Facebook Would “Love” To Work With Google

Posted on: January 15th, 2013 by Rhed

Facebook Would “Love” To Work With Google

According to Facebook beat writer Josh Constine (along with Drew Olanoff) at TechCrunch, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today at the company’s press event that he would “love to work with Google”.

Bing, a longtime partner of Facebook’s is a partner on Graph Search. These are probably not words the search engine (Google’s closest search competitor) really want to hear.

That’s not to say that Facebook and Google will be holding hands anytime soon, but it’s still interesting to see Zuckerberg express this kind of attitude about it. It’s kind of like when Eric Schmidt made similar comments about Yahoo a while back (another partnership that would screw over Bing).

Constine shares a “paraphrased transcription” of what Zuckerberg allegedly said:

I think that the main thing is that when people share something on Facebook we want to give them the ability to broadcast something out and then take it down or set privacy settings. That requires quick updating, removing photos. We also need that content to be gone if something changes their privacy settings.

You need infracture that can support that. Microsoft was more willing to do things that fit with Facebook. People want flexibility, and that was the stumbling block with Google in our last round of talks. I’m not sure if that was detail in the negotiation or rift between Facebook’s and Google’s strategies.

Zuckerberg said in a Q&A (as quoted by The Verge), “We want to work with any company as long as they’ll honor the privacy of the folks on Facebook.”

As long as Facebook and Google aren’t sharing data, Facebook clearly has the upper hand in social. As impressively as Google+ has grown since its launch, it just doesn’t have the connections that Facebook does, and as a result, it just doesn’t have the social data. On the flipside, when it comes to web search, Bing is an adequate alternative to Google in terms of providing web search results to Facebook users. Google may dominate the web search market, but Facebook users who happen to venture to web search results from within the social network probably aren’t that worried about the Google vs. Bing comparison.

Read about Facebook’s new Graph Search here.

Cited from http://www.webpronews.com/

CES 2013: Your Next Smartphone Will Be Even More Durable Thanks To Gorilla Glass 3

Posted on: January 8th, 2013 by Rhed

CES 2013: Your Next Smartphone Will Be Even More Durable Thanks To Gorilla Glass 3

Almost every smartphone on the planet employs Corning Gorilla Glass for its front panel. The exceedingly tough glass resists damage like nothing else, but it’s still not good enough for the folks at Corning. AtCES 2013, the company announced that its strengthened its hallmark Gorilla Glass even more.

Corning announced today that Gorilla Glass 3 is coming to a smartphone near you in mid-2013. The updated glass is being touted as having “native damage resistance” which helps protect a devices display from deep scratches and cracks. The glass should also hold up much better even if you do manage the scratch the screen.

“As a world leader in glass innovation, we are dedicated to meeting the needs of our customers with our product innovation,” said James R. Steiner, senior vice president and general manager, Corning Specialty Materials. “While we’ve optimized our glass with the most robust chemical strengthening, we challenged our research teams to develop a new way to make cover glass even less susceptible to scratches and other damage.”

Steiner went on to say that Corning’s scientists “went to the atomic structure of the glass to fundamentally improve the way the glass responds to an impact or scratch.” Their work resulted in a much tougher glass that still remains thin for all the smartphones that require it.

Corning says that its currently in talks with its global partners, and the company expects Gorilla Glass 3 to start showing up in smartphones in mid-2013. The iPhone 5S and Galaxy SIV may just be the first phones to feature the new and improved glass.

Cited from http://www.webpronews.com/

Google Really Wants You To Be Signed In

Posted on: January 8th, 2013 by Rhed

Google Really Wants You To Be Signed In

So, you know how Google keeps “forcing” Google+ on all of its users? It comes along with being signed into Google. It’s the social part of your Google experience, which stems from your Google identity. Google+ is Google, and if you’re signed in, you’re the kind of Google user Google wants.

