Category: Google

Google’s Webmaster Tools Get Update

Google has launched an update to their Webmaster Tools, which introduces a new interface and improvements to some of the features. The new interface reorganizes the placement of the various features and adds top search queries, inbound links, and sitemap data to the site overview page, now renamed the dashboard. The top search queries report now includes up to 100 queries and “substantially improved data quality in this area” according to a post on the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. The inbound links report also has received additional data. The Message Center now provides the option having messages forwarded to an email address. In instances where multiple users have access to the Webmasters Tools, each users will be able to see the status of all submitted sitemaps without having to each submit the sitemaps.

Google Introduces New Search Results Filtering Options

Google today introduced a set of features they call Search Options, which provides users with the ability to filter their search results in a number of ways. The options are accesible by clicking the “Show options …” link under the search box on the search results page. Results can be filter to only include videos, forums, or reviews. Google already provided the option to only show video results through Google Video, but the other two options are new. The reviews filter still needs work as includes pages that are not reviews, for example searching ‘iphone’ or ‘honda accord’ includes the official websites for these products.

Additional individual filter options are available for videos, forums, and reviews results and for viewing all results. When viewing all results, results can be filtered to be only from recently, the past 24 hours, the past week, or the past year. The results can also be modified to include images from the pages or with longer snippets from the pages.

Google wrote in a post on the Official Google Blog that they plan introduce more features to Search Options in the future.

Google Expands Use of Sitelinks In Search Results

Google has introduced an expansion of sitelinks, which brings the possibility of a more limited version of sitelinks being displayed for multiple results on a search results page. Sitelinks are links to additional pages on a website that are shown underneath a result from that website. The decision whether to show sitelinks for a given query and what links to show is determined algorithmically. In a post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog announcing the expansion, Google explains that the purpose of sitelinks is to “enable users to jump directly to important parts of a site, which is often useful for large, complex websites” and to give “users an overview of a website’s content by highlighting some of the popular parts of the site.”

Originally, sitelinks were only shown for the first result of a search with three to eight links shown in two columns. If your search for Microsoft you can see example of this along with a search box, for searching within the given website, that is sometimes shown under the sitelinks. The expansion introduces one-line sitelinks, which show up to four links to other pages on the website. The one-line sitelinks can show up for multiple results, including the first result.

In the post Google also announced changes in the ability for websites to block pages from their websites, through Google’s Webmasters Tools, from being shown as sitelinks. Google will be “speeding up our response time” in blocking pages and expanding the blocking, which is currently limited to blocking pages shown as sitelinks for a website’s homepage, to any page on a website that displays sitelinks.

Yahoo Increases Share of US Search-Ad Revenue in Q1

Yahoo increased it share of US search-ad revenue to 19.3 in the first quarter of 2009, up 1 percent from the year ago period, according to search marketing firm Efficient Frontier. From the year ago period, Google dropped .9 percent to 72.3 percent and Microsoft dropped 1 percent to 3.5 percent. Google had a click-through rate (CTR) of 2.38 and cost per click (CPC) of 54 cents in the first quarter of 2009, Yahoo CTR of 1.16 and CPC of 42 cents, and Microsoft CTR of 2.19 and CPC of 52 cents. The data is based a subset of Efficient Frontier clients and is comprised of over 84 billion impressions and 785 million clicks.

Google’s U.S. Search Share Reaches New High and Yahoo’s Reaches New Low

Nielsen Online today released its rankings of U.S. search share for March (PDF), with overall search increasing 16.7 percent year over year to 9.5 billion searches. Google had a year over year increase of 27.6 percent and received 64.2 percent of searches. Google’s had it highest percentage of searches ever, surpassing November of last year when it received 64.1 percent. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 1.7 percent and received 15.8 percent of searches. Yahoo’s percentage of searches was lower that 16 percent for the first time in the last two years and was 6.1 percentage points lower than it highest percentage in the last two years. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 0.3 percent and received 10.3 percent of searches.

Google Introduces Longer Snippets for Some Searches

Google has begun to show longer snippets for some search queries that include more than three words. According to a post on the Official Google Blog, the longer snippets are being introduced to “provide more information and show more of the words you typed in the context of the page.” The longer snippets span three or four lines. Google also announced that they have deployed new technology that “can better understand associations and concepts” related to search queries. Google is using the new technology to show more related searches and show related for longer queries.

Google Brings Behavioral Targeting to Content Network

Google today announced the launch of behavioral target advertising on the Google content network. The advertising, that Google calls “interest-based”, will show ads based on categories of interest of the user determined by the “types of sites you visit and the pages you view.” Google says that a limited number of advertisers will be offered the chance to use “interest-based” advertising as part of a beta, and that the offering will be expanded later in 2009.

To deal with privacy concerns Google touts the fact that most ads it provides include a label that includes links to “get more information about how we serve ads, and the information we use to show you ads”. Google has created a tool called the Ads Preferences Manager that allows users to view, delete, or add interest categories associated with the advertising cookie in their web browsers. They also allow users the option to opt-out of the advertising cookie and have provide a plug-in to insure that the opt-out cookie is no deleted when a user clears out the cookies in their web browser.

February U.S. Search Share Results

Nielsen Online yesterday released its rankings of U.S. search share for February. Overall search increased 10.1 percent year over year to 8.5 billion searches. Google had year over year increase of 19.2 percent and received 63.5 percent of searches. Google’s percentage of searches was it’s second highest reported by Nielsen Online, only surpassed by November of last year when it received 64.1 percent. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 4 percent and received 16.7 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 2.4 percent and received 10.4 percent of searches.

Google Testing Expandable Ads on Content Network

Google has begun testing expandable ads, ads that expand in size when clicked on, on the Google content network. The ads will be limited to expanding to double the original size and can “include a streaming video or other content designed to engage users through an interactive experience.” In addition to limiting the size of expanded ads, ads will expand only after a user clicks on the ad, ads will be required to be able to be closed by the user at any time, and ads must comply with Google’s standard AdWords image ad policies. The ads are price on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) basis, CPC ads will only accrue clicks when a user visits the advertisers landing page and not when a user clicks to expand the ad. According to a post on the Inside AdWords blog the test is currently limited to the U.S. advertiser who advertise through Google’s 3rd Party Ad Serving program and the test will be expanded, but no details were given.