Archive for category Search Marketing News

Peer-written online reviews make a difference.

A quarter of internet users say that they have made purchases based on online reviews written by their fellow customers.

For restaurants that find themselves on Yelp, this study is especially important. Searchpeers is in the process of advising a pair of local eateries on getting better placement so they get to sell themselves before potential guests see Yelp and Citysearch results. Even good restaurants will receive over-the-top bad reviews on sites like this for any number of reasons, and it’s important to make the first impression yourself prior to the inevitability of negativity.

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Facebook’s Beacon gets scaled back.

Beacon, the most controversial of Facebook’s new advertising models, has been scaled back significantly after a massive user protest.  With Beacon, users’ recent purchases on sites like Fandango and Overstock.com would be included in the online social network’s friend’s feeds.

This past Thursday, Facebook enacted a change that asks users to “opt in” before it publishes information to their friends, so your recent holiday-related purchase of the first season of Green Acres on DVD wouldn’t necessarily reflect badly on you.

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Douglas Karr has money. Yahoo doesn’t want it.

Read the full story on how Yahoo’s expensive direct-mail campaign for their keyword-based advertising grabbed and then lost a customer.

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Google AdWords “Accidentally” Uses Facebook Users’ Personal Information

Google has confirmed that its AdWords campaigns received data from a popular Facebook application called Compare People, including users’ age, gender, city, ZIP code, favorite music, favorite movies, favorite TV shows, favorite books, “about me,” activities, interests, and political views. While it appears that no personally identifiable information has been stored, it’s in clear violation of the social networking site’s TOS.

Thanks to Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook, who brought the story to my attention.

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