The lines between PR, Marketing & Advertising are continuing to blur, especially in the online world. While there will likely always be professionals who specialize in one area or another, more and more people (especially those at smaller agencies & companies) are starting to wear multiple hats. In fact, some people are wearing all the hats. Many started out in a single role, but due to a variety of circumstances (e.g. layoffs due to the economic climate or their company wanting to jump on the social media bandwagon to name a few) they’ve found themselves the ‘go-to’ person for all things promotion. There should be a new term for these people, someone get on that.

In the meantime, here’s a mini-guide for building buzz and traffic to a website to help out those who have found themselves thrust into the online marketing world.

1. Move your press releases online: Chances are you’re doing this already (if you aren’t you should be!). Today’s press releases need to be focused on keywords so that the search engines can find and index them easily. Many of the distribution sites allow clickable links and anchor text – Voila!, instant quality links back to your website of choice. PRWeb is the biggest name (and priciest!), the team here at Stone really loves OnlinePRNews.com! You get the ability to add up to three anchor text links, not to mention video etc., for a fraction of the price.
2. Twitter: Get a profile or, if you have one already, start updating it. Nielson has said that 60% of people who sign up for twitter post once and then never return. What’s the point? For Twitter to be a valuable strategy you have to commit to becoming a resource in your industry. This means that is it is important to ‘tweet’ information that people will actually find useful (they don’t necessarily care what you had for lunch today). Twitter pays off when you take the time to build up a group of followers who value your opinions and look to you for information, in short they trust you. The best part, it’s ok to promote yourself and clients (within reason & with disclosure). Twitter can be a great source of traffic to the content you have elsewhere. FYI – you can follow us here: @StoneIG
3. Create a Resource List: Create quality content on your website or blog is a must, and creating a resource list is a great way to do this. Examples of resources could include free tools, magazines and blogs relevant to your industry, or case studies and white papers that would be valuable to your potential customers. Make sure that the resource list is targeted and industry specific. Not only will customers appreciate the information, chances are others in the industry will find the information valuable and link to it as well.
4. Article Syndication: Create great content that doesn’t go directly on your website. It sounds backwards, but writing articles on your industry or products and submitting them to the plethora of article sites and directories will get you lots of links. You relinquish a bit of control on your piece, but the pay-off is worth it. Websites and online content publishers grab articles and re-publish them constantly. By submitting a quality article 2 or 3 times you can get 100 links back to your site.
5. Top 10 lists: It’s called ‘link bait’ and it is good. Whether it be Top 10, 50, 100 or 5 (see what we did here), lists tend to be fan favorites when it comes to earning links. Lists can also give you valuable ‘expert status’ when packaged correctly. They can also be a start to a series, giving you automatic ideas for future blog posts or articles. They can be about anything, and as silly or serious as you’d like. Doesn’t matter the industry, lists are always good. Hair Salon – Top 10 Cuts for Fall. Law office – The Top 20 Craziest Lawsuits in History. Restaurant – Top 50 Things You Can Use a Spork For. People even makes lists of lists (I kid you not) Make it unique and interactive, a good discussion post will bring in comments and links for quite some time.

photo from here by Shane Michael
and post adapted from our Public Relations site.

If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.

That’s what Google CEO Eric Schmidt said when responding to concerns raised about internet privacy and recent updates to the search engine.  The comment created a mini firestorm, with internet industry blogs and forums lighting up in discussion…  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Over the last couple of weeks Google has made quite a few announcements that are rapidly changing the game for users and search marketers alike – and they are doing so pretty much under the radar.

The most noticeable change for the average user was Google’s inclusion of Real-time Search, currently in the form of “relevant” tweets.  You can read Google’s official announcement for the basics, the general idea being that users can now get an idea of what is happening right this second in regard to any given subject.  Seems like a good idea in theory, but check out this post from Rae Hoffman of Outspoken Media for a surprisingly scary look into how Google’s solution could go very very wrong.

