Google Sites now in 38 languages

In May we opened up Google Sites, and while the service itself was only in English, it has always supported the ability to add website content in any language. It's been really exciting to see more than one million sites created in a wide range of countries and languages, for everything from an Italian improv theater group to a Spanish guide to Huitzuco to a Japanese computer store. With the addition of 37 more languages, it is now even easier for people and businesses around the world to build and host their own website on Google Sites.

The latest release includes full localized versions of the Google Sites service and interface, enabling website creators and collaborators to interact more naturally with the product in their native languages. Browser settings are used to automatically detect and display the preferred language among those supported. You can also override the browser language and set your language preference directly in Google Sites.

Here are the 38 languages we are supporting with this release: Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English (UK), Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

Source: Click Here

Google Launches “Google Moderator”

I don’t know if I am slightly abnormal or just more politically interested than most, but I generally enjoy watching the presidential debates. I like seeing the candidates put on the hot-seat, even though I know fully-well that they’ve been prepped and have seared scripted responses into their memories. Sometimes they are caught off guard and that’s exciting, but haven’t you ever wondered just how much more cool it would be if the public - i.e. the people electing the candidates - got to toss in a few questions of their own?

In rushes Google to the rescue! As Barack Obama and John McCain were engaged in a war of words Friday evening, Google launched a new tool - Google Moderator - which is aimed at making that possible - if the Commission of Presidential Debates ever decides to go down that path.

Google describes “Moderator” as:

“A free tool which enables communities to submit and vote on questions for debates, presentations and events. This way, the best and most representative questions rise to the top”

Since Moderator’s launch last week, 1,278 people have contributed 578 questions and cast 24,774 votes in the “2008 Presidential Debates” series, which includes questions on a range of categories. What I find most interesting about this is the way that the most popular questions rise to the top, and chances are if a question is getting a lot of votes, it’s something on the mind of many Americans.

Source: Click Here

Google Toolbar 5 now available in Firefox

A few months ago we launched several new features for Google Toolbar in Internet Explorer. Since then, we've received many emails asking us when we plan to support all our new features in Firefox.

Guess what: Starting today, you can download the latest version of Google Toolbar for Firefox, available in 29 languages. This new version is the first Toolbar launched out of our St. Petersburg, Russia office. It includes all the Toolbar features you know and love, such as Search, Bookmarks and Translate. When you install it, you can try out some of our newest features.

We don't like to play favorites among Toolbar's features, but it's hard not be wowed by Autofill. You can create several profiles with personal or business information including different addresses, email addresses and credit card details. So anytime you want to fill an online form, just click on Autofill and the right information will appear in the form automatically. All your information is safely stored only in your own computer, with your credit card numbers encrypted and protected by a password.

We also love Google Gadgets in Toolbar. Gadgets bring information from your favorite websites closer to you. For example, you can add the YouTube gadget to your Toolbar. When you want to have a quick break from work, click on the YouTube icon and search or view videos in a box that pops down from the Toolbar, without leaving the web page you are on. Close that box when you're done with it (or when your manager starts walking towards your cube). You can find the YouTube gadget and thousands of others in our gallery.


We look forward to get your feedback, or to hear your stories about the exciting ways you are using Toolbar's features. We hope that you enjoy the new Google Toolbar as much as our team enjoyed building it!

If you're interested in learning more about Google Toolbar, visit us at http://tools.google.com/firefox/toolbar/FT5 or check out our video:

Source: Click Here

Google To Acquire GrandCentral

Google is in acquisition discussions with telephone management startup GrandCentral, we’ve learned, and we have a high degree of confidence that the deal has actually been closed. We are trying to nail down the acquisition price. Just last week I flagged this company as the most exciting startup we’re currently tracking.

The basic idea around GrandCentral is “one phone number for all your phones, for life.” As we change jobs, homes and cell phones, there are a lot of phone numbers to keep track of, and keeping everyone up to date with your most recent phone numbers is a real cost. If you use GrandCentral you can give out a single phone number. What happens when that person calls that number depends on his/her relationship to you, and what you are doing at the time.

The company, which has raised less than $6 million in capital from Minor Ventures (the exact amount has never been disclosed), beta launched just last September. Earlier this year mainstream press and blogger attention heated up.

The company may have received too much press attention before the product was ready, and we reported on some backlash from beta users abandoning the service in March. Still, the company pushed ahead, launching a mobile product and other features.

GrandCentral was recently pitching a second round of financing to Silicon Valley venture capitalists, but broke off discussions abruptly as the Google talks heated up.

