Google Adsense

7 Types of SEO Evidence

Written on July 6, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, seo

Posted by Dr. Pete

We’ve had a lot of discussions recently about SEO as a Science. Unfortunately, these discussions sometimes devolve into arguments over semantics or which approach is the “best” in all situations. I’d like to step back for a few moments today and talk about the wider world of SEO evidence. While not all of these types of evidence are “science” in the technical sense, they are all important to our overall understanding. We need to use the best pieces of all of them if we ever hope to develop a mature science of SEO.

The Fundamental Assumption

All science rests on a fundamental assumption, long before any hypothesis is proposed or tested. The fundamental assumption is that the universe is orderly and follows rules, and that through observation and experimentation we can determine those rules. Without an orderly universe, science would be impossible (as would existence, most likely). A related assumption is that these rules are relatively static – if they change, they change very slowly. Our view of the universe may change dramatically, resulting in paradigm shifts, but the underlying rules remain roughly the same.

The advantage we have as SEOs is that we know, for an absolute fact, that our universe is orderly. Like Neo, we have seen The Matrix. The Algorithm consists of lines of code written by humans and running on servers.

The disadvantage for SEO science is that the rules governing our universe are NOT static. The algorithm changes constantly – as often as 400 times per year. This means that any observation, any data, and even any controlled experiment could turn out to be irrelevant. The facts we built our SEO practices on 5 or 10 years ago are not always valid today.

(1) Anecdotal Evidence

All science begins with observation. In SEO, we make changes to sites every day and measure what happens. When rankings rise and fall, we naturally try to figure out why and to tie those changes to something we did in the past. Although it isn’t “science” in the technical sense, the evidence of our own experience is very important. Without observing the universe and creating stories to explain it, we would never learn anything from those experiences.

PROS – Anecdotal evidence is easy to collect and it’s the most abundant form of evidence any of us have. It’s the building block for just about any form of scientific inquiry.

CONS – Our own experiences are easily affected by our own biases. Also, no single experience can ever tell the whole story. Anecdotal evidence is just a starting point.

(2) Prophetic Evidence

SEOs have a unique type of available evidence. Every once in a while, a prophet will descend from the Mountain Top (or Mountain View), shave his head, and speak the words of the Google Gods. Whether or not we choose to believe these prophets, the fact remains that there are people who have seen and written the Algorithm, and those people have access to facts that the rest of us don’t. Their statements (and our ability to critically reconcile those statements) are an important part of the overall puzzle.

PROS – The prophets are as close to objective reality as we’re ever going to get. They have direct insight into the algorithm.

CONS – The prophets don’t have a vested interest in telling us the whole truth. Their messages can be cryptic and even misleading.

(3) Secondhand Evidence

When you hear “secondhand” evidence, you may naturally think of the extreme examples, like hearsay and urban legends:

My cousin’s neighbor’s stylist said that she once changed all of her META tags to “sex poker sex poker sex” and her site immediately jumped to #1 on Google!

To be fair, though, secondhand evidence also includes the legitimate science that came before us and the experiences of our peers. If we were forced to confirm and replicate every single conclusion for ourselves, we would never make any progress. Ultimately, we build on the reliable conclusions of other experts, past and present.

PROS – Secondhand evidence is the foundation for scientific progress.

CONS – Sometimes, experts are wrong, and you have to learn how to tell the difference, especially in a field as young as SEO.

(4) Experimental – “The Wild”

Experimentation is the heart of Capital-S Science. The most basic experiments happen something like this:

• You form a hypothesis (”Adding keywords to my title tag will improve rankings”).
• You make a change to test that hypothesis.
• You measure the outcome and find out if you were right.

Most SEO experimentation, by its nature, occurs in the “wild”. We have to put our sites out in the world, and we often have to use existing sites that are already complicated and changing.

PROS – By directly forming and testing a hypothesis, we can start to determine causality. We can also repeat the process, helping to validate what we’ve learned.

CONS – Using existing sites in the wild introduces a lot of extra noise. Often, our sites have to keep changing (even during the experiment), and Google is always changing. There’s also a fair amount of risk – if we change our bread-and-butter sites to test SEO theories, mistakes can be costly.

