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Information on Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and whoever else makes the list.
Google Releases AdWords Editor 7.0 This Week
Here are some of new and enhanced features in AdWords Editor 7.0: First page bid estimates, Keyword Quality Score, Keyword Opportunities locale, Campaign targeting in the data view, Send feedback to Google and more.
You can download AdWords Editor 7.0 for Windows or the Mac here.
Google has released several new features in Editor 7.0 including:
- First page bid estimates
- Keyword Quality Score
- Keyword Opportunities locale
- Campaign targeting in the data view
- Send feedback to Google
- and more
You can read more about AdWords Editor 7.0 on Search Engine Roundtable's blog Google Quietly Released AdWords Editor 7.0.
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Google AdWords Will Let You Opt to Show Your Ads on iPhone And Android Now
Last weekend I noticed that Google AdWords added a new option that allowed me to select whether I wanted my ads to appear on the iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers.
This is an awesome feature since we just developed out a mobile site for DUI.com that displays perfect on the iPhone, G1, BlackBerry and most mobile devices.
Yahoo Adds Traffic Reports to Online Maps for Major Cities
Guess what! We can now get traffic reports for Austin. Go see it at http://maps.yahoo.com/traffic. If you’re interested in traffic in one of the 70 top metro areas, click on your city. This is just amazing.
Want to know what the traffic snarls will be before you leave for work or head home from the office? Go to http://maps.yahoo.com/traffic. Color-coded icons on the maps for the 70 top metro areas of the U.S. will indicate the severity of any accidents or road impediments along the route. And in the top 20 metro areas, the major highways will change color from green to yellow to red to let you know at what speed the traffic is, or isn’t, moving.
Click on an icon to get details about what the problem is, when it was reported and when it’s scheduled to end. When I looked at
The same traffic information remains on the map even when you ask Yahoo! to also pinpoint area sites for dining, recreation and entertainment, community services, shopping, and financial/ATMs. Most convenient.
The updates come from government agencies and private companies which gather the data from news helicopter pilots, local police and sensors embedded in the various roads.
You’ll be able to get this information in Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Local, and Yahoo! Maps. Check it out. It takes maps from static to active. Extremely useful.
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Ms. Dewey - Powered by Live Search
This is a new way to search for your answers...
Try out Ms. Dewey for your next search. She's also kind of cute.
Type in your search phrase and watch her gather your results on the page. She pulls the results from Microsoft's Live Search and displays them in a scrolling format to the right of the screen. If you don't type in anything after awhile she starts to pout. You can try this site out at http://www.msdewey.com/.
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At Last! Google Calendar - Beta - Has Arrived
Woke up, got out of bed, powered up and there it is - Google Calendar. Waiting for me to log in. First RSS feed article I read from ZDNet by Richard McManus is talking about Google Calendar and how it relates to Google's longer-term strategy for a Google Web Office.
I'm not certain at this point how widespread the availability of Google Calendar is, so don't shoot the messenger here. I'll have more for you on this over the next few days. I am quite excited to run it through its paces to see if I can convert my calendaring and scheduling over to it as I did all my email to Gmail. We shall see what jewels or demons are hidden in this new treasure. I plan to enjoy the process of discovery regardless.
Tom
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Are You in the Google Sandbox?
Though Google will not officially confirm the existence of a Sandbox, it
has been acknowledged by Google Engineer Matt Cutts. It's a product of their
algorithm and could be thought of as a 'probation' period for new sites.
From what we know, if you have a new site or you target a new site in a
highly competitive industry, or if you get carried away optimizing a site
too quickly, especially with link-building, then you could end up in the
sandbox.
How do you know this has happened to you? When your recently launched site
isn't showing any Page Rank, even after a significant amount of time.
Here is an article on Webmasterbrain.com that covers this topic in more
detail.
10 Effective Methods to Bypass the Google Sandbox -
Buy out old domains
Buy recently expired domains
Collect the low-hanging fruit
Drag your competitors down to your level
Buy your way in
Explore non-Google traffic sources
Hijack your competitors' rankings
Use subdomain from developed site
Acquire "trusted" links
Perhaps you aren't sandboxed after all
What's particularly interesting about the article is the reference further down the page on unethical ways to crush your competitor. I want you to know about this because on rare occasions this happens and you need to be aware of it. Don't get any ideas about how you can use it offensively. Remember, what goes around comes around, and this can be a never-ending, expensive cycle to get pulled into. And even if you did gain some success in rankings with those techniques, they would be temporary at best.
