Micrositez are a multi award winning digital marketing agency, with offices in the UK, UAE and the USA.
26
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in link building, SEO
Yesterday Apple posted astonishing 2012 Q1 profits of $13.06 billion. To put that number into some context, it’s the 4th largest corporate quarterly profit of all time. Only three quarterly earnings have surpassed this, and these were all achieved by oil and gas companies. In fact, of the 19 companies in the Wikipedia list of top all-time earnings, this posting from Apple is the only entry that isn’t oil or gas related.
Apple has been surging ahead in the tech industry for some time, but how have they managed to so spectacularly outperform their rivals? One simple answer: the iPhone. The iPhone is now Apple’s key product, and accounts for over 50% of the company’s revenue.
Apple sold 37 million iPhones this quarter, which is a mind-boggling figure. This surpasses last year’s Q1 sales (16 million), and the previous quarterly record for iPhone sales in Q3 2011 (20 million) combined. A large proportion of that has come from enterprise customers, as RIM’s Blackberry handsets lose their hold on business customers.
What does all this mean for Apple competitors? As quick as tech media are to suggest the next big thing in mobile or consumer electronics, the fact is that no other tech firm has come remotely close to that kind of earning power. Facebook may be a behemoth of social media, but its $250million 2011 Q4 earnings look paltry compared to the cash that Apple are bringing in. Google’s recent quarterly earnings posting of $2.71 billion was impressive, but classed as a “disappointment” by shareholders. Despite Android’s impressive growth in mobile, Google does not control the hardware of their mobile product, which means that growth is shared with manufacturers like Samsung, HTC and Motorola.
It appears to be the case that Apple is so far ahead of the competition, that it’s not going to be possible for other companies to catch up financially. Apple’s limited (but highly desirable) product line could be seen as a key to their success, but may leave space for companies to compete in terms of variety and innovation instead of profit.
Micrositez Digital is an award winning digital agency.
android, Apple, facebook, Google, HTC, iPhone, Motorola, Samsung
25
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in pay per click, SEO
Google’s Webmaster Central blog has announced today that a new notification has been added to search results, designed to alert users that a site they are about to visit may have been hacked. The alert appears under the result and warns that “this site may be compromised”.
Clicking the notice takes the searcher to more information on Google’s Help Center, and a link is also provided on the blog for webmasters who feel their site has been unfairly labelled as compromised.
This interesting update has been mostly ignored however, as most users are concerned with what has appear on the official Google blog today; a privacy update. The update, which Google say Is designed to provide a more seamless experience for Google account holders across their various products is explained here:
Essentially, your preferences will be shared across search, social, mail and other activities, making it easier for Google to determine what you mean when you search for certain terms. The problem is, as Facebook have learned, that users are none too happy when their privacy is tampered with, especially when there is no facility to opt out. If you hold a Gmail, Google+, Youtube, Google Docs or any other account, this will affect you.
Google’s position is outlined in their blog:
“Finally, what we’re not changing. We remain committed to data liberation, so if you want to take your information elsewhere you can. We don’t sell your personal information, nor do we share it externally without your permission except in very limited circumstances like a valid court order. We try hard to be transparent about the information we collect, and to give you meaningful choices about how it is used—for example our Ads Preferences Manager enables you to edit the interest categories we advertise against or turn off certain Google ads altogether. And we continue to design privacy controls, like Google+’s circles, into our products from the ground up.”
It’s another controversial move from the search giant, who are already dealing with a lot of heat online after the launch of Search Plus Your World and forced signup to Google+. Is it possible that users will take their data elsewhere?
Micrositez Digital: Web Agency Glasgow.
24
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Web Design
Developers and engineers from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have been working on a solution to the “Google+ problem”. The solution they have developed is in response to the new Search Plus Your World changes that have been rolled out on Google, which were felt to unfairly promote Google+ pages instead of more active social profiles.
