• comScore Ranks U.S. Media Properties For January 2015
    comScore has released its monthly ranking of U.S. online activity at the top digital media properties for January 2015. No surprise that the findings reveal Google Sites ranked as the top multiplatform property with 241 million unique visitors/viewers across desktop and mobile, while also ranking as the top desktop property with 197.7 million visitors. AddThis topped the Ad Focus ranking with a U.S. desktop internet reach of 96.3%. The data is based on data from the comScore Media Metrix and Media Metrix Multi-Platform services.   
  • Surprise! Didn't Think The Landing Page Rates?
    It makes sense that paid-search landing pages should match specific user queries, per Andy Taylor. Users searching for an iPhone should be directed to a page featuring all available iPhone models, and those searching for white iPhone 6 Plus should land on a product page for the white iPhone 6 Plus. While the agency had always used product pages for keywords that indicate a particular brand, RKG and an advertiser wanted to see how users responded to being presented with more options that would still meet their needs. Here's what they found.
  • Bing Ads Offer What Google Doesn't
    Mark Irvine has an opinion. He shows marketers seven ways that Bing Ads beats Google AdWords. He believes Bing offers more granular control at the campaign and ad group level, better targeting options, and more transparency overall. It's interesting to hear about all the niche benefits Google doesn't offer. Sort of a change of pace.
  • Google Mulling New Mountain View Headquarters
    The Mountain View City Council got wind of a Google project that could have the company building new headquarters. Google already owns or leases about 7.3 million square feet of office space in Mountain View, roughly equivalent to three Empire State Buildings, per The New York Times. Some believe the city has become too congested. Here's the scoop.
  • Google Testing Live Chat Within Business Search Results
    Google is testing a service that builds live chat with businesses into search results. The service, as TechCrunch reports, relies on a new link that shows whether a business is currently available in search result, which, when clicked, “immediately launches a chat via Google Hangouts (on either desktop or mobile) if they are.” Notes TechCrunch: “The service resembles Path Talk’s direct messaging platform with local businesses, but incorporates its service right into the business listing search result card it shows on Google.com.” 
  • Are Health Info Sites Betraying Consumer Trust?
    Health information sites are selling consumer search activity to third-party companies. For digital marketers, this should come as no surprise. Motherboard, on the other hand, considers the practice alarming, and reasons that most consumers -- if they knew what sites like WebMD and About.com were up to -- would feel the same way. “If you’re visiting a for-profit health website, you can essentially guarantee you’re being tracked, and that your requests are ending up in the hands of not just firms that earn revenue from advertising … but from selling data explicitly.” 
  • Microsoft Serves Order Online Button In Search Results
    Bing recently introduced two search features related to food, making it easier for users to order food from the search results. For restaurants that make deliveries, the search engine will show an Order online button. Clicking the button launches an ordering service like eat24, which Yelp recently acquired, to get dishes delivered directly to the user, who will then be taken to an ordering service to receive their favorite dishes at the door.
  • Yahoo's Facial Recognition Technology
    Yahoo researchers have created what they call a new approach to image recognition in search. The idea is to train the technology to identify the pictures from many angles, even with some partially hidden -- in this case, faces. Yahoo's research team calls this Deep Dense Face Detector, and says it compares well with other algorithms that claim to do similar searches that identify objects.  
  • Search Marketers, Don't Confuse Facebook's Use Of Feed, Product Ads
    Facebook's use the of the words "feed" and "product ad" shouldn't force marketers to automatically connect this to similar product ad formats in Google and Bing. The new Facebook ads have little resemblance to search engine product ads, per Michelle Alfano. This is because users on Facebook don't search for product-specific items like Nikon digital cameras or Hewlett-Packard printers on the social network. Alfano explains.
  • U.S. Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Google
    An antitrust lawsuit claims that Google made two of its device manufacturers use its Android operating system and make its search engine the default option in favor of those created by competitors like Microsoft. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose dismissed the suit Friday. 
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