Make It Look Google-y

In a small, but important, update in the world of Search, Google has revised their visual guidelines to suggest that logos uploaded to the schema looks appropriate on white backgrounds. This revision adds on to a number of other guidelines for properties that Google has communicated, such as size and file format type. The kicker with this revision is that if the logo does not display properly, it may not qualify for inclusion in search. This has obvious repercussions for brand value and identity and further forces marketers to go out of their way to make sure that things fit in the way Google would like them to. However, this change mainly affects logos that are mostly gray or white and I'd be willing to bet that most of the marketers at those companies are aware of this nuance and are prepared to handle adjustments on an as needed basis. Regardless, it's yet another example of the power of Google and how it forces companies and brands to conform/adjust to their standards. 

Sources: 

• https://searchengineland.com/google-logo-schema-markup-now-requires-logos-to-look-good-on-white-backgrounds-376170
• https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structured-data/logo#structured-data-type-definitions

Looking for a new job? See how Google, Snapchat, and LinkedIn can help you!

If you are looking for jobs, the internet has newer ways to help you! While Google rolled out a search engine for jobs this week, Snapchat launched ‘Snaplications’ in the US! LinkedIn, on the other hand, rolled out a new tool that makes it easier to know who is searching for your profile.

It is interesting to see how brands are continuously leveraging technology to reach their target audience and simplify processes via digital platforms!

Google’s new job search is powered by AI and lets users find the perfect job listings for a search query. What’s more? It pulls data from some of the world’s biggest job boards, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Monster, Indeed and Glassdoor to give users a dense set of search results and help simplify the tedious job search process.

With the launch of ‘Snaplication’, snapchat is all set to revolutionize the recruiting game! A world’s first, snaplication allows applicants to initiate the job process via snaps! Given the evolution of technology and the change in audience behavior, snapchat is empowering brands to engage directly with its potential talent, especially, millennials.

As the world’s largest youth employer, McDonald’s for instance is already using Snaplication to hire more than 200,000 workers this summer! Since ~48 percent of Snapchat users are between the ages of 18 and 24, it makes a lot of sense for a brand like McDonald's to leverage snap for recruitment.

 

Lastly, I noticed that LinkedIn rolled out a new feature that lets people see who searched for their profile!
The Search Appearances feature is visible on a user's personal profile page (see image), for both mobile and desktop versions. It lets the user find out how many times they've been discovered. With the roll out of this feature, LinkedIn wants to give its users a sense of how frequently they're appearing in queries and how they can strengthen their profile. It also helps people see the companies and job titles of the people who found them in search to help signal what types of opportunities you may be a fit for!





Links:

http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2017/06/13/mcdonalds-accepting-snapchat-snaplications-to-lure-millennial-employees.html
https://futurism.com/google-now-employs-ai-to-help-you-land-a-new-job/
https://www.cnet.com/news/linkedin-wants-you-to-know-whos-job-searching-for-you/

Google – Content based Search?

Google is undoubtedly the dominant player in the search engine industry. In fact most of the companies that have adopted digital marketing have ensured to adapt to the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. Recently, Google released a white paper that indicated changing the criteria it uses to rank websites to include Google’s assessment of the accuracy of the content. This has shaken few search-engine-optimization experts speculating the changes for future.

Google's paper titled “Knowledge-Based Trust: Estimating the Trustworthiness of Web Sources,” discusses ranking websites based on the trustworthiness and factual accuracy of web sources. This new system would rely on Google’s own Knowledge Vault and a number of other metrics to gauge the accuracy of the information on a page. This would mean that if one's website contains known inaccuracies, or if it simply doesn’t contain much of the relevant content, the ranking on Google would be adversely affected for that website.

I think this in accordance with the focus on content based digital marketing. In the last two years, content marketing has gained tremendous focus and it is one of the most important areas in the digital marketing this year. Some of the following stats corroborate this finding:
- 57% of marketers report content marketing is their top marketing priority for 2013.

- 60% of marketers use content marketing on a weekly basis.

- 82% of prospects say content targeted to their industry is more valuable.

- 9 in 10 organizations market with content.

As a company owner involved in digital marketing, the better the company's website ranks, the more traffic it is likely to get and the greater is the lead generation and conversions.
A Knowledge-Based Trust (KBT) signal would be a significant departure from current practice, which uses traditional linking strategies to boost a website’s “authority.” Instead of rewarding or punishing a website based on the number and quality of links it has to other websites and portals, the search engine actually would assess the content of each Web page using the complex methodology discussed in the paper. This methodology is quite complex and Google has commented that these theories are still in research and development stage and not expected to roll out any time soon. Thus, I would strongly suggest companies to not stop any of the current SEO strategies.