The result of this work can be found at focusontheuser.org. From there, users are encouraged to click and drag a button to their bookmarks bar, and this button can then be used to alter search results. Or, as the team call say “try a more relevant Google”. It works by using Google’s own relevance measure to determine which social content should appear in the People and Pages section of search results. So the social results better match the most relevant and popular social locations for search terms. It doesn’t exclude Google+, but it does categorise it more accurately according to how relevant it is.
The name of this bookmarklet?
the "don't be evil" button
If this phrase sounds familiar, that’s because “don’t be evil” is the informal corporate motto of Google themselves, and an ironic reminder to the company that perhaps they’ve slipped from that ethos with their promotion of Google+ above all other social networks.
It’s an interesting project, and it could become very popular. Search engine users value relevancy over anything else, and if they’re given the tool to get it, why wouldn’t they use it?
Micrositez Digital: Web Agency Glasgow.
facebook, Google, myspace, search plus your world, twitter, Web Agency Glasgow
23
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Uncategorized
The answer is yes. Since Google’s announcement of Search Plus Your World, two weeks ago. The world of SEO has been up in arms over concerns that this is one more attempt by Google to push themselves to the front of the queue, in the world of social media.
However, #SPYW as it’s known on the twitter feed isn’t just be a matter of concern for SEO experts. The changes will also impact the way Pay per Click campaigns are formed too. Here are a few areas we should expect to see affected by the new feature, which I have separated into a pros and cons list.
Positives:
Concerns:
Ultimately the biggest battle with SPYW, for PPC strategists, will be the battle for clicks. Now when users conduct a search Google will present them with a mix of social and search information fused together. Despite the backlog of complaints made against Google and this new feature, by unhappy rivals. Both paid search teams, and businesses will have to keep in mind some of the above pointers in moving forward with any PPC strategy.
Micrositez is a digital marketing agency offering PPC.
Micrositez Digital is delighted to highlight the work of musician Brian McCarthy, who has released a charity single to raise funds for Tees Valley Community Church. The funds will help enable them to continue their support for three valuable causes. These important community projects have been providing vital services in the Tees Valley Area:
Free debt counselling and advice services for those seeking financial help.
Community development and work with young people, reducing social exclusion.
Supporting former offenders and addicts, and helping integrate them back into the community.
If you would like to show your support, the single, titled “Holy Spirit Song” is available to download now on iTunes and Amazon.
Micrositez Digital: Web Agency.
Amazon, Brian McCarthy, Community projects, community sponsorships, iTunes, Web Agency
20
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO
Google AdSenseGoogle makes changes its algorithm placing tighter restrictions on the ratio of content to ad being used on websites.
The change specifically applies to positioning of ads on a page, giving reason to their actions Google announced in yesterday’s webmaster blog;
“We’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience.”
They say; “rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change.”
For many websites placing ad’s above-the-fold has been a popular choice for many website owners as ads have proven to monetize well at the top. Websites will need to be mindful of today’s news moving forward, and make changes where necessary to avoid being kicked similarly to many who fell short during last year’s Panda Update.
Google says that although the changes will be noticeable, the percentage of searches this affects globally is less than 1%.
If you own a website, or help maintain one then there are a few things you can do to make sure your website doesn’t fall into Google’s ‘top heavy with ads’ category.
Micrositez Digital is a Internet Marketing Agency offering SEO, and Web Design Services.
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Facebook have rolled out yet another change to their users. The Open Graph feature was publicly unveiled at F8 in 2011, but has now been launched and to users and to developers interested in building lifestyle apps.
The initial partners include some familiar names like Zynga, Pinterest, Ticketmaster and Rotten Tomatoes. Facebook has confirmed they will start approving new apps from developers straight away.
Some Open Graph features were already in use, and users have been sharing their music activity through apps like Spotify, and their news habits through social reader apps. These features were already using frictionless sharing to update users’ timelines, and the new apps will work in the same way.
