Google is about to teach GPS companies the pain of free
Mobile navigation systems have been one of the most profitable purveyors of mobile content, with subscribers paying an average of $5 to $10 for mobile GPS access. But Google announced today that it will be launching a free turn-by-turn mobile navigation system next week. And the news ought to have navigation companies worried about their future.
Google's system will launch next week on Motorola's Droid phone and will eventually roll out to other phones, including the iPhone. Can GPS companies compete with free?
The ‘Vince’ update unravelled: does Google recognise brand equity? (pt 1)
Four months after Google’s so called Vince update, and there’s still talk amongst SEOs of brand building being the new link building. The following three-part blog series aims only to present evidence for you to draw your own conclusions on what really happened, what Google is now looking for and how to effectively deploy your natural search campaign post Vince.
Is Google really capable of detecting paid links and webspam?
Paid links are something I've written about lately as the possibility of Twitter data being incorporated into the Google and Bing search indexes has raised the spectre of a much more complicated situation vis-à-vis paid links.
In the case of Google, the rules are clear: paid links are bad. If you get caught buying or selling them, you could find yourself in a world of hurt. But just how good is Google at detecting paid links? If the example I'm about to give is any indication, it's not good at all.
Will paid tweets become the new paid links?
Now that Google and Bing have access to Twitter's firehose, the
speculation about over how Twitter data could eventually be used
as a search engine ranking factor has begun.
Since there's not a whole lot of text (and context) in 140 character tweets, it seems likely that if Google and Bing want to use Twitter as some sort of ranking factor, they'll look to the links that are spread on Twitter and who is spreading them.
Search experts weigh in on Google and Bing's real-time deals with Twitter
Twitter's deals with Microsoft (Bing) and Google have the blogosphere and Twittersphere abuzz. 'Real-time search' has been a hot topic in 2009 and there has been much speculation on Twitter's strategy vis-à-vis the real-time search opportunity. It appears that we now know what that strategy is: sell firehose access to the Twitter stream to the search engines and let them do what they do best.
The Bing and Google deals could be significant. Depending on what Bing and Google decide to do with their Twitter firehose, internet users could potentially see SERPs that are heavily influenced by Twitter activity, which would mean that SEOs will have to deal with Twitter as a 'ranking factor'. Of course, nobody knows all of the details yet, which is why I thought it would be worthwhile to see what experts and observers are saying about the deals.
Four steps to profiting from a decent domain name
If you're an entrepreneur, or budding entrepreneur, making money online can sometimes seem like a real challenge. In my opinion, that's often because entrepreneurs focus on the wrong thing. They want to create a 'startup' and become the next Facebook or Twitter.
That's a tall order and, for most of us, a recipe for disappointment. But if you're willing to start out small and work hard, profit on the internet isn't so elusive.
Twitter laughs all the way to the bank as Google and Microsoft fight over real time search
Yesterday Microsoft's Bing announced a partnership with Twitter and Facebook to make its "decision engine" more social. And not a day later, Google's Marissa Mayer was up at Web 2.0 announcing that Google would be launching similar services soon.
It appears Google is a little worried about Bing. And that's great news for Twitter.
Is social media marketing making search campaigns cheaper?
Have you been wondering why Google's make such a big push into display and social over the last few months? Well The Wall Street Journal has a theory: Google's revenue growth is down 25% this year and marketers are getting more bang for their buck in search. Meaning that Google has to look to other revenue streams if it wants to continue the impressive growth its experienced over the past decade.
Yahoo delivers big profits, but does it even matter?
When earnings season comes around, everyone sort of expects Google to deliver. But Yahoo? It has been a while but Yahoo managed to follow Google and delivered investors a solid third quarter yesterday. Profits surged by 244% and the company's stock rose by 5% in after-hours trading as a result.
According to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, "we had a solid third quarter that signals our major businesses have stabilized". She pointed to the new Yahoo homepage, the company's big ad campaign and global expansion as signs that the company is on the right path.
Four tips for analysing SEO Google Analytics style
Having spent time improving your SEO, building natural links and optimising on site elements then I bet you cannot wait to see the results. If you're anything like most people (including yours truly), you'd look at traffic to your site as an indication of how well you've done. Although the end result is higher numbers of visitors to your site due to better ranking, it might be while before your ranking will improve.
On the other hand by using Google Analytics it's easier to see short term improvement in your SEO by extracting hidden data gems so it's really a question of knowing where to look. Here are four tips...
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
