A cool way of seeing how pages are interconnected socially is being shut down. Google says its Social Graph API is being retired. Social Graph API Closes In April The news came in a blog post today: This API makes information about the public connections between people on the web available for developers. The API isn’t experiencing the kind of adoption we’d like, and is being deprecated as of today. It will be fully retired on April 20, 2012. The Social Graph API is a way for web pages to declare -- in an automated way -- social connections between themselves. For example, your blog [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+ | Top News

If you publish web pages that might be considered too heavy with ads "above the fold," be warned: Google has announced an algorithm update that aims at ad-heavy content. Google calls it the "page layout algorithm," and says the change is based on complaints from users that are unhappy with having to scroll to find the actual content on the page and mainly seeing ads, instead. But as is often the case, Google isn't providing any specific guidance on how many ads above-the-fold are too many. On the other hand, they do say that the algorithm change will impact less than one percent of gl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: SEO | Search Marketing

Publishers this morning began reporting problems with Google's AdSense -- no ads were showing on their sites -- and now Google acknowledges the problem. A Google spokesperson told Marketing Land: "There is currently an issue with AdSense for Content ads not showing on a small number of publishers' sites. Our engineers are working to investigate and resolve the issue as quickly as possible." On the AdSense help forum, numerous publishers related problems about their multiple sites. One, going by the handle CorpAce, wrote, "I have this problem across over well over 50 websites, in the UK a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Google | Google: AdSense | Google: Display Advertising

Lots of attention, and debate, on the growth of Google+ this week. It's a good time to revisit the figures for that other social network you might have heard of, Facebook. It increased users by 37% to 800 million last year, and brands like Coca-Cola and Disney have millions of fans who follow them on Facebook. These stats and more were compiled into an infographic from SocialBakers: Want the infographic for yourself? You'll find it here: Facebook grew 7 users per second all of 2011. Gathering Stats Want to track these types of statistics directly? All Facebook has an excellent Faceboo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Facebook | Facebook Marketing Column | Infographics | Statistics: Market Share

Congress and the Hollywood/media lobby was taken aback by this week's massive anti-SOPA protest. In light of that, and reconsideration by several of the bill's sponsors and high profile supporters in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has canceled a vote on SOPA-companion measure PROTECT I.P. Act or "PIPA." Here's the text of Reid's statement, released about an hour ago: “In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act. “There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved. Counterfeit [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Legal | Legal: Copyright & Trademark

Yesterday afternoon both Google and Microsoft released quarterly earnings. Google posted its highest gross revenues to date but missed analysts' Q4 expectations. Microsoft posted $20.89 billion in fiscal Q2 revenue (calendar Q4) and came in above analyst expectations. Overall, Microsoft's top-line was 5 percent above last year. All lines of business saw revenue growth vs. last year except Windows, which posted a decline. The following was the performance of the various divisions: Microsoft Business Division (Office): $6.28 billion in second quarter revenue, a 3 percent increase vs last [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Microsoft | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Mobile

Whether are looking to create a new account for YouTube, Gmail, or any other Google product, new Google users are facing a new requirement.  The creation of a Google+ enabled profile with any account.  The unofficial Google Operating System blog pointed out the new Google form that requires any new user to sign up for both the social network, and a Gmail account.  Previously, an existing email address or setting up a Gmail account would allow users to set up an official Google Account.  Now a name, Gmail username, Google+ account and gender are required: This new form also has this [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Accounts & Profiles | Google: Google+ | Top News

First things first. Let me start by confessing that I run a search-oriented digital ad business. Before you think that this is just another flogging of search retargeting, indulge me one sentence. I'm here to tell you that the hottest area of Internet advertising is display ads. Really. I know it from three very credible sources. First, our own business. More of our clients are collecting data showing the performance impact when customers who search for keywords are then met with display ads; this is a huge growth area. Second, the stat people tell me this is true. In a 2011 study, Forre [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

The music video website Vevo,  the number one most visited music site in the U.S., has been in talks with Facebook about potentially moving their content over to the social network according to a CNET report.  VEVO is the joint venture of Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media that offers content from 3 of the "big 4" publishers (includes EMI licencing).  Currently VEVO leverages YouTube to display their content, with both entities sharing the advertising revenue.  There is still one year remaining on the Vevo's contract with YouTube. According to CNE [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Facebook | Google: YouTube

Earlier today, Google CEO Larry Page told an audience on the company's quarterly earnings call that Google+ is currently seeing 60 percent of its users "engage" on a daily basis, and 80 percent engage weekly. Or did he? That's how I reported it here on Marketing Land, and also how countless others heard and reported it, too. During the call, Google's Vic Gundotra was posting images on Google+ that also give the impression that 60 percent/80 percent of Google+ users sign-in daily/weekly. Here are a couple: Meanwhile, Google's Louis Gray, shared the same message on Google+: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Google+ Hits 90 Million Users, 60 Percent Engage DailyGoogle+ has reached the 90 million user mark worldwide, and CEO Larry Page says 60% of them engage on the site every day. That’s one of the lead facts that the company is pushing in its Q4 earnings announcement that’s just out today. Although the company’s overall financial numbers didn’t meet expectations, the Google+ number [...] GOOG Earnings: Google Delive [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

