SEM

One of the executives at Google has commented that SEO or search engine optimisation will become less keyword-based in the years to come.

The vice president of user experience and search products at Google, Marissa Mayer, stated that the search engine is considering the possibility of returning the results back to the consumers based on their questions rather than specified keywords.

She also told .Net magazine that this is an important development and with time it will become even more vital along with internet based data which can be accessed from mobile phones. Ms Marissa Mayer also pointed towards the opportunities that were posed by using the friend list of the user for returning highly significant results.

She further commented that they needed to harness the users’ friends properly in order to provide them with direct and accurate results. She said that these things were being given top priority.

In fact only last year Google conducted an experiment with a new feature in its Google News section. The feature allowed the users to construct a news section that would cover local news for their respective city or area.

“Since we have a direct relationship with our players, they help shape the product strategy,”

said president of the Sims label, Nancy Smith. He was referring to the deal struck with the Swedish furniture maker Ikea, in response to suggestions in forums of online players for more modern furniture. The Ikea pack will give the luxury of moving into their families’ virtual homes items like the Leksvik coffee table as well as the Ektorp sofa.

The Sims label has sold over 100 million copies. This virtual family designed by online players is now getting brand-conscious. The deal is another case of how the traditional lines between marketing material and paid-for content are fast blurring in the media world. Firms that sell services and products are increasingly keen on placing their wares inside TV shows and other media rather than just relying on stand-alone commercials. Media firms, such as Electronic Arts, meanwhile, are looking to strike sponsorship deals to help recoup the increasing cost of developing games.

Lulu is offering an innovative way of driving web traffic on to any creator’s content present on Lulu. It may be recalled the Lulu has set its mark in free web self-publishing. It claims to have creators from over 80 countries and distributes its content to over  100 countries.

With Lulu, the customer can decide the number of ‘clicks’ that they would like to purchase. Lulu has a set of in-house experts that create text ads from the keywords relating to the creator’s content. This means delivering suitable searchers to the creator’s content. The click system also drives potential purchasers to the product page of the creator.
Lulu creators can profit heavily if this strategy is applied. The Search Engine Marketing tool is a significant way for the creators to promote their work in the wide world of purchasers. This should trigger significant increase in the number of people signing up for Lulu’s self-publishing tool.

Lulu currently has over 300,000 recently published titles. Add to this 4000 titles  created every week. From this, 5200 items are sold on a daily basis. Lulu has at least 1.3 million registered members. The members are given full permission and feasibility to promote and sell their work online.

The Pan-European digital marketing firm TradeDoubler has just launched a new search management technology ‘td Searchware 4’ designed to allow the world’s biggest advertising companies to draw the maximum mileage out of their proposed online media spend.

td Searchware 4, to elaborate, is the enhanced version of BidBuddy – among the flagship offerings of The Technology Works. TradeDoubler acquired it in July 2007. td Searchware 4, according to the plans, will sit within a newly constituted division of TradeDoubler - TD Technology – simultaneously launched. The TD Technology division will also incorporate td Toolbox of TradeDoubler. td Toolbox is a system for online marketing management to track as well as execute file hosting, ad serving and, last but not the least, partner payment administration.

td Searchware 4 is a very sophisticated web-based marketing platform that comes with enhanced editorial, reporting & automated strategy capabilities for empowering search marketing professionals to draw expertise at what they do. Banking and building on the legacy of earlier BidBuddy version, it comprises several add-on features & functionality that have been developed in conjunction with key clients and industry stakeholders across the UK, Japan and mainland Europe.

According to Managing Director of TD Technology, Mick Empson, the Searchware tool has been designed with an aim of tackling the specific challenges encountered by search professionals. As campaigns are getting more sophisticated, the marketers require tools, which are intuitive so that they are free to concentrate on more strategic and creative issues.

SES Chicago, a major event for discussing various search engine strategies, was held in the first week of December 2007. The event featured an extraordinary combination of insightful sessions and specialised educational tracks featuring a galaxy of high profile speakers from the search engine industry.

The event hosted at the Chicago Hilton (December 3-7, 2007) was attended by renowned search engine strategists, researchers, authors and marketing visionaries.

This year’s SES conference discussed various key issues faced by search engine marketers like social media, search privacy and even click fraud. Marketers had a firsthand opportunity to interact with renowned search industry experts during the seminars.

SES Chicago consisted of useful and elaborate debates and panel discussions spread over four and a half days that let attendees gain practical knowledge and insight of relevant issues like web analytics, mobile search and global search.
SES Chicago session highlights included:
• Keynote addresses by Don Schultz and Seth Godin, the founder of Yoyodyne and Squidoo: Seth Godin, known for altering the way people think about marketing, gave a glimpse of some of his savvy search & marketing industry insights. Don Schultz, Professor (Emeritus-in-Service), Integrated Marketing Communication (Northwestern University) and an author of thirteen books, spoke about various aspects of effective search engine strategies.
• Panel discussions: Interesting panel discussions were held on a range of topics like ‘Search – Privacy & Community in the Digital Age’ and ‘Blended, Universal and Vertical Search’.
• Strategy development workshops: Various workshops on specific strategy development revolved around themes like ‘Search around the World’ and ‘Igniting Viral Campaigns’.
• Specialty tracks: These largely focused on topics ranging from multimedia, organic, retail fundamentals to advanced PPC and more.
SES Chicago 2007 was indeed an educative and enlightening experience for the search engine industry professionals.