Our thoughts, rants and inside knowlege of web design & development!
Social Media
Google takes social search a step further with ‘+1′
Mar 31st
Search engine giant Google has announced a new feature called ‘+1′. +1 is essentially the same as Facebook’s ‘Like’ button, which when clicked shares that page on the user’s Facebook Wall. Google +1 will do this as well, listing all links +1ed by a user on their Google Profile.
However, the integration will go deeper than this, as +1 buttons will also appear on search results, and the number of times a result has been +1ed will appear next to its link, potentially influencing which result a user will choose. This could end up being incorporated into the algorithm that Google uses to rank its listings. Also of note is that this does not just apply to the ‘organic’ listings- these +1 buttons will also be a feature of the ‘sponsored’ pay-per-click results that appear at the top and down the side of results pages.
The impact of this new feature on SEO is obvious, so we will be watching this development with great interest. The social aspect to this button highlights how important a social media strategy is when considering the online promotion of your website. If you’re interested in our online promotion services, contact Areatrade on 020 8366 2050 or email More >
Social networking giant Facebook starts rolling out new ‘Questions’ feature
Mar 27th
The massive social network Facebook have started to roll out their new Questions product to their users. The feature allows users and pages of businesses, brands and public figures to pose questions to friends or fans. You can give your two cents by selecting an previously offered answer or by adding a new one of your own. The question will then become visible to your friends, widening the net of people who can answer the original person’s question.
For businesses, this offers a great opportunity to improve engagement with Facebook users. For example, an ice cream parlour could ask the question ‘Which flavour should be Flavour of the Week?’. This would serve as an incentive for users to get involved with the decision making process, and also act as an incentive for the user to visit the business themselves. If one of your fans answers the question, they are also effectively widening the audience to all of their friends, which is fantastic free advertising for your company.
Facebook adds ‘in a civil partnership’ relationship setting
Feb 18th
Facebook has rolled out the capability to set the relationship status on your profile to ‘In a civil partnership’ after the feature was increasingly suggested by users. The Facebook communications manager Andrew Noyes stated that “This has been a highly requested feature from users … We [Facebook] want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook.”
The changes have been rolled out today in the UK, North America, France and Australia, with the options available specific to the territory of the user.
Google increases emphasis on social search rankings
Feb 18th
Google has announced an upgrade to its social search features. A feature has been available for some time that shows links related to your search at the bottom of the results page that have been shared by your contacts on social networks.
Now Google will be further integrating this feature by moving the social results higher up in the rankings. This feature is only available to users signed into a Google account that is attached to social networking accounts.
What does this mean for people optimising their websites for promotion on Google? It seems clear that a strong social networking presence is becoming a increasingly important component of an effective online promotion campaign.
Social Media Campaigns
Feb 15th
Social Media Campaigns
We can help you create and optimise profiles for your company on the key social media sites which include Facebook (business pages) and Twitter. These sites allow you to connect with existing customers, so you can use social media as an extra method of customer support. You can also reach out to prospective customers or simply use the site to connect with other businesses in your industry or keep track of how similar business owners are promoting their sites. Another feature of social media sites is that they are visited frequently by the search engines and the profile pages rank highly. This is great for brand awareness as when a customer searches for your business name, your social media profiles rank highly in Google alongside your site, making your company hard to ignore.
We are a London website design company that specialises in website planning, website design and website promotion. Call us to find out how we can work together to make your website work for you online.
The Hype Machine re-launch website with HTML5 technology
Dec 17th
Popular music discovery service The Hype Machine has rolled out a major upgrade to its website interface. The Hype Machine is a service with a social media element which aggregates posts from music blogs across the internet and allows users to listen to them and ‘like’ them. The most ‘liked’ songs posted in the last three days show up in the Hype Machine chart, allowing users to get a great overview of what’s popular online at that very moment.
The website previously relied on Flash technology to play music to users, but has now switched to the up and coming standard ‘HTML5′. This allows the website to be used on many of the latest smartphones and tablets, including the iPhone, iPod touch [update: iPhone/iPod touch support is not confirmed by Hype Machine and users are reporting issues with it] iPad, and Android phones and tablets. The website certainly seems to be running much more efficiently after the re-design.
Other improvements include the consolidation of songs posted on multiple blogs into one entry. Instead of seeing the same song from three different blogs as three rows in the playlist, you now see only one, allowing the user to better judge the popularity of the song.
The More >
The real world role of social media: tuition fees debate
Dec 8th
You may have been following the UK tuition fees debate with some interest in the news, and seen how previously apathetic students have sprung into organised protests and occupations with surprising speed and ease. This is a great example of the role of social media in a practical context. Let’s take a look at how social networking has been used, and how it is relevant to the commercial world.
How do you know if anybody is coming to a protest? How do you know where to meet? The popular social network Facebook has been used extensively to organise protests across the country. Facebook ‘events’ have been set up with a wealth of information on dates, times, locations and attendees to organise their exploits. However, event pages are only useful up until that event starts. Which leads us to…
So when the march has started, how do such a large mass of people communicate? Twitter is the popular micro-blogging platform used by celebrities, politicians, businesses, charities, activists and everyday people – including students. When police attempted to use their controversial ‘kettling’ tactic a multitude of warnings would appear instantly on the site warning other protestors to change route. Occupations and sit ins have More >
Tumblr: “We’ll be back shortly”
Dec 6th
The popular mixed media blogging service Tumblr has been down for over 15 hours, with no access to its homepage, user blogs, or the ‘dashboard’ where users can make posts. As a young service some troubles are to be expected, and Twitter users will be familiar with the ‘fail whale’ which commonly occurred in its early days. However a downtime which is approaching 20 hours as I write this could prove catastrophic for the company, as companies will shy away from unreliable services.
Do you have a Tumblr account? How do you feel about this extended downtime? Rant or comment freely in the section below!
New Facebook profile roll out begins
Dec 6th
Facebook have started to roll out a new profile page design to its users. Every user has a profile which acts as a hub for their photos, videos, status updates, links they have shared and items that their friends post on their ‘Wall’. The new design rearranges the profile into sections which can be accessed from a menu on the left rather than the previous tabbed interface on the top. Recently tagged photos of the user are shown across the top to make the profile current and add customisation. You can now add even more information to your profile including philosophical views such as religion, people you find inspirational, political views, your favourite quotes, and detailed descriptions of each of these beliefs. You can also add sports you enjoy, and tag friends who you like to do these sports with. The same applies to your favourite ‘activities’. You can now add multiple schools and universities, and tag friends from these places. You can tag friends at your workplaces too, and break down your work and education into individual projects that you have worked on and classes you took, and once again, tag your friends and colleagues.
See the screenshots and a More >
LinkedIn Share Button
Dec 1st
Business oriented social network giant LinkedIn has recently launched a share button which gives users a way to spread thier content throughout their professional network.
There are 3 options of the share button available which can be easily added to your website or blog – as follows:
1. vertical:
2. horizontal with counter:
3. horizontal without counter.
LinkedIns latest updates combined with the additional sharing options released back in April, link attaching, status updates, ability to re-share links as well as edit and delete posts brings it inline with social media giant Facebook.
The share button competition is strong with Facebook, Digg, Twitter, StumbleUpon and countless others, do you think LinkedIn has a place in this market and which is your preference?