The difference with the new apps will be the range of activities users are now able to share. Facebook’s ubiquitous “like” button has been criticised in the past, and even Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that it has limitations for users and marketers alike. The new Open Graph apps can use frictionless sharing to update activity on other sites. For example, for e-commerce sites a user can update that they “want” or “own” a product, and this will be shared to their timeline. With the range of apps available there is a lot of potential for reported activities, and users’ timelines will soon share what they “read”, “cooked” or “ate” on their timelines.
The idea of frictionless sharing is to turn the timeline into a type of noticeboard where users an update all types of activity. Some people are concerned that it could mean more corporate updates into already crowded newsfeeds, or that it could be the very definition of oversharing. Facebook users are not known for keeping their opinions on such changes to themselves, so we will soon be able to see how well the changes have gone over.
Micrositez Digital: Web Agency Glasgow.
facebook, frictionless sharing, Open Graph, pinterest, social media
18
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in pay per click, SEO
Jerry Yang has announced his departure from the company he helped to establish 17 years ago. In a letter to Chairman Roy Bostock, Yang said: “My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life.” It’s a significant change at the top for Yahoo who appointed Scott Thompson (previously of Paypal) as CEO on 9th January.
Yang had been serving on the board of directors, and held the unofficial title of “Chief Yahoo”. He was CEO of the firm from June 2007 to January 2009, but resigned to make way for Carol Bartz. Carol was then famously fired over the telephone in September 2011.
Yang’s place on the board of directors at Yahoo had been a divisive issue, with criticism from some employees and shareholders. Yang was believed to have been instrumental in blocking takeover attempts on the company, and a barrier to potential buyers in future. One notable shareholder, Daniel Loeb, wrote a scathing letter to the Yahoo board in November, criticising Yang’s continued presence at Yahoo and gossip about his supposed negotiations with private equity firms.
Since Jerry Yang’s resignation was announced, stock in Yahoo has rallied and speculation on the future of the company is a major talking point on tech news sites today. It is believed that his departure could open negotiations for a sale of the company, or some of its Asian assets, or that a whole new strategic direction for Yahoo is on the cards. Either way, it’s doubtful that Bing or Google will be quaking in their boots just yet.
Micrositez Digital is an award-winning digital agency.
17
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Brandon Harris, senior designer for Wikimedia, updated his Facebook status this morning to say “And that’s that. We have our orders. A global, hard blackout of the English Wikipedia is a go.”
This confirms that Wikipedia will go ahead with a planned protest on Wednesday. In an unprecedented move, the world’s 6th most-visited site will “go dark” to raise awareness of their opposition to the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Anyone attempting to access any of the English Wikipedia pages will be greeted with something that looks like this.
Wikipedia has never attempted a blackout on this scale before, but the Italian Wikipedia did close down in October 2011 to protest changes to libel laws. Link-sharing site Reddit will join the protest with a similar blackout.
The reason that Wikipedia, Reddit and others are so concerned about SOPA and PIPA is that they impose additional responsibilities on websites to thoroughly monitor their content for copyright infringement, and suggest harsh punishments where the law is broken. Wikipedia’s stance, which is outlined on their site, is that PIPA and SOPA “have the potential to significantly change the way that information can be shared through the Internet.” The SOPA initiative/action statement on the site today continues: “It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.”
The protest itself has met with plenty of criticism. The Guardian reported that Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, tweeted that he thought Wikipedia’s plans were “foolish” and “silly”. (Although he has since stated on his twitter feed that he is in support of Wikipedia’s plans). Costolo has reassured users that Twitter will not be participating in the blackout.
Whether the protest will have any impact remains to be seen, but surely some of the 23 million unique daily visitors to English Wikipedia’s sites will be at a loss on Wednesday.
Micrositez Digital: Web Agency Glasgow
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Web Design
Now that CES 2012 is over, the booths have been dismantled, and the gadgets put back in the boxes, bloggers and journalists have been reporting on which key trends and developments in tech we can expect to take off in the coming year. This year’s show was one of the biggest in the event’s history, with over 3,100 exhibitors and 153,000 attendees.