The second change was the universal roll out of personalized search.  Until very recently, Google returned pretty much the same results for everyone. Meaning, if user A ran a query and user B ran the same query, they would get back the same results. This simply isn’t the case anymore. Again, I’ll point to Google’s official announcement of this to explain how it works. In a nutshell, Google now keeps track of your search history (for 180 days) and uses that to customize your results, whether you are logged in or not.  Sort of makes you view Eric Schmidt’s glib comment about internet privacy in a whole new light.

Now, personalized search results are not new. They were available previously as an opt-in service for those users with a Google account, this change makes personalized results the norm for every user, or, opt-out.  The problem with this is that the only mention of this change was a blog post, the one I pointed to above…that’s it. No space on the search pages announcing the change, no easily identifiable opt-out button, nothing.  A user would have to spot the ‘View Customizations’ link, or the ‘Web History’ link up at the top to realize that tracking is being used to customize – neither are particularly visible, and the average user won’t be that clued in. To me, and to many others in the industry blogging about these changes, it seems a little too ‘Big Brother’.

So what does all this mean for your SEO campaigns?

Rest assured, the ‘normal’ search results are dead.  For better or worse, the way Google handled this announcement ensures that very few users will opt-out of personalized results. However, the reality of the situation is that ‘normal’ results have been dying for a while now, and many of us saw these changes coming in one form or another.

The main strategies of your SEO campaigns won’t drastically change. At least in the beginning, there will still be tons of queries that return ‘normal’ results – until Google gathers enough data for users to personalize them.  Even when results are personalized, Google will still use their algorithm to rank those sites, and you’ll want to optimize so you have a chance of getting that top spot for any user.  First impressions are now more critical than ever, as the more a user clicks on your site from their results, the more likely it is you’ll jump to the top of that list.

There’s a lot of debate right now about whether these changes have Google moving down a dangerous path. In response to the privacy issue Mozilla’s Director of Community Development put up a blog post inviting users to switch to Bing.  It’s a big deal.  But it can be (and has been) argued that Google has a monopoly on the search industry, and as such I don’t see many users jumping ship because of these changes – especially when you consider the fact many won’t know about them.

The explosive growth of social networking sites in the past few years has led to quite a bit of clutter, and people are starting to notice. Whether you choose to go on a manual de-friending spree on Facebook, or use a tool like UnTweeps to ax followers on Twitter, you aren’t alone.

In his post Six Social Media Trends for 2010, David Armano says…

With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more “exclusive.” Not everyone can fit on someone’s newly created Twitter list and as networks begin to fill with noise, it’s likely that user behavior such as “hiding” the hyperactive updaters that appear in your Facebook news feed may become more common. Perhaps it’s not actually less social, but it might seem that way as we all come to terms with getting value out of our networks — while filtering out the clutter.

This makes sense, paring down your networks can allow you to get real value out of them. But now Sean Silverthorne at Bnet is asking what does this mean for all the companies flocking to social media as a marketing tactic?  Well, as so often is the case, if you’re doing it right it shouldn’t matter.

Yes, the fact that your target audience is paring down their network connections will undoubtedly make them harder to reach. Sending out a few intermittent tweets and counting on your customers to find and connect with you on their own just won’t cut it.  Social Media has become such a big trend that it may seem like the answer – or that easy button from the Staples commercials – when in reality it is simply just another tool in the toolbox. Companies who have success in the space realize this, and use the social media networks as tools to build up a loyal customer base – and actually continue to interact with them regularly. Which is why they make the grade the next time that particular customer goes to clean out his or her network. It’s about becoming a relevant resource and providing real value to your followers/customers.

Which is what quality online marketing teams have been telling their clients all along.

A few weeks ago Google Analytics became even more useful.  Instead of a measly 4 goals, webmasters are now allowed to track up to 20. It’s a given that you can probably think of more than 4 things you’d like people to do when they visit your site, now you can track and access that data without creating multiple profiles and switching back and forth. It’s welcome news to say the least.

