Who Gained Most From Google's Search Changes? (GOOG)

Google made a major change to its search algorithm last week to try and improve the quality of results, and companies who rely on Google to guide users to a huge number of low-traffic pages -- like Associated Content, Demand Media, and Mahalo -- got slammed. But according to analysis by search engine analysis company Sistrix, there were also some big winners from the change as well. The biggest? AOL's celebrity news site PopEater.com saw its visibility rise 24% according to the Sistrix Visibility Index, which measures traffic on keywords, ranking, and clickthroughs. Other categories with big winners included:

Online retailers and bargain sites like DHGate (+22%),  Sears (+20%), Tech Bargains (+ 17%), Etsy (+17%), Bed Bath and Beyond (+14%), Radio Shack (+13%) and Ikea (+13%)

Encyclopedias like Softpedia (+20%) and Britannica (+18%)

How-to sites like Instructable (+21%) and -- somewhat surprisingly -- Demand Media's eHow (+15%)

Facebook also did well, gaining 12%. Now, how long before clever SEO companies use this list to reverse-engineer the new algorithm, rendering it just as spammy as the last one?Join the conversation about this story »

These Engineers Left Google And Cisco To Sell Search Secrets To You

A former Google search scientist and an ex-Cisco product exec could have had their pick of startups and they chose to fix one of the Web's dark arts: search engine optimization. BloomReach came out of stealth mode yesterday with a healthy list of 70 big-name customers and a serious pedigree of talent from Cisco, Google, Facebook and others. BloomReach has collected $16 million so far in two rounds of funding, lead by Bain Capital Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, respectively,  Co-founder and CEO Raj De Datta would quibble with SEO label. SEO evokes a certain smoke-and-mirrors art where companies use things like meta tags, title tags and inbound links to make their web sites surface around specific keywords. BloomReach doesn't do any of that, De Datta told Business Insider.  It uses big data and machine-learning algorithms to help online retailers put more of their products in front of shoppers via Google, Facebook or social media sites. Even the biggest, best, most optimized websites see most of their traffic only going to about 25 percent of their web pages, De Datta says. Using big data analytics, BloomReach figures out a searcher's intent and can help a website deliver a more relevant page. It wasn't an easy problem to tackle. It took years. In late 2008, De Datta was urged to talk to Internet marketeers by the VC he was working with at the time, Justin Caldbeck at Bain. He discovered that enterprises were "spending enormous amounts of money on online marketing," he said, and yet they were still struggling with how to get people to find their sites. The SEO consulting industry had arisen but, "this smelled to me like the kind of problem where a more structured, more data-oriented approach would have a bigger impact." He didn't know how to go about that until he met Ashutosh Garg. Garg had been a staff scientist at Google for over four years where he worked on some of Google's most important search services. As a PhD and former IBM researcher, Garg is well known among the machine-learning elite. Garg had left Google a few months earlier thinking he was going to build a better search engine. The response he was getting was "are you crazy?" De Datta and Garg realized they wanted to solve two sides of the same problem -- making it easier for people to find stuff on the Web. In February, 2009, Bain "Made a big bet," De Datta recalls. "It was really just the two of us and a PowerPoint presentation …but they gave us $5 million" Instead of using that $5 million to staff up, the two cautiously hired a handful of machine-learning PhDs and left enough money in the bank so they could "afford to fail a couple of times before we got it right," De Datta says. Three years later they are on their way. They now have three services covering search, advertising, and social media. They employ about 60 people and their customer list includes the likes of Orbitz and Williams Sonoma. They are so confident that they avoided a straight subscription model and instead adopted a pay for performance model, too. Their customers pay only for the incremental traffic the service delivers. Please follow SAI: Enterprise on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:6 Cool Technologies That Will Change Your LifeThe One Thing You Should NEVER Say At A Pitch Meeting With This VCThis Serial Startup Dude Once Gave His Seed Money Back To The VC

Google Ventures Doesn't Really Work For Google (GOOG)

Google Ventures is Google's venture arm, but partner Bill Maris insists that it does not really work for Google. It does not make strategic investments for Google. Rather, it acts as an independent venture fund with one limited partner: Google. Google contributes up to $200 million a year for Maris and his partners to invest, and they put that money into as many as 120 companies per year. The only goal is to make money for Google. And themselves. "We get paid -- or not paid -- depending on the outcomes." So do they use any Google data to make their investments? Not really, says partner Graham Spencer. They're simply trying to take Google's expertise in areas like machine learning and data analysis and apply it to the VC business. "We wanted to apply all these heuristics and rules of thumb that VCs already used and see if they could be turned into something quantitative." So when Google Ventures invests $15 million in DNAnexus, which is hosting the largest public store of information about the human genome (DNA) after the US government cut funding for that project, and DNAnexus turns around and chooses Google to host that data, don't look for conspiracies. Google won't get access to that data -- and even if they could, it's all anonymized anyway. Maris and Spencer spoke for 10 minutes today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.     Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:Microsoft's First Act As The New Owner Of SkypeLos Angeles To Google: We Won't Pay For LAPD SeatsGoogle Music Store Will Launch This Quarter