The best advice I can give is Be patient. Let me repeat that in case you were scanning: Be patient. I'm talking 6-12 months of being patient. Make SEO changes incrementally, monitor results, learn what your competitors are doing, continue to add content organically, and focus on creative, safe ways to gain inbound links. Seriously look at adding RSS channels and a business blog(s) to your site. Focus on keyword-specific content.
These technologies help you build content and inbound links organically, and they give your web traffic a better idea of who you are as a business person and what it would be like to buy from you. Think of your site as less like an electronic catalog of stuff that you want people to 'consume' and more like a way of establishing conversations with your traffic. You'll get real feedback that will impact your sales, you'll develop longer-lasting relationships with customers who will return for business, and you'll eventually be more visible in the search engines as you create more content that way - the social computing way.
Tom
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Making Google AdSense Pay Better
Seems each week I have clients asking about how to use Google AdSense. These are the little ads you see in websites that you click on, and the ads are generally about the same topic as the website. You (the website owner) get paid each time someone clicks on the ad. The more relevant the ad is to the content on a webpage, the more likely someone will click on it - if they are interested in buying something.
But of course it's not that simple. There are many little tweaks and insights that can significantly increase your income with Google AdSense. Here is a snippet from this posting:
Meet Ivan the optimiser -- but please, no paparazzi
What are the top 3 tips you like to tell publishers?
1. Use wide ad formats. Many publishers find the 728x90 Leaderboard outperforms the 468x60 banner by about 70%. I particularly recommend using the 728x90 Leaderboard, 160x600 Wide Skyscraper, and 300x250 Medium Rectangle.
2. Embed Google ads in your content, and place Google ads at the end of your articles, news stories and reviews. Placing a 468x60 Banner in the typical slot at the top of page, or a 120x600 Skyscraper along the right-hand side of page, works well for cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) ads. However, for cost-per-click (CPC) contextual advertising, AdSense tends to work best when integrated with your content.
3. Blend your ad colours into your website. After running a test with a bright pink 728x90 Leaderboard on a black background, I learned that complementary colours often work better. Try blending the background and borders of your ads into your site, and use a text colour that stands out but already exists on your site. Blending decreases ad blindness and users are more likely to notice ads that interest them.
Read the rest of the article. There are some other tips. I recently
worked on these same suggestions with Google and one of my clients, and they
do work. Remember, though, it's all about content. Create compelling content
first, then worry about your ads.
Tom
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Fortune Magazine Rumors: Google Music Store Aiming at iTunes
I've heard this rumor before. It has resurfaced in this Forbes magazine article today:
Google Music Store Would Provide New Revenue Stream
Google is preparing to launch a music downloading service, according to research firm Caris & Company.
"The music industry is broadly unhappy with the fixed pricing and lack of subscription options at the market-leading iTunes Music Store and likely to support alternative services," wrote the analyst in a recent report.
In the company’s recent analyst meeting, Google highlighted plans to broaden its business by expanding into media downloading and localized ad-search.
In addition to the potential Music Store, Google has expanded the availability of its experimental local AdWords to all customers in the U.S., Canada and Britain. Integrated into Google Maps, the service is expected to allow targeting ads based on the user’s location.
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Hard to say how real this is. Personally, I'd like to see it happen because it would create a broader demand for content with a significantly larger audience than Apple.
It wouldn't hurt to see Apple with some competition, in my opinion. The whole movement of selling media online is still so new that I can imagine there will be more change coming. Don't you wonder about Amazon selling digital media audio and videos as direct downloads? What about Microsoft?
Tom
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Microsoft Releases Office Live - Online
The much-awaited Office Live was released today in beta. There are three levels:
Office Live
Basics
free
Office Live Collaboration
starting at $29.95
Office Live
Essentials starting
at $29.95
Check out the home page for a quick summary. The Office Live Basics is always free, while Collaboration and Essentials are free only during beta testing. Count on some advertising in return on all your pages (I assume). One can only hope it's not the mini-Las Vegas lights approach you see at MSN.com.
