Google

Late last year, Google announced that it was sending traditional brick and mortar businesses bar code decals to put on their windows, with these QR barcodes (a two-dimensional barcode that represents the URL of the company’s local listing) people can scan them outside with their phones and bring up business listings with all kinds of information like, reviews, menus, contact info, etc...

These codes have been made available to the businesses Google deemed "favorite places". It began with over 10,000 businesses in the US that received them right off the bat, and Google will eventually expand that number in the future.

While the intent is to place these decals outside of your physical business the real implications could be used on advertising in all media. Since the barcode can be scanned from just about any type of media including billboards, business cards, computer monitors (try the example above), TVs, and possibly even movie theater screens as well the opportunities for advertisers to use these codes is endless.

Last week, Google announced Personalized Search for everyone. Personalized search has been previously available, but only to individuals signed in with a Google account. They are now making it available to anyone via an anonymous cookie.

Privacy concerns aside, is this really necessary for relevance? Or is this just another way of aggregating data and producing a more focused demographic profile to advertisers.

When I am searching on Google I want the most relevant results, not based on my previous searches, just the most relevant results. Period! Now the option to turn this off is available but I assume the majority of users wont know or care.

While the 6 million dollar man may have been "Better, stronger, faster", Google Analytics appears to have gotten "Better, stronger, smarter." Back on October 20th Google released a blog post notifying the world of their enterprise class improvements to the excellent Google Analytics software that has become the standard web analytics tool (at least in our office). The 3 main new features they are rolling out are:

1. Expanded Reporting and Analysis Features
2. Enhancements to their API
3. Analytics Intelligence and Custom Alerts

While the expanded reporting and analysis features are good, I am not looking to jump in on that right away. Although the expansion of mobile website analysis is going to be awesome once it is implemented properly. Enhancements to the API are not relevant for us at the current moment either so we are not to excited about those improvements. However the Analytics Intelligence and Custom Alerts looks to be absolutely awesome. Check out their video of how it works:

Back in at the beginning of 2009 Google launched the beta of Google Sync. Google sync allowed Google users to synchronize their Gmail contacts and Google Calendar events to their iPhones or Windows Mobile devices (Android natively syncs data). Syncing mail was not included but that was until now. Google now has push email for Gmail. Now if I could only figure out how to sync my gmail (Google Apps) with MicroSoft Outlook and my Iphone.

Flash has been around for years. At the beginning it was an easy way to add animation to your web pages. As the technology evolved, the functionality of Flash became much greater to allow for full programming and applications to be created using Flash and not just simple tweens and morphing text.  But indexing the content of Flash files has always been a problem for the Search Engines (Google). Google recently announced that they are improving the way that they index Flash files. They are now able to read and index the content linked to an external resource of an SWF file. This is very valuable in that the most powerful Flash applications utilize this technology to distribute dynamic content. Unfortunately up to now, that content was blind to Google.

Could 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.

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.

With all of the economic doom and gloom going on these days, its good to know that one form of advertising is still working... Online! Google recent 4th Quarter results were a glimmer of hope for online marketers that there is still business to be had online. Actually online appears to be the place to be. While many marketers are going to be rearranging their budgets for 2009 (compared to 2008), it looks as the good amount of marketing dollars have already been moved online. According to a survey, conducted jointly by Hearst Electronics Group and Goldstein Group Communications (GGC) , nearly half (47%) of all marketing spending is going to online strategies.

With the start of the New Year, it's a great time to rethink your many options for online marketing. With such a wealth of opportunities available it si difficult sometimes to determine where to start. I find it easiest to just start with the basics. This can apply to any level or stage of marketing you are currently in. SIMPLIFY, FOCUS & TEST 1. Simplify: Simplify your plan. Don't attempt to tackle too many tasks and initiatives at once. For Example, if you are currently running a google Adwords campaign and your site is optimized for SEO. You may not have started a link building campaign or Yahoo Search Marketing or MSN or a blog or Facebook or Twitter Campaigns, etc... Don't attempt them all at once. Plan them out one at a time and Focus on each task individually. Which brings us to... 2. Focus: Keep your immediate work narrow and focused on one task at a time. This will allow you to accomplish your tasks and get all of the different campaigns up and running successfully. If you move too fast and broad, you will lose site of what is working and what is not. which leads us to... 3. Test Test, test, test. Know what is working for you and what is not. Try comparisons and run analysis so that you find your best ROI on all of your marketing efforts.

Is it more than just personal Search? Earlier this week, without much fanfare, google launched their new SearchWiki application.