Web Moves Blog

Well in the past, most rapid drops in a websites search engine rankings were caused by off site factors. Bad links, too many links too fast, too many exact match anchor text links, too many footer or site wide links etc. Recently we are seeing more keyword specific or page level penalties which are turning up to be caused by on site factors. Google is starting to look carefully at websites. They are becoming picky about internal link structure and placement of navigation, content quality and placement, and general over optimization on site is becoming a BAD thing.

We were trying to sort out why a particular website we were working on dropped hard in the rankings. The back link profile was not bad, and the links were not built overnight. The website was old enough 2006, and had been growing organically for several years. We tweaked a few things on site and off site to no avail. We decided to try something sort of outside of the box, we blocked Googlebot. Why block Googlebot? Well it permitted us to see if the problem was off site or on site. Low and behold within 2 weeks, we had lost a ton of long tail traffic, but we recovered all the keywords search results that had been dropping. Which showed us that the back links alone were fine, and strong enough to carry the website in the serps without any content :-).

Now we know, we have some on site work to do.

We have been thinking about how to stop the spam bots without using a captcha. Most Captcha’s work to a certain degree, but in general you do not want to make it any more inconvenient for real people get through your web forms. Well Bob nailed it, just add a css class to the form field that says display:none, robots will fill out this field and real people will not.

So kill those super annoying captchas….personally I cannot read half of them anyway.

Perhaps the key to answering this question lies in the title of a book published a couple of years ago: What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis. What has Google done, what will they do in the future?  To summarize the book-length answer, Google will do just about anything to become the “fastest growing company in history,” as Jarvis noted in the book. Google is no longer just a search engine. In fact, all the evidence points to the fact that Google hasn’t been just a search engine for a long time.

As you evaluate how to feel about Google’s direction, keep in mind that Jarvis’s correctly credits this massive Internet-based company with completely changing the way many businesses do business. In essence, many established companies and a whole lot of new companies are thriving with a new philosophy: Charge as little as possible to stay alive.

This flies in the face of the “old” business model of charging as much as the market will bear. Stated another way: Free is a good business model. Of course, consumers eventually pay, but the amount is smaller up front and continues over a long period of time.

All those great free tools come at a price

Google through the years has developed convenient  products and tools, usually in the ‘free’ category: Google Analytics, Google Chrome, Google keyword research tools, Gmail , Google Alerts, Google Insights, Google Checkout, Chrome Operating System and Android (Google’s Cell Phone Operating System). The entire list can be found here.  Most are free to the user, and profitable to Google. Since Google’s only source of revenue is advertising, you want the user to stay on your internet property for as long as possible, so it makes sense to offer users more and more opportunities to spend their time with you.   Sounds like smart business to me.  Google keeps us users happy by giving us faster, better, and free tools, dominating the market.

Google advertises these free tools using its own search engine, a search engine with an estimated 70% of US market share according to Hitwise. Is this really fair? Google putting their free products within the search results (typically in the #1 spot), when someone else offering that product has been paying Google for advertising all these years.  In business, it is not a strong model to compete with your clients.  But anyone competing with Google on one of these free products cannot afford to stop advertising with their new competitor, since Google controls most of the search market.  They can’t survive without Google. They have no choice but to share the market with Google, once a portal now a competitor.  Yes, this is capitalism, survival of the fittest. But longevity in business also includes keeping your clients happy, and I am not happy to give my money to someone that is now my competitor. The second I could make a move, I would do it.

I won’t spend money with Google Adwords once they compete with me, but…

…it’s not just advertising revenue that Google’s competitors are giving them. It’s data and information.  Google has now acquired ITA Software, a company that develops software for the airline industry and travel agencies, among others. Marissa Mayer, vice president for geographic and local services at Google, wrote, “Once we’ve completed our acquisition of ITA, we’ll work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket.” Sounds like Expedia, Travelocity, or countless other very large PPC clients of Google.

And how will Google build its reputation as the internet’s #1 travel resource? Besides being able to control the top piece of real estate in paid and natural results, let’s just ask TripAdvisor what they think. TripAdvisor recently temporarily pulled Google’s access to their user reviews.

What’s wrong with Trip Advisor sharing the reviews in Google Places results? After all, it links straight to the TripAdvisor site.  Well, TripAdvisor has spent years collecting that data. Why should they help Google in their quest to become not just a search engine that lists travel sites, but as destination themselves, a potential Google Travel that could replace TripAdvisor.  Brilliant move on TA’s part, but a shame they did not stick to their guns because they quickly allowed their reviews to be used once again.

