Several reports today suggest that Google will formally announce their departure from the Chinese market on Monday. This means that effective as of April 10th, China could well be one of the few Google-free zones.
Whilst heavy handed state censorship in China is a way of life, clearly Google are no longer prepared to play ball. Their ongoing feud with the communist nation’s leadership regarding the hacking of accounts and removal of content looks set to come to a juddering halt on Monday, with the announcement that they are to withdraw from the market.
The row initially kicked off in January [see: Google Threatens China Walkout], when Google allowed access to censored information following a breach of security. The attacks were supposedly carried out from two Chinese schools; a claim that China’s Government refutes. Regardless of the whys and wherefores, this caused a rupture in the already fragile relationship between Google and China; a rupture that now looks to be terminal.
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More and more businesses are establishing marketing as a "fundamental" part of their operations, it has been claimed.
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If businesses want to ensure they have a cost-effective pay per click (PPC) campaign they must optimise the advert, it has been claimed.
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Bing make up some ground in the US, whilst Google achieve near domination of UK search volume, reaching 90%in the latest search engine market share statistics.
The new YaBing partnership appears to be bearing some fruit over in the US. Last month the two engines combined to control a sizeable 26.6% of the entire search market, taking a 2.1% chunk out of Google’s lead. Bing was the biggest gainer, leaping from 9.9% up to 12.5%. Yahoo slipped 0.3% down to 14.1%. However, according to Nielsen’s latest statistics, Google is the biggest loser; slumping to a mere 65.2% of the search market from 67.3% in December [see: Search Engine Market Share Statistics – February 2010].
On this side of the pond, things have been a little more settled. Google have reinforced their market dominance by reaching 90% of the total UK searches. This represents a gain of just 0.32% since last month. Bing has suffered a slight slip, going from 3.07% down to 2.98%. Certainly nothing to be too concerned about though.
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Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing search platform are each benefiting well from the two companies’ Search Alliance initiative, according to figures reported on the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog.
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Thanks to a year on year visitor increase of 185%, Facebook has overtaken Google.com as the most visited website in the US.
According to the latest Hitwise statistics, Google has been knocked off the top spot by Facebook; making the social media giant the most visited site in America. Whilst the difference between the two may be negligible (Google commands 7.03% of the total visitor share, Facebook 7.07%), the significance of this shift in power could be far reaching.
But before we get too carried away, there are a number of factors that can’t be ignored.
Firstly, these statistics are just from the US market. They don’t take into account any other Internet users, so aren’t representative of the wider world.
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Google has announced that it has now given all publishers access to multiple Google-certified ad networks which can compete for space on their websites.
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Negative keywords are an essential part of any pay per click campaign, it has been asserted.
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Google has explained how it is helping businesses to achieve better advertising results by combing its own technologies with DoubleClick.
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Businesses are increasingly turning to social media channels to improve their marketing campaigns, according to one expert.
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Unbeknownst to many, a two-year effort to trademark the term SEO ended in failure late last week. In a pitched battle between SEO professionals and one Jason Gambert, common sense was the prevailing champion.
These events have slowly unfolded over the past couple of years. During which, intermittent updates provided a brief glimpse into the case. The US-based registration could have had far-reaching consequences were it to be approved. Fortunately, SEOmoz were quick to recognise the danger posed by this ‘one clever Internet Marketer‘.
They filed an objection along with three other SEO experts, halting any default claims to the trademarked ownership of SEO. This was in April 2008 though. It wasn’t until March 11th 2009 that the sole remaining objector, Rhea Drysdale of Outspoken Media, successfully foiled this futile plot.
Of course this isn’t the first time that somebody has tried in vain to trademark a phrase, even SEO. In this instance though, it could have had far reaching consequences for the industry and the labelling of SEO services.
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It essential for small businesses to have outside links to their website if they want to increase its credibility, it has been claimed.
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Bing may win the battle against Google when assessing which organisation has made the best use of Twitter, it has been claimed.
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Although pay per click is becoming one of the most popular marketing methods on the web, firms have been warned that it is not a guaranteed way of driving business.
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Google has introduced a new tool called Social Search that uses a logged-in browser’s personal connections to help them find what they are looking for.
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