• Google Tracking Political Trends
    In Tampa at the Republican National Convention, Google carved a space for tracking political trends and the keywords spoken by candidates, especially on mobile devices. The top four-searched speaks included Paul Ryan, Susana Martinez, Condoleezza Rice, and John McCain. When Ryan spoke about his mom as a role model, searches on the topic spiked.
  • How To Test And Compare URLs
    Google removed display and destination URLs as key fields, which disables the ability to test and compare. Text ads are only matched on headline, description 1, and description 2. PPC Hero tells us how to get around Google's change when split testing display URLs and Destination URLs.
  • Link-Building Resources
    Kristi Hines gives us 79 link-building resources. She runs down changes in the industry to Google's algorithm. Hines explains the nuances of a post-Penguin era, and provides advice to support changes resulting from Penguin and unnatural link warnings, as well as content on links to avoid, link building with content, and link building for local.
  • Thinking Global Paid-Search Campaigns?
    Traditional search engine optimization techniques or paid-search campaigns for local can be slow to convert when expanding into a global market. Christian Arno provides advice on targeting specific markets, includuing focusing on different search engines, relevant keywords and copy.
  • Google Launches BigQuery Tools For Big Data
    Google added two features to a project it calls BigQuery, giving users new ways to work with data, according to Ju-kay Kwek, Google's BigQuery product manager. The first, BigQuery Connector for Excel, makes it easier to execute queries using Microsoft Excel. It takes advantage of Excel’s standard Web query feature to eliminate manually importing data and running queries directly in Excel. The other tool allows users to designate a query as a batch query and it will complete within a few hours. Kwek provides the pricing model for the service.
  • Tech Money Going To Obama Campaign
    President Barack Obama's campaign is getting financial help from people at Microsoft and Google. Mitt Romney seems to attract banks and investment houses. No surprise there. Aside from "other," Obama attracts the most campaign donations from lawyers and lobbyists, while Romney pulls in most of the cash from finance, insurance and real estate sectors. CNET points to the funding.
  • Bing Map Imagery Excludes Area 51, Vandenberg Air Force Base
    Microsoft wrapped up a two-year project supported by the Boulder, Colo.-based Bing team that supports images for Maps. The group imaged nearly the entire United States, according to Laura Snider. The imagery excludes Nevada's Area 51 and California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, as required by the federal government. Snider tells us Bing's 30-centimeter resolution allows viewers to search and see anything larger than a foot in width.
  • Google Takedown Copyright Requests Rise
    Dan Worth gives us a glimpse into requests by copyright holders asking Google to take down content. In a Transparency Report frequently updated online, the Mountain View, Calif. company lists more than 5.6 million URLs; 31,628 domains; 1,845 copyright owners; and 1,376 reporting organizations. Worth tells us that "requests submitted to the search giant peaked at 1.49 million the week of August 13, compared to 156,708 in the same time period in 2011."
  • How Apple's Patent Win Changes Mobile
    What are the ramifications of the Aug. 24 ruling by the U.S. District Court jury, which awarded Apple more than $1.05 billion in damages after finding Samsung in violation of infringing on six of Apple's designs? It could impact searches on engines, but Seeking Alpha doesn't explore that possibility. We learn about other possible effects of the judgement on the mobile industry's research and development spending. It increases Apple's position in the market and commands about 70% of quarterly profits.
  • Enter The Enterprise BYO Device Era
    ABI Research estimates 2.4 billion employees will use smartphones by 2017. The annual 17% growth rate represents nearly three times more smartphones being used by employees. It turns the bring your own device (BYOD) into billions strong, rather than millions. This will spur new tools, apps, and a ton of data, according to the research group.
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