Potential Microsoft CEO Elop Would Consider Selling Bing

The Microsoft CEO derby is heating up. As we discussed earlier this week the short list is down to a handful of candidates, including current Ford CEO Alan Mulally and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (soon to rejoin Microsoft in charge of devices). Apparently Elop has floated some bold ideas�that may vault him to the head of the class or could disqualify him based on their potential heresy.

Businessweek reports that as Microsoft CEO “Elop would probably move away from Microsoft�s strategy of using [Office] to drive demand for its flagship Windows operating system on personal computers and mobile devices.” Rather Elop would try and maximize sales and usage of Office across devices and platforms, in a way that is similar to what he has tried to do with Nokia’s mapping platform Here.

The publication also says unnamed sources have indicated that Elop “would be prepared to sell or shut down major businesses to sharpen the company�s focus.” Accordingly he would consider terminating “Microsoft�s costly effort to take on Google with its Bing search engine, and would also consider selling healthy businesses such as the Xbox.”

Many financial analysts think that Xbox is too removed from Microsoft’s other businesses. Some also believe that Bing has had its chance and proved it cannot gain market share from Google — and that continuing investment is too costly.

Apparently Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen also believes that Xbox and Bing should be jettisoned. Bing and Xbox are “distractions” from a more profitable enterprise focus Allen indicated through a spokesperson.

It’s unclear how widely shared these views are among the other CEO candidates. But continuing pressure from financial analysts and institutional investors could result in similar actions regardless of whether Elop is anointed.

Let’s assume for the moment that Elop gets the nod and is serious about selling Bing. Who would he try and sell it too and for what price? And what about the Yahoo deal? Would a sale immediately let Yahoo out of its contract? (I don’t know the answer.) Or would Yahoo continue on with the successor-acquiror?

At one point Microsoft reportedly did try and sell Bing to Facebook, but the latter declined. But that was before Graph Search. Facebook would probably be the most likely candidate to buy Bing this time around and would probably take that offer much more seriously now. It also has the cash/capability to make what would probably be a multibillion-dollar acquisition.

What about Marissa Mayer and Yahoo? It would be something of a triumph — albeit very costly — to buy search back from Microsoft. Yahoo’s remaining Alibaba stake is worth something north of $20 billion. Liquidating that would enable Yahoo to potentially buy Bing.

But who are some other potential buyers? . . . someone in Europe, in Asia? What would be the best home and fit for Bing? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Postscript By Danny Sullivan: A reality check is in order, for anyone who might think Microsoft can just easily walk away from Bing. First and foremost, it needs a search engine. It needs a search engine because search is deeply integrated into its Windows Phone and Windows OS platforms. Heck, search is everywhere in Microsoft products — and is powered by Microsoft’s Bing.

If Microsoft just threw up its hands and said “we’re done,” what the option? It can’t partner with Google. Assuming that Microsoft decided to embrace its enemy (similar to Apple), given the FTC blocked a move for Yahoo to partner with Google, all the same regulatory issues are going to come up if Microsoft wants to hand over its share to Google.

In turnabout, Microsoft — which helped push for the FTC to stall the Google-Yahoo deal — might find the same agency prevents it from working with Google.

If Google is out, and it probably is, Microsoft has to hope that someone wants to buy Bing and then partner to license Bing from the new owners. That’s more likely. I agree with Greg, above, that Facebook is a candidate. But I think�Yahoo is the more attractive one. It still has some remnant of a search reputation. It’s headed by a CEO that knows search, Marissa Mayer.

With a firesale deal, Mayer possibly might take Bing off Microsoft’s hands. Another advantage is that Apple might consider a Yahoo-run Bing a more attractive primary search engine replacement than a Microsoft-run Bing, if it finally wants to make a break with Google.

Understanding the economics of a Bing sale are tough, because Microsoft doesn’t break out the costs involved with that search engine, a huge amount of which might be overkill marketing. But one thing is worth remembering. Yahoo investors already played the “outsource search and we’ll save” game, only to discover that outsourcing search didn’t up revenues and instead caused Yahoo to lose search share.

Microsoft is unlikely to suddenly earn more by ditching Bing. It would certainly be giving up one of the most important future-looking products it has. But if the goal is to double-down on software sales, and assume that a new push into hardware sales is the brighter future, then maybe it makes sense.

Postscript By Greg Sterling: I agree that Microsoft “can’t walk away” and needs search for the reasons Danny mentioned. The degree to which it sees integrated search as strategic to its products . . . that’s an argument against a sale.

Hypothetically, however,�it could license Bing back from the buyer on favorable terms. And I also agree with Danny that Yahoo might be the best fit (it would be a direct role reversal). Apple would be an intriguing candidate too but in the end would probably prefer to partner rather than manage a search engine on its own.

Asian players like Baidu and Alibaba are also possible suitors should Bing go on the market. A longer shot might be Russian search engine Yandex.

 

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New AdWords Terms & Conditions Roll Out In Europe, Middle East, Africa

Today, Google announced the roll out of a new set of Terms and Conditions for AdWords in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The changes are part of Google’s efforts to update AdWords T&C globally, in part, to reflect the impact of new capabilities.

Mark Martel writes in the announcement that the new set of changes the T&C “accommodate new advertising products and services. For example, we now offer third-party ad serving in some situations, so you�ll see provisions about how we resolve ad serving disputes. Other changes include updated links to our policies and better consistency among our advertising terms globally.”

The full list of countries affected by the change can be found here.

The latest Terms & Conditions outside of an AdWords account are available for review here.

Advertisers will have 45 days to accept the new terms once the notification is rolled out in their accounts.

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4 Google Changes and How Online Merchants Can Adapt

Google updates its search algorithm more than 500 times a year. For cumulative Google algorithm changes, Moz has a handy Google algorithm change history page, which highlights changes since 2000.

If you're looking to catch up on Google's most recent changes, here is a quick summary with pointers on how online merchants can still maintain a profit using Google.

Keywords '(Not Provided)' in Google Analytics

The most controversial change Google has made recently involves increasing user privacy for Google searches through increased search encryption. For SEO professionals and online retailers, more organic search encryption translates to less available keyword data on Google Analytics, and more "(not provided)" keywords.

The amount of "(not provided)" data on Google is now at 81 percent:

Although online merchants can't find as much organic keyword data on Analytics, there are still multiple ways to find visitor data from organic search.

Here are three ways online merchants or advertisers can find search data (check out the full post here):

Use Google Webmaster Tools.Consider Anchor text.Delve into Google AdWords.Google Shopping Product Listing Ads Local Availability

Local search is becoming a bigger priority for Google, something which Google's local update highlighted early this month. Google added local availability and local storefront features to Product Listing Ads, broadening online search information on local stores, and giving searchers access to local storefronts with product information.

Here are some steps online merchants should take to address the Google local update:

Optimize your Google+ Local Business Page.Audit and augment your Google feed, as it powers both local storefronts and PLAs.Include business images for the Google Carousel.Send consistent business information to Google (as well as other search engines), and social profiles (Yelp, Facebook, Zagat).Google Hummingbird

The arrival of Google's newest algorithm, Hummingbird, is designed to refine search results and Google's search Knowledge Graph. Although announced in September, the update was running for a month before Google officially announced it.

In addition to increasing search result speed, Hummingbird is designed to refine results for searches which mimic verbal speech, or conversational search. 

Here are some steps online merchants should take to address the Google Hummingbird update:

Refine your SEO strategy to reflect verbal search (read: create quality, relevant, and original content).Build content and product information around user needs.Consider expanding and revisiting your customer and reader personas.Google+ Shared Endorsements for Product Listing Ads

This month Google begins using Google+ user information to accompany products in the form of user reviews, advertisements, and similar material. For users, this update can be a bit disconcerting, but mimics a similar Facebook policy. For online merchants, this underlines the importance of both Google+ and customer reviews.

Here are some steps online merchants should take to address the Google+ update:

Set up or refine your Google+ business page.Engage with users across social, especially on Google+.Provide good quality products and customer service.Encourage customer reviews through sites like Ekomi and via Comparison Shopping Engines.Summary

Google squashed Wall Street projections for YOY with a reported $14 billion in revenue for Q3 2013, and a net income of $2.97 billion, a 12% increase.

Google doesn't mess around with search, and they are aiming to be the destination for product searches and purchases online. Google Shopping may make a lot of changes, but if you're an online merchant that's looking to profit, Google is the largest revenue and traffic generating shopping channel.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Online Marketing News: 21 New Content Marketing Rules, 10 Free Monitoring Tools, 150 Million Instagram Users, 5 Ways Facebook Pages Get Festive

Findability: 21 New Rules of Content Marketing � While the foundations of building a site are still in play, it�s the content that�s now successfully driving the success to companies investing in great marketing strategies. Many companies who invested heavily in search engine optimization have seen those investments lost; but companies who continued to push for relevant, frequent and recent content that provide value to their audience continue to see the rewards. Are you ready for a new world of search engine optimization, social media, and content marketing? Marketing Tech Blog

59% of Businesses Say Conversion Rate Optimization is Crucial to Their Digital Strategy � This highlights the growing focus on CRO in an increasingly competitive online marketplace, fuelled in part by more advanced targeting and personalisation technologies. Read the new report based on a survey of almost 1,000 client-side and agency digital marketers. eConsultancy

Want to Boost Your Social Media Following? Get Visual � Videos and photos are more likely to get clicked and shared on social media. Here’s how smart companies are ramping up the use of visuals. Inc.

Facebook Has More Mobile Users Than Ever � Facebook posted strong third quarter results, which the company says is largely attributed to its command of mobile advertising.�Here are some tips to help you reach Facebook�s growing mobile fan base. Inc.

In Other Facebook News � while mobile is now 49% of ad revenue, a recent survey from Piper Jaffray found that for the first time, it was not named by teens as their �most important� social network, surrendering that distinction to Twitter. Marketing Charts

Study: Instagram Fastest Growing Social Network, Top Brand Engagement Up 350% Since Last Year � Instagram is the fastest growing social network with 150 million users and 40 million photos being uploaded each day according to social analytics company. Marketing Land

Why Google+ is an Essential Part of Your Social Strategy � Google+ now has over 343 million users and 34% of all social log-ins. If you�re still on the fence, here�s a look at just why you should be taking G+ seriously and how you can make it effective. Socialnomics

Why Google Authorship is So Important for the Content You Create � Use Google authorship to claim the content you create and enjoy an author�s advantages in visibility, click-throughs and results. Here�s how to set it up. A lot of great comments too! Buffer

Study: 72% Of Consumers Expect Brands to Respond Within an Hour to Complaints Posted On Twitter � Surveying 501 respondents who claimed they actively engaged with businesses on Twitter, the study found a brand�s response time to tweets can significantly impact the brand�s overall reputation. Marketing Land

5 Ways to Prepare Your Facebook Page for the Holidays � Are you thinking of the holidays on social? Here are some ways to make your Facebook page festive. Social Media Examiner

Google Indexing Apps Just Like Websites � Just like it crawls and indexes websites, Googlebot can now index content in your Android app. Webmasters will be able to indicate which app content you’d like Google to index in the same way you do for webpages today � through your existing Sitemap file and through Webmaster Tools. Webmaster Central Blog

Why YouTube is Worth Your Marketing Effort � [Infographic] Creating quality content and linking to it is a great way to increase your visibility on the web, but has your business considered having a presence on YouTube? YouTube has become the second largest search engine, and its viewership has been growing rapidly. Visual.ly

New Google Plus Custom URLs: more than meets the eye � Many seemed to have missed the terms of use that have accompanied the new feature; most notably the phrase about payment: Custom URLs are free for now, but we may start charging a fee for them. The new TOS clearly states that Google may look to monetize the URL scheme. This would be a major shift in the business model of the platform, which has always been geared toward being a ‘no ads’ service. eConsultancy

10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand�s Online Reputation � Do you pay attention to what people say about you on the Internet? Occasionally Googling the name of your company, product or service might not be enough. The time to start managing your online reputation is before it becomes a problem. Use these tools to stay on top of your brand. Social Fresh

A Timeline to Help Marketers Capitalize on Holiday Panic � [Infographic] 16.3% of shoppers looked for Black Friday deals & promos on Facebook. Capitalize on holiday buying anxiety. Social Times

Study: 8% of US Adults Consume News via Twitter � Pew Research surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. adults, and discovered that 16 percent of respondents used Twitter. Of those, slightly more than half (52 percent) �ever� get their news on Twitter. Of course, flipping this on its head, the stats also say than more than eight in ten U.S. adults are not even on Twitter.� MediaBistro

Google Launches Helpouts, Paid Video Chats With Experts In Real Time � A �Helpout� is a Hangout-like video chat, but instead of speaking with a friend, you are connected to a supposed expert in whatever it is that you need help with. The tagline that Google has come up with for Helpouts is �real help from real people in real time.� What happened to calling your mom? TechCrunch

Stats: Facebook vs Twitter: Revenue, Users and more � Twitter�s widely anticipated IPO is just around the corner, and, for many analysts, it would seem to make sense to speculate on Twitter�s fortunes based on what has happened to Facebook and their IPO. But, they�ve always been different social platforms and different companies, so a head-to-head comparison is illogical as they diverge on every significant statistic out there. Check the visual from Statista for all the number goodness. MediaBistro

Google Testing New AdWords Site Search Extension � A new flavor of AdWords form extensions has been spotted. It�s a site search box, and according to Google, this test is related to the drop-down navigation. Search Engine Land

From the Online Community

From “The Truth About Visual Content Marketing Tactics: Infographics,” Matthew White said, Those are very interesting numbers from HubSpot on the importance of visuals.

I also like your #1 con of infographics – too many poorly executed ones. I know this factor has begun to affect when and how I consume infographics.

That being the case – where do you think storytelling is headed next? I see readers and content consumers increasingly craving more interactive – or, smart – content beyond graphics.

From “How 5 Large Consumer and B2B Brands Are Using Vine” Tema Frank said, The challenge is in the creativity. It is hard to be creative and communicate a message in 6 seconds. Though as you show, it can be done.

Personally, I think the first two here are all that great. The Phillips one flashes so quickly it is hard on the eyes, and the “culture” it shows is just a standard corporate office setup.

The Cisco one makes me wonder who their target market is. Looks pretty high-schoolish.

The HP one is perfect though. Clear message, well communicated.

Barbara Mckinney said, No matter how you use Vine to promote your brand the important thing is to get started with Vine. There is no doubt that Vine is an easy, powerful way to integrate video into your marketing strategy. Studies are proving the importance of short, brief videos, and how influential they can be to prospects and to your existing customers-especially when they tell a story, and engage your public.

What’s Your Take?

Is Vine part of your content marketing strategy for 2014? Are you ready to ramp up the visuals in your content?

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

How IBM Turned B2B Social into a Lead Gen Machine & How You Can Too #SESCHI

IBM is famous�there�s no doubt about that. They’ve been known for everything from innovative products to impressive profits. But at SES Chicago, they�re known for their ability to generate leads from social�something B2B companies don�t necessarily always do well.

90% of brands say they measure social engagement, but only 15% of CMOssay they can quantify social ROI. Clearly, there�s some sort of disconnect that needs to be addressed. Michelle Killebrew and John Lee bridged the gap in their presentation with an IBM case study on how B2B companies can leverage social media for lead gen.

What IBM Did

Killebrew shared a case study that serves as a powerful example of how IBM used social to take their website and social to the next level:

Challenges

The corporate giant was facing several challenges when it came to their digital marketing:
� what to do first
� how to scale
� how to leverage technology to get the lowest CPL
� how to educate extended teams/analysts about acquisitions and vision
� a polarized spectrum of audience needs

Objectives

The company had several objectives for their digital marketing efforts:

create a digital experience that�s optimized for engagementpersonalization of the user experience, sharing and conversiondrive huge lead volume through paid, owned and earned mediaintegrate the latest trends in digital marketing (like more video-content, message amplification through social-media, retargeted based on visitor behavior)

Questions They Asked

Those are quite the challenges, and some ambitious objectives to achieve on top of them. In order to do so, IBM asked themselves three questions:

Is This What My Audience Craves? The new age of marketing means that you have to target what searchers and your prospective customers care about most.How can we Contextually Craft Content to the Lighter Audience? It�s all about helping identify personas, and looking at human identification for resonanceWhat is going to keep my audience engaged? Focus on key concepts your audience cares about, it�s not a library of everything. Help them find what they need as quickly as possible.

What They Found & What They Did:

People Crave Relevance:�IBM linked social to their site so relevant hashtags show up that the user will actually care aboutPeople Resonate with Visuals:�IBM created unique personas on their website based on the needs and characteristics of their audiences. They then gave the personas a human face because, after all, people resonate with human photos. They also included videos on their site that were tailored to the different audiences, making content relevant�and�visual.People Like Quick & Easy: IBM made �factoids� of interesting statistics that web visitors can scroll through. They designed them to be easily shareable with ready-to-go tweets, and built-in images for Facebook and LinkedIn shares. They took it a step further and put social sharing widgets in email so readers can click to share even from emails.�When it comes to mobile, easy clicks are extremely important to users. So IBM made it easy for mobile users to click with big, huge buttons.People Like Themes: IBM created �rethink� messaging customized to each of the personas they created that represented audience roles and their interests.

How You Can Be Successful At Using B2B Social

Lee was up next to teach the audience how they could leverage social media like IBM to increase their lead gen and successfully attract new customers. His advice came in two unique packages: DJs and Twitter Lead Gen Cards.

Be Successful by Being like a DJ�
A DJ is trying to take a group of people in one place that don�t know each other, a little uptight and a little shy from one place and move them to a place where they�re dancing and having fun. As a marketer that�s what we have to do. We have to move our customers and our searchers from a place of inactivity to one of activity that they enjoy. There are 3 lessons marketers can learn from DJs to help us do just that:

1. Think ahead. DJs always plan their playlist�what they hear isn�t what you hear. Always plan out your content and your messages, be thinking of the offer after the offer after the offer.
2. Don�t think of yourself. DJs play what their audience likes not what they like. Publish what you�re your audience craves, not what you want. They�re the ones who have to act on it, engage with it, and share it so cater it to their preferences.
3. Watch your audience. If no one�s dancing, the DJ is probably doing something wrong. Marketers also need to watch their audiences to know what�s resonating and what isn�t and respond accordingly.

Twitter Lead Gen Cards:
Twitter saw an opportunity to help B2B marketers bring in more leads without spending more, and turn those leads into meaningful engagement in a shorter amount of time despite the challenges of distracted users that take multitasking to the extreme.

