Google has confirmed that there is no official way of opting out of its new SearchWiki service just yet.
Speaking to Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, SearchWiki product manager Cedric Dupont said Google wanted to encourage greater use of the offering and help people to get used to it by not allowing them to turn it off.
SearchWiki allows users to customise search results for personal reference, as well as leave comments for themselves and others to see. It is available for anyone with a Google account.
"Based on a few days of feedback, we don't want to rush into changing this," Mr Dupont added.
Last week, Matt McGee of Search Engine Land received confirmation from Mr Dupont that SearchWiki rankings will not affect normal search results. However, he indicated that this could change in the future.
"We're always looking at user data as a signal ... We're not closing any doors," he commented.... read full details »
Brand image and recall can be significantly boosted by the deployment of relevant internet advertising, a new study has shown.
Kellogg's brand Sultana Bran was put to the test by Nielsen Online and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia, which showed internet ads to the product's target audience and asked them about their perception of the brand.
Intent to buy Sultana Bran items rose by 37 per cent among this group compared with control participants who did not see the online ads. A 17 per cent rise in brand consideration was also recorded.
"This study, along with the many other similar studies conducted internationally, clearly demonstrates the impact online advertising has on brand - as well as direct response," said chief executive of the IAB Australia Paul Fisher.
According to comScore, display advertising can boost online sales by 27 per cent offline sales by 17 per cent through brand enhancement.... read full details »
Experts at the recent SMX London event offered their views on how to best go about purchasing websites for search engine optimisation (SEO) purposes.
According to Gareth Davies of the Marketing Pilgrim blog, this practice can be a good way of bypassing the amount of time and money needed to get a website up to scratch in terms of SEO.
His report from SMX London included advice from Richard Kershaw of the Quality Nonsense blog, who emphasised the importance of avoiding buying cheap websites.
Rather, marketers would do well to look for undervalued websites, he said. Meanwhile, search marketer David Naylor said that he believed traffic and theme were more important factors to consider than linking or PageRank.
His advice included changing a website gradually once it has been purchased, as too quick a change could alert Google to the fact that the new site is under new ownership and lead it to treat it as a brand new website - thus resetting its rankings.
According to the SunCao blog, it is important to verify the owner of the website that is for sale and to check that their email address is genuine.... read full details »
Google has said that it is not interested in harnessing the semantic web for its search service.
Vice-president of search products and user experience for the company Marissa Mayer told Vator.tv in an interview that the search engine was "not focused" on semantic search - unlike its competitors.
Yahoo!, Microsoft and Ask.com have expressed intent to get to grips with the semantic web in the last year, with all three search engines testing various semantic elements within their operations.
Despite this, Ms Mayer indicated that Google could improve its search offering in other ways, stating: "When you get to extremely large amounts of data you see a precision that mirrors semantic search."
Google recently announced the launch of a service that works in a similar way to semantic technology that allows users to re-order search results for any given query.
SearchWiki lets users edit and comment on rankings, with these results appearing every time the search is made. Changes cannot be seen by other users, however.... read full details »
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