Search Engine Optimization Help

AOL has weighed in with a heavy hitting list of 2009’s top searches in the categories below.
AOL’s top searched celebrities for 2009

michael jackson
robert pattinson
rihanna
farrah fawcett
kim kardashian
megan fox
jon and kate
miley cyrus
patrick swayze
natasha richardson

AOL’s top searched news stories [...]

….

AOL is looking to cut 2,500 jobs. Before they go through the tough choice of choosing who to let go, they’re asking if anyone wants to volunteer to get the axe.

Oh, how I’ve been there and oh, how this sucks for AOL-ers. Goodbye, productivity. Hello, everyone trying to figure out if they’re safe.

At least the process seems to have a defined endpoint. AOL says they expect to incur $200 million in costs from “re-structuring” and that those costs will incur before the December 9 spinoff date.

In preparation for being spun off from Time Warner, AOL has hired executives to their financial team and announced one additional board member.

Here’s a list of the financial execs:

• Mike Suffredini - Vice President and Treasurer
• Eoin Ryan - Vice President of Investor Relations
• Don Neff, currently a Senior Vice President of Finance, will become Senior Vice President of Internal Audit.
• Ned Brody - rejoining the company as Executive Vice President of Paid Services

Meanwhile, Susan Lyne, Chief Executive Officer of the online luxury retailer Gilt Groupe, Inc. has been named to the Board of Directors. Last week, AOL named nine board members for the post-separation operations.

Once AOL is spinned off from Time Warner, it will require a Board of Directors. Today, nine members were named. They are:

Richard L. Dalzell made a name for himself at Amazon, where he started held a variety of executive-level roles from 1997 until 2007. Prior to Amazon, Dalzell was VP of Information Systems at Walmart.

Karen E. Dykstra is a partner at Plainfield Asset Management LLC, and has been COO and CFO of Plainfield Direct Inc. since 2006. Plainfield manages investment capital for institutions and high net worth individuals. Prior to joining Plainfield, Dykstra was the CFO of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. Dykstra serves on the boards of Plainfield Direct Inc., Gartner, Inc. and Crane Co.

William R. Hambrecht founded and has been Chairman and CEO of WR Hambrecht + Co since 1998. WR Hambrecht + Co is a financial services firm specializing in Internet and auction processes and tech company underwriting and advisory services. Before that, Hambrecht co-founded Hambrecht & Quist. Hambrecht is a co-founder of the United Football League, which premiered in October 2009. Hambrecht currently serves on the board of Motorola, Inc.

Patricia E. Mitchell has served as President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media, a non-profit cultural institution, since 2006. Before that, Mitchell was President and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service from 2000 to 2006. For more than two decades, she was an award-winning journalist and producer. She has served as President of Time Inc. Television and CNN Productions, and was a partner in an independent production company which focused on women’s programming. Mitchell serves on the board of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Michael K. Powell was Chairman of the FCC from 2001 to 2005 and has also served as the Chief of Staff of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. Since his FCC gig, Powell has served as a Senior Advisor to Providence Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on media, entertainment, communications and information investments, since 2005. Currently, Powell is Chairman of the MK Powell Group, a tech and media communications consultancy. Previously, Powell was an associate with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Powell serves on the boards of Cisco Systems, Inc. and Education Management Corporation. He was also named Chairman of NTT DoCoMo’s 5th U.S. Advisory Board.

Fredric G. Reynolds served in many executive-level roles at CBS and Viacom from 1994 until he retired in August 2009. Reynolds serves on the board of Kraft Foods Inc.

James R. Stengel has been President and CEO of The Jim Stengel Company, LLC, a think tank and consulting firm, since 2008. Stengel is also currently an adjunct marketing professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Stengel was at at Procter & Gamble from 1983 to 2008. Stengel serves on the board of Motorola, Inc.

James A. Wiatt has been an independent consultant since June 2009. Wiatt served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the William Morris Agency from 1999 until 2009. Before joining WMA, Wiatt was Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of International Creative Management, a talent management company. A graduate of the USC, Wiatt is a member of the Board of Councilors of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, former Chairman and current member of the Board of the Los Angeles Police Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Music Center of Los Angeles.

“AOL is very fortunate to have an exceptional group of proven leaders to serve on our board of directors. AOL is on a mission to help create the future of media and content and the AOL Board will play a central part in helping us focus the strategy and also operate the company with the highest ethical standards,” said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. “These individuals bring independent judgment and a dedication to building shareholder value, and they will be a tremendous resource for our company, our employees, and our future.”

