Hot on the heels of last week’s Read/Write World effort, Bing Maps has announced another ambitious project that will improve its imagery collection. It’s called the Global Ortho Project and the goal is to provide consistent, high resolution (30 cms) imagery across every square inch of the United States and Western Europe by June, 2012. Some major cities and landmarks (like Cowboys Stadium above) already have hi-res imagery but, as any experienced online map user can tell you, the photos often get much worse in smaller towns and cities. No more, Bing says. In a video about the project, Program Manager Robert Ledner calls it “a complete game changer” and says Bing Maps will be the first in the industry to offer the same visual experience in “a little farm town in Iowa” as in any major city. “There’s no other competitor that has the same consistency of quality. The amount of of data that we’re pushing through, the speed that … [Read more...] about Hi-Res Aerial Imagery Coming To Entire US and Western Europe
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After Killing SES, Incisive Media Seems To Think “OMG” & Tries To Bring It Back
Incisive Media, which purchased the Search Engine Strategies conference when it was near the height of attendance, killed the brand entirely last year in place of a new ClickZ Live event. But now, after what seems to have been a disaster of the first ClickZ Live show, the company is scrambling back to revive SES. The Rise & Fall Of SES Conflict of interest time. My company, Third Door Media, competes with Incisive in the event space. For those who don’t know, I’m the guy who programmed the first SES conference back in 1999, back in the day that SES was owned by Internet.com, Alan Meckler’s company. And I ran it all the way through 2006, after Incisive Media purchased SES along with the old search site I used to run, Search Engine Watch. If you want the backstory from my perspective, see these: I don’t have a lot of good feelings about Incisive Media, since it’s a company I felt decided to come into the search marketing space without any background and … [Read more...] about After Killing SES, Incisive Media Seems To Think “OMG” & Tries To Bring It Back
Why SMX Social Media Marketing Is A Must-Attend Event
Social media marketing is hot—and everyone agrees that it has become a must-do activity for all companies wanting to connect with customers, reach out to prospects and maximize brand awareness. A recent study by online ad agency Collective found that 90 percent of marketers want to try new things online, and 62 percent of marketers anticipate increasing social media spending in the next 6 months. Yet, astonishingly, only 12 percent believe that social media marketing is valuable for brands. What explains this remarkable disconnect? We believe it’s because most companies don’t fully understand and aren’t leveraging the advantages that this powerful new form of marketing offers. They’re using familiar tactics and techniques that have worked in the traditional world of marketing, but that fall flat in the new online social media universe. Or companies fail at the crucial task of honestly engaging with customers in a genuine, social way. Worse, they … [Read more...] about Why SMX Social Media Marketing Is A Must-Attend Event
The Day In Search, August 11, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. Game On: Google+ Now Offers Games You knew it was coming: Google+ now includes games. According to a screenshot posted on Google’s announcement, there are currently 16 games available at launch, including popular titles like Angry Birds, Bejeweled and others. Games are rolling out “gradually” starting today, Google says. Users will see a colorful, new button at the top of the […] Google Images Improves Relevancy & Quality Algorithm This week, several webmasters at WebmasterWorld noticed that the results in Google Images seemed to surface the original source of the images more of the time than it did in the past. I wrote about this at the Search Engine Roundtable as Google Images possibly improving their image source detection algorithm, but it is more. […] How To Improve Crawl Efficiency With Cache Control Headers Way back at the end … [Read more...] about The Day In Search, August 11, 2011
The Day In Search, March 8, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. The Farmer Panda Impact Nobody Is Talking About I’ve seen a few hundred articles and columns and blog posts about the GFP update, ranging from small SEO blogs all the way up to the Wall Street Journal. The primary focus of all these articles has been two-fold. First, those who are operating what was deemed as “shallow” content have taken a hit in […] Enchantment: Guy Kawasaki On Why Your Focus Should Be On Working Magic Some business books aim to teach you how to take your game to the next level. Others, how to delight your customers and increase profits. Still others coach you on interacting with your peers, boss and other key “stakeholders” who are key to your success. Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by […] Google Makes Mobile Instant Previews Official Google’s Instant Preview feature, which … [Read more...] about The Day In Search, March 8, 2011