Australian National University anthropologist Garrick Hitchcock has stumbled across a clue to resolving one of the most enduring mysteries of Pacific history — the fate of Jean François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse, a French naval officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in 1788. Dr. Hitchcock believes the last …

A team of researchers in the UK created a series of puzzles baited with food, and found smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) watched and copied each other’s problem-solving techniques, with young animals more likely to copy than their parents. Surprisingly, another species called the Asian short-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea) showed no …

In what is sure to be a model for other publishers, last week Google and Vogue magazine announced a partnership that offers “behind the scenes” audio content from selected Vogue magazine interviews. Most of these are monologues from the writers about their subjects. By asking Google Home to “talk to …

Last week, Google declared that the “near me” search query and other “geo-modifiers” (e.g., ZIP code, city name) were, if not dead, then certainly not worth spending your valuable SEO time worrying too much about: In September 2015, we shared that “near me” or “nearby” searches on Google had grown 2X …

Earlier today, at German consumer electronics and appliances show IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) in Berlin, Google announced that the Google Assistant will be coming to new smart speakers and home appliances. With the move Google is more aggressively competing with Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana for third party hardware and software …

It’s the end of the month, so chances are you’re spending a lot of time thinking about PPC budgets. Will you spend the full amount you allocated for the month and do so without going over budget? It’s pretty amazing that simple questions like this have to take so much …

Earlier this morning Amazon and Microsoft announced that their virtual assistants will soon work together. Alexa devices will be able to access Cortana, and Cortana will be able to open Alexa: Alexa customers will be able to access Cortana’s unique features like booking a meeting or accessing work calendars, reminding …

When it comes to managing AdWords, something I’ve come across time and again is that lots of accounts are oversegmented. I’ve seen AdWords accounts with almost awe-inspiring intricacy. No dimension unsegmented; no campaign setting untweaked; no minute negative keyword unadded. I think we’ve officially reached the point at which some …

The digital space has given marketers massive reach and capability. But with that power comes responsibility, along with an obligation to protect data that can be recognized as personally identifiable information (PII). Recurring audits and safeguards built into your technical layer are critical to ensuring that PII doesn’t pass into …

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Alexa and Cortana will soon work together, allowing each to access the otherAug 30, 2017 by Greg Sterling You’ll soon be able to ask Alexa to …