Google has introduced a way that makes search even faster. But what effect will it have on online advertisers and SEO?

Google instant is faster

Google instant allows users to see results as they’re typing. Each letter and word triggers its own list of results. The user no longer has to hit “enter,” and can click on any of the links as soon as they appear on the screen. Google has been using the feature as a way to improve productivity, and claims the new system will save between two and five seconds per search. Combine all the searches done by Google in the world, and you have about 11 hours that are saved every second of every day. Not bad, for a company that’s looking to make search as efficient as possible.

Tangent browsing and the long tail

“Updating the search results in real-time will also result in more tangent browsing — that is, users stumbling upon results they may not have set out to find originally,” explained Daniel Yomtobian, CEO of Advertise.com.
“This would result in an overall increase of impressions and potentially ad clicks,” Yomtobian told the E-Commerce Times. “In terms of how this will affect online advertising, I believe it will generate more search and click volumes, making Google’s already overpriced bid landscape even more competitive.”

This could mean bad news for businesses. A small change from Google can make or break an online business. Jonny Cooper, SEO Executive of telegraph.co.uk said, “In this case, however, the worry is misguided, for while Instant changes the engine’s interface, it leaves untouched Google’s core system for deciding relevant results. Type in ‘red striped socks’ to instant Google and static Google (it’s still available) and you’ll arrive at the same list of results. With Google Instant you’ll whizz through results for ‘red’ and ‘red stripe’ first, but as these produce listings on the DVD rental company Redbox and Red Stripe beer, they’re unlikely to hinder SEOs titling for the term ‘red striped socks’.”

Because the feature will shave off long-tail search requests — that is, search requests that are a phrase or sentence as opposed to a few words — the more commonly used search terms will become even more competitive, and prices will rise, said Sean Cook, CEO of ShopVisible.

First page or bust

“The other thing this will do is drive the importance on being on page one search results,” he noted. “You have an impatient audience that wants instant gratification. So if someone is getting consecutive results coming up as he types, he will opt for the first things he sees that look reasonably relevant.”

The future-hard to tell

Not everyone thinks that Google instant will mean less money for advertisers and more money for Google’s already huge pocket, but the truth of the matter is we just don’t know what the future holds.

“I don’t think we have enough information and understanding about the market to make these conclusions,” said Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Market Intelligence.

“It may be that this leads to more page views and more impressions and more clicks,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “Or it could be that we get fewer clicks on paid search links as more people click on the organic search links.”

Following the President’s address, YouTube is giving viewers a chance to interact with the White House. There will be a Q & A session from queries submitted on YouTube during the day.

Here’s how it works: Before the address, you submit a question. Everyone gets to vote their favorite questions to the top. The questions with the most votes will be discussed by Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, following the President’s address.

Submit or view questions on the White House’s YouTube channel sometime today, or view the President’s address about the war in Iraq this evening at 8pm EST.

The video will be saved to YouTube’s CitizenTube, YouTube’s news and politics blog, for future viewing for those who miss it tonight and those who want to watch it again later.

This isn’t the first time that the President has addressed viewers in this manner. He used the medium a few months ago to discuss the Gulf oil spill with Americans. If the trend continues, YouTube may become a sort of easy-access archive for presidential addresses and other important videos in our nation’s history.

These live streaming videos seem to signify a significant shift in the government’s presence in the lives of the American public. Social media marketing services are the latest tools the White House is using to communicate with the American people. President Obama’s take on social media since the beginning of his presidential campaign suggests that Facebook and YouTube won’t be the end of his online social expansion in behalf of the White House.

A few months ago a close friend of mine passed away. I decided it was my duty to contact several of our mutual friends and inform them of this tragedy. So I logged onto Facebook to look up a someone I knew that would have more details about the death, funeral arrangements and other things that people would want to know.

I was surprised to see my friends picture on the news feed when I logged on with some action on his wall. He had passed away less than 24 hours ago and there was already over 30 comments on his wall. All the comments were very kind, most of which were goodbyes, remember whens and a discussion going on about his passing and what friends and family can do to help. In affect his Facebookwall had become a memorial forum about him.

This experience caused me to contemplate whether or not I thought deceased people’s Facebook or other social media accounts becoming memorials is a good or bad thing. I was also curious where a company like google, places this on there list of important issues to deal with. In my friends case it was by far a positive thing, and I believe his family was probably fine with it.

On the other side I can see how this could be very difficult. There are people who pass away who likely have some not so compassionate acquaintances/ enemies that could try and use Facebook to defame the deceased. Another thing that is a little eerie is when someone who has died is suggested to you as a friend, or worse if someone who knows there password logs on as them and you see activity on their account.

I have been scouring the web to find out what Facebook’s official stance is and I have found a lot of contradicting info. Some say that Facebook does not really want to mess with this at all because it is so dicey. It appears at least if you wish for the account to be deleted you can present Facebook with a copy of a certificate of death. This will probably become a more prevalent issue since the fastest rising demographic of Facebook users are 65 and older.

Something cool that I did find online is a new site called 1000Memories which creates a location for friends and family to memorialize someone by sharing pictures and stories about them. Each page has 5 parts: Friends & Family, Photos, Stories, Projects and Guestbook. The projects section is pretty cool because you can raise money for a charity and there is even a paypal type system.

What do you think? How should social media services handle this interestingly delicate issue?

