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Industry News
Yahoo revamps its search engine
Oct 7th
What Big Brands Are Spending on Google
Oct 7th
Because Google controls 65% of U.S. web searches, Google’s complex algorithms determine more than any other factor what information is surfaced on the web. Google keeps a tight lid on its technology to keep people from gaming the system. Similarly, search ads are a black box; anyone can buy an ad on Google, but it is very hard to know how much anyone, let alone corporate America, spends there.
The exception to that is when Google starts its sales pitch. “The primary tactic Google uses to increase ad budgets is to show them what others in their category are spending compared to what they’re spending,” said Kevin Ryan, CEO of Motivity Marketing, a digital marketing consultancy.
Our review of $574 million of Google’s U.S. billings over the first half of 2010 shows plenty of global corporations spending millions each month on search advertising, as well as a great many huge corporations that spend very little, if anything, at all on search.
At the time of the rig explosion in April, BP barely registered on Google, but neither did its big-oil peers; Exxon Mobile, the world’s largest corporation by market cap, spent just $43,000 on search ads in June.
By comparison, More >
What Is Link Popularity?
Oct 7th
What Is Link Popularity?
Link popularity measures the quality and quantity of links pointing to a web page. All the major engines use it, it’s considered an off-page factor and is also called “link juice” (most popular), “link pop”, “link reputation” or “link love”.
There are four main components:
Link quantity: The number of links pointing to a web page.
Link quality: Quality is determined by the authority of the host sites and the sites linking to them. Quality flows from one site to the next through links. The most well known quality factor is PageRank. Page Rank is a link analysis algorithm used by Google to determine the quality factor of a page based on its inbound links.
Anchor Text: Query ranking indicator, it’s an endorsement of what’s to come. Anchor text is the clickable part of the link you see; hyperlinked keyword phrases provide additional “weight” and carry semantic value.
In a rare moment of algorithm clarity, Google states: anchor text influences the queries your site ranks for in the search results. And from Bing, an equally clear comment about anchor text: …”anchor text helps define the theme of a linked page…”. Anchor text continues to be one of, if not the strongest component of link More >
On this day…
Oct 7th
IE Is Now Losing the Browser Wars
Oct 6th
According to data from StatCounter, Internet Explorer has dipped below the 50% mark in its global share of the Internet browser market.
StatCounter shows IE at 51.34% of the market in August 2010; by the end of September, IE was holding on to just 49.87% of the browser market. The browser also shows a drop of nearly 10% year over year.
This is the first time IE has fallen below the halfway point in market share, and from where we sit, the glass is…
Posted via email from areatrade’s posterous
Google Goggles – Visual Search
Oct 6th
Google Goggles – the app that lets you search by just taking pictures has finally made its debut on the iphone. The app itself launched in Google Labs in December last year. and recognizes the text within it, creating search results for things like books and business cards. It also recognizes landmarks, paintings or other historical objects. Earlier this year, Google Goggles gained the ability to translate text in photos.Now that Goggles is 10 months older and able to recognize more objects with increasing accuracy, the search giant has decided that it’s time for iPhone users to have the power of visual search in their pockets as well. The functionality is being added to the newest edition of the Google Mobile App for iPhone [iTunes link].
Goggles essentially works the same as its Android counterpart: It recognizes things like landmarks, logos and book covers, but isn’t able to recognize food or animals. Clearly, though, the company is working on that functionality; if Google can nail it, Goggles would definitely become a must-have killer app.
Goggles isn’t available for every iPhone user, though; it’s enabled for English-speaking users only at the moment, and because it needs a camera that can auto-focus, it only works More >
Skype Arrives on Android
Oct 5th
Skype is now available on devices running Android 2.1 or later.
The app allows users to make Skype-to-Skype calls (only over Wi-Fi in the U.S.), as well as send and receive IMs, all for free. Calls to phones are charged according to Skype’s published rates. If you already have a Skype account, you’ll instantly be able to access your contact list on your Android device after logging in.
Android users can install Skype at skype.com/mor via the Android Market.
Fireworks – A Thing of The Past?
Oct 5th
MIT’s Flyfire – Miniature Helicopters Turn Sky into Digital Screen (video)Robots may be taking your place on the factory floor, but they’re also aiming for higher goals: replacing fireworks and conquering the sky. MIT’s Flyfire project uses a swarm of miniature helicopters with embedded LED lights to act as ’smart pixels’ as they fly through the air. Acting in concert they will be able to form complex three dimensional shapes – digital displays that will awe you more than exploding chemicals ever could. Not only will the pixels change color, the 3D dynamic movement will create an immersive experience that you can view from any angle. MIT only has a few of these micro-copters up and flying at the moment, but they want to scale up the project to large numbers quickly. They’ve produced an awesome demonstration video with a few shots of the copters and a lot of simulated footage. Check it out below:
We say wow….. what do you think?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in The Simpsons
Oct 5th
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg voiced himself in last night’s episode of The Simpsons, “Loan-a-Lisa” — a rare public appearance of sorts for the usually private executive.
In the episode, Lisa Simpson takes a friend to an entrepreneur expo to convince him to stay in school. She’s dismayed to find that everyone at the expo (except the janitor) dropped out college to found their companies, including Zuckerberg. Two other famous drop-out executives also appear in the scene: Bill Gates and Richard Branson.
Zuckerberg gets most of the screen time, and he appears again in a brief status update gag at the very end of the episode.
The timing of Zuckerberg’s cameo is likely no coincidence since the Aaron Sorkin-penned film The Social Network just hit theaters. It tells a story about the young, not-yet-dropped-out Zuckerberg’s attempts to get Facebook off the ground.
Posted via email from areatrade’s posterous