• Google Warns Against Advertorials
    Google spam expert Matt Cutts took to YouTube this week to warn brand marketers who don't fully disclose advertorials or native advertising as ads. In a video he talks about guidelines, links and disclosures to search engine and readers. He points to several sites in the United Kingdom believed to take "money and writing articles for pay, including keyword-rich anchor text in the articles that float PageRank and not tell anyone." Cutts explains some of the issues surrounding advertorials and native advertising.
  • Google Serves Nutritional Info In Query Results
    Google will start providing nutrition information for more than 1,000 fruits, vegetables, meats and meals in search query results to make it easier for consumers to make food choices that are suitable for them. The nutritional information builds on Google's Knowledge Graph strategy, which connects related things. Ask for "summer squash carbs" and get "zucchini." And when using voice search, searchers will hear the answer to the question.
  • SEOmoz Discards SEO
    Rand Fishkin dropped the SEO from the Moz name to emphasize the direction the company's is headed in. It's been some time now since the company focused solely on SEO, adding social and other media within the past year or two. Under the new company name, Moz, employees will educate marketers, build tools, and answer questions. The company will also focus on building out analytics tools. Moz Analytics launched this week.
  • Microsoft Reimagines Bing Search In Windows 8.1
    The Bing team has been working with the Windows 8 team to reimagine search, according to Derrick Connell, corporate VP at Bing. Search in Windows 8.1 will find everything from documents on the searcher's PC, photo albums in the cloud, or apps on a Web site.  In just a tap, the searchers will play, view, launch, or browse. Connell calls it an "intent-driven computing experience" that lives in a "tool box," the PC.
  • Yahoo Growth Stagnates On Good Intentions
    Dead companies don't attract 160 million unique U.S. visitors and 500 million global unique visitors monthly. Stalled-out companies do. It may take some time for Yahoo to make a comeback. Sit tight. That's how a Seeking Alpha contributor using a pseudonym known as "Unbigoted Research, an economics geek," describes Yahoo. Scroll down to the end of the column to find the most interesting perspective. "The problem is that its growth has stagnated while its image has been eclipsed by rivals," he writes. He points to several features --  including trending topics on the home page -- that need to be …
  • Google Execs Play God
    Andrew Ng launched the Deep Learning project at Google in 2011, and in recent months helped the search giant significantly expand effort in artificial intelligence after Larry Page acquired the artificial intelligence company founded by University of Toronto professor Geoffrey Hinton. He developed a graphic processing unit to mimic brain power in neural networks designed for processing images and video games, but Page wants to use it more for building a system that mimics the human brain.
  • How To Report SEO Progress
    Clients want to see progress. That might mean a manager in-house or a brand you have signed on to optimize the company's search engine strategy. It has become more important to set up a reporting process that supports change. As processes change, so should reporting requirements. Krista LaRiviere provides a list of requirements and a checklist to follow, from setting goals and expectations to determining the actions that will drive conversions. Read the article here.
  • Why The Next Generation Of Search Ads Contain Video Under CPE Model
    After hearing Neal Mohan, Google's vice president of display advertising, talk about media sold on a cost-per-engagement (CPE) basis, Kevin Lee began thinking about engagement and video in the search engine results page (SERP), and decided that in the future marketers can expect to bid on video ads as a swap-in for product listing ad images. He provides insights on how it might work. Read the article here.
  • Brands Still Looking For ROI On Facebook
    Only 37% of the 92% of marketers running ads on Facebook believe their advertising is effective, according to Jennifer Slegg, citing the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. The study does suggest that the social network increases brand awareness and buzz. Also, half of those with less than 12 months experience with social media spend 5 or fewer hours with these types of sites -- while for those with at least two years, 70 percent spend six or more hours on their social media efforts each week. Read the article here.
  • Rimm-Kaufman Group Acquires Nine By Blue
    The Rimm-Kaufman Group has acquired Nine By Blue in an all cash-and-stock deal. Blueprint -- Nine By Blue's search analytics and diagnostics software -- comes along with the deal. RKG said it will become part of its technology suite of software and services. Vanessa Fox, founder of Nine By Blue, remains with RKG as chief product officer.
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