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Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

December 19, 2012

Instagram: “All Your Photos Are Belong to Us!”

There was a huge online outcry from users when Instagram introduced a new privacy policy and Terms of Service that will take effect on January 16, 2013. Concerns were raised over changes that would allow for Instagram to sell users photos to advertisers without notice or compensation.

Instagram’s 100 million users use the popular app to take stylized picture of everything from food they enjoy to pets or any other aspect of their daily lives to share online. When the news of the proposed changes hit Twitter, the story and accompanied anger towards them went viral.

This change comes just four months after the social media giant Facebook purchased Instagram for one billion dollars. The new policy states: "A business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness and photos."

Later that same day, Instagram issued a blog post stating:

"Advertising is one of many ways that Instagram can become a self-sustaining business, but not the only one. Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram."

"Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear."

Now that Instagram is owned by Facebook, it may be a similar scenario to how updates to Facebook have typically played out. Facebook has a tendency to roll out mass changes with the anticipation of user backlash; only to retract part of their updates. It’s a case of moving 10 steps forward and taking 1 back, ultimately the changes still get adopted.

The simple truth is that whenever you are online, whenever you use an App, it is very likely that your information is being used by the site or is being sold as data to interested third parties. The best way to maintain some semblance of privacy is to not go online at all – which wherein lies the irony.

It is almost impossible for most of us not to be connected to the internet at some point every day; be it through a PC, a Smart Phone or tablet. When we go online our user data is collected, stored and researched by a multitude of companies for a variety of purposes; some benign, some nefarious.

We are only now becoming aware that we are no longer just consumers; we are in fact walking product endorsements and advertisements for big business. What happens in the next few years will determine our new role in the emerging global marketplace. Do we want to protect our privacy, or do we want ads that are geared towards our relevant interests?

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 11:28 am

Categories: Facebook,Privacy
Tags: facebook, Instagram —

September 24, 2012

Internet Pollution – The Dirty Secret of the Information Age

The New York Times hired the consulting firm of McKinsey & Company to conduct an extensive year-longdata center energy audit to document power consumption and usage patterns amongst data centers in the United States.

With tens of thousands of data centers, and no regulations in place to curb energy consumption, the information age is at odds with the established image of efficiency and environmental friendly that seems to be associated with it. On average, most data centers use approximately 6-12% of electricity to power their servers to perform routine computations. The rest of the power is spent to keep servers idling and at the ready in case of a power surge or brown-out that could slow or crash the servers.

"Worldwide, the digital warehouses use about 30 billion watts of electricity, roughly equivalent to the output of 30 nuclear power plants. A single data center can take more power than a medium-size town."

Most data centers run theirs servers 24/7 at maximum capacity, regardless of demand and as a result end up wasting approximately 90% of the electricity that is pulled right of the electrical grid. To make matters worse, most rely upon banks of generators that emit copious amounts of diesel fumes.

The pollution emitted from data centers, are being cited by authorities as violating several clean air regulations. Many of the data centers in Silicon Valley, CA appear on the government’s Toxic Air Contaminant Inventory roster.

The inefficiency stems from the symbiotic relationship between users and the servers. Users want instantaneous access to all data, and the companies that are at risk if they fail to meet the demand.

"It’s staggering for most people, even people in the industry, to understand the numbers, the sheer size of these systems," said Peter Gross, who helped design hundreds of data centers. "A single data center can take more power than a medium-size town."

Many companies such as Google and Facebook are looking for ways to reduce power consumptions and are looking at things like reengineered software and more efficient cooling systems in an effort to decrease wasted power.

"This is an industry dirty secret, and no one wants to be the first to say mea culpa," said a senior industry executive who asked not to be identified to protect his company’s reputation. "If we were a manufacturing industry, we’d be out of business straightaway."

Google’s data centers currently consume approximately 300 million watts and Facebook’s, about 60 million watts. Many solutions are available to help combat this out-of-control power consumption, but in an industry that cannot afford any downtime, many companies are hesitant to implement any large scale changes.

The problem is two-fold. As users, we need to be less dependent on the data we expect to have at our finger tips at every second of every day and data centers and the computer manufacturing industry need stricter regulations and must be made to adhere to more stringent environmental standards.

Computers servers must be made more energy efficient and adhere to compulsory power consumption standards. As we see many businesses and industry moving to greener technologies, one has to speculate why the IT industry has not followed suit?

