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Enhanced Campaigns Countdown: 10 Best Images That Told Us How You Really Feel

T-minus just days until Google flips the switch on AdWords Enhanced Campaigns. For a bit of a break, we’ve rounded up the best blog post images and meme hijacks made about Enhanced Campaigns since Google announced their arrival in February.
In no order of greatness, here are your Top 10:
How to explain the origins of enhanced campaigns? Search Mojo brought forth the Ancient Aliens guy to give an answer, which was: Aliens, of course.

search-mojo.com enhanced campaigns

In one of the earliest case studies on Enhanced Campaigns, Portent posted February 22 about the rise they saw in brand keyword CPCs on tablets using this priceless image.

Portent enhanced campaigns

Grumpy Cat made an appearance in a post from Crescent Interactive about the pros and cons of enhanced campaigns. Grumpy Cat appeared unimpressed, but author Jill Dupre did have some positive things to say about Enhanced Campaigns features.

Crescent Interactive enhanced campaigns grumpy cat

Amplify Interactive captured the early reactions of many to the concept of mobile bid modifiers in a post featuring a “wide-eyed” teen at a concert.

Amplify Interactive enhanced campaigns

The “One Does Not Simply” meme from Lord of the Rings popped up on the Lunametrics blog in a post that acknowledged the challenges of implementing the changes, but pointed out 5 positive features of the new structure.

Lunametrics enhanced campaigns

The Batman meme made a couple of appearances. KlientBoost used it to great effect in the image below in highlighting what they saw as the good (minimal), and the bad, ugly and “ehhh” of Enhanced Campaigns.

KlientBoost enhanced campaigns

Whereas Swellpath used the Batman meme to help correct the false early assumption of some that all campaigns had to opt-in to mobile (meaning smartphones). Update: Fang Digital Marketing actually used the image below first, on February 19, in a post debunking 6 top myths of Enhanced Campaigns.

Swellpath Batman-Meme-Enhanced-Campaigns

Apparently, Morpheus from the Matrix likes to convey good news about Enhanced Campaigns. Swellpath used him to point out the benefits of new sitelink extension options in Enhanced Campaigns in the same post that featured Batman. While, in a post from Marin Software, Morpheus spread the word that Google added ad group level bid adjustments in April.

Marin Morpheus-Enhanced-Campaigns-Mobile-Bid-Adjustments

PPC Associates let it be known they felt pretty great when Google bowed to requests for ad group level mobile bid adjustments. The agency explained that they use single keyword ad groups, so to them, this change was like winning keyword level bid adjustments. Their baby fist-pump image said it all.

PPC Associates enhanced campaigns

The Dos Equis guy sprung up in several posts. Most notably, the folks over at Clix Marketing are using The Most Interesting Man In the World to introduce readers to their Enhanced Campaigns fun on Facebook.

Clix Marketing enhanced campaigns

You’re invited to play along here:

ClixMarketing Enhanced Campaigns FB Page

If you need a reminder that the 22nd is looming, James Svoboda has a literal countdown ticking down the seconds until “E-Day” over on the WebRanking blog.

Kudos to all who have completed the migration to Enhanced Campaigns. Best of luck to the PPC teams still putting their all into preparing for a smooth transition come Monday. Feel free to vote for your favorite image (or nominate another) in the comments below.

Google Row Boat


Google Row Boat

John Taylor from Google, a Software Engineer and tech lead on Google Shopping Express, posted a picture of two kids rowing the row boat inside of Google's London office. It doesn't look like they are getting too far but does show what Google does with all their extra space. I wonder how much it costs per month to rent just the space the row boat is on.
Either way, very creative area for Googlers to dream up new algorithms.
This picture was shared on Google+.

