Don't be alarmed the next time you use Google Maps: Yes, pretty much everything looks just a little bit different than it did yesterday. There's not a single, major change; instead, almost all of the individual pieces of the Google Maps interface have been updated:
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
It's that time of the year again. There are code freezes just around the corner for most online retailers and those big brands that aren't focused on hitting holiday sales goals are getting their 2012 search engine marketing budgets
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
In addition to the hotly anticipated Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon has announced a range of new e-ink Kindles. The first is a a full-screen, touch-controlled e-reader in the vein of its leading competitor, Barnes & Noble's latest Nook. It's called the Kindle Touch. The Wi-Fi only model is $99, and the 3G version is $149.
A lighter full-screen Kindle without touch controls will sell for $79. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that it's "75% lighter than previous generations."
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Today, Google's homepage is featuring a Google doodle with the Google letters celebrating Google's thirteenth birthday. The doodle, which is not animated and has a simple design, continues the search giant's low-key approach to birthdays.
Although Larry and Sergey began working on the "BackRub" search engine in January of 1996 and registered the domain name Google in 1997, Google celebrates its actual birth as September of 1998 – the date of the company's incorporation.
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Monday, September 26, 2011
Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over
On Saturday afternoon, a rumor leaked that is likely to have the Dropbox team feeling hung over as they report to work this morning. According to a TechCrunch report, the Google Drive is real, currently being used by the Google team, and poised for a launch prior to the end of this year. Google Drive will allow users to store files on the cloud and seamlessly transfer those files between devices.
The leaked screenshot of the Google Drive shows it will most likely be the Google Docs product rebranded with a few additional functionalities. Although Google Docs has the capability to store any file type, most users are not aware of this functionality and simply use it for online word processing. By rebranding Google Docs as Google Drive and adding syncing functionality, Google is hoping to alter the perception of the product.
The Google Drive, which will use native syncing software, will be able to sync files across a range of devices including computers and mobile devices. With the Google Drive sync app, users will be able to drag and drop a file and immediately access that file on other devices. The Google Drive is expected to be located at drive.google.com, which is not currently live.
Google currently provides users with an always increasing amount of free storage for Gmail, Google Docs, Picassa, and the other Google services. It is expected that the Google Drive will also provide users with a set amount of storage for free and allow the purchase of additional storage if needed. If the pricing remains similar to the present levels, Google Drive users will have the option to purchase additional storage for only $5 per year per 20 GB.
When compared to the Dropbox Pro 50 plan, which charges $10 per month for 50 GB, the price of Google Drive looks dirt cheap.
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Sunday, September 25, 2011
10 Top SEO Facebook Strategies
Facebook is more and more becoming a "second home page" for organizations on the web and has recently developed a number of innovative options for Pages to get increased traffic through the tried and true techniques of search engine optimization. Making use of important web optimization tactics on your Facebook Page can help you to progressively acquire more Facebook devotees. Search engine optimization reveals your Facebook Page to Facebook's total user base. In fact, Facebook has taken big steps to improve its own web optimization in recent weeks and months, increasing its own worth and creating opportunities for Page managers to benefit immediately.
Listed below are TEN SEO techniques and tactics every Facebook Page user will need to understand:
1. Decide on the Best Title for Your Facebook Page – and Don't Ever Change It
Choosing the right identity on your Facebook Page is crucial. For instance, if your name appears too spammy, people will probably be less likely to talk about it with their associates on their own page and more likely to conceal your updates from their Facebook feed. Secondly, don't give into the temptation to choose a completely common page title. Facebook's intention for Pages is that they legitimately characterize businesses and brand names, as well as stars. Recently, Facebook has been disabling updates for common Pages.
The bottom line: Work with your corporation's true title as the name of the page and when you choose your Page's name, don't alter it. Facebook makes use of your Page name in the title of the Page, and considering that Google dings webpages when their particular titles change, changing your Facebook Page's name can cost you SEO points.
2. Select the Very Best URL for Your Facebook Page
Facebook recently provided the flexibility to choose a title for your Facebook Page, just about the most important SEO option on Facebook to date. Facebook wants Pages to legitimately stand for the identities of businesses. Brand names with commonly used titles have had their rights suspended previously.
The soundest solution would be to decide on a username which authentically presents your online business or company. As soon as you select a Facebook username/URL for your Page, it cannot be altered. So, look for a username you are going to be at ease, and satisfied, with for the future. If you have a company that specializes in replica watches, make the URL something to do with replica watches.
