Google Buys Plannr; Facebook Search; Retweet Study & More [Search News Roundup]
Here’s a roundup of this morning’s top search headlines and tips from around the Web, sorted by category.
Search Industry
Google Buys Schedule Management Startup Plannr – TechCrunch
Plannr is a social calendar that allows you to message small groups of friends. No official purchase price or confirmation yet from the startup’s founders or Google.
Is Google Calendar Time-Zone Challenged? – PCWorld
Users are complaining that Google Calendar doesn’t let users specify a time zone in a new event. Update coming soon, GCal team says.
Web searches predict success for films, games and songs – BBC News
Web search terms are a good predictor of the success of films, songs, and video games even weeks ahead of release. Research was carried out by a team at Yahoo and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Xmarks Shuts Down After Failing To Sell Its Search Engine – Search Engine Land
Co-founder’s had hopoed to create a spam-free search engine based entirely on what users had bookmarked.
Search Engine Optimization
The Danger of Overdoing SEO – SEOmoz
Google will change you titles, descriptions and negatively alter the rankings/visibility of sites that step over the line.
PageRank explained, without math (really) – Conversation Marketing
A PageRank metaphor that requires a pipe, water, and some goldfish (includes fun infographics).
7 Simple SEO Tasks to Complete for a New Site – Search Engine Journal
Basic SEO steps: Webmaster Tools, analytics, canonical issues, robots.txt, submitting sitemaps, setting up local business listings, and 301 redirects.
Search Advertising
The Microsoft Advertising adCenter Fall 2010 Upgrade is Here! – adCenter Blog
Will include new functionality that allows you to control where and how your search ads are displayed at the ad group level.
Discover Proven Money-Making Results for PPC Text Ads…Guaranteed – Search Engine Guide
Highlights from David Szetela and Joe Kerschbaum‘s new PPC book, Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour a Day.
Analytics & ROI
Results from A/B Testing: The effects of a form on download rate – Performable
A/B test examines how making visitors fill out a form can drastically lower conversion rates (less downloads).
Social Media Marketing
Facebook Ads Become Dramatically More Transparent – All Facebook
Facebook now shows the URL of the page that ads are promoting.
Facebook Likes Just Officially Became More Important to Search – WebProNews
Liked content is more likely to appear in Facebook’s search results. If your friend Likes an article at a news site, the article will appear in your News Feed and can now also surface in the search type ahead.
The Social Media Words & Phrases Most Retweeted – ReadWriteWeb
Analysis of blog post titles that get shared most on Twitter shows that positive language about learning new things and serving the self-interest of readers are most retweeted. Popular words include “increase,” “socialize,” “automate” and “manage.”
Twitter Boosts Marketer Reach With Plan to Blast Promoted Ads – Advertising Age
Twitter plans to extend its ads beyond Twitter.com to the rest of the user base through apps such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite.
Want Twitter to Help You Find More Followers? Pay Up For a “Promoted Account.” – All Things Digital
Twitter will try to help corporations and brands increase their Twitter following by inserting them alongside other Twitter users it suggests in its “Who to Follow” feature.
Forrester: Social Networking On The Rise Worldwide, Content Creation Not So Much – TechCrunch
While the number of people who joined social networks increased in Europe, China, Australia, and North America, between 2009 and 2010 not a single market exhibited growth in the number of people who create social content.
Link Building
70 Online PR Queries for Press Release Link Builders – Ontolo
Garrett French shows you how to find sites that openly solicit for press releases, tips, news and rumors.
Link Building The Philanthropic Way – State of Search
Link bait with an added bonus: helping out a worthy cause. Just don’t go overboard; research your cause; contact the right people; optimize your landing page; don’t forget about social media; and use images.
Local & Mobile Search
Millennial Media: Android Ad Requests Up 996 Percent Since January – TechCrunch
Android ad requests have increased 39 percent month-over-month and are up 996 percent since January. However, the iPhone remains the top mobile phone on the Millennial network. Month over month, iPad requests increased by 76 percent; RIM 16 percent.
Bing For Mobile iPhone App Update – Bing Search Blog
Flight search makes it easier to find cheapest travel fares; you can now check flight status; enhances map details (traffic, business listings, labels, etc.), increases font size, adds “what’s nearby.”
SMB Search Marketing
Foursquare Marketing Hits and Misses: 5 Case Studies – ClickZ
Two local restaurant franchisees get lukewarm results while two other small businesses get sizzling response on the geo-social platform. A fifth effort shows potential.