Google/DoubleClick Deal Being Challenged over Privacy Concerns

A complaint has been filed with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) that challenges Google's proposed purchase of DoubleClick.

The complaint has been filed by consumer protection groups the Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”), the Center for Digital Democracy (“CDD”), and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (“U.S. PIRG”). Their main concern is that

the increasing collection of personal information of Internet users by Internet advertisers poses far-reaching privacy concerns that the Commission should address. Neither Google nor DoubleClick have taken adequate steps to safeguard the personal data that is collected. Moreover, the proposed acquisition will create unique risks to privacy and will violate previously agreed standards for the conduct of online advertising.

It is interest to note that their main concern is in the area of privacy rather than any concerns regarding monopolization of the industry.

Red the entire complaint, which outlines their privacy concerns in great detail and makes for an interesting read!

Tags: google, doubleclick

Google Introduces Account Snapshot Page for AdWords

Google has a released a Beta version of its new Account Snapshot page for summarizing the information from your AdWords account. The snapshot page looks something like this:



The page is divided into 3 main sections.

1. The top-left portion is for Alerts, Status Notifications and Announcements
2. The bottom-left portion contains links to Help and Tips
3. The right-hand side contains configurable campaign performance summaries and an interactive graph illustrating either Cost, Clicks, Impressions, or CTR data

You can also select whether to make this page your starting page when logging in, or the familiar Campaign Summary page.

Personally, although the Snapshot page does contain some useful information, I don't see it being of any real benefit to serious AdWords users. The data it contains is too general and I shall be surprised if I ever use it as everything I need is on the Campaign Summary page.

Having said that, it's good to see that Google is continually seeking to improve the AdWords experience by its ongoing efforts to add new functionality, services and an improved interface.

Tags: adwords

Most Popular Posts in February-March

This blog's most popular posts in February-March were as follows:

1. What Every AdWords Advertiser Should Know About AdSense - A slightly tongue-in-cheek look at the seamier side of AdSense


2. Joel Comm or Joel Con? - Questions Joel Comm's integrity with specific reference to a hyperlink on his blog to Agloco.com
   


3. H1 – What Role, If Any, Does the H1 Tag Play in Effective SEO? - An overview of the use of the Hn tags and what role the H1 tag plays in SEO, if any.
   


4. Google PPA Ads: Pros and Cons - The pros and cons of Google's new Pay-Per-Action advertising.
   


5. AdWords & Checkout Icons - My view of the repercussions of the Google Checkout icon appearing alongside AdWords ads.
   

Again, these were the 5 most popular "regular" posts. The 5th most popular page, apart from the home page, was my "About Me" page!

Yahoo Is Such a Copycat

Is it just me, or does Yahoo just seem to be copying everything Google does these days?

Here are some examples of things Yahoo has been copying in the online marketing world:

1. Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) has copied Google's terminology for the structure of its advertising campaigns
2. It is adding quality score functionality
3. It is making available its own equivalent of Google Analytics
   
4. It is going to be limiting ad descriptions to 70 characters (the same as AdWords 2 x 35 character limit fields)
   
5. And now, it has announced that PayPal buttons are going to appear on it's sponsored search listings in just the same way that Google Checkout buttons appear alongside AdWords ads.

Come on Yahoo!, how about doing something original!

Tags: yahoo, google, ysm

Google's New URL Removal Tool

Google has just added some new functionality to its Webmaster Tools at Webmaster Central that allows you to remove certain URLs from Google's search results. Let's take a closer look.

Verified Sites Only
The most important point to note is that you can only remove URLs of sites for which you have verified ownership.

Located Under Diagnostics
The option itself is labeled "URL Removals" and is located under the "Diagnostics" tab.

Four Options
You are given 4 options for URL removal:

1. Individual URLs - that is, individual web pages, images, etc.
2. An entire directory (including all contained files and subdirectories)
3. Your entire site
4. A cached copy of a Google search result
   

Effective for 6 Months
Removals are effective for 6 months. You also have the option of undoing the removal. When the six months is up

if the content is still blocked or returns at 404 or 410 status message and we've recrawled the page, it won't be reincluded in our index. However, if the page is available to our crawlers after this six month period, we'll once again include it in our index.