I’m speculating on where Google will use GrandCentral, but the synergies with Gmail and GTalk are fairly obvious and could be the next step in Google’s competition with Skype and other instant messaging platforms.

This is, in my opinion, a great move by Google. Grand Central is an awesome productivity and simplifies the lives of users with multiple phones by giving them a single phone number and letting them handle calls via rules. It’s a natural fit with GTalk and Gmail.

Google won’t comment on this story. I have an email in to GrandCentral to see if they’ll confirm.

Source: Click Here

Google News now available on your iPhone and iPod Touch

As we sat in our offices in Trondheim staring off at the fjord -- we're Norwegians, that's what we do -- a thought occurred to us: wouldn't it be nice to make Google News accessible to readers on their iPod Touch or iPhone? The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, we're happy to announce that Google News is now available to iPhone and iPod Touch users in over 30 countries. This means that you'll see a full-fledged version of Google News on these devices, improved Google News results and, where available, relevant YouTube videos embedded with news stories.



There are a few ways to get to Google News using your iPhone or iPod Touch:

• Go to www.google.com, click on the "more" tab and follow the link to Google News
  
• Go to www.google.com and do a search, then click on the News link at the top of the screen
  
• Go directly to Google News at http://news.google.com in your browser
  

We hope you enjoy this new feature. We haven't been able to take our eyes off it yet, not even to look at the fjord!

Source: www.google.com

Google Vows Broader Open Wireless Access Fight

Though it didn't win any licenses in the Federal Communications Commission's recent multi-billion-dollar spectrum auction, Google said it is pleased with the results -- and vows to continue pressing for greater network openness.

The comments come as the first from the online giant following the end of a federally mandated quiet period that now leaves participants in the FCC's 700MHz spectrum auction free to dish on the their bidding strategies and future plans.

For Google, (NASDAQ: GOOG) those plans involve working with regulators as the FCC decides how to address issues lingering in the wake of the largest spectrum sell-off in history.

"The end of the auction certainly doesn't mark the end of our efforts toward greater wireless choice and innovation," Richard Whitt, Google's Washington telecom and media counsel, and Joseph Farber, Google's corporate counsel, wrote yesterday in a company blog post.

While Verizon Wireless walked away the winning bidder in the spectrum's premium C Block, Google's participation proved instrumental. The company's bidding helped to trigger rules requiring the block's winner to open the network they create to all types of devices and applications.

Fiercely resisted by Verizon, the FCC's open-access requirements were a key victory for Google, which is working to build support for its Android mobile application platform through the Open Handset Alliance.

While Google remained tight-lipped on its intentions heading into the auction, many observers believed the company's motivations were less about spending billions on licenses to build a nationwide wireless network, and more about forcing open access.

Whitt and Farber this week confirmed those suspicions.

"Google's top priority heading into the auction was to make sure that bidding on the so-called 'C Block' reached the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the important 'open applications' and 'open handsets' license conditions," they wrote.

To ensure C Block bidding hit the necessarily price, Google raised its bid in 10 rounds of the auction even when it was faced no opposing bidders, Whit and Farber wrote.

They added that Google had been prepared to shell out for the licenses in the event that no one topped its bids.

The open-access game

As it begins the next phase of its network build-out, all eyes now will be on Verizon to ensure that the wireless provider adheres to the openness provisions stipulated in the auction's rules.

Speaking earlier this week at the CTIA Wireless 2008 conference in Las Vegas, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he would recommend that his fellow commissioners reject a petition to regulate open access. The petition had been submitted by Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (define) provider Skype.

Martin said the incumbent carriers had signaled that they were moving toward openness on their own accord, so adding new regulations would be unnecessary.

Verizon Wireless, for instance, reversed its position on open access late last year, first abandoning its legal challenge to the FCC's auction rules, then pledging to support open device access on its current wireless network in advance of the auction.

Source: www.internetnews.com

Make your promotional activity more efficient with search engine marketing tips

The world of internet has extensively captured the entire society. This medium of communication is offering marvelous service to the major part of the populace. For collecting and deciphering any sort of information, our most proffered choice is correct application of online services. This has not only made life more convenient but has also accelerated the speed of the entire mechanism. Secondly, through the online services, one can also maintain a contact with the broadest section of the populace. And for this reason only, almost every company is making an effort to promote their services and products through this mode of communication. However, now as every organization is well acquainted with its benefits, the competition has become all the more intense. Therefore, it is very essential to come up with an exclusive program or technique that can fetch good quality results for your firm. One such technique is search engine marketing and for the proper functioning of this technique, you must follow the basic search engine marketing tips.

Nowadays, search engine marketing is a vital aspect for any profit making business organization. The service is a compilation of several important marketing tools and techniques that are essential for the promotion on the Internet. Every company is adapting the phenomenon of search engine marketing tips to advertise their ranges of products and services. In fact, it is widely accepted as the most convenient method of carrying out the process of advertising that mainly hit the target audience completely. But this amazing opportunity of receiving great response is only accomplished when the company creates its promotional activity on the basis of search engine marketing tips.

Let us now focus on the major elements that constitute the search engine marketing tips. The first and foremost characteristic of this online marketing mechanism is the attractive presentation of the website. The site should be created in accordance to the target audience. As for instance, if the site is about the products utilized by youngsters then a more snazzy and contemporary outlook should be approached. However, the content of the website should always be written in an easy language, so that people do not face any difficulty in understanding it. Moreover, the content should also be informative and qualitative. All popular keywords should be engulfed, so that as soon as the visitor enters that particular keyword on the search engine, your website should immediately respond. On the other hand, this mechanism will also help you in posting your website on all major search engines and provide required up gradation and updates from time to time. It also helps in estimating the number of visitors to your website.

The online marketing industry is consistently changing; therefore, it is essential to keep a check on the new techniques and ways of enhancing the outlook of your website, so that you do not lag behind in the competition under any circumstances. Search engine marketing tips ensure to bring valuable response to your products and services that can finally take your company on the path of progress and development.

Source: www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

A major Google algorithm update might be on the way

Webmasters in a discussion forum have noticed changes in Google's search results. Do we have to expect a larger ranking algorithm update? How will this influence the ranking of your web pages in Google's search results?

What changes did webmasters notice in Google's search results?

Not all webmasters noticed the same changes. Here's an overview of what has been reported:

• Some established websites that did not spam dropped out of Google's index early March.
  
  
• It seems to take much longer now until new websites get indexed by Google.
  
  
• Rather less relevant results have received higher rankings because some relevant pages either dropped out of the index or lost some of their inbound links.
  
  
• The Cache data doesn't seem to be updated.
  
  
• The site: and inurl: queries on Google that normally fluctuate for large websites now report the same numbers every day.

Changes like these are usually a clear indicator of an upcoming ranking algorithm update.

Is this really a ranking algorithm update?

Google engineer Matt Cutts denied that there are any major changes in the search results and that there was a ranking algorithm update on the way.

However, he wanted to investigate if and why the results change so much.

The observations of the webmasters in the forum might be normal changes that happen all the time. But the webmasters who discovered the changes are very web-savvy and they should be able to distinguish an anomaly from usual fluctuations.

What does this mean to your Google rankings?

It has yet to turn out whether this really is a ranking algorithm or not. If your rankings haven't changed yet, there's no need to act. The whole thing might just be a temporary hiccup.

If you want to make sure that your web pages are optimized for Google's latest search engine algorithm, use IBP's Top 10 Optimizer. IBP's Top 10 Optimizer always uses the latest ranking algorithm to optimize your web pages to make sure that you get the best possible results.

If you use the right SEO tools, you don't have to worry about Google ranking algorithm updates. IBP always works with the latest ranking algorithm.

Whenever you use IBP's Top 10 Optimizer, IBP analyzes the current top 10 results for your keyword to decrypt Google's current algorithm. That means that IBP always works with the latest algorithms and that you get much more accurate results with IBP than with any other SEO software tool.

Source: www.free-seo-news.com

Developers, start your engines

We just launched a preview release of Google App Engine, a way for developers to run their web applications on Google's infrastructure. In the same way that Blogger made it easy to create a blog, Google App Engine is designed from the ground up to make it easy to create and run web applications.

With Google App Engine, developers can write web applications based on the same building blocks that Google uses, like GFS and Bigtable. Google App Engine packages those building blocks and provides access to scalable infrastructure that we hope will make it easier for developers to scale their applications automatically as they grow. This means they can spend less time dealing with system administration and maintenance, and more time building and improving their applications. (There's more detail on the new App Engine Blog.)

Google App Engine is free to use during the preview release, but the amount of computing resources any app can use is limited. In the future, developers will be able to purchase additional computing resources as needed, but Google App Engine will always be free to get started.

