Posts Tagged ‘google’
Monday, December 7th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Have you heard that Google is giving travelers free wireless-network access in 47 airports through January 17? What a great Christmas present! That’s a pretty smart move on Google’s part. They’re making online customers happy and generating publicity at the same time. It’s a win-win scenario. However, there could be something beneath the surface of this goodwill effort.
I read about this interesting development in the CNET News article “Google’s holiday gift: Free airport Wi-Fi.” Google started doing this in November, so that’s two and a half solid months of free Wi-Fi for flyers in those airports. If you want to see if your local airport is included in this promotion, you can check out Google’s Free Holiday Wi-Fi website. It has a helpful map and a list of all of the participating airports.
The airports near Burbank, California and Seattle will get free Wi-Fi from now on through Google. The promotion won’t end at the January 15 cutoff date like it will for the other 45 airports.
Perhaps Google chose those two locations because they are close to Microsoft’s (their biggest competitor) stronghold in Redmond, Washington and their own headquarters in Mountain View, California.
The Google Map containing all of the airports with free Wi-Fi is the copyright of Google.
Tags: Airport, article, google, internet, news, search engine, Submit Solution, Travel, web
Posted in Search Engines | No Comments »
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Happy Thanksgiving! I would love to write an entire blog entry on this wonderful holiday, but instead I’m going to talk about another celebration: Firefox’s fifth birthday.
Imagine trying to beat Microsoft at its own game. Microsoft, the giant of software and Web browsers, seemed all but unstoppable in its dominance of the Internet with its Internet Explorer browser five years ago. However, a small browser, which was originally called Phoenix, debuted on November 9, 2004 and started giving Explorer a run for its money.
We now know this Web browser as Firefox. And it just turned five years old. Better late than never, I’ll wish Firefox a happy birthday!
I talked a little about Firefox in my Submit Solution blog entry, “Google Chrome is the best Web browser.” I mentioned that it’s my favorite browser, even if it’s not exactly as fast as Chrome.
I read about Firefox’s anniversary in the Webware article, “After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges.”
Many factors led up to the swift success of the Firefox browser. Microsoft got a little lazy on creating new features for Explorer. Plus, viruses were specifically designed to target Explorer, giving Internet users a strong incentive to try something new. Right on cue, Firefox arrived with its innovative tabbed interface, customizability and popup ad blocker. It was an instant hit, receiving 10 million downloads in the first month alone.
You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Web Design Blog on December 1, 2009. It will be entitled, “Firefox fights fresh foes after 5 years.” The photo of the Firefox birthday cake is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Christopher Blizzard.
Tags: Chrome, computer virus, Firefox, google, growth, holiday, Microsoft, msn, search engine, Submit Solution, success, Web Browser
Posted in Web Design | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
I read an article on Entrepreneur.com a while back, entitled, “Rev up the Search Engines.” It gives a helpful rundown of solid SEO principles for small businesses, which don’t have a whole lot of money to spare but need to start generating results from ecommerce.
This article gives six tips for a small business to get the most bang for its buck, when it comes to search engine optimization. They are attributed to Steve Wiideman, a fairly renowned SEO expert. I already talked about most of these in my SEO series right here in the eHarbor Blog, back in February and March of 2009. But I think a refresher is healthy.
Here is one highlight I took from these tips:
- Search engines are getting smarter. Don’t expect Google, Bing or Yahoo to fall for the same old SEO tricks. Bloggers and other content generators used to focus on their keyword-to-content ratio, but now search engines recognize when you use the same keyword too many times in the same post. Use relevant keywords prudently. If you use keyword-stuffing tactics, don’t expect much success.
You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Submit Solution SEO Blog on November 23, 2009. It will be called, “Getting your business on top with SEO.” The photo of the flying biker is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Tom Grundy Photo.
Tags: article, Bing, company, Ecommerce, google, Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, Submit Solution, website, yahoo
Posted in Ecommerce, Pay-Per-Click, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Google Chrome is the best Web browser by far, according to a study by Jacob Gube, the founder and chief editor of Six Revisions. Chrome v. 3 beat Firefox v. 3.5, Safari v. 4, Opera v.10 and Microsoft Explorer v. 8. Take a look at the results below.
You should definitely check out the whole chart by clicking on this link to the blog entry, “Performance Comparison of Major Web Browsers.” Fascinating stuff. I’ll discuss some of the highlights and their impact on ecommerce and Internet marketing.
I’m a Firefox user, myself, so some of this study’s results came as a surprise to me. I’m not sure if they will change my mind about which browser I use right now, but it’s definitely helped me think more about why I prefer one over the others. Here are some of the highlights of the study’s findings:
JavaScript Speed
Chrome won this competition with an average download time of JavaScripts in just 542.3 milliseconds. Safari was No. 2 with 863.9 milliseconds and Firefox was No. 3 with 1,230.6 milliseconds. Explorer was last with a comparatively long download time of 6,305.5 milliseconds.
JavaScripts are important because they are heavily used on websites like Digg, as well as in Gmail. It’s no surprise Google is the leader in this category because it definitely wants people to be able to quickly use its own applications.
You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog on November 16. It will be entitled, “Google Chrome is the best Web browser.” The graph of the results of this study is the copyright of Jacob Gube and Six Revisions.
Tags: Ecommerce, Firefox, google, internet, Internet Marketing, Microsoft, research, search engine, study, Submit Solution, web, Web Browser, website
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
By Robert Lockard
In the Wall Street Journal article, “Why Email No Longer Rules,” I found a fascinating argument against email and for social-media sites, like Twitter and Facebook. Email is on its way out as the primary means of sending online messages.
For a dozen years or so email was the freshest, easiest way to keep in touch with people over long distances without having to pay big phone bills. Now it’s old hat. Basically, the paradigm of online communication has changed and we’re all going to have to change with the times.