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 12:32 pm

Categories: Green Tech,IT Industry
Tags: data centers, dirty industry, facebook, google, internet pollution —

July 20, 2012

Gearing Up for Social Media Marketing

Image: freedigitalphotos.net

Different demographics are using different social media channels. Reaching the right audience with social media is about using the right channels and voice to connect with and engage your followers. Different sites as well as online marketing and analysis techniques can help you connect with the audience you’ve been trying to reach. Below is information about common social media networks and their audiences so you can gear each channel towards the demographic and sectors of your potential audience that uses it most.

Facebook

There are a number of infographics and articles online with information about who is using Facebook. Knowing that the average person visits the site 40 times per month may not be the information. Here is breakdown of who is using Facebook and how to connect with them:

People from the ages of 18-44 are using Facebook the most. This means you’re information needs to be broad enough to reach and connect with most of your audience, but not so broad that no one takes interest. Posting information about news topics related to your field and asking open-ended questions are two of the best ways to do this.
Though the 20- and 30-somethings are some of the most active on Facebook, people over the age of 45 are becoming more frequent users. If your products relate to the older demographic, share information they can relate to. If your services are for those in their early 20’s, share that.
Because the Facebook audience is so broad, use Facebook Insights to see who is on your page and talking about your company. Gaining knowledge of your key demographics can help you provide content that will encourage more interaction and engagement.

Twitter

Like Facebook, Twitter had a wide range of users. Men and women use the site pretty equally, though a large majority of Twitter users include African Americans and Hispanics. People are more likely to buy from a company the follow on Twitter than from one they don’t so reaching your audience on Twitter is an important factor for both online engagement and overall sales.

Most Twitter users live in urban areas. If your business is based in a well-populated city, turn your Tweets to reaching those in the same city and other urban areas.
Because Twitter now has targeted promoted tweets, you can reach a specific audience. You aren’t tweeting to all your followers, unless you choose to do so. You are instead, placing the tweet in front of the audience you want to reach.
Programs like SocialBro provide insight into who your audience is and when they are online. Knowing the material that will relate most to your audience as well as the right times will help you refine your Twitter strategies to reach new people.
Many tweets are now coming from smartphones and 1 in 5 smartphone owners use Twitter on their phones. Sharing and tweeting comments that can be viewed quickly via a smartphone could increase your Twitter traction.

Pinterest

Pinterest, at the moment, has a more focused audience. Composed mostly of women, top interests of this image-driven site include crafts, gifts, hobbies, interior design and fashion. Brands based in these areas should be devoting a decent amount of time to their Pinterest efforts. Even if your business doesn’t seem to be a fit, your company’s Pinterest can succeed.

A top geographical location of Pinterest users is the East South Central United States, which includes Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. Posting images that people of this region can relate to and take interest can lead to more engagement on your Pinterest boards.
Women compose nearly 80% of Pinterest account holders. Regardless of your brand, gearing images toward women is a great tactic.
See what’s trending and consider how your business can relate. Because Pinterest is open to a wide variety of images and information, focusing on what the users are pinning at the moment can gear your boards and pins in the right direction.

Tumblr

Tumblr combines blogging and image-sharing to create a unique site that’s perfect for social bloggers. Men and women use the site pretty equally. One of the most surprising demographics is the age. According to an infographic from Mashable, over half the site’s users are under the age of 34, with 18% of the total users being under the age of 18. Fitting your company into Tumblr means targeting content to a younger audience.

Because the age group is so young, gearing content to trending topics and information a person around the age of 20 can relate to is a great way to gain a following. Use common tags and popular images to increase traffic.
Some of the most tagged terms on Tumblr include gif, “LOL” and fashion, though art and vintage are other common tags. Use these as they relate to your business and content to gain new followers.
See which of your posts, reblogs and other content receive the most traction. What tags lead to followers? What content generates the most buzz? Measure your progress so you can easily make adjustments.

All social media sites are about connecting. On Facebook, you can connect with people of all ages and from all backgrounds. Twitter is used by people in urban areas who want a quick and constant stream of information. Pinterest appeals to women and Tumblr to a younger demographic. With each social media site, research who likes and follows your company to see which audience is the most engaged with your company on that channel. As you figure out what your audience is on each channel, you can gear the content towards them for more successful social media campaigns.