Today's launch is a preview release. We've got a lot left to do, and there are a lot of features we still want to add to the system. What we'd really like is to get your feedback on it, so we know which features are most important to you. We'll use your suggestions to keep improving the system.

This preview of Google App Engine is available for the first 10,000 developers who sign up; we will increase that number in near future. So, developers, please sign up, download the SDK, and start your engines.

Source: www.Google.com

Press Release Optimization - Get Incredible Traffic

At present, various search engines are playing a vital role in popularizing websites. In fact, these search engines are not only increasing the popularity of online market but also developing new ways of online marketing. Right now, numbers of search engines are escalating the search process and providing visitors with the finest information on every topic. Many individuals are getting their news and information from news aggregator services and news websites offered by major search engines. These news search engines are offering latest information on every political, historical and social topic. Be it an editorial listing or a sponsored link, a good search engine ranking can bring thousands of visitors to any site; in fact, with top rank on search engine listing a website can get numerous page views and extended press coverage. Usually, most of the press releases do not get desired views, as their content fails to highlight the appropriate keyword. To deal with this problem press release optimization is used; this technique perfectly emphasizes of suitable keyword so that the search engine may find it easily. This technique enhances the visibility of any press release and enables it to grab attention of more and more visitors.

The basic motive of press release optimization is to optimize the content and to submit it with major news search engines. Professionals, who optimize press releases, also submit that keyword rich press release with most renowned online newswire services. Press release optimization popularizes prolific information of your company so that the online visibility of your website can be increased effectively. In fact, this process is cable of attracting target audience, as it provides them with instant and useful information just through a mouse click. With keyword optimization and proper distribution, your press release can also get measurable traffic and sales.

For getting desired success on online arena, every business owner needs to speak the language of consumers. A business can never flourish without grabbing attention of its target consumer segment therefore every business owner needs to take care of every aspect of online presence of his or her business. Press release optimization is that perfect online marketing technique that enables the business owner to make his or her online business visible on World Wide Web. Press releases that are optimized through this technique do not involve poetic content to evoke an emotional response but these press releases contain useful and lucid information about any upcoming product or service.

Professionals, who optimize press releases through press release optimization technique, also change their language and convert the content into keyword based informative articles. To check the effectiveness of press release optimization, URL tracking to the relevant page of the websites is used; with this technique the visitors can follow the link to the host site. Basically, this technique gives the best results when the host site offers a call to action so that the visitor may check the special lending page of your website. Therefore, if press releases of your business are not getting targeted traffic, then optimize them to get incredible traffic with the best opportunities.

Sourece: www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

How to Build a Successful Website - Recommendations from Google Guy

In a post on the 'Webmaster World' Forum, an ex-employee of Google, also known as Google Guy, provided the golden rules of creating a high trafficked website. The post, "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone" is truly priceless and I personally thank anyone who gives their time offering us all such treasured knowledge.

In this post, Google Guy covers 26 separate points which he feels to be important in the world of Google.Here, I shall pick out some of the points which I feel to be the most significant and easily applied:

1. Four of the 26 pointers by Google Guy speak of adding content.

Add, add, add. Google loves it, and your visitors will love it. Assure it is quality content though. You are looking for quality over quantity here.Sure, you can turn out 5 mediocre articles in the time it takes to write one excellent article. However, once that excellent article is on your site, people will bookmark your page and recommend you to friends and online contacts.

2. Your website should be clean and simple.

The simpler the HTML that you have on your website, the more the search engines will like you. Also, the more simply your visitors can navigate and read your site, the more THEY will like you.How simple is the layout of Google itself? Yes, very simple. How popular is it? Very.

3. Keep your pages small.

Aim for between 5K and 10K. Many of your visitors will still be using dial-up connections. Don't alienate these visitors by building pages that load slowly.

4. Keep your content pages to no more than 500 words, generally speaking.

If it gets longer, that's fine. Assure, however, that it is not rambling, that it NEEDS to be longer. If you can make it shorter, do so.

5. Use your keyword in the following ways.

Once in the title, once in the description tag, once in the heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic and once high on the page. Don't aim for misspelled keywords. The search engines are getting smarter and now often correct spelling mistakes as people search for them.

6. On each page, link to one or two highly ranked websites which relate to your industry.

Assure that the links are in context with the rest of the article. Use your keyword in the link.

7. Create links from one page to another within your website.

In this way, you even-out the entire PR of your website, as opposed to having one page which ranks very highly and other pages which don't. So, for example, if when writing one article, you mention a point which is covered in more detail in another article, link to that article. Use the keyword for the other article in the link.