The state of Viriginia has created a new technology board called the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority (IEIA). The thirteen-member board will consist of 12 citizen members and the state’s Secretary of Technology. Of the 12 citizen members, three will be presidents of state higher-education institutions, three each appointed by the governor, state senate and state house. AOL’s Chief Technology Officer, Ted Cahall, has received one of the three state senate appointments.

“The IEIA is an important new organization that will help enhance Virginia’s role as a world technology leader, and I’m honored to have been selected to be a part of this effort,” said Cahall. “I look forward to working with the distinguished group of politicians and citizens on the IEIA to support technology and innovation in the Commonwealth.”

AOL was founded in Northern Virginia in 1985.

MapQuest has a couple of big announcements this week. First up, their new GeoRSS Embeddable Maps allow web publishers to add maps to their sites that feature locations they wish to share. Let’s say you have a blog about coffee. Perhaps you create a map sharing your favorite local coffee shops.

The GeoRSS Embeddable Maps work with online services that provide a feed of location data. Such services include sites like Flickr, Yelp, Brightkite or When.com.

Next up is a new iPhone app. The app features voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions. The app also optimizes routes, taking into account things like traffic and construction.

It’s not cheap compared to most apps, but compared to other navigation apps (or buying a GPS gadget), it’s a good deal. After a 14-day trial for 99 cents, you’ll have to shell out $3.99 a month, $9.99 for three months, or $29.99 for three months.

AOL has tapped Shashi Seth as Senior Vice President of Global Advertising Products. Seth was formerly with Cooliris and before that was at Google. Prior to leaving Google, he was charged with the difficult task of developing monetization strategies for YouTube. Seth previously was the Product Lead for Web Search at Google.

Seth also spent time at eBay, where he managed APIs & Platform. Before that, he launched Gap’s online stores. Seth began his career at NASA.

“Shashi is unmatched in the industry as an innovator with an outstanding track record of developing new and better ways to serve advertisers on the Web,” said Jeff Levick, President of Global Advertising and Strategy at AOL. “As we move forward on our strategy of becoming the world’s largest provider of display advertising, Shashi will play a critical role in creating the best products in the business for our advertising partners.”

Seth is the latest of the fresh talent to head to AOL. Earlier this year, Tim Armstrong left Google to head up the struggling internet company. A few weeks ago, news came that ex-Yahoo! Brad Garlinghouse of “Peanut Butter Manifesto” fame is joining AOL as well.

In 2006, Brad Garlinghouse made waves at Yahoo! by releasing the “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” which outlined a bunch of organizational and administrative problems he felt Yahoo! had. As senior vice president at the time, he felt Yahoo! was spread thin and needed focus, leadership, and accountability.

During the turbulence that accompanied the post-Microsoft acquisition rejection, Garlinghouse left Yahoo!

Now, he’s been tapped to run Internet and mobile communications at AOL. He’ll be based in Silicon Valley.

Garlinghouse isn’t the only big name to join AOL. Tim Armstrong left Google to run AOL earlier this year.

AOL is the latest to get into the “real-time” publishing game. They’ve added Real-Time Topics to each section of news on their homepage.

When you click on a link in the Real-Time Topics section, it will take you to Love.com, a site that tracks buzz and hot stories.

To fill the top position of global operations at Bebo, AOL (which acquired the social network last year), promoted from within. VP and COO Stephane Panier will now oversee advancing the social network worldwide.

“Stephane is a proven strategist and operator with executive experience from some of the world’s leading brands and businesses,” said Brod. “He is the ideal leader to build on Bebo’s existing successes, to chart a course for its future, and to execute against that vision.”

Prior to joining Bebo this past January, Panier worked at Google for six years, holding upper level management positions in Finance and Operations. Before the Google stint, Panier was a management consultant for Booz & Company where he focused on energy and hi-tech.

AOL parent company Time Warner released its quarterly earnings this morning and the news is not pretty.

Revenue came in at $804 million, a decrease of 24% over Q2 2008, which brought in $1.06 billion. The decline was almost evenly split among online advertising ($111 million, a 21% decrease) and internet access subscriptions ($135 million, a 27% decrease).

Time Warner has spent $20 million so far in the process of prepping AOL to become a separate, independent company. Earlier this week, Time Warner bought back Google’s 5% stake in AOL for $283 million, a big dip from Google’s original $1 billion investment back in 2005.

