Tax sites rapidly grew in January as millions of Americans looked to begin preparing to file, according to comScore, the digital measurement firm. Many Americans also booked travel to escape the winter doldrums, while others resolved to begin the new year by researching new careers and education programs.
“In January, the average U.S. Internet user spent a record 36 hours online, reflecting the growing importance of digital media to Americans’ daily lives,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore.
“Among the biggest category gainers in this heavy month of Internet usage were Travel and Career sites, which posted double-digit gains, and of course Tax sites as the non-procrastinators among us decided to get an early jump on getting their refunds.”
Winter Blues Melt at Travel Sites Several Travel subcategories were among the top-gainers in January, including Transaction sites which grew 28 percent to 3.7 million visitors. TravelPN.com led the category with 798,000 visitors (up 11 percent), followed by Viator.com with 642,000 (up 9 percent), WWTE.com with 442,000 (up 86 percent) and OneTime.com with 278,000 (up 48 percent).
Car Rental sites jumped 22 percent to 6.2 million visitors during the month, led by Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company with 3.2 million visitors (up 14 percent). Avis Budget Group ranked second with nearly 2 million visitors (up 19 percent), followed by Hertz with 1.3 million (up 21 percent), CarRentals.com with 793,000 (up 30 percent) and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. with 790,000 (up 27 percent).
A trip wouldn’t be complete without lodging, so it is not a surprise that Hotels/Resorts also ranked among the fastest-growing Travel sites. The category attracted 33.2 million visitors in January, representing an 18-percent increase.
Marriott secured the #1 position in the category with 5.1 million visitors (up 30 percent), followed by Disney Parks & Travel with 4.8 million (up 36 percent), Hilton Hotels with 4.6 million (up 25 percent) and Expedia Hotels with 3.3 million.
Career-Minded Americans Research Options Online As the new year began, Americans turned their focus to career services and education. Traffic to Job Search sites grew 27 percent in January to 24.2 million visitors. Indeed.com Job Search ranked as the category leader with 13.7 million visitors (up 33 percent), followed by CareerBuilder.com Job Search with 9.8 million (up 27 percent), Monster.com Job Search with 5 million (up 28 percent) and SimplyHired.com with 3.5 million (up 42 percent).
Training and Education sites also gained traction, with a sizeable increase of 23 percent to 14.7 million visitors. LiveCareer.com topped the list with 1.2 million visitors (up 58 percent), followed by AesopOnline.com with 940,000 (up 44 percent), FastWeb.com with 736,000 (up 30 percent) and Learn4Good.com with 599,000.
Tax Sites Spike as Season Begins Visitation to Tax sites swelled in January as millions decided to get a jump on filing and hopefully getting a refund check from Uncle Sam. More than 30.7 million Americans visited a Tax site in January, up 359 percent to rank as the fastest growing category.
Top 50 Properties Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in January with 187.4 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 179.2 million and Yahoo! Sites with 177.2 million. LinkedIn.com jumped 8 positions to rank #29 with 36.8 million visitors, while Everyday Health, which helped many fulfill their New Year’s resolutions to be healthier, leapt 10 positions to #38.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking Google Ad Network led the January Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 92.9 percent of Americans online, followed by AOL Advertising (85 percent), Yahoo! Network Plus (84.8 percent), ShareThis (82.4 percent) and AT&T AdWorks (82.3 percent).
Table 1
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)January 2012 vs. December 2011
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Dec-11
Jan-12
% Change
Rank by
Unique
Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience
220,439
220,154
0
N/A
IRS.GOV
5,044
16,259
222
107
ED.GOV
5,201
9,160
76
185
Pinterest.com
7,516
11,716
56
148
Travelocity
4,869
6,957
43
241
Kayak.com Network
5,851
8,087
38
210
ChaCha.com
9,151
12,279
34
138
Orbitz Worldwide
8,965
11,868
32
141
Info.com
5,883
7,740
32
219
Dominion Enterprises
9,622
12,650
31
131
Indeed
12,928
16,985
31
103
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in January 2012. Excludes entities whose growth was primarily due to tagging through unified digital audience measurement.