(5) Experimental – Controlled

This is the classic SEO experiment, where we register one or more new domain names and build sites from the ground up. We can even introduce a control group, by building both sites up to Step X and then only changing one of the sites after that point. Even then, it might be best to call these experiments “semi-controlled,” since the Google algorithm can still change and we can’t always control outside influences (like someone accidentally linking to one of the sites).

PROS – This approach is about the best we can do, in terms of control, and it separates out a lot of confounding factors.

CONS – The artificial sites we set up in these experiments (often using nonsense words) aren’t always representative of real, complex sites. In addition, these experiments are usually conducted on a sample of just one or very few sites, to save time and money. Statistical significance can be very difficult to achieve.

(6) Correlational Evidence

Sometimes, either we can’t separate out the variables involved in a complex situation (like the 200+ factors Google uses in its ranking model) or direct experimentation would be impossible or unethical. For example, let’s say you want to understand how smoking affects mortality. You can’t take 1000 5-year-olds, force them to smoke for 70 years, and compare them to 1000 non-smoking 5-year-olds. In these cases, you take a very large data set and look at the correlations. In other words, if I look at 1000 smokers and 1000 non-smokers, how likely is each group to die at a certain age? Correlation can help you understood how changes in X (smoking, in this case) co-occur with changes in Y (mortality).

PROS – Correlation can help us mathematically find relationships when direct experimentation is impossible or impractical. These techniques can also help model complex situations where multiple variables are affecting the same outcome.

CONS – Correlation does not imply causation. We don’t know if changes in X cause changes in Y or if they just happen to co-occur (maybe even due to a Factor Z affecting them both).

(7) Large-scale Simulation

If we can collect enough data, we can build a model of the universe and test hypotheses against that model. Now that large-scale indexes are being built to mimic Google (including our own Linkscape and indexes like Majestic), it only stands to reason that we’ll eventually be able to run experiments directly against these models. Although the conclusions we draw from these simulations are only as good as the models themselves, simulation data can help us both improve models and conduct something closer to a laboratory test than is usually possible in SEO.

PROS – Simulations can be controlled. Unlike Google, we know whether we’ve changed the model or not. Experiments can also be run very quickly and on a very large-scale.

CONS – The result of any simulation is only as good as the model it’s built on, and our models are still in their infancy.

Which One Is The Best?

Any type of evidence, including controlled experimentation, has limits. In a field like SEO, where the Google algorithm is constantly changing, relying too much on any one type of evidence can either stall progress or lead us to bad conclusions (or, in some cases, both). Understanding every available source of evidence not only helps us paint a broader, more comprehensive picture, but it also helps us cross-test our hypotheses and prevent mistakes. SEO science is a young and constantly changing field, and, at least for now, SEO scientists will need to adapt quickly.

Do you like this post? Yes No

See more here:
7 Types of SEO Evidence

WhitePages.com Updates Local Business Product

Written on June 24, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, marketing

Did you know that WhitePages.com regularly ranks among the Top 50 web sites in the US for traffic? I didn’t but I guess that just shows that I don’t need to find many phone numbers. That kind of traffic though is a valuable asset and WhitePages.com is looking to take advantage of the push in local business information that has been led by Google’s Place Pages and other specific local business directories.

paidContent.org tells us more

WhitePages.com has given visitors the option to search for local businesses for almost a decade, although it has historically sent those queries to third-party sites. Starting Thursday, it’s taking those listings in-house and adding several features, including a “store locator,” which lets people find branches of national chains in their area.

Since the beta has launched there has been some reason to believe that this is a good thing moving forward

In an interview, Jason Milstead, WhitePage.com’s director of business search, said that the number of business searches on WhitePages.com has risen from about 13 to 14 million a month to more than 16 million a month since WhitePages.com launched a beta of the product in April.

Ok, so you roll out a new internal product and magically your numbers shoot up just because of the sheer awesomeness of the product? Not likely. Being a bit of a usability nut I went to the site to see just what they are doing that might entice a visitor to take this service for a spin. Based on the graphics below that are prominently displayed on the business locator side of the page, I suspect that increase in traffic for the service is more about a lesson in site usability and promotion vs. an incredible new product that visitors decided they just have to use.

WhitePages.com admits that revenue is off from its best days but is trying to see how it can capitalize on the interest in local business listings. It is introducing service to do this and aiming at some big players as competitors.

