Local Search in Google’s New Maps

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Gwen

Will uers be impressed by the changes to Google Maps? If it’s to find local businesses – “no” seems to be the answer in this piece – Why the New Google Maps Isn’t a Big Deal for Local Search in Local Visibility System (June 15).

You can search for businesses that are recommended by “Top Reviewers” or by your Google+ circle. What circle, what reviewers? Not enough mass in either. Users may be more wary of signing into personal Google accounts knowing that Google hasn’t been as private as it has claimed.

How to find the Google News Archive

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Gwen

Here is very great gift from Google search guru Daniel Russell – it is the url to Google’s newspaper archives – Newspaper Archives–Google’s archive… and beyond. He admits that it is “more hidden than it should be” – and in my mind, it shouldn’t be hidden at all. Bookmark it now – http://news.google.com/newspapers .

The list shows the date range covered in the collection. Don’t be dismayed that the Financial Post of Canada is only 1911 to 1918, The Financial Post has some earlier issues and many of the later ones to 1986.

The newspapers are in pdf scanned from the orginals and then OCRd to be made searchable. Some older ones can be hard to read. And – searching takes patience.

Unfortunately, this is browse-only for the newspaper you need, then the same for contents of the newspaper though you can adjust for the date.

To do keyword search across the archives, you may be best off using the date range box to limit to a period.

Google News Search in the News Archive

To limit to a particular newspaper isn’t obvious. There is an advanced search at http://news.google.com/news/advanced_news_search where you can specify under “date added” “in archive” and then may identify the source by its name (and hope you have the name right)

Advanced search in Google News Search

It used to be much easier, but at least we now know the two links for browsing and keyword searching.

Changes in managing Point-Per-Click marketing

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Gwen

Being a search engine marketer takes skill and knowledge as we can see from this article at PPC Hero on 25 Ways PPC Has Changed In The Past Year (June 17). Observations are grouped by Account Structure, Settings, Analysis, Bidding, Conversions and Technology. There is a lot to think about.

Video Email – do we want it?

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Gwen

Video email – sounds like a non-sequitur – but it’s nearly upon us. Are You Ready For Video In Email? in Marketing Land (Jun 12) tells email marketers what to do to deliver video content. HTML5 is making this possible, but it still depends on whether your email client supports that. Mercifully, recommendations include “shorter is better”, and don’t use auto-play. Also – make the video “aspirational”!

More imagery in Bing Maps

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Gwen

Bing Maps added images to the to bird’s eye view and the venue maps of specific places. Bing Maps Adds New Bird’s Eye Imagery, Venue Maps & A Report A Problem Feature. If this is supposed to be catchup with Google Maps, it’s not enough.

Updated Periodic Table of SEO Succees Factors from Search Engine Land

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Gwen

Search Engine Land has a revised Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors – Now Updated: The Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors. ( Jun 10)

Periodic Table of SEO Factors from Search Engine Land

This organizes the most important factors involved in optimizing for search engines into groups related to content, html coding, architecture, links, assessment of trust, social, and personal. As we all know, Google uses 200 main signals – which expands into thousands. Danny Sullivan explains that the table examines 33 factors and assess the importance of each.

Again, all these factors are important. The weightings are general guides, and it’s also important to understand that the factors can work together. A page with several minor positive factors might outrank one with a single positive factor. Similarly, a single negative factor might not mean a site is never to be found.

There is a useful summary of what has changed in the table, and by inference, in Google’s ranking algorithms. Ad-heavy pages get demerits, as does pirated content. Search history of the searcher matters more. Trusted authorship is more important too.

About Google Now

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Gwen

Google Now is making inroads onto all mobile devices as a intelligent digital assistant.

“Google wants to tell you what you need to know “now,” quickly and accurately. It works by turning natural language queries — speaking to computer as if to another human — into precise answers delivered from Google’s servers.”

Of course, the more it knows about you through GMail, your searches, your location – and more – the better it will be able to anticipate your need.

Dan Farber at CNet Google: The future of search is Now (May 3)

A Cnet video describes using Google Now on Android Jelly Bean – all voice activated – and of course Google Now learns from what you ask for. Knowledge Graph with its information packages is tied into this as is your Web Search History.

New – Google is referred to as “the Goo” – guess this is like Mr MaGoo.

Google Now is available for iOS devices – iPhones and iPads.

There was also a mention in CNet that a desktop version of Google Now might replace the retired iGoogle through a Chrome browser extension (April 22).

TechCrunch describes upcoming changes to Chrome, and some current features, as of May 23. Google Adds Notification Center And Rich Notifications To Chrome Beta 28, Will Work Even When The Browser Is Closed

Google’s inactive account manager

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Gwen

Daniel Russell has a sobering piece of advice — Be prepared: What will happen to your content when you die? that describes use of the Google’s inactive account manager.

Tools for Google Drive

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Gwen

If you’re using Google Drive, check this out – Free Google Drive tools you’re not using (but should be) in PCWorkd (June 6)

Preview articles at DeepDyve