Updated Google iOS Search App Includes Handsfree Activation, New Notifications, Reminders & Cards
Google released a new version of its iOS Search App today, with an extensive list of updates, including new notifications, reminder alerts, cards and a handsfree search activation feature. With the 3.1.0 version of the iOS Search App, iPhone 4s users can say, “Okay Google” or touch the…
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Google Helpouts: Help From Experts Backed By Google, Via Video, For A Price
Looking for some help? Providing answers has always been Google’s goal, and now it has a new way to do it. “Helpouts,” a way to pick people offering help via live video, for a price. People that are vetted, checked and backed by Google. Google shared the news of the new program…
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Nexus 5 First Impressions: A Great, Search-Centric Smartphone
Google shipped out demo versions of the Nexus 5 late last week. People are still receiving them today. I got one on Friday and have been using it on WiFi ever since. (I haven’t tried it on a wireless network and can’t speak to the LTE experience.) The phone immediately sold out of its…
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The New Visual Brand Ads: What Google Banners & Bing Hero Ads Mean For Search
In the past two weeks, both Microsoft and Google began testing display-style ads that appear on search results for select brand queries. Many see the introduction of these ads as a money grab to get brands to pay for traffic they would otherwise get fo…
Bing Ads Executives Share Plans To Make Bing A Better Ad Platform
Earlier this year, there were questions about where Bing would stand after CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled Microsoft’s reorganization plan in July. It turns out the move has been a good one for the search engine. Microsoft chose to give Bing an enterprise-wide embrace. The company is now…
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Don’t Want Your Searches Encrypted? Add ?nord=1 To Your URL Parameters
Not interested in having Google encrypt and secure your searches? Well, now there is a way to stop Google from forcing you to search using Google SSL search. All you need to do is add ?nord=1 to the Google URL parameter. For example, searching Google f…
Bing, Twitter Renew Deal To Include Tweets In Search Results
Bing has announced a renewal of its long-standing deal with Twitter to include tweets in Bing’s search results. The Bing-Twitter partnership began in 2009 and was renewed in 2011. Tweets are primarily available and searchable at Bing’s social search page, bing.com/social, but…
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Google, Android Makers Sued By Apple “Rockstar” Consortium Over Search, AdWords
Roughly two years ago Google and a consortium of companies competitively bid for the vast patent portfolio of bankrupt Canadian Company Nortel Networks. Google initiated the bidding with $900 million but ultimately was outbid by the Rockstar consortium, consisting of Microsoft, Apple, Blackberry,…
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Google App Indexing: Google Can Index & Link To Content In Your Android App
Google announced that they can now index the content within Android apps. The mechanism for doing so, they call, is app indexing. App indexing allows webmasters to connect pages from your web sites with specific content within your Android app. This en…
Report: Basic Local Optimization Steps Boosted Google Visibility By 179 Percent
Digital agency and technology provider SIM Partners released a report (registration required) discussing how use of several basic Local SEO tactics can dramatically improve visibility on Google. The study involved 315 US business locations. These are not independent, small businesses. SIM Partners…
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Google Adds Glassware Page For Glass Apps But Missing A Search Box
Google has quietly added a new section to the MyGlass site for Glassware. This section will be the location Google Glass users will be able to discover and manage the apps (i.e. Glassware) they can add to their Google Glass. As you know, Google opened …
Google Logo Dressed Up As A Halloween Witch Today
To celebrate the spookiest of all holidays today, Google has replaced its logo with an interactive image of a Halloween witch browsing her book of spells. By clicking the play button on the logo, the book transforms into a caldron and users are prompte…
Google Webmaster Tools Adds “Security Issues” Section
Google has announced the addition of a new section within Webmaster Tools named “Security Issues.” This new section is aimed at better communicating to website owners security issues, such as site hacks, malware, and so on and then giving a more detailed and concise method of fixing the…
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Microsoft Pilots “Hero Ads” For Branded Search Queries On Windows 8.1 Smart Search
Today, Microsoft unveiled a new ad unit for branded search called Hero Ads. The new units are appearing on select exact match brand queries in Smart Search on Windows 8.1. Consider these ads as the front window or as David Ku, Microsoft VP of engineering referred to them, “a brand’s…
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Google’s Knowledge Graph Ready For Halloween With Fun Easter Eggs
Mashable spotted some clever easter eggs from Google for the upcoming Halloween holiday. Google is utilizing the knowledge graph to provide fun answers to searches for [Ghost], [Witch], [Skeleton], [Grim Reaper]. For example, if you look at the knowled…
Google Fixes Gay Slur In St. Louis Cardinals’ Knowledge Graph Box
A gay slur from the Wikipedia page about the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team made its way into Google’s Knowledge Graph box for a short time this week. The slur has been making news with stories appearing in a number of press outlets. The Cardinals’ Wikipedia page has been home to a…
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Google’s Matt Cutts: More Pages Does Not Equal Higher Rankings
In a new video released today by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, we learn that the more pages a web site has, does not necessarily mean you will have better rankings. Matt Cutts said, “I wouldn’t assume that just because you have a large number of indexed pages that you…
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Study: Google Adds 1,200 Search Sites & 750 ISP Client Networks In Less Than A Year
A study published by researchers at the University of Southern California unintentionally discovered Google has dramatically increased the number of sites and ISPs it uses to serve client queries. According to the findings, between October 2012 and Jul…
Is Bing A Better Buy Than Google AdWords For Small Business?
Data released yesterday by small business (SMB) marketing platform Pricing Engine argues, as a number of others have in the past, that Bing ads are a “more efficient” buy than Google AdWords. While Google has more search volume and higher CTRs, Bing emerges as a lower cost source of…
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Facebook Offers A Peak At How Graph Search For Status Updates Works
It’s been less than a month since Facebook expanded Graph Search to include status updates and posts, and the feature still isn’t available to all users. Nonetheless, Facebook search engineer Ashoat Tevosyan shared an “under the hood” look at how it works — and why it…
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