Search Engine Monkeying

Cool video of Marge Simpson on YouTube showing her using Google and a variety of other internet sites.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I’ve been trying to weed out competitors using our Trademarked terms in their ad copy and I’ve been having limited success. Usually, a trademark holder would just contact the offending party and threaten to sue them. This is relatively successful and there are previous cases that set a precedent so, more then likely, you’d win. Our trademark violators, on the other hand, are distributors that simply refuse to play by the rules. Management has been slow to discipline the parties that are infringing on our trademark so eventually I decided to use Google’s trademark complaint procedure to enforce our trademarks.

The whole process took a couple of weeks for the trademark complaint to take affect but eventually Google disapproved all the competitor/distributor ads with our brands in the copy.

Thats when things got interesting.

1) The Google Trademark Complaint does not recognize variations in the display URL. Display URLs such as BuyApple.com are perfectly alright to use as well as any variation of the domain. Instead of .com, if you can find .net, .biz, or .us you can use the trademarked term in the display URL. You might not think this is a big deal but the text in the display URL is still bold.

2) Expanding on the previous topic, Sub-domains can also be used in the display URL and will be bold when the user searches for the term. If the user searches for “ipods”, and your site is ipods.mysite.com, ipods will be bold in your display URL.

3) Google requires the trademark holder to notify Google every time a variation of the trademarked term is used in the ad copy. Kudos to Google for letting trademark holders expand beyond the basic term or phrase, however, there is almost an infinate number of ways to get around the trademark term without using the trademark. Using a capital i instead of a l, adding the ® directly to the end of the phrase (or any number of special or spanish characters), adding a space to the term, or even basic misspelling. How many consumers read the whole phrase anyway especially if the phrase is a long word, or technical word, or two different words together?

4) Lastly, an advertiser can always use the dynamic keyword tool to insert the trademarked term into the ad copy dynamically.

I have to admit that there are some special cases that I think trademark cases are overblown and maybe it’s best Google shows some restraint. The recent Zale’s dating ring ruling is a perfect example of a company taking trademark protection too far. In my own experience, a company trademarked the term “Type 1″ even though there are at least three different common uses for the term (think diabetes, fonts, Levi’s Jeans).

With Google being such a powerful online entity it has to do something about trademark infringement. Maybe instead of focusing on the term, Google should focus on companies that hope to confuse consumers. Thats the reason trademark laws were written in the first place.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Google Released a new beta feature today called the the Account Snapshot that closely mimics Yahoo Panama’s Dashboard. Accessed in the top navigation tabs, the Account Snapshot contains Alerts and Status, Announcements, a help box and overall campaign performance. I have the view split into two images but the they appear as one screen in the Google account (this account just had conversion tracking added and was using third party tracking and that is why the stats are so poor).

Popularity: 10% [?]

Portable Apps Suite – A collection of developer applications that will pretty much allow you to do anything (work related…). Free email, document editing, FTP, and web development software are all included in this pack. Also, the site has a list of additional free applications which you may find beneficial (portable Sudoku).

XAMPP – Apache Web Server - I thought this application was so cool that I decided I would include it separately. XAMPP is an Apache, MySQL, and PHP engine that acts as a local server on your iPod. This portable web server is perfect if you can’t find a reliable connection (e.g. on a train or 30,000 feet).

PowerPoint on your iPod – EnGadget has a How-To explaining how to display PowerPoint presentations from you iPod so you can out-geek the IT department with your office presentation. The knowledge is free but Microsoft PowerPoint and the cable needed are not. Sorry.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I just purchased a new computer and had to reinstall a bunch of new software so I compiled an essential list of free software and applications to install. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

1. IZArc – Compression Tool
2. ClamWin – AntiVirus
3. Sygate Personal Firewall – Firewall
4. Ad-Aware – Spyware Analyzer (make sure it is Lavasoft)
5. WinAmp – Music Player (works with iPods)
6. iDump – iPod Song Downloader
7. ScreenHunter – Screen Captures
8. uTorrent – Bittorrent Downloader
9. CoreFTP – FTP Client
10. Firefox – Internet Browser

