googled // Gulrez Alam. . .

New Address for Resultrix HO

2009-04-13T05:06:00.000-07:00

So Its practically (unofficially) One Year that we have started Resultrix and guess what is the Birthday Gift. . . Its a brand new office at Andheri (w), Mumbai and so our head office has a new address.

Yes we finally managed to locate a small & swanky office to occupy a team of 30 search professionals. Another thing, , , we are having a small inaugural party on the Thursday night, care to join us ?

Cheers
Gulrez

My New Avtaar

2008-04-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

WWW.RESULTRIX.COM

I AM BACK . . . .

2007-06-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

I AM BACK GUYS , , ,

eBay blocks Google's Checkout

2006-07-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

eBay has blocked customers from using Google's recently launched online payments service, Checkout.

They (eBay) say its becuase Google products doesn't meet the security recquirment and so its a protective measure , , , but i guess we can make out why this has been done :)

lets see if Google takes any corrective measure against its one of the biggest adwords advertiser i.e. eBay

Other payment services blocked by the internet auctioneer include e-gold, fastcash.com and Rupay.com.

anticipated Google Ad scheduling is finally here

2006-06-18T23:46:00.000-07:00

Google now allows you to schedule exactly when your AdWords run.

With this ad scheduling (aka “dayparting”), you can also “automatically modify ... bids based on time-of-day and day-of-week cycles in campaign performance.”

Lets see how to do it , , ,

(1) First locate the campaign/s you want to set up for ad scheduling. You will see a "New" word in red, that is the ad scheduling option.

(2) Click on "Turn on ad scheduling" ad you will be asked to confirm your time zone, once again. Please set your correct time zone.

(3) Moving to the Ad Scheduling page, this is what the basic ad scheduling page looks.

(4) Scheduling things up and then moved on to test out the "advanced mode" to set up the customised bids.

That is it . . . .

New Image Ads Format

2006-04-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Two New Image ads options on Google’s AdSense ad formats page.

A graphic Square (250x250) and a graphic Large Rectangle (336x280), both previously available as text options.

PS : I think Google made an error on the Adformat page, as they call both new graphic options “Medium Rectangle".

# Gulrez Alam

Google API to charge for usage

2006-04-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

Google has decided to start charging on a per-use basis for its API interface, with effect from July1, 2006.

Previously, Google made its API available for free, but limited usage based on the amount of ad dollars being managed. Under the new system, developers will be charged 25 cents per 1,000 times the API is used to call data.

Effect on us : untill we are using bid managment softwares, or calling the data once/twice an hour.

# Gulrez

Google Calendar in your GMAIL

2006-04-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

There is a script called Greasemonkey script which will show the Google Calendar agenda on the left-hand side in Gmail.

I must say that this is a Quick hack, considering Google Calendar is just some hours old.

Please note that running Greasemonkey scripts on top of Gmail may be against the Google ToS .

But Its worth a Try. . . .

Google Calendar is finally Launched

2006-04-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Google has finally released its much awaited and talked about calendar service,

The new Google Calendar is available to anyone who has a free Google account. To access the calendar, visit http://www.google.com/calendar and sign in, or register for a free Google account if you don't have one.

Google Calendar offers an impressive set of features that makes it easy to keep track of your own schedule and share calendars with others.

Check out the feature of creating invitation with RSVP.

Cheerio , , , Gulrez

Google solves the "LOVE" Problem

2006-04-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Google wishes Happy Fools Day, , , Well come to think of it, Love is just another "search" problem and there comes the solution from search master "Google Romance".

As per Jonathan Roserberg, Google's Senior vice president, Product managment "we are trying to use our search technology to help you find that special someone".

Google Romance users who find one another via Soulmate Search™ may then select the Contextual Dating option, which offers an all-expenses-paid romantic evening in exchange for viewing contextually relevant advertising throughout the course of the users' date

Are we expecting a full fledge Dating Service from Google soon ? ? ? infact why not this, if everything else.