So they introduced lead gen cards that show up in Twitter feeds making them clear and convenient. Users no longer have to click away from Twitter and be taken to your site to fulfill an action, it can all be done in the Twitter Lead Gen Card. These cards have several important elements:
� Content Hook: 140 characters like any other tweet that appears at the top of the card. This has to be interesting and valuable. Don�t use just a blog title. Take your best tip, your best fact and put that here�make people want to read and look at the rest.
��Supporting Copy:�50 characters to brand yourself and communicate the experience. If you have to email them something tell them that here so they know how they�ll get what they want–tell them what’s going to happen.
� Social Visual Impact:�150 pixels by 600 pixels for banner ads. This picture can be text, but be sure to keep it clean. This is a good place for the name of your blog post or whitepaper. Create multiple images for each image you promote so you can see which one works and which doesn�t.
� Integrated CTA Button:�users click this button and you automatically get the conversion. Best practices from web and landing pages apply to this button as well. Encourage immediacy with things like �download now�, �sign up now��emphasize the now.�The trick with these is they don�t actually get the download. A box will pop up and say the company will contact you shortly. So how do you work around? Integrate with marketing automation so they get the asset automatically emailed to them with no lag.
� Auto Lead Capture: when someone clicks that button you get the name, handle, and email associated with that Twitter account. Most people don�t use corporate email addresses for that, however there�s still opportunities for nurture there and people still respond to follow-up emails.
� Engagement:�the number of retweets & favorites still show at the bottom of the card.

How to Set-up a Twitter Lead Gen Card

Twitter knows marketers like easy, so they made it super simple to create a lead gen card. Log in to the Twitter advertisement interface, and from the drop down choose the option that says create new lead gen card, and you�re good to go.

How to Nurture

Now that you have all the data, you�ve connected with this person on social, how do you nurture? Set up a program. Consider emailing 24 hours later with relevant information or other things they may find useful. These tend to be opened more often and have higher click-through rates than traditional emails.

Then start all over, seriously. Continue to improve, redesign, and personalize your marketing efforts so it’s not just a one-and-done initiative. Like Lee said, always be thinking of the offer after the offer.

Stay tuned for our live blog coverage of the last day of SES Chicago.

If you can’t wait for us to post, get live coverage by following along on Twitter with @bslarsonmn or @elizalynnsteely

The Role of #Hashtags in Social Media and Search

By now everyone has seen or heard hashtags used. Yes, I said 'heard' because hashtags have now infiltrated contemporary culture and advertising campaigns. One blogger recently ranted in a blog post about how the hashtag is ruining the English Language. Regardless of origin, or how you may feel about hashtags, they will not be going away any time soon.

The History of Hashtags

In the early days, hashtags were only used by the social media early adopters. As understanding grew of how hashtags work, they became widely embraced by the marketing and advertising industry. Today, the hashtag is part of pop culture.

Most people relate a hashtag with social media. Some see them as annoying disruptions to perfectly logical discussions. Others see hashtags as a way to express the thought of the moment.

The truth is, hashtags are widely misunderstood, misused and abused, as demonstrated in the humorous #hashtag skit video below of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake hashtagging their way through a conversation.

Examples of Hashtags Gone Wrong

Because a hashtag puts a word, acronym or series of words together without spaces, unfortunate interpretations turn good intentions into Epic #Failures. It pays to put a little effort into selecting the hashtag(s) you will use to communicate online.

Use With Caution

When topics begin to trend, people with seemingly have nothing else better to do than jump in and use the hashtag in ways that were never intended.

Epic Hashtag #Fails

As with anything you cannot fully control, a hashtag can take on a life of its own, or be hijacked, or become a "bashtag" as the following widely-reported faux pas.

#McDStories produced a stream of less than complimentary commentary by consumers in 2011. This hashtag has since become a case study of what can go wrong with hashtags and kept alive by consumer tweets using the #McDStories hashtag.

Other hashtag fails include:

#ILoveWalgreens didn't receive much love from consumers with this hashtag, which facilitated less than loving comments.#WaitroseReasons an upscale supermarket chain in the U.K. was the subject of sarcasm and pretentiousness by way of tweets by customers.#SusanAlbumParty, which was more often tweeted as #susanalbumparty – no need to explain this one further.#NowThatchersDead, which to many read #nowthatcherisdead indicating the singer Cher had passed – which was later debunked.#QantasLuxury, which was readily used by travelers who became sick with gastrointestinal illnesses and were hospitalized from food allegedly served by the airline.Search Happens – Everywhere

Hashtags are an efficient method to find content related to specific topics, as well as the people talking about those topics.

Just as searches are conducted on platforms other than Google, Bing, and Yahoo, search also happens on social platforms. People search every day on Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, and other social platforms using words and hashtags with success.

When you optimize conversations, content, and updates with hashtags, they become more visible to others on social media platforms and search engines. A simple click or search for a hashtag will display those using that hashtag in conversation – instantly identifying an audience with common interests. The potential for using the hashtag is limitless and can be leveraged across platforms, or uniquely on each social platform.

Hashtags in Search

Recent Google updates have amplified visibility of hashtags in organic search results on Google.com as well as Google+ as demonstrated by the results of a Google search query for #milliondollarwebsites used to promote my book and Google+ Community.

Yahoo also displays #hashtag results as demonstrated in autocomplete:

Bing displays auto-complete results in the search bar as well.

How many times have you seen a Twitter trend or tweet with a hashtag on it? Clicking on the hashtag is a function of search. While clicking on it reveals all updates with that hashtag, along with related promoted tweets. The very same function holds true for queries in search engines.

Who Owns a Hashtag?

If you create a hashtag, you can register it on Hashtags.org, which also provides tracking. Twubs.com also allows you to register a hashtag. Although you can't prevent others from using the hashtag, it may be useful to claim a hashtag that could be integral to discussion around a trademark, promotional campaign, or event.

Use It

You want others to use it as often as possible. If you're using a hashtag for a specific event, be sure to include it on social media profiles, or better yet, on the related website in a post. Too often hashtags pick up momentum, peaking interest of others that can't find out what the hashtag stands for.

Once upon a time, Twitter was the only place hashtags were used. Now, hashtags appear online and offline – all intended to promote engagement.

5 #SocialMediaTips for Using Hashtags

Hashtags can be extremely powerful when you understand how to make them work for you. You can use them on a variety of platforms, represented in this graphic by this graphic.

Image Credit: Intelligent HQ

Research

Want to know what your customers are talking about, what your competitors are doing, or how the media is treating a specific topic related to your product or service? Hashtags are extremely useful in identifying the frequency and reach of topics, discussions, and tapping into audience sentiment.

Facilitate Discussion

Hashtags are a great way to get people talking, and let them jump into the discussion. For example, #seochat is a popular stream of conversation used by those interested in search engine optimization on Twitter.

Hashtags are often among the most popular topics on various social platforms. Google+ calls them 'Hot Topics', and Twitter displays 'Trending'. This is an easy way to identify popular streams of conversation that may be relevant to your goals, offering a way for you to insert yourself into the conversation and expand your social network.

Keep in mind that Facebook isn't as transparent with hashtag activity, and LinkedIn doesn't yet recognize hashtags.

Distribute Breaking News, Emergency Instructions and Information Related to Natural Disasters

For years, hashtags have been used to streamline communication around situations where other mediums of communication such as television, radio and print are not accessible or effective in reaching audiences.

Examples of this include the 2009 revolution in Iran when Iranians were able to solicit support in expressing themselves from Twitter users around the world using various hashtags; the tsunami in Thailand; Superstorm Sandy in the U.S. in 2012; the tornados in Oklahoma in 2013; and a multitude of similar tragedies.

Hashtags can also be used to share happy news and fun updates. For example, hashtags have been used to announce the birth of Prince William and Kate's baby and annual posts by NORAD Ops Center using hashtags #Norad and #Santa tweets to provide updates on Santa's journey around the world Christmas Eve.

Promote an Event or Conference

This is perhaps one of the greatest tools for event planners to pre-promote an event, promote the conference during the event and keep people connected after the event. I recently saw a thread in a LinkedIn Group discussing how hashtags expanded the conference to an audience 25x times that of actual physical attendees. The more people become engaged, the more likely they are to attend, or influence others to attend, watch live, or view after the fact.

This is true with events like the #grammys, #oscars, or trade shows and conferences like SES #SES, Pubcon #Pubcon, and a multitude of others, many of which can be found under the Hashtag Category Directory for Conferences / Tradeshows and Events on Twubs.

Use Hashtags to Reach Consumers

Some of the most popular hashtags are #blackfriday and #cybermonday, for obvious reasons. The hashtag takes on a life of its own when others share it.

Hashtags are also a great way to present special offers, anchor campaigns, and help customers promote the brand. Deciding which hashtags to use, or finding hashtags related to conversations you wish to participate requires a little bit of research, as trending hashtags can change quite frequently.

Hashtags are valuable when used properly. Below are a few resources to get you started in identifying and using hashtags to expand your reach and visibility online.

Hashtagig.com provides the top 100 hashtags on Instagram.Hashtag.org offers some insight into top trending hashtags on Twitter, however advanced analytics require a monthly fee.You can observe trends on Twitter, and change your preferences to see what people are talking about.

You'll notice the addition of a trending hashtag immediately puts your update in the stream, enabling you to converse with those you know, and people you have yet to connect with.

#Hashtags Are Forever.

Everything on the Internet is forever. Hashtags are no exception.

One of the most effective tools to view the life of a hashtag through links, tweets, photos, videos and people (influencers) across the web is Topsy.com. Because Topsy allows you to search and track billions of conversations published on Twitter and the web, sorted by relevance or date, you can conduct research, performance and plan social media interactions to support your goals.

Summary

The hashtag more than a collection of characters – it is a tool to be used to reach new audiences, connect like-minded people, and facilitate streams of conversation.

Are hashtags worthy of being part of your social media strategy?

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Adobe Adds Cloud-Based Mobile Services

Hot on the heels of releasing six major features to Adobe Analytics, Adobe has released new mobile services as part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud. The new service launched today and is fully integrated with both Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target, their testing and targeting service in the Adobe Marketing Cloud.

The new cloud-based mobile services provides a Mobile Services Software Development Kit (SDK) to help app developers integrate analytics collection into their apps.

