Search giant Google reported this week that Black Friday was a good holiday for both online retailers and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists, as web shoppers searched for the terms "Black Friday sales" and "Black Friday ads" at a 50 percent higher rate than in 2008.
In the blog post in which those numbers were released, the Google retail team’s Sara Kleinberg wrote that the new statistics indicate that consumers look more to the internet than ever before for the latest information on sales. Search engine optimization (SEO) workers at Target, Wal-Mart and Kohl’s should be particularly pleased, as Kleinberg says that those stores featured in some of the fastest-rising Black Friday search terms.
Additionally, Kleinberg says that web interest in consumer electronics tripled over that seen in 2008, possibly fueled by plummeting laptop PC prices and a swath of new smartphone releases.
The company more recently released figures for so-called "Cyber Monday," which showed that Zhu Zhu pets were among the hottest tech gizmos on sale, though search engine optimization (SEO) experts should take note that toys and electronics in general were strong performers.
