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Cyber Monday: Is Your Business Ready For The Rush?

2011-11-29T02:42:00.000-08:00

Cyber Monday is quickly approaching, and that means businesses offering deals online are gearing up for massive amounts of traffic, and hopefully massive amounts of money.
Are you running Cyber Monday deals this year? Let us know in the comments.
comScore put out a report looking at why Cyber Monday is becoming more important to holiday season e-commerce.
“Since its inception, we have witnessed an extremely strong growth in Cyber Monday spending with sales more than doubling from 2005-2010, with a compound annual growth rate of 16% during that timeframe. 2010 was an especially important year in the history of Cyber Monday as online spending reached $1.028 billion, the first time on record that a single day had eclipsed the $1 billion spending threshold,” says comScore’s Andrew Lipsman. “ It also achieved another landmark by finishing as the heaviest online spending day of the year for the first time in history!”

“We at comScore have spent a lot of time in past holiday seasons dispelling the notion that Cyber Monday was the heaviest online spending day of the year, and just when it seemed that message finally began to sink in, Cyber Monday has a banner year and jumps to the top of the ranking,” says Lipsman. “Interestingly, from 2005-2007 Cyber Monday wasn’t even close to the top of the ranking, going from the 8th heaviest spending day to 12th to 9th. But in 2008, Cyber Monday’s overall importance in the context of the holiday shopping season began to change as it surged up the ranking to #3. The following year it ranked as the second heaviest spending day, and finally culminated in 2010 assuming the top position for the year.”

BIA/Kelsey and ConStat put out a report about how local businesses are expected to use digital tools gto lure shoppers on Cyber Monday (in addition to Black Friday and Small Business Saturday). According to that, SMBs have allocated 37% of their total ad and promotional budget to digital/online media in the last 12 months. On average, they intend to increase their digital/online spending in the next 12 months to 40 percent of their total ad budget.
“The data indicate SMBs are getting smarter in their use of digital and online media,” said Steve Marshall, director of research, BIA/Kelsey. “They’re focused on strengthening and enhancing their digital presence, engaging customers with social media and empirically measuring the performance of their online advertising initiatives.”
Of SMBs with an online presence (website, landing page, Facebook page, Google Places page, etc.):

69 percent report they update their online presence at least once a month
27 percent pay for regular assistance in updating their online presence
25 percent report using an Internet service or program to help monitor or manage customer ratings, reviews or comments about their businesses

Tips
Lisa Barone provides some Cyber Monday tips at Small Business Trends. While she elaborates on each one, they essentially boil down to: promote site wide sales, reward fans, throw a Twitter party, and go viral with email marketing.
Heather Clancy in ZDNet’s Small Business Matters column suggests: planning for traffic to double year-over-year, testing throughput and considering hosting static content elsewhere for the peak traffic period, keeping tabs on visitor stats, keeping mobile in mind, and finding a flexible cloud infrastructure provider.
Sounds like good advice to me.
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237 StumbleUpon: Crum Google: +Chris Crum
resource:http://www.webpronews.com/cyber-monday-is-your-business-ready-for-the-rush-2011-11

Google Talks About Its Evolution and Future

2011-11-29T02:39:00.002-08:00

Google is no stranger to putting out videos about search. They put out webmaster help videos all the time, but earlier this year, we got a rare look into the inside of how Google shapes its algorithms. There wasn’t a lot of groundbreaking information in that, but it was interesting to see nonetheless.
Here’s that video:
Similarly, while not a lot of new information is provided, Google has released a new video about the “evolution of search,” which is kind of a documentary-style six minute look at how Google has evolved over the years, as told by Googler like Amit Singhal, Marissa Mayer, Ben Gomes, Jack Menzel, and Johanna Wright.
Here’s the new one:
Google has also released an accompanying timeline:

Click to enlarge The last part of the video is about “the future of search,” and that’s always a hot topic, given that Google controls such a dominant portion of the search market. Webmasters would do well to listen to what Google has to say about where search is going.
“The truth is that our users need much more complex answers,” says Singhal in the video. “My dream has always been to build the Star Trek computer, and in my ideal world, I would be able to walk up to a computer, and say, ‘Hey, what is the best time for me to sow seeds in India, given that monsoon was early this year?’ And once we can answer that question (which we don’t today), people will be looking for answers to even more complex questions. These are all genuine information needs. Genuine questions that if we – Google – can answer, our users will become more knowledgable and they will be more satisfied in their quest for knowledge.”
“Our goal is to get you to the answer you’re looking for faster and faster, creating a nearly seamless connection between your questions and the information you seek,” says Gomes on the Inside Search blog. “That means you don’t generally need to know about the latest search feature in order to take advantage of it— simply type into the box as usual and find the answers you’re looking for.”
Perhaps not a lot of takeaways you can go out and apply to your site right now, but it does give you an idea of the kind of search engine Google is striving to build, and the better you can solve real problems with your content, the more Google is bound to like that content. You can go back and look at Google’s list of questions for assessing quality, and get that much.
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237 StumbleUpon: Crum Google: +Chris Crum

resource:http://www.webpronews.com/google-talks-about-its-evolution-and-future-2011-11

Google’s “Not Provided” Referrals Growing In Percentage?

2011-11-29T02:39:00.000-08:00

Last month, Google announced that it would begin encrypting search queries with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) as the default experience at Google.com for users who are logged in to their Google accounts.
As a result, there is a lot data that was once available in Google Analytics for webmasters is now hidden. “When a signed in user visits your site from an organic Google search, all web analytics services, including Google Analytics, will continue to recognize the visit as Google ‘organic’ search, but will no longer report the query terms that the user searched on to reach your site,” said Amy Chang on the Google Analytics blog. “Keep in mind that the change will affect only a minority of your traffic. You will continue to see aggregate query data with no change, including visits from users who aren’t signed in and visits from Google ‘cpc’.”
“We are still measuring all SEO traffic. You will still be able to see your conversion rates, segmentations, and more,” she adds. “To help you better identify the signed in user organic search visits, we created the token ‘not provided)’ within Organic Search Traffic Keyword reporting. You will continue to see referrals without any change; only the queries for signed in user visits will be affected. Note that ‘cpc’ paid search data is not affected.”
Naturally, SEOs were not thrilled with the move. WebProNews talked to a handful of well-known industry vets about the subject recently:
Conductor has put together some research (hat tip: Search Engine Watch) indicating that the percentage of sites’ natural search traffic that is being labeled “not provided” by Google has grown dramatically since the change was announced.
“The percentage of traffic (not provided) grew from less than 1% in the week immediately after the launch, to 8.875% of traffic from Nov. 18-Nov. 20th (although not a full week.),” says Conductor’s Nathan Safran.

As you can see, that’s a pretty significant jump, especially considering that Google downplayed the change’s impact as “affecting only a minority of your traffic.” Although technically, 49% would still be a “minority”.
It’s worth noting that Google is doing everything in its power to get people using actual Google accounts. Namely Google+. The more Google can grow the amount of people with accounts and profiles, the more likely people are going to be using Google signed in, so it would be no surprise whatsoever to see that percentage of “not provided” keep going up.
A second graph from Conductor shows that while the number has gone up significantly since the change was first made, that growth does seem to have slowed down a bit. This graph references what Safran calls “5 high traffic websites – 2 online retailers, 3 service providers”.

While the first graph shows that overall, the percentage is close to 9%, the second graph shows that it clearly varies from site to site. Safran points to a recent survey from SEOmoz, which had the number as high as 12% for the average.
Google’s Matt Cutts had estimated the effects to be in the “single-digit” percentages.
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237 StumbleUpon: Crum Google: +Chris Crum

resource:http://www.webpronews.com/googles-not-provided-referrals-growing-in-percentage-2011-11

The Importance of Quality website design for your business

2011-09-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

Only your custom web design characterize your company No one knows your business better than you do. You know the flavor of the appearance you want to convey to your customers. More customers are becoming shopping intelligent and this is often due to the huge information accessible online.

By having a Quality website, it is actually convenient for both you and your prospective client. You don't have to keep answering the phone, and they don't have to call you during hours that are inconvenient for them just to inquire about your services. From their location, we can get business inquiries and information can be achieved through your site anytime. Web designers are equipped with the right knowledge and expertise. They can help in building and implementing online marketing strategies to suit your needs.

Internet marketing is one of the best advertising tools. It has gained a lot of significance in the last few years. Earlier, online marketing was a secondary advertising strategy. However, it has now become an important mainstream marketing activity. Website designers can help you boost online sales through different techniques. There is a wide range of services like website development, SEO services, web copywriting, web hosting, search engine marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing, and much more.

Before choosing from the variety of website designers, you need to check out their portfolio. A good web design layout must also consider different browsers. When you engage a web page designer, make sure they know the problems associated with dealing with different browsers. This is the only way to anticipate the quality of their work. A good designer will ask you in detail about your business plan, desired audience and other such details. They would provide you with a functional, user friendly and bug-free website.

Contact for Web Design Company Chennai

10000 Year Clock Gets Funding From Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

2011-06-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is throwing some of his capital behind an ambitious project that has been decades in the making. $42 million to be exact. A team of scientists and engineers is currently working on giant clock that will be stationed inside of a mountain. The clock will run for 10,000 years.
According to Wired, the project is already underway. Last year, contractors began assembling the components to the clock and excavation began at the mountain site that will become the clock’s final resting place. As the clock will run on solar power, computers at Jet Propulsion Laboratories have spent the last year calculating sun positions for the next 10 millennia.
The “father of the clock” is a man named Danny Hillis. The millennium clock has been on his mind since 1989. For him and for Bezos, it’s all about long term thinking. Bezos has set up a website for the project, at 10000yearclock.net.
There, he describes the project in brief. The clock will be stationed deep inside a mountain in the West Texas Sierra Diablo Mountain Range. The clock will tick once a year, and the century hand will advance every 100 years. And every time it hits 1000 years, a cuckoo will emerge.

Visiting the clock, once it is completed in the next few years, will not be an easy venture. Here’s what Wired says about accessing the clock according to their interview with Bezos and the team –

To get to the clock, you’ll need to hike half a day to the base of the mountain in which the clock is embedded. You’ll walk up into a narrow notch of stone, coming at last to a door made of stainless steel with panels of green nephritic jade. The door leads into a tunnel, which ends at the base of the vertical shaft, in darkness. Taking a flashlight to see, you’ll start climbing up the spiral staircase, winding around the outer wall of the shaft, going past various parts of the clock as you go.
One of the first sections you’ll pass is the power train, with huge suspended stone weights and a capstan that you can turn to raise the weights and wind the clock. Once wound, the energy of these weights will help power the clock and its chimes.
You’ll then walk past the mechanical computer (a complex collection of gears and linkages) that rings the clock’s chimes, and a bit further up, the actual chimes.
If it’s been wound, the clock will ring the bells once a day, playing a different tune each time. The mechanical computer will rearrange the notes to create a unique melody for almost every one of the next 3,650,000 days. (Musician Brian Eno is helping compose the music the chimes will play.)
The clock itself will be impressively huge and mechanical, with giant gear wheels made out of stainless steel turning on ceramic bearings, as well as smaller pinions made out of titanium. There will be no way to see it all at once — you’ll have to climb through a couple hundred vertical feet to see all its parts, one by one, ending at the clock face in the uppermost room.

Brian Eno Chimes! Awesome.
If you still want to make the commitment to go see the clock once it is completed, Bezos asks you to send a blank email to clockinterest@10000yearclock.net.
What is the point of this millennium clock? Why take on such an undertaking and invest so much money into a project that will be located in such a remote area? Long-term thinking. According to Bezos, we now have the technology to build this amazing clock so we should.
“Over the lifetime of this clock, the United States won’t exist,” Bezos says. “Whole civilizations will rise and fall. New systems of government will be invented. You can’t imagine the world — no one can — that we’re trying to get this clock to pass through.”
Bezos and the crew are thinking about this clock in the same way we think about the Pyramids. They are symbols of time, and of history. Thousands of years from now, Bezos wants people to visit the clock and see it still working. Whatever civilization looks like in 10,000 years, those people will have a glimpse into the past. And by building a clock like this, it allows us in the present to glimpse into the future.
But it sure is a lot of money, even for a project this cool. Some people are asking if the project is truly necessary –

@hownottowrite
Jamie GroveWhat do you think about my new blog idea? “Crazy People With Too Much Money” Subject of the first post: http://bit.ly/iiP6Xv 2 hours ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

@7son75
Mark PannellJeff Bezos is clearly sitting on too much cash. 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

@TekJim
Jim AmatoIs it just me or is this the definition of a guy with a lot of money and too much time on his hands(no pun intended)? http://t.co/sRvb3z3 4 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Most of the internet chatter surrounding the project seems to be positive, however. The most commonly used phrases to describe it are “Wow,” “Amazing” and “Awesome.” I believe I fall into that camp.
Bezos is also looking for future generations to create “anniversary chambers” for the clock. Here’s what he has to say about that on the site –

Carved into the mountain are five room-sized anniversary chambers: 1 year, 10 year, 100 year, 1,000 year, and 10,000 year anniversaries. The one year anniversary chamber is a special orrery. In addition to the planets and the Earth’s moon, it includes all of the interplanetary probes launched during the 20th century, humankind’s first century in space. Among others, you’ll see the Grand Tour: Voyager 2′s swing by of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The Clock will activate and run the orrery once a year on a pre-determined date at solar noon.
We aren’t planning to build the animations for the 100, 1,000, and 10,000 year anniversary chambers, but will instead leave those to future generations. We are providing a mechanical interface into those chambers that provides those future builders with power and the correct Clock triggering events. We do intend to build the animation for the 10 year anniversary chamber, but haven’t decided what it will be yet. If you have an interesting idea for the 10 year anniversary chamber, please feel free to email it to 10-year-chamber@10000yearclock.net, and we’ll add it to the mix of ideas.

Sounds like a awesome project. Maybe whoever inhabits this planet in 10,000 years will stumble upon the clock and will view it like we view Stonehenge. At least I’m sure that’s what Jeff Bezos hopes.
About Josh Wolford
Josh Wolford is a staff writer for WebProNews. He likes football, French New Wave cinema, and bacon. @joshgwolf on Twitter
source:http://www.webpronews.com/10000-year-clock-gets-funding-from-amazons-jeff-bezos-2011-06

Keywords and Content Marketing

2011-06-24T00:18:00.000-07:00

I recently had an interesting discussion with Ron Jones who is writing a book specifically on using keywords for online marketing called “Keyword Intelligence“. He was researching for the content marketing portion of the book and we talked about where keywords fit. These kinds of discussions are great for blog posts so here are a few ideas for you on keywords, SEO, Social Media and content.
Content marketing is customer centric and therefore often focused not only on creating information to educate prospects and customers about product/service features and benefits, but also about topics of interest relevant to the situations that cause people to need or want those products and services.
Effective content marketing informs prospective buyers of what they need to know in order to help them arrive at a logical conclusion to buy and recommend. Relevant and engaging content facilitates that outcome.

“Great content isn’t great until it’s discovered and shared.”

Understanding the information needs of the customers you’re trying to reach is the first step in creating a great editorial plan. The role of keywords in a content marketing program come into play as a manifestation of knowing what customers are interested in and what their pain points are. What are they searching for? What are they talking about on the social web?
Great content is best optimized, so to speak, for the intended reader first and foremost. At the same time, that content is thoughtful about keywords that can attract new readers through search and social recommendations. Great content is amazing. Great content that is findable and shareable is even better.
Here’s an Example Scenario: Company 1 2 3 wants to focus on “Round Widgets”

Target Customers Care About Round Widgets That Cost Less and are Environmentally Safe
Target Customers Search for “round widgets”, “low cost widgets”, “green widgets”, “environmentally safe widgets”
Target Customers Socially Discuss “save money on widgets”, “widget impact on the environment”
The Content Plan Outlines An Array of Content Objects Supporting Search Keywords & Social Topics
Content Plan Tactical Execution: Blog Hub, Video Tips, Shared Customer Widget Photos, Facebook Page for Widget Environmental Tips, Email Tips & Issues Newsletter, Widget Deals Twitter Account, Guest Blog Posts Using Target Keywords on Widget Blogs, Contributed Articles to Consumer & Environmental Publications on Widget Cost Saving Tips and Being “Green”

By coordinating customer needs with content creation, optimization and social publishing, there’s a much greater and more relevant reach for the investment.
Keywords guide content optimization for findability through search engines as well as a focus on topics that customers care about and are discussing on the social web. Keywords are also useful guides for the blogger and publication outreach.
Keywords drive the “optimize and socialize” efforts of content marketers to share, promote and increase the reach of information that is relevant for customers who may buy or refer brand products and services.
The mistake online marketers often make is to solely lead with keywords (vs. customer needs) thinking that optimizing for the most popular phrases are all that is needed to maximize customer reach. High ranking content that doesn’t resonate with readers to share or with customers to buy and refer isn’t an effective approach. Also, customer information needs will vary according to where they are in the research and buying process.
Keywords and topics change over time so even after a customer is acquired, it’s important to monitor, measure and refine as needed.
My question for you: Are your content marketing and optimization efforts focused solely on high popularity count keywords? Are you digging into both search keywords and social topics as you formulate your content marketing strategy?
Lee Odden is CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing and public relations firm in Minnesota that specializes in search, social and online PR consulting and training for companies worldwide. Odden has been cited for his internet marketing expertise over the past 10 years by the Economist, Forbes and U.S. News and contributed a chapter to the book, "Online Marketing Heroes" published by Wiley. For the past 5 years he has also been the editor of TopRank's Online Marketing Blog, a Technorati 100 favorite blog and one of the top marketing blogs according to Advertising Age.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/using-keywords-to-formulate-your-content-marketing-strategy-2011-06

Google Goggles Gets Copy/Paste, Map View for Search History

2011-06-24T00:17:00.000-07:00

Today, Google announced some new features for its Google Goggles product, the mobile search app, which lets you search by snapping a picture. There is a new map view of your search history, the ability to copy contact and text results to the clipboard, and some changes to the results interface.
“If you’ve enabled search history on Goggles, your history contains a list of all the images that you’ve searched for, as well as some information about where you performed the search if you chose to share your location with Google. Sometimes this can be a pretty long list, so we wanted to give you another way to sort and visualize your Goggles results,” says Google Goggles software engineer George Nachman. “We’ve added a map view, which shows your Goggles image search history on a map so you can quickly zoom and pan to find a query from a particular location.”

In terms of the clipboard stuff, you can grab URLs or phone numbers from signs, and copy the text to your phone’s clipboard so you can paste it into different apps. That’s pretty handy.
Google revealed at its Inside Search event last week that Google Goggles now supports Russian. The company talked a little more about this today.

@GoogleMobile
Google MobileGoogle Goggles learns to read Russian: http://t.co/VFaRJNs 2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

“Since Google Goggles first launched in 2009, it has been able to recognize and translate text in a number of different languages, as long as the language used Latin characters. With the launch of OCR for Russian, Goggles is now able to read Cyrillic characters. Goggles will recognize a picture of Russian text and allow you to translate the text into one of over 40 other languages. Russian OCR is also available for users of Google Goggles on the Google Search app for iOS. Очень полезно!”
Also last week, Google announced the launch of Search by Image, which basically takes Google Goggles to the desktop, letting you upload an image and search for results based on that.
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

source:http://www.webpronews.com/google-goggles-2011-06

Facebook Fans Worth 20 Yearly Site Visits, $136 A Piece?

2011-06-24T00:16:00.000-07:00

What is a Facebook fan worth? It’s a question that many have attempted to answer. These answers are often greatly debated. Can you place a set value on a Facebook fan?
The latest attempt comes from Experian Hitwise. “We are constantly asked: ‘What’s the ROI with advertising on Facebook?’ and until now that has always been a difficult question to qualify precisely,” says the firm’s Research Director in the UK, Robin Goad. “Leveraging our unique data sets we now have an answer: for retailers, each new fan acquired on Facebook is worth 20 additional visits to your website over the course of a year.”
How much is a Facebook fan worth? Tell us what you think.
“Our data shows that for the top retailers, even if they have no Facebook fans they can still expect to receive on average 62,000 visits from Facebook each month,” says Goad, plugging a new service the firm is offering, called Facebook Fan Acquisition and Analysis. “Within retail each new fan acquired will drive an additional 20 visits to a retailer’s websites, which in turn will generate extra sales both online and offline.”
“The figure of 1 fan = 20 extra visits to a website uses a unique methodology that combines Hitwise data with data from Techlightenment,” he says. “We took the top 100 retailers ranked in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category and benchmarked visits to those websites against the number of fans those brands had on their Facebook page. We then also looked at the propensity for people to search for those retail brands after a visit to Facebook using our Search Sequence tool.”
A study (about a year ago) from Syncapse found that people who are Facebook fans, on average, spend $71.84 more per year on brands they are fans of than those who are not fans. In addition to that, they’re 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using that brand. Michael Scissons, the CEO of Syncapse, talked about the study on the Fox Business Network:
He says a Facebook fan is worth $136.38, taking into account factors like spend, loyalty, recommendations, earned media value, and cost offset for fan acquisition.

Back in February, a report released by ChompOn (which just partnered with Loopt its interesting new u-Deals offering), proclaimed that a Facebook Share was worth $14, while a Facebook “Like” was worth $8. That’s compared to a tweet being worth $5 and a Twitter follow being worth $2.
“For shares and tweets, we were able to directly attribute sales to the original action, so we simply took the total revenue attributed to each action and divided it by the total number of shares/tweets,” the firm said. “For likes and follows, we had to estimate attribution by looking at our traffic references and subtracting out purchases made through shares/tweets as well as purchases made through direct traffic.”

Last year, a study from Virtue found that Facebook fans are valued at $3.60 each in earned media for brands. The study was debated, but interesting nonetheless. “Despite the formula flaws, I do think it’s a good start to something many marketers are looking for – i.e. what’s the return on investing budget and human capital on a Facebook fan page?” wrote Yahoo Sr. Manager of Community Marketing Michael Brito in an article we ran about the study. “In fact, working on the brand side for many years, this question arises daily. And, the reality is that we may never know the true value of a fan because human behavior changes all the time and technology isn’t quite there yet; not to mention the possible privacy implications. I do feel that calculating fan value needs to involve more than just impressions.”
Brito took the formula used to come up with that valuation, and ran it for some major brands at the time. Based on this, Coca-Cola fans were wroth $0.96 a piece. YouTube fans were worth $1.92, Adidas fans were worth $2.40. NBA fans were worth a whopping $8.22. The formula used went like this:
1M impressions x 2 posts x 30 days = 60M impressions
60M impressions / 1000 x $5 CPM = $300,000
$300,000 x 12 months = $3.6M
$3.6M / 1M fans = $3.60
Feel free to poke all the holes you want in any of these studies. Augie Ray at Forrester Research once wrote on “why the question of Facebook fan valuation is problematic”:

Assumptions: The methodologies for estimating the value of a Facebook fan rely on a host of assumptions, but every audience, brand and program is unique. For example, the value of a fan for big-ticket items cannot be the same as a fan for lower-consideration items.
All fans are not equal: Every individual has a unique social graph and a unique voice. I might be considered influential on topics of social media and marketing, but my opinion on floor mops might hold little influence within my set of friends and followers. One’s value as an influencer varies from category to category.
Acquisition matters: How a fan is acquired makes a difference. A fan that organically “likes” a brand has more potential value than one that is encouraged to click the “like” button in exchange for a coupon or some Farmville bucks.
Cause and effect: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do Facebook fans spend more, or do people who spend more become fans? If the former, then Facebook fans are generating new value, but if the latter is true then Facebook fandom merely reflects existing value rather than creating new value for brands.

