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Dr. Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist and occasional Freakonomics Blog guest blogger, posted “Why data matters” on the official Google blog, cross-posted on the Google Public Policy Blog.

Varian explains that Web search algorithms are improved by the “wisdom of the crowds” drawn from the “logs of billions of previous search queries.” That makes the general public - and government officials - nervous about privacy.

Varian tutors us in PageRank simplified and discusses link building in an ideal world - one where The New York Times and The Wall St. Journal, for example, would link to other sites generously:

“If I have six links pointing to me from sites such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the House of Representatives, that carries more weight than 20 links from my old college buddies who happen to have web pages.”

The House of Representatives? Sounds more like Charlie Wilson’s War.

SEOs, contact your local Congressional Representative for paid links - paid for with your hard-earned tax dollars.

The reality: when Dr. Varian was interviewed, The New York Times Freakonomics Blog linked to Google.org, Google green energy, Dr. Varian’s position auction paper (pdf); BBC News on Moore’s Law; Paul Seabright (Professor of Economics, University of Toulouse, France); Dr. Varian’s NY Times energy article; another Freakonomics blog post; WebMD, Revolution Health, and Paul Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering, University of Cambridge.

That’s the way major media outlets and journalists typically link: to each other; to corporate sites; to universities. It’s an elite, exclusive club. Nick Carr’s “digital elite.”

That isn’t to say Dr. Varian can’t tell a good story. He reveals how Larry and Sergey trying to license their PageRank algorithm to “some of the newly formed web search engines.”

No names named. None of the nascent search engines were interested. Since they couldn’t sell their algorithm, Brin and Page decided to start a search engine themselves. (Note to VCs: Don’t try this business model at home.)

Google has since added more than 200 additional “signals” to the algorithms that determine the relevance of websites to a user’s query. We are the signals.

All the background info leads to one conclusion: Google needs your data. Google wants you to take a leap of faith. Google must store and analyze search logs. They want us to believe, “Nobody does it better.”

Reminds me of Radiohead via Carly Simon:

“But like heaven above me, the spy who loved me/Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight. And nobody does it better/Sometimes I wish someone would/Nobody does it quite the way you do/Why’d you have to be so good.”

Dr. Varian suggests readers “Watch our videos to see exactly what data we store in our logs.”

Not everyone has time - or the inclination - to watch Google videos on YouTube.

What worries me: Google doesn’t understand us any better than we understand the mathematical formulas of search engine algorithms.

Search Engine WarGames won’t be fought between humans and machines.

Nick Carr put it best: “The erosion of the middle class may well accelerate, as the divide widens between a relatively small group of extraordinarily wealthy people - the digital elite - and a very large set of people who face eroding fortunes and a persistent struggle to make ends meet. In the YouTube economy, everyone is free to play, but only a few reap the rewards.”

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) allegedly burned down the “Street of Dreams” a multi-million-dollar development in Woodinville, Washington. Explosives found inside luxury houses ignited the blaze near Seattle on Monday morning. Police suspect the anonymous eco-terrorism group set the fires.

The collective groups’ members are called Elves or “The Elves.” Is an elf an ordinary guy? Were the elves framed? None of the homes were sold according the Seattle Bubble blog.

The Earth Liberation Front is sometimes mistakenly called the Environmental Liberation Front - creating greater confusion for search engine algorithms and searchers’ database of intentions. There is no Web site in Google for the ELF.

The FBI classified the Earth Liberation Front as ecoterrorists and the top domestic terror threat in the United States in March 2001. That was before September 11th.

Now Internet search has given rise to Anonymous, the anti-Scientology group that uses viral videos widely available in YouTube and other video search engines to promote their cause.

Nothing’s more viral than manmade disasters (California wildfires) and natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, floods). Hold tight we’re in for nasty weather.

TV has been criticized for publicizing terrorist acts. TV, though, hires editors and producers to help their talking heads. The Internet? Unfiltered.

