Google has been accused of promoting its own product by paying bloggers to praise its own web browser, Google Chrome, in an act which breaches its own anti-spam laws.
“Chromegate,” termed so by site Talking Points Memo, caught the leading search engine, whose well-known moto is “Don’t be evil,” sponsoring blog posts that celebrate Chrome and contain video ads that link to the Chrome website.
This repeated back-linking would see Google Chrome rise up in search because of the guidelines stated in Google’s own search ranking algorithm, Page Rank.
Google’s introduction of Panda last year penalises this kind of spam messaging to manipulate search results.
A classic map showing Napoleon’s army as it marched to and from Russia is the inspiration for Google’s Flow Visualization.
In the early 1900s, John Wanamaker, a political figure and well-known merchant, coined one of the most famous quotes about advertising: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don’t know which half.”
For the past century that observation has remained true, but that is slowly changing as online companies start delivering real-time analytics about Web surfers and the ads they see. It could be used for social networking advertising — an area that Google is poised to enter with its new social network, Google+.
On Wednesday, at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Google announced that it is releasing tools that will help narrow the advertising conundrum even further. The company showed off a new analytics tool called “Flow Visualization” that can track the path users take when navigating a Web site.
Celebrity endorsements are set to be introduced to Google’s search results as part of a new advertising trial.
Christian Oestlien, Google’s head of social advertising, announced the trial at the SMX Conference in New York City and stated that celebrity endorsements will appear under paid search results during the testing process.
The new feature will work in conjunction with Adwords and will see products linked to famous faces. Currently the Kardashians and a few others have signed up.
A spokesman for the search engine said: “We’re always testing new ways to make advertising more compelling to our users and advertisers “Some advertisers use celebrity endorsement in their ads. This test extends the option of celebrity endorsement to online campaigns.”
These endorsements will be shown in the sponsored ads at the top of Google+ pages in the US first. They will be rolled-out in the UK shortly afterwards.
Most “average users” are locked into Facebook and aren’t willing to consider a new social tool until they hear about it from their friends. Since most of the people who are on Google+ so far are geeks, insiders, social media stars, journalists, and other people (Google admitted tonight they are only accepting people who have strong social graphs so that they can both make sure everyone has a good first experience as well as test out some of the technology before opening it up to a wider audience) the chances normal people (metaphorically speaking, your mom) won’t hear about Google+ from normal users for quite a while.
By then I’m sure Facebook will react (ie, copy) Google+’s best features (Facebook already has called a press conference for next week where they are going to announce something “awesome”). This will mean that normal users, who aren’t really going to get involved at this point in Google+’s life, won’t feel the need to switch.
So, what is Google+ for then?
It’s for us!
Come on now, we geeks and early adopters and social media gurus need a place to talk free of folks who think Justin Bieber is the second coming of Christ. That’s what we have in Google+ right now. Do we really want to mess that up?
On June 1 2011, Google released the +1 Button for the whole web. Being a web performance optimization consultant and knowing the Facebook Like Button and other third party widgets, ads and trackers can have a significant impact on page load time, I immediately took a look at the Google +1 Button code, created a test page and ran some first performance test. In this article I want to share my findings with you. In short: the Google +1 Button performance is very disappointing. The extra page load time can easily be 2 seconds.
I have found 6 performance issues for the Google +1 Button as it is now.
General Smartphone Usage: Smartphones have become an integral part of users’ daily lives. Consumers use smartphones as an extension of their desktop computers and use it as they multi-task and consume other media.
81% browse the Internet, 77% search, 68% use an app, and 48% watch videos on their smartphone
72% use their smartphones while consuming other media, with a third while watching TV
93% of smartphone owners use their smartphones while at home
Purchase-driven Shoppers: Smartphones have become an indispensable shopping tool and are used across channels and throughout the research and decision-making process.
79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices, finding more product info to locating a retailer
74% of smartphone shoppers make a purchase, whether online, in-store, or on their phones
70% use their smartphones while in the store, reflecting varied purchase paths that often begin online or on their phones and brings consumers to the store
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Much of what Google is talking about also makes me think of the concepts, trends and experiences from companies that Bob Pearson describes in his book Pre-Commerce:
[…] We are entering the era of Pre-Commerce where customers make their own decision to buy or support a brand before the transaction. Pre-Commerce explains how the exploding use of social media channels has fundamentally changed the way customers go about making their purchasing decisions, how they educate themselves and why they choose to support certain brands above others.
While Google’s primary focus is on mobile advertising, their key conclusion is clear:
[…] Make sure you can be found via mobile search as consumers regularly use their phones to find and act on information. Incorporate location based products and services and make it easy for mobile customers to reach you because local information seeking is common among smartphone users. Develop a comprehensive cross-channel strategy as mobile shoppers use their phones in-store, online and via mobile website and apps to research and make purchase decisions.
A prerequisite is ensuring your online presence – whether it’s a blog, a static website or a full-blown e-commerce experience – is ready for mobile so that when someone comes to you on a smartphone, they get content that works on that device, not the desktop website that is simply ridiculous on a smartphone and very much a “goodbye experience.”
Summary: +1 is a strategic move that reinforces Google’s core
Google may be investing in self-driving cars and planning YouTube channels to compete with traditional television networks, but one thing is clear: Search is Google’s Castle, Everything Else is a Moat. For Google, success is not defined as an end result where +1 buttons become as pervasive as Facebook’s social plugins. Instead, +1 will augment Google’s core competency: providing the best search results available and placing ads that complement the search experience. For the reasons outlined above, +1 will enable that mission. Deriding the “version 1.0″ of +1 is a shortsighted view that fails to take into account Google’s long-term goals.
Unveiled at the London Book Fair, ‘The Great Global Treasure Hunt on Google Earth’ will provide a series of drawings that include visual and textual puzzles described by publisher Carlton Books as “ferociously complicated”.
The book will then lead readers to places on Google’s online global map, Google Earth, and ultimately to a single destination. Readers who submit the answer online between the September 1 launch and the end of March will be entered into a draw for a €50,000 prize.
But as a user however, I’m just not sure I’m into it.
For starters, I hate the name. It’s hard to integrate into daily lingo and I think it will be some time before it is adapted as universal. In addition, I don’t like the look of the button. It’s ugly and clunky and makes Google look lame compared to how slick the Facebook Like button integrates.
It’s also difficult to wrap my brain around the idea that I’m sharing this information with my network of friends. What friends? My Google friends? I hardly consider my gmail contact list my friend list. Sorry, but my friends are on Facebook.
So is this the next big thing for Google or is it just the next Google Buzz?
The tumblr of Joanna Halton.
Creator of alliwantiscakeandlove; a blog about all things, digital, social, marketing or life related.
I use this space to bookmark interesting things that I like and might want to revisit at a later date. I share these links so like-minded people can see them too!
