Google makes a Buzz

Filed under: Google, Social Media — Tags: , , , , — Simon Cole @ Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Google recently took their social offering one step further when they released Google Buzz, which integrates right into Gmail. It is similar to Twitter, but has more features and is more robust. Google have had limited success with social; Orkut, their own social networking site, only gained traction in Brazil and India and numerous other social tools such as Jaiku, Dodgeball, FriendConnect, OpenSocial and Latitude, haven’t had the impact Google would have liked.

Google Buzz aggregates data from Twitter, Picasa, Google Reader, YouTube, Flickr and even your Google chat status. Facebook is currently missing from this list, but Google have announced that it’s not completely out of the question. Google Buzz automatically follows the contacts you email and chat to most frequently and photos, videos and links can be integrated into each Buzz message. There appears to be no limit to the number of characters within each message, so you no longer have to shorten your updates, or resort to textspeak, to fit within the 140 character limit.

Google Buzz connects with Picasa Web Albums and photos can be added directly to a Buzz message, either uploaded from your computer or selected from one of your existing Picasa albums. All photos added to a Buzz message are stored in your Picasa account and count toward your storage limit. As photos are shown inline with your Buzz message there’s no need to follow a link to a 3rd party site to view photos as is the case with Twitter. Adding public photos to your Picasa account will create a new Buzz message displaying the recently added photos that can then be viewed using the inbuilt full-screen viewer.

Posts and replies on Twitter are separate entries, which makes it hard to follow a conversation. Google Buzz has solved this by allowing comments directly onto the original post, overcoming the need for a separate reply. Google have also added a “like” button to each post, which is very similar to the Facebook feature added in February 2009.

The mobile version of Google Buzz allows you to tag your Buzz message with your current location. You are able to select actual places, like bars and restaurants, not just an address or a lat/long location. It is also possible to read Buzz from other people in and around the same location as yourself to discover what’s happening around you. Google also have plans to roll out a standalone version of Buzz outside of Gmail.

Already, there have been privacy concerns regarding Google Buzz. When your first enter Buzz, it automatically follows the people your most frequently email and chat to and by default this list and the list of people who follow you, are made public, so anyone can see who you most frequently email and chat to. In response to this, Google have made changes to the setup procedure so that instead of auto-following the people you most frequently contacted, you are presented with a list that you can review and confirm before continuing. Also, the option not to show who you follow and who follows you on your profile has been made more prominent, but these lists are still displayed by default.

The uptake of Google Buzz has been surprising to say the least. On February 11th, 2 days after launching Buzz, Google announced that “tens of millions of people have checked Buzz out, creating over 9 million posts and comments. Plus, we’re seeing over 200 posts per minute from mobile phones around the world.” This is amazing considering that it was rolled out slowly.

Overall, Google Buzz is great product, it has taken the successful Twitter model, updated and expanded it and incorporated it right into Gmail and onto mobile. I don’t believe Google Buzz will pull current users away from Twitter or Facebook just yet. It may, however, entice new users who haven’t yet joined Facebook or Twitter, into micro-blogging as they do not have to sign up for a new account, join another service or get used to a new and unfamiliar interface as they can start “Buzzing” from their current Gmail account.




What’s New with Google Real-Time Search Results?

Filed under: Google, SEO — Tags: , , — Poorani Prithiviraj @ Monday, February 8th, 2010

When Google announced its new “Real Time” Search results back in early December, there was a lot of talk around what this would mean to Google SERPs and how it will  impact organic search. In the usual Google fashion, the new enhancement created more speculation then answers.

What most people knew was that “real time” search results was an enhancement to Google Universal, where Google had teamed up with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca; and provided real time search results amongst it’s various other Universal search products. To get an idea of how this works, check out Search Engine Roundtable’s “Google Does Real Time Search: See It For Popeye” blog post; it clearly illustrates what Google’s SERPs look like with real time results. (more…)




Faster, Faster!! Page Speed and How Your Site Ranks in Google

Filed under: Google, SEO — Tags: , , , , — Amye Saunders @ Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

There is a lot of talk in the traps about website page speed. Google (via Matt Cutts and Webmaster Tools) has openly stated that page speed will be a factor into the ranking algorithm for 2010 and will likely roll out with Caffeine – faster the better and you’ll be rewarded for it.

Google Webmaster tools have been reporting sample data from sites that have page speed issues (you can find this in the Labs section under Site Performance). Within Google Webmaster it also suggests the supplied Page Speed Firefox plug-in (installs as part of Firebug) should be used to get more accurate and full data. This has been available since July 2009 so I guess we have had plenty of notice. This is already in play for AdWords where page speed will affect your quality score.

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Yummy Google Breadcrumb Trails! Will It Mean More Clicks?

Filed under: Google, Search Engines, Updates — Phill Ohren @ Friday, November 27th, 2009

Many of you will have already noticed the latest enhancement to Google’s search engine results pages (SERPS) where a breadcrumb, or “clickable” hierarchy of the website, is displayed, replacing the traditional listing URL. Search listings will be replaced with the new Google breadcrumb trails when Google feels a website’s current URL structure lacks context.

Industry thinking is that not only will the Google breadcrumb trails enhance the user experience but they will provide an increase in click through rates for site owners, as users will be given more information about their search query which may in turn influence where they click.

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Tracking Activity On Your Outbound Links using Google Analytics

Filed under: Analytics, Google — Tags: , , , — Ian Lavelle @ Friday, September 4th, 2009

A topic that comes up quite often in SEO discussions is the merits of outbound linking, whether you should link to your competitors and if outbound links encourage visitors to leave your site. You should consider the user experience first and foremost when thinking about outbound links. If the link directs the user to relevant content that they would be interested in, then the link is worthwhile. If you’re worried about excessive loss of traffic through external links, then it makes sense to keep a close eye on the click activity around these links.

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Google Caffeine – What You Should Expect for the Beta

Filed under: Google, News, SEO, Updates — Tags: , , , — Amye Saunders @ Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Over the last few days it was announced that Google will be making changes to its algorithm; a sizable modification which we may have not seen since the likes of Big Daddy and Jagger’s 1-3 in 2006.

Google has stated:

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.

Some parts of this system aren’t completely finished yet, so we’d welcome feedback on any issues you see.” (more…)




June 2009 – Google PageRank update, backlink algorithm change and Vince UK update

Filed under: Google, Search Engines, Updates — Tags: , , , , , , , — Steve Wulz @ Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

There has been a lot of discussion out there on the SEO forums regarding Google’s changes in June 2009.

Reports of Google PageRank updates, backlink algorithm changes and the continued effect of brand keyword reshuffling noticed by the wider SEO community, particularly within Google UK.

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Google’s New Trademark Policy

Filed under: Google, Updates — Tags: , , , , , — Robbie Hills @ Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

What does Google’s new trademark policy mean for companies in APAC?

Well it more than likely means increased search spend for you. No prizes why Google changed it then.

What was previously the case across the majority of APAC was that when you registered your trademark keyword terms with Google it meant your competitors, affiliates or unauthorized resellers could not buy those terms nor have an ad triggered against it. (more…)