The big story this year is television. Last year saw a big push in 3D enabled televisions (that were notable by their absence this year) but this year was all about smart TV. Speculation is rife about the impending launch of Apple TV, and whether it will impact the television viewer as much as the iPhone impacted the mobile phone user. Not to be outdone, Google TV was a big presence this year, as Samsung, Sony, Sharp and LG displayed new OLED and super-thin hardware that could one day appear in our living rooms.
Despite plenty of hype before the event, ultrabooks failed to make any real impact or headlines. There were plenty on show, but many similar products from manufacturers, with nothing standing out from the pack. Surprisingly, streaming and media services were on everyone’s lips, as manufacturers take note that consumers want devised that will allow them to stay connected and control their own content, regardless of the type of device they use.
As far as innovation goes, you can’t get more forward-thinking and Minority-Report-like than gesture control. This technology is still in its infancy, but was still one of the most talked-about technologies at the event. Intel’s booth with gesture controlled television was a big hit, and PrimeSense (developers of the Kinect sensor for Microsoft) spoke openly of their belief that gesture control replacing touch on many consumer devices. Expect to see a lot more of this at the 2013 show, as the next generation of gesture control devices really wow us.
Micrositez Digital is an award winning digital agency.
The frost is back and the pavements are slippy again outside the Micrositez Digital office, and it got us thinking about getting our skis on.
We’re fortunate to have worked with Sno – providers of group ski holidays and all inclusive ski holidays – for some time now, and have enjoyed working toward making their site the premier online destination for ski holidays. Their ski holiday deals make it easy to take advantage of the wintry weather, and are available to book now at www.sno.co.uk.
Here at Micrositez Digital, we’d love to book one of their group ski holidays ourselves, but we’re too busy working toward great results for Sno.
Micrositez Digital is an award winning digital agency.
digital agency, group ski holidays, inclusive ski holidays, Sno
13
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Clients
Micrositez Digital is delighted to announce that we will continue working with Excel Clothing throughout 2012.
Our partnership with Excel Clothing, the online designer clothes store, began in 2011. After seeing their site – which specialises in designer labels like Hugo Boss UK and Tommy Hilfiger UK – thrive in partnership with us they have decided to stick with Micrositez Digital.
As an online retailer with ambition, Excel Clothing knows that our partnership can help them become the go-to site for must-have designer items, like Barbour Jackets. Their collection of high-quality brand-name apparel is available now at: www.excelclothing.com.
Micrositez Digital: SEO and PPC.
Barbour Jackets, Excel Clothing, Hugo Boss UK, PPC, SEO, Tommy Hilfiger UK
13
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Once upon a time, the go-to online social hub was MySpace. You were on MySpace, your friends were on MySpace and, if you wanted a social network, it was the only logical choice. Recent figures suggest that MySpace’s decline could be terminal, as they shed more than 1 million users between November and December 2011. So where are those users going?
Today, Facebook dominates the social landscape, and has infiltrated popular culture to the point that the brand, like Google, peppers people’s speech as a verb:
“I need to find a car hire company, I’ll Google it”
“I don’t have her number, I’ll just Facebook her”.
The growth of Facebook has been well documented, and recent figures now suggest that the social network could hit the 1 billion user mark this year. Local big players in countries around the world are being usurped one by one, from Hyves in the Netherlands and StudiVZ in Germany to Orkut in India. Mark Zuckerberg’s creation now has unparalleled global reach, and that makes it an incredibly attractive platform for advertisers. Facebook controls approximately half of all social media traffic in the UK.
But this figure indicates that Facebook is in decline here. Recent figures are suggesting that Facebook’s share has fallen by more than 7% in the last year, and analysts are suggesting it has reached saturation point. Social media users in the UK are gaining a reputation for being a fickle bunch; MySpace’s dominance a few short years ago was shaken by Bebo, which then stepped aside for Facebook. Now, Twitter, YouTube and even Yahoo! Answers are showing considerable growth. Meanwhile, Google+ isn’t in the top 10 social networks in the UK yet, but it is growing incredibly quickly.
