@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

google

Google Aims to Save you Time

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Google Aims to Save you Time

The long tentacles of Google are everywhere these days – in a good way.

The company is thinking ahead and making life more comfortable, more connected, more immediate than ever before.

It is no longer just a search engine. Google Chrome is gaining in popularity among the web browsers. It had 10 million users at the end of 2008, 30 million at the end of 2009 and in mid-2010 already had 70 million active users. How is that for a growth spurt?

G-mail is popular, simple to use and basically works in a “cloud” – all your information is stored on servers, not on your home computer, accessible from anywhere at any time. It can store all your contacts, all your e mails; you don’t have to back up that information because it doesn’t matter if your computer crashes. The hardware became less important and the information is safe behind strong firewalls.

Google Docs  enables you to hare documents and collaborate with others on the same page, set appointments on Google calendar, and see what’s new with Google Reader and Google Reader Play.

Google Reader

Most of internet savvy people, and especially the young ones, have a few website they like to visit often to see what’s new. The sites can be blogs, professional sites, membership sites etc. Going to each website separately takes time, and then you might find that there was nothing of interest for you this day.

Google Reader comes to the rescue. A program which was launched in 2007, in now becoming very popular. Google reader is an aggregator of feeds and news from your favorite websites, all in one place. Once you go to the site and list your favorite websites, one click only will show you all the new stuff from all your favorite websites in one place, in a headline form.

If you are interested in the subject matter, another click will get you to the website for more in depth information. It saves time and effort and makes getting updates from the sites your anyway go to, much more concise.

Google Reader Play

Lately, Google introduced the Google Reader Play which presents the information in images with a big image at the top of the screen and the different items as thumb nails at the bottom. This is information aggregated from different web sources. You can click on the right and left arrows to scroll through the items or you can click on the thumbnail to enlarge them to the main screen.

The idea that the good stuff is mostly visual is behind this service. It adapts to your tastes as you click on the icons representing marked for later, like, and share. It is still in the experimental stage and can be accessed through Google Labs. This service doesn’t come to replace the Reader but to augment it. While the Reader gives you feeds from your chosen sites, Reader Play gives you information aggregated from sites all over the web.

This forwards thinking and development in many directions at once, is what make this company what it is today. A major player and developer. Where is Microsoft gone to? Google is overtaking them by leaps and bounds. Microsoft seems to be stuck in the browser and office arenas and coming up with new things that just complicate matters instead of making them simpler.

Happy Holidays!!! Social Media Do and Don’t

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So as we hit Christmas Eve, I like to take a minute and share a few Social Media etiquettes for the general year, but ring even more true for the Holidays.

1) Don’t sell anything!

At this point if you haven’t capitalized on your call to action you lost that chance by now. After all social media is about trust, consistency and professionalism, not selling.

2) Engage in genuine content.

Find ways to thank people, share info for free that has value to it, even if you hold back a little at least your getting in the spirit of giving and those on the other side might do them in return come the new year…hint, hint…

3) Be at peace with the (social) world.

This is a time for peace and relaxation, there is enough stress without you adding to it, expect the site visit to be short. Put away the sword, find things positive about what you agree with, reinforce similarities even with competitors… being the fair and honest (you) will mean everything to people when it comes time to spend money.

4) Stay engaged.

While now is not the time for long drawn out affairs, stay true to what others expect, if you check in everyday, hour, whatever, stick to this, consistency is almost as important as content.

5) Have fun.

This is what makes you different, just like someone smiling over the phone, you can tell when the person engaging you in social media is doing it because they are having fun, or because they are forcing it.

Happy Holidays!!!

Please be safe & responsible!

How to advertise your business with Google?

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Google is no doubt the biggest search engine in existence today, with 1.2 billion searches happening every day.

Advertising through such a company can give your business more exposure than any other advertising method. But there are so many ways to advertise with them. Which one will suit your business? The main objective of advertising online is to create exposure when people search an item they need.

Here are three methods of advertising your business using the search engine Google.

AdWords

The oldest and most known system is called AdWords and it is the main source of income for Google. How does it work?

This application lets users create their own ads using tools and keywords. The ad will appear on the Google search result page, on the right side and on top of the search results under the tag “Ads” in small letters.

The good thing about AdWords is that you, the advertiser, choose the keywords that will trigger appearance on related searches. You pay only when the ad is being clicked on and the visitor goes to your website.

The advertiser can set a limit to how much money he is willing to spend for his ad to appear and this, among other factors, determines the actual placing of the ad on the list. It is called PPC (pay per click) advertising, and the bidding starts at $0.05 for a single click. The minimum required budget per day to advertise with AdWords is only one dollar. You can select the daily budget and select specific area or the time to display your ad.

This program is very popular because it allows its users to control every aspect of the campaign. Each aspect can be fine-tuned to increase efficiency and improve result in terms of getting the right people to your site.

What sounds very simple, is nothing but. Searching the terms AdWords on Google will yield a plethora of sites ready to teach you how to work with the system and improve your return. Google evolves and adjusts all the time, coming up with new logarithms to stave off hackers and people who are trying to game the system. Running a successful AdWords advertising campaign can be complex, even when dealing with the system on its most basic and principal level.

