Google recently introduced a new type of technology used in search advertising in Adwords known as Near Match. With this new technology Google tries to predict what people mean even if they misspell something. They can still get to your page, not only that it also increases the odds that your ad will show up and a greater chance of increasing your ad position on the search page.

How it Works

Most search engines (even Google’s) would try to guess what you are writing and spit back results pertaining to their best guess of what you meant. With this new approach it will not try to utilize just one result, instead it will use the two best results thus increasing the chance of being more accurate and covering a larger base. For instance: [boxing gloves] would return as just that, but now users who have difficulty spelling but get close to that particular phrase can still get the same result. From what I can tell it does away with the “Did you mean:” and simply assumes that you meant something else while still offering the “Did you mean:” suggestion as a backup option.

image source: google

Like everything in life there is one catch and that is that you, as the advertiser, must include alternatives in your keyword list that you provide to Google for them to be directed to your site and for it to count towards your quality score and first page bidding.

Your options

You don’t have to use this service, but you do have to go into the options tab under AdWords and turn it off under the campaign settings tab.

This might be favorable for sites that don’t want certain words to mislead their demographic or to hone in on a certain demographic. Near Match could be counterintuitive in those cases where precision is needed and not approximation.

Tips to make the most out of the Service

            Monitor the Results Carefully

Given that this is considered “uncharted territory” it will take a while for you and your company to get used to Near Match. Until then, it’s best to constantly monitor the results this new feature has on your business and make adjustments accordingly. This should only take a year at most for you to get a good idea on how it’s impacting business and creating a plan that optimizes this feature.

Make Adjustments

If you decide that you like the Near Match service but aren’t getting the results you’d like from it, then the problem might be your keyword list. With everything new, it will take time for you to see results and find out what keywords will give you the most success.

My Two Cents

I’m the type of person that enjoys new things and everything Google has to offer, since they seem to be one of the very few companies out there that focuses on customer satisfaction and is constantly adjusting to better accommodate the end users. In the end, it comes down to your personal preferences, and as I said, you can always opt out of the service at any time. Nothing wrong with playing it safe, luckily Google is a very flexible company and as such allows you to tailor your experience with their services to your liking.

Source: Searchenginewatch.com

Sarah Rexman is the main researcher and writer for bedbugs.org. Her most recent accomplishment includes graduating from Florida State, with a degree in environmental science.  Her current focus for the site involves strategies in how to find bed bugs and how to eliminate bed bugs.

(image source - Techwench.com)

Social Networking, since its inception, has become a monster in the evolution in the way businesses market themselves online. This is because it has become a must have tool for businesses big and small. Some businesses are tailor-made for this media format, while others will have a harder time adapting to it. It has been seen that merchants (especially in the Ecommerce industry) are finding the adaptation to this outlet, but those that provide specialized services like insurance salesmen and lawyers, to name a few, are limited to what they can post in social networks. I’ll cover both goods and services, but emphasize the latter more due to its greater degree of difficulty.

Selling The Goods

This first part will be focused towards those businesses that actually provide tangible goods such as boutique clothing and mom & pop coffee shops. The biggest benefit for these businesses are their specific techniques using Twitter and Facebook, since they can provide their consumers with the most updated information on sales, new products, and promotions.

Boutiques and other similar Stores

Clothing stores and other stores that don’t dabble in consumables

1.  Profile page should tell visitors what you sell (This includes creating a cover photo in your Facebook timeline that shows your brand and what you’re all about!)
2. Post all sales on all sites that you belong to
3. Look at the consumables list for ideas since most overlap

Consumables

These are bakeries, grocery stores and your coffee shops.

You should post your complete menu at least on your Facebook Page and update it when you remove or add items to it.

Tweet all of your weekly deals you offer and also make sure you add it to Facebook too so as to not isolate a group of people

In your About sections in Twitter and Facebook include the following:

A brief description of your store and what differentiates itself from others

A menu (pricing is optional)

Contact information (Address, Phone, Website, Links to other social pages!)

If your store supports local artists then post the artist performing on all social networking pages that your store is on.

-Make sure you’re up-to-date on all sales and artists performing (if applicable)

-Any other information that’s pertinent to your business such as

-Change in location

-Going out of business

-Huge change in menu or the way you do business such as adding shipping options

-Leave out personal information like marriages and new additions to the family, that’s for your personal pages and them alone!

Service Matters

If it’s not tangible items for people but services that you can’t live without like legal representation, financial advice and roofing, to name a few; this really makes it hard to keep a social media front.

