Posts About ‘Google’

Facebook Behind Whisper Campaign Against Google

hand-knife.jpg (215×208)

Earlier this week I reported about a “whisper campaign” which had been set up against Google by PR Company Burson-Marsteller, trying to get media outlets to report about privacy issues around Google’s social circle and Gmail. The whisper campaign backfired at Burson-Marsteller when the story came out on USA Today.

At that time the client which had hired Burson-Marsteller to set up the campaign was unknown. We immediately thought of companies like Microsoft, Apple or Facebook. But Burson-Marsteller was smart enough to mention them too in their e-mails as being companies who were dancing around on thin ice when it comes to privacy matters. Now is revealed, and confirmed, that it was indeed Facebook that had hired Burson-Marsteller. The reason? Google tried to use Facebook data for their search results. (more…)

Everyday compassion at Google: presentation by Google’s Chade-Meng Tan

Google is not only looked at because of their search techniques, or their advertising skills, or all the different products they have out there already, they are also looked at from a Human Resource point of view. Working at Google is supposedly something very special. One of the people behind that ‘success’ is Chade-Meng Tan. He was of Google’s earliest engineers and is now Google’s “Jolly Good Fellow”: the head of personal.

Chade-Meng Tan was invited to speak at one of the TED Conferences. This one is in New York, in the UN building. He talks about how Google practices compassion in its everyday business.

PR-Company Supposedly Started Whisper Campaign Against Google

whisper

The world of PR is a strange one. Some might think it is nothing more than sending out a few press releases. It however is a lot more than that. And it also has a dark side to it. PR agencies also are very well versed in lobbying. Trying to get politicians to vote a specific way or trying to get journalists to write about a specific topic. Now that sometimes can get into a grey area. Because the ways to get people to vote or write in a specific direction differ very much.

PR company Burson-Marsteller doesn’t have the best name in the market when it comes to campaigns like this. And it now seems as if they tried to ‘nail’ Google on privacy matters using a so called “whisper campaign” (Wikipedia: “a method of persuasion in which damaging rumors or innuendo are spread about the target”). They tried to get several top media outlets in the US to write news stories and editorials about how Google was invading privacy from Americans using their Social Circle features. (more…)

Google is Testing New Search Result Pages, Opinions on Twitter differ

SERP-Test-change-may2011

Google has been making quit some changes to its SERPS in the past months, most of which we reported on here on State of Search. Only a few days ago we highlighted some tests Google was doing.

And just when the ink is dry Google decides it is time for yet another “test”. This time a little bit bigger then the others though, if we can believe our sources but also those on Twitter, which are with a lot more. Many people are spotting a new way of presenting the search results. The comments differ, but in general people think they are ‘ugly’.

The biggest change we can see from the screenshots going around Twitter (I haven’t spotted this in the wild myself yet) are the not-underlined results which we talked about earlier this week, much more “white” on the page and in some cases a dotted line between the results. (more…)

Retargeting: a blessing or a curse?

google-ads-following

A few days ago Google released a piece of research celebrating the success of AdWords Remarketing, the retargeting functionality of the Google AdWords advertising program. They included some success numbers from different advertisers, showing increases in conversions, cuts in costs-per-conversion and higher click-through-rates at lower costs per click. Other impressive numbers Google released include the reach of 84% of the people on remarketing lists accounting for advertising impressions to over 500 million Internet users worldwide. It’s fair to say retargeting is a blessing according to Google.

However where Google is happy about Remarketing some users are not. A search in Google Realtime for “google ads following me” shows a lot of users complaining about being chased around the web by Adwords ads. It’s a sound a hear a lot around the web. (more…)

Understanding and Controlling your Social Connections

social-circle

This is a guestpost by Dean Cruddace, who is an SEO consultant and managing director of SEO Begin Ltd, a North East UK SEO provider since 2001. We got to talk about Profiles showing up in search results and more based on a recent post here on State of Search. Dean was kind enough to share his thoughts and experiences with us on the matter.

Your social connections to you are a click of a button to follow someone/a business/or a product of interest. It’s a less than a second action. We know why we do it. (more…)

Bing’s Photosynth View on the Royal Wedding: very nice

photosynth-wedding

At State of Search we have decided to take a closer look at the differences between Bing and Google when it comes to current events. Yesterday we explored the differences on reporting the death of Osama Bin Laden and last week we looked at the Royal Wedding. One thing we didn’t really take into account is other services that both Google and Bing explore, like the special YouTube-channel Google had set up.

Microsoft (Bing’s boss so to speak) now releases something around the Royal Wedding using their service Photosynth, of which I am personally a big fan. The service, which also is used in Bing Maps for example, has gathered photo’s from the Royal Wedding and has placed them in a very nice interactive Photosynth set. The images were taken by the Press Association and putten together using Photosynth. OK, it is not search, but it is very nice to see and use. (more…)

State of Search top 10 posts for April 2011

10-most-read-on-state-of-search-april-2011

There is a lot of great content being published on State of Search. You might not ‘catch’ them all. So here is an overview of the best read posts which were published in April 2011.

1. Behind the Code in the Hoxton Hotel’s £1 Sale – by Sam Crocker
2. Google puts your address in the SERPS, shows it to your social circle – by Bas van den Beld
3. Pouring Water on the Panda – UK Observations and Data Cautions Regarding Price Comparison – by Nichola Stott
4.The ultimate social media cheat sheet (infographic) – by Bas van den Beld
5. Link Building – Don’t Just Throw Mud Against a Wall – by Guest post by @paddymoogan)
6. Bing’s European boss Cedric Chambaz: “Search is a very personal experience” – by Bas van den Beld
7. Dark Patterns: how “Black Hat design” can influence behavior – by Bas van den Beld
8. More Lessons from The Hoxton Hotel’s £1 Sale – April 2011- by Sam Crocker
9. Linkdex review: a tool as your new SEO assistant – by Bas van den Beld
10. Day to day SEO for Content Producers: The Story of Karen Gillan’s Underwear – by Annabel Hodges

Follow our Twitteraccount and subscribe to our RSS Feed to stay up to date with all the latest articles on State of Search! (more…)

Osama Bin Laden killed: how did Google and Bing respond?

Osama-intro

Last week I started with a series in which I am looking at the differences between Bing and Google: which one is actually better? After all, Bing seems to be doing well, although there are some doubts about that. I decided to take a look at the both of them based on current events. So “hot stuff” which anyone could be searching on. The question then is: which one of them handles the current affairs the best? Which one offers me the most relevant results and which one is the most user friendly?

Last week the first comparison was made based on the Royal Wedding. There Google seemed to win it based on the quality of the page in general, but Bing did a better job when it came to user friendliness. Today we can already look at another current event which shows differences between the two: this morning news broke that Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Forces. This off course immediately led to many reactions world wide. I took a look at how Google and Bing reacted. This time not with a video, but in text. (more…)

Page 41 of 53« First...102030...38394041424344...50...Last »