There’s really no excuse for not having goal tracking set up within your analytics account. It’s essential to know how your SEO strategies are improving your site’s overall performance and your online marketing ROI. Setting up goals will allow you to judge this, not just by visits, but by the actions those visitors take.

Each profile in your account can have up to four “goal sets”, each of these sets can contain up to five goals.  In addition to the standard URL destination goal, analytics now has the option to track engagement goals – such as time on site and pages per visit.

URL Destination Goal Tracking

This type of goal is used when you want to know how many visitors came to a specific page on your site.  Webmasters can use this method for something as simple as keeping track of how many people visited a blog page.  It can also be used to track form submissions or registrations by entering the ‘thank you’ or confirmation page as the URL goal. When you set up a URL destination goal you have a choice between 3 different ‘Goal Types’, also known as ‘match types’. The type of goal that is appropriate will vary based on how your website is built and the page you are interested in tracking. Here’s a basic breakdown to help you decide which type is best for your goal:
Exact Match – to use this type of goal the URL entered as your goal must match the URL shown in the reports exactly. For example, if you want to track the page www.mysite/contact-us_thank-you.html, you need to enter /contact-us_thank-you.html as your goal.
Head Match – use this type of goal when the URL is the same for this step of the goal, but is followed by unique session or user identifiers.  Enter the URL but leave out the unique values. For example, if you want to track www.mysite.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=528, but the ‘id’ changes for each user, just enter ‘//checkout.cgi?page=1′. This will cause the goal to be counted no matter what id number is assigned.
Regular Expression Match – use this type to match your URLs. This is useful when the url is dynamically generated and can vary between users. For example, if a user could be coming from one of many subdomains, and your URLs use session identifiers, use regular expressions to define the constant element of your URL. For instance, ‘page=1′ will match ’sports.mysite.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=002,’ and ‘football.mysite.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&language=fr&id=19.‘

Time on Site Goal Tracking

A new goal available in Analytics is the Time on Site goal. This allows webmasters to create goals based on how long users stay on their site using hours, minutes and/or seconds.  For example, if you notice that visitors tend to become customers if they spend more than 5 minutes on the site, it may be worth keeping data on those visits that last. In this case you would simply select ‘Time on Site’ as the Goal Type and select greater than 5 minutes as the goal. You can also track visits that last less than a determined length of time.

Pages per Visit Goal Tracking

The pages per visit goal allows webmasters to keep track of visits that browse through a specific number of pages. Also known as ‘depth of visit’, this information can be valuable when determining how engaging your site is. Options of ‘more than’, ‘equal to’ or ‘less than’ a number of visits are available so you can completely customize how you’d like to use this goal.

While the data for these engagement goals has been available in Analytics for quite some time it’s nice to be able to set them up as goals and gain the ability to analyze it further. Obviously this is just a basic overview – there are many way to customize and break down your goal data, such as using filters, funnels, advanced segments and custom reporting. Google Analytics is a wonderful (not to mention free!) tool, stay tuned to the Stone blog for more tips, tricks and updates on using the program wisely down the road.

image from here

If you were to pick something to do to your web site, that would be helpful, then Keyword Optimization should be on your list. Looking at the keywords or keyword phrases on each page can help you to Optimize your site and get better search results. A good rule of thumb to follow is to optimize each page on your site with no more than two keywords or keyword phrases. If you find that your page information could use more than a primary and a secondary keyword phrase then take the time to evaluate the page. Are you trying to say too much for the this page? Is your message getting muddled in too many thoughts?

Keyword phrases can range from two to five words and for your primary phrase you should think in terms of what you could say about the page in a minute or less. (Sometimes known as your elevator speech) It should be a sample of the most frequently searched terms for a given page. Your secondary phrase is still used in search although not as often as your primary phrase.

Doing this one thing on each of your pages should help you get higher page rankings and give you a good opportunity to really look at your content for updates that may be needed. (Sadly we don’t do this enough) Something to keep in mind though is remembering that you should speak to your customers FIRST and search engines second. If you forget about your target audience it won’t be helpful and it won’t matter who finds you.