Office Live is a collection of services to run your business online, including domain names, email addresses, office document creation, databasing and spreadsheet-type applications. It's not a replacement for MS Office. It's more like a highly focused application subset running on a server that you can pick up and use immediately at nominal cost for ownership and maintenance.
I'm curious to learn more. We all expected Google to be the first to the market with some kind of web-based office production. Well, we haven't heard from Google yet, though you have to figure they have something up their sleeve in this area.
I was not able to see if the Office Live products included RSS support. I had to create an account first, which requires a .net login and all that goes with that. Oh, joy! More forms and questionnaires!
And here is the kicker: After I spent time creating an account to simply try it out, I was told, "If you are selected as a beta participant, you will receive your e-mail invitation and unique product key in 2-4 weeks."
No bingo.
Tom
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Real-time Networked Dumpster-diving Mashup with Google Maps
Like the adage says: "One man's trash is another man's treasure."
See this new Google Mashup from www.garbagescout.com for a new way of using the Internet. I'm not sure how up to date it really is but hey, how creative is this?
Travel around to dumpsters where people toss out still-useful things, often not really broken, just deemed not needed. Take a picture of the stuff with your cell phone camera and post it as an overlay on top of a Google Map showing where this "treasure" can be found.
Like Phillip Torrone says on MakeZine.com, it's dumpster-diving gone Web 2.0.
As a side note, I just completed an interview with the CIO of the Salvation Army for BMC Software's Enterpriseleadership.org show. It was quite fascinating to hear the creative ways they work as an organization from an IT perspective. It hit me while writing this blog article that this mashup idea is a tool that could used during a crisis situation (assuming cell towers were up or satellite phones were available) to quickly map what's going on in a devastated area.
Tom
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New Beta from Google - Host All Your Domain Email Addresses
Here is what they say:
https://www.google.com/hosted/Home
Bring Gmail to your domain.
This special beta test lets you give Gmail, Google's webmail service, to every user at your domain. Gmail for your domain is hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software for you to install or maintain.Gmail - 2 gigabytes of storage and search tools that help users find information fast.
Control Panel - Easily manage user accounts, aliases and mailing lists.
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Tempting. It'a a royal pain right now for me to add or delete email addresses for new people in my company. Seems to take days to make it work each time I try. I've submitted a beta test the service. Might as well, since I use gmail exclusively now.
Tom
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Google Provides Free Tool for Measuring Your Web Traffic and Tracking AdWords
Google does it again. They purchased one of the most popular web traffic
tools - Urchin - which used to require up to hundreds of dollars a
month to use for high-traffic sites. Now it's free and it's called Google
Analytics. Like Gmail, it's all free and all web-accessible
24x7 in real time from any browser.
You only have to create an account and drop a small piece of code onto each
page of your website. A few hours later, you can start monitoring your
web traffic patterns and learn more about who is visiting and where they are
coming from around the world. Now you can get a handle on how best to
integrate your marketing programs with web advertising and track results
from a single tool.
If you have an AdWords account, you can use Google Analytics directly from
the AdWords interface. Google Analytics is the only product that can
automatically provide AdWords ROI metrics, without your having to import
cost data or add tracking information to keywords. Of course, Google
Analytics tracks all of your non-AdWords initiatives as well.
Jim Hedger had a good article on Google Analytics -
Branding and Packaging Results at
http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1303/.
Two thumbs up on this announcement from Google. Use it!
Tom
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Free Cross-platform File-sharing from Microsoft
FolderShare is a service created by an Austin, Texas-based company. Microsoft
recently bought the service and changed the $50/year fee to Free.
What a deal! You do have to install a small application on your
machine. It works on MACs and PCs. Here is the text from their home
page:
FolderShare
TM is a service that allows you to securely keep files
synchronized between your devices, share files with friends or colleagues,
and remotely download your files from any web browser. FolderShare consists
of two components - My FolderShare and the FolderShare Satellite.
My FolderShare: Configure and manage your account from here.
* Go to www.foldershare.com from any web
browser and login to access your "My FolderShare" page.
* From here you can do any of the following:
o Setup devices to
sync or share with
o Invite others (via
email address) to share your files
o Manage your account
- upgrade your subscription, change your email address or
password
o Get help
o Download the latest
software
FolderShare Satellite: The software you need to install on the
device(s) you want to sync or share files with.