Author:
Erica Bell is a small business writer who focuses on topics such as telemarketing and social media trends. She is a web content writer for Business.com.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 11:08 am

Categories: Facebook,LinkedIn,social media,Twitter
Tags: Erica Bell, facebook, pinterest, social media, tumblr, twitter —

June 7, 2012

Gaming The Facebook IPO Game

I like numbers and I like stats. I suppose that’s what attracts me to SEO and that whole “algorithm thing” so much. Our regular blog readers will remember my rant on May 18th on the Facebook IPO over-valuation where I compare Facebook’s stock prices vs revenue with Ford, valuing Ford at well over $2 trillion dollar if they got the same kind of multiples as Facebook does. Unfortunately Ford has to exist in the real world where they’re expected to base their company worth on revenue. What a novel concept. But that rants done so on to a fun game …

As I’m sure you can all imagine I’ve been watching Facebook’s share prices regularly (dare I say … hourly). I definitely feel sorry for investors but there is part of me that feels a bit better about the state of the economy knowing that Facebook’s stock is dropping to perhaps what it should be. It’s still got a ways to go there though. That said, watching the stock has revealed some interesting insight that I might even jump on if I had a risk-tolerance high enough to view my capital as Monopoly money. Because I don’t really understand the stock market and just like playing with numbers however I’m not about to do that, but thought I’d share an interesting bit of data.

Facebook stock is following (generally) a trend, or at least has been for the past week. Let’s say you like to day trade and you have $10,000 to play with. If you buy each day at 2PM and sell each day at 3PM it would result in (note: I’m assuming a $0 transaction fee as those vary):

May 31st (start of day – $10,000)
At 2PM you’d buy 370 shares at $27.02 costing $9,997.40
At 3PM you’d sell for $28.20 for $10,434.00

June 1 (start of day – $10,436.70)
At 2PM you’d buy 376 shares at $27.75 costing $10,434.00
At 3PM you’d sell for $27.84 for $10,467.84

June 4 (start of day – $10,863.75)
At 2PM you’d buy 407 shares at $26.67 costing $10,854.69
At 3PM you’d sell for $27.22 for $11,078.54

June 5 (start of day – $11,087.60)
At 2PM you’d buy 419 shares at $26.41 costing $11,065.79
At 3PM you’d sell for $26.17 for $10,965.23

June 6 (start of day – $10,987.04)
At 2PM you’d buy 420 shares at $26.11 costing $10,966.20
At 3PM you’d sell for $26.79 for $11,251.80

At the end of the week your investment of $10,000 would have you sitting at $11,272.64. Not bad – over 11% return in a week.

I noticed this while having a chat with a friend of mine (my WebmasterRadio.fm co-host Jim Hedger) when Facebook had dropped further at around 11am one day and I said it’s a good time to buy as it’ll go up by the end of the day. I decided to actually look at the trends as my thought was based just on an instinct at what I’d seen without paying attention. Turns out I’d have been wrong that day and I was muddling my data from casual glances but if you actually look at the flow of value, there is one. Some days you’ll come out behind but overall – you’ll come out over 11% richer. had you bought at the lowest and sold at the highest points in a day of course you’d have made more but saying that is like saying drinking water will keep you hydrated.

I have to note this is just a fun analysis and not meant to be taken as any kind of advice. I’m not buying shares nor do I plan to. I expect the stock price to fall overall in the coming months and either way, I’m not a stock investor. I say this so you won’t take this as any type of advice or think, “hey, I’m going to do that”. Doing so would be akin to taking the advice of an SEO on how to win the Tour de France, I’m sure I could come up with statistical tips for you there to but a knowledgeable trainer is always better so if you’re thinking of investing in Facebook, get the advice of a qualified professional. If you ask me – as a long term investment it’ll only be good for a loss in your books.

Follow Up:

To see if things progress along the same path, I’ve decided to track that $10,000 through the week after this post. Each day I will be updating this post with the 2PM buy and 3:00 sell metrics.

June 7 (start of day – $11,272.64)
You’d buy 421 shares at $26.72 costing $11,249.12
At 3PM you’d sell for $27.07 for $11,396.47

June 8 (start of day – $11,419.99)
You’d buy 422 shares at $27.05 costing $11,415.10
At 3PM you’d sell for $27.02 for $11,402.44
* interesting note – last Friday it picked up around 3:15 too but I don’t want to change my numbers for Friday’s so we’ll stick with the 2PM to 3PM strategy as the numbers below continue.

