Better targeted ads are great, but I think the price is too high. Let’s remember the bottom line, we are allowing Google to gather our personal information so they can serve better ads. The bottom line is revenue, the all mighty buck, mooola; not world peace -your personal info is not being used for some altruistic endeavor, but for serving ads.
On June 17, 2008 The New York Times reported,
…Nick Fox, a director of product management who looks after ads on Google’s search site, said the company was now testing the use of more search queries in its ad targeting. He did not describe how it was doing that. But Internet experts said that it was most likely using its cookies.
Let’s all step back for a moment and keep in mind exactly why we are allowing Google ( and other online companies) access to our personal information. Personally, I will sacrifice my user experience for a little privacy!
Tags: advertising · internet · Google · marketing
Using Google and SEO here are some interesting comparisons between Barack Obama and John McCain.
In Google type in obama and search results are #155,000,000
If you put “obama” in quotes you get #156,000,000
In Google type in mccain and search results are #76,900,000
If you put “mccain” in quotes you get #77,300,000
Barack Obama has a splash page with his family.
John McCain does not have a splash page.
Barack Obama has optimized his title tag on his splash page as “Welcome to Obama for America”.
Barack’s home page title tag is “Barack Obama | Change We Can Believe In | Home”
McCain has optimized his title tag as “John McCain - John McCain for president”
Prime real estate on Barack’s home page has a “Donate Now” button, followed with “Make A Difference”.
Prime real estate on John McCain’s home page has “Get Involved” followed with a “Contribute” button.
On Barack Obama’s splash page the meta keywords and description read:
meta name=”keywords” content “Senator Barack Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign”
meta name “description” content=”Official Website of Barack Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign”
On Barack’s home page the meta keywords and description read:
meta name “description” content “Official Website of Barack Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign”
meta name “keywords” content “president, senator, illinois, chicago, barack, barck, barek, obama, 2008, 08, presidential, president, campaign, election”
On John McCain’s home page the meta keywords and description read:
meta name “description” content “John McCain 2008 - The Official Website of John McCain’s 2008 Campaign for President”
meta name “keywords” content “John McCain, McCain, mccain for president, John S. McCain, McCain 2008, president, presidential, 2008, campaign, election, straight talk, straight talk express, politics, political, john mccain, john mccain for president, senator john mccain, sen. john mccain, cindy mccain, john mcain, john mckaine, john maccane, jon mccain, john maccaine, john mccaine, mccain 2008, johnmccain.com, senator mccain, mccain 2000, mccain campaign, mccain hq, exploremccain.com, explore mccain, mccain exploratory committee, mccain exploratory”
And finally my last Obama vs McCain comparison between candidates is their use of the h1 tag:
On Obama’s home page the <h1><a href=“http://www.barackobama.com/index.php”><img src=“http://www.barackobama.com/images/temp_flashheader.jpg” alt=“Obama for America”/></a></h1>
On McCain’s home page there is NO <h1> tag.
And the next president of the United States is …???
Tags: internet · design fun · Google
There are times when you want your website visitors to download a pdf, but if you use PowerPoint and you are changing it to a pdf to be used as a download for your website there is an alternative. You might want to keep it as a PowerPoint presentation and using Google Docs, you can upload and publish the presentation to your website. Doing this allows you to embed the PowerPoint inline with your design. Usually the reason for embedding your PowerPoint as a slideshow “in line with your website design” is,
it will provide a much better user experience, keeping the visitor in the flow of your design.
If you are unsure how to embed your powerpoint into your design, the steps are easy. Basically you will need a Google Account and you will need to add Google Docs to your account. To keep things simple here is a bullet list of how it is done:
- You need a Google account. It is free if you do not have one.
- You will need Google Docs. If the docs icon is not visible in your Google Account, you will need to add it. To add Google Docs to your existing Google account click, “try something new”. There will be a list of services, find Docs. Click to add Google Docs to your account.
- Next there will be a new icon in your account, click the docs icon and you will be taken to the Google docs application.
- Click upload to get you PowerPoint into Google Docs.
- Click Publish.
- Get the Code and embed in your blog or website.
- The slide show below will show you the final 3 steps on: Uploading, Publishing and Embedng the PowerPoint into your blog or website. This slide show is an example of a PowerPoint embedded in my blog.
Tags: Google · marketing
I want to share a couple online websites that have some great free services:
YouSendIt.com –for free you can upload a file that is 100mgs (max for the free service). What is nice is when you enter an email address of the recipient they get a link that is good for 7 days. Give it a try if you send large files.
Google –That’s right, everything from gmail (email) to analytics that can help you analyze your website’s traffic. Just go to Google and click the “sign-in” button on the top right. Another great source from Google is the image search. On Google, on the top left are five text links, the second link takes you to the “images”.
Yahoo! -A good source for getting answers to your questions is Yahoo! Answers. The link is on the left side in the navigation bar.
If you haven’t used these services before, take a look …the price is right.
Tags: internet · Google
January 16th, 2008 · 1 Comment
The main feature associated with Google Suggest is a dynamically generated list that suggest keyword phrases and search strings in a drop down menu. The results of the list change as a user types in their keyword phrase, offering suggestions in accord with the topic. The purpose behind Google Suggest is to provide the user with alternate keyword phrases. The purpose is straight forward, but how the list is generated has spurred a lot of debate. Furthermore, there is a number called, “results”, displayed to the right of each suggestion. The meaning behind the “results” has generated many debates on what the term “results” means.
Arguably, to understand Google Suggest we have to know two things: what do the numbers associated with the “results” mean and how is Google generating the suggestions? First I will define what “results” mean:
the results are the number of competing web pages for that specific keyword phrase.
Next, how are the suggested phrases generated and how is the order determined?
Suggestions are determined by keyword popularity. The more popular a phrase, the higher on the list that phrase will be positioned.
This makes sense when a list is analyzed. If you open Google Suggest and start typing you will notice the “results” are not determining the suggested keyword positions. For example, if you start to type “website desi” (”desi is not a typo, I’m only entering a partial word), you will see “website designers” is listed second with 29,200,000 results. However, “website designs” is listed fifth with 49,900,000 results. So why are keyword phrases with lower “results” higher on the list?
[Read more →]
Tags: keyword research · Google Suggest · Google · Search Engine Optimization
