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If you have been following various SEO blogs and web sites, then I am sure that you are familiar with the description meta tag. After all, it is one of the most basic (and important) considerations when optimizing your site. However, just in case you are not familiar with it, the description meta [...]

Google Analytics is now offering Flash tracking. The tracking code is translated into ActionScript 3 programming language. While Google Analytics has been able to provide workarounds in the past, this new feature simplifies the way to track Flash, Flex, and AS3 Content.

Sprout, a company that helps businesses create rich media content, used the code to track videos across MySpace and iGoogle. The Google Analytics team talked to them about their experience:

What do you think of the announcement? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Related Reading:
Google Site Search Integrated with Adobe Community Help
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The new Yahoo! front page went into testing a couple months ago. The redesign effort also coincides with the new user interface, YUI 3.

Here’s a peek:

Nicholas Zakas of the Yahoo! User Interface team expanded on the UI efforts by explaining the goals for the framework of YUI 3:

1. Eliminate global dependencies. We wanted each part of the page to operate separately from all of the others. Each part should have no knowledge of what else is on the page and therefore can’t depend on objects to be globally available. The 2.x library is based on the global YAHOO object, which we would have had to abstract away; the 3.x concept of YUI instances that could be individually manipulated worked perfectly to achieve this goal.
2. Make it small, make it fast. The Front Page can’t afford to be slow, so we needed to have as little code as possible to get everything up and running. YUI 3 impressed us with its organization into small, atomic units that allowed us to specifically include parts of the library that we wanted while eliminating parts that were unnecessary. Further, one of the goals of YUI 3 was to optimize for runtime execution and make it faster than the 2.x version. Once again, YUI 3’s approach was directly in line with the Front Page’s goals.
3. Create version independence. From the start, we didn’t want to have dependencies on specific versions of YUI components as this can lead to maintenance issues. What we really wanted was for each part of the page to be able to use whatever version of the components that they wanted. The sandboxing feature of YUI 3 opened up the possibility of having two (or more) YUI instances each loading different versions of various components while not interfering with each other.
4. Allow code portability. Having worked at Yahoo! for a combined five years, Steve and I knew that anything we put on a Yahoo! property could be a candidate for porting to someplace else. We knew that this possibility meant the code had to stand on its own and not make assumptions about the environment in which it was placed. We thought about the most difficult environment possible: a locked-down browser environment where the JavaScript code has no direct access to the DOM. Since YUI 3 can abstract away the DOM through its Node interface, we had the entrypoint necessary to make this requirement a reality.
5. Be forward compatible. The project to create a new Front Page is an incredibly long one and we wanted to be as forward-looking as possible. We knew that if we created the framework on YUI 2.x that we’d be hard pressed to get time to upgrade later on. By building on YUI 3 from the start, we eliminated the need for developing an upgrade path later on.

Incisive Media announced today that Matt McGowan is being promoted to vice president and publisher for its digital marketing businesses, including the ClickZ network, Search Engine Watch and the Search Engine Strategies conference series. Matt, who was formerly the global VP of marketing for the group, will oversee all non-editorial functions including sales, marketing and operations. He will report to Kevin Vermeulen, senior vice president.

Matt joined Incisive Media in 2006. Before that, he had served as vice president – sales, marketing and operations for PropertyRoom.com. He began his media career as a marketing manager for Pearson PLC.

McGowan holds a bachelor’s degree from Lafayette College and received his MBA from the University of Oxford. He will continue to be based in New York City.

In a press release, Vermeulen said, “We’re pleased that Matt will be leading the expansion of these fast-growing brands that are widely recognized as key resources for interactive marketers.”

Matt is well-known in the search industry. In addition to seeing him at Search Engine Strategies conferences and expos on several continents, he has also started moderating SES Webcasts, including the one last Friday with Bill Tancer of Hitwise.

John Connor Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Matt during SES New York 2008 — in Times Square. If you look closely, you’ll see a big shamrock in Matt’s lapel. Hmmmmm. Do you think, maybe, McGowan is a wee bit Irish?

Matt McGowan in Times Square, Day 1 SES NY 2008

Auto search engine Cars.com is offering a free webinar intended to help dealerships learn how online advertising can drive offline traffic.

The webinar will be held this Friday, November 14 at noon EST. Click here for more details and to register for the event.

Here are the specifics of what will be presented:

• Traffic-now vs. branding as the key advertising objective.
• Websites and online features that car buyers use before visiting a store.
• Ingredients of internet ads that drive store traffic.
• A full accounting of internet-generated store traffic.

“A significant percentage of in-market car buyers prefer to take the next step toward a purchase on the most direct path, an in-store visit,” said Dennis Galbraith, Cars.com vice president of advertising products. “These shoppers may not call or email first, so the information they find online determines the dealers they select. Dealers who fully merchandise their complete inventory with multiple pictures, descriptive sell copy and competitive pricing position themselves to win more than their fair share of the business.”