8. Make your navigation system usable; both for visitors and search engine spiders.

For your visitors, assure that it is a simple and clean system. For the search engine spiders, assure that your links go no more than 3 links deep.This means that no page should be any more than one other page from the home page. Cross link from articles as much as possible.

9. Submit your website to as many directories as possible.

Here you will find an extensive list of available directories - "Strongest Links" Many are free. If you can afford it, pay the extra cash to have your site listed in Yahoo and Looksmart.

10. Request link swaps from related website.

Better yet, join a quality link exchange program. I use the "Link Exchange program" supplied for free by SiteSell.com, with whom I host my other website, "Barcelona Explore"

11. Write good, concise content.

Keep paragraphs short and to the point.

12. If you are using your website to promote your off-line business, don't just put up an online flyer.

Provide your visitors with information that they can use, not just information about you and your company. Unless they are specifically looking for information about you, they will click away from your site.

13. Study the information provided by your website statistics.

If your web host doesn't provide a good statistic program, use a free one like "StatCounter". Analyze the keywords that people have been using to find your site. If any surprising ones come up, use them in your site.

14. Partake in forums pertaining to your website.

Absorb all the information that is on there, and more importantly, become part of it. The networking with other people in your sector is invaluable and will prove it's worth by increasing backlinks, viral networking and recommendations.

These points are what I have taken as being the most important recommendations from Google Guy. The entire post is to be found here - "Webmaster World Forum - How to create a successful website".

Following all these points will speed up your success. Success at any speed, however, is a guarantee if you focus on offering your visitors value, by providing excellent content.

Source: www.searchenginecollege.com

Grab Better Business Opportunities With Organic Search Engine Marketing

Since having effective online presence is important for every online business, all businesses try to make their site noticeable by using various search engine marketing tools. Just having an online presence is not enough for making a noticeable place in the World Wide Web therefore, every online business needs to make some prolific assessments to improve its search engine ranking. At present, there are n numbers of firms that offer excellent search engine marketing and optimization facilities to their clients; in fact, most of the online businesses are getting desired success with the help of these firms. Since these firms are familiar with every trend and tactic of current online world, they perfectly place their client's websites on various search engines and make it popular among internet users. Organic search engine marking is one of those effective marketing techniques that most of the marketing firms use to elevate their client's position in search engine ranking. Basically, this technique includes legal methods of popularizing a website on internet and is very effective in improving rank of a website.

Normally, most of the online marketing firms use various methods to optimize a website on various search engines; white hat and black hat methods are the most popular methods of organic search engine marketing. Since overall appearance of your website determines whether it will get proper attention of visitors or not, these firms carefully analyze your site to check the progression of all components. Moreover, these firms also put various features of your website in a proper sequence, so that its presence can be made noticeable in the World Wide Web. No matter how artistic your website is, as no one will click on its URL until and unless it is available on all major search engines. Organic search engine marketing technique can enable a website to get desired profit and world wide popularity.

Since requirements of every business are different, a search engine marketing firm analyzes structure and requirements of your website and then only it implements any marketing technique on your site. However, organic search engine marketing is suitable for every website, as it optimizes a website on all unpaid search engines. This kind of online marketing does not use pay per click advertisement listing and popularizes a website just through unpaid tools and linking procedures. Basically, this procedure is concerned with maximizing the visibility of a website by making it available in organic scratch results.

Like any other online marketing technique, this technique also uses keyword rich content to make the website visible in various search results. A search engine marketing company develops contents based on popular keywords and optimizes that content on various search engines. In fact, organic search results show such content pages very frequently and most of the visitors spend 10.5 seconds on a page to view these search results. On the whole, internet users from all over the globe are using organic search to find out information about various topics therefore, do not miss that opportunity and be readily available on World Wide Web with organic search engine marketing.

Source: www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

AdSense for video now in beta

In a very short time, watching videos online has become a common pastime, and the imagination of artists and other content owners continues to fuel this trend. Meanwhile, across the industry, advertisers and video publishers continue to look for the best solution that balances the needs of video fans with the need for video sites to generate the revenue that enables them to continue to be creative as they grow.

Enter, stage left: the AdSense for video beta. This approach takes the same non-intrusive InVideo ad format used on YouTube and extends it across video partner sites on the Google Content Network. This enables advertisers to run a single campaign across the largest network of online video content.

Unique to AdSense for video are text overlay ads contextually targeted to a combination of signals in your videos and on your site. With these overlay ads, the user's experience is not interrupted; users determine how much they want to interact with the ad.