Google has introduced Google Merchant Center, the new face for the Google Base.   It will enable e-commerce businesses to upload product feeds to Google which will make the individual products searchable via the Google Product Search that was once known as Froogle.

The new name definitely makes more sense to the average users.   Apart from changing the name, Google has also removed “beta” element of Google Base Logo that indicates Google Merchant Center to be a polished edition of Google Base.

The brand spanking new home page is also talking about the benefits of Google Merchant Center.

Yesterday’s New York Times had an interesting article that describes web users feelings about advertisers tracking their web usage.    The article details recent results from a joint survey by Penn and Cal Berkley.  The survey indicates that two thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers-and that number goes up once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements.

The study’s authors hired a survey company to conduct interviews with 1000 adult internet users.  The interview, which last about 20 minutes, included questions like “Please tell me whether or not you want the web sites you visit to give you discounts that are tailored to your interests?  Overall tailored ads did not appeal to 66% of the respondents.

A full breakdown is shown below.

Recently, the European Commission threatened Britain with sanctions  for allowing an Internet service provider to use a new advertising technology to track the Web movements of customers.

In the United States, lawmakers in both houses held hearings last fall on targeted advertising. The topic may be technical, but it has become a hot political issue. Privacy advocates are telling Congress and the Federal Trade Commission that tracking of online activities by Web sites and advertisers has gone too far, and the lawmakers seem to be listening.  Although no legislation came out of the deliberations, one broadband operator, Charter Communications of St. Louis, dropped plans to conduct a test of behavioral advertising technology after receiving protests.

Marketers are arguing that advertising supports free online content. Major advertising trade groups proposed in July some measures that they hoped would fend off regulation, like a clear notice to consumers when they were being tracked.

The most important thing is to bring the public into the picture, which is not going on right now.  So how do you feel about being “tracked”, the government wants to know.

Google announced a change to its search infrastructure and is calling the change “Google Caffeine.” Implying faster web results, the objectives of the next generation of Google were revealed in a Google Webmaster Central Blog post last month.

Three words are very prominent in the post:

1. CRAWL

2. INDEX

3. RANK

Google wants to do these three things ”as quickly as possible.”

Caffeine is coming on the heels of Microsoft’s new Bing search engine which has a knack for reporting news very quickly.   Not to be outdone, Google has created Caffeine to bring more relevant results to the search rankings faster.

Not only does Google want to be quicker on the draw, Google wants to be more efficient.   A recent New York Times article on job opportunities in statistics mentioned a Googler who had worked on a new Google algorithm model that “increased the chances that the crawler would scan frequently updated web pages and make fewer trips to more static ones.”

For search engine optimization, Caffeine certainly places more emphasis on marketers to keep their content updated and fresh.

comScore, Inc. has released their monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the United States search marketplace. In August 2009, Americans conducted more than 13.9 billion core searches, with Google accounting for 64.6 percent search market share. Microsoft Sites grabbed 9.3 percent market share, a 0.4-percentage point gain versus July 2009.

Google led the U.S. core search market in August 2009 with 64.6 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! (19.3 percent), and Microsoft (9.3 percent). Ask Network captured 3.9 percent of the search market, followed by AOL LLC with 3.0 percent.

Aug-09 vs.
Core Search Entity           Jul-09        Aug-09          Jul-09
——————           ——        ——          ——
Total Core Search             100.0%        100.0%        N/A
—————–            —–          —–            —-
Google Sites                         64.7%            64.6%         -0.1
————                  —-           —-            —-
Yahoo! Sites                          19.3%          19.3%            0.0
————                  —-           —-             —
Microsoft Sites                      8.9%             9.3%             0.4
—————                —            —             —
Ask Network                          3.9%             3.9%            0.0
———–                    —            —             —
AOL LLC Network                3.1%           3.0%              -0.1
—————                —            —            —-

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and
cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and
user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five
search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

You can read the full release here.

