WebProNews

Author: Chris Crum

  • Microsoft Changes Bing User Privacy Methods

    Microsoft is making some updates to Bing privacy. The company sent a letter to the Article 29 Working Party, notifying them of its intention to make a change to Bing’s data retention policy. The company is reducing the amount of time it stores IP addresses from searchers to 6 months from 18.

    "Generally, when Bing receives search data we do a few things: first, we take steps to separate your account information (such as email or phone number) from other information (what the query was, for example)," explains Bing Privacy Manager Reese Solberg. "Then, after 18 months we take the additional step of deleting the IP address and any other cross session IDs associated with the query."

    "Under the new policy, we will continue to take all the steps we applied previously – but now we will remove the IP address completely at 6 months, instead of 18 months," he continues.  "We think this gives us the right balance between making search better for consumers (we use the data to improve the service we offer) and providing greater protection for the privacy of our users."

    Bing Search Privacy

    The company considers this a "strong step forward" in the protection of customer privacy.

    "This change is the result of a number of factors including a continuing evaluation of our business needs, the current competitive landscape and our ongoing dialogue with privacy advocates, consumer groups, and regulators – including the Article 29 Working Party, the group of 27 European national data protection regulators charged with providing advice to the European Commission and other EU institutions on data protection," says Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist Peter Cullen.

    Microsoft will implement its new privacy policy for Bing over the next 12 to 18 months.

    Related Articles:

    > Google’s Persistence Of Memory

    > Mozilla Exec Moves To Bing’s Corner

    > Yahoo Lets Users See How They’re Being Tracked for Ads

  • Google Makes it Harder to Hide from a Bad Reputation

    Google is now including reviews from more sources on its Place Pages for businesses. They’re no longer coming from just review sites. They’re coming from news sites, blogs, and more.

    Mike Blumenthal, who writes for the Understanding Google Maps & Local Search blog, has an in depth analysis of this change and received confirmation on its existence from Google Maps Product Manager Carter Maslan.

    "This change portends a dramatically changed review landscape where both the volume of reviews for some types of businesses will rise and the dynamics of reputation management will change. It could very well shift  the balance of power away from centralized review sites and could be one more impediment to any recovery of the IYP sites," says Blumenthal.

    "Google Maps is now using the new capability of sentiment analysis to better understand content and add ‘reviews’ from non traditional sources like newspaper articles and single blog entries that appear across the internet," he says. "This new capability will dramatically increase the reach of hyperlocal blogs, change how businesses manage the review process and could, over the long haul, change how and where reviews are generated and aggregated."

    Place Page for Burdick Chocolate Cafe

    It is not particularly surprising that Google would reach to more sources for review-like content on Place Pages. Considering the breadth of information Google indexes, it seems fairly obvious that when Google brings together information about a business it would pull from a wide variety of sources.

    Blumenthal is right in that this highlights a possible need for some reputation management adjustments for businesses. However, it doesn’t seem like anything alerts won’t be able to help you keep track of, and you should probably be using those anyway if you are concerned about maintaining a good online reputation (which can increasingly affect your offlline reputation).

    Provided that they offer customers a positive experience, Google’s inclusion of more sources in Place Pages could work to the benefit of businesses. It’s hard to earn a good reputation if you don’t deliver something positive to begin with. These new additions should only make it harder to hide from a bad reputation.
     

    Related Articles:

    > Google Adds Place Pages to Google Earth

    > Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To

    > Will Google Eliminate the Need for Small Business Websites?

  • How Google Rates Links from Facebook and Twitter

    The first Matt Cutts Answers Questions About Google video of the year has been posted, and in it Matt addresses links from Twitter and Facebook, after talking about his shaved head again. Specifically, the submitted question he answers is:

    Links from relevant and important sites have always been a great way to get traffic & acceptance for a website. How do you rate links from new platforms like Twitter, FB to a website?

    Do you rely on links from Facebook and Twitter updates? Discuss here.

    Essentially, Matt says Google treats links the same whether they are from Facebook or Twitter, as they would if they were from any other site. It’s just an extension of the pagerank formula, where its not the amount of links, but how reputable those links are (the company uses a similar strategy for ranking Tweets themselves in real-time search).

    While Facebook and Twitter links may be treated like any other links, they do still come with things to keep in mind. For one, with Facebook, you have to keep in mind that a lot of profiles are not public. When a profile is not public, Google can’t crawl it, and it can’t assign pagerank on the outgoing links if it can’t fetch the page to see what the outgoing links are. If the page is public, it might be able to flow pagerank, Matt says. With Twitter, most links are nofollowed anyway.

    "At least in our web search (our organic rankings), we treat links the same from Twitter or Facebook or, you know, pick your favorite platform or website, just like we’d treat links from WordPress or .edus or.govs or anything like that," says Cutts. "It’s not like a link from an .edu automatically carries more weight or a link from a .gov automatically carries more weight. But, the specific platforms might have issues, whether it’s not being crawled or it might be nofollow. It would keep those particular links from flowing pagerank."

    There you have it. Matt’s response probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most of you, but it’s always nice to hear information like this straight from Google.

    Do you like the way Google handls links from Facebook and Twitter? Would you do it differently? Share your thoughts.

    Related Articles:

    > Tips for Getting Found in Real-Time Searches

    > Google Makes a Second Real-Time Search Announcement

    > Yahoo Rolling Out Something Kind of Like Real-Time Search

  • Will Apple and Google Have Some Real Smartphone Competition?

