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Showing posts from March, 2011

Google Unveils +1

Google’s latest effort to find its way into the social networking sphere has just been unveiled. The Google +1 is the company’s version of Facebook’s “Like” button. The +1 button will now start showing up next to search results and on all the pages on the web, and by clicking on it; you will be recommending a site or a page. What’s more, the search results and ads that you see will also tell you if any of your contacts has vouched for or recommended them. Many people feel that this is just another one of Google’s attempts to get into the social sphere, what with most of their other attempts falling flat. How can it be that a company as huge as Google and as innovative as it can fail so miserably at making it in the social networking sphere? At the end of the day, it all boils down to vision. Google has so far been suffering from an acute case of far-sightedness in the social sphere. Right from its early days, Google has sought to organize information and make it easily accessible. Ther

Will Google no longer be the Master of Search Marketing?

Online direct marketers are now being encouraged to concentrate their online search marketing efforts on a new search alliance that has been launched by Yahoo and Bing, thus putting Google in the backseat. With these two mammoth companies working together, they still manage to take up only 8 percent of the market share, as compared to Google’s 90 percent. However, markets have in the past, found it extremely inconvenient to come up with 3 separate PPC campaigns to ensure that their search results appear in all 3 search engines. Now however, keeping this in mind, Yahoo and Bing have collaborated and are urging people to market through their search alliance, as this would mean that search marketers have to come up with only one direct marketing campaign for both the search engines. Both the companies are hoping that this collaboration will give their customers a more realistic choice than using just Google, and it might decrease the popularity of the leading search engine.

Google Releases Disco – A new Application

Google and Apple’s iPhone are two words that you will very rarely find combined together. At least not until now! Google has recently launched Disco, which is a group texting service that allows you to mass message your friends or clients from a mobile phone or web interface. Disco is a service that was first created by Google’s in-house association Slide, which was acquired last year. Ever since, Slide has been operating as a separate entity within the Google property, which is probably why this mass texting service has been released as an iPhone application instead of a service for Google’s very own Android OS. When you sign for Disco.com, you start by creating an account that is based on your mobile number. The service will then verify whether you are the owner of number by sending you a text message, and if you have been verified, it will then invite you to set up your first group for mass messaging. You can name each group whatever you want, and you can add friends very easily by

Indeed.com is the fastest growing job site Search Engine

Union Square Ventures worked really hard to convince Indeed.com to let them invest in it six years back. This capital venture firm is known for some of its prudent investments like for Twitter and Zynga, and has since invested in Indeed because it felt that it was the best candidate for an online job search site. Today, Indeed.com has a top-notch website that works like Google. Being an aggregator, its search engine browses the net for job listings on thousands and thousands of websites from job boards and associations to company career pages and newspapers. Job seekers will typically search for listings on the site’s home page, which is similar in look and feel to that of Google’s home page. As a user, you can use 2 things to get started – what kind of job you want and where you want this job to be. Clicking on a job listing will take you directly to that site where the position has been posted. This includes some of the leading job portals like Monster and CareerBuilder. Indeed’s foc

Can Yahoo be saved

After seeing one failure after another in the last few years, Yahoo may still be able to save itself with its latest search engine update – Search Direct! While this may be similar to Google’s updates, the Google Instant, where you get real time results as you type, Search Direct is all about giving you appropriate answers to what you are searching for, instead of giving you relevant links. This is quite an exciting move on Yahoo’s part. These search engine advancements as far as usability is concerned is quite amazing. Initially, everyone thought that the Google Instant update was quite amazing because it removed the need for the user to hit the search button in order to search for something. But with Yahoo, you don’t even need to click on the first link in order to get the answers that you want, and you can still find out many things like the stock performance, weather forecast and even where to go to find the films you want to see! Why has Yahoo been dying out? It has become less in

