In a recent BusinessWeek article, Google and Yahoo we’re compared. More specifically Yahoo’s Panama project was compared to Googles recent innovations. According to the article:

Using data on total search queries, released by comScore, Caris & Co. analyst Tim Boyd estimates that Yahoo made on average between 10¢ and 11¢ per search in 2006, bringing in a total of $1.61 billion for the first nine months of the year. Google, meanwhile, makes between 19¢ and 21¢ per search. As a result, it made an estimated $4.99 billion during the same period.

This is incredible data (even if extrapolated), directionally it means Google is approx 200% better at monetizing search queries vs. Yahoo. The ironic part is, Yahoo! has more experience at this game, and the scenarios imho should be flipped. Let’s see who wins in the end, or who acquires Yahoo! first - Microsoft, or a Media Giant like ClearChannel.

I wanted to dedicate a complete post to this oddity. When I got home last evening, from a long days work; naturally I decided to open the iPod.

To our surprise my Wife noticed the new Shuffle from Google has a misprint in it’s intended engraving message. Looks like Google is “mispelled” in the actual engraving, it reads “ooGleg thanks you!” - how strange.

UPDATE: Reader asmmisc helped to figure this riddle out: “ooGleg = Google Shuffled” Get it? Google Shuffle(d), awesome play on words…

Can you ever imagine that the ads you see daily on TV, kiosks, billboards and other ‘offline’ displays in your city could be published by the Google advertising system? Check it out, meanwhile Google has been assigned a patent named “Allocating advertising space in a network of displays” which mainly describes the system of this kind.

The operation principles are the same with AdWords ads. The major difference here is about networks the ads are published at (the ‘Where’ not ‘What’). They are trying to no longer limited to web pages and radio frequencies, potentially Google ads could be published in any sort of media (starting from the nearest future, I assume).

Systems and methods for allocating space for advertisements in a network of electronic display devices are provided. Attribute information indicating retailer and categories of products available for purchase in the vicinity of a display device is maintained for each device in a database.

Advertisers may upload advertisement messages to a server specifying information such as budget, price per impression, preferred billboards and/or other constraints.

One or more keywords or other descriptors are specified for each advertisement message. The system then generates an advertising campaign specifying where the advertisement message is to be output and send the messages to the specified displays. The output may consist of various forms including video, audio, printed incentive, interactive data transfers and/or combinations of these.

I walked into my office this morning, and was delighted to see a gift from Google all wrapped up. Once I opened the package, to my suprise there was a neatly wrapped iPod Shuffle and a Xmas card…honestly this is the best Gift any vendor has ever given us.

Kudos, to the Agency Marketing group at Google for selecting such a great gift!

UPDATE: I just got home (from a long days work) naturally I decided to open the iPod, and noticed the new Shuffle from Google has a misprint engraving message. Google is “mispelled” in the engraving, it reads “ooGleg thanks you!” - how strange.

*Do you think this is a just a accident, coincidence or is it a hidden message.

The way to dynamically insert keywords tin Google AdWord is widely known and used by many advertisers. Using a “{KEYWORD:} the end of title” syntax one can show the unique ad that uses exactly the keywords of search query.

But how can be dynamic keyword insertion performed in Yahoo’s Search Marketing advertising program (also called Panama)?

Found in WebmasterWorld forum, here goes the detailed explanation of the process of how to enable the parts of the ad copy to change to the terms being searched for in your Yahoo account:

1. Click the Campaigns tab > Summary subtab. The Campaigns page opens.

2. Identify a campaign and click its link. The Campaign Details page opens.

3. Identify an ad group and click its link. The Ad Group Details page opens.

4.Click the Create New Ad link. The Create Your Ad page opens.

5. Decide whether to insert the keyword into the title or the description of the ad.

6. Enter the title and description of your ad. At the point in your title or description where you would like to insert the keyword, click the Insert Keyword link below the text field. {KEYWORD: DEFAULT_TEXT} will be inserted into your title or description, and you may then replace DEFAULT_TEXT with the keyword of your choice.

7. Enter the URL and ad name for the ad.

8. Click Save Changes.

9. In the Ad Group Details page, find the related keywords in the keywords tab.

10. Click the keyword link. The Keyword Details page opens.

11. Click the edit link in the Alternate Text field at the top of the page. The Enter Alternate Text dialog box opens.

12. Enter the alternate text to display.

13. Click Submit

1. The AdWords system not only visits pages specified in your destinations URLs, but could also follows any redirects to determine overall page relevancy from the site?
2. Spider visits from AdWords system do not appear as clicks or impressions, but they can improperly be counted by some third-party click trackers.
3. The AdWords system can be restricted by robots.txt instructions from visiting specific pages of the site (so please be prepared to experience many negative effects if you opt into these restrictions).
4. When defining the Quality Score for a particular Campaign, Google calculates content relevancy, site navigation ease, user information gathering and a multitude usage statistics.
5. AdWords systems visit and re-evaluate most advertiser site’s landing pages at least once a month.

There are many paid and free tools developped for the site owners to check if their site is indexed by Google or not. But you can alo have the direct way from Google to get to know your site’s statistics and potential problems: Google Site Status Tool.

Submit your site URL to view the last time the site was reached by Google and if it has any problems with indexation.