Google said it will change the way comments post to YouTube and Google+ by removing the share checkbox. Comments posted on YouTube will now appear only on YouTube, rather than including Google+ and vice-versa. Those in the domain of a Google App will no longer have the ability to restrict viewable comments made on YouTube only in their domain. They will see a warning alerting them their comments will become public.

Google Search now helps searchers determine the best time to visit a nearby business. After performing a search for a business on Google, click the title to see details such as its address, phone number and open hours, for example, Google will show the "popular times" for the business.

Google has confirmed that the Google Panda 4.2 update affects only 2% to 3% of search queries, which is lower than the previous update that influenced between 3% and 5% in September 2014, and the update in May 2014, which affected 7.5% of search queries, reports Jennifer Slegg. She provides some pointers and provides insight into what marketers can expect in the coming months.

Melissa Mackey wants to set the record straight. Ad performance on the Google Display Network (GDN) isn't the same as search, in that the ads are shown on content sites and matched based on content and topics (similar to native ads) rather than keywords. Advertisers should not think of display as an extension of search, but rather as a distinct channel. This becomes even more complicated with native ads because -- they along with search -- use the same pricing model. While low conversion rates are often a reality, she explains that low conversion rates on the GDN alone can …

Guthy-Renker's Proactiv online marketing team managed paid search and display independently until the company's CMO, Jay Sung, asked his team to determine if the combined influence of search and display had an impact on sales or whether final conversion results were as siloed as these spending allocations. Here are the methodology and findings on how display contributed downstream to paid-search campaigns.

With a background in search, Google's longevity research company Calico has partnered up with AncestryDNA, one part of the largest online family research organization Ancestry.com, to determine why some human genes help people live longer. Researchers from the two companies plan to analyze millions of public family trees, including more than one million genetic samples, to investigate heredity's connection to lifespan.

Google expanded on its marketplace launched in April that enables companies to sell their patents to the search company. It started a program for startups that will give them up to two non-organic patent families, and allows them to join the LOT Network, a cross-company licensing initiative that aims to reduce the number of patent-trolling lawsuits. Others in the group include Dropbox, SAP and Canon. There are other requirements, too. 

Rand Fishkin illustrates the connection between targeting broader keywords with multiple intent signals and those with narrow intent signals, with ways they apply to content creation and site architecture. He dives into "pinpoint versus floodlight tactics for content targeting, content strategy, and keyword research" to help marketers get and stay on track.

Richard Stokes wants to know if marketers are tracking what he considers the most important paid-search statistic. Measurement suggests marketers should have the ability to answer certain basic questions. He runs through several before providing a list of key statistics to watch.

The inability to monetize search results was the downfall of Lycos as a search engine. Lycos was a search engine, and like all search engines, it tried to figure out how to make money. So the engine ran eye-tracking tests and discovered that the bigger and bolder the ad, the less people looked at them. At the time the entire advertising philosophy was based on making ads flashy, so people would notice them, but people instinctively knew "the good stuff was on the boring part of the page, and that they ignored the parts of the page that we — …