Call us 0800 088 7486
Possibly the biggest differentiator at present between Google Plus and other social networks are Hangouts – the chance to video conference at the click of a button with up to 20 other G+ users. Hangouts are moving forwards quite quickly now as the G+ developers and third parties realise the benefits of making recording G+ Hangouts a one click process with Hangouts On Air.
The Dalai Lama, the Muppets and a few others were the first to be permitted to record their Hangouts On Air, and now the facility to do so is being extended more widely. Hangouts On Air is being turned on initially for celebs, public figures and those with large G+ followings, but it is likely that a full rollout will not be far behind. The really cute feature is that once the Hangout is finished, a private video clip will be uploaded to your account at YouTube.
For businesses and marketers, this new feature, once available to all, offers an infinite number of possible uses to reach a wider audience, to offer one on one training sessions, for recorded customer support ‘calls’, to archive webinars, to preserve fascinating discussions, meetings or focus groups – the list truly is endless.
Until this feature is rolled out fully by Google to all G+ users, there are plenty of other options for recording Hangouts, such as Camtasia, Camstudio (an Open Source version of Camtasia) and Fraps (which avid gamers will know for recording their gaming moves).
The benefits of Hangouts for businesses do not yet seem to be being explored by many businesses, large and small, and yet the content and collaboration and discussions created within Hangouts by those who do use them can be seen all over G+. Are you using Hangouts? For what purposes? Have you experienced any problems? What do you feel is the potential for this type of application within your business?
Since the Google Search Plus changes recently, there appears to have been a backlash from players such as Twitter, as well as the SEO industry and users.
Google has led the way in search since its appearance on the market, replacing such well-loved engines as Altavista as well as the meta search engines – Dogpile etc. Microsoft created Bing in a long delayed response to Google as a ‘decision engine’, and there are computational knowledge engines (Wolfram Alpha), as well as new and novel engines such as DuckDuckGo.
Until recently, none of these engines appeared to threaten Google’s position as the world’s best search engine because Google did one thing better than any other – relevance. However, the latest inclusions of social results and the seeming preference given to Google properties before, for example, original content rather than a discussion about said content, has caused an upset. Whilst the social results can be switched off, many users find the fact that an ‘opt out’ is required an additional niggle to the already heated discussions about Google properties listing above seemingly more relevant non-Google properties. In addition, Google’s removal of Boolean operators (which Bing permits) feels like an unnecessary dumbing down of the search process.
There are many pieces in the blogosphere detailing Google vs Bing vs other search engines, giving examples of where Google has failed to produce the relevant results, compared to the other engines. As Google have always said, the user is only one click away from using any other engine and it seems there are now many changing teh default search engine in their browser to Bing and other options. However, there is a percentage of Internet users who seem entirely unaware that there are other search engines, particularly since many began to use the Net after “Google it” became the replacement term for “search the Internet”.
For internet marketers, the process of SEO has always been a constantly shifting set of sands; however, this latest change to Google’s search results may result in users, especially the more savvy folk, seeking alternatives to Google. For a marketer, this presents a further challenge, particularly if new search engines continue to appear which return to Google’s initial USP – relevance – which Bing appears to be achieving after a shaky start.
It is unlikely, in the short term at least, that Google’s dominance of the market will plunge dramatically. But for those who are seeking to shop or conduct research, the prevalence of social and Google results above independent sources may be irksome enough to prompt a move away from Google to other search resources. And for those whose product set and content is not specifically enhanced by social results or is directly hampered by social SERPs above theirs which lead to less relevant content, it may be time to consider paying less budget and less attention to high Google SERPs.
After all, if your target audience include those who are dissatisfied with Google and who will only hear of you elsewhere, then you will need to increase your marketing efforts across those properties to capture their attention. Are you optimising specifically for other search engines or are you simply increasing social media marketing to stay/regain top SERPS on Google?
Let us know.
Not the whole Internet, but a substantial proportion of sites, large and small, have temporarily shut their doors today, 18th January 2012, in protest against the proposed SOPA law currently before Congress in the USA.
