All AdWords Phone Numbers made clickable by google on mobile

When AdWords advertisers place a phone number in their ad copy, the phone number will be clickable by default, Google has announced. Advertisers will be charged the same rate as their standard PPC when users call through the advertisement.

The Added Features

Google has been offering a click-to-call feature for AdWords since January 2010.

Previously, AdWords users who placed a phone number in their ad copy could only get a call if the searcher entered the number manually. Now, the phone numbers inside the creative are clickable by default.

Additionally, advertisers can view details on the performance of the clickable number by looking at the "click type" campaign segment of their campaign reporting.

Source url : http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2104995/Google-Makes-All-AdWords-Phone-Numbers-Clickable-for-Mobile

Google expanded the Panda/Farmer update to all English language searches

It’s only been 48 hours since Google expanded the Panda/Farmer update to all English language searches outside the US, and we’re already seeing reports about who the early winners and losers are.

In some cases, the names are familiar if you followed the original reports when the algorithm change first hit in the US in late February.

But there are also some new names, including a notable one that was missing the first time around.

Source url : http://searchengineland.com/winners-losers-panda-goes-global-ehow-bings-ciao-more-72895

Bing with instant search

Google's been serving up "instant" search results for awhile and saving people seconds any time they need to search for something. Time for Bing to do the same.

Fast Company reports that Microsoft is introducing an instant search feature as "part of a bigger make-over for Bing that'll maximize its use of HTML 5's "next gen" browser technology." This feature will be similar to Google's and suggest search queries as you type yours. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Basically, with instant search, top search results will pour in as you type your query, and odds are that you'll spot what you're looking for before you're even done typing. In other words, you'll feel like the search engine is trying to read your mind.

Source url : http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/07/6210771-bing-to-imitate-googles-instant-search-feature

New Navigation Bar for Google

A week ago, we reported on a new top navigation bar Google began testing. It appears that Google seems to be rolling out this new top navigation bar out globally. I even see the new navigation bar.

The new navigation bar allows the Google page and search results move up slightly, since the bar is slightly shorter than the previous bar. It also adds a bit of a more colorful and graphical interface. The top bar has a light dark and light blue bar across the top. Plus, there is a little gear like icon at the far right that gives you additional options for your account and preferences.

Source url : http://searchengineland.com/yes-more-are-seeing-google%E2%80%99s-new-navigation-bar-65236

Google in talks to buy Groupon

Google Inc. may be close to buying online discount service Groupon in a deal worth as much as $6 billion in what would be the search company's largest acquisition ever, according to published reports.

The talks were reported by the technology blog All Things D and by The New York Times, which cited unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.

Google and Groupon had no comment Tuesday.

The size of the deal would put it well above Google's largest acquisition to date, its 2008 purchase of DoubleClick for $3.2 billon.

Groupon, a 2-year-old startup based in Chicago, offers daily local bargains ranging from yoga classes to discounts from national retailers such as Gap and Nordstrom Rack. Buying Groupon would give Google an increasingly popular outlet for local merchants that hope to lure in more prospective customers. That's a lucrative space that Facebook entered recently with its Deals service. Google and Facebook are increasingly competing for online eyeballs and the ad dollars that follow them.

Source url : http://gadgets.ndtv.com/shownews.aspx?id=GADEN20100161804&Sec=NEWS&pfrom=Top-Tech

Removing website pages from Google: Keeping some pages confidential

Keeping Content Out Of Google’s Search Results From the Start


Ideally, information that you don’t want in Google’s index won’t end up there at all. The best ways to ensure this are:


* Require a login to access the information

This method, of course, not only keeps Google out, but ensures that only those you want to view the content are able to. You would use this method, for instance, to keep personal information like credit card and social security numbers private and to manage access to premium content.


* Use the Robots Exclusion Protocol to block search engines from crawling and/or indexing the content

You can block content using a robots.txt file, a robots meta tag, or an X-Robots tag in the page header. Using a Disallow statement in the robots.txt file keeps Googlebot from crawling the page, although the URL itself may still end up indexed. Using a noindex robots meta tag on the page allows Googlebot to crawl the page, but keeps Google from indexing the page contents or displaying the URL in the search results. (Note that while the Noindex directive in robots.txt has been unofficially followed by Google, it hasn’t stated support for this directive officially, so it’s not an ideal way to ensure content remains out of Google search results.)


Source url : http://searchengineland.com/removing-pages-from-google-53086