We have all seen funny autocomplete suggestions given when we are searching for something. However it is those autocompletes that has opened up Google to a lawsuit by a tycoon who is unhappy with the particular suggestions that appear when searching for his name. The suggestions for “triad,”, a Chinese organized crime syndicate, occurred in […]
Twitch.tv Moving Beyond Games Following Google’s Rumored Acquisition
After rumor broke of that Google was acquiring Twitch.tv for a reported $1 billion dollars, there was a lot of speculation about whether they would move into content areas outside of gaming, the market area where Twitch.tv not only made it’s name, but became a powerhouse in the gaming industry with their content strategy of […]
Google Launches New Google News Publishing Center
There has always been a bit of confusion for news sites and blogs who wanted to be included in Google News, yet stumbled on some of the requirements or the submission process to be included. While it is much less complicated today, Google has taken steps to make the process even easier for potential Google […]
Why the Advanced AdWords Certification Exam Made Me Write An AdWords Happy Hour Script
If the Google Adwords Advanced Certification test hadn’t been multiple choice, I might have failed it. If they had allowed free form answers, I would have taken a very different approach from the answer they wanted to hear. Of course my common answer was to use scripts, and there wasn’t a single question for which […]
The Evolution of Google AdWords Agency Reps
My First Google Reps In the dinosaur ages of Google AdWords (early 2000’s), my small paid search company was assigned our first Google agency team. I loved the idea of having someone I could talk to who could help me resolve client problems quickly. In my case, by the time I needed Google support, I […]
You Can Now Filter Bots & Spiders in Google Analytics
While there have been complicated workarounds for discounting bots in Google Analytics, Google has never offered a way for users to automatically filter various bots. However, with more bots executing javascript, which executes the Google Analytics script on the page, it is definitely causing some users’ data to become skewed, particularly if they get hit […]
Google+ Account No Longer Required For Hangouts & New Google Apps For Business Support
One of the requirements for Hangouts on Air that annoyed some users was that users who wanted to participate had to sign in with a Google+ account and made it hard for businesses to easily use it as a platform for online meetings. Google has dropped this requirement now and users will only need to […]
Quality Score: 7 New Things You Don’t Have to Worry About
Recently, Google released a provocative new White Paper on AdWords Quality Score, setting the industry mildly abuzz. Google rarely releases supplementary information about its formula beyond the formal information in its core help files. Perhaps Google is simply “clarifying” how Quality Score works in order to cut through a sea of misinformation. It was a […]
AdRoll Retargeting Bot Attack Behind the IE7 Traffic Surges
Earlier this month, many people began noticing a huge surge in direct traffic on many websites, but primarily coming from an IE7 browser and from within the US. This direct traffic was well outside of the ordinary but it was also skewing analytics data for many webmasters. Barry Schwartz was the first to publicize the […]
Product Reviews & Ratings Changing in Google Shopping & Product Listing Ads
Google is adding new product ratings into Product Listing Ads. They are using a five-star rating system for ads appearing on Google.com and Google Shopping at google.com/shopping/ Google is implementing the ratings as they feel it will drive more traffic to Product Listing Ads and during their testing, they found it increased the CTRs. This […]