The website was created by Riya, a company built to create a search engine used to search for similar faces among photos. The company found it difficult to monetize the service, however, so they created Like.com to use the same technology for a different purpose. Riya’s CEO, Munjal Shah, noted that “the same technology works well to find similar-looking products.

In effect, Google has acquired a visual search engine for fashionistas. While Google won’t say what it plans to do with the technology, the Google spokesperson dropped hints in this statement:

“While Like.com will operate its Websites separately in the near term, we’re excited about the technology they’ve built and the domain expertise they’ll bring to Google as we continue to work on building great e-commerce experiences for our users, advertisers and partners. We’re pleased and excited to welcome Like.com to Google, where they’ll work closely with our commerce team.”

Could Google be trying to expand it search? How far away are the days when we can upload a photo of a bird and Google can tell us it’s genus and species, it’s migratory patterns, and it’s mating call? Is this the next step in search? Surely the google boys aren’t going to limit themselves to text. Whatever they plan on doing, it’s going to be a breakthrough.

No official price tag was given, although the experts at Techcruch estimated it to be around USD $1 Million. Not bad, Munjal, not bad.

I think that integrating more of a review system like Yelp will be important because you are getting reviews from trusted sources. It is becoming more for prevalent for social media marketing services to motivate people to post reviews online for reasons more than just a fondness of the business and or its products. If you see that a friend of yours or even a friend of a friend has for example been to a restaurant, you will have more confidence that the review isn’t bogus.

When I was on YouTube today looking up some videos at least 90% of the comments are negative. Some of my favorites are “seems a little big brother” and “stalk book has now recently made the change to stalkbook 2.0.” I can easily see these peoples concerns, and I personally don’t think I like the idea of little known Facebook acquaintances that I accepted out of friendly guilt being able to track me down.

Places is likely to be a big competitor for other location-based apps like Gowalla, Yelp, Booyah and Foursquare. Apparently these companies were at the press release of Facebook Places, and they all have plans of how they will integrate their services into Places. If you cant beat them join them, right.

Check out these 2 videos

Facebook’s heartwarming commercial

This one seems a little more honest

With a little bit of thought, your blog could be on its way to greatness– one 15-minute post at a time. That’s right, I said 15-minute posts, and good ones, too. All it takes is a good voice and you, adhering to these 5 practices:

#1 Map It All Out A good post has parts. In a great post, you don’t notice the parts. Using transition words and active voice will keep a reader’s interest and keep them reading beyond the first few sentences.
• Title
  Make it sound like news. Be interesting. There are an unlimited number of pages on the internet and about as many bloggers just talking. Make your blog stand out from the very beginning of each post.



• Intro
  A good question, quote, statistic, or short story will do the trick. But don’t limit yourself in this area (except maybe in length). This is the part when you have to grab each reader’s attention. Tell them quickly why yours is a post worth reading.
• Body
  This is the reason your reader is poking around your blog. Don’t skimp on the details. Be specific and very clear. Give them something worth sticking around for. If you do it right, you’ll have them coming back for more.

  “Yet we must say something when those who say the most are saying nothing.” – Augustine, The Confessions

• Conclusion
  At this point, you need to leave your reader with a fuzzy, warm feeling or a smile. Make them glad they came. Remind them how clever, witty, endearing, smart, or personable you are (show, don’t tell). Wrap things up, and give them a little something for the way home. This is a great time to remind them how well your post answered the question you first asked or tack on a pertinent quote that leaves the reader thinking. It’s a great opportunity to turn your post from a lecture into a conversation.
• Call to Action
  Now invite them to try it at home. Assertively apply whatever you’ve been talking about to the reader’s life. A good call to action encourages a healthy, active comments section and returning readers.

#2 Give It a Catchy Name You should never take a title lightly. It’s the face of your post. Write the title after you’ve written the post. This will make your title more accurate and your post less restricted.

#3 Keep an Eye on the Clock Don’t let yourself spend forever on the thing. It’s just a blog post. Keeping in mind that quality is far more valuable than quantity, make your post quick to write and quick to read. Your readers aren’t looking for a work of art, per se; they do, however, want the valuable information that you have to give. You getting it to them in a clear and concise way is their first priority.

#4 Stretch Your Idea Out Over Several Posts Making a sturdy idea into a series of good posts is a great way to establish readership without making your posts overbearing. You have to make each part in the series interesting and valuable.

#5 Give It Some Meat! Don’t leave your readers hanging. Great as a good title, intro, and conclusion may be, without a substantial middle, your post will be as flimsy as an 80 pound model. No one is going to want to come back to that. When viewers finish reading your post, you want them to think “robust!”, not “impoverished…” Don’t water it down or stretch it thin to fill space. Inform and entertain should be your goal. Together these will catch new readers and keep old ones coming back for more.

Find a great photo or video to stick on your post that adds to your post’s meaning and keeps a reader’s attention. Viola! You’re there. Your post is on its way to becoming a work of art- a mark of your developing ability to communicate well.

For more help working with your blog or for other social media optimization services, check out other blogs you follow. Imitating their finer points can be one of the best ways to improve your posts and whole blog. Also, feedback from people who follow your blog is always helpful.

“What you want is practice, practice, practice. It doesn’t matter what we write…, so long as we write continually as well as we can. I feel that every time I write a page either of prose or of verse, with real effort, even if it’s thrown into the fire the next minute, I am so much further on.” – C.S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves

Furthermore, practice! You’re not going to churn out a masterpiece on your first go. And it may even take you longer than 15 minutes. But the more you keep with it, working on area where you’re lacking, the better you’ll get.