When Google integrates a product listing ad (PLA) and paid-search text ad, it might resemble something close to the recent test the search engine ran combining the two types of media. Add video or 3D imaging, and marketers would have the next-generation search advertisement in query results. Recent Google and Millward Brown Digital research demonstrates the benefits combining PLA and paid search provides.

Consumers will spend 11% more during the Thanksgiving weekend in 2013, compared with $582 million in the prior year, according to IgnitionOne research. The company pulled together data from its clients to determine that 19% of consumers will make purchases using their tablet and 18% via smartphone, compared with 15% and 14%, respectively, in 2012.

Search supports branding at MINI USA. The media connects to social. The automaker's campaigns are built on the premise that search belongs in the new mix of social tools available to marketers, and that social now resides in the toolkit of search marketers. All work together to brand products, services and companies. This is how MINI uses social and search, and gets MINI owners to provide the automaker's agency with more real images than it can possibly use.

Google has acquired many patents and filings with the Motorola Mobility acquisition -- and not all might seem, well, normal. Known for its expertise in radio frequency technology, Google's Motorola Mobility division has filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark and Office for a system embedded in the human body in the form of a tattoo that includes a near field communications semiconductor chip, which detects inflections in the human voice.

Top salaries for search engine marketing have fallen across the board. The average salary fell from $75,543 in 2011 to $68,600 in 2013, according to The 2013 SEMPO Salary Survey. More importantly, the findings show that more marketers are taking on multiple responsibilities such as organic and paid search.

I do most of my shopping online, so I was surprised to see mobile point-of-sale terminals at Nordstrom during a recent visit to the physical store at South Coast Plaza. The devices, reminiscent of the Apple store's POS mobile terminals, identify a trend that Forrester Research calls out in a recent report.

Some search marketers made a decision earlier this year to pay more attention to social media and how it augments search engine marketing. Good thing. It hones in on the psychology of what fits where on a landing page, and how certain colors, shapes and sizes attract a click. Curalate next week will release findings on the factors driving likes and shares on Instagram.

A/B and Multivariate testing can tell marketers not only what's working on a Web page, but why the change won't work. Trulia discovers this each time its marketers and analytics specialists test changes in color, sizes of buttons, and more.

The cost per click on search campaigns for retailers and brands continues to rise, forcing companies to spend more per click, but a recent report shows how marketers can lower costs. One of the strategies points to quickly scaling campaigns on mobile. A recent PM Digital report shows how focusing budgets on branding initiative, rather than ecommerce, can force positive change.

The Obama administration has recruited engineers from Red Hat and Oracle, along with engineers on leave from companies like Google, to help fix the technological problems preventing people from signing up for government-mandated health insurance.