In Google’s on-going effort to help users find more high quality websites in search results, on January 19th 2012, Google launched an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result.

Google’s aim with this change is to make the user experience much more enjoyable and find the content they are looking for more easily.

The upshot is that if you have a lot of ads on your site on the top part or “above-the-fold” (The part visible when the browser opens a page) and the user has to scroll down to reach the actual content, or the majority of the site’s initial screen space is ads, Google will determine that this is not conducive to an enjoyable user experience and as a result, such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

This algorithmic change does not affect sites that place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, only sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive level or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. It will tend to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

Google claim that this change noticeably affects less than 1% of searches globally. If your website has been affected by the page layout algorithm change, consider how your web pages use the area above-the-fold and whether the content on the page is obscured, at the bottom of your page or otherwise hard for users to discern quickly.

If you decide to update your page layout, the page layout algorithm will automatically reflect the changes as Google re-crawls and processes enough pages from your site to assess the changes.

This change is just one of the over 500 improvements Google expect to roll out to search this year.

Micrositez is a Digital Agency.

above the fold, digital agency, Google, page layout, search algorithm, search results

Some users of twitter expressed concern earlier this week when the company confirmed that it would censor some tweets based on location. Google have now announced they will be following suit, by redirecting blogger users to country-specific domains, and enabling some censorship.

Users of the platform have been using the domain yourblogname.blogspot.com for some time, but Google will now redirect this to a domain based on your location, so instead of .com at the end of your blog, you’ll see .uk or .au, etc.

This move will allow Google to filter content on a country by country basis, and block content that would be illegal to view in certain locations. The idea is to remain within the limits of the law in countries Blogger operates in, while still permitting freedom of expression within your own domicile. In the current climate, any increased internet censorship is viewed with a certain suspicion, and there are already concerns that some oppressive legal systems will use the rules to prevent access to information and restrict freedom of communication.

For now, to avoid the redirect when viewing blogs, follow the blog address you are looking for with “/ncr” (NCR stands for No Country Redirect). This will take you to the .com domain, and the US English version of the blog you are trying to view.

Other blogging sites, such as Tumblr, could see an increase in traffic as a result of this move, as users move their content and blog posts to less restricted services.

Micrositez Digital: Glasgow web agency.

Blogger, censorship, Google, NCR, Tumblr, Web Agency

Facebook are reportedly expected to file papers today in order to go ahead with a public offering and stock market listing in May of this year. But what does that mean for the company and its users?

Most people with a Facebook profile will be unfamiliar with IPOs (initial public offerings) and the financial ins-and-outs of the company, but this move from Facebook is significant.

How much?
Facebook is expected to sell of a 10% stake in the company for anywhere between $7.5billion and $10billion. If they achieve this price, the total value of Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room brainchild will be £75billion to $100billion. That makes this offering the biggest tech stock market floatation since Google. Crucially, it cements the social network’s position as an essential tool, just as Google has done with search.

Who benefits?
The biggest beneficiaries will, of course, be the current owners. Founder Mark Zuckerberg holds the largest share in the company, which could be valued at up to $24billion from May. Other early investors expecting big investment boosts include Sean Parker (Napster co-founder), Dustin Moskovitz (Mark’s old college roommate), Eduardo Saverin (Facebook co-founder) and Russian tycoon Yuri Milner.

What does it mean for users?
Firstly, as a public company Facebook would be under more scrutiny and obligated to be more transparent. What this also means, is that there is likely to be increased use of personal information on users in order to maximise profits for shareholders. Personalised ads could expand and be based on your friends’ likes, and more targeted advertising is likely to be encouraged. Because there will now be an obligation to please new part-owners, more priority could be given to revenue making operations in the company instead of innovation. Google were a victim of their own IPO success in this manner, as their previous boast that staff could spend 20% of their time on anything they wanted had to be pushed aside, and Google labs was closed off to “devote more resources to high-impact products”.

Micrositez Digital is an award winning web agency.

facebook, Google, google labs, IPO, mark zuckerberg, Sean Parker, Web Agency

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

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.

facebook, Google, privacy, search plus your world

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

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:

• Ability to align Google+ images with PPC ads
• More visuals added to search results means greater need for Product extensions
• PPC being used more to position the latest and greatest

Concerns:

• PPC ads will be overshadowed by eye catching Google+  results
• Brands being overhauled by their celebrity ambassadors
• Recently added extra ad space overshadowed by Search+

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.

Google, PPC, search engine optimisation

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.

1. Make use of Google’s browser size tool
2. When placing ads make sure they’re relevant, and placed beside relevant content
3. Watch the video below for Google’s tips and recommendations on ad placement, and increasing revenue on content rich sites.

Micrositez Digital is a Internet Marketing Agency offering SEO, and Web Design Services.

Google, internet advertising, webmaster tools

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 9^th 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.

