Entries from December 2009

Sweet - she's on-time...

My wife travels often for work, and by default, I usually act as her own personal car service.  As such, I am found using search for a flight status for whatever airline she may be flying that week.

Somewhere between April’s Delta flight from Monterey and November’s American Airlines flight from Indianapolis, Google has become fantastic at showing me the information I’m looking right on the SERP (search engine results page), above the organic listings without ever having to leave the search engine.  Every bit of information I’m looking for is right there.

Furthermore, if you’re lucky enough to have a Google enabled phone, you just push the Google Voice Search button, say the airline and flight number and, voila, the information you need is at your fingertips – making it very user-friendly to search while driving as well.

Continue Reading Please Don’t Leave Me – Search Trends for 2010 →

Over the weekend, I learned that I was accepted into the Microsoft Pivot technical preview program.  It was totally unexpected given that this is a super secret and coveted preview program, but I guess they found my application worthy.

Microsoft also allowed me to share my license with 9 of my closest friends, so if you are interested, you should download Pivot too!  (Note, that since this is a Microsoft product, it only works on Windows Vista and Windows 7 – so many of you might be out of luck).  Here are the download/license instructions:

Continue Reading Data Visualization: We Are Giving Away 9 Microsoft Pivot Licenses! →

We are Google’s favorite place! You read it correctly!  After years of hoping, prodding, sweat and tears, I can finally announce to that Three Deep Marketing is Google’s favorite place in the United States, and presumably the world.

I would like to thank my family, friends, acquaintances, complete strangers and people who I might meet in the future; we couldn’t have done it without you!

In the mail today, Three Deep received a package from Google containing a large window sticker with a bar code, like the image shown to the right.  I have been anticipating this package for the past 10 days; ever since reading this announcement from Google.  I knew it was only a matter of time before Google would send us an affirmation of how much they truly like our organization.

What does it take to be Google’s favorite place?  A strong presence for your local business listing.  Those fortunate enough to receive this designation and a package in the mail (about 100,000 exclusive businesses)  have worked hard to optimize their local business listing on Google so that they often show up in local business oriented search results.

Continue Reading Three Deep is Google’s Favorite Place →

Before reading too much into the title, please make note that this article pertains to the paid search engine marketing practices of Amazon and Zappos.

While getting dressed this past Monday, I found that through general laziness toward laundry and a hectic travel schedule, I was left with one pair of dress socks.  These socks were getting old, and had sprouted a few holes in them through everyday wear and tear.

For most normal people, there is a clear solution; go to the store and buy new socks.   I wish it were that easy for me. The truth is that I live in the frigid state of Minnesota, and the cold weather conditions have lead me to despise shopping in “brick and mortar” anytime during our cold season, which generally runs from October to May.

Continue Reading Why Amazon is More Relevant than Zappos →