3. Use the "About" box to Place Key Phrase-Thick Content at the Top of the Page
One critical SEO approach that needs to be utilized in your Facebook Page whenever achievable is inserting key phrase-thick content as close to the top of the Page as it can be. Since Facebook restricts exactly where Page managers can place substantial sections of textual content on the Wall of Facebook Pages, the "About" box basically is the best location in the CSS structure of the page to incorporate custom content. You will find there's 250 character restriction, so choose your words and phrases sensibly.
4. Use the "Info" Tab to Add Extra Critical Key Phrases, Content, and High Precedence Backlinks on Your Page
Facebook creates an "Info" tab for each Facebook Page which has fields made up of important illustrative data about the Page. It's imperative that you complete all these fields, for the reason that they provide the option to add keyword phrases, content, and hyperlinks that may improve the content material rating within your Facebook Page for many kinds of Google queries. The specific fields existing could differ based on the type you choose for your Page whenever you create it, so pick out the class which most effectively meets your business needs.
5. Develop "Static FBML" Boxes and Tabs to Place Lengthy Content Material Plus More Static Backlinks on Your Page
While chances to place substantial blocks of textual content on the default tab of the Facebook Page tend to be quite restricted, Facebook enables Page managers to set-up supplemental boxes or tabs which could carry any type of subject matter, including text, images, and hyperlinks. Adding content boxes or tabs to your Page could be a terrific way to supercharge the score of your Page.
6. Publish Direct Backlinks Aimed at Your Website Inside Your Page's Stream
Status updates offer a highly effective solution to place direct backlinks at the top of your respective Page. Since Google boosts ranking for webpages which link to relevant internet sites – and penalizes pages which link to irrelevant web pages or that add a great number of inbound links too suddenly – posting hyperlinks in status updates can be quite an effective and reliable approach to better rank your Facebook Page.
You can find 2 methods to submit hyperlinks:
a. Including the URL within the text of the status update itself.
b. Using the "attach link" function.
7. Add Pictures with Captions, Activities with Descriptions, and a Conversation Discussion Board
This almost goes without saying, yet it's crucial that you regularly spread useful subject matter on the Facebook Page, along with always making use of all offered illustrative fields on every single kind of content shared. When posting images apply lengthy and key phrase-thick explanations. Use the resources Facebook provides for your entire gain.
8. Create Inbound Links to Your Facebook Page from the Internet by Posting Backlinks to Your Page on All Your Websites
Just as a good number of inbound links from high-authority web pages can help improve PageRank for regular internet websites, acquiring inbound links for your Facebook Page may improve its PR as well. You can accomplish this with text backlinks, but Facebook has also developed a badge which it encourages Page managers to utilize.
9. Get Intra-Facebook Inbound Links by Simply Acquiring More Facebook Supporters
The more fans you get, the more backlinks you will have to your own Page inside of Facebook. For Pages with thousands of supporters, the volume of backlinks mounts up.
10. Reinforce Intra-Facebook Linking by Getting Followers to Review and Like Content in Your Stream
Whenever supporters comment or like content in your Facebook Page's stream, Facebook links their name back to their own Facebook profile page. Subsequently, once the profile stubs of those supporters who've put up feedback and likes on your own Page are listed, Google will discover more reciprocal links between your Page and your Page's followers, which it will see to be a much better relationship. This results in a cycle of enhanced link weight from the listed profile page stubs to your Page.
View full post on SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Bing Introduces Action Buttons to Search Results
Bing and Decide. You've heard the slogan. You've noticed the extra results for things like shopping, restaurants, or even finding deals. Bing is taking decisions a step further into actions with the introduction of Action Buttons in search results.
Bing has been trying to leverage the semantic Web to deliver more than just 10 simple blue links in their results. Bing director Stefan Weitz refers to this as "the web of objects versus the web of just pages."
The idea behind action buttons is to allow people to complete targeted tasks based around their search query. Bing uses its algorithm to help predict what tasks a user is using search to try to accomplish.
View full post on SEO – Google News
Friday, September 23, 2011
With the recent WordPress security vulnerabilities, hacked themes, exploits, and all sorts of madness floating around, it was only a matter of time before search engines started to pipe in and penalize "vulnerable" sites.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Thursday, September 22, 2011
If there is any one reality to SEO, it's that there are winners and losers. There are certain qualities that are necessary for any winning SEO strategy that can be broken down into the 4 Ps of SEO: proactive, persistence, perseverance, and patience.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
People should be watching the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights hearing on "The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?" today. What we're likely going to get are very polarized views of Google and how it operates.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Even though this year is nowhere near finished, a lot of people at Google are already thinking about things to launch next year. So I wanted to put the question out: what cool things would you like to see Google launch in 2012?
For example, in 2011, we launched hundreds of search quality changes that might not be noticeable, along with a few high-impact changes. But we also added new ways to search, like the ability to search by image and search by voice. We've beefed up our social search, and continued to make search faster.
