As you keep adding words to the query, the results would change, showing also different ads.

Well, Google is testing instant streaming search results as-you-type in Google Labs, and a few users can access to it.

Search results shifting continuously seem to be annoying, but you can turn the live updating feature off and have search results delivered traditionally after pressing the enter button.

Good for Mobile Search, but PPC?

While this feature raises concerns for Adwords campaigns (how would it count ad impressions?), it actually would make sense for mobile search, delivering results instantly and allowing search refining on the go.

Probably the best usage scenario would be on touchscreen smartphones equipped with physical keyboards, users would just need to pick the best result without having to click on the Google Search enter button.

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The Official Google Blog doesn’t mention Bing obviously, but describes instant scrolling (Google will load 1000 results organized in “pages”, but you can click to get more at the bottom of the list) and the other key element of Google Images new design: a dense tiled layout that is the result of removing the text that described each image (size, weight, URL) in the old design.

To be able to read information about the image, you just have to hover the mouse cursor over the image and a larger preview with the image description will swiftly appear.

If you like an image but it’s not 100% what you are looking for, clicking on “Similar” will open a new image search page that will show results that Google’s algorithm classified as similar to the one you selected. This is one of the best executed and most useful features of Image Search.

Clicking on an image takes to a landing page that shows the image in a frame on top of the page hosting it, which is shown as a background. From a usability standpoint the interface is better than the old one that used to show a small thumbnail on a frame at the top of the browser window.

Display Ad Builder Tool for Image Search Ads

A cool demo of the Display Ad Builder Tool shows how to create Image Search Ads. You just need to choose a template, customize your ad with a headline, description and click text, load an image (process not shown in the demo), indicate the destination URL and Google will create different display network ad formats for you.

As you can see in the image above, the ad text in the demo is sometimes shown only partially because of the different ad sizes, but this issue doesn’t occur in the actual Display Ad Builder Tool.

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Depending on your interests, Google Ad News could be a useful, time-saving resource to keep up to date on various fields of advertising like search, display, mobile, tv, radio, print, direct marketing.

Top Advertising News are featured as default selection on the Ad News feed column, but all main offline and online marketing channels are covered and have a dedicated section with a feed you can subscribe to.

Feeds from the Official Google Blog, the Inside AdWords Blog and Google Ad Innovations provide a convenient way to access news broadcast directly by Google.

A couple of issues Google Ad News needs to fix

If you are using Internet Explorer 8, Google Ad News won’t look very nice on your browser. Is it a “subtle” hint to transfer to Chrome?

A potentially more serious problem resides in the algorithm vulnerability to spam. Google News inability to detect keyword stuffing in press releases can lead to some funny results appearing in the news feed.

This problem could be limited to press releases issued by SEO or PR companies, who incidentally are the ones more likely to use press releases as a link building tool, but shows that the algorithm needs refinement in order to select and present relevant news like a human editor would.

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To add Sitelinks to your campaign (Ad Sitelinks will be the same for all ads in your campaign) you need to select the “Show additional links on my site” option in the “Ad Extensions” section under the Campaign Settings tab.

You can select up to ten links, but only 4 will be eventually chosen, depending on the keyword that triggered the ad and the ad’s quality score.

As you can see in the screenshot example above, Ad Sitelinks offer opportunities to segment users and direct them further down the purchase funnel. It’s also possible to organise Ad Sitelinks according to brand segmentation or direct users to the most converting pages, choosing brief but effective ad text for the links.

SEO for sitelinks in organic search results

Sitelinks are one of the solutions Google implemented to offer enhanced listings in natural search results, providing more options to users by allowing them to jump directly to important pages of a site, bypassing the homepage and navigation menu.

Pages ranked at the top position on the SERP can show eight sitelinks, arranged in two columns; other search results will feature up to four sitelinks listed in one single row above the URL.

Users can have an overview of a site’s structure and best content before choosing a search result over another, but not all sites will have sitelinks and they would be automatically generated by Google’s algorithms. In this example it’s interesting to see two different anchors Google used for the same destination page, “Streaming” and “Calcio Streaming”.

In fact webmasters cannot choose which pages would appear as sitelinks or the link text, but it’s possible to exclude a page from sitelinks from Google Webmaster Tools.

How to get sitelinks for your website on Google

Google hasn’t revealed the algorithm behind sitelinks: Webmasters can only speculate about it and test different theories.

Sites that show sitelinks in search results are well structured, have a clear hierarchy and consistent text links. Search engines need to be able to navigate the site, understand the navigation hierarchy, the meaning of categories and the topic of sub-pages.

According to Bill Slawski of SEO by the SEA, an authority in analyzing search engine patents, sitelinks would appear to help users in navigational queries. Pages could be shown depending on log file analysis and data collected from Google Toolbar: Web page popularity would be a primary factor, determined by CTR, traffic data and links pointing to the page.

Ann Smarty lists six educated theories that could explain the factors concurring in generating sitelinks. Traffic data, on-page SEO and internal architecture are confirmed as important factors, but domain authority, brand strength and the absence of competition on specific queries would also influence the appearance of sitelinks.

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The platform will be launched by the end of the year and users will be able to access content behind paywalls with a single click, directly from the search engine results page.

Newspass will be integrated with Google Checkout and will use a single login that would in fact compete with Facebook’s virtual currency, Facebook Credits.

While Facebook is concentrating in monetizing online social gaming and the virtual gifts market, Google could succeed in establishing a standard for newspapers and magazines, the same websites that are using Official Pages and Facebook integration to promote content online.

Both systems could provide convenient one-click entry points for premium content on the most visited sites of the web, Google and Facebook. It’s a win-win solution that will benefit all, except for users not willing to pay for news online.

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