Michael Cottam says, “This is a story about Panda, customer service, and differentiating your store from others selling the same products.Many e-commerce websites get the descriptions, specifications, and imagery for products they sell from feeds or databases provided by the manufacturers. The manufacturers might like this, as they control how their product is described and shown. However, it does their retailers no good when they are trying to rank for searches for those products and they’ve got the exact same content as every other retailer. If the content in the feed is thin, then... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Google announced full year 2014 revenues of $66 billion, which was up 19 percent vs. 2013. The fourth quarter saw revenues of $18.1 billion, up 15 percent vs. Q4 2013.Quarterly revenues and earnings per share were a miss, based on consensus analyst estimates. Shares were down in after-hours trading (but have since recovered).The following are the high level numbers from the release:Consolidated revenues: $18.10 billion. Google sites: $12.43 billion (18 percent growth). Network: $3.72 billion (up 6 percent). Other revenues: $1.95 billion (up 19 percent)GAAP operating... [...]

Derek S. says, “As marketers look to start the new year off on the right foot they must understand how consumers are viewing their ads.IgnitionOne, a provider of digital marketing solutions, has released their latest report which details digital marketing trends and activities from Q4 2014.While the report outlines many interesting trends, one of the most surprising findings was that Yahoo and Bing demonstrated their highest combined percentage of U.S. search spend (26.3 percent versus Google’s 73.7 percent) since 2008. Another interesting finding from the report is that marketers are... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Google is now officially a domain registrar, at least in the U.S.About six months after launching as an invite-only service, Google Domains is now open to anyone in the U.S.Domain registration starts at $12 per year, which is competitive with other services. Google Domains offers several of the basic registration services you’d find at other, more established registrars:new domain registrationtransfers of existing names into Google’s serviceprivate domain registration (for free)email forwardingwebsite/URL forwardingintegration with website builder services”.Google... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Super Cray, New York-based online publisher of the website www.supercraycray.com, has filed suit against Google over its AdSense program. In an argument that is becoming increasingly familiar, Super Cray claims that Google suspended the publisher’s AdSense account the day it was to receive a large payout in ad share fees.Super Cray claims that after receiving several written assurances from Google that its AdSense ads were set up and running in compliance with the program, it invested more than $300,000 in content promotion, largely on Facebook, to drive traffic to... [...]

Jason Abbruzzese says, “Google’s grip on the Internet search market loosened in December, as the search engine saw its largest drop since 2009.That loss was Yahoo’s gain, as the Marissa Mayer-helmed company added almost 2% from November to December to bring its market share back into double digits.Google’s lead remains overwhelming, with just more than three-quarters of search, according to SatCounter Global Stats. Microsoft’s Bing gained some momentum to take 12.5% of the market. Yahoo now has 10.4%. All other search engines combined to take 1.9%”.Google sees... [...]

Tom Sather says, “In late 2014, Google announced “Inbox by Google,” update to the nearly ten-year-old Gmail interface that is essentially a re-imagined email client for Gmail, but focused on helping people manage their busy lives. The effort takes the best ideas from products like Google Now and Gmail as well as from upstart email apps like Mailbox.The invite-only revamped inbox also aims to make an inbox experience that is more relevant in today’s mobile world, as its interactivity relies strongly on touch-screen-like movements like swipes.In a Reddit Ask Me Anything, Inbox’s... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Google previously said that viewability would become the standard for its display ad network. It’s now taking steps to do so for video advertising served via DoubleClick and on YouTube.The company announced today at CES in Las Vegas that later this year it will begin reporting viewability metrics for DoubleClick users and selected YouTube advertisers. It will only be available at first for “reserved inventory” on YouTube (PC then mobile). However later this year Google will offer the ability to “buy only viewable video impressions across the Google Display Network.””.Google... [...]

Josh Bachynski says, “Penguin is back at the forefront of many marketers’ minds now that the third iteration of the algorithm update has been released, and a rumor has begun circulating that you can weasel your way out of a Penguin penalty by simply submitting a disavow file. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Josh Bachynski breaks down that argument and starts a realistic discussion to find the answer. While we (and, as you’ll see, Josh) don’t have definitive answers, we hope you’ll join in with your thoughts in the comments!“.Discussion: Can You Disavow... [...]

Chris Abraham says, “Looking for an alternative to Google Analytics? Want to understand your traffic, get a deeper view? Open source contender Piwik Analytics may be your answer.Piwik is the leading open source web analytics software, used by almost half a million websites (est. 460,000). It gives interesting reports on your website visitors, your popular pages, the search engines keywords they used, the languages they speak and so much more. Piwik is an open source alternative to Google Analytics“.Take Charge Of Your Stats: Piwik Analytics Vs. Google AnalyticsBusiness2Community.com [...]