YouTube? Not enough editors to even keep copyrighted material offsite.

There has got to be a way.

Click to read the rest of this post…

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) allegedly burned down the “Street of Dreams” a multi-million-dollar development in Woodinville, Washington. Explosives found inside luxury houses ignited the blaze near Seattle on Monday morning. Police suspect the anonymous eco-terrorism group set the fires.

The collective groups’ members are called Elves or “The Elves.” Is an elf an ordinary guy? Were the elves framed? None of the homes were sold according the Seattle Bubble blog.

The Earth Liberation Front is sometimes mistakenly called the Environmental Liberation Front - creating greater confusion for search engine algorithms and searchers’ database of intentions. There is no Web site in Google for the ELF.

The FBI classified the Earth Liberation Front as ecoterrorists and the top domestic terror threat in the United States in March 2001. That was before September 11th.

Now Internet search has given rise to Anonymous, the anti-Scientology group that uses viral videos widely available in YouTube and other video search engines to promote their cause.

Nothing’s more viral than manmade disasters (California wildfires) and natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, floods). Hold tight we’re in for nasty weather.

TV has been criticized for publicizing terrorist acts. TV, though, hires editors and producers to help their talking heads. The Internet? Unfiltered.

YouTube? Not enough editors to even keep copyrighted material offsite.

There has got to be a way.

Click to read the rest of this post…

First, maybe you’re in-house, working for a CPG big-brand,  e-marketing multi-million dollar health insurance products, a solo designer, are president of a boutique SEM shop in Toronto, or perhaps your wild-thing is classic PR. This post applies to you.

Every professional needs someone. This timeless axiom is especially relevant to both those who consume and those who provide search marketing services. aimClear interviewed 21 marketing companies and solo practitioners for this article, in order to clarify our anecdotal understanding of how industry peers view strategic partnerships.

Let the Games Begin
In 1999 it was feasible to be a small search marketing shop or in-house team and literally cover all the bases: SEO, paid search, social media, link/traffic building, analytics, and content development. Now SEM has exploded on to the scene, becoming the most relevant skill-set in the entire marketing universe; the multi- headed hydra of interconnected disciplines which can’t easily be handled by a single small (or sometimes medium) SEM department or agency.

In-house or out-house (always wanted to say that) healthy business things result from crafting strategic partnerships amongst specialized and trusted peers with complementary skills. Herein lays the golden path for many a marketing team to remain compact and efficient, whilst providing world class solutions to satisfy any client’s needs.

"Although we position ourselves as a full-service SEM agency, we’ve been partnering (more than ever) with what I would have considered competitors in the past. For one company, we manage PPC while a partner of ours manages SEO. In another example, we provide strategic consulting for a content portal, while the current SEM firm will manage the launch and ongoing activities.

I believe it’s a win-win-win in most cases, as the client gets best-of-breed service providers while the vendors get a unique opportunity to learn from each other and share revenue.”
Kent Lewis, Anvil Media, Inc.

Full Service SEM, Circa 2000
Back in the day, social media was a phenomenon looming intangibly on the horizon and required little attention. ” Socially informed search” meant humans maintaining the Yahoo Directory and community meant AOL chat rooms, IRC, and Yahoo Personals.

Overture was easy to operate, dominated the paid search landscape (there was no Google AdWords) and organic optimization was easy for the well-informed.  Analytics were rudimentary, conversion tracking was an afternoon cookie-bake for the clever, and link building meant directories, exchanges, and cold phone calls. Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Aaron Wall, and other “old fart” SEOs hadn’t invented terms like “linkbait” and search engine algorithms were refreshingly easy to reverse engineer [sigh].  

The search marketing industry was about to undergo an explosion of epic proportions, bringing the entire planet’s media empire paradigm to it’s very KNEES. Those were heady times indeed. A small SEM shop could make a massive difference for any client on any “best-practices” front.  We could literally do it all ourselves.

