Your photos, your friends, your stuff…

According to Google, its service has been made even better “by including photos, posts, and more from you and your friends”. The changes are supposed to bring a personal touch to search – Google claims that results are now more relevant and personal to the searcher because they include content such as pictures, posts and videos from the user’s friends, family and colleagues.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Here comes the “but…”

But…

It massively favours content from its own Google+ networking site. Critics of the changes (and there are lots of them) are pretty livid that the search engine now automatically promotes content from Google+ higher up in the search listings than Twitter, Facebook et al. Understandably, other social networking sites have been voicing their disappointment with Google – Alex McGillivary of Twitter announced that it was “a bad day for the Internet”.

Filthy lies

Google claims that the changes only affect search when the user is signed in to an account on Google. However, there are reports that this is not the case, with Google+ content getting priority over other, more relevant content even in an incognito window (when there is no previous search history to influence results). Danny Sullivand of SearchEngineLand.com makes the case clear with his example of how an incognito search returns a “People and Pages on Google+” section, where “some of Google’s prime ad real estate is displayed, suggesting that searchers consider following Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg and Mariah Carey on Google Plus.”

‘Don’t be Evil’

One of the main reasons why Google is coming under fire for these changes is that they go against everything that the company claims to stand for – specifically, its unofficial corporate value: “don’t be evil”. Google claims that this ethic is a centre pillar of its identity, underlining the company’s commitment to acting in the interest of its users.

In 2004 the founders of Google spoke out about Google’s commitment to impartiality, stating that “Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective”.

Hmmmm…

*Breaking News* we’ve just learned that engineers behind Facebook, Twitter and Myspace have collaborated on a new browser extension designed to bypass Google’s algorithm. To read about the tool, go here. To try it yourself, go here.

What do you think? Here at Zeta the jury is still out on how this will affect search – use the comment section to share your views and we might just feature you in a forthcoming blog post!

A new Browser was born…

Google’s browser Chrome was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, the day after it was accidently announced prematurely. The beta version was followed by a public stable release in December that same year.

In September 2008, the open source web browser released a large portion of the source code, including its V8 JavaScript engine, as an open source project entitled Chromium. This move enabled third-party developers to study the underlying source code and to help port the browser to the Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.

World Domination?

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the world’s most popular browser but both IE and Firefox lost a great chunk of their global market share to Chrome during 2011. Last year Google was gobbling up market share at an impressive speed, going from 15% to 27% in one year.

According to current trends from Statcounter data, Chrome will overtake Internet Explorer in mid-2012. However trends from rival statistics provider Net Applications suggest we’ll have to wait until the end of 2013. The differences in trends and statistics are probably due to different ways of counting browser share. Exact figures put aside the trend points the same way, Chrome is definitely on its way up whilst both Firefox and IE’s market share is dwindling.

So what explains Chrome’s sudden rise to fame?

Fast, Simple, Secure and Stable are four adjectives that may explain Chrome’s popularity. In the past Chrome has been the first browser to release new impressive and user-friendly features.

Chrome is also taking over market shares in the business environment, which has always been a stronghold for Internet Explorer. The official Chrome MSI Package made Chrome easier to deploy in business, as it allows system administration control over the update process rather than invisible background updates. Chrome’s speed and stability also make it a preferred browser for web applications.

Chrome’s success may also be a result of heavy promotion by Google and interestingly enough it is worth to mention that they recently fell foul of their own rules on paid links. As a result Google’s own spam fighting team reduced the PageRankvalue of the Chrome home page for at least 60 days.

Despite this recent ‘mishap’ Chrome’s popularity is sure to grow this year, we are keeping a close eye on the trends and are also excited to see how Firefox and IE will fight back.

I’m asked “Why don’t you use the online versions?”

I do, particularly the FT.com but even when searching the online versions using the exact headline text invariably I can’t find the article. So if I can’t find them this way what chance would there have been for me to discover these articles if I hadn’t bought the paper version? Very little chance. My view is that the actual physical paper still works better than the on-line version viewed by PC or laptop.

The arrival of the tablet, particularly the iPad has the potential to change this downward spiral and halt the loss of traditional standards of journalism.

With the invention of the tablet newspapers aren’t just back; they are here to stay in a user friendly digital format which means that proper journalists once again have a great future. Tablets liberate the reader to browse and share content as opposed to having to search. That’s what newspapers are all about, laid back pleasure, finding the unexpected and reading stuff on a totally random basis. I can now do this on FT.com through the iPad. For me the same isn’t possible on the traditional newspaper web sites.

The tablet also offers another fundamental element to newspapers, much needed revenue. My point is shared by many and there has been a fear that good quality literate investigative journalism would all but vanish into a sea of syndicated mush on difficult to use web sites. With some modern journalists of the mind-set that Twitter, Wikipedia and personal blogs can substitute for proper research and actually getting to ‘the horse’s mouth’. Of absolutely critical importance is that people look on web site content as ‘free’ but fully expect to pay for content through a tablet. That’s a crucial difference.

So journalists sharpen up your pencils and go for it in the old style using the new technology. Also editors, what about re-introducing the once sought after and sadly missed Late Edition?

Last week Lord Sugar fired the one engineer from The Apprentice with the now familiar words “I have never yet come across an engineer who can turn his hands to business”.  Andrew Bounds, the FT Enterprise Editor, fueled the debate with his article “Sugar sounds off”.

Engineers are up in arms, some even appalled at Lords Sugars view.  But it has more than a vague ring of truth to it.  And what is the argument?  If it were reversed would pure businessmen be affronted if they were told that rarely do they make good engineers?  Of course not, business is business and engineering is engineering.  Great engineers should join forces with great business people and not fall into the trap of thinking because they are good engineers those undoubted skills are transferable into the necessary credentials of the successful business person.

Revolutionary and visionary ideas might not be readily appreciated or even understood by hard-nosed business people.  That’s when new ideas will need the dedicated engineer or designer to make personal sacrifices to take them forward.  So sometimes clever businessmen can miss the point entirely and be too concerned with the short bottom line.

In my experience engineers can often have a simplistic and almost patronizing view of the value of marketing.  Zeta has some very “turned on” clients that are engineering companies but to get them to that stage of understanding the value of marketing has taken a few years.  When they do finally get the message then they apply the engineers deadly logic to moving forward.  Today successful business marketing means the Internet, especially for engineers and their firms.

UK PLC has failed to recognize the value of engineers for decades.  Now is the time to change those stereotyped views and obsessions with financial services and the service industries.  Britain (and the USA) need to start manufacturing again and not just engineered products but a whole range of products.

Dan and Tim’s article identifies just two search terms one is ‘estate agents’. That term alone will only yield a fraction of the possible searches. It’s doubtful that many would search simply for ‘estate agents’. When all the possibilities such as ‘houses for sale’, ‘flats for sale’ etc plus the geographic terms are considered the list of relevant key phrases will grow hugely. Has the Bank followed this line?

Search data of this nature will be most powerful in indicating trends. Increased searches month on month will suggest that the market is ‘warming up’. And the records coming from the traditional sources will confirm (or not) the early indicators relayed through Google.

There are important messages here. Traditional organizations are ill advised to ignore the modern resources now available to help run businesses. The Bank of England is pointing the way but how many companies still have their heads firmly in the sand, even now? There are many examples of business failure that directly relate to a refusal to grasp the Internet opportunity. Businesses must make proper and realistic budgetary provision to use the Internet for a myriad of sound business reasons.

It’s so much more than ‘getting a quote’ for a new web site. The approach has to be totally strategic and all encompassing. Firms must select an agency that can lay out a properly planned approach that takes account of branding, message development, the practical aspects of the daily work and critically, attracting new business. The opportunities ‘online’ are mesmerizing. All businesses need an agency in place that can make it all work. Identify the gaps, relate to the company, its staff, its customers and critically all the firms and people out there that aren’t customers.

However it is essential that sight of the many benefits still relevant in the ‘old world’ are not lost. Many of the old ‘givens’ should be retained, integrated and combined with all the new ways of working. Analyzing and synchronizing all the information at the very least will double its value.

Twitter has proved to have tailored an unbeatable formula which is original, evolving and, as it has proven recently, above the law. This recent hive of press has seen Twitter gain record numbers of sign-ups, from both individuals and businesses alike. But with new companies and businesses joining Twitter every day, how can you stand out from the crowd? Here is a look at a few brilliant campaigns of late…

Moonfruit

When Moonfruit turned 10 years old they gave away 10 MacBook Pros in return for a tweet including the hashtag #moonfruit. The hashtag reached the number one spot and remained there for three days. The campaign resulted in Moonfruit’s website experiencing 12 times its normal amount of traffic; they also claimed 2.5 per cent of all tweets during its peak, for only £9,000. Simple, easy and effective, this is a perfect example of how to use Twitter at its best.

The Feed from Orange

The Feed is not specifically a Twitter campaign, but it does integrate the service perfectly. Tagged as ‘adventures around the internet’, the campaign consists of a mass of games, competitions, quizzes and oddities, most of which have been launched via Twitter, some of which have then gone viral. Orange have committed themselves to launching a new ‘adventure’ every week, a massive undertaking but with anything from 12 to 1000 comments on each post, its definitely worth it.

Ben and Jerry’s Fair Tweets

As a company so focused on fair trade, Ben and Jerry’s had to come up with something original to promote World Fair Trade Day. The result was Ben and Jerry’s Fair Tweets, a platform that allowed users to input their tweet as normal then any unused characters are ‘donated’ to World Fair Trade Day. So far over 480,000 characters have been donated to the cause.

However, as a consequence of Panda some legitimate sites have seen a fall in their rankings. On the 12th April, Panda was subsequently rolled out to all English language queries, bringing its effects to the UK.

Low quality content is considered to be anything that is superficial, copy and pasted, unoriginal or unhelpful to users. Content such as this tends to come from sites known as ‘content farms’, for example ‘How To Wiki’s’ or article directories.

The Guardian and SEOmoz have recently reported that since Panda’s introduction sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Linkin and Mashable have all seen a rise in their ranking across a variety of search terms. However, sites such as Computer Weekly, Hubpages and very surprisingly, Play have seen their rankings drop and their site fall from the first two pages across some search terms, and as many of us know past page two can mean out of sight, out of mind.

The Guardian stated that sites that have fared well from Panda are sites that people spend a long time reading the pages of. Google has always stressed the importance of high quality, original content when attempting to rise up in the rankings, and with the introduction of Panda this is even more important. Creating fresh content is one of the simplest and most effective techniques any site has at its disposal. Blogs, press releases and well optimised pages can all contribute to keeping visitors reading your pages for longer.

Here at Zeta we closely monitored the effect the Panda update had in the US search results, and then in turn the effect it had in the UK. We understand how important a high Google ranking can be to any business, therefore we know how difficult it can be if those rankings fall. If you are concerned about how Panda could affect your ranking why not contact us and see how we can offer your site a SEO health check.

Even though IE9 has been wildly hailed as a sign Microsoft are stepping up their game, it still wasn’t enough to fend off the young competition from Firefox 4 which gained 7.1 million downloads in its first day. As well as faster loading, increased privacy and stronger security, the new Mozilla browser includes improvements to HTML5, including WebM video, CSS3 and javascript. It also includes access to hardware accelerated graphics (on Windows) which offers users faster graphic rendering and thus more complex gaming which can run within the browser. Unlike IE9, Firefox can also be run with Windows XP which is one of the widest used operating systems.

Microsoft’s past browsers have suffered disappointing reviews from the tech community, however IE9 was considered by many as a big step forward and within its first day generated 2.3 million downloads. Just as with Firefox 4, IE9 includes vastly improved HTML5 which includes a plugin for WebM,CSS3, javascript and access to hardware accelerated graphics. However the improvements were just not enough to catch up the likes of Mozilla who have long been streaks ahead.

CNET has recently issued a report detailing how each browser stood up in a head to head test on boot time, memory usage, Javascript and HTML5 performance. Even though the results are close and IE9 received an honourable mention, Firefox 4 just sneaks ahead of its competitors. Check out the full report here.

After being quashed in the downloads race, IE9 suffered further bad press after the reports emerged that some early adopters were suffering problems with Google Maps embedded into sites, however now this glitch seems to have been ironed out.

However, regardless of the overwhelming success of Firefox 4, Mozilla has slowly been losing their market share. The decrease in Firefox users can almost wholly be contributed to the growing use of Chrome, which has shot from a 1% share to 10%.

IE9 is a much celebrated step forward for Microsoft, although unfortunately it seems they have fallen so far behind their competitors they will continue to play catch up for a while. Bring on Chrome 11 and let the battle continue we say.

Quick Response codes can simply be explained as a 2D barcode, which when read with a mobile phone camera or web cam will create a link to a piece of online content such as a site, article or video. The matrix for QR codes was created by the Denso-Wave Corporation from Japan in 1994, as it stands no license fee needs to be paid so QR codes are available to anyone wishing to use them. The web is full of sites that will create personal QR codes for any specified link, meaning anyone can now add a QR code to their correspondence.

As well as linking online content to an offline audience, Quick response codes can contain any degree of information such as names, numbers, addresses and email addresses. Their ability to hold this type of information as well in theory makes them the perfect addition, or even alternative to a business card.

Although growing in use throughout the advertising industry, QR codes have yet to firmly take off as they require the user to download the QR reader app in order to access the information held within them. Unfortunately the codes themselves are not that pretty, and the more information you want to store within them the bigger they need to be. With such large proportions of offline budgets going to art direction, will designers be willing to allow such an intrusion?

Linking offline and online is an invaluable service for marketers, yet we can’t help but think until they advance in functionality or develop aesthetically they may not ever grow from gimmick to mainstream.

The Like Button

As well as simply recording the number of actual likes, the new analytics tool allow website owners to monitor the amount of traffic coming from Facebook in real time. This means they can now track how the placement of the like button affects user interaction immediately instead of having to wait a day as before.

The Comment Box

A few weeks ago, Facebook launched a new comments plug in, the new Insights provides information about various on-site and in-feed impressions. Some critics however have publicaly wondered what use this will be to marketers.

The Page

Facebook extended Popular Pages so it now shows the top 100 pages people are interacting with, whether that’s liking, sharing or commenting on. With real-time reports and additional granularity, Facebook can now offer marketers a more in-depth view of what makes a page popular.

The People

Insights can now supply demographic information about the people conversing with a site, allowing agencies to tailor content even more precisely. The data is recorded for those interacting with the site as opposed to those just visiting and, contrary to popular belief, the information stored does not violate the privacy of the user.

The Point

Facebook Insights was originally developed to follow those sites using social plug ins, but now those that aren’t using plug ins can see how their sites are being shared via status updates and wall links. Meaning everyone can see how their site is being shared via the social network.

Is your Facebook page up to date or could you do more? Why not email info@zeta.net or tweet @ZetaAgency and see how we can make your Facebook page perform better?