adwords

In case you hadn't noticed, Google makes a lot of money in advertising. But would you guess that one of the company's single biggest sources of AdWords revenue last year appears to be Lowe's?

The home improvement chain and its competitor, Home Depot, are estimated to have spent more than $100 million combined on Google ad click-throughs in 2011. But it turns out that the finance and insurance sector is the industry that spends the most on Google, according to recently released estimates.

Wordstream, an Internet marketing software firm that helps businesses optimize their use of AdWords, … Read more

Google AdWords can be a powerful form of advertising, placing ads for your business right next to related Google search results--if you do it right. Google AdWords Editor is a simple tool that lets AdWords users manage their campaigns on their desktop. There's no guarantee that it will improve the success of your ad campaign, but it can at least make the whole thing a little easier to deal with.

The program's interface is plain and utilitarian, with its major features arranged in tabs. We easily signed in to our AdWords account and loaded our data into the … Read more

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Facebook will soon release auto-photo tagging software

MetroPCS is rolling out 4G networks like gang busters

Google's newest Chrome browser is apparently ready for business use

Google is in trouble in France for findings of anti-competitive practices

A porn company shows off 3D role-play sex simulation using the Microsoft Kinect. I know I promised a video but it looks to have been removed from YouTube. Sorry!

A new plug-in electric tricycle will make you super cool on your urban commute

On today's show, there's tech news, but there's also the new Sprint Evo 4G, and that's kind of all we can think about. Its big 4-inch screen, its two cameras, its kickstand. Sigh. It's my new boo. Also, though, some stuff about Google, the full text of ACTA is leaked, we have a winner in the Apple vs. Predator video contest, and holy crap, did you see that Evo?

Google co-founder Sergey Brin urges US to act … Read more

tyBit Unified Search is a toolbar that lets users search multiple search engines at once for a variety of different things. Although we love the idea in theory, in execution, it leaves something to be desired.

We first ran into trouble when we found that the version of the toolbar that was available from Download.com was not compatible with the version of Firefox we were running, or with our version of Internet Explorer. This resulted in some error messages and other general annoyances before we got the program updated and running, at least in Firefox. There we were greeted … Read more

If you rely on a compelling service that happens to be free, what level of customer support are you entitled to receive?

Google is trying to figure that out. Known for using brilliant engineers, complex algorithms and speedy servers to organize online information in a simple and accessible fashion, Google is learning how to add the human touch to its repertoire as customers look for answers that can't be found on an FAQ.

Not surprisingly, not everyone is happy with the results. Some advertisers have been complaining about Google's Web-page-first approach to customer service issues for years, with … Read more

Keyword Expert is a versatile research tool that allows users to choose and implement the right keywords for search engine optimization. The program's intuitive interface and multiple features make it both easy to use and effective.

The program's interface is sleek and well-organized, with its major features organized in five separate, intuitive screens. The built-in Help file is not going to explain the SEO process to a complete beginner, but it does give a good overview of how the program works and is illustrated with helpful screenshots. The program brings together five different SEO utilities, all of which … Read more

An adviser to the European Union has sided with Google in the company's battle with Louis Vuitton and others over alleged trademark infringement.

The search giant is fighting a lawsuit in the European courts against several companies that claim Google is infringing on their trademarks by allowing advertisers to buy keywords that match those trademarks.

Led by LVMH's Louis Vuitton, the companies are upset that makers of imitation items can buy those keywords through Google's AdWords, allowing their products to pop up in searches alongside the genuine article.

But in a statement released by the European Court … Read more

Google is testing a new ad format that could shake up the familiar look and feel of a Google search page.

A select group of Google advertisers in the U.S. is being given the opportunity to try out so-called "product ads" that will let them put an awful lot more information in their ad than fits inside the current text-ad boxes on Google search pages. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Google has confirmed the testing, which won't replace text ads but could allow Google to test the effectiveness of a different bidding system for … Read more