The Search Engine Blog

Archive for November, 2006

This site is primarily for people looking for rental homes and apartments, but the Heat Map feature is way too cool not to check out. The map overlay lets you see information about the area where you and your business are located. Could this information be useful in searchers determining if they want to do business with you? If you have an upscale product but have your business in the slums, how could this type of information be used?

HotPads.com – Search for Apartments for Rent, Rental Houses, Homes, Sublets, and Roommates

SpyFu is a tool to check other site advertising costs and phrases they bid on. It is still in Beta so there may be errors in the campaigns listed. We looked up a number of our PPC customers and only one was found. The ad budget shown was way off and a few other numbers incorrect, but it did capture a number of the phrases the customer was bidding on and listed competitors for those phrases. Clearly there isn’t any information here that you can’t get by performing other searches and the information isn’t complete, but when this product is finished, it promises to be a big time saver.

SpyFu Beta

It’s no secret that patients use Google to help diagnose their illnesses, but here’s a site discussing how doctors use it

Doctors use Google to diagnose disease: study. 10/11/2006. ABC News Online

Interesting reading, but here’s another fact. Studies have shown that Google can correctly diagnose an illness 58% of the time. Given my experiences with doctors, it seems Google is more reliable.

If you are using ampersands (”&”) in your URLs ad MSN’s advertising services, you may find that your URLs are no longer working as planned. Many people use this symbol to assist in tracking the results of their ads. Our guess is that this is a bug that will eventually be fixed. In the meantime, check your URLs. View the discussion at Digital Point using this URL…..

adCenter Content Ads Beta Changing URLs

Much to the dismay of many advertisers (and those of us who manage PPC campaigns), Google has updated their landing page quality index. This means they’ve changed the rules on which ads remain and who will get better spots. This seems to be an annual tradition just before Christmas in order to punish those who are intentionally trying to scam the ad program. Unfortunately it also creates a sickly feeling in the pit of many advertiser’s stomachs. Read more on Google’s blog.

Inside AdWords: Landing page quality update

Why Microsoft didn’t copy this tool on their own is beyond me. If you love the search feature of Firefox and hate the Find feature of IE, then you’ll love this tool. It brings the better page search feature of Firefox to your copy of IE 5.5 or higher. A free tool for Windows users making it easier to find text on the page.

IEForge – bends IE to your will | InlineSearch / HomePage

While I find it annoying, others may find it entertaining. Ms. Dewey is an animated character from Microsoft determined to make your search, ummmm, well annoying. It’s definately gimmicky, but worth one minute of your time…..barely.

Ms. Dewey

Google has a new tool to see if you ads are showing. This link explains about the new tool and tells you how to turn it on.

Google AdWords Help Center: How can I find out whether my ads are showing?

The last time Google did this, it upset a lot of people. Google is implementing a new algorithm to make certain that quality is maintained on both sides of the fence. Sites serving up ads as well as advertisers should evaluated everything. You have been warned.

Inside AdWords: Landing page quality update

Google has purchased JotSpot, a three year old company that offers wikis and other online collaboration tools based on the wiki concept. Hopefully Google can improve on these tools and make them easier to use. Currently they are a bit primative.

paidContent – The Economics of Content – Google Buys Wiki Collab Tool JotSpot