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Friday 28 June 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] The Evolution of Search
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'The Evolution of Search'
Posted by dannysullivan
Knowing where we're going often means knowing where we've come from. The
history of search engines is a short one, but one of constant change.
In today's Whiteboard Friday, Danny Sullivan takes a look at how search has
evolved into the complicated engine it's become, and what that means for its
neon-lit, rocket-car future.
Whiteboard Friday - Evolution of Search - Danny Sullivan - 20130610
For reference, here is a still image of this week's whiteboard.
Video Transcription
Hey Moz fans. Welcome to Whiteboard Friday. I'm not Rand. I'm Danny Sullivan,
the founding editor of SearchEngineLand.com and MarketingLand.com. Because it's
8,000 degrees here in Seattle, Rand has decided not to be around, and I am here
sweating like a pig, because I walked over here. So I'm very excited to be doing
a Whiteboard Friday. This is my first solo one, and I'm told I have to do it in
11 minutes, and in 1.5 takes. No, just one take. The topic today will be the
evolution of search, trademark Google. No, they don't own search.
There was a time when they didn't own search, which brings us to Search 1.0.
Did you know, kids, that search engines used to be multiple, that we didn't talk
about Googling things? We actually used things like Alta Vista, Lycos, and
WebCrawler. Do you remember those names? There were things like OpenText, and
what was that other one, Magellan. Well, these were search engines that existed
before Google, and they went out onto the web and they crawled up all the pages,
about a dozen pages that existed at the time, and then we would do our searches
and try to find how to rank them all up.
That was all determined by just the words that were out on the page. So if
you wanted to rank well for, I don't know, something like movies, you would put
movies on your page 100 times in a row. Then if somebody else wanted to outrank
you, they'd put movies on their page 150 times in a row, because a search engine
said, "Hey, we think relevancy is all about the number of words of the page, and
a little bit about the location of those words." The words at the top of the
page would count for a little bit more than if they were further on down below.
Bottom line is this was pretty easy to spam. The search engines didn't
really want you to be doing better for movies because you said the word "movies"
150 times over somebody who said it 100 times. They needed to come up with a
better signal. That signal, they took their time getting around to.
Long story short, they weren't making a lot of money off of search so they
really didn't pay attention to it. But Google, they were sitting over there
thinking, "You know what? If we create a search engine, someday someone might
make a movie with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. So let's go out there and come
up with a better system," and that brought us into Search 2.0.
We are now here. Search 2.0 started looking at things that we refer to as
off-the-page ranking factors, because all of the on-the-page stuff was in the
complete control of the publisher. The publisher could change it all around.
There was even a time, when you used Infoseek, where you could submit a web
page, and it was instantly added to the index, and you could see how well you
ranked. If you didn't like it, you'd instantly make a change and put it back out
again. Then you could move up that way. So off-the-page kind of said, "Let's go
out there and get some recommendations from beyond the publisher and decide what
other people think about these web pages, because maybe that's less spammable
and would give us better quality search results."
By the way, I said not Yahoo over here, because I'm talking about search
engines in terms of crawler-based search engines, the ones that use automation
to go out there and find web pages. Yahoo for the longest time - well it feels
that way to me - was a directory, or a human-based search engine where they
listed stuff because some human being actually went to a website, wrote up a
review, and added it.
Now back to Search 2.0, Google came along and started making much more use
of something called link analysis. So the other search engines kind of played
with it, but hadn't really gotten the formula right and didn't really depend on
it so much.
But Google, new kid on the block, said, "We're going to do this a lot. We're
going to consider links to be like votes, and people with a lot of links
pointing at them, maybe they got a lot of votes, and we should count them a
little bit higher and rank them better." It wasn't just in sheer amount of
numbers, however. Google also then wanted to know who has the best votes, who is
the real authority out there. So they tried to look at the quality of those
links as well.
You've got other people who were doing some off-the-page stuff. One of them,
you might recall, was by the name of Direct Hit. They actually looked at things
like click through. They would look and they'd say, "Well, we've looked at 10
search results, and we can see that people are clicking on the third search
result completely out of proportion to the normal way that we would expect.
Rather than it getting say 20% of the clicks, it's pulling 80% of the clicks."
That might tell them that they should move it up to number one, and then they
could move things that were down a bit further.
These are some of the things that we started doing, but it was really links
that carried us along for about a decade. Now links, off-the-page stuff, that's
been powering and still to this day kind of powers the web search results and
how they start ranking better, but we have a little bit of an intermission,
which we would call or I call Search 3.0. By the way, I made all this stuff up,
so you can disagree with it or you can figure out however you want to kind of go
with it. But a few years ago I was trying to explain how I had seen the
evolution of search and some of these changes that were coming along.
What happened in this Search 3.0 era is that, even though we were using
these links and we were getting better quality results, it was also so much
information that was coming in that the signals alone weren't enough. You needed
another way to get more relevancy, and the way the search engines started doing
that was saying, "Let's take, instead of having you search through 100 billion
pages, let you search through a smaller collection of pages of just focused
content." That's called vertical search.
Now in horizontal search, you'd do a search for things like news, sports,
entertainment, shopping, and you just throw it all into one big search box. It
goes out there, and it tries to come back with all the pages from across the web
that it thinks is relevant to whatever you searched for. In vertical search,
it's like a vertical slice, and that vertical slice of the web is just only the
news content. Then when you do a search for something like NSA, it's only going
to look through the news content to find the answers about news that is relating
to the NSA at the moment. Not trying to go over there and see if maybe there is
some sports information or shopping information that may match up with that as
well.
That's important right now, by the way. You have all this talk about
something like PRISM that is happening. It's a spy program or an eavesdropping
program or a data mining program, depending on who you want to talk to, that the
US government is running. Prism is also something that you use just to filter
light, and so if you are doing a search and you are just trying to get
information about filtering light, you probably don't want to turn to a news
search engine because right now the news stuff is full of the PRISM stuff. On
the other hand, if you want the latest stuff that is happening just within this
whole Prism area, then turning to the news search engine is important, because
you won't get all of the other stuff that is not necessarily related.
So we have this Search 3.0 thing, vertical search, and Google, in
particular, referred to it as universal search. Trying to solve that problem
that, if someone types into a box "pictures of flowers," they should actually
show you pictures of flowers, rather than 10 links that lead you to maybe
pictures of flowers. Now we're pretty solid on this right now. Bing does these
sorts of things as well. They have their own blending that goes on there.
Then it's Search 4.0. Now we are here, or right here just because I feel
compelled to write something on that board. Search 4.0 is kind of a return to
what Yahoo over here was using, which was human beings. By the way, I don't
write very much anymore because the typing thing.
To refer to using human beings, one of the biggest things that has happened
with search engines is that they, in a very short period, completely changed how
we sought out information. For thousands of years, if you needed to know
something, you talked to a human being. Even when we had libraries and people
had all that kind of data, typically you would go into a library and you would
talk to a librarian and say, "Hey, I'm trying to find some information about
such and such." Or you would need a plumber, you would ask somebody, "Hey, you
know a good plumber?" Babysitter, doctor, or is this a good product? Does
anybody know this TV? Does this work well? Should I buy that? You would tend to
turn to human beings or things that were written by human beings.
Then all of a sudden we had these search engines come along, and they just
took all these pages out there, and they really weren't using a huge amount of
human data. Yeah, the links were put in there by human beings. Yeah, some human
being had to write the content as well, but we kind of lost another aspect of
the human element that was out there, the recommendations that were out there en
masse.
That is kind of what has been going on with Search 4.0. The first thing that
is going on with Search 4.0 is that they started looking at the things that we
had searched for over time. If they can tell that you constantly go back to say
a computing site, like Diverge or CNET, then they might say, "Well, the next
time you search for something, let me give the weight of those sites a little
bit higher bump, because you really seem to like the stuff that's there. So
let's kind of reward them in that regard." Or "I can see that you're searching
for travel right now, and I can see that you just searched for New York. Rather
than me pretend that these things are disconnected, let me put them together on
your subsequent searches because you are probably looking for information about
New York travel, even though you didn't put in all those words. So I'll take use
of your history that's going there."
The other thing that they have been doing, and some of this mixes across in
the earlier times, but they are looking at your location. You do a search for
football in the UK, you really don't want to get information about the NFL for
the most part. You want information about what Americans would call soccer. So
looking and knowing that you're in the UK when you do a search for football, it
helps the search engine say, "We should go through and we should just come up
with information that is relevant to the UK, or relevant to the US, based on
where you're at." That greatly changed though, and these days it goes down even
to your metropolitan area. You do a search for zoos, you're in Seattle, you're
going to get information about zoos that are in Seattle rather than the
Washington Zoo, or zoos that are in Detroit or so on.
The last thing, the really, really exciting thing is the use of social,
which the search engines are still trying to get their head around. I talked
earlier about the idea of links as being like votes, and I always like to use
this analogy that, if links are like votes and links are somehow the democracy
of the web, which is how Google still will describe them on some of their pages,
then the democracy of the web is how the democracy in the United States started
when to vote, you had to be 25 years and older, white, and own property. That
wasn't really representative of everybody that was out there.
In order for you to vote in this kind of system, you really have to say,
"Wow, that was a great restaurant I went to. I want to go through now and I want
to write a blog post about that restaurant, and I'm going to link to the
restaurant, and I'm going to make sure that when I link to it, I'm going to use
a platform that doesn't automatically put things like no follow on top of the
link so that the link doesn't pass credit. Oh, and because it's a great
restaurant, I'm going to remember to make sure that the anchor text, or the
words near the anchor text, say things like great restaurant because I need to
make sure that the link is relevant and passing along that kind of context. Now
when I've done all that, I've cast my vote."
Probably the 99 other people that went to the restaurant are not going to do
that. But what those people are likely to do is like it on Facebook, plus it on
Google+, make a recommendation on Yelp, use any one of the number of social
systems that effectively enable people to vote much more easily. So I think a
lot of the future where we are going to be going is in this social direction.
These social signals are very, very important in the future as to how the search
engines will determine what are the best pages that are out there.
Unfortunately, they've put so much into this whole link system and figuring
out that this is a good link, this is a bad link, this is a link that we are
going to disavow, this is a link that you disavowed, and so on and so on and so
on, that they still need to work on making all this social stuff better. That's
going to become important as well. Not saying the links are going to go away,
but I think the social stuff is going to be coming up much more heavily as we go
forward into the future.
Now on the way up here I was thinking, because I was asked, "Will you talk
about the evolution of search?" I'm like, "Yeah, no problem because I've done
this whole Search 1 through 4 thing before." There's a whole blog post if you
search for Search 4.0. Search for Search 4.0 and you'll find it.
I was thinking, "What is coming after that?" On the way up, as I was
sweating coming up the staircase, not the staircase here. There's a staircase,
because I was at sea level and I had to apparently climb up to 300 feet here,
where we are located in the Moz building. If there was a swear jar, I would put
a dollar into it.
Search 5.0, and this is really about search where it's no page at all.
Remember on-the-page factors, off-the-page factors, which are really off this
page but on some other page, this stuff is I don't even care that it's a page. I
did a blog post, and I can't remember the title of it. But if you search for
"Google conversational search," you'll find it. If you don't find it, clearly
Google is a very bad search engine.
In the conversational search thing that I was demonstrating, if you have
Chrome and you click on the microphone, you can talk to Google now on your
desktop, kind of like how you can do it on the phone. You can say, "Barack
Obama," and Google will come along and it will show you results for Barack
Obama, and it will talk back to you and say, "Barack Obama is President of the
United States," blah blah blah blah. It gives you a little box for him, and he
appears and there is a little description they pull from Wikipedia.
Then you can say to it, "How old is he," or something very similar to that.
Then the search engine will come back, Google will come back and will say,
"Barack Obama is . . ." I can't remember how old he is. But you should Google it
and use that voice search thing. It will come back and say Barack Obama is this
age. You can go further and say, 'Well, how tall is he?" It will say, "Barack
Obama is . . ." I think he is 6 foot 1. And you say, "Who is he married to?"