[Services like] DealPop, which will be able to leverage the traffic that the listings bring to WhitePages.com—giving it an advantage over other daily deal services that have had to spend heavily on advertising in order to bring in users. “Groupon, LivingSocial had to build up that traffic from day one,” (Milstead) says. “They don’t have a business search product they’re integrating with.”

While this is interesting it seems like WhitePages.com is waking up to the fact that while they have a lot of traffic they are not monetizing it as they could. As a result, they are taking an existing feature, bringing it in-house, and looking to capitalize. This is not unlike a lot of web properties who have watched competitors erode once dominant positions by providing more than just information.

It’s hard to say just how much call there is for the many different deliveries of local business information that are all over the web. Consumers usually want a trusted source that doesn’t require a lot of hunting. Gee, sounds a lot like a company out of Mountain View, doesn’t it?

The rest is here:
WhitePages.com Updates Local Business Product

Cup of Joe: Theres No Magic In The Land Of Unicorns

Written on May 29, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing, seo

The Internet is amazing place. Only online can unicorns go in search of Candy Mountain, babies dance their hearts out, and cats can LOL. With the Internet we can connect with friends we haven’t spoken to in 20 years. And we can meet new amazing people every day. Because of all of these amazing things the Internet can do, it’s no surprise that many small business owners think the Internet can perform magic for their small business. However, what many fail to realize is often starting a business on the Internet can be more challenging than starting one off-line.

It seems almost on a weekly basis I’m approached by a local small business to help build their Internet presence, and, every now and then, by an individual without a business that dreams of riches from the information superhighway. Both of these parties are looking for a simple solution to making money and think the Internet is their answer. Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet that can build a business or increase wealth.

3 Common Myths About Doing Business Online

It’s cheap. I will admit that often times opening an off-line brick-and-mortar business can be costly and can result in higher overhead for long-term growth. However, if you are a budding Internet entrepreneur with absolutely no experience in web development, design, or marketing then you can expect to make a substantial initial investment to get your business started. I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for. There are many ways to start a business online for little money, but the probability of success is extremely slim because most of the cheap strategies rely on amateur labor and substandard services.

It’s easy. If you build it, they will come only works in cheesy Kevin Costner films. Whether you are building a business on the Internet or off-line, you will be required to constantly market and promote your organization in order to grow. We see this attitude many times within the SEO community where business owners will build a website and automatically assume it’s a part of Google. Sophisticated SEO and Internet marketing firms spend millions a year to promote their clients’ businesses. Oftentimes an off-line business success is dependent on its location. However on the Internet, location is nonexistent. On the Internet, promotion can make or break a business.

It’s highly lucrative. Most with experience will tell you that 95% of Internet startups fail with the first year of existence. Many of the 5% that survive barely generate enough revenue to keep the business self-sustaining. Very few are purchased as part of an acquisition. The truth is that most successful Internet entrepreneurs have failed dozens of times prior to making it big. It takes years of experience to understand what works and what doesn’t online.

So now you see there is no magic secret to wealth on the Internet. Like all successful business endeavors it requires time and hard work. But in the end, whether you have succeeded or failed you’ll learn skills and gain experience that far surpass those that have never tried anything at all.

Photo by Chris Walton

Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

Read the rest here:
Cup of Joe: Theres No Magic In The Land Of Unicorns

FTC Decides Not To Block Google-AdMob Acquisition

Written on May 21, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book

The champagne is flowing in Mountain View; the FTC has declined to sue to block Google’s $750 million acquisition of mobile ad network AdMob. It appears that the public-facing rationale for the decision is the entry of Apple into the mobile ad market.
The FTC put out the following statement:
In a statement issued today, the Commission [...]



*** Read the full post by clicking on the headline above or, in Facebook, by clicking on the “View Original Post” link below. ***

View original here:
FTC Decides Not To Block Google-AdMob Acquisition

Google Analytics Releases New, Faster Tracking Code

Written on May 21, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book

Last December, Google Analytics announced an alternative tracking setup by using a “parallel rail” to execute JavaScript, meaning analytics wouldn’t slow down your site, and your site wouldn’t hold up analytics. They call it their asynchronous code, and it’s now out of beta and available right in the Google Analytics setup process.
This is important for [...]



