MG Seigler commenting above on Google’s latest announcement to closely integrate Google+ features into search results. Starting now, search results will be more closely tied to your Google+ profile. The rub is that very little of your Facebook, Twitter or other connections or content will be integrated into these results. To me and a lot of other users, this feels like Google is shoving their Google+ social network down your throat and essentially forcing you to use it or suffer with poor search results. As a marketer, that means you better get on the boat now.
Tag Archives: Google
You’re going to use Google+ and like it
But when they use that natural monopoly to start pushing into other verticals, things get gray. Travel, restaurant reviews, etc, etc. We see more of it each year. But this, at first glance, seems decidedly worse. Google is using Search to propel their social network. They might say it’s “not a social network, it’s a part of Google”, but no one is going to buy that. They were late to the game in social and this is the best catchup strategy ever.MG Siegler
The Trojan horse hidden inside of Siri
I had lunch the other day with the ever-brilliant Future Josh. I had some ideas that I wanted to run past him. When we get together though, the conversation invariably keeps coming back to Apple. We talked about my ideas, but mostly we floundered around all things iPhone 4S, Steve Jobs’ legacy and more.
Then he said something utterly futuristic about Siri, Apple’s voice-command software, and where he envisioned it going. Right now, on the surface it resembles a virtual personal assistant and note taker, but as we talked he unfolded how it could be more than just a helper application. Josh proceeded to eulogize that Siri was Apples decoy into Google’s search market. He believes that Apple is already making plans to fast forward what we consider basic search today. So instead of simple text searches, Apple could be positioning itself as a natural language search engine to compliment its array of products and essentially squeezing Google and Microsoft out of the picture. This idea is beyond the browser and is already made up of a large (and willing) audience.
As voice recognition and technology evolves, searches and commands could be seamless. Can you imagine a search engine that could actually sense your tone and factor such into its results? A more sophisticated example might be the day where you can ask Siri the temperature inside your house and then instruct it to increase or decrease the thermostat – all without picking up your device.
Apple won’t depend on advertising revenue to pull this off either since their model is different than Google’s. Apple creates services for its users to sell more products while Google on the other hand creates services to sell more ads. Bingo bango!
Never turn down $6 billion
The daily deals website, which is expected to fetch a $20 billion valuation upon its stock-market debut, canceled its investor roadshow and is reevaluating plans for an initial public offering in the face of stock-market volatility, said a person familiar with the matterShayndi Rice - Wall Street Journal
So, is it really stock-market volatility or could it be that investors don’t believe Groupon’s business model can hold water in the long-term? Let’s not even consider their crazy CEO or shady accounting practices.
My wife and I have one rule: If someone offers you $6 billion, you take it.
Google Adwords: How much does it cost to get to the top?
We’re excited to announce a new metric in AdWords, top of page bid estimates, to provide additional assistance in optimizing your ads to show above the search results. Analogous to first page bid estimates, this metric approximates the cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to appear regularly in the top positions above the search results.Inside Adwords: Google Official Blog
Your ad position will still depend on quality score, your overall budget and other factors, but at least now you’ll have an idea of the amount of cash it takes to get your ad to the top of the heap.
Google Hack: Put a little tilde in it
Next time your Google search involves general terms like free, inexpensive, facts, etc, use the tilde (~) operator. By placing a ~ in front (no space after) of your generic term, Google will search both for that specific word and for the word’s synonyms. It will also return searches for the term with alternative endings. The tilde operator works best when you apply it to general terms and queries with many synonyms.
Ex: [~inexpensive] also matches “cheap,” “affordable,” and “low cost.”
Ex: [~walk] also matches “walkers” and “walking.”
via StackExchange
6 Google+ extensions to enhance your experience and up your geekiness
All Google+ extensions and apps below require the Google Chrome browser. You can find me on Google+ here.
- Replies and More – Adds a drop down next to share with additional sharing options like Twitter, Facebook and Email. The extension also allows you to easily reply to the author and mention other users in your comments. Also try Extended Share.
- Comment Toggle – Hides any comments to posts within your stream and makes them available when you actually want to see them.
- Move 2 Picasa – Exports all most of your Facebook albums/photos to Picasa. I’ve had hit and miss success with this app, so just be aware of that going in. Start Google Plus is an alternative that I’ve used, but takes a little time to move a large amount of photos over.
- Start G+ - Automatically post to Facebook and Twitter when you share something on Google+. Additionally, it puts your Facebook and Twitter streams inside your Google+ feed. The only downside is that you cannot reply to or like a Facebook or Twitter post within Google+. This extension is far from perfect, but it will do until Google adds these features.
Find me on Google+