PS : Check out the Product Demo , , , Quite Funny , , , and wish you Fool's Day

Google Ads at the Bottom of the Page

2006-04-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

In my post dated 3rd December 2005, I mentioned speculations about Google starting sponsered links at the bottom of Organic results, Today I can finally See it happening

However what catches the eye is an intersting change that you dont see the ads on the right hand side. Yes I am not kidding , , , only 2-3 ads on the Top and 3 ads on the bottom.

And if you are wondering about keyword for which there are more than 6 Sponsered Links, then take this , , , as you move across search pages the ad changes unlike the earlier system where the Sponsered links were same on most of the searched pages.

Howzthat ? ? ?

PS: It will be intersting to see the CTR's now.

FIFA World cup is coming for Google as well

2006-03-22T01:59:00.000-08:00

Google Partners With Nike On Soccer Site

Google Inc. and Nike Inc. have launched a web site for soccer fans that offers video, information on games and players and social networking.

www.joga.com is by invitation only, and requires users to be registered with Google. The site is described as an "online community created by Google and Nike for anyone anywhere in the world who share a love for soccer."

Joga means play and is taken from the Portuguese phrase "joga bonito," which means "play beautiful."

Joga.com includes social networking capabilities for fans to form or join games and clubs, and the ability to access athletes through Nike. Soccer-related videos and photos are also available, including those uploaded by fans.

Any Comments from Google ? ? ?

Google starts Click to Call in Beta

2006-02-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

Arent we all waiting for this . . . . yes Google has launched its Click to Call service in testing phase in collaboration with Florida based Voip inc.

Click to call is not PPCall.

Click to Call is a service that lets advertisers and consumers talking on the phone. Where as PPCall is a business model that can be built upon click to call. Obviously No Brainer that Google will roll out its Pay Per Call .

HOW IT WORKS ? ? ?

The system works by putting a phone icon next to some search results. Clicking on the graphic lets you enter your phone number - Google will then connect you, for free, to the advertiser. The Good part is the advertiser won't get your phone number - Google keeps that encrypted.

Google India becomes LOCAL

2006-02-15T02:08:00.000-08:00

After a long time i am posting , , , but yes this news is worth its wait , , ,

Please welcome Google in local India , , , and i am not talking about the Launch of Google Operations in Delhi and Bombay . What I'm referring to is the new feature of Google which allows local targeting in India. Yes, you got it right, , , you can now target your customers only in Delhi or Maharashtra or Haryana. . . as you please...

Looking forward to New Business. :o)

Landing Page as a measure for the Quality Score.

2005-12-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

In order to increase the user experiance, Google Recently added "quality of landing page" as a measure of Quality Score which in turn determines your CPC.

In the official Adwords Blog they have highlighted the following pouints.

Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful and accurate information about the product or service in your ad.
Ensure that your landing page is relevant to your keywords and your ad text. Distinguish sponsored links from the rest of your site content.
Try to provide information without requiring users to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.

My View : This gives an additional reason for Search Marketers to develope a Specific Landing Page for PPC

Google Adwords Gets BIGGER

2005-12-13T03:55:00.000-08:00

Google increased the font size of the AdWords ads displayed to the right side of search results. They now have the same size as the organic search results; see the before and after screenshots. This is likely to be an effort of Google to increase the click-through rates for AdWords, thus make more money.

"Google History repeating itself or just making more money"

2005-12-03T12:16:00.000-08:00

Well some of you may be aware that Google used to show Sponsered links at the bottom of Organic Search . . .

and now its coming back again , , , 3 ads on top, ads in the right bar and ads at the bottom as well.

The Top 3

The Ads at Bottom

Here i qoute Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google Founders) "In general, it could be argued from the consumer point of view that the better the search engine is, the fewer advertisements will be needed for the consumer to find what they want."

But i guess the extrrrrraa moola makes the diffrence.

Google Search on your TV

2005-11-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

Well dont go in to the literal meaning of the title , , , Google displaying ads in your Tv Commercial is a little far fetched thing right now, , , but "TIVO" is working with Comcast and others to enable users to search ads based on relevency.