Then it comes back and it says, "Barack Obama is married to Michelle Obama." And
you say, "How old is she?" Then Google will come back and say, "It's really an
impolite thing to ask a woman, but she's a certain age." I believe 39. Yeah,
you're usually safe with that.
To do all of that it has to understand that Barack Obama, when you searched
for him, wasn't just these letters on a web page. It had to understand that he
is a person, that he is an entity, if you will, a person, place, or thing, a
noun, but an entity, that there is a thing out there called Barack Obama that it
can link up to and know about. When you ask for its age, and you said, "How old
is he," it had to understand that "he" wasn't just words, but that actually "he"
refers to an entity that you had specified before, the entity being Barack
Obama. When you said, "his age," that age wasn't just a bunch of letters that
match on a web page, but age is equal to a value that it knows of because Barack
Obama has an age value over here, and it's connecting it there.
When you said, "How tall is he," same thing. That tall wasn't just letters,
but tall is actually a height element that it knows. That says height, trust me.
When you said, "Who's his wife," that wife, with an f kids, not a v, later we'll
do potatoes without an e, that his wife is a person that is equal to spouse,
which is a thing that it understands, an entity. It's not just words again. It's
like a thing that it actually understands, and that actually that that is
Michelle and that she has all of these things about her, and [inaudible 15:38].
All those sorts of things along there.
That is much different than Search 1.0 where, when we were searching, we
were really just looking for letters on a page. When you typed in "movies," its
going, "How many pages out there do I have that have these six letters in this
order? Start counting them up and putting it together."
We are looking for entities, and that the Google knowledge graph is that
kind of demonstration of where things are going to be going forward. That's all
very exciting as well, because, for one thing as a marketer, it's always
exciting when your space changes because if you're staying on top of things and
you're seeing where it's going, there are always new opportunities that come
along. It's also exciting because some of these things are broken and they don't
work as well, so this has the opportunity to better reward things that are
coming along.
It's a little scary though because as Google learns about entities and it
learns about things like facts, it also decides that, "You know what, you're
looking for movies in a place. I have a database of all those movies. I no
longer need to point at a web page that has that sort of stuff." The big
takeaway from that is, if your job is just creating web pages that are all about
known facts that are out there, it's going to get harder, because people are no
longer going to get pointed to you facts that are off of Google. People are
going to get pointed to facts that Google can answer directly. Your job is to
make sure that you always have the information that Google doesn't have, the
facts that aren't easily found that are out there.
As for Search 6.0, it involved this PRISM system, but we can't talk about
that anymore, so that's sort of gone away, and we'll leave that off. In a few
years from, it won't make any sense. Right now, hopefully, it's still very
timely.
I think that's probably it. So I thank you for your indulgence with my first
solo Whiteboard Friday. I hope didn't go too fast. I hope that all makes sense,
and thank you very much.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
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Posted by dannysullivan
Knowing where we're going often means knowing where we've come from. The
history of search engines is a short one, but one of constant change.
In today's Whiteboard Friday, Danny Sullivan takes a look at how search has
evolved into the complicated engine it's become, and what that means for its
neon-lit, rocket-car future.
Whiteboard Friday - Evolution of Search - Danny Sullivan - 20130610
For reference, here is a still image of this week's whiteboard.
Video Transcription
Hey Moz fans. Welcome to Whiteboard Friday. I'm not Rand. I'm Danny Sullivan,
the founding editor of SearchEngineLand.com and MarketingLand.com. Because it's
8,000 degrees here in Seattle, Rand has decided not to be around, and I am here
sweating like a pig, because I walked over here. So I'm very excited to be doing
a Whiteboard Friday. This is my first solo one, and I'm told I have to do it in
11 minutes, and in 1.5 takes. No, just one take. The topic today will be the
evolution of search, trademark Google. No, they don't own search.
There was a time when they didn't own search, which brings us to Search 1.0.
Did you know, kids, that search engines used to be multiple, that we didn't talk
about Googling things? We actually used things like Alta Vista, Lycos, and
WebCrawler. Do you remember those names? There were things like OpenText, and
what was that other one, Magellan. Well, these were search engines that existed
before Google, and they went out onto the web and they crawled up all the pages,
about a dozen pages that existed at the time, and then we would do our searches
and try to find how to rank them all up.
That was all determined by just the words that were out on the page. So if
you wanted to rank well for, I don't know, something like movies, you would put
movies on your page 100 times in a row. Then if somebody else wanted to outrank
you, they'd put movies on their page 150 times in a row, because a search engine
said, "Hey, we think relevancy is all about the number of words of the page, and
a little bit about the location of those words." The words at the top of the
page would count for a little bit more than if they were further on down below.
Bottom line is this was pretty easy to spam. The search engines didn't
really want you to be doing better for movies because you said the word "movies"
150 times over somebody who said it 100 times. They needed to come up with a
better signal. That signal, they took their time getting around to.
Long story short, they weren't making a lot of money off of search so they
really didn't pay attention to it. But Google, they were sitting over there
thinking, "You know what? If we create a search engine, someday someone might
make a movie with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. So let's go out there and come
up with a better system," and that brought us into Search 2.0.
We are now here. Search 2.0 started looking at things that we refer to as
off-the-page ranking factors, because all of the on-the-page stuff was in the
complete control of the publisher. The publisher could change it all around.
There was even a time, when you used Infoseek, where you could submit a web
page, and it was instantly added to the index, and you could see how well you
ranked. If you didn't like it, you'd instantly make a change and put it back out
again. Then you could move up that way. So off-the-page kind of said, "Let's go
out there and get some recommendations from beyond the publisher and decide what
other people think about these web pages, because maybe that's less spammable
and would give us better quality search results."
By the way, I said not Yahoo over here, because I'm talking about search
engines in terms of crawler-based search engines, the ones that use automation
to go out there and find web pages. Yahoo for the longest time - well it feels
that way to me - was a directory, or a human-based search engine where they
listed stuff because some human being actually went to a website, wrote up a
review, and added it.
Now back to Search 2.0, Google came along and started making much more use
of something called link analysis. So the other search engines kind of played
with it, but hadn't really gotten the formula right and didn't really depend on
it so much.
But Google, new kid on the block, said, "We're going to do this a lot. We're
going to consider links to be like votes, and people with a lot of links
pointing at them, maybe they got a lot of votes, and we should count them a
little bit higher and rank them better." It wasn't just in sheer amount of
numbers, however. Google also then wanted to know who has the best votes, who is
the real authority out there. So they tried to look at the quality of those
links as well.
You've got other people who were doing some off-the-page stuff. One of them,
you might recall, was by the name of Direct Hit. They actually looked at things
like click through. They would look and they'd say, "Well, we've looked at 10
search results, and we can see that people are clicking on the third search
result completely out of proportion to the normal way that we would expect.
Rather than it getting say 20% of the clicks, it's pulling 80% of the clicks."
That might tell them that they should move it up to number one, and then they
could move things that were down a bit further.
These are some of the things that we started doing, but it was really links
that carried us along for about a decade. Now links, off-the-page stuff, that's
been powering and still to this day kind of powers the web search results and
how they start ranking better, but we have a little bit of an intermission,
which we would call or I call Search 3.0. By the way, I made all this stuff up,
so you can disagree with it or you can figure out however you want to kind of go
with it. But a few years ago I was trying to explain how I had seen the
evolution of search and some of these changes that were coming along.
What happened in this Search 3.0 era is that, even though we were using
these links and we were getting better quality results, it was also so much
information that was coming in that the signals alone weren't enough. You needed
another way to get more relevancy, and the way the search engines started doing
that was saying, "Let's take, instead of having you search through 100 billion
pages, let you search through a smaller collection of pages of just focused
content." That's called vertical search.
Now in horizontal search, you'd do a search for things like news, sports,
entertainment, shopping, and you just throw it all into one big search box. It
goes out there, and it tries to come back with all the pages from across the web
that it thinks is relevant to whatever you searched for. In vertical search,
it's like a vertical slice, and that vertical slice of the web is just only the
news content. Then when you do a search for something like NSA, it's only going
to look through the news content to find the answers about news that is relating
to the NSA at the moment. Not trying to go over there and see if maybe there is
some sports information or shopping information that may match up with that as
well.
That's important right now, by the way. You have all this talk about
something like PRISM that is happening. It's a spy program or an eavesdropping
program or a data mining program, depending on who you want to talk to, that the
US government is running. Prism is also something that you use just to filter
light, and so if you are doing a search and you are just trying to get
information about filtering light, you probably don't want to turn to a news
search engine because right now the news stuff is full of the PRISM stuff. On
the other hand, if you want the latest stuff that is happening just within this
whole Prism area, then turning to the news search engine is important, because
you won't get all of the other stuff that is not necessarily related.
So we have this Search 3.0 thing, vertical search, and Google, in
particular, referred to it as universal search. Trying to solve that problem
that, if someone types into a box "pictures of flowers," they should actually
show you pictures of flowers, rather than 10 links that lead you to maybe
pictures of flowers. Now we're pretty solid on this right now. Bing does these
sorts of things as well. They have their own blending that goes on there.
Then it's Search 4.0. Now we are here, or right here just because I feel
compelled to write something on that board. Search 4.0 is kind of a return to
what Yahoo over here was using, which was human beings. By the way, I don't
write very much anymore because the typing thing.
To refer to using human beings, one of the biggest things that has happened
with search engines is that they, in a very short period, completely changed how
we sought out information. For thousands of years, if you needed to know
something, you talked to a human being. Even when we had libraries and people
had all that kind of data, typically you would go into a library and you would
talk to a librarian and say, "Hey, I'm trying to find some information about
such and such." Or you would need a plumber, you would ask somebody, "Hey, you
know a good plumber?" Babysitter, doctor, or is this a good product? Does
anybody know this TV? Does this work well? Should I buy that? You would tend to
turn to human beings or things that were written by human beings.
Then all of a sudden we had these search engines come along, and they just
took all these pages out there, and they really weren't using a huge amount of
human data. Yeah, the links were put in there by human beings. Yeah, some human
being had to write the content as well, but we kind of lost another aspect of
the human element that was out there, the recommendations that were out there en
masse.
That is kind of what has been going on with Search 4.0. The first thing that
is going on with Search 4.0 is that they started looking at the things that we
had searched for over time. If they can tell that you constantly go back to say
a computing site, like Diverge or CNET, then they might say, "Well, the next
time you search for something, let me give the weight of those sites a little
bit higher bump, because you really seem to like the stuff that's there. So
let's kind of reward them in that regard." Or "I can see that you're searching
for travel right now, and I can see that you just searched for New York. Rather
than me pretend that these things are disconnected, let me put them together on
your subsequent searches because you are probably looking for information about
New York travel, even though you didn't put in all those words. So I'll take use
of your history that's going there."
The other thing that they have been doing, and some of this mixes across in
the earlier times, but they are looking at your location. You do a search for
football in the UK, you really don't want to get information about the NFL for
the most part. You want information about what Americans would call soccer. So
looking and knowing that you're in the UK when you do a search for football, it
helps the search engine say, "We should go through and we should just come up
with information that is relevant to the UK, or relevant to the US, based on
where you're at." That greatly changed though, and these days it goes down even
to your metropolitan area. You do a search for zoos, you're in Seattle, you're
going to get information about zoos that are in Seattle rather than the
Washington Zoo, or zoos that are in Detroit or so on.
The last thing, the really, really exciting thing is the use of social,
which the search engines are still trying to get their head around. I talked
earlier about the idea of links as being like votes, and I always like to use
this analogy that, if links are like votes and links are somehow the democracy
of the web, which is how Google still will describe them on some of their pages,
then the democracy of the web is how the democracy in the United States started
when to vote, you had to be 25 years and older, white, and own property. That
wasn't really representative of everybody that was out there.