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Google Maps Preview Available To All


Pegman Google MapsIn May, Google released a very early preview of the new Google Maps design and then gave out limited invites to play with the new maps.
You no longer need an invite to check out the new Google Maps. You can get it immediately by going to maps.google.com/preview.
Daniel from the Google Maps team said in a Google Maps Help thread:
In May, we unveiled a preview of the new Google Maps for the web, and today we're making it even easier to try it out. You no longer have to request and wait for an email invite – just sign up and get access instantly at maps.google.com/preview For those who have already taken the new maps for a test drive, thanks for all your support and feedback. We're listening and continuing to make the experience even better. Please continue to let us know what you think via the "Help and Feedback" button in the top right corner of the map. For those who haven't tried it yet, here's a refresher on what makes the new Google Maps great: http://youtu.be/THxJHcR1D2c
There are many features you may be accustomed to that are not yet available on the new Google Maps. One such feature is adding a 3rd destination or more to your directions. So keep in mind, this is a preview only.
Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

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Google Maps iOS App Version 2.0


Google Maps For iPhone IconGoogle has announced the second generation Maps App for iOS devices. The major change is now it is iPad friendly, but this update brings the app more inline with version 7.0 of the Android counterpart.
Google first introduced the Google Maps iOS app in December 2012 after a ton of controversy over Apple going with their own mapping app.
So what is new in version 2.0 of the iOS App?
  • Explore: A fast and easy way to visually browse and discover great places to eat, drink, shop, play and sleep
  • An enhanced navigation experience, including live traffic updates and incident reports
  • Simple 5-star ratings and reviews from friends, plus expert Zagat content
  • Great deals from your favorite brands with Google Offers
  • Biking directions
  • A new, dedicated mapping app for iPad
For more details, make sure to check out the app or the blog post.
I should note, this does not work on first generation iPads.
Forum discussion at Google Maps Help & Google+.

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Google To Penalize Sites Manipulating Browser Back Button & Faking Search Results


google chrome logoGoogle announced their next spam target are those who are implementing manipulative browser history techniques to trick the user to thinking they are on Google's search results, when in reality, they are on a page of search ads.
How this works is when a user goes to a web site from Google's real search results, they then decide to click back to the Google search results. Now instead of the back button taking them to Google's search results, it detects the browser back button action and takes them to a page that looks similar to Google's search results but in reality are just ads.
google fake search results
Google said they will take action against sites and webmasters that do this.
To protect our users, we may take action on, including removal of, sites which violate our quality guidelines, including for inserting deceptive or manipulative pages into a user's browser history.
The deal is, a WebmasterWorld thread asks, do these webmasters who are implementing these tricks really care if their sites get banned? They are the type of build and burn sites all the time.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

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Was TechCrunch Penalized By Google?

Joe Hall posted at Threadwatch that Google may have penalized TechCrunch, one of the most popular blogs on the internet.
He looked at SEM Rush and Search Metrics data for the past few months and noticed a significant drop in search visibility for TechCrunch in Google's search results.
Here is the three month chart from Search Metrics:
click for full size
As you can see, the decline looks pretty significant, but to be honest, when it comes with news sites, stories can hit big one day and have a huge skew in the visibility it sees even in the search results.
TheNextCorner commented at Threadwatch and said if you look at the 2 year Search Metrics report, the recent decline doesn't look bad at all. He said, "but over 2 years, they still look quite good." Here is the chart:
click for full size
Do you think Google penalized TechCrunch? Is it just less overall searches for what TechCrunch is covering? Less hot breaking stories? Or maybe it was is nothing?
Forum discussion at Threadwatch.

Source : http://www.seroundtable.com/google-techcrunch-penalty-17087.html

Google+ News Shows In Google's News Web Results Box

Rob Garner posted publicly on Facebook an image of a new Google test where Google is showing news results from Google+ in the OneBox area for news content within web search results. Got all that?

As you can see, a search for [cory monteith] returns a standard news box, because of the recent news of his death. But below that, Rob is seeing news results from Google+ profiles about the news. I assume he follows Hollywood.com and others within his circles?

Google has been forcing Google+ results onto searchers, so this should be no surprise.