    Back in November, Sony Ericsson announced its new smartphone the Xperia X10. It has been much anticipated by mobile enthusiasts, and is expected to give other popular phones (like the iPhone) some interesting competition.

    At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sony Ericsson was of course demonstrating this device, and WebProNews dropped by the company’s booth to check it out first-hand. Check that out in the following clip.

    "The XPERIA X10 is a fantastic example of our make.believe philosophy because we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and demonstrating that anything consumers can imagine, we can make possible," Rikko Sakaguchi, EVP and Chief Creation Officer, Sony Ericsson said. "With the X10, we are raising the bar we have set ourselves with entertainment-rich phones like Aino and Satio by making communication more fun and playful, multiplying and enriching opportunities to connect."

    A couple of the device’s interesting features include "Timescape" and "Mediascape". Timescape provides the user with a chronological collection of all of their communication  (email, Facebook, text messages, phone calls, etc.) on the phone in a single place. Mediascape provides a similar functionality but stores music, videos, and photos. It also has some cool facial-recognition functionality.

    "The XPERIA X10 and the family of phones launching in the first half of 2010 underpin our commitment to an open and multi-platform strategy that maximises choice for the consumer and delivers the best possible consumer experience," says Bert Nordberg, President, Sony Ericsson. "The reaction from our global operator partners to the XPERIA X10 has been extremely positive and we will be rolling out across the world including Japan from the first half of 2010."

    It is currently unknown when the device will become available in the U.S. It is expected to hit Canada in Q1 and Q2.
     

    Related Articles:

    > Checking Out Boxee’s Version of the Future of TV

    > A Close Up with Sony’s New Personal Internet Viewer

    > The World’s Smallest USB Drive and Portable Hard Drive

  • Content Can Now Go Viral More Easily with Facebook

    Over the past year or so, Facebook has made a number of moves, which bring more Twitter-like functionality to the social network. Some question why Facebook would want to become more like Twitter given that it is much more dominant in the social media space, but Facebook sees the growing-popularity of Twitter, and likely wants to make sure it offers everything users want, to keep them around for the long haul.

    The latest Twitter-like feature to come to Facebook is the "share" button, which is pretty much Facebook’s answer to Twitter’s "retweet." The feature was rolled out over the weekend, and appears as a text link on posts in your news feed that stem from links ("share" is currently not an option for regular status updates, photo uploads, etc.).

    Just click "share" and you are presented with a pop-up window that allows you to share the link, and says "Via username" (although you can remove this):

    Share on Facebook

    Share on Facebook

    Just like that, you have passed the link on to your own friends, which may or may not include a variety of people who aren’t friends of the original poster. This in effect makes Facebook an even more valuable tool for content publishers. It will help content go viral, spreading through new audienceses.

    For some pros and cons of retweets, read this article. You can now apply some of these to Facebook’s share feature, because it works about the same (without the 140-character limit).

    Related Articles: 

    > What’s Not to Like About Twitter’s New Retweet Feature?

    > More to Retweeting Than Meets the Eye for Businesses?

    > An Equation for Getting More Traffic from Twitter

  • Were Googlers Involved in Chinese Cyber Attack?

    Reuters is reporting that Google is now investigating the possibility that one or more Google employees could have been involved in the recent attack in China, but is not offering comment on any details. The news agency reports:

    Security analysts told Reuters the malicious software (malware) used in the Google attack was a modification of a Trojan called Hydraq. A Trojan is malware that, once inside a computer, allows someone unauthorized access. The sophistication in the attack was in knowing whom to attack, not the malware itself, the analysts said.

    Local media, citing unnamed sources, reported that some Google China employees were denied access to internal networks after January 13, while some staff were put on leave and others transferred to different offices in Google’s Asia Pacific operations.

    Regardless of whether or not insiders were involved, it’s important to note that "Operation Aurora", as the attacks have been dubbed, stem from a particular vulnerability in Micosoft’s Internet Explorer. Security giant McAfee has a page set up with information on protection. The company explains: 

    McAfee Labs identified a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer that was used as an entry point for “Operation Aurora” to exploit Google and at least 30 other companies. Microsoft has issued a security advisory and McAfee is working closely with them on this matter. “Operation Aurora” was a coordinated attack, which included a piece of computer code that exploits a vulnerability in Internet Explorer to gain access to computer systems. This exploit is then extended to download and activate malware within the systems. The attack, which was initiated surreptitiously when targeted users accessed a malicious Web page (likely because they believed it to be reputable), ultimately connected those computer systems to a remote server. That connection was used to steal company intellectual property and, according to Google, additionally gain access to user accounts.

    Operation Aurora

    The company’s "Security Insights" blog has been updated continuously, and may be a good spot to keep in mind for the latest developments on Operation Aurora. 

    The attack on Google has of course led to Google stopping the censoring of its search results in China, which could in turn lead to the company having to shut down its Chinese operations. Philipp Lenssen at Blogoscoped points to some other instances where Google is censoring results.

    More WPN articles on the Google/China story here.

