This day in search marketing history: March 15

Rhea Drysdale prevails in SEO trademark fight

In 2010, Rhea Drysdale prevailed in a trademark registration battle, successfully stopping an individual from trademarking “SEO.”

In April 2008, Jason Gambert began his attempt to trademark SEO. For the next two years, Drysdale spent nearly $20,000 of her own money fighting this battle.

On March 11, 2010, the USPTO has officially terminated Gambert’s trademark registration in favor for her opposition. Drysdale shared her story in 2010:

Was it worth it? I don’t know. I do know that I learned an invaluable amount about business, trademark law, the SEO industry, my relationships and myself. I never asked the industry to donate to the cause, because this was my responsibility. I chose to pursue this in the face of criticism. I knew that it was something I believed to be wrong. I knew the USPTO did not understand what our industry did or how SEO worked. I wanted to fight for that knowledge and I won. I don’t regret the experience, but I am going to take a breather from hopeless causes for awhile.

– Rhea Drysdale, SEO Trademark Registration Terminated

Read all about it Meet The 25-Year-Old Who Saved “SEO” From Being Trademarked. You can learn more about Drysdale in this interview with Barry Schwartz.

Also on this day

Google rolls out Search Ads 360 integration for Google Analytics 4

2022: Integrating enabled advertisers to see sessions, users and conversions within the context of dimensions such as source, campaign, medium and default channel grouping.

Google refine this search and broaden this search now live in search results

2022: These features were previewed at the Search On event in 2021.

FLoC is coming — Here’s what we know so far

2021: Spoiler alert: It would be dead within a year.

Google tests displaying cost estimates in local search results

2021: Google confirmed it was showing cost estimates from Homewyse for some local queries.

No more confusion: Google gives core update a name, and a structure

2019: Google’s Danny Sullivan gave the latest algorithm change a name – “March 2019 Core Update.”

Study: Brands are failing voice search optimization in 3 key areas

2019: Brands had limited or non-existent review-response strategies, failed to optimize for unbranded keywords and didn’t do enough local-social posting.

SEO industry ‘a minefield of dodgy practitioners’: Australian official seeks action

2019: A small business advocate called for new regulation.

Report: EU to ask Google, others to publicly reveal ranking factors

2018: Proposed rules were designed to redress the “superior bargaining power” of the large internet brands.

Google My Business updates the directions heatmap in Insights reporting

2018: Report showed where people requesting directions to your business were located.

Once a competitive advantage, Siri now seen as liability for Apple

2018: Failure to improve Siri could eventually impact iPhone sales.

New study confirms Google doesn’t use Chrome browser data to discover new URLs

2017: GoogleBot did not visit a test page that Chrome accessed days before.

Google unveils Google Analytics 360 Suite with a new DMP, landing page testing tool and more

2016: The suite, designed for enterprise-level companies, consisted of six products that could be used together or on their own and integrated with AdWords and DoubleClick.

Google to change smartphone user-agent of Googlebot from iPhone to Android on April 18th

2016: The user-agent would change from an iPhone user-agent to an Android user-agent, but it would have no impact on 99% of all web sites, Google said.

Google Posts now expands to cricket player cards in search results

2016: Business cards, candidate cards, presidential election cards and now cricket player cards were the latest supported in Google Posts.

New “Uber tab” added to Google Maps

2016: Google added a ride-sharing tab to maps to enable more options and faster time to destination.

Google 2016 candidate searches now include campaign funding details & search trends

2016: Google continued to expand its 2016 election-related search results. 

Google metronome in search helps musicians keep a beat

2016: Google’s metronome default rate was 120 beats per minute, but the full range went from 40 to 208 BPM.

Bing previews new Bing Search APIs

2016: The new APIs exposed a lot more functionality for developers within the Bing Search infrastructure.

Google Penalizes Italian & Spanish Link Networks

2015: Google warned webmasters in those two countries about its rules on paid links four days earlier.

Google Panda Update 25 Seems To Have Hit

2013: Related: Google: We’re Unlikely To Confirm Current Or Future Panda Updates

Google Sends BBC News A Manual Link Penalty Notification

2013: A BBC representative sought help to find out how to find those unnatural links so they could be removed and a reconsideration request be submitted.

Search In Pics: Bill, Ted & Rufus At SMX, Google Playground & Bing It On Taxi

2013: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

WSJ Says Big Google Search Changes Coming? Reality Check Time!

2012: Google would reportedly be providing more direct answers and gaining “semantic” smarts to understand more about what words mean.

Google Expands Flight Search Outside US To 500 Cities

2012: Google Flight Search was taking off to international destinations.

Twitter Trends: Now Showing In Bing Results?

2012: The Twitter icon, a large grey “trending” button and the number of shares was displayed under the link.

Bing Maps Updates Map Pins, Adds Drag & Drop Routes & More

2012: Including a refresh to the Pushpin buttons and Popup menu.

