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April 2009

Google Flu Trends - swine flu discovery?

By Steven Alig on April 30, 2009 - 12:59pm
chartCould google have discovered swine flu in Mexico before the outbreak started to spread? Possibly. The Data is there, they may just need to be looking in the right place. Check out their Flu Trends Tracking for the United States. And the experimental tracking for Mexico. You can easily see the local search trends here because the data is older. Give the US a little time and we will see the trends show up. Hopefully we are looking in the right areas.

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An Effective Use of Google Local Search - Tracking Swine Flu

By Steven Alig on April 27, 2009 - 12:56pm

Google Local Search The recent outbreak of swine flu has kept the US Center for Disease Control on their toes posting updates to twitter. Even Google is helping out with tracking the spread of the flu. Sites like http://www.healthmap.org can track health concerns throughout the world and pinpoint geographical locations of events using google maps API.

However, a recent article by HealthCare IT News suggest that there is yet another trend in search that can be analyzed and harnessed for the good of all.

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How do you get your news?

By Steven Alig on April 14, 2009 - 4:36pm
With the proliferation of bloggers dominating the news media as of late (so much so that we now refer to the term "the blogosphere") there is an interesting shift in how we obtain our news and what we actually consider "news" and journalism. There has been much discussion on the topics of Blogger vs. Journalist but this whole concept has actually shed light on the idea of the credibility of the source. Just because the article was published by, what we may consider a credible source, doesn't mean that the actual writer is a credible source or a well written journalist. Just as much as an independent blogger is not a credible source or well written journalist. We seem to be moving away from our traditional news channels (at least the traditional media channels) and as the technology escalates, we are consuming our news from many more independent sources. Maybe this will shed light on that fact that just because we thought we were getting credible journalism all along, maybe we were not. We had nothing else to compare it to. At least now we can obtain our news by "consensus". If everyone is talking about it... It must be news.

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Outlook remains as the top email client

By Steven Alig on April 7, 2009 - 1:26pm
[caption id="attachment_179" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Popular email clients Feb. 2009"]popular-email-clients-feb2009[/caption] For those email marketers out there, it is good to know what your customers are reading your emails with. Particularly so that you can design appropriately and convey your message properly. A recent study conducted by our favorite email marketing company, Campaign Monitor, shows that in February 2009, Outlook remains the top email client. With all of their versions combined, Outlook hold an almost 40% share of the market. The nearest competitor is Yahoo Mail with 16%. Book mark this link as they will be updating the stats on a regular basis and do bear in mind the disclaimer at the bottom. Happy emailing!

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Longer search terms gain in importance

By Steven Alig on April 5, 2009 - 4:48pm
We have long known that longer search terms (those key phrases with at least 3 or more words) are the key to targeted search traffic and also the way to optimize your budget on PPC campaigns. The reasons for this are varied and the different approachs to capitlize on are just as diverse. One of the main points which generally rings true is that someone searching using a longer keyword string will be looking for something more specific than a single word search. Recent trends seem to indicated that the "long tail" is actually getting longer. A recent report from Hitwise shows that search terms with 4 to 5 words are actually gaining ground and becoming more common. It may be that people are just learning how to use search more effectively but whatever the reason is, marketers must take advantage of this targeted audience.  This report just  helps to reinforce the strategy of targeted long tail phrases in your PPC campaigns. We have known for some time that a longer keyword string can produce more targeted results that convert more frequently and cost less. Its now good to know that this is a growing segment.

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