“Our in-house SEM department is changed with targeting 15-24 year olds artsy types.  These days the young are incredibly savvy and demand that we serve them by publishing with increasingly familiar tools. Even with our [significant] in-house marketing resources, we delegate out design, some application development and even SEO projects. 

The in-house/out-of-house hybrid approach results in better conversion and ROI, satisfies our customers’ expectations, and our team is always current with crucial SEM information. In the end it costs us less and we sell more.”
Lance Sabin, Institute of Production and Recording

Not Your Mother’s SEM
Things have certainly changed! Social media participation permeates the very fabric of society. Organic optimization remains an intense mish-mash of authentic content, publishing technique and hundreds of distribution channels. Link-building has crossed over into social media. This is especially intriguing as organic optimization and SMO (even Social PPC like Facebook) fold into the realm of social media practitioners.

“I’m a social Media marketer. That said, we social-side SEMS sure know we don’t live in a bubble, sweet as that would be. It’s in my best interest to have relationships to share with my clients… a diverse set of brilliant professionals. Then my clients can do anything, and I happily play my part. “
Shana Albert, SocialDesire

Personalized and Universal search blew “old” SEO out of the water.  Client relationships begin with taking inventory of digital assets and highly complex PPC campaigns sport millions of keywords, where sharpshooters mine long-tail ROI.  Each specialized endeavor requires deep commitment to craft and have become cottage industries unto themselves.  It’s easy to understand why solo or small SEM practitioners often choose to focus, as opposed to attempting to do it all it all. 

“Our focus is our agency’s organic search, paid search, and social media. We keep these functions in-house as we have the knowledge and expertise. Other activities where we don’t feel we have as strong a competitive advantage (usability, email marketing, web design, and affiliate marketing) are outsourced to experts we view as being the market thought-leaders.

Often our strategic partners bring us work that’s perfect for what we do best. In the end, it’s all about working together to get clients the results they expect in this incredible age of specialization and heightened expectations.”
Jeff Quipp, SearchEnginePeople

Should Relationships be Transparent?
Some of the firms we interviewed transparently share subcontractors with their clients, even to the point of direct billing and no marked up fees. The advantages can include more efficient communications channels, clarity, and shared customer service responsibilities. Points of danger are sometimes fragmented communication, lack of a coordinated front, a confused client and more complicated communication.

Other strategic partners find it less complicated to remain in the background. In our interviews we heard repeatedly that a key advantage to having the partner-firm remain invisible was that the “originating” company nearly always has a better understanding of the client’s goals and makeup. Decisions as to the “transparency issue” are personal to every strategic partnership and should be embarked upon intentionally.

“We’re an advertising agency that specializes only in pay per click. That’s all we do. Maximizing conversions is critical for our clients, so we partner with web designers analytics firms and a range of others. Reciprocally we also partner-out, usually transparently, to agencies who subcontract PPC work to us, so they can provide top service to their clients without maintaining an expert staff in-house. It’s just easier’.
David Szetela, ClixMarketing

PR agencies are all over the SEM revolution and have learned to partner with SEM shops. Social media is such a huge component of the “new” PR and so makes total sense that “traditional” practitioners appreciate the benefits SEM-type thinking brings to the arena. Savvy PR practitioners embrace social and are partnering more and more with SEM shops

 "SEM agencies and PR agencies are usually 180 degrees apart on the spectrum of measuring results of their efforts.  To SEMs, immediate feedback means spreadsheets with detailed analytics. PR clients are more used to clip-books with column inches counted months later. These days, clients want immediate feedback and statistics as to their efforts. We’ve learned to embrace this conundrum and partner to capitalize on the advantages of both PR and SEM. Using strategic partner-vendors helps us link PR results with the magical measurement capabilities of the modern SEM.”
Janet Johnson

 “Search marketing is expanding and becoming much more of a specialized field. We’ve found it highly beneficial to partner with key providers and concentrate on our areas of specialty. Our entire approach to the web is to unify the various components of marketing under a strategic umbrella, so it often makes sense to augment our strong points with complimentary solo consultants directly for specific projects. This is the model we’re working with and it’s been successful.”
Adam Audette, AudetteMedia 

In-House, CPG, big pharmaceutical, independent designer, local SEO or up and coming carpet cleaning company — everybody needs somebody else sometimes. The timeless reality of the interdependent corporate web has never been more obvious than in the field of search marketing. Paid search, organic, social, PR, email, and every classic node, there’s work enough for everybody. Specialization, as the SEM universe expands, is inevitable.  Many of our peers reach out to forge strategic relationships.

