Google's recent decision to remove the ads from the right-hand side of the search results' pages has raised a few eyebrows among the search community. Google maintains that its main consideration is to improve the user experience and relevance of the results page and, at first glance, it would seem that this change is one that actually isn't driven by increasing profits. How could they possibly benefit from shrinking the advertising space from 11 potential clicks to six? Well, firstly, Google isn't doing away with all the ads on the right hand side. The official announcement said: "Ads that have previously shown to the side of the results may in some cases appear below them." We can assume that Google will judge the impact on paid traffic for each keyword, much in the same way that it has assessed the need for a Top three ad box in the first place. If total paid search click-throughs fall drastically for high-volume terms, you can bet your daily budget that the side...

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Halloween is just around the corner and Google has unleashed another scary Quality Score update. Or has it? This month, Google announced an update to its ads quality algorithm that increases the weight given to landing page relevance and quality in determining quality score and paid search rankings. This move is preceded by testing in Brazil, Spain, Portugal and Latin America. Then and Now: Before this change, landing page quality was included in quality score but was only viewed as a negative factor. This meant that if you were running poor quality landing pages you might expect to see a low quality score (QS) or that you could see your landing pages rejected altogether. Either way, having a fantastically relevant, unique and authentic landing page would have had no positive impact on QS. Now, landing page quality will have a more positive impact on QS weighting it more strongly versus the usual factors of Click Through Rate and Keyword Relevancy. What Does It...

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Last week, Google started serving up a new (massive) version of organic site links. Site links are the extra links that you can see beneath search listings in Google SERPs and they're there to provide shortcuts that help people quickly find the information that they're looking for. Site links in one form or another are now commonplace in both paid and natural search results. So far, these 'jumbo' site links are only appearing against branded searches, where Google is pretty certain that the searcher is looking for that site. Whether you're a brand owner, interested in protecting high converting brand traffic, or a reseller that relies on traffic from your product brand terms, it's important to take notice of this change, which has the potential to significantly impact your traffic from natural and paid search. Are they relevant or are they the ones that you want? The first thing to check is whether you're lucky enough to have the new site links enabled. If you are...

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We've had three weeks or so now to get used to Google's latest foray into the world of travel - Google Hotel Finder and it feels like a good time to reflect on what it could mean for the hotel industry. What is it? Google Places started out as Google Local in September 2004, which was then combined with Google Maps when that went live five months later. Listings started out as three local business listings and a map for queries that included a location, expanding to ten (the “10 pack”) in January 2008 (finally becoming the “7 pack” in October 2009). The renamed “Places” went live in June 2009, with individual Place Pages for Google Maps rolling out in the following September. This update also expanded the Places listings to include not only businesses but transport networks, landmarks and importantly, hotels. The expanded interface for registered users meant opportunities for optimising their listing with categories (i.e. keywords) and service...

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Larry Page's timing is impeccable. In his first full quarter since becoming chief executive, the Google co-founder has just announced a 36% year-on-year increase in profits to just over £1.5bn. Unsurprisingly Google shares soared on the news. Page has taken a bit of stick since he took over in April, mainly because of plans to increase costs by hiring more smart people (what an idiot?!) and focusing on product innovation (doh?!), so one has to assume he enjoyed proving them wrong - and what do they know anyway... I'll let you pick through the results for yourselves but here are a couple of things the mainstream press seem to have got excited about: • Mobile devices are going to be big and it seems people like using search engines on mobile devices • The price of paid advertising is going up most probably because it's becoming more and more valuable as people spend more time researching and shopping online (and more and more competitors want a piece of the...

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When you’re talking with your friends, the last thing you’d expect or even want, is for a stranger to come and interrupt you mid sentence by shouting about how great they are. If they did want to join in with your conversation, their best tactic would be hang round in similar places as you, become familiar with your interests and wait for the right moment to politely introduce themselves. Next they should ask a few questions about you and most importantly LISTEN so they can start to understand your likes and dislikes. Then you probably wouldn’t mind if they started offering useful related stories and information in the flow of the conversation. How about they then used all the information they had learnt and threw a party – where the food and music were exactly to your taste. You’d probably go. And you’d probably bring your like minded mates with you. And during the party you’d also probably be happy to listen to the host with an open mind about what they have to...

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Form an orderly queue; Google is hiring Autocompleters for its Instant Search tool. If you have psychic tendencies and an average 32,000 WPM typing speed then you could be next in line to work for the search engine super giant: “As a Google Autocompleter, you’ll be expected to successfully guess a user’s intention as he or she starts typing instantly. In a fraction of a second, you’ll need to type in your prediction that will be added to the list of suggestions given by Google. Don’t worry, after a few million predictions you’ll grow the required reflexes.” Except this, of course, is no ordinary job description. This is one of Google’s celebrated April Fools’ Day pranks. Yes, last Friday was April 1st and, whilst the Propellernet team managed to refrain from any Fool-based naughtiness, Google couldn’t resist a few cheeky jokes. Not content with simply advertising a spoof vacancy, Google also introduced its latest Gmail technology - a movement-powered...

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The past few days Google have been teasing us with various new animated logos and claiming that something big is coming, leaving the search industry waiting with bated breath. Would it really be something original and big, or rather would it be another Google Wave style failure? Yesterday they finally revealed Google Instant which immediately caused quite a stir. In their own words... "Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type." Read the rest of this entry...

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Go back 10 years and search results on Google were vastly different to what they are today. Gone are the days of page after page of bland text; instead searchers are now bombarded with an assortment of results - from news to maps, images and videos. Google refers to this as "universal search" as it combines their separate search tools to provide improved results for searches. However, universal search is just the tip of the iceberg with regards to maximising your brand’s exposure within the search results. Whilst not all options may be relevant to your brand, there are many which are easy to implement and allow you to increase visibility and traffic (whilst helping to bury your competitors further down the page). Read the rest of this entry...

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This week an Italian court surprisingly convicted three Google executives over the uploading of a video in which an autistic teenager was bullied. Despite removing it within a matter of hours after being notified by the Italian police, David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes were all found to be guilty of violating Italian privacy laws. This is not the first time the Google giant has had problems with privacy laws. Just last week Google's new social networking site Buzz came under fire from The Electronic Privacy Information Centre who lodged a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission claiming Google breaks consumer protection law. It will be interesting to watch how that develops. However, this latest development threatens to set a dangerous precedent in Italy in which sites can be held accountable for what's hosted on their servers. This could have major ramifications for sites which rely on user-generated content such as social networking sites. Read the...

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