Marketing Pilgrim

Two announcements that you should consider…

1. Eric Ward has just launched a new newsletter. THE WARD REPORT will be published monthly and include a “Trend Watch” and “What Works” columns, along with other articles and how-to content.

2. Jill Whalen has a two-day seminar and workshop coming-up on October 19th in Dallas. MarketingPilgrim readers can enter “PILGRIM” for a 25% discount!

I’m pretty sure the “query stats” shown at Google Webmaster Central for MarketingPilgrim.com, haven’t changed in months, but that’s all about to change.

According to Google’s Vanessa Fox, they’re working on updating the stats more frequently.

If you’ve checked your site’s query stats lately, you may have noticed that they’re changing more often than they used to. This is because we recently changed how frequently we calculate them. Previously, we showed data that was averaged over a period of three weeks. Now, we show data that is averaged over a period of one week.

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ClickZ looks at the favorable response to Microsoft’s AdCenter platform. They love the traffic, they just need more of it!

“We’re finding the traffic is very good traffic. It’s consistently performing in a way that allows us to increase our spend in search,” said David Hughes, CEO of The Search Agency. Hughes said that traffic is still not at the level of other search engines, but that his clients have seen as much as 400 percent growth in traffic on their campaigns since adCenter launched fully in May.

Yahoo and HP just announced a new partnership that will see Yahoo Search as the default search engine on new HP computers.

The agreement requires HP to set up its desktop and notebook PCs in North America so Yahoo’s search engine appears in the toolbar of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7, the next version of the Web’s most widely used browser. Yahoo is hoping that the tool bar will generate more search requests, providing a springboard for more ad revenue.

Google has made some significant upgrades to its Google Reader RSS aggregator platform. As TechCrunch explains…

Changes include a whole new look and feel, folder navigation, unread item counts and the ability to mark items as read or unread. There’s a “river of news� view (click all feeds, view settings, sort by auto) and one click item sharing with friends. The new expanded view lets you scan down lots of items all at once.

Google Reader definitely has more of a Bloglines feel now and the interface is definetly a huge improvement. I may even be tempted to switch from Newsgator.
More from the Google Reader blog.

CNET explains why search engines will never likely replace the expertise and personal touch you get from consulting a librarian.

While the Web is good for offering quick results from a broad range of sources, which may or may not be trustworthy, librarians can help people get access to more authoritative information and go deeper with their research.

And no article on search and librarians would be complete, without a quote from my pal Gary Price…

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We know you help keep out sponsors happy by visiting them on a regular basis. We know many of you head over to Text Link Brokers for all of your link buying needs, but did you know that the guys also offer a Link Building Blog as well?

It’s worth subscribing or bookmarking the blog as they often have some cool tips and suggestions.

comScore Networks just released new data on the growth of of the local search market.

According to the study, 63 percent of U.S. Internet users (or approximately 109 million people) performed a local search online in July, a 43-percent increase versus July of 2005. Google Sites (30 percent) and Yahoo! Sites (29 percent) garnered the largest share of local searches in July. Microsoft Sites captured 12 percent of local searches, followed by the Time Warner Network with 7 percent.

It’s interesting to note what people are searching for:

59% were searching for a restaurant or other entainment venues
52% were searching for business phone numbers

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It’s been a few weeks since Google’s Marissa Mayer has been in the news, but never fear! Business Week comes to the rescue with a guide for running the perfect business meeting, Mayer-style.

Next week, they plan to have her share her recipe for delicious chocolate brownies. I can’t wait!

CNET has a Wall Street analyst predicting social networking site MySpace could be worth $15 billion within 3 years.

Rohan said MySpace could demonstrate a value of between $10 billion and $20 billion within a few years. Acknowledging he was making an “audacious claim” he justified the forecast on the basis of MySpace’s “raw, unprecedented user/usage growth.”

Hat’s off to Rupert Murdoch - not a bad ROI for a $580 million acquisition.

Business Week takes a look at what’s at stake in the battle between Google and Belgian publishers.

It’s an interesting read, especially when the publishers concede they’re getting a lot of traffic from Google then go on to use that as evidence the company needs to be stopped.

Since the Belgian court decision went into effect and Google dropped IPM publications, traffic to the company’s sites has dropped about 15%, le Hodey concedes. Yet that only strengthens his sense that Google should be checked before it gets even more powerful.

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Just received word from the folks at Shopping.com that they’ve given the site a facelift and added some new features including:

“What’s Hot� – Shopping.com’s new “What’s Hot� homepage section provides shoppers with a quick overview of the hottest products across key categories. “What’s Hot� products and categories are selected by Shopping.com’s experts each month.

“Shop by Brand� – Shopping.com understands that everyone has a favorite brand – whether for running shoes, shampoo or blue jeans. Its new “Shop by Brand� section provides shoppers one-click access to complete, well-organized virtual stores for nearly all their favorite makers.