Recently Google has been developing their online apps, these are essentially programs to aid the chore of everyday Internet activities. One example is Google Wave, which allows users to remotely collaborate on documents. Also Google has recently acquired DocVerse, which enables Internet users to collaborate with many of Microsoft’s programs, like Excel. Well now Microsoft wants to get into the cloud application market in order to keep up with the competition. It seems as if the company has created a perfect opportunity with the upcoming releases of Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010. Windows Live users will be able to access simple versions of OneNote, Excel, Word and PowerPoint by means of their browser, but the catch is that some features are restricted to the full edition. So what is the difference?
“The difference in our platform is simplicity,” said Google Docs project manager -Jonathan Rochelle
These two companies have been competing for several years now and it seems like the war has only just begun.
As talked about today in class, Google Voice is intended to make it easier to manage phone calls, text messages, and voice mails. This ingenious application will allow users to route multiple phones together to ring simultaneously as well as manage voice mails easier. Voice Mail is a pain, you have to call it, then type in your password, and listen to the boring voice repeat choices over and over again. Now you will be able to access voice mails on any phones and easily delete them or save them in one location.
Google Voice will have a competitor though and that is Skype, which is owned by eBay. Skype is an internet phone call where you can instantly chat with friends. Although Skype is not a direct competitor it will be a significant indirect competitor and may see sales fall with the introduction of Google Voice. The article also speaks about how telephone companies will be affected and it looks at analytics to see how and when.
Who works behind the scenes of Google AdWords? The company has really become popular in the last few years with more and more companies advertising online, so who works with these companies. The answer is the Ann Arbor headquarters of AdWords, which opened in 2006, and since then has been assisting businesses in shaking up the advertising world. The division has a goal to reach its optimal employment level of 1,000 by the end of 2011, and they are paying current employees over $47,000 a year. Many Ann Arbor employees are account managers, salespeople, and customer service representatives with a host of innovative ideas. One example is the cost per click, which uses keywords relevant to its businesses to cause their Web site links to appear under "Sponsored Links" when a user performs a Google search, in turn companies pay AdWords a fee for each click of their link. The advertising revenue that the division has generated has significantly increased Google's stock price in the past couple years.
To print at home, you need to rely on your local operating system and the necessary hardware. This isn't often a problem, but for mobile users or users based on a mobile device (using the iPad or Google Chrome for example) the software can't connect to the hardware. But, with Google Cloud Print, any application on any device can print to any computer.
New waves of technology always affect marketing because with it brings new competition and new technology. It will be interesting to see how the public uses this software and what Google's competition comes up with.
Site speed has now been added into Google's algorithm as a new ranking factor for websites. Google's algorithm is made up of around 200 factors, and quality of the site should still remain the first concern. Site owners should not compromise quality in order to gain page speed.
This site speed factor was added after "strong lobbying" inside Google because evidence showed that site speed impacts business metrics and also that users prefer fast pages. Google proved this point by purposely slowing down their own search results to determine what the impact would be on the search behavior, and what they saw was less engagement. Google measures the page speeds of sites based on how the page responds to Googlebot and the load time of the page.
In this information age hackers are always looking for ways to fool their prey, and this article describes one of their latest tricks. Hackers have now learned how to edit links that are indexed in search results in order to make them appear safe. Its called SEO poisoning, and the aim is to bring a user to a dangerous website that can install a virus on their computer. In a recent experimental study approximately 26% of search results returned by Google had poisoned URLs, and about 86% of sites established in Singapore had SEO poisoning. These results were all found in sites that were indexed by Google, so if the worlds greatest search engine is encountering these problems, then how much worse is this problem with less reputable search engines.
Google Adwords is a way that businesses can bring in more customers at a lower cost. Google Adwords enables a company to implement precisely targeted advertising. The article states that with proper presentation and execution , starting Google Adwords can be like planting a money tree that will provide your business with a steady stream of revenue. To start Google Adwords first the company needs a goal. The company then needs to make a list of keywords that relates to their company or product. Then the company needs to make sure their website is eye catching and easy to use. Google Adwords is a way to get people to your site and keep them coming back for more.