Google Retail: Amazon take notice

Google has the market share, why not start selling stuff? Surely they would not start selling actual products as another stream of revenue. But as a matter of fact, Google has a Fashion Web site. Boutiques.com you didn’t know that?  Here’s some interesting text from Boutiques.com, “a personalized shopping experience, brought to you by Google. Boutiques.com uses visual technology to help fashionistas discover and shop their look and creates the opportunity for designers to showcase their collections and latest inspirations online.”

If the company extends this type of front door to flowers, gifts, wine, etc., would that make it another Amazon? Should Amazon be leary?

Absolutely, Google is considering putting up a successful fight against Kindle, the e-book reader and application. According to iReaderreview.com, Google is moving toward selling all the books available in the Kindle Store and “also giving away a ton of books.” That sounds very “Amazonish” to me.

Providing Google with money and information could put you out of business.

An important distinction that is not often talked about:  spending money on PPC, directly giving money to Google who has now become or has potential to become your competitor, is only a piece of the puzzle. Even if Google’s clients/competitors are not spending PPC budget on Google Adwords, just letting Googlebot visit your site, gather and return data to its users, helps this company grow and thrive. Think about it: If you support their search engine, you are supporting the business model. Google’s world domination business model is not sounding as ‘tin foil hat’ as it used to.

I’ll leave you with this hopeful stirring thought. How about this scenario: Imagine if Google was not the biggest search engine. Imagine if 20 of the largest web properties in a particular industry all blocked Googlebot from their site. Then Google’s results are no longer relevant.  People stop using Google. The giant tumbles. YOUR competitor tumbles. This is capitalism after all.

Article first published as Is Google a Search Engine or Your Biggest Competitor? on Technorati.

It is widely known that Google has many local rivals in the Search Engine field. Many Russians prefer Yandex over Google, Israelis use Walla and in China there is Baidu. Most of those engines are extremely localized, providing relevant search results and successfully battling with Google in the local market – especially, since they use local language in countries with relatively low English level among computer and internet users.

Almost half-billion China-based internet users are a huge marketing potential. It seems, Chinese government has recognized it, deciding to launch a new search engine, which will be the first state-owned SE in the world. After over half a year of trial version (how do you say “beta” in Chinese?), goso.cn is now fully operational and available. The idea is to implement elements of social media into the engine – such as videos, photos and comments sharing. Mobile version is expected as well.

Of course, competing with Baidu and Google is not an easy task – but with the support of the government, goso can well become a healthy search engine alternative in few years time.

The marketing has always been about customer’s psychology – learning the specific needs of a potential client and trying to satisfy them. Google has demonstrated once again that targeting certain audience is mandatory. And if you are into SEO, you should be aware of it.

According to one recently published study, Google Search results on a smartphone will vary by over 80% from those produced by a desktop computer query. If you think about it – this is actually quite logical to have a slightly different search algorithm for smartphones. For example, smartphone users like downloading various applications. Thus the mobile Google Search presents many results that include the word “app” or “download”. Brand filters and store filters cannot be applied to mobile Google search and it is even more biased towards “local” domains, with Google places usually appearing higher in the vertical results list.

With the smartphone market growing quickly, it seems as only a matter of time when “SEO for mobile” will become a separate branch in the industry.

At first glance, we’re not really sure what we would do with this interesting, detailed application. If the words that are scattered around the Internet are any indication there are a number of individuals who feel the same way. Google Body Browser is, to coin a phrase, “strange, odd and somewhat curious.” But if you want to explore the human body with a bit more than the usual encyclopedia views this is probably the way to do it.

What makes Google Body Browser “curious” is the idea that Google has come up with this application at all. The HTML5 technology allows us to get a detailed look in and around the human body – in three-dimensions. Before you jump to conclusions about how easy it would be to study anatomy like a doctor, you’ll have to download the correct browser (unless you have the current beta version of Google Chrome or the newest Firefox browser. Sorry, Internet Explorer users!!

Hello, My Name Is…

Open this application in a WebGL-enabled program and you see a woman in her workout shorts and sports bra. The controls on the side of the screen allow the user to zoom out and zoom in. It’s also possible to turn the image with your mouse so that you get various three-dimensional images.

