Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 marks the 30 year anniversary of when the Pac-Man video game was released. To celebrate this phenominal interactive computing milestone, Google has changed their homepage logo to an interactive one that you can play the Pacman game live, online and right from Google.com. Pretty Cool!

Google PAC-MAN 30th Anniversary Interactive Video Game Logo

 
Watch a video of me wasting time playing Field Testing this interactive search engine feature:

The recent Local University marketing workshop held here in the Twin Cities had a line up of local search marketing speakers that was by far and away the most proficient local SEM panel ever assembled. Ever. Being a search engine marketer myself, whom works on many local and small business campaigns, I thought I would share some of the little local gems and actionable items that I took away from the event.

WebRanking loves getting involved with great organizations like Local University

Disclaimer: The following is not intended to supplement or replace the information that can be gathered by attending a Local U workshop in person. It is only a small sampling of what can be gained from this event. If you are an SEO/SEM and not currently enrolled in an upcoming Local U seminar, you are here by advised to do so at the earliest opportunity.

WebRanking has 2 tickets to the morning session of the Twin Cities Local University Workshop on Thursday, May 13th in Edina, Minnesota that we are giving away in a contest. If you are interested, just fill out the entry form below for your chance to win.

All entries must be in by Tuesday, May 11th at Noon (12:00pm CST)

The free ticket contest is now closed. Thanks for all the submissions! And the winner is…

Google New SERPs Navigation

We first noticed Google testing their new SERPs format back in April.

Since then we have been left to wonder if and when the new search page layout would go live ad if there were any changes that would be made to their format as well.

It appears that the only thing missing from the early tests is the “Not Entirely Unlike” section.

From “Not Entirely Unlike” to “Something Different”

Test SERP: Not Entirely Unlike

New SERPs: Something Different

Google Logos – Then and Now

Google's Original TM Logo

New Cleaner Looking Google Logo

The Internet ads have been spotted, etailers have posted their shopping guides, social trends are getting hot, and search queries are rising sharply.

It’s official, Mother’s Day Marketing Season is in full bloom along with the tulips!

Bing.com Shopping Promo for Mother's Day 2010 Bing.com Homepage Text Ad to Mother's Day Gift Guide »»»   Yahoo Homepage Ad

With interest and search volume on the rise (and still rising), and time running out, you will need to consider moving quickly to tap into the remaining Mother’s Day season for SEO, PPC and Social Media.

Google Trends Mother's Day 2010 - April 30 Day Search Trend

Ask.com went down this morning for at least an hour with what appears to be a server DNS Failure.

Ask.com DNS Failure

Maybe Ask decided to observe Earth Day by shutting down their website for an hour to save energy. I wonder how many searches were lost saved as a result? 🙂

Yelp has been getting a lot of attention recently and none of it is for being funny, useful or cool. With multiple lawsuits in the works, and claims of extortion and review manipulation being bantered around daily, the integrity of Yelp’s has been up for debate. In an attempt to quell those complaints and add more transparency to the process of how reviews are filtered, Yelp announced today on their official blog two major changes to the way they do business.

The first change, and one that has been requested by reviewers and business owners alike, is the ability to see the reviews that get caught in the oh so secretive review algorithm. That’s right, all of those reviews deemed to be from disgruntled ex employees, revenge seeking former lovers, unethical competitors, robots, the business owner’s family and the solicited 5 star customer are now available for all to see.

Want to discover reviews for your favorite restaurant or even your own business that didn’t make the cut to prime time? Here’s how you do it:

 
Kudos to Paul Kragthorpe for spotting what is either a Good Friday (long weekend) test or a limited/controlled release of a new format for Google’s search engine result pages (SERP’s).

Google New SERP for TEST

Always a clever one to notice similarities, Paul remarks seem to be on point:

This is the third and final part of my interview with Luther Lowe, Business Outreach Manager at Yelp.

In the first part we discussed what it means to be Yelp’s Business Outreach Manger, the recent class action lawsuit brought against their company and how Yelp is a transactional social media website. While part two covered why Yelp frowns on review solicitation, how they protect businesses from fraudulent reviews and the do’s and don’ts on interacting with customers who have posted negative reviews about your business.

Today we will discuss the free and paid tools that are available to businesses, the possibility of opting out of Yelp reviews and a new webinar series designed exclusively for small businesses.

Following is the final piece of my three part interview with Luther:

This is the second part of my three part interview with Luther Lowe, Yelp’s Business Outreach Manager. In Part One, we discussed what it means to be Yelp’s Business Outreach Manger, the recent class action lawsuit brought against their company and how Yelp is a transactional social media website.

In this second part of the interview we look at why Yelp frowns on review solicitation, how they protect businesses from fraudulent reviews and the do’s and don’ts on interacting with customers who have posted negative reviews about your business.

Following is the second part of my three part interview with Luther: