Steve Harman
Online This Week: Feb. 24, 2012
This is my review of noteworthy things that happened this week involving Online Presence Management, search engine internet marketing, search engine news and website SEO. I’ll also be mixing in some technology business news, tech gadgetry news, and tech-culture news.
Here’s my list for the week of Feb.20-Feb. 24, 2012:
Online Privacy Battles Heat up
Google recently announced a consolidation of privacy policies for its many different products into one comprehensive privacy policy for all Google products, that is scheduled to go into effect March 1st. Google’s stated intention for the move was to simplify all of those privacy policies into one privacy policy. The more cynical observers of the move saw it as a means for Google to be able to seamlessly share all data collected by all of their properties amongst themselves. This allows Google to build a more detailed user profile and thus more effectively target you for advertising. This has unleashed firestorm of activity and blogging on Privacy. This week, this article in ZDNet reported that the Center for Digital Democracy said that Google has misled and sugarcoated the new privacy policy, asked for FTC action. On Thursday of this week, the Obama administration announced the creation of a “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights”, which is said to be “voluntarily” supported by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL. Read more about the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights at SearchEngineWatch.com or Marketingland.com. Will this “Bill of Rights” give any real privacy protection, or has the Obama administration been taken for a ride by these companies who have offered “voluntary cooperation” to a list of objectives that they will be in no way legally bound to actually comply with? The plan is to move forward with the Bill of Rights to establish codes of conduct that the FTC will be able to enforce, but by then the stakeholders working with government should sufficiently water down the code so that it no longer has any real teeth. The truth is that Google and Facebook provide amazing services to millions of users for free. The price paid by the users for using that service is paid in units of privacy. If you’re not comfortable with that, don’t use them. As this ZDNet article points out, you never had any privacy, so get over it already.
Foxconn and Apple
On Monday Dateline aired a special report on working conditions at the Foxconn manufacturing facility in China, where some of the biggest names in high tech devices, including Apple, assemble their devices. You can watch the video of their report here.
Apple and Foxconn responded to the CBS News story and the working conditions at the plant with statements attacking 2 details in the report. You can read about their response in this BusinessInsider.com story as well as this Mashable.com article.
This ZDNet article gives an interesting take on working conditions in China. What do you do when a country has such a low level of humans rights that what we would consider barbaric is welcomed openly by millions of workers? 3000 workers apply for jobs at Foxconn every week. As this BusinessInsider.com article points out, what we may view has horrible working conditions have been welcomed by some Chinese as their only alternative to rice farming or prostitution.
Google Heads up Display Glasses by the end of 2012?
Augmented Reality could be a step closer to amazing reality if reports of Google working on heads up display glasses are true.
Google heads up display glasses are said to be similar to these Oakley Thump MP3 player glasses shown below.
This article in Mashable.com says that Google is working on glasses with a built in camera that could make augmented reality an actual reality by the end of 2012. The heads up display would allow you to navigate on screen commands projected onto the inside on the sunglass looking devices. Small head motions control the user interface. They would be Android based and have augmented Reality functionality overlaid over the real world. The price point would be in the $150-$600 range, about the same as a smart phone. Read more at PCWorld.com or Extremetech.com.
Twitter adds Small Business Advertising
On Thursday of last week, Reuters reported that Twitter launched a service to allow small businesses to buy and place ads on the service. Since 2010, Twitter has sold “promoted tweets” to large businesses on a case by case basis. The new service will be open to small businesses who use American Express, and will be limited to the first 10,000 small businesses that sign up. Go to the sign-up page here.
I have noticed the change as early as yesterday in my Twitter feed. In the past, promoted tweets were few and far between, and were clearly marked as promoted tweets. They would stay at the top of the twitter feed as you updated it, even as they aged. I noticed in my twitter feed yesterday tweets from small businesses that stayed at the top of my twitter feed as I refreshed, even though the tweet was 3 hours old. They were not clearly marked as promoted tweets, but they obviously were, since they stayed in the top position. I’m not sure how this is going to go over with twitter users. Twitter says the response has been mostly positive. By limiting initial use of the system to businesses that use or accept American Express, they may be able to eliminate scams, spammers, and other problems that plague Google and Facebook.
It does present an opportunity for small businesses hoping to promote their online presence through social media. Advertisers are able to pick cities or regions where they want their ads to appear. The dashboard allows you to choose from 210 markets in the US, so it may be a way for small businesses to do a very targeted local marketing. The ad is still limited to the 140 character limit. Twitter will only charge the advertiser when the ad gets a response. A response can be in the form of a follow, a retweet, or a click on the link.
Any social media strategy should be implemented carefully within the framework of a larger Online Presence Management strategy. As I would advise any of my Indianapolis SEO and OPM clients, if a social media presence is an important part of your overall online presence management strategy, sponsored tweets may now offer a very cost effective way for building a social media presence for your small business.
Read more:
An article in the business section of the Washington Post reports on Twitters new program for small business advertising.
This article in Mashable.com reports on Twitters Self-serve ad platform, which they have opened to 10,000 small businesses.
SEO and Dilbert
A Dilbert cartoon strip on Friday painted SEO’s in a rather unflattering light. A lot has been written by overly defensive SEOs in reaction to the comic strip, which is shown below:
This brings up some good questions about Search Engine Optimization. SEOs sometimes have a reputation as people who game the system for fast results. In the past, gaming the system was easier than it is now. Gaming the system in the past could sometimes bring better search engine rankings quickly. People who gamed the system could get away with it, and be profitable. Search engines are evolving. If you have an online presence, you have probably been approached by companies or individuals who promise you “guaranteed front page rankings on Google”. Be wary of anybody who makes this guarantee. That guarantee is one of the easiest ways to discern the type of SEO that this comic strip is referring to. SEO’s that were one time masters of gaming the system make promises like this.
Optimizing your search engine results and managing your online presence is an ongoing process. It takes weeks or sometimes months to achieve valid and lasting search engine results for the key phrases that are important for your business. Managing your online presence is about much more that Search Engine Optimization. Online Presence Management means doing all of the things the right way so that your web site will be found by potential customers looking for you.
Having a strong online presence can be one of the best and most cost effective ways of generating more business from your website. Don’t be tempted by those who offer quick results. A lasting, well executed online presence can become your best marketing tool. A quick jump in search engine rankings will typically fade just as quickly if it is not part of a well planned, continuously maintained online presence management strategy. Maintaining an ongoing strategy for a strong online presence may cost a little more, but the return on investment will be well worth it in the long run. As with so many things in life, you get what you pay for. Beware of the “Pantless Weasel” offering the $500 guaranteed search engine optimization package. Your online presence deserves better.
Online This Week: Feb. 17, 2012
This is my review of noteworthy things that happened this week involving Online Presence Management, search engine internet marketing, search engine news and website SEO. I’ll also be mixing in some technology business news, tech gadgetry news, and tech-culture news.
Here’s my list for the week of Feb. 13-Feb. 17, 2012:
Twitter: We Keep Your iPhone contacts Too
Last week the social media website Path got into some trouble when it was discovered that their iPhone app captured your iPhone contacts and copied them to their server. It was revealed this week and reported in this Mashable.com article that Twitter’s iPhone apps ‘find a friend’ feature was also storing contact information on their servers. Following the Path incident last week, two members of congress sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook. The letter asked Apple to clarify its privacy policy. Late Wednesday Apple released a statement saying iOS apps accessing users contact lists will require explicit permission. That was reported in this AllThingsD article.
DuckDuckGo hits Milestone of 1 million Searches
DuckDuckGo, the small startup search engine that bills itself as the Google alternative that respects your privacy, reached an impressive milestone this week. On Monday they cracked the 1 million searches per day milestone. This article in searchengineland.com reported on the milestone. Although the milestone is impressive, they are far from cracking into the search engine big 5: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask and AOL. Google handles over a billion searches per day.
Volunia Rolls out Beta Testing
The search engine startup Volunia began sending out logins to Beta testers this week. I wrote of my experiences with Volunia in a blog post earlier this week. The search engine has a unique approach to the concept of socializing search. Volunia’s approach is especially interesting in light of Google’s attempts to socialize search with a much different approach.
Continuing Dialog on Google Search Plus Your World and SEO
There is still much being written in the tech/SEO blogosphere about Google Search Plus Your World (SPYW) change. SEOs are struggling to understand what Google’s increased focus on Google+ in search engine results means for SEOs and search marketing in general. As the initial blowback by users fades and the realization that this change is probably here to stay settles in, some prominent SEO thought leaders have presented some pragmatic guides for developing Online Presence Management strategies. I reported on the reports in a blog post this week. The first guide was title ‘Google Plus Box Ranking Factors’ and appeared in SearchEngineLand. The second more in-depth guide by AJ Kohn on the BlindFiveYearOld site was titled ‘Ultimate Google+ SEO Guide’.
Google+ and SEO
In an article on SearchEngineLand.com yesterday, Matt McGee stated that the current conventional wisdom on Google+ and online marketing is as follows: Even if your audience isn’t active there, it’s almost mandatory to have a profile and be active there because of the way Google is showing more Google+ content in its regular search results.
Since Google launched Search Plus Your World(SPYW), much has been written about the impact of SPYW on Search Engine Optimization. I covered some of the reactions and my opinions on SPYW in previous blog posts: How SPYW Will Impact SEO on January 13th, SPYW Reactions on January 17th, SPYW Reaction Continues on January 24th, and SPYW Forces Google+ to be Taken Seriously on Feb 8th.
The SearchEngineLand article summarizes the findings in two reports that attempt to put the change SPYW will have on SEO into some perspective. If you have an online presence and you are concerned about better search engine rankings, you need to stay abreast of changes in Google that impact search engine ranking page (SERP). You also need to be aware of potential opportunities created by the increased emphasis on a Google+ presence in strengthening your online presence.
The first article was by Ian Lurie on his Conversation Marketing blog. It was titled ‘Google Plus Box Ranking Factors Report’. He basically did two things. He surveyed 29 prominent SEO’s with 4 basic questions about Google+’s business future. The questions were:
- Will Google+ hit 400 million users in 2012? – 16 said yes.
- If so, will that spell trouble for Facebook? – 8 said yes.
- Do you see any difference in audience participation on Google+ versus Facebook? – All 29 said yes, Google+ has fewer but deeper interactions.
- Are you advising clients to jump on Google+? – 22 gave a qualified yes, most qualified it with they would wait and see if Google+ can gain some real traction.
The second thing he did was a detailed analysis of how Google+ factors can impact your Google+ box placement.
The second article cited was by AJ Kohn on Blindfiveyearold.com and was titled the Ultimate Google+ SEO Guide. It is a very detailed guide into what things on Google+ can impact how you show up in Google Search+ results. One thing he points out is that there are many ways that could potentially be ripe for spamming your way into top search results via Google+. This article is an excellent practical guide to all of the things you need to know if you are going to jump in and use Google+ for all of the SEO juice you can get.
SPYW, for better or worse, is impacting the world of SEO. If you have an online presence, whether or not you need a Google+ strategy is a big decision. It is still early on since the changes of SPYW have begun to impact SEO. These two guides are an excellent starting point for immersing yourself in all of the changes, opportunities that it presents, pitfalls to avoid, and how Google+ can be used in strengthening you Online Presence.
Volunia, RockMelt, and Social Search
I first wrote of the Volunia search engine in this blog post in early December of last year. At that time I had applied to be a ‘power user’ or early adopter, when the search engine released in beta. They began slowly rolling out logins last week, and I received one. As an Indianapolis SEO I like to stay abreast of trends in search, so I gave it a try.
Volunia does offer three interesting features. The first feature is an overview sitemap of each website. This is probably the most distinctive feature. It creates a bird’s eye view that looks like something out of Farmville. Interesting, but I don’t really see the usefulness on this one. The second feature is a multimedia search within a site. This one seems a little more useful and interesting. The third, the social layer, seems to be the real distinguishing feature. When you go to a website via a search in Volunia, besides just displaying the web page it displays associated comments from Volunia users in s a panel on the right. This is adding a social component to web browsing, but from a whole different angle than what Google is trying to do with Search Plus Your World. It is adding social media to the search experience as a layer on top of web pages. It is trying to socialize the web browsing experience, using the search engine as the social media.
How this differs from Google’s approach to socializing search is the really interesting thing here. It also raised a question in my mind about Google’s motivation for pushing Search Plus Your World when they did. The creator of Volunia, Massiomo Marchiori, was once, by their own admission, a mentoring influence on Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Did his work in socializing search and the impending release of Volunia drive Google’s plan to introduce socialized search? They have radically different approaches, but both are conceptually trying to add a social component to the search experience. Google’s approach is to use Google+ as a signal in returning web pages. Volunia adds a layer for a dialog between users about the web page.
RockMelt Social Media Web Browser
Volunia’s approach is more similar to another browser now in public Beta called Rock Melt. RockMelt is a ‘social media web browser’ that you log into through Facebook or Twitter account. It has a similar interface to Volunia in that it adds asocial media layer where discussions about web pages can happen. RockMelt is funded by Netscape founder Marc Andreesen.
The release of Volunia, beta testing of RockMelt, and Google’s attempts to make Google+ tightly integrated with search have finally made me see the light. Integrating social media into the search experience seems like a natural next step. When you search for something, sometimes it would be nice to know if anyone you had friended on social media had anything to say about the web sites the search engine returns. It’s the implementation that could really make or break it though. Google’s heavy handed approach to force Google+ on us, and then use Google+as a signal in manipulating the search results seems to be a little much. Volunia has a nice approach, in that comments from Volunia users are layered over the web page on the right. The problem now is that those comments are not really friends comments, but the comments of all Volunia Users. Rock Melt’s integration with Facebook and Twitter friends gives you a glimpse of what Google could do to socialize search if they integrated with Facebook and Twitter. It also shows how socializing search should mean adding a transparent social element to searching. Google is instead is stubbornly trying to use Social Search to prop up their weak social media offering, Google+.
If you have an online presence, you need to be concerned about better search engine rankings, and all of the current trends in search. Social search, in one incarnation or another is here to stay. How It shakes out, I believe, is yet to be determined. Volunia and RockMelt are probably not Google killers. Google could however take a lesson in truly socializing search from them. Socialized search should first and foremost enhance the searchers experience. A secondary goal should be better ability to target the searcher for advertising revenue generation. Google currently may have those priorities backward.
More Information:
SearchEngineLand.com – First Look at Volunia
SearchEngineLand.com – Volunia faces its Critics
RockMelt.com – The Social Web Browser
Online This Week: Feb. 10, 2012
This is my review of noteworthy things that happened this week involving Online Presence Management, search engine internet marketing, search engine news and website SEO. I’ll also be mixing in some technology business news, tech gadgetry news, and tech-culture news.
Here’s my list for the week of Feb. 6-Feb. 10, 2012:
Path makes a Privacy Blunder
The ‘personal’ social media, Path.com, made a huge privacy blunder this week. I wrote a blog post on January 9th that outlines Paths plan to be a smaller, more intimate social media site, limiting its members to 150 friends. It was discovered this week, and reported in this businessinsider.com post, that Path, which is primarily designed for mobile use on smart phones, was scanning the address book of all of its users, and saving all of their contact information on their servers. Path responded to the charges by saying the reason for storing contact info was so they could alert users when friends from their contact list had joined Path. This explanation was fairly weak, since other apps including Facebook, foursquare and Instagram scan your contacts to alert you when a friend has joined, but they do not upload the contact info and store it on their server. Path says a new version for Android will soon let you opt out of the ‘feature’, and they are working on one for iOS. It may be too little too late for the fledgling social media. This post on ZDNet by one disgruntled user may be the typical reaction of people who had placed their faith in Path.
Protest against Apple for Chinese Working Conditions
The past few weeks have seen many expose stories in mainstream as well as tech media about the working conditions at Foxconn, the Chinese factory that produces Apple products, as well as products for many other electronics manufacturers. This week the leaders of an online protest delivered 250,000 signatures they had gathered to Apple stores in San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., Bangalore, London and Sydney. Change.org founder Ben Rattray delivered the signatures to the store in San Francisco. The petitions ask Apple to make the iPhone5 the first ethically produced iPhone, and for Apple to take a leadership role in the Chinese production market. Read more about the protest here. This businessinsider.com chart shows what would happen if Apple took a leadership role by transferring just $1 billion of its offshore profits to wages for the employees of the Foxconn factory.
UPDATE: On Monday February 13, 2012 Apple announced that they had asked the Fair Labor Association to audit the company’s Foxconn Shenzhen and Chengdu, China. Read more about it in this ZDNet article.
Pinterest Becomes Fastest Startup to 10 million Unique Visitors
Pinterest, the social media site that allows users to share links of interest with pictures, became the fastest growing startup to reach 10 million unique visitors ever. I discussed the start up, their business strategy, and their incredible growth in a blog post earlier this week. Pinterest’s core group of early adopters has been 18-34 year old women in the American heartland, which is a very different demographic than most start-ups target. Will Pinterest’s model scale to reach other demographics with different interests, or will it remain mostly about women’s clothes, recipes, home furnishing ideas, and ‘cute’ pictures? If the format scales to be interesting for other demographics, Pinterest could end up bigger than Facebook or Twitter. Its model also makes it very appealing as a marketing tool. Keep an eye on this growing phenomenon.
Pinterest: Fastest Start-Up Ever?
A new player is emerging in the social media category. This site may be especially suited to cash in for both itself and marketers. If you haven’t been to Pinterest.com, you should give it a try. It’s kind of hard to describe. The best way to describe it would be that it is a photo sharing site, where all of the photos are things you have discovered on the web, and you feel like sharing why you like it with others. Also, each of the photos has a link back to where you can read more about and in many cases purchase it on the web.
If you go there and try to sign up for an account, you will discover one of the first things about Pinterest that is a lot different than other sites. You can’t join immediately. You have to be invited. You can request an invitation, but you will wait 48-72 hours to get a reply. Then you will be able to really start using the site. This sign up strategy is discussed in this businessinsider.com article, where they credit it for some of Pinterest’s early success.
The first thing you will notice about most of the things you will see initially (before customizing it more to your interests) is that they seem to be geared towards women. You will see lots of pinned items about clothes, home furnishings, recipes, etc. This is due to the fact that according to this techcrunch article, the core users for Pinterest are currently 18-34 year old upper income women from the American heartland. Don’t let that fuel you into thinking this is just a site for that audience. The concept works for a lot of other demographics, and you can eventually customize your Pinterest to contain more things that pertain to your interests. The demographic that has become early adopters of Pinterest is much different from the east and west coast early adopters of most start-ups, and in shows in the interests of it users. And how many users does Pinterest have? The techcrunch.com article reports that Pinterest has reached 10 million unique monthly visitors faster than any standalone site ever.
How does Pinterest make money? They aren’t saying for sure, but this businessinder.com article speculates on one ingenious possible business model. Pinterest gives people a place to share things they like. Many of those things have a link back to where you can purchase them on the web. If Pinterest takes your shared link and adds an affiliate tag to it, they could be getting an affiliate commission every time someone purchases something after seeing it recommended on Pinterest. In his example, one of things people share is books they like. They share it by sharing an Amazon.com link to the book. If Pinterest adds their affiliate tag to the link, they collect a percentage of the purchase.
It’s really brilliant in it’s simplicity. Give people a forum to share things they like, and a way to link to those things. Make money when someone learns of a product through Pinterest and ends up buying it. The pinterest users are doing the advertising for you.
So how can you take advantage of this as a marketer? Make it easy for products on your site to be Pinned by Pinterest users. It’s like Facebooks ‘Like’ button or Google+’s ‘+1’ button, but it puts all of thos things together into one big, word of mouth recommended, easy to browse market place. According to this businessinsider.com article, a Pinterest link to an item on your site has quickly become one of the easiest ways to draw amazing amounts of traffic. The article even walks you through the how-to-do it steps of actually adding a button to your site.
If you have an online presence, especially a retail web site, social media is becoming an ever increasing part of your online presence management strategy. Pinterest may very well quickly become the best social media site for generating word of mouth referrals and traffic to your site.
Google SPYW Change Forces Google+ to be Taken Seriously
Now that the dust seems to be settling a little bit since the Google Search Plus Your World (SPYW) change, one question remains. If you have an online presence, do you need to have a Google+ presence to achieve better search engine rankings? Has Google successfully leveraged its search engine to strengthen its social media product (Google+)? For many people with limited resources, it is probably too soon to be reallocating resources from something else to strengthen your social media presence.
A good social media strategy is sometimes a part of an overall online presence management strategy, but not cost effective for every type of business. A good online presence manager can advise you if social media is a cost effective way to strengthen your online presence, but Google has apparently changed the playing field. In the past the effectiveness from social media was from the social media exposure itself. Now, on Google+ at least, a strong social media presence could conceivably improve search engine rankings.
At least one online retailer who depends on search engine traffic thinks the change now requires them to become more involved with Google+. This article on businessinsider.com details the strategy of the Gilt Groupe (gilt.com). The online retailer relies heavily on search engine traffic to its website.
Jason John, Senior Director of Online Marketing at the Gilt Groupe was quoted as saying “Search is extremely important to us” and “Google will have its way and we will have to focus on Google+. We launched our presence on Google+ yesterday.”
That probably sums of the general consensus of SEO consultants everywhere. Google will have its way. If you want to improve search engine rankings, Google+ has become a part of the SEO mix, whether we like it or not. As SEO experts rush to take advantage of search engine rankings bumps that can be achieved by a strong Google+ presence, don’t get too caught up in the hype. When planning a social media strategy as part of your online presence management strategy, just know the game has changed. If you do anything in social media, Google+ has made itself the place to start.
Consumers Concerned about Personalized Search
In light of all of the negative publicity surrounding Google Search Plus Your World, I was wondering if this reaction was just within the search engine internet marketing community, or if there has been reaction in the mainstream search user world. An interesting study by AYTM Market Research shed some light on this question. The following graphic appeared in this article in eMarketer.com:
As the chart shows, only 15.5% of users liked personalized search results. 39.1%, said yes but qualified the yes with but I do have some concerns about privacy. 45.4% said they thought everyone should see the same results when searching the same keyword.
Another complaint about Google’s Search Plus Your World was the use of Google+ as the only social media signal used in customizing the results. Another survey on Google+ Usage by internet users in general also shed some interesting light on the coverage of Google+.
19.5% of Internet users do not know what Google+ is. 19.3% have an account. 20.3% have an account but don’t use it, and 40.9% do not have a Google+ account. No matter how hard Google tries to push Google+, it does not seem to be getting any real traction as a social media platform.
These two surveys point out two facts that Google may have underestimated when they went forward with their Search Plus Your World Change. First, a lot of people don’t think search should be customized for each person. If you add in people that could possibly see the benefit, but they have privacy concerns about customized personal search, you are looking at 85% of people either don’t want it or have privacy concerns with it. Second, Google+ is not being accepted by mainstream users. More people in this survey had never even heard of Google+ (19.5%) than those that said they had a Google+ account and used it (19.3%).
If you have an online presence, and you have concerns about the future of search, what should you do? One of two things will happen. Google will continue to push Search Plus Your World, leveraging their search dominance to increase usage of Google+. If this happens, adding a Google+ Presence to your Online Presence Management Strategy will become vital. The other possibility, given the numbers in this study, would be a rollback of the Search Plus Your World feature. If you are managing an online presence, you might want to wait to commit resources to a strong Google+ presence in the short term.