Patricio Robles says, “The Wall Street Journal is reporting that EU regulators are possibly just weeks away from slapping Google with antitrust charges based on complaints similar to those levelled against it in the United States. Despite the fact that staffers at the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concluded that Google harmed “innovation in online search and ad markets” the search giant managed to dodge antitrust charges that could have threatened the company’s search dominance. According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, EU regulators have been seeking... [...]

David Nield says, “Google has pushed out a couple of app updates for Android, as it often does, but there’s more going on here than a few code tweaks. The new features introduced today in both Gmail and Google Drive are signs of the pressure the tech giant is starting to feel from competing apps on its own platform. There are plenty of fronts that Google now has to fight on simultaneously, from self-driving cars to video content. But with eyeballs shifting to mobile and rivals such as Cyanogen in the wings, smartphone apps are one of the most important fronts of all”. Why Google... [...]

Matthew Job says, “More and more, would-be entrepreneurs are using smartphones to study and reach out to franchises at a rising rate. Consider the Landmark Interactive study analyzing 139 franchisors and about 36,000 units for the year ended August 2014. According to that study, the percentage of prospective franchisees using smartphones to research and contact franchise opportunities online nearly doubled, to 42 percent, up from 23 percent. Along the way, many of these mobile prospects likely used smartphones to view these franchise recruitment websites. Franchisors also likely... [...]

Karissa Bell says, “It’s already April Fools’ Day in Japan and Google isn’t wasting any time. In a video posted to Google Japan’s YouTube page, the company introduced Google Panda, its new adorable take on voice-enabled search. “Google Panda is engineered with state of the art emotional and conversational intelligence,” promises vice president of engineering, Chris Yerga, in the video. “All you have to do is speak your mind.” Later, a Google engineer takes the stage to walk through the design inspiration (a real-life panda, of course) and the various... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “They can make or break a site, and many website operators and search marketers await their arrival with a certain level of anxiety. They have strange names like Panda and Penguin, and when they affect significant numbers of websites, they can be written about and analyzed for months. I’m referring, of course, to Google algorithm updates. But is it possible that the major Google algorithm updates that captivate us are largely a thing of the past? In a post on Search Engine Land, Nate Dame, the founder and CEO of search and content marketing firm Propecta, observes... [...]

Jeff Sauer says, “We analyze the performance of our content every day. Sometimes it’s subconscious, like when we check the number of tweets we get from a new blog post. Other times, we make more conscious efforts, like reviewing performance metrics in Google Analytics. This feedback—both formal and anecdotal—informs what we do next. It influences future blog posts and validates our strategies. Reviewing content performance on a regular basis has been key to the growth of many online publishers. We should all be taking note of these successes as we build our own content marketing... [...]

Pete Prestipino says, “Google launched its Places API for Android and opened a beta program for it on iOS last week and it is aiming to bring some practical, local context on what’s around users. While the Places API web service and JavaScript library have actually be around for some time, providing native support for Android and iOS devices will enable developers to take advantage of a device’s location signals, and further optimize their apps’ mobile experience“. Google Places API Offering Greater Local Context Website Magazine  [...]

Danny Sullivan says, “Google deliberately blacklisted competing shopping search sites, despite the company’s past claims that it doesn’t target competitors this way, according to new details of the US Federal Trade Commission investigation into Google on anti-trust charges, found by the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ obtained a 160 page FTC staff report from the investigation, finding that the FTC should move ahead with an anti-trust lawsuit on several fronts. Our own summary of the WSJ story can be found on our sister-site, Search Engine Land. FTC commissioners ultimately chose to... [...]

Gina Broom says, “It’s always important to keep a finger on Google’s ever-changing pulse, and this year there is quite the buzz around a recent announcement. There is an approaching update that could potentially cause a ripple of effect in search results. When traffic is at stake many tune in to hear the latest news, and it’s fair to say that this has become the talk of the e-town. This time, Google is all about mobile-friendliness. Now, I know that “mobile optimization” as a topic has been thrashed to”. The Looming Desktopocalypse: How This Google Update Could Affect... [...]

Derek S. says, “To help search marketers in their quest to reach as many consumers as possible, Google Ads has introduced a new feature called dynamic structured snippets. Through the new feature, paid ads on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) are able to have additional text that automatically displays in search ads. The additional text “highlights industry-specific, structured information about your products and services.” In other words, dynamic search snippets help to give users more relevant information about a website before they click on its ad. At this time, the new feature... [...]