The Mobile Services SDK provides one, unified method of data collection for either native apps written in Objective C or similar languages as well as hybrid apps, based around HTML5 wrapped up in a chromeless browser, like Adobe's PhoneGap service.

The SDK will allow developers to gain rich analytics data on app usage while dumping the data collected directly into Adobe Analytics, Target and Audience Manager.

Key features include:

Geo-Location Targeting: Marketers can target mobile app users based on their GPS location and proximity to a point-of-interest such as a retail store, sporting event, or concert venue to offer more personalized user experiences and deliver more effective in-app marketing campaigns.App Analytics: A new, app-centric user interface provides key performance indicators and data visualizations with insights about user engagement, retention, and monetization. With new app reports for cohort, pathing, and geolocation analysis, marketers can understand how frequently people use their app, what paths they take, and where they are using the app.App Optimization: Support for A/B testing capabilities allows mobile marketers to define and better identify audiences by using mobile-specific criteria such as device type, operating system, and app analytics via integrated workflows in the new user interface.Broad Platform Support: For app analytics, Adobe Mobile services supports native apps across iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry 10, Windows 8 and Mac OS X as well as hybrid apps created with Adobe PhoneGap and HTML5. Mobile marketers can also use the service across digital magazine, newspaper and corporate publications apps created with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite that have been downloaded more than 100 million to date.Ease of Deployment: A new mobile app SDK that supports capabilities for Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target and Adobe AudienceManager allows customers to implement the new service in record time and without the need for deep knowledge in analytics.Data Privacy: App publishers can easily manage opt-in or opt-out functionality to enable compliance with data collection and privacy laws for specific countries including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In addition, Adobe Mobile services customers own their data – not Adobe.App Store Integration: Leveraging data from Distimo, downloads, installs and other valuable app data is also leveraged from the top app stores from Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, and Google.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
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*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Marketers Talk Hummingbird, '(Not Provided)' & More Ahead of SES Chicago 2013

Several Meetup Groups and marketing organizations in the Windy City plan to attend the SES Chicago networking cocktail reception on Tuesday, Nov. 5, for a collaborative get together with SES attendees, speakers and exhibitors.

This will be the first time that this many Meetup Groups of marketing professionals, brand advertisers, agencies, and business leaders from Chicagoland have converged at one industry networking event.

The groups that will meetup at #SESCHI include:

CIMA - Chicago Interactive Marketing Association, Chicago’s only interactive-centric professional organization;SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) Chicago, the local chapter of a global, global non-profit organization serving the search engine marketing industry and marketing professionals engaged in it;The Chicago Search Engine Optimization Meetup Group, local people who are interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and more general issues related to Search Engine Marketing (SEM);Chicago Social Media Managers, a group of social media experts and community managers.Chicago Women Tech, a group of local women in digital marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, search engine marketing (SEM), web development, information technology (IT), social media, affiliate marketing, blogging, or any other tech-related field.

I asked the organizers of several of these groups four questions about hot industry topics and here are the answers that Antonio Casanova (AC), Bob Tripathi (BT), and Mary DuQuaine (MD) shared with the SES community:

Greg Jarboe: What are your initial thoughts on Hummingbird and how (or if) it affects your future search strategies?

AC: Marketers should: Continue to place the creation of original, high-quality content at the core of your search marketing efforts. Determine if the Hummingbird update (rolled out over a month ago) has affected your organic rankings or traffic. Include conversational queries on your keyword research process.

Besides researching keywords that you would enter on a search engine to find information, evaluate phrases that you would use to ask a friend for such information. You can also use Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, or Google’s search box suggestions to identify conversational queries.

Closely monitor the popularity of conversational queries. Search volume around these queries is expected to go up now that Google is well equipped to answer the questions that conversational queries pose.

Use the schema.org markup convention, which allows you to provide detailed, structured information about your assets (e.g., products, videos, images, locations, recipes, etc.). Leverage authorship and publisher tags to connect your content to your Google+ profile.

BT: Hummingbird was a change that was in the works so it was expected. Overall, it’s a good change as its time SEOs start looking at marketing holistically and start looking at all the "Digital Marketing" channels as one.

MD: Hummingbird is to Q/A sites what Google Places was to the Yellow Pages. It will affect how people use search queries. People will ask more questions in the search bar which push us to optimize our anchor text & content for question phrases.

GJ: How are you coping with "(not provided)"?

AC: Focusing on page-level metrics (visits, number of URLs receiving organic traffic) and SEO rankings; leveraging paid search data, Google Webmaster Tools, and Bing/Yahoo keyword data; putting additional emphasis on keyword research (using internal search data, UGC, social listening, and site surveys to inform keyword research)

BT: As they say in Hollywood, the show must goes on, so we SEOs need to look at life beyond Keywords. I would say this means we would need to reply more on Webmaster Tools and also on actual conversion data.

MD: I am depending more on entry page performance, AdWords, Bing/Yahoo keyword performance data. Competition analysis tools such as Spyfu/SEMRush, and free tools such as ubersuggest.org that scrape Google suggest data are invaluable.

GJ: What are three things marketers/SEOs should focus on for success in 2014?

AC: Content strategy (including the creation of great content and the promotion of such content via social media), semantic markup (schema.org, author/publisher tags), and mobile SEO (responsive design or dynamic serving being preferred).

BT: I would say focus on making their sites device friendly (responsive design), bring more synergies with the top 3 inbound channels like SEO, Social Media and Email, and think more of themselves as Digital Marketers as opposed to SEO's.

MD: User Experience/Web based customer service content/tools. Building useful/shareable tools and/or expert level content. Building editorial calendars/creative distribution processes for your awesome content.

GJ: If you could ask Google for a holiday gift, what would it be this year?

AC: Make search query data on Google Webmaster Tools accurate and comprehensive.

BT: Can I get my keyword data back in Google Analytics, Please?

MD: Create an easier AdWords experience as the AdWords enhanced campaigns are far too time consuming for most small-/medium-size businesses.

SES Chicago 2013 offers a variety of conference passes and on-site training. For more information, click on rates and registration details. Group discounts for pass holders from the same company are also available by contacting [email protected] and are the best value for the lowest price possible.

I should disclose that SES Chicago is a client of my agency. But, trust me; you won’t want to miss the networking cocktail reception sponsored by Stone Temple Consulting on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013, in the Exhibit Hall at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Google Maps’ Mobile Reach Drops In September — comScore

Yesterday, comScore’s US smartphone market share figures for September came out. There weren’t many surprises — except for one thing: the Google Maps app has fallen three spots in comScore’s rankings.

The smartphone app, which used to be the most popular in the US, fell from 5th to 8th position in comScore’s “Top 15 apps” chart.

In roughly September of last year, Google Maps was overtaken by Facebook as the top individual smartphone app in the US. The replacement of Google Maps by Apple Maps as the default mapping app on the iPhone was largely responsible for the change.

In July of this year, comScore began to rank the top mobile websites and apps in the US market (chart above). Google had the greatest mobile footprint, with a combined mobile audience reach of 92 percent. Looking only at apps, Google had five out of the top six while Facebook was the top individual app.

In July, Google Maps was the 5th most popular mobile app, according to comScore. It remained in that position in August. However, September is a different story. As I wrote yesterday on my personal blog Screenwerk, the most recent comScore data indicate that Google Maps fell from 5th to 8th position in the rankings.

The decline is surprising, given the importance of mobile mapping and the historical popularity of Google Maps. Apple’s Mapping app was in 10th place until September, when it fell to 11th position on the Top 15 list.

Without knowing more, we can’t attribute Google Maps’ decline to Apple Maps, though perhaps it’s playing a role. More broadly, it may be that iPhone share gains have diminished the overall reach of Google Maps. Yet, Google Search, Google Play and Gmail have all remained “stable” since July with essentially the same audience reach. And Google’s overall reach is not significantly diminished. YouTube, however, did see a slightly smaller audience in September. We’ll have to see what October and subsequent months bring.

After Search, YouTube and Android, Google Maps is the company’s most successful product.

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AdWords Updates Combined Search And Display Campaign Type: Who Should Use It?

This week, Google introduced a new campaign type called “Search Network with Display Select.” This replaces the former “Search & Display Networks” option.

Both enable ads to run on Google search, Google search partners and the Google Display Network (GDN), but Google says the new option offers better results on the GDN with 35 percent higher average click-through rates and 35 percent lower average cost-per-order:

Search Network with Display Select�uses improved signals and methods of predicting when and where your ads are likely to perform best, and sets a higher bar for when to show them. That means your ads are more likely to be shown to a smaller number of prospective customers, who are more likely to be interested in your offerings.

Separating search and display campaigns has long been a best practice. Despite this update, Google recommends advertisers continue to run separate campaigns “for greater bidding, budgeting and targeting flexibility”.�

So who should use this updated campaign type and run a combined search and display campaign?

Google suggests the combined option �for those already doing so with the �Search & Display Networks campaign type and for those who aren’t running any display campaigns.�Presumably the combined option is designed to make it easy for small advertisers to test the GDN waters.�Still, I am finding it hard to think of a scenario where an advertiser already running search campaigns wouldn’t be better served by setting up a separate display campaign, if only for budgeting control at the very least. I’d love to hear other thoughts or success stories using the combined campaign type.

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Google Maps’ Mobile Reach Drops In September — comScore

Yesterday, comScore’s US smartphone market share figures for September came out. There weren’t many surprises — except for one thing: the Google Maps app has fallen three spots in comScore’s rankings.

The smartphone app, which used to be the most popular in the US, fell from 5th to 8th position in comScore’s “Top 15 apps” chart.

In roughly September of last year, Google Maps was overtaken by Facebook as the top individual smartphone app in the US. The replacement of Google Maps by Apple Maps as the default mapping app on the iPhone was largely responsible for the change.

