• The Irony of Matt Cutts, Scrapper Sites, Twitter Backlash
    Matt Cutts received backlash this week after announcing Google's reporting tool designed to make it easier for site and content owners to flag instances when scraped material ranks higher than the content's source. Larry Kim makes an interesting point, brought to light by Dan Barker, who points to content supporting that Google's Knowledge Graph is the biggest content scraper on the Web. The Web community latched on to the irony, and as of Friday morning Barker's response has been retweeted more than 13,000 times, per Kim.
  • How To Use Undervalued Search Methods That Gain Clicks
    Search engine results page influence, site engagement, phone and chat content, social media, store visits, and cross-device behavior are six reasons why search clicks are undervalued, per Kevin Lee. It's one thing to point out the reasons, but it's another to explain why. In the post, Lee details each and gives marketers some insight on how to use them.
  • Google Now Creates Its Own App Launcher Experience
    Google Now has released its own app Launcher in the Google Play Store available for Nexus and Google Play devices. It makes Google Now "one swipe away" from the mobile phone's home screen. Saying "OK Google" triggers the voice input and search.
  • Google Experiments With Education Services
    Google this week is rolling out its first massive open online course (or MOOC) on the topic of interpreting and understanding digital data, as well as Oppia -- a project that aims “to make it easy for anyone to create online interactive activities.” As TechCrunch reports: “Google has become an increasingly active participant in the world of education, particularly when it comes to exploring the role technology can play in re-imagining the way we learn.” 
  • The Data Found By Combining AdWords and Analytics Might Surprise You
    How many times have you heard in the past year that the details are in the data? While it takes the correct data, the numbers can give marketers a clear path to determine how consumers find their company's Web site, what led them to make a purchase, and more. Lisa Raehsler gives us three examples of how combining Google AdWords and Analytics can help improve the performance of paid-search campaigns. She guides us through paid-search reporting, multichannel funnel reporting, and matched search queries.
  • Growing Facebook Campaigns Through Analytics
    Last year Facebook improved on its analytics tools, Insights. Now they offer some in-depth services and reports. Brian looks at analytics reports that can help marketers grow their Facebook marketing strategies. He points to little-known facts about the platform, such as the ability to track competitor's pages. Don't disregard Google Analytics for Facebook campaigns. It will show marketers how much traffic Facebook drives to the Web site, and the specific pages on the Web site that received the traffic.
  • Google's Project Ara Gets A Developers Conference
    Google has announced the first Ara Developers Conference to take place April 14 and 15, focusing on the Project Ara modular smartphone concept. The idea comes from piecing together Lego blocks, which co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are known to like. Project Ara aims to make modular smartphones a reality. Rather than buying one phone, where all the components are fixed inside the casing, this phone will allow consumers to custom make the inner workings of the phone and replace parts as needed.
  • GCHQ, NSA Collect Webcam Images of Yahoo Users
    The data keeps pouring in. Ever thought about covering your laptop or tablet webcam with a tiny sliver of black tape? GCHQ, Britain's surveillance agency, along with the U.S. National Security Agency, intercepted and stored webcam images of millions of Internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, per The Guardian. During six months in 2008, the agency collected webcam imagery from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.
  • The Rise Of Yahoo CMO Kathy Savitt
    Kathy Savitt, Yahoo’s chief marketing officer since 2012, appears to be the executive to watch at the Web giant. She “has quickly risen to become one of Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's most prominent and trusted lieutenants,” The Wall Street Journal reports. According to WSJ, the recent firing of Yahoo’s operating chief Henrique de Castro only helped Savitt’s cause. The move left Savitt “at the helm of Yahoo's push into digital media.” 
  • Bing Maps In Two Languages
    Bing has released updates to the AJAX Version 7.0 that allow marketers to create maps with labels in two different languages -- primary and secondary. The primary language is used for map labels, the navigation control and directions when supported, per Bing. The post provides instructions on how to create dual labeling using AJAX V.7.
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