Yahoo! to phase out Match Driver

Some know this and others don’t, but Yahoo! is slowly phasing out their Match Driver program which was their answer to making search easier for marketers. However, there was one big hurdle they could not overcome and it was the big G. Google campaigns could not seamlessly plug into Yahoo! since Google allows misspellings and plural.single variations where as Yahoo! would see them as the same term and show one ad.

This was troublesome for several people that I know, as they would have a very string ROI on on permutation and Yahoo! would not allow them to have a separate word in Panama. Success might have been had on “digital cameras” for a site that had a stellar review platform and allowed customers to compare before purchasing, and the word “digital camera” did not see the same success as the user using the singular form was not in the same state of mind as those that used the plural. Google allows marketers to see this and capitalize, Yahoo! fails to allow the optimization process to occur.

This may also be part of the Google/Yahoo! deal where Google is looking to serve more and more ads on the Yahoo! platform since the Microsoft deal did not work out. At the end of the day, Yahoo! needs to go back to board and figure out what exactly they want to do, and getting out of the search space may be the best answer as all the hard work to launch Panama appears to be going down the tank.

Online relevance is still not fool proof

When looking for a solution to some recent back pain, I decided to try out local.com since it’s all about the “local results”. I entered a basic search query of back pain and received several local chiropractors and a couple sponsored ads. There was one that definitely stood out however, an ad for the Subaru Outback.

Subaru Outback and back pain

It’s obvious the word “back” triggered this ad, but it shows a larger dillema in the loclaized search space. There are not enough small companies moving budgets to localized search, so the engines have to open up the relevancy to fill the ad space and issues like this arise. Now to most people, it probably is not a big deal, but tSunao some they may not trust the results since an Outback has nothing to do with my pain. Therefore, this result could drive the user away from local.com to a larger engine, think the big G here.

ULtimately, the dollars are moving to the localized arena, but there is still not a sure fire place to spend the dollars for a great return. Until companies realize that it may be in their best interest to actually show fewer ads , we are going to have these “relevancy” issues that will hamper the growth of localized online marketing.

Google offering view-through in AdSense

Google announced that they are going to set cookies on sites that offer AdSense ads so that advertisers can now see if the visitor goes to the site without clicking. This is Google’s first move in the “ad server” space and hopefully many more will come. The tool also allows advertisers to cap how many times the ad is viewed by a vistor.

I would like to see them offer this service for PPC ads as well to provide some more data about search as a branding tool. It would also be nice for them to open an ad server that is free, which isn’t too far out of the realm since it seems like Google is willing to give free tools away in return for data. What better way to get costs, CTR’s, dayparting, and geotargeting data from advertisers and publishers than offer a free ad server.

That may be the next step, knowing Google they are most likely way ahead of that.

Publicis acquires Performics from Google

It was announced that Publicis is acquiring Performics from Google to strengthen their search marketing business. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it is expected that the deal will close in the third quarter. This is the second “deal” that the two companies have done as they created an alliance where work processes and executives would be shared.

Google did not state why they are selling off the Performics search business and said they look forward to working with them as a partner.

Performics will likely fall under the newly created VivaKi group.

What’s the hype with cuil?

Cuil.com officially launched Monday morning adn has generated a ton of buzz about how it could be the Google killer. Just because it was started by a couple of ex-Googler’s doesn’t mean that it will win or have a better chance than other potential killers. It supposedly indexes more pages than Google and has better results.

However, I did a quick search for my favorite jean brand Nudie Jeans. Of course, nothing was returned. I guess I can give them some credit for not running on the  “nudie” word and making sure it was about clothing, but the brand is not that obscure, so I expected something.

So it will be interesting to see how this plays out and cuil.com has a real chance at competing against Google. As we have seen, Yahoo! and MSN are havinga  hard time, but maybe a small start up run be ex-Googler’s is what it will take. Only time and better results will tell.

