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Google Penguin 2.0 Update Discussion ThreadsNow that Google’s Penguin 2.0 Update is out, there has been an explosion of conversation across the web, including here at our own network of sites. Below, I highlight some of those conversations so you can get in on the chatter! First, at our very own SEO Chat forums, we have this thread, where our [...]Author informationJamespThe post Google Penguin 2.0 Update Discussion Threads appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Fri, 24 May 2013 02:12:14 +0000 |
Report: Google To Bid For Waze — To Shut It Down? |
| Fri, 24 May 2013 01:20:40 +0000 |
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 23, 2013 |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 21:08:07 +0000 |
Penguin 2.0 Losers: Porn Sites, Game Sites, & Big Brands Like Dish.com & The Salvation Army |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 20:14:25 +0000 |
“My Photos” — Google Now Lets Find Your Google+ Photos Within Search |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 19:59:57 +0000 |
Yahoo Testing New Search Results Page |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:23 +0000 |
Don’t Miss Out On Learning From The Pros. Attend An SMX Advanced Workshop! |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:11 +0000 |
Bing News Adds Visual Carousel & Searches Years Back (Not Just Two Weeks) |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 17:04:11 +0000 |
Still Seeing Post-Penguin Web Spam In Google Results? Let Google Know |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 15:30:37 +0000 |
Programming Data Collection For SEO Research |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 13:57:28 +0000 |
Google’s Hunger For Structured Markup |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 13:31:19 +0000 |
Capturing the beauty and wonder of the Galapagos on Google MapsThe Galapagos Islands are some of the most biologically unique ecosystems in the world. Explorers and scientists alike have long studied and marveled at these islands—made famous by Charles Darwin. The Ecuadorean Government, local conservation groups and scientists are working to protect the Galapagos from threats posed by invasive species, climate change and other human impacts.It’s critical that we share images with the world of this place in order to continue to study and preserve the islands’ unique biodiversity. Today we’re honored to announce, in partnership with Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Parks Directorate (GNPD), that we’ve collected panoramic imagery of the islands with the Street View Trekker. These stunning images will be available on Google Maps later this year so people around the world can experience this remote archipelago. Daniel Orellana of Charles Darwin Foundation crossing a field of ferns to reach Minas de Azufre (naturally-occurring sulfur mines) on the top of Sierra Negra, an active volcano on Isabela Island. The Google Maps team traveled for more than three hours, hiking and on horseback, to reach this remote location. Images, like the one you see above, are also an important visual record that the CDF and GNPD will use to study and protect the islands by showing the world how these delicate environments have changed over time. Daniel Orellana of the Charles Darwin Foundation climbs out of a lava tunnel where he was collecting imagery. The dramatic lava landscapes found on Isabela island tell the story of the formation of the Galapagos Islands. Our 10-day adventure in the Galapagos was full of hiking, boating and diving around the islands (in hot and humid conditions) to capture 360-degree images of the unique wildlife and geological features of the islands with the Trekker. We captured imagery from 10 locations that were hand-selected by CDF and GNPD. We walked past giant tortoises and blue-footed boobies, navigated through steep trails and lava fields, and picked our way down the crater of an active volcano called Sierra Negra. A Galapagos giant tortoise crawls along the path near Googler Karin Tuxen-Bettman while she collects imagery with the Street View Trekker in Galapaguera, a tortoise breeding center, which is managed by the Galapagos National Park Service. Life underwater in the Galapagos is just as diverse as life on land. We knew our map of the islands wouldn’t be comprehensive without exploring the ocean that surrounds them. So for the second time we teamed up with the folks at the Catlin Seaview Survey to collect underwater panoramic imagery of areas being studied by CDF and GNPD. This imagery will be used by Catlin Seaview Survey to create a visual and scientific baseline record of the marine environment surrounding the islands, allowing for any future changes to be measured and evaluated by scientists around the world. Christophe Bailhache navigates the SVII camera through a large group of Sea Lions at Champion Island in Galapagos. Image courtesy of the Catlin Seaview Survey. We truly believe that in order to protect these Galapagos Islands, we must understand them. As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” We hope this Street View imagery not only advances the important scientific research, but also inspires you to learn more about this special place. Stay tuned for updates on this collection—the first time we’ve captured imagery from both land and sea! We can’t wait to share this amazing imagery with you later this year. Posted by Raleigh Seamster, Project Lead, Google Maps |
| Thu, 23 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000 |
How to Take Part In a Twitter ChatEveryone wants to know how to put on a Twitter chat these days. Not that I am surprised; tweet chats are a great way to engage users, have a discussion and enjoy a conversation with others of similar interests. When you have a large follower base on Twitter, it only makes sense to begin utilizing [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post How to Take Part In a Twitter Chat appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Wed, 22 May 2013 19:30:46 +0000 |
“Coming Home” by Wisconsin student wins U.S. 2013 Doodle 4 Google competitionAfter 130,000 submissions and millions of votes cast, Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisc. has been named the 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google National Winner. Her doodle, “Coming Home,” will be featured on the Google homepage in the U.S. tomorrow, May 23.Students across all 50 states amazed us with their creative interpretations of this year’s theme, “My Best Day Ever...” From scuba diving to dinosaurs to exploring outer space, we were wowed by the ways young artists brought their best days to life in their doodles. Sabrina’s doodle stood out in the crowd; it tells the story of her reunion with her father as he returned from an 18 month deployment in Iraq. Her creative use of the Google letters to illustrate this heartfelt moment clearly resonated with voters across the country and all of us at Google. In addition to seeing her artwork on the Google homepage, Sabrina—who is in 12th grade at Sparta High School—will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook computer and a $50,000 technology grant for her school. She will attend Minneapolis College of Art and Design this coming fall, where she will continue her artistic pursuits. Congratulations Sabrina! In addition to the National Winner, voters across the country helped us determine the four National Finalists, who will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship: Grades K-3: Reagan Gonsalves (Grade 1, Santan Elementary School, Chandler, Ariz.) for her doodle “My best day ever is learning about nature.” Reagan says, “My best day ever is to be around the pretty animals and plants in nature, because I love to know about what is around me. I love to watch hummingbirds drink nectar out of flowers. I love to read books on nature and how plants and animals grow.” Grades 4-5: Audrey Zhang (Grade 4, Michael F. Stokes Elementary School, Levittown, N.Y.) for her doodle “...When I discover paradise!” Zhang says, “My best day ever will be when I discover paradise. In paradise, I could play with dragons, romp with leopards, and chat with fairies...It would be the best day ever when I could finally live in a mystical, dreamy realm.” Grades 6-7: Maria Iannone (Grade 7, Chestnut Ridge Middle School, Sewell, N.J.) for her doodle “The best day ever.” Maria says, “Where I live, it's difficult to view the night sky very well. Having an interest in astronomy, a day where I can observe the things I study on my own time would satisfy me.” Grades 8-9: Joseph Han (Grade 8, Falmouth Middle School, Falmouth, Maine) for his doodle “Late-afternoon bliss.” Joey says, “For me, ‘the best day ever’ doesn't consist of ambitious dreams, but rather the enjoyment of a day spent in carefree euphoria. Being in the woods is something that evokes such happiness in me. The lighthearted joy of rafting, fishing or catching fireflies is what I've attempted to capture.” After the awards ceremony, all 50 of our State Winners will unveil a special exhibition of their artwork at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where their doodles will be displayed for the public to view from May 22 - July 14. Thanks to all who voted and helped us select the 2013 Doodle 4 Google winners. Even more importantly, thank you to all of the students who submitted their artwork and the parents and teachers who continue to inspire and support their young artists. Until next year... happy doodling! Posted by Ryan Germick, Doodle Team Lead |
| Wed, 22 May 2013 09:32:00 +0000 |
Top Charts in Google Trends—The most searched people, places and thingsEver wonder what the world is searching for? With Google Trends, you can see what's hot right now, and also explore the history and geography of a topic as it evolves. Today you'll find new charts of the most-searched people, places and things in more than 40 categories, from movies to sports teams to tourist attractions. You'll also find a new colorful visualization of real-time Hot Searches.Top Charts—a new monthly "spirit of the times" Top Charts are lists of real-world people, places and things ranked by search interest. They show information similar to our Year-End Zeitgeist, but updated monthly and going back to 2004. To check them out, go to Google Trends and click "Top Charts" on the left-hand side. For example, you can see the 10 most-searched cities, movies and scientists in April: Top Charts includes more than 40 top 10 lists and more than 140 time periods. Hover on a chart for links to embed the chart in your own page or share on social media. Top Charts is built on the Knowledge Graph, so the data shows interest in real-world things, not just keywords. When you look at a chart of sports teams and you see the Golden State Warriors, those rankings are based on many different related searches, like [gs warriors], [golden state bball] and [warriors basketball]. That way you see which topics are most popular on Google Search, however people search for them. Top Charts provide our most accurate search volume rankings, but no algorithm is perfect, so on rare occasion you may find anomalies in the data. You can learn more about Top Charts in our Help Center. Hot Searches, now in hot colors In addition to Top Charts, now there's a vibrant new way to visualize trending searches as they happen. On the Trends homepage in the left-hand panel, you'll find a new link to "Visualize Hot Searches in full-screen." You’ll see the latest trending topics appear in a colorful display: You can customize the layout by clicking the icon in the upper-left corner and expanding it to see as many as 25 searches at a time. You can also pick any region currently supported by Hot Searches. Use fullscreen mode in your browser for the biggest, purest eye candy. ...and a few design updates We’re also continuing to spruce up our site. Among other things, now the homepage shows you more interesting stuff up front, and the search box is always available at the top: The new Trends homepage shows a list of today's Hot Searches. Enter search terms at the top to see search interest over time and by geography. We hope you enjoy bringing new stories to life with Google Trends. We love feedback, so please feel free to let us know what you think by posting online or by clicking "Send Feedback" at the bottom of any page in Google Trends. Posted by Roni Rabin, Software Engineer |