     
    Related Articles:

    > China Responds To Google Situation

    > Baidu’s Stock Soars Following China News

    > Google May Quit China

  • Google Reveals Factors for Ranking Tweets

    Google Reveals Factors for Ranking Tweets

    It’s ok to say "no" to Twitter if that’s your thing. There’s a chance that it just doesn’t fit into your strategy or help you achieve your goals. That’s cool. However, if it is your thing, you may be interested in how Google ranks tweets. That is if search marketing is your thing.

    Do you see Twitter as important to an effective search marketing campaign? Share your thoughts here.

    Google and Microsoft almost simultaneously announced deals with Twitter a few months back, that would give the companies access to tweets in real-time to fuel their respective search engines’ real-time results. Microsoft immediately launched their version, but it was separate from the regular Bing search engine. Google waited a while, but eventually started incorporating real-time results right into regular Google SERPs (including not only tweets, but various other sources).

    After the Twitter deals were announced, Bing came out and said, "If someone has a lot of followers, his/her Tweet may get ranked higher. If a tweet is exactly the same as other Tweets, it will get ranked lower."

    Amit Singhal Google was not as vocal about how it would rank tweets and other real-time results, but the company has now shed a bit of light on that via an interview with MIT’s Technology Review. David Talbot interviewed Google "Fellow" Amit Singhal, who has led development of real-time search at the company. According to him, Google also ranks tweets by followers to an extent, but it’s not just about how many followers you get. It’s about how reputable those followers are.

    Singhal likens the system to the well-known Google system of link popularity. Getting good links from reputable sources helps your content in Google, so having followers with that some kind of authority theoretically helps your tweets rank in Google’s real-time search.

    "One user following another in social media is analogous to one page linking to another on the Web. Both are a form of recommendation," Singhal says. "As high-quality pages link to another page on the Web, the quality of the linked-to page goes up. Likewise, in social media, as established users follow another user, the quality of the followed user goes up as well."

    But that’s only one factor.

    Do you commonly use hashtags in your tweets? If your goal is to rank in Google’s real-time search index, you may want to cut down on that practice, because according to Singhal, that is a big red flag for a lower quality tweet. This seems to be part of Google’s spam control strategy.

    Another noteworthy excerpt from the interview:

    Another problem: how, if someone is searching for "Obama," to sift through White House press tweets and thousands of others to find the most timely and topical information. Google scans tweets to find the "signal in the noise," he says. Such a "signal" might include a new onslaught of tweets and other blogs that mention "Cambridge police" or "Harry Reid" near mentions of "Obama." By looking out for such signals, Google is able to furnish real-time hits that contain the freshest subject matter even for very common search terms.

    Well, we certainly know more about Google’s strategy for tweet ranking now, but there are still plenty of questions about it. What is Google’s stance is on Ghost Tweeting? Are Google’s ranking factors a good reason to create and follow more Twitter lists in hopes for gaining more reputable industry followers?

    The factors mentioned aren’t the only ones Google employs. It’s not like Google is going to tell us everything. It also helps to keep in mind that real-time search spans far beyond just tweets. Still, Twitter is clearly a big part of it, and even the significance of tweets themselves will evolve in time.

    Google says it hopes to factor in geo-location data (with regards to tweets) into the real-time search results at some point. Google and Twitter engineers frequently collaborate on  real-time search, which Google itself says is evolving.

    By the way, it stands to reason that Google’s strategy for ranking tweets probably shares similarities for how it ranks content from other sources drawn from for real-time search.

    Is ranking in Google’s real-time search important to your strategy? Discuss here.

  • Is it OK to Say No to Twitter?

    Is it OK to Say No to Twitter?

    Over the past year or more, you have probably heard your fair share of people telling you that you need to use Twitter if you hope to have business success. It’s true that there are a great many opportunities and potential benefits to using the service, but do you have to use it? Well, that depends.

    Is Twitter Necessary? Tell us what you think.

    In a recent interview with WebPronews, SiteLogic‘s Matt Bailey said what a lot of people are probably thinking. You don’t have to use Twitter.

    Frankly, it’s pretty astonishing how loyal Twitter users are considering the service’s frequent downtime and over-capacity errors. There are plenty of other ways that you could go. In this day and age there are so many marketing opportunities online, it’s ridiculous. However, they require time, and if you’re going to focus a significant amount of your time on one, you better make sure it’s a legitimate way of getting results.

    This of course depends on the goals penis enlargement you have and the strategies you implement. As Matt says in the interview, "you need to have a consistent marketing strategy," and you should slow down and look at your marketing plan.

    I’ve written before about 8 reasons you need to stop ignoring Twitter, but perhaps that title could’ve been toned down a bit. Think of these things as reasons that Twitter could be a good tool to consider using, because Matt’s right. You don’t HAVE to use Twitter. People are still running successful businesses without it. That said, it does have some advantages. The 8 reasons I discussed in that article were:

    1. Twitter Lists
    2. The Openness of Twitter
    3. Building Valuable Relationships
    4. Traffic That Cares
    5. Staying Current
    6. Connecting with Local Customers
    7. Going International and Multi-lingual
    8. It’s Still Young

    Matt makes a valid point. Twitter may not be the "it" thing this time next year. It may still be as relevant as ever, but times change. I’m sure you remember when MySpace was the king of the social networks. MySpace is still around and heavily used, but it is often overshadowed in discussion by Facebook and Twitter.

    Consider your goals (here are some possible ones). If Twitter fits into them, use it. If not, maybe it’s not worth the time. If you want to use MySpace to meet your goals, you might be able to do that.