So how do you keep social media users in the UK interested in your online social media presence?
The important thing is to watch and engage with the movers and shakers on the social media landscape. The popularity of niche social networks and forums like Moneysavingexpert and Pinterest, and even local social networks such as KILTR, make social networking in the UK a different experience. Make sure your business establishes a presence in these networks before your friends start to explore them as well. It’s a lot of work, but there are big rewards for those who invest in this kind of brand awareness.
Micrositez Digital is a Social Media Agency.
facebook, Google, KILTR, moneysavingexpert, myspace, pinterest, social media, twitter, YouTube
12
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Google’s announcement of social integration into search (which we blogged about yesterday) has given a shock to both search and social media. Now that the changes have become active for some users, we get a clearer picture of the reality of the implications of this integration. For UK users this will take some time, but that big white space at the right hand side of Google results will soon be populated with Google+ people and pages which correspond with your search query.
As an example, Search Engine Land used the search term “music” to measure the impact of the nee social integration. The search as done using the chrome browser in incognito mode, meaning that Google had no access to personal data when amalgamating the search results. These results turned out to be quite interesting. The results area on the right hand side immediately listed the most popular musicians on Google+, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg and Mariah Carey. Despite this being a people and places recommendation there was no mention of any of their Twitter accounts. And what about other musicians? Katy Perry has broken many Billboard chart records in the last year, and has a huge loyal online fanbase (over 40 million fans on Facebook alone), but her absence from Google+ means an absence from Google’s people and pages results.
A search on the top music suggestion – Britney Spears – immediately prompts the user to select her Google+ profile. Ignoring the suggestion still prompted at least two Google+ links on the front page, and four links to Google-owned YouTube. Her twitter account languishes in 10th place, and her Facebook (with over 16 million fans) isn’t even on the front page.
Feeling a little mischievous, they searched for Facebook. The top people and pages result is Mark Zuckerberg; but it is his Google+ account. This account has never been updated, and this raises some questions on the relevancy algorithm of this feature.
Today, some tech news sites and blogs are speculating that Google could face antitrust legislation over the changes, but it remains to be seen whether this will come to pass.
What this indicates, is that having a Google+ account is more relevant and essential than ever for businesses who want to succeed online. In order to be noticed, companies will not just want their website to appear near the top of Google search results, but to attract users with a Google+ page link. Remember, if your business isn’t considering a Google+ presence, your competitor probably is.
Micrositez Digital is a Social Media Agency.
Britney Spears, Google, Katy Perry, mark zuckerberg, People and Pages, social media, social search
11
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Google’s latest blog post, Search, plus Your World, came at no great surprise to many industry insiders. The merge between search and social has been on the cards for a number of years now, but many are calling it “a bad day for the internet.”
Google announced that their latest step in the direction of social search would transform; “Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.”
The changes, which come in the form of three new features;
• Personal results
• Profiles in search
• People and pages
Will, according to Google enrich users’ experience.
What does this mean for users?
It means that when you’ve signed into Google+ and search for information on a particular individual Google will help you by drawing out relevant information from Google+ pages, and display them for you in the first few pages.
The response seemed positive, at least for a few short hours. Twitter was among the first to raise its angry feathers making the following statement;
“As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter, as a result, Twitter accounts and tweets are often the most relevant results. We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organisations and Twitter users.”
Search strategist, Rishi Lakhani, shared his views on the news in a recent report by Econsultancy; “I think it’s a desperate attempt to make a rather poor product become mainstream. Google has the largest universal audience base, but not the largest social network. So what they are doing is to try and compete with the powerhouses that are Twitter and Facebook, by using the one super strong property they have, search.”
The changes will only be available for users in the US via their Google account.
10
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
A report on spending levels among SMBs (small businesses) has provided some interesting insight into the rising importance of social media in the modern marketing strategy. The report, from Borell Associates, contains details of SMB digital marketing and spending forecasts for the coming year. What is interesting is that the report estimates spending on social media marketing could overtake spending on paid search.
