Google has introduced some new features for its recently launched Place Pages for local businesses. Most notably, businesses can now instantly (close anyway) post data to their Place Pages from Google's Local Business Center dashboard. If you log in, you can post updates, coupons, announcements, etc. that will go live in minutes. It isn't hard to see why this could be a useful tool for businesses who are running time-sensitive promotions,

Image by SESConferenceSeries via Flickr Google News is like kudzu, which is known as "the vine that ate the South" because of its out-of-control growth in the Southeastern United States. Although I'm from New England, friends like Stacy Williams of Prominent Placement , which is headquartered in Atlanta, tell me that kudzu is called the "mile-a-minute vine" in her neighborhood. According to the Nielsen Company , there were 15,895,000 unique visitors to Google News U.S.

Posted by wrttnwrd This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. One often-ignored part of SEO is making invisible pages visible. When I say 'invisible', I mean pages that have received zero clicks from organic search results. If you can find those pages, you can decide: To keep them,

comScore has released the top 15 ad networks based on their reach among U.S. Internet users in December 2009. The ranking found AOL Advertising remains the top ad network, reaching 187 million U.S. Internet users, or 91 percent of the total audience, followed by the Yahoo Network (180.9 million) and the Google Ad Network (178.1 million). The fastest growing ad network by audience reach among the top 15 was Microsoft Media Network, which grew 31 percent compared to a year ago,

Yesterday, comScore reported that Google performed well in December, and today, Hitwise seconded the assessment. In fact, the two firms also agreed that both Yahoo and Bing lost market share, which has made Google's lead all the more impressive. Hitwise determined that Google controlled 71.57 percent of the search market in November. Its report concerning December pegs the search giant's market share at 72.25 percent, and if you didn't notice,

Next week Yahoo will update its Sponsored Search product with two new features, which the company says will provide advertisers with more transparency into and control over their accounts. Yahoo's Network Distribution feature will let advertisers run ads on Yahoo search pages, partners' sites, or both. Those who run ads on Yahoo's entire network, can also set different bids for Yahoo or its partners. Yahoo is also launching a new tool,

Next week, Yahoo! plans to release two updates to their Sponsored Search program. First up, the Network Distribution feature will allow advertisers to run ads on Yahoo! search pages, partner sites or both. Advertisers will also be allowed to set different bids for Yahoo! and partner sites. Secondly, Yahoo! is adding the ability to import campaign data from your Google AdWords account. If you want to see how these new features will work, Yahoo!'s prepared a video,

Time after time, when I discuss the search and social media based opportunities for companies to reach new customers and achieve other online communications goals, it comes down to content.  Most companies understand the need to have a web presence and publish some kind of web site. For many, the creation of a web site is a one time event with minimal updates. Marketing budgets are tight and companies are frugal. For the most part,

Last night was yet another mixed bag for me - got to sleep earlier than usual, and woke up after just a few hours.  While I'm not usually pleased about that, I'm glad that happened this time.  First, because I had a brainstorm idea come upon me just as I was falling asleep, and again as soon as I woke.  It's amazing how creative ideas come like that.  Just as important however,

I want to get you thinking the way I am on this one, so bear with me for a moment. I want you to imagine yourself moving into a brand new area that you are completely unfamiliar with. You have brand new neighbors, and there is not a familiar face anywhere. You don't know if your new neighbors have kids for your kids to play with, or if you would even want them to. So the process begins, you meet your neighbors, you gain trust and eventually are part of the neighborhood BBQs.