SEO Tuts

After months of speculation, Time Warner has confirmed that it will split AOL’s media and internet access divisions. Despite TW’s revenue increase of 5%, the internet property’s operating income dropped a whopping 36% in the second quarter of 2008, a loss of $230 million.

The loss is due primarily to a decline in subscription revenues. Subscriptions are down based on AOL’s decision to allow members to keep their emails for free. They lost 604,000 subscribers quarter-over-quarter and 2.8 million year-over-year.

Of course, this was all initially driven by a desire by consumers to have broadband internet access in their homes, provided by the cable companies. Time Warner is a provider of cable services.

The silver lining is AOL’s advertising, which was up 2%, an $8 million increase. Even then, there was a slight decline in display advertising across AOL Network sites.

Still, AOL has been refocusing its business model on advertising as opposed to internet access subscriptions. This is an obvious move, especially considering its Platform-A digital advertising division is #1 in online advertising networks.

It is widely rumored and expected that Time Warner will sell off AOL altogether to a buyer in the online advertising space. They’ve talked to both Yahoo and Microsoft in attempts to strike a deal, but much like the aforementioned companies, an agreement has yet to be reached.

via CNET

Google has released a new version of their hardware product, Search Appliance. The new version can hold up to 10 million documents in a single box, as much as a previouis version held in a 5 box rack.

The box holds Google software that powers search services and runs on Dell storage hardware.

Other new features in the updated version include greater encryption powers and notifications of new documents stored by colleagues.

via Reuters

Related Reading:
Google Search Appliance adds new features to customize enterprise search
Google Teams Up with BearingPoint to Increase Sales of Search Appliances
Google Offers New Versions of Google Mini Search Appliance, Fast Search and NY Times Company Announce Deal

If you keep up with politics, then you know that a recent McCain ad portrayed as Obama as simply a celebrity, and included pictures of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton has responded to the ad with a hilarious video on FunnyOrDie.com, a popular online video sharing and voting site, where many celebrities have appeared before.

Hilton broke from her normal persona to reveal the intelligent side of herself. Yes, you read that correctly. She was poised (albeit in a bathing suit by the pool), and spoke with more clarity about politics than any Washington official.

But her energy plan is where the genius is truly revealed. Perhaps, Paris Hilton should run Yahoo? Hey, Carl Icahn is looking for a two people to join him on the expanded board, especially after TimeWarner nixed Jonathan Miller’s chances of being part of Icahn’s coup d’état. After watching this video, I’m convinced Paris could broker a deal with Microsoft that will leave everyone happy. Well, except Bostock and Yang. But they had their chance.

See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.com

Google has launched a new metric geared towards marketers: Google Insights for Search. The tool is very similar to Google Trends, but includes “Rising Searches” and a map representing Regional Interest, which is also broken down by ballpark figure numbers.

Check out these screenshots for a better idea of what the tool is like, then go try it for yourself. (Don’t forget to come back and leave a comment about your first impressions of the tool!)

Related Reading:
Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?

Yahoo has confirmed that a ‘tabulation error’ occurred in the shareholder vote count conducted by Broadridge Financial Solutions, the independent firm hired to do the job. Turns out, just over half of the shareholders felt the need to vote Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang. It’s probably a good thing (for them) that they reached that settlement with Carl Icahn, or else the vote may have turned a worse outcome for the two.

Here’s the new tally:

Here’s the old tally:

There’s one book every search engine marketer will be reading this fall:

Planet Google: One Company’s Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know.

Based on unprecedented access he received to the “Googleplex,” New York Times columnist Randall Stross takes readers deep inside Google. His revelations demystify the strategy behind the company’s recent flurry of bold moves, all driven by the pursuit of a business plan unlike any other: to become the indispensable gatekeeper of all the world’s information, the one-stop destination for all our information needs.

Will Google succeed? And what are the implications of a single company commanding so much information and knowing so much about us?

As ambitious as Google’s goal is, with 68 percent of all Web searches (and growing), profits that are the envy of the business world, and a surplus of talent, the company is, Stross shows, well along the way to fulfilling its ambition, becoming as dominant a force on the Web as Microsoft became on the PC.

Google isn’t just a superior search service anymore. In recent years it has launched a dizzying array of new services and advanced into whole new businesses, from the introductions of its controversial Book Search and the irresistible Google Earth, to bidding for a slice of the wireless-phone spectrum and nonchalantly purchasing YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Google has also taken direct aim at Microsoft’s core business, offering free e-mail and software from word processing to spreadsheets and calendars, pushing a transformative — and highly disruptive — concept known as “cloud computing.” According to this plan, users will increasingly store all of their data on Google’s massive servers — a network of a million computers that amounts to the world’s largest supercomputer, with unlimited capacity to house all the information Google seeks.

The more offerings Google adds, and the more ubiquitous a presence it becomes, the more dependent its users become on its services and the more information they contribute to its uniquely comprehensive collection of data.

Will Google stay true to its famous “Don’t Be Evil” mantra, using its power in its customers’ best interests?

Infospace’s Dogpile.com has been selected as the search partner for Petfinder.com. Additionally, the partnership will see both parties producing and promoting widgets and toolbars for Dogpile as well as promoting Petfinder’s listing of over 250,000 pets.

“This partnership is a great extension of the Dogpile brand,” said Bruce Allenbaugh, Chief Marketing Officer of InfoSpace. “By working closely with Petfinder to introduce Dogpile’s search experience and our pet-affinity to their pet-loving audience we’ll encourage cross-traffic between the Dogpile and Petfinder sites.”

Did you use search to find your pet? (I found my bengal kitty Cinnamon on Craigslist.org and rescued my other kitty on the side of the road near a local Walmart). Yeah, that’s right. Matt Cutts isn’t the only one with adorable cats!

Now it’s your turn. Tell us your pet story in the comments!

Google has announced new features that are coming to the Content Network. They said the new features are part of the integration process with DoubleClick, since finalizing the acquisition of the company earlier this year.

The new features are:

• Frequency Capping: Enables advertisers to control the number of times a user sees an ad. Users will have a better experience on Google content network sites because they will no longer see the same ad over and over again.
• Frequency Reporting: Provides insight into the number of people who have seen an ad campaign, and how many times, on average, people are seeing these ads.
• Improved Ads Quality: Brings performance improvements within the Google content network.
• View-Through Conversions: Enables advertisers to gain insights on how many users visited their sites after seeing an ad. This helps advertisers determine the best places to advertise so users will see more relevant ads.

Yesterday, Google announced the sale of DoubleClick’s search engine marketing arm of Performics, to Publicis.

In May, Google integrated DoubleClick mobile with its Adsense program, as well as other mobile ad networks.