What do you think? Is it a good thing that email is being replaced by instant communications? I think it’s great for ecommerce. With the aid of instant messaging, tweets and wall posts, online marketers can serve their customers much better and faster than ever before.
If you would like help getting a great website design, I recommend you contact Submit Solution’s Web professionals. They are extremely effective at delivering captivating website designs that help increase your conversion rate of visitors into customers.
You can find the rest of this blog entry on the new Social Media Blog on Submit Solution. That blog entry is called, “How ecommerce benefits from email’s death.” Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for stories about eHarbor, Inc.
Tags: article, Ecommerce, email, facebook, google, growth, history, internet, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Submit Solution, twitter, wall street journal, website
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Google could soon change the rules of keyword Internet marketing with the debut Have you heard? Google and Bing are adding new social-media search capabilities to their search engines in an attempt to keep up with these innovative websites. Bing already has a beta version of its new search engine designed specifically for Twitter results while Google is holding back at the moment.
Google and Microsoft are caught in an escalating fight over who will dominate the search-engine market for social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook. I read about this in the PC World article, “Real-Time Search: Google and Bing Rivalry Intensifies on Facebook and Twitter.” This article refers to the Google-Bing rivalry as a chess match. Quite an apt metaphor, in my opinion, because I love all of the strategy that goes into a seemingly simple chess game.
Social media has been a thorn in the side of major search engines for a few years now. Facebook and Twitter are simply updated too often and too fast for search engines to keep up with them. It looks like that might be changing, though.
You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Submit Solution SEO Blog on Monday, November 2, 2009. The photo of the chess match is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of marcusrg.
Tags: article, Bing, facebook, google, growth, internet, Microsoft, news, online, positive, search engine, Social Media, Submit Solution, twitter
Posted in Search Engines, Social Media | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Search-engine giant Google is trying to buck the overall downward trend in Internet advertising sales by grabbing a bigger slice of the pie.
In my blog entry, “Google tries to expand into new PPC forum,” I talked about Google’s attempt to make its new DoubleClick Ad Exchange successful. At the end I touched on Google’s attempts to grow beyond its core competency of search ads into the world of display ads. I’ll pick up where I left off.
According to the Wall Street Journal article, “Google Decides to Find Its Creative Side,” Google is trying to translate its ownership of YouTube and DoubleClick into a more dynamic advertising approach. Google is so well-known as the king of search ads that it might be difficult for it to break into Yahoo’s territory of creative display ads.
They’ve already created YouTube ad campaigns for J.C. Penney and Quaker Oats, but they saved their most innovative campaigns for Hewlett-Packard and Volvo. For those two companies, Google helped create YouTube ads and display ads featuring the latest updates (tweets) from Twitter.
Search engines are notoriously slow in catching up to social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook. You can read my insights into this topic in my blog entry, “Google can’t keep up with Twitter.” It’s a promising sign that Google is making this effort to use Twitter in its online-advertising services.
You can find the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Paid Search Blog on October 27, 2009. The photo of the cat in the Coca-Cola box is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Greencolander.
By the way, I thought of giving this blog entry the title, “Google develops rock-hard ads,” but I wisely decided against it.
Tags: article, google, Internet Marketing, Paid Search, PPC, Social Media, yahoo, youtube
Posted in Pay-Per-Click, Search Engines | No Comments »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
In September, Google introduced a new way for its customers to buy and sell online display ads. It’s called the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and it allows Internet marketers to find a variety of Web pages to advertise on and quickly make a bid. This speeds up the process for both advertisers and publishers looking for ad revenue.
I heard about this development in a Wall Street Journal article, entitled “Google Unveils Market for Display Ads.”
Google has literally thousands of partner websites scattered across the Web that display its online ads. However, Google has never been very good at display advertising. It bought DoubleClick back in 2007 for $3.1 billion and has been trying to come up with a good way to jump into this part of the paid-search market. This appears to be its big move.
This isn’t the first online-advertising exchange service. Actually, other major search engines, like Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL have had them for some time, though none of them has been able to make them particularly big or useful, yet. Maybe Google will find a way to make this exchange service popular and profitable.
You can find the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Paid Search Blog on October 20, 2009. The photo of the fiery wok is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of liber.
Tags: article, google, Internet Marketing, news, Paid Search, Pay-Per-Click, PPC, search engine, Submit Solution, wall street journal
Posted in Pay-Per-Click, Search Engines | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
By Robert Lockard
The other day, I had an image in my mind of a strange object and I wanted to find a picture of it online. The only problem was I didn’t have a clue what it was called. The image in my head was of a scene in “Superman II” when General Zod’s henchman Non is in the Oval Office and he’s staring intently at something. It’s five metal balls tied to strings in a row and the ones on either end keep hitting the four still balls, causing the ball on the other end to bounce away and come back again.
Maybe you already know what I’m talking about.
I turned to one of my coworkers here at eHarbor, Inc. and asked her to help me. She could picture it, as well, but she couldn’t put her finger on the name. I tried searching for “metal ball attached to strings hitting each other” on Google, but I didn’t find what I was looking for. Luckily, my resourceful coworker found it on Amazon.com, I believe. I could now put a name to an image – Newton’s cradle!
This story illustrates my need for a visual search engine and not simply a text-based one. Luckily, Microsoft and Google are both heading in that direction. I read about their efforts in a CNN article entitled, “Microsoft, Google expand search-engine tools.”
You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Submit Solution SEO Blog on October 6, 2009. The photo of Newton’s cradle is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of ƒяαиcєscα яσsє.
Tags: CNN, Fun, google, image, internet, movie, msn, new, photo, search engine, Submit Solution
Posted in Movies, Search Engines | No Comments »