Google is well known for aggregating all the content published on the Internet and respond with an output on demand. The fresher the content, the more helpful it is for Google likes it as websites, blogs, and paid media strategies all require fresh content to be effective. Even social media citations are starting to populate the search results- the most recent example being Twitter releasing its API allowing its tweets to be easily displayed through Google search.

The key to a successful content marketing strategy is to provide free, no-obligation information or advice that accurately answers questions and solves problems. It is also important that the content is aggregated from all sources and is also promoted on as many platforms as possible. To summarize, even if Google is yet to release its content based search model, marketers are already spending significant resources on content based digital marketing. In essence, content based marketing is a necessity today.

 Source / Reference:

http://kapost.com/content-marketing-facts/
http://thegazette.com/subject/news/digital-marketing-google-x2014-search-engine-for-truth-20150321
http://www.brightedge.com/blog/knowledge-based-trust-a-new-google-ranking-factor/

Mobile SEO: More than a Smaller Screen

Google 'Mobile SEO best practice', and you would see experts and enthusiasts giving countless bullet points on how to succeed over a handheld device.

Some top results have given explicit details on 'make your website mobile friendly', 'content optimization plus mobile ads' as well as other definitely 'do's for website managers and business owners. I attach two useful links in case you would like some background information. Optimizing for Mobile - Moz Best Practices for Mobile SEO | Mobile Marketing

However, it takes a lot more than that to adapt to the emerging mobile market. A recent report claimed that in holiday season 2014, mobile device drove 39% of paid traffic in 2014 Q4, and the share is still growing. Besides adding a mobile url to your website or calling up the mobile ads sales rep, there are a few trends to take into account for both marketers and search engine operators (Baidu I'm talking to you!).

1. Shorter key words

Mobile searchers often type in shorter phrases - especially with non-Roman languages. Who wants to tap out a long sentence on a touchscreen keyboard? Longer phrases such as 'what's the best pizza in Upper West' could be shortened as 'pizza upper west' or even 'pizza UWS', and the basket of keywords would be optimized if more typos are considered. 

2. Geographic information

Phones go wherever users go, while desktops stay still in homes and offices. For the local business who hesitated to build up a website and start a campaign, now it is the time. Either it is a pastry shop or a food truck, start with small and attract those nearby.

3. Search on the go (and in the bed)

Mobile searchers move fast, act fast, and expect the results to appear in the first screen. More impatient than traditional searchers, they are also more interested in actionables. Those considering promoting sleep remedy or instant in-store coupon might find mobile ad a worthier investment.

5. Revised algorithm

Type 'Bose' in regular Google you get a handful of ads. Type the same keyword via phone and you get one - sometimes, none. The search engine giants are more cautious with what to place in front of their users - quality score, especially measured by websites' mobile device performance, take a larger portion compared to bidding price.

6. Bye search hi apps

Search engine got all the users flow on desktops. But this is no more the situation with mobile users. Yelp, Accuweather, Chase and other apps are giving users shortcuts avoiding search engines. Can't rule Google? Go for Yelp, or your own app to promote your business.

The most trusted name in news is... Google?

This week the public relations firm Edelman released a report showing that online search is now a more trusted source of news and information than traditional news media. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, this effect was even more pronounced among millenials.

At this point, you are probably a little confused. Google isn't a news outlet. It does not generate content or track down leads. How can Google be a more trusted news source than an actual news site? What's going on here?

Well, here is how I have been thinking about this.  As more news media moves online, users are more comfortable consuming their news and information entirely from the internet, but as with most things on the internet, we want choice! (After all, have you ever searched for a relatively specific search term, but still felt annoyed or let down when the search engine only returns one or two relevant hits?) Users are no longer limited to the magazines to which they can afford to subscribe or to their local news stations. More sources, more details, and more viewpoints are becoming better. As Quartz explains: "Getting an at-a-glance look at a wide range of stories deemed relevant by a search-engine algorithm—be they from traditional news outlets, blogs, advertisements, and much else besides—is more comforting to the curious reader, it seems, than simply pulling up a single news outlet’s site." And given the inherent biases of so many news outlets these days, perhaps this approach is actually more balanced overall... but that is a discussion for another blog.

So what does this mean for digital marketing and for search engines? Well, on the one hand, this trust gives search a level of credibility and power with consumers, making paid search and search engine optimization even more valuable as marketing tools. Users clearly trust the algorithms to effectively curate their worldview, so imagine how much more likely they are to select an ad or a site that was picked for them and presented as highly and specifically relevant. On the other hand, this revelation should serve as a warning to companies like Google not to overdo it or to lose sight of their core competency. If advertising is not judiciously vetted and well matched to users or if search results become too easily manipulated by crack marketing teams, search engines could lose that valuable trust as quickly as they earned it.

