Posts Tagged ‘Search Engines’

Twitter is exploding at the moment and everyone is climbing on the bandwagon, blogging about its benefits etc, and you could be forgiven for thinking that this was the new easy way to online success.

In the real world, clients want to talk about search engines, search engine optimization or search engine marketing (Google Adwords / Pay-Per-Click).

Why? The current economic downturn is having an impact on businesses and with the majority of people now using Google (mainly) to find information on an all subjects across the board, many organizations are re-evaluating their online marketing and website strategy. It’s an area that clients in every market are asking for advice on.

Many are now concerned by their visibility to prospective customers. Businesses that previously saw a website as an online brochure are waking up to the fact that online they’re completely invisible to those searching online for the products and services that they offer. Not a good place to be at the best of times, but a business killer in a recession. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been reading recently about some major newspapers requesting, and getting, tax breaks because they are failing in the current economy.

A tax cut has been approved in Washington state; I quote “Newspapers across the country have resorted to layoffs and other cost-cutting moves to deal with a wounded business model and a recession-fueled drop in advertising”

Read about tax breaks here

I really don’t get it. They are even blaming Google for their problems? I’ve been recently checking into advertizing rates for display and other types of ads in local papers and magazine here in Sarasota. They have got to be kidding! Sky high prices, with no way of really tracking results. And yet they are still failing?

I think most people see printed news as largely outdated and cumbersome.

This video post from Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand. I’m off to apply for a bail out too!

I just recieved a spoof email from some douchebag in Canada. It’s a very sophisticated request for me to login to my Google adwords account. The email starts with the subject line;

Your AdWords Google Account is stoped.

Thats the first indication, a spelling mistake in the subject. Those PhDs at G are smarter than that. The email then says;

Dear Advertiser,
———————————-
We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information.
————————
Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your payment information.
————————————————-
We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.
———————————–
The Google AdWords Team

The interesting thing is the email address is actually on the Google domain, which is another more sophisticated technique, so I followed the link, which is included above but may not be working for very long. Below is a screen capture of the landing page;

It’s pretty darn sophisticated isn’t it. I wonder how many people have gone there and logged in, thus giving the perp their adwords account login. Pretty serious stuff eh? I always forward the email to spoof@google.com, and I usually get an email back from them within a few days…