It just so happens that Google is looking to get more people signed in, and is actually looking to hire someone who can get more people to sign in. Brian Ussery (via Search Engine Land) spotted a Google job listing for a Product Marketing Manager.

The listing says, “The mission of the search growth marketing team is to make that information universally accessible by enabling and educating users around the world to search on Google, search more often, and search while signed in. Research and analysis has shown that putting Google search access points at the fingertips of users is an effective way of achieving these goals. And the more users that are signed into Google, the better we can tailor their search results and create a unified experience across all of the Google products they use. As Product Marketing Manager within the search growth team, you will be responsible to developing plans, creatives, campaigns, and programs to increase the number of users signed in. You will be challenged to think above the obvious, creating and executing cutting-edge strategy for one of the world’s most recognized products.”

It’s nothing new that Google wants users to be signed in, and wants to tie all their products together for users to enrich their experiences from one product to the next. It is, however, interesting to see this kind of emphasis on getting more people to sign in, in a job description, which in in effect shows how much importance Google places on users not only searching with Google, but signing in before they can do it.

Cited from http://www.webpronews.com/

Google Is Letting Anonymous Users Review Businesses

Posted on: January 5th, 2013 by Rhed

Online reviews are a hot button issue right now, particularly as one case involving Yelp reviews has attracted some media attention. You can read about that here. Basically, a woman was sued for defaming remarks, as she claimed in reviews on Yelp and Angie’s List that a contractor had stolen jewelry from her, which she has so far been unable to prove. She was initially ordered to change her reviews, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned that decision, indicating that a jury would have to find her guilty before the reviews would be required to be removed.

As WebProNews readers have indicated in various comments, a lot of business owners feel that the reviews shouldn’t be allowed to remain up, as the business stands to lose potential customers as a result, which of course, is the basis of the suit to begin with.

Accountability for online reviews is a big issue for businesses who face damage to their reputations. Google recognizes this, and last year, when they moved to the Google+ Local model for local search, the company was supposed to have started requiring users to be signed into their Google accounts, which would be accompanied by their names/profiles, to post reviews. This would ensure accountability for what is said in these reviews.

Upon trying to write a business review while logged out of Google, I am personally prompted to sign in.

However, Google appears to still be letting anonymous reviews through. Instead of the reviewers name, it may say “A Google User”.

Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable points to a Google Business Help thread, where a business owner complains about this problem:

About five weeks ago we started asking our patients to write reviews about us and our practice in our Google+ Local page (https://plus.google.com/101314730224126339952/about?hl=en sorry, I don’w know why but I can’t embed the link). We only have one page as Google already merged our Google Places and previous Google+ page.

We have noticed than some reviews appear to be written as “A Google User” instead of displaying the actual name of the review’s author.

Does anybody know why this is happening? As far as I know there’s no way for google users to ask to post a review anonymously.

I’m concerned about this as positive anonymous reviews are sometimes perceived as spam or false reviews, damaging our reputation.

Google’s Jade Wang responds in the thread, saying, “Thanks, all — we are investigating.”

The response was from yesterday. The anonymous reviews are still showing:

A Google User

Schwartz also notes that this has been happening for months.

In the thread, one user says Google may show “A Google User” for reviews that were created before the changes, but they shouldn’t be displaying this way for reviews that recent. Wang’s acknowledgement seems to suggest that Google will fix this.

Luckily for this particular business, these particular reviews are positive.

Cited from http://www.webpronews.com/

 

SEOs Split On Using Google Disavow Link Tool

Posted on: January 3rd, 2013 by Rhed

A couple months ago, we ran a poll askingHave You Used The Google Disavow Tool Yet?

After close to 500 responses on that poll, I wanted to share the results.

In this case, it seems about half used it or will use it and half did not.

48% said they did not use the disavow tool yet
43% said they did use the disavow tool
8% said they will use the disavow tool soon

The disavow link tool by Google launched 11 weeks ago and it is interesting to see how many SEOs have used it or not. Personally, I have not but I don’t offer SEO services.

