• PPC Blog » Google Changing Trademark Policy In The UK

  This is a pretty big change to how Google handles trademarks in Ireland and the UK. Trademarks will now be handled the same way US ones are.

  (tags: trademarks)

• Split Testing Local Search

  How to use GA with call tracking to split test info.

  (tags: local+marketing, split+testing)

• Mobile Opportunity: Announcing a new survey of iPhone users

  The article and link (to PDF) is the best information to date on iPhone usage, behaviour, features, and satisfaction.

  (tags: mobile, iPhone)

• Live Blogging A Webinar: Website Optimizer - What Should I Test? | semvironment

  Nice write-up on the website optimizer webinar.

  (tags: websiteoptimizer, web+analytics)

• Blogs - The New York Review of Books

  Fun, good article on ‘what is a blog’ and the ‘blog writing style’.

  (tags: blogging)

• The Ultimate Visual Guide to Google Ads and Formats | Clix Marketing PPC Blog

  Nice PDF showing the various ad formats and pricing models.

  (tags: google+adwords)

• Google Earth Outreach - Tutorial: Creating ‘Spreadsheet Mapper’ Templates

  Nice way for non-techies to play with KML files.

  (tags: google+earth)

• strange systems: Using Wireframes (Revised)

  Good writeup and tools for wireframing websites.

  (tags: wireframe, website+design)

• Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog » A Smarter Start

  PDF download from Yahoo about Yahoo Search Marketing.

  (tags: ysm)

• 200+ Negative Keywords to Consider for B2B PPC - KoMarketing Associates

  (tags: negative+keywords)

Matt has taken the best posts from his feed reader over the past year and organized them into categories for judging the best posts of 2007. It’s usually easier to judge a blog then individual posts, so this is a pretty ambitious endeavor.

Of course, the SEMMYS are highly controversial and generating its fair share of buzz.

Personally, I’m judging the Analytics and Local Search categories.

I also have two blog posts nominated for SEMMYS:

1. Understanding IP Targeting for PPC Campaigns
2. How to Lower Your AdWords Minimum Bid

which I find nice for someone who only blogs part-time (at best).

As the awards are based on Matt’s last year’s feed reader - you can see the problems:

• Matt can’t read every blog post
• Matt’s reader could be skewed away / towards certain types of blogs
• How can you nominate blog posts in the future
• How can a panel share and collaborate on next year’s posts

Regardless of the complications of the first year beta-SEMMYS; Matt has put in quite a bit of work, and he does read a significant number of blogs. Kudos for trying to pull off an ambitious project that involves the actual post over the entire blog.

I’ve already given Matt a few additional blogs (especially in analytics) to read for the upcoming year to expand the SEMMYS for 2009.

I find very few good analytics blogs. What I’ve seen is that more and more analytics blogs are focusing on Google Analytics. While there is a need for GA blogs, there is also a need for non-GA blogs as well.

If you’re looking for analytics blogs, here’s a list to start with:

• Occam’s Razor
• Google Analytics Blog
• Web Analytics World
• Web Metrics Guru
• Unofficial Google Analytics Blog
• Luna Metrics
• Web Analytics Association
• Web Analytics Association RSS feeds (I also like the articles)
• Optimize and Prophesize (some metrics plus other commentary)

I’m looking for more blogs that really talk about A/B, multivariate, focus, and other testing areas (as well as good non GA blogs) if anyone has suggestions. I’m sure there is also a good blog about Google’s website optimizer, I just haven’t found it yet.

• Do you use multiple computers?
• Are any of your computers ever offline (plane flights)?
• Do you use a mobile phone?
• Do you write email or notes on your phone?
• Does your phone sometimes lose Internet connection?
• Have you ever lost work because you tried to save an online document (even an email draft) and lost the document because you Internet was down?
• Have you been unable to access your files online because the website was down?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you probably want programs that are not just ‘in the clouds’ but also sync the clouds to your grounded files.

A web based program does not truly set us free unless it has these features:

• Online access
• Offline access
• Online / offline sync
• Mobile access
• Offline mobile access
• Mobile sync

An example of this functionality would be the ‘ideal Google notebook world’. Could you imagine how useful Google notebook would be with this feature set:

• Online access as current
• Utilizing Google gears (or even it’s own downloadable program) for offline access
• Online / offline sync
• Mobile access as current
• Mobile program to keep notes on phone
• Online / Offline mobile note sync
• Control panel showing which mobile notebooks (or local computer files) to sync

This type of functionally isn’t just adding new features to programs, it’s easy to a major difference between Google and Microsoft when examining offline and online syncing of information.

Offline information is outside of Google’s core competency. Even with the Google Gears integration with GMail, there isn’t an ‘Outbox’ so one can write mail while offline and then the mail sends when one connects. Instead, one can only read some email offline and the functionality pretty much ends there. On the mobile side, while their web access is fairly well done, and very quick; one does not have access to all GMails’s features, such applying a label to an email.

One the other side of the spectrum, Microsoft’s Hotmail might be one of the best examples of ubiquitous access points with cross functional syncing capabilities:

• Online access via website in browser
• Online / Offline / Sync access with Live Mail
• Online / Offline / Sync access with Outlook connector
• Integrated with product set via Outlook connector
• Mobile access via website in mobile browser
• Online / Offline / Sync mobile access by download and send from phone
• With Active Sync or Wireless Sync one can sync Hotmail (or Outlook) mail, notes, calendar, and tasks with a mobile phone
• With Active Sync or Wireless Sync and Outlook connector, one can enter new information on a phone, computer, web access, or mobile access and all that information will be shared and synced with each of the other devices and access points.

As it becomes easier to connect to the web, online applications such as Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch webapps will play a larger part of our life; but our connectivity availability is not 100%, which is required for Apple’s newest useful innovation.

The future might be webapps and cloud computing. However, until a day arrives when we’re 100% connected, the safety net of controlling and syncing our data regardless of access point availability will increase productivity, drive adoptions, and prove a more friendly user experience.

• Google Checkout Trends

  Google launched trends for their checkout product. Some interesting research for eCommerce sites.

  (tags: trends)

• The 6 Steps to Stop Content Theft : The Blog Herald

  Nice article on stopping content theft. In conjunction with my post on getting traffic from scrapers, these seem to work well together. http://www.ewhisper.net/blog/scraper-sites-steal-your-content-use-them-to-build-your-traffic/

  (tags: copyright)

• Clix Marketing’s Favorite PPC Blogs | Clix Marketing PPC Blog

  Nice list of some of the top PPC blogs.

  (tags: ppc+blogs)