Archive for May, 2009

Will Google Wave Kill Facebook?

Nate
May 28 |20:27

Google Wave is being introduced and will shortly take the place of email, gchat, and lifestreaming. But the biggest looming question is, will Google Wave be a Facebook killer?

Google Wave Screenshot

I love Google apps. They are super useful, including Google Reader, Gmail, and iGoogle are great. I’m using Google Chrome as we speak. Google Wave is the next best integration of all three with it’s Google Wave application.

Google is positioning the new app as a kind conversation and collaboration system. It’s as logical as the jump was from mail to email, telephone to chat, or blogging to microblogging. Wave is described by Google as “equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” It sounds to me like a bit of social networking that may end up being a nice competitor for our Friends at Facebook.

Create a Wave, add people to it, toss in some gadgets, feeds, and photos, and mix with a rich text editor. You’ll see new content in near-real time as your friends add it, and you can even hit the rewind button and watch your Wave evolve from scratch. Wave’s power will come from its extensibility and ability to integrate with existing activity sources like GMail, Facebook, and Twitter.

Wave is built on HTML5 and the Google Web Toolkit. What’s more, the team plans to make the source code powering Wave open source to encourage developer involvement in the project’s continued growth and evolution. If you’d like to get involved, head over to the Wave Developer Blog for API information and a look at what you can build with Wave.

These are at least 4 reasons why Google Wave Will Kill Facebook:

1. Google is Google. Have you seen the Compete.com #s for Facebook vs. Google? Facebook may be gaining, but Google already has a base of Gmail subscribers worldwide that could trump the monkey.

2. Facebook doesn’t have search. Imagine what the Google search algorithm mixed with Wave will do?

3. Google’s revenues dwarf Facebook. More money for diversification? I guess Facebook did just get the influx from Russia…

4. Facebook has apps, Google has applications. Think about it. Facebook is a good networking center, but I’m sorry Google just has too many applications that have more useful applications than Facebook.

These are some of my thoughts. What do you think? Will Facebook be killed by Google Wave?

 

Online: Common Names Trump. Offline: Unique Names Take Stage

Nate
May 28 |18:46

Last week I posted an article on how common name searches are more prevalent online. While this is true, I read an interesting article today saying the exact opposite was found in a recent study on names when it comes to children. 

Marketing Charts cited a recent study wherein they spoke about how common baby names are slowly dying. This sad, but true phenomenon has been happening over the last several decades. 

From the report: 

 

“Unique names may have some benefits such as creating a more individual identity, but they run the risk of promoting separateness, which is linked to narcissism,” said Campbell, psychology professor at the University of Georgia and co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement.

“These days, you don’t have to be the child of a celebrity to get a name as unique as Shiloh, Suri or Apple,” said Jean Twenge, SDSU psychology professor and co-author.

Twenge links the shift toward unique names to the increasing value of uniqueness in today’s society. “Parents used to give their children common names so they would fit in and their names would be easy to pronounce and spell. Now, they give their child a unique name so their kid will stand out and be a star.”

While this may be true for children, it is certainly not true for online search. When it comes to online search engine targeting, the more common names, phrases, monikers and acronyms you can use, the better. Perhpas parents can learn something from search engine optimization. 

 

My little sister is expecting here in a few months and the chosen name for her son-to-be is “William Thomas.” Seems common, but it seems that the common will one day be uncommon. 

 

Brand name searches are out, along with short search terms

Nate
May 21 |06:52

I picked up an article from Marketing VOX where in they spoke about the fallout of branded searches. The article also speaks about the increases in longer search terms. Much like my post a few days ago about how generic domain names are gaining, this recent information helps give us wind of how habits with online searches are changing. 

The article reported that keyword searches that were eight words and longer increased by 20% in March of 2009. This means targeting the millions of online niches means targeting keyphrases and not just keywords. Online search will mean anchor sentences and not just anchor text.

From the article: 

The way that users approach the search landscape is changing, said Andrew Girdwood, head of search at bigmouthmedia. As consumers continue to become more comfortable with the technology and the sheer volume of online information proliferates, it will be interesting to see how this trend develops over the next few years and how it may force many big brand companies to reassess their digital marketing strategies, he said.

 

Google’s Morphing Ranking Algorithm + Power of Generic Domain Names

Nate
May 16 |05:42

I picked up a great post from randfish over at the SEOmoz blog a couple of weeks ago along with a report by Marketing Charts that coincide nicely. The SEOmoz post talks about how the Google ranking algorithm has changed, while the Marketing Charts post gives some great information on the benefit of generic domain names. Both posts were great reads and coincided with some of the work I’m currently doing at DigitalSignage.com. 

The SEOmoz post gave the following as the largest contributing factors to Google’s ranking: 

  • Domain Trust/Authority 
  • Anchor Text in External Links
  • On-Page Keyword Usage 
  • Raw PageRank / Link Juice 

    • The Marketing Charts report gives some of the reasons for generic domain name success: 

    Memorable Domains attributes the strong performance of generic domain names to several factors:

    • Because a generic domain name describes a product or service using the words people automatically associate with the topic, it encourages them to click more.
    • The presence of search terms in the domain name leads to higher organic rankings or a
    • better ad quality score in pay-per-click ad ranking algorithms.
    • Search engines commonly automatically bold any word in the domain name that matches the search term, drawing attention to the listing.
    • There is a potential positive impact of the domain name on ad quality score.
    The report also gave some great exceptions to the rule:
    “generic name is an established brand or website with a strong awareness and trust factor for the product or service search terms in question. Even in such cases, a generic domain name has potential value in targeting very specific product or service search terms with an appropriate keyword-rich domain. The findings suggest that established brands should consider a generic name for minisites associated with a particular product, service or ad campaign.”

    I just thought all these facts were interesting and some might benefit from me sharing them here. 

     

    Recrudescent Blog Post: Touchscreen Sign at a Bus Shelter

    Nate
    May 14 |15:29

    I picked this up from Operand.com and thought it would be worth a post here, partly because it has been a really long time since I’ve posted to my personal blog. A captive audience at a bus shelter, complete with a touchscreen sign, there is no better way to have an LCD advertising screen.