Please see our poll disclosure policy.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

Cited from http://www.seroundtable.com/

94% Of Google Penguin Victims Did Not Fully Recover

Posted on: January 3rd, 2013 by Rhed

A few months ago, I ran a poll asking if you recovered from Penguin, Google’s link based algorithmic filter/penalty (or whatever you want to call it).

Remember, 64% were hit by the Penguin update – at least, those who responded to my poll. And of those, how many recovered since the first, second and third updates? Not many!

Penguin Recovery Poll

81% said they had no recovery while 13% claim a partial recovery and only 6% claim a full recovery. That is based on over 500 responses to our poll.

I guess we await the next Penguin update to see if anyone can climb out with that one.

Keep in mind, we now have the disavow link tool which may help in this case.

Please see our poll disclosure policy.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

Cited from http://www.seroundtable.com/

Matt Cutts Gives Webmasters Extended Dinosaur Impersonation For Christmas

Posted on: January 3rd, 2013 by Rhed

In case you have been enjoying the holidays, and not worrying about Google and Matt Cutts for a week or two, you may have missed the latest “Webmaster Help” video, which the company posted to YouTube on Christmas.

If you regularly watch these videos, this is one you don’t want to miss. You saw Cutts act like a dinosaur once before. This time, he really goes all out.

More Matt Cutts videos here.

Cited from http://www.webpronews.com/

Google’s Algorithms Say Sell Apple (AAPL) Stock

Posted on: January 1st, 2013 by Rhed

Yesterday, if you searched for [sell] in Google Finance, Google would bring up Apple (AAPL) stock ticket. Here is a picture:

Google Finance Sell AAPL

At first people thought it was an “easter egg,” Google playing a trick on Apple. But no, Google said it wasn’t.

Google told Search Engine Land it was not deliberate but rather it was the algorithm.

This isn’t deliberate – our algorithms seem to be keying off of the words “sell” and “sells” in the description of this very popular stock symbol. We’re working on how to adjust things so it doesn’t happen anymore.

Google did adjust things because now when you search for [sell] you no longer get a stock sticker.

Should you sell if Google is algorithmically suggesting so?

Forum discussion at Reddit & Hacker News.

Cited from http://www.seroundtable.com/

Google AdWords: “Webpage Not Known” In Campaigns

Posted on: January 1st, 2013 by Rhed

There are a couple reports over the weekend of an error in Google AdWords where the webpages in your campaigns are being reported as “webpage not known.”

The reports come via Google AdWords Help and Yahoo Groups.

One advertiser said his URLs and web pages are working fine adding:

I’m getting “webpage not known” Urls in the “websites” tab inside Conversions tracking.

Anyone has this same problem. Is this a bug? Am I losing real conversion urls?

Google AdWords representative Zee said:

Thanks for posting back. I will escalate your issue to the support team. Please be patient as their reply might be a bit slow due to the holidays.

I have not seen many complaints about this but I have seen numerous.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help and Yahoo Groups.

Cited from http://www.seroundtable.com/

Submit Your Questions For Google’s JohnMu At SMX Israel 2013

Posted on: January 1st, 2013 by Rhed

Google's John Mueller

This year at SMX Israel, John Mueller will be representing Google by answering questions in two sessions.

John is one of my favorite Googlers, so when he asked to come to SMX Israel I was incredibly excited. I was however sad that he had to cancel his trip and not be in person at the event. He will however be live over Google+ Hangout during his two sessions. I am praying the internet and everything works smoothly.

That being said, I wanted to let anyone ask John questions for him to answer live at the event. I will use this list as a starter list and then field questions from the audience.

The Q&A with John Mueller session is an hour long, which is 15 minutes longer than the other sessions. Please add comment below with what you want me to ask him during the open Q&A panel. We will allow questions from the audience, but I want a bunch of seed questions prior to the session. Please tell your friends to submit questions here or in theGoogle+ thread over here.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Cited from http://www.seroundtable.com/

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