    Twitter is showing a lot of potential though. The company kicked off the new year with a bunch of new hires (including some former Googlers), and is really looking toward monetization and becoming more useful for businesses. With the opening of the firehose, a lot of new and existing apps are going to make it possible to do a lot of new and cool things with Twitter. Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone expects Twitter to reach a level of billions of tweets per second.

    Do you think Twitter is mandatory for businesses? Share your thoughts.

    Related Articles:

    > Twitter Starts the Year with Some New Faces

    > Stone Makes "Several Billion Tweets Per Hour" Prediction

    > 20 Goals for Business Social Media Use

  • 66% of Government Agencies Use Social Networking

    A recent study came out this week from the Human Capital Institute and Saba about government organizations’ use of social networking and collaboration tools. The study looked at the effectiveness of social networking in conducting government work, how agency type affects the use, and perception of social networking, and the future expectations and barriers for its use.

    "This study looks at the challenges and opportunities faced by government agencies, particularly at a time when private enterprise is adopting multiple forms of social networking to help them retain talent, improve service, and meet competitive challenges," said Mike DeMarco, HCI’s Senior Research Analyst. "We were pleased to see that sixty-six percent of government workplaces surveyed reported using at least one social networking tool."

    Human Capital Institute 66% of all government agencies currently use some form of social networking – from blogs and wikis to instant messaging and discussion boards, according to the study. 31% of those surveyed have embraced social media as a means of providing a more efficient customer feedback channel.

    Other highlights from the study include:

    – Federal agencies (defense and non-defense) lead in using social networking tools for project planning and collaboration— while state government agencies lag.

    –  Fifty-five percent of government workers are uncertain about the future use of social networking tools.
     
    – Security restrictions — chiefly concerns about the loss of confidential information — are the largest barrier to future implementation of social networking tools within governments.

    "Real-time collaboration and social networking technologies are rapidly migrating from consumers to both enterprises and government agencies," said Saba Chairman and CEO Bobby Yazdani.

    The entire study can be read here.

    Related Articles:

    > Social Media Will Not Replace Search

    > People 18-24 Would Rather Give Up Social Networks Than Email

    > Consumers Are Looking for Offers on Social Networks

  • Can Search Engine Optimization Survive Google?

    The search engine landscape is ever changing. We covered that. However, while there are multiple players involved in facilitating that change, there is one that drives it far more than the rest of the competition. Obviously, we’re talking about Google.

    Is there a point where adapting to Google’s changes becomes impossible? Share your thoughts.

    To a very drastic extent, Google drives how the search engine marketing industry operates. With Google holding such a dominant share of the search market, it’s not hard to figure out why. While some may tell you it’s not the most productive use of your marketing time, businesses who hope to find success in driving people to their website (or even brick and mortar store) often hang on every word Google says and every change Google makes to its search engine and/or search results.

    Liz Gannes with the tech blog GigaOm recently spoke with Google Engineering Director David Glazer about Google’s approach to social for 2010. And we come back to that changing search landscape. Social plays a huge role in it, and Glazer acknowledged just that. Gannes reports:

    In 2010, Google plans to expose and elicit more of the social network built into the tools that many of us already use — Gmail, Google Talk, etc. If you use Google products, the company already knows who your most important contacts are, what your core interests are, and where your default locations are. Glazer said to expect many product and feature launches that start to connect that information in useful ways.

    "Everything is better when it knows who I am," said Glazer, who is responsible for working on developer platforms that include social aspects — a more distributed role than he had at Google in the past, Glazer said, when he was working on social exclusively. That’s an improvement, he said, since social products are no longer siloed within the company.

    What does "social" mean to Google? "Who I am, who do I know, what do I do," said Glazer. (emphasis added)

    Back in October, Google released its experimental Social Search feature, which Google said would help users "find more relevant public content from their broader social circle."

    Relevance of social search has been questioned though. WebProNews recently discussed search trends for 2010 and beyond with comScore‘s "Search Evangelist" Eli Goodman. Believe it or not, social search is counted among these trends, and he mentions such a lack of relevance in social search results.

    The real question is: is SEO going to become less relevant? Before you get all worked up, I will acknowledge that SEO is based on adaptation and changing along with the search engines. In fact, that was essentially the topic of a recent WebProNews article. Hear me out.

    Right now, search engine optimization as we know it is still very relevant for businesses, but as Google learns more about who people are, they’re going to direct them to what they think is right. Social search and personalized search are very closely related.

    Think about Google’s universal search, which aims to deliver results Google thinks you might want. These results draw from a wide variety of different places – Google News, Google’s real-time index, YouTube, etc. Each set of universal results takes more attention away from the regular old organic results. How long until social search (or something like it) becomes a part of this.

    And let’s not forget about mobile. Smartphones are taking the world by storm, and Google is doing everything in its power to take over this market (though it still has work to do). Google knows your location if you let it. Then you have Google Latitude. Google knows your friends’ locations if they let it. Then, what happens when Chrome OS (Google’s Operating System) comes out. It may not catch on as much as Google would like, but then again it may. It starts on netbooks, but how long until that grows into something bigger?

    Google just keeps on releasing more products. More products means more opportunities for the company to encourage use of other Google products. They also keep acquiring more companies by the way, and that includes the recent acquisition of a mobile advertising agency and an attempted acquisition of Yelp (the failure of which, was quickly compensated for to some extent by Google’s release of the "Near me Now" feature).