In July of this year, comScore began to rank the top mobile websites and apps in the US market (chart above). Google had the greatest mobile footprint, with a combined mobile audience reach of 92 percent. Looking only at apps, Google had five out of the top six while Facebook was the top individual app.

In July, Google Maps was the 5th most popular mobile app, according to comScore. It remained in that position in August. However, September is a different story. As I wrote yesterday on my personal blog Screenwerk, the most recent comScore data indicate that Google Maps fell from 5th to 8th position in the rankings.

The decline is surprising, given the importance of mobile mapping and the historical popularity of Google Maps. Apple’s Mapping app was in 10th place until September, when it fell to 11th position on the Top 15 list.

Without knowing more, we can’t attribute Google Maps’ decline to Apple Maps, though perhaps it’s playing a role. More broadly, it may be that iPhone share gains have diminished the overall reach of Google Maps. Yet, Google Search, Google Play and Gmail have all remained “stable” since July with essentially the same audience reach. And Google’s overall reach is not significantly diminished. YouTube, however, did see a slightly smaller audience in September. We’ll have to see what October and subsequent months bring.

After Search, YouTube and Android, Google Maps is the company’s most successful product.

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Image Mismatch: The Latest Google Webmaster Tools Manual Action Penalty

Google has a new manual action penalty within their guidelines named image mismatch.

Image mismatch is when the images on your website do not match what is shown in the Google search results. Google words it as “your site�s images may be displaying differently on Google�s search results pages than they are when viewed on your site.” It is when you are serving Google one image and the user another image, also known as a form of cloaking – but Google doesn’t call it cloaking in their document.

This morning, I covered the first manual action publicly received for this image mismatch notification at the Search Engine Roundtable. I posted this screen shot of the notification of the action:

What do you do if you receive such a notification?

(1) Make sure that your site displays exactly the same images to users whether viewed directly on your site on within Google image search results. This behavior may be caused by �anti-hotlinking� tools. This may require looking through your site�s code on the server.

(2) Once you�re sure your site�s images are exactly the same when viewed directly on your site and in Google�s search results, request reconsideration of your site.

Of course, those using anti-hotlinking techniques might be upset by this but Google wants the best search experience for users. If the image shown in Google Image search does not match that which is on the site, that would lead to a poor search experience.

Related Articles:Google Launches Manual Spam Actions Viewer, Streamlines Reconsideration ProcessGoogle Now Reports �Practically 100%� Of Manual ActionsGoogle Says �Snag� Has Taken Manual Spam Actions Viewer OfflineGoogle Charts �Manual Actions� Against Spam In Search For First TimeGoogle Releases Seven Videos On Typical Manual Spam ActionsGoogle Eliminates Another Link Network, BuildMyRank.com � Just One Of Several?

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Maximizing Usability & Findability Among Multiscreen Users #SESCHI

Remember the days of just watching TV? Or just working on your computer? How about finding what you needed from one source�like a book, phonebook, or one website? Those days are over. Completely.

Google released a study earlier this year that revealed 90% of people use multiple screens sequentially to accomplish their goals, using up to an average of 3 different screen combinations each day. The key takeaway from their study? Content needs to be optimized for all channels so brands don�t run the risk of losing conversions from any one channel.

This new initiative has posed several challenges to marketers on how to make their site findable, and usable, to multiscreen users in order to retain conversions. Bryson Meunierof Resolution Media and Shari Thurow of Omni Marketing Interactive shared a few best practices and tips on how to create the best website architecture to achieve excellent multiscreen experience.

Decide What Mobile Configuration Strategy is Best for Your Site

According to Google, you have three choices when it comes to the mobile configuration of your site:

� � � � � � � 1. Responsive Web Design: Same HTML & URLs but a different layout served through flexible layouts, dynamic grids and media queries

The main advantage of this popular site configuration is that it’s one site. However, there a significant disadvantage to a responsively designed site: the download time can significantly increase. Workarounds are available. But when you do a workaround, it requires more Javascript which in-turn increases downtime (so realistically, it’s�hard to avoid the decreased downtime).

� � � � � � �2. Dynamic Serving: Same URLS potentially different HTML served through device detection
� � � � � � �3. Dedicated Mobile Sites: Different HTML & Different URLs

You have the power to decide what’s right for your business based on user activity and what you feel fits your messaging and design best. In order to determine which web design is best for your brand ask yourself the following:

Are mobile users well-served by your current information architecture?�If it is, changing your site architecture might not be the best idea, but again the choice is yours.Do your mobile users use the same keywords as your desktop users?�If you don’t have a mobile site, or even look into mobile keywords you could miss out on dozens of keywords. For example: mobile games, mobile ringtones, navigate to [insert brand name here] etc.Mobile-only features won’t help users?�For example Lowes provides an in-store map to help those of us (myself included) that get lost in stores easily. Enhanced mobile experiences have the added benefit of building link equity and increasing traffic.Does your audience use smartphones? If not, Google does not recommend doing a responsive web design. Instead consider dynamic serving or dedicated mobile sites.Is speed not important to conversions? It’s harder to make a responsive site fast than a dynamic serving site. mobitest.akamai.com is a great tool to see how fast your site is running on mobile devices. If your users are going to want an extremely fast experience, consider dynamic or dedicated mobile.

Follow Google Guidelines

Whichever configuration design you choose for your site, it’s important to follow Google guidelines to make sure your site isn’t penalized, hidden from searchers, or creating a negative searcher experience.

Use switchboard tags with Mobile URLs.�These tags help create a connection between your mobile & desktop sites ensuring that indexing and link equity are shared between the twoUse vary HTTP header with dynamic serving.�This header lets Google know that some of your content is for mobile and some is for desktop.Do not build a separate tablet-optimized site. Use responsive design if possibleDon’t block Googlebot Mobile or Otherwise! If you block your site, searchers won’t be able to find it.Consider user experience. Google is starting to penalize sites for things like app interstitials, slow-loading sites, faulty redirects and unplayable videos

Cater Your Content & Site to Mobile Users:

There are several things that mobile users are going to expect from your mobile site in terms of usability and findability. Catering to those things can help enhance user experience and improve your mobile ranking. When it comes to your site make sure:

Clicks actually click. Accommodate for a finger, not just a cursor. It’s extremely frustrating to press over and over again on a button that’s not clicking. Make sure your site is working, and recognizes fingers. Bonus: make things look�extra�clickable on mobile sites because it’s harder to know what clicks and what doesn’t.Information Sent is Validated:�Always remember: Go. Know. Do. Where you want to go, what you want to know more about, what you want to do.�Like an elevator when you press a button, you expect it to light up and do what you asked it to. Then you expect a direction sign telling you where to go. Mobile users what the same guidance. They want to have their information and queries validated.Content is Organized Logically:�there are several Google implications that originate from how you organize your site. But there are also user implications. Make sure your site is logical for mobile users because their needs will be different from those of desktop users. Information architecture should be decided�before the site is built. If you don’t do it right, it can cost you a lot after launch.Consider On and Off Page Criteria: Keywords, labels and design are the glaringly obvious on-page-criteria that are important to your site. But off-the-page criteria like link development, social and web searcher goals will factor into your success in mobile.Popular Information is Included:�Three kinds of content are very important to mobile users: quick facts, location and personal information. Mobile searchers want to know where things are or where they can find them, they don’t want to read pages and pages of text, and they want the ability to login.

Use Effective & Search Engine Friendly Design

Site design and layout will change based on your content–if you have huge images it will distort the rest of the page, the same thing if you have no images. However there are a few designs that are better than the rest:

MostFluid Design: If you have 5 or 6 navigation buttons this layout will work well. It’s a great layout for a mobile friendly responsive site.Column Drop: Also an ok format for a mobile-friendly responsive site, but you have to be conscientious of where you put your call to action because it can get lostLayout Shifter: Another design that is great for a responsive site. Also, great for sites that require huge images (i.e. food)

Labeling Systems

These will strongly impact your search engine rankings. They can help tell a search engine and users that your information is consistent. There are 3 kinds of labels that are important to your site content, navigation, and document. Content labels are things like your heading that tell a searcher “this page is about x”, the navigation labels & URLs also point out “this page is about x” (they both usually have a keyword in there somewhere), and document labels, like a title tag, also indicate “this page is about x”. That consistency is extremely important to website rankings.

Remember: don’t assume that responsive design is search engine friendly. Just because someone else uses it, or because there are a lot of benefits, doesn’t mean that it’s best for your site. A key take away from this session is that design isn’t universal, you really need to think about your content, your users and your graphics and design it based on those things.

Stay tuned for more from SES Chicago! We�ll be live-blogging sessions throughout the next three days.

Can’t wait? �Follow the action live on Twitter�@elizalynnsteely�and@bslarsonmn.

Nexus 5 First Impressions: A Great, Search-Centric Smartphone

Google shipped out demo versions of the Nexus 5 late last week. People are still receiving them today. I got one on Friday and have been using it on WiFi ever since. (I haven’t tried it on a wireless network and can’t speak to the LTE experience.)

The phone immediately sold out of its initial supply online. Both the 16GB and 32GB versions now require a wait time of at least 3 – 4 weeks (4 – 5 weeks in the case of the 16GB version).

This won’t be a comprehensive Nexus 5 handset review or a complete review of Android 4.4 “KitKat.” If you’re looking for complete rundowns on the handset or its specs and how it compares to other so-called flagship phones, below are a few representative reviews:

The VergeCNETForbes

Basically I agree with the thrust of these reviews: the Nexus 5 is the best unlocked phone on the market for the price.