Figures on reported spending in 2011 still show that small businesses are still spending most on email marketing, closely followed by search engine marketing and key word purchase. Social media marketing spending is now right behind these types of marketing in spending share, ahead of business directory listings, sponsorships, mobile advertising and banner/display ads. Social media now accounts for just over 15% of total online marketing share for SMBs, which equates to roughly $1.14billion in the USA alone. In total it is estimated that over $6.2billion was spent on social media marketing in 2011 with over 65% of that social media marketing concentrated on Facebook. This shows that the SMB share is a small but sizeable portion of the total market.
The median number of users engaged with small businesses is around 250, but the mean amounts to some 4,000 users. This is because a few SMBs are claiming to be engaged with tens of thousands of users, according to the figures they reported to Borrell. Having 250 fans/likes/followers is a far more realistic picture of an an achievable level of engagement for a small business.
What is clear is that the trend of increasing social media marketing is likely to continue throughout 2012. With over 57% of SMBs measuring return on investment based on new customers, what remains to be seen is how effective their methods will be. At Micrositez Digital we understand the importance of an effective and engaging social media campaign, and also the risk some businesses take by managing their social media ineffectively.
Micrositez Digital: SEO and Social Media Marketing.
Email marketing, keywords, return on investment, search engine marketing, small businesses, Social Media Marketing
9
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Today is the first day of this year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, and tech giants have headed to the Nevada desert in their droves to show off the latest and greatest future tech products.
CES has been the main stage for tech companies to showcase the best of their upcoming technologies to journalists and retailers. This year’s exhibition is the second biggest since its launch in 1967, when the first CES was held as a spinoff to the Chicago Music Show. Notable products that have been launched at CES include:
• The Video Casette Recorder (VCR), 1970
• Atari’s Pong video game, 1975
• Camcorder, 1981
• Nintendo NES, 1985
• DVDs, 1996
• Hi definition TV, 1998
• Microsoft Xbox, 2001, and
• Blu-ray and HD DVD, 2004.
The big news this year is Microsoft’s announcement that this will be the last CES they will exhibit at, and speculation is rife that they’re planning to go out with a bang. At the most anticipated exhibit of this year’s conference Microsoft are expected to demo Windows 8 in tablet format. Other big exhibits that are expected include a large range of ultrabook portable laptops, the follow-up to the Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone, a new super-processor chip from Intel, and TV powered by Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich OS.
There is talk that Microsoft’s move away from CES could signify a challenging future for the show, if it even has a future. The big trendsetter in tech over the past decade has been Apple, and they have never exhibited at CES. Their brand is strong enough to create buzz around their own events, but if the future of CES is in doubt that leaves little space for the smaller tech companies to create buzz around their own innovations.
Micrositez Digital: Social Media Marketing.
6
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
The most recent Google monthly update has arrived, and was summarised yesterday in their official Inside Search blog. As promised, Google is using their blog to update users on the latest search updates and improvements to the current algorithm.
Google has given some interesting launch codenames to these changes, incuding:
• “old possum” – a faster redirect system to speed up mobile browsing
• “Hoengg” – an update to the SafeSearch tool
• “simple” – an improvement to image search which adds value to high quality source pages
• “SweatNovember” – an improvement to Hebrew synonym handling across multiple languages, and
• “baschi” improved lyric search results.
Among the tweaks and updates undertaken in December was given the project codename “megasitelinks”. This is what Google is calling an algorithmic improvement for selecting and displaying sitelinks, including a new localised sitelink update. The aim is to show sitelink specific to users’ region, which can be controlled through location settings. SearchEngineLand have reported that the localised sitelinks don’t appear to be completely up and running as yet, but it will be one change to look out for in future.