So take a minute to think about potential search features, products, or changes that we could launch next year. As a user (not as an SEO/webmaster/publisher), what cool piece of technology would you like to see Google launch in 2012?
View full post on Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
Monday, September 19, 2011
Search engines are like mothers: they are built to understand you. With the most basic cues, they know if you are happy or sad, coming or going, getting ready for bed or just waking up.
Search engines didn't start out this way, but Google …
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Sunday, September 18, 2011
This week Google added rich markup data for mobile apps, partnered with MLB.com for more rich baseball data on the SERP, and increased the level of detail on the email sent to webmasters who have requested reconsideration for the Google search
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Saturday, September 17, 2011
The Google Data Liberation team has announced this week that it is now possible to download Gmail chat logs via IMAP. Email was already accessible with IMAP, but chat was stuck.
Under the 'Labels' tab in Gmail settings, there is now a 'Show in IMAP' checkbox next to 'Chats' that will deliver chat logs to your email client of choice.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
With over 100 million active users worldwide, there is little doubt that Twitter is capable of driving large quantities of traffic to all types of websites. Although Twitter provides businesses with the opportunity to share content and drive traffic, it has been difficult to measure the true amount of traffic that Twitter sends to a website. Christopher Golda, the co-founder of BackType and member of Twitter's product team, said:
"Twitter is a powerful platform for websites to share their content, and drive traffic and engagement. However, people have struggled to accurately measure the amount of traffic Twitter is sending to their websites, in part because web analytics software hasn't evolved as quickly as online sharing and social signals."
Twitter Web Analytics, which was driven by the acquisition of BackType in July, will seek to alleviate the problem Golda mentions. It will provide website owners with three key pieces of information:
- How website content is being shared on Twitter
- The quantity of traffic Twitter is sending to their website
- Determine the effectiveness of the "Tweet This" button integration
Twitter web analytics, which will be available to all website owners in the next several weeks, is currently only available to a small pilot group of Twitter partners. Although Golda did not state an exact timeframe, he indicated that Twitter is committed to releasing Twitter Web Analytics API for developers.
In addition to the addition of Twitter Analytics, Twitter recently announced the inclusion of promoted tweets within non-followers Twitter streams and the addition of five new languages.
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
I've been lucky enough to work at entrepreneurial companies, including forming an agency 6 years ago and selling it earlier this year. Occasionally I'm asked my advice for anybody starting their own business, so here are a few pearls
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Your website is an incredibly important component of your online marketing. While that may seem like a "well, duh" statement, there's no shortage of poorly designed websites to make it worth saying again. First off, your company's website may be the first (but hopefully not only) impression your brand gets to make on a potential customer.
What does your website say about you? Is it outdated, cluttered and unappealing? Or is it simple, streamlined and professional? Secondly, your off-site SEO is only as good as your site itself. You can invest the man hours into building an incredible portfolio of diverse, quality inbound links second to none, but if all those links lead visitors to a poorly designed site they'll leave just as fast as they came. All your off-site SEO efforts go right out the window.
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Monday, September 12, 2011
Having worked in online marketing and web analytics for nearly a decade, I've heard it all when it comes to myths passed around small and large companies alike. Here is a top 10 list of my favorite web analytics myths and practical advice
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Sunday, September 11, 2011
A study from the London Science Museum shows that Brits would have real trouble living without Facebook. In fact, they'd rather live without flushing toilets, central heating, air conditioning, pain killers, vacuum cleaners, and shoes.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Saturday, September 10, 2011
I've found myself thinking a lot about the research being conducted by the Startup Genome Project these days. The data is an absolute goldmine and provides quantitative benchmarks for issues I've thought about for years. One of the findings from their first report was:
"Most successful founders are driven by impact rather than experience or money."
This certainly maps to my experience as a founder and also working with other entrepreneurs. However, in most cases it's a little more complex than that, as I find a number of goals typically intertwine to get people to jump in and start a business.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Friday, September 9, 2011
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed the House's version of the latest patent reform bill, H.R. 1249, the America Invents Act, by a vote of 89 to 9. During a speech to Congress yesterday, Pres. Obama praised the Senate for that action, and vowed to sign the bill. When he does, America's patent system will shift to a standard used by much of the rest of the world: a "first-to-file" system intended to ease some of the burden on inventors to prove originality.
Also remaining in the final bill is a vastly expanded post-grant review system designed to move the process of challenging a patent's legitimacy from litigation to administration – from the courtroom to a larger, more funded U.S. Patent Office that will include a new agency called the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. But missing from the bill is the thing that launched it in the first place: an initiative to replace the system of determining damages and, in so doing, reduce the amount of huge jury awards.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Thursday, September 8, 2011
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