TiVo users will be able to set up a profile of products on their television screens by clicking on categories such as automotive or travel or typing in keywords such as “BMW” or “cruises.” On a regular basis, TiVo will then download relevant commercials to TiVo recorders over the Internet or, for those users who don’t have broadband, send the video via traditional broadcast signals. The commercials will appear on-screen in a folder next to the list of television shows TiVo users record.

Advertisers will associate their ads, according to the Journal, with keywords and categories (a la Google AdWords/AdSense

Google Adowrds comes to your Desktop

2005-11-23T12:22:00.000-08:00

Finally we have a desktop AdWords management tool to access your account data , , , Its called ADWORDS DOMINATOR.

Adwords Dominator has its own database and works on the import, update and upload concept. A single screen interface that allows the user to see all critical aspects of the campaigns and even chart out the key factors including Adwords Efficiency Indicator helps the advertiser to reduce the campaign management time by a large factor.

All thanks to Chris Lee and Goran Nagy that we dont have to face the same slow and cumbersome Adwords interface. However i am not taking away the credit from Adwords team's consistent efforts at improving the interface

Google Analytics capacity of Only 234,725 accounts

2005-11-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

According to the Google Analytics page, they have temporarily disallowed people from signing up. They also removed the "Add new profile" link from inside analytics, which previously allowed a single account to track up to 40 different Web sites.

With 234,725 Analytics accounts created (and probably over 200,000 additional profiles), Google has went from tracking zero to almost half a million in about a week.

This is a huge amount of data to process. Anybody who has tried Web Trends knows the processing power Google will need to get all these accounts caught up. Unfortunately, this delay users have been experiencing since it's launch is giving this product a bad reputation.
We believe an "invitation only" approach, similar to GMail, would have made much more sense.

Google Simplifies life for Its Advertisers.

2005-11-17T01:52:00.000-08:00

Google has come up with yet another innovation to make it's other innovations even simple and user friendly.

In it's recent development, Google has made certain changes like a common login Id for its many products like gmail, adwords, froogle etc. Now you don’t have to remember 10 different login Ids and passwords for Google products, one simple ID and password will do the trick.

In another development, Google Adwords has changed its user interface and have introduced few innovations to make life simpler for its advertisers.

Now Google Adwords gives an option of creating separate Contextual bids for all the keywords in the same adgroup meaning that you don’t need to create a separate Adgroup to allocate a different bid for the Content Campaigns.

This essentially means that in the same adgroup there will two different Bids for every Keyword , for Search & for Content, unlike the earlier system where you have to create a different campaign to be able to bid separately for Contextual Placements.

Google keeping literature alive with Google Print

2005-11-14T23:15:00.000-08:00

We know Google’s intentions of keeping literature alive with Google Print, but will Google also be saving the newspaper industry? Google has launched its print advertising spinoff of Google AdWords, Google Publication Ads. Currently in invite only beta testing, Google Publication Ads is new direction for Google, giving advertisers the power to place performance based (direct response) print ads in newspapers, magazines and other forms of print ads (list not yet made public by Google).

How Does It Work ?

Once invited to join the pilot program, Google advertisers can login to select a publication based upon the target market criteria of demographics, location, publication circulation details or keywords to create a list of relevant publications.

Then, the advertiser uses the Google Publication Ads interface to create a print add which features an image, sales copy, company logo, trackable URL, and phone number (trackable toll free numbers and site URL’s may be made available by Google). Once the print ad is finalized, Google reviews, then sends to the publisher for final approval. Once the ad runs, Google invoices the advertiser.

Since Google AdWords is based on a per click pricing model, expect a similar approach from Google Publication Ads. With the ability to track Pay Per Call from the print ads, and with Google hosted web site URL’s (which Google can tweak based on visitor profile information and referring publication), the Google Pub Ads system looks like a nice hybrid of old school direct response and pinpoint targeted web advertising and tracking.

Yahoo starts giving tough time to Google guys . . .

2005-10-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network’s Fight For Publishers

The battle for publishers between Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network is heating up beyond CNN and Washington Post as Google AdSense representatives are now telephoning some old AdSense users who made the switch over to Yahoo Publisher Network. Google is asking publishers to come back to AdSense and possibly even negotiating higher payouts with premier publishers, something that Google AdSense has done in the past (no link, but have had discussions with such premier publishers).

