Google Buzz – A Social Network in your Gmail Account.

Over the past year Google has been successfully trying to add Social features to its various products. Towards the end of last year saw the real-time search and the social search being integrated in Google search.

Couple of hours back Google announced its new addition to Gmail; Google Buzz. A Twitter like application integrated into your Gmail with all your contacts following you. Google Buzz will give you an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately.

The Mobile version of Buzz will allow Geo Tagging your posts with location from where it is shared. This will allow you to paint a much better picture with your updates on Buzz.

Google is rolling out Buzz to all Gmail accounts over the next few days, so if you don't see it in your account yet, check back soon. Google Buzz will also be available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features for sharing within organizations.

I am quite excited while waiting for my Gmail and Google app account to show the Google Buzz feature.
My First Buzz




While you wait enjoy the videos of Google Buzz in Gmail and on Mobile.



Google Buzz on your phone

Browser Size - From Google Labs.

Couple of weeks back Google posted a very informative post about a new tool from Google Lab called the Browser Size.

It can give you a basic idea about how much of your webpage is immediately visible to your visitor depending on the size of their monitor and resolution settings.

So, for all those who are designing their new site or are revamping their old one, this tool can be of great use to help you decide where to place your USPs.

Here is an example from the Website Optimizer homepage:


Click to see full-size

Now you can plug your site into Browser Size and you’ll get visitors perspective. Each band of color represents approximately how many visitors will see that section immediately upon landing (the seemingly shaky lines are actually a true representation of the visible area excluding the title bar, toolbars, etc).

So get back to the optimization grindstone, squeeze another percentage point or two into your conversion rate, and give all of your visitors the experience they deserve.

State of the Index -- From Google at PubCon

In the past year Google has done a lot for its users including web developers and webmasters.

At PubCon in November 2009 at Las Vegas Matt Cutts gave a talk “State of the index” in which he has covered many of happenings and developments at Google in 2009.

He recently compiled a video which is very helpful for those of us who missed it. Also, embedded below the video is the slide which you can follow along.




And here are the slides:

Who Is Failure = Obama :: According to Google

I always remember the old days when Google bombs worked fine and we use to see irrelevant or sometimes funny results for various search terms.

Recently, many experts reported a similar incident that proves Google is still not completely bomb proof.

Search for "who is failure" in Google or just click here and you will be amused. : )

Incase you are wondering what Google bomb is please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb

Also, if you miss it; because I am sure that Google will take the necessary steps to clean up the mess, below is a screenshot that I took for archival purposes ;)

Click on the image

And here are a few amusing rankings as mentioned on SearchEngineLand

Google: “Failure,” “miserable failure” and “who is a failure” bring up neither Bush nor Obama in the top 50 results, but “who is failure” ranks Obama #1.

Ask: “Failure” doesn’t find Bush or Obama in the top 50 result. For “miserable failure,” Bush ranks #45. For “who is a failure,” neither ranks. For “who is failure,” Obama ranks #1, as with Google.

Bing: For “failure,” the Bush bio ranks #2 for me. It ranks #3 for “miserable failure.” It ranks #2 for “who is a failure” and “who is failure.”

Yahoo: For “failure,” Bush ranks #11. Bush ranks #5 for “miserable failure.” His bio ranks #16 for “who is a failure.” For “who is failure,” neither Bush nor Obama rank in the top 50 results.

I have very little enthusiasm to actually verify them all but can give it a try I hope you won’t be disappointed.

Do post any such funny fact that you come across in the comments.

Enjoy!

User Interface For Keywords Updated on Webmaster Tools

Google recently announced updates about the keyword and Webmaster tools.

Now there is a better way to compare the frequency of a keyword to the frequency of the most popular keyword on your site. Also, you will get a list of up to 10 URLs which contain the keyword that you have selected from the list displayed in your webmaster tools.

In short Google will:

1. Tell you how often a keyword is found.
2. Displays top URLs that contain the keyword.
3. Data updated daily.

Also as suggested by the team at Google; this will also help you identify which URLs may have been hacked. (This is a possibility and some of my friends this problem frequently.)

You can just look for key words such as ‘casino’, ‘Viagra’, etc which you believe don’t relate to your site and are getting you unnecessary traffic. Short list the source URL and clean them up if required.

Here are few images related to the updates.

Its the Webmaster Tools' Team ;-]

Google Chrome OS will be Reveled This Year

Google has made it intensions clear to bless the computing world with a new open source OS named “Google Chrome OS”

According to the Google's latest blog post the Google Chrome Operating System is Google’s attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

The open source, lightweight operating system will be initially launched for Netbooks. And these Net books will be available for the consumers in the second half of 2010.

The Key aspects of the Chrome OS will be speed, simplicity and security. Completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS will reduce users’ intervention required to deal with viruses, malware and security updates; thus improving overall experience.

The OS will be designed to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get user onto the web in a few seconds.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and Google is working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

With this said about the Google Chrome OS I can wait to get my hands on the source code and hopefully make some useful contribution to the OS world.

SEMPO Asia Tour - Search Engine Marketing Event in Mumbai

SEMPO Asia Tour - Search Engine Marketing Event in Mumbai

Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) Chairman and Board Members are touring Asia through 9-15 June, 09 to foster awareness, educate, and promote the search industry in Asia.

The India visit is on 15 June 09. The event would consist of a Workshop and a Roundtable for Digital Agencies & companies having a Digital Marketing Division. The event will bring together leading global and Indian practitioners from the Search Marketing discipline on a single platform. The event is an opportunity to:
• Gain insights on Enterprise SEO for large business ventures
• Learn how Global PPC Campaigns & SEM strategies accelerate growth businesses
• Discover the impact SEO, SEM & SMO can have in increasing the reach of businesses

Convonix has sponsor the ‘Search Engine Marketing Roundtable’ Event in Mumbai on Monday, June 15th 2009.

I believe they will be tweeting live from the event. So just follow Covonix on Twitter - http://twitter.com/convonix to get live updates from the event.