October 2008 Private Label Release

Many of you have asked to private label The Search Monitor for your clients. We have responded by making a private label version of our system available. Licensing fees apply - if you're interested give us a shout at sales@thesearchmontitor.com .

October 2008 Release Notes

Compliance Teams, Affiliate Managers, and Trademark Enforcement Officers: The Search Monitor now has even more evidence for you in your battle against infringement and rule breakers.

We've made a few enhancements to our Trademark and Affiliate reports including:

1. Screengrabs. You can now view a screengrab of each paid search violation by clicking on the 'Times Seen' field. You can view the source code and hover over ads to see the full destination urls.
2. Avg. Rank Field. The avg. rank field shows the avg. rank for the unique combination of keyword, advertiser, and ad copy for each violator.
3. Ad Copy for Keyword Violation Type. The Trademark Details report now shows the ad copy for the keyword bidding violation type.
4. Keywords Broken Out Into Separate Rows. Each unique combination of keyword, advertiser, and ad copy are now separated into individual rows. Whereas in the predecessor report, keywords were combined together in a single field.
5. Vision. We anticipate the following kinds of upgrades to screengrabs in the future: optional highlighting: a method to color code the screengrab.

More to come...

September 2008 Release Notes - Geo Targeting

Geo-Targeting is live. We can't believe we are saying this, but we topped ourselves. The Search Monitor is the ONLY monitoring utility with the ability to monitor paid search locally. Each market is different, competitors and affiliate marketers change their strategies on a location by location basis - you'll be on top of that. Here are the details of this release:

• Geo-Targeted Monitoring. TSM clients are able to monitor at the local level by city, region, and country. This feature is available with the 'Pro' level and higher. If you are on the 'Starter' package and would like to upgrade, please contact support@thesearchmonitor.com

TSM Monitors: 17 countries, 6 languages, and all associated cities and regions.

August 3, 2008 Release

Thanks to our team of steadfast developers... We've done it again - launched new features ahead of schedule.

Here's whats new:

1. Display URL Trademark Violations. Use of your trademark in display urls are now flagged as an ad copy violation in the Trademark Details report this includes examples such as these: yourbrand.someoneelse.com , someoneelse.com/yourbrand
   
   
2. URL Hijacks – Setting Trusted URLs. Those of you using redirect urls for your own tracking may have noticed these being flagged as URL Hijacks. You will find a new section within ‘Edit Campaigns’ where you can list your own redirect urls as trusted urls. This will prevent accidental flagging. You only need to enter the root url, for example, please be sure to add each of these types of variations - when you are finished be sure to click ‘Save’: Subdomain.yoururl.com; and yoururl.com
   
   
3. Establish Separate Logins Per Campaign. We can now create separate login credentials per campaign with 2 privilege settings choices: (1) login with editing rights; or (2) login without editing rights. Please let us know if you would like separate logins created for any of your campaigns and the privilege setting.

The Search Monitor On ClickZ

We're getting coverage! Hollis Thomases wrote an article about monitoring services called 'Keeping Track of Tracking Services', published July 29, 2008. The Search Monitor is mentioned several times for its reputation management, trademark infringement, competitive, and affiliate monitoring tools.

You can find it here: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3630347

Thank You Hollis and Clickz!

July 22 2008 Release: Google Expansion Markets

We released the following new features today:
1. Google Expansion Markets. We have added several new countries to our system. You will notice the country selector as an option when you add a new campaign. With this iteration, you will be able to assign 1 country per campaign. In a few weeks, you will be able to monitor multiple countries within the same campaign.
2. Languages. When you select your desired country, you will also have a choice to monitor in English or in the native language of that country. The choice is yours, the SERPs may be different depending on the language.

Next Release: We're Going Local, We're going Worldwide

For those of you who don't know us, The Search Monitor watches internet advertising across the web. We're currently watching sponsored search, blogs, news, groups, and landing pages for competitor activities, trademark infringement, and affiliate compliance with affiliate programs.

Here's what we're working on now:
(1) Local. We're going to be monitoring at the local level. That means city by city, region by region, we'll see whats happening. Trademark abusers, affiliate marketers, and crafty competitors are effective at the local level. We'll be able to tell you what they are doing.

(2) Worldwide. We're not stopping at local, we're blowing it out globally. We're adding UK, Australia, Canada, and many other countries worldwide.

(3) API. Many have asked us for an API, we have listened. Look for automated ways to get TSM data in the next release. (access will be available for pro clients on volume pricing).

If you'd like something else, we're happy to be order takers. Just let us know what you are looking for. support@thesearchmonitor.com