Table 2
comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)January 2012 vs. December 2011
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Dec-11
Jan-12
% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience
220,439
220,154
0
Business/Finance – Taxes
6,685
30,715
359
Retail – Computer Software
41,616
54,081
30
Travel – Transactions
2,913
3,730
28
Career Services & Development – Job Search
19,098
24,209
27
Career Services & Development – Training and Education
11,979
14,679
23
Travel – Car Rental
5,079
6,197
22
Travel – Hotels/Resorts
28,035
33,213
18
Career Services & Development – Career Resources
46,145
54,398
18
Entertainment – News
100,121
116,229
16
Travel – Ground/Cruise
12,164
14,097
16
Table 3
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)January 2012
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank
Property
Unique
Visitors(000)
Rank
Property
Unique
Visitors(000)
Total Internet : Total Audience
220,154
1
Google Sites
187,368
26
Twitter.com
38,410
2
Microsoft Sites
179,220
27
ESPN
38,296
3
Yahoo! Sites
177,249
28
Technorati Media
38,227
4
Facebook.com
163,505
29
LinkedIn.com
36,848
5
Amazon Sites
109,997
30
NetShelter Technology Media
34,954
6
AOL, Inc.
107,085
31
Tribune Interactive
34,517
7
Ask Network
93,954
32
AT&T Interactive Network
33,780
8
Glam Media
90,895
33
Disney Online
32,708
9
Wikimedia Foundation Sites
88,527
34
iVillage.com: The Womens Network
31,942
10
Turner Digital
84,041
35
Alloy Digital Network
30,782
11
CBS Interactive
81,631
36
Yelp.com
30,668
12
Apple Inc.
81,536
37
Fox News Digital Network
30,283
13
New York Times Digital
80,161
38
Everyday Health
30,208
14
Viacom Digital
76,254
39
Netflix.com
29,777
15
eBay
71,554
40
Superpages.com Network
28,971
16
Federated Media Publishing
70,260
41
Break Media
28,252
17
Demand Media
61,344
42
The Washington Post Company
27,602
18
VEVO
59,000
43
Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.
27,580
19
Weather Channel, The
58,643
44
Verizon Communications Corporation
26,763
20
craigslist, inc.
53,431
45
NBC Universal
26,546
21
Comcast Corporation
52,890
46
Target Corporation
26,142
22
Gannett Sites
46,620
47
Cox Enterprises Inc.
25,529
23
Answers.com Sites
44,377
48
Discovery Digital Media Sites
25,265
24
Wal-Mart
41,462
49
Internet Brands, Inc.
25,263
25
Adobe Sites
41,451
50
Myspace
25,124
Table 4
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)January 2011
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank
Property
Unique
Visitors (000)
% Reach
Rank
Property
Unique
Visitors (000)
% Reach
Total Internet : Total Audience
220,154
100.0
1
Google Ad Network**
204,468
92.9
26
CPX Interactive**
124,089
56.4
2
AOL Advertising**
187,109
85.0
27
Adconion Media Group**
120,144
54.6
3
Yahoo! Network Plus**
186,587
84.8
28
Undertone**
118,198
53.7
4
ShareThis
181,372
82.4
29
Traffic Marketplace**
116,903
53.1
5
AT&T AdWorks**
181,247
82.3
30
AOL, Inc.
