The Search Engine Blog
News and Tips From The Search Marketing World
Facebook and Bing Integration
Bing has been gradually adding Facebook data into their search. Now the integration has been stepped up to a whole new level. Bing results can now be personalized based on your Facebook profile, friends, likes, etc. Be careful when searching…if you are logged into Facebook while on Bing, your search results can be very different than if you aren’t connected to Facebook. Read more from Bing.
You Must Be Secure
A post on Microsoft’s help forum makes it clear that you must have a secure site in order to be listed in the Bing product search. This user had a chat feature that wasn’t secure. Even though the site tested secure, the chat feature caused the check to fail. Overall a very good feature as online shopping sites should have SSL properly configured before selling online.
New Google Analytics v5
Google has rolled out their new version of Analytics. Users will be able to switch back and forth between versions. Information on Google’s Blog here and a video here at Search Engine Roundtable.
Google Map Maker
Frustrated that your location isn’t properly shown in Google Maps? While the ability to move the marker to your location has been around for a long time, what if the location isn’t there? Or a road is missing? Now users in the US can go to http://www.google.com/mapmaker and make edits to the Google Map. Successful in other countries, Google has given users this powerful ability to help improve their map….and help people find you. For the paranoid, maybe throw them off.
Another Round Of Google Updates?
It appears that Google is flexing their update muscles again. Did it impact your web site listings last time? Ready for another Farmer/Panda update? Discussion at Webmaster World.
Google Position Preference Retires
Your AdWords campaign is losing the ability to turn on position preference. It will remain for those using it, but turn it off and you can’t have it back. It’s been around since 2006 but a Google employee told me it doesn’t work. Mmmm. It must have worked at some time. At any rate there are other ways to do the same thing and I know they work better. They just take more time to set up correctly…..but then things that work better generally do. Read more on the Google blog.
Google Plus One
Google has added a +1 button to their search results. If you think something is cool, you can share it…including ads. Read about it on Google’s blog. There’s also a good listing of articles here.
Yahoo Direct Search is Back
Is it a copy of Google Instant? Not really because Yahoo! has done this before. Certainly Google inspired the come back. Read more about how Yahoo! is Direct Search-ing you at SERoundTable.
Facebook Sponsored Stories
How to turn a product rave review into an ad…create a Facebook Sponsored Story. If you’ve tried Facebook advertising, check out the “new” feature in the official guide book.
Microsoft Ad Console Empty?
Log in to manage your campaign and what do you see? If you see nothing, don’t panic. You are not alone. This is one reason why we manage our customer accounts through a different interface. The Microsoft ad console is loaded with issues. I personally think a junior high student created it. More discussion here.
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