Posts by Bas van den Beld

Bas van den Beld is a speaker, trainer and online marketing strategist. Bas is the owner of Stateofsearch.com. -- You can hire Bas to speak, train or consult. -- More articles and bio from Bas van den Beld

Visit Bas van den Beld's website

How Google Hires

Have you ever had the idea of working for Google? You might have some fun because there are smart people working there and off course there are great benefits like the offices you get to work in or the great lunches you can get there.

But ‘getting into Google’ might not be all too easy if you hear (ex-)Googlers talk about the hiring process. The Wall Street Journal talked to Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, on how Google looks at hiring. Take a look below. By the way, did you know Google Europe is hiring..?

State of Search News Update: What happened in week 48

A lot is happening in the world of search and social and as you know State of Search is not a news-reporting site but a site that interprets the news and looks at why something is happening and what that means to you. That doesn’t mean however we are not interested in the news. In this post we will bring the top stories of what happened last week with links to articles around the web. So you will know what you’ve missed. (more…)

A Look at Google’s Algorithm Timeline

Google’s algorithm keeps changing daily if not more. But sometimes there are big changes, in updates or new releases. This infographic gives an extensive look at the changes in Google’s algorithm over time. The nice thing is that they attached celebrity moments to it. Did you for example know the ‘no follow’ was introduced on Rowan Atkinson’s birthday? Or that Panda 2.0 was released on the day William and Kate got married? (more…)

UPDATE: Fixed: Google Webmaster Tools Bug Re-verifies Old Accounts

It seems as if there is a bug in Google Webmaster Tools at the moment. Several webmasters were yesterday suddenly seeing sites to which their access was revoked show up again in Google Webmasters. Many of these sites are old sites agencies used to manage.

Others are reporting they are getting notifications that sites from clients they now control have their old agencies or former employees added as a new verified owner.

UPDATE: the issue now seems resolved (see below)

(more…)

State of Search News Update what happened last week

Friday Talk: Dan Ariely: Are we in control of our own decisions?

Do you think we are in control of what we do? Do you think we are aware of all the decisions we make? Do you think marketers can’t ‘touch’ us with their messages because we are strong? You might reconsider those thoughts after seeing Dan Ariely speak on the topic ‘Are we in control of our own decisions?’.

Watch the State of Search Hangout about the Filter Bubble

The Filter Bubble, a term first introduced by Eli Pariser, could potentially mean we are getting biased information within Google and Facebook for example, which will narrow our perspective on things. Ned Poulter wrote about it on the site before.

But how big of a deal is it really? And how should we as marketers look at this problem? That was the topic of State of Search’ second Google Hangout.
(more…)

UK’s Most Expensive AdWords Keywords

Last year we reported on the most expensive keywords in the US. Now Hallam Internet comes with numbers specifically for the UK. ”Online Live Roulette” (worth £75.02) and “TAC Compensation” (£70.19) are the ‘big ones’ and Claims and Compensations is the most expensive category (above gambling!). Look for yourself. (more…)

Facebook and Yahoo: No, But What If…?

This weekend suddenly the rumour popped up that Facebook and Yahoo were supposedly talking about creating a search engine, something which also was denied in a later stage. That off course led to a lot of speculation: wass this really true? Would it make sense? What about Bing? And would a combination between Yahoo and Facebook have any chance of succeeding, let alone beating a Google or Bing?

We decided to drop this question on the desks of some industry experts to see how they would feel about this if it were true (which it most probably isn’t). Because we can dream right, dream of a Google competitor. Or not? (more…)

Is Google rolling out Google House View Beta?

Something to think about during lunch…

The State of Content Marketing by the ‘new’ Blueglass UK

Last week in London an announcement was made which surprised a few in the search industry but saw many happy smiles. Blueglass, one of US’ hottest agencies announced it was coming to London and to make that work it acquired content marketing agency Quaturo from Kevin Gibbons.

Blueglass intents to give content marketing a boost in the UK, making it more that the ““add-on” to SEO” which many companies feel it is. We’ve interviewed Kevin Gibbons about this move which we will publish later, but first we’d like to share this info graphic from the (new) Blueglass team about, what else, content marketing. (more…)

Friday Talk: Google’s Mike Yapp about Advertising 3.0

Mike Yapp is the Director of Google I YouTube’s Creative Development Group and a well known speaker. In this talk at one of Google’s “Think” conferences he discusses the art and science of understanding brand connections in a consumer owned world.