The general feeling is that SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), and its near relation PIPA (Protect IP Act), are less about ending piracy and protecting intellectual property and far more about censoring the Internet. Whilst this is a US law, there are grave concerns about the impact that it could have worldwide on the economy and jobs, and on chilling innovation. Sites such as Wikipedia, BoingBoing, Flickr, Tucows and even Google have got involved in the one day protest – a full list can be seen on SOPA Strike.
The Internet is being used to full effect to spread the word at the outrage felt about the two laws. The concern for those in other nations is that more countries will follow the US lead if these two laws were to be passed, making it virtually impossible for many of the exciting innovations which the Internet could enable to come to fruition. For instance, there would be no Youtube, Google, Twitter, Facebook etc. For companies using the Internet to promote their brand, products, services, this would have a devastating effect, whilst protecting only a small minority of companies e.g. content creators such as Hollywood and the music industry, and failing to prevent piracy.
Social networks would struggle to exist, as would search companies who would have a burdensome responsibility for every site listed, with time-consuming and expensive legal action possible at every turn. The consequences of such an act would be dire. There is also a level of hypocrisy from any country endeavouring to introduce such laws, as are also being considered within the EU, where that country has spoken out against China’s censorship of the Internet.
The US government are due to vote on the proposed Bill shortly, although there has already been one postponement due to major concerns. An alternative – the OPEN Act – has been proposed and is supported by hundreds of businesses, enterpreneurs, and so on. The OPEN Act protects privacy and IP through far more sensible moves designed not to kill the golden goose.
Meanwhile, for those interested, the best hashtags and keywords to follow today on Twitter so far would seem to be #sopastrike, End Piracy, #fightsopa. Let us know your views on SOPA and how this could affect your business in the future if it is voted through.
New figures have shown that Yahoo! has finally been overtaken by Bing in the US search engine marketing, according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
Having launched just over two and a half years ago, Bing now has a 15.1 per cent share of the search engine market – compared to the 8.4 per cent on its launch.
The figures, released by comScore, saw Yahoo! slip into third position during 2011. Its share of the market fell from 15.1 per cent to 14.5 per cent.
Google – a site popular for search engine marketing initiatives – built on its lions share of the market, with 65.9 per cent of searches made in the US conducted via the site – representing an increase of 0.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, 18.2 billion searches were made during December – an increase of two per cent compared to November’s figures.
Google conducted 12 billion of those searches; Bing 2.7 billion with Yahoo! coming in just behind with around 2.6 billion searches.
Ask and AOL conducted 531 million and 287 million searches respectively.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Breaking news concerns a Kenyan start-up called Mocality which has crowdsourced (and paid) Kenyans to help create a comprehensive business directory for Kenyan businesses, large and small. Late last year Mocality received calls from a growing number of their member businesses (who get the listings for free), confused about paid hosting and website packages being offered through cold calls. The phone calls selling these services claimed that this was a Google Business in partnership with Mocality.
Mocality decided to check their server logs to discover whether there was any suspicious activity on their website which would account for so many member businesses being contacted and reached a damning conclusion. Google IP addresses had been scraping the Mocality directory and then phoning Mocality’s clients claiming to be from Google.
The CEO of Mocality, Stefan Magdalinski, set up a comprehensive sting operation in order to gather evidence, and server logs plus transcripts and recordings from the calls made are available on the Mocality blog post – Google what were you thinking?
In the last hour, Google’s Vice-President for Product and Engineering, Europe and Emerging Markets, has posted the following to his Google+ account:
Whilst the world of business, particularly on the Internet, is cut throat, especially in times of a global recession, there does appear to have been a considerable overstepping of the line here. What do you think?
Following a number of disparaging comments from Twitter, regarding Google’s move to use information pulled from Google+ to provide personalised search results, the search engine giant has responded.
Twitter’s general counsel, Alex Macgillivray, commented, by tweeting from his own account, stating the announcement marked a “bad day for the Internet,” going on to add that search was going to be “warped.”
Currently results from social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, don’t appear in Google’s SERP (search engine results page).
Twitter, which has become popular in social media marketing, did previously have an agreement in place with Google – which saw Twitter posts appear in Google searches – but the contract expired in July last year and was not renewed.
