Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Google Fresh Possible Algorithmic Variables

Published: November 10th, 2011

As a lot of you will know the big Buzz (pun intended) in the Google world is about this Google Freshness update or the “mint” update. Now this won’t affect all of you, but a lot of Webmasters in the sports, coupon and tech industries must be having kittens right about now, that highly authoritative page they had could be rendered useless simply by its age which may have previously been of benefit.

What does Google Fresh Want?

Whilst a lot of this article is subject to testing and is currently purely speculative, we have come up with some ideas as to what Google will be looking at to evaluate a page’s freshness and the worrying fact is that a lot of these things seem very easily cheatable.

1. When was your page indexed – this could be the first time that the page was crawled or when it first appeared in the SERPs, this would stand to reason as it would be the most difficult to game.

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Google And Its Hidden Trickery!

Published: November 3rd, 2011

On Thursday November 3rd we got a taste of Google’s playful side when the search term “do a barrel roll” resulted in Google’s search screen rotating by 360 degrees, bringing a smile to millions everywhere.

The barrel trick is however not Google’s only trick that can be found. In fact there are nine of them altogether. The best thing is, you can access them now for instant laughs to brighten up your day.

So without further ado, let’s bring those smiles to play:

Gravity

1. Using the search term “Google Gravity” followed by pressing “I’m feeling lucky”, you are greeted by the entire Google search page falling to your feet.

Mentalplex

2. This trick has been around since it started as an April fools joke in 2000 and still works brilliantly if you want to be entertained or spin your friends and family out. Type “google.com/mentalplex” into your URL bar and take it from there!

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An introduction to the subscribe button from Facebook

Published: September 21st, 2011

Facebook is extending its strategy to dominate Twitter and Google + by now making it possible for Facebook users to “subscribe” to other user’s public status updates, without even necessarily having to be accepted as a friend on the social network. This very much replicates Twitter….

This new “subscribe” button is the latest in a string of attempts from Facebook to prevent Twitter and Google + overtaking it in the technology stakes. This new button has been launched this week simultaneously with a couple of other new features from Facebook. One being the new smart lists feature – a direct response to Google +’s “circles” – which creates lists for you depending on who you work with, where you live and who you have approved as a family member. The second new feature is their instant messaging mobile app which competes with Blackberry. Facebook Messenger allows Facebook users to instantly message friends using their mobile phones.

The new “subscribe” button, which appears next to the “friends” and “message” buttons at the top of each user’s profile, allows you to subscribe to status updates from any user who has their privacy settings set to public. This allows Google to index the updates and store them so that everyone can see them, meaning that users will now be able to subscribe to feeds of celebrities and other famous figures and view all updates in their news feeds. This definitely represents a Twitter-esque functionality of being able to see what celebrities and political figures are doing without actually having to connect with them as a friend. It also means anyone can subscribe to statuses that you publically display, so always check your privacy settings if you do not want users you are not connected with viewing them.

This new button is being seen as a direct challenge to Twitter by technology experts and changes Facebook from being solely a place where friends can connect with each other, to being a network where information can be displayed and shared easily.

The most interesting thing about the subscriptions feature is that when a user on Facebook adds someone as a friend, as soon as they are accepted they instantly become a subscriber to each other’s public updates.

What next? Well Facebook is expected to announce the launch of a music service that will make it truly different and keep it way ahead of its competitors – watch this space!

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What is Google + and does it offer us anything new?

Published: August 25th, 2011

 

Google + is the new social network that has been introduced by the search engine God that is Google. After the failure of both Google Buzz and Google Wave there is hope that it may be third time lucky!

With Google + users are able to share photos and links with their friends and family by targeting who they want to share with out of their connections. This is what they say differentiates them from Facebook and Twitter. By creating “circles” of friends, family, colleagues etc, users can share funny jokes and day to day updates with friends and family while sharing more professional links to articles with business colleagues.

Currently the website is only accessible to those who have been invited by Google or have been invited by other friends who already have a Google + account. Soon everyone will be able to sign up and this may well be the “sink or swim” moment for the network.

To make things simple I have written a list of the 5 main features Google + has to offer:

1. The “ + “

Google + prides itself on its streamline approach towards sharing online. The web is filled with great content and it is only natural that if you find something interesting then you want to share it with others. Google has described this current process as “Awkward. Even broken” And they aim to fix it! The “+” button has been incorporated into the navigation bar above almost all Google products enabling people to keep track of their notifications without having to go back to the Google + homepage.

2. Circles

One of the main features of Google + is its “circles” feature. According to Google this is the one thing that really makes it stand out from Facebook. When sharing pictures, videos and links on Facebook you can only share them with all your friends. Using circles, you can pick and choose by category who you send information to. Google claim “We found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks.” Thus they brought circles to software!

3.Sparks

Google + Sparks enables you to gain information about all your interests (in a very Twitter-esque fashion). Once your interests (for example, films or cooking) have been chosen, a link to them will appear under your profile picture. Whenever you want to know what news there is about your interest, all you need to do is click on the link and it will bring up a page filled with news pictures and links related to that particular interest. At the moment the Sparks feature does not include suggestions from people that the user follows, making it less engaging than was perhaps intended.

4.Hangouts

Although Google + has been billed to mainly rival the likes of Twitter and Facebook, the “Hangouts” feature appears to be targeting the market that Skype currently occupies. It allows users to bring groups together for a simultaneous video chat. Up to ten friends at a time can join the chat at the simple push of a button. The feature has been built into YouTube, allowing users to all watch a video together in real time.

5. Mobile

These days mobile phones are the first place people turn to when they want to share with others when out and about. A mobile phone is almost always with you and almost always online. With the Google + app your mobile can be even more personal and sharing information has never been quicker. Locations can be added to posts and pictures can be instantly uploaded. Using “huddle” everyone in a circle can be messaged simultaneously.

So will Google + take off? And does it really offer us anything we can’t get from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? As the site becomes accessible to everyone I’m sure that it will take off, but whether it stays afloat for long is another question. If you are the sort of person who just likes to have an account on everything then Google + is definitely for you, but for some of us it may just be another profile to continuously check on and interact with, without any significant benefit being visible.

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