Google will allow advertisers to include trademark brand terms in ad text. Only retailers that sell those brands and impartial review sites are affected by this new policy.
