2011
test october
October 14th, 2011Google says Bigger Search Boxes are Better
November 22nd, 2010Google just recently patented its home page design. Were you able to notice it? Actually, it was their search box. As you can see, the search boxes of Google are now larger and bigger compared to what they have before.
According to Marissa Mayer of Google, when it comes to search boxes, it is better to have bigger in sizes. This allows your texts to be larger. Also, Google Suggest dropdown text is also in bigger in sizes.
Analyzing the new bigger search boxes, its effect to Google users will vary on the users themselves if they are enjoying the search experience with smaller or bigger search boxes.
Google added Sitelinks to Search Results
November 15th, 2010Google continues to improve its search powers to maintain its supremacy. Just recently, if you were able to notice it, Google’s search samples have some improvements.
If you’re going to google for a certain topic, it will also display anchor based links on the search engine snippets. This includes the definition of the main topic you’re searching. It can be found directly below the main search entry.
The main reason why these anchor based links are showing on the search engine snippets is that Google recently added Sitelinks, an anchor based service, to their search engine results.
AOL closes offices
January 12th, 2010AOL is closing the French and German offices in an attempt to reduce their global workforce. Two-hundred and forty jobs will be lost as a result of the closures. They were not able to meet their quota from a voluntary program put forth to employees.
Obama praising Google, Twitter, Facebook, iPhone but not Xbox
December 14th, 2009President Barack Obama’s words in his recent speech to the school children in the United States didn’t seemed to be controversial especially to the tech companies and/or products mentioned to the new generation. Perhaps, there are good things being said and indirectly quoting a gadget for bad side.
Quoting from his prepared speech, President Obama said ‘I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.’ This gives negative impressions to Microsoft.
All other companies got praises as Obama quoted saying ‘Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.’
Obama also quoted for positive remarks for Apple’s iPhone ‘Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine.’
Looking on a brighter side, Microsoft should still be proud as Xbox will not be mentioned if it’s value is not marketable giving users the desire to buy for it.
Facebook to tag Friends on Status Updates like Twitter
December 2nd, 2009Another Twitter-like service is going to be rolled out on Facebook.
The continuing battle between Facebook and Twitter led the first to imitate another feature from the latter. This time, the use of the ‘@’ sign to tag member friends.
Although it has been an amazing feature for a social networking site to tag friends thus notifying them about an uploaded picture, video or note, the latest with Facebook allows its users to update their statuses at the same time tag their friends on it by using the ‘@’ sign.
Like any of the first tagging features of Facebook that sends notification to tagged friends, tagging individuals on their statuses through ‘@’ sign also sends notification to that particular person. You too can receive notifications once you were tagged on your friends’ updates using the same symbol.
According to Facebook, the immediate advantage of the new service will directly affect brands or businesses who are also engaged into their social networking page in Facebook.
This plan of tagging friends through their updates will be available in the coming weeks.
Introducing Google Internet Stats
November 1st, 2009Google recently launched its UK-based collection of statistics from various range of topics. Named as Google Internet Stats, it brings together all the information and latest facts all in one place. This service came from different third party vendors and they’re also opening the service to all interested contributors.
A wide range of data providers offered their services to Google Internet Stats such as B2Bonline.com, Comscore, Financial Times, Forrester, Google Insights for Research, Hitwise, JP Morgan, Media & Marketing, Motorola, New York Magazine, Nielsen, QuickPlay Media Inc., Reuters, Times Online, TNS, Wall Street Journal, and YouTube among others.
The range of topics are divided into several categories including Consumer Trends, Community, Entertainment, Information, eCommerce, Macro Economic Trends, Rest of the World, UK Media Consumption, Changes in Media Usage, Demographic Usage, Media Consumption Stats, Media Multi-tasking, Personalized Media Experiences, All Media, Online Technology, Broadband, Devices, Mobile and Speed.
Though the service is under the globally known Google, this new service will only be available to UK and that there are no current plans of releasing this tool worldwide.
Are Domain Registrations Important? Google says No
October 24th, 2009It’s still a question and part of long discussions whether the domains directly affects SEO or search rankings. But in a recent discussion with Google, nobody says yes, but nobody mentioned a no either.
Domain registration is a factor to know your website easily. That will help your readers easily search for your site by just typing the name of your site in the URL address. But in terms of web ranking, does it really helps?
For the record, there’s no search engine that confirmed that they are using the length of registration in domains as a factoring in scoring. It means, as of now, all the scoring are just based on content posts and traffic it gets.
Trying to think deeper for this scenario, for websites that are popular in its category, length of registration doesn’t matter. Because people already know their sites and could easily browse for it. But for non-popular sites that are struggling to get higher rankings, the domain registration’s length is important in order for the search engines to crawl for it, and have it added on their data banks.
Google proposes Micropayment System to Newspapers
October 10th, 2009Google, despite its frosty relationship with the newspapers, proposed a micropayment system giving the latter’s industry a chance to charge for their online content. The system is ased on Google Checkout which will be available within a year to Google and non-Google services.
With this proposal which was submitted to the Newspaper Association of America, Google is giving the newspaper industry a scalable e-commerce system through their Checkout product.
Google’s proposal includes the following five key features: single sign-on capability, ability for publishers to combine subscriptions, ability to for publishers to create multiple payment options, multiple tiers of access to search, and an advertising system.
Hopefully, this proposal will make both sides – Google and the newspaper industry – take advantage with their partnership.
AOL allows Users to Opt Out Ads in Email
October 5th, 2009AOL, after being faced with two lawsuits regarding their email ad violations, agreed to donate $100,000 to charity. In addition to this, AOL also agreed to inform their members – both paid subscribers and those who are using their services for free – on how to opt out the ads on the footer of the email.
The settlement is still pending but if approved, this will address the two lawsuits filed against AOL – the first one regarding the misleading and confusing footer ads and the other one is regarding the same ads violating a federal privacy law.
The controversial footer ads started when AOL decided to insert these ads more than three years ago. Though in April 2008, AOL allowed paying subscribers to opt out these ads, the company failed to reach their members to tell about this news.
This year, around July, AOL changed its policy to give all their users the freedom to opt out the ads to provide great consumer experiences to their customers which includes the email.