Google

Launched nine months ago, the Google Chrome browser already has over 30 million people using it regularly – people who live on the web – searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. (Gee, I wonder who Google is talking about?! LOL)

Google has just announced a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at Netbook computers first, but will eventually port the operating system onto other computers such as laptops and desktop systems. This sort of computing is often referred to as ‘cloud-based computing‘ – meaning that your applications (and files) are not internal, but running virtually online. That means less upgrading, less software purchases. The draw-back is less control and ownership.

This new OS runs within a new ‘windowing system’ using Linux, with its key aspects being speed, simplicity and security. The software architecture is simple:

• 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.
• Designed to be fast, lightweight, you can launch and get onto the web in a few seconds.

Computers need to get better. They should just work. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files.

Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

For some fun, have a look at this Graphic Novel
http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/small_00.html

Excerpts for this post taken from an article posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director for Google. Joyce Jones also contributed.

Hey! I’m over heeeeeeere!

When new media catches on, it spreads everywhere. And fast. Conversations about YouTube! were rare at first, but once we saw how quickly these videos loaded and how well they played, we wanted to tell all our friends about them!

We’ve experienced the same phenomenon with Flash, AJAX, Google, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and nearly every type of social media you can think of. We say “ooooooh! that is COOL!” then we dive into it.

Trouble is, that while we are swimming deep in the new technology we find nifty, most of our friends are doing the same (and we all keep sharing it). The result is a saturation of media.

Ad columnist for Entrepreneur.com, Roy Williams, wrote about “Advertising Trends: Publishing Past Media Overload“. In the article, he shines a spotlight on problems we face today in advertising that have only grown worse.

The more we have to look at and react to, the harder it is to see things individually. Say we go to a sports arena and have 30-70,000 people around us … ever noticed how really tough it can be to find a buddy (or wife) in the crowd?

Flip that around: in that same arena when you leave your friends (or your husband) to go grab a bite/drink/restroom break, it’s equally hard for them to see you. Getting noticed takes a LOT of effort. (And “hey I forgot my wallet” can be a painful trek back across the crowd!)

With all the new technology we have, often being force-fed to us (see how much you get hit with on your local news station’s web site!), it is no wonder those wanting your attention (and your money), have such a difficult time reaching you.

In Roy’s article, he suggests we all spend a bit more time writing headlines to get attention, then proceed to take that reader’s attention to inform them what you can do for them.

Be fun, smart, and innovative, but make sure you can back-up your headline with reality! Find what you want to get your readers to react to, and grab their attention. They are likely reading e-mail, checking in on Facebook, sending out a Tweet, checking the team scores on ESPN and doing some online shopping. Will you be seen?

Remember, there is a lot more to advertising than a pretty picture, cool graphics, or some well-written copy. It takes a balance of it all to get noticed!

Not to be overshadowed by the release of the decision engine, Bing, Google has added new functionality to its search engine. The search giant is describing this as “a new set of tools that allows you to slice and dice results in new ways.” Google is aiming to capture more understanding about its users.

Wonder Wheel

Google introduced “Wonder Wheel,” a graphical way to explore topics by clicking on related searches. Wonder Wheel gives you the ability to visually review your search results, similar to mind mapping. To try it out, do a search and find the “Show Options” link at the top of the search results page.

The other functionality introduced is Google Squared, a tool designed to chart research into columns and rows for those who are trying to track and organize information they get from the Web. Google Squared extracts data from Web pages and presents them in an online spreadsheet.

What makes this tool handy is that adding structure to the Web is one way to make sense of all that data. Check out this quick clip to see Google Squared in action.

You might be looking at the logo to the right and thinking, “Did Bing Design re-brand their logo again!?” No, we are happy with the way our logo turned out. But what you’re seeing is Microsoft’s identity for Bing, a new search engine.

To stay competitive with Google’s dominance in online searching, Microsoft has positioned Bing as a “Decision Engine”.

We have all heard when you need to look something up, to “google” it. In fact, google was added a few years ago to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as a verb. Interesting point #1: I wonder why it’s not included as a noun too – isn’t a google a one with a hundred zeros after it? Interesting point #2: I see that Microsoft is already trying to verb-ilize ‘bing’ also.

Microsoft’s marketing gurus hope that Bing will evoke the same feeling as the sound – the ringing of a bell that signals the eureka moment when a search leads to an answer. The name is meant to conjure “the sound of found” as Bing helps people solve complex tasks.

Bing (the other one) seems to be focusing on searches related to:

• Making a purchase decision
• Planning a trip
• Researching a health condition
• Finding a local business

A “cherries-to-cherries” comparison of that Bing and this Bing shows a few similarities:

• We help clients make marketing decisions that meet their needs and fit their budget.
• We assist you with team outings. Yellow Springs is great place for a trip.
• We provide communication audits that help determine the health of your marketing efforts.
• We can localize your message in the new sense of the word – through social media communities.

So there you have it. The skinny about the Bing that’s been around for years, and that new startup from Microsoft…

The majority of web traffic is driven by major commercial search engines.

Need some help populating at the top of search engine results?

Here are 10 quick techniques you can do to improve your search engine optimization. Now, these may not be the TOP 10 things to do, but they are certainly 10 EASY things you can do. And let’s face it, you need to start somewhere.

1. Create a website title (title tag) – Make it specific, relevant and include keywords … but keep it under 66 characters (that’s all Google will display).
2. Create page titles – Create different Title and Meta tags for every page of your website. Different tags are essential to get highly targeted traffic. Think about how a visitor will search for your site. Incorporate the keywords your would input into their Google search bar in your Meta tags.
3. Use headings – Not only does it organize content and help readers, using headings also helps search engines find what your page is about and convey the importance of the text inside of the header tag.
4. Publish Content – Make sure your web pages are content rich, and that your copy includes the keywords you want to be searched/found for. SEO experts like Steve Wiideman recommend having at least 400 words per page. Updating content frequently will also help your search results.
5. Tag your Assets – If you’re using images and video on your site, make sure the media files are named and that the titles are relevant to your site. If you use a photo sharing site like Flickr, take it one step further – upload the images to Flickr, tag them with keywords and descriptions, and then link to the images hosted on Flickr for your site. You can also describe your images by using alt tags. This attribute provides value in the same manner as meta tags.
6. Check Your Links – Use a free site like Link Checker to make sure you don’t have broken links in your site. Also ensure web pages are W3C Compliant to see if you have any bad HTML coding throughout your website.
7. Add Links – Create a web of links between your pages, connecting related content. Search engines will be able to provide visitors the relevant pages they are looking for in their search – and that can help convert them from a visitor to a customer. Also add links to other websites that include relevant, related content.
8. Submit your site to Google – Enter your URL at http://www.google.com/addurl.html. You only need to do it once!
9. Things to avoid: Flash based openings or “text as images” – these can’t be searched by Google.
10. Call Bing. We can conduct a free site analysis to help get you started.

If you have additional EASY tips, please add them in the comment sections.

Joe Gauder is a contributing author to this post.