June 11 (start of day – $11,407.33)
You’d buy 411 shares at $27.70 costing $11,384.70
At 3PM you’d sell for $27.30 for $11,220.30

Interesting to note – it appears that the first day of the week Facebook spikes first thing in the morning and then drops through the day. If I continue monitoring this one after this week is up I may well adjust the numbers to just a buy at 3PM with a sale at 9:30 the following day. Not quite as slick at the 2PM to 3Pm standard but we’ll see how that works through this week.

June 12 (start of day – $11,242.93)
You’d buy 415 shares at $27.05 costing $11,225.75
At 3PM you’d sell for $27.21 for $11,292.15

June 13 (start of day – $11,309.33)
You’d buy 411 shares at $27.45 costing $11,281.95
At 3PM you’d sell for $27.16 for $11,162.76

So – if you followed my ill-conceived advice you’d have made $1,272.64 in week one. In week two you’d have lost $109.88.

For the next 5 business days we’re going to go with the same 2 to 3 buy/sell pattern but I’m going to take the leap and say, “It happened twice so it’s a pattern” and on Monday I’ll be tracking the buy at 3PM instead of two and hold on until Tuesday at 9:30. I’ll then track the buy again on Tuesday at 2 for a sale at 3.

It’s interesting to note that after 2 weeks we’d have a 11.16% gain in revenue. Had we simple purchased once at 2PM on May 31st (the first day in this example) and sold at 3PM on June 13th you’d have gained 0.05%.

So stay tuned for more bad advice.

Week Three:

Because I started monitoring this on the 31st of May (a Thursday) this is the first day of week three. This week I’m sticking to the 2PM buy and 3PM sell rate I’ve been using thus far with one minor adjustment, on the first day of the week I’ll be buying at 3PM and won’t sell until 9:30AM the next day. So on the second day of the week there will actually be two sales.

June 14 (start of day – $11,190.33)
You’d buy 403 shares at $27.73 costing $11,175.19
At 3PM you’d sell for $27.71 for $11,167.13

June 15 (start of day – $11,182.27)
You’d buy 386 shares at $28.90 costing $11,155.40
At 3PM you’d sell for $29.21 for $11,275.06

June 18 (start of day – $11,301.93)
You’d buy 357 shares at $31.65 costing $11,299.05
On the 19th at 9:30am you’d sell for $31.53 for $11,256.21.

June 19 (start of buying – $11,259.09)
You’d buy 353 shares at $31.89 costing $11,257.17
At 3PM you’d sell for $31.76 for $11,211.28

I’m going to stop now as here’s what’s clear … you shouldn’t follow my advice on investing. My insistence on watching trends and keeping a toe-hold in reality makes me ill equipped to be an investor.

Had you invested $11,272.64 on June 7th at 2PM you’d have purchased 421 shares at $26.72. If you followed my advice that would have turned into $11,213.20 losing you $59.44. If you just sold at 3PM today you’d have turned that $11,272.64 into $13,370.96. So in essence, if you’d followed my advice you’d have lost $2,157.76.

And that’s why it’s a better idea to leave things to the experts.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 7:10 am

Categories: Facebook,IPO
Tags: facebook, facebook ipo, Facebook Shares —

May 18, 2012

Facebook IPO vs Ford (real world) Valuation Comparison

About 10 minutes ago (as I start writing this blog post at least) investors were able to buy into Facebook. At opening the price was estimated at $38/share which gives Facebook an overall value of $107 billion. Wait … let me say that again. That’s one hundred and seven BILLION dollars (insert into your brains if you will an image of Dr. Evil laughing).

So, what’s obvious is that money in the real world has no connection to money in the tech realm. Here’s just a few statistics about Facebook:

Q1 revenue – $1.058 billion
Q1 net earnings – $205 million
Members – 835,525,280

So let’s think about this for just a second. This means that each member is worth $128.06 if things go Facebook’s way and the value at the end of the day reaches $107 billion. Now if we look at what they earned from their members in Q1 (and I’m talking about profit here, not revenue) they earned $0.25 off each one in the quarter. Essentially this means that at the current rate they’ll make roughly $1 off each user per year so simple math tells us that the company is being valued at 128 years of profit. That’s right … 128 years.

