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Gmail was down briefly today, and Yahoo — which suffered its own and much longer-lasting email woes recently — still decided it was a good opportunity to have some fun, tweeting about the failure then later apologizing. Yahoo shared the news to its Twitter followers that “Gmail is temporarily unavailable,” with a picture of the […]
Reports on Twitter — and my own first-hand experience — show that Google’s Gmail has gone down, a rare occurrence. Using one of the many site status checking services out there, Down For Everyone Or Just Me, also shows Gmail as down: Google’s “App Status Dashboard” isn’t showing the error, but it’s happening — and […]
Yahoo has now joined Google in making all searches people do automatically go through a secure server, to help prevent eavesdropping by outsiders. Unlike Google, however, Yahoo has failed to make an important change to how “referrer” data is passed along, which will result in people thinking Yahoo Search has suddenly dropped in popularity. Yahoo.com […]
Relax, publications that use guest bloggers and contributors. Google’s not planning to penalize you under its new “guest blogging equals spam” warning put out yesterday. Rather, the company says, guest blogging is only bad if the main reason a post is run is to gain links meant to influence rankings in Google. Yesterday, the head […]
Google is working to clean-up a situation where thousands of hotel listings in Google+ Local have been “hijacked” or had links leading to their official sites changed to lead to third-party booking sites. Thousands Of Hotel Listings Were Hijacked In Google+ Local is the story at Search Engine Land sister site that covers the situation in […]
Google is to acquire Nest Labs, best known for its smart thermostats and smoke detectors, for $3.2 billion in cash. Google shared the news in a press release, saying that the deal is expected to close within a few months. The full release: Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has entered into an agreement […]
Google has announced that soon, anyone with both a Gmail account and a Google+ account will be able to message anyone else with a Gmail account and Google+ account, even if they don’t know their email address. Spam city! Potentially, but Google has some safeguards built in that it hopes will keep this as a […]
Hello from Las Vegas and CES 2014. We’re live blogging the Brand Matters keynote panel with execs from Facebook, Salesforce, Ford & MillerCoors. On the panel will be: Scott Dorsey, CEO, Salesforce ExactTarget, Marketing Cloud Andrew England, EVP and CMO, MillerCoors Carolyn Everson, VP, Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook James D. Farley, Jr., EVP, Global Marketing, […]
Hello from Las Vegas and CES 2014. We’re live blogging the Brand Matters keynote panel with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy. Both will be interviewed at the same time by Michael Kassan, chairman and CEO of MediaLink. We’ll get going at 11am PT. Then there will be a short break, and the panel will continue […]
It’s been a question that’s haunted three Yahoo CEOs when asked in recent years: “What’s Yahoo.” Today, during her CES keynote, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer came closest to a clear, simple answer: “Search, communications, digital magazines & video.” Unsaid was ads as a major area. And missing-in-action: social. There were the four main areas that […]
In her keynote address at CES in Las Vegas today, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer — with help from various Yahoos — announced new native ads for Tumblr powered by Yahoo Advertising, a Yahoo Audience Ads system to target ads across Yahoo and partner sites, as well as a new Yahoo Tech site, a Yahoo News Digest […]
If you’re looking for Santa’s location, Google has a super easy way to find it. Just type “Santa” into Google, to get a special box that locates him on a map. The image below shows you how it works on Google (click to enlarge). After typing in “santa,” a special map appears on the right-side […]
Those who wanted to share a petition calling on A&E to immediately restore Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson to his show found Twitter was blocking sharing the URL to the petition site as spam. Twitter has resolved the problem, saying it was due to an error with a third-party service it uses to stop spam […]
Forget the Grinch that stole Christmas. This year, maybe it’s ad retargeting that’s stealing Christmas, at least the surprise of what people are going to receive. Certainly in my household, a new war on the Christmas surprise has been declared. Advertisers taking advantage of “retargeting” — a way to follow visitors around with ads — […]
Suffice to say, asking Americans to remember one of the worst attacks on their country by a foreign power by sharing a picture of a giant, smiling piece of pasta waving an American flag probably wasn’t wise. But that’s what SpaghettiOs — the canned spaghetti product from Campbell Soup Company — did on Twitter. Twelve hours […]
Facebook has announced that it has made two key changes to how its News Feed displays news content. Now, clicking on an article may reveal up to three related articles. Also, new comments on a story you’ve previously seen may “bump” that story back up in your feed. Facebook also said it will try to […]
In less than two weeks, the GoldieBlox “Princess Machine” video showing girls building a Rube Goldberg machine set to the “Girls” song by the Beastie Boys racked up nearly 9 million views. But after the Beastie Boys objected to their music being used, GoldieBlox dropped the song from the video. Will the same video, with […]
“Wow. How sad.” That was my reaction to watching the latest in Microsoft’s Scroogled campaign against Google, this time using two of the stars from Pawn Stars to attack Chromebooks as not “real laptops” and part of Google’s overall plan to “Scroogle” people. I’m struggling to understand how the geniuses behind the Scroogled campaign thought […]
The new Xbox One game console from Microsoft officially becomes available in only a few hours, and the folks running the Xbox Twitter account are having some fun with those over at Oreo, swapping edible controller pictures. It started earlier today, when Oreo tweeted a picture of an Xbox-rival PlayStation 4 game controller decked out […]
Hello from Las Vegas. We’re here at Marketing Land’s SMX Social Media Marketing conference where Peter Stringer, senior director of digital media for the Boston Celtics, is having a keynote conversation with Marketing Land editor-in-chief Matt McGee about how the team uses social media for its promotional efforts. As Matt previewed, the talk — which begins […]