Removal From Search Results
A final important point to note is that this functionality removes the specfied files from Google's search results NOT from Google's index. As mentioned above, removal from the index can only occur once the six-month period is completed.

Tags: google, url removal

New AdWords Feature: Preferred Cost Bidding

Google announced today a new bidding option called "preferred cost bidding." This option allows AdWords advertisers to set their desired average price rather than a maximum bid.

First impressions indicate that this involves getting Google to manage your bidding for you so I am cautious about the real benefits of this new option. However, it's early days yet, in fact, this option isn't rolled out to all advertisers yet.

For full details, check out the official blog post.

Tags: adwords

Happenings While I Was On Vacation

Well, it's been interesting to catch up on all the news that took place while I was away on vacation. Below are some of the main news stories that occurred while I was gone (in no particular order!):

1. Google Checkout was made available in the U.K.
2. Google bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion (that's $3,100,000,000)
3. Google played two April Fool Jokes - TiSP and Google Paper
4. Google formally released new formats for AdSense ad units
5. Google introduced a new format for ads that appear directly above the search results
6. Yahoo announced that it will soon require a short description for all ads, limited to 70 characters
   

Ads By Google - New Look

I just noticed another interesting variation of the "Ads by Google" text that appears alongside the AdSense ads on this blog:



This variation is quite stylized and fitted quite well with the ads on this blog!

AdWords Minimum Bids Have Been Fixed

It appears that Google has fixed many of the weird minimum bids that were appearing earlier today.

For example, the keyword "norfolk church" that I wrote about earlier as having a minimum bid of £5 and classed as poor, now has a £0.02 minimum bid and is classified as great!

However, it's not all good news, my "mortuary management software" keyword that I referred to earlier still has a $10 minimum bid!

Technorati Tags: adwords, quality score

Even Less Happy with the New Quality Scores!

Ohmygosh!!!!!

I just looked at another account I manage, it's for funeral home/mortuary management software.

The keyword "mortuary management software" (phrase match) is now listed as poor and has a $10 minimum bid!!! How can a keyword that accurately describes the product be considered poor and demand a $10 bid!!

I hope Google is prepared for the upset they are causing.

Technorati Tags: adwords

AdWords & Checkout Icons

As you may have noticed, Google is now displaying Checkout icons by advertisements for advertisers who use Google Checkout. According to their blog post on the subject, "[w]hen people begin shopping by searching online, they're looking for places to shop that are convenient and secure. The Google Checkout badge makes it easier to find these places . . . ."

I see two possible repercussions of the Checkout badge.

First, those ads with the badge may get higher CTRs simply because the badge will draw people's attention to those ads, in the same way localized ads have an extra line of text. This could be a good thing for those advetisers, but not necessarily . . .

Second, those advertisers with higher CTRs may find their conversions dropping simply because their ads were clicked on out of curiosity regarding the Checkout icon, rather than the content of the ad itself.

My gut feeling, at this stage, is that the Checkout icon may well be a good thing for those advertisers. However, whether anyone will want to sign up with Google Checkout just so they get an icon by their ads remains to be seen.

The bottom line is that really Google is just trying to get more users of a system that pales in comparison to its well-established competitor, PayPal!

Technorati Tags: adwords

CPC Site Targeted AdWords Ads

Google has just announced it will soon be beta testing CPC site-targeted ads. Up until now, all site targeted ads have been on a CPM (cost per thousand) basis.

According to the announcement, "CPC bidding has often been requested by advertisers who would like to utilize site targeting, but are not comfortable bidding on a CPM basis."

