Archive for March, 2012
New Social Reports Feature in Google Analytics
At SES NewYork Google announced the news of immediate and incremental launch of Social Reports which will help the marketers to know more about the value of social media.
Group Product Manager Phil Mui explained the new feature Social Reports will allow the marketers to measure both the last click and upper-funnel value of social.
Mui further explained ” The new social reports take into account the total number of conversions that happen to visitors that had touched a social media channel connected with
the account.”
The new feature will bridge the gap between social media and important business metrics.The conversion report present in Social Report shows the value of each conversion and allow the users to compare Assisted vs Last Interaction Conversion for comparison.The other metrics include Assisted Conversions, Last Interaction Conversion, Assisted Conversion Value, Last Interaction Conversion Value.
400 networks are being tracked around the world on the Visitor Flow Side which also includes Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon and LinkedIn. From the Data hub partners the actual conversions are pulled into Google Analytics and the integration of social data hub applies to public data only.
As part of Google Analytics,Social data will be available and users can easily export other programs and mash with other data. From yesterday onwards the new report is available and it will be available to all users over the next couple of weeks.
Google Expands Flight Search
Google flight search which was started for flight destinations in US alone has now been expanded to 500 cities outside the US. A comprehensive list of destination has not provided by Google but most Asian and European countries were available.
Presently we don’t know how the popularity of the flight search among the people as there are established travel sites and search engines which are more easier to use than flight Search. The PC version is more challenging when compared mobile and iPad versions of Google flight search.
The success of flight search will depend on two important variables namely UI(User Interface) and it’s features. It also depends on how Google promotes it’s flight search through it’s search results.
Searching for “SFO to LHR” does not return any information and clicking on the “blue airplane” does not take you into flight search results. Google will be cautions in promoting flight search as the product is in beta version.Both flight search and hotel finder from google has the potential in taking Google to next level but currently neither of them has reached the level.
GetMo Mobile Optimization launched by Google in UK
A new campaign will help UK businesses to optimize their sites for use with mobile devices.The campaign known as “GetMo initiative” was launched by Google recently.The new “GetMo Intiative” will help webmasters and tools for optimizing sites that will be accessed through mobile browsers. Testing materials, developer guides and case studies are designed based on Google’s HowToGoMo U.S. effort which help businesses to optimise their sites for mobile handsets.
The initiative will also provide an opportunity for third party developers in building more mobile sites in the coming months. UK was mainly chosen because 84 percent of UK users have looked up local information on their mobile phones. Google have found that mobile searches have grown over 400 percent over the past two years.
According to Google, a lot of business are unable to keep up with the demand and offer sites suited for mobile browsers. Due to increase in the sales of smartphones more consumers engage with the brands by searching for them on their mobile phone.
GetMo campaign also provides an opportunity for Google to boost it’s mobile browser market in UK. In both handset and tablet fields, Google’s android platform has been increasing its market share.
New Local Search Layout and SERP Design tested by Bing
New designs are being tested by Bing for their search engine results pages and local search listings. According to Liveside.net, a new Bing UI seems to have been rolled out for more users in the U.S. A lot of designs have been changed over the last few months,but this one represents the most substantial update.
The suggested searches appear below the search box and not in the side bar. User controls have become more prominent and navigational elements have become smaller.
Two new local search results layouts are tested by Bing and currently local search results are displayed in a box at the top of the page.Three to five results are listed as text links next to a Bing map and organic results are listed below it.
The new features currently are not available to all users and will disappear as Bing continues to test new layouts and designs.Bing has been trying to balance both local business and users trying to find information about them
Old tweets being sold by Twitter
A bunch of old tweets are sold by Twitter to a firm called DataSift,which will analyze the tweets for marketing purposes.It is first such company to get access to such tweets which date back to two years.Another 1000 plus companies are on DataSift’s waiting list.
Datasift has launched a product called “DataSift Historics” which enables the companies to get insights,trends,news and public opinion about their brands. Only public tweets will be analyzed by DataSift and not the private ones.Once a tweet is deleted,it’s also deleted from Datasift’s archives.
Twitter has been focused on advertising and selling it’s data has largely contributed to it’s revenues. Bulk of the revenue has has been through advertising and Twitter does not disclose it’s finances. As per eMarketer, Twitter will earn about $259.9 million this year and $399.5 million in 2013.
Do you care about your old tweets?Your comments are welcome