Related Reading:
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Cars.com Listings Hit Mobile Devices
Cars.com Drives Ad Campaign to Web

Wordtracker has launched “Keyword Questions,” a free tool that let’s webmasters and SEOs find the specific questions that
people type into search engines. The answers to these questions can provide interesting web copy and could pick up a lot of search traffic.

According to Ken McGaffin, Chief Marketing Officer of Wordtracker, “People have a ton of questions about all sorts of things and people will go straight to a search engine to find the answers. Just enter a keyword and we’ll give you up to 100 questions that people have asked.”

The tool works by pairing the keyword with one of six question words: Who, what, where, when, why and how. It then conducts a broad match from Wordtracker’s database.

For example, someone with a coffee website, could enter “coffee” and find questions like “who invented the coffee maker”, “why use cold water when brewing coffee”, “how to make iced coffee” and “how to clean a coffee pot”.

Or, a flower shop could enter “sorry” and find questions like “how to say sorry to your girlfriend” or “how to say sorry after huge argument.” Hey, this is just an example. I’m happily married.

Or, a website on UFOs might be interested to know that the most popular questions on UFOs include “how to fake UFO photographs” or “how to build a UFO.” Sorry, the tool doesn’t suggest, “Where is Area 51.”

In a press release, McGaffin said, “This is a fun tool that is a great source of inspiration for web content writers. You need never be short of creative ideas again.”

I interviewed Ken at Search Engene Strategies London 2008 in February. And he shared some of the latest trends of search term research back then. And I expect to see him again at SES London this coming February 17-19, 2009, to get an update.

Ken McGaffin, WordTracker, SES London 2008 Keyword Research

Revenue for AOL’s advertising dropped 6% in the third quarter of 2008. Total revenues for AOL dropped 17% but that’s primarily due to declining subscription rates.

AOL is in the midst of a business model shift - from one based on internet access subscriptions to one based on advertising. That shift, of course, is coming at quite the rough economic patch for the country in general.

AOL is also looking into joining forces with Yahoo, who also posted dismal Q3 results. Both companies expect Q4 to be even worse.

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comScore released a study today that found 14.5 million people in the U.K. visited at least one blog in August, representing 41% of the total U.K. Internet audience.

“Blogs have become part of the essential fabric of the Internet today,” Herve Le Jouan, Managing Director of comScore Europe said in a press release. “They live and breathe in real-time, helping quench media consumers’ thirst for the most up-to-date breaking news, information, and analysis. It should not, therefore, be particularly surprising that they’re increasingly displacing traditional media usage and carving out an ever-increasing slice of the online advertising pie,” he added.

Two of the most popular blogs in the U.K. are gadget blogs: Engadget.com, which ranked as the top individual blog in August with 243,000 visitors, and Gizmodo.com, which ranked third with 223,000 visitors. UnrealityTV.co.uk (225,000 visitors), Kotaku.com (210,000 visitors), and Metafilter.com (207,000 visitors) rounded out the top five.

According to the comScore Segment Metrix H/M/L service, which looks at online activity by heavy, medium and light users of the Internet, heavy blog users were 142% more likely than the average Internet user to visit a site in the “humour” category, a testament perhaps to the sharp wit often associated with blogging. They are also likely to be tech savvy, which can be seen by their skew in visiting technology news categories.

I’ve met a couple of “heavy” blog users in the U.K. — who weigh 38 stone between them.

Seriously, blogs are big in old Blighty. If you check out the agenda for SES London 2009, which has already been posted, you’ll see there will be a session on Feb. 18, 2009, on “SEO Through Blogs and Feeds.” And, who — you may ask — is responsible for that?

Search Engine Strategies London 2009 is organized and hosted by world-renowned search authority Mike Grehan. As you can see below, I interviewed Mike back at SES London 2008. And you can detect some of that “humour” and tech savvy that comScore just reported, although there is no way that Mike weighs more than 14 stone. But, of course, I’m just guessing.

Mike Grehan, Acronym, on SES London 2008

If you’ve used the Google Checkout Buy Now button, you know that it’s a bit limiting - only allowing customers to purchase one item at a time. Google Checkout’s new shopping cart allows your customers to purchase multiple items at once.

To get started, go to the Tools tab in the Google Checkout Merchant Center. Enter your product info, price and image location. An HTML script will be generated for you. Copy and paste the code onto your product pages. Test the button to make sure it’s working and you’re good to go.

For more advanced options, check out (no pun intended) the developer guide.

Related Reading:
Yahoo and PayPal Join To Challenge Google Checkout
Google Checkout: Check Out of Commercial E-Mail
Google Checkout to Integrate with AdWords