In order for you to vote in this kind of system, you really have to say,
"Wow, that was a great restaurant I went to. I want to go through now and I want
to write a blog post about that restaurant, and I'm going to link to the
restaurant, and I'm going to make sure that when I link to it, I'm going to use
a platform that doesn't automatically put things like no follow on top of the
link so that the link doesn't pass credit. Oh, and because it's a great
restaurant, I'm going to remember to make sure that the anchor text, or the
words near the anchor text, say things like great restaurant because I need to
make sure that the link is relevant and passing along that kind of context. Now
when I've done all that, I've cast my vote."
Probably the 99 other people that went to the restaurant are not going to do
that. But what those people are likely to do is like it on Facebook, plus it on
Google+, make a recommendation on Yelp, use any one of the number of social
systems that effectively enable people to vote much more easily. So I think a
lot of the future where we are going to be going is in this social direction.
These social signals are very, very important in the future as to how the search
engines will determine what are the best pages that are out there.
Unfortunately, they've put so much into this whole link system and figuring
out that this is a good link, this is a bad link, this is a link that we are
going to disavow, this is a link that you disavowed, and so on and so on and so
on, that they still need to work on making all this social stuff better. That's
going to become important as well. Not saying the links are going to go away,
but I think the social stuff is going to be coming up much more heavily as we go
forward into the future.
Now on the way up here I was thinking, because I was asked, "Will you talk
about the evolution of search?" I'm like, "Yeah, no problem because I've done
this whole Search 1 through 4 thing before." There's a whole blog post if you
search for Search 4.0. Search for Search 4.0 and you'll find it.
I was thinking, "What is coming after that?" On the way up, as I was
sweating coming up the staircase, not the staircase here. There's a staircase,
because I was at sea level and I had to apparently climb up to 300 feet here,
where we are located in the Moz building. If there was a swear jar, I would put
a dollar into it.
Search 5.0, and this is really about search where it's no page at all.
Remember on-the-page factors, off-the-page factors, which are really off this
page but on some other page, this stuff is I don't even care that it's a page. I
did a blog post, and I can't remember the title of it. But if you search for
"Google conversational search," you'll find it. If you don't find it, clearly
Google is a very bad search engine.
In the conversational search thing that I was demonstrating, if you have
Chrome and you click on the microphone, you can talk to Google now on your
desktop, kind of like how you can do it on the phone. You can say, "Barack
Obama," and Google will come along and it will show you results for Barack
Obama, and it will talk back to you and say, "Barack Obama is President of the
United States," blah blah blah blah. It gives you a little box for him, and he
appears and there is a little description they pull from Wikipedia.
Then you can say to it, "How old is he," or something very similar to that.
Then the search engine will come back, Google will come back and will say,
"Barack Obama is . . ." I can't remember how old he is. But you should Google it
and use that voice search thing. It will come back and say Barack Obama is this
age. You can go further and say, 'Well, how tall is he?" It will say, "Barack
Obama is . . ." I think he is 6 foot 1. And you say, "Who is he married to?"
Then it comes back and it says, "Barack Obama is married to Michelle Obama." And
you say, "How old is she?" Then Google will come back and say, "It's really an
impolite thing to ask a woman, but she's a certain age." I believe 39. Yeah,
you're usually safe with that.
To do all of that it has to understand that Barack Obama, when you searched
for him, wasn't just these letters on a web page. It had to understand that he
is a person, that he is an entity, if you will, a person, place, or thing, a
noun, but an entity, that there is a thing out there called Barack Obama that it
can link up to and know about. When you ask for its age, and you said, "How old
is he," it had to understand that "he" wasn't just words, but that actually "he"
refers to an entity that you had specified before, the entity being Barack
Obama. When you said, "his age," that age wasn't just a bunch of letters that
match on a web page, but age is equal to a value that it knows of because Barack
Obama has an age value over here, and it's connecting it there.
When you said, "How tall is he," same thing. That tall wasn't just letters,
but tall is actually a height element that it knows. That says height, trust me.
When you said, "Who's his wife," that wife, with an f kids, not a v, later we'll
do potatoes without an e, that his wife is a person that is equal to spouse,
which is a thing that it understands, an entity. It's not just words again. It's
like a thing that it actually understands, and that actually that that is
Michelle and that she has all of these things about her, and [inaudible 15:38].
All those sorts of things along there.
That is much different than Search 1.0 where, when we were searching, we
were really just looking for letters on a page. When you typed in "movies," its
going, "How many pages out there do I have that have these six letters in this
order? Start counting them up and putting it together."
We are looking for entities, and that the Google knowledge graph is that
kind of demonstration of where things are going to be going forward. That's all
very exciting as well, because, for one thing as a marketer, it's always
exciting when your space changes because if you're staying on top of things and
you're seeing where it's going, there are always new opportunities that come
along. It's also exciting because some of these things are broken and they don't
work as well, so this has the opportunity to better reward things that are
coming along.
It's a little scary though because as Google learns about entities and it
learns about things like facts, it also decides that, "You know what, you're
looking for movies in a place. I have a database of all those movies. I no
longer need to point at a web page that has that sort of stuff." The big
takeaway from that is, if your job is just creating web pages that are all about
known facts that are out there, it's going to get harder, because people are no
longer going to get pointed to you facts that are off of Google. People are
going to get pointed to facts that Google can answer directly. Your job is to
make sure that you always have the information that Google doesn't have, the
facts that aren't easily found that are out there.
As for Search 6.0, it involved this PRISM system, but we can't talk about
that anymore, so that's sort of gone away, and we'll leave that off. In a few
years from, it won't make any sense. Right now, hopefully, it's still very
timely.
I think that's probably it. So I thank you for your indulgence with my first
solo Whiteboard Friday. I hope didn't go too fast. I hope that all makes sense,
and thank you very much.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
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Thursday 27 June 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Google Products Graveyard: Mourning Google Reader and Other Discontinued Google Products and Services' 
You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/Aab0boIhDRs/discontinued-google-products-services You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Google Reader is going away on July 1, leaving its small but loyal fan based scrambling to find a replacement RSS reader. (This longtime Google Reader user has been very happy since switching to Feedly.)
With Google Reader on its death bed, and iGoogle approaching the end as well, we thought it was high time we revisited some of the many other Google products that we've said goodbye to over the years. Many of these products were great ideas that just never caught on with a larger audience; some had overlapping functionality with other products, forcing Google to focus development efforts on one over the other. I still mourn the old, social version of Google Reader. Which Google product still haunts you from beyond the grave?
Our Google Graveyard infographic reviews some of the many great ideas that went dodo-wise at Google over the years. As Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO once said, "We celebrate our failures." So today we celebrate 10+ years of Google product ghosts, with Google Reader being the latest to pass away.
Click the infographic to see the full-size version.
List of Google Products Retired and Discontinued Since 2006
Google Reader
What it did: An once-robust RSS reader with a small (in Google's eyes) but very loyal fanbase.
What happened: Google stripped Reader of its social properties in October 2011, then finally axed the product. Date of death: July 2013.
iGoogle
What it did: A customizable homepage containing web feeds and Google Gadgets, launched in May 2005. Renamed iGoogle in April 2007.
What happened: Citing "erosion of the need for the site," Google will retire iGoogle on November 1, 2013.
Google Talk
What it did: Desktop instant messaging service that provided text and voice communication.
What happened: Replaced by Google Hangouts on May 15, 2013.
Google Health
What it did: Allows users to store, manage and share all their health and wellness information in one central place.
What happened: Development ceased June 24, 2011; accessible until January 1, 2012; data available for download until January 1, 2013.
Knol
What it did: Google's attempt at a Wikipedia competitor, Knol enabled subject experts and other users to write authoritative articles related to various topics.
What happened: Content was not accessible after October 1, 2012.
Google Insights for Search
What it did: Similar to Google Trends, Insights for Search provided insight into popular search terms.
What happened: Discontinued since September 27, 2012. The functionality was merged with Google Trends.
Picnik
What it did: An online photo editor. Before being acquired by Google in 2010, Picnik was the default photo editor in Flickr.
What happened: Closed on April 19, 2012.
Google Buzz
What it did: Google Buzz was a social networking, microblogging and messaging tool that was integrated with Gmail, initially (to much chagrin) as an opt-out service.
What happened: Discontinued on December 15, 2011.
Aardvark
What it did: A social search service that facilitated Q&A sessions over live chat, intended to match askers with good answerers.
What happened: Acquired for $50 million in February 2010, Aardvark was discontinued in September 2011.
Sidewiki
What it did: Sidewiki was a browser sidebar tool that allowed users to contribute information to any web page.
What happened: Killed in September 2011 along with a host of other unsuccessful products.
Google Notebook
What it did: A free application that allowed users to save clips of information in an online "notebook."
What happened: Discontinued in September 2011. Google launched a similar product, Google Keep, in March 2013.
Google Dictionary
What it did: As the name implies, an online dictionary service.
What happened: Shut down without warning in August 2011; part of the functionality was integrated with the define: operator.
Google Labs
What it did: A "playground" where adventurous users could test and provide feedback on prototype projects.
What happened: Discontinued in July 2011.
Google Wave
What it did: Released as an invite-only preview in 2009, Google Wave was a framework that allowed real-time collaborative editing with elements of email, IM, wikis, and social networking.
What happened: Google ceased development of Wave in August 2010 due to lack of interest
SearchWiki
What it did: This feature allowed logged-in users to annotate and re-order search results.
What happened: Search Wiki was discontinued in March 2010.
Dodgeball
What it did: Google bought Dodgeball, a mobile social networking service, in 2005. Its founder went on to leave Google and form Foursquare.
What happened: Google killed Dodgeball in 2009, replacing it with Google Latitude.
Jaiku
What it did: Jaiku is to Twitter as Dodgeball is to Foursquare: This microblogging service was so named because the posts resembled haiku.
What happened: Google stopped development on Jaiku in 2009.
Google Lively
What it did: A 3D animated chat program, using avatars, that was only supported on Windows.
What happened: Google Lively only lived six months, going to the chopping block in December 2008.
Google Page Creator
What it did: A basic website creation and hosting tool that required no HTML knowledge.
What happened: Canned in 2008.
Zeitgeist
What it did: Zeitgeist was a collection of popular search queries, including weekly, monthly and yearly lists, plus topic and country specific lists.
What happened: Closed May 2007 and replaced by Hot Trends, a dynamic feature in Google Trends.
Google Answers
What it did: Google's answer to Yahoo Answers employed paid researchers and asked users to bid for a response to their question.
What happened: Users preferred their answers free, and the product was killed in December 2006.
Other discontinued and abandoned Google products include Google X, Google Catalog, Google Web Accelerator, Google Video Player, Google Audio Ads, Google Sets, SearchMash, and Writely.
With Google Reader going away next week, are you still in a state of shock or have you already moved on? (Body's not even cold yet!) Which dead Google feature do you miss the most?
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
[Build Backlinks Online] Grey Poupon Celebrates National Pride Month
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Grey Poupon Celebrates National
Pride Month'
In celebration of National Pride Month, Grey Poupon is generating conversation
and debate around its simple yet poignant reinvention of a classic ad on the
brands Facebook page. A nod to the famous Grey Poupon commercial Pardon Me from
1981, the Facebook post features an image of two men holding hands across two
cars with [...]Grey Poupon Celebrates National Pride Month is a post from:
Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-image-of-the-week/grey-poupon-celebrates-national-pride-month/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grey-poupon-celebrates-national-pride-month
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Pride Month'
In celebration of National Pride Month, Grey Poupon is generating conversation
and debate around its simple yet poignant reinvention of a classic ad on the
brands Facebook page. A nod to the famous Grey Poupon commercial Pardon Me from
1981, the Facebook post features an image of two men holding hands across two
cars with [...]Grey Poupon Celebrates National Pride Month is a post from:
Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-image-of-the-week/grey-poupon-celebrates-national-pride-month/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grey-poupon-celebrates-national-pride-month
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Where Should I Start with Social Media Marketing?'