Millions Download the Latest Version of Firefox

Ever since its release, more than 5 million people have downloaded the latest version of the Firefox browser. Mozilla, which is responsible for the second biggest web browser, has been keep track of the number of users installing this software through a real time map. But despite the rapid progression, the download’s for this version have been slower that for its predecessor. In the last year, Firefox’s market has declined slightly due to the competition with Google’s Chrome. Firefox 4 was released for downloading less than a month after Microsoft released its Internet Explorer 9. Both these browsers guarantee to provide their users with a faster and more secure online browsing experience. Like its rival, Firefox has also started making use of HTML 5, which is the latest standard of hypertext language that is used to build websites. Both these browsers also come with a variety of features such as hardware acceleration which is used to display web pages and which draws on the power of t

Google Circles to be launched

With the launch of Google Circles, the techniques used to market websites are predicted to change. Webmasters have predicted that Google is going to be launching its own social networking site in the next few months. Some have predicted that the search engine giant will unveil its new site at the upcoming Google I/O conference. Google Circles allows users to share only select content with other people who belong to the appropriate social category in their lives. Google Circles will help put Google in competition with the largest social network out there. But yes, whatever Google launches, it is almost certain that it won’t launch a social network that will mimic Facebook. Google is aware that it cannot outdo Facebook. With more than 600 million users, Facebook is safe in the knowledge that nobody is really going to join yet another social networking site just share photos and status updates with contacts. Google Circles is the third attempt by Google to launch a popular social network.

Can Mozilla’s Firefox take on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Google’s Chrome

The Internet browser’s are at war again! And how! Mozilla has recently announced that it will be releasing its much awaited Firefox browser version 4, which will prove to be a highly critical moment for Mozilla that first challenged the gigantic Internet explorer in 2004. But Mozilla now finds itself not only taking on Microsoft but Google as well! Last week, Microsoft launched its latest version of IE at a swanky event in Texas. With an interesting and highly interactive graphics-rich presentation, Microsoft displayed the various features and capabilities of IE9 – showing how IE9 is indeed superior to Firefox and Chrome. IE9 and Firefox 4 are the only browsers that offer the “Do Not Track” function, which allows the user to notify advertisers and websites that they do not want their online history to be tracked. This puts Google on the spot, as it is a major Internet advertising company that is in charge of all the tracking, but does not know whether it should put the same feature on

Google slams China for Interfering with its Email system

Google has recently slammed the Chinese government for interfering with its Gmail Email system. This move has followed attempts by the Chinese government to control the “jasmine revolution”, which is an online revolutionary movement that was first inspired in the Middle East. According to Google, Chinese advertisers and customers have been complaining about their Gmail services in last month. Users who are attempting to send messages, mark messages and use other email services have encountered various problems. After the catastrophic earthquake took place in Japan a few weeks back, Google proceeded to set up an application that would help people find friends and family in the disaster. This service has also been compromised. Google announced this in its blog on March 11th where it said that it had recently noticed that its users were subjected to highly targeted and political attacks from the government.

Google Improves YouTube’s Video Quality

Now low quality videos from YouTube that are shaky and blurry could be a thing of the past, all thanks to Google’s latest acquisition! Google has recently acquired Green Parrot Pictures, an Irish digital video technology company that has used image processing techniques for movies such as Lord of the Rings, Spider Man and X-Men. Google will use this technology to straighten out all its low quality videos that have been uploaded on YouTube by sharpening the images and producing a steadier video, and by reducing visual noise. Many of YouTube’s most popular videos are shot using mobile phones and low quality video cameras. Many of the most touching videos are both blurry and unsteady or have problems with visual noise. Apart from improving the video quality, Green Parrot’s technology also helps to improve playback speed and encourage videos to use less bandwidth.

Google’s ‘Farmer Updates’ and how it helps Marketers

Google has made some major changes to its search engine algorithm since last month in an attempt to obliterate low quality websites with poor content that still rank highly in spite of these factors. Google has been facing large-scale criticism over the quality of its search results in the past and is now taking the necessary steps to improve things. This is likely to be an ongoing effort the online marketers should know about. Framer Update is the latest update to come on to the scene and is named so because it helps to reduce the visibility of content farm websites that operate by generating low quality content that is specifically created to achieve higher rankings. Studies have shown that since this update came into play, there was a 57% drop in the search engine performance of the content farm styled websites. This is definitely a positive result, as those sites that are not useful to searchers will not rank highly. However, reports have also shown that many legitimate sites have

Japan Earthquake attracts Hackers and Scammers

Cyber criminals have moved surprisingly fast in their quest to make easy money from the recent Japan disaster. Merely hours after the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, cyber criminals have manipulated search results about this disaster with malicious links. Users who are searching on “the most recent earthquake in Japan” might come across a few malicious links to fake anti-virus software. Malware writers have used black hat SEO techniques to manipulate and push these links to the top of the search results. As soon as the news of the earthquake broke out, the Internet was immediately monitored for any kind of attacks, and true to their cause, many cyber criminals were inserting fake web pages with keywords related to the earthquake. People have been resorting to the Internet for the latest information, news and images about the Japan situation, and cyber criminals have taken advantage of this fact to further their interests. Black hat SEO is not unusual as far as current

Microsoft releases new IE Browser

Microsoft has recently announced that it will be releases its latest version of the Internet Explorer Web browsing software. Corporate Vice President of Microsoft, Dean Hachamovitch has said at a recent press conference that things will change for Microsoft very soon. With the release of this new browser, Microsoft has taken a dramatically different approach. The new browser can be downloaded in 3.0 languages at beautyoftheweb.com. The Internet Explorer 9 has been specifically built to make the most out of Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest OS. It also makes the most out of graphics processing chips that have the ability to power games, videos, graphics and other great visuals. Partners that have adapted their websites to the IE9 are: Facebook, Pandora, Yahoo!, Twitter and Hulu, to name a few.

Google Circles - The latest Social Product to Hit the Scene

According to certain reports, Google has reportedly announced the release of Google Circles, the latest in the long list of super social products that Google intends to release in the future. But a new teaser had emerged on to the scenes from the blogosphere. The teaser is that Google is not only announcing anything newsworthy but it also has denied that Circles even exists! This came straight from the mouth of Google developer advocate, Chris Messina, who was supposed to be directly involved with the product but had no clue that it even existed. According to the reports, Google Circles is very similar to Google Buzz, as it helps to leverage photos, video as well as status message sharing, but it is also similar to Facebook in that it is respectful of user privacy. In short, it helps to create borders between users and friends, family and colleagues, in a way that even Facebook cannot. However, what remains to be seen is how this social effort by Google will take shape.

Is Microsoft’s Bing gaining valuable search engine ground on Google

As astounding as it may sound, Google the search engine giant is all set for tougher competition this year, as more and more search engines are gaining in popularity. Microsoft’s Bing recently saw an increase in its search traffic by nearly 5 percent last month! In February, Bing was found to have nearly 13.5 percent of the Internet searches in its hand in the United States alone. Earlier this year, Bing’s searches grew to nearly 21 percent! A whopping growth if ever there was one! However, Google still dominates as the biggest search engine with almost 67 percent of searches in its name in the United States alone. But this figure has fallen down by 2 percent in January. Yahoo was observed to have 15 percent of the searches in the United States last month, which means it is up by 3 percent. So, is Google losing valuable ground?

Google Displays Tweets in Search Results

The latest tweets coming from some relevant Twitter users have now begun to show up as tiny snippets on Google’s search results. The Twitter search results also features the user’s picture, name, date of posting and the entire message. If there are any links posted in tweets, these also carry high SERP’s. Google seems to be just testing this feature, as no official announcement has been made as yet. Also, this same feature seems to only work or show up in the first few search results when a user has tweeted recently, although the exact timeframe hasn’t been made clear as yet. Soshable recently conducted a survey and found that tweets that showed up within 2 seconds of being posted were typically displayed. Yes, Google is really fast, but is it that fast? As a result of this, Soshable came to the conclusion that Google has probably tied their search results directly with the Twitter API.

Google Maps Navigation beta helps you Save Time by Avoiding Traffic

Owning an Android device comes with its own set of advantages, the most important being the timely updates of Google core applications. Google has really outdone itself this time with the Google Maps Navigation beta automatic routing that is based on real-time traffic conditions. Google Maps Navigation helps by saving your time while commuting daily. Many times, it has been observed that when certain applications are updated, the basic function or the interface tends to change. However, with the Google Maps Navigation beta, the changes that take place, happen somewhere in the background. All you have to do is simply start with the Navigation as usual and then choose your destination. Previously what used to happen was that Navigation would choose the fastest route to a destination without really taking the current traffic conditions into consideration. The new algorithm takes into account the current as well as the past traffic to select a fast route.

Has Google completely tackled the Android Malware Issue

A lot of people prefer Google’s Android to Apple’s iOS for their Smartphone’s. A lot of people also prefer the Droid 2 to the iPhone 4, even though Verizon has now started supporting the iPhone. But, if Google cannot completely clear up this new malware issue, then most people are going to be forced to change their mind. Well it does come as great news that Google has managed to remove the malicious applications, but wouldn’t it be better if Google simply just check the software before releasing it on to the Android market? This isn’t too much to ask, is it? Wouldn’t it be better if Google could just make sure that none of its users are downloading malware from its official store? What’s more, the remote application removal feature has its fair share of skeptics in the market. Yes, there are plenty of ignorant users who don’t the importance of security, but there are still plenty of users who have not been pleased that Google, or anyone else, can literally reach out and rip software’s

Google Resolves Gmail Problems

Google officially announced that the problems that a number of Gmail users have been facing recently about losing old mail, has now been resolved. This incident was first reported on Monday and was supposed to be fixed much earlier, but still wasn’t fixed what with a large number of Gmail users still complaining about lost emails. But according to the latest statements released by Google, all the problems should be resolved. And those who still face this problem should immediately contact Google. This however, should not come as a reality check for those users who completely depend on cloud computing. Offline backups of email should be taken more often. Google on the other hand, has apologized for the inconvenience caused to users and commends them for their patience and support. Google has also mentioned that system reliability is one of its top priorities and continuous improvements will be made to make their systems better. Gmail should be back to normal for all those users who were

Google Discovers Malware-Infected Android Applications

Google has recently pulled up 21 Android applications because of malware infections. Is Google becoming an untrustworthy brand? Is it possible that the only reason why Google is surviving in the apps segment is because they give most of their stuff away for free? Google is undeniably very proud about its Android platform. But recently, it has been discovered that the platform has become an open target for malware. Because of the openness of the platform, Google has recently discovered and pulled out at least 21 infected applications from the Android market. The issue has been confirmed by Google, and the infected applications contain malware that gain access to an infected Smartphone in order to snoop around and find data or to download additional codes onto the handset, without the user noticing. However, this vulnerability has been associated with Gingerbread, which means that any mobile device running the Android version 2.3+ is fine. The vulnerability has been fixed by Google, but

Google celebrates its Latest Android Release by adding a Honeycomb Sculpture in its Headquarters

Google’s Android Honeycomb has been released into the markets, and in keeping with tradition, Google has also added an oversized honeycomb sculpture in its Mountain View headquarters lawn. A great way to celebrate! This sculpture has been planted near the other Android release statues, bang in front of the Google building. It depicts a large honeycomb with an Android mascot popping out of it and a bee heading in its direction. A video has also been posted on YouTube in which the sculpture installation can be seen. And as far as the music for the video was concerned, the folks at Google opted for a modern take on the Flight of the Bumblebee. A person dressed as a bumblebee also showed up at the debut – and commenced dancing for the camera and riding a bicycle, while employees installed the Honeycomb. However, the Honeycomb statue wasn’t the only giant-sized object around at the Google premises. All the previously installed statues were huddled together and were put in new locations. Per

Google’s Latest Algorithm helps eHow

A lot of people scoffed when Larry Fitzgibbon of Demand Media said that Google’s latest algorithm hasn’t had any kind of positive impact on the content and media business. This came after Google announced that the latest algorithm would rid the search engine of unethical content farms and low quality sites. However, examinations have proved that Google’s latest farmed update has seemingly improved the results for Demand’s eHow property. Sistrix, a famous SEO analyst used data from a set of 1 million keywords that was checked before as well as after the update and has come to the conclusion that the overall number of keywords that eHow.com ranked for has increased slightly after the update. Apart from this, Sistrix also calculated that the site experienced a jump in terms of keywords, ranking and click through rates as well. However, many other Demand sites did take a hit, including trails.com and answerbag.com. Topping the list were ezinearticles, wisegeek.com and suite101.com.