Of course Facebook has continued to grow tremendously since most of these even came out, and user behavior has also changed (strictly in the sense that you can’t assume that everybody is using Facebook exactly the same way they were using it a year ago) so even if it was dead on, it’s possible that things have changed.
The “Filter Bubble” is worth considering. This is a concept we discussed in an article earlier this week, based on a TED talk given by Eli Pariser. Basically, this is about the content we consume becoming more filtered because it’s being tailored to us on a personalized level by the sites we use – including (and especially) by Facebook. Pariser quoted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as saying, “A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.”
Zuckerberg’s point is that Facebook wants to give you the information most relevant to you. It does this by not showing you everything from all of your friends and Pages in the news feed. In terms of Facebook fans for a page, it’s worth considering that all of your messages might not find their way to all of your fans, simply because Facebook may filter some of them out of their news feeds. You can’t expect all of your fans to go to your page on their own on a regular basis.
There are ways to improve your chances of getting in the news feed. In another recent article, we discussed “EdgeRnak,” which is the basis for Facebook’s News Feed algorithm. A report from Buddy Media, which has built a business out of creating Facebook tools for businesses, and counts many major brands among its clients, provided these tips to keep audiences engaged. Posts with higher engagement are more likely to appear in the News Feed:
1. Ask questions
2. Post games and trivia
3. Interact with fan engagement
4. Incorporate wall sapplets (polls, coupons, etc.)
5. Incorporate relevant photos
6. Relate to current events
7. Incorporate videos
8. Post content for time-sensitive campaigns
9. Include links within posts
10. Be explicit in your posts
In social media in general, you might say you get back what you put in. Earlier this month, we ran an article from Brian Solis, who said, “Social media is as effective as its design. The ability to deliver against brand lift, ROI, or an established set of business and operational metrics and KPIs is all in the design. I believe you can not measure what it is you do not, or do not know, to value.”
He pointed to a study from Vocus and MarketingSherpa, which looked at the effectiveness of various social media marketing tactics, finding that effectiveness very much reflects the degree of difficulty for different strategies. In other words, it’s probably not going to be as effective if it’s really easy, but if it takes more effort, it’s likely to work better. Here’s a graph from the study that illustrates this:

Solis offered the following tips:
1. Start by understanding who you’re trying to reach and what it is they value
2. Design programs that meet the needs of each segment
3. Dissect the keywords and clickpaths of your desirable segments and develop a thoughtful SMO program
4. SMO is only as effective as the content and destinations its meant to enhance. Develop content and click paths that matter and deliver value on both sides of the transaction.
5. Identify the individuals and organizations that influence your markets. Learn what it is they value and develop engagement programs that offer tangible value (what’s in it for them and their audiences).
6. #Engage
In reality, it’s hard to say with any confidence that every Facebook fan you have is worth a set amount of money to your business. People may even forget that they even “like” your brand over time, if it’s not appearing in their News Feed frequently. That said, it does seem pretty clear that there is value to be had in Facebook fans if you’re willing to engage them and give them reasons to value you. Value isn’t a one-way street.
Maybe you should look at the brands you “like”. Why do you like them? What’s in it for you? If you have a good reason for “liking” a Page, they’re probably doing something right. Are you doing the same things right as a reflection of your own brand? Do enough things right, and the value of “liking” your page will go up for the consumer, which in turn is bound to make that consumer more valuable to your business.
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

source:http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-fans-worth-2011-06

Google Adds HTTP Header Support to rel= “canonical”

2011-06-20T01:59:00.001-07:00

Google is now supporting link rel=”canonical” relationships specified in HTTP headers. Evidently this was heavily requested, as the feature is in response to webmaster feedback.
The syntax can be found in this document. Google Webmaster Trends analyst Pierre Far outlines an example on the Webmaster Central Blog:
To see the rel=”canonical” HTTP header in action, let’s look at the scenario of a website offering a white paper both as an HTML page and as a downloadable PDF alternative, under these two URLs:
http://www.example.com/white-paper.html
http://www.example.com/white-paper.pdf
In this case, the webmaster can signal to Google that the canonical URL for the PDF download is the HTML document by using a rel=”canonical” HTTP header when the PDF file is requested; for example:
GET /white-paper.pdf HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
(…rest of HTTP request headers…)
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/pdf
Link: ; rel=”canonical”
Content-Length: 785710
(… rest of HTTP response headers…)
Far also notes that the canonical tag in HTTP headers might help when a site serves the same file from multiple URLs, such as a content distribution network, when the webmaster wants to let Google know the preferred URL.
The support is for web search only.
Last month, Google’s Matt Cutts discussed some reasons (which are few and far between) why Google might skip your canonical tags:
If you’re unfamiliar with rel=”canonical” altogether, watch our interview with Cutts from when it was first launched:

About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

source:http://www.webpronews.com/google-adds-http-header-support-to-rel-canonical-2011-06

Facebook Launches Send Dialog

2011-06-20T01:58:00.002-07:00

Facebook has announced the launch of the Send Dialog, building off the momentum of the Send Button, which has been added to over 100,000 sites in the first 30 days of its launch, according to the company.
“It resembles the Feed Dialog, but gives people the ability to share a link as a private Facebook message, email or Group post,” says Ravi Grover on the Facebook Developer blog. “The Send Dialog is better than the Send button for deep integrations because it enables developers to build sending messages into the core flow of their website or app.”
“The new dialog was designed for activities that a user may want to only share with specific people, which makes it particularly useful for ecommerce, travel, and event websites,” Grover adds.
It even lets you pre-populate a user in the “to” field, which is interesting.
“Facebook Messages are intended for high quality conversations between friends, not impersonal, unwanted messages,” he explains. “Apps on Facebook should use Requests to let people communicate in-game status, invite friends to use an app, or send messages to multiple people. The Send Dialog is appropriate when a person might otherwise send a personal email.”
As with the Send button, the Send Dialog should be able to help drive targeted traffic to websites, since people are sharing content with very specific friends or groups.
The Send Dialog can be seen in action at Airbnb, Gogobot, Keepsy, Jetsetter, SniqueAway, and Viagogo. You can get the code for it here. It doesn’t require any special user permissions.
The feature is not currently supported on mobile devices.
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237
source:http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-launches-send-dialog-2011-06

Google Launches “Me on the Web”

2011-06-20T01:58:00.000-07:00

Google has released a new feature called “Me on the Web.” It’s a reputation management tool accessible from the Google Dashboard, underneath the Account details.
Google says the tool makes it easier to set up Google Alerts, and suggests search terms you may wish to monitor, and provides links to resources that offer information on how to control what third-party info is posted about you on the web. Product Manager Andreas Turk writes on the Google Public Policy Blog:
In recent years, it’s become easier and easier to publish information about yourself online, through powerful new platforms like social networking sites and photo sharing services. One way to manage your privacy on these sites is to decide who specifically can see this information, determining whether it is visible to just a few friends, family members or everyone on the web. But, another important decision is choosing how you are identified when you post that information. We have worked hard to build various identity options into Google products. For example, while you may want to identify yourself by name when you post an answer to a question in a forum so that readers know the response is reputable, if you upload videos about a controversial cause you may prefer to post under a pseudonym.
However, your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you — whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag or a reply to a public status update. When someone searches for your name on a search engine like Google, the results that appear are a combination of information you’ve posted and information published by others.

As far as I can tell, there’s not a whole lot new going on here. Me on the Web simply shows you what links you have attached to your Google Profile, which you could also see by actually going to your Google Profile (and which you presumably already know, since you set them up in the first place), a link to Google alerts, and a couple of Help Center articles about reputation management. This is all accessible from the Google Dashboard, which there is a good chance you hardly visit. At best, it looks like just another access point for this info. I guess the alerts suggestions could be mildly helpful.
All of that said, Me on the Web certainly can’t hurt anything. If it makes a few more people, a bit more conscious of their online reputation, that’s not a bad thing by any means. It should also serve as another subtle reminder to Google users that they have Google profiles (which provide a landing page for those Google social products – Buzz and +1s).
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

source:http://www.webpronews.com/google-launches-me-on-the-web-2011-06

American Cities According to Twitter

2011-06-20T01:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what United States cities would actually be called if they let the internet name them? By analyzing tweets, Inbox Q has given us the answer. Did you know that Twitter users commonly refer to Milwaukee, Wisconsin as “Milwacky?” Nope, I didn’t either.
Inbox Q is a service that crawls Twitter for questions about specific companies or brands and streams them for the people who should be concerned with questions, say a customer service department, or a marketing department. They say that they started Inbox Q because they “realized that there were lots of questions being asked by people on Twitter but most weren’t receiving very useful answers. In fact, most questions go completely unanswered on Twitter.”
They sorted through millions of tweets and discovered that only about two-thirds of those tweeters used the proper place name to describe where they were. They then compiled this fun little infographic to show the odd names that Twitter users give large American cities.
Nicknames like “Gotham” for New York and “Nawlins” for New Orleans aren’t anything new. In fact, I was pretty sure once that New Orleans was actually “Nawlins.” But some of the nicknames the Twitter users give our cities are strange to say the least. “Shark City,” “El Chuco” and “Miami of Canada” are new ones to me.
It thrills my heart that Twitter users call San Diego “Whale’s Vagina,” a reference of course to this scene in Anchorman –
If they would have mapped my city of Lexington I’m sure it would have been “Horse Capital of the World” or “Lex-Vegas.” Check out the infographic below to see if your city has a wacky Twitter name.

About Josh Wolford
Josh Wolford is a staff writer for WebProNews. He likes football, French New Wave cinema, and bacon. @joshgwolf on Twitter
source:http://www.webpronews.com/american-cities-according-to-twitter-2011-06

YouTube To Broadcast Copa America Tournament

2011-06-15T23:52:00.001-07:00

No, the lead video does not come from the past Copa tournaments; I just wanted an excuse to use Jozy Altidore’s awesome goal against Guadalupe. Enter YouTube’s announcement about the live steaming of the 2011 Copa America soccer tournament.
Much like the World Cup, Copa America is a once-every-four-years tournament featuring a who’s who of great South American soccer teams, all of which are apart of the South American Football Confederation, or CONMEBOL. The 2011 tournament will be hosted by Argentina, and, as indicated, there are number of traditional soccer powers taking part, including current Copa champions, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. All in all 12 nations will take part, although, the two “stars” of the tournament are the Argentinians and the Brazilians.
Oddly enough, Japan’s national team was invited to participate — as was Mexico — but the recent natural disasters that rocked Japan caused the country to pull out of the tournament. Taking Japan’s place will be Costa Rica, who was invited to fill Japan’s vacated spot. As for YouTube’s involvement, this is not the first time they’ve streamed live sporting events, and while YouTube’s broadcast of the Indian Premier League’s cricket games was successful, cricket isn’t considered the most popular sport in the world, outside of the United States.
Considering soccer’s popularity, especially for the way the South American’s play the sport, odds are the Copa America streams will be consumed heartily by the masses. Of course, they’ll have to compete with Univision’s web broadcast, but what’s good for television channels fighting each other for ratings is also good for the Internet.
Concerning the Copa America broadcast, YouTube provided us with some details:

On the Copa America channel at youtube.com/copaamerica, soccer fans will have access to all 26 matches including pool play, semi-finals, quarter-finals and the championship match

Taking place across eight Argentine host cities this year’s tournament is expected to include an all-star roster representing household-name professional teams, including Lionel Messi (Argentina/Barcelona) Diego Milito (Argentina, Inter Milan), Robinho (Brazil, AC Milan), Diego Forlan (Uruguay, Athletico Madrid), and dozens more world class footballers.

The three week competition starts on July 1, with Messi and Argentina meeting Bolivia in La Plata and concludes with the final on July 24th.

Each match will also be available on-demand after the match concludes on YouTube.

From this writer’s perspective, the chance to see Lionel Messi is reason enough to alone to tune in. If you’re wondering why that is, wonder no more:

As indicated, YouTube’s streaming of the Copa America tournament begins on July 1 and runs through the final on July 24, and all games will be available on the Copa America YouTube page. Considering the success of IPL cricket, it wouldn’t be surprising if the viewership of Copa America set some kind of YouTube record.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/youtube-to-broadcast-copa-america-tournament-2011-06
About Chris Richardson
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.

More to Google Offers Than Meets the Eye?

2011-06-15T23:51:00.001-07:00

Let me take you back to the beginning of the year for a minute. Groupon had recently turned down a buyout offer from Google reported at around $6 billion. Everyone was wondering what Google’s next move was going to be. Clearly they were interested in entering the Groupon/daily deals space. It was highly unlikely that Google was just going to give up on these aspirations because Groupon turned them down.
Google’s Marissa Mayer did an interview with Media Beat, reminding us that Google already had some things that could compete with Groupon, and with the right integration and implementation of products, could be a viable player in the space.
“I think that when you look at our overall suite of services, especially around our advertising, we already have some things that are like this,” Mayer said. “We have things like coupons and offer extension ads that allow merchants to basically make offers to our users. So we’re looking at how we can take that technology and put it to use, especially in the location space.”
Here’s the full interview:
Fast forward a bit, and Google officially launched its first Google Offers deals in Portland at the beginning of this month. The product is, for all intents and purposes, essentially a Groupon clone. While some may have dismissed Google’s entry into this space as just that, now comes an interesting discovery by Search Engine Land’s Greg Sterling, which seems to fall more in line with a broader vision, and with Mayer’s discussion.
Sterling happened across a Google “offer ad” in the wild (which has been known to be in testing), but when he clicked “view offer,” he was taken to an offer page with a button for “save to My Offers,” that when clicked takes you to a “My Offers” dashboard, which he describes as a “repository for several deal types that Google appears to have up its sleeve”.
So, all of these Google-based offers would appear in the same place in your Google account, making for an easy way to access them, which could be huge for user engagement.
In addition, the concept would seemingly give Google more flexibility in its own “offers” offerings – to delve more into other areas, such as location, like Mayer talked about, for example. The thing about Google is that it has so many products that it could find ways to integrate offers into. So many products tied to that one Google account. Think search, Gmail, Latitude, Places, etc. They have a lot of ways to potentially get offers in front of users’ eyeballs, and an email-style Groupon clone appears to be only a part of their strategy.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/google-my-offers-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Compete: Comparing Our Data to Google Analytics is Apples and Oranges

2011-06-15T23:50:00.002-07:00

Compete, as you may know, provides analytics tools, and shows website traffic data on things like unique visitors, pageviews, visits, etc. The data is sometimes compared to Google analytics, and often tells a different story.
We reached out to Compete to discuss this a bit, and Damian Roskill, Managing Director, Marketing at Compete tells us, “It’s really like comparing apples and oranges – both methodologies have their strengths and their weaknesses. Google Analytics doesn’t actually track people – it tracks cookies. This means that when people change computers, or delete their cookies, you can have double counting that goes on.”
Compete’s methodology has four basic components. They are (as described in a Compete white paper):

Multi-source panel – combines both recruited panelists and licensed clickstream data from partners, resulting in a very large and representative online consumer panel;
Harmonization algorithms – proprietary processes and technology that work together to integrate Compete’s multiple data sources into a unified online
consumer panel;
Sophisticated normalization techniques – unique processes that weight, calibrate and project metrics across panel sources resulting in accurate base audience measurement data;
Metrics that matter – analytics on site visitation, audience profiles, media exposure, search term usage, cross-shopping, conversion, competitive behaviors, and audience segmentation

“In contrast, a panel is a sample-based approach – we track about 2 million US consumers – a percentage of the total internet audience here in the US – and then we use computer modeling to project behavior from our panel to the general internet audience,” says Roskill. “The upside is that a person is a person – you don’t have the double-counting. The downside is that you can sometimes get undercounting of smaller websites.”
“Also notice that we are currently only doing US consumers – so people often send us a Google Analytics number that includes all international users as well as US consumers – the two aren’t comparable in that way either.”
Certainly an important point to note.

“Bottom line, the approaches are complementary rather than either/or – what should make sense is that the two methodologies should be similar directionally. But comparing the numbers doesn’t really provide much value.”
In my experience, they generally are similar directionally in most cases.

“What we think can be meaningful is combining the two approaches – essentially using a cookie-based approach and combine it with a panel based approach and use them to provide validation for each other,” says Roskill.
The fact is that you can compare data from any number of analytics tools, and you’re going to get different results. It’s when they tell dramatically different stories that you need to investigate further. Luckily there are resources explaining how data is collected. Compete’s white paper, for example explains its methodology. Google Analytics has an entire help center, and there are plenty of articles on the web discussing it.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/compete-google-analytics-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

25 Ways to Get Another Site to Link to Yours

2011-06-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

This guest post was co-authored by Ken McGaffin and Susan Payton
There are many ways to get other sites to link to yours, which helps in boosting your ranking on search engines.
Here are 25 link-building methods you can use for your website.
1. Pay for a Listing
There are sites that will pay to host a link to your website, so if you’ve got the budget, this is your easiest method. This can be a great way of attracting traffic, but be careful that the site you’re advertising with follows Google’s webmaster guidelines.
Paid links fall within Google’s guidelines as long as they are designated as advertising. You should do this by:

Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the <a> tag
Redirecting the links to a page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file

Fail to follow Google’s advice and you may adversely affect your site’s position in their search results.
2. Join a Trade Association
Oftentimes, trade organizations link to their members’ websites, so this is a great way to get more exposure for your site. A quick search will help you find many organizations that relate to the industry you’re in. Check to see that they have a member directory with links before joining.

Many trade associations now have a good online presence and as part of their benefits publish links to their member’s websites. 3. Get People Talking About Your Products
People might be talking about your products right now. Would you know if they were? It’s easy to set up a free Google Alert to find out any time someone mentions your company or links to your site. This might come in the form of a product review, blog post, social media update or question in a forum about your products.
It’s important to know who’s talking about you and respond to any questions or feedback (especially negative) immediately.
4. Join a Local Group
Just like with trade associations, local groups like Chambers of Commerce or business networking organizations will often link to their members’ sites. Find groups you want to be associated with and join.
5. Be a Great Case Study
By giving your opinion, taking surveys and connecting with the media, you can get a link to your site included in a case study or article. Let your opinions be heard, as it’s a great way to get some exposure online.

Companies are always looking for good case study material. If you can help your suppliers communicate the benefits of their products, then links can follow. You likely fit into some category, whether it be as a young entrepreneur, senior entrepreneur, work-at-home parent or ecommerce specialist. Connect with others like you, and brand yourself as a representative of that group. Look for opportunities, such as the one that YoungEntrepreneur.com offers, to submit your story for more coverage of you and your company.
7. Submit a Tip
By providing useful information on your blog or website, visitors to your site will link to these tips and share with others. Also look for media leads like Help a Reporter Out, where journalists put out requests for tips or advice from certain types of people. You might get quoted in a
newspaper, magazine or website.

Submitting tips to industry journals or blogs raises your profile and brings nice links such as this one on The Woodworker’s Journal for Adam Rung. 8. Piggyback Breaking News
Pay attention to the news, and find ways to write blog posts or comment on relevant news. For example, after the news broke that the Clintons’ cat, Socks, had passed away, PetsPlace.com wrote an article on “10 Oddest Presidential Pets,” which was linked to by many other sites.
9. Become a Valuable Resource
Often, writers will compile a list of resources for an article. If you have a relationship with the writer or reporter, you might be included in that list. For instance, if you run a diner in Arizona, your restaurant might be included in a list of places to visit in an article about Arizona. At Wordtracker we set up an online marketing Academy that is packed with valuable advice – it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a month.
10. Offer a Discount
People love saving money, and they love sharing deals with others. Many bloggers specialize in finding coupons and sales and telling their readers about them, so make sure they know about your discount. During holidays, offer special themed discounts to improve visibility and links.
11. Make a Donation
While contributing to charity is good in and of itself, it can also provide good PR opportunity, as many organizations will link to contributors’ sites, or include them in a press release. You can issue a press release yourself about your involvement with a charity.
12. Support Your Industry
Whether you donate to industry organizations, attend meetings or just host a badge on your site, you may find that they respond in kind by hosting a link to yours.
13. Be Unusual
The more unique your business, the more attention it will get. Sites like CoolBusinessIdeas.com look for innovative companies to profile, and you can search for sites where you can submit your out-of-the-ordinary company.
14. Give an Interview
People make better stories than companies, so position yourself as an expert in your industry with journalists so that they will want to interview the person behind your company. Ask them to link to your website.
15. Start Hiring
Even posting jobs or internships that you have available can get you links. Human resources and hiring sites often link to other sites, so you might get linked to by dozens of sites from a single job description.
16. Attend an Exhibition
If you set up as an exhibitor at a conference or trade show, you may have the opportunity to get your link and company listed on the event’s website. Also offer to give quotes about your experience at the show to reporters.
17. Buck a Trend
If everyone else is suffering in a down economy but your company is thriving, ride this wave to get some publicity. Reporters look for anything that’s going against the grain, and that just might be your big break.
18. Publish Videos to Your Site
Video production is cheap these days, so create how-to videos, video blogs and interviews and host them on your site. Promote them through social media and email to get others to link to them.
Yeti Coolers are stronger than ordinary coolers. And they’ve made some videos to prove it. The videos attracted links from the spearfishing community at SpearBoard.com 19. Publish Videos on YouTube
YouTube is the second largest search engine next to Google, so it makes sense that posting your videos on here would drive traffic to your site. Not every video is viral-worthy, so focus on creating videos with useful content your customers will enjoy.
20. Position Your Products as Gifts
Bloggers and writers often compile gift lists for holidays, and your products and links could make these lists. Plan three months out to contact journalists about lists they’re working on in the future. So you should be pitching your best Valentine’s gifts in November.
21. Help People Make Money
Affiliate programs serve multiple purposes: first, they get other people to sell your products for you. Second, those people get to make money. And third, you get more links to your site. Set up an affiliate program that compensates people for writing about or linking to your site and making sales.
22. Offer Healthy Products
Health is still all the rage in the media, so if you sell products that are good for people, you increase your chances of getting media coverage.
23. Partner with a Local College
Your company might be a good partner for a local university. For example, you could offer special workshops or extend your company’s services or resources to the school. In return, you might be listed on the company’s website as a supporter.
24. Ask for Help
There are sites like MarketingProfs.com or Answers.com that allow you to ask for advice or feedback. It could be as simple as asking what web designers think of your website or whether your logo expresses what you want it to. You’ll get a link that anyone visiting that page will see.
25. Get Blog Reviews
There are thousands of blogs who review products. Identify the bloggers whose audience includes your target market and ask them to review your products. Be aware that some bloggers charge for their services, and you may also be required to give away a second product to one of their readers.
Use any or all of these tips to start getting more links to your website today!
source:http://www.webpronews.com/link-building-2011-06
About Ken McGaffin
Ken McGaffin is Chief Marketing Officer with Wordtracker, the keyword research company. He writes regularly on link building and online public relations and is the brains behind Wordtracker's Link Building tool.