Building a page that Services Customers

For any social platform, always update your followers with news stories that relate to your field.

Here are some small examples of what we mean:

Insurance agents post changes in policies and major stories in the field of insurance; just apply this formula for your field.

Legal advisors have it pretty easy since the governmental laws are always changing and there are court cases that they can post which are made public and are considered to be landmark cases.

Medical professionals can post breakthroughs in their fields and new technologies too, just try to be creative!

Again, make it easier for your business in social networking by working with Facebook and similar sites (like Google+). Twitter is useful, but not as effective. You have to hunt down articles that you find interesting (we suggest using Google Alerts  so that you can receive email alerts to links with the newest articles using keywords you find are closely related to your business) and post a link to it on your page. You don’t need any lead in or really any work put in to it. Save that for a blog, but for Facebook, all one has to do is cut and paste the articles link, then write a small description or question to your audience like, “What do you think of this story” “Here is something you’ll probably share with a friend”. Facebook will automatically turn your link to that article into a micro-blog. Then you as the owner of the company and social networking page can answer any questions visitors might post on your site. This is just the beginning to communicating with your online community.

What to include in your Profile:

Brief description/history of your company

Explain the services you provide i.e:

Law-Divorce-Civil-Criminal-Medical-Cosmetic-Dermatologist-Dentist-Insurance-Home-Auto-Life-Etc.

Contact information

Address(Locations)

Website(s)

Email(s)

Phone Number (Recommended to use only business line, not your personal cellphone)

Every Partner/ major employee along with professional titles and initials following their names

Things to Keep in Mind

Facebook:

When making a Facebook page make sure you make a “Fan” page so that people can easily become “fans” of your company and you’re not stuck accepting friend requests and it also eliminates the friend cap that Facebook puts in place which is either at the 100,000 mark or 500,000 mark. Use this link to create your page by choosing one of their templates, its free:

Facebook Create Page

Twitter:

Remember: Twitter can be dangerous, and haters will always hate; Twitter has made it so much easier to do so. With that said they can really affect your emotions and make you want to defend your product and sometimes aggressively. Keep your cool, don’t respond, just block, they may come back and you’ll have to block again. You are responsible for everything you post in reply and everything you post cannot be taken back.

Be able to differentiate between hate and helpful criticism, since Twitter and Facebook can also help your business become better.

Twitter Sign Up

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is a great way to create B2B connections and to build your company profile there as well.

Here is an example of our business profile that you can create and post on your website:

LinkedIn Sign Up

About the author:

Sarah Rexman is the main researcher and writer for BedBugs.org. Her most recent accomplishment includes graduating from Florida State, with a master’s degree in environmental science. Her main focus for the site involves getting the word about the signs of bed bugs and the options of organic bed bug control.

Many business owners know the merits of Google AdWords. You can create advertisements for your company that appear alongside relevant search results and across websites where the publisher is using Google’s AdSense service. And it’s easy to try out different ads, to see which gathers the best response.

While text advertisements have been straightforward, there has always been a lot more work involved in display ads. You’ve had to create the image and upload it, often in Google’s six different display sizes. If you want to change a word you have to go back to your editor, make the change, render the image for each size and upload them all again.

That changed late last month when Google introduced its AdWords Display Ad Builder. You select from a range of templates, change the words and upload any images you might require. Then flick through each ad size to tweak the location of text and images. Easy. And there’s a hint of animation built in just to draw enough attention.

Sure, your freelance designer might come up with a better-looking creation, but can will it guarantee you better results? The great thing about having this nifty tool at your finger-tips, in having complete control over making changes quickly and easily. It really helps when your in experiment mode. The best part is that this is FREE, you can save yourself hundreds of dollars on little changes here and there.

Now Go Try It Out Yourself! Here’s How: Just visit your online campaign section of AdWords, click on the Ads tab, select New Ad, then choose Display Ad Builder.

If your blog is your business, you know how important it is to drive as much as traffic as possible. People try figuring out different ways for driving high traffic but often forget one of the easiest ways of achieving those results. It is said that businesses must not be guided on personal lines but apparently it is also true that people carry out business with only those whom they trust and relate to. When it comes to building personal relationships for driving better traffic, social sharing takes the cake. We’ve come up with a simple three step process which can help you drive higher traffic to your web pages.

1. Follow your followers

There is a very popular saying in English, “Do unto others as you want them to do unto you”. It fits in very well in this scenario. You must follow people on social sites if you want them to follow you. It is simply a give and take relationship. You take interest in their happenings and in return they reciprocate by visiting your blog.

Moreover, following people makes you discover people and likings. You can easily figure out the likeminded people and target the potential audience for your blog. Once you are sorted, you can continue following the likeminded class and ignore others. It gets easier finding the active audience and replying to them before they end up ignoring you.

2. Untangle the “thread of discontent”

It is extremely important that you know what people want. In order to figure out what the crowd desires, you must listen carefully to what they say. Pay careful attention to the comments and the posts made by them. These posts and comments will give you an insight in their thoughts and desires.

You must focus on what kinds of data they share often. In other words you should become a pebble in the pond which has been dropped to rouse ripples. However, before arousing these ripples you must unravel the thread of content. Untangling the thread of discontent will enable you to discover the thoughts and beliefs of your followers.

3. Make sure the content is what the audience wants

You must design your contents by stepping in the shoes of your followers. Once you start talking on their lines, the task becomes very easy. For example, in a conference for marketers you are presenting your views regarding salesmanship versus marketing, if you present your views keeping in mind the grievances of the marketers and molding your thoughts in their words, your thoughts will definitely make an impact on the audience. Though a personalized approach, this step works wonders for driving high traffic to your blog.

Thus it is clear that driving high traffic to your blog doesn’t only demand good quality consistent articles. What matters is that you deliver content that appeals to the masses and connects to them on personal front. Once people discover the reflection of their personal reality in your blog, the traffic will keep on pouring in and the number of followers will increase day by day.

Some examples of great social networks; Facebook, Twitter, Anybeat.com, Unthink, Google+, Linkedin, Chime.in.

Liked this article? Read this article on Home remedies and Black Pearl Earrings.

Business professionals who were relying largely on the voice-activated service rendered by Google for their diversified purposes might have to drive up the wall. According to the official sources, the company has tragically shut down its free directory service 1-800-GOOG-411 for reasons so not known. Unfortunately, the service is no longer activated for users who were looking at the sunny side.

What was GOOG-411

For those unaware, GOOG-411 was an effective voice-activated service introduced by Google that intended to provide a firm foundation for more ambitious services. In fact, it was the first speech recognition product the gigantic search engine offered. The service was employed primarily as a way to procreate and research Google’s advanced voice technologies.

Purpose Behind

Though the company never developed the source as a medium to make profit, GOOG-411 however served across enormously through its various features and functions. The foremost voice recognition software from Google also helped put forth a reliable groundwork for more ambitious services that are now available on smartphones and avant garde mobile solutions.

Launched way back in the year 2007, Google 1-800-GOOG-411 allowed users to quickly connect to businesses across the United States and Canada. The service would also enable users to search through businesses and other relevant information for an enhanced user experience. Though Google has not divulged any details on how successful it turned out to be, the service however seems to have delivered what Google wanted out of the product.

The voice-activated directory service, in a nutshell, had been serving people with acquiring contact numbers since 2007. While Google has discontinued the service without having stating any official reason, it nonetheless appears that it had accumulated enough voice samples for the research purposes.

Business Model

As far as the business model is concerned, GOOG-411 was originally implemented for developing a massive, strong phoneme database from users’ voice queries. The stated database, on the other hand, enabled skilled engineers at Google to process and to leverage the speech recognition engine.

To notify, the speech recognition engine which was targeted was the one that Google utilizes in order to index audio content for searching. However, coming back to the software, GOOG-411 simply made it easier for users to orient themselves without needing a map in front of them. The source even enabled users to ask for details, in addition to the phone number as well as the address of the business. Besides all this, the company also made it possible to glance through the nearest street intersection or adjacent streets.

Alternative offered

There’s no doubt that professionals and other users must have been feeling like left in the lurch but they are still not completely out of luck. The company is still very much serving people with an alternative to the free directory service. In fact, Google has ensured that users do not get adversely affected by the discontinuation of GOOG-411.
So if someone does not own a smartphone and is trying to get through a particular business, Google has made that possible too. Users can now simply send a message with the name and location of the business to 466453, subsequent to which Google will send them the relevant information. Hopefully, those arched shoulders won’t feel that heavier from now on.

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Written By: Margaret Jules – Blogger

Here is a piece of interesting news: The FBI department is seriously in search of developers who can come up with a power packed application for social media monitoring, in order to keep a tab on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. With the help of such an app, FBI wants to keep a close eye on publicly available information. It was the Homeland Security Department that issued an online advertisement seeking developers in this regard.

The objective behind the requirement of a social media app has been going on in the minds of FBI bigwigs ever since public sites such as Twitter were instrumental in providing useful information on religious sentiment. It is anybody’s guess that FBI must have been surveying such sites with the already available apps such as Seesmic, Brizzly, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Radian6.