107,085
48.6
6
Google
179,685
81.6
31
Meebo
98,130
44.6
7
Yahoo! Sites
177,249
80.5
32
Technorati Media**
97,287
44.2
8
ValueClick Networks**
176,229
80.0
33
Bing
95,661
43.5
9
24/7 Real Media Global Web Alliance**
176,227
80.0
34
Smowtion Ad Network**
95,226
43.3
10
Microsoft Media Network US**
174,276
79.2
35
Ask Network
93,954
42.7
11
Tribal Fusion**
170,715
77.5
36
Glam Media
90,895
41.3
12
Facebook.com
163,505
74.3
37
Amazon.com*
90,774
41.2
13
Casale Media – MediaNet**
162,269
73.7
38
Rocket Fuel**
89,373
40.6
14
AdBrite**
162,088
73.6
39
Wikipedia.org
88,224
40.1
15
PulsePoint**
154,100
70.0
40
Kontera**
86,005
39.1
16
Specific Media**
153,336
69.6
41
Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)**
78,243
35.5
17
Collective Display**
151,427
68.8
42
Windows Live
74,579
33.9
18
AudienceScience**
149,336
67.8
43
Federated Media Publishing
70,260
31.9
19
Cox Digital Solutions – Network**
146,632
66.6
44
Dedicated Media**
67,243
30.5
20
Vibrant Media**
143,793
65.3
45
About
62,480
28.4
21
interclick**
139,508
63.4
46
Demand Media
61,344
27.9
22
Burst Media**
133,900
60.8
47
Weather Channel, The
58,643
26.6
23
YouTube.com*
126,279
57.4
48
MTV Networks Music
53,932
24.5
24
MSN
125,561
57.0
49
Redux Media Network**
52,684
23.9
25
AdBlade Network**
125,421
57.0
50
Apple.com
49,689
22.6
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in January. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 80.1 percent of the 220 million Internet users in January.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
Cyber criminals have maintained their concentration on financial institutions, social media and gaming sites, and are sharpening their focus on popular loyalty programs as well, according to PhishTank, a community website operated by OPenDNS where anyone can submit, verify, track and share phishing data.
Of list of top 10 brands targeted by phishing criminals in January, half are banks or financial institutions. The list includes PayPal, MasterCard and JP Morgan Chase among others.
Top 10 Identified Targets
Valid Phishes
1
PayPal
6,317
2
Facebook
993
3
TAM Fidelidade
741
4
Santander UK
537
5
Mastercard
291
6
Cielo
257
7
AOL
241
8
Poste Italiane
211
9
Bradesco
179
10
JPMorgan Chase and Co.
174
Loyalty rewards programs are also becoming a more popular target for phishing, as they allow cyber criminals to not only breech personal financial data, but to leverage victims’ existing rewards points in much the same way they would currency. Two notable Brazilian loyalty programs, Cielo Fidelidade and TAM Fidelidade, made the list of January’s top ten targeted brands.
Last month we reported that cyber criminals took advantage of the holiday season by focusing their efforts on creating phishing sites to spoof financial services organizations and the travel industry.
However, it seems that they’re back to their old tricks again. Social media and gaming companies are again topping the list of most popular brands as their momentum in pop culture increases. Facebook, the world’s second most popular website, climbed back to near the top of the list of most targeted brands in January to become the second most popular target for Internet bad guys.
The PhishTank community submitted nearly 20,000 phishing sites to PhishTank in January and, through a comprehensive review and evaluation process that included more than 78,000 individual votes, deemed 71 percent of those phishes valid.
That means OpenDNS users around the world are now prevented from accessing an additional 13,892 phishing sites. On average, the PhishTank community was able to move suspected phishing sites through the verification process, and eliminate the threat to OpenDNS users, in just two hours.
Since PhishTank was founded in 2006, the PhishTank community has successfully verified more than 800,000 phishes. PhishTank data ensures the safety of more than 30 million OpenDNS users, who are automatically prevented from reaching phishing sites.
In addition, PhishTank protects the collective millions of customers of some of the world’s largest technology companies, many of which use the site’s data to incorporate anti-phishing functionality into their services. More information, statistics and graphics related to January PhishTank findings can be found here:http://www.phishtank.com/stats/2012/01.
Facebook is expected to file for a $5 billion (or more) IPO this week, reports saying sometime today (Wednesday, Feb. 1). Here a Forbes video rundown on the possibility of the most anticipated IPO of the year and likely to be one of the largest in history:
AOL sees 10 percent gains in ad revenue
Is AOL finally on the right track? The one-time major force in the Internet world has had a rough time for years now. CEO Tim Armstrong’s strategy of making it a media powerhouse with ad revenue replacing its once lucrative Internet access business.
The company reported a Q4 2011 increase in ad revenue of 10 percent, primarily from gains provided by Patch, it’s local news blog effort. Still, the company saw its overall revenue drop 3 percent to $576.8 million, from $596 million in the same period last year.
