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Posts Tagged ‘feature’

Yahoo! has recently introduced an inline video play feature that shows videos directly on the video search results page. Now, searchers can view videos directly on the search results page without entering the site where a particular video is hosted.

The inline viewing feature happens to be a bit controversial feature since the sites boasting videos will definitely want the traffic to the sites. With the large number of embeddable videos and the new feature, searchers will end up viewing videos off-site.

Anyway, if searchers wish to use the inline viewing feature they can click “Play Now” under the thumbnail of the video search result. This will open a large overlay window and play the video on the results page.

This is very interesting to know that adCenter team is getting feedback from the advertisers and thereby improving features to give you more control over over targeting, bidding and distribution of the several advertising campaigns.

The adCenter provides Feedback Form that allows the advertisers to fill up their feedback that will help adCenter team to improve advertising features.

Further, the adCenter offers Feedback & Feature Request Thread on its discussion forums, which enables the advertisers to share their opinions and see other's views as well.

All these steps have been taken to enhance and improve different advertising campaigns. As mentioned in the blog of Carolyn Miller, feedbacks and requests from advertisers will be seen by the appropriate teams at Microsoft and immediate action will be taken.

According to the adCenter team, people sharing their feedback and requests need to mention the reason as to why certain features are important for them, because it helps the team to evaluate good ideas.

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The Google Webmaster Central Blog has reported the launch of a new feature on Google Image Search that lets users restrict their search results to images that have been tagged for free reuse. Below is a video by by Peter Linsley that explains how webmasters can let Google know which licenses their images available under using RDFa markup.

Webmasters can put their questions forward in Webmaster Help Forum, in case they have any queries regarding how to mark up images!

American's news source, The Onion reports via Google Blogoscoped that Google has a new service that lets you opt out of Google services if you want to protect your data or privacy. Below is a satirical video from the news source:

Google has recently rolled out a new feature called Bid Simulator for AdWords in an aim to show advertisers the potential impact of a bid on their advertising results, thereby ensuring a better understanding of the costs and click-through volumes.

Even though, Bid Simulator cannot predict the future or estimate the future results accurately, it can help with analysis of the data from the past seven days. It allows advertisers to examine what could have happened if they had taken different keyword-level bids. With the help of the historical data of the previous week, the Bid Simulator re-calculates the number of impressions for which an ad could have shown if the advertiser would have chosen a different maximum CPC or a higher bid, how many clicks that the ad could have received for those impressions and how much those clicks could have cost!

It seems Bid Simulator would help advertisers make better and more informed decisions when it comes to determining which keywords to change spend on. To use Bid Simulator, advertisers need to navigate to the “keywords” tab in their AdWords account and then click the bid simulator icon in the Max. CPC column next to the current bid of any keyword. This will list bids above and below current maximum CPC and list the estimated number of clicks and cost. By clicking the relevant radio button advertisers can change their maximum CPC rate up or down and save results!

Here is a screenshot:

Google seems to be testing changes to its “show more results from” feature and has come up with a wider use of the feature. Google removed the simple HTML link to a site command feature and now it shows several more results in the same search results page. It is using an AJAX (JavaScript) driven plus sign box that adds five more results to the web results.

Plus sign closed:

Plus sign opened:

Yahoo! has made a change to the Yahoo! Shortcut.Yahoo! Shortcut appears at the top of the Yahoo Search results page when users search for a local business. It basically shows things like how many reviews or ratings a business has. With the change, Yahoo! went on to include links to information users tend to take interest in, such as actual text of the reviews, photos and driving directions. The content is displayed right on the search results page.

In the above snapshot, you can see new options appear in the form of tabs below the business entry. Users can read the reviews, see the photos or get driving directions by just clicking a tab. The enhancement in the Yahoo! Shortcut will help users see a selection of reviews and images for a business directly on the search results page. Yahoo! hopes this will save users lots of time and help them get required information in one place.

The Google team is constantly updating Google Maps with new features. After adding new search layers for iphone 3.0 users that allowed them to to locate specific location without even inserting the exact place where they are. Now, Google Maps has introduced Street View Smart navigation. This tool will help users navigate the world’s geographically located photos. It offers 3D navigation between Street View panoramas. It also has the option to browse user-contributed photographs that match Street View images.

Here’s an example:

Many Panoramic users have uploaded a wide range of photos, which have been taken from different angles, at different times of day and zoomed into different regions. In order to link all these images into Street View, Google Maps has launched a new feature that allows users to navigate between similar user-contributed photos. The feature is useful especially when one photo is zoomed in region of another. The first image shown in the photo viewer, a small set of zoom polygon are displayed which indicate that close-up photos are available to explore.

To view an image just mouse over one of the polygons. Then, double-click the image to view it. After viewing one or more images, the back button appears next to the photo title. The button will allow you to move back through the selected sequence of photos. This new feature will surely allow you to explore wide range of photos in an entertaining and interesting manner.

Google AdWords Blog informs about a new way to run local ads via Location extentions. With the help of this feature advertisers will be allowed to add their addresses to their search ads.

Location extensions allows advertisers to “extend” their AdWords campaigns by attaching your business address to your ads, dynamically. With the introduction of this feature, you’ll be able to create local ads with extensions from scratch or add extensions to your existing text ads.

Users with existing local business ads, will continue running unless you don’t edit them. In case you edit, your ads will be converted to a text ad with the ad’s address attached as a location extension. This new ad will appear in the same spot as your previous local business ads. The creation and management of local business ads will have complete support of the AdWords Editor. The Editor support for location extensions will be released very soon.

Login to your AdWords account to try the local extensions, then click on setting and select Audience section, choose “Show relevant addresses with your ads.” Once extensions are created, Google will dynamically match your business locations to a user’s location or search terms and display the address with your text ads. By setting up specific location extensions for individual ads, you’ll be able to show a specific address in a particular ad.

This new feature will be rolled out in the coming weeks. However, only few advertisers have access to the feature for now. To know more about editing local business ads in the new interface visit Google AdWords Help Center.

A few days ago, Google introduced “Search with My Location” for iPhone 3.0 that allowed users to locate specific location without even inserting the exact place where they are. In addition, Google recently announced a new search feature for Google Maps and a feature for Google Maps for Mobile.

With the help of the first feature users can perform multiple searches on the same map. The feature provides driving directions, identify various gas stations, golf courses, supermarket and more, along the way. For each landmark you are looking for, Google Map will plot colored round circle.

Here’s an example:

The Google Maps for Mobile version 3.2 now supports layers is the second feature introduced. Now, some devices will be able to support all the various layers, to lay on top of the maps. Some of the common examples of layers are geographic content, local search results, Latitude friend locations, Wikipedia and more. Moreover, you also have the option to add your own My Maps content as a layer.

To activate the layers on Google Maps for mobile 3.2, press “2″ key or select Layers in the menu. Currently, this feature is only available for Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile phones. However, more devices will soon support this feature.