Essential Firefox Extensions:

• SEOpen – SEO Tool
• Colorful Tabs – Tab Enhancement
• ColorZilla– Color Lookup
• MeasureIt – Measure Pixel Dimensions
• All-In-One Sidebar – Condensed Features
• FoxyTunes – Browser Music Player
• Google Browser Sync – Sync All the Browsers In All Your Computers

Additional Software

• AdWord Editor – AdWord Account Editor – Essential for managing multiple Google AdWord Accounts, editting and moving large campaigns, and storing account details
• Windows Defender – Spyware Analyzer – Microsoft Window’s antivirus solution cause Window’s software is so solid (j/k). Validation required.
• Gimp – Image Editor – Good for free but get Photoshop if you can.
• Picasa – Photo Organizer and Editor *
• iTunes – Music Player – massive, bloated, free music player. I’m keeping this on one computer to download podcasts and WinAmp on all the others.
• Google Earth – Map Interface – Cool for like 10 minutes and impressing n00bs but http://maps.google.com is just so much easier. *
• Google Desktop – Computer File Indexer – MASSIVE RESOURCE HOG. I may disable it on my new machice cause I feel its sucking the life out of it. *
• CDisplay – Comic Book Viewer – Cause I’m a nerd and I like to read comic books.

* - Can be downloaded as part of the Google Pack.

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Initially when I started this blog a couple months ago, I was surprised by all the ads that appeared on the site that had little or no relevance to the content. It took me a little while to determine that these advertisers are using the term “engine” in their AdWord content network campaigns and with very little content on my site, Google saw a relevant connection.

Eventually, as I added more content to the blog, Google’s algorithm was able to determine that my site had nothing to do with small engines and dirt bikes (I’m still not sure why the ad for www.INGDirect.com is relevant). However, if the advertiser had run the negative keyword suggestion tool in Google, they would have been able to avoid having their ads appear on a completely irrelevant site.

This probably won’t hurt the advertiser is the short run. I don’t think many of my readers are going to click on these ads and the advertisers will not have to pay from the impressions. However, the longterm effects of a low click through rate (CTR) and an apparent absence of relevance will lower the advertisers position and increase cost per click (CPC). Additionally, with content space being very limited (only 3 or 4 ads per group) the effects of not maintaining a high position can have a detrimental effect on their campaign.

 I sent an email inquiring about the campaigns on my site to each of the advertisers listed in the example.  Basically, I asked the following questions:

1. What keywords (or the ad title) do you think attributed to your ad showing on my site? 
2. Do you use a targeted or long-tail search engine strategy? 
3. Do you do your search engine marketing in-house or do you use an agency?

I’m interested to read the responses I get back. 

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When people search for “Life Quotes” they are often looking for quotes about life.
Why do the major search engines only give them hundreds of pages of
commercial garbage about Life Insurance Quotes?

–Bill Austin

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Big news today about the AOL and Google collaborative project. America OnLine has been a member of the Google Search Network for a long time (as well as, Earthlink and Ask.com) but the fact that they have setup their own advertising network makes it very appealing. Consistently we have a higher conversion rate from AOL subscribers than most other portals and the opportunity to maximize our visibility is definitely a plus.

You can signup with the AOL Search Marketplace as an advertiser here and an AOL rep will contact you shortly.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Couple changes happening with the Yahoo network that advertisers should be aware of:

1) Short descriptions for all ads will be required and if there is only a long description associated with the ad, the long descriptions will be truncated so that the new description is only 70 characters.  This policy will take affect in June so you have sometime.

2) Additionally, if you are a Yahoo Ambassador who has not taken the new Ambassador exam, you we’re required to take the Ambassador exam before March 31 or else you will lose your accreditation.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Google finally announced that they were updating their link colors. I did a posting about this a couple weeks ago (Mar 23) supporting the idea and it looks like the change will be implemented network wide. Additionally, the user will have to click directly on the link in the box instead of the box itself. Google believes that these changes will lower unintentional clicks and increase ROI for advertisers.

Popularity: 4% [?]