*** Read the full post by clicking on the headline above or, in Facebook, by clicking on the “View Original Post” link below. ***

Read more from the original source:
Google Analytics Releases New, Faster Tracking Code

MySpace Wants to Become Your Privacy Buddy

Written on May 17, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing

OK, it’s 2005. Imagine you are the reigning social media champ, MySpace. You are the number one social networking site and you get all the great press. It appears as if there was no way to stop you. You even get purchased for some serious scratch from one of the premier media companies in the world, News Corp. Sure there are some bothersome startups around like those kids over at Facebook but this is a done deal. You are the king of the mountain. What can go wrong?

Fast forward 5 years. You are a social media also ran. You are white knuckling your existence. Those “kids” over at Facebook have not only passed you but they have basically made you obsolete. You are the butt of social media jokes and no self respecting person or company (unless you are promoting music) talks about their “presence” on your site.

Ah, but there’s a glimmer of hope. Your hopelessly arrogant competition at Facebook has stuck its privacy foot in its mouth and just about every other orifice it can find. Its privacy made it popular but Facebook has gone and pulled the carpet out from underneath its trusted users by making everything public unless you have the guidance to undo the web of privacy options. What do you do?

Well if you are MySpace you go ahead and tout yourself as the social network where privacy matters! As Mashable reports

Facebook is under fire of late as members threaten a mass exodus and NYU students attempt to build an alternative Facebook. Today MySpace is taking its own jab at Facebook by announcing that the social networking site will soon make the default setting for updates “friends only.”

This default privacy change will affect all users who “previously had any granular page setting to ‘friends only,’” but can easily be changed.

The change is part of MySpace’s new public commitment to privacy. The once-dominant social network’s stated goal is to simplify settings and let users more clearly post updates publicly, to friends only, or publicly to anyone 18 or over.

So is this sheer coincidence, utter brilliance or quiet desperation? Probably a little of all of them but I think desperation is in the lead. These “changes” have been discussed in a blog post by MySpace co-president Mike Jones but guess what? They won’t actually be available for a few weeks.

Well, either they figure that we are dumb as dirt and won’t see the opportunistic media play that is not supported by reality or they just got real lucky with this new “policy” over at MySpace. Hmmmmm, I wonder which one it is?

As I write this I wonder if this was even worth the time to mention. Maybe it shows just how lame this industry can be and that’s what makes it interesting. Either that or in the deep recesses of everyone’s minds, even those over at MySpace, we hope that there will someday be an alternative to Facebook because the whole “ask for forgiveness, rather than permission” policy of Facebook is growing old…..real old.

Can anyone say Diaspora?

Original post:
MySpace Wants to Become Your Privacy Buddy

Adobe Strikes Back at Apple in Ad Campaign

Written on May 13, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

The Adobe v. Apple tussle is now becoming an all out battle. Steve Jobs raised the bar recently with his attack on Adobe which surprised many by its level of intensity. We’re not completely sure why there is a serious bee in Jobs’ bonnet but its there for sure.

With the ball firmly in Adobe’s court we find today from Engadget that Adobe is ready to play hardball. They are running the following ad on sites (Engadget included)

Take that, Steve-O! There is a full page ad in the Washington Post as well so Adobe is apparently willing to put some hard earned Flash money into combating the attack. How quickly this turns into a full-blown battle or just a hair-pulling screaming match is anyone’s guess.

To be sure though, the Adobe founders’ response to Mr. Jobs missive is pretty strong and direct so maybe this could be a real fight. Here’s the letter.

The genius of the Internet is its almost infinite openness to innovation. New hardware. New software. New applications. New ideas. They all get their chance.

As the founders of Adobe, we believe open markets are in the best interest of developers, content owners, and consumers. Freedom of choice on the web has unleashed an explosion of content and transformed how we work, learn, communicate, and, ultimately, express ourselves.

If the web fragments into closed systems, if companies put content and applications behind walls, some indeed may thrive — but their success will come at the expense of the very creativity and innovation that has made the Internet a revolutionary force.

We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.

When markets are open, anyone with a great idea has a chance to drive innovation and find new customers. Adobe’s business philosophy is based on a premise that, in an open market, the best products will win in the end — and the best way to compete is to create the best technology and innovate faster than your competitors.