| Wed, 22 May 2013 08:00:00 +0000 |
Congratulations to the 2013 Google Anita Borg Memorial ScholarsDr. Anita Borg revolutionized the way we think about technology and worked to dismantle the barriers that keep women and minorities from entering the computing and technology fields. In her lifetime, Anita founded the Institute for Women and Technology (now The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology), began an online community called Systers for technical women, and co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. We’re proud to honor her memory through the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, established in 2004.Today we’d like to recognize and congratulate the 30 Google Anita Borg Memorial scholars and the 30 Google Anita Borg Memorial finalists for 2013. The scholars, who attend universities in the United States and Canada, will join the annual Google Scholars’ Retreat this summer in New York City, where they will have the opportunity to attend tech talks on Google products, network with other scholars and Googlers, participate in developmental activities and sessions, and attend social activities. This year, the scholars will also have the opportunity to participate in a scholars’ edition of 24HoursOfGood, a hackathon in partnership with local non-profit organizations who work on education and STEM initiatives to make progress against a technical problem that is critical to their organization’s success. Find out more (PDF) about our winners, including the institutions they attend. Soon we’ll select the Anita Borg scholars from our programs around the world. For more information on all our scholarships, visit the Google Scholarships site. Posted by Azusa Liu, Student Development Programs Specialist |
| Tue, 21 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000 |
Mario Testino to "The Scream" via Mark RothkoEvery day on the Art Project Google+ page we post a snippet of information about a painting, an artist or a talk—and every day, at least one of our 4 million followers has something to say in response. We’re constantly delighted by how the appetite for art online is growing and today we have a veritable feast in store with a swathe of fresh artworks, gigapixel paintings and museums on Street View.New artworks from the famous to the unusual Mario Testino is a world-famous photographer, known for his work in the fashion industry. Fewer people are aware of his photographs focusing on the culture of his native Peru. A new body of photographs called “Alta Moda” (high fashion), featuring Andean people in traditional and festive dress, is currently on display in Testino’s cultural institution, MATE. And for those of you not lucky enough to visit Lima, you can now see this collection of 27 photos online on the Google Art Project. In total, we have more than 1,500 new high-resolution artworks including masterpieces such as Monet’s “Waterlilies,” Rembrandt’s “Portrait of a Man in a Broad-Brimmed Hat” and Johannes Vermeer’s “The Geographer” (meaning Art Project now houses 15 of his 34 total works, all contributed by different museums). However, the diversity goes well beyond paintings; from ancestral relics used to worship the dead to an ancient Jinsha gold mask from China thought to have been worn by sorcerers. Often the old contrasts with the new, with inscribed Arabic gemstones existing alongside contemporary glass structures from Germany as you can see in this “Compare” image below. Zoom in to “gigapixel” paintings Gigapixel paintings—very high-resolution works which enable you to zoom in at brushstroke level—have long been at the heart of the Art Project. They’re a great example of the magic that can happen when technology meets art—and today we have 16 new ones to add, ranging from famous pieces like “The Scream” by Edvard Munch to those chosen by public vote such as “Whitewashing the Old House” by L.A. Ring. The beauty of gigapixels is their ability to surprise. Look at the painting “Fra Stalheim” by Johan Christian Dahl, shown in full on the left below. You’ll see a beautiful landscape. Zoom in, however, and you discover scenes within a scene—a village with smoking chimneys, a woman tending to her child, and cows grazing on the hillside. Details that can’t always be fully appreciated by the naked eye are brought to life online. Immerse yourself in Street View Through Street View and the Google Art Project, many museums have opened their galleries to the world the past few years, and today we’re launching 20 more. For example, Fondation Beyeler Museum in Switzerland houses a collection of seven Mark Rothko paintings. Now anyone in the world can virtually explore the collection. Of course art collections are not exclusively found in museums—we’re delighted to have our first monastery on Street View in the Art Project. The Monastery of St. John the Theologian on the Greek island of Patmos was founded in 1088 and is a World Heritage Site. In addition to their 116 contributed artworks, you can also explore the architectural splendors of this ancient building. Jump inside a whole range of beautiful buildings and corridors here by clicking on the orange pegman where it appears. In a week that celebrates International Museum Day, we’re glad to be able to showcase some of the great treasures held by museums and cultural institutions the world over. There are so many benefits to bringing more content online, be it discovering a new style of art or artist, creating your own gallery, stumbling across a hidden detail of a painting you thought you knew or simply being inspired by something beautiful. With more than 40,000 total works and 250+ cultural organisations around the globe, we hope the experience will be more enriching than ever. Posted by Marzia Niccolai, Google Art Project |
| Tue, 21 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000 |
How Google May Rank Web Sites Based on Quality RatingsGoogle was granted a patent this week that describes how web sites might be given quality ratings, based upon a model that looks at human ratings for a sample set of sites, and web site signals from those sites. The patent tells us that the advantage of such an approach would be to: Provide [...]The post How Google May Rank Web Sites Based on Quality Ratings appeared first on SEO by the Sea. |
| Thu, 16 May 2013 03:34:56 +0000 |
In Simple Words: How Facebook EdgeRank WorksOver the various updates Facebook has moved from a simple communication tool to something much larger, allowing users to have more control over their accounts. This includes their friends feed, which only shows a certain number of posts from friends that you can specify. All of this is worked out using EdgeRank, a site-specific algorithm [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post In Simple Words: How Facebook EdgeRank Works appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Wed, 15 May 2013 14:40:44 +0000 |
Live from Google I/O: Mo’ screens, mo’ goodnessThis morning, we kicked off the 6th annual Google I/O developer conference with over 6,000 developers at Moscone Center in San Francisco, 460 I/O Extended sites in 90 countries, and millions of you around the world who tuned in via our livestream. Over the next three days, we’ll be hosting technical sessions, hands-on code labs, and demonstrations of Google's products and partners' technology.We believe computing is going through one of the most exciting moments in its history: people are increasingly adopting phones, tablets and newer type of devices. And this spread of technology has the potential to make a positive impact in the lives of people around the world—whether it's simply helping you in your daily commute, or connecting you to information that was previously inaccessible. This is why we focus so much on our two open platforms: Android and Chrome. They enable developers to innovate and reach as many people as possible with their apps and services across multiple devices. Android started as a simple idea to advance open standards on mobile; today it is the world’s leading mobile platform and growing rapidly. Similarly, Chrome launched less than five years ago from an open source project; today it’s the world’s most popular browser. In line with that vision, we made several announcements today designed to give developers even more tools to build great apps on Android and Chrome. We also shared new innovations from across Google meant to help make life just a little easier for you, including improvements in search, communications, photos, and maps. Here’s a quick look at some of the announcements we made at I/O: Android & Google Play: In addition to new developer tools, we unveiled Google Play Music All Access, a monthly music subscription service with access to millions of songs that joins our music store and locker; and the Google Play game services with real-time multiplayer and leaderboards. Also, coming next month to Google Play is a special Samsung Galaxy S4, which brings together cutting edge hardware from Samsung with Google’s latest software and services—including the user experience that ships with our popular Nexus devices. Chrome: With over 750 million active users on Chrome, we’re now focused on bringing to mobile the speed, simplicity and security improvements that we’ve seen on the desktop. To that end, today we previewed next-generation video codec VP9 for faster video-streaming performance; the requestAutocomplete API for faster payments; and Chrome Experiments such as "A Journey Through Middle Earth" and Racer to demonstrate the ability to create immersive mobile experiences not possible in years past. Google+: We unveiled the newly designed Google+, which helps you easily explore content as well dramatically improve your online photo experience to give you crisp, beautiful photos—without the work! We also upgraded Google+ Hangouts—our popular group video application—to help bring all of your real-life conversations online, across any device or platform, and with groups of up to 10 friends. Search: Search has evolved considerably in recent years: it can now have a real conversation with you, and even make your day a bit smoother by predicting information you might need. Today we added the ability to set reminders by voice and we previewed “spoken answers” on laptops and desktops in Chrome—meaning you can ask Google a question and it will speak the answer back to you. Maps: Today we previewed the next generation of Google Maps, which gets rid of any clutter in order to put your individual experience and exploration front and center. Each time you click or search, our technology draws you a tailored map that highlights the information you need. From design to directions, the new Google Maps is smarter and more useful. Technology can have a profound, positive impact on the daily lives of billions of people. But we can’t do this alone—developers play a crucial role. I/O is our chance to come together and thank you for everything you do. Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps |
| Wed, 15 May 2013 11:48:00 +0000 |
Avoiding Misinformation While Learning from Search Related PatentsOn May 1st, Google’s Head of Webspam Matt Cutts published a video in his series of Google Webmaster Help videos, answering the question, “What’s the latest SEO misconception that you would like to put to rest?” For some reason, Matt decided to focus upon patents, with a video about people possibly placing too much faith [...]The post Avoiding Misinformation While Learning from Search Related Patents appeared first on SEO by the Sea. |
| Sun, 12 May 2013 20:24:06 +0000 |
How Google Decides What to Know in Knowledge Graph ResultsA transformation was triggered at Google with their announcement of the Knowledge Graph in the Official Google Blog post, Introducing the Knowledge Graph: things, not strings. That transformation was one less concerned with matching keywords, and more concerned with matching concepts, understanding entities, and bringing knowledge about entities to searchers in knowledge panels next to [...]The post How Google Decides What to Know in Knowledge Graph Results appeared first on SEO by the Sea. |
| Thu, 09 May 2013 10:15:43 +0000 |
A picture of Earth through timeToday, we're making it possible for you to go back in time and get a stunning historical perspective on the changes to the Earth’s surface over time. Working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME, we're releasing more than a quarter-century of images of Earth taken from space, compiled for the first time into an interactive time-lapse experience. We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public.Built from millions of satellite images and trillions of pixels, you can explore this global, zoomable time-lapse map as part of TIME's new Timelapse project. View stunning phenomena such as the sprouting of Dubai’s artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon and urban growth in Las Vegas from 1984 to 2012: Feel free to share these GIFs! More examples can be found on Google+. The images were collected as part of an ongoing joint mission between the USGS and NASA called Landsat. Their satellites have been observing earth from space since the 1970s—with all of the images sent back to Earth and archived on USGS tape drives that look something like this example (courtesy of the USGS). We started working with the USGS in 2009 to make this historic archive of earth imagery available online. Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data—to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year. As the final step, we worked with the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, recipients of a Google Focused Research Award, to convert these annual Earth images into a seamless, browsable HTML5 animation. Check it out on Google’s Timelapse website. Much like the iconic image of Earth from the Apollo 17 mission—which had a profound effect on many of us—this time-lapse map is not only fascinating to explore, but we also hope it can inform the global community’s thinking about how we live on our planet and the policies that will guide us in the future. A special thanks to all our partners who helped us to make this happen. Posted by Rebecca Moore, Engineering Manager, Google Earth Engine & Earth Outreach |
| Thu, 09 May 2013 04:20:00 +0000 |
We’re going live from Google I/ODevelopers today have the power to introduce powerful, breakthrough technologies to the world through their code. That’s why we look forward to bringing Google developers together year after year at Google I/O, our annual developer conference. In one week, we’ll welcome more than 6,000 developers to I/O through the doors of Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif.—and many more via our event’s live streams. If you’re looking for inspiration and want to learn more about the future of our products, we hope you’ll tune in to our live keynote and technical sessions.Starting on May 15 at 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC), join us as Google Developers Live (GDL) powers multiple channels of live streamed content from Google I/O on developers.google.com/io. On this page, you can: Stream the keynote on your computer, tablet or phone. Get in on the action, and listen to product and technology announcements straight from our teams. Live streaming will run on developers.google.com/io from 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC) to 7 p.m. PT (2:00 UTC) on May 15 and 16. Watch exclusive interviews with the Googlers behind the latest product announcements. This year, GDL will broadcast one-on-one product deep dives, executive interviews and Developer Sandbox walkthroughs from our onsite stage. Get the latest news in real time. We’ll post official announcements during I/O. You’ll be able to see the feed on the Google I/O homepage, in the I/O mobile app (coming soon), and on +Google Developers. Never miss a session. The keynote and all sessions will be recorded and made rapidly available on GDL and the Google Developers YouTube channel. Whether you’re joining us from the comfort of home for Google Developers Live at I/O or at an I/O Extended event, tune into developers.google.com/io at 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC) on May 15 for the latest from Google product teams. Add +Google Developers to your circles and follow #io13 to stay updated on official conference announcements and connect with the community. Posted by Mike Winton, Director of Developer Relations |
| Wed, 08 May 2013 15:33:00 +0000 |
More than 70 of the world’s languages in the blink of an eyeIf you took a quick snapshot of content available on the web, you might think that everyone around the world spoke English, Chinese, French or Spanish. But in fact, millions of people around the world speak an incredible array of languages that currently have a small presence across the web.Google Translate helps bridge the divide between the content available online and people’s ability to access that information. Starting today, you can translate another five languages using Google, which combined are spoken by more than 183 million people around the globe: Bosnian is an official language in Bosnia and Herzegovina that’s also spoken in regions of neighboring countries and by diaspora communities around the world. Cebuano is one of the languages spoken in the Philippines, predominantly in the middle (Visayas) and southern (Mindanao) regions of the nation. You can hear the Hmong language spoken in many countries across the world, including China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and throughout the United States. Javanese is the second most-spoken language in Indonesia (behind Indonesian), with 83 million native speakers. Marathi is spoken in India and has 73 million native speakers. Google Translate already supports several other Indian languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. With the exception of Bosnian, these new languages are “alpha,” meaning while the quality isn’t perfect, we will continue to test and improve them over time. You can access Translate via the web at https://translate.google.com, on your Android or iOS device, or via Chrome and in Gmail. We're excited to reach the 70+ language milestone, and we look forward to continuing to add more languages. Bosnian: Google Prevodilac sada podržava više od 70 jezika! Cebuano: Google sa Translate misuporta na karon sa kapin sa 70 ka mga! Hmong: Google Translate nim no txhawb nqa tshaj li 70 hom lus! Javanese: Google Translate saiki ndhukung luwih saka 70 basa! Marathi: Google भाषांतर आता 70 पेक्षा जास्त भाषांचे समर्थन करते! Posted by Sveta Kelman, Program Manager, Google Translate |
| Wed, 08 May 2013 05:00:00 +0000 |
Best Google JokesI make a lot of jokes about Bing, I have to admit it. The gist is that it is a wannabe search engine that will never make it as the number one choice. Unfair? Probably, but I would argue that 1) I don’t care, and 2) It is still the truth. Besides, it is not [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post Best Google Jokes appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Tue, 07 May 2013 15:15:46 +0000 |
Here's to the moms: Celebrate Mother's Day with GoogleAs both a daughter and a mom, Mother’s Day gives me the opportunity to tell my mom how much I appreciate, respect and admire her. It also reminds me to aspire to do my best for my own kids, just as my mom did for me. My best almost always begins with a hug.As families search for new ways to make the most important women in their lives feel extra special, we have some suggestions to help you celebrate your mom, or another great mom in your life. Visit our special page for Mother’s Day for gift ideas, to find local flower delivery options, and for tips on how to stay connected—and to just say “thank you.” We also encourage you to share your favorite photo or video of mom (or a note to mom) and tag your post with #HeresToTheMoms. Starting this week, you can also tune in to Mother's Day Google+ Hangouts from +AskMen, featuring editors from +Parenting.com that will provide you with creative ideas about how to make this a day your mom won’t forget. Join the Mother’s Day Guide Google+ community to ask questions and hear what others are planning. From all of us at Google, we wish moms everywhere a happy Mother’s Day! Posted by Sabrina Ellis, Director of Product Management, Google+, loving daughter, and proud mom of 11-year-old Vivian and 8-year-old Ryan |
| Tue, 07 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000 |
With Wavii, Did Google Acquire the Future of Web Search?Google acquired the company Wavii for a little more than $ 30 Million in April. There was some speculation that Wavii was an effort to match Yahoo’s purchase of Summly, which summarizes news from the Web. A Wavii app did do just that – acquired and summarized news from the Web. When Wavii [...]The post With Wavii, Did Google Acquire the Future of Web Search? appeared first on SEO by the Sea. |
| Tue, 07 May 2013 05:06:26 +0000 |
Marking a cultural shift in computing with EDSACComputing’s early days are full of stories about great technical leaps forward. But sometimes what matters most isn’t a shift in technology so much as a change in the way it is used. The “Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator” (EDSAC)—64 years old today—is a stellar example.Entry from log book marking the first day that EDSAC was in operation: “May 6th 1949. Machine in operation for first time. Printed a table of squares (0-99), time for programme 2 mins, 35 sec. Four tanks of battery 1 in operation”. Reproduced with kind permission of Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge EDSAC is noteworthy for marking the transition from “test to tool” in civilian computing. Maurice Wilkes, EDSAC’s designer, sought to build a multi-purpose, reliable workhorse that would bring unrivalled calculating power to University of Cambridge researchers. His aim wasn’t to be at the cutting edge of engineering; rather to be at the forefront of delivering a computer-powered general calculation service. Above all else, Wilkes wanted EDSAC to be a practical computer, useful and accessible to a wide range of researchers. Short film celebrating the work of EDSAC’s team, led by Maurice Wilkes, produced by Google In May 1949 EDSAC became the world’s first general purpose stored program computer to enter regular service, transforming scientific research at the University of Cambridge by making it possible to speedily tackle analyses of previously impractical scale, across disciplines as varied as astronomy, economics, biology and more. But EDSAC’s legacy stretches far further. Subroutines—a central tenet of programming today—were invented by David Wheeler to make it easier to program EDSAC by re-using lines of existing code. The world’s first computer science diploma had EDSAC as its foundation. The world’s first business computer was built with EDSAC as a prototype. Sadly, little remains physically of EDSAC today. That’s why a team of U.K. volunteers have embarked on an ambitious project to construct a working replica of the original EDSAC, in partnership with The National Museum of Computing. We’re delighted to support the EDSAC Rebuild Project, and we look forward to welcoming it back to regular service—as a reminder of the U.K.’s illustrious computing past. Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations |
| Mon, 06 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000 |
Google Acquires More Wearable Computing Glasses PatentsOne of the more interesting discussions about Google Glass I’ve seen recently was in a forum where one of the participants was describing his own homemade version of Google Glass, which he named “Flass” (if someone at Google happens to be reading this, you should send him a pair of Google Glass, just because.) What [...]The post Google Acquires More Wearable Computing Glasses Patents appeared first on SEO by the Sea. |
| Sun, 05 May 2013 01:05:25 +0000 |
Bridging the gaps with Street ViewRecently we sent our Street View cars driving through the historic seaport town of Kaliningrad (the modern name for Koenigsberg) in Russia as part of our quest to keep Google Maps comprehensive, accurate and useful. While there, we were reminded of a classic mathematical problem: the Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg.The mathematical problem posed an interesting challenge: find a route through Kaliningrad—which was once separated by the Pregel River—by crossing each of the seven bridges in town. The catch? One could only cross each bridge exactly once. This sketch shows the town’s original seven bridges in green (Source: Wikipedia) In 1735, Leonhard Euler, one of the most prolific mathematicians of all time and our recent Doodle subject, concluded that there was no solution to the problem because it was impossible to find a route that would cross each bridge only once. This famous problem and Leonhard Euler’s non-resolution paved the way for important discoveries in the field of mathematics including graph theory and topology. Fast forward 278 years to today where we still rely on Euler’s findings to calculate optimal driving routes for our Street View cars. We use sophisticated algorithms, based on graph theory, to determine the best route through a city or town—helping us capture all the images we need in the shortest amount of time. Though these algorithms are complex, in simple terms, it's equivalent to solving the problem of drawing a house without lifting your pen and never going over the same segment twice. Like this: (Source: Vincent Furnon, Google Operations Research Team) While the bridges of Koeningsberg may be one of Kaliningrad’s most famous landmarks, you can also explore other parts of this historic town with Street View—including the oldest building in the city, the Juditten Church, which was built before 1288, and King’s Gate, one of the city’s original six gates built during the 19th century. View Larger Map Today, it’s traditional for newly married couples to hang engraved padlocks on one of the original seven bridges of Koenigsberg In other words, leave the mathematics to the mathematicians and just enjoy the scenery with Street View! Posted by Daniele Rizzetto, Operations Manager, Street View |
| Fri, 03 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000 |
Bill’s Most Excellent Top 10 SEO RulesSomehow, in a Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure crossed with Michael Pollan’s Food Rules moment, I found myself typing out the following. No patents or whitepapers were involved in the creation of this post. One URL per Page In an ideal world, your site architecture should be set up so that search engine crawlers are [...]The post Bill’s Most Excellent Top 10 SEO Rules appeared first on SEO by the Sea. |
| Wed, 01 May 2013 21:47:52 +0000 |
Social Media and Society: The Good, The Bad and The UglySocial media sites have taken over our lives. It’s hard to even imagine that 10 years ago there was no Facebook or Twitter! 15 years ago people were actually waiting to hear from each other because even email wasn’t that common. How did social media actually influenced our life and the society in general? In [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post Social Media and Society: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Wed, 01 May 2013 12:50:40 +0000 |
The 2013 Doodle 4 Google state winners are in and it’s time for you to vote!Students from across the country sent in more than 130,000 doodles for our 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google competition. Today, we’re proud to share with you our 50 amazingly talented state winners. Exploring their “Best Day Ever...” from life down under to flying from planet to planet in outer space, we were wowed by the imaginations and talent of young aspiring artists from coast to coast.To reveal the local winners in all 50 states, we’ve sent Googlers to their schools, where they’re celebrating the winning artists along with their parents, classmates, teachers and friends. Now it’s time to make your voice heard. Starting today and through May 10, we’re inviting the public to vote for their favorite doodle from each of the five different grade groups. Your votes will determine the five national finalists, from which the national winner will be selected and announced at our May 22 awards ceremony in New York City. We’ll display the winning doodle on the Google homepage on May 23 for millions to see. In addition, you’ll be able to see all 50 doodles created by our state winners in person at a special exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City from May 22 to July 14. We’d like to send a special thank you to the parents, teachers and administrators who supported young artists and helped students across the country bring their “Best Day Ever” to life. We’ve loved looking at each and every entry that came in this year, and we hope you all enjoy the talent and creativity these 50 students have shared with us. Posted by Ryan Germick, Doodle Team Lead |
| Wed, 01 May 2013 05:00:00 +0000 |
Google Granted Patent on Mobile Machine LearningThat phone in your pocket is filled with applications, with sensors to measure movement and the world around us, with communications tools that put us in touch with work, home, family, friends, service providers and strangers. That phone in your pocket is poised to teach itself how to work better, based upon how you use [...]The post Google Granted Patent on Mobile Machine Learning appeared first on SEO by the Sea. |
| Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:57:06 +0000 |
Matt Harding: Around the world, one dance at a time with Google MapsToday is International Dance Day, a celebration of a universal art form that spans cultures and countries. But dancing isn’t just limited to holidays. Since 2003, Matt Harding has famously been dancing his way across the globe with people from all walks of life and sharing to millions on his YouTube channel. His mission is simple: Dance. Dance with everyone. Dance everywhere. Dance to spread joy.Matt’s journey began with a serendipitous, single dance step in Hanoi. While traveling through Southeast Asia, his friend encouraged him to dance for the camera—and he just kept dancing. At first, he was amused by the idea of capturing himself dancing in front of famous landmarks and in famous cities around the world. Since then, Matt’s videos have evolved beyond a single man dancing; his videos now focus on individuals that gather together to share in the fun of dance, as you can see in his 2012 YouTube film. The joy that goes into Matt’s work is apparent—and well documented. However, there’s also a fair amount of planning involved to choreograph his efforts. Matt relies on Google Maps for comprehensive, accurate and useful tools to execute and track his steps. Before he sets off on each adventure, Matt uses Google Maps to scout various locations. Using Street View and photos in Google Maps, he finds landmarks and points of interest around the globe that are prefect dance spots. For instance, he came across Piazza del Popolo while exploring Rome with Street View. These tools come in handy to help Matt choose a backdrop to highlight his assembly of exuberant, local dancers. Piazza del Popolo in Rome - View Larger Map Scouting is only part of the process. Once Matt has coordinated a group in a city, he helps everyone get to the designated destination by creating a customized My Map and sharing it with the participants so they can easily navigate to the planned meetup location. The end result is something everyone around the world can relate to. Follow Matt as he continues to travel the world on his site www.wherethehellismatt.com. Keep dancing! Posted by Dave Kim, Google Maps Marketing Manager |
| Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0000 |
Google Now on your iPhone and iPad, with the Google Search appMany of us can no longer imagine life without our smartphones. We use them for all sorts of things, like getting reminders of important calendar appointments (say, a first date), and driving directions to the Italian restaurant where your table for two awaits. Today, with the launch of Google Now on iPhone and iPad, your smartphone will become even smarter.Google Now is about giving you just the right information at just the right time. It can show you the day’s weather as you get dressed in the morning, or alert you that there’s heavy traffic between you and your butterfly-inducing date—so you’d better leave now! It can also share news updates on a story you’ve been following, remind you to leave for the airport so you can make your flight and much more. There’s no digging required: cards appear at the moment you need them most—and the more you use Google Now, the more you get out of it. Google Now for iPhone and iPad is available as part of the updated Google Search app. Together, Google Now and voice search will make your day run a little smoother. In addition to the handy cards in Google Now, the Google Search app still gives you instant answers to all your questions. Try tapping the microphone and speak to your phone—you’ll get quick answers spoken back to you. For example, ask Google, “Do I need an umbrella this weekend?” and you’ll get the forecast. Or ask “Who’s in the cast of ‘Oblivion’?” to decide if you want to see it. Voice Search is particularly handy on the go—try "Show me nearby pizza places" and you'll see a map of restaurants around you with directions, phone numbers, ratings and hours. Get the Google Search app with Google Now from the App Store. Drag it to the tray, open it, sign in and you’re ready to go. Posted by Andrea Huey, Engineer |
| Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:30:00 +0000 |
