Facebook Places Announced

New Facebook News eh? Personally i think its time for Facebook to calm down on the new features and just marvel in its success…..but no…..they just keep on giving us these little treats! This particular treat allows me to continue my long standing rant on ‘privacy’ and ‘over-sharing’. Fair enough, these are things we have to opt into and noone was holding a gun to my head when i signed upto facebook; im nosey – case closed; but i still find Facebook Places more irritating than pioneering!

This feature shares information on the location of us Facebook users and our online friends, once we opt-in to the service. The idea is that we “check in” at locations which will then be shared with our friends and Facebook network.

Get this bit though – “Users will also be able to browse shops, clubs and nearby venues to see which friends are nearby”. I mean, this is any stalkers dream!

Im not a fan……but before i go, one final nugget – Its only available in the US! Well blow me down!!!

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Changes at Yahoo – Search Monkey is no more, Site Explorer is staying

Last night Yahoo announced that they will be making changes to it’s Search back-end infrastructure. Unfortunately Yahoo Search Monkey will no longer be supported (although they will continue to index current Search Monkey apps) and as of October 1st 2010 it will be no more. MyBlogLog will also be shutdown. Developers will now also be charged to use Yahoo BOSS. But there is good news! Both Yahoo & Bing will continue to support Yahoo Site Explorer – this was a big concern for SEOs who use Site Explorer as an every day tool. For now any changes are only going to take place in the US & Canada. See below for a quote from the Official Yahoo Developer Blog:

“Today we’re making some important announcements on the transition of our Search back-end infrastructure to Microsoft, and how this transition impacts the Search APIs and web services we offer on the Yahoo! Developer Network. We are also sharing specific news about several of our other developer services.

Over recent years, Yahoo! has made a commitment to developers by opening products, services, and canvases for third-party innovation. This commitment remains unwavering. For example, we recently announced new canvases and APIs as part of our Zynga deal. At the same time, we have to align our developer offerings with our products and strategy….”

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Google Preview Chrome Web Store

Gamescom is currently taking place over in Germany and on Monday Google were at the conference previewing Google Chrome Web Store and its gaming credentials. It seems Google are making a big push into the gaming market, they showed off both Chromes Gaming possibilities and the advantages of it’s Chrome Web Store. They began the conference talking about the benefits of using Chrome for gaming , mainly revolving around its speed and why developers should be excited about the new App Web Store. They then went on to show both screenshots and videos of Games playing on Chrome and also screenshots of what the Web Store will look like (which some have already stated looks like the Apple App Store) This could be the beginning of a big push from Google into In Game marketing which Microsoft have been doing for a while. Google have also purchased a number of online Game developers. See below for a video from the conference or read more at 1up.com:

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Google Unveil Small Business Blog

Google have unveiled a new Blog for Small Businesses. The new Google Small Business Blog will be a central hub for all things Internet and small business. Google will be regularly blogging tips on how to succeed with your small business on the web. This is potentially a great tool for anyone who is starting a new business but isn’t all that clued up on the Internet and how it can help you build your business. See below for a quote from the new Blog and an example article:

“Most every business, including ours, starts small. These days, technology is giving businesses even more ways to grow bigger… faster.

In our recent Small Business series on the Official Google Blog, a handful of real-life entrepreneurs have shared their experiences building companies from scratch and embracing Internet tools that have taken their businesses to the next level. We’ve received fantastic feedback about these posts, and realized that there’s a healthy appetite among small- and medium-sized business owners who want to know all about the latest web tools and tricks. Fortunately, we have lots more to share with you, too!…”

“Google Moderator helps anyone find the best input from their audiences, whether it’s suggestions on how to stop the oil spill, debate questions at the Copenhagen climate change conference, or questions for Katy Perry. Starting today, you can use Moderator inside your Google Sites as well. For example, if you have a restaurant site, you can embed Google Moderator on your suggestions page to get input from your restaurant patrons. Here’s how…“

Click here to go to the Google Small Business Blog.

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Google Places with tags

Google Places (formerly known as Local Business Center) has added a new feature called “Tags”.

Tags are yellow markers that allow business owners to promote important aspects of their businesses.  According to Google: “Tags do not affect the rank of search results; they simply add more information when a particular user is searching”

For just $25 per month, businesses in selected cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with “Tags”

Hmmm what is Google trying now…?  Check it out  http://google.com/places

The below snapshot gives us an idea how the tag is going to be presented on the local map listing. The below is an example of a local listing in Atlanta, USA.  The 3 snapshots are the different locations in the searches where they appear. This enhanced visibility is great but in time more advertisers using it may make the visibility diluted.  The additional info could be events, promotions, offers etc. What do you think ?

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Using multiple Google accounts

Reading Google’s blog I learned that Google has released a new option that allows us to log in to several Google Accounts at once, which Google calls “Multiple Sign-in”. Google has been testing “Multiple Sign-in” for a few days, and now is being gradually implemented  for all Google Accounts.

The possibility to use different Google accounts at once will only be available for some Google Apps like: Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Sites, Voice, App Engine, and Google code.

The Multiple Sign-in will be quite useful, especially for those who have many clients, and each with a different Google account.

Once you’re on, you’ll be able to configure it from your profile page.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Tweet button officially launched by Twitter

Yesterday Twitter announced the launch of the official tweet button, which allows users to tweet content without leaving the page they are on.  Once the tweet button is clicked a tweet box appears with an already shortened link of the page you are tweeting, then it’s just a case of adding to your tweet and sending it off.  Once sent, you even have the option of following two twitter users recommended by the site you are tweeting from, which can be selected in Twitter’s handy Tweet button builder.

The builder allows the website owner to customize the tweet button before placing it onto the site, options include changing the appearance of the button, selecting optional text to pre-populate the tweet box with and the language.  An added option as mentioned above is the ability to suggest two tweeters for the user to follow after they have tweeted the content, which is a great way to retain users that are interested in your content in a quick and easy manner.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Local SEO: finding regional directories

When searching for regional/local directories in different countries, one of the best ways to proceed is using the Google Maps results and then follow the below steps:

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Google Acquires Slide

On Friday, Google officially announced that they had acquired Slide – the online slide show and image hosting website for social networks. See below for a quote from the Official Google Blog:

“We’re excited to announce we’ve acquired Slide, a social technology company with an extensive history of building new ways for people to connect with others across numerous platforms online.

For Google, the web is about people, and we’re working to develop open, transparent and interesting (and fun!) ways to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family and provide useful information just for them.

Slide has already created compelling social experiences for tens of millions of people across many platforms, and we’ve already built strong social elements into products like Gmail, Docs, Blogger, Picasa and YouTube. As the Slide team joins Google, we’ll be investing even more to make Google services socially aware and expand these capabilities for our users across the web…”

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Google’s ACE……..No really, its a new tool!

Google have been getting all excited on their blog about a their new free application AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE). ACE allows us to test and measure the impact of changes to our keywords, bids, ad groups and placements …………. and by ‘us’ i do in fact mean ‘as always anyone in the US’.  hmmph!!

Anyway, partial jealousy aside, i digress, with ACE, experimental campaigns run side-by-side with the original campaign in a simultaneous split test. This approach should let you run shorter tests that start and stop whenever you like, with less concern about your results being affected by seasonality or other factors. Potentially you get more precise impact estimates and more chances throughout the year to test and improve performance.

Great, thanks for that Google, let me know when its in the UK. Right now i will get back to my brew and good old school optimisation!!

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