    As Gannes notes, Google has this month brought on strategists Joseph Smarr and Chris Messina, who she says are "widely known for their advocacy of the open social web." This likely will lead to more social and personalized experiences related to search.

    Chris Brogan, one of the posterboys for social media, read the article too, and makes some pretty good points for businesses. Rather, he asks questions. Questions like:

    – Does your company know how you are?
    – Do they know who you know?
    – Do they know what you do?

    Questions like these are already important for a business looking to establish its identity (not to mention tell its story), but they could become increasingly important in an era of new SEO strategies.

    "People expect a certain level of customer service as table stakes to the game," says Brogan. "In the new, much more wired world, I believe we’re asking for more. I want my airlines to know just how often I fly, which seat I tend to choose, how often I upgrade, and whether I normally check my bag. Think about how helpful they could be if they did something with that information."

    Naturally, privacy plays a big role in the scheme of things, and as Brogan notes, that means opt-in. However, I think people generally trust Google (the search engine), at least to the extent that they will continue using it for the foreseeable future. I am well aware that many people do NOT trust Google, but within the broad spectrum of the general public, people trust it. Google’s search market share is evidence of that.

    So, moving into the future, as Google makes efforts to tailor the user experience to a more social and more personalized one, where does that leave traditional SEO? Can it survive? It’s always been about adaptation and will continue to be, but is there a breaking point where SEO will be trumped by who users know and where they are? Who they are? Can you optimize for every individual customer? That’s where things could get tricky.

    If you have thoughts on the matter, we would love to hear them in the comments.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Launches Social Search Experiment

    > Optimizing for Mixed Media Search Results

    > Succeeding In SEO Requires Change

  • A Close Up with Sony’s New Personal Internet Viewer

    At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sony introduced a new "personal Internet Viewer", called the Dash. This is a device that you can put on your nightstand or your kitchen counter, and access web content via Flash-based applications.

    While attending the show, WebProNews stopped by Sony’s exhibit to get a closer look at the device. Abby Johnson provides that look in the following clip:

    The device currently has over 1,000 free apps available, and it is open source, so anyone can create apps and submit them. Users can access things like weather, traffic, social networks, movies, music, etc. It has built in stereo speakers and a headphone jack.

    The Dash will ship in April, and will retail for about $200. The question is, will consumers be interested in a device like this?


    Related Articles:

    > A Print Shop for a New Decade

    > Cisco Leaving a Big Mark on Consumer Electronics Show

    > HP Unveils New Touch Notebook and Some New Minis at CES

  • Google Ditches Local Listings for SEOs and Designers

    As 2009 came to a close, Google managed to get SEOs riled up for one last controversial topic. For some time, SEOs and web designers have been noticing that Google has not been showing local listings in search results for queries related to their businesses – even location-specific ones.

    Should SEOs and designers be worried about local listings?     Comment here.

    As Matt McGee mentions in a Search Engine Land piece, even a query like "candy" without any geographical indicator will bring up a seven-pack of local results, but a query for "seo" or "web design" or even something as specific as "web design vancouver" will bring up no local listings whatsoever (although the organic results still heavily favor local businesses in location-specific queries).

    Web Design Vancouver

    Needless to say, some SEOs and designers are taking this as something of a slap in the face, justified or not. Search engine optimization and web design are both services after all, and just about every other type of service you can think of will yield local listings in a Google search.

    While this phenomenon was originally thought to be a bug, Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick fame points to a Google Maps Help thread where a Googler going by Joel H. tells a different story:

    Today, we’re intentionally showing less local results for web design / SEO queries. For example, [web design sacramento] doesn’t display local listings today. We believe this is an accurate representation of user intent. In some cases, we do show local listings, however (as NSNA/php-er noted) [web design in bellingham]. I’m sure some of you feel we should be displaying local results for queries like [Web Design Vancouver]. I understand that concern, but based on our understanding of our users, we feel this is the right decision for now.

    I’ll give the usual disclaimer that we’re constantly working on improving the user experience and results will vary over time. So, this could change in the future, but I wanted to be explicit about what we’re doing today.

    So if you use the word "in" in your query, you are more likely to get the local results. Some still have a hard time finding the logic in this move.

    Web Design Vancouver

    "I’m all for their interest in balancing for user intent – it’s their business, their product – but I’m missing the logic here," comments Bill Sebald. 

    "I find this disturbing," says Scott Clark. "If I have a physical location in a given area, offer a service to customers in that area that is close to their query, then onebox listings should appear as they do for other creative-class industries."

    Not all SEOs have such a problem with what Google is doing though. "I want to be found by people everywhere, not just in the small city I happen to live in at the moment," a content writer comments.

    "But you would think that if people typed in a city name or other location, they are actually looking for local results and the maps could be useful," they add. "Although if you have optimized your website for your location, you should get found anyway. And I do all my work online, people don’t need to visit me or even know where I am located so in that sense the maps aren’t always useful or necessary."

    People are saying that in some countries, they are still seeing local results for the type of query in question. It is possible that Google has just not rolled out the changes everywhere yet. The quoted content writer suggests that Google just doesn’t know the user-intent of all of its countries’ people as well as it does for the countries where the changes exist.

