As high speed internet continues to penetrate other countries, many U.S. companies are now focusing their efforts on this world wide market. Google’s India site is now the twelfth most popular site in the world, and Baidu.com, a search engine in China, is even better at number nine. Companies can see huge sale increases from people buying their products from all over the world. Problems are created, for internet marketers, like TK, as people from various countries search quite differently.
Andy Atkins-Krüger explains some of these differences and there importance to SEO experts, in a Sept. 23, 2009 article, “Do Accents Really Matter in International SEO?” . He points out that in German and French searches many words require “diatrics”, the little accent marks above or below some words. International search engines treat these words differently. Some ignore them all together, but most have to take them into account as many will actually change the meaning of the query. Also, many searchers will not use the required diatrics in their search words, creating some often missed opportunities for marketers. Many marketers will make the mistake of ignoring the diatric, or ignoring the word without the diatric, hence, missing out on placing their website in front of potential clients.
The author is now hiring employees from diverse backgrounds, or educating current employees on international search trends, so these opportunities are not missed. TK sees the same trend of international search engine marketing increasing over time, and will now consider the cultural background and linguistic ability of the next person we hire. Many of our current clients are already starting to request more international search engine optimization, and these are rather small companies. They see the potential of worldwide customers, and as a business owner, increasing my knowledge of the online searching trends will become increasingly important.
Some of our clients recently have asked us to explain Cloud Computing as a concept. I found this decent video from Ken Colbourn, who gives the basics and some examples. He also explains some pros and cons.
Giving up some privacy, and placing your data in the hands of some company that you may or may not know much about. Also, if you don’t have access to the internet, then you don’t have access to your info. The pros include the fact that anywhere you DO have the internet- you’ve got your data. Also, you don’t need to spend lots of money maintaining the hardware. Companies (e.g. Google) is doing this for you, and most the time they offer many of these services free (google docs) or for really low cost.
If the term ‘cloud computing’ is new to you, enjoy the video, above, and enjoy the benefits of the cloud.
A few days ago we posted about Bing going visual with their visual search, well Google is getting into the game as well. CNN posts a nice video that gives you a sample.
I like the direction this leads. The more visual search becomes, even more people will use it. Search engine marketing will just continue to grow in importance and complexity…but with it, will be a more enjoyable, effective experience for the end user.
Bing continues it’s steady and healthy adoption rate. It has just improved to over 10% by itself. If you include it with Yahoo, it’s recent search partner, it has over 26% of the total market share. Google is still the strong leader with over 64%, but the competition and with Bing bringing on cool new features like their recent Visual Search, it’s getting a little more interesting.
Okay, it’s official, Facebook has reached critical mass. A couple young girls in Australia got caught in a drain and instead of dialing 000 (their version of 911), they posted their predicament on Facebook. It was promptly seen by a friend and they were rescued by the fire department. They were only 10 and 12 years old, and used this alternative via their mobile phone rather than calling the police, reflecting a new generation of communication.
We at TK have always said to go where the people are…evidently they are on Facebook, even when in grave danger.
Perhaps when Twitter has reached the same level of adoption these types of situations could be avoided all-together, as friends would receive a minute by minute update of every intricate detail and be able to intervene:
“Floating paper boat down rain gutter…”
“Oh, no! Boat goes down large, menacing drain…”
“…thinking…”
“Lowering little sister into deep, dark storm drain…this should be fun!”
Where WERE you Twitter! Little girls are in DANGER!
Every SEO sees Wikipedia as the ultimate seo’d site. It show up everywhere and gives so much content to Google, that they are almost impossible to compete against. However, we also know the reputation they have for faulty information (preception is strong, although reality begs to differ, see Wikinomics).
Wikipedia is making a concerted effort to change that perception. As the web’s 6th most visited site, and credibility always taking jabs, they are releasing a new color coded system. The system will color sentences or edits and the more reliable the author and longer the text stays on the site (allowing vetting by others) the more the color will fade over time.
This video from CNN tech illustrates some of the jabs and shows what Wikipedia is doing about it. The color coded model is pretty cool, and wikipedia will have to do A LOT of PR to change the persception…this is another great step.
Matt shares some great advice on No Follows, and how Google is looking at it these day. As you know there has been a lot of chatter about this as Google’s has been a little ambiguous about this over the last 8 months. Now people are getting some solid footing on the topic. They throw in a little SES chatter. Personally, I just read the blog updates, instead of going in person, but to each their own. Anyway, enjoy the short interview with Matt Cutts video segment.
Thanks SEOmoz, and Jen for another good installment.
Twitter added a new search feature, and I like it. They made their mark on the blogosphere with their micro-blogs and now they are doing it again with search. When you want the most current information, and want to know what’s the buzz right now…twitter search is perfect. Up to the second results that grab what people are tweeting about. Kinda cool.
The look and feel is classic twitter minimalistic design. Big search box, great call to action, what’s popular this week, today and right now. Add a new twitter bird and you’ve got the new layout.
Who knows, with people being so hyper sensitive about the timeliness of their information- I can see an application. Thoughts?