Google to launch “skip intro”

How many times have you looked for an address, hours of operation, or contact info and had to sit through a 90 second flash intro that treats you like a first timer? Guessing quite a few..

Google has launched a new option in the search results that allows users to click through avoiding the flash intro and be placed directly to the home page where they can navigate to the information that they were seeking.

A screen grab of the option can be seen here.

Microsoft competes in PPC with cash-back rebate

Bill Gates announced that Microsoft is going to push forward with their cash-back rebate idea in Microsoft Live Search. Microsoft is hoping that by offering a rebate to consumers who purchase through ads on Live Search, they will be able to work on taking market share from Google. Since the deal with Yahoo went bad, and now they are looking at just the search portion, Microsoft is putting a lot of effort to gain search volume.

I know Jack Trout was all about differentiation and Ries was about creating categories, but this seems like a big risk for Microsoft, but not sure they have much to lose.

Consumers that search for products on Live Search will see a green icon that indicates that some of Microsoft’s partners are willing to offer a rebate to the individual if they purchase through Live Search. This is a new twist to the affiliate model and makes it much more mainstream.

One issue will be how many partners Microsoft will be able to sign up. They haev a couple big names already and the list is sure to grow, but will be interetsing to see if anyone declines.

Another issue I have with this, is that not all search queries are for e-commerce. Yes, a lot are, but there are a lot of queries for finding information as well. Will Microsoft position itself in the corner for only queries looking to buy? Guess that goes back to Trout’s differentiation idea. Specialize in search results when the customer is ready to buy.

How will this affect lead gen? Get a rebate from submitting your own info to schools? There’s a get rich quick scheme waiting to happen…

Blogs dramatically increase speed of results in SEO

For a long time, marketers that needed a quick result or boost were stuck with PPC. They could build out the campaign and have a campaign live and generating traffic in minutes. However, upgrades to blogging software is now allowing SEO efforts to be realized much faster. Blogs use correct title tags, headlines, urls and linking structure. Search engines are now indexing blogs much faster now. Also, blogs are inexpensive and easy to set up.

So next time the SEO component of a campaign gets pushed off due to costs, lack of speed, and difficult to measure, make sure that blogs are brought up in the conversation and explain how they can be utilized to help see quick benefits.

Smart buying or Gaming the system?

There has been a lot of talk recently about Google and CPG marketers around the value of search as it relates to branding. However, as brands and retailers bid on the same keywords, it drives up the cost and ultimately hurts both parties. So, some companies have looked more closely at co-op search marketing where certain terms are off limits to various parties involved, thus reducing the competition and costs.

Other companies have tried to create search copy that does not elicit a click, searching for the ‘free impression’ but Google’s algorithm will reduce rank or remove completely if there is not enough click volume. After all, Google knows how they make money and will only serve ads that are likely to get clicks.

This question is also raised is in the ad network space. If I can buy inventory on a CPC basis and remove any call to action, it is likely that the CTR will decrease dramatically, thus extending the reach of the buy for branding purposes. I see this as smart buying. The current situation in the market allows people to complete this kind of buy, of course, with client approval. If the client is expecting clicks, you better have a prominent call to action, brand logo in every frame and other ways to increase the CTR. Overall, the industry is young and it seems like Google wrote the rules first, but that doesn’t mean that they will be around forever and that they are the golden rule for all online media. Until I see that this is truly gaming the system and unfairly punishing someone, I think it is a smart strategy for certain campaigns.

Meta Keywords in court?

A recent court case determined that people can use trademarked terms in their meta keywords in hopes that search engines query their page and use these to help determine page rank. We all know that most search engines quit using meta keywords for a major part of their search results awhile ago, and the judge agreed. The court ruled that most search engines bypass the meta keywords inserted by site owners and look at other factors to determine rank. This means that webmasters can use whatever terms that they want in the meta tags.

Although this only relates to the meta tags, it will be interesting to see if this case is referenced in cases about paid keywords and trademark infringement.