Advertisers have made their knowledge of working with AdWords their main source of income, abandoning their initial goals, the more they got immersed in this world of PPC advertising and understood how different factors influence their click-through rate.

Banner Ads

Another system for advertising online is Banner ads. Banner ads use Flash, eye-catching graphics or animation and appear on specific web pages. When clicked the banners connects you to the advertised site.

Banners can be created by a person without vast knowledge in coding and HTML (the language used by programmers). There are websites that offer an  already designed banners for sale, Google AdWords published Editorial Guidelines that serve as guideline for writing online ad copy. The guidelines include everything from spelling and style to recommendations on length, keywords and content.

The better the ad relates to the website it’s placed on, the more likely it is to be effective and create a click-through.

There are some ways you can place your banner on a desired website; in one system, Banner ads are triggered by keywords supplied by the advertiser. Another way is to exchange banners with a site you would like your banner to appear on. There are banner exchange programs, which a little search on the web will unveil, and you can contact the search engine companies like Google, Yahoo etc and have them place your banner ads of different sites. With this system keywords trigger the appearance of the banner, and you, the advertiser has no control on where they appear.

Banner Ads are usually charged by Cost per Impression (CPI, or CPM). Often a price will be set based upon a cost per thousand impressions, or views, and depend on other factors.

 Banner ads can be harder to control, however, because any changes requires a new banner to be uploaded. Placement on some pages may be pricey at times.

Experts recommend Banners be only part of your online advertising campaign. Combining them with other methods like e-newsletters, search engine advertising and search engine optimization will yield the maximum effect.

Google Places

Google Places is a location based service that allows you to list your business on Google maps. Google allows business owners to manage their physical business location information. This information appears on the search result page when the location and kind of business is typed into the search bar. It is a free service which business owners have to “unlock”.

There is of course a premium service that allows business owner to update their information, add a picture that will appear on the front page, add reviews and special offers.  A tag appears on Google maps that shows the location of the business.

Users of the service will get a decal for their place of business that will allow users to scan it with a smartphones and go straight to reviews about the place. Google advertises it as being useful by the computer and in the physical world. 

This is one of the great ways to get targeted traffic to you website from the place you are located.

Social Media Trends for 2011

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2010 was a banner year for social media. It was the year in which Facebook overtook Google in site traffic. It was a year in which some surveys claim that 95% of companies are using LinkedIn to look for prospective employees.

The use of social media through mobile devices tripled. The tablet became popular and threatens to revolutionize laptops and school books.

What can we expect in the coming year? Here is what a few experts agree on:

–          Big companies will take a serious look at the social media, integrating it not only locally but globally.  Companies like Dell computers and Jet Blue are already doing it.

–          The mobile and tablet war creates social computing – the competition is heating up with new tablets and smart phones coming into the market. It will create more discussions on the web. Social media will be on the go even more than it is today – out of the house, out of the office on the move; in trains, planes and automobiles. There will be more competition, variety and affordability in devices.

–          Facebook location based services will probably overtake all the others. With the huge amount of users –over 500 million – and with tons of data and the programs behind it, they will become the biggest.

–          There will be a social media overload. The average user experiences Facebook, Twitter, G mail, chat, Skype, Tumblr etc. Many experts in social media have adopted systems to access all of them at once but average users might get a case of schizophrenia, with so many profiles on so many social networks. Integration will have to become more wide spread.

–          Social media will be integrated into other tools, making websites important again and more modern.

–          More and more companies will turn their social media connections into customer service, answering questions and complaints.

–          Social recruiting will get bigger. Even small companies will go to social media to find new and better applicants.

Archos 101 and Archos 70 Internet Tabs ruined by Archos business model and execution.

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I have had the Archos 101 for the last several days and then added the Archos 70 Internet tablet for my wife. After a few days I am sending them off to ebay. While the Android operating system is all you have come to expect with an open market and system, the products and more importantly Archos as a company fail miserably.

Style: 10/10

The 101 and 70 Internet tablets are sexy, they are light, slim and feature stands built in to allow you to watch media. The ports and accessibility is what you would expect for a tablet hardware system built to interact with everything.

Operating System: 9/10

Android 2.2 Froyo, the system bolsters Androids supercharged operating system, which allows semi common users to customize and maneuver around any limitations attempted by companies like Archos. i.e. adding the google market and flash 10.1

Function: 6/10

As one would expect the 101 has a few issues as the tablet screen doesn’t size up to files and media that looked great on the phones we have all come to love android for. The system struggles to find media and become sluggish. No Flash means the web browsing experience is similar to the Android 1.5 OS.

Archos: 2/10

This is the real failure for the tablets, Archos tried to restrict the market by forcing you to run through their AppsLib instead of google, the tablet requires a bit of knowledge to add google products and software. The company website is a mess, navigating is sloppy and policies prevent the users from accomplishing much. Some of the most surprising failures should have tossed flags up prior to getting the tablet.

1 ) Tablet Release pushed back repeatedly.

2 ) Users that asked to be notified when the tablet released via e-mail got nothing when the Archos 70 IT and Archos 101 IT become available.