This explains the latest ‘TIP’ which Google is showing in the AdSense interface(to the right of Today’s Earnings when you log in) : Is your phone number correct? Please visit the account settings page and make any necessary updates to ensure that you can be reached at the phone number associated with your account.

I would love to see this escalate into a double-ended price war where both companies gradually increase revenue for publishers and reduce cost for advertisers. (Classic example of duopoly benefiting the end customer) .

Beeta testing mode for Google Reader

2005-10-25T00:32:00.000-07:00

Google has launched a new RSS and web feed reader called the Google Reader.

You select your news sources by entering the name of the site in a special form. Yes, that’s right, you do not have to find the RSS feed address by yourself. Google will find it for you.

Google will put up a reading list that you can sort by date and by relevance. There are also keyboard shortcuts that should make navigation easier.

Google AdWords Now Allows for Flash Ads

2005-10-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Seems like you are not happy with the fact that Google only allows Static Image ads,

My friend the good old days are history now, because site owners looking for a little more control over their AdWords image ads will be happy to know that Google will now also be allowing Flash-based ads to run via Google AdWords campaigns.

No word yet on whether or not AdSense partner sites will be able to disallow Flash-based ads from their own sites.

I believe its again a very though by Google to capture the display business and more importantly because its gonna work on Pay per Click model only.

LookSmart to be Booted from NASDAQ

2005-10-19T02:50:00.000-07:00

LookSmart reported that they received a delisting notice from NASDAQ staff on October 13. This is because of the fact that shares in the search company had failed to remain above the $1.00 level, NASDAQ began the process of removing LookSmart from its stock-board under MarketPlace Rule.

LookSmart is allowed to request an appeal which will delay delisting pending a decision from the NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel.

Looks like with Google's increasing market share, we will have more of these News.

Yahoo Desktop Search comes out of beta

2005-09-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yahoo has launched the final version of its Desktop Search application. Compared to the beta version, which was released in January, Yahoo Desktop Search comes in addition with the

LiveWords function that allows users to instantaneously search for any keyword on the internet.LiveWords also lets users to highlight text within documents and click a button to search for those words in other documents on their hard drive.

Two of Yahoo Desktop Search’s advantages are that it includes more configuration options than its direct competitors and that it lets users to define search criteria.

The latest version of Yahoo Desktop Search indexes over 300 categories of files, ranging from e-mails including attachments, images, Yahoo Address Book, Yahoo Messenger conversations, Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDF to audio and video files

Googloo explains "when you dont see ur site on Google"

2005-09-30T05:07:00.000-07:00

Can’t find your site in Google?

A web master’s worst nightmare: You can’t find your site in Google! Don’t panic – here are a couple of tips that can help you out.

The first thing you need to do is to find out if your site has been banned or if it just receives poor rankings. Now there is an easy way to do this: The Google Banned Tool. All you have to do is enter the URL of your site into a box and click “Check”. The tool queries the Google database in two different ways to be sure of the results.

So if you receive good news and your site is not banned, you know you have to get started on some search engine optimization work. If your site turns out to be banned, this will certainly be a stressful and unpleasant experience for you.

But there is still no need to panic.

Googloo/Gulrez Alam will explain the other situation in Next article.

Happy Googling

Explaining "The Paid Search Blockade Strategy"

2005-09-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

WHAT IS A BLOCKADE? IT'S exactly what it sounds like -- a barrier to prevent your competition from appearing in the top search results. It is an advanced pay-per-click strategy of occupying the top three or more spots in search engines, essentially blocking out your competition. This technique typically is used only in very competitive markets.

Now, you might think that's not so hard, I'll just create three campaigns in my Google account, and bid on the same keyword in each campaign. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Google will only serve one ad per keyword and URL.

In other words, your multiple ads won't show in the search engine results pages.Here's how it works.

A blockade can be set up on any cost-per-click search engine. For example, if you want to occupy the top three positions in Google, then the first thing you must do is open three separate Google accounts. Just so there's no misunderstanding, that's three different accounts, that have three separate log-ins. If you want to occupy the top four positions, then you'll need four different Google accounts. And so on.. Once you set up the accounts, you'll need to bid on the same keywords.