    What do you make of Google showing less local results for SEOs and web designers? Will it hurt local businesses? Share your thoughts.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Adds Place Pages to Google Earth

    > Google Comes to Brick and Mortar Store Windows

    > Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To

  • Succeeding In SEO Requires Change

    As you know full well, the search industry is constantly changing, and that means SEOs and businesses must adapt. This is always made abundantly clear at the change of each year as the previous year is reflected upon, and predictions about trends in the upcoming year are discussed. SEOs know that adaptation and ongoing education are crucial. The problem is that businesses don’t always understand just how much the search landscape actually does change. This can present a whole different set of challenges for both the small business and the professional SEO.

    What are some SEO tactics you’ve had a hard time convincing clients to employ? Discuss here.

    Searching for Profit founder Amanda Watlington recently discussed some arising trends in the search industry and how understanding the changing search landscape is of vital importance. One example of change is the possible inclusion of site speed as a ranking factor in Google. Matt Cutts dropped that bomb a couple months ago, and while many welcome it, a lot are dreading it.

    For one, businesses and clients of SEOs simply may not be so eager to put forth the time and money required to make the necessary adjustments to their sites to optimize for speed, although it is clearly in the best interest of the customer’s experience anyway.

    Another challenge, as Watlington mentions, is personalized search. Companies don’t always get that not everybody is necessarily going to see the same search results for any given query, and it can sometimes be difficult for SEOs to convince them that this is the case.

    Although things appear to be looking up, budgets have been tight, and businesses are demanding better results for their bucks, but they are not always aware of the big picture, which is why it is up to the hired SEO professional to educate them as best they can, and for other businesses to educate themselves.

    Luckily, there are plenty of industry resources freely available on the web. After all, you’ve probably read about the very tactics you have in mind there yourself. SEOs should find instances to back up their case to convince stubborn clients. Some of them are just hung up on outdated trends. Obviously this can make it hard to produce the results they are after.

    "The evolution has been slow, and I don’t think we’ve helped it as much as we could," Watlington says of companies’ understanding of SEO trends.

    If you are the client of an SEO or a business trying to get things done yourself, don’t stay hung up on old tactics that might be outdated. At this point, these are some of the things you should keep in mind:

    – Site Speed (it’s going to matter, so don’t ignore it…here are some things to consider)

    – Personalized Search (Not everyone is going to see the same Google results)

    – Universal Search (Showing up here requires attention to different indexes)

    – Real-Tme Search (look for more evolution in this area)

    – Changes in Local (there are frequently tweaks made by Google here)

    – Some things do stay the same (things like reputable links will always be in style)

    – Most importantly, stay informed (just keep up with the latest in industry developments)

    As Watlington notes in the interview, metrics are very important, and there has been a great deal of focus on them in the industry in recent years. New metrics come about, just as new tools do. Metrics can help illustrate the bigger picture, custom-fit to a particular organizations goals.

    What are the biggest challenges you face when dealing with changing SEO strategies for your own companies or your clients?  Comment here.

    Related Articles:

    > Google: Page Speed May Become a Ranking Factor in 2010

    > Google Ditches Local Listings for SEOs and Designers

    > Can You "Rank" in Google if Everyone Has Different Search Results?

    > What’s Better: PPC or SEO?

    > Things to Consider if Page Speed is to Become a Ranking Factor

  • Google PPC Click Fraud Getting Harder to Detect

    Perpetrators of click fraud are getting sneakier and sneakier. Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman has uncovered one of the more diabolical click fraud schemes known to be hatched. As he summarizes it:

    Here, spyware on a user’s PC monitors the user’s browsing to determine the user’s likely purchase intent. Then the spyware fakes a click on a Google PPC ad promoting the exact merchant  the user was already visiting. If the user proceeds to make a purchase — reasonably likely for a user already intentionally requesting the merchant’s site — the merchant will naturally credit Google for the sale. Furthermore, a standard ad optimization strategy will lead the merchant to increase its Google PPC bid for this keyword on the reasonable (albeit mistaken) view that Google is successfully finding new customers. But in fact Google and its partners are merely taking credit for customers the merchant had already reached by other methods.

    Do you cosider click fraud a big concern? Discuss here.

    Edelman details all of the specifics about his dicovery, pointing to an example perpetrator – Trafficsolar, which he blames InfoSpace for connecting Google to. He also suggests Google discontinue its relationship with InfoSpace and other partners who have their own chains of partners, making everything harder to monitor. In his example, he finds an astounding seven intermediaries in the chain between the click and the Google ad itself.

    Ben Edelman "Furthermore, Google styles its advertising as ‘pay per click’, promising advertisers that ‘You’re charged only if someone clicks your ad,’" says Edelman. "But here, the video and packet log clearly confirm that the Google click link was invoked without a user even seeing a Google ad link, not to mention clicking it. Advertisers paying high Google prices deserve high-quality ad placements, not spyware popups and click fraud."

    As Andy Greenberg with Forbes points out in an article, which brought Edelman’s findings to the forefront of mainstream exposure (and likely to Google’s attention), Edelman has a history of criticizing Google, is actually involved with a lawsuit involving misplacement of Google ads, and has served as a consultant to Microsoft, but maintains that this research is not funded by Microsoft or a company involved in that lawsuit. Greenberg reports:

    As for its ability to detect the new form of click fraud, Google has long argued that it credits advertisers for as much as 10% of their ad spending based on click fraud that the company detects. While the company wouldn’t comment on Edelman’s TrafficShare example, a spokesperson wrote that the company uses "hundreds of data points" to detect fraud, not just clicks.

