Industry News Blog Posts

After nearly 4 years in the “lab”, Google Suggest has graduated.  For those unfamiliar, Google Suggest is a service not unlike Yahoo! Search Assist, which offers to complete a user’s query in real time based on some of the most popular searches.  The change could have more of an effect on some eCommerce Sites than they’d think:

Google recently launched a new web metrics tool that geared towards those in the wonderful world of web marketing. It’s called Google Insights, and though it is very similar to Google Trends, there are definitely some unique features worth checking out.

According to Internet Retailer, below are the top ten converting online retailers for March, 2008, all of which had to have at least 500,000 visits during the month:

• Office Depot, 20.9%
• QVC, 19%
• VistaPrint, 18.3%
• Roamans, 18.1%
• Lands’ End, 16.2%
• eBay, 15.7%
• 1-800-Flowers.com, 15.5%
• eBags.com, 15.3%
• L.L. Bean, 14.6%
• Pottery Barn Kids, 14.2%

What’s your conversion rate?

Read more at Internet Retailer!

The greatest threat to Google’s ad business may not be Microsoft, Yahoo, or Facebook, but rather the group of people they work so hard to cater their company to – their users. Here’s how: As mobile phone technology advances, more and more people are content to browse the internet through their cell phones.

3 Column or 2 Column? Centered or aligned Left? Full window or only part of the window? Cafe Press prefers a 2 column centered layout. Barnes and Noble prefers a 3 column centered layout. Omaha Steaks prefers a 3 column, full window layout. Which layout do you prefer for your eCommerce web site? Take a look at what the internet’s top 100 eTailers chose for their layouts and then let me know what you think! See the complete stats below:

I was having too much fun to pull out my camera, but for those of you asking… Here are some pics from this years Google Dance. For those of you that have never been to the Plex, you can see it looks like a wild place.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gdance2007/GoogleDance2007WeRockedIt

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook announced this morning that it is planning on launching a new ad system in which marketers can target specific user profiles. They will soon be able to provide their advertisers with the myriad of information that can be found in a single Facebook profile.

It’s about time! The potential value of Facebook has not even been fully realized because a system like this is not in place. The overwhelming benefits of the social networking giant are in their hierarchical organization and the vast amount of information they’ve compiled on all of their users. What have they been waiting for? It’s time they man up, and start using these benefits to their advantage.

It appears Google will have a little competition for radio ad sales. Ebay has begun working with Bid4Spots to auction off radio airtime–directly competing with Google’s dMarc Broadcasting that sells ads on 674 Clear Channel stations. It will be interesting to see if eBay follows Google in all their ad sales systems. More information can be found here and here.

Dan Thies, a professional in the SEO industry, has released his latest edition of Search Engine Optimization Fast Start. You can download the PDF here. It’s 100 pages long and provides useful information for beginners of SEO. You can check out his community here.

Congratulations to Bruce Clay, Inc. who announced last week our friend and conference buddy Mike Grehan as VP of International Business Development. Good Luck Mike (or should I say Good Luck Bruce???)!