Google Fined in France For Abusing Dominant Position

Things are not really going Google’s way in the first weeks of January so it seems. At least, if you look at the outside perspective of things. From the inside they did some pretty nifty things with the launch of Search Plus Your World for example.

From the outside however we have seen complaints about privacy, complaints about abusing their own products to push their own products and many other little hick ups which led us to think Google might be trying to kill themselves.

In the series of ‘ouch that hurts a little’ Google can add another to the list. A ruling Tuesday in a Paris court found Google guilty of abusing the dominant position of Google Maps. … Continue Reading

Google+ Now Available For Teenagers

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. … Continue Reading

Google Confirms Panda Update 3.2: A “Data Refresh”

SEO’s have been noticing fluctuations again over the past week or so, suggesting that another Panda Update might be around the corner. Today Google has confirmed to SearchEngineland they indeed have done a new ‘Panda Update’, which is numbered as being Panda Update 3.2.

Searchengineland says Google has confirmed that they have done a ‘data refresh’ about a week ago. This means that there were not made any algorithmic changes, just another run through by Google, a so called ‘minor update’.

The last Panda Update was from last November and that was also a minor update. Google did the last bigger update in October.

Larry Page Tells Employees: Understand Search Plus Your World or Leave

Google launch of Search Plus Your World now two weeks ago (how time flies) has lead to a lot of discussion on different levels. There is the “do we want to get this much personalized?” question, there is the FTC “is Google favoring their own products too much” question and there is a privacy question floating around, but most of all its the “Has Google turned Evil?” question.

The mantra which used to define Google, ‘do no evil’ seems to have turned against them on the public opinion, or at least that of the tech industry. That could really hurt Google as a brand, but there is one other area in which Google could be hurting: the employees. Are the happy with Google changes? And what if they’re not, does that matter? One thing is clear for them it’s: follow the leader (Page) or leave. … Continue Reading

When Larry Met Sergey – Interactive Infographic

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. … Continue Reading

What Google Revenues Might Mean to the SEO Industry

Last week Google announced that their Q4 revenue in the UK surpassed $1 billion. While this didn’t impress Wall Street a great deal it does show that ad spend in the UK search sector is very healthy indeed. See a breakdown of international numbers here. Another interesting stat that was corroborated widely by many PPC agencies was that the number of clicks rose significantly in the fourth quarter yet the amount they charged per click fell by 8%. So what does all this mean to the SEO industry?

In my opinion SEO is still very much the poor neighbour of the search market. SEO traffic is often viewed as “free” traffic which simply isn’t the case, it needs budget to deliver outstanding results. The fact that you can measure the ROI similarly often also lands on deaf ears. Adwords, it seems, is an easier sell yet in most cases a solid SEO campaign will deliver far more ROI than a similar budget placed in PPC. A client may not get full value in the first month but once the traffic intersects it keeps growing unlike the fairly flat curve that a PPC campaign often generates. I’m not going to turn this into a SEO vs. PPC post though, they both work. … Continue Reading

Google Adds Nicknames to Google+ (Not Pseudonyms!)

When Google first launched Google+ there was a lot of rumor about the ‘real name policy’ which Google uses. You are only allowed to sign up to Google+ (and now to all Google products at once) with your real identity. Using a pseudonym is not allowed.

Google now launches a new feature to Google+ which will allow users to add a nickname to their Google Profile. Note though that the nickname is not the same as a pseudonym. Setting up an anonymous Google+ account will still not be possible. … Continue Reading

Ads As An SEO Factor: Oh No, Do I Have Too Many Ads?

Editors note: this is Bryant Dunivan’s first official post as State of Search blogger. He did a guest post before but will be on as a regular from now on. Welcome Bryant!

With Google’s recent algorithm change, many webmasters will be wondering how it will affect them in both the short and long term. This update sees webpages being judged based on how easy it is for the searcher to find the content that is highlighted on the search engine results page (SERP).

What is most interesting about this update is that it is estimated to play a role in only 1% of searches. We do know two things about Google’s estimates though: 1) They are sometimes wrong, and 2) What starts small can turn into a big portion of your SEO strategy. … Continue Reading

Show Me The Money: Google’s Earnings in 2011

Google is not only the biggest when it comes to users, it’s also (one of) the biggest when it comes to money. There is a lot of money going around. Where does all that money come from? Part is adsense off course, but who spent the most?

This infographic from Wordstream gives us some insight. Turns out the finance & insurance industry spent the most, followed by retailers & general merchandise and travel & tourism. … Continue Reading