That, certainly, was what we learned as we launched PostScript® and PDF, two early and powerful software solutions that work across platforms. We openly published the specifications for both, thus inviting both use and competition. In the early days, PostScript attracted 72 clone makers, but we held onto our market leadership by out-innovating the pack. More recently, we’ve done the same thing with Adobe® Flash® technology. We publish the specifications for Flash — meaning anyone can make their own Flash player. Yet, Adobe Flash technology remains the market leader because of the constant creativity and technical innovation of our employees.

We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web — the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time.

In the end, we believe the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we believe the answer is: nobody — and everybody, but certainly not a single company.

Chuck Geschke, John Warnock
Cofounders
Chairmen, Adobe Board of Directors

So who’s right and who’s wrong? Or is it who cares? In the end, this battle may culminate in who does or does not get content in certain environments especially in mobile delivery.

So who could be the biggest winner of all? You tell us. Hint, it may be the folks in Mountain View.

Read the original here:
Adobe Strikes Back at Apple in Ad Campaign

Facebook Adopts “Bunker Mentality” Over Privacy Concerns

Written on May 13, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing

If you are tired of hearing about Facebook and privacy you may not be alone but there is also little to no relief in the long range forecast. It looks like there may be an extended heat wave relating to Facebook and their privacy attempts / blunders / mea culpas etc. Things must be getting pretty hot because yesterday Facebook called an “all hands” meeting for today to discuss the very issue that keeps putting Facebook in the spotlight for what it isn’t doing rather than what it is doing. No company likes that kind of press even if you appear to be inhuman like Facebook can at times.

Inside Facebook reports

Facing increasing pressure from the media and users, Facebook has called an all hands meeting tomorrow afternoon, at 4 PM Pacific, to discuss the company’s overall privacy strategy according to sources inside the company. Facebook has come under increasing scrutiny for a number of reasons and many were left with a sour taste in their mouth following a New York Times reader Q&A with Elliot Schrage, the company’s Vice President for Public Policy.

We covered that Q & A yesterday and I thought it was either brilliant or stupid with no in betweens. The GigaOm article in the above quote really lays into Facebook for its inability to just come out and say what it intends. As a result, there is a lot of confusion AND mounting hostility toward the social networking giant.

If you really want to see some interesting facts about Facebook and privacy in a graphical fashion check out the New York Times Facebook privacy chart and some accompanying statistics. It shows that the current Facebook privacy policy is longer that the original US Constitution (minus amendments). Also, the current policy is about 6 times bigger (in total words) than the original policy from 2005. Those were my fun facts for the day. Thanks, NYT!

So Facebook now needs to pull itself together and it is calling everyone into a room to figure it out. Honestly, it may be too late to do something that is not harmful to the company in a big way.

While it’s unknown what Facebook will announce during the meeting, it’s pretty obvious that changes will need to be made if Facebook is going to regain users’ trust. The most likely change will come in the form of a temporary removal of the “Instant Personalization” service, or at the least, a shift to “opt-in”, something many privacy advocates have been calling for.

If Facebook does another “about face”, they would now have Beacon and the current privacy gaffe on their resume and trust will become zero. The biggest threat is that this “dirty little secret” which gets huge attention from insiders and even mainstream tech news outlets could go to the masses. Right now, I don’t think that most Facebook users even know there is a problem. It’s when everyone understands that Facebook is at worst trampling privacy concerns or at best confusing the issue to the state of being FUBAR there will be no good endings to this story for Facebook.

Just imagine what floodgates they will open if they cave under pressure on this one. Can they act to rectify this without doing some serious damage to their standing as a respectable company? Or, will they now demand such tight vigilance by consumer and government watchdogs that their ability to do business (i.e. sell ads based on user data) is crippled?

Your thoughts?

View original here:
Facebook Adopts “Bunker Mentality” Over Privacy Concerns

Google Gets the Department of Justice’s Seal of Non-Approval

Written on February 5, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing

I can hear it now. We normal folks won’t be able to hear this signal (kind like a dog whistle) but this is being sounded across the US to Washington, DC from Mountain View, CA as we speak.

“Calling all ex-Google employees in DC! Calling all ex-Google employees in DC! (Especially if you still have stock) I repeat – Calling all ex-Google employees in DC! This is your real leader, Eric Schmidt, and we need you to ‘talk’ to some people about this ‘problem’ that the US government has with our book deal. Remember where your allegiance is and who is more powerful. Go and do your duty for the Goog immediately. Thanks and have a great day!”