Yahoo announced the launch of their new and improved search format yesterday, you can read the official release here.   These changes were no doubt sparked by the recent partnership with MSN and Bing.

The previous changes introduced by Yahoo included a new Yahoo! homepage, improved Yahoo! Mail, high-quality video calling in Yahoo! Messenger, and a suite of new Yahoo! Mobile experiences.

Here are some key features of the new Yahoo Search page design:

• Feature-Rich Experience – This is meant for having a quick access to search features such as Search Scan/SafeSearch that help the users protect you from viruses, spyware and spam. Hence, it will be easier for people to the research documents that they have created during searching.

• Search Assist Expansion – This new design of the page will help the visitors use query assistance that is available directly below the search box. It has also been given on the left-hand column for quick access lower on the page, even when the Search Assist layer is hidden. For further assistance, Yahoo has added Search Assist to the search box on every Yahoo! page in the U.S. with the launch of a new universal header.

• Intelligent Search Results – This feature allows the users to explore results from sites and narrow results using different types of SearchMonkey structured data. In the past few months, it has been seen that some more enhanced results for product, local, entertainment, reference, social, and tech sites have been displayed automatically. With this new search page design, Yahoo claims that they have made it easier for the users to experience rich results from an increasing number of sites.

The new Yahoo Search page design not only makes search easier but also has an improved Page load and Perceived load times with a better inline data URI Images.

See the video below for in-depth info on the features.

Courtesy Yahoo Search Blog

Google made historic news yesterday by declaring they do not use the meta keywords tag. Okay, I am being sarcastic.  Google hasn’t used the meta keywords tag for a long time and any “SEO” should know that.   So why did Google blog about this, on the record?  At least two reasons, (1) people continue to sue over it by claiming copyright infringement and people confuse the meta keywords with the meta description, which Google does recommend to use.

So there are official posts from Matt Cutts, the Google Blog and Search Engine Land trying to erase any confusion from people who are new to this space.

If you want to know which meta tags Google does pay attention to, see this FAQ. Plus, Google’s JohnMu tweeted that Google also does “not adhere to the “revisit-after” meta tag,” if you wanted to know.

Finally, here is a video if you don’t want to read any of this:

With big boosts from search and mobile, combined with continuing shifts in spending away from traditional ad channels by marketers, WPP’s GroupM, the largest buyer of media in the world, is projecting that global Internet spending will increase 11 percent next year to almost $65 billion and account for nearly 15 percent of all measured media.

More specifically, interactive media will represent nearly one of every five dollars spent by marketers on media in the U.S. next year, according to the report release yesterday.   GroupM predicts that interactive media, primarily online, will represent 17% of the U.S. advertising marketplace in 2010, up from 15.4% in 2009.

That makes interactive the third largest medium in the U.S., behind television’s 44.2% share, and magazine’s 18.4% share of 2010 advertising budgets.*  According to GroupM’s estimates, interactive media will overtake newspaper’s U.S. advertising share this year.   Newspapers, which had a 14.8% share of U.S. ad spending in 2008, will fall to a 13.6% share this year, and a 12.4% share next year. Interactive media had a 13.9% share in 2008.**

We have talked about the shift in advertising dollars from newspapers to the web in previous blog posts.  Even the most widely read newspaper in the US, USA Today, wrote about this trend last March.

You can see a Google Maps listing list of newspapers that have closed here. I think for the majority of the newspapers, although their online ad revenue has grown, it is too late to fix their core business models to make it through the era of real time, mashed up, and twitter size news.

*Courtesy of AdWeek
**Courtsey of GroupM Release

When developing an online media plan, don’t overlook value-added ad placements, such as text-based newsletter ads and advertorials. These placements aren’t always popular ideas, but they represent an opportunity to add performance juice to a proposal full of expensive premium ad placements.

So when negotiating a media buy, check out these seven value-added placements I  advocate for clients:

• Fixed-placement text links. These can be effective.   Frequently at the bottom or side bar of every page on the site and in e-mail newsletters, they often include a quick little sentence or offer and deliver tons of impressions and clicks.

