Just two and half months after releasing Version 6.5, Google has launched the new version of AdWords Editor. Version 7.0 is now available for Windows and Mac. Be sure to back up your work before you upgrade. You can import your work into 7.0 once it’s been deleted.

Here’s what to expect with the new version:

• First page bid estimates: AdWords Editor now uses first page bid estimates for your keywords. Minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bids are no longer used.
• Keyword Quality Score: The Keywords tab now displays the Quality Score for your keywords.
• Keyword Opportunities locale: Tailor your keyword suggestions to a particular language and location by changing your Keyword Opportunities locale.
• Campaign targeting in the data view: You can view your targeting settings in the new ‘Language’ and ‘Location’ columns on the Campaigns tab. These columns are hidden by default, but you can select them with the column chooser.
• Send feedback to Google: Help us improve AdWords Editor by enabling usage tracking in your AdWords Editor settings (Tools menu > Settings).
• Other updates:
  • The ‘Volume’ column on the Keyword expansion tab of the Keyword Opportunities tool now shows absolute numbers (traffic for the last month) instead of scaled values.
  • The Keyword Opportunities tool isn’t available for draft accounts.

Check out the release notes for more info.

Related Reading:
Google AdWords Releases New Editor Guide
AdWords Editor Update Launches Performance Statistics Download
Conversion Optimizer Now Supported by Adwords Editor and API

Well here’s an interesting nuanced piece of information. Searches for pizza on yellow pages tend to peak in January, according to the Yellow Pages Association. It starts with the very first day of the month, when football games fuel the need for a greasy pie. Football continues the calls to local pizzerias with the NFL playoff series (Go Panthers!).

This year, politics could play a roll in puffing up pizza pertinent searches with the inauguration of Barack Obama occurring on January 20th. Of course, if you didn’t vote for the man, you can always buy a pie on that day in celebration of yours truly, who will turn 31 on that very day (and whose birthdays are always overshadowed every four years by the unfortunately timed presidential event.)

Other interesting tidbits about pizza searchers:

• 52% are looking for a local restaurant
• The most likely pizza searcher is a single male, aged 18-24, with a college degree and renting in the Northeast.
• Maine is the most pizzeria-saturated state with four pizzerias for every 10,000 people.

Related Reading:
Pizza Search Engine Slow To Deliver
Papa John’s Makes a Friday Ad Blitz
New Analytics Tool Aids Shift from Print Yellow Pages to Online Advertising
Top 10 Yellow Pages Searches According to Yellow Pages Association
Yellow Pages and Search

The Music Companies versus YouTube debacle continues to unravel one bit at at time. Now, Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Warner, Universal, Sony and others are in talks to create their own Hulu-like site for music videos.

The music labels are “only” making a max of $25,000 per month off of ad revenues from YouTube. But that’s only half the story. The real money is made from a pay-per-play licensing deal.

To be making this kind of direct money off of music videos, which have only been used as a marketing tool up to this point, is a big shift in the music industry.

Universal makes tens of millions on YouTube and they expect to make even more next year. Overall, they expect to make $100 million next year from all of their agreements with various sites.

Since Hulu keeps NBC content on just two sites - Hulu and NBC.com, why would Universal want to restrict their offering to just one site?

Pulling from the world’s largest online video site means less exposure to millions of people. YouTube had 100 million unique visitors in October. Those visitors are concert-goers and merchandise-buyers.

Another factor is how YouTube is no longer just a video streaming site, but a bonafied search engine. YouTube is starting to pass Yahoo in searches conducted. On an anecdotal note, my son conducts searches via YouTube frequently. He hates reading; watching video is a much easier way for him to learn.

Bailing on YouTube would be pulling an entire, effective marketing channel. So, here’s my final warning to the music companies. The numbers speak for themselves.