It’s big acquisitions have not fared so well. It’s $315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post and $25 million TechCrunch buy have not proved all that wise so far. After TechCrunch’s founder Michael Arrington and some of its top talent departed, the site lost much of its bite and luster, it seems to us. Huffington Post has serious competition from The Daily Beast, which we like better, personally.
An old law, the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), prohibits companies like Netflix or Blockbuster from sharing a person’s movie-rental history. Although the House passed an updated version of VPPA, some Senate Democrats are balking at allowing streaming media services such as Netflix to share user rental histories on social media such as Facebook.
Those questioning the wisdom of passing the updated House bill include Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who also authored the 1988 VPPA act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) that drew enough protests to halt its progress. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) chair of the subcommittee hearing considering the revised House bill, questioned the bill’s clarity.
From some of the things we’ve read that Sen. Leahy has said in regard to the SOPA and PITA acts, we’re not sure he doesn’t need a remedial course in digital technologies and the Internet economy.
You can hear Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix, in person at the upcoming 2012 Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29-March 1.
Is social media a waste of time? If it is, we’re wasting a lot of it. Nielsen reports that Americans spend more time on Facebook than on any other site, Twitter has sparked and nurtured global revolutions, and Google+ is forging ahead.
Schools.com, though, says social media is not a waste of time and created this infographic to show why:
Has TechCrunch seemed anemic to you since founder Michael Arrington left following a dispute with management? It seems to have less bite. Now, the Financial Times reports, top editorial and management talent is deserting AOL and TechCrunch.
FT says three top names left this month, including Brad Garlinghouse, head of AOL’s Silicon Valley office, Sarah Lacy, a senior TechCrunch writer, and Saul Hansell, a former New York Times reporter who was senior editor at the Huffington Post (now owned by AOL, as is TechCrunch).
TechCrunch already lost senior writers Paul Carr and MG Siegler, and rumors say it may also lose Heather Harde, the chief executive.
AOL bought TechCrunch for $25 million last year, but sacking Arrington was not the firm’s smartest move.
Music labels drop Spotify
More than 200 music labels from UK distributor STHoldings have dropped Spotify, saying in a statement, “We have concerns that these services cannibalise the revenues of more traditional digital services.”
The distributor also pulled its content from Rdio, Napster, and Simfy.
STHoldings said in its statement that it feels the music of its artists “Loses its specialness by its exploitation as a low value/free commodity.”
We’re not sure they’re right about that. While we’re not particularly fans of Spotify, which wants to tell everyone on Facebook every thing you listent to and requires a Facebook connection, we do use Pandora, which recently removed the 40 hour restriction on how much listeners can tune in free, and Radio IO, which streams FM quality music.
Both have introduced us to new music, new genres, and new artists and music purchases.
Windows Phone 7 marketplace features 40,000 apps and games
We’ve tested half a dozen phones, including a Windows Phone 7 from HTC, and several phones running the Google Android system and the Windows Phone was had the most intuitive, easiest to use operating system. Microsoft was late to the smartphone game, but that may turn out to be an advantage.
We recently saw a Tweet from one of our most tech savvy friends and an Apple iPhone fan who tested a Windows 7 Phone for an article in another publication who said just about the same thing, admitting he was tempted to switch to it.
But when buying a smartphone, users want not just the phone but the apps that make them smart and Apple’s AppStore is loaded with 140,000 of them.
The Windows Phone Marketplace, though, now has more than 40,000 apps. Since many apps are just variations of others – there are multiple apps to do common tasks, from taking notes to losing weight. Developers are getting on the Windows Phone 7 wagon – there were only 35,000 apps available for it in October and 30,000 in August, so its adding 5,000 apps a month.
We’re not the only ones who think the Windows Phone 7 may grab a significant chunk of market – both Gartner and IDC have forecast that it will be the number 2 platform by 2015. – Allan Maurer
Google Sites led the explicit core search market in October with 65.6 percent of search queries conducted, according to comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR).