Deciding which keywords to use in your blockade is crucial. Maybe you only want to use your brand names. Or maybe you'll choose some keywords with a high click-through rate. maybe you'll choose your keywords with the best conversion rates. Now, here's where it gets a little tricky. If you use the same destination URL, it'll be obvious to everyone what you're up to.

So what you need to do is set up a different Web site for each pay-per-click account. Take a second to think about consumers' buying behavior. Before a purchase, they might want to check out some objective opinions, and or read some testimonials. Using this logic, it would make sense to set up a review site and a testimonial site as your two additional sites besides your main company Web site. Using a different destination and display URL is especially important with Google, because Google only allows one URL per keyword.

So, as an example, if two or more affiliate marketers are bidding on the same terms and using the same URL, only one of their ads will be served. That will be the ad with the highest "quality score." If you are using a rules-based bid management platform like Atlas, then no rules should be applied to your "blockade" keywords on Google.

Since Google has a hidden bid landscape, and uses a "quality score," you'll have to manually manage the blockade keywords. Just make sure you keep your cost per click high enough to insure a high placement.

"Yahoo! has a visible bid landscape, so you can apply rules if you use rules-based bid management software. However, I recommend checking on the keyword positions regularly, just as you do with Google.

After your blockade is set up successfully, you'll need to track and monitor it closely to determine if you've achieved the desired results. Then, the optimization needs to begin. Since you don't optimize a pay-per-click blockade, the best way to optimize is by testing different forms of the creative, landing pages, and keywords.

Googloo/Gulrez Alam says . . . Happy Googling :o)

PPC as a Branding Tool

2005-09-14T04:57:00.000-07:00

While PPC campaigns have always been touted for their direct response nature, many within the search marketing field are starting to see the benefits of PPC as a branding tool. Studies show that more users are turning to search engines as navigational tools, meaning that they'll search for a brand name rather than guessing a URL.

Companies that lack a presence in the PPC ads for their own products may be missing out on potential customers. Additionally, having your brand name ad show up for the right generic phrases is a great way to brand your business.

The beauty of PPC ads is that impressions are free. That means that rather than paying for impressions like a company would for a typical banner ad, they pay only for any actual visits. This sometimes means that advertisers pay less than a banner ad would cost while reaching a highly targeted audience.

So before you sit down to tackle the next expansion of your pay-per-click campaign, think about what goal you are trying to accomplish. Do you simply want to use pay-per-click to drive more sales to your site, or do you want to use it as part of an integrated online marketing effort. If so, figure out how PPC ties in with your other efforts and make sure that you budget and track accordingly

Googloo finds a Search Engine without Click Frauds and without Bidding Process

2005-09-05T04:52:00.000-07:00

According to industry studies, click fraud accounts for 10% to 30% of all clicks received on internet advertisements. With internet advertising revenues at $4 Billion and expected to exceed $7 Billion by 2008, fraudulent clicks represent an alarming, growing problem for advertisers.

ISearchNaked.com is turning the pay-per-click advertising model on its head, by charging a fixed monthly fee for keywords and keyword phrases. Regardless of the number of clicks the advertiser receives on its advertisement during the course of a month, the cost of the keyword or keyword phrase will remain fixed.

iSearchNaked.com's fixed paid advertising system eliminates the bidding process for keyword phrases." Advertiser bidding has sent the cost of many keyword phrases into double digit dollar amounts per click, with some words and phrases actually hitting the triple digit dollar amount.

Replacing the bidding process, iSearchNaked.com is offering all keywords and keyword phrase listings at the price of only 25 cents each. The company requires a $2.00 minimum monthly purchase (good for up to 8 words or phrases), so it can absorb transaction costs.

iSearchNaked.com will give the opportunity to the first 12 advertisers signing up for a particular keyword or phrase, to continually rotate into the coveted top position. With each search for a particular keyword or phrase, the top 12 advertiser links will be rotated on a random basis. On average, every 12 searches will see the advertiser being in each of the first 12 positions. These same top 12 advertisers will have the added benefit of seeing their ads appear on each page that is searched for a particular keyword or phrase.