These aren’t the only Google projects and changes to be given some interesting and amusing names, many people will be familiar with the delicious codenames for Android versions, such as FroYo, Gingerbread, Cupcake and Ice Cream Sandwich. Today’s blog is unusual because it is one of the few occasions that Google has openly published the codenames for search updates. Inside Search explains that the codenames make projects easier to talk about and gives employees a memorable moniker to refer to the project.
One example they provide is their old question answering feature, nicknamed DAFFIE (Database of All Fact Fiction Information and Exaggeration). When the feature was overhauled and a new system put in place in a project led by Amit Singhal, he nicknamed the system Porky Pig because, according to Amit “Porky Pig was trying to kill Daffy Duck.” Google staffers, convinced Amit was confused, had their giggles stifled when it was discovered that in the original 1937 cartoon, Porky Pig was indeed hunting Daffy Duck.
You have to wonder if the team Googled that little fact…
Micrositez Digital: Social Media Marketing.
5
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in pay per click, SEO
According to recent figures from StatCounter, the massively popular Chrome browser from Google is poised to overtake Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the world. Chrome 15 (the latest version) only trailed IE8 in terms of worldwide browser usage by 0.01%, and Chrome is still growing.
It should be safe to assume therefore that when searching Google for a web browser the first result you’d see is Chrome. Not anymore. In a demonstration that even Google plays by their own rules, they have temporarily demoted pagerank on the Google Chrome homepage for no less than 60 days for breaking rules on sponsored blog posts.
Google hired Essence Digital as a contractor to handle their online video marketing campaign for Chrome, but Essence Digital contracted a company called Unruly to implement the campaign. Unruly arranged some paid-for or “sponsored” blog posts to spread the video as widely as possible, and included a link back to the Google Chrome homepage, however the links did not have a “nofollow” attribute. What this meant, was that Google was paying for links. As a company already under scrutiny for allegedly promoting its own sites at the expense of their competition, once Google had discovered the error they had no choice but to act.
Google issued the following statement to SearchEngineLand on the matter: “We’ve investigated and are taking manual action to demote www.google.com/chrome and lower the site’s PageRank for a period of at least 60 days. We strive to enforce Google’s webmaster guidelines consistently in order to provide better search results for users. While Google did not authorize this campaign, and we can find no remaining violations of our webmaster guidelines, we believe Google should be held to a higher standard, so we have taken stricter action than we would against a typical site.”
So Google’s reputation as a stickler for rules is maintained, but as Chrome no longer appears on the first page of Google results for “browser” they may also have handed advantage to Mozilla’s Firefox and risked the future growth potential of Chrome.
Micrositez Digital: SEO and PPC.
browser, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, webmaster guidelines
22
Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Uncategorized
As 2011 draws to a close, we thought we’d take a brief look at some key events that took place throughout the industry over the last year in social, search, web, and PPC;
From Facebook, to HTML there have been significant movements and achievements particularly amongst social and search as the two continue to merge closer together.
Social
• Facebook attracted over 55% of the world’s online population in October
• Twitter grew by 59% with over 160 million unique users visiting the site every month.
• Linked In grew by 55% this year
• Google+ was unleashed into the world, reaching 65 million users world wide
Search
• Google, Mozilla renew search partnership for a further three years.
• Google’s Caffeine Update impacted 35% of searches, increasing demand for fresher content.
• YouTube attracted more than 1 trillion videos views this year
• Integration of search and social data that enriched our real time search results
• Google Panda Update back in February 2011
Web
• This year saw the arrival of a long awaited CSS3 and HTML 5
• Simple colour schemes proved to be a great success
• With the rise of smartphones, came the rise of mobile web design
• Domain names became that little bit more creative giving people more option than .com or .co.uk, to .me .us .pretty much anything you can think of.
PPC
• Online shopping increased this year. An estimated £15 Billion dollars has already been spent online in the run up to the Christmas period.
• Rich media ads are almost three times more effective in driving purchase intent v basic Flash
• Rich media ads grew 66%
(Sources include: Inside Adwords and ComScore)
May we take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year from everyone at Micrositez Digital.
Micrositez: Social Media and Digital Marketing