We have two major goals: to make it easier for publishers to monetize video online, and for advertisers to learn how to reach the video community. Towards these ends, today we're also launching a single destination with an overview of various options to expand online video opportunities called Google Video Advertising Solutions. We hope this will be your starting point to understand how to leverage the Google Content Network and YouTube to make the most out of the online video experience. You can also see our overview videos for advertisers and publishers -- because isn’t video the best way to experience video?

We've been working with a number of video partners (e.g. popular destinations like BobVila.com, eHow, MyDamnChannel, ExpertVillage, PinkBike, TheNewsRoom, and social video aggregators like Revver, blip.tv, and GodTube). And we're also working with several key video platform solution solutions like Brightcove, Yume, Tremor Media, and Eyespot Network, who have plugged our ads into their platforms.

There are some criteria that publishers have to meet to participate in AdSense for video, which you can learn about on the Inside AdSense blog.

Source: www.google.com

First position vs Top 10

Click-Through Rate Declines Rapidly After #1

According to the study, you can expect your click-through rate to decline rapidly after position 1. Click-through rate, or CTR, is computed by dividing the number of times a listing or ad was clicked by the number of impressions, or times it was viewed.

A search engine will have a limited number of impressions for any given keyword or phrase. Think of these impressions as a Boston crème pie with each search position occupying a slice of that pie. Unfortunately, if you’re last in line at the desert bar, the piece of pie you get will be dramatically smaller the further you are from that first slice.

For example, with Overture, if you receive 100 clicks per day for a number 1 position on “strawberry cheesecake,” then according to the study, you could expect to receive about 77 clicks in the number 2 position. A number 3 position drops to about 59 clicks. By the time you reach position 10, you would receive only 7 or 8 clicks. The relative percentages vary between Overture and Google AdWords, but the conclusion remains the same: You can literally double your traffic by simply improving your rankings by a few positions.

Paid Placement Implications

So when dealing with paid placement, should you always go for that number 1 slot? Only if maximizing your traffic is of paramount importance, as you’ll normally pay a premium for the first few positions. You must know how much you can afford to pay before you begin to lose money. Otherwise, you can burn through a lot of cash in a hurry.

With organic search, computing ROI (return on investment) is less straightforward, but it’s also less risky. Organic listings are free. You have an investment in time getting started, but once you secure that number 1 placement, you could receive the aforementioned 100 clicks per day for free. The challenge in this is knowing how to do it in the least amount of time.

Source: www.pay-per-click-ppc.com

In search of the meaning of Googleism

The World Wide Web has brought a new level of enlightenment to modern society - thanks in part to the ubiquitous search engine Google. Whether you're talking rubbish at a dinner party or merely sitting around on Friday afternoon with too much idle time on your hands, the Net can open new avenues of knowledge and insight with just a few keystrokes and mouse-clicks.

This all-knowing omipresence has seen the emergence of "Googleism". But like any great human movement, the concept is splitting into different factions Did you mean Googlism?. A colleague recently forwarded me some links on this topic and as I relaxed for a few moments from my recent labours on Opera II and Excel, I thought I would look into the subject in more depth. John Stokdyk reports

Some enthusiasts have embraced Google to such an extent that they have founded the Church of Google, where they explain: "We reject supernatural gods on the notion they are not scientifically provable. Thus, Googlists believe Google should rightfully be given the title of "God", as She exhibits a great many of the characteristics traditionally associated with such Deities in a scientifically provable manner."

These assertions are supported by nine proofs, including a comparison on Google trends of the search volumes for "Google", which outscores "God", "Jesus", "Allah", "Buddha", "Christianity", "Islam", "Buddhism" and "Judaism" combined.

"God is thought to be an entity in which we mortals can turn to when in a time of need. Google clearly fulfils this to a much larger degree than traditional "gods", concludes the church, which celebrates Google Appreciation Day 14 of September, the date on which the domain Google.com was first registered.

The elevation of Google to a quasi-religion does not amuse everyone, so the church helpfully posts a collection of complaint emails. "If," writes Graham, "the God of the bible is real, then you are really looking for trouble, and I pray that you will be saved so that your eternity is not one of torment and suffering, and that God be glorified through your conversion."

A rival and less controversial site, Googlism.com, is more straightforward in its homage to the great search engine. The site was created as a "fun tool to see what Google 'thinks' of certain topics and people" and trawls search results to present a summary profile of the victim. A search on "AccountingWEB", for example, reveals:

AccountingWEB is the oldest and most successful online community of accountants

AccountingWEB is the winner of the New Media Age 2001 "best media business website" award

AccountingWEB is well aware of the affinity of our members for Excel and other MS Office applications.

