Greg Finn is the Director of Marketing for Cypress North, a company that provides digital marketing and web development. He is a co-host of Marketing O'Clock and has been in the digital marketing industry for nearly 20 years. You can also find Greg on Twitter (@gregfinn) or LinkedIn.
Figuring out when and why Google indexes a specific Tweet has long been a conundrum and point of angst for many SEOs. Of course Google does index Tweets, but the methodology has seemed like a total crapshoot — until now. The good folks over at Stone Temple Consulting have attempted to crack the Twitter indexation […]
Technorati was once the go to source for blog search and blogger discovery thanks to their authority scores, top lists and blog claiming processes. The Technorati Authority score was a status symbol, something that companies fought hard to improve. At the end of May, Technorati quietly announced that they were taking the company in another […]
It’s true, LinkedIn has become a leader in the job search space with their Talent Solutions offerings pulling in 275.9 million dollars in Q1 this year. To further their foothold, LinkedIn has launched a new stand-alone job app for the iPhone dubbed LinkedIn Job Search. LinkedIn Job Search App for iPhone from LinkedIn While it […]
We’ve been saying that it is just a matter of time for Facebook’s Graph Search to make its way to mobile devices. A test spotted yesterday by InsideFacebook shows that the launch may be close. The test shows an in-depth integration for mobile web users that contains the same bells and whistles as the desktop […]
Earlier this year, Yahoo continued its mobile push with the release of their mobile news app “Yahoo News Digest” for iOS. The main powering agent of Yahoo News Digest was the technology from former acquisition, Summly. Today, Yahoo News Digest is expanding out to more devices in more locations, thanks to new editions. First off, […]
According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg during Facebook’s recent earnings call, Facebook’s Graph Search will hit mobile devices ‘pretty soon.’ It’s now been a full year since Graph Search was launched and mobile integration only makes sense. According to cnet, Zuckerberg stated the following quote in regards to Graph Search on the call: “Pretty soon, I think, […]
The ever-helpful Google Now service is now available on your desktop for both Mac, Windows and Chrome OS users. This Google Now service features Google Now cards that are run through the latest Google Chrome build (Chrome Canary) and will work for those users who are currently logged-in to Chrome. According to the “Google Operating […]
Those Internet marketers who work across multiple countries and languages may struggle with accurately tracking campaign performance in foreign countries. Webmasters can login to Webmaster Tools to filter search queries by country, but this doesn’t provide the full picture of what is happening with competition. Using just the Google + country TLD isn’t an accurate […]
This morning, the head of Google’s webspam team Matt Cutts gave a keynote speech at Pubcon in Las Vegas. The keynote comes on the heels of a scathing day — 1 keynote from Jason Calacanis, who said that Google rules everything, that they were essentially evil. On Twitter yesterday, Matt asked if Jason wanted the […]
Klout has becoming a much more powerful tool than simply measuring social significance. Bing and Klout have teamed up to form a puesdo-authorship alliance that will appear in the search results pages. A new Klout-verified ‘Snapshot’ will show in Bing along with social icons, Klout scores and even the two most influential public moments from […]
It’s official. If you are based in the United States and use the English language version of Facebook, you now have access to the Graph Search product. Announced back in January, Graph Search has taken a good bit of time to fully roll out, with many changes cropping up along the way. As Matt McGee mentioned last […]
Late last year, many Raven Tools users were surprised to find that Search Engine ranking data had been removed. Under pressure from Google, Raven yanked the SERP data and focused the tool on helping SEOs and Internet Marketers with analytics tools. Well, Raven users that have missed the tracking data can now rejoice, as rank […]
This morning many hardcore Facebook users will be surprised when they login and look towards the iconic top blue bar. The coloring of Graph Search has been inverted and now features a bright white centered search box in the midst of the top bar. Searches still act the same and provide the same results, the coloring has […]
A new Facebook/Bing integration today will further entrench Facebook data into Bing results. Users are now able to interact with Facebook directly within the Bing Search Results Pages, in more than the usual one-way, read-only context. When a logged in user performs a Bing search for a query the social sidebar will show on the right rail outside of […]
From Yahoo! to Facebook to Quora, social sites have long been struggling to leverage the Q&A format successfully. Today Klout officially enters the ‘social answers’ space with a unique proposition, integration with Bing search — outside of the social search bar and into a big bold listing within the main search pane. The new ‘Klout Experts’ product […]
What are the most popular activities done or content consumed by apps? Google’s now bringing that information to its search results, assuming the app developer makes use of Google+ Sign-In, that is. Google+ Sign-in was launched in February as an easy way to let anyone sign into a site or app using a Google+ account. […]
When Facebook launched Graph Search earlier this year, a noticeable element missing to marketers was the lack of keyword data that was passed. Well, this weekend Glenn Gabe of G-Squared Interactive uncovered the fact that Facebook has begun passing keyword data within referral strings. The keyword data is passed from Facebook with a query string [q={keyword}] appended […]
One of the more interesting aspects of Google’s recently released “How Search Works” interactive infographic were the live examples of spam that were recently removed. The features allows users to see live spam that was recently removed (once they clicked through the disclaimer that offensive material may be included.) Just 4 days later our own RustyBrick (the […]
Last year, Sergey Brin gave a speech at Google Ventures CEO Summit on the value of failing, and how failing fast can be beneficial. One of the subjects that he covered was his original foray into building a Web service some 20 years ago — the service that allowed users to order pizzas by harnessing […]
Last Friday, Lars Rasmussen, Facebook’s Director of Engineering, did an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit to discuss the ins-and-outs of Graph Search. Lars answered 20 questions from fellow Redditors shedding some light on the history, importance and technology behind Graph Search. According to Lars, the initial Graph Search was internally launched in Summer of […]