U.S. Explicit Core Search
Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in October with 65.6 percent market share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 15.2 percent and Microsoft Sites with 14.8 percent (up 0.1 percentage point). Ask Network accounted for 2.9 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.5 percent.
comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report* October 2011 vs. September 2011 Total U.S. – Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity
Explicit Core Search Share (%)
Sep-11
Oct-11
Point Change
Total Explicit Core Search
100.0%
100.0%
N/A
Google Sites
65.3%
65.6%
0.3
Yahoo! Sites
15.5%
15.2%
-0.3
Microsoft Sites
14.7%
14.8%
0.1
Ask Network
3.0%
2.9%
-0.1
AOL, Inc.
1.5%
1.5%
0.0
*”Explicit Core Search” excludes contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.
More than 18.0 billion explicit core searches were conducted in October, marking a 6-percent increase versus September. Google Sites ranked first with 11.9 billion (up 6 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.7 billion (up 4 percent) and Microsoft Sites with 2.7 billion (up 6 percent). Ask Network delivered 518 million searches (up 2 percent), while AOL, Inc. rounded out the top five with 277 million (up 5 percent).
comScore Explicit Core Search Query Report October 2011 vs. September 2011 Total U.S. – Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity
Explicit Core Search Queries (MM)
Sep-11
Oct-11
Percent Change
Total Explicit Core Search
17,103
18,077
6%
Google Sites
11,171
11,863
6%
Yahoo! Sites
2,644
2,741
4%
Microsoft Sites
2,516
2,678
6%
Ask Network
507
518
2%
AOL, Inc.
265
277
5%
U.S. Total Core Search
Google Sites accounted for 66.2 percent of total core search queries conducted (up 0.8 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.3 percent and Microsoft Sites with 13.6 percent (up 0.2 percentage points). Ask Network comprised 2.6 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.4 percent.
comScore Total Core Search Share Report* October 2011 vs. September 2011 Total U.S. – Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity
Total Core Search Share (%)
Sep-11
Oct-11
Point Change
Total Core Search
100.0%
100.0%
N/A
Google Sites
65.4%
66.2%
0.8
Yahoo! Sites
17.2%
16.3%
-0.9
Microsoft Sites
13.4%
13.6%
0.2
Ask Network
2.6%
2.6%
0.0
AOL, Inc.
1.4%
1.4%
0.0
* “Total Core Search” is based on the five major search engines, including partner searches, cross-channel searches and contextual searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in these numbers.
Americans conducted 20.3 billion total core search queries in October, up 5 percent versus September. Google Sites ranked first with 13.4 billion searches (up 6 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.3 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.8 billion (up 7 percent).
comScore Total Core Search Query Report October 2011 vs. September 2011 Total U.S. – Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Google Sites led the explicit core search market in August with 64.8 percent of search queries conducted, according to comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world. If we ever see one of these comScore search engine reports start by saying another search engine captured the lead, we’d be surprised, but Bing (used on Microsoft and Yahoo sites), Ask Network all made slight gains for the month.
U.S. Explicit Core Search
Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in August with 64.8 percent market share, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.3 percent (up 0.2 percentage points) and Microsoft Sites with 14.7 percent (up 0.3 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3.0 percent of explicit core searches (up 0.1 percentage points), followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.3 percent.
comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report* August 2011 vs. July 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity
Explicit Core Search Share (%)
Jul-11
Aug-11
Point Change
Total Explicit Core Search
100.0%
100.0%
N/A
Google Sites
65.1%
64.8%
-0.3
Yahoo! Sites
16.1%
16.3%
0.2
Microsoft Sites
14.4%
14.7%
0.3
Ask Network
2.9%
3.0%
0.1
AOL, Inc.
1.5%
1.3%
-0.2
*“Explicit Core Search” excludes contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.
