home
/ resource library
/ search engine archives
/
july 2006 search engine news
What's New in Search - July 2006
Checkout Google's New Product
Google has released a new online payment system. The
system, dubbed Google Checkout, is designed to make
life easier for Internet buyers and retailers. It
works with payment systems such as PayPal, as well
as with merchant accounts, and it can handle all credit
card processing for your website on its own. The service
makes buying simple by allowing anyone with a Google
account to make purchases with a single click (if
he or she is logged into the account) on sites using
Google Checkout. Comparison to eBay-owned PayPal is
inevitable because their offerings are so similar,
but Google Checkout costs about 30 percent less than
PayPal. It will be interesting to see how this affects
online commerce.
Yahoo Delays Panama
Yahoo has decided to delay its new advertising interface,
known as Panama, until the fourth quarter. The delay
is related to unforeseen problems in quality control
and the testing process. The bad news sent Yahoo's
stock price tumbling, even after the company reported
strong earnings of $1.4 billion for the quarter. Investors
did not take kindly to the news of the delay because
of the highly competitive search market. Google has
continued to increase its majority market share, and
this delay gives MSN opportunity to gain on Yahoo
as well by capitalizing on its own new set of tools.
Advertisers are anticipating Yahoo's new platform
because it is said to include features such as keyword
grouping enhancements, IP-based mapping features to
support geo-targeting, better scheduling capabilities,
and indirect conversion tracking.
Microsoft's New adCenter Tools
Microsoft released several useful tools this month
for its adCenter users. The tools provide some great
keyword and demographic data to help the keyphrase
selection process. One tool in particular gives access
to consumer search patterns, allowing users to see
what keywords searchers tend to use both before and
after a given search. There is also a seasonality-forecasting
tool that displays a chart showing fluctuation in
search activity for a keyword over several years.
One of the most interesting tools is related to demographics
predictions--it breaks down a particular keyword's
searchers by age and gender. Tools like these can
create additional value from any SEO/SEM campaign
by providing useful data that leads to better keyphrase
selection.
Previous Search
Engine News Archives
|