Google Flu Trends has been a critical tool for many trying to gauge the severity of influenza since it’s launch in 2008. Each year, Google Flu Trends attempts to show flu prevalence based off of flu-related Google search queries. Flu Trends has been quite accurate throughout its history… until this year. Nature.com reports that Google Flu Trends overshot […]
Users will now be able to find more on the go as a new round of mobile updates have been launched for Twitter. The updates rolled out center on content discovery as the Search, Discover and Connect tabs have all been updated. The new changes make it easier for users to view more information at anytime, from any […]
Popular social news site BuzzFeed, has uncovered a stash of images that allegedly leaked from an internal meme generator within Google intranet. The majority of the images appear to be pro-Google and rib at rivals Facebook, Yahoo! and former Google exec Marissa Mayer. All of the images were sent in from a tipster who stated […]
Google’s results are getting even more deeply intertwined with Google+. New links are now showing under results that show “Actively Discussed On Google+.” The link is expandable and brings in Google+ comments or posts when clicked. The “Actively Discussed on Google+” displays much like a sitelink with a blue “Show” button that will expand the discussion without […]
In May Bing rolled out its new social sidebar that tied together social data from both Facebook and Twitter. Today another source has been added to the mix. Bing announced that Foursquare tips will be tied into specific location based queries. The Foursquare data will appear in the ‘People Who Know’ section of the sidebar, […]
A Tweet this morning from @BerianReed, head of search marketing of AutoTrader UK, uncovered some potentially deeper integration between Google Search and Google+. Reed spotted a new option in the results that showed up next to the URL, a “Share” link. Upon hitting the button, users are prompted to share directly to Google+ from the results pages. […]
This January Google launched “Search Plus Your World (SPYW),” a service that drastically customized search results based on social connections while bolstering visibility of Google+ products. While the new changes absolutely increased visibility for Google+, there was concern that SPYW would negatively affect other social networks. Five months into the SPYW, traffic to Facebook Pages is down. However, it’s also down […]
Many webmasters have been desperately trying to fix poor SEO work done to a site thanks to the recent Penguin update targeting webspam and the bad link warnings sent from Google. The only current way to discredit a link is to have it removed as reverse nofollow functionality for webmasters simply doesn’t exist. One recent example of a link removal request was particularly […]
The “rotate evenly” setting on an AdWords campaign has been a long-time best friend to habitual ad testers testers and landing page tweakers everywhere. Next week, the “rotate evenly” setting will stop rotating after 30 days and default to a different setting, “optimize for clicks.” Three settings currently exist: Rotate evenly Optimize for clicks Optimize […]
Google’s newest Easter egg, a search for “zerg rush,” forces to to fight an onslaught of invaders to save your search results. This Easter egg is themed after the popular strategy game StarCraft, and may just be the geekiest Easter egg to date. In Starcraft a variety of races exist, one of which are “Zergs.” These insect-like creatures […]
Bing has been very upfront about the fact that people and social stats can power search results. A new implementation of social data was spotted in the wild by techie-buzz.com who found Twitter trends making their way into the search results pages. The query in question was for a hot topic (Pepsi Next) that had quite […]
The good folks over at Stone Temple Consulting released an in-depth interview with Bing’s Principal Group Program Manager for Bing Social Search, Paul Yiu. The Bing social search team integrates social content and indicators into the search results to add both personalization and relevance to the search results. Bing currently ties in data from both […]
DEAR MISS GOOGLE: When I searched for something using your service, I found a friend had +1’d one of the of listings. What should one do in this case? GENTLE SEARCHER: It’s always polite in these situations to thank your kind friend. In fact, I’ve added a new “Thank” feature allowing you to do exactly […]
A new directive by the European Commission may stop advertisers from leveraging users’s information when advertising on Facebook. The Telgraph reports that the EC is looking into the way that Facebook “eavesdrops” on users and how personal data is made available for ad targeting. This new legislation will be introduced in January and will be applicable […]
Today Mike Blumenthal of Blumenthals.com posted about what appears to be a new addition to Google’s local results. A specific query for “transmission servicing lexington ky” displayed the normal Google Places listings, with one exception: The grey icon is displayed next to a specific places results. However, when clicked, the user is taken to the following Google+ […]
A new report from Experian Hitwise revealed that Google+ picked up steam last week and had its 3rd largest week to date. Hitwise chronicled US visits back to the social network’s inception and analyzed the social network’s total traffic. Last week (the week ending on Nov. 12th) Google+ saw a 5% increase from the previous week and a […]
Google+ pages for brands & businesses were announced last week, and Google has been busy rolling out supporting features. Yesterday, Google began displaying select Google+ pages in the search results. Today it has been announced that Google+ partnered with six companies to create Google+ page management tools. The selected companies are: Buddy Media Context Optional Hearsay […]
The Pew Internet & American Life project polled over 2,250 Americans to find out why exactly they use social media platforms. The results pointed to one common answer: keeping in-touch with acquaintances or reconnecting with former friends they may have lost touch with. Some of the lowest motivators include using social media to create new […]
Earlier today, ‘All About Content’ reported that Google+ data was showing in Google’s organic search listings. Two different items are now appearing in the search results pages, recent Google+ posts and an “Add To Circles” button. The only caveat? These results will only show for select Google+ brand accounts that have been approved for Direct Connect. Even […]
As we reported a few months ago, Twitter has rolled out the “activities tab” for web users. This tab allows Twitter to operate more like a classic social network as you can keep tabs on your friends… pun intended. Here’s a look at how the activitiy tab looks: This tab shows items favorited by those you […]