This powerful video answers the #1 most common question I receive from business owners looking to get started on social media. That is, “Where do I begin with my social media marketing?” You’ll discover what to do NOW that produces tangible results (new customers / profits) quickly.
Before you get sucked into the vast abyss of social media strategies and tactics that don’t work, WATCH THIS VIDEO FIRST!
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Related Blog Posts:
3 Simple Ways to Create INSTANT Website Credibility
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3 Ways to Add an EXTRA $100,000 in Recurring Income this Year
You may view the latest post at http://dcincome.com/blog/where-should-i-start-with-social-media-marketing/ You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.comWednesday 26 June 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Early Look at Google's June 25 Algo Update
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Early Look at Google's June 25
Algo Update'
Posted by Dr-Pete
If you follow our MozCast Google "weather" tracker, you may have noticed
something unusual this morning â a record algorithm flux temperature of
113.3F (the previous high was 102.2, set on December 13, 2012). While the
weather has been a bit stormy off and on since Penguin 2.0 and the announcement
of 10-day rolling Panda updates, this one was still off the charts:
Iâm usually cautious about over-interpreting any single day's data
â measuring algorithm change is a very difficult and noisy task. Given the
unprecedented scope, though, and reports coming in of major ranking shake-ups in
some verticals, I've decided to post an early analysis. Please understand that
the Google algorithm is incredibly dynamic, and weâll know more over the
next few days.
Temperatures by Category
Some industry verticals are naturally more volatile than others, but
hereâs a breakdown of the major categories we track in order by the
largest percentage change over the 7-day average. The temperature for June 25th
along with the 7-day average for each category is shown in parentheses:
68.5% (125/74) â Home & Garden
58.2% (119/75) â Computers & Consumer Electronics
58.1% (114/72) â Occasions & Gifts
57.8% (121/77) â Apparel
54.8% (107/69) â Real Estate
54.1% (107/69) â Jobs & Education
50.6% (112/74) â Internet & Telecom
49.4% (112/75) â Hobbies & Leisure
49.4% (102/68) â Health
44.9% (105/73) â Finance
44.5% (116/80) â Beauty & Personal Care
43.0% (116/81) â Vehicles
39.7% (104/74) â Family & Community
38.0% (109/79) â Sports & Fitness
37.3% (89/65) â Retailers & General Merchandise
34.7% (101/75) â Food & Groceries
32.4% (107/81) â Arts & Entertainment
25.9% (92/73) â Travel & Tourism
25.6% (93/74) â Law & Government
25.5% (92/73) â Dining & Nightlife
Every vertical we track showed a solid temperature spike, but âHome &
Gardenâ led the way with a massive 51 difference between the single-day
temperature and its 7-day average.
Some Sample Queries
There are so many reasons that a query can change that looking at individual
cases is often a one-way ticket to insanity, but that doesnât seem to stop
me from riding the train. Just to illustrate the point, the query âgay
rightsâ showed a massive temperature of 250F. Of course, if you know about
the Supreme Court rulings announced the morning of June 26th, then this is
hardly surprising. News results were being churned out fast and furious by very
high-authority sites, and the SERP landscape for that topic was changing by the
hour.
Sometimes, though, we can spot an example that seems to tell a compelling
story, especially when that example hasnât historically been a
high-temperature query. Itâs not Capital-S Science, but it can help us
look for clues in the broader data. Here are a couple of interesting
examplesâ
Example 1: âlimousine serviceâ
On the morning of June 25th, a de-localized and de-personalized query for
âlimousine serviceâ returned the following results:
http://www.ultralimousineservice.com/
http://www.uslimoservice.com/
http://www.fivediamondslimo.com/
http://www.davesbestlimoservice.com/
http://www.aftonlimousine.com/
http://www.awardslimo.com/
http://www.lynetteslimousines.com/
http://www.chicagolandlimo.com/
http://www.a1limousine.com/
http://www.sterlinglimoservice.com/
The following morning, the Top 10 for the same query was completely rewritten
(yielding the maximum possible MozCast temperature of 280).
http://www.carmellimo.com/
http://www.crestwoodlimo.com/
http://www.dial7.com/
http://www.telavivlimo.com/
http://www.willowwindcarriagelimo.com/
http://www.asavannahnite.com/
http://www.markofelegance.com/
http://tomscruz.com/
https://www.legrandeaffaire.com/
http://www.ohare-midway.com/
One possible pattern is that there are no domains in the new Top 10 with either
the phrase âlimousine serviceâ or âlimo serviceâ in
them, which could indicate a crack-down on partial-match domains (PMDs).
Interestingly, the term âlimousineâ disappeared altogether in the
post-update domain list, although âlimoâ still fares well. This
could also indicate some sort of tweak in how Google treats similar words
("limo" vs. "limousine").
Example 2: âauto auctionâ
Hereâs another query that shows a similar PMD pattern, clocking in at a
MozCast temperature of 239. The morning of June 25th, âauto auctionâ
showed the following Top 10:
http://www.iaai.com/
http://www.autoauctions.gsa.gov/
http://www.americasautoauction.com/
http://www.copart.com/
http://www.interstateautoauction.com/
http://www.indianaautoauction.net/
http://www.houstonautoauction.com/
http://www.ranchoautoauction.com/
http://www.southbayautoauction.com/
http://velocity.discovery.com/tv-shows/mecum-auto-auctions
Just one day later, all but the #1 spot had changedâ
http://www.iaai.com/
http://www.copart.com/
http://www.autoauctions.gsa.gov/
http://www.barrett-jackson.com/
http://www.naaa.com/
http://www.mecum.com/
http://www.desertviewauto.com/
http://www.adesa.com/
http://www.brasherssacramento.com/
http://www.voaautoauction.org/
In the first SERP, eight of the top ten had âauto auction(s)â in
the URL; in the second, only two remained, and one of those was an official US
government sub-domain (even that site lost a ranking spot).
Top-View PMD Influence
Ultimately, these are anecdotes. The question is: do we see any pattern across
the broader set? As luck would have it, we do track the influence of
partial-match domains (PMDs) in the MozCast metrics. Our PMD Influence metric
looks at the percentage of total Top 10 URLs where the root or sub-domain
contains either âkeywordstringâ or âkeyword-stringâ, but
is not an exact-match. Hereâs a graph of PMD influence over the past 90
days:
Please note that the vertical axis is scaled to more clearly show rises and
falls over time. Across our data set, thereâs been a trend toward steady
decline of PMD influence in 2013, but today showed a fairly dramatic drop-off
and a record low across our historical data (back to April 2012). This data
comes from our smaller (1K) query set, but the pattern is also showing up in our
10K data set.
For reference and further investigation, here are a few examples of PMDs that
fell out of the Top 10, and the queries they fell out of (including some from
the same queries):
"appliance parts" â www.appliancepartscenter.com
"appliance parts" â www.appliancepartscenter.us
"appliance parts" â www.appliancepartssuppliers.com
"bass boats" â www.phoenixbassboats.com
"campagnolo" â www.campagnolorestaurant.com
"divorce papers" â www.mydivorcepapers.com
"driving school" â www.dollardrivingschool.com
"driving school" â www.elitedrivingschool.biz
"driving school" â www.ferraridrivingschool.com
"driving school" â www.firstchoicedrivingschool.net
"driving school" â www.fitzgeraldsdrivingschool.com
"mario game" â www.mariogames98.com
"monogrammed gifts" â www.monogrammedgiftshop.com
"monogrammed gifts" â www.preppymonogrammedgifts.com
"nickelback songs" â www.nickelback-songs.com
"pressure washer" â www.pressurewashersdirect.com
"tanzanite" â www.etanzanite.com
"vibram" â www.vibramdiscgolf.com
"wine racks" â www.wineracksamerica.com
"yahtzee" â www.yahtzeeonline.org
Iâm not making any statements about the quality of these sites (except
nickelback-songs.com), since I havenât dug into them individually. If
anyone wants to take that on, though, please be my guest.
The âMulti-Weekâ Update
Recently, Matt Cutts warned of a multi-week algorithm update ending just after
July 4th â could this be that update? The short answer is that we have no
good way to tell, since Mattâs tweet didnât tell us anything about
the nature of the update. This single-day spike certainly doesnât look
like a gradual roll-out of anything, but itâs possible that weâll
see large-scale instability during this period.
Some (Quite a Few) Caveats
This is an imperfect exercise at best, and one day of data can be misleading.
The situation is also constantly changing â Google claims Panda data is
updating 10 days out of every 30 now, or 1/3 of the time, for example. At this
early stage, I can only confirm that weâve tracked this algorithm flux
across multiple data centers and there is no evidence of any system errors or
obvious data anomalies (we track many metrics, and some of them look relatively
normal).
Finally, itâs important to note that, just because a metric drops, it
doesnât mean Google pulled a lever to directly impact that metric. In
other words, Google could release a quality adjustment that just happened to hit
a lot of PMDs, even though PMDs werenât specifically the target. I would
welcome any evidence people have seen on their own sites, in webmaster chatter,
in unofficial Google statements, etc. (even if itâs evidence against
something Iâm saying in this post).
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
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You may view the latest post at
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Algo Update'
Posted by Dr-Pete
If you follow our MozCast Google "weather" tracker, you may have noticed
something unusual this morning â a record algorithm flux temperature of
113.3F (the previous high was 102.2, set on December 13, 2012). While the
weather has been a bit stormy off and on since Penguin 2.0 and the announcement
of 10-day rolling Panda updates, this one was still off the charts:
Iâm usually cautious about over-interpreting any single day's data
â measuring algorithm change is a very difficult and noisy task. Given the
unprecedented scope, though, and reports coming in of major ranking shake-ups in
some verticals, I've decided to post an early analysis. Please understand that
the Google algorithm is incredibly dynamic, and weâll know more over the
next few days.
Temperatures by Category
Some industry verticals are naturally more volatile than others, but
hereâs a breakdown of the major categories we track in order by the
largest percentage change over the 7-day average. The temperature for June 25th
along with the 7-day average for each category is shown in parentheses:
68.5% (125/74) â Home & Garden
58.2% (119/75) â Computers & Consumer Electronics
58.1% (114/72) â Occasions & Gifts
57.8% (121/77) â Apparel
54.8% (107/69) â Real Estate
54.1% (107/69) â Jobs & Education
50.6% (112/74) â Internet & Telecom
49.4% (112/75) â Hobbies & Leisure
49.4% (102/68) â Health
44.9% (105/73) â Finance
44.5% (116/80) â Beauty & Personal Care
43.0% (116/81) â Vehicles
39.7% (104/74) â Family & Community
38.0% (109/79) â Sports & Fitness
37.3% (89/65) â Retailers & General Merchandise
34.7% (101/75) â Food & Groceries
32.4% (107/81) â Arts & Entertainment
25.9% (92/73) â Travel & Tourism
25.6% (93/74) â Law & Government
25.5% (92/73) â Dining & Nightlife
Every vertical we track showed a solid temperature spike, but âHome &
Gardenâ led the way with a massive 51 difference between the single-day
temperature and its 7-day average.
Some Sample Queries
There are so many reasons that a query can change that looking at individual
cases is often a one-way ticket to insanity, but that doesnât seem to stop
me from riding the train. Just to illustrate the point, the query âgay
rightsâ showed a massive temperature of 250F. Of course, if you know about
the Supreme Court rulings announced the morning of June 26th, then this is
hardly surprising. News results were being churned out fast and furious by very
high-authority sites, and the SERP landscape for that topic was changing by the
hour.
Sometimes, though, we can spot an example that seems to tell a compelling
story, especially when that example hasnât historically been a
high-temperature query. Itâs not Capital-S Science, but it can help us
look for clues in the broader data. Here are a couple of interesting
examplesâ
Example 1: âlimousine serviceâ
On the morning of June 25th, a de-localized and de-personalized query for
âlimousine serviceâ returned the following results:
http://www.ultralimousineservice.com/
http://www.uslimoservice.com/
http://www.fivediamondslimo.com/
http://www.davesbestlimoservice.com/
http://www.aftonlimousine.com/
http://www.awardslimo.com/
http://www.lynetteslimousines.com/
http://www.chicagolandlimo.com/
http://www.a1limousine.com/
http://www.sterlinglimoservice.com/
The following morning, the Top 10 for the same query was completely rewritten
(yielding the maximum possible MozCast temperature of 280).
http://www.carmellimo.com/
http://www.crestwoodlimo.com/
http://www.dial7.com/
http://www.telavivlimo.com/
http://www.willowwindcarriagelimo.com/
http://www.asavannahnite.com/
http://www.markofelegance.com/
http://tomscruz.com/
https://www.legrandeaffaire.com/
http://www.ohare-midway.com/
One possible pattern is that there are no domains in the new Top 10 with either
the phrase âlimousine serviceâ or âlimo serviceâ in
them, which could indicate a crack-down on partial-match domains (PMDs).
Interestingly, the term âlimousineâ disappeared altogether in the
post-update domain list, although âlimoâ still fares well. This
could also indicate some sort of tweak in how Google treats similar words
("limo" vs. "limousine").
Example 2: âauto auctionâ
Hereâs another query that shows a similar PMD pattern, clocking in at a
MozCast temperature of 239. The morning of June 25th, âauto auctionâ
showed the following Top 10:
http://www.iaai.com/
http://www.autoauctions.gsa.gov/
http://www.americasautoauction.com/
http://www.copart.com/
http://www.interstateautoauction.com/
http://www.indianaautoauction.net/
http://www.houstonautoauction.com/
http://www.ranchoautoauction.com/
http://www.southbayautoauction.com/
http://velocity.discovery.com/tv-shows/mecum-auto-auctions
Just one day later, all but the #1 spot had changedâ
http://www.iaai.com/
http://www.copart.com/
http://www.autoauctions.gsa.gov/
http://www.barrett-jackson.com/
http://www.naaa.com/
http://www.mecum.com/
http://www.desertviewauto.com/
http://www.adesa.com/
http://www.brasherssacramento.com/
http://www.voaautoauction.org/
In the first SERP, eight of the top ten had âauto auction(s)â in
the URL; in the second, only two remained, and one of those was an official US
government sub-domain (even that site lost a ranking spot).
Top-View PMD Influence
Ultimately, these are anecdotes. The question is: do we see any pattern across
the broader set? As luck would have it, we do track the influence of
partial-match domains (PMDs) in the MozCast metrics. Our PMD Influence metric
looks at the percentage of total Top 10 URLs where the root or sub-domain
contains either âkeywordstringâ or âkeyword-stringâ, but
is not an exact-match. Hereâs a graph of PMD influence over the past 90
days:
Please note that the vertical axis is scaled to more clearly show rises and
falls over time. Across our data set, thereâs been a trend toward steady
decline of PMD influence in 2013, but today showed a fairly dramatic drop-off
and a record low across our historical data (back to April 2012). This data
comes from our smaller (1K) query set, but the pattern is also showing up in our
10K data set.
For reference and further investigation, here are a few examples of PMDs that
fell out of the Top 10, and the queries they fell out of (including some from
the same queries):
"appliance parts" â www.appliancepartscenter.com
"appliance parts" â www.appliancepartscenter.us
"appliance parts" â www.appliancepartssuppliers.com
"bass boats" â www.phoenixbassboats.com
"campagnolo" â www.campagnolorestaurant.com
"divorce papers" â www.mydivorcepapers.com
"driving school" â www.dollardrivingschool.com
"driving school" â www.elitedrivingschool.biz
"driving school" â www.ferraridrivingschool.com
"driving school" â www.firstchoicedrivingschool.net
"driving school" â www.fitzgeraldsdrivingschool.com
"mario game" â www.mariogames98.com
"monogrammed gifts" â www.monogrammedgiftshop.com
"monogrammed gifts" â www.preppymonogrammedgifts.com
"nickelback songs" â www.nickelback-songs.com
"pressure washer" â www.pressurewashersdirect.com
"tanzanite" â www.etanzanite.com
"vibram" â www.vibramdiscgolf.com
"wine racks" â www.wineracksamerica.com
"yahtzee" â www.yahtzeeonline.org
Iâm not making any statements about the quality of these sites (except
nickelback-songs.com), since I havenât dug into them individually. If
anyone wants to take that on, though, please be my guest.
The âMulti-Weekâ Update
Recently, Matt Cutts warned of a multi-week algorithm update ending just after
July 4th â could this be that update? The short answer is that we have no
good way to tell, since Mattâs tweet didnât tell us anything about
the nature of the update. This single-day spike certainly doesnât look
like a gradual roll-out of anything, but itâs possible that weâll
see large-scale instability during this period.
Some (Quite a Few) Caveats
This is an imperfect exercise at best, and one day of data can be misleading.
The situation is also constantly changing â Google claims Panda data is
updating 10 days out of every 30 now, or 1/3 of the time, for example. At this
early stage, I can only confirm that weâve tracked this algorithm flux
across multiple data centers and there is no evidence of any system errors or
obvious data anomalies (we track many metrics, and some of them look relatively
normal).
Finally, itâs important to note that, just because a metric drops, it
doesnât mean Google pulled a lever to directly impact that metric. In
other words, Google could release a quality adjustment that just happened to hit
a lot of PMDs, even though PMDs werenât specifically the target. I would
welcome any evidence people have seen on their own sites, in webmaster chatter,
in unofficial Google statements, etc. (even if itâs evidence against
something Iâm saying in this post).
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
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[Build Backlinks Online] The International SEO Checklist
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'The International SEO Checklist'
Posted by Aleyda Solis
In less than two weeks I will have the pleasure to speak at MozCon about
international SEO, in a session called "International SEO and the Future of your
ROI." Before I do, I wanted to compile a checklist of the most fundamental
aspects to consider when developing an international SEO process â
something to which we can quickly refer that can facilitate our everyday work,
and something that would also be easy to digest for our clients at some point.
As a result, I've created this International SEO Checklist, with a
step-by-step guide to everything from assessing the international SEO potential
to targeting our international audience and the development of an
internationally targeted site:
I've also uploaded a higher resolution version of the checklist image, in case
you want to download and print it.
I hope the checklist is useful, and if you're looking to learn more about
international SEO or ask me anything about it, I look forward to seeing you at
MozCon! If for some reason you're not going to MozCon and have a question,
please let me know in the comments. :)
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/Fs81Yig2BHs/the-international-seo-checklist
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Posted by Aleyda Solis
In less than two weeks I will have the pleasure to speak at MozCon about
international SEO, in a session called "International SEO and the Future of your
ROI." Before I do, I wanted to compile a checklist of the most fundamental
aspects to consider when developing an international SEO process â
something to which we can quickly refer that can facilitate our everyday work,
and something that would also be easy to digest for our clients at some point.
As a result, I've created this International SEO Checklist, with a
step-by-step guide to everything from assessing the international SEO potential
to targeting our international audience and the development of an
internationally targeted site:
I've also uploaded a higher resolution version of the checklist image, in case
you want to download and print it.
I hope the checklist is useful, and if you're looking to learn more about
international SEO or ask me anything about it, I look forward to seeing you at
MozCon! If for some reason you're not going to MozCon and have a question,
please let me know in the comments. :)
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/Fs81Yig2BHs/the-international-seo-checklist
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
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[Build Backlinks Online] Today Is The Day For Useful Marketing
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Today Is The Day For Useful
Marketing'
Tomorrow is the official launch of my new book, Youtility. Its all about why
helping beats selling, and how to use truly useful information to win loyalty
from your customers. Ive been working on the book, and the book marketing, for
many months. Thank you so much to all of you who have supported the [...]Today
Is The Day For Useful Marketing is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social
Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/today-is-the-day-for-useful-marketing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=today-is-the-day-for-useful-marketing
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peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Marketing'
Tomorrow is the official launch of my new book, Youtility. Its all about why
helping beats selling, and how to use truly useful information to win loyalty
from your customers. Ive been working on the book, and the book marketing, for
many months. Thank you so much to all of you who have supported the [...]Today
Is The Day For Useful Marketing is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social
Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/today-is-the-day-for-useful-marketing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=today-is-the-day-for-useful-marketing
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peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Entrepreneur Success Secrets from Chichen Itza'
This one powerful success strategy can change your life (in a spectacular way) and make you a prosperity magnet. It’s a common thread of many wealthy entrepreneurs I’ve met and formed relationships with. The video was filmed on location at the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the world.
–
Did you like this post? If so, click the Facebook "like" button below and share it with your friends!
Related Blog Posts:
Before You Start an Online Business, Watch This FIRST!
3 Simple Ways to Create INSTANT Website Credibility
12 Incredibly Valuable Mini-Lessons For Your Business
3 Ways to Add an EXTRA $100,000 in Recurring Income this Year
You may view the latest post at http://dcincome.com/blog/entrepreneur-success-secrets-from-chichen-itza/ You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com[Build Backlinks Online] 4 Questions You Need To Ask Before You Write the Next Guest Post
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '4 Questions You Need To Ask
Before You Write the Next Guest Post'
One thing that I really love as a blogger is guest posting. There are so many
things that guest posting helps you achieve. Above all, writing guest posts
consistently gives your website or blog a quick SEO boost. However, in
desperation or hurry, guest...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/-Zmocn1oorM/next-guess-post.html
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peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Before You Write the Next Guest Post'
One thing that I really love as a blogger is guest posting. There are so many
things that guest posting helps you achieve. Above all, writing guest posts
consistently gives your website or blog a quick SEO boost. However, in
desperation or hurry, guest...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/-Zmocn1oorM/next-guess-post.html
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Google Celebrates Historic DOMA Decision with Rainbow Search Box'
It’s been a busy few days in the news and many of us have been glued to our “sets” (i.e. Twitter) following the filibuster in the Texas senate and, this morning, the Supreme Court’s historic decision to strike down DOMA (the defense of marriage act), the 1996 law which denied federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples. In a cute act of apparent support for gay rights, Google has implemented a rainbow search box for searches related to gay marriage, such as “gay” and “lesbian”:
What do you think of Google’s show of support? Should the search giant stay out of politics?
You can read about the significance of the rainbow flag to the gay rights movement here.
UPDATE: Though we only noticed this today, Danny Sullivan points out that the rainbow search box was already in place for Gay Pride Month.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Tuesday 25 June 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] 7 Mobile Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your Mind
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '7 Mobile Marketing Stats That
Will Blow Your Mind'
Mobile marketing is the future. Any marketer, or marketing firm worth their
weight in invoices knows that the key to future success is adapting to and
optimizing for the mobile market. When youre in a public place, you dont have to
look far to find someone pre-occupied with a smartphone. This very
sameoccurrencethat you see [...]7 Mobile Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your
Mind is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content
Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/mobile/7-mobile-marketing-stats-that-will-blow-your-mind/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-mobile-marketing-stats-that-will-blow-your-mind
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Will Blow Your Mind'
Mobile marketing is the future. Any marketer, or marketing firm worth their
weight in invoices knows that the key to future success is adapting to and
optimizing for the mobile market. When youre in a public place, you dont have to
look far to find someone pre-occupied with a smartphone. This very
sameoccurrencethat you see [...]7 Mobile Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your
Mind is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content
Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/mobile/7-mobile-marketing-stats-that-will-blow-your-mind/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-mobile-marketing-stats-that-will-blow-your-mind
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] 5 Questions About Semantic SEO
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '5 Questions About Semantic SEO'
Posted by Matthew Brown
Earlier this month, I attended the SemTechBiz2013 conference in San Francisco.