• Text-based newsletter ads. This is another under-appreciated gem. Text-based newsletter insertions often outperform banners, as they are integrated into the newsletter’s content and drive traffic very often for weeks after they are sent. In fact, I’ve seen clicks and actions trickle in for months after a good newsletter text insertion.

• Buttons. Buttons often have fixed placements and sometimes come with a little text (if they don’t, try to do more than a logo). They can deliver a huge number of impressions and enough clicks to bring down a campaign’s average CPC and CPA.

• Advertorial. This is a rarely offered tactic that can drive performance if done properly. If an advertorial is promoted the same way articles are featured and promoted on a site (and even get a little home page play or headline listing), this placement will really deliver. Just like in a print magazine, an online advertorial should be labeled as a “special promotion” article.

Sample Advertorial

• ROS banners. Of course, we gun for those high-profile premium placements or the section-specific placements. However, having more banners running all over the site should help your client reach an audience that’s similar to the one in specific sections that you’re trying to dominate. This approach can drive up your click and action numbers because the volume of inventory that can be thrown at ROS banners is often vast.

• Run of network (RON)/other properties. If your media rep is out of value adds on the site you’re buying on, ask what other sites he owns. Very often a site you buy on owns other sites that are similar enough that they are a relevant place to run your ads. Many may not be as popular as the site you are targeting and the publisher may want to populate it with high-profile ads.

• Cobranded contest. While it may cost money to come up with a contest prize, both publisher and advertiser can still benefit. They can share the list of contestants and offer participants the opportunity to opt in to receive newsletters.

When a publisher underperforms, you should also push for value-added placements. Many properties would rather salvage the buy than lose the contract altogether.

A great discussion thread on Webmaster World regarding their poll that ran last week asking Would You Allow Google to Manage Your AdWords Account? To a seasoned PPC manager, the results were not surprising.  An overwhelming majority of the responses were basically, “no way!”  In short, readers feel that the Google AdWords representatives who manage accounts for big and small advertisers cannot do as good a job as an SEM company or someone who manages it themselves.   There are many stories in the thread, mostly negative about their experience with having Google manage their account.

Just take a look at the pie chart, 87% said no, they would not allow Google to manage their AdWords campaigns. That is out of 150 Webmaster World reader responses.

The other responses said that they would allow Google do the set up of the initial campaign but then take it over from that point going forward.  That really means, no, they won’t allow Google to manage their campaign.

To take a step back, Google has a large stable of staffers just down the street from our office ready to help you set up and continue to maintain your Google AdWords account.   And they do it for free. The issue is, at least according to the stories in the thread, they don’t manage the accounts as effectively or as smart as you would yourself or as a professional PPC management company. At least, those are the overwhelming opinions in the thread.

Google can’t take the time to truly learn and understand an individual marketers business.  That is why there are so many advantages to working with a local SEM resource.

Just remember, “Free” is not always a good investment.

AdAge’s latest power 150 is out.  Created by Todd Andrlik, the rankings are determined by an overall weighted score compiled from Yahoo InLinks, Technorati Authority Rank, Bloglines Subscribers and other metrics.  Google Page Rank was recently removed though as a metric due to incosistent data.

Note that 5 of the top 15 blogs are specific to Online Marketing and/or SEO and Search Engine Marketing.

Here is  a link to the list.  You can also subscribe to the Power 150 blog.

Bing has created a new feature called Ad Preview in order to help advertisers see if their ad is appearing in Bing.  Now, instead of searching on Bing.com for an ad, the advertisers will be able to access Ad Preview directly in adCenter to manage their advertising campaigns.  Ad Preview will also help people avoid the unnecessary impressions and accidental clicks that they might come across during a search for their ad.

If advertisers find their ads showing in Ad Preview, but not in the regular search then it means that they might have set demographic or geographic targets that they themselves do fulfill.   However, Ad Preview does not offer a geographic or demographic preview right now.  Bing says this is being addressed and should be available soon.

