Blekko on the Rise

Posted on Sep 17, 2011 by Joey to General, Technology Trends

From its launch, Blekko has striven to be the outsider, the search engine that could deliver highly accurate, relevant results without the spam. This, of course, is a direct challenge to Google, which, while it is the world’s largest search engine with a 65 percent market share, is known to have a bit of a spam problem. This strategy, and some key news coverage, has worked well for the small startup engine, and they have seen a dramatic rise in visits over the first quarter of 2011.

Blekko rung in the new year with about 500,000 monthly unique visitors, which is not high by Google or Facebook standards, but it is more than respectable. A piece in the New York Times reports that by May, Blekko had increased that figure by another quarter million. Pieces like that published by the NYT help raise Blekko’s profile, as do high test alliances, like the one Blekko has with Facebook. The search engine incorporates Facebook Likes into its results. You can use Facebook Connect to create the slashtag “/likes” and your results will include sites that you and your connections have liked. If, for instance, you are looking for a hotel to book for a trip to New York, you can search the choices made by connections.

Through other initiatives, like the policy of trashing personal information after 48 hours and powering Flipboard RSS feed searchers, Blekko has stealthily moved its way into diverse corners of the search market.

Of course, Blekko’s biggest claim to fame is offering human-curated results, which help eliminate spam. The Spam Clock, for instance, is much like population counters or tickers that allow you to see the national deficit inching up dollar by dollar. It is “designed to give a representation of how quickly the Web is being littered with trash. Honestly, it’s a problem that deserves more attention than it is getting. Soon, surfing the Web will be a worse experience than email. And Spam is quickly becoming responsible for a kind of global sweatshop where people are paid little more than a nickel for creating web pages designed to do nothing but display advertising.”

The engine that “slashes the web” is also hoping to slash into Google’s piece of the market. And if the two should come to be rivals? Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta says, “That’s a problem you want to have.”

Tags: google, search engine

What Does Google+ Mean for Your Business?

Posted on Sep 12, 2011 by Taylor to Social Media

No one is sure yet. Google has asked that businesses hold off on participating in Google+, and in fact, they have actively been shutting down business profiles that were established before this decree. Ford is among the small number of businesses that made the cut and is part of Google’s “experiment” to see if Google+ works for business, and they appealed to the public for input. “We’re experimenting on Google+ and we’ve seen comments, both pro and con about our presence. What would you like to see from us, in order to get the most value from interacting?” It is a question that many businesses would like to know the answer to.

Google+’s open network model holds potential for businesses and marketers; Bryan Eisenberg, managing partner at Eisenberg Holdings, expects that this “project” will marry search and social to provide a more customized experience for users. One way it does this is with partnerships, like that with Bazaarvoice, which integrates customer reviews into search results. Google+ may be able to expand on that ability and build connections that can benefit marketers, and because results come from specific “Circles,” they are likely to carry more weight.

If your business is not one of the lucky few who is participating in testing for Google+, what can you do to prepare for the launch of the business version? Get a personal profile. See how it works, and experiment with it. On a personal level, see how it works with Google’s other tools and how it acts with the Android OS. Look out for changes in Google’s algorithms, which are likely to come about as social media and real-time results play a bigger role in search. Google expects to roll out a business-oriented solution sometime this year, and if you take a few preliminary steps – and see how companies like Ford handle Google+ – you can get a head start on harnessing this new tool. Or seeing if it is worth harnessing at all.

Tags: google

Google Taking On Social Media with Google+

Posted on Sep 4, 2011 by Joey to Social Media

Google’s Eric Schmidt admitted that the search giant didn’t concentrate enough effort in the social arena as Facebook grew into a juggernaut of likes, friends, and fans. Schmidt is hoping that Google+ changes that and gives Facebook more competition for a piece of the social pie. Google+ is currently an invitation-only “project” but it is catching some great early buzz. What is Google+ about?

According to the official Google blog announcement for Google+, “Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.”

