quality

YouTube has doubled the size of what users are now able to upload at a time. Until now, users were only able to upload 1GB, and now they can upload 2GB. This means longer videos with higher resolutions. YouTube product manager Ryan Junee also points out that users can upload large HD files directly from their cameras. Essentially this means, we will start seeing a lot more quality (at least picture-wise) videos on YouTube.

Abby Johnson of Murdok had a nice chat with FindMeFaster's Matt Van Wagner about PPC campaign strategies and ad copy at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle this week. For one, they discussed how to get a good quality score right from the beginning. Talk about your strategies for achieving a good quality score.

Facebook has just started allowing users to upload higher quality videos, and start embedding them on other sites in classic embeddable-video fashion. Facebook launched its video feature last year, but has not offered the ability to  upload high quality videos until now. Chris Putnam at the Facebook Blog writes:

Ads Quality concerns any and every marketer who's the least bit interested in his ads' positions and prices, and Google recently complicated things by making a few changes.  Luckily, Google also documented the updates' specifics, and advertisers should find two new videos on Ads Quality very useful.

Google respects simplicity. That's clear based on the design of their home page (assuming you don't use iGoogle). It's changed very little since the beginning. It's simple, clean, and familiar. A field study from Google into the search habits of users has made it even more clear that simplicity reigns supreme when it comes to search.

A lot has been made about quality scores for Google ads. Rated on a scale of 1 to 10 per keyword targeted, the quality score is the ultimate determinant of ad placement on the search results. As webmasters experiment, tips for how to achieve a perfect 10 are emerging in the forums.

It’s kind of nifty how forthcoming Google has been with the transparency lately. For the longest time, trying to get anything out of them was like trying to squeeze a nickel out of Ed McMahon. The latest explanations of how things work is a blog post describing how quality scores work and why the highest bidder doesn’t always get highest placement in the sponsored results.

Google has posted some official guidelines for listing your business in Google Maps. As more and more people refer to the Internet rather than the phonebook for looking up local businesses, business owners will want to pay close attention to the rules, so they are easily found on Google Maps. The new guidelines read as follows: