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Posts tagged with: Google
Jan 5, 2009    |       3 comments

Google Timeline View in Action

Google Timeline View which is among one of the Google experiments has been seen in action in the main Google Search results page.

google-timeline-view

Well I’m pretty surprised that this experiment has made its way to the real search results. But Its a cool feature if you are searching for things that can be visualized over time.

So try searching for thomas jefferson or albert einstein and you should be able to see the Google timeline view.

It may not work for everyone, but if you are really interested to see what it looks like try adding “view:timeline” at the end of your search query. So search for albert einstein view:timeline in Google and you should be able to see how it looks like.

Do you find Google Timeline useful? Why? Share in comments!

Dec 31, 2008    |       7 comments

Google PageRank Update Q4 2008

Earlier many webmasters speculated that there was a Toolbar Pagerank Update on-going in December 2008.

Today just before New Year’s eve Google surprised everyone with their Toolbar PageRank update rolled out to every website. Majority of the upcoming sites that I have seen gained PR, some has lost and for some it stayed the same.

I’m particularly not fascinated by Toolbar PR. Toolbar PR is just a small representation of your site’s actual “Pagerank”. As long as your site is ranking well for the terms that you target and you are getting substantial amount of traffic from the search engines, you are doing just fine.

So unless you plan on selling your pagerank via links, I don’t see any reason for you to be excited or sad for any positive/negative Pagerank changes.

See what others are saying about this Pagerank update on Twitter.

Dec 20, 2008    |       2 comments

Google Image Search Adds More Filtering Options

google-image-search Google Image Search has recently added more filtering options in their image search interface, letting you choose images from News Content, clip arts, line drawing, photo content and faces (which was available previously).

google image search filter

So with this brand new filtering options, photo searching became even easier. So lets say I’m searching for Santa Clause in Google’s Image search. So by default I’ll be presented a lot of photos of Santa Clause. But what If I’m only looking for Clip arts of Santa Clause for a greeting card that I’m making?

Now with this new Google Image Search filtering option, I can simply select clipart and it will only return the santa clause images which are clip art!

Cool right? Try it now!

Dec 11, 2008    |       19 comments

Google Toolbar PageRank Update Coming Soon

Some Webmasters at DigitalPoint Forums have noticed changes in their Google Toolbar PageRank recently.

Even though majority of them are yet to see any change, but all of them seem to agree that they are also seeing changes in their incoming links that is displayed by Google using the “link:domain.com” command.

My Two Cents

The last Toolbar PR update was two months back, so the PR update is well over due. Its likely that Google will be slowing rolling out the update througout this month. Stay tuned for more updates!

Dec 11, 2008    |       3 comments

Send SMS from Gmail

Send SMS From Gmail Right after Gmail launched their Task Manager, they have released yet another cool feature in Gmail Labs – SMS from Gmail Chat!

This brand new Gmail Labs feature Labs lets you send Text SMS right from Gmail Inbox. It combines the best parts of IM and texting: you chat from the comfort of your computer, and your friends can peck out the replies on their little mobile keyboards.

How to Send SMS from Gmail

First Log in to your Gmail Account, click on Settings, and go to the Labs tab. Scroll down until you see “Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat” and select Enable and Save Changes.

To send an SMS, You can simply type a US-phone number or into the search box in the chat window on the left, then select “Send SMS.” You can also select the contact you want to SMS first and then add their phone number.

Send SMS from Gmail

Once you give us a name for that phone number, you’ll be able to start chatting.

More Details are here and here.

Dec 10, 2008    |      0 comments

Google Search Wiki to have an Opt-Out Button

Google Search WikiMichael Arrington @ Techcrunch just reported that Google is going to provide a Opt-out button for Google Search Wiki in Quarter 1 of 2009. This is great because users who are not happy with this feature of Google, doesn’t have to rely on 3rd party plugins to disable search wiki.

At the LeWeb conference, Google’s Vice President of Search Product and User Experience – Marissa Mayers told Arrington that Google will eventually use the user data created by actions on Search Wiki to improve Google’s organic Search results.

Google will use the data to at least make obvious changes. An example is if “thousands of people” were to knock a search result off a search page, they’d be likely to make a change.

Dec 10, 2008    |       5 comments

Top Google Search Phrases of 2008

For the first time, Google has released the top search queries of more than 30 countries via Google’s annual Year-End Zeitgeist.

So here are the Faster Rising Global Search queries of 2008:

  1. sarah palin – Even though Sarah Palin couldn’t win the US Election ’08 with Mccain, it seems like she was the hottest topic in Search.
  2. beijing 2008 – Beijing 2008 was the second hottest keyword due to the fact that it was the venue of this year’s olympic games.
  3. facebook login – Facebook, the popular social network seems to be very popular among searchers as well.
  4. tuenti – I honestly had no clue about this until I did a google search and figured that Tuenti is a popular social networking website that has been referred to as the “Spanish Facebook“.
  5. heath ledger – The legendary Actor who died in Jan 2008 was always very popular among the female audience. His last movie was a blockbuster hit- Batman: The Dark Knight.
  6. obama – Barack Obama is the President-elect of the United States and the first African-American to be elected as a President.
  7. nasza klasa – Nasza Klasa is a very popular social networking platform for people in Poland.
  8. wer kennt wen – wer kennt wen is a very popular social community in Denmark.
  9. euro 2008 – Euro 2008 is the UEFA European Football Championship, contested by all the European nations. This year it was hosted by Austria and Switzerland in June 2008.
  10. jonas brothers – The Jonas Brothers are an AMA-winning, Grammy-nominated American boy band.

Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Google’s Search Products & User Experience Writes:

It’s because of our inquisitive users that our annual Zeitgeist list is a true reflection of the times, with the billions of Google searches conducted every year lending us insight into our global society.

Zeitgeist is currently available for 30+ of the following countries, and can be accessed here.

My Two Cents

Its really interesting to see that localized / country specific social networking sites are doing really well even though the market often seem to be very saturated. More discussion at Techmeme.

Dec 8, 2008    |      0 comments

Google Allows Mobile Ads to Run in Android & iPhone

Official Google Mobile Blog is reporting that, Adwords advertisers can now target their ads to the Mobile users of Android, Iphone or any other mobile devices that support full HTML.

The ads can basically redirect to a desktop landing pages so you don’t need to create individual mobile landing pages or special ads in mobile formats. The ads will have many of the same benefits as Google’s standard mobile ads. For instance it will continue to deliver mobile-specific calls-to-action and reach mobile users that are searching with their phones more than ever — especially during the holiday season.

Watch the following video to learn more about Google Mobile Ads, or read what others have to say.

More discussion at Techmeme.

Dec 6, 2008    |      0 comments

Google Webmaster Tools Settings

Google Webmaster Tools lets you adjust a lot of useful settings of your website that you can’t really set otherwise. Recently Google has added a settings page under Webmaster Tools, which makes it really easy to find all these different setting options under one page.

The site settings that have been added to the new Webmaster Tools Settings page are:

1. Geographic Target – Lets you set your site’s Target Geographic Location. So you run a small local business based on United Kingdom, you can simply set your Target location as “United Kingdom” . This way your site will have higher chance of ranking for your keywords when a user performs a search from UK.

2. Preferred domain control – This lets you choose whether you would prefer to display “www” in your domain or not. This basically changes how your URL is displayed in the Google search results.

3. Opting in to enhanced image search – If you want your site’s images to be found via Google Image Search, you should opt-in for this feature.

4. Crawl rate control – Now Google gives you the ability to set your site’s crawl rate. So if you feel that Google is crawing your site too fast, you can reduce the speed or if you update your content too frequently and you want Google Crawler to come to your site more frequently then you can adjust your crawl rate according to your need. (SEOmoz recently did a test and concluded that changing the crawl rate doesn’t makes any substantial difference to a site.)

Google Webmaster Tools Team will continue to add more options in this dedicated settings page.

Dec 3, 2008    |       3 comments

Google Marketer’s Playbook Videos

I just stumbled upon Google Marketer’s Playbook – which is basically a series of educational talks where Googlers discuss strategies for getting the most out of AdWords and other Google products such as Google Analytics and YouTube.

Basically these videos were shot some time in April 2008 during the ad:tech digital marketing conference.

The videos are quite lengthy, But they are pretty informative and you can take away a lot of golden nuggets from here. So here goes! (If you are reading this via RSS/Email Please go here to watch the videos).

Optimization Strategies – Part 1 by Paul Coutts

Optimization Strategies – Part 2 by Geoffrey Stirling

Measuring &Tracking for Success – by Ashish Vij

Increase Your Advertising Reach – by Nicole Resz

Online Video Advertising – by Ryan Hayward & Robert Victor

Dec 3, 2008    |      0 comments

Google Adwords Tactics for Tough Economic Conditions

Google Adwords TacticsTamar Weinberg at Search Engine Roundtable reports that Google has recently published yet another guide, and this time its about Pay Per Click advertising.

In this guide Google gives PPC advertisers some Top tactics for using AdWords during a Recession or economic downturn.

Here is an outline of the things that the guide elaborates on:

  1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings.
  2. Use value-related keywords.
  3. Make sure your ad groups are targeted and relevant.
  4. Don’t waste money on irrelevant clicks.
  5. Make it easy for customers to buy.
  6. Focus your money on your high performers.

So Check out the Google’s Adwords Top Tactics for Tough Times.

Dec 3, 2008    |      1 comment

Google Adwords Ad Quality Videos

Inside Adwords blog reports that they have released two instructional videos that can walk you through the basics of Ads Quality and the transition to first page bids.

Ads Quality – Getting Down to the Basics

This video basically goes over the Ads Quality Basics. Once you watch it you will get some general introduction to Ads Quality, including a sweet overview of Google Adwords Quality Score and answers to some frequently asked questions about Ads Quality. If you have absolutely no idea of how this whole Quality Score thing works, This is a MUST watch video for you.

Quality-based Bidding Improvements

This video will give you more details on the recent changes made to the Ads Quality. If you wish to know more about how the change from inactive keywords to first page bids affects your campaigns, you should really take some time to watch this.

So if you have any specific tips for improving Adwords Quality score you can also share them in comments! Enjoy the Videos!

Dec 2, 2008    |      1 comment

Gmail Desktop Gadget – Gmail in your Desktop

Official Gmail blog just announced that they have released a gadget that will enable you to access Gmail in your desktop!

Gmail Desktop

I know many of you (including myself) was actually waiting for this feature to come along and its finally here!

How to Get Gmail Desktop

Step 1: First you will need to get Google Desktop

Step 2: Head over here, and download + Install the Gmail Desktop gadget. (Screen shot below)

Step 3: Done!

Gmail Blog Writes:

…… it covers the basics such as reading, searching, and sending messages. You can star messages, use the same keyboard shortcuts, and we didn’t forget about contact auto-complete. It doesn’t take up much space in your sidebar or desktop, and you can also resize it to show as few or as many messages as you’d like.

With Gmail Desktop gadget you can keep more than once instance of your Gmail open at the sme time. So if you have two gmail address (for personal & work), now you can stay logged into both simultaneously.

Tip: You can bring up the gadgets in instantly by pressing the shift key twice!

So Try out Gmail Desktop Gadget now!

Nov 27, 2008    |      1 comment

Google Analytics Help Forum – Get All The Help You Need

Google Analytics ForumGood news for all webmasters! The Official Google Analytics blog recently announced that they have opened up a dedicated Google Analytics forum within their exsiting Google Help which will basically allows webmasters like you, to ask questions about Google Analytics and have them answered by both Google employees and other expert Google Analytics users within the community. Its very easy to identify answers from Google Employees, top contributors, seasoned posters, or even new posters. The “Best Answers” are voted by the community and is given the maximum visibility. This helps the correct/best answers to stick on the front so that everyone can get and share the valuable information. When you search for a particular you, the forum also shows a list of “Related Questions” for your convenience.

The old Google Analytics Help Group will still be accessible for information searches, but is closed for new posts.

So what do you think of this new forum? I personally think that its a very good initiative by the Analytics Team. But I guess more participation from the users is necessary to make it a success. Currently its still very empty and as you can see in the screen shoot below a lot of questions are going unanswered without any replies.

google-analytics-forum

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