They have now surmised that there is no app that could serve their purpose in its totality. The FBI has now announced that they are in search of coders who can come up with an amazing application that is multi-tabbed and a complete package for media monitoring.

The FBI came up with a list of criteria that they wanted the developers to satisfy in their visualized social application. Most of the functions are quite standard with features such as specific keywords, an integrated alert system, searching posts by geographical mapping etc. They also wish to integrate their own internal notification system in order to simplify the work of the intelligent agents.

The FBI specifically wanted an application that could quickly identify, geographically locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats. This comes in the wake of terrorist groups using social media for their unlawful activities harming innocent citizens.

Another aspect that the FBI wants covered by the app is the ability to archive its valuable data in its app. However, this would require a huge amount of storage space that could run in exabytes. While this would require quite a lot of expenditure, FBI is more than capable of loosening its purse strings in this regard. Frank Cillufo, one of the senior members of Homeland security expressed his concerns about the misuse of freedom on the social networking sites. A media monitoring app could be just the right solution to combat with the growing nexus of terrorist organizations all over the world.

The document runs to around twelve pages and furnishes the details of FBI’s specifications. It seems to be more of a Google news feed that would exclusively focus on their law enforcement. Most of the FBI officers were on the move and carried their iPhones and Blackberries with them. A social media application would simplify their search operations, by giving the exact location and relevant data of the matter they would be pursuing, in a quick and facile manner. Information from social sites could be used for cross referencing and smell out any activities from potential terrorist organizations.

With all the hype surrounding their announcement, the FBI is sure to meet with a good response and the time may come much sooner than later, that the FBI comes up with its much desired social media monitoring app.

Liked this article? Read this article on amazon cloud storage and aphelion. ]]> http://schneider-media.net/2012/02/fbi-hunts-massive-social-media-monitoring-app/feed/ 0 http://schneider-media.net/2012/02/new-wimm-of-technology/ http://schneider-media.net/2012/02/new-wimm-of-technology/#comments Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:40:48 +0000 Schneider Media http://schneider-media.net/?p=271  

Dick Tracy is becoming less of a fantasy and more reality as new gadgets hit the market. Remember that neat little watch Dick Tracy would use to communicate with the police dispatcher? That is now the newest technology, available on the market today!

We all know how fast the ever-growing Google Android mobile operating system is being implemented to most smartphones and tablets, it’s now being introduced to an even more more mobile device, the wrist-watch.

   Wimm Labs, a unique platform enables licensee partners to unleash the power of personalized interactions through more intimate devices and applications. They’ve recently come out with their own, “WIMM One“, which is a wrist-based companion for people who desire more control over their smart devices and notifications.

The WIMM One, going for only $199 on Amazon, keeps information available at a quick glance, so you can stay focused on the task at hand. Pair it to your smartphone and never miss important calls and text messages. Or use it as a fully-connected Wi-Fi enabled computer with a carousel of Android-based Micro Apps that keep critical information available on the go. The display is always on and readable whether you‘re indoors or out. A suite of apps shows useful information at a glance, including upcoming calendar appointments or RSS feed updates. A built-in accelerometer and magnetometer can also track the wearer’s movements.

Follow Wimm to get the latest updates:

Twitter: @wimmlabs

Facebook.com/wimmlabs

Youtube.com/user/wimmlabsinc

Linkedin.com/company/wimm-labs

By Angela West, PCWorld

If you want potential customers to get a 360-degree, panoramic view of your brick-and-mortar business when they click on any of your listings in Google, its new Business Photos campaign makes its listings for business more interactive. To that end, the search giant is pairing its own certified “Trusted Photographers” with businesses that want to show off their interiors to the public.

While including these photos in your Google Maps listing and Google Places page is extremely helpful for someone wanting to find out more about your business, it will really matter in your search engine results. When someone does a search and your listing comes up first, Google pinpoints the business on a map, offers its existing street view photo, and gives the option to look inside the business if interior pictures exist.

Click and drag to view the inside of Spice Market, New York City.

Hiring a Trusted Photographer

To get started, go to this page, select a Trusted Photographer, and hire them. Google certifies photographers but lets them set their own prices. The photographer will get you to fill out a service agreement, which spells out that while you own the images, you are licensing them to Google for its use.

If you want to hire one of Google’s Trusted Photographers, you may be waiting a while. The city selection is a bit thin, as are the current number of photographers. If there is no Trusted Photographer in your city, apply here and Google will notify you when one becomes available. You can apply to have your business photographed anywhere in the world.

