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Google+ to have Business Pages – but not yet

by on 07/07/2011

Since Google unveiled the Google+ social media platform to the world, Twitter streams and industry blogs have been dominated by conversations about whether Google can topple Facebook, the exciting features that Google+ offers like ‘Circles’ and ‘Huddles’, which most people who have an interest in tech will know about already (if you don’t where have you been for the last week?).

I got onto Google Plus as soon as an invite came my way, and I must say my expectation were pretty much blown out of the water, as Google+ has shown a lot of early promise. I can be forgiven for having low expectations, what with Google’s previous failed attempts at social media. But in Google+ there are a number of features that have got a lot of people very excited and Google have promised this is only the start.

First thoughts on Google+

by on 30/06/2011

If you work in internet-related industries, by now you’ve probably heard the news about Google’s newest foray in to social media: Google+.

Google+

I’ve been playing around in Google+ for a few hours now, and I must say it feels like a winner. Its strongest feature is Circles, which allows you to compartmentalise your online relationships in much the same way as we do with our offline relationships.

This Month in SEO & Social Media: May 2011

by on 03/06/2011

Welcome to another edition of Pierce Communications’ This Month in SEO and Social Media in which we’ll try to explain the latest developments in the fascinating world of SEO and Internet Marketing. It’ll make for good Friday reading! ;)


Google launches +1 button for websites [source]
As you may remember from the previous SEO update, Google has created a rival for the Facebook “Like” button which they called “Google +1”. Up to now this upvote button was only available on search engine results pages. But now Google has released code that allows people to implement the +1 button straight on their webpages, which makes +1 a must-have button to implement on blogs.

Google creates its own version of Facebook Likes: +1

by on 31/03/2011

Google +1Google is giving social functionality another try. After previous failed attempts at doing something social – Buzz, Wave, SearchWiki – Google now believes it’s got the magic formula.

And it’s Facebook’s magic formula, of course. Or, at least, what Google thinks is Facebook’s magic formula. You can read the full explanation of ‘Google +1′ on the official Google blog here.

Google’s ‘Farmer’ Update Penalises Low Quality Content

by on 28/02/2011

Last week, in response to growing criticism of low quality websites in its search results, Google implemented a major update to its ranking algorithm.

Google claims that this update, unofficially named the Farmer update* (as it was intended to reduce the presence of low quality content farms in Google’s search results), has affected the results showing for almost 12% of all search queries.

Emerging Gaps in Google’s Armour

by on 27/01/2011

Recently the world’s most popular search engine, Google, has come under attack from a variety of angles. First there was the announcement that the European Union launched an antitrust investigation of Google’s business practices to see if it stands up to antitrust legislation. The EU is concerned that Google might be abusing its dominant position in the western search engine market to stifle competition.

The case was brought to light by a company called Foundem which claims that Google has deliberately skewed its search results to Foundem’s disadvantage. Foundem’s case is chronicled on the SearchNeutrality.org website.

The Google antitrust case

by on 15/12/2010

(This article was originally published in the Belfast Telegraph on 14 December 2010)

The EU recently announced it is investigating a potential antitrust case against Google. One of the components of this investigation is the accusation that Google gives preference to its own online properties on its search results.

One example of Google’s preference for its own products is how its own financial information is shown first when you search for a specific stock ticker using Google. For example if you search on Google for PHG, your first results are the latest stock information for Royal Philips Electronics with links to Google’s own Finance site.

Google Places Update

by on 15/11/2010

A couple of weeks ago Google updated its search engine results pages (SERPs) whenever you typed in a location based search – and what a major change!  Instead of the ‘Google Seven Pack’ , as it was known, appearing at the top of the main search results like this:

Google Places Before Screenshot

now the results page has changed to move the map over the the right hand column and incorporate both Place and organic search results in the main results, like this:

Exorcise Your Google Ghost!

by on 01/11/2010

A video about exorcising your inner ghost!

Google’s New Search Results Pages

by on 10/05/2010

I’m sure you’ve seen Google’s new search engine results pages by now – very interesting! As a user, there are now a lot more obvious options for getting results from Google in the left hand column. These options have, of course, been available for quite some time now – it’s just that they were sitting up in the left hand corner of the screen and weren’t so obvious. Results from blogs, for example, were hidden in the ‘more’ options and so a lot of people probably weren’t even aware that this was an option.

But what effect is this going to have, if any, on companies trying to get rankings on Google? Quite a lot! Why? Well, if it’s much more obvious for people to be able to refine their results by clicking on ‘images’ or ‘blogs’ then that’s what people will do. So, getting rankings on Google’s normal web results pages is going to be just part of the battle. Getting results on the ‘images’, ‘blogs’, ‘news’ and ‘map’ pages is going to become increasingly important as more and more people explore these results.