Sometimes you read something about a company or a business that simply gets it more than others. OK, so we know that in most cases Google does that. Sometimes they do it in ways that still amaze and make one say “Huh, that makes good sense.”

Fresh off the mantra from several folks at PubCon to embrace traditional media, an article appeared in today’s Journal that exemplifies that strategy by, you guessed it, Google and one of the most unlikely traditional marketing powerhouses, Proctor & Gamble. These two titans of their representative media strongholds have met in the middle in a unique way. They swapped employees. Both were bright enough and daring enough to recognize that they needed to know more about the “other side”.

I can’t urge you enough to read this article in its entirety. Rarely do I read something and throughout keep saying, “Holy crap, that is cool!” This one did that. It was pretty fascinating to read about the various “Aha!” moments that occurred on both sides of the aisle because there was actual sharing and learning taking place. While the new v. old media struggles that occur in public are often contentious this one appeared to be collegial. It’s when this type of environment exists that real growth takes place. Also, real learning occurs and relationships start. I suspect that we will be reading about this partnership and innovation between “Googlers” and “Proctoids” (by the way, P & G, this nickname for your employees is a bit uncomfortable for obvious reasons) for years to come.

Here are some of the high points:

• P & G’s complete ignorance of the power of mommy bloggers and how that could impact Pampers sales. Of course, that gets a real “Duh!” from search marketers but Google seemed smart enough to not insult the traditional folks but aid them instead. Kill’em with kindness, I guess.

• P & G’s willingness to allow their flagship brand, Tide, to be put in the hands of YouTube amateurs following their successful TV ad with a talking stain. (Note to you online only types; while you might laugh at the sales of laundry detergent you probably would envy the $3.5 billion (with a b) a year in annual sales it generates).

There’s a lot more. We as search and internet marketers should be reaching across the aisle more because if the deep pockets of a P & G have yet to embrace online, what about the rest of the traditional marketplace? Imagine helping these folks with efficiency and effectiveness during this economic climate. What an opportunity.

Go get’em.

Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com - Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

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Local review site Citysearch has announced an overhaul to its mobile and web sites. Now in beta, Mobile by Citysearch adds enhanced features for mobile users, and the new website integrates more local and social aspects.

Mobile and local have always been a good match, but the implementation of this natural pairing hasn’t fully “arrived.” Mobile by Citysearch, however, is a good step along that path. The new site is designed to be compatible with whatever mobile device you use, including content layout and using your phone’s default navigation (thumbwheel, touch screen, etc.) for a more intuitive UI.

Citysearch has long been available through mobile phones—two years ago, they added mobile search to their site as well as local business listings via text message.

Rather than just making the website readable on a mobile phone, however, the new Mobile by Citysearch better integrates mobile and local. Its new design makes reading and even creating reviews from a mobile device easy and makes popular website features mobile-friendly. The new mobile Citysearch is also integrated with text messaging, allowing users to text reviews, directions and ratings directly to mobile phones.

The Citysearch website has also been redesigned. New features enhance not only the interface but the access to the site’s reviews and other information. But the new site is more than just prettier. An enhanced back end allows for even more focused local searches—down to the neighborhood level, instead of just the metro area.

The new Citysearch also integrates social media better—including the seldom-mentioned Open ID rival, Facebook Connect. The integration with Facebook is one of the best applications of social search so far. If you’re signed in to Facebook (currently or using a permanent session), Citysearch will highlight your friends’ reviews of local restaurants. (Image from Read Write Web.)

Finally, the new Citysearch is sure score points with local business owners—it prominently features owner comments alongside editor and user comments. It also is added enhanced features for videos of local businesses through a partnership with Brightcove.

Users will be able to upload their own photos and videos early next year.

This redesign comes just a few days after some bad press for Yelp, a rival local review site. Yelp is alleged to have offered to remove or move down negative reviews of local businesses for a fee (and there’s even some allegations they took the money without actually moving the reviews, doubly unethical).

Yelp has been gaining momentum against Citysearch’s popularity recently, but Citysearch’s new features and Yelp’s bad press might combine to reverse that. What do you think—are the new features cool enough to get your “vote” (traffic)?

Via 1, 2, 3

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Citysearch Gets Mobile and Social

Just one day after the announcement of Jerry Yang stepping aside as Yahoo! CEO, Forbes magazine takes a look at the 5 Biggest Mistakes Yahoo! made while hitting the skids as of late. The article reads a little like an autopsy on a live body. Sure Yahoo! is struggling to survive in the exhaust of Google and others cleaning their clock in the race to control the net (for now) but is Taps necessary just yet?