More than 17.1 billion explicit core searches were conducted in August, with Google Sites ranking first with 11.1 billion searches. Yahoo! Sites came in second with 2.8 billion (up 1 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 2.5 billion (up 1 percent). Ask Network delivered 510 million searches (up 3 percent), followed by AOL, Inc. with 229 million.
comScore Explicit Core Search Query Report August 2011 vs. July 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity
Explicit Core Search Queries (MM)
Jul-11
Aug-11
Percent Change
Total Explicit Core Search
17,141
17,122
0%
Google Sites
11,158
11,090
-1%
Yahoo! Sites
2,764
2,782
1%
Microsoft Sites
2,473
2,510
1%
Ask Network
494
510
3%
AOL, Inc.
251
229
-9%
U.S. Total Core Search
Google Sites accounted for 64.4 percent of total core search queries conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 18.5 percent (up 0.6 percentage points) and Microsoft Sites with 13.3 percent. Ask Network comprised 2.6 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.2 percent.
comScore Total Core Search Share Report* August 2011 vs. July 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity
Total Core Search Share (%)
Jul-11
Aug-11
Point Change
Total Core Search
100.0%
100.0%
N/A
Google Sites
64.8%
64.4%
-0.4
Yahoo! Sites
17.9%
18.5%
0.6
Microsoft Sites
13.4%
13.3%
-0.1
Ask Network
2.6%
2.6%
0.0
AOL, Inc.
1.3%
1.2%
-0.1
* “Total Core Search” is based on the five major search engines, including partner searches, cross-channel searches and contextual searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in these numbers.
Americans conducted 19.5 billion total core search queries in August (up 1 percent). Google Sites ranked first with 12.5 billion searches (up 1 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.6 billion (up 5 percent) and Microsoft Sites with 2.6 billion (up 1 percent).
comScore Total Core Search Query Report August 2011 vs. July 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity
Total Core Search Queries (MM)
Jul-11
Aug-11
Percent Change
Total Core Search
19,218
19,482
1%
Google Sites
12,456
12,541
1%
Yahoo! Sites
3,444
3,610
5%
Microsoft Sites
2,573
2,592
1%
Ask Network
494
510
3%
AOL, Inc.
251
229
-9%
“Powered By” Reporting
As a part of comScore’s commitment to accurately represent the continued evolution of the search landscape, comScore is providing insight into the share of organic Core Explicit searches that are powered by Google and Bing.
In August, 66.8 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google (vs. 67.2 percent in July) while 27.1 percent of searches were powered by Bing (vs. 26.8 percent in July).
UPDATED – The first time we saw Tech Crunch leak a memo from inside AOL and discuss it as frankly as it would any other business story, we figured it would only be a matter of time before AOL and Tech Crunch disrupted each other’s day.
Now, Fortune is reporting that AOL fired Arrington, leading to speculation that TechCrunch could lose other contributors and its position as a leading tech blog. Personally, it seems less nuanced and more colorless already.
AOL bought Tech Crunch about a year ago for $25 million and promised the snarky site founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington editorial independence. Last week Arianna Huffington fired Arrington from his own site when he formed an investment fund (the Crunch Fund) with AOL. That led to Arrington issuing an ultimatum to AOL. Now we’re not entirely sure if Huffington was trying to maintain TechCrunch’s editorial independence or if Arrington is.
Large corporations such as AOL and the executives who run them do not always realize that legitimate news operations treat their own corporate masters the same way they do any other corporate masters unless someone brings a hammer down.
Now don’t get us wrong, journalists are not free of influence, no matter how hard they try to be, and lots of folks beside AOL take issue with the way Tech Crunch covers (or doesn’t cover) some stories. We recently saw an entire stream of complaints about it in threads on Google+. But TechCrunch, up to now, maintained an independent voice – whether we like it or not.
As a journalist with 35 years of professional experience spanning daily newspapers, major magazines, books, and thousands of news and feature articles for online news outlets, I’ve seen this news vs. corporate values battle play out many times. One of the primary difficulties is that the players really do often have vastly different value systems. Executives of public companies are charged with creating shareholder value and producing profits, not with guarding the independence of a news organization.
Editorial Independence
Traditional journalists have a completely different value system based on creating and retaining the trust of their readers, which requires that much discussed “editorial independence.” Admittedly, in today’s world, advocacy journalism, particularly on TV and the web, have become increasingly dominant. And, certainly, many people a journalist covers would prefer that only one voice be heard.
