Google Security
Do you remember the former Google employee Sanmay Ved, who somehow managed to purchase the domain name google.com from the Google registry? While he owned it for about a minute before Google reversed the transaction, Ved announced in a LinkedIn post that Google Security reached out to offer him a reward. He didn't share the amount, but now Google Security has as part of its year in review blog post.
Search Engine Watch
Always prioritize SEO tasks, according to Amanda DiDilvestro. Marketers often miss the basics when the tasks are not prioritized. Doing certain SEO tasks out of order could require marketers to backtrack and spend a lot of time and resources to finally meet their goals. She provides 14 important SEO tasks in order of priority, starting with identifying and removing duplicate content and checking navigation and UX factors, and ending with working on backlinks and following SEO industry news and blogs to gain even more tips.
The Guardian
Google representatives and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are due to give evidence in a hearing on Feb 11, 2016, within weeks after they agreed to appear before the Commons public accounts committee to discuss their controversial tax settlement. Google agreed to pay the British authorities £130m in back taxes. The deal covers a decade of underpaid U.K. taxes by the company.
Google
Google has introduced custom formals in its custom columns feature in Google AdWords that will enable marketers to do quick computations like addition, subtraction and multiplication from AdWords custom columns. The feature supports sorting, charting, filtering and exporting. Google provides this example: "To see the percentage of clicks you get from mobile devices, create a custom column that divides mobile clicks by total clicks. Or let's say you’re a shoe retailer and enjoy a 40% profit margin for each pair of shoes you sell. To understand your total profit for each sale, ensure your conversion value column tracks revenue. Then, …
BuzzFeed
In several regional markets around the globe, local telecoms are using Facebook’s Free Basics service as a way to give themselves an edge over competitors, BuzzFeed reports, citing its own research. “While the grand idea might be an initiative to get people online for the first time, these telecoms view and market Free Basics as an alluring offering for digitally savvy but cash-strapped consumers.”
Bloomberg Businessweek
Despite China’s slowing economy, Alibaba beat analysts’ estimates for the fourth quarter of the year. “Sales surged 32 percent to 34.5 billion yuan ($5.2 billion) in the three months ended December … compared with the 33.2 billion-yuan average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg,” Bloomberg Businessweek reports. “Net income more than doubled to 12.5 billion yuan.”
Moz
Moz, a Seattle marketing-software company, announced Tuesday that it had raised a $10 million series C financing round entirely from an existing investor, Foundry Group. It brings the company's total financing to $29.1 million.
9To5Google
Google Glass social media accounts have been shut down to focus on an Enterprise Edition, reports 9TO5Google. Glass now lives under the umbrella of Project Aura. Project Aura aims to bring a head-mounted display unit during the next few years. Taking Glass to the enterprise puts Google head to head with companies like Epson, which has supported the space for years.
IAB
In an effort to widen the Interactive Advertising Bureau's reach to build a global network of companies, Yahoo Japan has joined the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab as its first founding member from outside the United States. An exec from Yahoo Japan will take a seat on the board.
Moz
It's about content, not links. If Google sends traffic to pages, then it considers the content good enough to rank in query results. These are two tidbits that Google recently shared about its Panda algorithm that SEOs did not know -- something the engine's development team rarely does, according to Jennifer Slegg. Here are some of Slegg's top takeaways about Google's Panda algorithm. SEOs can use the insight to create quality content or to increase the value of the content they use today.