5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

June 24th, 2011 by Search Influence Alumni

FTC to Target Google in Antitrust Investigation — Mashable

With the launch of several civil subpoenas, the Federal Trade Commission is poised to launch the most thorough and comprehensive antitrust investigation into Google’s business practices yet. While many of Google’s acquisitions have been investigated in the past, this movement promises to be the most comprehensive search of its kind. The allegations that Google uses its position of prominence to stifle competition will surely be a subject of inquiry, with inevitable comparisons to the famous 1998 United States vs. Microsoft. Given the zeal with which the FTC has fought to take over the case, they won’t be looking to go home empty-handed.

6 Commonly Ignored Website Requirements & 10 Tips To Remember — Search Engine Land

Often, website creation involves a massive number of people working toward the same goal. To avoid butting heads with your production, design and developer partners, it’s usually a good idea to create a requirements doc to put everyone on the same page. This handy article gives several tips and tricks for a well-crafted set of requirements that will hopefully lead to a well-crafted website!

10 kick-ass features in Google Analytics v5 — Conversation Marketing

A long-time staple in the SEO professional’s toolbox, Google Analytics is getting a facelift with some slick new features added on. Among the shortcomings addressed will be multi-touch attribution (allowing one to visualize the effect different campaigns have on sales, leads, etc), multiple dashboards and navigation improvement.

Is There a Tablet Market or Just an iPad Market? — i2G

While mobile marketing is rapidly becoming a huge part of SEO, the tablet demographic has been more or less limited to iPad users. Greg Sterling takes a look at the data that indicates that, despite the best efforts of companies such as Motorola and RIM to overtake the market, the iPad is here to stay. Now if only they’d roll out that rumored Facebook app…

Changes To AdWords Geo-Targeting Coming Soon — Search Engine Land

The old-school method of targeting ad campaigns by drawing on a Google Map is coming to an end; starting on July 8th, users will have to choose a map point with a radius to mark out geographic area. Local advertisers will have to modify their strategies to compensate for the less customizable and precise tool — what do you plan on doing with the new system?