Right Now, Twitter Is Talking To Agencies About Putting Ads In Your Twitter Stream

Twitter's long-promised in-stream ads are coming soon, the Financial Times reports. How soon? Twitter's revenue boss, Adam Bain, is apparently talking to ad agencies attending the Cannes Lions festival about the new units right now. “Twitter are getting it together, slowly,”  one agency exec told the FT. Twitter will supposedly reach $100 million in revenues this year.  Twitter makes a lot of that money from developers who pay for premium access to its API. Another bit of it comes from Twitter search ads, which are considered disappointing. Click here for an exclusive Q&A with Twitter's forgotten co-founder, Noah Glass >> Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:Google Loves Twitter Enough To Design A Weird Ad Around ItBill Gurley Explains How Twitter Will Rule The World And Why Groupon Won'tWhen James Bond Dissed Steve Jobs

Overstock's Search Tampering Cost It 5% Of Revenue (GOOG, OSTK)

Overstock has said that Google dinging its search rankings has cost it 5% of revenue, Internet Retailer reports. The backstory is that Google caught Overstock buying links to boost its search rankings. That's a big no-no for Google and so it dragged Overstock down on its search rankings. In the words of über-VC Fred Wilson: "Don't be a Google bitch." Don't Miss: Inside Google's Massive Re-Org: Meet The Winners And Losers → For the latest tech news, visit SAI: Silicon Alley Insider. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:Google Cleared To Buy Travel Info Provider ITA With ConditionsHere's How Android Could Help Google Get Business CustomersHere's The Memo Telling ALL Google Employees Their 2011 Pay Depends On Google Sucking Less At Social

Demand Media's eHow Hammered By Latest Google Change (DMD, GOOG)

Google is still tweaking its search formula to knock off results it considers spammy, or low quality. In its first batch of tweaks, Demand Media's popular eHow sites were ranked higher. In a tweak made this week, however, eHow's traffic from Google dropped over 50%, according to SEO blog Sistrix, which tracks this stuff. Here's a look at what Sistrix thinks happened to eHow's traffic. For more on who won and lost from Google's search change, click here.

Don't Miss: In Defense of Google's New Boogeyman, Demand Media For the latest tech news, visit SAI: Silicon Alley Insider. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:Watch Google's Super Elaborate Doodle Today *Android Dominates In South Korea, And Now Google Faces Antitrust AccusationsSergey Brin Threatened To Quit Google – Report

Here Are The Four Kinds Of Online Shoppers, And How To Attract Them To Your Store