A source for a Tech Journal story about municipal cable systems we did once, asked us, “Does this have to be another ‘he said, they said,’ story?” Well, yes.
Any way, last week, AOL brought that proverbial hammer down on TechCrunch, although it’s hard to tell which side is really fighting for editorial independence.
In a memo about the site’s editorial independence, Arrington wrote:
“As of late last week TechCrunch no longer has editorial independence. Some argue that the circumstances demanded it. I disagree. Editorial independence was never supposed to be an easy thing for Aol to give us. But it was never meaningful if it shatters the first time it is put to the test.”
He proposed two options to AOL: reaffirm the site’s editorial independence and autonomy from the other top AOL editorial property, the Huffington Post, or sell TechCrunch back to its original shareholders.
The real question, despite the objections of the TechCrunch staff, may be whether or not the site can deliver real objectivity, with or without Arrington, and others are whether the investment fund deal with AOL (or his other investments) comprises his independence on TechCrunch. What do you think? –Allan Maurer
WASHINGTON, DC – AOL has an enormous amount of content posting daily, including the Huffington Post, and it wants as many hits on each story as possible. The man in charge of AOL’s search engine optimization efforts, Simon Heseltine, says one key is adaptability. “Working in SEO is a constant education,” he says.
“You have to keep your finger on everything all the time. Google changes its (SEO) algorithm daily. Some changes are minor, some very noticeable. But change is inevitable and it can change very quickly.”
People figure out how the algorithm is ranking stories and take advantage of it, resulting in once but no longer successful tactics such as keyword stuffing. Google not only changes the algorithm daily, tweaking it, the company also runs Panda from time to time. The initial run knocked out a lot of content farms relying on SEO tricks instead of high quality content.
Heseltine, a director of search at a DC agency prior to joining AOL, writes a regular column for SearchEngineWatch.com on a variety of topics within the marketing industry, and has previously written for other industry sites, such as SearchEngineLand.com (for their in-house marketing column). Simon teaches SEO at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. as part of their Digital Media Management program.
Will discuss how social affects SEO at Digital East
He is among dozens of Internet, digital media, social media, and marketing experts who are participating in Tech Media’s Digital East conference at Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29. He will discuss the effects of social media on AOL’s SEO efforts at the event.
We asked him to share four quick SEO tips with us.
Four SEO tips
Make sure the search engines can crawl your site
First, he says, “Make sure your site is crawlable (by search engine spiders). It’s amazing how many sites the engines can’t actually crawl because of a mistake with the site’s architecture or robo settings preventing the engines from crawling it.” This is no joke.
WordPress, the blogging system bringing you the TechJournal and tens of thousands of other blogs online, has a privacy setting that has to be checked to allow search engines. When we shifted from a different content management system to WordPress, it was not turned on immediately and of course led to a serious loss of traffic.
“When people move from a staging site to production, a lot of people forget to move the site to public so the engines can crawl it,” Heseltine says.
Find the right key words
Second: “Make sure you type in the right key words. Find out what people are looking for that is relevant to your story and make sure that’s what you target.”
Use key words
Third: “Make sure you use those key words in the headline and the content.
Link to yourself -
And fourth, “Make sure you link to yourself.” By that he means link to your site’s previous content to “spread readers around your site.” There are software products that will help do that. It is otherwise a time-consuming to do by hand. We have noticed that we get hits on that past content when we link to it in newer stories, however, so it does work.
Heseltine doesn’t stop there. “This is important,” he adds. “Write for readers, not for search engines.”
Regarding social media and SEO, which he will discuss more fully at Digital East, Heseltine says, “Even if you are not going to use a particular social network now, reserve your name on them. You don’t want spoofing (where a third party grabs the name and posts using it).
He also offers a warning: “If anyone out there is actually looking for an SEO company and you see a “guarantee” they can get you into the top five or ten results, run, don’t walk to the nearest exit. With all the changes the engines make, no one can guarantee to get you in the top five or ten.”