When the Time Warner board voted in late May to spin off AOL, buying back Google’s 5% stake in the company would be a prerequisite for the sale. This week, Time Warner did just that.

The return on investment, however, was not so hot. Google invested $1 billion in 2005 to acquired the 5% stake. They only got back $283 million.

Other statements made in the filing are quite telling of the possibilities for AOL’s future. Google currently powers the search on AOL (including paid search). That will be in place until December 19, 2010, but they’re leaving open the possibility of ditching Google after that.

They may then strike up an agreement with an alternate search engine, such as Yahoo! or Microsoft, or Microhoo. Though, with former Google exec Tim Armstrong now running things at AOL, I’d prefer to see AOL go for broke and develop their own search engine.

AOL also plans to maintain some licensing agreements with Time Warner.

Kate Burns has been tapped by AOL to lead its European Sales division. Burns formerly ran social network Bebo, which was acquired by AOL last year. Prior to that Burns spent time at Adlink and Google UK.

“AOL has a solid foundation in Europe, with a strong Web presence in many countries and a leading advertising network, and I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues and with AOL’s partners to build on this foundation,” said Burns.

Burns will report to AOL Global Advertising and Strategy President Jeff Levick

“Europe is key to realizing our mission of being the largest global platform for online display advertising. Kate is the right person to build our European management sales team and lead this effort,” said Levick. “Kate is a well recognized and highly respected leader in Europe who has the talent, energy and determination to scale our European operations and deliver on this strategy.”

AOL maintains ad operations in nine European countries including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

AOL Canada has relaunched their homepage and in case you couldn’t tell, Pepsi has bought some advertising (Click on image to enlarge):

The relaunch is based on the update of the AOL.com homepage in the U.S last fall. That relaunch has been good to AOL, with increases of 23% in unique visitors, 34% in total page views and 61% in total minutes consumed year over year, according to comScore’s Media Matrix for May 2009.

“The launch of the new AOL Canada portal follows the tremendous successes we’ve experienced in both the U.S. and the UK, enabling exciting new opportunities for the Canadian market,” said Edward Kwan, Senior Director of AOL Canada. “In terms of advertising, Platform-A Canada will now have the capability to expand its reach across more relevant and media-rich content and channels.”

The new AOL.ca features the ability to check mail from a variety of providers (AOL, GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail) as well as the opportunity to update social networks including Facebook, Twitter, AOL-owned Bebo, and MySpace. AOL’s popular instant messaging client, AIM, is also included.

“With today’s Internet ever-expanding and consumers engaging in multiple social networking platforms, it is essential that their experience on the Web is both personalized and integrated,” said Kwan.

Additional AOL.ca features include:

• Customized backgrounds with multiple new designs from which to choose;
• Ability to add any customized links to the homepage so users can more easily access their most frequently visited sites;
• Users can drag and drop to reorder channel navigation to suit personal preferences;
• Users can add RSS feeds and personalized categories to get content from their preferred external sites.

What do you think of the new AOL.ca? Share your first impressions in the comments below.

Truveo, the video search site acquired by AOL a few years back, has relaunched. Before we get into the details, let’s be clear: Truveo is not a YouTube wannabe. Their focus is purely on indexing video around the web.

So, now that we have that settled, let’s take a look at what’s changed and then how you can incorporate this fast-growing site into your online marketing and PR efforts.

First up, here’s the before and after:

Before

After

As you can see, they’ve made the focus on search quite obvious.

The results page is laid out in three columns. On the left hand side is a list of sites where results have been indexed. In the middle are the video results, with tabs to sort by popularity and other factors. There are suggestions for search refinement where applicable. On the right is a display ad box with a focus on a particular channel underneath.

But looking at the results, where is the opportunity for search marketers? There’s the display ad box, but no sponsored listings.

Leveraging Truveo will instead involve public relations and viral marketing. Since many of the sites that Truveo indexes are news sites, earned media is key. Additionally, Truveo tracks popular videos shared via Twitter, so word of mouth and viral social media marketing can help with getting visibility on Truveo as well.

The nice thing about those strategies is that the ultimate visibility of successful marketing and PR campaigns will be widespread. Generally, you’ll see a lift in other channels too, if you can manage to get a big media site to cover you. Think of the links - that will be natural! - and the effect they’ll have on organic results!

But why would you focus such intent efforts on Truveo. You’ve never even heard of Truveo. Well, you, my friend are getting closer to being alone in that sentiment as the months roll by.