This morning over at Seattle-based blog SEOmoz, Rand Fishkin asks "What is an Algorithm? How does it apply to the Search Results at Google, Yahoo! & MSN/Live?" The post, How to Track the Evolution of Search Engine Algorithms & Why It’s Important to Do So, amounts to a free clinic regarding the "whys" and "hows" for professionals seeking to garner more organic search traffic.

"The vast majority of search marketers operating in the organic space at least lay claim to "following the latest algorithms" at the search engines, and in 90% of the client pitches I’ve ever heard (or made, for that matter), the subject comes up at least once. However, I think this is still a topic about which there’s not a lot of true understanding and for those new to the field, it’s probably the most daunting aspect of the work. So, to help ease some pain, I figured I’d address many of the most common questions about keeping up with the search engines’ ever-changing mathematical formulas that rank search results."
Rand Fishkin

The article gets to the algorithmic red meat: inherent trust in link metrics, domain trust over the importance of individual pages, temporal analysis of link growth, sandboxing of new websites, fixing blog comment spam, and Google’s recent crackdown on reciprocal tactics.

The New York Times, CNET, InformationWeek, and 52 other Google News sources missed the significance of Microsoft’s new Research Lab in Cambridge, Mass., headed by Jennifer Chayes and her husband, Christian Borgs. The Times implied that Chayes and Borgs work in an ivory tower where basic research doesn’t have a business imperative.

Nothing could be further from the truth in the online world.

Jennifer Tour Chayes, PhD in mathematical physics, led the highly esteemed Theory Group specializing in theoretical computer science. She’s the co-author of almost 100 scientific papers and co-inventor of more than 20 patents. The New York Times only mentions her work in developing simple models of liquids and solids and the development of some exceedingly fast networking algorithms. Hunh?

Their groundbreaking work in search engine algorithms and social search may be the foundation of a successful Microsoft-Yahoo merger.

Chayes is one of the world’s experts in the modeling and analysis of random, dynamically growing graphs (social graph, social search, Facebook, MySpace) – which are used to model the Internet, the World Wide Web and social networks.

One of the papers the couple co-authored, “Bid optimization in online advertisement auctions”, details the ways paid search campaigns can be optimized by advertisers and search engines. “Multi-unit auctions with budget-constrained bidders”, written by Borgs, Chayes, Nicole Immorlica (MIT), Mohammad Mahdian, and Amin Saberi (published in June 2005), discusses ways to optimize revenue for search engines given the fixed budgets of search marketers.

Their recent work provides a tutorial on search engine optimization and PageRank, before delving deep into algorithms few search marketers (myself included) understand.

Search engine optimization lives and dies by PageRank. Here’s what you need to know about their research into PageRank.

Click to read the rest of this post…

Years ago article marketing was revealed as an extremely powerful way to get quality links to ones site while getting targeted traffic at the same time. It’s only natural that people started to exploit it. Now the search engine algorithms have caught on but so many “article marketers” have not, decreasing the value of their [...]

Search engine optimization is the process of using natural search methods to take advantage of search engine algorithms. This process allows the web site in question to appear earlier on the results page when the search results page is returned to the person making the query. Those sites with an ear…
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Making sure that your web site can take credit card payments in a seamless manner is crucial to your website’s success. This is because the ability for a web site to take credit cards is part of some search engine algorithms when your site is being catalogued by them for indexing on the search engin…
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