He didn’t say this, but even if they can, if the company uses so-called “black hat SEO” tactics, they’ll eventually get caught and your company’s Internet rankings may suffer accordingly – which is what happened to retail giant JC Penney.
The CEOs on the President’s Job Council “must know what they’re doing, right?” asks Bill Gunderson, president of Gunderson Capital Management Inc. and host of the “Positively Wall Street,” radio show in San Diego. Gunderson says a handful of the CEOs the President chose for the council are not representative of what the country needs right now.
The President met with his Jobs Council in Durham, North Carolina Monday amidst much hoopla. But, Gunderson points out that six of the CEOs have been slashing jobs the last few years.
For instance: General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, chair of the council, has slashed GE’s job rolls by 20 percent since 2000; Intel, led by council member Paul Ottellini, shed 21 percent of its U.S. workforce in the last five years. GE, Gunderson notes, “returned minus 6.6 percent to its investors over the last ten years.”
What’s Citigroup doing in there?
Of other firms on the council, he says, “Southwest may be a good airline, but it lost 4 percent a year for the last ten years. Eastmann Kodak has been diving 20 percent a year for ten years. Citigroup recieved one of the biggest bailouts in history. Not sure what they’re even doing in there.”
Not only that, “The council members who used to be CEOs at AOL and Time Warner made business history by engineering the worst merger in history.”
We should note in former AOL CEO Steve Case’s favor that he has actively invested in and supported numerous startups since leaving AOL.
Still, Gunderson has a point. President Obama has often taken advice from the same Wall Street honchos who played roles in getting us into the economic mess of the last several years. The advice he’s received and the actions he’s taken may have prevented economic meltdown, but they have not given the economy the real boost it needs, nor created nearly enough jobs.
A few firms Gunderson would prefer to see on the council?
How about Autozone (AZO) or Apple (AAPL) or Priceline (PCLN), all rated “A” in his proprietary system, he asks.
Lots of good companies, good people, but not on the council
He tells TechJournalsouth, “I’ve rated Quality Systems Inc. as one of the Best Stocks Now in the country. Over the last ten years, it has returned an average or 38.4% per year to its owners. Including 47.4 in 2008, when the market went down 38 percent. Led by one of America’s best CEO’s, Steven Plochocki, they are decreasing the cost of healthcare by automating records. Over the last five years, they have gone from 661 to 2000 employees.”
He adds, “At Tractor Supply, CEO Jim Wright is hiring 1000 people a year to work in his stores, many selling organic farm supplies to city slickers. His stock is returning 41 percent a year in growth and dividends for the last 10 years. Harold Hamm runs Continental Resources, an oil and gas exploration and production company. Over the last three years, Continental has hired 15,000 people in North Dakota. They are looking for more.”
Gunderson says that of the 2,700 stocks he covers, 10 percent are investment grade.
“That’s a lot of good people from good companies, but none is on the president’s job commission.
Tax sites rapidly grew in January as millions of Americans looked to begin preparing to file, according to comScore, the digital measurement firm. Many Americans also booked travel to escape the winter doldrums, while others resolved to begin the new year by researching new careers and education programs.
Cyber criminals have maintained their concentration on financial institutions, social media and gaming sites, and are sharpening their focus on popular loyalty programs as well, according to 
Facebook is expected to file for a $5 billion (or more) IPO this week, reports saying sometime today (Wednesday, Feb. 1). Here a Forbes video rundown on the possibility of the most anticipated IPO of the year and likely to be one of the largest in history:
Has TechCrunch seemed anemic to you since founder Michael Arrington left following a dispute with management? It seems to have less bite. Now, the 
We’ve tested half a dozen phones, including a Windows Phone 7 from HTC, and several phones running the Google Android system and the Windows Phone was had the most intuitive, easiest to use operating system. Microsoft was late to the smartphone game, but that may turn out to be an advantage.
Google Sites led the explicit core search market in August with 64.8 percent of search queries conducted, according to comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world. If we ever see one of these comScore search engine reports start by saying another search engine captured the lead, we’d be surprised, but Bing (used on Microsoft and Yahoo sites), Ask Network all made slight gains for the month.
