Android Adds Multi Touch to Nexus One Mobile

4. February 2010 David

Google have officially announced a new Android update for the Nexus One mobile which will enable the multi touch pinch to zoom function to a number of the phones native applications. These include the browser, gallery and maps applications. This was the one remaining features that Android lacked in comparison to the iPhone; now the roles have reversed and the iPhone is still playing catchup with its inability to multi task and play flash videos/applications. The rest of the Android phones will also get this once the new 2.0 Android update has been rolled out. See below for a video of the function in action on the Nexus One:

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Happy Birthday Facebook!

4. February 2010 Faye

How time flies.  I can’t believe Facebook has now reached the ripe old age of 6 years old today, as according to its info page it was launched on this day in 2004.  And it’s certainly not bad for a scheme hatched by a 20-year-old in his college dorm room!

Facebook  was originally called ‘Thefacebook’  located at thefacebook.com and was set up by Mark Zuckerberg (and the lesser known Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes).  Intended to be a network for Harvard students only, it became so popular it was adopted by other universities before being expanded out to the masses to become the biggest social network on the Internet.

Ask people about their views on social media for 2009 and it will inevitably come back as the year of Twitter, the current darling of the social sphere.  Facebook hasn’t been hanging around though, as it managed to add a further 200 million new users last year, which raised a whooping $200 million.  This is actually double the amount Twitter was reported to have raised in funds back September.

2009 also saw Facebook over take MySpace in US traffic levels, and at the same time MySpace actual lost 1 million users.  Acquisition of new users has been key to Facebook’s success, and at the last count the number of users totalled 35o million (meaning approximately 45 million status updates each day – great if you want to know what your mate had for breakfast or that they have lost an umbrella).

Twitter, launched publicly in July 2006, has  hit quadrupole-digit growth,  thanks to the surge of celebrity tweeters and its open platform.  Back came Facebook with its own open stream API and acquisition of FriendFeed (designed by the brains behind Gmail and Google Maps), which provides a real time search engine better than Twitters.

Facebook hasn’t been without its problems however, with scandal around privacy settings and the breach of Canadian Privacy Laws.

So what of Facebook in 2010?  Well, it seems there is no slowing down as it continues to fire out new features, including talk about introducing virtual currency, and with a projected revenue figure of $700 million this year, who wouldn’t be confident.  The Facebook Era is even a required textbook for the a marketing course at Stanford and social media course at Harvard!

Nice one Facebook and Happy Birthday!

Facebook, Social Media | 0 Comments »

Interesting SES 2010 London Sessions

2. February 2010 Nick

The 2010 London Search Engine Strategies (SES) Expo is almost upon us and is all set to open its doors 16^th to 18^th of February. It looks like it going to be a very interesting event with a line up of keynote speakers including Jim Sterne and Avinash Kaushik. Check out the full line up at

http://www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/london

The sessions planned this year which caught my eye are:

Search a real time paradigm

This session looks at how Search engines and social networking sites strive to have the most up-to-date content on the web, indexed and ready for display to searchers.

Managing a global SEO campaign

This session tackles the key issues critical to successfully developing, optimizing, and managing the global campaigns that will meet those next generation marketing goals, without losing control or your mind. .

Advanced paid search brain candy

This panel session covers campaign expansion techniques, advanced ad testing, advanced auction theory, the proper use of relevant analytics reports, ideas for bid rules and campaign automation, techniques for acting on seemingly inconclusive data, and more.

Search becomes the display OS

This session explores these leading edge ideas, technology and provides some early case studies the effectiveness of making Search the Operating System for Display.

Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

This session looks at issues like syndicating content through RSS and feeds, running mirror sites and its possible negative effects, and maintain similar listings and explores solutions.

Pay Per Click (PPC), SES | 0 Comments »

SEO black hats are now going after the Apple iPad

2. February 2010 Carlos

The Apple iPad is not for sale yet, but the amount of people talking about the iPad increases as its release date comes closer. As predicted, many SEO black hats are building scams around the keyword (Ipad).

Pretty much all the black hat campaigns are going after the keywords “Apple Tablet” or “Apple iPad rumor”. They are using these keywords to reel in users to download fake security software. According to a few of the victims of these scams; the links redirect browsers to malicious websites.

These black hat websites can be found among the top 10 search results for Google.

Pay Per Click (PPC) | 0 Comments »

Another Day, Another Gadget

28. January 2010 Vicky

You might call me a dinosaur, please don’t, but i find it pretty tricky to keep up with the latest techy toys!  Well, the latest is the apple ipad; which is set to be a more efficient tool in web browsing, emailing and reading emails, in fact it should “attract millions of new readers to the world’s best books”, said John Makinson, chairman of the Penguin Group.

Now, don’t get me wrong, i enjoy having something to play with on the train as much as the next person, but i won’t be swindled into running out and buying this bulky, overpriced, ‘tablet’! Each to their own i suppose, but it doesn’t even have a camera! Humph!

Related Links: Guardian iPad Article

Apple | 0 Comments »

Apple Release Predictions

27. January 2010 Ollie

What are your predictions for Apples ‘Latest Release’ conference on later today?

Heres mine:

(1) iPhone OS 4.0.

(2) iTablet/iSlate/iWhateveritscalled running iPhone OS 4.0.

(3) iTunes in the cloud ( iTunes and your entire library stored online in Apples two new recently built  data centres).