This is a gathering of creators and designers of the semantic tech stack, folks
who work on semantic web standards, and representatives from th...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/noA3vkhmnE0/semantic-SEO-questions
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Posted by Matthew Brown
Earlier this month, I attended the SemTechBiz2013 conference in San Francisco.
This is a gathering of creators and designers of the semantic tech stack, folks
who work on semantic web standards, and representatives from th...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/noA3vkhmnE0/semantic-SEO-questions
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '8 Simple Things You Might Be Overlooking In Your AdWords Account [New Guide]'
Our latest white paper is now available for download. Below is an excerpt from the guide. Click here to download the full text of this new, free guide (PDF).
8 Simple Things You Might Be Overlooking In Your AdWords Account
AdWords makes it incredibly easy to set up and run a pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaign, but some advertisers assume that after they’ve written an ad, typed in some keywords, set the budget, and switched on the campaign, there’s nothing more to do except sit back and watch the clicks and conversions roll in.
In reality, any account – large or small – can benefit from a few quick, simple tweaks designed to optimize the advertiser’s reach, click-through rate, and return on investment (ROI). These updates don’t cost anything extra, and they’re simple enough that even someone with limited experience managing accounts and limited time can set them up with ease.
In this guide, we’ll offer eight easy-to-implement, impactful techniques to keep in mind when optimizing your ad campaigns. These are common mistakes that new and smaller AdWords advertisers frequently overlook that can help transform underperforming AdWords accounts.
1. Make Sure Conversion Tracking Is Installed
A surprising number of AdWords accounts aren't even tracking conversions. This makes tasks like optimizing bids and ad text very difficult and imprecise, as you're unable to actually identify which areas of your campaigns are working. Conversion tracking also lets you compare ad spend vs. ROI. For example, if last month you spent $500 on ads and only sold $400 of goods or services, you’ll want to make some adjustments to your campaign.
First, decide what constitutes a conversion for your business. The most obvious example of a conversion is a purchase made through the website, but conversions can also be counted when a customer signs up for a newsletter, fills out an online survey, clicks the “Contact Us” button, downloads an app or whitepaper, calls a phone number from a mobile device, and so on.
Setting up conversion tracking involves generating a bit of HTML code in AdWords that you paste into the URL of the webpage on your site that people visit immediately after completing the conversion (such as an “Order Confirmation” or “Thanks for Contacting Us” page). Visit the Conversions section of the Tools & Analysis tab to get your HTML code.
Once conversion tracking is up and running, you can use the Search Funnels in analytics to track detailed data on your conversions and inform your conversion rate optimization efforts. (Access Search Funnels by clicking the Search Funnels link at the lower left of the Conversions window.)
Analyzing this data can help you gain insights about how customers behave on your website, such as how much time elapsed between when they clicked on your ad for the first time to when they completed the conversion, and how many times they saw your ads before converting.
Tip:
If your goal is to track conversions, consider setting your ad delivery method to “Optimize for conversions” in the Advanced settings section of the Settings tab. When this is selected, the ads deemed most likely to result in conversions will be served in the auction more frequently. (The default setting is to optimize for clicks.)
2. Assign Conversion Values
One of the options within the conversion tracking tab as you're implementing your conversion code is to designate values for different conversions. This can be very valuable if there are multiple offers on your site – for instance, you can assign different values to a purchase of your product versus a newsletter sign-up or a white paper download, based on your business metrics and how much those conversion types are worth to your business.
Once you’ve assigned your values you can measure data about the volume of conversions attached to different campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords. Conversion data appears alongside the other information columns in the Campaigns tab.
Assigning conversion values means you can more immediately understand not only the volume of conversions attached to different campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords, but also the actual business impact of those components of your campaigns.
3. Test Multiple Ads
Running multiple ads per campaign is a basic best practice that even the smallest of accounts should make use of….
Click here to download the full guide, “8 Simple Things You Might Be Overlooking in Your AdWords Account” (it’s FREE!)
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Monday 24 June 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] The New Science of Web Psychology: Interview with Nathalie Nahai
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'The New Science of Web
Psychology: Interview with Nathalie Nahai'
Posted by Erica McGillivray
We all want to influence our customers and our clients to follow the path to
conversion. But what if that path fails to draw them in? That's where Nathalie
Nahai, the web psychologist, comes into play. She helps nudge your audience
toward the right path and make your goals in Google Analytics happy, not to
mention your boss or clients.
Nathalie recently authored the new book Webs of Influence: The Psychology of
Online Persuasion. We were so impressed with Nathalie that we invited her to
speak at this year's MozCon, July 8th-10th in Seattle. Get your ticket today
because you don't want to miss this:
How'd you get your start working in inbound marketing as a psychologist?
I have a mixed background in psychology, the arts, and web design, and it
wasnât until I met some of the digi/tech entrepreneurs in East London that
I even considered applying my psychology to online interaction. I became curious
about how weâre influenced online and started looking for books on the
subject. When I realised that there was a huge gap in the market, I decided to
write the book myself. That was the real launching point.
Those of us working with data sometimes have to fight "common wisdom." What web
psychology optimization tip always shocks people?
I think the most obvious one is based around a comfortable assumption
regarding website visitors, to which my response is always, "If you think you
know your target audience, youâre wrong. Whereâs your research?" No
matter how well you think you know your audience, you should always research
them, and never assume that the knowledge you have about them is carved in
stone. People change â so must your strategy.
What's your favorite social media medium to engage in?
Iâd have to say Twitter, or Instagram when Iâm travelling. Though
recently there have been so many genuinely fascinating updates running through
my Facebook feed, including my favourite, I Fucking Love Science, that a lot of
my productivity has been lost to that particular black hole.
You recently wrote a post about why people troll online. How do you recommend
dealing with trolls?
Honestly? I usually write a polite, reasoned response back, and if they retort
with something obnoxious (which thankfully happens fairly rarely), then I ignore
the thread. Thereâs no point fuelling the fire.
" ...given that a great proportion of our communication is non-verbal [8], and
that we rely heavily on facial recognition to connect with and understand one
another, it may be that losing eye-contact online actually cuts out our main
avenue for empathetic communication â without which we become emotionally
disconnected and more predisposed towards hostile behaviour."
Now for some fun stuff, what's inspired you lately?
I went to an incredible gig by Susheela Raman, an extraordinary Tamil-London
musician whose skill and smouldering charisma make for spellbinding,
trance-inducing performances. Iâve loved her music for years, and every
time I go to one of her shows, I end up on a high for days. If you ever get the
chance to see her live, grab all your friends and go. Sheâll blow your
mind.
Susheela Raman performs "Kamakshi."
Okay, since I know you're a Trekkie (I'm one too), what was your favorite
non-spoilery part of Star Trek Into Darkness?
I LOVED the new Star Trek!
My favourite bit was the tribble cameo. It was a cheeky nod to one of my
favourite episodes, "The Trouble With Tribbles," where someone sneaks a tribble
onto the Enterprise and they multiply so fast they clog up the whole ship.
Thank you so much, Nathalie, for sharing a bit about web psychology, some
beautiful music, and a couple types of geekiness with us. :)
If you're interested in seeing more from Nathalie, she'll be at this year's
MozCon, July 8th-10th, talking about "How Gender and Cultural Differences in Web
Psychology Affect the Customer Experience." You can also follow her on Twitter
@TheWebPsych and read her book, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online
Persuasion.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Psychology: Interview with Nathalie Nahai'
Posted by Erica McGillivray
We all want to influence our customers and our clients to follow the path to
conversion. But what if that path fails to draw them in? That's where Nathalie
Nahai, the web psychologist, comes into play. She helps nudge your audience
toward the right path and make your goals in Google Analytics happy, not to
mention your boss or clients.
Nathalie recently authored the new book Webs of Influence: The Psychology of
Online Persuasion. We were so impressed with Nathalie that we invited her to
speak at this year's MozCon, July 8th-10th in Seattle. Get your ticket today
because you don't want to miss this:
How'd you get your start working in inbound marketing as a psychologist?
I have a mixed background in psychology, the arts, and web design, and it
wasnât until I met some of the digi/tech entrepreneurs in East London that
I even considered applying my psychology to online interaction. I became curious
about how weâre influenced online and started looking for books on the
subject. When I realised that there was a huge gap in the market, I decided to
write the book myself. That was the real launching point.
Those of us working with data sometimes have to fight "common wisdom." What web
psychology optimization tip always shocks people?
I think the most obvious one is based around a comfortable assumption
regarding website visitors, to which my response is always, "If you think you
know your target audience, youâre wrong. Whereâs your research?" No
matter how well you think you know your audience, you should always research
them, and never assume that the knowledge you have about them is carved in
stone. People change â so must your strategy.
What's your favorite social media medium to engage in?
Iâd have to say Twitter, or Instagram when Iâm travelling. Though
recently there have been so many genuinely fascinating updates running through
my Facebook feed, including my favourite, I Fucking Love Science, that a lot of
my productivity has been lost to that particular black hole.
You recently wrote a post about why people troll online. How do you recommend
dealing with trolls?
Honestly? I usually write a polite, reasoned response back, and if they retort
with something obnoxious (which thankfully happens fairly rarely), then I ignore
the thread. Thereâs no point fuelling the fire.
" ...given that a great proportion of our communication is non-verbal [8], and
that we rely heavily on facial recognition to connect with and understand one
another, it may be that losing eye-contact online actually cuts out our main
avenue for empathetic communication â without which we become emotionally
disconnected and more predisposed towards hostile behaviour."
Now for some fun stuff, what's inspired you lately?
I went to an incredible gig by Susheela Raman, an extraordinary Tamil-London
musician whose skill and smouldering charisma make for spellbinding,
trance-inducing performances. Iâve loved her music for years, and every
time I go to one of her shows, I end up on a high for days. If you ever get the
chance to see her live, grab all your friends and go. Sheâll blow your
mind.
Susheela Raman performs "Kamakshi."
Okay, since I know you're a Trekkie (I'm one too), what was your favorite
non-spoilery part of Star Trek Into Darkness?
I LOVED the new Star Trek!
My favourite bit was the tribble cameo. It was a cheeky nod to one of my
favourite episodes, "The Trouble With Tribbles," where someone sneaks a tribble
onto the Enterprise and they multiply so fast they clog up the whole ship.
Thank you so much, Nathalie, for sharing a bit about web psychology, some
beautiful music, and a couple types of geekiness with us. :)
If you're interested in seeing more from Nathalie, she'll be at this year's
MozCon, July 8th-10th, talking about "How Gender and Cultural Differences in Web
Psychology Affect the Customer Experience." You can also follow her on Twitter
@TheWebPsych and read her book, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online
Persuasion.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/Z5o0DrbdjS4/an-interview-with-nathalie-nahai
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
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You may view the latest post at http://dcincome.com/blog/3-simple-ways-to-create-instant-website-credibility/ You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com[Build Backlinks Online] 8 New and Underappreciated Marketing Resources from Google
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '8 New and Underappreciated
Marketing Resources from Google'
Posted by MikeTek
We have a bit of a complicated relationship with Google In the SEO/inbound
community. We are often the first, and loudest, to call them out when they get
their priorities messed up or hoard data for questionable reasons.
But on the whole, we use more of Google's wares than probably any other
industry.
At Distilled, we use Google Apps for email, calendars, document collaboration,
reporting, Google+ for internal sharing discussions, Hangouts for live video,
chat, and webinars. Most of our clients use Google Analytics (as we do for our
own websites). Our PPC specialists have core expertise in AdWords. Our keyword
research work invariably turns to the AdWords Keywords Tool for search volume
estimates.
While working with our Creative team to plan a data visualization project
recently, I learned about a relatively new service from Google (Consumer Surveys
â see below), and it got me thinking about other Google projects that have
proven to be useful for our work and those that promise to be in the future.
This guide is intended for those SEOs/inbound marketers who are familiar the
fundamental Google resources (Google Analytics, Apps, the AdWords Keywords Tool)
but may not be aware of what else is out there and what is coming soon.
