At least 419 million people are blocking ads on smartphones -- including Facebook, but excluding content-blocking apps, in-app ad blockers, and opt-in browser ad blockers, according to a study released Tuesday. The move will prompt app makers to rethink how they will address search and advertising with mobile applications.

Do backlinks still have an impact on Web site desktop traffic? One study released this week finds they might have more of an impact than first believed.

Google and Microsoft have separately mapped out plans to eliminate traditional passwords for something new.

Marketers of small and medium-size businesses struggle with how to spend their advertising budgets. Only 13% responding to a survey from Magisto use search engine optimization and 27% use paid search. More are turning toward social media as a form of word of mouth.

In Google CEO Sundar Pichai's plan for a post-device world, making a phone call from Google Home to Nordstrom or accepting incoming calls from friends and family should be possible. The voice-activated home networking device that provides answers from the search engine, streams music, and manages everyday tasks will replace the family landline phone and provide an option to make outgoing or incoming calls through the devices virtual assistant. It becomes one more piece of intimate data that provides insight into the household. Here's why marketers should care.

Google, Bing, Apple and others are forging their way into voice search and artificial intelligence, but a study released earlier this year suggests consumers were not ready for the change last year. That may no longer be the case.

Trying to understand consumer intent through search isn't easy. We talk about like it's as simple as dunking an Oreo cookie into a frosty glass of cold milk, pulling it out and tasting the chocolaty goodness. Unless you hold down the cookie it bobs up again, rather than sinking. What's the point, you're probably thinking.

Looking at data from the top 100 apps that use Opera MediaWorks' mobile ad platform to monetize traffic, the company found that mobile users individually spend about 30 minutes in each popular app -- news, games, entertainment, music -- with an average session length of 8.5 minutes.

Search marketers will undoubtedly have another piece of data to use in search advertising and optimization campaigns after Google introduces its voice-activated home device Wednesday and consumers begin adopting the hardware.

Search engine optimization professionals at some large companies have been waiting about six months to get their "highest priority technical changes" made, and more than 40% have been waiting for more than a year. Seems incredible, but true, according to data released Monday.