Watch live here at 6pm GMT here

Apple | 0 Comments »

Iphone Sales Double

26. January 2010 Ollie

Benefiting from a bumper Christmas period, in which iphone sales doubled from a year ago, Apple today posted profits 50% higer for Q4 2009 than they saw the previous year; with net income rising from $2.26bn to $3.38bn.

Apple | 0 Comments »

New Google Chrome Release for Windows

25. January 2010 David

Google have announced the official release of a new stable version of Google Chrome for Windows which gives users the ability to add extensions (like add-ons for Firefox) and a new bookmark sync feature. See below for a quote from the Official Google Blog:

“Today we’re excited to introduce a new stable release of Google Chrome for Windows, which includes two of the browser’s most frequently requested features: extensions and bookmark sync.

Extensions let you add new features and functions to your browser. Some provide one-click access to some of your favorite web applications like eBay and digg, or news and information sources such as NPR and Time.com. Others are useful tweaks for performing common online tasks such as browsing photos, getting directions or shopping.

We previously launched extensions on the beta channel, and many new extensions have since been contributed by developers from all over the world. Now you can browse over 1,500 in our extensions gallery and install them on the stable version of Google Chrome….”

Does this mean more people will start to move over from Firefox now extensions are available?? Tweet @tugsearch your thoughts! Download your new version of Google Chrome for Windows here.

Chrome | 0 Comments »

Get more out of Google Analytics

25. January 2010 David

Google Analytics out of the box is all well and good but are you getting the most of your Google Analytics account? There are many hidden features within Google Analytics that you could be taking advantage of.

Tracking external links

Do you have external links heading out to another website? Would knowing how many people click these links be useful to you? Well this is for you!

There is a very simple solution to tracking external links on Google Analytics; simply tag your links (in the source code) with a Javascript as seen below:

<a href=”http://www.example.com” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(“/G1/example.com“);>

You will have to edit the bolded parts above with the details that you want, the 1st will be the external link and the 2nd what you want the external link to be named.

Once this Javascript has been implemented on your website; each external link that you have tagged will come up on your content report as a new page (this is the second part that named in the tag) This way you can track the usage of the external links just like a normal page. Doing this will also eliminate a Bounce from your website if the link you are tagging is on the landing page.

Tracking traffic from Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter

If you run Pay per Click Campaigns on Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft AdCenter you may not be tracking this traffic on Google Analytics. There are two ways to track traffic from Yahoo and MSN PPC on Google Analytics which i will explain below.

For both techniques you will have to tag the desination URLs with a piece of code which Google Analytics will pickup, for the 1st technique there are automatic keyword insertions which both Yahoo and MSN provide.

For Microsoft AdCenter:

You will have to add the following to your Destination URL: http://www.example.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={keyword}&utm_campaign=Campaign

You will have to ammend the bolded parts to fit your PPC Campaign/Website

For Yahoo Search Marketing:

For Yahoo you will have to add the following to your Destination URL: http://www.example.com/?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={OVKEY}&utm_campaign=Campaign

Again you will have to ammend the bolded parts to fit your PPC Campaign/Website

Alternatively:

The second technique will take more time but ultimately be the most accurate. Google provide a free tool in which you can build a URL like I have showed you above. All you will have to do for this is fill in the simple form and click generate URL; once you have generated a URL you will have to add this as your destination URL. To get the most out of this technique you will have to do this for each individual keyword (you can ofcourse use an excel script to do this faster) You can also use this technique to track traffic from other sources such as display advertising or email newsletters.

If you have not already done so, you can also link your Google AdWords account easily with Google Analytics – refer to an old Blog post for help on this.

Hopefully this has been of some use to you, if you need any more help feel free to tweet @tugsearch on Twitter or refer to Google Analytics Help. Tug also provide a wide range of Search Marketing services.

Analytics | 0 Comments »

Would you change your name for a Diet Coke?! Hmm….

25. January 2010 Faye

This is genius.  A good example of why you should be careful when thinking about your social media campaign and who should run it, as many of these big old ad agencies simply don’t have a clue and can do more damage than help!

In a nutshell, Carat went to great lengths to steal some poor chaps Facebook ID after he wouldn’t settle for a free Diet Coke!   “Harman Bajwa”or Harman was contacted by Carat wanting his  Facebook URL http://facebook.com/harman for their client Harman International:

From: Tyler Bahl
To: Harman Bajwa
Sent: Fri, January 22, 2010 11:25:21 AM
Subject: Harman

Hi Harman,

Thanks for accepting my friend request on Facebook.

I’m the emerging media strategist at Carat in Boston and I work on the Harman International account. We’re launching our first initiative in partnership with the GRAMMYS on Monday. Harman International is looking to obtain the vanity url facebook.com/harman for their Facebook fan page.

We are currently working with Facebook to reclaim (http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=896#/help.php?page=899) the username, but I wanted to explore opportunities to work with you to acquire the name. In the past, we have offered product in exchange for social domain names. One case in mind was for the new movie Avatar , we were able to give promotional items to the owner of twitter.com/avtr for Coke Zero.

Do you have time to connect today to discuss this opportunity in more detail?

Best,

-tb

He of course said no, as that’s his name!

Happily it appears Harman’s name is back to it’s rightful owner as Carat relented under media pressure.  Tribble cover the story in all its glory with this post.

Pay Per Click (PPC) | 0 Comments »