But, lo! There is yet another strand of Googleism, one propounded in part by Swedish search optimisation nerd Nikke Lindqvist, to reflect what he and many other webmasters spend so much of their time thinking about - how their sites are ranked on Google and other search engines.

This is a good site to visit if you have any passing interest in search engine optimisation, as it focuses with theological intensity on efforts to deal with the original "Google bomb" in which the search string "miserable failure" brings up George W Bush's CV as the top result. Another thread notes the increasing sensitivity of Google's brand managers to protect the trademark by trying to force other sites to remove definitions of the verb to "google" as a term for internet searching.

One link leads to an email from a Google trademark lawyer who explains: "Our brand is very important to us, and as I'm sure you'll understand, we want to make sure that when people use "Google," they are referring to the services ourcompany provides and not to internet searching in general."

Should you want to take this further, you know where go next... Hours of pointless trivia-hunting are guaranteed.

Source: www.accountingweb.co.uk

Search Engine Optimization Is Highly Profitable

Running a successful business requires lots of effort, time, dedication, professionally trained manpower and the use of the latest technology and strategies that are coming up from time to time. Today almost all business has an online presence and if you want to become successful you will also have to put up an online presence of your site on the World Wide Web. After a site has been put on the web, the site owner needs to ensure that prospective customers know about this presence and come to their site to buy the goods or services that they are offering. SEO or search engine optimization is the best way through which an online site can get promoted on the web. Search engine optimization makes use of several methods and only a professional will be able to decide what methods will be suitable for a site.

SEO services are offered by several search engine marketing firms that operate in that city. It is understood that a person who runs a business may not be familiar with the different online techniques for making their online site popular and this is exactly where professionals working for SEO New York can guide a business owner. You must understand that the methods of promotion on the web i.e. SEO is extremely different from the off-line methods of promotion. The only way through which online visitors can come to know about the presence of an online site is through the help of all the major search engines. It is not easy to get listed at the top of the search results of search engines, and one needs to put in lots of effort to do this.

They have different criteria based on which they decide on the popularity and importance factor of a site. So what professionals working for SEO do is make the site in such a manner that search engine easily find the site and give higher rankings to it. The site must be user friendly and this is the most important quality if you want to retain your customers. It may be that someone may just stumble to your site from anywhere, but you can retain them only when you provide them quality services. Make sure that all the information that you provide on your site is updated on a regular basis so that you can retain customers.

Search engine attribute rankings to a site based on several aspects and content is one of the major aspects. The content on the site must be keyword heavy and keywords are those words which specifically describe the service or the goods offered by a particular business. If you are not certain as to which keywords are the most appropriate for your business, you can ask the SEO professionals to help you out. They use proper research methods and suitable tools to find out the keywords that will suit your business. After the keywords have been found out, only then can search engine optimization be done properly for a site.

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization,Search engine marketing,Social media optimization, SEO New York.To get the SEO tips from search engine marketing firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

Source: www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

Google India Women in Engineering Award 2008

Diversity at Google means having a workforce that reflects the diversity of our customers' perspectives, ideas and cultures -- one that thinks and acts inclusively, and fundamentally values people's similarities and differences. As part of our ongoing commitment to encourage women to excel in computing and technology, the India team has taken our first steps: in December we launched the Google India "Women in Engineering Award" to recognize women in the field of computer science and engineering.

In its inception year, we have extended this award to recognized engineering schools across India; it is open to any woman student in computer science engineering who meets the application criteria. This initiative has been received positively, as has been indicated by the inundating queries and subsequent applications. The last date for applying is January 31st and we are looking forward to hearing from even more applicants.

After our panel reviews all applications, the winners will be announced in a little more than a month, on February 29th. The winners will be invited to visit the Google engineering office in Bangalore during first week of March for a conclave comprising of keynotes, panel discussions, tech talks, breakouts and an award ceremony.

We hope this award will encourage students to take up computer science engineering as their study, and perhaps inspire some of you to take this up as a career too.

Source : www.Google.com

Google Announces Launch of Google Maps for Mobile With "My Location" Technology

Google today announced the release of version 2.0 of Google Maps for mobile, its innovative and widely used mobile mapping and local search application. New in v2.0 is a beta version of Google's "My Location" technology, which uses cell tower ID information to provide users with their approximate location, helping them determine where they are, what's around them, and how to get there.