OK, so it really is a ridiculous thought but I bet the folks at Google wish that could happen when a road block like this happens to a deal that seems quite important to one of the most powerful companies in the world. Sfgate.com tells us

The Department of Justice said in a filing late Thursday that revisions to the proposed legal settlement allowing Google Inc. to publish millions of books online didn’t do enough to allay antitrust, copyright and other legal concerns.

The landmark deal would allow the Mountain View search titan to move ahead with its ambitious project while establishing a system for identifying and paying appropriate rights holders.

The government acknowledged “substantial progress” on several issues, but said in a statement filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that core concerns remain unresolved, including the amount of power granted to Google.

There is quite a bit at stake with this book deal for sure and there are those who are both for and against. Those against include library groups, academics and competitors who have privacy and anti-competitive concerns. Those for the deal include student, minorities and the disabled because the service would provide the ability to access more information than ever.

Google is doing an “act as if” and not really publicly recognizing this decision that could influence whether this gets past the government’s scrutiny or not. This whole drama has been two years in the making and Google has had a similar battle in Europe. Whether this will ever reach the point of an agreement that allows Google to do what is proposed for many out of print volumes is a major TBD (to be determined).

Google keeps running precariously close to the line that reads “If crossed people will yell monopoly!” I suspect they would like just one victory but whether that will happen in this case may be more out of their control than usual.

How do you feel about this book agreement? Have you followed it? Do you care? If Google gets the green light is it truly giving them to much power? If they can’t do it will any of these books ever be seen again by anyone?

Go here to see the original:
Google Gets the Department of Justice’s Seal of Non-Approval

Google Announces New Offerings in Real-Time, Mobile and Social Search

Written on December 7, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: book, chat, marketing, seo

While Google’s CEO is experimenting with the wonders of Twitter (which by the way has been switched to @ericschmidt and has over 10k followers so adjust accordingly) the mothership, Google, is announcing some new search additions that are, well, timely.

Today Google made the announcements from the Computer History Museum in Mountain view. The official Google blog tells us Be sure to check out the video there as well.

First, we’re introducing new features that bring your search results to life with a dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now, immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we’ll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page.

Wow, this has been a rough day for SEO’s for sure. First, personalization is made the norm by Google for all users and now more front page real estate is threatened by the real time search offer. Of course, this type of offering will be more useful in some areas since searches like “injection die mold” won’t have much current activity around it (or will it?).

There is a lot to digest with this new offering and it looks pretty comprehensive. I think it’s better for Google to tell you so here you are.

Click on “Latest results” or select “Latest” from the search options menu to view a full page of live tweets, blogs, news and other web content scrolling right on Google. You can also filter your results to see only “Updates” from micro-blogs like Twitter, FriendFeed, Jaiku and others. Latest results and the new search options are also designed for iPhone and Android devices when you need them on the go, be it a quick glance at changing information like ski conditions or opening night chatter about a new movie — right when you’re in line to buy tickets.

And, as part of our launch of real-time on Google search, we’ve added “hot topics” to Google Trends to show the most common topics people are publishing to the web in real-time. With this improvement and a series of other interface enhancements, Google Trends is graduating from Labs.

Our real-time search features are based on more than a dozen new search technologies that enable us to monitor more than a billion documents and process hundreds of millions of real-time changes each day. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of our new partners that we’re announcing today: Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca — along with Twitter, which we announced a few weeks ago.

You can go to Google Trends and click on a hot topic to test out these new features which will be available in English over the next few days. This addition to Trends also marks its graduation from Google Labs. Sniff, sniff, our little application is growing up so fast sob, sob.

So as to try to out do themselves, Google also announced mobile search changes as well.

We have also made some new strides with mobile search. Today’s sensor-rich smartphones are redefining what “query” means. Beyond text, you can now search by a number of new modes including voice, location and sight — all from a mobile device. So we’ve been working to improve technology that takes advantage of these capabilities.

Well, today could prove to be a watershed day in search as Google is now changing the game in a way that only Google can. What does this mean to the way you do business? How to you see these changes impacting your SEO practice? Is this a true game-changer or just another step along the way? Let’s hear your thoughts.

Original post:
Google Announces New Offerings in Real-Time, Mobile and Social Search