AdWords Editor 7.0 Release

Finally! I downloaded AdWords Editor 7.0 yesterday. The latest round of improvements has been a long time coming IMO:

First page bid estimates: AdWords Editor now uses first page bid estimates for your keywords. Minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bids are no longer used.

Keyword Quality Score: The Keywords tab now displays the Quality Score for your keywords.

Keyword Opportunities locale: Tailor your keyword suggestions to a particular language and location by changing your Keyword Opportunities locale.

Campaign targeting in the data view: You can view your targeting settings in the new 'Language' and 'Location' columns on the Campaigns tab. These columns are hidden by default, but you can select them with the column chooser.

Send feedback to Google: Help us improve AdWords Editor by enabling usage tracking in your AdWords Editor settings (Tools menu > Settings).

Other updates:

• The 'Volume' column on the Keyword expansion tab of the Keyword Opportunities tool now shows absolute numbers (traffic for the last month) instead of scaled values.
• The Keyword Opportunities tool isn't available for draft accounts.

Remember to backup before you upgrade!

Read the release notes in AdWords Editor Help for more details.

AdWords Console Update

Noticed new "Device Platform" addition in the "Networks and bidding" section under Edit Campaign Settings. It has two options:

1) Desktop and laptop computers. Here's more info from Google:

Why is there now an option to show my ads on desktop and laptop computers? Isn't that where ads have always shown?

Until recently, this was the default setting on all campaigns. However, we're now able to allow more granular control of what devices you'd like your ads to appear on. We offer the option to opt out of showing ads on desktop and laptop computers for those advertisers who want to target only mobile users, or for those who want to break out their campaigns for each targeting option

2) iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers. Here's more info from Google:

What are full browsers, and what sort of mobile devices does this include?

We define full browsers as those that can show standard HTML web pages and can support a user making a purchase from start to finish, including supporting any tracking or Analytics functionality on e-commerce pages. Most mobile phones today have WAP browsers, which cannot support those functions.

The number of mobile devices that support full browsers is small but growing. Currently, the iPhone is an example of this type of device. If you have a question about whether a particular model of phone or mobile device offers a full browser, you can check with the manufacturer or a carrier of the device to see whether the device can support HTML pages and e-commerce transactions.

Google Layoffs, Kinda Sorta

CNET confirmed layoffs, but was able to clarify that it's their "contractor workforce" that will be cut.

Webguild.org's headline "Google Layoffs - 10,000 Workers Affected" might have been slightly misleading, but let's look at the bigger picture. It doesn't matter whether these 10,000 are temps or independent contractors and not "full-blooded employees" - letting go 1/3 of the overall "help" is pretty significant. Proving search isn't "recession-proof", maybe "recession-resistant".

Google's New Search-based Keyword Tool

Google announced a Search-based Keyword Tool, leverages "search query data relevant to your website's content. In other words, this new tool gives you keywords that are highly relevant to your site but are not part of your AdWords campaigns."

I see that it says "keywords not already in your account", yet a lot of them are? And bids don't appear to be accurate. I guess it could be useful to build out keywords for content, still playing around with it.

No Micro-hoo, But Potential for Search Partnership

MSFT CEO Steve Ballmer says they're "done with all acquisition discussions". However, they may be open to a search collaboration once Yahoo chooses new CEO.

"Some analysts have interpreted Ballmer's public comments about a Yahoo buyout as negotiating posturing, and suspect Microsoft might still want to grab Yahoo at a low price, in hopes of improving their joint position in online search and advertising."

More Google Ad Testing

Google - "great supporters of experimentation" or "we need more revenue STAT"? Yet another announcement from Google about testing more ad formats across their sites. Not surprising really, as noone immune to the pains of the economy.

Google is testing ads on the results pages of Google Image Search and, "in the very near future", will also test text ads on News results pages

Gmail Introduces Themes

I just checked and don't find any Hello Kitty Gmail Themes (under Settings) - what gives!!!

"We wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today, there's a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company. There's even an old school ascii theme (Terminal) which was the result of a bet between two engineers -- it's not exactly practical, but it's great for testing out your geek cred. We've also done a minor facelift to Gmail's default look to make it crisper and cleaner -- you might notice a few colors and pixels shifted around here and there."