The 16GB version is $349. Its screen is larger and the device is lighter than its immediate predecessor the Nexus 4, also made by LG. It also runs on LTE networks; the Nexus 4 does not. That’s a meaningful difference and a reason to upgrade if you have a Nexus 4.

Overall the phone felt quite a bit snappier and faster than the Nexus 4 and the Galaxy Nexus, both of which I have.

Several reviews have complained about the camera. I haven’t tested the camera extensively but haven’t had any noticeable problems. In general I think the Android camera is more difficult to use and takes lower-quality pictures than the iPhone’s camera.

Having said that this is a helluva phone for $349. An unlocked 16GB iPhone 5s costs $649 — almost twice the price. Is the iPhone 5s twice as “good”? Probably not. If you want an unlocked phone and don’t have money to burn the Nexus 5 is clearly the way to go.

Google has pushed Google Now and search even more to the center of the Nexus experience with KitKat. Google Now can be accessed with the familiar up-swipe but also by swiping left-to-right on the home screen. The search bar is more persistent. And just as with the Moto X, users can initiate a hands free search by saying “OK Google.”

That’s a very useful, even addictive feature. Indeed, I found myself using “OK Google” a lot over the weekend. In fact I noticed how much more I was searching (and using Google Now) on the Nexus 5 vs. the Nexus 4 and my iPhone. Apps took something of a back seat for me on the device. This is clearly what Google wants: more mobile searching, less non-Google app using.

The bright, 1080p 5-inch screen makes conventional Google search results both more visible and practical to use. Often there are three mobile ads in response to commercial queries, leaving only one organic result above the fold.

When you first “unbox” the device it doesn’t necessarily feel like the “new Google flagship.” There’s a missing “wow” factor. Nonetheless it’s an excellent phone overall — especially for the price.

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5 Facebook Ad Features to Use NOW!

Facebook HQ has been busy tinkering with the ads platform to make improvements that provide Facebook advertisers more control, more organization, and streamlined ad creation. Read on for five features Facebook advertisers should be using now, how to use them, and how they can benefit from these less talked about features.

1. Campaign Labels

Finally Facebook has provided advertisers with a littlemore campaign structure with the roll-out of Labels! This feature is Power Editor (PE) exclusive and incredibly handy for ad accounts that have had multiple campaigns for multiple marketing initiatives, or ad accounts that serve more than one division of a certain company.

Once an advertiser labels campaigns, they are grouped in the left column of PE along with the standard campaign deviation: recent, active, paused, or all.

How to Find Facebook Campaign Labels:

Access PE via the left column in your Facebook Ads manager. Download the appropriate ads account, and select the campaigns (not ads) view in the top center.

And, hey: that long number next to the campaign name will open a new tab of the campaign in the UI.

Why Use Facebook Campaign Labels:

Use Campaign Labels if you:

Work at an agency that handles multiple accounts, targeting, campaigns, and initiativesIn-house or solo marketer – these will help you organize your different marketing initiatives (e.g., Thanksgiving promos vs. Christmas promos)Just plain love organization.

You can even select multiple campaigns and blanket them with the same label at once. Super easy to label (once you know where to look!) and ultra handy if your accounts are hefty.

2. Facebook Dark Page Posts

Not as scary as the name suggests. Facebook technically calls these "Unpublished Posts," and they are essentially that: posts that advertisers can amplify, that look like Page Post Ads, but aren't published to the actual feed.

How to Create Unpublished Facebook Posts:

Another, PE exclusive feature. Be sure you, the advertiser, or the ads account has posting and advertising access to the Facebook Page or this feature will not be available.

Dark Post Instructions:

Create an AdAd Type: Ad for a Facebook Page using a Page postCreate New Unpublished Post

Why Use Dark Posts:

Truly, the possibilities are endless, but here are some scenarios:

Testing!Playing both sides of the fence: 1 dark post cheering on Local Team A; another cheering on Local Team B. Maybe even political parties – do you dare?Promotions that are specific to certain geos.Maybe you just love the way amplified Page post ads work for your company – Dark posts are a great way to keep those up without flooding the Page feed with promotion, after promotion, after promotion (which is just gross).3. Manually Set CPM Bids for Desired Actions

Advertisers can find this advanced feature in PE when selecting Facebook-centric ads (not right-rail or News Feed ads that use a direct link to another website).

Why Use Optimized CPM with Manual Bids:

It seemsthat Facebook is forcing the hand of advertisers when it comes to saturating your audience's reach favoring CPM bidding. With CPC bidding likely advertisers will see a reach nowhere close the targeting size with a significant frequency.

Ideally, advertisers would like to saturate the audience (at least once), and then tack on the repeat impressions. Unfortunately, Facebook's ad-serving algorithm doesn't work like that. Try to force this by bidding CPM and bidding higher for reach. (Frustrating, we know.)

4. Audiences

Facebook Audiences are essentially saved targeting grids that can be applied to any ad in any campaign with just one click! Audiences must be created in PE, but can typicallybe accessed via Facebook's Create Flow. We say "typically" because this is the intended function, but it's sort of broken right now. The good news: Facebook HQ is aware of the issue and working toward a solution.

How to Create Facebook Audiences:

First, advertisers can create Audiences from existing ad targeting by selecting an ad with the desired targeting to copy and next clicking Create Audience Using Ad. The new Audience will then be created in Audiences in the upper left of PE.

Additionally, advertisers can now create targeting Audiences without creating an ad by selecting Audiences in the upper left of PE, and under Create Audience choose Saved Target Group.

Once Audiences are created, advertisers can then create ads using the saved audience, and choose which campaign the ad will exist.

Advertisers can also access the Audiences in the Facebook web Create Flow interface beneath Precise Interests and Broad Categories.

Why Use Facebook Audiences:

It's pretty great having saved targeting segments, but above all else using Audiences is essentialto preserving a Facebook advertiser's sanity when creating the New (off-site) News Feed ads. Why?

Advertisers do not have the ability to create a similar ad from existing (which also holds the targeting) in the Create Flow, once you change the destination URL the targeting is wiped. Yes, even if the sole change are URL tracking parameters. And, off-site News Feed ads cannot be made in Power Editor, though they can now be edited.

5. Controlling Placement/Wi-Fi Enabled Selection

Advertisers can control the placement of Facebook-centric advertising (page post ads, page like ads, etc.) and if the ads are displayed using data or wifi on mobiles, which can be a fantastic thing to test to boost CTR and (*cough*) quality score.

How to Control Facebook Ad Placement:

Within the Creative Tab of a selected Facebook-centric ad.

Why control placement of ads?

This shouldn't surprise advertisers: (typically) News Feed ads perform much better than right-rail ads as they are smack-dab in users' faces. Better performance of ads means better quality score which impacts how much advertisers pay in the marketplace and often the reach of ads.

Select "Only show on mobile devices when connected using Wi-Fi" for unfortunate advertisers who see often see comments on Page post ads in the spirit of: "SPAM! I DO NOT FOLLOW YOU STOP USING MY DATA." Ugh. By choosing this placement selection, advertisers may be less likely to incur these nasty comments.

Summary

Hopefully this post will inspire advertisers to be more efficient with managing Facebook ads accounts, enlighten some regarding newer, slightly hidden features that are less talked about, and improve ad performance.

What other features would you, Facebook advertisers, love to see Facebook implement? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: © contrastwerkstatt/Fotolia.com

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

5 Facebook Ad Features to Use NOW!

Facebook HQ has been busy tinkering with the ads platform to make improvements that provide Facebook advertisers more control, more organization, and streamlined ad creation. Read on for five features Facebook advertisers should be using now, how to use them, and how they can benefit from these less talked about features.

1. Campaign Labels

Finally Facebook has provided advertisers with a littlemore campaign structure with the roll-out of Labels! This feature is Power Editor (PE) exclusive and incredibly handy for ad accounts that have had multiple campaigns for multiple marketing initiatives, or ad accounts that serve more than one division of a certain company.

Once an advertiser labels campaigns, they are grouped in the left column of PE along with the standard campaign deviation: recent, active, paused, or all.

How to Find Facebook Campaign Labels:

Access PE via the left column in your Facebook Ads manager. Download the appropriate ads account, and select the campaigns (not ads) view in the top center.

And, hey: that long number next to the campaign name will open a new tab of the campaign in the UI.

Why Use Facebook Campaign Labels:

Use Campaign Labels if you:

Work at an agency that handles multiple accounts, targeting, campaigns, and initiativesIn-house or solo marketer – these will help you organize your different marketing initiatives (e.g., Thanksgiving promos vs. Christmas promos)Just plain love organization.

You can even select multiple campaigns and blanket them with the same label at once. Super easy to label (once you know where to look!) and ultra handy if your accounts are hefty.

2. Facebook Dark Page Posts

Not as scary as the name suggests. Facebook technically calls these "Unpublished Posts," and they are essentially that: posts that advertisers can amplify, that look like Page Post Ads, but aren't published to the actual feed.

How to Create Unpublished Facebook Posts:

Another, PE exclusive feature. Be sure you, the advertiser, or the ads account has posting and advertising access to the Facebook Page or this feature will not be available.

Dark Post Instructions:

Create an AdAd Type: Ad for a Facebook Page using a Page postCreate New Unpublished Post

Why Use Dark Posts:

Truly, the possibilities are endless, but here are some scenarios:

Testing!Playing both sides of the fence: 1 dark post cheering on Local Team A; another cheering on Local Team B. Maybe even political parties – do you dare?Promotions that are specific to certain geos.Maybe you just love the way amplified Page post ads work for your company – Dark posts are a great way to keep those up without flooding the Page feed with promotion, after promotion, after promotion (which is just gross).3. Manually Set CPM Bids for Desired Actions

Advertisers can find this advanced feature in PE when selecting Facebook-centric ads (not right-rail or News Feed ads that use a direct link to another website).