Once you hire a Trusted Photographer, you don’t have a final say on how the photos will look on Google’s website. Blur out employees’ faces and other items if you have privacy concerns once the pictures are on Google by hitting the “Report a Problem” button under the image in question.

You can embed the photos and panoramas on Facebook, your company website, and your Google+ page by following the instructions here.

A Trusted Photographer’s Snapshot of the Program

I spoke to one of the Trusted Photographers on the list, Bryan Tan of Bryan Tan Photography. Google contacted him back in November to be a part of the pilot program, and he’s had a lot of interest from businesses. So far, he’s photographed a few restaurants that haven’t gone on the site yet, a hair salon, and a metaphysical antique shop.

Shop around with this embedded panoramoic photo. Click to view larger size.

While Trusted Photographers quote each business individually for photo rates, the price is largely based on square footage and how cluttered the space is. The more panoramas a photographer has to shoot, the higher the price. But businesses with a larger square footage shouldn’t be afraid, says Bryan.

“An auto body shop with a 7000 square-foot shop contacted me to see what the cost would be, and I priced them comparably to a 1000 square-foot restaurant because I only needed to take one panoramic shot of their wide-open shop space.”

Bryan also said the Trusted Photographer program isn’t ideal for businesses that like to control every aspect of their brand image, since they have no say over which pictures end up on Google’s listings. However, businesses can ask for some pictures or the entire photo shoot to be removed from Google after the fact.

Google’s Business Photos make a great opportunity for exposure, particularly if you have an attractive restaurant or beautifully designed showroom that you want to show off.

To sweeten the deal, Google is offering a $100 incentive for free AdWords promotions to help small business owners offset the cost of hiring one of its approved photographers.

Becoming a Trusted Photographer

If you think you’ve got what it takes to become a Trusted Photographer, sign up here. Google isn’t publicizing the requirements to get its stamp of approval, although it does talk about thetechnologies and techniques in which a Trusted Photographer is trained. A Trusted Photographer not only needs photographic acumen, but the technical expertise to upload files in the correct format and layout.

Tan confirms that the photographic methods used are similar to maknig real estate panoramas, although using proprietary Google software. Google’s tools are free its Trusted Photographers, and there’s no charge to be part of the program.

Angela West dreams of opening a Fallout-themed pub featuring wait staff with Pip-Boys. She’s written for big insurance companies, small wildlife control businesses, gourmet food chains, and more. Follow her on Twitter at @angelawest and Facebook.

By David Richards | Published:08/02/2012

Google has launched a beta version of their Chrome browser for Android smartphones but unfortunately it will only work on models running Android 4.0. I decided to put it through its paces on the Samsung Google Nexus smartphone and within minutes I was impressed.

It’s not a mystery how Google makes a lot of money, it’s all in advertising. We thought it would be fun to show you just how much Google’s revenue earnings can buy these days:

1. Manned mission to Mars (twice)
2. 37,900 Maybach Cars worth $1M a piece
3. 5,205 years at $20,000 a night stay in the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
4. 947 Top of the Line Gulfstream G550 Private Jets
5. 1/3 of Facebook’s Share Value (Google being around $184 Billion)
6. Half the Worth of Bill Gates

In the picture above, you’ll see that the finance and insurance sector is the industry that spends the most on Google, according to recently released estimates. (0.06% of that I managed!)

Wordstream, an Internet marketing software firm that helps businesses optimize their use of AdWords, used its own database and services and Google’s public keyword tool to do a little reverse engineering on Google’s ad data. The result is some pretty educated guesses about which companies and industries are spending the most on advertising with Google.

Here’s the breakdown: Of Google’s nearly $38 billion in revenue last year (96 percent of which comes from advertising), more than 10 percent, or $4 billion, came from insurers, lenders, and other financial outfits like State Farm, Geico, and Quicken Loans. According to Wordstream, if you click on an ad that comes up after searching for the phrase “self employed health insurance,” you just made Google $43.49.

Retailers and sometimes competitors like Amazon and eBay also spend millions of dollars on AdWords campaigns, but one of the biggest amounts spent by a single company on advertising with Google is decidedly more analog–the aforementioned home improvement chain Lowe’s, which laid down an estimated $59.1 million for all its AdWords clicks in 2011.
Wordstream’s Larry Kim compiled all the data, which was then jammed into this spiffy infographic that provides plenty of entertainment for the obsessive statistical adventurer.

(Credit: Wordstream / Nowsourcing.com)