Microsoft says that Bing continues to see  strong growth since it introduced Bing on the market and killed off Live Search completely.  According to Microsoft the number of unique users that ran queries in the decision search engine has increased by over 8% from July to August.   It is important to note that, in parallel with the launch of Bing, Microsoft has also been running an advertising campaign with an estimated cost of up to $100 million.

Here are the steps to use to use AdPreview:

1. Sign in to Microsoft adCenter.

2. Select your account.

3. Click the Campaigns tab.

4. On the Campaigns page, at the upper right, click Ad Preview Tool.

5. In the Keyword box, type a keyword that’s associated with your ad.

6. Click the Preview Ads button. Please note that you might get one of these security messages:

• If you get the message Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely, click No to proceed.
• If you get the message This page contains both secure and nonsecure items, click Yes to proceed.

7. View your ad results.

Microsoft announced last month a new collaboration with consumer measurement firm comScore to design a digital media-planning service dubbed the “reach and frequency planner (RF planner)”.    The RF Planner uses a hybrid audience measurement method that combines Microsoft’s ad serving data with demographic information from comScore’s panel.

The goal of the RF planner will be to help brand advertisers better measure and track their online-ad campaigns.   Advertisers would be able to more easily determine and predict how consumers will respond to their digital ads.

Current online reach and frequency metrics are typically computed at the site level.  Measuring reach and frequency at the ad placement level is more precise because it shows the reach of the ad campaign that can actually be achieved, the true potential frequency and the specific demos of that audience.  Campaigns planned at a total site level can overstate reach and understate frequency, and may not deliver the desired demographic mix.

The new RF Planner service will offer the detailed campaign-level analysis and streamlined planning capabilities that have long been a benefit in the traditional media space.

Search Engine Strategies San Jose just wrapped up last week, and the SES Conference Channel on You Tube has over 20 videos posted from the event.  Great stuff for all marketers.  One segment I really enjoyed was Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy One, discussion with John Mulligan of SEO-PR how external marketing agencies and in-house marketers have to be their own advocates to sell a search marketing strategy.  Those of us in the interactive agency world know all about the challenges that Brian mentions in hte interview.  Check it out:

Back in 2007, Yahoo’s MyYahoo startpage was the first to let its users check their email accounts, including GMail, via Yahoo Mail.  This was a smart move on their part because at the time it helped curb user attrition to Google via GMail dependence.  Google then followed suit last year and allowed Gmail users the chance to not only check other email accounts, but even send email through their Gmail interface as long as the other email account did not require SMTP authentication.

Google is using similar aggregation tactics, with its video search for example; it’s more efficient to search for You Tube or Meta Cafe videos on Google than on the sites themselves.  And with the new Google Wave project (beta), Google looks to be the central place to communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Their is no comparison with Yahoo for Google’s tools and application efforts, like Wave.  Google continues to  make their API code open source as a way to encourage the developer community to build more unique tools.  One recent example is Tweety,  which signs into your Twitter account and lets you fetch your Twitter timeline and post tweets from Google Wave.

If that wasn’t enough, Google Sites accounted for nearly 90 percent of the 21 percent growth in search query volume from the previous year on the five core search engines.  This accounts for much of  AdWords dominance in Paid Search.

So, what does Yahoo still do better than Google?  Here’s a roundup:

1. Yahoo Finance
2. Yahoo Answers : Q&A
3. Backlink Reporting via Yahoo Site Explorer: Even with the improvements in Google Webmaster Tools
4. Flickr : Photo Uploading & Sharing
5. Local Search : Still too tough to update Google Local Business Center listings
6. Entertainment
7. Privacy

Can you think of anything else Yahoo does better than Google?

PS:  As of 12 noon today, Yahoo Finance showed Google stock trading at $469.05.  A 51% increase YTD.  Yahoo is at $15.02, which is just a 20% increase YTD.