* The FolderShare Satellite will run in the background
when you are online.
* As you update shared or synced files, it will
automatically update them on the other devices connected.
More on How it Works ...
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This has a million uses for a small business. Just think of all those times
you've tried to send audio files or large photographs and your mail bounces.
Now you can set up a sharing folder for free and easily exchange very large
files of any kind with your friends and clients.
This is just one of those things that seems too good to be true ... so write
me when/if you see what the catch is. To be fair, this is part of the new
Microsoft 'Windows Live' strategy and it makes a lot of sense. Sure
has caught my attention.
Tom
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Windows Live (beta) Screen Shots
These are apparently taken with a camera during a presentation and they aren't great, but you can get a glimpse of what Microsoft Office looks like in a browser.
http://www.thehotfix.net/comments.php?catid=1&shownews=859
What does this Windows Live news mean? For now it means Microsoft, not
Google, made it out first with web-based applications. Isn't that
interesting? Microsoft isn't known (at least lately) for being first to
release new technology.
I was told this is done with AJAX, which is a type of programming
language that Google also uses, for example, for Gmail. It makes the user
interface experience feel very similar to a desktop application's.
Basically, you don't see the darn web page refresh every time you need to
change or update something inside the page.
There is a lot of negative sentiment about Microsoft these days. I'll have
to admit I'm not happy. I find myself looking around for different
solutions. That started last year when I moved to Gmail and Firefox. I
could be swayed, somewhat, if Office Live is free or low in price to use and
the bugs are hammered out. I don't want to be transferring data, only to
have it screwed up or lost or locked up when I log back in. I'm sure
that's the same for everyone, so let's give them a chance and see what
happens.
Three cheers to competition. Let's see what Google does. Anyone know when
Google might finally make a similar move and at least offer a calendar
application that closely integrates with Gmail - like Gcalendar?
When I get some time I want to get a beta login and start tinkering around
with Office Live. I sure like the concept of having my applications on a web
server accessible from any computer any time - like Gmail. This is going to
be an exciting next few months.
Tom
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First Impressions of Microsoft Live
Here is a useful summary of
Microsoft Live from the Read/Write Web blog by Richard
MacManus, and a number of related links for more detail.
Looks like the author's overall impression is positive so far.
Tom
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Microsoft Releases Beta of an Internet-based Windows and Office
Big news from Microsoft found at
Information Week about Internet-based versions of Office and
Windows.
"Over time, virtually every piece of
Microsoft's software lineup will be offered as a server or a service," said
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. He and CTO Ray Ozzie unveiled the company’s
new Windows Live and Office Live offerings Tuesday.
...
Focused on the individual user, Windows
Live is an advertising-supported service that lets users customize their own
home pages with search content, RSS feeds, workspaces, applications and a
new Ajax-based mail system called Live Mail and Live Messenger, an updated
version of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger. The free service is not designed to
replace the company’s msn.com, which will continue to feature programmed
content.
Office Live, previewed by Microsoft's
General Manager of Information Worker Services Rajesh Jha, is a set of free
and subscription-based services for small businesses with fewer than 10
employees.
The base-level Office Live lets small
businesses sign up for a free domain registration and a free web site, plus
multiple Live Mail accounts with up to 2 Mbytes of storage, free online
collaboration to enable ad-hoc file-sharing a la Groove Networks, code-named
Mojo. The subscription-based service is designed for fuller-function
business portals that might enable a company to set up a secure space to
communicate with an accountant or for various workgroups.
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You can check one of the beta sites at http://www.live.com.
Warning, though! Firefox browsers are not supported yet. But at least
they tell you that right up front.
There is a lot to this announcement, especially for small business
owners. It's looking like Microsoft is taking the Internet more
seriously.
I tell you, if they can create a web-based version of Outlook, they will
have my interest again.
I'm curious to check this out. We'll see. You let me know your
thoughts.
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Tom
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Google Releases Beta RSS Reader
Just out, folks, Google has a new beta service for reading RSS
feeds.
Go to http://reader.google.com.
