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MapQuest is bringing personalization into their online and mobile mapping offering. Dubbed My MapQuest, the feature lets users save routes and maps, giving them access later whenever they need it.
My MapQuest pages can be created through an AOL account or an OpenID account. You can set language and mileage preferences as well as store mobile numbers and addresses.
The feature will be rolled out to MQ4M (MapQuest for Mobile) for Blackberry soon. Initial Blackberry models will include AT&T BlackBerry Bold, Verizon BlackBerry 8830 and 8330, and T-Mobile BlackBerry 8300, 8800 and 8820.
“The launch of My MapQuest continues MapQuest’s commitment to innovation and improving the user’s experience. Our studies have shown that our customers want a personalization feature that includes the ability to save previously searched addresses,” said Christian Dwyer, Senior Vice President and GM, MapQuest. “Giving our users the ability to save not just maps but also their routes sets us apart and extends MapQuest’s commitment to offering users choice and flexibility.”
Related Reading:
MapQuest Updates Widget and Local Content
MapQuest Now Optimized for the iPhone
MapQuest, Google Launch Blackberry Mobile Apps
MapQuest Launches Local Portal
Yahoo!'s mobile search product, oneSearch, has been selected by T-mobile for Web2go, their new customizable mobile web portal.
Yahoo's oneSearch is designed to provide answers. For example, if you query a sports team, the results will give you scores, schedules, team profiles and the team's web site.
David Ko, senior vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo! Inc. had this to say: "With our innovative products and global partnerships we are a leader in mobile search and are incredibly excited to bring Yahoo! oneSearch to more and more users every day. Together, T-Mobile and Yahoo! are providing users with compelling mobile services, while creating unique opportunities for advertisers to reach the rapidly growing audience of mobile consumers."
In September, Yahoo! announced that oneSearch had been set as default on AT&T's mobile web portal. In August, a shortcut to oneSearch was launched on select Nokia devices.
Local search site Local.com has integrated local video ads throughout its site. Initially the ads will come from Jivox, an online local video advertising provider. Eventually, the video ads will expand to include more providers.
“We believe that video advertising provides consumers with relevant, timely information about local businesses, products and services. It’s natural for video to be integrated into our local search ecosystem over time,” said Kim LaFleur, Local.com vice president, product management. “Local video bridges the product gap that exists between businesses that advertise in print, but perhaps don’t have the budget to move to television advertising yet, and unlike TV advertising, ROI is fully trackable. We plan to incorporate additional video capabilities and syndication to our network next year.”
Related Reading:
Local.com Partners with Hearst's White Directory Publishers
Local.com Launches Ratings and Reviews Engine
Local.com Renews With Yahoo As Search Partner
Over the summer, Google launched a Second Life-esque 3D chat product called Lively. It seems Lively is not exactly living up to its name. Google is killing Lively at the end of the year.
While Lively is certainly not the first Google product to head to the chopping block, its shelf life did seem a bit short. Still, Google says it needs to focus on its flagship areas of search, ads, and apps.
After news came that Jerry Yang would be stepping down as Yahoo!'s CEO, the immediate reaction by analysts, Wall Street, and your neighbor's cat was: MICROSOFT ACQUISITION TIME!
But Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is saying: Not so fast.
Ballmer has said time and again that Microsoft has moved on from the possibility of returning to the good ol' days of negotiating a Yahoo! acquisition.
And while it's tempting to think that he's just waiting for that stock to drop to around $2-3 a share (hey, only $6-7 more to go!), consider this: Yahoo's VP of Search Technology, Sean Suchter is leaving the Sunnyvale search engine. And I hope he likes rain and coffee, because rumor has it that he's headed to Microsoft.
That rumor was reported by none other than Kara Swisher, who is pretty much never wrong. The only thing I'm wondering is: Where's the noncompete agreement?
Amidst the rumors and denials, one thing is for sure. No matter how much Ballmer would like the speculation to end, it won't.
TopRank Online Marketing and the Direct Marketing Association have just announced a partnership to develop and deliver a series of educational workshops on social media marketing entitled, "Social Media Smarts: Introduction to the Social Web, Tools and Tactics."
With marketers facing tighter budgets in the coming months, social media marketing offers new opportunities for companies to engage customers, improve brand awareness and increase sales with budgets that are more recession friendly than many traditional marketing efforts.
Leading the workshop will be Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing, who will introduce participants to the marketing opportunities with social media through best and worst practices examples. As you can see from the photo in this post, I'm much taller than Lee.
But, according to George Markham Director, Education Services at Direct Marketing Association, “Lee is a well rounded digital marketer uniquely qualified with over ten years experience as an internet marketing consultant and a background in corporate training.” Markham adds, “As a consultant working on the front lines of social media marketing for companies large and small, Lee brings first-hand knowledge and real-world examples to teach attendees how to develop a successful social media strategy.”
But I'm still taller.
The Social Media Smarts workshop will provide attendees with insight into blogging and blog marketing, social networks, microblogging, social news and bookmarking, video sharing, image and audio sharing, wikis and social media analytics.
Rounding out the workshop is a social media strategy exercise that will empower attendees to create their own social media strategy and develop a framework for building a business case within their organizations.