3 ) Archos did not restrict purchase quantity much, would be ebay stores bought ten at a time.

4 ) Anyone with a PO Box as their billing info was not getting one, or the software upgrades.

5 ) Customer support averages about a week to respond, if at all.

6 ) The tablet upgraded to 2.2 and wiped out the third party apps.

7 ) Archos did not get the Adobe cert so the tablets did not have Flash

8 ) The AppsLib market has less than 1% of the open market applications.

9 ) Youtube? Um No???? The second largest search engine, owned by the operating system parent company, largest media site and NO!!!

10) Sloppy storage, the tablet can’t tell where the media is, be it internal or storage without having to jump through a bunch of steps to find it.

Summary:

The use of the Froyo Android 2.2 was a great leap forward in tablets, as anyone who is not a novice can change root files, add software you expect to be a part of Android, but why should you have to know how to do it, this created the greatest problem in my opinion, you just shouldn’t have to work to make it work.

Archos was the big mistake here, trying to control the market, failing to get an adobe certificate which completely canceled the effectiveness of the Android 2.2 web experience is just a few of the many problems. The understaffed and underfunded company tried to take on a monster and got crushed in execution. I expect the value of these tablets to drop dramatically and quickly in the next few WEEKS!!!

Advice: Stay clear of the Archos Internet Tablet line.

Note: I was very excited to see this project and while I tried to find every reason to support the tablet, the ultimate test of a product is the company behind it, Archos clearly made a mediocre product terrible.

Google bookmarks

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Google Bookmarks allows its users to bookmark their favorite pages and save them remotely so they can be accessed from any computer with a use of a password.

Why is this service important? You do not have to have your computer with you when you want to show something interesting you have bookmarked.

If your computer crashes, you have a place to go to and retrieve all the bookmarked pages you had.

Lists are private by default, but once you’ve created one you can share it with specific friends or even publish it. Google allows the users to post their bookmarks and share them with others.

Sharing lists can help you collaborate with your friends on common interests or activities.

With Bookmarks, you can also organize your content using labels and/or lists. Like labels, lists let you organize your bookmarks into categories for easier retrival.

Google’s New Product Ads

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When looking to buy a product on the internet, what are you most interested in finding?

Most people are interested in two things; the look (image) of the product and the price. After completing the query customers have to go from site to site, look for that specific product and do some comparison shopping. Wouldn’t it be cool if those two elements will pop up with the search results?

Google thinks so. Just in time for the holidays, Google introduced a few days ago a new type of ad to their advertisers, called “Product Ads”.

No more few lines of text based on keywords appearing in the search result. Now you can see the picture of the product and the price in one glance on the search result page. Google is stepping into comparison shopping.

The system has been tested for the past year on some 800 advertisers and is now open to all.  As a user of Google search engine, you probably have noticed it under shopping results. A picture, a price and the website.

“Product ads” marks a shift in how Google runs its business model. No more different keywords and different biddings for each phrase using AdWords. . Advertisers can now pay only when a purchase is made, not per click that directs customers to their site. The other big change is that Google chooses when to show the product.

The advertiser give Google the feed to its products and Google automatically matches queries to what it thinks the customers is looking for.

Business owners who have tried Product Ads, say they liked the results. You might give up a little on the flexibility of different keywords but what you gain is big savings and eliminating the guessing game and the risk of AdWords. If before a hundred clicks with no conversion had to be paid for, now if there are a hundred clicks and no conversion, advertisers don’t pay for it.

Google product manager says that in the test period the click through rate increased by 50% compared to text ads. The new system is different from the “image ads” Google introduced a few months ago, which show up only if customers click the images search. These are still tied to keyword search and are still paid per click.

“We think it means we’re going to have a much broader range of products in Google,” said Dennis Woodside, vice president of ad sales for the Americas. “Product Ads” make a lot of sense for e-commerce sites and follows Google’s increasing venture into comparison shopping on the search engine result pages.

Instant Preview – A new Google Tool

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Google is moving ahead in full steam. Not only the search results are now displayed while you type your query, and change with each addition of a letter (Google Instant), Google Places displays businesses fist when you type in a place name.
This month Google has released Instant Preview, and you already have it in the result page.
Instant Preview provides a snap shot of the landing page on the result page without having to click on the link. If until now the search results offered a title, a snippet of the text and the URL, now it can give you a visual view of that page as well.
Next to the search result there’s a magnifying glass. Click on that and you will see how the website looks like. Once you clicked on it one time per page, when you hover the cursor over the result the page appears.
As Goggle puts it on their blog: “Instant Previews provides a graphic overview of a search result and highlights the most relevant sections, making finding the right page as quick and easy as flipping through a magazine.”
The technology behind it is amazing. No more 20-30 seconds to upload a picture. When you type a query, Google’s machines match it with an index of the entire web and present you with the results usually in under one tenth of a second. Once you click on the magnifying glass, images of the next results load up in the background without interrupting the speed.
The landing pages have become much more important now. Searchers have no longer a need to click on the site to see the content. E commerce and advertising will have to adjust.