Author Archive - Noah Malli
Weekly Search Roundup: Scraping the Newsworthy Scum Off The Surface of the Cesspool That We Call The Internet
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Written By Noah Mallin | October 10, 2008 | Share This
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The negative campaigning continues. John McCain this week suggested that Obama was some kind of crypto-socialist terrorist Muslim while Obama pointed out that McCain is, well, John McCain. Surprisingly though the harshest attack came from atop the mighty Googleplex as CEO Eric Shmidt called the Internet a “cesspool.” At press time the Internet had responded with the charge that Schmidt was once seen in an elevator with Bill Ayers. In all fairness Schmidt made his observation to a group of publishers to whom he also explained,”We don’t actually want you to be successful…” at getting good search engine rankings. Okkkaaaay then. This of course was followed by an obtuse non-explanation of Google’s quality score rankings.
Search News: SMX East – Getting Testy With the “Ask the Paid Search Buyers” Panel
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Written By Noah Mallin | October 8, 2008 | Share This
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As SMX winds down the panels get ever more wonky – and that’s a good thing for the search marketing geek. Case in point: The “Ask the Paid Search Buyers” panel moderated by Range Online Media founder Misty Locke.
Reprise Media Managing Partner Josh Stylman was on hand repeating the mantra “When in doubt, test.” The other panelists – iProspect’s Andrew Wheeler, Emily Scott of online travel site Kayak and Molly Hughes of J. Crew, all nodded in agreement.
Search News: SMX East – Search Marketing Happiness is a Warm Churro
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Written By Noah Mallin | October 6, 2008 | Share This
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The Javits Center is a cruel place at 8:30 AM – especially when Search Marketing Expo East is sharing the cavernous steel and glass girdered barn on the far, far west side of Manhattan with a few other shows. I’m not sure that I had enough coffee in me yet to properly express my horror at being asked “Are you here for the kid expo?” “Christ, no!” is apparently not the standard response.
Happily I did find my way into the SMX side of the hall after picking up the requisite backpack full of swag to slip into a comfy chair for the opening panel: “Search Integration: Are We There Yet?” James Lamberti of ComScore quipped that he wanted to prep a powerpoint slide with a giant “No” on it.
SEM: Wachovia and Wells Fargo Miss Out on Windfall from Search Engine Interest
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Written By Noah Mallin | October 3, 2008 | Share This
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Millions of consumers and business who have accounts and dealings with Wachovia and (last week with Washington Mutual) found themselves wondering some pretty basic questions: Is my money safe? Do I have to switch banks? Is the other shoe going to drop?
Increasingly the first place Americans go to when that want answers fast is a search engine. It makes sense – this is when the ability to deliver a relevant result out of the vast sea of information available online truly shines. So why does corporate America still not get it?
Wachovia just announced their purchase by Wells Fargo in the latest in a series of dizzying financial defensive moves by debt saddled institutions. Even more confusing, this comes barely a week after a government arranged shotgun wedding between Wachivia and Citigroup. So what happens when consumers did a search for “wachovia” or “wachovia” and “financial crisis” or “wachovia” and “wells fargo”?
Search News: SERP-prise! Google Experiments with Banner Ads on Results Pages
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Written By Noah Mallin | October 1, 2008 | Share This
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Back in college I used to experiment some. Google never grew out of this and does it every day. Just as in college, these experiments sometimes entail stepping out of your comfort zone and trying things that initially might seem contrary to your core beliefs – like snorting ricotta cheese or joining an a capella group. In Google’s case this means cluttering up their relatively clean search results pages (SERPs) with banner ads – in particular their Google Images results.
Search News: Obama Finally Does Search Engine Marketing Right
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 29, 2008 | Share This
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When last we reported, John McCain had pretty much ceded social media to the already brilliant Obama strategy but instead had set up his own, quite effective search engine strategy to get to the undecided and independents – those most likely to use search to find out where the candidates stand. Many observers including this blog and Reprise Media Managing Partner Joshua Stylman publicly drew attention to this disparity in resource allocation.
It looks like the Obama campaign heard us.
Social Media: Friday Thoughts – YouTube Shakes Up the Monetization Tree
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 26, 2008 | Share This
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I decided this week to NOT do the weekly round-up, suspending it for the sake of the economy. Hah, for real though, Ad Week gave us all enough to chew on that there wasn’t time to look at some of the tidbits and trifles that normally stud my weekly round-ups like so many raisins in an oatmeal cookie.
I do want to draw your attention to a little something TechCrunch posted today (and which has been making the rounds for about a week) — one answer to a question that’s been asked for a while now: Will YouTube figure out how to rake in the dough?
Search News: McCain Suspends the Campaign Suspension When it Comes to Search Ads
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 25, 2008 | Share This
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John McCain announced on Wednesday that he would be pulling all advertising and suspending his campaign while he hurries back to Washington to help “fix” the nation’s ailing economy. A number of observers have wondered why the campaign would have to be suspended and from the looks of McCain’s search advertising the candidate is wondering the same thing.
A quick glance at Google confirms that search ads are still running for terms surrounding both McCain’s and Palin’s names, placed by the McCain/Palin campaign. This jibes with other offline evidence that the campaign continues such as an appearance by McCain with Katie Couric last night (after apparently lying to David Letterman about “flying back to Washington” and not being able to make his scheduled Late Show appearance) and an airport rally for Sarah Palin today.
Search News: Google – Knol and Void?
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 24, 2008 | Share This
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It seems like every few weeks Google launches a product – a knowledge resource (Knol), a browser (Chrome), a phone (the G1), a personal deodorant (QScore – the Smell of First Page Ranking) …OK I was joking about the deodorant but still…
When your share price is still north of $400 and you are insanely profitable I suppose it’s your corporate right to launch whatever darn products you want. It ain’t no thang but a chicken wing and all that. The question I have is, once you launch a product are you obligated to, you know, actually continue to develop it?
Ad Week ‘08: Digital Bites Breakfast Features Rare Look at Microsoft Search Engine Marketing
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 23, 2008 | Share This
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It’s Ad Week here in New York which means a big tent in Bryant Park, leggy models pushing away their tuna nicoise at fancy outdoor cafes and Tim Gunn running around in a tizzy. OK, wait, that’s Fashion Week — my bad. Ad Week is totally different.
One way you can tell it’s indeed Ad Week is that Advertising Age’s Digital Bites Series has a killer official event. This year’s - “Digital Bites Breakfast - Search Marketing + Optimization” - looks to be a particularly hot ticket.
Reprise Media Managing Partner Peter Hershberg will be joined by Senior Search Advertising Manager, Corporate Marketing at Microsoft Mark Grote to kick off the event with a case study: Microsoft: Building Brand Equity Through Search Engine Marketing. Online registration is now over but it is possible to get tickets tomorrow at the Paley Center for Media where the event is taking place. Registration starts at 8:30AM and the event starts at 9:15AM.
This will be followed by a panel on Key Challenges and Opportunities in the Search Space moderated by ComScore’s James Lamberti.