Lee is quoted in a press release as saying, "As a high demand digital marketing and PR agency, we're seeing tremendous benefits from educating in-house marketing staff on the finer points of social media marketing." He adds, "Offering both good and bad social media marketing examples along with strategy, tools, tactics and analytics can really empower companies to succeed."
Now, I've served on panels with Lee. I know Lee. And that's exactly the way Lee talks.
The first of the Social Media Smarts workshop series will be conducted in New York, December 4th and 5th, at the Microtek training facility in lower Manhattan. If you are in the nieghborhood, drop by and heckle Lee.
And remember: I'm taller. Actually, I was standing on my toes for this photo. Lee's actually pretty tall, too.
I spoke at PubCon last week -- about How SMBs Can Use PR Campaigns To Grow Traffic and Alternative Discovery and SEO - Feeds, PDFs, and Blog SEO.
But, enough about me. Let’s talk about the top trends spotted at last week’s search engine and Internet marketing conference and expo in Vegas, baby!
For the record, I not only spoke at PubCon, I also looked at the 88 articles about it in Google News, the 77 articles in Yahoo! News, the 406 posts in Google Blog Search from the past month, and the 799 posts that IceRocket has found from the past month.
Then, I used a new tool called Twist, which lets you see trends in Twitter, to chart the hundreds of Tweets about PubCon over the past 30 days.
But, I could have just as easily looked at the session agenda grid for PubCon. Why? Because Brett Tabke, PubCon’s organizer, had set most of the agenda for 2009 when he selected the keynote speakers and creating the conference tracks. That’s why.
So, it was dead easy to spot the top trends at the six-track educational conference hosted by SearchEngineWorld and WebmasterWorld. Heck, even the most sleep-deprived attendee would know they were video, blogs and Twitter.
Video is hot -- and YouTube video is red hot. This was reflected in the choice of George Wright, the VP Marketing & Sales at Blendtec, as one of the keynote speakers.
Described as the “The best viral marketing campaign ever,” George’s viral marketing campaign, "Will it Blend?," has changed the face and the future of online marketing. Seen by more than 100 million people on the Internet and reported on by traditional media outlets like the Today Show, the Tonight Show, and the History Channel, Will it Blend? continues to deliver unprecedented corporate awareness through social media channels. This new form of marketing has delivered a 700% increase in sales for Blendtec, a small Utah based blender manufacturer, with an initial investment of $50.
Oh, and in case you didn’t notice that video is hot, Brett added a Video and Multimedia track with five sessions to drive the point home.
Blogs were big, too. This was reflected in three tracks at PubCon: one on Social Media Marketing, another on Social, Brand, and Reputation Management, and a third on Linking as Social Media Networking.
Now, blogs certainly aren’t considered the “newbies” of the social media scene – “granddaddies” is probably a more appropriate name. But that gives them an advantage from a marketing perspective – the medium has matured and moved from early adopter phase to the mainstream. That means more consumers are not only reading blogs; they are being influenced by blog content when it comes to what they decide to buy and who they decide to buy it from.
If you want a second opinion, sign up for tomorrow’s free webinar: "Consumers and the Influence of Blogs: What it Means for Your Marketing Mix." It starts at 2:00 P.M. EST/11:00 A.M. PST and will be moderated by Kevin Ryan, SES Advisory Board Chair and CEO of Motivity Marketing. It will feature Barry Parr, Analyst, JupiterResearch, and Rob Crumpler, President and CEO, BuzzLogic. They will be discussion a new BuzzLogic-sponsored research study conducted by JupiterResearch, entitled, “Harnessing the Power of Blogs.”
But, you could also see the power of blogs at virtually ever session at PubCon.
In fact, there were tables in the sessions so the dozens of bloggers who were live blogging the event could blog more comfortably. (I think this is a first: I’m not sure that I’ve ever put bloggers, blogging and blog in the same sentence before.)
And what about Twitter? No, none of the keynote speakers was from free social networking and micro-blogging service. And, no, there were no Twitter tracks. And I can’t even find Twitter mentioned in the title of any of the 85 sessions.
But, trust me, you couldn’t miss the Twitter trend if you’d hit every one of the special events -- from the exhibitor cocktail reception sponsored by Bruce Clay and Apogee Search, to the SEOmoz WereWolf Event, to the WebmasterRadio Search Bash, sponsored by Microsoft Live Search.
For example, I was sitting in the session entitled, Five Bloggers and a Microphone - What's The Worst That Can Happen? It was moderated by Ken Jurina, and the speakers included:
• Andy Beal, Internet Marketing Consultant, Marketing Pilgrim LLC,
• Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing,
• Michael McDonald, Managing Editor, iEntry Inc.,
• Barry Schwartz, President, RustyBrick, Inc.,
• Jane Copland, Search Marketing Consultant, SEOMoz.
When it came time for Q&A, one of the first questions came from a woman in the audience, who said, “I asked my circle of friends on Twitter what I should ask you, and I got eight questions. If I eliminate the seven that are inappropriate, here’s one that the panel can answer….”
That brought down the house.
Oh, PubCon also had lots of tracks and sessions on SEO, SEM and interactive site reviews. But they’ve had those for years. The new news is video, blogs and Twitter. These are the top trends that I spotted at this year’s PubCon.