Kate Morris

Yahoo! just released (out of beta that is) their new user interface for Yahoo! mail. So I’ve used it before because I have a paid account (read: I use AT&T DSL), but it’s gotten even better.

I’m excited because you can text to a phone and get them back in a really cool format. Hmm … Google? Wanna play catch up on this feature? I would love it if gmail did this too.

Update: So I realize that we all can email texts and email back, but not in the cool interface Yahoo gave us. That’s what I mean.

Remember at SMX Advanced when I was all psyched about the new Ask.com and it’s look and integration? At SES, they have annouced some results from that new look. (Via BruceClay)

How has this changed user behavior?

Ask has seen a huge jump in user satisfaction, a 30 percent drop in users clicking through to the second SERP, 15 percent drop in users sessions with more than one search. Users really are coming and getting what they want in that first page of results.

Just what I thought would happen. Things are getting better for the searcher, but harder for us as search marketers.

From SES San Jose via SEORoundTable:

The question he’s been getting a lot: Is Facebook the next Google? I think they are two different things. Can Facebook get the same kind of hype? Yes, that’s the “likeness” it has to GOogle.

Facebook has experienced 2 tipping points according to the statistics - corporate network and opening access to anyone with an email address. There’s definitely a market share increase of pages: the site broke into the top 10 of all Internet sites in March 2007. Opening application development could lead to the next tipping point.

Here are my thoughts on Facebook and it’s popularity. I was on it when it started. I still had access to my college email address then (don’t anymore, 3 years after graduation) and liked it. But more of my old friends from HS were on MySpace. They were allowed there.

But Facebook was cleaner.

Then they opened it to everyone and it gained popularity. But I have a theory, a more unseen one, as to who Facebook is more popular. It’s not banned at work yet.

MySpace was/is a time hog. I used to spend hours making my page look right, changing it on my mood, and I know code! Most people don’t … imagine how long that took?

But now with applications and such, and the opening to everyone … I am thinking it’s only a matter of time. I’m not saying it’s going down. I’m just saying it’s not any better. It’s just different. Google vs Yahoo. They both have their uses.

I got an invite to go to this show from Matt Cutts personally (it was his doing that made me go to SMX Advanced). And I can’t go.

There are just so many trips I can take each year when I don’t work for an SEO firm. I am going to be watching the blogs closely. So please everyone keep me updated. And have a drink for me at one of the many after parties I am not sure I would have ever found. But can wish I was at.

And Matt, I still want to see the utili-kilt around Halloween time. I’m sure your wife would get a kick out of it too. Along with the rest of your readers. Now I’ll shut up about it.

They offer tools to webmasters like SEOmoz’s Backlink Anchor Text Analysis tool. Am I a premium member? No. Do I so need to be? Yep. Rand and Co. offer so many tools like this to make your analysis life easier.

Google does the same with the webmaster console. Want to know what Google sees when they visit your site/sites? Look there. It’s amazing what you can find and fix to make Googlebot love you more.

Use tools. Read what people say. I can only wish to be as cool as Rand or the Googler in charge of the Webmaster Console (we miss you Vanessa, but your team is kicking butt still). All I can do is pass on the freaking cool stuff they do.

My accounts just got access to a new Google beta. Permissions. At my company we have account managers, but they are more business dev than online. So we had pulled their access to AdWords. Only downfall is, they have to get reports and info from me and my team.

Well I asked Google for something via email, and like a Godsend, my account rep came back with the answer. A beta test of permission levels. I can add people to the account, but restrict their access. Makes me so happy.

When I get done and have a good report about it, I’ll post it on here. I can’t wait to help them out in any way I can.

Happy Kitty,
originally uploaded by Andrew_N.

I was looking for some picture to represent Facebook. I have a lot of ideas on that topic and wanted some picture to go along, but I found this. It reminds me of my passion, what I love in life.

Tigers have always been my thing. I have been made fun of mercilessly for a handle I made up in college for the purposes of chatting … tigergoddess82. Yeah, laugh.

But I love the silent beauty. To this day, the greatest date I ever went on was to a tiger rescue in North Texas. Beautifully deadly animals they are. But they still hold my intrigue.

I have been reading a lot about passion recently. In the spiritual and working sense. I think it’s something that some people are missing in life. But I have found on the Internet. It’s the people that keep me coming back. The fact that we all share a love of beauty in the world and in the human thirst for information. And I love that we have a job to make that information more appealing and accessible.

Marketers, more specifically internet marketers, are here, and should be here to bring out the beauty of information. Make it as easy to access without trying to change people’s minds. Let them do it themselves, but give them all the information to make that decision. Then we sit back and hope that people make the decision we want them to without tricking them.

People are smart. We just make it easier for them to learn.

So there is all sorts of buzz going on about the new Google AdWords Algo change. The two I read are from SearchEngineLand and BruceClay.

You read these two and you can hear the Google Press Release. Leave it to Lisa to comment the truth. This seems to be Google trying to make money. I made a comment on the Bruce Clay blog:

As a long time AdWords user, circa the days of Overture and being able to see the top 5 bids, I am NOT a fan of this. I liked when Google came along.

This is going to require a lot of tweaking of bids, more hands on work, less quality ads. I get what Google is trying to do here, but truthfully, its money grubbing.

I prefer the old system of automatic bidding. You punch in the MAX, and depending on others, your bidding is done “up to” that. You had the option of telling Google where you preferred to be, but never went over the max, but rarely were up there. I could bid $10.00 per click, and no matter what, as long as my page was relevant, I remained basically in the top three.

Now they are setting spend to max and max only? So my safety net is gone.

I feel like I’m back in the times of Overture, but don’t know what others are spending. And now I have to be more high touch. I have to check everyday and make sure a new competitor hasn’t come in.

If they are doing this, I want the ability to see the top 5 bids then.

This saddens me … highly.

1. This is going to increase costs and yes, it may drive out bad sites, but it will also drive out smaller competitors.
2. We don’t know what the top bidders are anymore, or if a new competitor comes in. The only way to see is to check everyday. And that’s annoying.

Please someone, come along and explain this to me so that I don’t think this. Maybe I am reading it all wrong and this isn’t going to end my life as I know it. But from what I’m reading right now, I don’t think this is best for the end user. And that is why I liked Google coming in so long ago. It was about the end user, not the advertiser.

I don’t want Google to be about politics now.

Love is being stupid together,
originally uploaded by nattu.

I found this photo through my iGoogle, and while it’s sucha beautiful picture, I also love something else about it. Get ready for the geek in me.

I love that I know she is holding a product made by Coca-Cola.

Branding is a beautiful thing.