They “aim to fix it” with these core elements: Circles, Instant Upload, Huddle, Sparks, and Hangouts, each of which is designed to facilitate social interaction and networking. Circles, for instance, allows you to group friends and family to make sharing certain information easier. Hangouts allows you to let your friends know you are hanging out online and they should “stop by” and say hi.

Principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, Greg Sterling, says that there is great initial demand for the service, which is currently limited to a small number of invitees. “Some of the people using Google+ are super enthusiastic. Some of their enthusiasm is not exclusively a reaction to the Google+ product but a statement about the desire for a viable alternative.” One alternative that Google+ offers is the ability to have easier private conversations with groups. Facebook’s “group” option is rather limited and clunky at this point, so this is a boon for social media users.

Facebook isn’t sitting idly by. A spokesperson said, in response to the release of Google+, “We’re in the early days of making the Web more social.” They have launched a Skype-Facebook alliance to allow for video chat. But even this is seen as too little by many experts. Google+’s Hangout allows groups to chat, and it’s free. Facebook’s version is one-on-one for now because Skype charges for group chat. It seems Google has the leg up in that respect.

Even though Google+ has had a limited release thus far, it is clear that Google may have finally stumbled upon an effective social solution.

Tags: facebook, google

Could Bing Overtake Google in World Search Market?

Posted on Sep 3, 2011 by Taylor to General, Technology Trends

Over a year ago, Google left China because of its refusal to censor search results any longer. It found the Chinese government too restrictive and was not willing to filter results. It was willing, however, to leave the country with the most internet users in the world, a step that, thus far, hasn’t affected Google’s supremacy. This may change as Microsoft and Baidu, China’s largest search engine, plan a partnership to provide China with English search functionality. Could this make Bing the world’s largest search engine?

China has over 420 million internet users – making it the largest market in the world. The US, its next biggest competitor, has about 230 million by comparison. There is a growing need for English search capability, which Baidu admitted it needed help to facilitate. In the US market, Bing has been making incredible strides, and has increased its market share 75 percent in the last year. While it has 14.1 percent of the market, compared to Google’s 65.5 percent (as of May 2011), Bing is generating a tremendous amount of interest. Recent partnerships with Facebook and the launch of Bing for iPad, have helped the young search engine gain traction.

Rob Enderle, principal of the Enderle Group, says that it is possible “that over the next few years Microsoft could, on a worldwide basis, eclipse Google in terms of reach. That would certainly hurt Google.” The key is whether or not Microsoft will be able to monetize English-language searches.

Microsoft still has to contend with China’s rigid censoring of results. Besides Google, Yahoo is well aware of the difficulties presented here. The second-place search engine was made to turn over the identity of a user who had posted material relating to the Tiananmen Square massacre anonymously online. This led to the arrest of the user, Wang Xiaoning, and his resulting torture and 10-year jail term. Bing has a tremendous opportunity – and untold challenges – ahead.

Tags: Bing, google, search engine

FTC Probes Google

Posted on Sep 3, 2011 by Taylor to General

Google is no stranger to legal trouble. They have faced it on both domestic and international fronts, but recently, their legal woes kicked into higher gear. The Federal Trade Commission has been interested in Google, or rather its supposed anti-monopoly infractions, for years. The FTC served Google with formal notice in April that they will be reviewing the search engine’s business practices. What does this mean for Google?

According to Google, it doesn’t mean much. Google issued a response to the FTC investigation saying that, while they will cooperate fully, “It’s still unclear exactly what the FTC’s concerns are.” Executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, said that the company has already met with the FTC but he didn’t foresee it having any impact on operations. “We’ve had some meetings internally, (but) we haven’t changed anything.”

At the same time, Google is downplaying the drama publically and proceeding with a big launch of Google+, its new social experiment, and it is increasingly clear that the search giant is not taking the situation lightly. According to various sources, Google has hired no fewer than 12 lobbying firms to represent its interests in Washington.Despite what Schmidt says, the FTC probe and early-stage investigations in New York and Texas do have an impact on Google. Google’s shares have declined by 12 percent so far this year, and Morgan Stanley recently downgraded its rating from “buy” to “neutral.” The market responded immediately. While this is not strictly because of the FTC (Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt cites Google’s increased spending on social as a main factor), it is certainly not helpful to have a government watchdog on your back.