Googloo says happy Search Marketing.

Googloo says Yahoo! Search Marketing – Not So Bad – Really!

2005-08-27T04:48:00.000-07:00

During the last few weeks there has been a lot of frustration vented in the direction of Yahoo!Search Marketing (formerly Overture).

Often in the past, when an Overture system upgrade took place it was followed by a period of reduced usability for advertisers. This was usually not too serious and sorted itself out in a few days. Unfortunately, Yahoo! SM’s recent upgrade did not run quite so smoothly. Many advertisers were unable to manage their accounts for several days, and in the case of some advertisers, daily budgets were ignored and ads were run at full throttle.

Yahoo! SM has sent out e-mails apologizing for the problems and has issued credits for over-spending that resulted from daily budgets being inadvertently ignored. I am impressed, not only by the quick response but by how seriously Yahoo! SM is taking the whole situation.

The fact that Yahoo! Search Marketing cares about what its advertisers think is evident not only in this upgrade situation, but in the many things that they have done over the years to make dealing with Yahoo! SM a smooth and rewarding process. From insisting that advertisers run ‘good’ ads that link to ‘relevant’ pages to the clean and straight forward bidding process – Yahoo! SM knows its stuff.

Perhaps I, Googloo, would not be feeling so mellow towards Yahoo! SM if the accounts we manage had been seriously hurt by the upgrade hiccup or if I had not just spent several hours working on Google AdWords – a system that is not as user friendly, especially when it comes to bidding. While Google’s new ‘simplified’ quality-based bidding does have some advantages for some bidders – it still lacks the simple, direct elegance of Yahoo! SM’s current bidding model.

Caveat

Despite my current fondness for Yahoo! Search Marketing we do need to keep in mind:Yahoo! SM has more system upgrades planned for the near future.

"Warnings normally precede upgrades, so take the time to evaluate your site’s risk and adjust accordingly".

Searches Up 3 Percent In July

2005-08-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

INDUSTRY WATCHERS EXPECTED THAT SEARCH growth would moderate in the summer, on the theory that consumers spend less time at their computers during the warm weather. But new figures from Nielsen//NetRatings show that U.S. Internet users actually performed more searches last month than in June.

The total number of Web searches in the United States rose last month to 4.454 billion--up nearly 3 percent from 4.327 billion in June, according to data from Nielsen//NetRatings. The data also revealed that individual searchers conducted an average of 37.6 searches last month, up 3.7 percent from 36.2 searches in June.

Still, the growth rate was less impressive than earlier in the year; in the second quarter, users conducted 12.8 billion searches--5 percent more than in the first quarter.

Google once again captured the largest proportion of searches, accounting for 46.2 percent last month--down slightly from 47 percent in June. Yahoo! Search was responsible for 22.5 percent of July searches--up slightly from 22.3 percent in June--while MSN Search accounted for 12.6 percent of searches last month, up marginally from 12.5 percent in June.

Getting Started with the new Google adwords keyword System

2005-08-05T04:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago 'Googloo' woke up one morning to find that some or may be even most of keywords were "Inactive", requiring higher bid prices to be reactivated. All thanks to Google! It's deeply appreciated.

Well Mr Googloo tries to explain you, how dose this new system works.

when you start a campaign, Google assign some quality based minimum bids for each and every keyword unlike the older system where you can bid at Rs 3 for all the keyword.

Your Keyword is Active or Inactive depending upon whether your Max CPC (bid) is heigher or lower then Min Bid estimated by Google respectively.

Once your keyword is active, The minimum required quality Bid keeps on changing depending upon the performance of your keyword.Now this is the tricky part, if your keyword is performing your min bid remains at that level or might go down otherwise and in most cases the bid will rise.

For all of you who wants to be a master of SEM, here is the imporatnt tip from 'Googloo' himself. Make sure you optimize your creatives in such a way that your ad creative contains the keyword, that increases the relevency of your ad creative and will give you a better CTR and in turn a lower CPC.