Semantic search has the potential to replace Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky Button" with a much more effective and potentially disruptive "Find It Now Button". Imagine being able to find the exact product you are searching for on the very first click, and for that item to be located near your workplace, in the brand, price range, color and size you request and for the store to be open during your lunch hour and accept American Express. If semantic search becomes a reality you'll find a product online fitting those exact custom parameters in 10 seconds. Gone will be the days of sifting through multiple sites and webpages to find information trapped in advertisements, online inventories, maps and FAQS. When this next round of search innovation takes hold it could be a dream for web marketers who are used to having to push products out to customers and wrangle with SEO and page rankings just to be found online.
Google is going wide with their "Remarketing" feature, which allows advertisers to reach users who visit their website after they leave. The feature uses "remarketing lists," or rather a list of website visitors that a company would like to reengage. Visitors are followed as they browse the internet via a Google cookie, and then are re-targeted on other websites with compelling messages to get them to return to the advertised site. Advertisers can run several Remarketing campaigns at once, for a variety of products or offers.
This program has been in a trial run since March of 2009, and has became popular with companies seeking to boost brand awareness, drive sales and increase their clicks. All advertisers need to do to use the Remarketing feature is to check the "Audience" tab on their Adwords account page. Concerns about user privacy emerge, because Remarketing collects a wealth of browsing information from consumers. Time will tell whether or not this feature is successful in boosting website traffic and clicks for advertisers.
Click here to learn more about Google Remarketing.
So you still have to go to one site to check your email and then another for Twitter and yet another for Facebook? Who has that kind of time!? Not anymore, now you can use multiple plug-ins right in your email client to interact with all of your social media sites. What client you use decides exactly what features you can add.
For example, if you use Google Mail you can add a nifty plug-in called Xoopit. This lets you integrate all your images and videos from your Gmail to places like Flickr and YouTube. You can also share it through Facebook or your blog.
Okay, so maybe you're the one person that doesn't have Gmail and you use Microsoft Outlook. With Outlook you can add OutTwit, which sounds pretty much like what it does. It adds a toolbar that allows you to send new posts to Twitter as well as read and reply. To keep all of your precious Tweets organized you can add a folder called Tweets (of course).
There are plenty more fun and functional plug-ins that could help you be a little more organized and thrifty with your time.
Goggle announced on Monday 3/22 that it has stopped censoring search results in China although Chinese government has been very clear that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. Goggle has the gut to fight for its users in order to provide them Internet freedom and access to information.
It is also interesting to see how a big company like Goggle has the power to influence a country. If Goggle survives, China's online market will be completely open to the world. If Goggle failed, even like Goggle,a huge internet provider, will loss a tremendous amount of potential users. This risky move will be carefully monitored by the world. We never know when the Chinese government will kick Goggle out of the country.
Last month Google said it plans on starting an ultra-high-speed broadband network covering as many as 500,000 users. Google has said other providers have made good progress in expanding and improving high-speed internet access but there is still more to be done. Case Western Reserve University also has a fast growing service that could be as big as Verizon, AT&T, and possibly Google. Google and Case Western are pushing Verizon and AT&T as well as Comcast to step up their research and create faster services. Google could easily make their way to the top of the broadband service list someday, but they have made it clear they are in no rush.
Similar to a search engine BitTorrent uses indexed databases allowing users to download files for free. During the last six years BitTorrent has worked to gain monetary success. The private company has achieved some profits which can be mainly attributed to Google and its partners. Some examples of companies on the partners list are MTV, Paramount, and Warner Brothers. Google has helped BitTorrent by indexing torrent sites and storing them in its huge databases. From there on when you search for a torrent the Googlebot can retrieve these search results in mere seconds. The bulk of the income BitTorrent generates is due to advertising. The ads are placed on heavy traffic torrent sites that receive millions of hits daily. A percentage of the income generated from ads is then given back to BitTorrent. In short even though file sharing is widely illegal BitTorrent is able to make money by Google looking the other way.
Google launches their new service Google Buzz. This service offers a new way to start conversations of all of the things you find interesting. Users are able to share photos, videos and links. The service directly integrates your gmail contacts and integrates updates directly to your gmail inbox so, you can see what happens at real time.