Google Announces Instant Pages, Loads Results Before You Click

2011-06-15T23:48:00.001-07:00

Google made several big search announcements today, including Voice Search for the desktop and Search by Image for the desktop (like Google Goggles on mobile). They also announced a couple new “instant’ features.
For one, at its Inside Search event, the company showed off Google Instant for image search, which will be available in the next couple months to all domains and languages where Google Instant is already available.
They also announced something called Instant Pages, which speeds up how quickly you can access your search result (provided that the top ranked result is the right one for you). This is a Chrome-only feature. Google explains:
Whether you’re typing, speaking, or using an image, entering your search is only part of the process. You’re not really done searching until you have the answer you’re looking for. But waiting for webpages to load adds time to this process – the average webpage takes about five seconds to load.
With Instant Pages in Chrome, you can skip the extra seconds waiting for a page to load and get to the answers you’re looking for faster with webpages that load instantly.
For searches when we can predict with reasonable confidence that you’ll click on the first result, Instant Pages technology will begin loading that webpage early so that by the time you click on the result, the entire webpage appears fully loaded instantly.
The above video demonstrates the feature in a side-by-side comparison with a normal Google search.
Google has maintained for a while now that speed is a ranking factor in its algorithm. Now, Google is helping the page load process along itself, to some extent.
The feature takes advantage of a prerendering technology, which is being baked into Chrome.
The technology is currently in the Chrome Dev Channel, and will be rolling out in Chrome beta this week, with stable and mobile releases coming in the coming weeks.
As most of Google’s new features are Chrome-based, it’s worth noting that the Google Chromebooks come out tomorrow.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/google-instant-pages-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Google Intros New Mobile Search Features

2011-06-15T23:47:00.002-07:00

Google had several announcements today at its Inside Search event. Some of them brought features that have been available on mobile to the desktop (such as Google Goggles and Voice Search). Google also revealed some new mobile features.
For one, Google is displaying new shortcut icons on the Google for Mobile home page, to make it easier to find things nearby. There are icons for Restaurants, Coffee, Bars, and More. When you click More, you get other options like shopping, ATMs, gas stations, etc. This is also part of Google’s new Places homepage.
“On the results page, you’ll see a map with markers for your current location and places around you,” explains Director of Engineering Scott Huffman. “When you scroll through the results, the map remains at the top of the page and adjusts automatically to the listing you are looking at. That way, you can see the listing information while still getting location context from the map. Tapping on a result will quickly show you more about a place including reviews and other useful details. Discovering great places nearby has never been easier on your mobile phone.”
Google has also introduced a new way to build longer, more complex searches, with a feature that lets you add suggested phrases to the search box. The feature is already available on the Google Search app for Android and iOS, but now it will simply be available on google.com from the mobile browser. The following video illustrates how this works:
The new features are available for Android version 2.2 and up, and iOS 4.0 and up in 40 languages, globally.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/google-mobile-search-features-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Google Launches Search By Image

2011-06-15T23:47:00.000-07:00

Google announced the launch of a new image search feature today, which actually lets you search by an image itself, rather than text. Like voice search, this has been available on mobile for some time (via Google Goggles), but now it’s coming to the desktop.
Google explains on its Inside Search blog:
You might have an old vacation photo, but forgot the name of that beautiful beach. Typing [guy on a rocky path on a cliff with an island behind him] isn’t exactly specific enough to help find your answer. So when words aren’t as descriptive as the image, you can now search using the image itself.

To search using an image, go to images.google.com and just put your picture in the search box. There are many ways to do this. You can click the camera icon in the search box and upload a photo from your computer or paste the URL of an image from the web. You can also drag and drop pictures from webpages or your computer into the search box. To search images on the web even faster with just one click, you can download the Chrome or Firefox extensions.

Google says the feature returns the best results for images that have related content already on the web, so you’ll be more likely to get relevant results for landmarks, paintings, and things like that, as opposed to images of your family. This is pretty standard for Google Goggles already.
Google made it clear at its Inside Search event that it does not use facial recognition technology, surely thwarting any potential privacy complaints.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/google-launches-search-by-image-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Every 3D Movie Ever Made

2011-06-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

Sony may have taken a beating over in their PlayStation 3 department, other arms of the Sony entertainment octopus has apparently been busy cataloging every 3D movie ever made in order to release a nifty infographic. While I’m not sure if the graphic was made to offer support for the style of movie-making, or if to inform the public about the upcoming swoon in regards to interest for the film gimmick, something that’s already shown its head, as audiences for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently demonstrated.
The information in Sony’s graphic, besides listing all of the 3D movies, is fairly educational. It offers a distinction between the various methods of producing 3-dimensional films, and, in fact, the actual number of ways to simulate the third dimension is surprising. According to the graphic, there are 11 different methods listed to achieve the desired effect. Also of note, the graphic reveals the first film to use 3D was actually a 1903 short film called, L’arrive du train: Lumiere Short, and according to Sony’s research:

This original short was probably shot flat, and was probably re-shot in 3D as late as 1915. Due to the lack of proper display technology, the film was probably shown on a modified Stereoscope, one person at a time.

Nonetheless, it still counts as a 3D film. With that in mind, here’s the graphic in question, and you can view it in its entirety by clicking the following image (it’s over 10 MB):

One of the biggest trends that stands out is the trend-like life 3D movies enjoy. As pointed out by Slash Film, 3D movies make a comeback in regards to popularity every 30 years or so:

The 1920s, 1950s, 1980s, and 2010s all mark periods of interest in 3D cinema, and with the exception of the current 3D bubble, each has been followed by sharp drop-offs in 3D filmmaking toward the end of each of those decades.

As for the current 3D bubble mentioned in the quote, perhaps the lackluster response to the latest PotC movie indicates it’s begun in earnest. Considering the absolute disdain critics have the for the technique, it’s surprising the current trend lasted as long as it did, but then again, that’s another conversation entirely because it deals with studios trying to charge as much for tickets as they can and 3D movies provide them with a reason to do so.
The SeeMikeDraw blog covered this subject beautifully:

Booyah, indeed. The troubling/interesting thing is the amount of 2011 movies that have and will be presented in 3D. By a glance, the only year where as many 3D films were produced was 1953. Of course, if the current crop performs like the fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, the trend could be over — at least until James Cameron makes Avatar 2.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/every-3d-movie-ever-made-2011-06
About Chris Richardson
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.

Google Launches Voice Search for Desktop

2011-06-15T23:44:00.001-07:00

Google has had voice search available for mobile for quite some time, but today at its Inside Search event, the company announced that it is bringing it to the desktop as well.
To use the feature, you will click a button off to the side of the search box, and speak your query. Obviously, you’ll need a mic.
To be honest, I’m not sure how often I would find myself using voice search from the desktop. Quite frankly, I don’t use it from my mobile device all that often. It’s just easier to type it, even from mobile, because all too often, it voice search doesn’t get the query right. I’m sure this will improve over time, and has already improved since it was first introduced, but I’ll still probably go to typing by default in most cases – especially on the desktop. That said, the feature has tremendous advantages in terms of accessibility for the disabled.
“We train our systems on massive amounts of data,” Google says. “You cover the differences in pronunciation with learning algorithms.” More from Google’s blog post about it:
You’ve been able to use Voice Search on mobile devices since 2008, but you’re probably so used to typing your searches that you don’t immediately think to use your voice. With Voice Search now available on desktop, searching by voice is becoming more ubiquitous and the idea of being able to speak your search will be more familiar, no matter what you’re searching for.
Voice Search can be especially useful for long queries such as [pictures of big wave surfing in Waimea Bay] or words that are hard to spell like [Schenectady, New York]. It’s also a helpful option if you’re in a conversational mood and you’d rather ask your question out loud than think of the keywords to type. For example, maybe you just to find “a recipe for spaghetti with bolognese sauce.” Just click the microphone icon in the search box and ask out loud.
For now, voice search from the desktop will only be available for Chrome, as it takes advantage of Chrome’s speech technology. It will be rolling out this week for all Chrome users in English. It really illustrates an interesting strategy of Google’s to enable new features to its core search product using its browser, which should only serve to generate more interest in the browser, which could also inspire more interest in its recently launched Chrome OS operating system.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/google-voice-search-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Google on How Much Content You Should Have On Your Home Page

2011-06-14T02:49:00.000-07:00

The latest Google Webmaster Central video from Matt Cutts talks about home page content. Given issues like content depth and site speed, which Google has brought up a great deal in recent memory, the content on your home page is worth considering with regard to these things as well.
The question from a user, which Matt addresses is: “More or less content on a homepage?”

@googlewmc
WMXToday’s webmaster video: How much content should be on a homepage? http://goo.gl/SE9ss 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

“You can have too much,” says Cutts. “So I wouldn’t have a homepage that has 20MB. You know, that takes a long time to download, and users who are on a dial-up or a modem, a slow connection, they’ll get angry at you.”
“But in general, if you have more content on a home page, there’s more text for Googlebot to find, so rather than just pictures, for example, if you have pictures plus captions – a little bit of textual information can really go a long way,” he continues.
“If you look at my blog, I’ve had anywhere from 5 to 10 posts on my main page at any given time, so I tend to veer towards a little more content when possible,” he adds.
You can see Matt’s blog here, if you want a better idea of how he does it.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/google-on-how-much-content-you-should-have-on-your-home-page-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Ranking Google Ranking Factors By Importance

2011-06-14T02:48:00.000-07:00

Rand Fishkin and SEOmoz polled 132 SEO experts with data from over 10,000 Google search results, and have attempted to rank the importance of ranking signals. It’s not confirmed fact, obviously. Google won’t provide such information, but I suppose the next best thing is the collective opinion of a large group of people who make their livings getting sites to rank in search engines, and Fishkin has put together an impressive presentation.
Do you think Google is ranking search results effectively? Comment here.
You can view the entire presentation here, but I’ve pulled out a few key slides that basically sum up the findings.
The factors are actually broken down into the following subsets, where each is ranked against other related factors: overall algorithmic factors, page-specific link signals, domain-wide link signals, on-page signals, domain name match signals, social signals, and highest positively + negatively correlated metrics overall.
The results find that page-level link metrics are the top algorithmic factors (22%), followed by domain-level, link authority features (21%). This is similar to the same SEOmoz poll for 2009, but there is a huge difference in the numbers, indicating that experts are less certain that page-level link metrics are as important. In 2009, they accounted for 43%.

Page-specific link signals are cited as metrics based on links that point specifically to the ranking page. This is how the results panned out there:

According to Fishkin, the main takeaways here are that SEOs believe the power of links has declined, that diversity of links is greater than raw quantity, and that the exact match anchor text appears slightly less well-correlated than partial anchor text in external links.
Domain-wide link signals are cited as metrics based on links that point to anywhere on the ranking domain. Here is what the poll looked like in this department:

The report compares followed vs. nofollowed links to the domain and page, finding that nofollow links may indeed help with rankings:

On-page signals are cited as metrics based on keyword usage and features of the ranking document. Here’s what the poll looked like on these:

Fishkin determines that while it’s tough to differentiate with on-page optimization, longer documents tend to rank better (possibly as a result of Panda), long titles and URLs are still likely bad for SEO, and using keywords earlier in tags and docs “seems wise”.
Here is how the domain name extensions in search results shook out:

Here are the poll results on social-media-based ranking factors (which Google has seemingly been putting more emphasis on of late):

Fishkin suggests that Facebook may be more influential than Twitter, or that it might simply be that Facebook data is more robust and available for URLs in SERPs. He also determines that Google Buzz is probably not in use directly, as so many users simply have their tweet streams go to Buzz (making the data correlation lower). He also notes that there is a lot more to learn about how Google uses social.
Andy Beard has been testing whether links posted in Google Buzz pass PageRank or help with indexing of content since February 2010. He is now claiming evidence that Buzz is used for indexing.
Danny Sullivan asked Google’s Matt Cutts about the SEOmoz ranking factors survey in a Q&A session at SMX Advanced this week – specifically about the correlation between Facebook shares and Google rankings. Cutts is quoted as saying, “This is a good example of why correlation doesn’t equal causality because Google doesn’t get Facebook shares. We’re blocked by that data. We can see fan pages, but we can’t see Facebook shares.”
The SEOmoz presentation itself has a lot more info about the methodology used and how the correlation worked out.
All of the things covered in the presentation should be taken into consideration, particularly for sites that have experienced significant drops in rankings (because of things like the Panda update or other algorithm tweaks). We recently discussed with Dani Horowitz of Daniweb a number of other things sites can also do that may help rankings in the Post-panda Google search index. DaniWeb had been hit by Panda, but has seen a steady uptick in traffic since making some site adjustments, bringing up the possibility of Panda recovery.
Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable polled his readers about Panda recovery, and 4% said they had fully recovered, while more indicated that they had recovered partially. Still, the overwhelming majority had not recovered, indicating that Google probably did its job right for the most part (that’s not to say that some sites that didn’t deserve to get hit didn’t get hit). In that same Q&A session, Cutts said, “The general rule is to push stuff out and then find additional signals to help differentiate on the spectrum. We haven’t done any pushes that would directly pull things back. We have recomputed data that might have impacted some sites. There’s one change that might affect sites and pull things back.”
A new adjustment to the Panda update has been approved at Google, but has not rolled out yet, he says. This adjustment will be aimed at keeping scraped content from ranking over original content.
Home Page Content
There have also been other interesting bits of search-related information coming out of Google this week. Cutts posted a Webmaster Central video talking about the amount of content you should have on your homepage.
“You can have too much,” said Cutts. “So I wouldn’t have a homepage that has 20MB. You know, that takes a long time to download, and users who are on a dial-up or a modem, a slow connection, they’ll get angry at you.”
“But in general, if you have more content on a home page, there’s more text for Googlebot to find, so rather than just pictures, for example, if you have pictures plus captions – a little bit of textual information can really go a long way,” he continued.
“If you look at my blog, I’ve had anywhere from 5 to 10 posts on my main page at any given time, so I tend to veer towards a little more content when possible,” he added.
Who You Are May Count More
Who you are appears to be becoming more important in Google. Google announced that it’s supporting authorship markup, which it will use in search results. The company is experimenting with using the data to help people find content from authors in results, and says it will continue to look at ways it could help the search engine highlight authors and rank results. More on this here.
Search Queries Data from Webmaster Tools Comes to Google Analytics
Google also launched a limited pilot for search engine optimization reports in Google Analytics, tying Webmaster Central data to Google Analytics, after much demand. It will use search queries data from WMT, which includes:

Queries: The total number of search queries that returned pages from your site results over the given period. (These numbers can be rounded, and may not be exact.)

Query: A list of the top search queries that returned pages from your site.

Impressions: The number of times pages from your site were viewed in search results, and the percentage increase/decrease in the daily average impressions compared to the previous period. (The number of days per period defaults to 30, but you can change it at any time.)

Clicks: The number of times your site’s listing was clicked in search results for a particular query, and the percentage increase/decrease in the average daily clicks compared to the previous period.

CTR (clickthrough rate): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click to your site, and the increase/decrease in the daily average CTR compared to the previous period.

Avg. position: The average position of your site on the search results page for that query, and the change compared to the previous period. Green indicates that your site’s average position is improving.To calculate average position, we take into account the ranking of your site for a particular query (for example, if a query returns your site as the #1 and #2 result, then the average position would be 1.5).

This week, we also ran a very interesting interview between Eric Enge and Bill Slawski addressing Google search patents and how the might relate to the Google Panda update.
Back to the SEOmoz data. Do you think the results reflect Google’s actual algorithm well? Tell us what you think.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/google-ranking-factors-2-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Facebook Loses Members in U.S. & Canada, Still Dominates the World

2011-06-14T02:46:00.001-07:00

The good news for Facebook is that it is still growing. Over the month of May the social network snatched up another 11.8 million users. In April they gained 13.9 million new accounts. And according to Inside Facebook, the service is just a hop, skip and a poke away from 700 million total users worldwide (687 million by the beginning of June).
So what’s the bad news that comes along with those numbers? Well, overall it’s that the growth is not exactly as large as Facebook is accustomed to. In the average month over the last year or so, Facebook gained at least 20 million new users. When you know that stat, 11.8 million new users in May and 13.9 million new users in April doesn’t sound as impressive.
It also looks like some early-adopting countries may have run up against the wall.
The United States apparently did not just have a slow growth month, but actually lost Facebook traffic. Facebook lost almost 6 million American users during the month of May, from 155.2 million to 149.4 million. Canadian users dropped less dramatically, but still significantly with a 1.52 million user loss. Other places like the U.K. and Norway also had losses, albeit smaller figures like 100K.
Later adopting countries posted solid May users growth, however, with Facebook in Thailand growing 7.1%, Brazil 10% and Mexico 7.6%.
What could be the reason for the loss of 6 million Facebook users in the U.S. over the course of one month? Has Facebook hit its peak in America, and so the only place to go is down? It’s unlikely that Facebook is becoming significantly less popular here, although the rise of other competitors for social media real estate could have some impact.
When you look at the numbers, you have to think – just how much of a country can realistically be expected to join Facebook? Inside Facebook notes that their Gold Facebook data suggests a slow down when countries reach around half the population connected to the site. At the beginning of May 155 million people had Facebook accounts, and the total population of the U.S. is a little over 300 million. Did we simply hit the 50% threshold?
But a couple million users loss in early-adoption countries shouldn’t be too troubling to Facebook, as they continue to take over the world. Seriously. Take a look at this map -

See all that blue? Now, take a look at this one -

These maps are courtesy of Vincos Blog, who has been analyzing traffic data from Alexa and Google Trends for the past few years. The maps show the top social network sites in each county. As you can see, Facebook dominated in 2009, but has continued to expand and take over in 2011. According to their data, 119 of the 134 countries studied are led by Facebook.
Europe is now the most Facebook-heavy continent, with 205 million users. Also, next time one of these maps comes out, that big purple country in South America will most likely be blue according to the numbers.
One more interesting find – Twitter and LinkedIn are on the rise. Since December of 2010, the two networks have moved into second and third place respectively in the States. Twitter is also now the second place social network site in Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the U.K.
Is Facebook’s spot on the throne in any jeopardy worldwide? Definitely not. They will continue to paint the map blue in coming months. But it is entirely possible that Facebook has gone almost as far as it can go in countries like the U.S. When you claim half the population, it’s hard to ask for much more. Maybe the month of May was simply a blip, and Facebook will grow 15% in June, who knows? And the future? I’m sure their ultimate goal is right around 100% American membership.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-loses-members-us-still-dominates-world-2011-06
About Josh Wolford
Josh Wolford is a staff writer for WebProNews. He likes football, French New Wave cinema, and bacon. @joshgwolf on Twitter

Google Looks at Purchasing Habits of Smartphone Users

2011-06-14T02:45:00.000-07:00

Google released some interesting stats this week about the purchasing habits of smartphone users, or more specifically, smartphone searchers. This is in the US only, but the study looks at how smartphones are used on a daily basis, how people are multitasking, the typical searches made from smartphones, how users are using devices to help make their purchase decisions, and whether or not they’re receptive to mobile ads.
This is all good stuff to keep in mind for any business, as the world grows more mobile, and more connected.

“Nearly 9 out [of] 10 smartphone owners use their devices throughout the day for a variety of activities ranging from using search engines to find information, to watching videos,” says Selina Rennie of Google’s Agency Team. “They have become so entrenched in our lives that 43% of smartphone owners say that they would prefer to give up beer instead of internet access on their smartphone.”
“Unsurprisingly, using the smartphone is an incredibly popular time-killer with nearly 60% claiming to use their smartphones while waiting, for example, in a queue at a supermarket or for a bus,” adds Rennie. “Smartphone users are also becoming increasingly reliant on their devices for shopping assistance with 70% of smartphone consumers using their devices while shopping in-store.”
Here’s a look at where smartphones are being used:

It’s also worth noting what consumers are doing while they’re using their smartphones, whether that be while consuming other media or doing other things in general:

The study suggests that 82% notice ads on their smartphones, and half of them take action. “However, it is not only mobile ads prompting action,” notes Rennie. “Mobile search is often prompted by cross media exposure. Over two thirds of smartphone owners have carried out a search on their smartphone as a result of traditional media.”
A few other points of note (as determined by the study):
- Search is the most visited site from smartphones at 77% compared to 65% for social networking sites and 46% for retail sites.
- Mobile searchers want their information “quick and convenient”.
- The most common types of info users are looking for using search engines on smartphones are:
1. News (57%)
2. Dining/restaurant information (51%)
3. Navigational (51%)
4. Entertainment (49%)
5. Shopping (47%)
In case you’ve at all doubted the significance of mobile to local business, consider that 95% of smartphone users have looked for local information, according to the study. Out of the local information seekers, 77% have contacted a business by either calling or visiting, and 44% have purchased either online or at a physical store. Nearly all of them take action within a day.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/smartphone-users-google-study-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Facebook Tests Home Page Redesign

2011-06-14T02:44:00.000-07:00

Facebook is testing a new home page feature called “Happening Now,” which shows current status updates, likes and other FB activity from friends as they happen – a real-time feed, if you will, kind of like the Twitter timeline.
The main difference here is that it is not the main news feed, which should keep users from having a meltdown about the changes (as they have been known to do with past Facebook redesigns – or other redesigns for that matter).
Again, this is only a test at this point, and with very few people. According to Josh Constine at Inside Facebook, Facebook says the “test includes a small percentage of Facebook users, just a fraction of a percent”.
It’s located where the “Upcoming Events” section normally appears. When you click on an update from there, it brings up a window that includes the post in full. Here’s a screenshot from AllFacebook:

Constine brings up some pretty interesting points about Facebook’s home page bounce rate, and how this could keep users engaged and on the page more, as it makes more content more immediately available for consumption. I can’t imagine that Facebook’s bounce rate is too bad as is, but I could see where this would help in that area.
There’s no telling if this will actually become a feature beyond the test. I’d have to see it in action before I could make any judgments about it, and I’m not in the small fraction of a percent, unfortunately, but I’d be curious to hear what readers think about the idea of this becoming a main feature of Facebook.
Share your thoughts in the comments.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-redesign-happening-now-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

What Will We Be Using Facebook For In Five Years?

2011-06-14T02:43:00.000-07:00

Facebook is estimated to have somewhere around 700 million users art this point. It was only 500 million when the marketing campaign for The Social Network launched last year.
How long until it reaches a billion? Leave your guess in the comments.
Facebook is seeing a great deal of growth in countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Mexico, Argentina, India, Columbia, Egypt, Turkey, and the UK. Facebook has become the top place for communication, photos, games, charity, and news for a lot of people already, and we’ve not even come closer to seeing the limit of what will be done using the social network. One of the interesting things about Facebook’s growth is that the more things people are able to do with Facebook, the more it is likely to grow still. And the company hasn’t even had an IPO yet.
We’ve seen plenty of glimpses into the future of Facebook – things that are being done on a modest scale, which will likely blow up in time (e-commerce, payments, videos, travel, etc.) As Facebook’s growth continues, more businesses are going to feel comfortable using it as a platform of operation, or at least as a major component of it.
E-Commerce
We’ve already seen e-commerce on Facebook increase over the last year or so, with more businesses setting up storefronts on Facebook itself, but I expect this to grow much more significantly over the coming years. It will be like selling merchandise through websites used to be. At first, many businesses didn’t offer their actual products through their sites, but now, most do. This will likely be the case on Facebook too, and it might not even take as long.
Most businesses have already recognized the benefits of at least having a Facebook Page, and given the ease of setting one up, compared to creating (and maintaining) a website, it’s not hard to see why wider adoption came so quickly.
We recently ran an article by Krishna De, who discussed nine tips to increase your social commerce success:
1. Have an attractive image for your store
2. Make use of your profile photo
3. Add a customized tab on your Facebook page
4. Incentivize your Facebook fans
5. Mention your Facebook Store in a status update
6. Test the Facebook Store out yourself
7. Consider using Facebook Ads to build awareness
8. Mention the launch on your site
9. Encourage people who purchase to leave a recommendation
Identity
Identity is the key to everything Facebook does, and is a major component in every business, app, and website that associates itself with Facebook. It’s all about personalization, and last year when Facebook launched its Instant Personalization features and social plugins for websites, it truly took over the web. Today, you’d be hard pressed to find a credible website that doesn’t have some kind of Facebook integration, even if it’s as small as simply the use of a “like” button.
Despite privacy concerns from many users, they still continue to use Facebook, and using Facebook they can log into and interact with other sites and apps, without having to create a separate account. It ups the convenience factor significantly, and reduces friction. This will continue to be key for future endeavors, and every facet of Facebook usage, whether that be paying for goods online or off, playing games and keeping your records, getting personalized news, keeping personalized music playlists, or whatever else.
Facebook faces competition from companies like Google and Twitter (more so now with Twitter’s integration into Apple’s iOS 5) in the area of identity, but Facebook has a huge lead here, particularly in how it relates to personalization and actual friend-related data.
Of course, you still need an email address to have a Facebook account.
Payments
It is the identity aspect of Facebook that lends it to payments. With Facebook Credits, the social network has its own currency, which one can easily envision becoming a widely adopted and acceptable form of payment given the rise of innovation in the mobile payments space for the physical world, the fact that so many sites are integrated with Facebook in the online world, and the fact that every business already wants you to “like us on Facebook”.
Imagine going to McDonald’s or Sears, and tapping your phone on a device at the register to pay with your Facebook Credits.
By the way, Facebook Credits will reportedly work with iTunes apps too.
Travel
There are 107 apps currently on Facebook listed under “Travel,” and that’s just internal Facebook apps – apps you access while on Facebook itself. That doesn’t include the Facebook integration Travel sites all over the web are employing. Look at what Delta Airlines is doing, for example. Its Ticket Counter app lets users check in online and access their boarding pass on Facebook within 24 hours of their departure. It also lets you check flight status, view trip details, and view skymiles.
Travel is just one aspect of life where the ubiquitousness of Facebook comes in handy, as those catering to that aspect (like Delta) are able to take advantage of your Facebook ID to provide you with a helpful service.

Given Microsoft and Facebook’s relationship, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more Facebook and Bing Travel integrations over time either.
Search
Speaking of Bing, and its partnership with Facebook, don’t be surprised to see Facebook become a much bigger part of the search market picture. Facebook has data that search engines crave already. Personalization is the name of the game, and nothing on the web can come close to delivering the kind of personalized experience Facebook can to those that use it.
We’ve talked at length about Facebook’s potential in search in the past, so I’m not going to go on and on about it here. I’ll simply give you a link or two. But suffice it to say, Facebook is very relevant to search, and search is very relevant to Facebook. It will be even more so, as more businesses and people flock to the social network.
Advertising
Businesses are already recognizing how powerful Facebook ads can be. I expect Facebook Ads to continue to grow as a more popular place for companies to advertise. The targeting based on all of the data Facebook has about users is simply too great.

Just this week, MerchantCircle put out results of a survey finding that 22% of local merchants have used Facebook ads, and two-thirds of them intend to do so again. That’s as they stand now. You have to consider that Facebook is going to continue to make new features available over time, and find ways to make ads even more attractive to advertisers. It’s highly unlikely that they think their work is done, and that they’re not going to improve.
That goes for Facebook as a whole, by the way. There’s no telling what Facebook and its pool of top engineering talent will come up with in time, that nobody’s even considered yet. Look at everything Google’s done in the last decade. Who knows what Facebook will have its hands in another ten years. By the way, much of that top talent has come from Google.
Entertainment
Obviously games are already an enormous part of Facebook use for a lot of people. One can’t help but wonder if it has even played a part in the cancellation of certain soap operas. Movies and music may be poised to make up an even greater part of the puzzle as well.
As you may know, Warner Bros. has already been testing Facebook movie rentals. You go to a fan page for a movie, and then, you can rent the movie from right there. It’s not at all hard to imagine this becoming commonplace in the industry.
Facebook has also been talking with various music services, according to reports. The product of these talks is rumored to be a tab/widget that would display a user’s most-played songs and provide an easy way for friends to hear them. People are already sharing music on Facebook all the time, whether that be through a YouTube video, a SoundCloud file, or other formats, and bands are already connecting with fans through their Pages.
Musicians are even charging Facebook credits for on-demand concert streams.
News
People are already getting a lot of their news from Facebook, and Facebook has been placing more emphasis on this side of things itself. If you’re doing all of these other things with your Facebook account, it only makes sense that you would get at least some of your news through this venue as well, by “liking” publications’ Pages, which share links and notes about stories, and through posts that Friends find worth passing on (including through Facebook’s social plugins – like the “like” button or the newer “send” button).
A couple months ago, Facebook announced the launch of new journalist resources and a series of events for journalists to come together and find new ways to better harness the social network for their craft. Of course Facebook has played a significant role in creating the news as well (see recent revolutions).

Acquisitions
Looking at Facebook’s list of recent acquisitions can give us hints as to what the company might be up to, though as they are often geared toward talent rather than product, we can only speculate until we see results. Recent acquisitions from Facebook include:
- Drop.io (file hosting and sharing)
- Rel8tion (mobile advertising)
- Beluga (group messaging)
- Snaptu (mobile app development)
- DayTurn (infographics)
- Sofa (mac apps)
What Will We be Using Facebook For in Five Years?
This is where I’d like to call upon feedback from our readers. I’m sure I’ve barely scraped the surface of what the future truly holds for this increasingly powerful company. I want to hear some ideas from you about what you think we’re in for. So, I ask you: what will people be using Facebook for five years from now, that they aren’t already using it for? What would you like to see Facebook do in the future that it doesn’t already do? What would you like to see it stop doing?

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-future-2011-06
About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Twitter and iPhone: A Match Made In Social Media Heaven

2011-06-08T03:58:00.000-07:00

As Chris discussed during his extensive coverage of Apple’s WWDC segment, one of the bigger announcements from their session had to do with the integration of Twitter with iOS 5, the newest version of the iPhone operating system. To some, this particular marriage of the popular social media service and the mobile device that’s synonymous with mobile communications could very well change the way mobile applications are developed, especially for the iPhone environment.
Over at ReadAndWriteWeb, there’s a good breakdown of what the partnership could mean, and if the following idea is close to being accurate — “iOS apps will look like, feel like, read from and publish to Twitter like never before. And they’ll do that in many cases instead of using Facebook” — the idea of Twitter and Apple ruling the applications world may not be that far-fetched, regardless of how popular the Android environment is.
Apparently, the Twitter integration introduces features to iOS 5 that will be similar to Facebook’s mobile capabilities. In fact, as pointed out in the RWW post, thanks to the partnership with the iPhone, Twitter essentially beat Facebook to the punch of making “everything social.” Granted, Facebook is still one of the more popular applications for the iPhone, laying the groundwork for a potential conflict. It’s doubtful Facebook’s developers would want to integrate Twitter features when both services are competing for social media supremacy.
The Twitter/iOS 5 integration gives Twitter an advantage, especially in the iPhone environment. Would Facebook want to assist in the process of lessening its own impact in the mobile device arena?
For those who are wondering about how the Twitter layer in iOS 5 would work, Jason Costa, the head of Twitter Developer Relations, posted a primer at the Google Groups community for Twitter Development Talk. Costa’s post sheds some light on the partnership and what iPhone app users can expect going forward:

There is single sign-on, which allows you to retrieve a user’s identity, avatar, and other profile data. There’s also a frictionless core signing service, allowing you to make and sign any call to the Twitter API. There is follow graph synchronization, which enables you to bootstrap a user’s social graph for your app. Furthermore, there is the tweet sheet feature, giving your app distribution and reach across Twitter.

The last point is important because it basically says applications will feature a “post to Twitter” feature, letting your followers know what you’re doing, and, considering how important location data is treated, where you are doing it.
The RWW post discusses a potential “Twitter versus Facebook” scenario, mentioning that while it was Facebook doing all the talking about social integration in the mobile device industry, Twitter actually formed the partnership necessary to reach that goal. Considering just how frequently iPhone owners download and use applications, it’s easy to see why Twitter is receiving such a rosy outlook:

Of course, there’s the the fact that Facebook is still an incredibly popular application, especially for the iPhone. Could that reduce the impact of the Twitter/iOS 5 partnership, especially if Facebook resists adding Twitter features?
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.
source:http://www.webpronews.com/twitter-and-iphone-a-match-made-in-social-media-heaven-2011-06

SEO Reports in Google Analytics

2011-06-08T03:57:00.000-07:00

Google announced the launch of a limited pilot for SEO reports in Google Analytics, which are based on search queries data from Webmaster Tools.
“Webmasters have long been asking for better integration between Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics,” Google says on the Webmaster Central Blog.
The SEO reports also take advantage of Google Analytics’ filtering and visualization capabilities for deeper analysis, Google says. “For example, you can filter for queries that had more than 100 clicks and see a chart for how much each of those queries contributed to your overall clicks from top queries.”

Search queries data includes:

Queries: The total number of search queries that returned pages from your site results over the given period. (These numbers can be rounded, and may not be exact.)
Query: A list of the top search queries that returned pages from your site.
Impressions: The number of times pages from your site were viewed in search results, and the percentage increase/decrease in the daily average impressions compared to the previous period. (The number of days per period defaults to 30, but you can change it at any time.)
Clicks: The number of times your site’s listing was clicked in search results for a particular query, and the percentage increase/decrease in the average daily clicks compared to the previous period.
CTR (clickthrough rate): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click to your site, and the increase/decrease in the daily average CTR compared to the previous period.
Avg. position: The average position of your site on the search results page for that query, and the change compared to the previous period. Green indicates that your site’s average position is improving.To calculate average position, we take into account the ranking of your site for a particular query (for example, if a query returns your site as the #1 and #2 result, then the average position would be 1.5).

Webmasters can use the search queries data to review the query list for expected keywords and compare impressions and clickthrough rates. It can also be helpful for keyword ideas for paid search campaigns.
“We hope this will be the first of many ways to surface Webmaster Tools data in Google Analytics to give you a more thorough picture of your site’s performance,” said Trevor Claiborne of the Google Analytics Team. “We’re looking forward to working with members of the pilot to help us identify the best ways to make this happen.”
If you’re both a Webmaster Tools verified site owner and a Google Analytics admin, you can sign up for the pilot here. Each individual user must sign up for the pilot if they want access to the new reports.
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237
source:http://www.webpronews.com/seo-reports-google-analytics-2011-06

Ranking Google Ranking Factors By Importance

2011-06-08T03:55:00.000-07:00

Facebook Traffic Vs. Website Traffic

2011-06-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

It’s clear that many sites are using Facebook for marketing purposes. The social network has given businesses many new ways to communicate, brand, engage, and more. In fact, recognized search expert Bruce Clay called the popular Facebook “Like” metric the new link.

With all the value that Facebook is creating, is it safe to say that it is becoming more valuable than a brand’s own website? Let us know your thoughts.
A recent study from Compete addressed this issue in part by comparing the extent to which consumers visited the Facebook pages of certain brands to how often they visited each brand’s own website. Among the 40+ brands that were analyzed, Walmart, State Farm Insurance, and BMW had the most unique visits to their Facebook pages.

But, in terms of comparing the traffic, iTunes’ Facebook page received more traffic than its domain did. Lincoln Merrihew, Managing Director at Compete, told us that Apple is using its iTunes Facebook page as a “storefront.” Going forward, he believes that more brands will use Facebook in this same way.

So, what does this information mean? According to Merrihew, brands should definitely pay attention to Facebook, if they aren’t already. However, he also says that they need to consider the quality of the traffic. When brands drive people to their Facebook page, are the consumers looking to make a purchase, or are they just there to look around?
In other words, he believes businesses need to have clear goals for what they want their Facebook pages to accomplish. The iTunes page, for example, is set up like a store for users to download music. Progressive Insurance, on the other hand, has a Facebook page for its spokesperson Flo that is more for engagement and relationship building.
“Everyone wants to be on Facebook, [and] everyone wants to use it, but then [it's] understanding the quality of what you’re getting,” said Merrihew.
He also said that, as brands establish their strategy, they should consider if their customers are more comfortable on Facebook or on their website. Once this is figured out, a business can determine where it should be focusing its traffic efforts.
Social media strategist Sally Falkow recently wrote about this issue and pointed out that while social channels would likely be a leader in online business communications in the future, they still would need to be connected to a website. She wrote, “So it’s not that you no longer need a website, it’s just that if you don’t integrate social features and connect your social content with your corporate website it will become irrelevant.”
So, even though opinions are probably divided on this issue, it is something that businesses need to think about and plan for in regards to the future.

About Abby Johnson
Abby Johnson is a reporter for WebProNews.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-traffic-vs-website-traffic-2011-05

Twitter Launches “Follow” Button

2011-06-03T02:14:00.000-07:00

Twitter has just launched a “follow” button for websites, which allow Twitter users to follow accounts right from the sites themselves.
“For publishers and brands, adding the Follow Button to your website and using Twitter to stay connected with your audience is a powerful combination,” says Twitter’s Brian Ellin. “People who follow your account are much more likely to retweet and engage with your Tweets, and to repeatedly visit your website.”
Interestingly, you can’t “unfollow” the brand with the button once you’re following it, like you can “unlike” a Facebook “like” from the button on a piece of content. Granted, when “liking” a brand (rather than a piece of content) on Facebook, it operates basically the same way.
Once you’re following the brand, the button will show you a box of recent Twitter activity from the brand, like so:

Twitter engineer Ryan Sarver tweeted:

@rsarver
Ryan SarverAlong with the Follow Button, we shipped JS Events for all of our buttons and Web Intents. Read more here: http://t.co/oJOFUvm 9 minutes ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto

Twitter has launched the follow button with 50 partner sites. Among these are: Aol, Justin Bieber, CBS News, Fox News, WordPress.com, and Sports Illustrated.
The button should help brands increase their Twitter follow count, as it, like the Facebook “like” button will become a universally recognizable symbol, no doubt, and users will realize that they can easily follow you on Twitter without leaving the page they’re on, which creates less friction in the process. Sounds like a win for brands to me.

About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/twitter-launches-follow-button-2011-05

Facebook for BlackBerry Gets New Features

2011-06-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

RIM announced today that Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones has some new features. These come in the third beta release.
New features include Wi-Fi support, the ability to delete comments and posts, and a new prompt that appears before you delete a message. These have all been heavily requested, according to the company.
It’s not hard to see why the Wi-Fi would be heavily requested. Obviously it means staying connected in more places. Users will have to have a BlackBerry data plan with web browsing to receive push notifications while connected on Wi-Fi.
The comment/post deletion gives users more control, and clearly more people than ever are doing a great deal of their social networking from their mobile devices. “If you don’t like what someone has posted on your Wall, or if you want to remove a comment you’ve posted on a friend’s wall, or even get rid of a status update that you’ve published, you can simply choose to delete it,” says RIM Communication Manager Kirsty Cochrane.

“Previously, when you deleted a Facebook message from the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app, it was also permanently deleted from your Facebook account,” she adds. “You can now select whether you want to delete a message from the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphone application or from your Facebook account, or both.”
The latest beta version of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones can be downloaded by members of the BlackBerry Beta Zone.

About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-blackberry-2011-06

Twitter’s Photo Feature and Third-Party Apps

2011-06-03T02:04:00.001-07:00

As you may know, Twitter announced a partnership with PhotoBucket and the ability for Twitter users to upload photos and attach them to tweets right from Twtiter.com. The functionality will also roll out to Twitter’s mobile apps.
This leaves questions about what will become of services like TwitPic and Yfrog, which are essentially designed to serve this purpose. TwitPic does cater to videos as well, but how long until Twitter also caters to videos. They do seem to be competing with Facebook more and more, and the addition of video uploads would seem like an obvious addition for the future, especially in light of the photo announcement.
At the All Things Digital D9 conference today, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said, “We have over 600,000 of these developers. Anything we do is going to have some overlap with what they do. What we will try to do as a company is signal where we’re going so we can give you room to move up the value chain. Everyone has to understand we’re going to innovate.”
Apparently they haven’t been signaling very well so far, as TwitPic’s founder told Mashable, “We had no idea Twitter was building a photo feature. Communication between developers and Twitter has never been very clear and the relationships between Twitter and its developers has changed a lot since the Chirp conference last year. A more clear feature roadmap and better communication would have been much appreciated by all their developers.”
Dan Frommer at BusinessInsider points to a Twitter developer Google group, where Twitter’s Arnaud Meunier says:
Uploading photos to Twitter is currently available on the twitter.com desktop version, and its access is initially limited to a very small number of users. In the next couple of weeks, as we progressively ramp up the number of users who have access to the feature, we’ll provide you with more details about how you can use the “Tweet-with-photo” API.
For now, the only change you’ll notice on the API side is a new “media” entity in the status object. We encourage you to support rendering, and to help you with that, we just revamped the Tweet Entities documentation page, describing in detail how you can use this structured data: http://dev.twitter.com/pages/tweet_entities
Note that we also updated our API Terms of Service [1] and our Display Guidelines [2] to include this new feature.
As ever, if you have questions about the new media entity or our ToS changes, let us know on the list or through @twitterapi.
In other words, why Twitter’s new feature might not be the best thing in the world for the current models of TwitPic and YFrog, it looks like it will create some interesting opportunities for third-party apps in general.

@rno
Arnaud MeunierNew Photo upload feature: What’s new & coming on the API side http://t.co/Ql1MOBz 2 hours ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto

@rno
Arnaud MeunierNote the first Public Tweets with Photo will be available by the end of the week. But you can check the markup here: http://t.co/rUxp3Ki 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Twitter will continue to support existing third-party photo sharing, so it’s not like Twitter is just kicking the TwitPics and the YFrogs out of the club. It’s more just a matter of whether or not people will continue to use them when Twitter has a native feature that does essentially the same thing.

About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237
Source: http://www.webpronews.com/twitters-photo-feature-and-third-party-apps-2011-06

Google Simplifies Site Search Ownership Transfers

2011-06-03T01:55:00.000-07:00

Google has made it easier for Google Site Search users to transfer ownership to different users, after numerous requests to do so. Software engineer Yong Zhu explains on the Google Custom Search blog:
For instance, you may have created, developed and customized your website’s search experience under your Google account, but want the long-term management of the search engine to be performed by someone else. In the past, you would have been required to manually export the configuration, import it into a new Site Search instance and then cancel the old instance.
Now, you can very easily transfer the ownership of a Site Search engine to a new user by simply specifying a different Google account email address in the Business Settings tab in the control panel.

After a user provides their account info for the new admin, a new site search engine is actually created, using the same configuration as the current site search engine. Additionally, the new engine will be officially owned and able to be administered by the new owner.
Google says any unused query quota is transferred to the new site search engine, which will show the transfer history in the business settings in the control panel. Users can still continue to use the old engine, but ads may be displayed alongside search results, and XML access is disabled.
Google also makes a couple of recommendations for new owners after the transfer takes place: review and update admin details in the business settings (license renewal notifications are sent to the email address provided), and edit the search box code on your content pages where Google Site Search is integrated, in order to replace the old search engine ID with the new one.

About Chris Crum
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/google-site-search-transfer-2011-06

The State of Twitter Photo Sharing

2011-06-03T01:53:00.000-07:00

The big news hit yesterday that Twitter will be rolling out its own native image service, powered by PhotoBucket. Users will be able to upload photos and attach them directly to tweets without using one of the many third-party applications that have performed this service for some time now.
Twitter is all about a formal and uniform experience. Earlier this year, they cracked down on third-party clients that serve to “mimic” the functionality of the native Twitter app by amending their API terms of service. This new photo sharing move enforces that idea, that Twitter wants to provide everything you need to fully enjoy the Twitter experience.
Social media monitoring company Sysomos has just released some stats on their blog that detail the currents state of image sharing on Twitter. They looked at every tweet from May 30th and found that Twitpic is the top image hosting service among users, followed by yfrog and Lockerz.

So who needs to be worried? Obviously Twitpic and yfrog, both with substantial shares of the image hosting duties currently. It’s possible the services like Instagram may stay relatively unharmed or even grow when Twitter’s PhotoBucket feature rolls out. Instagram has found a niche with its quick photo effects similar to Hipstamatic.
There’s really no telling how popular these photo sharing services will remain when Twitter’s native function is fully up and running. Will they have to adapt and add new features that Twitter’s photo sharing may not provide?
It’s important to note that photo sharing on Twitter is still a very small percentage of the total Twitter activity – 1.25% according to Sysomos.

About Josh Wolford
Josh Wolford is a staff writer for WebProNews. He likes football, French New Wave cinema, and bacon. @joshgwolf on Twitter
Source: http://www.webpronews.com/the-state-of-twitter-photo-sharing-2011-06

Measuring Social Media Effectiveness May Have Just Gotten Easier

2011-05-29T23:11:00.003-07:00

Everyone knows that social media provides some great opportunities for marketing, but measurement issues continue to plague businesses. You know content is being shared, but you don't know how people who its being shared with are responding to it.

One of the metrics is its Audience Index, which lets publishers understand and compare their social audiences against 850,000 other sites (and soon against categories), find out what types of influencers your site attracts, and find out how well you connect with influencers, listeners, and engaged customers.

The other metric might be even more useful. That would be "Social Reach".

"We recently surveyed publishers (ours and others) and found that over 60% wanted (and were missing) social referral analytics," ShareThis explains on the company blog. "Social Reach measures the true value of shared media across the web by looking at outbound sharing and inbound social traffic and, in the process, gives proper credit to the listener/responder of a share as much as the original influencer/sharer. Publishers can now get a more accurate measurement of how a piece of content circulates around the Web after it’s been shared across any service, rather than just the simple number of shares counted by a single service like Facebook."

While Facebook may get more shares from ShareThis, email appears to be more effective, as people are more likely to click on an emailed link (31 percent out of the 34 percent, compared with 36 percent out of FB's 44 percent).

Either way, the metrics could prove to be very useful for publishers looking at optimizing their social media marketing strategies.

Facebook And Twitter Driving Referral Traffic

2011-05-29T23:11:00.001-07:00

Online video viewing grew across all media categories in the second quarter with unique viewers increasing on average 2.8 percent per month, and consumers watched 11 percent more videos-month-over-month compared to the first quarter, according to a new report from Brightcove and TubeMogul.

Video consumption on newspaper sites grew the most over this period, surging to 65 percent more views than the previous quarter due to the coverage focused on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Referral traffic for online video from Facebook and Twitter is growing faster than from traditional search engines. At current growth rates, Facebook will surpass Yahoo within the year to be the second only to Google for video referral traffic.

While Facebook and Twitter are attracting more viewers, they are also leading to the highest levels of engagement for video on television network and music entertainment websites.

Consumers watched more minutes per view on official media websites versus online destinations with syndicated video content.

Other highlights from the report include:

*Nearly 60 percent of brand managers plan to invest more in online video in the next 12 months.

*More than 65 percent of brand managers indicate that the primary focus of their online video initiatives is awareness, followed by lead generation (21 percent) and e-commerce (12 percent).

*70 percent of respondents said they plan to add mobile video to their marketing mix in the next 12 months.

*Consumers who find marketing and e-commerce video via Facebook and Twitter have the longest viewing times (1:24 minutes and 1:18 minutes respectively), while traffic originating from Yahoo! search (0:52 minutes) and display ads (0:52 minutes) tied for shortest.

By Mike Sachoff

Twitter Intros Redesign, Expands Beyond 140 Characters

2011-05-29T23:10:00.003-07:00

Twitter has introduced a new redesign of Twitter.com with a two-pane format aimed at providing a richer user experience, and you can easily tell by looking at it that it does just that.

"Twitter has always been about getting a lot in a little," writes CEO Evan Williams. "The constraint of 140 characters drives conciseness and lets you quickly discover and share what's happening. Yet, we've learned something since starting Twitter—life doesn't always fit into 140 characters or less."

Twitter has partnered with Dailybooth, DeviantArt, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, Twitvid, USTREAM, Vimeo, Yfrog, and YouTube to make tweeted content more useful directly from Twitter.com itself. Users will have less reason to click away from the site.

The first pane is essentially the single pane from today's Twitter - the timeline. In the second pane, referred to as the "details pane", users will see additional info related to the author or subject of a tweet, when clicked. This pane will also display things like @replies, other tweets from that user, maps, videos, photos, etc. Users can click the @username to see profiles from the same page.

The changes will be rolling out over the next several weeks as a preview. During this period, users will be able to switch back and forth between the new design and the old one, though frankly I can't see any advantage to using the old one.

Redesigns typically get some amount of user backlash, and this will be probably fall in line with that tradition, but this particular redesign has some advantages. For one, many Twitter users are already using apps rather than Twitter.com anyway. Secondly, Twitter has left a lot of people wondering what the point of the service is. This has been a problem since it launched. This will help people understand its value more.

Google Launches 2-Step Verification for Google Apps

2011-05-29T23:10:00.001-07:00

Google has introduced a more secure sign-in capability for Google Apps accounts with two-step verification. The company says this "significantly increases the security of the cloud."
"Two-step verification is easy to set up, manage and use," says Google Apps Director of Security Eran Feigenbaum. "When enabled by an administrator, it requires two means of identification to sign in to a Google Apps account, something you know: a password, and something you have: a mobile phone. It doesn’t require any special tokens or devices. After entering your password, a verification code is sent to your mobile phone via SMS, voice calls, or generated on an application you can install on your Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device. This makes it much more likely that you’re the only one accessing your data: even if someone has stolen your password, they'll need more than that to access your account. You can also indicate when you're using a computer you trust and don't want to be asked for a verification code from that machine in the future."

Admins for Google Apps Premier, Education, and Government Editions can activate two-step verification from the English version of the Admin Control Panel now. Standard Edition users will get it in the coming months. Google says it will offer it to individual Google users in the coming months.

Google is also open sourcing its mobile authentication app, so companies can customize it.

By Chris Crum - webpronews

Twitter To Release Free Analytics Tool This Year

2011-05-29T23:09:00.003-07:00

People who use Twitter for business purposes should soon get access to a valuable flow of information. A Twitter employee indicated this week that Twitter is going to release a real-time analytics dashboard sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

An important - and surprising - point: the product will be free. Which is great news for business owners and marketers, if a little odd since this would be an easy way for Twitter to earn money.

Otherwise, Justin Kistner reported after speaking to business development specialist Ross Hoffman at the Sports Marketing 2.0 Summit, "Like their releases of ads and the new UI, this will likely start as a beta release and have a phased roll out. Because the conference was a sports marketing conference, Ross said it would be available to that audience, but presumably it will be available to all users."

Also, "The product will leverage algorithms similar to the Twitter Resonance concept in order to show users which tweets are spreading, who is influential in their network, and more. The emphasis is on real time in order to help users make adjustments on the fly to their tactics."

This development could cause professionals to start spending a lot more time on Twitter, and maybe help the site gain additional fans.

Let's just hope Twitter is able to remain in working order if a lot more information starts flying around, considering that there have been 12 posts on the Twitter Status blog in the last month alone.

By Doug Caverly , WebProNews.

Google Launches Analytics Dashboard

2011-05-29T23:09:00.001-07:00

Google has launched the Google Analytics Status Dashboard, which lets users check on the current status of components in Google Analytics, such as Data Collection, Web Report, and the GData API.

This means you can check on whether data from sites are being collected by Google Analytics servers correctly, whether users can view the reports correctly when they sign in to their accounts, and whether the APIs are working properly.

The dashboard is not unlike the Google Apps Dashboard.

"The Google Analytics Status Dashboard represents an additional layer of transparency that we believe will benefit all Google Analytics users, from Fortune 500 companies to personal websites," says Yi Wang of the Google Analytics product team. "The Status Dashboard is the best place to check for service availability of Google Analytics anywhere in the world."

Users can get updates via RSS if they choose.

By Chris Crum - WebProNews

Twitter Followers & Facebook Fans: Which Ones Are More Profitable?

2011-05-29T23:08:00.003-07:00

If you wandered over to eMarketer last week, you probably noticed their post entitled “Are Twitter Followers Better Than Facebook Fans?” Fascinating stuff! Just by reading that post, you can find out which Social Network you should focus on, right? Wrong.

Fans VS Followers

In the article, eMarketer noted that Twitter followers were 37% more likely to make a purchase, compared to 27% of email subscribers and 17% of Facebook fans. It also included some helpful stats, which indicated Twitter followers were 33% more likely to recommend a brand they follow on Twitter while emails subscribers were only 24% likely to do so and 21% of Facebook fans were willing to recommend the companies they follow.

This may lead you to believe that, if you want sales and recommendations, you should focus on Twitter. I’d caution you to slow down and look at things objectively.

Analyzing the Numbers

We all know that different segments do things differently. With this study, we’re not 100% sure what industries were covered. We also need to keep in mind that Twitter and Facebook only cover a small segment of Internet users.

Twitter, for instance, has more than 105 million users, not all of these are human, used regularly, or are unique (many users have multiple accounts). Facebook has over 500 million users. Again, not all of them are used, human, or unique. The Internet has an estimated 1,966,514,816 users, which is only approximately 28.7% of the world’s population.

With statistics like these, it’s easy to put this information into perspective. Does it mean these two social platforms should be ignored? Absolutely not. It’s simply means you need to be cautious about your approach.

The Ultimate Solution

If you really want to find out what target audiences are more likely to do, ask them! Don’t just limit yourself to Facebook and Twitter either. There are thousands of social media sites out there. Remember, it isn’t just the number of users, but the quality of the connections and conversions that will make your business profitable.

Facebook Reveals Interesting Info About People Who "Like" Content

2011-05-29T23:08:00.001-07:00

Facebook posted a note sharing some insights into who are the biggest "likers" of content on Facebook, and how engaged they are compared to other Facebook users.

"People who click the Facebook Like button are more engaged, active and connected than the average Facebook user," Facebook says. "The average 'liker' has 2.4x the amount of friends than that of a typical Facebook user. They are also more interested in exploring content they discover on Facebook -- they click on 5.3x more links to external sites than the typical Facebook user."

"As publishers work to identify the best ways to reach a younger, 'always on' audience, we’ve found that the average 'liker' on a news site is 34, compared to the median age of a newspaper subscriber which is approximately 54 years old, as reported by the Newspaper Association of America," says Facebook.

Facebook's advice for reaching these people is to implement its various social plugins and publish interesting content to Facebook yourself. Meanwhile the company continues to partner with sites for deeper integration and instant personalization. They recently launched integrations with Rotten Tomatoes and Scribd. A partnership with Skype is expected.

The company announced this week that 2 million sites have added social plugins since they were launched five months ago. Of course, these days, it's hard for publishers to justify not having Facebook like or share buttons of some kind, particularly now that they're being directly integrated with Facebook search.

Advertisers are really going to benefit from all of this liking too, as the more information Facebook users get in their profiles, the better ads can be targeted toward them.

COO Sheryl Sandberg says they're not working on an ad network "right now", but you could imagine what it would be like if they did. They probably will eventually. It's just speculation, but why wouldn't they?

About the author:
BY Chris Crum - WebProNews

Google Makes URL Shortener Available at Goo.gl

2011-05-29T23:07:00.001-07:00

Google URL Shortener Provides Analytics

oogle has had its own URL shortener for some time. It just didn't make it available for general use. It was always attached to various Google products. That changes now, as Google has given it is own site at goo.gl. It's called simply, Google URL Shortener.

"We don’t intend to overload goo.gl with features, but we do want it to be the stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the web," says Google software engineer Muthu Muthusrinivasan.

"There are many shorteners out there with great features, so some people may wonder whether the world really needs yet another. As we said late last year, we built goo.gl with a focus on quality. With goo.gl, every time you shorten a URL, you know it will work, it will work fast, and it will keep working. You also know that when you click a goo.gl shortened URL, you’re protected against malware, phishing and spam using the same industry-leading technology we use in search and other products."

Google says that since the service was first launched, they have invested in stability, security, and speed.

As pictured above, the service keeps track of the URLs you shorten, providing both versions of the URL, when it was created, the number of clicks its gotten, and other analytics.

About the author:
Chris Crum - WebProNews

Twitter Celebrates Hiring Of 300th Full-Time Employee

2011-05-26T23:16:00.003-07:00

Any Twitter historians out there may want to mark today on their calendars as a milestone of sorts. This afternoon, the company announced that it's hired its 300th full-time employee.

To provide a rough timeline documenting Twitter's growth: it supposedly had 22 employees at the start of 2009, 110 at the start of 2010, 140 as of February 14th, and 205 as of June 4th.

Please note that we emphasize the words "rough" and "supposedly" here - there's been some confusion about the full-time/part-time split - but the company's execs have in any event allowed themselves to be quoted on these numbers.

Now it seems certain that Twitter's hit the 300-employee mark, too, and judging from the call for people to "JoinTheFlock," the company's still hiring.

These details may signal that Twitter's quite healthy and probably far from needing another round of funding. Or they could hint that it's healthy and knows it has more cash on the way.

Feel free to place your bets in the comments section. Regardless, things are looking good for Twitter right now.

Source : webpronews.com

Simple and best SEO techniques

2011-05-26T23:16:00.001-07:00

Content is king, and Google needs backlinks to verify the quality of the website. After all, as clever as Google is, nobody could expect a machine to understand whether the content is correct or not.

Also I believe backlinks don't have much affect straight away, this way Google can aviod rewarding websites they pay for backlinks. So my advice would be to find a website that will provide a link that will last for some time, this is why relevant links are so valuable!

Try and do everything right, at the start of your project and start as you mean to go on. It's not necessarily a case of doing a lot, just do it correctly. I've worked on so many projects where SEO is a second thought and "just get it up there" is the word of the day and as a designer I can make sure that all the code and structure is clean and correct but this is only one part of the overall picture.

* Generate good relevant content
* Keep your articles and content semantic (so use Headings, lists, titles etc)
* Fill in the Meta content
* Get the links flowing (with or without keywords), both internally and externally. (This covers everything from twitter to forums, Press releases to site directories, be proud of your content and post links where relevant traffic will come from.)
* Get a Google sitemap and use it
* Install and use Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools
* Use the Firefox Rank Checker plugin to follow how well you're doing for the keywords you've selected, and make changes where you need

I'm a big believer in keeping things simple. A little goes a long way!

Top Reasons Why You Might Want to Redesign Your Website

2011-05-26T23:15:00.001-07:00

Have you ever thought about website redesigning? If so, you have come to the right place. Here, through this informative article, we will take a much closer look at some of the reasons that you may want to get a complete website redesign. We will also take a closer look at some of the things that redesigning your website can do for you. Read on to find out more.

Making Your Website Look More Attractive

Have you made yourself a website just for the sake of having a website? Did you just make a dinky website on your own since you have no experience in website designing? If so, then chances are that you may want to redesign your website. If you have a business, you want to get the best results. The key to your success may be how appealing your website looks. A website redesign can help your business a whole lot in the long run.

Organization Can Make All The Difference

One of the main reasons that you may want to consider getting a website redesign is because your website is currently unorganized. Chances are that there is information scattered throughout your entire website, without any rhyme or reason. If this is the case, then chances are that people may not understand your website when they do decide to visit it. By deciding to redesign your website, you could be making a huge difference in the success of your website.

Develop the Right Style For Your Website

There is no doubt that style can be very important for your website. Although there are certain things which you would love to see on your website, there are other things that you need to take into consideration when you go through website designing. This includes, what is the most suitable for your business, as well as what people are interested in seeing. If you decide to get your website redesigned, you will be able to have a website developed for the style which you are looking for. This can lead to the overall success of your website.

Promote Your Website

One of the main keys to your overall company success is website promotion. There are a number of different ways to increase your website promotion, some of which include search engine optimization, email campaigns, directories, and other websites. Of course, before you can experience the best website promotion, you need to make sure that your website is as professional and appealing as it can be. In order to have the most successful website promotion, you should definitely consider a new look for your website.

Get Better Website Optimization For Your Website

Chances are that you probably have your website listed in search engine databases. If so, you probably know the way that search engines work is through website optimization. This is when websites are arranged according to how well keywords match up to what a person is looking for, through keywords. In order to increase the search engine optimization for your website, some new website designing needs to be done. The best keywords will be chosen, to make your website more effective in search engines. For the best search engine optimization strategies and to increase website optimization, you should definitely consider having your website redesigned.

Change the Wording to Make it More Appealing

Are you unsure of whether or not the information on your website sounds appealing enough? Do you also want to make sure that people who view your website can easily understand it? These are both very good reasons to consider website redesigning. The way that your website is worded can make a huge deal to someone that is browsing through it. Making sure that it sounds as appealing as it possibly can be very important to your success, as well as your website optimization.

What Good Graphics Can Do For You

One of the main things which people want to see when they visit a website is graphics. There are a number of different things that graphic design services can do for your website.

* It can make your overall website look more appealing to anyone who visits it.
* Graphic designs can also add to the style of your website.
* If you have a company website, you may find that your overall success will be increased through graphic design.

Make Sure That Your Website is Easy to Use

One of the main things that people hate about websites is when they are not easy to use. When people use a website that has confusing navigation, chances are that they will not use the website again because they will get frustrated with it. Website redesigning can help you a lot when it comes to making your website easy to use. An understandable website can lead to the overall success of your business, by increasing the sales that you get.

Develop a More Professional Looking Website

One of the most important things that there is to know about website design is the fact that a website is the soul to your company. If you have a company which is very professional, chances are that you will also want your companyâ€™s website to be very professional as well.

If a person finds that your website does not seem professional or legitimate enough, they will most likely avoid using your services. If you decide to get your website redesigned, you will feel rest assured to know that your website is as professional-looking as it should be.

Match Your Competition

The truth is that industries are constantly changing. If your website is older, chances are that the content that can be found on it may be out of date. In order to match your competition, you should have a website that is just as good as your competitors. Having your website redesigned can be extremely successful when it comes to this.

Why Is Website Redesign So Beneficial?

* The appearance of your website will be improved through graphics.
* Your website promotion will be more successful.
* Website optimization will be increased.
* The overall success of your company will be increased, through encouraged sales or use of services.

About the Author: Rajesh V. Tavakari, Senior SEO of Website-Promotion-Ranking-Services.com

Rules to Create Logo Design

2011-05-26T23:14:00.003-07:00

A logo is a simple representative graphic that allows people to remember with ease who you or your company is – That is its purpose. It should never be underestimated, it does create that memorable first impression, and even if this may not be fair, most people are pretty fickle and will base their initial impression on it – That is its importance. You have to get the logo design perfect first time and every-time.
The art of creating logos takes an enormous amounts of work, even if it at a first glance it may not look that way; creating logos implies talent and creativity but there are some rules to follow in the logo designs fascinating process. In this article, we will take a look at some of them:
Rules for Logo Design
1. Less Colors & Fonts
To establish reliable logo design rules, statisticians and designers analyzed an astonishing number of logos. Their statistics revealed: The majority of logos use no more than three colors and fonts. The use of too many fonts in addition with a great number of nuances makes if difficult to accomplish the logos initial purpose… to be retain-able.
2. Use Regular Fonts
The statistics revealed another interesting fact: numerous logos from large and popular companies use common fonts such as Arial, Times New Romans, and Helvetica.
3. Simple shapes put you in a good shape!
It is highly recommended to draw simple shapes in the process of creating logos. Have a look at the logos below, two of them respect this rule and one that doesn’t.
4. Avoid Highlights, Gradients and Shadows
This conceptual rule is strictly linked with the next one, but this is about the composition of the logo. Anyway, consider the positive aspects of a logo that lacks highlights, gradients or shadows.
5. A Good Logo Should be Easily Rendered on all Types of Media
We are living a radical revolution in media: before the internet, the methods for promotion were simple and few, with the most obvious being print. Nowadays the possibilities are far greater, but this has also become troublesome from the designers point of view, logo designers in particular.
A logo should look great on a website that can be accessed from a high performing computer with a display of 22-24 inches, from a smartphone that has a few inches display or from a simple mobile with wi-fi access capabilities. The client will probably want the logo displayed on a business card or on a poster or even on a T-shirt. All of these types of media need some specific treatment. Thus a logo that looks good on all of these is much more appreciated.
6. A Logo Should Always Look Good in Black & White
Its good practice to initially sketch on paper with a pencil your logo ideas, allowing for multiple revisions, and then proceeding to draw it with the help of graphic software – Photoshop or Illustrator – but only in black and white format. This rule helps to emphasize the idea or notion of a logo and not its composition …we have no color shadow, only the concept.
7. A Logo Should Respect the “KISS” (Keep It Simple Stupid)
The purpose of a logo is not to reveal as many chunks of information as possible, nor is to present the skills or the services offered by the client – it should only make the connections between a high quality product and you. To put it simpler, a logo is the small thing that makes people remember the big thing. So, to easily stand out and be remembered, having a simple composition is a must.
8. A Logo Should be Memorable
Here, unfortunately, nobody can give you any help or advice, it is impossible. To say that using TNR will make a logo memorable opposed to using Arial or that this color works better than color would be wrong. As was mentioned previously, the process of creating logos is an art and a science at the same time… In this article we have only covered the artistic part.
Maybe we can offer one small piece of advice: making a logo timeless will surely make it memorable for a long time. Here are some examples of timeless logos:
Conclusion
There are some rules, but nobody can guarantee that if you follow these rules you will be able to create exceptional logos. A good opportunity to find the positive and negative from your logo works is to post them on websites that offer you feedback, and attempt to act on it. You could try some of these sites below for feedback and inspiration:

5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Website's Success

2011-05-26T23:14:00.001-07:00

With such visual and sequential prominence, it's little wonder why headlines are the number one key to an effective web site.

Without a powerful lead, your message stands little chance of being noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your headline doesn't capture attention and pull prospects into your sales copy, than your marketing effort is a total waste of energy and resources.

Nothing is more important to getting your message noticed than the first few words on a page. If you're not allocating a sizable percentage of your time and creative effort to the headline used on each page of your website, you could be losing out on a large chunk of business.

Top copywriters understand this concept well. They know how essential it is to capture attention by literally stopping pre-occupied prospects in their tracks. It's the reason why headlines command so much of their collective creative effort.

Here are five good reasons why your site headlines deserve greater emphasis and attention:

Why Headlines Are Crucial #1: Headlines Are Natural Attention Getters.
The majority of online prospects are quick scanners. No one reads the body copy of a page without first reading and being pulled in by the headline. Headlines are the first thing your visitors see. They jump out visually and command attention. Headlines are leads set distinctly above the rest of the text. Often the typeface, size, and style used for headlines contrasts with that uses in the body copy. It's a proven approach that naturally attracts eyeballs, virtually forcing interested prospects to grasp the message of the headline and to read on.

According to advertising legend David Ogilvy, 5 times more people read headlines than body copy. Although Ogilvy was talking about print advertising in general, the observation is certainly applicable to websites as well. With 5 times the readership, headlines have the power and capability to make any message many times more successful.

Why Headlines Are Crucial #2: Site Headlines Serve As Valuable Guides To The Busy Surfer.
Headlines reveal key details. They tip off readers as to what follows. They provide clear signals to help readers decide whether they should stick around for the full message, or dash off to something else - something better suited to their own special needs and interests. As a quick summary of the entire piece, the headline either attracts continued interest and readership, or they repel it. Without a headline, the reader is forced to wade through a portion of the text to understand the meaning. Forcing readers to do this is to risk losing them altogether. It's sales suicide. In effect, having no headline will cost you at least 80% of your potential audience.

Why Headlines Are Crucial #3: Headlines Prepare The Reader For What Is To Come.
Headlines stimulate interest. They captivate, arouse curiosity and stimulate the desire for more. It's the headline that starts the reader's motor running. A good headline sets up a feeling of expectation as the reader anticipates discovering more -- and can't wait to get it!

Successful headlines address specific audiences. They open prospects minds to new possibilities and expand their level of enthusiasm and interest. The best headlines involve prospects... virtually guaranteeing their sustained attention for the time being.

Why Headlines Are Crucial #4: Headlines Simplify The Learning Curve.
Every headline serves to introduce whatever follows. As an opening or lead-in, the role of the headline is to succinctly communicate the essence of the message it precedes in an interesting and compelling way. Effective headlines and sub-headings reveal key bits of information -- often with the added power of emotion. A review of the various headings alone can often provide one with the gist of a given message. This makes it faster and easier to understand, remember, and review. Use your headings to generate emotional involvement and you increase the chances prospects will go back and read more of your copy.

When you make it easier to read and comprehend your messages, you increase the chances of making the sale.

Why Headlines Are Crucial #5: Headlines Allow You To Deliver Your Biggest Bang Right Up Front.
Capture attention and interest at the outset, by using your most appealing selling point. If your strongest, most desirable product attribute (benefit) fails to pull prospects in, surely nothing else you could ever say would do the trick, either. They're your initial point of contact with visitors -- that's why headlines play such an important role.

The stronger and more compelling your headline, the more readers are likely to read on and spend more time at your website. Create every headline to grab attention and inspire interest. The more alluring and irresistible you can make it, the more genuine prospects you'll attract and ultimately, the more sales you'll record.

Headlines are powerful marketing tools when used effectively. Take a good look at your site headline. Could you add more intrigue, curiosity, or interest? Test different headlines by trying various appeals and offer combinations. Keep an eye out for additional headline opportunities throughout your sales letters, as well as on other pages on your site. Make your headlines impossible to miss and difficult to ignore... then, watch your results soar!

When you see the difference a strong opening statement makes, you'll see why headlines are the most important part of your sales copy.

More resources at www.makeyoursalessoar.com

Author Bio
Robert Boduch is an author of dozens of best-selling books, reports and articles on the art and science of selling. A free newsletter targeted at anyone interested in selling more of anything is available at www.makeyoursalessoar.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Image and Online Success and The Importance of Good Design

2011-05-26T23:13:00.002-07:00

Naturally there are many aspects to succeeding online but the nature of business hasn't swayed. You must have a professional image and you must provide a great service for your clients. This is what makes a business grow. This is not another article telling you to be sure you have Meta tags, linking and all the other wonderful Search Engine friendly includes. This is a bare bones old school reflection on how companies are losing sight of the bigger picture.

Put some heart into it

Most entrepreneurs have that essential vivacious approach to starting up a business and the truly successful ones will maintain that level of excitement to help cultivate a healthy and steady growth. A web site can help establish your business as a serious contender or just another hole in the wall. Which one are you? Some businesses place more emphasis on what they're going to have for lunch rather than the image they portray to their clients. Your excitement about your business shows in everything you do.

When getting a web site for your company be certain you place your trust and hard earned dollars with a design firm that is passionate about their work and has a proven record of accomplishment, understand why one charges $500 and another $3000. You will have a much better project if the designer has foresight and desire to see their work succeed and not just become another bank deposit.

If you surf online and scope out the millions of companies, it is amazing to see how many tired looking sites you'll come across. I can't imagine a company that sells from a brick and mortar store, allowing the front of their building to become decrepit with their sign barely hanging on by a couple of bolts. Not a good way of attracting customers off the street and into your establishment.

The heart of your business

Do what you do best. Sell the products and services that define you and earn the capital. Promote your business in the best way possible, keeping honesty and integrity at the forefront. Do not sell yourself short. Invest into your growth and future developments.

There are countless articles on Search Engine Optimization and how to make money quickly. Have we forgotten the core of doing business and how the market is stimulated? There are plenty of ways to promote your business online and expand your demographic just be sure to focus on the important facets that make a company great. Provide and honest service and quality product. More than just attracting customers to your web site you want to retain long lasting relationships which will only draw more clients as time goes on.

Search Engine Friendly

No doubt search engine optimization is an extremely important aspect for the success of your business but can't stress enough that the importance of having a solid image must tie in. What many articles fail to point out is that SEO isn't the only thing to achieving online success. The focus tends to be on one aspect and never the whole picture. Business like everything involving human interaction revolves around the senses.

Okay so your site gets to the top of the search results and gets a click thru. Upon arriving to your site, which lacks any sense of presentation is quickly scanned, forgotten and on to the next site they go. The attention span of surfer's is on the decline. Yes you must have relevant content but it better be presented in the best possible way so when your competitors are visited by the same potential customer you stand out. It's all about standing out and making your presence known. When you first write your business plan (you do have a goal right?), one of the main things is to define your sole purpose and what the business hopes to achieve and how you stand out from everyone else.

Building that niche

It is ideal to focus your efforts and find that little pocket where you can shine and grow. This is very helpful when creating your online image. Custom designed graphics, tailored to your business will help secure your position within your chosen niche market. A beautiful looking web site will not help your ranking but it will help secure client interest and entice sales. Many SEO specialists overlook the importance of branding, which is number one in order for a company to separate themselves from the pack. Don't allow customers the chance to forget your name. Be remembered and maintain your presence.

Author Bio
Tyson Fenech is the Creative Director for Core Creative Concepts. Designing web sites and print materials for the past 7 years helping both small startups and Fortune 500 companies. www.coregraphicdesign.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

The Concept Behind CSS

2011-05-26T23:13:00.000-07:00

What is The Concept Behind CSS?

The concept behind CSS (a.k.a. cascading style sheets or style sheets) is really simple. CSS allows you to create a single document of code, similar to an HTML file, that lets you specify the colors, fonts, backgrounds, etc. of a web page. The CSS file is then linked to from the web page(s) that you want to have the same styles that you specify.

CSS allows you to make changes to all of the web pages that link to the CSS file at once by changing a style in the style sheet, instead of having to manually change every style in every HTML file.

If CSS did this and only this, they would save you a lot of time to say the least, especially if you have a large or multiple web sites. This alone is worth learning CSS, however, style sheets allow you to do this and much more.

CSS also allows you to:

* position text and graphics precisely where you want to

* add rollover effects to links

* control the spacing between letters, lines, margins, web page borders

* specify the units such as centimeters, pixels, points and more

* hide content from certain web browsers in certain situations. An example of this is when you have some content that you want to appear only in your web pages, but not in print.

Some Benefits of CSS

* Your web pages load faster because there is less code to transfer

* There is less code to type

* It is easier to have a consistent look and feel to your entire web site

* Updating and maintaining websites is much easier and less time consuming

In the end, CSS can save you a lot of time and effort and is very easy to learn.

Author Bio
Jose Valdez is the webmaster of FreeCSSTutoria.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Advantages of using tableless CSS | XHTML Web Design Techniques

2011-05-16T03:30:00.000-07:00

Tables used to be the "in" thing when it came to designing web sites. As with many other things though, new techniques and methods standards are bound to emerge with time. When once tables were seen in most web pages, some experts now suggest that tables should be thrown out of the window.

In simple words, tableless web design is basically a method whereby page layout control is achieved without the use of HTML tables. Instead, text and other elements on a page are arranged using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). This language is the brainchild of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). It was designed in such a way as to improve web accessibility as well as to make use of HTML for semantic purposes rather than presentational purposes.

One thing that has been making the headlines in the past year or so is the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques. With search engines such as Google and Yahoo making big waves in the information sector, web designers are scrambling to get on their good side. The one main goal of a web designer is to get his site on the top pages for search results. How is this achieved? By making one's site search engine friendly.

Search engines make use of various techniques to index all existing web sites. Based on these various techniques, they assign a page rank to the web site. The higher the page rank, the more chances it will be high up in the search engine results. The higher up the site is in ranking, the more chances that people will visit the site. That means good news for the web site. That is where semantics and HTML come in.

So how about tables? Web designers who favor tables assert that they make the design process easier and less time consuming. More so, they assert that tables are more compatible with various web browsers. On the other hand, proponents of tableless formats assert that tables do not adhere to web standards and web accessibility.

Over the years, people have been trying to come up with web standards that are based on logic and that would make it easier for everyone involved to access web sites. Text readers, bots, mobile devices, and other elements were all taken into consideration. As such, the tableless format has come into popular use.

Why should you follow this standard? Here are a few reasons as to why you should go tableless:

. The current W3C standards dictate the use of tableless design.
. Practically all browsers in use today support CSS for controlling layouts. As such, your site will be compatible with most any browser.
. It is easier to make global changes to the layout with the use of CSS. That is, if the coding is properly done, of course.
. Web site accessibility for people with special needs is done more easily with the proper implementation of content into XHTML documents. In this case, CSS is used only for the layout and style.
. Unnecessary code is eliminated with the use of XHTML and CSS, making for a sleeker and more manageable code.
. Tableless formats make it easier for search engines to index a web site.

Though tableless formats are being widely used for page layout control, it does not necessarily mean that tables are not being used anymore. They are merely not optimal for presentation purposes.

About the author:

http://www.PSDxHTML.COM is an entity which offers conversion from PSD or PNG design to HTML / XHTM / CSS.

Focus on SEO Before You Launch Your New Website

2011-05-16T03:29:00.001-07:00

Are you launching a new website? There's no better time to think about search engine optimization than prior to launching a new site. By giving consideration to your on-page optimization factors, you can increase your chances of achieving top organic search results.

To prepare your site for easy indexing, be sure to follow these basis guidelines:

1. Design your site in html or similar format that minimizes the use of java script and flash. The more complex you make your code, the more difficult it becomes for the search engine spiders to read your content and prescribe the appropriate Google PR to your web page.

2. Make sure that your meta tags are coded properly and include the Robots.txt tag. Many individuals downplay the importance of meta tags. Although meta tags themselves won't drastically change the organic ranking of your site, they do create the display text users will see when your site appears in search results. If your meta tags are search engine optimized and compelling, you increase the changes of improving click-throughs.

3. Apply the proper tags to your page. H1, H2, and H3 tags are a great wall to call attention to your content and promote your keywords and keyword phrases. Try to use each tag at least once, but don't force the issues. You want your text to flow and appear normal.

In addition to ensuring that you've made your page easy to access and presented text that is optimized, you also want to consider other factors that can help long-term with your SEO efforts. So often, web designers get caught up with on page factors, that they overlook the requirements for establishing a foundation that supports long-term initiatives.In particular, consider adding pages that you can add to over time that support link building and accessibility for search engine spiders. Be sure to include:

1. An html sitemap and an xml sitemap. Including a sitemap on you site makes it easy for search engines to access all of your website pages and index your site accordingly. Your sitemap should be in both html as well as xml. Although users would not access the xml sitemap, search engine spiders use this version to crawl websites. Additionally, key search engine submission resources like Google's Webmasters Tools require xml site map versions.

2. Include a partners page. Previously referred to as a links page, the partners page is essential for reciprocal linking. This strategy isn't as powerful as developing one-way links, but until your site has been assigned a Google PR, one-way links can be difficult to acquire. So begin your link exchange program with a partners page that allows you add or remove link quickly and easily.

3. Submission pages that encourage new content. One of the most powerful seo techniques is the addition of new content. Make it easy for your users to add or submit content to your website. When search engines see new content, they rejoice. Don't underestimate how important it is to make it simple for your browsers to add or submit content.When focusing on search engine optimization, especially with a new website, follow the basic ideas outlined above.

There are a number of other factors to consider as well. However, you should always start with a strong foundation - a site design that meets basic SEO standards but one that also supports your long range search engine optimization goals.

About the Author:

Michael Fleischner
http://improvesearchenginerankings.blogspot.com

Six Most Silliest Website Design Errors You Should Avoid

2011-05-16T03:28:00.003-07:00

To error is human, but to not to learn from your mistakes can, at times, cost you more than what you can afford. In my ten years of offering web designing, web development and web maintenance services, I have come across many designing gaffes that can be avoided by being a bit more careful. However, I would like to mention a few web designing and web development blunders that fit to be discussed in this article.

Domain Misspell

One of the dumbest mistakes one can ever do is to misspell domain name while going for its registration. It may so happen that you might be doing the domain registration on behalf of your customers, and if you are communicating mostly over voice, you are prone to hearing things wrongly which can jeopardize their prospects. For instance, if you register CarTuneNetwork.com instead of CartoonNetwork.com, you have probably had it from your clients. Make sure you hear thing correctly if you rely mostly on the voice chat with your customers.

Expiry of Domain Names

This is another mistake you would always hate to commit. Imagine your domain name expires after a certain period of time because you probably have forgotten to pay the registrar on time to renew your domain. This could be quite embarrassing if you have already made a name for your website.

Flashing Your Cyber Undergarments

Some website management platforms offered by hosting companies store the site statistics in common folders named as /statistics/. Unless you password protect this folder, your visitors will be able to see the most confidential statistics of your site. In the process, you might end up showing the full traffic data to your visitors. Do not be surprised if you find some of your visitors informing you that they are pretty impressed with the last month traffic flow.

Displaying Sensitive Company Information

Often the web designers are not aware of the real portion of the webpage copy and can make potential errors of publishing the entire content on the webpage copy provided by you even if there is some private information that is meant just to assist the web designer in doing his work efficiently. It can happen to any organization irrespective of their size and stature. For instance, in 2006, AOL had published a search data report that contained private details of thousands of AOL customers. Though the information was taken off the site a few days later, it led to the sacking of AOL's chief technical officer.

404 Errors Page

The worst web design error you can ever commit is to design custom 404 Error Page for your visitors without being apologetic to them or leaving any clue for them to help them go to the page they want to see. This might seriously put them off and make them click them on the back button.

Site Closed For Maintenance

If you take your site off for maintenance even temporarily, you could lose your ranking that you have earned so painstakingly. Search engines do not understand the sign "back in fifteen minutes". If the search engine bots index your site when it is down for maintenance they will take if for granted that that pages they had indexed earlier no longer exist. As a result, they will drop your pages from their search index which means you will have to wait till they re-index your site. The simplest solution to this problem is to put up a mirror site during the maintenance period.

About the author:

Maneet Puri heads LeXolution IT Services (LIT), a renowned web and KPO solution provider in India.

7 Tips To Make Your Website Super Accessible

2011-05-16T03:28:00.001-07:00

Accessibility is a crucial factor in website designing. Investing thoughts and elements on how the website looks is all well but what is more important is how accessible the it is to visitors and prospective customers.

An ideal website design focuses on letting the visitors attain a higher level of accessibility into the website. Here are some tips that can help you create a website design that allows visitors to come through with minimal troubles:

ALT Text

Do make sure to include meaningful ALT text in your website design. Visually impaired users are able to browse through the site when their screen readers read aloud the ALT text. With the ALT text missing from your website design, your website will potentially be unusable for your blind visitors and you could end up losing out on potential customers.

Correct Spellings

Screen readers are not able to pronounce words that are misspelled. So, if the content of your website has any spelling errors the screen readers will completely ignore the word and the sentence will make no sense to the user. Visually impaired users have a sense of your web design through what the screen readers portray. And if they have a bad impression, you stand to lose business.Avoid AbbreviationsAs much as you can, avoid using abbreviations. Just like screen readers don't recognize spelling errors, the same way it fails to know abbreviated words. They try to spell it out and end up pronouncing some undecipherable word. For example you might be able to know that 'eg' is example but the screen reader may pronounce it as 'egg.' Thus, it is always better to use good website design practices to make life easier for your users.

Contrasting Colors for Text

Dark text on a light or white background is the tried and tested best for most people as it increases readability. Even if you are using other colors make sure to keep the text color in dark contrast to the background.

Readable Text

Make your text resizable so that people with poor eyesight are able to resize the content matter to suit them.

Colors and CSS

Adjust the colors of your website using web design solutions such as CSS. Thus, if by chance visitors find your default stylesheet hard to use, they can turn it off and use their own stylesheet.

Sensible Links

Make sure that all the links on your website make sense even out of context. Visually impaired people often skip through the links on a page. Links like 'Click here' does not make any sense to them. rather try framing 'Click here for more information about website design.' This would tell them what exactly are they for.

About the Author:
Maneet Puri is the Director of LeXolution IT Services, a leading web design firm in India that specializes in web designing and development.

What Makes A Good Ecommerce Website Design?

2011-05-16T03:27:00.001-07:00

Here are some website design basics that need to be considered on Ecommerce sites in order to ensure a good user experience, and to drive leads and sales.

1) Clear Navigation

Remember, people usually aren’t just browsing when they shop online – they know what they’re looking for. Have a separate navigation bar for your product categories. Don’t mix them in with contact us, about us, and other company tabs. A product search box is a must. Make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for.

2) Get them Shopping

Your website home page should engage the visitor and get them shopping. Featured products, most popular, recent arrivals, or specials should be displayed in a product grid on the home page. A website home page with just company information won’t get the visitor into shopping mode.

3) Quality Product Shots

Remember, the visitor is not in a retail store. They can’t pick up the product, touch it, or try it on for size. The photos are all you’ve got to work with, so they’d best be good! Purchase a quality digital camera, and set up a consistent display so all shots are displayed against a similar background. Better yet, download free Photoshop style software like gimp.com and clear cut your images for a more professional look.

4) Show them where they are!

If you have a website with a significant number of products, your navigation should show their progression of where they’ve got to in your website e.g. home page > Category > Sub Category > Product. That way visitors always remain orientated in your website. It also might encourage them to find items they would like more which will convert better.

5) Cross Sell

If you have related products, make sure you suggest other relevant products to the visitor. If they’re buying moisturiser, offer them the complimentary skin toner etc. This is how Amazon.com made it big – suggesting related books based on customers past purchases.

6) A Secure Payment Gateway

Credit card fraud is a major problem online. Most people will not give out credit card information over the internet unless it is through a secure payment gateway. There are many options here like Paypal, DPS, Paymate etc. You want to choose a payment gateway that is not just secure, but has a smooth ordering process. This will reduce your checkout abandonment rate, resulting in more sales.

7) Get them Coming Back

Email marketing - There is no better way to turn past customers into repeat purchasers. Sign up to a web based email marketing system like verticalresponse.com or mailchimp.com. Begin to assimilate a list of past customers and contacts, and then email them out html visual emails with specials, news, promotions, and events. If they’ve bought from you once, give them a reason to buy again.

8) Search Engine Optimisation

If a great looking website design is like a well presented retail shop, the search engine optimisation is like the location of the shop. If you have a great looking store hidden down a back alley, it’s not going to do very well. Good search engine optimisation is vital for driving visitors to your website. If you’re not showing up on Google for your main key words, you’re missing out on sales. It’s a whole topic unto itself, which requires the employment of specialists, but it needs to be considered.

If you follow the above Ecommerce website design guidelines, selling your products online has the potential to bypass expensive retail rent, showrooms, and sales staff, to create a profitable, efficient business.

If you'd like to discuss your Ecommerce Website Design requirements with us, we’d love to hear from you. 123Online is a New Zealand web design company that provides affordable web design solutions for different size businesses.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1794687_4.html

Is Your Website Design Trustworthy?

2011-05-16T03:26:00.003-07:00

Successful web design is all about making people trust you before they meet you. Here are 10 ways to make your website design reflect your trustworthiness as a business, rather than just your willingness to fork out on a flashy website:

1) Professional Web Design

Your website design must convey an air of professionalism and credibility. Poor quality web design leaves the visitor with serious questions about the quality of the company, their products and their services.

2) A Detailed Website ‘About Us’ Section

Don’t keep your website’s visitors at a distance – let them really get to know you. Your website’s about us section should reflect the character of your company. Team bios let visitors know your people. A company history lets them know where you’ve come from. Company Vision lets them know where you’re going. Company Values let them know what you stand for.

3) Guarantee It!

Nothing sets people at ease more than a guarantee – how can you structure your offer so the visitor has nothing to lose? Minimise their risk and gain their trust.

4) Partnerships

Do you have partnerships with well known and respected brands? Are you an authorised distributor or reseller? An official sponsor or supplier? Ask permission to use their logos and branding on your website and let your visitors know you partner with the best.

5) Testimonials

Testimonials are widely used on websites, but there is always the chance they’re not authentic. To ensure they are perceived as genuine, include the website address, image of the person giving the testimonial, or better yet, film a video testimonial.

6) Case Studies

Case studies are great to showcase the challenges your clients have faced, and how your service solved their problem. Visitors may see your customer’s problems reflect their own. This is a great way to build empathy with your visitors.

7) Returns Policies, Privacy Policies, & Terms

People like to know they’re dealing with an upfront company who is open about its terms. Publishing these on your website give visitors confidence - they know what they’re signing up for when they do business with you.

8) Blog

A blog is a great tool to become a “thought leader” in your field. Write articles and blog posts that show your expertise and experience in your field. People like to deal with knowledgeable companies. Become a trusted source of valuable information – your visitors will return to your website again and again.

9) Professional Certifications

Are you a member of a professional association? Have you or your company achieved a certified quality standard (Master Builder etc)? These certifications convey quality and credibility to visitors.

10) Video

Used well, having a video of a key team member explaining your company’s services or products can be incredibly compelling for visitors. The internet can feel impersonal, so someone talking directly to the visitor adds a much-needed human element to their online experience.

Remember, if they don’t trust you, they won’t do business with you. It’s as true on the internet as it is in the retail shop, the office, or the showroom. I hope these ideas will bring a new level of trust and credibility to your website.

123Online are website designers who understand the importance of a web design that will gain the trust and respect of your site visitors. Browse our websites portfolio online, and get a quote to get your website up to scratch or off the ground!

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1794694_4.html

How a CMS can enhance online operations

2011-05-16T03:26:00.001-07:00

By Geoff Choo, TechRepublic
When Workforce Magazine, an 80-year-old trade publication geared toward HR professionals, launched its site in June 1995, it set out with the belief that the site should not be a mere online rendition of its successful magazine but a unique collection of content and functionality that made the best use of the Web for its more than 250,000 registered users. Recently acquired by Crain Communications, Inc., Workforce is a Costa Mesa, CA-based premier destination for HR professionals, concentrating on HR trends and tools for business results.
Three years later, it redesigned the site from the ground up and decided to custom-build a content management system (CMS). While the proprietary CMS worked well at first, by early 2001 it became apparent that the system was hindering Workforce’s efforts in growing the site to meet the expanding needs of its readers and its own editorial team.

The proprietary code base of the CMS and peripheral systems prevented developers from extending functionality and, more importantly, from fixing bugs in the system—specifically those that occasionally erased all the content within the site. Usability was also a big headache; many of the screens presented long, unmanageable lists of assets, with no ability to sort or filter the results.
The organization had little choice but to basically tear everything down and radically overhaul the existing technology architecture.
CMS is all about the process

Workforce wanted a sophisticated publishing system that could handle a high volume of content, but it didn’t want to build a custom system again.
“With the installed CMS we had, we found that its problems quickly became site-wide issues,” said Bob Dortch, VP of production at Workforce. “Because the system lived in the same environment as our live site, if the CMS went haywire and locked up the Web server, both our CMS and our entire live Web site went down at the same time.” The problem with the installed solution was that it had created too great a codependency between the main business needs: serving our live site and building new content, he explained.

“We knew that selecting a new CMS would be a major undertaking, and based on our past experience, we knew a hosted solution would provide the separation and business security we were looking for.”
Because Workforce had a limited budget, it didn’t want to invest heavily in software and staff to support and manage a complex application. It also required an application that could integrate with other applications, including ad serving, bulletin boards, user authentication, and a search engine. And the organization wanted an implementation partner that could perform the customization it required, and that could (cost-effectively) continue to modify the application as requirements changed.
Workforce chose CrownPeak Technology and its Advantage CMS solution because they “know the people behind it and their track record of both innovation and success in this space,” said Margaret Magnus, publisher and president of Workforce Magazine.
“CrownPeak provides literally all of the features we need today, along with other capabilities we will grow to need, at a much lower cost than anything else we’ve seen in the marketplace."
CrownPeak Technology is a content management ASP that provides content management as a service. The Advantage CMS solution delivers a complete set of features in a 100-percent browser-based interface, including source control, versioning, spell checking, link checking, comprehensive workflow, security monitoring features, multilingual interfaces, database management, and wireless compatibility.
“The experience and knowledge of the individuals at CrownPeak; [the] high level of trust that, if they said they would deliver, they would; and their ability to listen to the client and understand the client’s business were the key reasons we selected CrownPeak,” added Dortch.
A cost-effective solution
Workforce used the CMS rebuild opportunity to also completely redesign back-end systems. Workforce removed the proprietary CMS (which was doing double-duty as an application server), and discarded the supporting but aging Oracle database. It moved to PHP as the application server and MySQL to handle database needs.
This strategy streamlined support needs and gave a standardized platform on which to base future development. CrownPeak also agreed to provide Web hosting for Workforce, via a partnership with IBM.
“It’s a totally outsourced solution that’s given them a world-class application for a very reasonable figure,“ said Jim Howard, CrownPeak’s CEO.
Advantage’s open architecture made it relatively painless to integrate the CMS with other key technology components of the site, like DoubleClick’s DART Ad Management system, DoubleClick’s e-mail system for their newsletters, and PicoSearch for the search system.

[Source] Software Outsourcing Blog Section: http://www.techomechina.com

Facebook Rolls Out Page Tagging in Photos

2011-05-11T22:55:00.000-07:00

Starting Today, Facebook users can tag pages in their photos. Previously, only friends were able to be tagged and linked to within photos. A certain page can now be tagged by anyone on Facebook, not simply those who have liked the page.
Currently, the only types of pages that can be tagged are Brands & Products or People pages, but Facebook says they are “looking to expand this functionality to more page categories over time.”
As usual, Facebook is reminding us that privacy features are still in place, and that just because you tag a photo of a Coke with the Coke brand page, it doesn’t mean your photo has to appear on that brand’s page- unless of course you want it to.

The privacy of the photo is always respected when a Page is tagged in a photo. If a photo post is published to “everyone,” then it can appear publicly on the Photos tab of the Page and the Page admins can see it. If it’s just published for someone’s friends, only their friends will be able to see that photo. Page Admins can always choose to disable tagged photos from appearing on the Photos tab by going into Edit Page > Posting Options > and unchecking “Users can add photos”.
Last fall, Facebook launched new features for photos, such as higher resolution images and that nifty black-bordered viewer for browsing. They also retooled the uploading functionality and allowed users to tag multiple photos at the same time.

This will obviously promote more interaction with brands on Facebook as well as celebrities’ fan pages. Just think how many times people upload a picture of someone holding a Starbucks coffee or upload a pic from a certain restaurant or sporting venue? If users have a picture with Kanye West and a bunch of their friends, for instance, they can tag him along with all their friends.
Since 2009, users have been able to tag pages in their status updates and wall posts. This just takes that to a whole new level.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-rolls-out-page-tagging-in-photos-2011-05

About Josh Wolford
Josh Wolford is a staff writer for WebProNews. He likes football, French New Wave cinema, and bacon.

Sitting Down All Day Is Killing You

2011-05-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

As I type this, I am seated in my comfy leather chair. I’m sure that many of you who are reading this are also situated in some kind of seat. How long have you been sitting there? When is the last time you got up and took a stroll around the office?
It is a fact that many people’s jobs these days require them to spend a copious amount of time in front of a computer. Writers, Coders, Editors, Secretaries – the list goes on. According to reports that have been flooding in during the last year or so, the more hours you spend during the day sitting, the greater you risk of early death.
First, Men’s Health reported on a study that concluded this fact. Then the New York times reported on another study that found that people had a greater risk of obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes when they sat an extra 6-8 hours a day.
The posture of sitting itself probably isn’t worse than any other type of daytime physical inactivity, like lying on the couch watching “Wheel of Fortune.” But for most of us, when we’re awake and not moving, we’re sitting. This is your body on chairs: Electrical activity in the muscles drops — “the muscles go as silent as those of a dead horse,” Hamilton says — leading to a cascade of harmful metabolic effects. Your calorie-burning rate immediately plunges to about one per minute, a third of what it would be if you got up and walked. Insulin effectiveness drops within a single day, and the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes rises. So does the risk of being obese. The enzymes responsible for breaking down lipids and triglycerides — for “vacuuming up fat out of the bloodstream,” as Hamilton puts it — plunge, which in turn causes the levels of good (HDL) cholesterol to fall.

So all this bad stuff over a lifetime adds up, according to researchers.
Today comes this awesome new infographic courtesy of medicalbillingnacoding.org. Yes, the information provided is scary, especially for someone who likes to sit as much as I do. But the visuals are pretty top notch, especially the presentation of “sitting” as a jagged, hooded demon poised dramatically over the head of an unsuspecting office worker.
Many propose stand up desks as a way to solve this problem. Others suggest frequent breaks from sitting on the job to perform various quick exercises. As someone with terrible knees, standing desks make me cringe. Maybe I’ll rethink the whole jumping jacks idea.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/sitting-down-all-day-is-killing-you-2011-05
About Josh Wolford
Josh Wolford is a staff writer for WebProNews. He likes football, French New Wave cinema, and bacon.

Email, Social Media Communication Increases, IM Use Decreases

2011-05-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

As part of a study commissioned by Microsoft, market research company MarketTools surveyed 1,268 professionals and students over the age of 18 about their email habits and other forms of communication at home and at work.
45% of those surveyed said that their use of email at work will most likely increase in the next five years. 51% said that it would likely stay the same. Only 4% thought it would decrease. At home, 36% of those surveyed thought their email use will increase, 55% said it will stand pat and 6% said it will likely decrease.
This shouldn’t shock most of us, as email has become such an integral part of almost everyone’s lives. Hell, the AP stylebook recently decided to go with “email” instead of “e-mail.” It really is it’s own thing – not just an electronic type of regular mail.
What is interesting, however, is when the study talks about specific tools for communication in the office. As expected, 96% of those surveyed says that in the past year their email use has either increased or stayed the same. Social Media, SMS, Phone and Face to Face communication has also all increased. The only form of communication that has declined is instant messaging – 14% saying it has increased, 15% saying it has decreased and 71% saying it has stayed the same.
As part of this study, Microsoft has also given us an infographic about the history of email. it tracks the service from its beginnings in 1965 at MIT (I know, 1965!) to Facebook integration with Microsoft Office web apps in 2010. Be warned, it is a little Outlook – oriented, as would be expected with a Microsoft infographic. It does chart the 1998 release of the Tom Hanks – Meg Ryan romcom You’ve Got Mail, which obviously makes the whole thing worth it.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/email-social-media-communication-increases-im-use-decreases-2011-05
About Josh Wolford
Josh Wolford is a staff writer for WebProNews. He likes football, French New Wave cinema, and bacon.

Gamers More Social Than Non-Gamers, According to Study

2011-05-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

Most gamers are thought to be people that live in their parents’ basement, drink Mountain Dew and energy drinks, and play video games until the wee hours of the morning. But, a new study from Mocospace reveals information that debunks this theory. The mobile social network conducted a survey and found that gamers are actually more social than non-gamers.
Does this finding come as a surprise to you? Let us know.
Of the 10,000 people that Mocospace surveyed, the ones that played games socialized and interacted with their friends more than non-gamers did. Imran Malek, the chief of gaming at Mocospace, told us that gamers have an incentive to be social, since it helps them advance in games.
For example, on the game Happy Farm, users can help their friends with tasks on their farms. In other words, the more friends you have, the more help you could have in your game.
“I think the important thing about gaming from a social context is that you’re really incentivized to have more friends. ‘Cause the more friends you have, the more people you have working with you, and, in some cases, working for you,” said Malek.
Another interesting trend about the study is that gamers are playing more games on mobile devices. Malek pointed out that game developers realize that no other platform reaches such a large audience with an equally large attention span. He believes that people will stop buying computers and will go straight to buying mobile and tablet devices.
About Abby Johnson
Abby Johnson is a reporter for WebProNews.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/gamers-more-social-than-non-gamers-according-to-study-2011-05

TV Loves Twitter

2011-05-09T01:55:00.000-07:00

While this is not anything surprising or groundbreaking, the television medium is ate up with the idea of using Twitter to establish some kind of audience interaction. Again, this evolution has been fairly obvious, but the concept hit one of its many upcoming peaks during the recent Royal Wedding. Not only were would-be well-wishers huddling around their monitors/televisions, waiting breathlessly to catch a glimpse of the couple, they were also running to Twitter to share their reactions.

“OMG! THE KISS WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!! I’M SO JEALOUS!!!” or something along those lines, anyway. Not only were the tubes flooded with these kinds of tweets, but many of the television stations broadcasting the wedding were keeping track, adding them to “how many have tweeted” pile. If ABC’s numbers are to be believed, it’s pretty clear a whole lot of people watch TV with a computer/mobile device with Internet access close by:

Judging by the frozen frame, it’s not exactly certain at what point that image was captured. Nevertheless, considering the fact the Royal Wedding was not a 24-hour event — although, the run up to it certainly exceeded that — that’s a lot of comments featuring the #RoyalWedding hashtag.

Or, as the Twitter Media Blog put it:

Our work with TV partners like ABC, CNN, ITV, Sky and BBC shows that broadcast prompts like hashtags on-air immediately drive double to ten-fold increase in activity on Twitter.

Another trend is for television shows to feature desired hashtags onscreen, prompting viewers to include them when they are tweeting about, say, the latest episode of CNN Money or the Comedy Awards presentation.

There’s a video of this trend, and it shows just how omnipresent Twitter is in relation to interacting with a television audience.

Clearly, if you aren’t engaging your audience with Twitter accounts and relevant hashtags, you’re denying your audience’s ability to interact in a more personal sense. Sure, message boards are still a chosen medium for those who want to react to visual entertainment — see the AV Club and Ain’t It Cool News if you need further proof — but the immediacy of Twitter, not to mention its ability to keep comments relatively categorized via hashtags streamlines the entire process.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/tv-loves-twitter-2011-05

About Chris RichardsonChris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.

Google Algorithm Update – Is Bounce Rate a Ranking Signal?

2011-05-09T01:51:00.001-07:00

Forget for a moment everything you think you know about Google and how they rank content. Put yourself in the role of a person who is tasked with ranking results. One result gets clicked often, but most of the time the user only stays on the page for a few seconds (if that), returns to the results page, and clicks on another result.

Meanwhile, another result on the same page gets clicked on a lot too, but when users click on that one, they stay on the page longer, and don’t even return to the results page to find another result to click on. Nor do they refine their query. Which page is most likely the one that has the better content for that particular search?

Should bounce rate be a ranking signal? Comment here.

Well, being a human, you have the luxury of looking at both pages and making that call. Now, pretend you’re not a human. You’re a computer algorithm tasked with ranking the world’s information for the majority of searchers. While you have over 200 signals that can help you determine which one should rank higher, wouldn’t this be one that could help?

This is not exactly bounce rate, but it’s related. In this case, it is the bounce in the direction of back to the SERP, and while there has been a lot of discussion and argument about whether Google uses actual bounce rate as a signal, it seems pretty likely that they are looking at this specific element of it.

SearchMetrics, after releasing data about the Panda winners and losers in the UK, said, “It seems that all the loser sites are sites with a high bounce rate and a less time on site ratio. Price comparison sites are nothing more than a search engine for products. If you click on a product you ‘bounce’ to the merchant. So if you come from Google to ciao.co.uk listing page, than you click on an interesting product with a good price and you leave the page. On Voucher sites it is the same. And on content farms like ehow you read the article and mostly bounce back to Google or you click Adsense.”

“And on the winners are more trusted sources where users browse and look for more information,” the firm added. “Where the time on site is high and the page impressions per visit are also high. Google’s ambition is to give the user the best search experience. That’s why they prefer pages with high trust, good content and sites that showed in the past that users liked them.”

WebmasterWorld Founder Brett Tabke wrote in a recent forum post, discussing what he calls the “Panda metric“, that “Highly successful, high referral, low bounce, quality, and historical pages have seen a solid boost with panda.”

In a recent video from Google’s Matt Cutts, on ranking in 2011, he talks about increasing site speed, and how this can keep users on your site longer (IE: not bouncing), you can increase your ROI. Speed is a ranking signal. We know that. Speed can reduce bounce rate. Even if Google doesn’t use bounce rate directly, there is a strong relationship here.

A reader (hat tip to Jordy) sent us this link from Matt McGee at SearchEngineLand, posted last June:

Bounce rate and rankings? Matt [Cutts] says Google Analytics is not used in the general ranking algorithm. “To the best of my knowledge, the rankings team does not use bounce rate in any way.” He tiptoed around this question a bit, choosing his words very carefully.

The part about tiptoeing is somewhat intriguing in and of itself, but it’s also important to note that this was nearly a year ago, and the Panda update was not announced until just this past February (and has even been tweaked since then).

We also picked the brain of SEO vet Jim Boykin. We asked Jim how important he thinks bounce rate is. He says, “I think that some aspects of bounce rate are very important in the post-panda world.”

“It’s important to note how Google defines Bounce Rate,” he adds. This is below:

“Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality – a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.”

He also points to how it is defined in Google Analytics:

“The percentage of single page visits resulting from this set of pages or page.”

“Personally, I don’t think that a single page visit is a bad thing. To me, it tells me the visitor found what they were looking for. Isn’t that what Google would want? If I were Google, I’d want a searcher to find the answer to their search on the exact page they clicked on in a search result…not 1 or 2 clicks in. If I were Google, I’d look more at ‘Who Bounces off that page, and returns to the same Google search, and clicks on someone else, and then never returns to your site,’ but I’m not Google, and that’s just my ‘if I were Google’ thoughts”.

Regardless, it can’t be a bad thing to strive to make every page of yours the best page of its type – the solution to the searcher’s problem. At its heart, that is really what the Panda update is about. Really, that’s what search ranking is about in general. Delivering the BEST result for the query – signals aside.

As far as links, while Boykin says it’s “kind of” fair to say that making sure your links point to quality pages can have a major impact on how Google ranks your site post-Panda, he says, “The final solution should be to remove or fix the low quality pages, and thus, all your links would point to ‘quality pages’.”

Again, this should improve bounce rate.

“I think most agree that there’s a ‘Page Score’ or a ‘set of pages score,’ and when that has a bad score, it affects those pages, and somehow ripples up the site,” Boykin adds. “It could quite well be that if you have a page that links out to 100 internal pages, and if 80 of those pages are ‘low quality’ than it just might affect that page as well. A lot of this is hard to prove, but there are some smoking guns that can point in this direction.”

“Bounce rate is important, and yes, many sites that got hit did have a high bounce rate, but comparing this to sites/pages that weren’t hit doesn’t exactly show any ‘ah ha’ moments of ‘hey, if your bounce rate is over 75%, then you got Panda pooped on,’ because the bounce rate Google shows the public is missing many key metrics that they know, but don’t share with us.”

I think the best advice you can follow in relation to all of this is to simply find ways to keep people from leaving your site, before they complete the task you want them to complete. That means providing content they want.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/google-algorithm-bounce-rate-ranking-signal-2011-05#respond

About Chris CrumChris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Facebook Pages Being Taken Down, Policy Comes Into Question

2011-05-09T01:45:00.000-07:00

Numerous reports have been coming out that Facebook is taking down Facebook pages that are accused of infringing upon copyrights. The keyword there is “accused”. Apparently, Facebook does little (or nothing) to verify the legitimacy of the claims before taking action.

Should Facebook be doing more? Tell us what you think.

Several well-known tech blogs, including Ars Technica, Redmond Pie, and Neowin have had their pages removed by Facebook as the result of such a situation (though later the pages were reinstated).

“Prior to the account lockout, we had received no notices of infringement or warnings,” says Ars Technica’s Ken Fisher. “Truly, we awoke to find that Facebook had summoned a judge, jury, and executioner and carried out its swift brand of McJustice all without bothering to let us know that there was even a problem.”

“Further investigation has revealed just how flawed Facebook’s infringement reporting system is,” he adds. “To begin with, someone making a complaint can provide any third-party e-mail address they choose. So it is rather easy to spoof the origin of a complaint, while giving Facebook and the accused no chance for a direct rejoinder.”

Fisher also retweeted this:

@GlennF
Glenn Fleishman@ashponders @kenfisher Even with this, FB is better than Google. Google has no good appeals for _anything_. 3 hours ago via Echofon · powered by @socialditto

NeoWin’s Dave Legg wrote, “We (Neowin) tried to file a countercomplaint, but Facebook just refused to acknowledge it, they simply ignored the content of the email and said once again that we had to contact the complainant and resolve it with them or take them to court.”

Here’s the form for people to submit complaints:

Facebook is developing quite a reputation for being hard to get through to at a human level. David Fagin is suing the company for a dollar to make a point about this, after getting blocked from sending friend requests, being labeled a spammer, and having issues getting through to Facebook.

Facebook’s statement on the page takedown matter, as obtained by Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb goes like this:

We want Facebook to be a place where people can share and discuss openly while respecting the rights of others. We take seriously both the interests of people who post content and those of rights holders. We work to ensure that we don’t take content down as a result of fraudulent notices. However, when a rights holder properly completes our notice form alleging intellectual property (IP) infringement, we will take appropriate action including removing or disabling access to the relevant content. When we do this, we notify the person who shared the content so he or she can take appropriate action, which may include contacting the reporting party or following up with Facebook.

Submitting an IP notice is no trivial matter. The forms in our Help Center require statements under penalty of perjury, and fraudulent claims are subject to legal process.

Hmm. That’s it? They wouldn’t even say why they don’t validate email addresses, which is unfortunate, considering claims have been exposed as being bogus.

Facebook eventually responded to Ars Technica, simply saying it is “looking into the specific takedown request that was made.” Later, they followed with an apology and finally reinstated the page. Ars Technica’s Jacqui Cheng wrote in a later article, after the publication’s page was reinstated:

There are a number of things Facebook needs to fix, however. Let’s start with the vague notifications and slow responses: in nearly all cases, Facebook did not specify which content was supposedly infringing before taking down the entire page. According to Condé Nast’s crack legal team, a proper DMCA takedown is supposed to specify the infringing material, and that content is supposed to be removed immediately until a counterclaim is filed. Facebook did not do this—instead, it claimed “Ars Technica” was the infringing material, and subsequently removed our entire page.

Facebook also did not tell us who filed the claim until moments before the publication of this article—not technically required for the DMCA process, but providing the name of the claimant is industry-wide best practice. So, Ars has only within the past couple of hours found out who filed the bogus complaint against us, and we still don’t know why or for which content. (We’re hoping to follow up with this person, assuming he’s real, in order to find out his motivation for filing the takedown notice.)

This is the second copyright-related blunder Ars Technica has been a part of recently. A while back, Righthaven filed suit against a contributor to the site before realizing that it it didn’t have much of a leg to stand on and dismissing the suit, calling it a “mistake”.

Facebook can drive a lot of traffic to a site – particularly a news site or blog, so having a Facebook Page taken down can be a tremendous blow to such a site.

Facebook’s practice is drawing a great deal of criticism from the Blogosphere. The whole thing is rather interesting considering how Facebook is trying to cozy up with journalists lately.

Should Facebook be doing more to verify claims before taking Facebook Pages down? Comment here.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-pages-taken-down-2011-04#respond

About Chris CrumChris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Should YouTube Have Banned This Animal Cruelty Investigation Video? [Updated]

2011-05-09T01:43:00.000-07:00

Update 3: A spokesperson for Mercy for Animals tells us, “Nathan [Runkle - Executive Director] says that it appears that YouTube is once again hosting the video, while it appears Vimeo has removed it. They will be communicating with Vimeo, as they did with YouTube, urging them to repost the video.”

Update 2: YouTube tells WebProNews that it does not comment on specific videos, but a spokesperson did give us the following statement:

With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it’s brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it.

Update: Now, the vimeo video embedded in this article says it “no longer exists”. Meanwhile, the video does appear to be back on YouTube, though it comes with a warning. I’ve contacted MFA for more details, and will update accordingly.

In the wake of the infamous elephant-killing video from GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons, there is another disturbing video involving animals making web news. This involves an “undercover investigation” into the practices of E6 Cattle Company in Texas. Mercy for Animals put its investigation footage on YouTube, only to have it removed.

Should YouTube have taken down this video? Tell us what you think.

“Mercy For Animals’ undercover investigation into E6 Cattle Company in Texas continues to be at the center of controversy now that YouTube has banned the video evidence documenting E6 workers committing acts of cruelty and abuse to dairy calves,” a representative for Mercy for Animals tells WebProNews.

“When news of the investigation hit early this week, the price of cattle futures fell, consumers were outraged, the American Veterinary Medical Association issued its condemnation, and agribusiness circled its wagons,” he continues. “YouTube’s notice characterizes the undercover footage as a ‘gross-out video’ that is ‘intended to be shocking, sensational, or disrespectful.’”

“However, YouTube seems to have no qualms about videos glorifying hunting, dogfighting, or similar forms of animal cruelty,” he adds.

The video is below. Be warned, the footage is indeed disturbing.

No Mercy – Calf Farm Cruelty Exposed from Mercy For Animals on Vimeo.

Among the video’s contents (if you don’t want to see it), as listed by MFA:

Workers bludgeoning calves in their skulls with pickaxes and hammers – often involving 5 to 6 blows, sometimes more – before rendering the animals unconscious
Beaten calves, still alive and conscious, thrown onto dead piles
Workers kicking downed calves in the head, and standing on their necks and ribs
Calves confined to squalid hutches, thick with manure and urine buildup, and barely large enough for the calves to turn around or fully extend their legs
Gruesome injuries and afflictions, including open sores, swollen joints and severed hooves
Ill, injured and dying calves denied medical care
The budding horns of calves burned out their skulls without painkillers

MFA’s executive director has posted an open letter to YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar about its policies. The organization has shared the letter with WebProNews. Here it is in its entirety (minus the contact info):

Dear Mr. Kamangar:

I am writing on behalf of Mercy For Animals (MFA), a national, non-profit animal protection organization, to ask that you reinstate the “No Mercy – Calf Farm Cruelty Exposed” video on your website. The video can be viewed via Vimeo at www.MercyForAnimals.org/Calves.

Earlier this week, MFA received notification that our undercover investigation video documenting routine abuses of calves raised for the dairy industry at E6 Cattle Company in Texas had been disabled for violation of YouTube Community Guidelines. The notice states: “It’s not okay to post gross-out videos of accidents, dead bodies or similar things intended to be shocking, sensational, or disrespectful. If a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional educational or documentary context and information.”

In keeping with YouTube guidelines, as well as MFA’s mission to educate consumers about modern animal agriculture practices, the video includes documentary context and information in the form of quotes from workers at the facility, explaining why sick and injured calves are neglected without veterinary care, as well as a statement from world-renowned cattle welfare expert and advisor to the USDA Dr. Temple Grandin, condemning the cruel practices at this facility: “It is obvious that both the management and the employees have no regard for animal welfare.”

MFA strongly agrees that videos of cruelty to animals are shocking and disturbing, but in the context of helping to expose and eliminate animal abuse they are extremely important.

Consumers have a right to know how their food is being produced, especially when the production methods are shocking or disturbing, so that they can make informed choices. MFA’s “No Mercy” video opens a critical dialogue about animal use and abuse in our society, as well as pressing social and consumer issues. Without open dialogue in a free society, broken systems remain unchallenged and unchanged.

It seems an obvious contradiction that YouTube censors MFA’s efforts to expose and eliminate cruelty to animals, while continuing to allow highly sanitized meat, dairy and egg industry propaganda videos that promote killing animals for profit, and countless sensationalized prohunting videos that glamorize gleeful hunters mercilessly maiming and killing animals for “sport.” YouTube was awarded a 2008 Peabody Award and cited as “a ‘Speakers’ Corner’ that both embodies and promotes democracy.” Silencing one side of the debate over how farmed animals should be treated flies in the face of democracy. YouTube seems to be sending a message that hurting animals for fun or profit is acceptable but speaking out against such abuses is not.

We understand that the “No Mercy” video documenting E6 workers bashing in the skulls of calves with hammers and pickaxes, dragging them by their ears, standing on their necks, burning them, and neglecting them to die without veterinary care is shocking and horrifying to most people. The “No Mercy” video was posted on YouTube precisely to draw public attention to this important case and give people the opportunity to learn about and speak out against cruelty to animals, and to use their democratic voices to help pass laws to prevent such shocking and disturbing abuses from occurring in the future.

MFA’s groundbreaking investigations have a long history of leading to successful criminal prosecutions of animal abusers, raids of factory farms, corporate animal welfare policy reforms and increased legal protection for animals – all testament to the crucial role these videos play in preventing cruelty and educating consumers.

For example, as a result of our Conklin Dairy investigation that was widely viewed on YouTube and exposed animals being beaten in the face with metal pipes, repeatedly stabbed with pitchforks, having their tails broken, and being kicked, thrown, and punched by employees, a farm worker was arrested and charged with 12 counts of cruelty to animals, numerous dairy suppliers ended their relationships with the facility, support was generated for a statewide animal protection initiative, and consumers nationwide learned about the dark side of dairy production.

A 2009 MFA investigation at an egg farm in Maine, which was posted on YouTube, prompted the Maine Department of Agriculture and state police to raid the farm on grounds of cruelty to animals. Grocery chains nationwide dropped the farm as an egg supplier and, as part of a landmark civil settlement, the mega-farm pleaded guilty to 10 counts of cruelty to animals, agreed to pay over $130,000 in fines and restitution, and handed over authority to the state of Maine to conduct unannounced inspections of the facility for the following five years.