Bong, Google, search engine, Yahoo

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

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

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.

Google, search engine optimisation, social networks

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.

CES 2012, Google, Intel, microsoft, Nokia, tech innovation

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.

android, Codenames, Google, Inside Search, search algorithm

Search engine marketing and SEO went from strength to strength in 2011. It’s been a big year for developments in search, with increased social media marketing integration, and plenty of changes from search engines themselves. Here at Micrositez Digital, we’ve been taking a look at the key trends that shaped our year.

1. The sad passing of Yahoo Site Explorer
Yahoo Site Explorer closed down in November, and integrated most of its services with Bing Webmaster Tools. SEO professionals and webmasters everywhere were sad to see it go. Yahoo’s free analysis tools for webmasters were unrivalled, and Site Explorer’s ability to check rival websites was a huge advantage. A number of similar services have benifitted from its passing, but as yet there’s no frontrunner for the title of natural successor to the popular service.

2. Google’s caffeine injection
The Panda update in February 2011 was big news; up to 12% of searches were impacted as Google got tough on content farms and low-quality content. This was nothing compared to what they had up their sleeves for later in the year. Google’s move to the caffeine infrastructure in 2010 was an indicator of the move toward fresh and relevant results, and in November this year they took some of that caffeine buzz and implemented a massive algorithm update. Up to 35% of searches were impacted by the update, which rewarded new, up-to-date and relevant content. The message to webmasters was clear: freshness matters.

3. The social boom
It would have been impossible to miss the social media boom this year. Facebook and twitter saw record users, updates and traffic, social sharing sites like StumbleUpon and Reddit soared in popularity, and photo sharing from mobile devices took off in a big way thanks to Instagram. The biggest social impact on search is still in its infancy: Google+. Google+ is a new player on the social field, but with 25 million users, Google search integration, business pages and the “+1” button, it’s a force to be reckoned with. Google’s integration of the “+1” button into search results is an indicator that influence on Google+ may well impact on search engine rankings. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.

At Micrositez Digital, the big search engine marketing trend this year has been success. More clients than ever are enjoying soaring search engine rankings, and even number one rankings. Our small company has grown into an international digital marketing agency, and continues to work hard to achieve the best results and increase traffic to our customers.

We’d like to thank all our clients for sticking with us through 2011. We’re excited about 2012, and look forward to continuing our successful relationships, and seeing all our customers’ search engine rankings climb.

Micrositez Digital: SEO and PPC.

Google, Google Panda, PPC, SEO, social media, Yahoo! Site Explorer

Google+ has announced they are rolling out some improvements to their site before the new year. The fledgling social network has reviewed some of their functionality in line with user feedback, and given their users some pretty interesting new features. Along with improved notifications, Google+ has introduced three new improvements:

1. Circle Volume
Google+ now allows users to turn up and down the “volume” of their circles. This means users can choose which circles are more important and make their posts “louder” or more visible, allowing people more control over which content they access first.

2. Google+ Pages admin
A particular bugbear of users when Google+ Pages were introduced was the lack of multi-admin. All pages could only be administered by one person. Google+ have amended this, and up to 50 users can administer a single page, making it easier for multiple employees of a company to work on their Google+ page. We have to admit, this is our favourite new feature in the Micrositez Digital office!

3. Photo Lightbox
Google has boldly claimed on their blog that their new Lightbox feature is “a more beautiful and useable photo experience”. We are prone to agree with this. The new interface is uncluttered and focuses the user’s eye on the photo. Coupled with improved navigation and better photo-tagging, this should be sure to please the large and vocal photography community on Google+.

In addition to these changes, the Google+ app on Android Market has been updated and improved, with easier access and use of the popular hangouts feature. It is hoped that the video chat capabilities of Hangouts will help the community to grow, and entice users away from Facebook (whose mobile apps are notoriously buggy). While the new Google+ changes aren’t quite as revolutionary as the Facebook timeline, they are certainly a small step in the right direction.

Micrositez Digital: Social Media Marketing

android, circles, facebook, Google, Hangouts, Photo Lightbox, Social Media Marketing

Google celebrate Silicon Valley icon, Robert Noyce on what would have been his 84th birthday today. Google’s doodle features an animated interpretation of the micro-chip, which Robert co-created with Jack Kilby back in 1958.

The duo’s invention revolutionised the world of computing, is known today as the driving force behind the icon hub, Silicon Valley, home to the world’s largest technology companies.

Also known as a father and mentor too many entrepreneurs of his day, Robert Noyce later co-founded the world’s largest semiconductor chip maker, Intel in 1968.

Robert died in 1990, aged 60. His family later set up the Noyce Foundations that works to improve education of science, maths and English across US schools.

Micrositez: Social Media Marketing

Google, Intel, Silicon valley, social media

In today’s news we were warned by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange that anyone with an IPhone, Blackberry, or using Gmail are “all screwed.”