Analytics & Tagging
1. Universal Analytics
This is not particular to inbound at all, but it affects all disciplines of
web marketing. Most online marketers have some familiarity with Google
Analytics. Itâs the most widely-adopted analytics platform on the web, and
it's about to evolve.
Universal Analytics (in beta) is apt to change the way we use and think about
marketing analytics. This successor of the Google Analytics we know will bring
improved performance and, most importantly, new functionality and flexibility to
your reporting.
Uses & benefits of Universal Analytics:
Cross device tracking of individual users: We live in a multi-device world. To
date, Google Analytics has not had core functionality that allowed for tracking
users across all of their devices (one user is tracked as multiple "unique
visits," one for each device). Universal Analytics creates a User ID for the
individual and allows you to track their interactions with your site/app across
their devices allowing for cross-device optimization.
The ability to push "offline" data into the system: Using the same User ID
functionality, you can tie this data to a single user â across devices and
interactions â over the lifetime of their relationship with your business.
While passing any "Personally Identifiable Information" into GA is strictly a
violation of the Terms of Service, this doesn't mean you can't securely keep
that information together on your end and (respectfully) use it to manage your
customer relationships and otherwise learn who your best customers are.
Performance enhancements: The current iteration of GA passes a lot of data to GA
servers from multiple cookies. Universal Analytics (UA) uses a single, simple
cookie and stores most data on GA servers. Faster pages = happier users.
20 custom dimensions, 20 custom metrics: You can do a lot with GA's customer
variables, but this is really going to open things up. If you want to push
offline and other data into your reports, these are going to come in handy.
Set your own session and campaign expirations: Sessions can be set up to 4
hours, campaigns up to 2 years.
Justin Cutroni, one of the most well-informed analytics gurus you'll find
publishing online, wrote a nice post about the potential of UA, using his local
gardening supply store as a case study of sorts. It is highly recommended
reading.
There is so much here that even if you don't start implementing for live
campaigns yet, getting your head around the possibilities of UA (if not the
measurement protocol itself) is only going to benefit you as this next iteration
bridges the chasm to wide adoption.
Note: before you dive in and start using Universal Analytics on your website,
keep in mind there are some things still missing: AdSense, DoubleClick, Content
Experiments, and Remarketing are not yet integrated. You'll probably want to run
UA tracking concurrently with your existing GA tracking. The next resource in
the list will help with that.
2. Tag Manager
Again, not particular to inbound, but big enough to matter to everyone. Google
Tag Manager was released in late 2012 and has seen strong growth, but many
marketers are still unaware of its benefits. Google is certainly not the first
entrant into the tag management space, but they may well (and quickly) become
the most popular.
Mike Pantoliano wrote a solid technical overview of Tag Manager (and tag
management in general) here on the Moz blog that is well worth a read.
Essentially, Tag Manager gives you central control of tracking tags firing in
the <head> of any given page, without having to touch the page code itself
once you've added the main container. The rules to trigger tag firing are
flexible enough that the possibilities here are broad and powerful.
Uses & benefits of Tag Manager:
Central, organized management of your tags/scripts: Targeting a given page with
a rule is a lot faster than adding it via a CMS or to the source code directly.
Cuts dev cycle bottlenecks out of the equation: No more waiting a week for your
colleagues in dev to update your tracking snippets: Tag Manager takes the work
off the dev team's plate, so everybody wins.
Improved performance: Flexible firing rules allow you to load resources only on
the pages that require them, cleaning up code on other pages and optimizing page
loads.
While Tag Manager's benefits will be greatest for organizations with
significant web operations and drawn-out dev cycles, it'll save most web
marketers some time and headache, and signup/setup is relatively painless.
There's a lot of flexibility here, and I expect more clever uses will emerge as
the community gets comfortable with this tool.
3. Tag Assistant
If you are using (or intend to use) Tag Manager, Tag Assistant is a Google
Chrome extension that will make double-checking your tag/rule configurations a
lot easier.
Here's how it looks:
As above, you can quickly see the details of any tag by clicking the blue
arrow to the right of its status.
Uses & benefits of Tag Assistant:
In short, it makes checking your Tag Manager configuration a lot easier.
Market Research
4. Think Insights
Think Insights has been around for a couple of years and recently updated
their site. While there is a lot of self-serving promotional material here,
there is also a great deal of value.
Organized by industry, marketing objectives, and ad types, this resource
includes a wealth of research studies, most of which were co-conducted with
Google and partners (often research firms) to come to some data-driven
conclusions on the way specific markets and demographics use the web. It also
serves as an inspiration center for digital marketing campaigns, linking out to
some compelling and innovative pieces.
Uses & benefits of Think Insights:
Free, searchable access to market research studies, organized by industry,
marketing objectives, and ad type
Visualization of the most common multi-touch paths by industry with âThe
Customer Journey to Online Purchase"
Inspiration for your next data visualization project with Chrome Experiments.
The "500" home page alone is worth the time to click.
There's also the Creative Sandbox gallery, showcasing creative online campaigns
that "blend creative genius and digital innovation." This is skewed toward paid
channels, but there are a lot of creative approaches here from which we can
learn.
5. Consumer Surveys
Consumer Surveys is the only paid service in this post, but research with
surveys, if you want to step outside of your customer email list, will always
require an investment. Google's offering is relatively affordable at $.10 a
response ($.50 if you need to target a specific demographic).
We are using Google Consumer Surveys for a client project currently at
Distilled, and so far the straightforward pricing model and predictable
timelines for turnaround are promising.
Matt Cutts ran a playful survey with this service to determine how many people
have heard of "search engine optimization." The answer: about one out of five.
Uses & benefits of Google Consumer Surveys:
Relatively fast turnaround
Accurate data
Affordable cost
Search History & Data
6. Trends
Trends is a relatively well-known but often overlooked source of historical
search volume data.
Search behavior is fluid. If you work in SEO you probably rely heavily on the
AdWords Keywords Tool for volume estimates. But if your campaigns are planned
for the long term, Trends provides data that tells you something about how users
will search in the future.
For example, here's an interesting comparison:
Note: "News headlines" (at top right) can be useful for identifying the cause
behind spikes/drops in search traffic. I'd take the "Forecast" option with a
sizable grain of salt.
Trends is also useful for measuring client brand recognition over time (vs.
competitors), and for discovering the seasonal pattern for a given keyword
throughout the year.
The new Top Charts section provides an engaging visual navigation through
current trending searches. Perfect for brainstorming content angles.
Also check out the new live visualization of Hot Searches. Useful? Maybe.
Entertaining? Yep.
Uses & benefits of Trends:
View historical data for a single keyword, or compare two or more
Discover seasonality in search volume
Browse current trending searches
Export to CSV for your Excel/other reports
7. Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist isnât exactly a tool or a data set but more of an interactive
recap of the year in search. You select the year (and/or country), and Google
walks you through the biggest search trends and the related events around the
world.
The most recent Zeitgeist for the year 2012 included a well-produced video
recapping what the world searched for (and therefore experienced) in 2012:
At 15 million views, not a bad example of content done well in itself
If youâre looking for a large data source for a rich visualization, this
is not the place. But Zeitgeist can be useful for brainstorming historical
context and content angles.
Uses & benefits of Zeitgeist:
Rich visual "story" experience of historical data
Helpful for brainstorming historical content angles
General nostalgia/inspiration (What? That counts.)
8. Public Data Explorer
Public Data Explorer is Google's portal into government and institutional data
sets. While you won't find anything uniquely available here data-wise, the
ability to search and browse data sets from one tool can make your research and
brainstorming around data visualization concepts far more efficient.
This tool will also allow you to upload your own data sets and visualize them,
which might not give you much of a share-worthy result for publishing purposes,
but it is a handy way to play with the different ways to present a given data
set before the dev team goes to work building the beautiful version.
Uses & benefits of Public Data Explorer:
Search/browse many public data sets from one interface
Upload your own data set
Quickly switch between different chart/visualization approaches for a given
data set
This is not an exhaustive list; there are no doubt some other Google
applications and features you use for marketing (Related Searches, Ngram Viewer,
etc). I am sure I have also missed some uses and benefits of the resources
included here. Please share your favorites in the comments!
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/tz8PSiHcKdg/8-new-underappreciated-marketing-resources-from-google
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Marketing Resources from Google'
Posted by MikeTek
We have a bit of a complicated relationship with Google In the SEO/inbound
community. We are often the first, and loudest, to call them out when they get
their priorities messed up or hoard data for questionable reasons.
But on the whole, we use more of Google's wares than probably any other
industry.
At Distilled, we use Google Apps for email, calendars, document collaboration,
reporting, Google+ for internal sharing discussions, Hangouts for live video,
chat, and webinars. Most of our clients use Google Analytics (as we do for our
own websites). Our PPC specialists have core expertise in AdWords. Our keyword
research work invariably turns to the AdWords Keywords Tool for search volume
estimates.
While working with our Creative team to plan a data visualization project
recently, I learned about a relatively new service from Google (Consumer Surveys
â see below), and it got me thinking about other Google projects that have
proven to be useful for our work and those that promise to be in the future.
This guide is intended for those SEOs/inbound marketers who are familiar the
fundamental Google resources (Google Analytics, Apps, the AdWords Keywords Tool)
but may not be aware of what else is out there and what is coming soon.
Analytics & Tagging
1. Universal Analytics
This is not particular to inbound at all, but it affects all disciplines of
web marketing. Most online marketers have some familiarity with Google
Analytics. Itâs the most widely-adopted analytics platform on the web, and
it's about to evolve.
Universal Analytics (in beta) is apt to change the way we use and think about
marketing analytics. This successor of the Google Analytics we know will bring
improved performance and, most importantly, new functionality and flexibility to
your reporting.
Uses & benefits of Universal Analytics:
Cross device tracking of individual users: We live in a multi-device world. To
date, Google Analytics has not had core functionality that allowed for tracking
users across all of their devices (one user is tracked as multiple "unique
visits," one for each device). Universal Analytics creates a User ID for the
individual and allows you to track their interactions with your site/app across
their devices allowing for cross-device optimization.
The ability to push "offline" data into the system: Using the same User ID
functionality, you can tie this data to a single user â across devices and
interactions â over the lifetime of their relationship with your business.
While passing any "Personally Identifiable Information" into GA is strictly a
violation of the Terms of Service, this doesn't mean you can't securely keep
that information together on your end and (respectfully) use it to manage your
customer relationships and otherwise learn who your best customers are.
Performance enhancements: The current iteration of GA passes a lot of data to GA
servers from multiple cookies. Universal Analytics (UA) uses a single, simple
cookie and stores most data on GA servers. Faster pages = happier users.
20 custom dimensions, 20 custom metrics: You can do a lot with GA's customer
variables, but this is really going to open things up. If you want to push
offline and other data into your reports, these are going to come in handy.
Set your own session and campaign expirations: Sessions can be set up to 4
hours, campaigns up to 2 years.
Justin Cutroni, one of the most well-informed analytics gurus you'll find
publishing online, wrote a nice post about the potential of UA, using his local
gardening supply store as a case study of sorts. It is highly recommended
reading.
There is so much here that even if you don't start implementing for live
campaigns yet, getting your head around the possibilities of UA (if not the
measurement protocol itself) is only going to benefit you as this next iteration
bridges the chasm to wide adoption.
Note: before you dive in and start using Universal Analytics on your website,
keep in mind there are some things still missing: AdSense, DoubleClick, Content
Experiments, and Remarketing are not yet integrated. You'll probably want to run
UA tracking concurrently with your existing GA tracking. The next resource in
the list will help with that.
2. Tag Manager
Again, not particular to inbound, but big enough to matter to everyone. Google
Tag Manager was released in late 2012 and has seen strong growth, but many
marketers are still unaware of its benefits. Google is certainly not the first
entrant into the tag management space, but they may well (and quickly) become
the most popular.