The Big Tent comes to WashingtonWhen we started holding our Big Tent events in London two years ago, we wanted to stir up lively conversation about some of the hot topics relating to the Internet and society. After all, the political meaning of a “big tent” is to attract diverse viewpoints to come together in one place. Since then, we’ve held more than 20 Big Tents on three different continents to debate issues ranging from arts and culture online to the economic impact of the web.Later today, the Big Tent is coming to Washington, D.C. for the first time. Along with our partner Bloomberg, we'll hear from some of the top names in media, government and the arts for discussions about one of the values we hold most dear: the right to free expression. Can free speech survive in the digital age? At a time when too many governments deny their citizens the right to dissent, we’ll ask if the Internet is reaching its promise of empowering people around the world. We’ll have sessions on the limits to free speech online, national security in the Internet age, and creativity and freedom on the web. Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt and senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond will be joined by a variety of speakers, including former U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales, deputy secretary of homeland security Jane Holl Lute, Bloomberg chief content officer Norman Pearlstine, former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, and Saudi Arabian comedian and YouTube star Omar Hussein. Things kick off at 1:30pm EDT today—you can watch the entire event on Bloomberg’s live stream and tune in to the Big Tent Google+ page for updates as the event unfolds. Later on, we’ll also upload video clips to the Big Tent YouTube channel. We hope you’ll join us for exciting conversations about how to best keep the Internet free and open. Posted by Susan Molinari, Vice President, Public Policy and Government Relations |
| Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:17:00 +0000 |
Two Googlers elected to the American Academy of Arts and SciencesOn Wednesday, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced its list of 2013 elected members. We’re proud to congratulate Peter Norvig, director of research, and Arun Majumdar, vice president for energy; two Googlers who are among the new members elected this year.Membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is considered one of the nation’s highest honors, with those elected recognized as leaders in the arts, public affairs, business, and academic disciplines. With more than 250 Nobel Prize laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners among its fellows, the American Academy celebrates the exceptional contributions of the elected members to critical social and intellectual issues. With their election, Peter and Arun join seven other Googlers as American Academy members: Eric Schmidt, Vint Cerf, Alfred Spector, Hal Varian, Ray Kurzweil and founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, all of whom embody our commitment to innovation and real-world impact. You can read more detailed summaries of Peter and Arun’s achievements below. Dr. Peter Norvig, currently director of research at Google, is known most for his broad expertise in computer science and artificial intelligence, exemplified by his co-authorship (with Stuart Russell) of the leading college text, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. With more than 50 publications and a plethora of webpages, essays and software programs on a wide variety of CS topics, Peter is a catalyst of fundamental research across a wide range of disciplines while remaining a hands-on scientist who writes his own code. Recently, he has taught courses on artificial intelligence and the design of computer programs via massively open online courses (MOOC). Learn more about Peter and his research on norvig.com. Dr. Arun Majumdar leads Google.org’s energy initiatives and advises Google on its broader energy strategy. Prior to joining Google last year, he was the founding director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), where he served from October 2009 until June 2012. Earlier, he was a professor of mechanical engineering as well as materials science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and headed the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has published several hundred papers, patents and conference proceedings. Find out more about Arun. Posted by Alfred Spector, Vice President, Engineering |
| Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:44:00 +0000 |
Transparency Report: More government removal requests than ever beforeThree years ago when we launched the Transparency Report, we said we hoped it would shine some light on the scale and scope of government requests for censorship and data around the globe. Today, for the seventh time, we’re releasing new numbers showing requests from governments to remove content from our services. From July to December 2012, we received 2,285 government requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content—an increase from the 1,811 requests to remove 18,070 pieces of content that we received during the first half of 2012.As we’ve gathered and released more data over time, it’s become increasingly clear that the scope of government attempts to censor content on Google services has grown. In more places than ever, we’ve been asked by governments to remove political content that people post on our services. In this particular time period, we received court orders in several countries to remove blog posts criticizing government officials or their associates. You can read more about these requests by looking at the annotations section of the Transparency Report. Of particular note were three occurrences that took place in the second half of 2012: There was a sharp increase in requests from Brazil, where we received 697 requests to remove content from our platforms (of which 640 were court orders—meaning we received an average of 3.5 court orders per day during this time period), up from 191 during the first half of the year. The big reason for the spike was the municipal elections, which took place last fall. Nearly half of the total requests—316 to be exact—called for the removal of 756 pieces of content related to alleged violations of the Brazilian Electoral Code, which forbids defamation and commentary that offends candidates. We’re appealing many of these cases, on the basis that the content is protected by freedom of expression under the Brazilian Constitution. Another place where we saw an increase was from Russia, where a new law took effect last fall. In the first half of 2012, we received six requests, the most we had ever received in any given six-month period from Russia. But in the second half of the year, we received 114 requests to remove content—107 of them citing this new law. During this period, we received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos containing clips of the movie “Innocence of Muslims.” While the videos were within our Community Guidelines, we restricted videos from view in several countries in accordance with local law after receiving formal legal complaints. We also temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya due to the particularly difficult circumstances there. We’ve also made a couple of improvements to the Transparency Report since our last update: We’re now breaking down government requests about YouTube videos to clarify whether we removed videos in response to government requests for violating Community Guidelines, or whether we restricted videos from view due to local laws. You can see the details by scrolling to the bottom of each country-specific page. We’ve also refreshed the look of the Traffic section, making it easier to see where and when disruptions have occurred to Google services. You can see a map where our services are currently disrupted; you can see a map of all known disruptions since 2009; and you can more easily navigate between time periods and regions. The information we share on the Transparency Report is just a sliver of what happens on the Internet. But as we disclose more data and continue to expand it over time, we hope it helps draw attention to the laws around the world that govern the free flow of information online. Posted by Susan Infantino, Legal Director |
| Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:17:00 +0000 |
SEO Terminology: Link Anchor Text Versus Linking to Name AnchorThe two terms sound incredibly similar, which gives the mistaken impression that they must be the same. I see many people getting confused when you are talking about name anchors… “Is this what we need to build links for?”… Ugh, no. The two are used for different functions entirely, and they have different tags used [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post SEO Terminology: Link Anchor Text Versus Linking to Name Anchor appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:16:10 +0000 |
Celebrating the 50th country on Street ViewWhether you're planning a summer vacation to visit the Colosseum or exploring potential neighborhoods for your next move, Street View gives you instant access to the places you want to see—even before you leave the house. We launched Street View in 2007 in five U.S. cities to give you what we called a “feet on the ground” experience and have since been growing the program to make it more comprehensive, accurate and useful for everyone.Today, we’ve reached 50 countries with the launch of Street View in Hungary and Lesotho and are significantly expanding our coverage in Poland and Romania, among other locations around the world. This is also the largest single update of Street View imagery we’ve ever pushed, including new and updated imagery for nearly 350,000 miles of roads across 14 countries. Now you can take a virtual stroll through the historic center of Budapest, right along the Danube (the river that carves the city in two). See the Hungarian Parliament building or the famous Chain bridge. View Larger Map Budapest, Lánchíd (Chain bridge) Other Hungarian treasures to be discovered include the Széchenyi thermal bath, the largest medicinal bath in Europe, as well as the wonders of Buda castle. Lesotho, an enclave surrounded by South Africa, is the only independent state that sits entirely 1,000m or more above sea level. Explore some of the mountainous imagery captured by our Street View cars, including the winding roads and lakes. View Larger Map Leribe District, Lesotho Other sights include the Lesotho Evangelical Church, which is one of Africa's oldest Protestant churches, founded in 1833 by missionaries from Paris, and the traditional architecture in Nkesi, Maseru. We’re also refreshing and expanding existing Street View coverage in France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. And, we’ve added new special collections of a host of picturesque spots—using our Street View Trike technology—including Portugal’s Pena National Palace, or the Sha Tin Che Kung Temple in Hong Kong or the Kilkenny Castle in Ireland. View Larger Map Kilkenny Castle, Ireland From the first handful of U.S. cities, to the now thousands of cities and villages worldwide, we’ve spent the past six years updating Google Maps for you. From Antarctica to Australia, from South Korea to South Africa, from the snow-capped peaks of Everest to the Great Barrier Reef, you can navigate more than 5 million miles of the world, without ever leaving home. So spin the globe and take a walk through any one of the 50 countries now on Street View. Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Program Manager, Google Street View |
| Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0000 |
A new kind of summer job: open source coding with Google Summer of CodeIf you’re a university student with CS chops looking to earn real-world experience this summer, consider writing code for a cool open source project with the Google Summer of Code program.Over the past eight years more than 6,000 students have “graduated” from this global program, working with almost 400 different open source projects. Students who are accepted into the program will put the skills they have learned in university to good use by working on an actual software project over the summer. Students are paired with mentors to help address technical questions and concerns throughout the course of the project. With the knowledge and hands-on experience students gain during the summer they strengthen their future employment opportunities in fields related to their academic pursuits. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all. Interested students can submit proposals on the website starting now through Friday, May 3 at 12:00pm PDT. Get started by reviewing the ideas pages of the 177 open source projects in this year’s program, and decide which projects you’re interested in. Because Google Summer of Code has a limited number of spots for students, writing a great project proposal is essential to being selected to the program—be sure to check out the Student Manual for advice. For ongoing information throughout the application period and beyond, see the Google Open Source blog, join our Summer of Code mailing lists or join us on Internet relay chat at #gsoc on Freenode. Good luck to all the open source coders out there, and remember to submit your proposals early—you only have until May 3 to apply! Posted by Stephanie Taylor, Open Source team |
| Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:15:00 +0000 |
In support of a national STEM Teacher CorpsLast year, while hosting the White House Science Fair, President Obama said, “If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.” We agree—and we think the best science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers who inspire those young people should be honored and supported as well.That’s why Google and our partner organizations support a national STEM Teacher Corps to acknowledge the great teachers who help students achieve amazing things in the fields of science and technology. We’re excited that the President has recommended funding for a STEM Teacher Corps in his budget (PDF). Today we’re co-publishing a white paper (PDF) with Math For America and the Broad Institute that outlines some of the key features of such a corps. We gathered input from more than 80 organizations to make recommendations for a program that will reward teachers and schools with significant stipends, foster a community of teachers empowered to make broad improvements in STEM education, and recognize a larger percentage of teachers than any existing recognition program. We must do more to retain the best teachers so our students have the opportunity to succeed in these growing fields, and we applaud the many organizations already working to elevate and celebrate the top STEM teachers nationwide. We look forward to continuing to support the development of the STEM Teacher Corps and doing our part to ensure that every student has access to truly great STEM teachers. Posted by Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Head of K-12 Education Outreach and Nancy Lee, Director of People Operations |
| Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000 |
Following the lead of nature’s engineersIt’s no surprise that Google appreciates engineers. And this Earth Day, we’re looking at some of our favorite engineers from nature to see how they can teach us to treat the environment better. We’ve created a website where we can see the beauty and ingenuity of the natural world through photos from National Geographic. We also want to provide easy ways to be greener in our own lives, so this site shows us how we can all be like those organisms by taking simple actions to care for the environment.For instance, until recently I’d never heard of a remora. Turns out that these fish latch on to other ocean creatures such as whales and turtles to catch rides. In a way, these fish are using their own form of mass transit. To be like the remora and travel with a lighter footprint, we can plan trips using rapid transit. Or we can be inspired by bears—the true experts on “sleep mode”—to save energy in our own lives by adjusting our home thermostat and using energy efficient appliances. Our doodle today also acknowledges the interconnections of the natural world. You can interact with elements of the environment to affect the seasons, weather and wildlife. As another way to move from awareness to action, we’re hosting a Google+ Hangout On Air series focused on pressing environmental issues. We’ll kick it off today at 12pm ET with a Hangout on Air connecting NASA (live from Greenland), National Geographic explorers from around the world, and Underwater Earth (live from the Great Barrier reef). Throughout the week, we’ll hold daily Hangouts on Air covering topics such as clean water and animal conservation. This Earth Day and every day, let’s take a moment to marvel at the wonder of nature and do our part to protect the natural ecosystem we all depend on. A salute to nature’s engineers! Posted by Erin Reilly, Google Green team |
| Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:56:00 +0000 |
Happy birthday Campus London. You’ve grown up so fast.Just over 12 months ago, Campus London opened its doors to the young, upcoming London tech startup community. I’d like to think we always knew it would succeed, but I don’t think any of us expected the level of engagement and enthusiasm we’ve seen in year one.In just 365 days of operation, Campus now has more than 10,000 members, permanently houses more than 100 young companies and has hosted more than 850 events, attracting more than 60,000 guests through the door. From individual entrepreneurs looking to explore their back-of-a-napkin idea to global venture fund managers, there’s something for everyone in the London tech scene at Campus, and the vibe is electric. We asked Campus members to provide their feedback and outlook on year one, and their response has been overwhelmingly positive. Campus-based companies are growing and creating jobs. One in four are already looking to find bigger office spaces to house their growing teams. We’ve also seen that the success of the London technology startup community as a whole has mirrored that of Campus. Campus members are younger than the average Tech City entrepreneur, and with initiatives like Women@Campus, increasingly more female entrepreneurs are signing up. Campus is also truly international, with 22 nationalities working, interacting and attending the many mentoring sessions and classes we and our Google volunteers run every day. Looking ahead to the next year and beyond, we’re offering even more: more globally-acclaimed speakers, a new Campus EDU education programme offering mentorship from Googlers, inspirational talks from thought leaders like Guy Kawasaki, Eric Schmidt and Jimmy Wales, and a curriculum of classes to develop the skills young startups need to build successful businesses. Google started as a two-person startup in a garage in California. We’re looking to provide the best possible garage to our 10,000 members every day. And so far, all indicators show that Campus is one of the most exciting places in the world for technological innovation. Posted by Eze Vidra, Head of Campus |
| Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000 |
Expanding options for companies to buy renewable energyWe’re always looking for ways to expand the use of renewable energy. To date we’ve committed more than $1 billion to renewable energy project investments, signed agreements to procure wind power near our data centers, and installed solar panels at our corporate headquarters.It’s also important to work directly with our utility partners to find solutions that will make more renewable energy available for us and for others. The most straightforward way to do this is for utilities to offer a renewable power option for companies that request it—something that’s not currently offered by most utilities. We’ve just published a white paper (PDF) laying out our thoughts on how and why such programs might work. We’re also announcing our first effort to put this idea into practice. We’re expanding our Lenoir, N.C. data center, and our local electricity provider, Duke Energy, has pledged to develop a new program for large companies like Google who want to buy renewable power for their operations. Duke will file the plan with their state commission within 90 days. Our Lenoir, N.C. data center Offering companies like Google a renewable energy option has many advantages. Because the service is made available to a wide range of customers, companies that don’t have the ability or resources to pursue alternative approaches can participate. And by tapping utilities’ strengths in power generation and delivery, it makes it easier for companies to buy renewable energy on a larger scale. Of course, the approach is not without its challenges: utilities will need to work out the mechanics of the service within their local regulatory structure, and in many cases state utility commissions will need to approve the programs. There’s also the challenge of finding cost-effective renewable projects. We'll continue to find creative ways to supply our facilities with renewable energy, but we think this solution can provide an important new way to increase the use of renewable energy nationwide. We look forward to working with utilities, state utility commissions, companies and other stakeholders to make it a reality. Posted by Gary Demasi, Director, Global Infrastructure |
| Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:30:00 +0000 |
Bringing Google+ Comments to BloggerReading and responding to comments can be one of the most rewarding aspects of blogging. Not only do they help you connect with your readers, they can also inspire later blog entries. The challenge, oftentimes, is following all the conversations around your content—on Google+, for instance, as well as on your website. So we're making things a lot simpler.Starting today, you can bring Google+ Comments to your Blogger blog. Once you've enabled the feature through your Blogger Dashboard, you'll enjoy a number of important benefits: View your blog and Google+ comments, all in one place Now when you're browsing your blog's comment threads, you'll see activity from direct visitors, and from people talking about your content on Google+. For example, if there's a public Google+ discussion about one of your blog entries, those comments and replies will also appear on your Blogger blog. This way you can engage with more of your readers, all in one place. Help readers comment and connect with their circles Your blog readers will now have the option to comment publicly, or privately to their circles on Google+. And when they're browsing blog comments, they can view all of them, just the top ones, or only those from the people in their circles. In all cases, you and your readers will only see the comments you have permission to see. Giving people these kinds of controls not only encourages more meaningful sharing—it can lead to more blog traffic. To get started with Google+ Comments, just visit the Google+ tab of your Blogger Dashboard, and check “Use Google+ Comments.” (Older comments will continue to appear in the new widget.) You can also visit any post on the Official Google Blog (like this one), or on Blogger Buzz (like this one), to see Google+ Comments in action. Happy commenting! Posted by +Yonatan Zunger, Principal Engineer |
| Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:08:00 +0000 |
Ray Kurzweil Brings Poetry to GoogleEarlier this week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in a panel presentation on the future of SEO, in Raleigh, North Carolina. The event was the first Digital Marketing for Business Conference (and it was filled with some great sessions). The presentation wasn’t a PowerPoint and pitter-patter type talk. Instead, I [...]The post Ray Kurzweil Brings Poetry to Google appeared first on SEO by the Sea. |
| Thu, 18 Apr 2013 01:29:55 +0000 |
Google’s “Firsts”Oh, Google…it has grown up so fast. It seems like only yesterday it was a tiny project launched by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It went from a single search engine to the largest internet conglomerate in the world, dominating the web entirely. They have their hand in social media and networking, shopping, travel, academia…really, [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post Google’s “Firsts” appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:35:45 +0000 |
What NOT to Use Google Search ForGoogle Search is one of the most used tools on the internet. If you expand it to all of Google’s services, it is definitely the primary powerhouse of the web, They seem to have their hand in almost everything, and what they don’t yet control they are probably trying to find a way to. It [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post What NOT to Use Google Search For appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:34:04 +0000 |
5 Funniest Pinterest ParodiesPinterest is quickly becoming one of the most popular social media sites ever made. It is unique in its design and was the first true hit for the social photo format. Imitators have come and gone, and many others exist with less success. Even the demographic is shifting from being almost entirely women to including [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post 5 Funniest Pinterest Parodies appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:13:29 +0000 |
Where Google+ Failed and Where It SucceededFor years Google was trying to break into the social media scene. They spent time, energy and funds into launching their own versions, which always managed to crash and burn almost as soon as they were released. Most of us have witnessed these failures first hand, and if you want a refresher course just check [...]Author informationAnn SmartyCommunity Manager at Internet Marketing NinjasAnn Smarty is the pro blogger and guest blogger, social media enthusiast.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post Where Google+ Failed and Where It Succeeded appeared first on SEO Chat. |
| Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:38:39 +0000 |
SEO experts should be grateful to Google...Why does Google continually change the face of SEO? This makes the SEO field very difficult to master, so why should SEO experts be grateful? Why would Google want to continually change the face of SEO? Surely it is in Googles interest to be transparent and to let people know what to do to get to the top. Google have an interest in providing high quality search results (i.e. good relevant search results). However, Google don't do this because they are nice people (though I am sure that they are). Google is a company, a business, an enterprise and their primary interest like any other business is to make money for shareholders. Google's main revenue stream is paid for advertising and they make an enormous amout of money out of this advertising! Therefore, Google continually strives to increase the revenue from advertising and Google search is the primary vehicle with which to achieve this. As long as there is a secret element to the Google algorithm and as long as this Google algorithm changes, Google have the control they need to be able to sell more adverts. This will always be the case. This approach also keeps good SEO experts in business because the only way to keep up with changes is to do this as a full time, dedicated occupation and there is a huge amount of work just keeping up and rolling out the changes. Site owners therefore have little option other than to pay for adverts or employ a competent SEO person if they want to be found on the web. The roll out of the Panda update was a clear example of Google flexing its muscles and changing the SEO space. Also, the strong suggestion that agility to change is key and that site owners need to keep up with the continual changes Google is making proves that change is here to stay and there will never be a 'perfect algorithm' (even if it was possible). Clinton Dickerson Co-Founder of CreatorSEO and myinfo.ie |
| Wed, 09 May 2012 22:13:49 +0000 |
Does more web traffic lead to higher ranking?The question is whether having more traffic to your site leads to an improved search engine ranking (SERP) on the major search engines (Google and Bing in particular). My initial impression is that higher traffic to a website suggests: that there is more interest in the site; that the site is considered to be relevant; that there are more incoming links to the site. However, to complete the picture, the bounce rate also should be considered. Higher bounce rate implies that visitors are less interested in the site or perhaps that the site is not all that it is made out to be. Therefore if higher traffic is a positive indication, then this needs to be offset by bounce rate (or something similar). Then of course, more traffic may be due to the successful efforts of the SEO team to optimise the site. If this is the case and traffic leads to improved SERP, then we have a 'chicken and egg' situation where the number of visits is related to the ranking which is related to the optimisation which is related to the ranking and so on... If traffic is important then we also need to consider how the search engines would measure this traffic and this bounce rate. If the web site does not have Google Analytics installed, then can even Google get these measures? Taking all of this into account, I can only conclude that web traffic has little or no impact on search engine ranking. |
| Wed, 09 May 2012 22:05:40 +0000 |
DMOZ - what is wrong with the Open directory?DMOZ or the open directory was intended to organise the web. This directory is owned by Netscape, maintained by a community of volunteer editors and was reported to be 'supported' by Google. The submission rules for getting listed on DMOZ are strict and while it may be considered to be good for SEO to be listed on the Open Directory, it can be very difficult to be get listed in the appropriate category on DMOZ. In recent years, there has even been the suggestion that DMOZ has become insignificant and is of little value to SEO. So what happened? Initially Google 'supported' DMOZ by using information and links on DMOZ to supplement the Google search database. There even was the belief that listing on DMOZ is a factor in the Google ranking algorithm. Consequently, website owners considered getting listed on DMOZ to be essential for search engine ranking position (SERP). In 2000 Google created its own directory and used DMOZ as the main source for the Google directory however, a decade later (late 2010), the Google directory was shut down and Google stopped supporting directory search. The impact of being listed on DMOZ for SERP diminished and as Google is by far the primary player in the search sphere, DMOZ became less relevant. Aside from SERP, have you ever tried to be listed? It can take years to be listed on a more popular category even if this is the most appropriate category for your site. This is especially the case if the editor doesn't take the volunteering task seriously or is overwhelmed by the number of listing requests received. Therefore, the 'volunteer' nature of the editors of DMOZ is most likely to be the biggest contributor to the loss of popularity of DMOZ and may ultimately lead to its demise. The ratio of websites to volunteers has increased over the years and inclusion requests can easily become burried in the editors inbox. Web site owners are likely to give up on submitting their sites if these are never listed and if DMOZ is unable to keep up with the new sites and newer more relevant sites are not listed quickly, then DMOZ itself becomes nothing more than a huge list of sites that is difficult to search and is not entirely relevant. Is this a real effect? Visitors to a site are always a good indicator of the popularity of the site and it is fair to say that a reduction in the number of visits is a good indication of a loss of popularity. Alexa provides a number of metrics that you can access for any site including DMOZ (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/dmoz.org). Below is a chart from Alexa showing the estimated percentage of visits to DMOZ from a search engine. If you don't like this metric, try the other options on DMOZ. Either way, you are likely to come to the same conclusion, namely that DMOZ is becoming less popular. The bottom line... The bottom line for me is that, whether or not DMOZ is important for ranking, the effort in chasing a ranking is not worth the return for SEO and therefore, I therefore consign DMOZ to the waste of time SEO bin after the first submission. What can be done? DMOZ needs to re-discover itself. It needs to find better more efficient ways of getting sites listed. If the human volunteer part of getting listed on DMOZ is to remain, then there needs to be more humans, better vetting tools, and improved checks on the volunteer editors. There needs to be visible metrics for each submission category. How about a measure of how many days on average for a site to be listed and/or the number of outstanding submissions. In the new web world where engaging with people is central to any web experience, DMOZ needs to find some way of interacting / engaging with users and giving more than just some obscure listing somewhere in a mammoth database. |
| Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:24:15 +0000 |
An improved perception for SEOBased on comments from a number of website owners and people who were unfortunate enough to have had bad experiences with SEO consultants, I believe that many potential clients are doubtful of the value of SEO to their businesses. No doubt this stigma attached to SEO has arisen from consultants who: Sell themselves as SEO experts but have little knowledge or understanding or Use 'black hat' or dubious techniques to increase their clients ranking or Promise more than they can deliver or Hide behind SEO being a 'black art' rather than a process or Claim for more hours than they spend. This bad perception of SEO does little to help the SEO professionals who do not fit into any of the categories above. How then can we change this perception? Is there some way of exposing the fraudulent SEO practitioners? Do we need to create a new name for SEO? or is it all about educating the client base? |
| Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:48:22 +0000 |
