Archive for January, 2009

Jan29

Gord Hotchkiss

0

Hyperlinking Reality

Fellow Search Insider David Berkowitz (David, it’s been too long since we riffed on each other’s columns!) allowed his curiosity to wander down some fascinating potential directions search may evolve in a couple of recent columns, first looking at Ford’s plans for integrating GPS enabled voice search  in all their vehicles, and then speculating how one search could be launched in 17 different ways, both today and in the future. One of his speculations is what I wanted to explore further today:
“Instead of entering a query, Penny may be able to put on a special set of glasses and scan her [...]

Jan26

Gord Hotchkiss

0

Google Evolves Back to its Core

Last week, I talked about how the economy will sort out winners and losers even faster. This week, a trio of news releases seems to confirm that search, and Google, in particular, will be a winner. Unfortunately, almost no one will recognize that they’ve won.
Reports out of AdGooroo and Covario  show that search is still ticking along better than ever. AdGooroo has Google and Microsoft on track for the best Q4 in history. Apparently, despite the gathering storm, people still search and still click on ads. And, relatively speaking, there’s been minimal impact on search ad budgets. We saw a lot of [...]

Jan19

Gord Hotchkiss

1

Evolution in the Face of Adversity

I am an unrepentant Darwinist, which probably doesn’t surprise anyone who reads my columns on a regular basis. The whole topic of evolution and emergent behaviors in complex systems constantly fascinates me. As Steven Johnson pointed out in his recent book, Emergence, patterns rising from complexity is a ubiquitous theme that could well define the 21st century.
The World is a Cruel Place – Get Over It!
 
One of the most interesting things about evolution is that the pace of evolutionary change picks up in the face of adversity. The more hostile the environment, the faster the wheels of evolution roll and [...]

Jan13

Jody Nimetz

7

B2B Keyword Research When You’re in a Niche Market/Industry

One of the difficulties in online marketing deals with finding the right keywords, at the right time that are being used by the right people.  In the B2B arena, keyword research becomes further complicated when your company is in a new or niche industry. Maybe your business consists of something like email authentication, price management  solutions or the like.  Newer services in newer industries can make it difficult to progress with an effective online marketing campaign.  In the past ten years, with the rise of the Internet and Search Engines, we have seen numerous companies emerge in niche markets.  Quite often these companies are looking to address a need for [...]

Jan09

Jody Nimetz

1

Sub-Domains and the www Prefix

An interesting topic of discussion surrounds the thought of whether a sub-domain should have the www prefix attached to it.  The idea to deploy a site using sub-domains vs sub folders is an entirely different topic, but if you do make use of sub-domains, you’ll want to read further.  For those unaware, subdomains are simply a domain that is part of a larger domain.  For example, ask.enquiro is a sub-domain of www.enquiro.com.  Although it is part of the main Enquiro domain, sub-domains such as ask.enquiiro are treated as separate entities by search engines. 
Typically you will see the sub-domain with this [...]

Jan08

Gord Hotchkiss

1

To Google’s Competitors: Please, this Year, Do Something Amazing!

A month ago yesterday, I was on stage in Park City, Utah at the Search Insider Summit with Danny Sullivan, Jeff Pruitt (SEMPO President/iCrossing) and John Tawadros (iProspect) talking about Google’s domination of the search space. Both Danny and I took Microsoft and Yahoo! to task for not mounting a more significant challenge to Google’s dominance. It could be my imagination, but it seemed that for the rest of the Summit, I felt a bit of a chill in the air between myself and the Yahoo! and Microsoft reps that ventured to Park City. I suspect the feeling was that [...]