Why Use Optimized CPM with Manual Bids:

It seemsthat Facebook is forcing the hand of advertisers when it comes to saturating your audience's reach favoring CPM bidding. With CPC bidding likely advertisers will see a reach nowhere close the targeting size with a significant frequency.

Ideally, advertisers would like to saturate the audience (at least once), and then tack on the repeat impressions. Unfortunately, Facebook's ad-serving algorithm doesn't work like that. Try to force this by bidding CPM and bidding higher for reach. (Frustrating, we know.)

4. Audiences

Facebook Audiences are essentially saved targeting grids that can be applied to any ad in any campaign with just one click! Audiences must be created in PE, but can typicallybe accessed via Facebook's Create Flow. We say "typically" because this is the intended function, but it's sort of broken right now. The good news: Facebook HQ is aware of the issue and working toward a solution.

How to Create Facebook Audiences:

First, advertisers can create Audiences from existing ad targeting by selecting an ad with the desired targeting to copy and next clicking Create Audience Using Ad. The new Audience will then be created in Audiences in the upper left of PE.

Additionally, advertisers can now create targeting Audiences without creating an ad by selecting Audiences in the upper left of PE, and under Create Audience choose Saved Target Group.

Once Audiences are created, advertisers can then create ads using the saved audience, and choose which campaign the ad will exist.

Advertisers can also access the Audiences in the Facebook web Create Flow interface beneath Precise Interests and Broad Categories.

Why Use Facebook Audiences:

It's pretty great having saved targeting segments, but above all else using Audiences is essentialto preserving a Facebook advertiser's sanity when creating the New (off-site) News Feed ads. Why?

Advertisers do not have the ability to create a similar ad from existing (which also holds the targeting) in the Create Flow, once you change the destination URL the targeting is wiped. Yes, even if the sole change are URL tracking parameters. And, off-site News Feed ads cannot be made in Power Editor, though they can now be edited.

5. Controlling Placement/Wi-Fi Enabled Selection

Advertisers can control the placement of Facebook-centric advertising (page post ads, page like ads, etc.) and if the ads are displayed using data or wifi on mobiles, which can be a fantastic thing to test to boost CTR and (*cough*) quality score.

How to Control Facebook Ad Placement:

Within the Creative Tab of a selected Facebook-centric ad.

Why control placement of ads?

This shouldn't surprise advertisers: (typically) News Feed ads perform much better than right-rail ads as they are smack-dab in users' faces. Better performance of ads means better quality score which impacts how much advertisers pay in the marketplace and often the reach of ads.

Select "Only show on mobile devices when connected using Wi-Fi" for unfortunate advertisers who see often see comments on Page post ads in the spirit of: "SPAM! I DO NOT FOLLOW YOU STOP USING MY DATA." Ugh. By choosing this placement selection, advertisers may be less likely to incur these nasty comments.

Summary

Hopefully this post will inspire advertisers to be more efficient with managing Facebook ads accounts, enlighten some regarding newer, slightly hidden features that are less talked about, and improve ad performance.

What other features would you, Facebook advertisers, love to see Facebook implement? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: © contrastwerkstatt/Fotolia.com

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Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
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The New Visual Brand Ads: What Google Banners & Bing Hero Ads Mean For Search

In the past two weeks, both Microsoft and Google began testing display-style ads that appear on search results for select brand queries. Many see the introduction of these ads as a money grab to get brands to pay for traffic they would otherwise get for free, an assault on SEO, and the further “brandification” of SERPs that caters to large companies (and hurt smaller ones). Others see it as search maturing toward traditional advertising and a natural extension of a more visually-driven Internet.

 

 

Google’s test ads, called Visual Search Ads are simple banners that display above the brand’s organic listing and sitelinks. Microsoft’s Hero Ads In Bing Smart Search For Windows 8.1 — running for a small segment of Windows 8.1 users in Bing Smart Search –� integrate call-to-action links and general navigational sitelinks with a large brand graphic.

“There are a number of different ways to spin these latest initiatives by the engines to create more graphical appeal on the SERP,” says George Michie, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Scientist at search agency RKG. “The engines make the case that people respond better to graphics, as the success of PLAs demonstrates, and that they are simply evolving the SERP to reflect what users want. A critic will say it is just one more ‘land-grab’ of ads at the expense of organic listings. From the advertisers perspective owning the brand SERP real estate seems important and worth the price paid.”

The brands participating in these tests are not paying market rates, yet — Microsoft has said no money is changing hands during the Hero Ads pilot, and Google won’t comment, but it often doesn’t charge for tests — so it’s not clear what brands will be willing to pay for these ads, but plenty of prominent companies are in on the tests. The Home Depot, Land Rover, Walt Disney and Radio Shack are participating in the Hero Ads pilot. Nike, Sports Authority, Virgin America, and several other big names are running Google Visual Search Ads.

Mike Gullaksen, SVP and Managing Director at search marketing agency Covario, says, “We see this an incredible opportunity for brands to control and own the experience as it relates to search.�Search has been evolving as a much more visual medium for a while.� The brand ads that Google and Bing are creating are bridging the gap between what is considered more traditional brand advertising and the performance-oriented direct response nature of search.”

Brad Geddes, founder of Certified Knowledge and author of Advanced Google AdWords, thinks Google’s brand banners and Microsoft new Hero Ads are actually quite different.

“Microsoft Hero Ads are ads within the interface based upon the exact brand being searched. So at the moment, since Smart Search doesn’t exist for most users (I have a windows 8.1 machine and I don’t see these smart search results), this is a way for Microsoft to start to monetize these queries by getting large brands thinking about advertising within the operating system on keyword terms. As OS advertising has been mostly limited to bloatware add-ons at the time a computer is built and purchased, this is a mindset change for many companies, and the Hero Ads are essentially branded landing pages within the OS. As there isn’t anything to compare them to at the moment, its new revenue for Microsoft. As the OS search becomes more integrated into Bing, or a user is given a choice of search provider, then we’ll have to see how these compare to showing an actual search result with more typical PPC ads.”

Taking a circumspect view of Google’s legal battles regarding competitive ads, Geddes adds, “Google fought a number of brands in the courts for several years in order to show ads for competitor terms in search results. These large brand ads go against the competitive nature of buying keywords on competitor terms. Now, due to how quality score works, the number of competitors on branded terms has dropped for many brands over the past year, so this might be Google trying to both appease brands while still showing ads for branded terms. I don’t know the terms of these deals, so this is only speculation. However, with the knowledge graph displacing many competitor’s ads to begin with, this just seems a natural extension of giving brands back their dominance of search results, and with ads, being able to monetize those queries at the same time.”

Covario’s Gullaksen, agrees that the two tests are different, “Microsoft�s Bing Hero ads are taking the experience several steps further actually integrating the desktop/tablet experience with search and a holistic brand message right in your Windows 8.1 operating system. You will see a lack of competition from resellers, channel partners and affiliates within the Bing experience, as well as�big bold images and links leading to popular additional info.” Gullaksen says it will be interesting to see how Microsoft balances the Hero Ads with the loss of competing ads on brand search results.

Yet, in Bing’s Smart Search, Microsoft has said there is the possibility for other non-brand ads to display on brand queries. On Google, however, the competition is shut out entirely with Visual Search Ads. While many brands have little, if any, ad competition on their brand SERPs, many do have ads from affiliates, resellers, and competitors (though to a lesser extent these days) appearing on their brand results. For example, online travel consolidators and travel agencies such as Expedia and Travelocity can currently run ads for the brand keyword “delta airlines”. With Visual Search Ads, only the brand banner for will Delta show.

Whether it will make sense for companies to run brand ads, RKG’s George Michie says it should depend, noting “that ‘brands’ are not all created equal from the standpoint of business models.� Zappos is a great brand, but as a�reseller�of other brands. United Airlines sells directly, but also through online and offline travel agencies with whom it competes. Ford sells nothing directly, only through dealerships. The logic of whether commanding more paid space on a SERP makes sense may be dictated as much by what is being displaced as by anything.”

So, will many brands jump at the chance to pay to own their brand real estate in search results? It seems the safe bet is, yes. Larry Kim, founder & CTO, Wordstream, says, “Branded organic searches are typically just navigational queries � meaning the intent of the searcher is to visit the brand�s homepage. Therefore, companies with strong brands ought to be very interested in providing a much stronger branded experience than a 25 character headline, and would also prefer if there were fewer competitor ads on the SERP. The new ad format delivers on both counts. If the ad format is successful, it should put to rest the decade old question about ‘should I advertise on my branded keywords?’ (answer: YES).� It should also be great for Google investors as I estimate that just under 20 percent of searches on Google are navigational/branded searches, and the new rich ad format will definitely suck up a lot of clicks on the page.”

Echoing that sentiment, Michie says, “An argument could be made that branding on ads that appear only after your brand has successfully generated a search is a bit odd, but from a pragmatist’s perspective, most companies would rather get that traffic directly even if they have to pay for it, rather than have affiliates sneak in.”

Covario’s Gullaksen thinks the introduction of display-style ads brings search more in-line with traditional approach to brand advertising that will appeal to companies, “We�believe�this will only create compelling user experiences, multiple call to actions, less competition and improved brand reputation from search. Ultimately this will lead to an alignment of mix-media advertising investments,�where in the past their was misalignment with many enterprise brands. Google is taking a traditional approach with AdWords brand banners effectively creating more real estate for the brand marketer and a program that could be categorized as new opportunity for Above The Line (ATL) advertising.”

