SEO
Free Phone Support for ‘Google AdWords’ customers
In an effort to further support the AdWords customers, Google has offered free phone support. This is apart the email and online support they are offering at present. With this additional overhaul, Google is trying to provide superior customer service. They have announced on their blog that this additional support is to meet the demand of existing customers to speak to an expert in Google. They will be rolling out Phone support for all their existing AdWords customers in US and Canada who are having a Customer ID, hence reach an Google expert at 1-866-2 from Monday- Friday 9 am -8pm.
Google Lab launches “Page speed”
Google Lab has launched Page Speed, a new tool for the webmasters which helps users to analyze the website and get suggestions to optimize the website. The website analysis can be done not only by the admin but also the users. All you have to do is to enter the url of your website or the one which you would like to check. On top you receive and overall score of your website out of 100 score and then suggestions under three categories viz High priority, Medium Priority and Low priority. Again under each category there are options such as “Optimize images” or “Minimize Redirects” which is hyperlinked to provide you more information as well as on how to fix the problem.
In addition to this there is one more feature where you can avail the Page speed suggestions for the mobile version of the page, especially smartphones.
Google updates search solution for e-commerce websites
This new feature will give retailers the flexibility for setting online promotions as well as to show consumers local product inventories. It will offer a more customizable search experience on the e-commerce website making shopping more interactive by providing sophisticated tools for retailers to manage the shopping experience on their site.
The following are the new features Google offered for Retailers
Search as you type- This is the instant search facility where you get product results as you type.
Local product availability- Products in the local or nearby stores will also display.
Enhanced Merchandising- Google’s merchandising tools help retailers to easily set query based landing pages and to create promotions that display related search queries in retailer designated banner areas.
Product Recommendations (Labs): To help consumers discover related products, by showing shoppers what other people viewed and ultimately bought.
Google Unveils +1, a new social tool
Challenging its greatest rival, Google has gone one step ahead introducing a social search button +1. Having some similarity with Facebook’s “Likes” this new feature will allow people to personally endorse or promote search results and web pages. This proves that Google has been undertaking various steps to stay on par with Facebook. The +1 button will appear next to Google search results provided only once the users are logged in.
Once you click on the +1 button it indicates that you have shared your link publicly to your social network. In the same way when you do Google search, and if any of your friends have shared some results it will list right below the search results. You can use your profile to see all of your +1’s in one place, and delete those you no longer want to recommend.
Google says that search becomes relevant by utilizing this feature. “The beauty of +1’s is their relevance—you get the right recommendations (because they come from people who matter to you), at the right time (when you are actually looking for information about that topic) and in the right format (your search results), Google posted on their blog.
Yahoo optimizes its “search”
To sustain in the market, Yahoo is leveraging many attempts and also surrendered its search engine to Microsoft to woo more people towards their site.
Adding to this effort, yahoo introduces “Search Direct” which is quite similar to Google’s Instant search’, where they produce instant search results predictions without having to click on the search results. This feature known as “Search Direct” provides celebrity biographies, weather forecasts and news reports before users finish typing the question. To avoid being blamed as just a follower of Google’s Instant search, Yahoo’s Search Direct offers ‘advanced’ results producing edited information and images just under the search results instead of a page full of links.
You could avail ‘Search Direct’ on Yahoo’s search page, but not from its home page. Yahoo is testing the performance of this new feature before going full fledged.
A Collaborative ‘search’ concept “Qyo”
Qyo provides shared search queries. You will receive results from your friends, what they are searching in real time. Qyo makes it very easy to leverage the kind of information that was traditionally stored in the minds of people, and that could not be accessed by others unless the other person shared with them. Built on the theory that two (or more) heads are better than one, Qyo attempts to bring collaborative search to the masses and has become a buzz word among other search engines. Prior registration is required to begin search with Qyo. After registering, you will be invited to connect to your Facebook account to get friends and associates involved, too. In fact, without friends, Qyo is a fairly sparse experience.
Once you’ve associated with another person, all your searches via Qyo will be visible to them (and theirs to you), unless you specifically choose to search privately. Search queries appear as a message list on the right-hand side of the screen. You can comment on other peoples’ searches, help them but couldn’t refine their search, expand it, or anything. Qyo makes search social, where people can help each other. Whenever you arrive at the site to search you’ll see all your friends’ searches too. While the concept is unique, there has to be a lot of improvements to be done to sustain in such a competitive ‘search engine” market.
DuckDuckGo, a new search engine
DuckDuckGo is a new search engine launched, similar to Google having a better visual appeal. 
They claim to be unique in keeping users privacy as they don’t track and record your search results. They also guess relevant result for your keyword and highlight the same inside a red box which will be usually drawn from Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha. DuckDuckGo also ban spam sites (loaded with ads). Additionally they own some interesting features such as “Bang’,where you have the option to get results from specific sites alone, for Eg if you want to get information about Osama Bin Laden from Wikipedia alone, you have to type “!wikipedia Osama Bin Laden” to get all the results about the person from Wikipedia. There is a long list of bangs which you could utilize to get relevant results.
An array of Search Engines in diverse segments unveiled
A free search engine Mocavo.com exclusively for Genealogy search was launched. It enables the search of more than 50 billion words including names, dates and places, within a fraction of seconds. They claim to be the provider of the first large scale, free search engine for family history search.
Online People Search Engine Waatp.com was launched and will help you to locate people and possess latest features such as additional information and improved programming interface. The website was in the public testing mode for the past three months and received over 2 million visits a day.
Another search engine “ibod” originates and claims to be a potential rival for Google. South Bank-based “ibod – short for’ intelligent business on demand’ – provides free business search engines, social networking and advertising for charities and SMEs. It has already created eight jobs and a further 20 positions are expected to be available within a year. Designed to help organizations boost their profile through internet marketing, ibod will generate revenues through advertising and turnover is expected to hit £12m in four years. Kevin Robinson, an entrepreneur and a marketing specialist is the brain behind this venture.
Another one, quite different from all the above, The First Semantic Image Search Engine NachoFoto was unveiled, and provides real time images based on the meaning of the user’s query. Image is the second most popular search on Google, resulting in 1 billion page views each day. So this new venture is likely to get more hits in the coming days. In their press release they say that Nachfoto is comprised of three distinct features such as ‘related searches’, Image results, and Timeline to ensure delivery of the freshest image results.
ComScore Releases February 2011 US Search Engine Rankings
A Ray of Hope for Bing as it gains rise in market share while the rival (Google) remained with its 64. 4 %share. Even though Bings’ achievement is very less, they claim to be the achiever.
Google “search” becomes more personalized
Google is providing you many options as far as its “search results” are concerned. For the improvement of the same Google had introduced Searchwiki, Stars in search and Locations settings where you can prioritize and mark your search results. Now they have added one more efficient feature for its users to blocks sites which they don’t want to see again.
Many of you surely had a bad experience in getting the apt results in Google. You might have visited websites that carry irrelevant and low quality content and hence resent it and would be looking for an option to block particular domains from your search results for ever. Google now brings out this feature letting you block sites. When you click a result and then return to Google, you’ll find a new link next to “Cached” that shows “Block all ———.com results. If you proceed with the same by clicking the link “Block all ——.com results, you will receive a confirmation message as well as an option to undo your choice. You could view the link irrespective of whether you are signed in or not but the domains you block are connected with your Google Account so you will have to sign in to confirm a blocked site.