The article ‘interviews’ several Yahoo! staffers in what appears to be some kind of odd lunch time ambush since most of these ‘interviewees’ were carry their lunch or some kind of boxes. We heard things were different at Yahoo! but now we have some insight I guess. Of course, with 1,500 layoffs looming these folks may be gathering their belongings in anticipation of a trip to the HR department soon.

The five main reasons for Yahoo!’s stumble as cited by these mysterious employees were:

1. Projects started but never completed. Apparently it was de rigueur for the company to start something and then let it fade out with no results. Honestly, I have to say that this is not just a Yahoo! problem but if the number of these projects was excessive that can kill resources and morale.
2. Whiffed on Google. Remember when Yahoo! had a chance to buy Google in 2002 for a mere $5b? How different might the world look if that had gone through.
3. The Terry Semel effect. Missed out on Google and started media initiatives that have crapped out for the most part.
4. Google beats Yahoo! to DoubleClick. Another real ‘woulda,  shoulda, coulda’. These are the kind of things that keep Yahoo!er’s  and Jerry Yang up at night.
5. The Microsoft acquisition shuffle. I think there is a pattern developing here ……..

Other possible causes of the current state of unrest are the current economic conditions (which holds no water since Google seems to be doing fine, thank you) and the big killer of any business: indecisiveness. Lower level employees were quick to point upstream on this one saying that upper level execs weren’t instilling a lot of confidence in the rank and file.

While it may seem all doom and gloom there are still hopefuls on campus. There is a new cloud computing initiative that many are saying can help turn the corner. There is still plenty of brain power at the company and there are some strong offerings like Yahoo! Mail and Finance that keep rolling along.

OK, Pilgrims, let’s hear it. What is going to happen to Yahoo!? Where will they be in a year from now? I suspect that there may be a few strong opinions floating around out there. Let’s hear it.

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Do you lie awake at night worrying about the keywords you’re NOT targeting in your Google AdWords campaign?

Yeah, me neither.

But, if you ever wake up in that cold sweat you’ll now have access to a new tool from Google called the Search-based Keyword Tool. What does it do?

Based on your URLs, the Search-based Keyword Tool displays a list of relevant user queries that have occurred on Google.com (and on other Google search properties, such as google.co.uk) with some frequency over the past year…The Search-based Keyword Tool compares your website and current AdWords campaigns against actual, past Google search queries to identify additional keywords that might be relevant for your campaigns. The tool compiles a list of search queries relevant to your website that don’t already appear in your AdWords campaigns.

The tool is available to US and UK users and is the perfect solution for those setting up their AdWords campaign–and don’t know which keywords to start with–or those of us that worry that we have a few gaps in our keyword list.

Enjoy!

Andy Beal will host his next Online Reputation Management Workshop in Las Vegas on January 14th, 2009. Register before December 1st and you’ll save $300! Book now, space is limited.

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You guys remember LIFE magazine, right? Known as a scion of glossy photojournalism, Life was published in one form or another until last year (with a few gaps, of course). And like any publication, Life had a good amount of material that it was never able to use. But now Life’s parent company, Time, has found the perfect use for its photo archives—digitizing them with Google Image Search.

Google announces today the LIFE collection in Google Image Search. Google will be digitizing all 10 million of the archived photos, drawings and etchings over the next few months, with 20% of the collection already available.

Although Life was originally founded in 1883, its photo archive includes images dating back to the 1750s, some of which have been donated to the Life archive. The Google digital archive is searchable, but the results are also “blended” into Image and other Google Search results. Older results, of course, are most likely in the public domain, as Google Blogoscoped notes.

Each image features a landing page with technical and caption information, including dates and the names of the photographers and even the subjects (in some cases). On the landing page, you can rate each photo with 1-5 stars.

But here’s what Life gets out of it: in addition to offering high-res versions of the pictures online, Google will also feature a link to purchase prints of these photos as “high-quality framed prints” from Life (Google’s blog announcement of the partnership even plugs this as a “holiday gift possibilit[y]“—and if you’re interested, they start at $80).

With the recent YouTube Click-to-Buy and Google Book Search deal, this looks like another step in Google’s quest to organize the world’s information—and make a few affiliate bucks doing it. I’m very excited to get the chance to look through these pictures (I’m a history buff, especially 20th century American history), but I’m probably not going to be ordering any prints any time soon.

What do you think? Does this constitute a new direction in Google monetization?

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