By now you've likely heard of this social networking website called Pinterest. You may even be among the roughly 35 million active users of Pinterest. The newest social media darling is still riding a wave of new registrants, high on-site engagement, and plenty of media buzz. Pinterest.com has become the fastest-growing website of all time, a fact that's mind-blowing given users must await an invitation to even join. But despite all these "facts" and rational arguments over why I too should join, I've resisted. Being a search marketer means that I'm rarely persuaded without data; I need hard evidence that …

On Feb. 13, Google updated its algorithm to help simplify searches for conditions related to certain health symptoms. In the truest sense, this appears to be an algorithm change that increases the efficiencies of the SERP. For brands, the question is: What impact will Google's "compression" have on its search advertising? Will Pharma brands maintain the same level of visibility, in both paid and organic search, for symptom-related terms as they did before? What can they do to maximize the change?

It's not easy being a B2B marketer of the digital variety. Trust me. The problem is that 99% of the online world seems to be built specifically for the consumer market, and us B2B types have to try to divvy up the 1% that's left. And that's where it gets challenging.

Following a March 15 Wall Street Journal article, "Google Gives Search a Refresh," the topic of semantic search has again become a hot-button issue for SEOs and webmasters. In that article, author Amir Efrati refers to coming changes across Google results pages, largely derived from enhancements in its core semantic search capabilities, as "among the biggest in the company's history and could affect millions of websites that rely on Google's current page-ranking results." If this "new" news is to be believed, then Google appears primed to make good on its promise to better understand both the Web and the intent …

Google, in an effort to keep up with advances in search and not rest on its laurels, is updating how it handles searches by leveraging a semantic engine to help provide more accurate results. This is a massive undertaking, in which Google is attempting to better understand the real intent of user search queries. Google semantic search clearly could have a huge impact on SEO practices: it will be a lot harder to game the system, as it won't be all about keywords anymore. But what about paid search marketers? Does this new advance mean anything for us?

Last week, my column was about how branding differs between search and more traditional brand channels like TV and print. It came from a recent client conversation I had. Rob Schmults from Intent Media added a well-thought-out, on-the-mark comment that deserves a follow-up. There are three points in particular I want to dive deeper into.

Aaron honors Whitney Houston with a search-related take on one of her greatest hits.

For months now, marketers have been debating the benefits of Google+. With other options for social engagement, why should you make Google+ a priority?

When a chief political advisor to Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney commented that his campaign would essentially reset after the primaries, the advisor used the image of shaking an Etch-a-Sketch as his metaphor. For any brand inserted into territory it would normally avoid like the plague, Etch-a-Sketch had a dilemma as it faced one of three choices: 1. Say and do nothing, and wait for the story to go away. 2. Object to the use of the Etch-a-Sketch brand in such contexts, and publicly reinforce its core brand values. or 3. Seize an opportunity to turn a potential lemon into …