Of course, this complex program comes with a good layering tool that lets you peel back layers for a detailed inside look. With an initial step you remove the skin to see the muscles. Peel back additional layers to see the internal organs, circulatory system (veins and arteries) and eventually the nerves.

With each layer you can choose to have labels displayed. This would seem to be a great study tool for biology students. It’s also possible to search the human body for specific parts (This is Google, after all). Simply type in the body part you want to locate and the program zooms in to give you an up-close-and-personal view.

We’ve Moved!

Let’s assume that you are a biology student or a fanatic about human anatomy and you have used Body Browser to find a specific layer you want. You’ve clicked on the “Label” option and you have an image that is just right for your level of study. What do you do now?

The developers anticipated this and designed the application to update the URL each time you move or change views. You can copy the address and save it so you can return to the same view at another time.

This is all very exciting, unless you are one of the Internet users with an apocalyptic view. Some have expressed concern about Google “becoming” the Internet. Its business moves do seem to indicate a desire to take over our virtual world. Some industry observers have asked if Google has moved so far beyond its original search specialty that it is now a competitor rather than a service.

This may be an issue when users first unwrap applications such as Body Browser but we’d bet that these concerns will eventually fade as the features and benefits become apparent. For now we’ll just have to let the anti-trust guys figure out the legal status.

Upside, Downside

Opinions from the medical community vary, with many of the responses coming in as quite positive. Doctors and other medical personnel like the ability to rotate the three-dimensional image. They like the layer design and the search capability. But this program also brings another benefit to the table. It’s user friendly.

Doctors may be experts in the human body and medical procedure but not many are computer experts. That’s what makes the update URL feature so appealing. Doctors can also use this to expand their patient-education services, eliminating the need for bulky medical books and large illustrations.

Among the few negative reactions from medical personnel: Great detail for patients to be educated on their specific situation but Body Browser falls short of being a complete tool for medical education; a few small areas of the body are blocked, with no provision for moving the offending part; details on how body changes when not in normal, healthy condition.

Apart from its uses in the medical community and the few shortcomings noted by doctors, there are other issues with Google Body Browser. It was made available in mid-December and some users immediately began reporting loading and operation problems.

In fact, PCMag.com found it couldn’t “get the new application to work, a problem shared by at least one other commenter.” It seems that the so-called monkey wrench in the machinery lays in the fact that Body Browser in an in-browser tool. You must have exactly the right browser conditions in place to use it properly.

PCMag.com reported that the page “simply displayed the female model, but refused to allow it to be rotated or manipulated.” This may be “an indication that Google needs to tweak its own technology,” as the magazine reviewer noted.

The Latest

With all of this as a foundation for actually trying Google Body Browser we downloaded Google Chrome and went right to the Body Browser page. It took a few seconds for the woman to appear in full color. We were immediately able to turn the body as well as change the overall size with our mouse wheel. Holding down the left button and moving the mouse slightly from side to side turns the image quickly. The body can be stopped at any angle.

The slide bar on the left shows a figure of the woman, then images for muscle, bone, internal organs, heart/circulation, brain and nervous system. Clicking on the icon at the left side of the menu (on the bottom) gives the user slide tabs for each individual layer. The icon turns gray. This let us move from one layer to another without changing the view we started with.

Clicking on the icon on the right side at the bottom of the menu (with three dash marks) allowed us to add layer upon layer with the main slide bar. The only other menu option is “labels on” and “labels off.” We chose to examine the muscular system and put labels on that view. The terms are in “medicalese” so it might be a bit confusing for the layperson. We didn’t know that one of the arm muscles was the “extensor carpi radialis longus” for example.

Body Map

Above the main menu are arrow icons and plus/minus icons that all Google Maps users will be familiar with. The image can be moved “north,” “south,” “east” and “west” with the arrows. Enlarge or reduce the image size with the plus/minus icon, just as you would a map. This similarity will make it much easier for the layperson to adopt Body Browser as an application.

We particularly liked the feature that added labels as the image was enlarged. For example, with the skeletal system displayed and the image small enough to fit in our browser field we saw a number of labels piled one on top of another. There was just one label on the pelvic region when we zoomed in part of the way. However, as we moved in closer the program added labels to the enlarged view, such as os coxae, sacrum and inguinal ligament

One of the medical doctors who tried Body Browser when it first appeared expressed a concern about lack of ability to lift the wrist and lower arm to completely expose the hip. We tried this with the skeletal system in view and found that a small part of the hip is obscured. This may not be a major problem for education of the layperson but it might present a problem for the serious medical student. Our bet is that Google will eventually find a way to move some of the body parts, such as in the skeleton and muscle views.

