Webfly blog

Video Ads come to Google Search Results

Now then. You know Web 2.0? The Universal Search? Well it’s starting to get serious. Web 2 likes interactivity, so no one was particularly shocked when Google launched its advertising programme in the US called AdSense for Video – ad videos confined to websites themselves - back in October last year.

And no one should be surprised that the New York Times now tells us Google has rolled this out into the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) either! So what’s the story? The real story is that this is an excellent example of how fast technology is moving right now - plus the integration of streaming video will, eventually, have a big impact on what your customers actually see on the SERP.

Basically instead of what they see now: a list of websites, a few images at the top maybe and text ads at the right hand side, they will see your competition’s pay-per-click moving video images. Not yet, not now – at the moment, in the US, they will see a plus sign to click to see the video but in time there will be streaming images on the results page. A whole new world of search engine marketing - yippee I hear you cry!

There are no examples of what these search result videos will look like yet, but for some very cute examples of Google’s AdSense videos with horribly addictive music see:  Cute Video!

So what should you do? First talk to us at Edgeworks and we can help you start planning how to make the most of the future….

For more information on Web 2.0 & Universal Search - the start of the future of Google - click here to request our White Paper.

The Google Blacklist Nightmare!

Everyone’s worst nightmare came to call on GoCompare.com recently when they suddenly sank without trace after breaking Google’s infamous, largely secret and ever-changing ‘rules’. Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise gives us some nice graphics which make the blood run cold! Kind of like watching a disaster movie from the 1970s – all’s well, people are laughing and happy and then someone sees smoke coming out of the air vent on the 250th floor….

What happened was that GoCompare was riding high on the search term ‘car insurance’ until one fine day on or around 26 January when it plummeted faster than the stock exchange on Black Monday. The reason for GoCompare’s ‘delisting’ is a matter of debate across the net. No one can be absolutely sure why and it’s probably not fair to speculate – though I’m pretty sure I know why – but suffice to say it’s a salutary lesson for everyone to listen to their SEO people, keep up to date and don’t try to do anything you think is clever! Because it probably won’t be!

David Meerman Scott: New Rules of Viral Marketing

Thought leadership guru and author David Meerman Scott has just published a new book: The New Rules of Viral Marketing. Written in an upbeat, easy-to-read style, it analyses why certain campaigns work and offers sound, straightforward advice on how to make viral marketing deliver real results - and it's pretty evident that his viral strategies work because I'M sitting here writing about HIS book! Result!  Go there now and download your copy! A great read and it’s free - so there's no real excuse! Oh and while you're there check out his blog here too.