Still, Michie cautions companies not to get too caught up in this new focus on brand search results, “Ultimately, search marketing activities, paid and organic, should be focused on the competitive non-brand search traffic.� What happens after someone has expressed interest in your brand (by conducting a search) is much less interesting and important than what prompted the person to search for your brand instead of a competitors.”

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Why You Must Optimize and Create Content for More Than Just Conversion-Centric Queries

One of the game-changing benefits the Internet handed to marketers is targeted marketing. The benefits of getting your content in front of someone looking for a product or service in your vertical, as opposed to throwing marketing dollars against the wall and seeing what sticks, are clear.

The logical extension of "targeted marketing is better than non-targeted marketing," is "targeted buyer-ready marketing is better than targeted researcher marketing." That is, optimizing or advertising for queries where the searcher is in buyer-ready mode ("buy white leather couch") is better than doing so for queries when the searcher is still in research mode ("white leather couch").

At first glance, these assumptions seem to stand up to scrutiny. Conductor research (disclosure: I work for Conductor) shows that long-tail queries do in fact convert at a rate greater than head terms.

But a closer look tells us that there may be more to the story.

This is because a high percentage of buyer/conversion-ready queries take place after an online research process. For example, a purchaser looking to buy a dining room table may start with the query "dining room table", progress to "modern dining room table", and finally to "buy modern 12 x 12 dining room table". Research supports these buying behaviors, but even a cursory look at our own online buying behaviors supports this framework.

Another way of looking at this is that a significant percentage of branded searches that show up in your analytics may in fact be downstream from an online research process like this one. Industry research shows that 86 percent of buyers begin their buying process with a non-branded search.

What Does This Mean for Your Marketing Strategy?

If a significant percentage of buyers/converters do in fact progress through a research process prior to converting, then an intelligent strategy reflects that fact. Many online businesses have a longstanding strategy of "crowding the register": exclusively optimizing and creating content for conversion-centric queries.

I recently heard a good analogy: this phenomenon is comparable to a guy in a bar who walks up to a woman and says, "Will you marry me?" Then, after drying off the drink tossed on him, he wonders, "Am I in the wrong bar? Is it the shirt?"

Bring Forth Your Inner 'Rico Suave'

The obvious solution for our misguided Romeo is to get to know the prospective Juliet a bit before jumping immediately to a marriage proposal. For us, that means engaging with the buyer earlier in the buying cycle. It means creating content that will help educate and inform the buyer to help them progress down the buying funnel and make an informed decision.

The benefits of this approach are, well, that we are no longer awkwardly and immediately proposing marriage; we're courting our customers rather than potentially alienating them with a push to purchase. But more importantly, we're connecting with the buyer earlier in the buying cycle, forming a longer-term relationship and a neural connection between a generic product or service and our specific brand. Hopefully, they'll draw on this connection when they are buyer-ready and plan to pull the trigger on a purchase.

If we're successful with this transition, we're likely to see an increase in traffic from both general research terms ("white couch") and branded-product terms ("lazy boy couch") as buyers return to our site late in the buying cycle.

An Example: Crafting the Table Saw Buyer Cycle

I fancy myself a bit of an amateur woodworker. (I'm more amateur than woodworker. My mother used to say she always knew which kindergarten art project was mine.)

Recently I was in the market for a new table saw and searched:

The search results were a mix of "educational" destinations – woodworking forums, a YouTube video, Dummies.com, and About.com. The only retailer that appeared was Rockler.com, a woodworking supply store.

Clicking through on Rockler's search result leads to a page that walks the reader through the various types of table saws and offers insight into what to look for when buying a table saw:

A gentle reminder at the end of the article (remember: the "researcher" isn't yet ready to purchase) reminds the reader that Rockler carries a wide variety of table saws that will meet many different kinds of buyers' needs:


I didn't end up buying from Rockler when it came time to make a purchase. However, I did draw on the neural connection established during the research process and took a close look at their offerings.

Step Away From the Register

Crowding the online register is a strategy that had its place as the internet developed, when competition for purchase terms was weak and online consumers were still figuring out how much they needed and trusted digital input.

Now, being ahead of the curve means reaching buyers earlier in the purchase cycle, providing them with the kind of information that will help them make an informed purchase decision.

Done right, buyers will return as they near the end of the purchase funnel. Done consistently, buyers will begin to see your brand as the go-to authority in your industry, which will make for a beautiful marriage.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Nexus 5 First Impressions: A Great, Search-Centric Smartphone

Google shipped out demo versions of the Nexus 5 late last week. People are still receiving them today. I got one on Friday and have been using it on WiFi ever since. (I haven’t tried it on a wireless network and can’t speak to the LTE experience.)

The phone immediately sold out of its initial supply online. Both the 16GB and 32GB versions now require a wait time of at least 3 – 4 weeks (4 – 5 weeks in the case of the 16GB version).

This won’t be a comprehensive Nexus 5 handset review or a complete review of Android 4.4 “KitKat.” If you’re looking for complete rundowns on the handset or its specs and how it compares to other so-called flagship phones, below are a few representative reviews:

The VergeCNETForbes

Basically I agree with the thrust of these reviews: the Nexus 5 is the best unlocked phone on the market for the price.

The 16GB version is $349. Its screen is larger and the device is lighter than its immediate predecessor the Nexus 4, also made by LG. It also runs on LTE networks; the Nexus 4 does not. That’s a meaningful difference and a reason to upgrade if you have a Nexus 4.

Overall the phone felt quite a bit snappier and faster than the Nexus 4 and the Galaxy Nexus, both of which I have.

Several reviews have complained about the camera. I haven’t tested the camera extensively but haven’t had any noticeable problems. In general I think the Android camera is more difficult to use and takes lower-quality pictures than the iPhone’s camera.

Having said that this is a helluva phone for $349. An unlocked 16GB iPhone 5s costs $649 — almost twice the price. Is the iPhone 5s twice as “good”? Probably not. If you want an unlocked phone and don’t have money to burn the Nexus 5 is clearly the way to go.

Google has pushed Google Now and search even more to the center of the Nexus experience with KitKat. Google Now can be accessed with the familiar up-swipe but also by swiping left-to-right on the home screen. The search bar is more persistent. And just as with the Moto X, users can initiate a hands free search by saying “OK Google.”

That’s a very useful, even addictive feature. Indeed, I found myself using “OK Google” a lot over the weekend. In fact I noticed how much more I was searching (and using Google Now) on the Nexus 5 vs. the Nexus 4 and my iPhone. Apps took something of a back seat for me on the device. This is clearly what Google wants: more mobile searching, less non-Google app using.

The bright, 1080p 5-inch screen makes conventional Google search results both more visible and practical to use. Often there are three mobile ads in response to commercial queries, leaving only one organic result above the fold.

When you first “unbox” the device it doesn’t necessarily feel like the “new Google flagship.” There’s a missing “wow” factor. Nonetheless it’s an excellent phone overall — especially for the price.

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Google, Android Makers Sued By Apple “Rockstar” Consortium Over Search, AdWords

Roughly two years ago Google and a consortium of companies competitively bid for the vast patent portfolio of bankrupt Canadian Company Nortel Networks. Google initiated the bidding with $900 million but ultimately was outbid by the�Rockstar consortium, consisting of�Microsoft, Apple, Blackberry, Ericsson and Sony.

Google’s final bid was $4.4 billion. Rockstar won the patents for $4.5 billion.�Now Google has been sued by Rockstar and two subsidiaries over several of the patents in the former Nortel portfolio: US�Patents 6,098,065; 7,236,969; 7,469,245; 7,672,970; 7,895,178; 7,895,183; and 7,933,883.

These patents have broad search and paid-search advertising implications. For example, patent�6,098,065 (filed in February 1997) covers “a system for providing advertisements to a user searching for desired information within a data network.”

At the time of the Nortel patent auction Google’s General Counsel Kent Walker said the following about Google’s motivations for bidding:

[O]ne of a company�s best defenses against [patent] litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories.

So after a lot of thought, we�ve decided to bid for Nortel�s patent portfolio in the company�s bankruptcy auction. Today, Nortel selected our bid as the �stalking-horse bid,” which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community�which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome�continue to innovate. In the absence of meaningful reform, we believe it’s the best long-term solution for Google, our users and our partners.

Google’s failure to win the Nortel auction led directly to its acquisition of Motorola Mobility for more than $12 billion. Most of the patents in that portfolio have arguably been neutered through a consent decree with the US FTC as part of its antitrust settlement with the US. However Google may be able to use some of them defensively in this action.

The complaint, filed in the patent plaintiff-friendly US District Court, Eastern District of Texas, is embedded below. It’s difficult to tell much from reading the complaint other than Google and others are allegedly infringing the identified patents. This and related lawsuits include members of Android collective:�Samsung, LG, HTC, Huawei, ZTE and ASSUTeK.

Presumably Rockstar sought to negotiate licenses from Google, et al and those negotiations failed. There’s no information about any licensing negotiations that I was able to find.

Google may try to argue that “prior art” invalidates or warrants reconsideration of some or all of the patents in question. For example, OpenText sold search ads in 1996, before the filing of the Nortel patents in question. And, as mentioned, there may be something in the Motorola portfolio that Google can use as a shield.

You may recall that Google was sued over AdWords by Overture (acquired by Yahoo) and ultimately settled the case for under $300 million prior to going public. In retrospect that looks like pocket change.�There will likely be some sort of settlement here as well. However the litigation could drag on for years.

At one point in the past Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that Android wasn’t really “free” because it was and would be subject to licensing fees:

Android has a patent fee. It’s not like Android’s free. You do have to license patents. HTC’s signed a license with us and you’re going to see license fees clearly for Android as well as for Windows.

This lawsuit may be an extension of that strategy.

Rockstar-v-google-pdf from gesterling

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