Top 5 SEOEveryone who has an insight into SEO has an opinion as to what are the best 5 things you can do to improve your Search Engine ranking. I believe that any top 5 must not be absolute and should be defined in relation to the family of sites that are under consideration. For example, the top 5 SEO techniques for newly launched private web sites will be very different from the top 5 for well established sites in a very competitive business market. Why the top 5 and not top 10, 20 or more? I believe that optimisation should be done in bite sized chunks and 5 is my 'bite size'. So, these are my top 5 techniques for newly launched sites (Part 1). In subsequent articles, I will provide part 2 for new sites and will deal with other families of web site. Before you start... Before you can optimise any page on a site, you need to spend some time deciding which words or phrases you want the to achieve a high ranking on. Don't only think about single words, think about search phrases because people search on phrases and it is easier to rank on phrases than individual words. Try to find 3 or 4 phrases for each page. Top 5 techniques (New Web Sites - Part 1) Use the title tag While tags are not directly visible and there is a lot of debate over the use of keyword tags, the title tag is one of the most important components on the web page. The title tag is visible as the heading on the browser tag and the title tag is used by search engines to determine the topic of the page. Make sure that the title tag is distinct for each page on the site and ensure that the title tag is pertinent to the content on the page. Also, make sure that your most important keyword is included in the title tag. Optimise your page content The content on the page contains the words that search engines will use to index the site and to determine a ranking for the page in terms of these words. Consequently the relevance of the words, the word frequency, the proximity of different words to each other and msot important the position of the words on the page are factors that need to be considered when developing content for the page. While it is important to develop your content with these factors in mind, you should not optimise your pages for search engines, they must be optimised for your target audience. Don't put too much information on the page If your page gets too long, split it. Think of the page as a container. If you keep the contents of each container clearly defined, it will be much easier to find what you want in all your containers. The same applies for search engines. If you find that it is difficult to restrict yourselt to only 4 key phrases, and you feel that you need more key terms or phrases then it is likely that you have too much on the page. Too much information is likely to dilute your key messages which then may lead to a lower ranking for all your key terms. Include links to and from your site Include links to authorative sites from your page where this is pertinent. Also try to get yous site referenced from other sites. However be careful not to use link farms of dubious sites that are prepared to link to you. You could even be penalised if you have too many 'bad sites' that link to your page. The value of the incoming link is only as good as the site that the link is coming from, so try to get authorative links. One approach to getting good links is to write articles or blogs on other unrelated sites and to reference (link back) your page from these articles or blogs. Bear in mind, when you link out from your page, you sould set the target to a new page so that you do not take your reader away from your page. Avoid any black-hat techniques Developing page content primarily for search engines is likely to lead to black hat techniques. Black hat techniques include repeating words too often (keyword stuffing or keyword spamming); invisible text on the page containing keywords; fake pages that transfer the user to some unintended location. Don't be tempted by black hat techniques because these can penalise of disqualify a site from the major search engines. |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:59:00 +0000 |
SEO - Survival of the fittestEvery company, society, club or even individual now wants to have a web presence. Setting up a basic site can be quick, easy and cheap (if you want a static site). All this is fine until you want to be found on the web. This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes into the frame. There are some basics of SEO that can be achived as a DIY job and there are various tools on the web that can help to achieve this. This initial SEO can be cheap costing the webmaster only his time and effort and the initial rewards can be quite good. ...but herein lies the problem... If everyone is trying to improve their ranking and if this is cheap and easy then most site owners will put in the time and the effort to do the initial optimisation. Basic SEO then becomes the norm and you have to at least meet the these basics before you can improve your ranking. So, if you want to improve further, you have to use more advanced tools and techniques to climb the search engine ranking ladder but other people will also be competing for these rankings and will be doing the same thing and as soon as they see their ranking dropping, they will do something to further optimise their site. I think you can see where I am going... Search Engine Optimisation is a competition, you have to understand your competitors, you have the best tools available to you at the time, you have to spend the time to improve, you need to monitor your performance and most important you have to see this as a competition and you have to have the will to win! This is what the group "More than SEO" on LinkedIn is all about. The group doesn't preclude basic SEO, but it builds on the basics to advise those that WANT TO SURVIVE ON THE WEB. |
| Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:21:36 +0000 |
Comment on Dynamic Website - the SEO starting pointCost of ownership is not always what it seems at first sight - is it? |
| Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:00:04 +0000 |
Dynamic Website - the SEO starting pointAll too often businesses choose a static web site because it is easy to find a designer to create the site; static sites are generally quite cheap; and turn around time for creating a static site is usually quite short. Often the new start-up company doesn't even need to pay much for a tailored design because the standard designs offered by the static site developers are usually quite good. So you add a logo, choose some colours and away you go. So why are static sites cheap and why are there so many vendors out there? On of the primary factors is the software available to people for creating static sites. Most of the available software packages are extremely powerful and are easy to use. The user can quickly learn to create a site with little or now knowledge of programming or of the web building blocks like HTML and CSS not to mention programming languages like PHP or JavaScript etc. So to become a static site designer, the person only has to purchase the software or find some free software (like Netobjects Fusion 10) and go on a short 1-2 day course. Then a bit of trial and error and yet another static site developer can offer their services at a very good rate. As a customer, this has to sound great, cheap, quick off the mark and a site looks good. So everyone is happy, what could be the problem? To answer this, first you need to consider what the purpose of a web site is. There are many answers to this, but some of the main reasons must be: to advertise your business on the internet; to be found on search engines; and to communicate product information, company news etc. to customers or prospective customers. So far so good, the static site looks great on day 1 and meets all these criteria. However, 'static' means you can't change the content on the site without going back to the developer. So every time you want to make a change you need to pay the developer. Usually this is the same developer who created the site because the developer wants to hold onto your business and ties you in by keeping the code, so you can't get someone else to update the site for you. The developer effectively owns your site, you are stuck with your developer and you have to pay for any changes. Next you discover that you aren't featuring very well in searches (i.e. your site does not appear on the first page of the main search engines). When you explore this further you discover the art of SEO (search engine optimisation) and the importance of relevant content, good keywords and appropriate meta data. You discover that content needs to be up to date and that you need to continually make small changes the information on your pages. You will no doubt come across software like CreatorSEO (http://www.creatorseo.com) that point you in the right SEO direction and identify changes to the meta data and to the keywords. Also, this software analyse your competitors to find out why they rank better on the search engines and the changes you need to make to your content to compete better. So you have to go to the developer again. You then find that the changes will be delayed because the developer has to maintain hundreds of these cheap sites to break even. So your changes are in a queue and you are at the mercy of the developer. Of course you may be able to pay to get a quicker turn-around on any changes or to jump the queue. I think that you may be getting the picture now... the cheap static site is not so cheap anymore and more importantly, it does not serve your needs as well as it should unless of course you want a site that is no more than a static advertising board for your business. A solution presents itself in the form of a dynamic site, also known as a content management systems (or CMS). In it's simplest form, a content management system allows you easily and quickly to manage the content of your web pages. The developer is needed only in the initial implementation of the site to create the overall structure, layout and style. Thereafter you are in control. You can make changes directly by logging in to the site mad making changes that will be immediately visible to anyone visiting the site. There are a large number of content management systems available like Joomla, Drupel and CreatorWWW (http://www.creatorwww.com) that can be configured to meet any site design. The creation and implementation of the site will be relatively more expensive than a static site because the developer has to do more work. There are database tables to set up on the host computer and the developer needs to have a good understanding of the building block of the web, like HTML, style Sheets (CSS). The developer also needs to have a knowledge of the programming language used to drive the content management system if he or she is to be able to configure the site to meet your needs. However, the good news is that once the site is in place, you can take ownership of the site and the content and can influence the effectiveness of your web for reaching your customers. In short, my advice to you is that think twice before paying for a static site. It is always better to pay a little more initially for a dynamic site and then take control of your site. |
| Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:54:51 +0000 |
Submitting to GoogleDoes submitting to Google effect your rankings negatively? If it does why is it not used to gain a competitive advantage: submit your competitors? JR |
| Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:29:35 +0000 |
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