Buzz will be available for all gmail users. Similarly, this service is available for mobile.
Google just acquired Aardvark for $50 million. This company was founded in 2007 by two Googlers and it provides customized answers to your questions from your friends in real time. For example, you ask a question and the service sends this question to your friends and your friends' friends that are online and are likely to provide you with an answer. It's basically having an entire network to answer all your uncertainties.
It is clear that the acquisition of the Aardvark service is Google's way of competing with Facebook and Twitter and the way in which they use real-time user-generated content. However, more than becoming a social network, it will provide users with information as well as facilitating interaction between them.
According to this article on Business Week, Google is approaching $1 billion in sales (4% of total sales) this year on display ads, one of the few areas they are still behind Yahoo on. However, they are catching up and realize that with the demand for display ads (banner ads and ads embedded in video) will be growing faster than search related ads, which still provides the bulk of their sales.
Still, they have made several acquisitions to increase their presence in this area, as they see more television and print ad dollars shifting to Web display. Sales for both display and search are expected to continue to grow 8.2% to $7.9 billion and 5.6% to $11.4 billion respectively.
Interesting how the article implies that the recession has helped Google as companies look for less expensive methods of advertising.
Not many people who have access to the internet HAVEN'T heard of Google. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that most everyone online has heard of it or used it. So why on earth would the most popular search engine in the world need to run a Super Bowl ad?
The fact is it doesn't NEED to, but it WANTS to. Running an ad that millions of people will see will only deepen our feelings for Google. Especially since most ads consisted of fast cars or sexist jokes or animals torturing their owners, Google had a cute little spot it could weasel into with their ad named "Parisian Love".
Apple released the Ipad this week to mixed reviews. One thing that was noticed was a continued lack of Flash support its portable devices. When questioned about the snubbing of flash, Jobs stated that it does not support Flash because it is buggy and it is a common cause of crashes on Macs.
The new HTML5 standard brings standardization to the internet, making it less reliant on proprietary technologies such as flash. YouTube has just released support for the technology on its site but support among browsers is still lacking.
Jobs panned Adobe for its “laziness” in developing Flash. He believed that they had the potential to do many interesting things with it but their lack of motivation let Flash sit on its laurels.
Ironically, HTML5 is something Google is also pushing for. Google Voice, which Apple rejected earlier this year from its App Store, has made its way onto the iPhone through an HTML5 web app using the Safari browser. Jobs is not happy with Google at this moment since he regards Google as an invading force into its smartphone territory.
Last year Facebook pushed AOL out of its position as 4th largest Web property in the world. In the single month of December 2009 Facebook gained 31 million unique vistors, which is more than Yahoo gained the entire year. The number 1 and 2 spots for largest Web properties are currently held by Google and Microsoft with Yahoo coming in third and Facebook right on it's tail.
If Facebook attracts half as many unique visitors next year as it did this year and Yahoo remains at a constant pace then Facebook will be taking third place within a year from now. Facebook continues to grow while other sites are maintaining a relatively mellow growth rate. It is intersting to see one of the largest web properties in the world as a social networking site rather than news or information gathering sites. For more information, click here.
Several weeks ago, Google announced that it was the victim of several cyber attacks directed at obtaining information on Chinese rights activists. The company announced that it would no longer censor search results in China and the US State Department even brought in its own remarks on the issue.
Now Twitter's CEO is making his own statements on the issue. Evan Williams has now publicly stated his support for Google's stance on censorship. Twitter has also been partially censored by the Chinese government as well as several other countries. Although Twitter supports freedom of speech, Williams has stated that the company has nowhere near the clout the Google does, reducing the ability of the company to engage the Chinese government.
What Twitter is able to do to support freedom of speech is inherent in the way Twitter is structured, according to Williams. Its open accessibility by various programs and websites allow users to access the service in ways that the Chinese government may find difficult to locate and censor. This is a subtle admission that although the company is not attempting to find ways to circumvent the Chinese government, third-party developers definitely have the capability to do it themselves.