We also pushed the program to show us rotation on another axis. For example, we zoomed in on the brain/nervous system view and continued to hold on the “up” arrow. This rotated the image until we were looking at the brain from the top of the head. The image stopped there. Continuing to zoom in, we found ourselves “traveling” through the brain and moving down the body with the nervous system all around us.

This software delivers something quite close to the “fantastic voyage” of many years ago. We even got a close-up look at the bottom of the woman’s feet, with skin and without.

Summary

In spite of these few concerns Google reports that response to Body Browser has been very good. The company has stated that it will add a male version of the Body Browser in the near future.

For someone who is not particularly interested in learning anatomy this can still be a great application. We’re willing to bet that some users will find Google Body Browser amusing at first, interesting on second glance and fascinating when all is said and done.

At the expense of repeating ourselves, though, what caused Google to do this now? Stay tuned!!

According to several anonymous sources, Googel is planning to launch an e-newsstand application that will run on Android tablets and smartphones in order to battle Apple’s iTunes sales.

Leading publishers, such as Time Inc and Wall Street Journal, are being approached by the not-only-biggest-Search-Engine executives in order to establish a fruitful cooperation and figure out the most beneficial way of application development. Commissions lower than those of Apple’s (30 percent) are being promised as well as various advanced buyer’s data-gathering features.

When all this is going to happen is unclear, and some doubt that the venture will launch at all – but the initiative is too important to overlook as Google looks to enter another niche.

It’s no big news that Chinese market is growing with an impressive speed and more and more businesses turn eastwards – both for production and marketing. Over a billion people live inside the Far East giant borders – a healthy reason to address the region in order to increase sales as well as exposure.

The news is, however, that the internet content is now also part of the trend. China has reportedly surpassed USA in the number of internet users in mid-2009, and although English is still the primary internet language (42 percent of almost two billion of online “population” worldwide), Chinese is in solid second place, with about 32 percent. And since China is still less technologically advanced than the Western Countries, the number of potential Chinese speakers, who will soon be joining the online world is far greater than that of the English language carriers.

And with the Chinese government now requiring all English content in China-based websites to be accompanied with local Mandarin translation, the number of webpages in Chinese is about to increase immensely. And, restating the above thought about more and more companies regarding China as a prospective market, it seems that the near future of online marketing can easily shift toward Chinese content.

We all know Facebook is one of the fastest (if not THE fastest) growing websites around. The popularity of Facebook is amazing and the number of hours spent by the users on their Facebook pages, playing games, posting and tagging photos is increasing every day.

And here is another indication of the website’s growth: unique visitors. This is a statistic that keeps track of websites (really webpages) being accessed by users based on their IP (which is very similar to physical location). Google is leading the way since very-long-time-ago, with an average of about 1 billion hits a month, and Microsoftis is second, about 100 million unique visitors behind.

According to Geek.com, Yahoo! has been pushed down to fourth place in November 2010, by (guess who?) Facebook, of course. The numbers reported (648 million for FB and just over 630 million for Yahoo!) were supplied  by comScore, providing yet another confirmation of Social Media progress towards taking over the internet.

Our world, especially the online part of it, is all about speed. That’s why Google had become so popular so quickly. The amount of search results shown and the speed at which those result have been accumulated and presented to the user did the trick.

Nowadays, of course, many search engines are almost as quick as Google, the difference in speed of producing the search results measured in milliseconds. However, what the users now want from their SE is convenience and reliability. With several questions asked about Google supposedly “biased” results, the Search Engine giant’s UI had never been an issue. That is, until now. The revised Google Image Search has a problem that can reduce the speed of entering a query.

Normally, when you type the query term in the search box and get the results, you do not use your mouse. Continue typing for “narrowing” the search, or press Shift-Backspace to erase the previous entry and start over. So far so good. However, when you use Google Image Search, the query box seems to lose the mouse focus once the pointer is moved – deliberately, or accidentally.  So, when you decide to alternate your search, you have to use the mouse (one of the worst nightmares of the speedy typer) in order to activate the query box again.

Google have reported they are aware of the problem and the “frustration” and “looking for ways” to solve it.