The organisation that publishes classified documents from anonymous sources, have now released their new project ‘Spy Files’ to the public to highlight their belief that we are now living in a “totalitarian surveillance state.”

The Spy Files includes hundreds of documents highlighting that as many as 150 organisations have access too, and are monitoring data on our mobile smartphones.

Although he adds it is all above board. The founder branded the act, “Mass interception” and went on to add that this was “a secret new industry spanning over 25 countries.”

Have they told us anything we didn’t already know?

It’s safe to say this has been a controversial subject for the best part of last year. On the same token many now believe their relevance has certainly been tainted and the novelty worn off.

With over 50% of us using our blackberries and smartphones to surf the net today; logging into Facebook and Twitter has formed a daily habit for most.

With the consumer demand on businesses to provide a more personalised user experience. The question lingers that how much of today news is really that relevant anymore?

Is privacy an issue? Of course, but it’s not a new issue. There is an awareness of the matter, and we are continuing to hear about improved changes. From Google’s Algorithm changes, to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announcing yesterday that they would be committing to the release of more tools and resources to improve privacy for their 800 million active users.

There is a strong argument to suggest the need for businesses and organisations to use location-based data in order to improve customer service, product and give consumers an all-round better personalised experience.

Micrositez: a digital marketing agency

facebook, Google, privacy, wikileaks

Welcome to part 2 of what’s next blog series that aims to highlight key topics and trends taking place in the world of digital marketing over the next few months.

We talked yesterday about the integration between SEO and social media, and touched briefly on how social media is affecting search, by its popularity and personalisation. Today we’ll look at two more areas;

1. Personalised search

We are already starting to see changes being made by Search engine giant Google, to take a more local search approach where studies have shown an increase in the number of users making choices based on Google place listings. So if you haven’t got a places page then, we recommend you get one, and make sure you fill in those details correctly, to be easily found. The more recommendations you gather from aggregators will also help build your online presence, so don’t miss out and gather. And finally, to fully take advantage of this growing trend, make sure you are clearly labelled, and include relevant links back to your site.

2. SEO for mobile platforms

With more users jumping on their mobiles to surf the net, whether that person is in transit from place to place, or sitting in front of their TV screen with their laptop and smart phone in hand, (studies have shown this to become more common). It stands to be the case that as more searches are conducted on mobiles now than any other device, marketers and businesses must adapt and adjust their SEO strategies to become SEO mobile friendly.  According to one study Google currently own a 99% piece of the mobile search market pie. Just this week, Google adapted their search options to offer a mobile app filter that enables users to locate apps from popular app providers including, Apple iTunes App Store, Google Android Market and many more. These apps are already being indexed now too.

3. Search v Display

Just a brief point we thought would be worth mentioning as these two separate areas normally compete with each other. We believe next year there will also be integration between search engine marketing and display advertising, something we’ll cover more in next week’s blog, which focuses on PPC.  Combining both could potentially produce very interesting results, utilising the strengths of both and putting them together could create one very powerful source – one to watch out for.

Micrositez Digital Ltd is a Search Engine Marketing Company.

Google, organic search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, search engine optimisation

Eric Schmidt’s letter to the US Senate’s antitrust committee surprised many, thanks to an admission from the Google chairman that there was a “serious threat” to their search dominance. That serious threat is Siri, the voice controlled personal assistant bundled with the iPhone 4S.

At the time of the statement, it may have been difficult for some people to understand why Schmidt was worried – after all, a mere smartphone application should be no match for a search engine giant – but the more we learn about Siri the more it seems that there really might be something to fear.

There are three crucial components to Siri that make it a potential challenger to Google: smartphone integration, voice control and artificial intelligence.

Having the technology enabled in a smartphone also means that users have access to any information they want on the go, and there is no need to connect to a computer to search. And because Siri is enabled by voice control, a user can search for anything that they need by merely asking. A smartphone user having the ultimate convenience of enabling a search by simply talking could be unlikely to revert to traditional search methods, such as going to Google, Yahoo or Bing on their browser. This could create problems for Google’s financial model, based partly on paid advertisement links. Because Siri is not a visual medium, users no not see any advertisements or pay per click links when they search.

Siri’s biggest strength however is the AI technology integrated into the programme. Siri’s development originated with DARPA – the birthplace of the internet – who contracted a firm called SRI International to work on what they called the CALO Project. CALO stands for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organises, and it was stipulated at the outset that the project was aimed to be an intelligent and friendly personal assistant. Siri is just the first incarnation of this, but is already being praised for adapting to the needs of users and gradually “learning” their preferences.

The announcement of an AI based desktop discovery engine from Siri’s sister company called Trapit will have Google and others watching with interest. The integration of AI into desktop search could well be another threat to Google’s dominance.

Micrositez: Search Engine Marketing.

AI, Google, search engines, Siri, Smartphones, Touchit