The “No Mercy” video posted on YouTube is part of MFA’s important mission to educate consumers and bring justice to animals who are routinely tortured and killed in factory farms and slaughterhouses. It is vital to our efforts to hold the E6 Cattle Company and its owner accountable for egregious cruelty to animals and that the public be able to access and disseminate this video.

We respectfully request that the “No Mercy” video be reinstated on YouTube as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Nathan Runkle
Executive Director

“It’s especially galling that YouTube removed the video at a time when legislators in several states (Minnesota, Iowa and Florida) are attempting to criminalize undercover investigations like MFA’s, which have exposed animal abuse, assisted law enforcement, and helped assure food safety,” the representative says. “Factory farms need more transparency and scrutiny, not less.”

Whatever your position is on all of that, the whole thing does raise questions about YouTube’s own strategy, particularly as it gets more into both citizen journalism and the movie business. As you know, movie content is also often disturbing. In fact, there’s a whole genre dedicated to that emotion. It’s called horror. Where will the line be drawn on that? Currently, the NC-17-rated “The Gore Gore Girls” is feature in YouTube’s movie offerings. It could definitely be considered a “gross out movie”. I’ve seen it. It’s by H.G. Lewis, if that tells you anything. He’s often credited as the “Godfather of Gore”.

Often, reality is more disturbing than fiction, and video is a big part of journalism. YouTube has encouraged citizen journalism, even starting its own citizen news channel. Will this be compromised if the footage isn’t family-friendly?

Currently, there is still a broadcast news clip featuring edited footage from the E6 investigation video on YouTube.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/should-youtube-have-banned-this-animal-cruelty-investigation-video-2011-04#respond

About Chris CrumChris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Will Bing Catch Google?

2011-05-09T01:40:00.000-07:00

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced today that Bing will be the default search on all BlackBerry devices – not only for the web, but at the OS level.

Can Bing catch Google in search market share? Tell us what you think.

On Bing’s Search Blog, Director Matt Dahlin writes:

Central to this collaboration, , Blackberry devices will use Bing as the preferred search provider in the browser, and Bing will be the default search and map application for new devices presented to mobile operators, both in the United States and internationally. Also, effective today Bing will be the preferred search and maps applications with regular, featured placement and promotion in the BlackBerry App World carousel.

Bing is also now shipping as the default search experience, and map app, for the newly released BlackBerry Playbook. Together, we’ll also market and promote the strength of our joint offerings as “Making better decisions with Bing on BlackBerry.”

These new experiences highlight how the mobile landscape is changing. Devices are becoming sensors that can provide real-time access to information to help people quickly complete tasks on the go. We’re going to see a convergence of search, commerce, social and location-centric services where Bing will provide the intelligence and the organizing layer in the cloud that connects a user’s intent with action, helping people be more productive.

For us, this goes way beyond a “search box” and links that rank URLs representing a set of web documents. For us, it’s about finding real tools that help real people get things done. Bing is about fast decisions, combining the topical graph with your social graph – as well as the geospatial graph – to connect the real world and the digital universe like never before. Doing this on mobile devices of all sorts is incredibly important to this effort, and our work with RIM will help both companies do great things for customers.

It seems that Bing’s presence as a search engine is just growing and growing. In addition to this BlackBerry news, Microsoft recently announced a partnership with Nokia, which will also see Bing (as well as the company’s Windows Phone OS) coming to all Nokia smartphones and tablets. These two deals alone should be absolutely huge for getting Bing as the default search for more users, particularly as the smartphone and tablet markets continue to grow.

The Nokia deal was just signed a couple weeks ago. “Microsoft will provide Bing search services across the Nokia device portfolio as well as contributing strength in productivity, advertising, gaming, social media and a variety of other services,” the announcement said. “The combination of navigation with advertising and search will enable better monetization of Nokia’s navigation assets and completely new forms of advertising revenue.”

Nokia, while a force in the mobile industry for years, has yet to really make its mark in smartphones and tablets. RIM, on the other hand is firmly entrenched already. There has been talk about falling interest in the BlackBerry brand, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. BlackBerry is still huge, it has a new tablet to compete with the iPad in the BlackBerry PlayBook, and RIM just made a slew of new announcements, including new BlackBerry Bold smartphones, a new version of the BlackBerry OS, and improvements to enterprise/business use of BlackBerry devices.

What if Apple were to drop Google and go with Bing as the default search for iOS? That would be an exceptionally huge blow to Google, and it’s no secret that Apple and Google have developed an increasingly rocky relationship since Google entered the mobile OS game with Android (not to mention Chrome OS). Last fall, it was revealed that Apple and Google had extended their search partnership, but will this last forever?

As Bing expands its presence, things haven’t been completely rosy for Google. Sure, the company made the top of the list in reputation, according to new Harris poll, but Google still faces ongoing scrutiny over competitive practices (a new probe is expected to launch soon from the Federal Trade Commission, which some say could effectively turn Google into the new Microsoft, if it goes against Google).

Complaints have been rampant, with regards to the quality of Google’s search results, though they have gone to great lengths in recent months to address this with things like the Panda update, a new domain blocking feature, and the unveiling of the +1 button. But frankly, the average is probably not too aware. The average user is not looking to see what Google’s doing to improve its results. They’re seeing the results that they see, and if they’re not satisfied, that “Bing” brand that they keep seeing on TV may start to creep into their heads.

That’s another thing. Microsoft has been spending a ton of money on marketing Bing since it was launched, especially on television. Google does very little to market its search engine. Sure, they had that Super Bowl spot, but when was the last time you saw a Google commercial?

And speaking of television, that’s not the only advantage Microsoft has here. In the battle for the living room, Microsoft clearly has a giant edge over Google thanks to the success of Xbox. Google TV has not had much success yet. If Microsoft were to make the Xbox more web-friendly, and it seems only logical that they will sooner or later, Bing will no doubt be heavily emphasized.

What’s something else that people seem to be gravitating to almost as much as TV? Just ask fans of All My Children and One Life to Live. It’s Facebook. Guess who has a search partnership with Facebook. Bing not only provides web search results to Facebook, but continues to integrate Facebook into its own search engine in various ways. Friends are an important relevancy signal, and for many people, Facebook is where there real friends are. As I’ve said repeatedly, Google’s search results will never be as good as they could be without Facebook integration. I know not all of you are convinced on that one, but I still believe it’s a crucial factor in the advancement in search (at least as long as Facebook is the dominant social network).

As you now, Bing is also powering Yahoo, which was Google’s main rival in search not that long ago. Google has said repeatedly that Bing is its main competitor.

Bing says its share of the search market has grown every month since it launched. Many signs point to it growing even more in the coming months. Google still has many redeeming qualities, and I will still not go so far as to say it’s not the best search engine. I still tend to go to Google first for most of my search needs.. That said, I’m not blind to the events unfolding around it.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/bing-vs-google-rim-blackberry-2011-05#respond

About Chris CrumChris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Business web site design needs deep understanding of the business

2011-05-04T23:31:00.002-07:00

The title itself I believe says about the focus of the following article and the direction in which it would be elaborated. People generally have a notion that business web site design involves displaying the information of the company on the web page. The company’s management generally does not spend much time with the web design company to discuss as to what should be on their website and what is the importance of each of its elements and how it is going to affect their image in the virtual world.

This I believe is very important from the perspective of the company and also from the perspective of Web Design Company as well. There are various elements of a business web site design, which bear a considerable amount of significance, and are equally capable of distracting a consumer from the site. These companies need to have all the knowledge about these elements. Some of the important elements include web design characteristics such as color and screen images, there exist user preference based on the design elements, other include Tools and resources include extra elements the web site has to make it more user friendly such as the help section, online chat with consultant, currency converter, calculator, world time and any other extra service which makes the entire shopping process more enjoyable for the customer.

When it comes to graphics, certain group might find certain graphics offensive and some other group might give an overwhelming response to the same. So one needs to be very careful in selecting these elements, especially when we are talking about business web site design, to make sure that they adhere to the personality of the organization and the image they wish to portray. Besides the graphics and images, colors too are important. Some cultures, religions, and countries prefer particular colors, while avoiding others. For example, Red connotes danger, and it may put off many people from a companies website. Likewise, Black too is not liked by many cultures and religions. A business and Web Design Company designing the site needs to understand these constraints if they want to attract the right clients and not put them off. A business web site design should not only have a proper structure, colors, graphics and images, but should also be easy to navigate.

"Gamit Web Design services" is one such web design company, which very well understands the concept of business web site design and the importance of capturing the corporate essence in their designs. They offer services to not only businesses but also to sports companies, professionals such as lawyers and also to E-commerce site. "Gamit Web Design services" believes in being passionate about their work and it is very much evident the way this web design company operates and comes up with innovative ideas not only for business web site design but also for other related categories which caters to with equal excellence and craftsmanship in creative field combined with robust programming as well. The company at present is offering premium rates for the templates so that the pricing issue does not restrain you.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1788935_4.html

Website Designing: Establishment Of World Wide Web

2011-05-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

Website plays a vital role on ecommerce. People get attracted towards a company online based on their website. It is natural that all people who access internet may not be technically sound.
These people will be giving importance towards the layout of the website rather than looking deep into the technology used to develop the website or the contents given in the website.

Therefore it is necessary to develop all the websites in such a way that it should remain user friendly for all the users. People from all over the world will get chance to access a particular website due the establishment of internet and World Wide Web all across the globe. Then it is very important to give all your creative writings in the simplest language possible as it will be easy for all those to understand about the website without much trouble.

A web designer is a person who develops a website. Due to the increasing demand on the web technology related applications, the web designers are of great demand. They should posses’ knowledge on all the web designing languages along with experience in handling database. The task of developing the web pages increases depending on whether it is going to be a static web page or dynamic web page. In a static web page, the contents will remain same and it can be updated only manually whereas in a dynamic web page you should include the feature of updating the contents automatically with a specific time interval.

Therefore certain additional features must be added for coding dynamic web pages when compared to static web pages. There are many companies around the globe dealing with web designing. Apart from this, there are also many freelancers who are working within their comfort on website designing. Many small and medium based companies are approaching the freelancers in developing a website for them as the expense involved through freelancing is low when compared to approaching a web designing company directly for the same tasks.

In fact these web designing companies are the one who converted internet into the largest network by attracting many users with many useful websites, information and many accurate details. This in turn provided the most efficient feature of performing online sales which has helped many in order to save money through many attractive offers and deals apart from the saving their precious time from wastage by traveling around for shopping. Now internet has turned to be a second home for many of us.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1788547_4.html

Tips for Speeding up Your Website

2011-05-04T23:30:00.001-07:00

Often when websites are designed, business owners think only of what they want to have on the website. Things such as speed, responsiveness and functionality often do not come into it unless you have an expert web designer giving you advice; however, these are important considerations. If a page on your website takes too long to upload, people looking at it might simply exit the site. Similarly, if when navigating to pages, it brings up errors then they may get frustrated and go to another website to find the information they are looking for. With these things in mind, here are a few tips on how to speed up your website.

Keep File Sizes Small

The more disk space there is to navigate through and the larger the files on your website, the longer they will take to upload. Text does not take up a large amount of disk space so you can use this to your advantage. The majority of your website should be made up of text. This is often also referred to as web copy. However, make sure that the text you place on your website is concise and clear so it retains the reader's interest. Pictures take up much more disk space and therefore should be used in moderation. A website where the pictures do not upload properly may as well not have pictures on it at all. Instead of enhancing the website, they will actually make it look unattractive or cause users to get frustrated with the website. Make sure that the file sizes are small. In this way, you can still have quality pictures on your website. When the files are small, pictures upload quickly which is what you want.

Limit Additional Graphics

Some people can get carried away with the number of animated graphics they have on their website. They design elaborate introductions to the website that take a considerable amount of time to upload. Remember that anything that slows down your website's functionality may not actually be enhancing it. Web users are getting so used to computers and websites that respond instantly to a click of a button. If it takes longer than that, they may get frustrated. Remember that most often if they are browsing the web, they are looking for information and less interested in fancy graphics. Focus less on impressing readers with your creativity and more on providing them with valuable information. Then you will have a website that is fast and efficient in bringing you more business.

Keep Your Website Clean and Updated

Take the time to properly maintain your website. It is important to keep updating and adding to your website so search engines find your website relevant. However, don't just keep adding to your website. Not all information will remain relevant. Clean out old files or put them in an archive section. This will help to keep your website clean and efficient. It will also help to keep it functioning at an optimum speed.

Keep Your Website Security Updated

Viruses are often the cause of systems slowing down or malfunctioning. It is essential to have adequate anti-virus protection. Regularly scan your website with your anti-virus software to ensure it is clean. Also make sure you update your anti-virus protection on a daily basis. New viruses are constantly being created and the only way you can ensure that you are protected is if you are diligent about downloading updates and scanning your website. Your hosting provider should also be vigilant about security on the server and provide you with an added level of protection.

Make Sure Your Server Has Adequate Capacity

If your website starts to grow rapidly, you may need to consider upgrading your web hosting package. Often businesses start out on a shared hosting package where their websites are hosted on a server together with other websites. These websites can affect the speed and responsiveness of your website if they too are operating at full capacity. In time, you may consider moving to a dedicated server where you will not need to share server space with anyone else. A dedicated server will improve the speed of your website and its functionality.

Use a Reputable Hosting Provider

Often a website's responsiveness and speed it affected by how well the server is maintained. A good hosting provider will be vigilant about maintaining the server and ensuring that there in minimal downtime. If your website is becoming increasingly slower, it may be time to shop around for a new hosting service provider that can provide you with more efficient hosting.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1789131_4.html

Two Facets of Website Design and Marketing – Either Time or Money

2011-05-04T23:29:00.002-07:00

The website designing and developing is not an exception. Cost cutting measures seem to have walloped the whole market. Businesses are not leaving any stone unturned for reducing their expenses. They want to reduce even the expenses for web designing and developing.
Some of the businesses have resorted to “Do It Yourself” (DIY) approach. The question is “Is this approach profitable?” Some of the several factors that need to be considered to justify the final answer to this question are as follows.

Time is money: Time is of prime importance for every business. In the DIY approach you get away with the expenses for hiring the services of a professional web site designer and instead put yourself in that slot. Now, how much time is it going to take for you to bring your website to the level that you want it to be? If you do not have any experience of this it may first takes months to study it and be perfect at it. It may take weeks for testing and monitoring the elements influencing the website efficiency. This could consume a lot of time. Are you going to devote time to your business or design the website?

Profit: At the end of the day what matters the most is the profit. If the current website is generating most of the revenue, a small mistake at website design could wreck havoc for your business. If your website is not performing well the influence of this kind of mistake could be less. It is obvious that a good website designed by a web site design company, can make your website a profitable investment.

Efficiency: If the website is already effective at drawing the prospective buyers and pull the traffic towards itself, the DIY approach can make your website susceptible of losing the traffic and finally the buyers of your products or services. On the contrary a bit of professional help can increase not only the traffic but also increase the revenue generated through your website.

Customers come first: Usually the DIY approach is time consuming. If you have a large clientele and large number of current clients, it is better to cater to their needs, rather than waste time at servicing the website yourself. In this case being preoccupied with the website may make you lose the clients and inflict heavy losses to your business.

Limited knowledge: If you know the web design technologies and strategies for website development the DIY approach can be feasible. On the contrary if you have limited knowledge the DIY approach could lead to wastage of time, money and energy. It could ultimately turn out to be a futile exercise accruing losses to your business account.
In these times it is always better to play safe and take professional assistance from reliable website designing and developing companies.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1790055_4.html

Common Logo Design Creation Mistakes Revealed

2011-05-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

Creating a logo is the job of a brand identity designer. It is not only a piece of graphic design, because your logo has a much bigger and vital role to play, i.e. represent your company locally and globally. All companies pay special attention to their logo in order to ensure that they create their brand identity attractively and professionally. After all, brand recognition is something all businesses strive for. Since your logo has a lot to do, it is not really easy to design it.

There are a lot of mistakes that designers make. We will now discuss what sort of mistakes you should avoid to ensure that you create an attractive logo which will perform its required function successfully.

Ambiguous Design:

If your logo is unable to convey the right message to the viewer, then it is not a good business logo. It is crucial that your designer creates a logo that actually conveys the proper message to your market. If your design is vague, then it will only harm the reputation of your business as well as your credibility. So, you must ensure that your logo represents your business correctly and professionally.

Copied Design:

If you use a stock image, then you will never be able to give a unique touch and look to your business. It is crucial that your Logo Design must always be unique, because only then it will create your business image in a unique and compelling way. A copied design will only ruin your credibility in the long run and you will mess up your business image. The damage might be so severe that you may not be able to undo it ever again.

Unattractive Design:

Your logo helps you create your brand identity and image. Therefore, it is always advisable that you hire a professional logo designer for this important job. An amateur designer won’t have any experience of the corporate world and, as a result, won’t be able to give a visually appealing and attractive yet professional touch to your logo. So, do not harm your business image by hiring an amateur and inexperienced designer, because they will only create an unattractive logo for you.

Unable to Resize:

A logo is used in different places to promote your business. This is why you may have to change the size of your logo from time to time. Raster images are not scalable and you won’t be able to change the size of your logo without affecting its quality. To ensure that the quality of your logo doesn’t get affected negatively, do not use raster images for your logo.

Complicated Design:

A complicated logo is not easily memorable. It will be difficult for your market to understand your logo as well as the message you intend to convey. You must ensure that your corporate identity design / logo design is simple, memorable, powerful and attractive.

So, folks, these are some of the common logo design mistakes that business and designers make. Ensure that you avoid them, always.

Claudia Winifred is a Brand Manager and also a content writer. She loves to write content for Logo Design & Website Design Companies.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1790057_4.html

Tips for Speeding up Your Website

2011-05-04T23:28:00.001-07:00

Create an Impressive Website with Flash Technology

2011-05-04T23:27:00.002-07:00

A website of an enterprise plays a crucial role in promoting the brand image of an organization over the Internet. The web pages of a company are accessible to the computer users in an enterprise. There are several ways to design the web pages of an enterprise in an attractive manner. A marketer can choose to present the web pages of a company in plain and static online pages. Another option can be by presenting the same with the help of flash technology.
With the help of flash technology, a marketer can easily prepare a website in a perfect manner. The flash makes the web pages interactive and impressive in nature. There are many types of online programs that are used for preparing web pages or website in flash technology. You can incorporate multimedia effects to the web pages. This makes the entire website attractive and interactive in appearance. Due to effects of animation or multimedia, the target visitors are able to grasp the right kind of message of an organization in a favorable manner. The computer tools present templates that provide a user with a collection of ideas to a customer. These computer tools are the programs that provide a user with a variety of features. One can easily and smoothly make a selection for the background color or shade for the web pages. A person can highlight company profile and can even present the message of a company by incorporating flash technology. A person can integrate a video of the chairman into the web pages of an enterprise for perfect presentation. You can use interplay of different shades for making the pages of a website impressive and attractive.

There are many different types of flash website builder tools available in the market for making a perfect presentation. Advanced and modified computer programs are the ones that are easy to use. A person can customize the background color, text, font style and other such features for perfect presentation.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1789708_4.html

Choosing the Right Web Development Company

2011-05-04T23:27:00.000-07:00

It is a reality that a website is compulsory to generate an internet existence. Though it is not sufficient to just create a website; it has to be encouraged, updated and maintained on a regular basis. It may not be possible for the webmaster to manage all web development work, as stated. To take care of this, a better solution would be to hire a web development company.

Now days, a website designing company is not only responsible to decide and give your website with a domain name and web hosting services. These companies are also involved in developing the site through marketing, advertising and promotion of the site, application creation and maintenance of various software developments and overall management of the website operations.

Many companies offer web development services, it is important that you choose the correct and most competent business. In essence, now a day the various web development companies offer various accessories for the industry. While choosing a web development company for your business, Choose a company that uses the latest technologies, as a result your site will be technologically updated by them. Some cases for some reasons your website may not be supported by some browsers, for maximum visibility your website should be supported by all the browsers. For this reason you should use the latest technologies in your website while developing it.

If you are planning to hire a web development company make sure that the company is having good reputation. Before hire a web development company, ask friends and family if they have used their services; how they liked it. If you don't know anyone who has used a web Development Company's services, just check the search on Google about the reputation and trustworthiness of the company. After choosing the website development company, before you assign your work to them explain them properly about your need.

It is better to take a look at the portfolio of the company to get an idea of their capability and capability. By doing this, if you don't find what you want to be realized in your website in the portfolio, it is better to first clarify once again if they will be able to provide to the web development needs of your website.

In addition to understanding your needs, a web developer must also decide the proposed visitors for the public website. This will help the web developer to decide what keywords should probably be used to the particular website to get more visitors. This examine effort must preferably be done before the web design phase of the website so that the right keywords can be rightly placed to increase the search engine ranking of your website.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1790387_4.html

Navigation Suggestions for Your New Web Design Project

2011-05-04T23:26:00.001-07:00

Web page navigation is the most essential aspect to think about although creating a website. The major aim for successful navigation is get your site visitors to stay in your website and also for guests to very easily come across what they are seeking for effortlessly and quickly. Designing effective navigation can also entice your guests to strive out the other things you provide on your web site
. In this write-up we will search at some of the fundamental guidelines you require to follow though planning the navigation of a website.
Successful Navigation Tips

Although designing the navigation for your web site keep the following points in mind:

* Organized Backlinks
Make certain your hyperlinks are properly organized according to the order of significance. Site visitors really should be very easily in a position to come across what they are searching for below various categories.

E.g. All our principal hyperlinks are discovered on the top i.e. our services, items,portfolio, resources and so on.Other fascinating backlinks are observed on the appropriate of the web page. These are prevalent and constant throughout the internet site.
Last but not least if the website web page belongs to a guidebook E.g net style and design manual you will locate the connected links beneath the correct menu and also at the bottom of the web page.

Notice: Associated hyperlinks are very essential as website visitors coming to a specific page will most likely be interested in a lot more data you have beneath the similar topic.

* Apparent and Distinguished
When you have determined on your navigation back links, you will need to believe of the very best spot to place them. Navigation really should be distinct and frequent. Attempt to design and style your navigation on the prime or on the left as these are the initial places our eyes go to. Also locate the main hyperlinks high sufficient on the web page so that they are visible with out scrolling. Navigation images ought to be seamlessly integrated into the internet site style and design. Avoid putting navigation inbound links at the bottom of the webpage as guests will require to scroll correct down to see the inbound links. If you like you could put the essential backlinks at the prime AND backside of the page just to make positive your readers don't miss the hyperlink.

* Constant
Navigation must be obvious and regular when you work on the web design of your new site. The critical back links of your site really should be on each and every web page, in the same location, and in the exact same sequence. Don't confuse your guests by placing your navigation back links in diverse areas in different pages.

* Straightforward to comprehend
Make your inbound links
straightforward to fully grasp and to the point. Usually you won't have adequate location to have extended hyperlinks so make use of the space wisely. Site visitors need to have to know where they will go on clicking on a certain hyperlink, so make confident your hyperlinks are understandable or nobody is going to click on your back links, which will defeat the purpose of creating a excellent navigation method.

Keeping these simple factors in thoughts when you are working with your Colorado web design company and you can go ahead and design an productive navigation method for your internet site. Take a appear at other sites to get some ideas on great navigation strategies! One more great idea would be to use eye-catching visuals and little chunks of details to draw site visitors to click on a link.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1785645_4.html

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