What's the ideal marketing mix for ecommerce? Should you focus on SEO, PPC, image search or social? And if social…should you focus on Pinterest? Facebook? Twitter? The answer is: you want a bit of each to match different customer’s shopping style. You need to look at the mindset of the shoppers using each of those channels to optimize for each of them and improve traffic, conversions and ROI.  BloomReach analyzed last-click conversion data across a number of popular ecommerce sites including Neiman Marcus, Guess? and Modcloth. We identified four behavior styles of online shoppers - Hunters, Window Shoppers, Gardeners, and Gatherers. Window Shoppers: Pinterest is the window shopping mega-mall of the web. You don't go there with a destination or product in mind. On Pinterest, it's all about the journey - a visually stunning look at cultivated products, beautiful places and gorgeous people. And in the Pinterest mall, you picked out the "stores" based on who you follow. Like fashion? They've got you covered. Remodeling your kitchen? There's plenty of Pinterest boards for that.  Pinterest users are visually shopping – browsing the Pinboards. Without a clear intent to purchase, you'd assume the conversion rates from Pinterest would be pretty poor and in most cases…you'd be right. Not only is Pinterest growing its user base, but the conversion rate of Pinterest clicks is growing at the fastest rate –  improving 102% over the last three months (but still a low conversion rate).  Some brands, such as Modcloth, turn those window shoppers into happy customers. It starts with great content - either posted by Modcloth or by their customers from the Modcloth.com site. Their unique clothing resonates with the Pinterest user mindset, which is always looking something unexpectedly delightful. And given that their Pinterest conversion rates have more than doubled in the 1st half of this year, Modcloth has done an impressive job converting those visits to purchases. Pinterest visitors have a different intent than Google Image Search users.  Pinterest visitors are browsing while Image Search users are hunting for a specific image.  Google Image Search links don’t make it easy to click through to a product to buy – something active Pinners do.  This makes Pinterest users extremely important consumers. Hunters: As a man, I decide something very specific like "I need a blue button down shirt". From there, it's a matter of finding that shirt for a reasonably good price and paying for it as quickly as possible. I like to think this is efficient. My wife says I shop "Caveman-style". That's fair, but I know what I need and I know it when I see it. I personally could never get to that decision making point without the image since the written description of a shirt's cut and features is a foreign language to me. So it's no surprise that I'm more likely to go from search to click to buy via a visual path. For shoppers like me, my intent to buy is clear but my patience is limited so search is my go-to shopping tool. Hunters use search. And conversion from search visitors dwarfs all other channels because these consumers have the intent to buy. Sites that do a good job with SEO and PPC will get hunters’ business. Google Image Search links don’t make it easy to click through to a product to buy – something active Pinners do. Hunters look for convenience – so the visual search helps, but needs the quick click to the purchase to convert.  Neiman Marcus does a great job of leveraging search (organic and paid) to help prospective customers, who know what they're looking for, find the product and convert. In our sample, they led the way in both organic and PPC conversion rates. This is a testament to gorgeous, well-optimized visual pages that were relevant to the incoming searcher and differentiated products leading towards exceptional conversion rates on those pages. Gardeners: These shoppers cultivate their tastes and the brands they favor with ongoing engagement. Brands that nurture their customer relationships with interesting content - like behind the scenes photos, fashion questions and the opportunity to help choose upcoming products - can leverage that into conversions and sales. Again Modcloth is a terrific example. Their nearly 600k Facebook fans have referral traffic that rivals PPC and conversion rates that exceed Pinterest. Facebook is highly effective at engaging loyal existing customers and ensuring that your brand stays top of mind. These customers drive real revenue AND undoubtedly help spread the word about the brand. Gatherers: Some shoppers are all about the deals. Some rely heavily on their friends' recommendations. For these Gatherers, there's often no place like Twitter. Many companies have found great success with special offers for Twitter followers. And as the Wall Street Journal reported, Twitter’s mobile ads are off to a great start, particularly for promoting time sensitive deals. And undoubtedly, thousands of Tweets ask and answer questions about specific products or categories every day. But let's be realistic about general Twitter conversion rates, which is extremely low compared to other channels. Unless your brand is offering compelling special offers, you won't "sell" directly in a very trackable way on Twitter. The mindset of a Gatherer is to pounce on a great deal or get information, not to browse or search for products.  So unless you are in the flash deal business, Twitter is irrelevant. Just like there's no one-size-fits all for my blue button down shirt, there's no single channel or type of shopper that will give an ecommmerce site the conversions they seek. Companies like Guess?, ModCloth and Neiman Marcus fully understand this fact. They work hard on each type of channel - search and social - to keep a steady, diverse flow of inbound traffic converting on their merchandise.  One last thing to keep in mind…these shopping types can change as a customer progresses through the buying cycle. For instance, a Gatherer could do research on Twitter and then become a Hunter when his mind is made up about what he wants to buy. Many consumers move between Gatherer to Hunter depending on their interests and needs but few ecommerce companies would mind calling all four of the shopping types one thing…happy customers. Just like there's no one-size-fits all for my blue button down shirt, there's no single channel or type of shopper that will give an ecommmerce site the conversions they seek. Companies like Guess?, ModCloth and Neiman Marcus fully understand this fact. They work hard on each type of channel - search and social - to keep a steady, diverse flow of inbound traffic converting on their merchandise.  The optimal mix focuses on attracting hunters first and foremost with effective search strategies.  Building a great relationship with your customers is impactful through Facebook.  Twitter is irrelevant for all but flash deals.  And Pinterest is the window-shopping mall of the Internet – make sure you look good and its easy to buy on an impulse.  Raj De Datta is CEO and cofounder of BloomReach. Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

SEO Madness: You Can Now Buy Google +1s By The Hundred (GOOG, MSFT)

SEO shop Plussem.com is putting Google +1s for sale, The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal reports.  You can buy 50 for $10, 250 for $30, or 2,000 for $170. Something like this was inevitable. Google uses those little +1 sharing buttons it puts next to search results as a criterion in its all-important rankings. So of course someone is going to try to game the system and make money from it.  But what's scarier is that it looks like it may very well work. Plussem promises:

All +1′s come from people with a Google account that has been verified by phone (Phone Verified Accounts) All +1′s come from real people. No bots are being used! All +1′s are being given by manually going to your website and clicking the +1 button It's untraceable because the +1′s are being given from different IP's All +1′s are given dripped over a couple of days so it looks natural

Google can come up with lots of ways to fight against SEO tactics, but we don't really see how it can beat those. Meanwhile SEO shops can hire people from developing countries and pay them a cent per +1 to game Google's results.  When it comes to search, Google increasingly looks like a victim of its own success.  Don't Miss Our Top-To-Bottom Tour Of Google+ → Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:WHOOPS: Google Admits Games Are Coming To Google+Another Celebrity Gets Kicked Off Google+Google+ Claims Its First Victim: Group Messaging App Grouped{In}

Cisco's John Chambers: Q4 Will "Continue To Show Weakness" But "We Know What We Have To Do" (CSCO)

Cisco beat Q3 expectations today but shares dipped in after-hours trading on weak guidance. Cisco CEO John Chambers said on the company's earnings call that Q4 will continue to show weakness. Cisco's Q4 guidance came in at $0.37 to $0.39 non-GAAP EPS on $10.8 billion to $11 billion of revenue. That's well below the Street, which was expecting $0.42 EPS on $11.7 billion of revenue. Cisco warned that GAAP EPS results will be significantly lower, based on restructuring charges. Meanwhile, here's Chambers' canned quote from the earnings release: "This quarter played out as we expected," said John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco. "We have acknowledged our challenges. We know what we have to do. We have a clear game plan, and we are a company with a track record of market-shaping innovation. We thank our shareholders, employees, customers and partners as we transition to the next phase of Cisco." For the latest tech news, visit SAI: Silicon Alley Insider. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:Cisco's Crazy Management Structure Wasn't Working, So Chambers Is Changing ItInside Microsoft-Skype: Meet The Winners And LosersSURPRISE! Google Put Aside $500 Million To Settle Antitrust Complaint

SalesCrunch Wants To Buy WebEx From Cisco For $1 (CSCO)

In what looks like a publicity stunt, two-year-old startup SalesCrunch just made Cisco an unsolicited offer for WebEx, the web conferencing business Cisco acquired for $3.2 billion back in 2007. SalesCrunch wants to pay Cisco $1 for WebEx -- plus a 15% equity stake in SalesCrunch. Yes, the offer is for real, we're told. And we love the gutsy fun of it, even though we can't imagine Cisco will. SalesCrunch had previously approached Cisco but the talks didn't get far, founder and CEO Sean Black told Business Insider.  "We met with them about six months ago in San Francisco," he recalls. "It quickly became clear that the only way to get them to take our offer seriously is to bring it to the attention of the shareholders." Because SalesCrunch is genuinely offering a 15% stake, Black believes Cisco is "going to have to talk about it now. The board is going to have to have a conversation," he says. When Cisco hit troubled waters in 2011, rumors circulated that it was looking to unload WebEx, even though Cisco offered a limp-wristed denial at the time. This gave Black the idea that Cisco would be willing to sell. SalesCrunch is a WebEx competitor, known for its management tools. It's browser-based meetings don't require a download or plug in. Plus it documents everything from who is using the service at any given time  to which meeting participants are secretly answering e-mail. (Disclosure: Business Insider is a customer of SalesCrunch, though the SAI editorial staff doesn't use it.) Cisco has already met its promised goal to cut $1 billion in expenses and has declared its restructuring is over. It posted overall growth in its last quarter, too. So it doesn't need to shed more business units -- even an oddball business for it like WebEx. Cisco consistently points to its Collaboration unit -- of which WebEx is a member -- as a key area for its future. The Collaboration unit posted over a $1 billion in net sales in its last quarter, up from $952 million in the year-ago quarter. That makes it Cisco's third-largest business unit. Cisco doesn't break out WebEx's results, but Black from SalesCrunch estimates that it could be doing about $600-$700 million in revenue per year. This is based on the $380 million of revenue in 2007 when Cisco bought it and assumes 15% growth, which Black says is typical for the web conferencing market overall. Since launching in April 2010, SalesCrunch has done well, accumulating 10,000 users across about 30 enterprise customers including Yelp, CareerBuilder and Jive, says Black. Please follow SAI: Enterprise on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:These Former Google And Cisco Engineers Want To Change Online MarketingAll Those E-mails From Pinterest Are Very Good For This GuyNow, Dell Says It's Not A PC Company