Mike Pantoliano wrote a solid technical overview of Tag Manager (and tag
management in general) here on the Moz blog that is well worth a read.
Essentially, Tag Manager gives you central control of tracking tags firing in
the <head> of any given page, without having to touch the page code itself
once you've added the main container. The rules to trigger tag firing are
flexible enough that the possibilities here are broad and powerful.
Uses & benefits of Tag Manager:
Central, organized management of your tags/scripts: Targeting a given page with
a rule is a lot faster than adding it via a CMS or to the source code directly.
Cuts dev cycle bottlenecks out of the equation: No more waiting a week for your
colleagues in dev to update your tracking snippets: Tag Manager takes the work
off the dev team's plate, so everybody wins.
Improved performance: Flexible firing rules allow you to load resources only on
the pages that require them, cleaning up code on other pages and optimizing page
loads.
While Tag Manager's benefits will be greatest for organizations with
significant web operations and drawn-out dev cycles, it'll save most web
marketers some time and headache, and signup/setup is relatively painless.
There's a lot of flexibility here, and I expect more clever uses will emerge as
the community gets comfortable with this tool.
3. Tag Assistant
If you are using (or intend to use) Tag Manager, Tag Assistant is a Google
Chrome extension that will make double-checking your tag/rule configurations a
lot easier.
Here's how it looks:
As above, you can quickly see the details of any tag by clicking the blue
arrow to the right of its status.
Uses & benefits of Tag Assistant:
In short, it makes checking your Tag Manager configuration a lot easier.
Market Research
4. Think Insights
Think Insights has been around for a couple of years and recently updated
their site. While there is a lot of self-serving promotional material here,
there is also a great deal of value.
Organized by industry, marketing objectives, and ad types, this resource
includes a wealth of research studies, most of which were co-conducted with
Google and partners (often research firms) to come to some data-driven
conclusions on the way specific markets and demographics use the web. It also
serves as an inspiration center for digital marketing campaigns, linking out to
some compelling and innovative pieces.
Uses & benefits of Think Insights:
Free, searchable access to market research studies, organized by industry,
marketing objectives, and ad type
Visualization of the most common multi-touch paths by industry with âThe
Customer Journey to Online Purchase"
Inspiration for your next data visualization project with Chrome Experiments.
The "500" home page alone is worth the time to click.
There's also the Creative Sandbox gallery, showcasing creative online campaigns
that "blend creative genius and digital innovation." This is skewed toward paid
channels, but there are a lot of creative approaches here from which we can
learn.
5. Consumer Surveys
Consumer Surveys is the only paid service in this post, but research with
surveys, if you want to step outside of your customer email list, will always
require an investment. Google's offering is relatively affordable at $.10 a
response ($.50 if you need to target a specific demographic).
We are using Google Consumer Surveys for a client project currently at
Distilled, and so far the straightforward pricing model and predictable
timelines for turnaround are promising.
Matt Cutts ran a playful survey with this service to determine how many people
have heard of "search engine optimization." The answer: about one out of five.
Uses & benefits of Google Consumer Surveys:
Relatively fast turnaround
Accurate data
Affordable cost
Search History & Data
6. Trends
Trends is a relatively well-known but often overlooked source of historical
search volume data.
Search behavior is fluid. If you work in SEO you probably rely heavily on the
AdWords Keywords Tool for volume estimates. But if your campaigns are planned
for the long term, Trends provides data that tells you something about how users
will search in the future.
For example, here's an interesting comparison:
Note: "News headlines" (at top right) can be useful for identifying the cause
behind spikes/drops in search traffic. I'd take the "Forecast" option with a
sizable grain of salt.
Trends is also useful for measuring client brand recognition over time (vs.
competitors), and for discovering the seasonal pattern for a given keyword
throughout the year.
The new Top Charts section provides an engaging visual navigation through
current trending searches. Perfect for brainstorming content angles.
Also check out the new live visualization of Hot Searches. Useful? Maybe.
Entertaining? Yep.
Uses & benefits of Trends:
View historical data for a single keyword, or compare two or more
Discover seasonality in search volume
Browse current trending searches
Export to CSV for your Excel/other reports
7. Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist isnât exactly a tool or a data set but more of an interactive
recap of the year in search. You select the year (and/or country), and Google
walks you through the biggest search trends and the related events around the
world.
The most recent Zeitgeist for the year 2012 included a well-produced video
recapping what the world searched for (and therefore experienced) in 2012:
At 15 million views, not a bad example of content done well in itself
If youâre looking for a large data source for a rich visualization, this
is not the place. But Zeitgeist can be useful for brainstorming historical
context and content angles.
Uses & benefits of Zeitgeist:
Rich visual "story" experience of historical data
Helpful for brainstorming historical content angles
General nostalgia/inspiration (What? That counts.)
8. Public Data Explorer
Public Data Explorer is Google's portal into government and institutional data
sets. While you won't find anything uniquely available here data-wise, the
ability to search and browse data sets from one tool can make your research and
brainstorming around data visualization concepts far more efficient.
This tool will also allow you to upload your own data sets and visualize them,
which might not give you much of a share-worthy result for publishing purposes,
but it is a handy way to play with the different ways to present a given data
set before the dev team goes to work building the beautiful version.
Uses & benefits of Public Data Explorer:
Search/browse many public data sets from one interface
Upload your own data set
Quickly switch between different chart/visualization approaches for a given
data set
This is not an exhaustive list; there are no doubt some other Google
applications and features you use for marketing (Related Searches, Ngram Viewer,
etc). I am sure I have also missed some uses and benefits of the resources
included here. Please share your favorites in the comments!
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/tz8PSiHcKdg/8-new-underappreciated-marketing-resources-from-google
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Predictive Search: Is This the Future or the End of Search?' 
You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/PlxiIMSSq_U/predictive-search You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Ever since Google introduced auto-complete in 2004, predictive search has become a welcome part of our internet interactions, helping us search faster, find results quicker, and discover answers to questions we didn't even know we had.
As predictive search becomes more powerful, tools like Google Now have become capable of delivering relevant, personalized information to users, all but eliminating the need for search as we know it.
Will Google's continued efforts in predictive search destroy search engines as we know them today? Is Google Now the beginning of a self-destructive path for the king of search?
In this post we're looking at all aspects of predictive search – how Google uses it in search engines, the role it plays on mobile devices and in new features like Google Now, and what we can expect for predictive search in the future.
The Origins of Google Predictive Search
Google launched the practice of predictive search back in 2004 with Google Suggest, which was then renamed to Google AutoComplete in 2010.
image borrowed from blogoscoped.com
Also in 2010, Google Instant came on the scene, generating search results instantly as users type. While Google Instant and AutoComplete are technically separate features, this partnership, resulting in a more advanced Google predictive search engine experience, is often grouped under the umbrella term of Google Instant.
Google Predictive Search: How Does it Work?
Google's predictive search feature uses a predictive search algorithm based on popular searches to predict a user's search query as it is typed, providing a dropdown list of suggestions that changes as the user adds more characters to the search input.
You can see predictive search examples below:
Oh Theon, we are so worried about you!
Google, helping out Pokemon trainers everywhere
This may seem like a minor feat, but people type considerably slower than they read, and Google predictive search saves users quite a bit of time by not making them always have to type their full query.
As Google notes, before Google Instant, a typical search took more than 9 seconds to type in, with some searches taking as long as 30-90 seconds to type (I'm guessing that's the 60+ crowd). Google says that if Google Instant is used globally, over 3.5 billion seconds will be saved each day from Google predictive search, equating to 11 hours saved every second. Not bad, huh? Now all we need is a machine that stores all those hours saved and uses that stolen time to make us immortal.
In some ways, the necessity of Google Instant shows how pathetic we humans have become. I've had times when I don't even know the name of the device I'm searching for, but as I type my query, Google takes pity on my useless human brain and clues me in to what I'm trying to incoherently articulate. It's demeaning but really helpful!
Yeah, something like that…
Google Auto Complete is a Pop Culture Icon
Predictive search has become a cornerstone of Google's identity as a search engine, showcasing their creative efforts to make search easier (and serving as further justification for keeping track of so many users' queries).
Google predictive search is really a pop culture icon in its own right, with predictive search blogs and humorous compilings of unusual Google auto complete search suggestions.
Fast Company created a great piece of web artistry with their Accidental Poetry of Google Predictive Search, showcasing the beauty of happy accidents on Google search. That crazy Google, what will it say next?
This powerful video uses Google predictive search to examine the personal, emotional, and inherently human questions and concerns users bring to the anonymous advice expert and computer soothsayer, the mighty Googs.
How to Turn Off Google Predictive Search
Not everyone sees predictive search as a fun and useful tool; it's true that Google Instant results will sometimes use your search history to suggest searches, which privacy advocates aren't thrilled about. Others dislike it because they find Google Instant annoying. Regardless of your reasoning, it's pretty easy to disable predictive search.
Just run a Google search, click the gear icon in the upper right corner and click "search settings" (NOTE: the gear icon won't appear until after you've run a search).
In search settings you'll see the option to turn off Google Instant search.
Google Predictive Search: Knowledge Graph
Google's growing predictive search power gained another foothold with the introduction of its Knowledge Graph in 2013. The Knowledge Graph guesses what type of information a user is searching for when they search a celebrity name or even "museums in Berlin," and generates specific related content right alongside normal search results.
The Google Knowledge Graph shows that Google isn't just getting better at predicting users' questions, but is also getting ever more adept at figuring out what kind of answers users are after.
Google Now Powering Your Life
Google Now embodies the true possibilities of predictive search, serving as a personalized computer assistant that can predict your needs, wants, and deep desires.
For some, Google Now is some strange sorcery, as it delivers important information about the traffic on your morning commute, your updated flight itinerary, and the results of last night's hockey game on your phone, without you even asking. How did it even know that!?
It's not magic or mind prediction – the Wizard of Googs is hidden in the Emerald City, behind the curtain, pulling all the strings, smoke, bells, and whistles. In order to provide this relevant info that relates to you and only you, Google uses your private data, accessing (with your permission of course) your Gmail and other info in order to keep tabs on things like flight reservations and hotel bookings.
Google Now has been a group project on Google's part, combining research and work they've done with features like Google Instant, and learning to recognize pop culture references with Knowledge Graph. Google Now is powered by the wealth of search research and Google user services.
Google Now, Apple Later: Apple's Going After GOKR
Although Google Now is making huge leaps and bounds in predictive search, Apple is always close at the heels – recent rumors claim that Apple may have recently acquired the predictive search app, Gokr. Gokr predictive search uses a kind of knowledge graph that scans and digests info across the web to deliver the appropriate content to users.
Gokr predictive search, combined with Apple's Siri, could be some serious competition for Google Now.
The Brave New Future of Predictive Search: What's Next?
With sibling rivalry between Apple and Google for the ultimate virtual personal assistant, we can expect predictive, personal search to become even more popular.
Google Now has been a brilliant move on Google's part, but one has to wonder if they're cannibalizing themselves; as predictive search becomes more powerful, the need for classic search engines like Google diminishes. For now, there are still plenty of questions and mysteries we need the Google search engine to answer, but will that always be the case?
Perhaps Google isn't worried because it sees itself eventually leaving traditional search behind and devoting itself entirely to the final frontier of predictive search.
Google Now is definitely not the end of the line for Google when it comes to predictive search – in fact, we can confidently say it's only the beginning. With breakthroughs like Google Glass and improved Google voice functionality, it's hard to say for sure where predictive search fits in.
We can expect to be asked to surrender even more personal data, and with even larger pay-offs. With recent leaks about NSA surveillance, questions about how data should be saved, when and where it should be collected, and how it should be used continue to be major issues.
In our data-driven world, sacrificing privacy has become an acceptable cost for the advantages of technology. Today it's a peek at our Gmail, tomorrow it'll be something else, but no matter what is asked of us, Google drives a hard bargain in making our lives easier in exchange – that's the price of predictive search.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
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