Google+
Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller wrote in a Google+ post that the engine has discontinued use of the Authorship feature that highlights the author's name and photo of the content. Google will continue the use of a structured markup language, which helps search engines better understand the content and context of pages on the Web.
eMarketer
Research from Toluna has found that smartphone users in the U.S., France, Germany and Singapore look at their device much faster in the morning after waking up compared with just under two-thirds of U.S. smartphone users look at their device within 15 minutes. A similar number of U.S. users do so within 15 minutes of going to bed. The data from eMarketer cites suggests that when it comes to total Internet time, more than half of Internet users in the U.S. said they spent at least 3 hours daily on the Web, compared with 48% of respondents in the UK.
Bloomberg
Sure to strengthen Google’s ties with the powers that be, Megan Smith, an exec at the search giant, has reportedly been pegged as the country’s next chief technology officer. “Smith, who was most recently a vice president at Google’s X lab, is a top candidate for the role,” Bloomberg reports. “Smith would become the third person to fill the CTO job, after Aneesh Chopra and Todd Park, who recently resigned and is returning home to California this month.”
Bing
The Bing Index Quality aims to improve the content served up in search engines for each query. Content quality and understanding the spammer's motivation by analyzing the quality of the content, presence of ads and position and layout all help to reduce spam. Bing outlines ways that the engine uses the ability to discover and filter out spam in the algorithm, as well as how to avoid ending up on the wrong side of spam filter.
Small Business Administration
Looking for ideas when the well runs dry can become frustrating. It may seem elementary, but sometimes marketers forget about the obvious resources. Trending topics in Google Trends, Twitter and other social sites can help determine the topics people most want to know about now. Use the topics as a point of interest to develop content marketing ideas or blog posts.
Apple Insider
The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has granted Apple a patent for the Fifth Avenue Apple Store glass cube designed in part by co founder Steve Jobs. The 32-foot cube uses fewer panes of glass to achieve a cleaner aesthetic. The redesign was completed in late 2011.
Bing Ads
Bing has implemented close variant matching, following Google's lead to discontinue exact and phrase keyword match types in AdWords. Bing Ads is testing the inclusion of close variants in a portion of U.S. exact-match queries in the U.S. market, per Matt Bisson. The feature will match ads to queries that represent exactly the same intent as those that marketers already use. Bisson explains.
Bizible
Bizible has secured $8 million in venture capital funding led by Scale Venture Partners. The company builds software that connects sales and marketing data. The company said it will use the funds to build out its platform. One feature focuses on the ability to measure marketing activities, from organic to paid. The funds also will allow the company to hire new talent such as senior developer, data scientist, product and program manager, as well as other roles across the organization. Stacey Bishop, who sits on the boards at HubSpot and Demandbase, will take a seat on Bizible's board of directors.
WordStream
Long gone are the days when marketers could throw together a paid-search campaign. Google and Bing expect more. Larry Kim shows marketers how to stop wasting time with low click-through rates and bidding to a particular position, and provides strategies to improve the return on investment for paid-search campaigns. Here's how.
Moz
Swirling rumors on negative SEO prompt Marie Haynes to explain how to reduce fears by protecting the site. She defines the term "negative SEO" and explains how it works. She gives example of things that are not negative SEO such as "weird links are not necessarily bad links." Signs that links could be negative include links from foreign forums, and a large number of links from sites with TLDs like .ru, .cz, .cn, .pl, .ro, .bg, .biz, .com.ar, .com.br and .info. Haynes guides us through the steps needed to protect the site and its content.