    In a report last October, click fraud research firm Click Forensics measured click fraud at around 14%, significantly higher than Google’s estimates. But even Click Forensics may not be counting the sort of click fraud Edelman accuses TrafficSolar of committing. Because Click Forensics’ data is pulled from advertisers, the company can’t necessarily detect click fraud that is disguised as real customers and real sales, according to the company’s chief executive, Paul Pellman. Pellman believes, however, that the kind of click fraud Edelman discovered is likely mixed with traditional click fraud to increase the scheme’s traffic volume while keeping it hidden.

    Click Forensics’  own Steve O’Brien says "it was probably a fairly low-volume scheme to begin with.  It’s limited to machines of users that are infected with spyware who also visit select Google advertisers…It’s a problem, but probably not a huge one.  What would make it more serious is if there were another version of the spyware that simply clicks on paid links in the background without the user’s knowledge…"

    As for Edelman’s suggestion that Google sever ties with Infospace and the like, O’Brien doesn’t think it is worth going that far. "A better solution would be for Google and InfoSpace to deal only with reputable partners who provide verified, audited clicks to ensure advertisers get what they pay for," says O’Brien.

    Though Click Forensics appears to downplay the threat compared to Edelman’s own analysis, it shows the increasing sophistication with which fraudsters are carrying out their plots. Good times.

    Do you think Google should take more action in trying to prevent new kinds of click fraud? Share your thoughts here.

    Related Articles:

    > How Search Engines Manage Click Fraud

    > Botnets Driving Click fraud Traffic

    > Massive Click Fraud Ring Shut Down

  • With Real-Time Search Comes Real-Time Advertising

    Real-time search engine OneRiot announced a new "real-time ad network" today. It’s called RiotWise, and the company says its designed to help developers monetize their apps.

    "2009 witnessed an explosion of apps and services catering to users of the realtime web," says Tobias Peggs, GM of OneRiot. "RiotWise is the way to monetize those apps in 2010. Our ads make sense to buyers, make sense to users, and transparently deliver revenue to developers across the realtime web ecosystem."

    The following image illustrates how the Riotwise ads work:

    Riotwise

    OneRiot says RiotWise proved "extremely effective" at monetizing mobile apps, desktop clients, social search engines, and other applications in the realtime web space in a now completed pilot phase. "RiotWise ads are contextually relevant in realtime, resulting in high Click Through Rates (CTR)," the company says. "Advertisers include a range of publishers such as entertainment sites, sports networks, and news organizations. Dynamically created ads link to quality content from these publishers that is highly related to a users’ realtime search term or a global trending topic."

    According to OneRiot, the ads have been performing at 3-4 times industry standard CTR for ads in real-time web apps, and delivering significant revenue to developers.

    Developers can customize the display of the ads to fit their particular application. "For example, partners such as Digsby (the wildly popular social messaging client) and ÜberTwitter (the #1 Twitter Client for BlackBerry) are showing ads directly in the realtime stream," explains OneRiot. "Other implementations include more traditional mobile banner placements or the familiar AdSense-style text block."

    OneRiot shares advertiser revenue with developers.

    Related Articles:

    > Yahoo May Pursue Real-Time Search With OneRiot

    > Real-Time Search API Mania

    > Real-Time Search Engine Attracts $7 Million Funding

  • Google Talks Open Internet Goals, Files FCC Submission

    Google Talks Open Internet Goals, Files FCC Submission

    Google filed a submission on its own and one jointly with Verizon to the FCC for its proposed rulemaking docket. Google says its goal is "to keep the Internet awesome for everybody."

    "There’s a lot of awesome stuff on the Internet: Cats talking LOLspeak. Iranian dissidents tweeting. Live traffic updates. Science experiments," says Rick Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel on Google’s Public Policy Blog. "All of these things, and so much more, are possible because of the openness of the Internet. Any entrepreneur with an idea has always been able to create a website and share their ideas globally – without paying extra tolls to have their content seen by other users. An open Internet made Google possible eleven years ago, and it’s going to make the next Google possible."

    Whitt outlined what Google supports in its FCC filing:

    – Adding a nondiscrimination principle that bans prioritizing Internet traffic based on the ownership (the who), the source (the what) of the content or application;

    – Adding a transparency principle that ensures all users have clear information about broadband providers’ offerings;

    – Providing a carefully-defined "reasonable network management" exception so that broadband providers are empowered to address genuine congestion issues and protect against hazards like malware and spamming;

    – Applying general openness protections to both wireline and wireless broadband infrastructure; and

    – Creating better enforcement mechanisms at the FCC, and introducing the concept of technical advisory groups (TAGs) to potentially provide expert advice and resolve disputes.

    Here is Google’s submission:

    01-14-10 Google Net Neutrality Comments

    Here’s Google and Verizon’s joint submission:

    Google and Verizon Joint Submission on the Open Internet

    The FCC’s OpenInternet.gov has numerous posts up liveblogging the recent "Innovation, Investment, and the Open Internet" workshop, which featured discussion from an interesting mix of people on the subject of the Open Internet.