TheFind Joins FairSearch.org To “Restore Balance” To The Search Marketplace

2012: TheFind argued that Google could use its dominance to prevent innovative smaller players from gaining the kind of visibility and adoption that would otherwise be possible.

You Can Hate (Block) But No Longer Love (Star) Google’s Search Results

2011: Google disabled the ability to star search results from within the Google search results page.

Google Tries to Reassure Brand Owners With New Anti-Counterfeiting Measures

2011: Google pledged to investigate complaints from reliable brand owners within 24 hours, step up reviews of AdWords creative to find counterfeiters, and introduced a new help center page for the reporting of counterfeits.

Could The US Demand That Google Boost Hollywood Sites To Fight Online Piracy?

2011: The entertainment industry had been lobbying heavily for more government intervention to protect their interests.

Google To Test Mobile Payments In NY And SF

2011: Google would pay for the installation of thousands of special cash-register systems at merchant locations.

Google Mobile iPhone App Gets Overhaul, Becomes Google Search App

2011: A pretty comprehensive overhaul of the app’s look and functionality.

New: Topsy Launches Real-Time Video Search

2011: Topsy launched a new search engine that surfaced hot videos that were being shared on Twitter.

Cutts: Redirects Don’t Pass Full PageRank & More Takeaways

2010: Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed that a 301 redirect will not always pass the full PageRank from the old URL to the new URL.

Google Explains How Their Search, Ads & Apps Work

2010: Google was trying to show the public how transparent they were.

Google, Yahoo & Portals Are Top Online News Sources: Study

2010: More than two-thirds of online news consumers visited news portals like Yahoo News or Google News.

Report Proposes ‘Google Tax’ To Subsidize Local Media In UK

2010: If most people wouldn’t pay for content and advertising was only marginally effective, where would revenue come from to support online journalism? A tax or levy on Google.

Taking Sides In The Apple vs. Google Skirmish

2010: Personal animosity was driven by a sense of “betrayal” over the alleged copying of the iPhone by Android.

Facebook Passes Google (Again) As Most-Visited US Site: Hitwise

2010: Facebook.com received 7.07% of all internet visits during the week that ended on March 13, with Google getting 7.03%.

Twitter Announces @Anywhere Platform For Web Sites

2010: Twitter introduced a new platform called @anywhere that would allow websites to integrate Twitter features more easily.

Live Blogging SXSW 2010

• Social Search, A Little Help From My Friends
• Ev Williams Keynote

Google Now Reporting Anchor Text Phrases

2007: You could get a report from Google of the top anchor text phrases used when people linked to your site.

When AdWords Gets Sex Wrong

2007: How AdSense ads could totally go against the message of your sex content and concerns that Google was banning some sexual orientation terms as offensive.

Safa Rashtchy Leaving Piper Jaffray

2007: Piper Jaffray financial analyst Safa Rashtchy had been covering the search space seriously for years.

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

• SMX West 2012: Where Search Marketers & Fire Alarms Meet

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

• 2022: Save time on negative keywords using the lowest common denominator method by David Ogletree
• 2019: A WordPress safety plan for SEOs and developers by Detlef Johnson
• 2018: Understanding campaign performance: Answers to common conversion tracking questions by Frederick Vallaeys
• 2018: What’s different about digital marketing in the cannabis industry? by Brett Middleton
• 2017: National retailers: Stop ignoring local SEO by Andrew Shotland
• 2017: Here’s a script to help manage bids by keyword match type by Frederick Vallaeys
• 2016: What your teacher didn’t tell you about optimizing site speed by Brian Harnish
• 2016: 7 proactive ways to jump-start your SEO before a site launch by John Lincoln
• 2013: How Enhanced Campaigns May Affect Your Analytics by Benny Blum
• 2012: 6 Interview Questions For Conversion Optimization Hires by Scott Brinker
• 2012: 3 Search Opportunities Retailers Can’t Afford To Miss by Paul Bruemmer
• 2012: How To Create An SEO Positive Company Culture by Tom Schmitz
• 2011: Attribution Management: The New Frontier In Search by Manu Mathew
• 2011: The 4 A’s Of Social Marketing Success by Ciarán Norris
• 2011: How A Bad Reputation Can Affect Link Building by
• 2011: Do You Own Your International Search Program? by Bill Hunt
• 2010: Offline Conversions: How To Measure The Real ROI Of Paid Search In A Multi-Channel World by Matt Lawson
• 2010: Google: “It’s Not A Bug, It’s A Feature!” by George Michie
• 2010: Redefining The Local Opportunity – Key Highlights & Takeaways From Borrell’s Local Online Advertising Conference by Matthew Berk
• 2007: Choosing a Web Friendly Name for Your Business by Bill Slawski
• 2007: The Duplicate Content Penalty Myth by Jill Whalen

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