http://www.mediapost.com/publications/ Experts talk Google, Yahoo, Bing, SEO, SEM and everything in-between. en-us Copyright 2009 MediaPost Communications http://www.mediapost.com/rss Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:12:16 EST If you have a child in the 18- to 36-month-old range, you may recognize the catchphrase of the "Wonder Pets" in the title above. I happen to have a two-year-old who enjoys the adventures of the Wonder Pets -- three animals who each episode set out to save a poor, innocent animal using their can-do attitudes and, yep, teamwork. So what do these Nickelodeon creations have to do with search? The Wonder Pets, in their "team together" philosophy, exemplify the greatest area of growth still needed in the search space. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117814Chris Copeland <>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:45:59 ESTAvinash Kaushik, Google's Analytics Evangelist, will be kicking off the Search Insider Summit in just two weeks. I had the opportunity to chat with Avinash last week about what might be in store. As anyone who has heard him before would agree, it won't be-sugar coated, it will be colorful and it will probably wrench your perspective on things you took for granted at least 180 degrees. Here are the three basic themes he'll be covering. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117711Gord Hotchkiss <>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:30:33 ESTToday we close out the chapter on business lessons learned from Google. As much as I like a good top-ten list, I couldn't whittle this one down, so here are numbers nine through eleven, staring with: 9. Follow the law of averages at your own peril. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117600Aaron Goldman <>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:45:07 ESTHow do people engage with your product or service? Do you sell something like kayaks, which become a part of people's lives, passion and identity? Or do you sell couches, which tend to only interest people while they're shopping for them? A Twitter search for "kayak" reveals all sorts of conversation about people indulging in their favorite activity, conversation that a kayak manufacturer could participate in to become part of the community. A Twitter search for "couch," on the other hand, reveals conversation focused on laziness -- not exactly fodder for potential couch sales. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117510Kaila Colbin <>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:46:00 ESTSo I am sitting around with some friends last weekend watching sports on TV. We get to laughing about the E*Trade baby ads. Well, what do you know? We ended up whipping out the laptop and searching for the ads to watch them a few times. What a brilliant creative execution -- and how brilliant that we were able to re-enjoy the ads again together as friends. Then of course, much to my friends' chagrin, I started waxing poetic about the merits of SEM, video, and social media optimization. My point is that great creative begets the need for video search optimization and social media integration. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117458Rob Griffin <>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:30:17 ESTThis past Saturday, I married the love of my life. Now begins the process of changing my last name; but, contrary to what most people go through with the legalese of adopting their spouse's surname, I am now tasked with rebranding myself. Search Insider reader audience should accept the "Janel Landis is now Janel Laravie" change fairly naturally, but my ultimate goal is that Google will suggest to users searching for Janel Landis, Did you mean Janel Laravie? http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117384Janel Laravie <>Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:00:25 ESTIn about three weeks, we'll be gathering in Park City, Utah for another Search Insider Summit. Between now and then, I'll be providing a sneak peek at some of the content that will be covered. On Day 1 of the Summit, Jordan Rohan from Clearmeadow Partners and Mark Mahaney from Citi Investment Research will look both backward and forward six months to help us get a fix on lessons learned and what we should be paying attention to. I asked both Jordan and Mark to provide some hints of what they're seeing in their rearview mirrors and what's coming down the road. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117287Gord Hotchkiss <>Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:45:49 ESTFor all of the focus on crawler and social layers, paid search has largely been ignored in the ongoing discussion of real-time search. This is a bit ironic in that it represents one of the most direct opportunities for marketers in a "right now" or "near right-now" scenario. Considering how one might engage in real-time paid search provides many answers about how it might also be approached in other real-time instances (many of which are TBD because real-time search is still developing). http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117205Rob Garner <>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:45:36 ESTIn the months straddling 2000-2001, I had the good fortune to lead the ParentsConnected Nationwide Seminar Tour alongside my business partner, Ken. One segment of our show, Hewlett-Packard Marble Madness, involved hiding a marble of a particular shade of blue in a bowl of 4,500 other multicolored marbles. Contestants would come up on stage and have 20 seconds to try to find the correct blue marble, and match it to the "control" marble. If they found it, they won a computer. The educational message of Marble Madness was simple: searching on the Internet is like searching for the blue marble. Sometimes you find it right away, and sometimes you never find it. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117102Kaila Colbin <>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:45:14 ESTAt Ad:Tech last week, one message I heard, over and over again, is that people seem exhausted by the huge inefficiencies in marketing today. This is particularly true for Web marketing, including display, search and especially social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Specifically regarding search, the overwhelming sense I got is that it is still so mysterious. There's real confusion among everyday businesspeople and rank-and-file marketers about how things work, despite the many blogs, newsletters and columns on the topic. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117027Derek Gordon <>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:15:17 EST