I find that an interesting statement. My gut feeling is that, in most instances, CPC site-targeted ads will end up costing more than CPM ads. Furthermore, if advertisers are really uncomfortable with CPM ads and would prefer CPC ads, that implies to me that those advertisers are not expecting many clicks and feel they are, therefore, more likely to spend less on CPC ads than CPMs. In fact, this could possibly benefit advertisers who are not hoping for clicks but are merely wanting to be seen for brand awareness, or some other reason.

This change also indicates a change to the way Google AdSense will work in future. AdSense is on the flip-side of Site Targeted ads so we can only assume that, in future, AdSense publishers will be able to earn on a CPC basis for such ads rather than the current CPM-only basis.

Technorati Tags: adwords, adsense

AdWords: More Quality Score Changes

The official AdWords blog yesterday posted a message outlining two new changes that are going to be taking place over the next few days.

New Quality Score Column

The first change, which was first mentioned a while ago, is that there is soon going to be a new column in the AdWords interface. This column will display the minimum bid required for each keyword as well as a description of each keyword as "great," "OK," or "poor."

Quality Changes

The second change is that the quality score algorithm is being refined again. In theory, this change is supposed to encourage high quality ads and discourage low quality ads. This change essentially has two parts to it: the way the minimum bid is calculated and the actual quality score algorithm.

According to Google, these changes should result in some keywords having lower minimum bids and other ads having higher minimums.

Discussion

I am glad to see that Google have responded to their users' requests for more transparency regarding the quality score. However, having a simple 3-value scale is hardly transparent, but at least it's better than nothing!

As far as the algorithm changes are concerned, it's hard to predict at this point whether these changes will really be for the better. Personally, I don't think that Google has any means of accurately assessing the quality of many keywords and their "narrow targeting" approach is not always, in my opinion, the optimal means of advertising in some niches.

I can only hope, however, that these changes quell some of the outcry against high minimum bids for campaigns that, at face value anyway, appear to be well optimized and targeted.

I have to admit, I've lost some faith in the whole Quality Score mechanism, which is worrying given that Yahoo are introducing a similar methodology. I wait with bated breath to see the results of these latest changes.

Technorati Tags: adwords, quality score

Google Thinks This is a Spam Blog!

When I went to create a post today, I discovered that Blogger is now requiring a Captcha entry before I am able to publish. Clicking on the little question mark that appeared by the Captcha, I discovered that "Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that [my] blog has characteristics of a spam blog."

Blogger goes on to describe a spam blog as one that

can be recognised by their irrelevant, repetitive or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.

I guess the Blogger spam bots have detected that this blog frequently links to posts that I have written on other blogs and that behavior is considered as potentially spamming.

I have now initiated the process of getting this blog's good name cleared, which seems like a relatively straightforward process but we shall see.

So, if you have multiple blogs and regularly link between them, beware, you too may get classified as a blog spammer . . . or is that a spam blogger?

Most Popular Posts in January

This blog's most popular posts in January were as follows:

1. Joel Comm or Joel Con? - Questions Joel Comm's integrity with specific reference to a hyperlink on his blog to Agloco.com
   
2. What Every AdWords Advertiser Should Know About AdSense - A slightly tongue-in-cheek look at the seamier side of AdSense
   
3. H1 – What Role, If Any, Does the H1 Tag Play in Effective SEO? - An overview of the use of the Hn tags and what role the H1 tag plays in SEO, if any.
   
4. AdSense Publishers, Don't Forget Who Really Pays You - A call to all AdSense publishers to remember that it's not Google but regular advertisers who ultimately pay them.
   
5. Internet Marketing Predictions for 2007 - My not-so-serious predictions for the coming year

Actually, those were the 5 most popular "regular" posts. The most popular single page, apart from the home page, was my "About Me" page! Also, the 5-things blog tag meme post was in the top 5 but I don't think that one really counts!