Tags: FTC, google

Chrome Tools for Marketers

Posted on Sep 2, 2011 by Joey to SEO, Web Marketing

Google designed Chrome specifically to run web apps, or interactive websites, and to be snappy enough to load these sites quickly and seamlessly. The appeal is an incredibly rich array of apps and features that are ideal for creating a user-friendly, dynamic website. Google has a host of tools that are custom-made for marketers trying to leverage the potential of Chrome. Here are a few of our favorites:

Google Global. Global is a great tool for SEOs and marketers because it allows you to see search results as they appear in other countries, and even other regions and cities. It works well for those at opposite ends of the spectrum, from multi-language, multi-national corporations as well as small businesses trying to target local traffic. Google Global has features such as automatic updates, some performance enhancements, Google Chrome support, enabling of AdTest parameters, and more, that make it a useful tool.

MozBar. This works well particularly for those with SEOmoz software. With it, you can analyze page overlay, access SERP overlay with detailed link metrics, view Linkscape Metrics on the toolbar, use the Page Elements tab to display on-page SEO factors, use Page Attributes to get a view of broad data, and access tools like Open Site Explorer, Keyword Difficulty, and Rank Tracker. This is useful for accessing essential search data.

BuiltWith. It is always useful to analyze and audit your own site, as well as take a close look at what the competition is doing. BuiltWith helps you do that. It profiles any website you choose and gives you information on their analytics, content delivery network, and ad server, as well as other details, including frameworks, widgets, CNDs, standards, and hosting software. It can be useful to see what technologies other sites are using to see if they would work for you.

Google has built a powerful browser that is fast, sleek, and tailored for business. The Chrome Web Store has a host of tools, many of them free, that can help you leverage it to its fullest.

Tags: Chrome, google, Mozbar

Blekko’s Zorro Update

Posted on Sep 1, 2011 by Taylor to General, Technology Trends

Blekko is the anti-Google. The small “alternative” search engine made its mark by being the engine that “slashes the web” to produce more targeted, relevant search results. It bills itself as being low-spam, low-malware, and low-content farm. Its recent “Zorro Update” doesn’t focus on “slashing out spam,” like the Panda Update from Google; instead it tackles aesthetic issues and auto-including up to 1000 slashtags. What will the changes on Blekko look like for users?

One change that users are likely to notice immediately is the link color. Once red, Blekko has switched over to blue – a choice that makes its links look very much like those from Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Blekko has also worked on de-cluttering its display. The bar on the left is gone, and the information that would have been contained there is instead placed in a “less obtrusive” location, which is underneath the search box. Here, you can refine your searches and search by /date, /images, or /videos.

On the right side of the screen, users will see one element per page to reduce clutter. The elements are:

• “People who make this search better.” This links you to contributors or editors of the slashtags you’re using.
• Discuss on Facebook.
• Browse or create slashtags.
• Slashtag of the day.
• “Facebook connect with Blekko” option.
• Link to the Blekkogear page.

Zorro also changed some backend features. Until now, only a handful of slashtags have been auto-included in searches. Blekko expanded this to about 1000. What does this mean for users? That more of the results will be hand-picked and “known to have high quality content.” It also produces more relevant results.

According to TechCrunch, “Search for ‘pregnancy tips’ and you’ll see to slash tags, for /pregnancy and /health, and quite good results compared to Google. But on Blekko you’re not done. Click on one of those slash tags to drill down into results relevant to that tag. Answer relevance goes even higher. On Google, you’d have to visit the next page of results, or rephrase your query. Both are time-consuming.”

Blekko wants to distinguish itself from Google; it seems like Zorro has helped them do this even more effectively.