Now let’s take a different approach in valuation and look at it from revenue instead of profit. You shouldn’t … but lets. If Facebook’s Q1 earnings hold through the rest of the year that would give them an annual revenue of $4.232 billion but let’s be nice, let’s say that over Q3 and 4 their revenue spikes for the holidays and they earn a cool $5 billion; they’re still being valued at 21.4 years of revenue. Not profit … revenue.

The Real World

So let’s put this in real world terms. Let’s look at the valuation of a brick-and-mortar company, a little company called Ford. Here’s their statistics:

Q1 revenue – $30.5 billion
Q1 net earnings – $1.4 billion
Members – NA

So, with the math noted above on Facebook’s evaluation Ford is worth 2.6108 trillion dollars (note: this is higher than the total US deficit for 2011).

So what is Ford worth? $38.34 billion. You heard me … the value of a company that shows over a billion dollars in real-world profit each quarter and generates $30.5 billion in revenue in a single quarter is valued at 1.257 times quarterly revenue or 27.39 times quarterly net earnings.

Let’s Do Some Math

As an SEO I love math so I won’t make you do it. Let’s look at what Facebook should be valued at if the tech world was ruled by the same general laws of reality that the real world is.

If we base Facebook’s valuation on their Q1 revenue and subscribed to the notion that a company should be valued by some reasonable measure of what they earn (it’s crazy I know) and used Ford as the benchmark they would be valued at $1.33 billion dollars (that’s about $0.48 per share). If we go the route of valuing them based on net earnings and use Ford again, they would be valued at $5.615 billion, a healthier $2.05 per share.

But Investors Are Apparently Detached …

from reality. During just the time of my writing this blog post (about 30 minutes) share prices have gone from $38.00 (a low after opening at $45) back up to $41.16 valuing the company at $112.73 billion dollars.

Can anyone else see the pin coming that’s going to pop this bubble?

</rant>

Update: 3 Hours Later …

Poor Facebook, back down at $38.01. personally I think it’s not dropping below $38 simply because there’s noone who’ll sell for less right now. Don’t worry, if you want to grab a deal on FB stocks just wait … they will go down once people get beaten down.

Other social media properties have been tanking throughout the day. Some speculate that’s due to investors pulling their money out to buy Facebook shares. Zynga (game maker, you’re probably familiar with many of their products … I for one am addicted to Words With Friends) dropped 16.2% as of the time of this writing. But let’s take a look at their financials:

Q1 revenue – $321 million
Q1 net earnings – $47 million
Members – NA

Their company value is currently $1.425 billion. If we assume Q1 revenue will continue (which is unlikely – Zynga is likely to increase in revenue in Q3 and Q4) their annual revenue would be $1.284 billion. So what I’m seeing is investors valuing Facebook at over 21 times yearly revenue and bailing on Zynga to the point where the stock was frozen earlier today based on a multiplier of a virtually 1 to 1 annual revenue vs company valuation. I think I’ll just go scratch my head and wonder at the state of the economy for a while. While I’m doing that you can wonder at why companies like Zynga and LinkedIn are tanking. Groupon is too (down 6.57% as of this writing) but that just makes sense to me as I viewed it as over-valued and then there’s that issue of unusually heavy trading just hours before a favorable earnings announcement (just a titch suspicious – you can read more on that on the Wall street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303879604577410503063634984.html). Not so favorable (in my opinion) as to warrant their market value of over $7 billion ($559.3 million in Q1).

Note: I may find it overvalued however I do think their pricing is far more realistic than … say … Facebook. But then, they actually provide a real-world deliverable so they can’t be worth as much right?

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 9:48 am

Categories: Facebook,IPO
Tags: facebook, facebook ipo —

April 23, 2012

Bursting Personalization Filter Bubbles

There has been a lot of discussion regarding the Google filter bubbles. The premise is that due to personalization features becoming an important part of how we interact on the web as well as the content that is displayed to us. Links that we tend to click more readily given a higher priority in our search results, whereas those that don’t get click on fade into the ether. The inherent danger with this process is that we do not readily gain access to or are shown all the other websites that the internet has to offer.

The personalization of the modern web removes this diversification and creates a self-based bias (usually unbeknownst to the user), putting is in a narrow loop of information known as the "filter bubble."

Microsoft’s Facebook partnership along with the Bing search engine has already allowed for the incorporation of the preferences of users friends into the returned search results. A new patent application from Microsoft describes a "user-following engine" that would not only analyze a users posts on Facebook, Twitter and other connected social networks to deduce a users mood, interests, education level and comprehension of specific topics. The new system would automatically adjust the users search experience and results based on this information to better align with these social signals.