Google+ has reached the 90 million user mark worldwide, and CEO Larry Page says 60% of them engage on the site every day. That's one of the lead facts that the company is pushing in its Q4 earnings announcement that's just out today. Update: As described in our more recent story, No, Google+ Doesn't Have A 60 Percent Engagement Rate, the 60 percent figure actually refers to how many Google+ users engage with any Google product. Although the company's overall financial numbers didn't meet expectations, the Google+ number continues impressive growth and prompted CEO Larry Page to declare t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

Google reported record revenues of $10.58 billion for Q4 2011 and roughly $38 billion for FY 2011. Quarterly revenues were 25 percent higher than Q4 2010 revenues. Expectations for Google were extremely high, however, and net revenue disappointed Wall Street consensus estimates. The stock is down in after-hours trading. Google's own sites were responsible for $7.29 billion (69 percent of revenues). Google's extended network generated $2.88 billion or 27 percent of overall Q4 revenue. Net income was $2.71 billion vs. $2.54 billion in Q4 2010. Revenues from outside the US were $ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google | Google: Business Issues | Google: Google+ | Top News

By all accounts, yesterday was a big and important day for the tech and online marketing industries. Hundreds of websites protested the SOPA & PIPA bills that are currently moving through the U.S. Congress by either going completely dark for the day or -- as we did here on Marketing Land and our sister site, Search Engine Land -- blackening a portion of our site and adding anti-SOPA/PIPA messaging to their home pages. Did it work? Well, the two bills are not dead, but they're certainly damaged. By Wednesday night, the Washington Post says that at least four co-sponsors dropped support o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features & Analysis | Google: Legal | Internet Marketing Industry | Legal | Legal: Copyright & Trademark | Statistics: Online Behavior | Top News

Defying the difficulties plaguing the economy as a whole, interactive advertising in the US is set to grow well above 20% this year, nearing $40 billion in revenues, according to the latest eMarketer estimates. And if eMarketer is correct, double-digit growth will continue for at least the next couple of years before slowing slightly. The research company believes U.S. online ad spend will reach $53 billion in 2014 and $62 billion in 2016. Total ad spending on all media is expected to grow 6.7% this year to $169.5 billion, with national election campaigns and the growth in mobile spendin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Spend Projections

In a blog post today Summify,  a leading social summary provider, announced it was being acquired by Twitter.  Summify is a product that takes social and news feeds and delivers only the top content (summaries) to users. This is just one of Twitter's many acquisitions including Tweetdeck (desktop client), Summize (search client), Tweetie (mobile app.)  No financials were discussed, but the Summify team will be relocating from Vancouver to the San Francisco area. With the acquisition, some features will be stripped and new account creation will be unavailable.  The features [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Last night Facebook formally launched the previously announced "Apps for Timeline." If you're Zynga CEO Mark Pincus (or one of a handful of other high profile publishers) then you'd probably argue that apps on Facebook have been wildly successful.  But for most publishers and developers apps have not done quite as well. However this new "distribution mechanism" -- the embedding of apps in Facebook Timeline -- is almost certain to be much more effective. A new "app store" to rival Apple, Google? In fact Facebook could ultimately become another “app store” to rival the major mobile app ma [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Facebook | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Open Graph | Facebook: User Interface | Google: Android | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Top News

This year, mobile will come into its own as a mainstream marketing medium, as more businesses allocate larger budgets to mobile advertising and, especially, to developing mobile websites. And that’s a good thing, considering usage of the mobile Web is exploding. In fact, a Google report shows that the percentage of search queries stemming from mobile continues to grow for many industries: Restaurants: 29.6% Auto: 16.8% Electronics: 15.5% Finance/Insurance: 15.4% Beauty/Personal: 14.9% And those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re wondering whether the trend [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column

Today users will be able to share directly from a given set of Google+ search results.  In a post from Alex Unger, Associate Product Manager at Google, it was announced that not only will users be able to share from the search results, but also contribute directly to that stream from the given search.  The example that he gave was the following: ... if you search for basketball and then want to make a post about how your favorite team or player is doing, you can share right from the search results. Here is a look at the sharebox for a given search, now with the "Join the discussion abou [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Google+

You knew some of your display ad impressions were wasted, but not exactly how many. Now the first Comscore study of its kind has quantified what percentage of online display ads aren't even seen by users -- an average of 31% and, on some sites, as many as 91%. Sometimes those ads are below the fold, so users never even scroll down far enough to see the ad. In other situations, ads are high on the page, but people scroll past them before they've had a chance to load. The study also looked at ads that were delivered outside the intended geographic area. An average of 4% of impressions went [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Statistics: Online Advertising