    Related Articles:

    > Open Internet Heavily Promoted at CES

    > Internet’s Possible Future in the US Gets Ready to Be Decided

    > FCC’s Net Neutrality Site Gets a Blog

  • Gmail and Picasa Storage Can Be Used for Any File

    Google recently announced that it was launching a new feature for Google Docs, which would allow users to upload and store any kind of file. What may not have been clear, however, is that this new storage from Google isn’t limited to just Google Docs.

    The company is saying that Gmail and Picasa storage can also be used. Google Docs Product Marketing Manager Peter Harbison writes:

    Each account will get 1 GB of free storage in Google Docs (in addition to the 1 GB of free storage in Picasa Web Albums and over 7 GB of free storage in Gmail) and will be able to upload any file up to 250 MB. If you’ve already purchased additional storage for Picasa Web Albums and Gmail, that storage is now shared with Google Docs as well, giving you more ways to use your online storage space. As we announced in November, additional storage is only $0.25 per GB per year. And because of the enthusiastic response, the Google Photos team has extended the special offer with Eye-Fi: users in the US or Canada who purchase 200 GB of extra storage for $50 will receive a free wifi-enabled SD card from Eye-Fi.

    Picasa Storage

    Google says the feature will be rolled out over the next couple of weeks. There will be a notification bubble when you sign into Google Docs.
     

    Related Articles:

    > Google Docs Delves Into File Storage

    > Google Adds Relevance Option To Docs Search

    > Google Exec: Docs Can Supplant Office In One Year

  • BusinessWire Offers Free Haiti-Related Press Release Distribution

    Popular press release distribution site BusinessWire, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, is offering its services for free to companies and organizations who are contributing to the aid of victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Such companies can push out free news releases with offers pertaining to supporting services, information, operations, and events directly related to rescue and recovery efforts.

    BusinessWire asks member companies to submit press releases as they normally do via the site’s online order interface, and to follow up with their local newsrooms. Other organizations are given the following phone number to call for further details: 888.381.9473

    BusinessWire has consolidated all of its Haiti Earthquake-related press releases into one spot, so the information is easily accessible. That can be found here.

    BusinessWire Haiti News Archive

    This is just one example of many showing how the web is contributing directly to relief efforts for victims of the disaster. There are a lot of companies and organizations offering varying services, and Business Wire’s own offering provides for a good way to spread the news as well as get a look at different ways one can help.

    Participating companies so far include Dollar General, Kohl’s, Walgreens, Discover, GE, Sprint, Comcast, T-Mobile, Target, and many more.

  • Yahoo Upgrades Yahoo Finance Search

    Yahoo Upgrades Yahoo Finance Search

    Yahoo has made some improvements to its Finance Search interface. Yahoo Finance Search is now including results from the web, and can uncover details on companies and executives, find info on private companies, and help determine what companies are associated with topics, Yahoo says.

    Every page of Yahoo Finance has a link that says "Finance Search". Users can simply click this to search or browse a list of the day’s popular finance searches.

    Yahoo Finance Search

    When a user’s search exactly matches a ticker or quote name, the user will see pricing information and a chart. They will also get news stories from Yahoo and the web. Another section provides a list of companies (pubic and private), ETFs, Mutual Funds, and Indices (from US and worldwide exchanges) generated from matches between the user’s search and content on Yahoo Finance, including company/quote name, ticker, business summary, key execs, analysts, and insiders.

    Yahoo Finance Search

    "As an example, you can enter the name of a person (‘Carol Bartz‘) or a topic (‘biodynamic farm‘) to find related companies," explains Yahoo. "In the example of Carol Bartz, she is a key exec and insider at the companies listed. In the example of ‘biodynamic farm,’ biodynamic farm is mentioned in the business summary on the company profile pages."

    When a user uses web search results, they will find content from Yahoo Finance and the web. In the default "all results" view, the top three results come from Yahoo Finance and the ones after that are from the web. However, users can choose the option to view only results from Yahoo Finance or only the web.

    Related Articles:

    > Yahoo Sponsored Search Getting New Features

    > Carol Bartz Gives Self A B-

    > Yahoo, Bing Trade Market Share Again

  • Google Tailors Mobile Search Suggestions to Location

    Google has launched search suggestions based on geographical location for iPhone and Android devices. This is currently only available in the United States.

    "Typing a query into the search box on a phone can often be slow and difficult," says Google’s Mobile Engineering Team. "For this reason, relevant search suggestions that match your intended query can meaningfully reduce the time and effort it takes to submit a search."

    "For example, when users in the Boston metro area begin typing ‘Muse’, suggestions such as ‘museum of science boston’ and ‘museum of fine arts boston’ are provided because people near Boston frequently look for these very popular museums," the team explains. "On the other hand, users in San Francisco who begin their query with ‘Muse’ will see suggestions for museums in the San Francisco area. By using the device’s current or most recent location, Google is able to offer even better, more useful suggestions than ever before."

    Geo Suggestions on Google

    Users can simply go to Google.com on their phone’s browser and start typing a query to see the suggestions, although they may have to refresh the page first. Users also must have "save recent locations" and "allow use of device location" turned on in the settings.

    This feature is just the latest in Google’s frequent upgrades that may have a direct impact on local businesses. This week, Google also made its Place Pages for businesses more useful by letting businesses update them in real-time.
     

    Related Articles:

    > Google Simplifies Finding Nearby Businesses from Your Phone

    > Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To

    > Can Search Engine Optimization Survive Google?