Archive for December, 2006

• Google Announces Content Match Training Improvements

  New guidance from Google has been released today, on a temporary site, offering more information about the effective use of content match (WARNING: opens in new window - see below). We’ll be reviewing the content over the next few days, and giving Google some frank feedback.
  First and most obvious problem that it resizes windows […]

  December 21st, 2006

• Dmoz - seven weeks and counting

  Dmoz, the publicly maintained human moderated directory operated by AOL/Netscape, has been dead in the water for about seven weeks. It is now using a frozen copy of the database so that users can at least get to stable parts of the directory.
  It’s beginning to cause anguish amongst the SEO-ers. Why?

  DMOZ, the ODP and […]

  December 15th, 2006

• Search Engine Blog Awards

  That nice Mr Ball nominated us as SEM blog for the Search Engine Journal Awards. Aww, shucks. And gee whillickers. Head on over and add your favourites, right now. Mine? Well, take a look at the comments there!

  December 15th, 2006

• Economist, Google and the UK

  The Economist quotes Eric Schmidt talking about Adland’s test tube, on UK advertisers being at the leading edge. The Economist is one of my favourite magazines, along with New Scientist and the stimulating Harvard Business Review.
  There’s surely some mistake, though. If the UK is such a leading edge and buzzing place, why do all […]

  December 15th, 2006

• Twelve ways, plus a bit, less a few.

  Interesting click fraud chorus starting up here. This thought provoking piece, The 12 Ways of Click Fraud by Mike O’Krongli, is a response to the Andy Beal/Shuman Ghosemajumder articles. See also Andrew Goodman’s piece and his other one.
  I’m not entirely convinced by all of Mikes’ arguments. In the interests of trying to refine the message […]

  December 15th, 2006

• Google Writes About Click Fraud

  Interesting article, Google, Click Fraud and Invalid Clicks about Google and click fraud, by Matt Cutt’s colleague Shuman Ghosemajumder. There’s at least two categories that I don’t see addressed in the article. Maybe I read it too quickly. Twice.

  Identifiable robots. Some spiders identify themselves not just by behaviour but in the user agent and […]

  December 14th, 2006

• AdWords Bulksheets To Disappear

  Several rumours that AdWords bulksheet uploads are to disappear are confirmed in an email to us yesterday from Google Support. We’re to use the AdWords Editor instead. Curiously Google didn’t recommend using the AdWords API.
  Also missing was any announcement about a non-Windows version of the AdWords Editor. We use Windows purely for QA. […]

  December 13th, 2006

• Confirmed: Web Analytics Packages Really Don’t Help Marketers

  I’ve been telling customers for years that web analytics packages are essentially mired in a technologists view of performance, not marketing. Now the larger agencies are starting in on the analytics vendors.
  We’ve developed our own, behind-the-scenes sets of analytics to identify user behaviour and optimise paid search marketing. If you can’t identify average pages […]

  December 8th, 2006

• Incubator conversations

  There are some conversations that reveal the location. We have an office in a startup unit in i-Lab. Shared coffee area conversation:
  First seriously cold morning this winter, I’m frozen
  Yeah, these warm winters.
  Could do with a good cold winter to kill the insect vectors of disease.
  Sure could.
  Apart from a University, where else do you get that […]

  December 5th, 2006

• SME’s Failed by IAB “Media More Engaging”

  The Internet Advertising Bureau in the US (there’s another IAB in the UK) has just started advertising a promotion for internet advertising. They offer a microsite that is a microcosm of everything you should avoid doing in Search Engine Marketing, as a small business hoping to gain visitors. It’s also pretty much against most recommendations […]

  December 4th, 2006