Although the patent was filed in 2010, the details have just been made public. At this point there is no indication that Microsoft plans to move ahead with the patent, but if personalization results are where the net is taking us, I just hope that browsers will allow a user to disable the personalization filters with the click of a button. I think the biggest concern over personalization is where is it taking us? It seems to me that there is a fine line between an enhanced user experience and a decidedly Orwellian future.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 11:00 am

Categories: Bing,Google,internet security,Privacy
Tags: facebook, microsoft, patents —

September 22, 2011

1st SEO Impressions of Windows 8

I started my computer life on an Apple II PC, my first gaming/entertainment electronics experience was the Lesiure Vision, and it wasn’t until high-school that I met my first IBM, an XT with an attitude. So in my years you can bet I’ve seen a few operating system ‘revolutions’, heck the first computer I paid for with my own money was the Mac Classic back when it was the first PC to have a mouse and ‘Windows’ (plus it could talk!).

Things have changed a bit since that 8mhz Macintosh with it’s single color 10″ non-upgradable screen. The 4mb maximum limit of RAM that was a selling point of my Mac isn’t even enough for a modern CPU cache, let alone an OS + applications, and ‘booting from disk’ has a totally different meaning.

Along comes Windows 8 and I really felt that I needed a new operating system like I needed a new hair in my nose, so I was in no rush at all to review it. The situation reminded me of a quote from Tron 2.0:

“..what sort of improvements have been made in Flynn… I mean, um, Windows 8?” .. “This year we put an 8 on the box!”

Well it’s not really that bad, in fact the more I poke at Windows8 the more I see it’s potential and I can see how it could be a game changer for a web based business. Here’s why:

The start menu is now a web page with tiled animated content including feeding from websites like XKCD.com:

– Do you have your website setup properly to feed the new start menu when people add your site there?
IE10 is the browser the OS uses, you can install another, but it won’t get loaded until you specifically load it
– Does your site look the way you’d expect in IE10? I know our aging site layout looks different in IE10.
There is no prompt to chose a search engine, you’ve got Bing and what more could anyone want?
– This could divide the consumer base among power users who have fiddled and those who just use things ‘as is’. Depending on your market this could change the way you look at Bing.
Clicking the “Make Google my homepage.” link on the google.com/.ca homepage currently causes IE10 to load a blank white page instead of the default home screen.
– Does your site use similar javascript? Will you have the same issues with IE10 users?
Built in applications for reaching social networks aren’t broad enough. “Socialite” program for FB only works with FB, and drops support for Twitter, Reddit, Google Reader, Flicker, Digg, etc..
– Speaking of which, how cozy are you with giving MS access to everything?

Mind you, with all the stink that’s getting raised over the UEFI secure boot protocol, the rate of adoption for Windows8 could be pitiful. If Microsoft’s hardware partners went ahead with the new feature it would lock out other OSes and force people to deal with one source for new OS installs/upgrades.

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:05 am

Categories: Bing,Bing,Facebook,internet security,Rankings,Search Engine News,seo articles,social media,Twitter
Tags: bing, facebook, Preview, Windows 8 —

September 21, 2011

“The New FaceBook”…or, “We Fear Change”

Most of us engage in social media everyday and a huge percentage of us are devout FaceBook users. You have probably noticed several particularly large sweeping changes over the last few weeks since the launch of Google+. Now that Google has completed beta testing and opened their new social platform to the public, many more drastic changes are anticipated from FaceBook in the coming weeks as the two giants continue to battle for market supremacy.

Mashable has reported that FaceBook plans to implement a major user profile redesign at its F8 Developer Conference tomorrow. While the specifics are vague, reports from two anonymous sources have stated that the redesign is "major" and will initially be focused on increasing time on site for users and to make FaceBook profiles a “nexus” for consuming content.

Other reports state that this roll out is just one component of a much larger roll out that will be followed with a music and media platform. FaceBook appears to have made several agreements with a number of companies to feed content from what users are watching or listening from around the web and feed this information into their FaceBook profiles in real-time to share this media with others. Spotify, Rhapsody, Vevo and Rdio are believed to be the first of FaceBook’s new media partners.