Microsoft is taking its Scroogled campaign launched last November in a new direction: merchandise. Now, consumers can purchase “Don’t Get Scroogled” products from the Microsoft Store with “Keep Calm While We Steal Your Data” and other messages. Scroogled Products An entire category of the store offers mugs, hats, t-shirts and even hoodies: Microsoft Blogs The News Interestingly, […]
We don’t know why yet, but YouTube has gone down — the home page showing only an error page saying that “a team of highly trained monkeys” is looking at the situation. Here’s what’s being shown: YouTube went down around 5:30pm Eastern time. The services has been under fire recently for YouTube’s shift to using […]
For two years in a row now, Google has gone back on major promises it made about search. The about-faces are easy fodder for anyone who wants to poke fun at Google for not keeping to its word. However, the bigger picture is that as Google has entered its fifteenth year, it faces new challenges […]
Twitter has a new way to allow people to curate tweets — Twitter Custom Timelines. Why does it need this when it already had another long-standing tool for tweet curation, Twitter Lists? The new system may allow brands to make better use of embedded tweets than lists allow, which in turn may further extend Twitter’s […]
Ready to get some stock in Twitter? The company, which will list publicly on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow under the symbol TWTR, will sell for $26 initially. Twitter announced the news via a tweet today. Here’s the tweet: We just priced our IPO. pic.twitter.com/NWXaO4Myq0 — Twitter (@twitter) November 6, 2013 The tweet contains […]
Practically no one has a phone with Google’s latest Android 4.4 operating system on it yet. But the system, nicknamed KitKat, will shortly be spreading beyond the Nexus 5 launched last week. When it does, people with Android 4.4 will discover that their phone’s dialer has become integrated with Google+. That’ll have a big impact […]
What’s in that giant mystery barge that’s owned by Google in San Francisco Bay. There’s speculation it might be a floating data center or a shop for Google Glass. But the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart finds it’s an opportunity to poke fun at Google+, as well as Google’s ambitious plans to bring wifi to the […]
The latest Google-branded “Nexus” phone is now out, as well as the latest Android operating system. Google shared the news with no big event, no fanfare — just a simple blog post welcoming the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 to the world. The Nexus 5 The Nexus 5 is now available for order through Google […]
Google has announced three new Google+ “Auto Awesome” photo features: Action, Eraser and an iMovie Trailers-like Auto-Awesome Movie tool. The Google+ Hangouts app for Android also gains location sharing, animated GIF support and SMS integration. Google+ Hangouts On Air gain landing pages and a new “Control Room” menu. These, as well as new Google+ user […]
Google has never made its own phones. The various “Nexus” flagship phones that carry the Google name have all been done in partnership with various handset manufacturers. Google’s purchase of Motorola last year changed that. The recently launched Moto X is an Android phone designed and built by Google. How is it? For me, there’s […]
Microsoft has been attacking Google’s products and services with its “Scroogled” campaign for almost a year now. Is it working? Ad Age has an interesting story with experts saying yes, in terms of ad effectiveness. But if the ads are judged as effective by actually causing people to switch, I’d say the answer is a […]
It sounded huge. Angered by Google expanding the use of social profile information in advertising, Google+ users were changing their profile pictures to that of Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt in protest. So went several reports. The reality is practically no one is doing this. For the few who are, good news. Google’s rules about […]
On November 11, Google is expanding the use of “Shared Endorsements” in ads, where people’s images and the things they like, comment on, rate or have reviewed through the Google+ social network can be used. Here’s the rundown on how it works and how it differs from what Google already does. Doesn’t Google already use […]
Last month, Google made one of the biggest changes in search privacy ever, by routing all searches through its Google Secure Search service. Why did it make the change? Why didn’t it close some loopholes that leave some search data vulnerable? Google — which is demanding more transparency from the US government over privacy issues […]
Google has a new system in place designed to prevent “mugshots” sites from ranking well. Such sites make money convincing people to “remove” their mugshots after posting them online. Only one problem. The person featured in a New York Times story yesterday as a victim of this unsavory practice still has his mugshot appearing, despite Google’s […]
Big news in the search world yesterday. Google announced that it is using a new search algorithm called “Hummingbird” to sort through its millions of facts and billions of web pages. The system takes its name from the more “precise and fast” results that it is intended to deliver. Panicked about a sudden loss of […]
Ever since Google began encrypting searches for signed-in users two years ago, publishers have wondered if when we’d get to a “100% Not Provided” world, where all search terms are withheld by Google. It looks like that day may soon arrive, thanks to a new change at Google. Google has confirmed that it has begun […]
Promise to switch to the “My Yahoo” personalized home page — which got a facelift today — and you might get a retweet from CEO Marissa Mayer. That’s the unexpected and individualized marketing campaign that’s underway now. Yahoo announced a refresh to its My Yahoo personalized home page today, which provides one-stop shopping for getting […]
Our phones may be smarter than ever, but the most popular activity most Americans use them for is pretty simple — to send SMS messages. That tops the list of cell phone activities for 2013, according to a new study released by Pew Internet. The study, conducted in April and May of this year and […]
It was big news last month. For the first time since May 2011, Yahoo was the top network for unique visitors in the United States, edging out Google. What caused this reversal? After doing some digging, there’s apparently no clear-cut answer, nor is Yahoo providing one, other than Marissa Mayer took over. But let’s explore […]