Consumers trust Google's news algorithm more than traditional media organizations
Google is now a more trusted source of news than the websites it aggregates

Europe Issues Guidelines for Google to Extend “Right to be Forgotten” to U.S. Searches

Earlier this year, European Union’s top court ruled that individuals in the E.U. have the right to request that search links on Google’s website tied to that individual could be deleted where the material is deemed “irrelevant or outdated”.  However, these searches only applied to Europeans domains (i.e. Google.co.uk) and not the U.S. Google website (Google.com).  Under rules drafted by E.U. privacy chiefs, Google will have to change how it applies the right to be forgotten to its websites beyond the European Union.  These guidelines also censure Google for notifying news outlets about links to websites the search engine has removed–a process that defeats the original purpose of the May ruling by thrusting individuals seeking privacy back into the media spotlight.

The May ruling of the “right to be forgotten” has been widely criticized by the U.S., where the country was founded on the basis of free speech, and the U.K. However, after a two-day meeting, data protection regulators’ new rules will push Google to apply privacy requests from E.U. residents to its primary U.S. Google.com site.  While the guidelines are not legally binding, national regulators can use them to pressure Google and take legal steps to comply on a case-by-case basis. 

These guidelines made me think of the speaker we had earlier this semester that was the founder of an online reputation defender service.  I have definitely Googled myself and found some links that I wouldn't want to share publicly (i.e. social media accounts.)  While it would be nice if there were a ruling by the U.S. court similar to that in the E.U., online reputation service companies would go out of business in a heartbeat.  I believe that everyone deserves the right to know what is being featured about yourself on the internet.  While an online service can help you push down unwanted articles in an organic search, one can only hope links can permanently be deleted off search in the future. 

Source: http://adage.com/article/digital/google-pushed-bring-forgotten-requests-u-s-searches/296012/

The EU and Google: new Commission, old issue

On the 1st of November the new European Commission led by Jean-Claud Juncker will take office.
On their table, they might find a thorny case that was left unsolved by their predecessors: Google.

Before leaving his office, the current commissioner for Competition, Mr. Almunia, asked Google to take action and solve a situation that, according to European authorities, limits competition in market. Although in a statement he declared that he hopes to find a solution by end of October, there is no guarantee that this will happen, especially considering that the Commission has repeatedly rejected proposals from Google to find a friendly agreement.

Google is accused by European authorities to limit competition by advertising its own services instead of those of competitors. A truth that the giant of the web might find hard to disprove. Whether this will lead to sanctions such as the ones imposed by the Commission on Microsoft in the past, however, remains to be seen.


Source:  Il Sole 24 Ore

Display Ad in My Gmail

Trust and the illusion of non-commerciality are the foundations of Google's non-search services. Google must perform research to make sure that users don't find the ads distracting, probing or otherwise annoying. As a longtime and frequent user of Google's Gmail service, I was surprised to see a display ad next to my list of messages that reminded me of previous, lesser services. A quick Search on Google (of course) yielded a few results from January 2011 saying that the idea was under a beta test and would be rolled out gradually.

The ad was a vivid mix of blue and green and was selling flights to Nigeria right next to my list of messages and below convenience features like isolating an email to its own page, printing and links to add events to Google Calendar. The ad probably appeared because Google found references to African music in my emails, so I would consider it relevant albeit distracting.

Having emails scanned for keywords and other data is the price we pay for Google's services, but I also feel that these ads diminish significantly from the experience. Google benefits from our frequent use of Gmail and other services through the ability to show more ads based on time spent on the site, but if the experience feels exploitative or distracting to users, it will have the opposite effect. Google must take its Beta tests very seriously, especially from a data/user-journey point of view.

Instant Pages - Google new Search Tool

There is no doubt that Google is a Search Engine leader and the reason is simple. Innovation and Wisdom of Crowd. Google introduced a new idea of instant pages that means they will start caching the web results locally instead of sending it to the final destination. The core reason to come up with this idea is to compete with other search engines by offering optimized search speed. It will save searchers 3 to 5 seconds of download time that in computer processing time matters a lot.








This new tool sounds interesting for searchers but what about the companies who own the sites. Will Google face legal issues because of this move? Possible as I remember archive.org also known as way back machine had many legal campaigns for not only copy right violations but also for keeping the records/old versions of web sites.



I have raised this question in our last class "Is this possible to develop a real time live search engine?". I think this instant page is one step ahead of same direction. Wouldn't that be great if we get what we expect live from the web sites. Well the only think that makes it hard is the processing time and a powerful multiprocessor architecture. May be by using quantum computing it will soon no longer be a myth.



This article was originally posted on Search Engine Land that was re-posted on my personal blog at Web Technologist.