Cuil - said "cool." Nope. I want to say "coolie." Sphinn worked for me, but not this one. Though there are still people that mispronounce Sphinn, so whatever. It's the engine just released from former Googlers. Last night it was all over Twitter, so I thought I'd check it out this morning, especially after the Austin American Statesman talked about it too. First searches: I don't like the picture thing and the layout. Maybe it's like Facebook ...

Maybe someone has a solution to this, but for now I am calling this a "would love" feature in AdWords. Situation: My company wants to test placing the phone number in the ad text and how that converts better than other ads. There is some debate about this and I want to try it. :) So we assign a phone number to the campaign and a landing page with that phone number. Full tracking since people might click and then convert online and we want to ...

I remember when I first got an inactive notice in AdWords. It didn't make sense to me then, but now I don't get them at all. Makes me wonder if I've gotten better, or has AdWords? When you put ads up with Google, there are many best practices to think about when writing ads, picking landing pages, and crafting out which key phrases to use. I don't want to review all of them, so instead I'll point you to a few nice reviews of them recently ...

Funny, I started this post in Seattle and with the blog move, never got back to it. Now Rand has gone and done so much better, but I still have somethings to say about all this. I recently asked Matt Cutts about topics he thought I might research for my Master's thesis. I thought paid linking and he said it was going to be sooo 2007. I disagreed because I had seen so many people still doing it. When we got to Seattle, what I said was backed ...

We got a call from AOL marketing services yesterday. Bit of a surprise to me, but then I thought about how many times I've heard AOL's name in the past week and was surprised no longer. From new executives to the acquisition of Bebo, their like 105th acquisition in the past year (I exaggerate), I can see they are on the move.Then thinking about how Time Warner is planning to spin them off got me thinking. Ask just made a dumb move focusing just ...

Everyone knows that my hero is Matt Cutts. I don't hide that fact. But I came across something really funny today ... to me at least. I started with a new auto refinance company (It's my blog, I can link to who I want), and presented my 24 Hour Strategic Plan to them yesterday. That's my plan I came up with in 24 hours. Well, in that plan I mentioned that in marketing material (website copy and ad copy on AdWords) does best with numbers in it. ...

I just read a story about how Google is heading downwards in financial terms. Of course this has little impact on their status as the search engine leader, but its interesting to read today. One reason really ... Ask.comThe morons (sorry, its true) at Ask.com have decided to go back to the 1996 way of doing things and stop playing with the big boys.Partner this with Yahoo's downturn ... and all of a sudden I am scared. Seriously. I really don't ...

Microsoft tried to buy Facebook to no avail. Now they are trying with Yahoo. And Google got flack with Doubleclick? Wait ... why isn't anyone noticing that MSN is buying EVERYONE again. There may still be competition, but really??I am still riding the fence on this one though. There is some real good that COULD come from a Yahoo/Microsoft merger. But I still am not a fan of Microsoft. So what I really need to say is Go Ask Go! ...

Barry notes today that a number of sites have been wrist slapped by Google for selling paid links. Good for Google. I hate to say it, but Barry is right, Google gave plenty of warning. Google can do what it wants, what it thinks is best for the end user, not the advertiser. If you want to do well in Google, you have to do what they say. It's as simple as that. If you want to buy links, go for it. It just won't help anymore. ...

Search Engine Watch just posted a rant about paid linking. One of many since SES San Jose (I'm still mad that I didn't go. Matt told me to, I should have.)After everyone in the SEM world harking on Google for their initiative to go after paid linkers, I really hope they don't drop it. Paid linking is the source for many bad sites being ranked just because they have money. This whole thing is like file sharing. When it's a random person (or site ...