I'm just starting to tinker with it. I have exported the list of RSS
feeds I have at www.bloglines.com to see how it handles 100+ feeds. It takes
a few minutes for that to all work. The user interface is very
different. I think I'm going to have to give it some time, I'm not crazy
about it as yet. It uses a very different user interface philosophy to
select a feed and review the entries that I'm having some difficulty
adjusting to. But I may need to give it some time. One thing I've noticed
about most Google Betas is the they get better fairly rapidly over time. The
exception being Gmail which was a so much better from the betting from any
other web-based email system around.
For now it seems www.bloglines.com has a better user interface design.
I'll chime in on this again in a few weeks.
Tom
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Google and Sun Collaborate on StarOffice - Microsoft Office Replacement
We'll find out about this rumor shortly. If Google and Sun Microsystems
are teaming up to make a free web-based office suite available, then we're
talking about a major shift in the powerbase (eventually) that Microsoft
enjoys. I'm not sure what the collaboration is actually about, but I
understand we'll know by noon today. It might not be as grand as I'm wishing
for.
Wouldn't it be nice to finally have a cross-platform solution for basic
office software tools for PC, Mac and Unix, and for it be essentially
free? If Gmail is an indication of what's possible, then I'm
excited.
Stay tuned. There will be a lot of news about this later today.
Tom
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Using Google Earth to Plan Your Vacation
I borrowed this blog entry from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ This is "beach-front"?
Have you ever wondered if that "beach-front" condo really is beach-front? Recently I planned a trip to Hawaii and saw one particularly breathless condo listing that described the property as being just 400 "steps" from the beach. Now having seen the location, I think the owner was obviously
Using the measure feature in Google Earth, you can take a little bit of the guesswork out of finding the perfect accommodations. Just follow these three simple steps:
1) Fly to your area of interest in Google Earth (if you don't have it, get it here).
2) Click the Email button on the nav panel in the lower right, and send the property owner a JPG screenshot of the area. Ask him or her to identify which place is theirs.
3) Select Measure from the Tools menu and choose to see the distance in feet, yards, miles (or even smoots, if you insist).
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I thought this was brilliant. I've planned a family vacation only to find out the place we were staying was not really quite what their website indicated.
This has me thinking about using Google Earth to fly over the places I go for business trips. Funny, I hadn't thought of that before. Would give me a sense of perspective as to where I'm going to be staying.
There is a free version of Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/.
Get yourself a copy and try a few flyovers to the next place you're planning a visit. I hope they come up with an Apple version at some point.
Tom
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Google Offers to Blanket San Francisco With WiFi
From the San Francisco Chronicle:Google offers S.F. Wi-Fi -- for
free
Company's bid is one of many in response to mayor's call for universal
online access
Saturday, October 1, 2005Google Inc. has offered to blanket San Francisco with free wireless Internet access at no cost to the city, placing a marquee name behind Mayor Gavin Newsom's effort to get all residents online whether they are at home, in a park or in a cafe.
The offer by the popular Mountain View search engine was one of more than a dozen competing bids received by the city before its deadline Friday. Officials will review the submissions and decide which, if any, of the candidates gets the green light to build the so-called Wi-Fi service, which would be free or inexpensive for users.
In joining the competition, Google is showing yet another sign of its ambition. In the past few months, the company has released a succession of new products, including instant messaging and Internet telephone calls, that take it further from its roots.
The proposal raises speculation that Google intends to create a free national Wi-Fi network, a business in which the company has limited experience. If so, it could pose a serious challenge to existing Internet service providers such as SBC-Yahoo, Earthlink, Comcast and America Online, which charge subscriptions for wire connections.
read the rest of the article ...
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The bold emphasis above is mine. Could Austin be next? Would this include
WiMAX.com technology? Lots of questions, for sure. We'll have to wait
and see.
It's interesting to see how pervasive Google may be soon in our lives online - wired and potentially wireless. In 2006, all the major cell phone companies will be offering broadband wireless capability in most metropolitan areas in the USA. Some, like Verizon, are already pursuing this quite aggressively. Makes you wonder what SBC and Time Warner must be worrying about.
Stay tuned. This coming year is going to bring even more change than 2005, especially when you match all this up with the expansion of audio podcasting content and video podcasting content. Google clearly wants to extend Adwords all across the wired and wireless markets.
Tom
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