May was a huge month for Truveo, according to President Pete Kocks. He’s hoping that the new site reflects the video search focus while resonating with internet users worldwide.

“With the launch of the new Truveo.com, we are showcasing the breadth of content discoverable in our search engine,” said Pete Kocks, President of Truveo and Vice President of AOL. “With thousands of channels and TV shows in our index, Truveo has long been recognized as a leader in video search technology, and today we are building on that reputation with an improved experience that makes discovering and sharing video content even easier and more personalized.”

That video content is highly popular in international locations. Because certain locales in Europe, the Middle East and South America have access to better bandwidth and because of the extent of Truveo’s video indexing, the site is more easily consumed internationally.

As a result, it comes as no surprise that the relaunch comes with the announcement of two partners: Univision and Tiscali Italia. Both will leverage Truveo’s API to deliver video search on their sites.

Speaking of the API, it fuels the video search on all of AOL’s sites. Considering the extent to which Truveo indexes video content, third party developers would be wise to incorporate the API to provide a nice value add to any site.

Truveo also has an iPhone app as well as a site optimized for mobile web surfers. They’re certainly on the ball and their increasing traffic is showing that they’re offering something that internet users really want: comprehensive video search.

AOL-owned MapQuest has been available as a free application for Blackberry users and now iPhone users are getting the goods as well. While MapQuest has been available on the mobile web, apps are usually faster and more user-friendly.

One of the highlights of the app is a “carousel” of options shown at the bottom of a map. It offers icons for things like gas stations and hotels. Click on an icon and find nearby locations of the selected category.

Below is a map of an area in north/west Raleigh. The icon for “coffee” has been selected.

The carousel is easy to use and quite convenient. You can select multiple categories to display and simply click again to stop showing a category. It will only show what’s in the Map View, so zoom in or out to expand or decrease the locations shown on your screen.

The app, however, needs a lot of work in the search department. The app consistently returns a “No Search Results Found” button - for everything from “Cedar Point” to “Washington Monument” to “Las Vegas.”

You also need to sign into an account if you want to access “My Places” features. Registering and signing into accounts via mobile phone is a pain.

Right now, the app is perfect for finding nearby coffee, hotels, traffic conditions, etc. Hopefully in the future we’ll see better search and more functions without needing a MapQuest account.

AOL is making local a core part of their business model. And it’s a worthy goal. Local searches grew 58% in 2008 and $103 billion will be spent on local advertising (both online and off) this year.

Still, the local search niche has a bit of an identity crisis. We’ve seen prospective progress such as CitySquares, the newly launched Bing, and the mobile search space. Now, AOL seeks to help consolidate the space with the acquisition of two local content providers: Patch and Going.

Patch is a local news and information provider while Going is centered more around events that locals can discover and share. Of course, AOL already owns one of the most popular online mapping resources in MapQuest.

The combination of search, local and mapping could be the perfect storm for AOL, if new CEO Tim Armstrong has his way.

“Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today — there’s a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily,” said Tim Armstrong, AOL’s Chairman and CEO. “It’s a space that’s prime for innovation and an area where AOL has a significant audience and a valuable mapping service in MapQuest.”

Of course, Armstrong came to AOL from Google, a company known for innovation in search.

“Going forward, local will be a core area of focus and investment for AOL,” said Armstrong. “The acquisitions of Patch and Going will help us build out our local network further with excellent local services that enable people to stay better informed about what’s going on in their neighborhood.”

The Time Warner Board has voted and AOL will be spun off into an independent company. Right now, Time Warner owns 95% of AOL and Google owns the other 5%. Time Warner plans to buy back the 5% Google stake in the third quarter of 2009 before it spins off AOL.

Brand spankin’ new AOL CEO (and former Google VP) Tim Armstrong had this to say:

This will be a great opportunity for AOL, our employees and our partners. Becoming a standalone public company positions AOL to strengthen its core businesses, deliver new and innovative products and services, and enhance our strategic options. We play in a very competitive landscape and will be using our new status to retain and attract top talent. Although we have a tremendous amount of work to do, we have a global brand, a committed team of people, and a passion for the future of the Web.

AOL is made up of media and internet access services. Last year, there was talk of splitting those two divisions into two companies, but thus far, nothing has come of it.

Despite AOL’s relatively small chunk of the search market (compared to Google), it’s Platform-A online ad network is highly successful, consistently ranking at the top of comScore’s online ad rankings and reaching 91% of the U.S. internet audience.

How do you think AOL will fare on its own? Share your predictions in the comments.