Pagerank Updated

Well, it appears Google has released the latest Pageranks today. This blog, which has only been up for a couple of months, now has a PR of 3 and my MoneyTies blog, which was begun even more recently, is PR2. Now, as I've said before, Pagerank in and of itself doesn't necessarily mean much in terms of your position in search results but it still kinda makes you feel validated! :-)

Dynamic Keyword Insertion and the Content Network

I was looking at my MoneyTies blog earlier today when I noticed the following AdSense ad in the right margin of the page

This ad immediatly caught my eye because it is clearly an ad using dynamic keyword insertion (DKI), or at least, it was intended to do so. However, because it was being displayed as an AdSense ad via the AdWords Content Network, the title line was still using the DKI format.

I'm not sure if this is a temporary bug or is something that's been happening for a while as I've never seen it before. So, for the timebeing, if you're using DKI I'd recommend that you ensure the Content Network is turned off for those ad groups (something I'd recommend anyway!)

As an aside, it's also interesting to note that an add for Yahoo Search Marketing appeared on a page whose contents were primarily about Google AdSense!

Technorati Tags: adsense, adwords, dynamic keyword insertion, content network

comScore December U.S. Search Engine Rankings

comScore has just released it's December U.S. Search Engine Ranking figures. The main points of interest are:

1. The total number of U.S. searches in December was 6.7 billion
   
2. Google sites increased by 0.4% since November, up from 46.9% to 47.3%
3. Yahoo sites increased by 0.3% since November, up from 28.2% to 28.5%
4. Microsoft, Ask and Time Warner sites all went down, with the biggest drop being for Microsoft, which dropped 0.5%, from 11.0% to 10.5%.

Thus, it seems Microsoft's efforts to be a serious player in the search engine world are just not working.

Some other interesting stats:

• In December, Americans carried out 1,195 Google searches per second! That's the equivalent of 1 search every 0.00084 seconds (approximately!) .
  
• In December, Americans carried out 709 Yahoo searches per second, which is 1 search every 0.0014 seconds.
• In December, Americans carried out a mere 266 Microsoft/MSN searches per second, or 1 search every 0.0038 seconds
• In comparison, McDonald's serves approximately 544 customers worldwide per second, that's 1 customer every 0.00184 seconds.
  

At the time of writing, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the U.S. population at 300,981,361. Thus, for December:

• On average, each and every U.S. citizen did roughly 10.6 searches on Google
• On average, each U.S. citizen seached on Google every 70 hours.

Technorati Tags: comscore, google, yahoo, search engines

DMOZ Is Back, So What?

Several bloggers have recently been posting about DMOZ's troubles and how it's now accepting submissions again. Personally, I couldn't care less about DMOZ. Does anyone actually use DMOZ for any purpose other than trying to get highly weighted backlinks to their own site?

It seems to me that if anyone wants to find anything online one of the last places they'd look is DMOZ ... unless you're trying to improve your SEO rankings, that is. In fact, does anyone use online directories of this nature at all any more? I used to use Yahoo's directory quite frequently but now I can't even find it (not that I've looked particularly hard). If Yahoo still has its directory, it certainly places less emphasis on it and, if so, it's because they know people primarily use the search box now, whether it be on Yahoo, Google, or elsewhere.

To use some alliteration, the day of the directory has departed and DMOZ is dead . . . and, as far as I can tell, no-one missed it. It's served its purpose, may it rest in peace.

Technorati Tags: dmoz

MoneyTies Formal Launch

Today, I formally launched my "MoneyTies" blog. This blog primarily covers the world of web site monetization and includes such topics as AdSense and other similar programs (Kontera, Bidvertiser, Text-Link Ads, etc.), blogging, affiliate marketing, and so on. Initially I covered these topics in this blog, however, I soon felt that the audience for these topics was quite different so the MoneyTies blog came into being.

Thus far, the most popular posts on MoneyTies have been (in no particular order):

1. AdSense Optimization: Tricks that Harm AdSense Publishers?
2. eCPM, the Evil Twins of AdWords and AdSense
3. AdSense: A Bifurcated System

So, if you're interested in web site monetization, pay a visit to MoneyTies! (And if you're wondering about the blog's color scheme, all of the colors were sampled from a scan of a U.S. dollar bill).