A spokesperson for Google responded to Twitter’s comments on the company’s official Google+ account.
The statement read: “We are a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments about Search plus Your World because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer, and since then we have observed their “no follow” instructions.”
Danny Sullivan, from Search Engine Land, has since spoken to Google executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, regarding the issue.
Schmidt revealed that Google would be more than willing to talk to social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, about including their content in Google’s search results.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Personalised search has long been mooted as the future for many search engines; Google is set to become the first to implement such a feature, according to an article published by the Financial Times.
The search engine giant will be taking a new approach that takes the personal and social information featured in a users Google+ profile to create a comprehensive personalised search engine – which will provide results related directly to the things that interest them.
Search Engine Land editor, Danny Sullivan, commented on Google’s new Search plus Your World.
He said: “They could’ve done this for Facebook and Twitter and they didn’t. That will probably make some antitrust people even more anxious over what (Google) is doing.”
This anxiousness has already been reflected in the response of others.
Twitter’s general counsel, Alex Macgillivray, commented in the form of a tweet, stating: “A bad day for the internet. I can imagine the dissension @Google to search being warped this way.”
As well as having an effect on its social media rivals, Google’s new approach could also effect the climate of SEO.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
An investigation, carried out by the BBC, has found that search engine giant Google is profiting from PPC adverts that have been posted by illegal resellers of tickets for London 2012, according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
Since the introduction of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act 2006, the resale of tickets on an open market has become a criminal offence in the UK.
The BBC found a woman who had purchased tickets from a fake site, LiveOlympicTickets, which she found from an AdWords advert at the top of the SERP (search engine results page).
Google has since removed the adverts – as well as those for fake passports, identification cards and cannabis – and told the BBC: “The company keeps any money it might make from companies advertising illegal services before such adverts are removed.”
Any remaining links to illegal resellers are set to be removed – following a request by the police.
Google has previously been scrutinised for profiting off PPC marketing initiatives promoting the illegal sale of prescription and non-prescription drugs by Canadian pharmacies.
In a statement, Google commented on the issue: “We have a set of policies covering which ads can and cannot show on Google. These policies and guidelines are enforced by both automated systems and human beings. When we are informed of ads which break our policies, we investigate and remove them if appropriate.”
The statement added: “Our aim is to create a simple and efficient way for legitimate businesses to promote and sell their goods and services whilst protecting them and consumers from illicit activity.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
A new feature has been implemented on Google+, allowing businesses to have more than one administrator for their brand pages on the social networking site, according to an article published by Practical eCommerce.
Brand pages are expected to become the hub of much social media marketing activity in coming months, as more and more brands register for Google+.
Writing for Practical eCommerce, Paul Chaney, has produced a short, simple guide on how you can add another administrator to your page on Google+.
Here are the five steps in a summarised form:
Step 1 – First, you need to login to your business page on Google+. This can be done simply by clicking on the icon located under your profile name.
Step 2 – Once you’ve done this, you should see the stream section for the page.
Step 3 – Find and click on “settings.”
Step 4 – You should see a “Managers” link, click this.
Step 5 – This should bring you to a page with an email input allowing you to invite new administrators. Simply type the email address of whoever you want to be an administrator for the page.
It should be noted that whoever you invite to be an administrator for the page must have a Google+ page beforehand.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Experian Hitwise has revealed – in a Tweet – that the traffic levels for Google+ saw a significant increase during December, according to an article published by CNET News.
The number of users visiting the social networking site increased by 55 per cent – a total of 49 million visits for December, compared to 30 million registered in November.
Although Google tends to keep its own official measurements under wraps, ‘Google+ unofficial statistician’, Paul Allen, has stated that Google+ had 62 million users in December and forecast that this would increase to 85 million by the start of February.
Despite the positive news, Google+ still has some ground to gain before it gets close to challenging Facebook – a platform popular with social media marketing professionals – for social media supremacy.
Joanna Shields, Facebook’s Managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa previously stated at the LeWeb conference in Paris that around half a billion users were logging into Facebook every day.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
