I'm also finding Chrome to display web pages faster than other browsers.
Anybody noticed anything else?
Showing posts with label google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label google. Show all posts
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Google Chrome Leads The Way
Google Chrome is turning out to be a godsend. Whilst still in beta I'm finding it much more reliable than Firefox 3 which crashes all the time. Pity, because Firefox 2 was near perfect.
Friday, 25 April 2008
Google Sitemap Validator
Google Sitemaps are a useful addition to the Webmaster Tools available in Google. Your web designer should make it a matter of course to create a sitemap for you when your website is built. To aid Google's indexing it's useful to keep this sitemap up-to-date - that's why, if you've got a dynamic website like Andersons Real Estate, you should ask for an automated sitemap generator to be created.
Don't rely on your sitemaps to be correct when they are released, check them with the Google Sitemap Validator.
Friday, 18 April 2008
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tools
I thought I'd share with you a few tools that I use when going about my day-to-day search engine optimisation (SEO) business.
This tool tells you how your website ranks in a variation of Google data centres. Usually, if your ranking results differ through the data centres then this means that indexing is usually taking place.
Link popularity is important because it is a major factor used by search engines to determine a website's position in the search results.
This tool will automatically check the Google page rank of any website.
This tool will query Google's various data centers to check for any changes in PageRank values for a given URL. Usually all data centers will output the same, but if queried during an update, you might get a glimpse of any upcoming changes in your chosen URL's PageRank value.
A website’s age is one of the major factors used to rank it in the search engines. Use this tool to find the age of any domain, including your competitors’ or ones you might want to purchase. Older domains may get a slight edge in search engine rankings.
I hope these tools prove useful.
Friday, 4 April 2008
Google Announces Job Losses
Google has announced its first sizeable cuts, with the axing of 300 jobs at its online advertising unit DoubleClick.
The lay-offs make up about a quarter of DoubleClick's 1,200-strong workforce in the US. Worldwide, DoubleClick has about 1,500 employees.
Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt has suggested that overseas operations, employing a further 300 people, will also be affected at a later date.
It is a first for Google and perhaps not one they want to trumpet too much.
In a statement, Google said: "Since our acquisition of DoubleClick closed on March 11, we have been working to match and align DoubleClick employees in the US with our organisational plan for the business.
"As with many mergers, this review has resulted in a reduction in head-count at the acquired company."
Privacy concerns
Some workers have been laid off already, while Google says others are being offered transitional roles, or contract jobs, which are expected to end after the two companies are fully integrated.
In a blog posting in March, Mr Schmidt gave a heads-up that job cuts would be likely and that those outside the US would be made "in accordance with local law".
At over $3 billion (£1.5bn), Google's purchase of DoubleClick is its largest to date and completed less than a month ago, after being held up by regulators for a year.
At the time, the deal was heavily criticised and resisted by non-profit privacy groups which argued that it would give Google unprecedented access to information about consumers' online behaviour.
Microsoft and AT&T also opposed the transaction, which was approved by the Federal Trade Commission in December.
Conflict of interest?
On top of the news of the lay-offs, Google says it also plans to sell a DoubleClick unit called Performics Search Marketing.
That arm of the business helps marketers place adverts on search engines, including those owned by Google and its main rivals in the field, Yahoo and Microsoft.
It has always been felt that this represented a conflict of interest for Google.
In an official Google blog, Tom Phillips, director of DoubleClick Integration, writes: "It is clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business.
"At Google, maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to our mission and core to the trust we ask from our users."
Industry watchers maintain that the decision to sell off Performics Search Marketing makes good business sense and that Google's primary focus is to get paid as much as possible for the adverts that appear on its pages.
Rumours abound that Google is already in talks with a third party to sell the business for an undisclosed sum.
Although on his blog Mr Phillips maintains no buyer is waiting in the wings, he does concede there has been quite a bit of interest "from a number of current partners".
Danny Sullivan, editor of SeachEngineLand.com, praises the much anticipated sell-off and says it was not unexpected.
Google said the business would continue to run as a separate entity until the division was sold.
The lay-offs make up about a quarter of DoubleClick's 1,200-strong workforce in the US. Worldwide, DoubleClick has about 1,500 employees.
Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt has suggested that overseas operations, employing a further 300 people, will also be affected at a later date.
It is a first for Google and perhaps not one they want to trumpet too much.
In a statement, Google said: "Since our acquisition of DoubleClick closed on March 11, we have been working to match and align DoubleClick employees in the US with our organisational plan for the business.
"As with many mergers, this review has resulted in a reduction in head-count at the acquired company."
Privacy concerns
Some workers have been laid off already, while Google says others are being offered transitional roles, or contract jobs, which are expected to end after the two companies are fully integrated.
In a blog posting in March, Mr Schmidt gave a heads-up that job cuts would be likely and that those outside the US would be made "in accordance with local law".
At over $3 billion (£1.5bn), Google's purchase of DoubleClick is its largest to date and completed less than a month ago, after being held up by regulators for a year.
At the time, the deal was heavily criticised and resisted by non-profit privacy groups which argued that it would give Google unprecedented access to information about consumers' online behaviour.
Microsoft and AT&T also opposed the transaction, which was approved by the Federal Trade Commission in December.
Conflict of interest?
On top of the news of the lay-offs, Google says it also plans to sell a DoubleClick unit called Performics Search Marketing.
That arm of the business helps marketers place adverts on search engines, including those owned by Google and its main rivals in the field, Yahoo and Microsoft.
It has always been felt that this represented a conflict of interest for Google.
In an official Google blog, Tom Phillips, director of DoubleClick Integration, writes: "It is clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business.
"At Google, maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to our mission and core to the trust we ask from our users."
Industry watchers maintain that the decision to sell off Performics Search Marketing makes good business sense and that Google's primary focus is to get paid as much as possible for the adverts that appear on its pages.
Rumours abound that Google is already in talks with a third party to sell the business for an undisclosed sum.
Although on his blog Mr Phillips maintains no buyer is waiting in the wings, he does concede there has been quite a bit of interest "from a number of current partners".
Danny Sullivan, editor of SeachEngineLand.com, praises the much anticipated sell-off and says it was not unexpected.
Google said the business would continue to run as a separate entity until the division was sold.
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Google Searches Web's Dark Side
One in 10 web pages scrutinised by search giant Google contained malicious code that could infect a user's PC. Researchers from the firm surveyed billions of sites, subjecting 4.5 million pages to "in-depth analysis".
About 450,000 were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads", sites that install malicious code, such as spyware, without a user's knowledge.
A further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer, the team report.
To address the problem, the researchers say the company has "started an effort to identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious".
Courtesy of the BBC website.
About 450,000 were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads", sites that install malicious code, such as spyware, without a user's knowledge.
A further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer, the team report.
To address the problem, the researchers say the company has "started an effort to identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious".
Courtesy of the BBC website.
Thursday, 10 May 2007
How Google Ranks Websites
By NetRegistry News
by Jim Pretin
Google is by far the most important search engine on the net. To rise to the top of their search engine, you need to improve your link popularity and you need to understand how they measure your link popularity (over 50% of all search engine traffic comes from Google, and if you can rise to the top, you will likely rise to the top of all the other search engines as well).
Link Popularity
Link popularity is defined as the number of sites that are linking to your site. Some websites have thousands or even millions of sites linking to them, while others might have only a few. The search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.
The actual number of links to your site is not the only variable used to calculate your link popularity. The search engines also examine the relevance of the links to the subject matter of your site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has 4,000 inbound links, but the source of most of the links are websites that have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm that search engines use to determine link popularity will take that into account, and the link popularity score will not be very good.
Quality not Quantity
It is possible for a website with a relatively small number of quality inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links. If I have a website that offers vitamins, and I have 800 quality inbound links, then I might receive a much higher search engine ranking than another vitamin site that has 3,000 links that stem from link farms or Free For All (FFA) pages.
If you try to acquire inbound by using link farms or FFA pages, not only will it hurt your search engine ranking, but you might get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Links farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links that come from either of these sources.
Now that we understand what link popularity is and how it works, we need to look specifically at how Google measures it. They use a number of variables in their algorithm to calculate your overall link score. The higher your score, the higher you will be ranked in the search listings.
One factor that Google uses in their algorithm, obviously, is the total number of sites linking to you. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, their algorithm is a little more complicated than that, and it is possible for a website with fewer links to be ranked higher than a website that has more links.
Relevancy is important
The reason for this is because Google also measures the quality of your links. If your website is about vitamins, and the site linking to you is a video game site, then that is not considered a quality link. The link still helps your score, but the link would help your score much more if it were from a website whose subject matter is the same as yours.
Also, Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content that relates to your keywords. For example, if your site is about jewellery, and another jewellery website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that link is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information about jewellery is being written or discussed.
Call Ion e-Business today for web design that adheres to search engine optimisation methodologies.
by Jim Pretin
Google is by far the most important search engine on the net. To rise to the top of their search engine, you need to improve your link popularity and you need to understand how they measure your link popularity (over 50% of all search engine traffic comes from Google, and if you can rise to the top, you will likely rise to the top of all the other search engines as well).
Link Popularity
Link popularity is defined as the number of sites that are linking to your site. Some websites have thousands or even millions of sites linking to them, while others might have only a few. The search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.
The actual number of links to your site is not the only variable used to calculate your link popularity. The search engines also examine the relevance of the links to the subject matter of your site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has 4,000 inbound links, but the source of most of the links are websites that have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm that search engines use to determine link popularity will take that into account, and the link popularity score will not be very good.
Quality not Quantity
It is possible for a website with a relatively small number of quality inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links. If I have a website that offers vitamins, and I have 800 quality inbound links, then I might receive a much higher search engine ranking than another vitamin site that has 3,000 links that stem from link farms or Free For All (FFA) pages.
If you try to acquire inbound by using link farms or FFA pages, not only will it hurt your search engine ranking, but you might get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Links farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links that come from either of these sources.
Now that we understand what link popularity is and how it works, we need to look specifically at how Google measures it. They use a number of variables in their algorithm to calculate your overall link score. The higher your score, the higher you will be ranked in the search listings.
One factor that Google uses in their algorithm, obviously, is the total number of sites linking to you. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, their algorithm is a little more complicated than that, and it is possible for a website with fewer links to be ranked higher than a website that has more links.
Relevancy is important
The reason for this is because Google also measures the quality of your links. If your website is about vitamins, and the site linking to you is a video game site, then that is not considered a quality link. The link still helps your score, but the link would help your score much more if it were from a website whose subject matter is the same as yours.
Also, Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content that relates to your keywords. For example, if your site is about jewellery, and another jewellery website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that link is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information about jewellery is being written or discussed.
Call Ion e-Business today for web design that adheres to search engine optimisation methodologies.
Andersons Real Estate
We're currently doing some web design work for Andersons Real Estate, the specialists in Mission Beach real estate. Anybody who has ever used the old one will know that, by their own admission, it's not very good. The old site was written with the biggest of all faux-pas when it comes to search engine optimisation: framesets. Framesets have the effect of giving the search engine looking at the site absolutely nothing to index. Now, as content is king when it comes to search engines you can probably see that framesets are BAD.
This is why we're so pleased with the results we've been getting while we've been performing some SEO work at the same time as the new site is under development. We've managed to get the old site up to 3rd in Google for the search term 'mission beach real estate'. When the new website goes live and Google actually has something to index we're expecting even better results.
The new site also has some powerful features not offered by any other agents in the area so watch the website over the next couple of weeks and you'll see what I mean: Andersons for Mission Beach real estate
This is why we're so pleased with the results we've been getting while we've been performing some SEO work at the same time as the new site is under development. We've managed to get the old site up to 3rd in Google for the search term 'mission beach real estate'. When the new website goes live and Google actually has something to index we're expecting even better results.
The new site also has some powerful features not offered by any other agents in the area so watch the website over the next couple of weeks and you'll see what I mean: Andersons for Mission Beach real estate
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