There is a large amount of hoopla over the Google UI change. This post was inspired by one over at WordStream asking if Google was the new Bing. I'll say what a few people have said already, but I have a little more ranting behind it as well. Google's new look is not Bing, it's Ask. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="216" caption="2006 Matt Cutts as the Zombie Jeeves"][/caption] A while ago (and we are talking years) at SMX Advanced ...

Folks in this room understand that the quality of a search engine depends heavily on the relevance of advertising, and the relevance of advertising relies on the volume of bids. Steve Ballmer, MSFT Sorry, Steve but I beg to differ. This was a quote from the SMX West show in March 2010. While I get his point, and he was speaking to a room of search marketers, there is something flawed about his logic. When Google started its upward climb, ...

A good friend of mine that is getting into PPC asked me a question today. A question that I think is common to many people that are really digging into their campaigns. I am not talking to people just getting started (though you should read this too if you are) but those that are wanting to find the next step in campaign optimization. The question centered around dayparting in Google but based on the specific industry their client was in, so ...

It's too early to tell, but the more I hear about people talking about the more I come down to one conclusion. Search marketers can talk about it all day, and it makes no difference. We live this stuff. We get mad at Ask for taking away Jeeves. We analyze every change. How will I know if Microsoft made Bing work? When my mom asks about it and starts using it. I have always known that no matter what I think has hit the main stream, it ...

I've heard from a number of people in the industry that the new CEO of Ask has been contacting them trying to get them back as brand ambassadors. Smart move? Yes. Executed well? No. The CEO, if he isn't already, needs to be reading Seth Godin's blog. If he is already, I would suggest not skimming the entries. Why? It looks like he got the concept - the company made a boo-boo, and he knew that many influential bloggers we mad. So he reached out ...

I think EricLander got it right with this twitter and ScottPolk with this. The keynote was all about a political speech from Microsoft. All bark, and no bite. We all hope they listen to what we had to say at the end but I doubt it. Want the real recap? See Lisa's interp. First off, Kevin says that their advertising is the key. But their platform sucks and the fun part was we told him that at the end. The attendees all complained about various ...

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! ...

Vanessa Fox just published a live blog from MSN's event yesterday announcing their changes to MSN (aka LIVE search). They recognize that their relevance sucks and they aren't talking to webmasters. So ... they're fixing it. It'll be interesting to see what happens. ...