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…)
State of Search
Posts About ‘News’
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. (more…)
A New Push For Google+, Is Google Going After Quora?
Ok, I won’t be repeating it too much, but it is true. Google is pushing Google+ in every possible way they can. Google+ is the center of attention for Google, and they will try anything to get people to use the service.
Since last week Google has found a new way of getting peoples attention towards Plus, with an interesting side effect: it might threaten services like Quora. (more…)
Google Closing Social Graph Won’t Affect Google+ Social Connections
There are many products developed or bought at Google. Most of the products come from the famous 20 percent time at Google. Some of them actually become separate successful products, like GMail for example. Others are mostly meant to be part of a ‘bigger’ project, like for example Urchin, which was meant to be the installable version of Google Analytics and played a huge part in the development of that product.
But sometimes these products lose their use and at that point Google wants to ‘clean them up’. Last week Google announced the ‘death’ of no less than six products, including Urchin and the Social Graph API. That is not needed anymore with Google’s other social identifying tools. (more…)
Google keeps Pushing: Your New Google Account is Automatically your G+ Account
In the past you could sign up for a Gmail account and that would be it. If you wanted a YouTube or Picasa account you could connect your Gmail to it, but you had to sign up independently for it. The same for your G+ account when Google first launched the service: even though they were connected you had to ‘sign up’ first.
Now if you decide to get a Gmail account you won’t have to sign up separately for all the other services anymore. Your Google Account is now also your Google+ account, your YouTube account and other Google products.
If you now go to the Google sign up page you will see that Google has redesigned the page and that they focus on the entire Google experience: “Your Google Account is more than just Search.” (more…)
Google Decides Where You Should Put Your Ads, But What About Their Own Pages?
Who owns your website? On paper it is you. Because you are the one who is putting the content on your pages. In a perfect world you would however focus on your target audience and would fit the page so they would find what they are looking for within a micro second. In reality it is neither you or your customers who decide what goes where. It is companies like Google and Facebook who in the end make the decisions.
Google just made another decision for you. In a post on their Inside Search Blog Google announces an algorithmic change which makes Google one of the important deciders when it comes to what you put where on your site. Google’s newest change punishes those sites that have too many ads ‘above the fold’. At the same time they don’t seem to live up to their own rules. (more…)
Participating in the SOPA Black Out? Don’t Forget to SEO
This Wednesday many sites around the web will turn black. This as a protest to plans in the US called the Stop Online Piracy Act. Even though the White House is said not to support SOPA this bill might just become a law, which would be disastrous for the online industry. It is supposed to protect the intellectual properties online, but it can also be seen as possible Internet censorship. Therefore some of the big players, like Wikipedia and Reddit, on the web will turn black on Wednesday, to make a statement.
Maybe you are making that same statement. If so, you need to think of a few things. What many sites don’t realize is that “blacking out your site” might just harm your rankings in Google. Google after all doesn’t stop crawling and if they can’t find your site or do find it but won’t find anything ‘but black’ just when you are joining in on the protest, you might just lose your rankings.
Luckily Google has Pierre Far. This Googler, who is speaking at the next Thinkvisibility by the way, is not only a nice guy if you meet him in person, he thinks along with webmasters. So he decided to post some helpful tips for webmasters who plan to participate in the blackout on his Google+ Profile. (more…)
New Allegations: Is Google Trying to Kill Themselves?
Back in 2009 I was on a panel at SMX London. At the end of the session, during the Q&A we were asked the question who we believed would be the ‘Google Killer’. My answer back then was “The only one who can kill Google, is Google itself”. If you look at the start of 2012 you might think Google is doing just that.
Within two weeks time Google has been hit a few times, which Barry describes nicely on his personal blog. After Manipulating +1 Upvotes, link buying for Chrome and last weeks allegations in Kenya Google now again faces allegations. This time they are accused of ‘vandalizing Open Street Map’. (more…)
Google Testing Out “Sesame Open”, But Working On Something Better
Do you not trust public computers with your passwords, because maybe, just maybe a keylogger might be installed which records your password? Well help might be under way. Google is testing a new way of login: QR Codes. But that is just the start. Google says they are already working on ‘something better’.
If you go to Google’s special page on this: https://accounts.google.com/sesame you will see a QR Code. You can scan this barcode with your phone which will then take you to a website using your mobile browser. Google will then prompt you to type in your password and will ask for confirmation you do want to login. Once confirmed, your desktop browser will receive notice from Google that you are good to go and open a Gmail session for you. (more…)
Why Google Replaces Your Page Titles
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…)
How To Switch Off Google’s Search Plus Your World Permanently
Last week Google introduced “Search plus Your World” which integrates Google+ in to the search results. With the update Google also placed a new switch at the top right to turn off the personal results so you only see the non-personal results. These personal results are for example posts and pictures from Google+ but also all the recommendations from people within your own social circle and it even hides the +1 button. Unfortunately the big block “People and Pages on Google+” on the right is still shown, that should be hidden to I think.
You can use this switch but when you do a new search query then the personal results are just switched back on. But there is a simple cure for this if you don’t want these personal results or if you just think it clutters the search results to much. You can see the difference in the screenshot below after search for “YouTube”. (more…)
Privacy Watchdog EPIC Requests FTC to Investigate Search Plus Your World
Is the web closing around Google or is Google closing the web? You can ask that question based on the developments around “Search Plus Your World” the past few days. Many are unhappy with the changes Google has made. Most of who are unhappy however seem to be competitors although users also have stated their concerns.
Now a new group has been added to those disapproving of Google’s new way of showing the search results. Privacy Watchdog EPIC, who before successfully put down a claim against Google Buzz, have now urged the FTC in an official letter to “review Google’s recent decision to integrate its Social Network, Google+, into search results“. EPIC has two things it feels are not in order: Google favoring their own products, and potential privacy hazards. (more…)
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