Even though many experienced search marketers shun the use of tools, I guess I’m still a rookie because I really enjoy them. No matter how efficient I think I can be, there’s always a better way to do something when you introduce a certain level of automation.

Inside Google Webmaster tools there was apparently a recent addition back in February but I just noticed, and it’s really pretty slick.

When we first set up this blog, we applied for an AdSense account, but for whatever reason, we decided not to add the AdSense code to this blog, so I never did. The account is there, and I’ve even got the code in a widget (I think), but I never made it go live.

Now, this past week, we received this e-mail from the AdSense team:

Dear Scott Orth (ed. - SEMpdx Treasurer)

I don’t really see how it could be true, but I found an interesting topic in our forum where Tom Hale, a local Portland PPC expert and SEMpdx member said this -

“…I have a hunch best practices for Page Rank may have a relationship to best practices for Quality Score…”

and I’ve got to say I’d be surprised. Tom also first points out that Google’s answer would be “no” and that was my initial answer too, but I’m really not so sure… Read the thread

Google is offering us experimental views for their search results and I urge you to participate. You and I can shape the future, by participating in the process that will define how we search in the future.

Why are they doing this?
While some of us may prefer Google classic, there are millions upon millions of webpages are being added every single week to the Internet.

Google’s Toolbar 5 has an interesting feature guaranteed to draw the ire of the domaining community.

From the features page:

Address Bar Browse by Name
Browse by Name helps you find a site even when you don’t know its URL. Just type the site name into your browser address bar, and Toolbar will take you there automatically. For instance, try typing “oxford” into the address bar to go directly to the university’s home page at www.ox.ac.uk.

The lack of AdSense access from my regular Google Account (IGoogle) page never did make sense to me, but it was something I didn’t use often, so didn’t really care.

Well I’m not sure when it happened, but Google has finally allowed me to combine the two, enabling me to access all my Google services from one place, which I think is a big improvement.

This morning I was able to merge my accounts, and now my Google page looks like this…

Yesterday, Google announced a new option for supporting sitemaps for video, and maps can be submitted right alongside your other sitemap from inside Webmaster Tools.

In my opinion, early adopters of the video sitemaps will gain a huge advantage over the competition, and Google will be placing extra effort into indexing and displaying those results.

Others are just beginning to talk about it, with lots of comments and opinions today already, so you read up on exactly how to do it f you’re marketing with videos.

Hey Matt,

I enjoyed meeting you and chatting with you at Pubcon. You’re a great guy and I truly believe that nobody could possibly do a better job of webmaster outreach than you and I admire that you willingly journey into strongholds of folks that aren’t particularly happy with Google & Google’s policies. You did tell me to post my Google feedback that I gave to you personally…so here it is…but first an opinion.

Seth Godin, author and Change Agent, was recently named Most Important Marketing Guru by leading marketing executives. A few months ago, I asked if he’d keynote at SEMpdx SearchFest 08. While he wasn’t able to speak at SearchFest, he agreed to participate in a SEMpdx Webinar on January 15^th, where he will be giving a free copy of his book to the first 300 registrants. Recently, I was able to get a few minutes of his time for an interview to discuss the release of his 11^th book, Meatball Sundae, available in stores on December 27^th.

Do you even know what Google Notebook is? Even if you do know what it is, you probably aren’t using it very much, but you may want to start, because not only is it a handy tool, it might start to affect rankings.

According to this article by Bill Slawski, there may be a new Google ranking factor coming soon.  It’s probably already on your computer, and if you’re like me, you rarely find yourself using it, although I did play with it extensively for about two weeks over the summer,  while I was contemplating giving up Microsoft Office completely.

I just set up a quick campaign on Google Ad Words for one of my new affiliate sites, and nowhere along the way was I offered the option of being in the content network, nor was I shown this usual checkbox that says I’m going to be included. Doesn’t that seem wrong?

I there a new Ad Sense program that I’m not aware of? Can we now have 18 ads in a row 1000 pixels long?

Doing some research about RSS, I did a search and ended up on an Ezine articles page, and immediately I noticed an incredibly long line of ad sense ads down the right side.

They weren’t just boxes, either, they yook up 1/3 of the page. I happened to be browsing in a small window, and my text was actually narrower than the ads!

The Google Toolbar PageRank update has officially taken place. The total time between full updates was a new record at 179 days, which is nearly 6 months. Can you believe it?

There is no debate as to whether or not it’s actually happened, and it’s been preceded over the past two weeks by a manual lowering of TBPR on many of the Web’s most popular websites. Most people (ok, everyone) believ it was done as as a slap on the wrist for selling links.

Search Engine Land

Personalized Search - results are recorded based upon what’s deemed your personal preferences. Personalization influencers - Google personalized home page content, Google Bookmarks, Search History (clicks), Web History (Visits). Google only engine to be personalizing results. Yahoo, Ask. - harvesting the information. Google likely to be more agressive with personalization over time - reduces spam and delivers better results (potentially)

With the rise of Google’s universal search, search engine marketers are going to have to be craftier to make sales / generate leads. Clearly, people who have never thought of using video in SEM (including me) are going to have to adapt to this new landscape. Above is my first affiliate video. Pretty cheesy huh? However, I have “found” targeted traffic that I wouldn’t have gotten any other way.

Scott Hendison of Search Commander, Inc is one of the founding board members of SEMpdx, and he was interviewed by Marketing Pilgrim’s Andy Beal while attending the SMX Advanced Seattle event last week. - Watch The Video Clip

“If there’s anything the Internet has shown, it’s that a lot of people have too much time on their hands. Todd Mintz, a Portland, Ore.-based Internet consultant, suspects iRazoo’s checks and balances won’t be enough to prevent efforts to move sites into the top spots mostly likely to be seen by users.

“There are very smart people out there who will figure out how to game it,” he said.

“Kent Lewis remembers the moment distinctly. He was at a conference on search engine marketing last May when he approached Danny Sullivan — the godfather of the industry — and asked him about attending a similar event in Portland. The reaction: Port-where?

“People assume Portland is small,” said Lewis, president of Anvil Media Inc. “We’re in the Northwest. We fish. It rains. We couldn’t possibly be industry leaders. They forget about Intel and Nike. They see this little town with one skyscraper.”

Are you ready for Google to change this Wednesday?

According to CNN, Google is changing dramatically on Wednesday, May 20th.

They will integrate all of the different types of search results onto the home page of Google, including news, images, and even video. They will also be adding a new menu along the top, so people with Google accounts can more easily access all of their different Google services.