Google is committed to providing users with quick and easy access to the information they need, no matter when or where they need it. Location information makes mobile mapping and search faster and more convenient, but the most common source of location information to date -- GPS technology -- is supported on fewer than 15 percent of the mobile phones expected to be sold in 2007. With Google's new My Location technology, users who don't have GPS-enabled mobile phones will now be able to take advantage of the added speed and convenience afforded by location information. The My Location technology also complements GPS-enabled devices, as it delivers a location estimate faster than GPS, provides coverage inside buildings (where GPS signals can be unreliable), and doesn't drain phone batteries as quickly as GPS. Whether users are trying to locate a restaurant in an unfamiliar neighborhood, get directions to the nearest hotel while traveling, or just find a place to grab some coffee while shopping for the holidays, Google Maps for mobile with My Location can help them get what they need quickly and easily.

The My Location technology takes information broadcast from cell towers and sifts it through Google-developed algorithms to approximate a user's current location on the map. This approximation is anonymous, as Google does not gather any personally identifiable information or associate any location data with personally identifiable information as part of the My Location feature. The feature can also be easily disabled by anyone who prefers not to use it. The My Location technology is available on most smartphones, including all color BlackBerry devices, all Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices, most Windows Mobile devices, newer Sony Ericsson devices, and some Motorola devices.

Google Maps for mobile, first launched in the US in November 2005, enables users to view interactive maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, get point-to-point driving directions, and view live traffic updates, all while on the go. The application is now available on and optimized for a wide variety of platforms, running on most J2ME-enabled devices; all color BlackBery devices; Windows Mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0, and above; Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices; and Palm devices with Palm OS 5 and above. Google Maps for mobile is being actively used by millions of people in more than 20 different countries around the globe.

Source : www.google.com

Google Making Public Records Available

Google recently announced that they will soon be helping state governments make public records easily accessible to Internet users. The company has partnered with Arizona, California, and Virginia to remove technical barriers that had prevented search engines from accessing public records pertaining to education, real estate, health care and the environment.

These newly available records will not be exclusive to the search engines owned by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Officials from states partnering with Google have expressed hope that this initiative will make it easier for average citizens to navigate agency Web sites.

Currently, government computer systems aren’t programmed in a way that allows commercial search engines to access their databases. Google plans to fix this problem by creating virtual roadmaps which will allow search engines to find the databases that store public records. They’ve been working on this technology for approximately six months according to the AP.

Many privacy advocates are concerned about this movement due to the personal and confidential nature of the documents that will soon become available so widely. It’s been pointed out that Google is embroiled in controversy surrounding privacy issues at this time. The EPIC recently filed complaint with the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation of Google’s practice of tracking Internet search users who access government date in order to target ads at them. The publication of personal social security numbers is also a major concern of some.

Source : www.seohelp.net

Google's new position 6 penalty

A discussion in an online webmaster forum indicates that Google might have invented a new ranking penalty for websites that rank well for popular search terms.

What has happened?

During the last few weeks, some webmasters noticed that some of their long term position 1 or position 2 rankings in Google suddenly ranked at position 6.

The problem affected well established websites with a long history. The dropped web pages had long time rankings for popular search terms, usually on position 1.

Why has Google done this?

It is not exactly clear yet which factors cause that ranking drop in Google's results. There are two theories:

1. Google now considers usage data when calculating the rankings.
2. Google now has a better understanding of word and phrase relationships.

If different usage data is the reason for the change then web pages with a higher click-through rate would get higher positions. However, some webmasters reported that even web pages with high click through rates have been downranked.

The penalty also seems to affect web pages that are listed with an appealing title and a description that is very relevant to the search term so it might be that the click-rate is not taken into account.

We think that it's more likely that the word and phrase relationships are the reason for the ranking drops. It seems that web pages with too many inbound links using exactly the searched keyword as the anchor text were affected by the filter.

If the link to a special web page always uses exactly the same anchor text then the word variety is probably extremely low compared to the competing websites in the top results. That indicates a manipulation of the anchor texts and Google applies the filter.

What can you do to avoid that filter?

When you build links to your website, make sure that you use different but related keywords for the links to your site. If you overuse the same link text, Google might discover a manipulation.

If you use different but related keywords, then ranking algorithms will consider your web page relevant to a special topic. Use IBP's inbound link analyzer to get further information about the inbound link structure that leads to top 10 rankings.

Source : www.free-seo-news.com