Google Announces Instant Pages, Loads Results Before You Click

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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