Tags: Blekko, google, search engine, Zorro

Search Engine News: Big Three Team Up

Posted on Aug 19, 2011 by Taylor to Technology Trends

Despite rivalry and competition, the “big 3” search engines teamed up on a new initiative, called Schema.org, which will help web publishers to make content more easily understood by search engines, and it is hoped, better represented in the SERPs. Google fellow Ramanathan Guha says, “With Schema.org, site owners can enhance how their sites appear in search results not only on Google, but on Bing, Yahoo, and potentially other search engines as well in the future.” How does it work, and why did the rival search engines come together on this project?

The move to standardize common web tags should benefit everyone from web masters to consumers to the search engines themselves. Webmasters can take any number of routes when marking up pages, or labeling content. Using a common language will make it easy to publish information and achieve greater accuracy in results. Guha says, “We know that it takes time and effort for webmasters to add this markup to their pages, and including markup is much harder if every search engine asks for data in a different way.”

Bing, Yahoo, and Google will then be better able to crawl and index sites, which should, in turn, produce better results for users. Schema has more than 100 HTML tags for categories, including events, people, places, organizations, products, movies and books, and reviews. How might this be helpful? Say a search for “who” is conducted. By using the tags, the search engines are able to distinguish between sites that offer information on The Who, the World Health Organization, or the correct use of who vs. whom without having to guess.

Tags: Bing, google, search engine, yahoo

Putting +1 On Your WordPress Site

Posted on Aug 17, 2011 by Joey to SEO

Forget Liking a post; reddit? Done it. There is a new button on the scene: the +1. Google’s new button allows users to endorse content, and when they search, they will see how many, if any, results were also endorsed by other users. Google has said that they will give this weight when calculating search page rankings, so it is a good idea to get going on +1. How do you put it on your WordPress site?

First, go to the Google +1 homepage. You can customize the button by choosing the size (15, 20, 24, 60 px) and the language. Google will generate a code for you to insert into your site and give you a preview of the button on a side window.

In another window, open your WordPress theme file under “Editor” and then “Appearance.” The menu on the far right will have an option for “Footer” under the Templates section. Click on this. Next, go back and copy the JavaScript from the +1 homepage and paste it before the last body tag. Hit Update.

You are almost a proud owner of a +1. Just add a text widget and paste the +1 shortcode there. This will be in your widgets panel. Save this, and there you go.
More and more of these buttons are popping up; help your ranking and encourage your readers to +1 you.

Tags: -1, google, wordpress

Panda’s Aftermath

Posted on Aug 15, 2011 by Joey to SEO

Google continually works to combat spam, and in their latest algorithm tweak, the Panda update, they have targeted sites that rely heavily on content farms and other “low quality” content. Months after it was enacted and the dust has settled, the effects of the update are clearer, and we can look at what they mean for websites and SEOs.

While sites that were egregiously spammy were rightly affected, so were other, more legitimate sites. We saw decreased rankings for Associated Content and other similar sites that tend to use duplicated or low quality content from content farms, as expected. But there were also unintended “victims” of the update. Many retailers, for instance, saw dramatic decreases, not because they stole content from other sites or bought low quality content from farms. Why then? Because they provide customers with manufacturers’ descriptions, which can be essential in purchasing decisions. They are also, of necessity, present on countless sites that sell the same products.

Adam Audette of Search Engine Watch writes, “There is too much bloodshed out there. I don’t remember a Google algorithm that has done so much damage – so much collateral damage – as the February 2011 Panda update.” But he also notes that most sites, if they look closely, will find shortcomings that have contributed to the drop in content. What should you look for? Do you have:

• Original content (although this can be copied by other sites and Google penalizes you for duplicate content).
• In-depth reports and analysis relating to your topic, industry news, and other relevant information.
• High quality back links.

A well-designed SEO campaign, however, can help boost your rankings and avoid Google penalties. High quality content is key; make it relevant and current. High quality links are important, but Google knows that you cannot suddenly generate hundreds, so concentrate on quality, not quantity.

Tags: google, Panda Update