I think most of us use Google Webmaster Tools to get extra information about websites and to add different kind of sitemaps. For some years now it’s possible to add extra users to a specific website in Webmaster Tools so that they can see the collected data to, edit settings, etc. At first it was a big hazzle to add new uers but since the beginning of March 2010 this is easy to do by just adding somebodies email address. (more…)
Google has added more concert information to the search results. When you search for a specific artist, information about upcoming concerts can be shown right under the official website of the artist you were looking for. Google only shows this information if an upcoming event will take place in your area, otherwise the information won’t appear.
In the screenshot below you can see the information directly below the Black Keys (an American rock band) website. The first concert will take place on Friday, May 4 in the Oracle Arena in Oakland. Below the location there are links to websites where you can find more information and buy tickets. By clicking the little ‘plus’ icon you can show more upcoming concerts in your area from, in this case the Black Keys. (more…)
Last year when Google introduced Google+ Pages Google also introduced badges. Badges can be easily generated and embedded on a website to show you are a member and to get people to ‘follow’ you. As a company this gives you a way to offer your visitors a quick way to let them add your page to their circles.
Until now the badge was only suited for companies and brands but now Google has made a new badge specifically for personal profiles. So if you have a personal website and, of course a Google+ profile, you can embed a badge now so that visitors of your website or blog can add you to their circles. (more…)
Last week I attended Search Engine Strategies London (Full coverage by other State of Search Bloggers here) so I wasn’t directly able to post about this but I think it was remarkable enough to do it now.
We’ve seen before that Google is pushing Google+ to new users by requiring them to sign up for the social network when signing up for a new Google account. Now spotted by Twitter user Robert Matei is a experiment where Google tries to push Google Wallet to new users. When registering for a new Google account Google will ask in the third and final step if you want to also sign up for or connect to Google Wallet. As you can see in the screenshot below you can enter your credit or debit card on the right but there is also an option to skip this step. (more…)
As you know Google recently made serveral changes to the interface. At first a revamped navigation was launched and rolled out last year but later Google decided to pull back the new interface. After giving it some thoughts earlier this month the company introduced a combination of the current black bar and the new interface launched in November last year. This new interface is here to stay (at least for now).
But where the new menu, which could be reached through the Google logo is not in the desktop versions of products anymore Google still tries to keep it, but then on the mobile version. In a new experiment a new interface was spotted for Google Mobile. In the screenshot you can see that the menu with links to several products is opened by hitting the Google logo. You can view more products by clicking the “More” link. (more…)
Google will soon slightly change the way the current +1 button works. Since last year August you can share pages on Google+ via the button embedded on a website.
Ever since this was added you have to click on the button first to give the +1 after which you have to click again in to the share box to be able to share the post with your own circles on Google+. This is of course a unnecessary extra click to share a page and Google realized this to. Therefore the behavior of the button will be changed on short notice which means that you only have to click once to share an article.
After clicking the button a popup will appear immediately next or above the button where you can select the right circles and add a optional description. This way the button functions more like the buttons from Twitter and Facebook but you will always have the last step to select circles before you can share. Since we are part of a test group you can already see how this works on our site, just check the +1 button above (and compare that with other sites for example).
Currently the change is only available for people who signed up for this Google+ Platform Preview but the change will be live to all users soon.
Google recently started a new program in collaboration with Knowledge Networks called Screenwise which lets people browse the web while getting payed for it. The idea behind Screenwise is that Google wants to learn more from internet users to improve their own products and services to make a better online experience for everyone.
People who already applied for the program and are part of it don’t have to do much. A few things are required in order to join. First, a participant will have to use Google Chrome as their default browser and in addition to that its required to install a special extension for the browser so Google can collect the data, like for example all the sites that are visited. You also must have a Google account (which makes sense) and you have to be at least 13 years old. (more…)
It looks like that Google can’t decide which navigation works best for everyone, the old black navigation bar or the new navigation announced in November. Now a few months after the new navigation was introduced, Google still uses both interfaces together which is a little annoying when using different Google products and browsers. (more…)
Recently I wrote about a very nice tool called Mouseflow which can be used to easily track the movements of visitors on a website. Mouseflow has now offered us some recordings to share with our readers. And who are we to say no to something our readers benefit from right?
If you want to give the tool a try you can sign up for a free account, after you added the Javascript code you have 100 free recordings per month. These 100 recordings aren´t much and so if you have more than 100 visitors per month you will run of out these recordings very quickly.
Bradley Horowitz, Vice President Product Management Google+, has announced that teenagers are now allowed to sign up for the network. This means that Google+ is now open to a whole new group of potential users because before this announcement you’ve had to be at least 18 in order to join.
In most countries you now have to be at least 13 to use the service. In some countries the minimum age is higher, in the Netherlands for example it’s 16 and in Spain and South Korea 14. These are now the same requirements Facebook has when it comes to age regulations. (more…)
Online PhD made a interactive infographic which starts with “When Larry Met Sergey”. The guide, embedded below takes you through the history of Google highlighting al the major milestones starting at the moment that Larry (22) and Sergey (21) meet at Stanford University in 1995 when the internet just had 16 million users. (more…)
We all know classic titles in the search results like “New Page 1″, “Untitled Document” or simply just “Home”, these are titles for which Google could decide to replace with a more descriptive title. In a blog post Webmaster Trends Analyst Pierre Far explains the reasons why Google might replace the original title of a page in the search results with an own generated title.
Normally titles have to be unique and need to describe what the content of a page is about in 70 characters max. But even if a single title is written the right way it’s not always the best one for all search queries. That’s why in some cases Google uses algorithms to decide if a title is good enough or if it’s better to replace it with a alternative title that’s more relevant to the query. (more…)
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