Posts on State of Search about ‘Google’

Renewed Google Profiles: waiting for the integration in Universal Search

google-profiles-logo

At SES London I was talking to some very nice people from Microsoft. They asked me: is there a way we can make Bing work in Europe? Well, there are several ones off course, like for starters make it work in Europe! But I also mentioned people search. People search you say? Yes, people search.

The most done searchtype on any search engine is without a doubt the “ego search”, searching for your own name. But that is not what I’m directly talking about. What I mean is people searching for your name. Because that happens a lot too.

What if you could actually manipulate what people would be able to see as the first result on your name? Sort of like an overview page which tells the searchers who you are and where on the web they can find you? I can hear you think: a Google Profile you mean? Yes in a way I mean that, wouldn’t it be great to have that on the top of the results. That’s what I suggested Bing would do, play the ego-card so to speak. (more…)

Matt Cutts: one of 2011 strategies should be Social Media

Matt Cutts answers questions on the GoogleWebmasterHelp channel. In this question he answers a question about what to do with your strategy in 2011. He names the obvious ones: speed, control of the CMS, internal linking and internal education. But he ends with a big one: social media marketing. He doesn’t say Social Media is part of the algorithm though, just that it influences readers and possible bloggers.

Instant previews on mobile searches on Google

instant-previews-mobile

One of Google’s main goals is to do more when it comes to mobile. Not just by getting Android bigger and bigger and gathering data through mobile, also by improving the mobile experience in search.

Yesterday Google has made another step in improving that mobile experience by introducing Instant Previews on the mobile. We already know the Instant Previews from the web, but now you can navigate even faster on mobile also. (more…)

Google buys BeatThatQuote and is buying its way into the comparison market (Update)

apples-oranges

Comparison, it has one of the hottest subjects on the web for years. Try to compare a holiday and you’ll find tons of comparison websites. Try to compare one loan to another one and you will experience the same.

With Bing becoming a ‘decision’ engine it was only a matter of time before Google would be entering the market of comparison sites. After all, isn’t a search engine already a kind of comparison website?

With the acquisition of UK price comparison site BeatThatQuote (for £37.7m) Google has made a next step into the comparison market. And the game is on now. Sites like Go Compare and Compare the Market, who are now the major players, gained a huge competitor overnight. And if things go as planned for Google, within months they will be a major player on the comparison area for both financial and travel products, not surprisingly enough two areas which has a lot of money going around. But Google is moving on thin ice here.

<See update halfway through the post>

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Why Bing will be trailing on Google and why it should hook up with Apple and Facebook

Windows-7-Mobile-Phone

Bing is doing well, at least, in the US it is. The latest numbers by Comscore show us that Bing increased its share of searches by 1.1 percentage points last month and Statcounter noted that Bing had outgrown Yahoo, but was still trailing on Google.

Bing is not sitting still either, with their expansion to France and new additions to their search results like flight auto suggest and more personalized search options with the extension of the like-data in their search results.

So Bing is doing well, I personally also want them doing well, because I believe we could (especially in Europe) use some more competitiveness. Still, I fear that Bing will be trailing on Google for quite a while and might never even ‘catch’ them. Why? The reason lies in the combination of mobile and personal. Let me explain.

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Did Google’s algorithm change misfire? Mahalo fires 10% of staff

in-the-face

There have been written many stories about Google’s most recent algorithm update. The update, which was named “Farmer update” by Searchengineland was supposedly aimed at content farms, websites which deliver low quality content based on ‘copied’ pages.

Many sites in the US were ‘hit’ by this update. It was supposedly cleaning up the SERPS, but it seems as if Google has been cleaning up a little bit too much in some cases. An article in Wired shows that there are many sites which feel that they deliver quality content did get hit by Google big time, maybe even unfairly. (more…)

Google again making (small) changes to SERPS?

website-build-reviews

It is not a surprise that Google keeps working on the look of the SERPS. In a year you will be able to see over 400 changes, which means that more than daily there will be something different on a Google SERP page. You just might not notice it. But lucky for us, a lot of SEOs do notice.

Today I’d like to highlight two changes which were spotted in the UK by two UK SEOs, Andrew Girdwood and Matt Sawyer. They spotted some sort of ‘how to’s’ and related searches in different categories. Both yet more elements which are put in Universal search. (more…)

Google Futuresight: Hotpot, AdWords and Robotic Cars

google-robot-car

This is a guestpost by Brandon Moreau – Webmaster for Citiguarda Sydney Security Company, and DelMonico Hatter, seller of Borsalino hats for over 100 Years. Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily State of Search. This article is the second of a series dealing with privacy, technology, and where we are all headed. Read part one here.

Brandon is simultaneously a Technophile and Techno-skeptic. He is an avid reader of Stateofsearch.com and is grateful to Bas for the opportunity to guest post on this topic.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Well ok, where do we go from here? What’s the true future of Search? (At least, my best guess?)

It’s fascinating to me, I’ve heard Eric Schmidt reference this more than once: “If you have a billion people using a platform, someone will find a way to monetize it.” (more…)

More Social Elements in Google Search: Twitter not Facebook is the direction

Google-social

Google is taking it step by step, a very different way than we are used to in this digital era, but slowly but surely Google’s social face is becoming more visible. The latest additions to the Google search results are yet again another signal of Google’s social efforts.

Googles Social Search has been around for a while now (since 2009) but is only showing a small amount of social elements. Social results coming from tools like Twitter for example, were until now not a very big part of the search result. Google now has started to mix social results, from for example Twitter or blogs, with other results. (more…)

Google Futuresight: The Future of Privacy Rights

watching-you

This is a guestpost by Brandon Moreau – Webmaster for Citiguarda Sydney Security Company, and DelMonico Hatter, seller of Borsalino hats for over 100 Years. Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily State of Search. This article is the first of a series dealing with privacy, technology, and where we are all headed.

Brandon is simultaneously a Technophile and Techno-skeptic. He is an avid reader of Stateofsearch.com and is grateful to Bas for the opportunity to guest post on this topic.

So, what does the future hold?

One of the favorite pastimes of SEO specialists the world over has got to be the art/science of Google speculation. Like extremely dense chocolate cake, however, it is not always advisable to indulge in it to overdose, and there is a significant chance that doing so may result in headaches, nausea, and the definite feeling of quiet overwhelm at forces beyond your control. (more…)

Google takes on Apple with Google One Pass

Google-One-Pass

Where Apple is testing the patience and willingness of publishers by asking, no demanding, a big cut of the subscription fees for iPad apps, Google is taking the opposite direction. The service which Google today announced, Google One Pass, is in fact trying to give publishers everything they want.

At the Humboldt University in Berlin Eric Schmidt today announced the launch of this service. The way the new service is promoted by Google is a clear signal towards Apple: “Our goal is to provide an open and flexible platform that furthers our commitment to support publishers, journalism and access to quality content.” (more…)

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