This appears to be only the first tier of major revisions coming to FaceBook. There are rumors of a FaceBook app store and that the redesigned profiles are part of a larger push into social ecommerce. Some sources believe that FaceBook intends to give FaceBook Credits more prominence as well.

The social media giant is reported to be working on something called "Project Spartan", which is a HTML5 version of its platform that would become a distribution mechanism for Web applications through Apple’s mobile Safari browser. At this point however, FaceBook has been very tight-lipped and has not confirmed any of these rumors.

Some of the more recent changes from FaceBook include:

View Shares button allows users to see how their content is distributed.
Updated lists and Smart Lists, which can auto-generate lists based on location or how people know each other.
Custom URLs for new Pages. Previously, 25 fans were needed before a Page could set their custom URL. Not anymore.
Poke Button has gone into hiding into a dropdown menu at the top right of a users profile.
Page Messages, users will no longer be able to send messages to fans as of September 30.

Many of us will be waiting the new changes with baited breath this Thursday to see what changes will be announced and to find out when they might be implemented. I know that many of my contacts cringe when they find out that FaceBook is about to, or has made changes to the platform, so I try to remind them that change in the social networking world normally brings about positive change…and that no, they will not revert back to the previous version no matter how many people sign a petition to change it back.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 12:02 pm

Categories: Facebook,Google+,social media
Tags: facebook, google plus. google+ —

July 26, 2011

Google+ Name Game

Google+ isn’t playing games with abusers of it’s policies and is cracking down on Google+ profiles that aren’t using legitimate names, odd characters, or contain misleading information.

I personally know what it’s like to visit sites like Facebook or MySpace where you’re looking for an old friend and you just can’t seem to locate them. Some time goes by and you wonder who this odd fellow is that’s chatting with all your friends. You dig into the profile and find a ton of funny images, culture references, and other stuff, but nothing that tells you why this person is chatting with all your friends. Finally you give up and send a message, yep, it’s that old friend you couldn’t find, he’s just using his on-line name because he’s unemployed and looking for jobs.

What a situation! Why does this fellow not have more control over his info so he can use honest information without worry? Technically, at this stage, users of FB/MySpace have the control, but when the companies are selling your info off to the highest bidders, would you blame anyone for feeling a bit shy? On top of that, making the changes needed isn’t clear or easy so can you blame people for trying to sign into Google+ with the same attitudes?

Google+ is trying to understand, they are avoiding outright bans on accounts with ‘nick names’ and issuing warnings well ahead of taking any actions. If an account is a clear violation of Google+ policy, spamming, etc., it’s closed instantly to prevent abuse of the system. They are also taking the time to clearly outline the policy, why you no longer need to hide behind an anonymous identity, and adding methods to include enough info to be found by maiden names, pseudonymous, alternate languages, etc.. should you choose to make any of that info ‘public’ and searchable.

For people who were derailed during the Google+ signup process, you’ll be glad to note that the signup process has been improved to explain your choices more clearly to prevent users from accidentally signing up under a pseudonym.

I have a friend that got fancy with the signup process in my circles, and it’s a bit odd watching his name morph as I interact with him and Google+ is picking between his profile name, his real name, and his GMail/GChat choices.

He’s expecting to get a warning letter soon asking him to unify his name selections with real info, but at the same time he should have the option under ‘other names’ to share his personality a bit.

Some folks on-line think Google+ is ‘missing the boat‘ on what users want, claiming that they won’t bend to Google’s rules to use the service. Personally, if I wanted to chat with a bunch of strangers, never giving up my info, I can name off countless places where that’s possible. Google+ is where I want to connect with real people, have real discussions, and skip all the nonsense that’s typically associated with the trust issues of the past.

If you have a Google+ account, this post even tries to challenge the legality of requiring a real name within the EU. While the fellow making the post does not seem to have fully read the user agreement when he joined Google+, missing the part where he opted to accept the rules, he may still have some merit in pushing Google+ to be as flexible as possible.

For what it’s worth, on the topic of trust, I didn’t share an image of my face publicly on Google+. To me that’s a private option because nobody is going to search for me by face, not anyone I’d like to have find me at least. If you’re in the right circles on my profile, you can gaze at my ugly mug all day if you want, just don’t be a creep and take pictures of me sleeping!

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 2:59 pm

Categories: Google,Google+,Internet Law,Privacy,social media
Tags: facebook, google, privacy —

July 25, 2011

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