There has been another cool Google update with the redesign of Google’s image search results page.

Google found that Google Images search is getting more than 1 billion clicks per month. When Image Search launched in 2001, it indexed 250 million images. Today, it indexes just over 10 billion images!

A handy new tool is the “similar images” option, where you’re able to search for other related images if you’re not satisfied with the first set of results.

For advertisers, there has been the launch of a new ad format called Image Search Ads. These ads appear exclusively only in Google Images. So if you searched for Converse sneakers, store ads who sell the shoes will appear at the top of the images.

This presents another avenue and opportunity for companies to reach more customers through image search and not just in search engine results pages (SERP).

Australia leads the world in social media engagement with the highest global average time of 7 hours per month, according to Nielsen’s Asia Pacific (APAC) social media report.

Now is a perfect time for businesses to dip into the social media realm to increase online brand presence, attract new business, and improve customer service and loyalty.

Nine million Australians are now interacting on social networking sites according to the Nielsen 2010 report.

• Facebook dominates online social networking
• Twitter records strongest growth in social media usage
• Mobile social networking increasing

It also found Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia are the top 3 in the most popular social media websites in Australian visits.

Does your business have a social media strategy? If not contact us today to get you the best results from your Social Media Campaigns.

It’s been one year since the launch of Microsoft’s Bing ranked third in the volume of searches at 3.24% behind Google and Yahoo.

Recently, Microsoft launched a cool new Bing Entertainment section featuring a wide selection of music, online gaming, movies, and TV shows. Each are loaded with a massive collection giving consumers a huge variety of choices and hours of entertainment.

Acting like a content portal, the new Entertainment section could be seen as a strategic move to attract more users and encourage repeat visits, as Microsoft pointed out “76% of people use search to help find and navigate entertainment options online”.

Is it enough to gain a substantial amount of market share from Google and Yahoo? Maybe if Bing decides to go down the path of integrating their entertainment system with TV, Google TV may have a big contender on their hands.

Ever wanted to find out more about how Google works?

View this great video by Matt Cutts which explains it all.

Google Caffeine

The speed, accuracy and relevancy of Google search results are only getting better.

On the 8th June 2010, Google announced one of their largest ever search algorithm updates.

Built to make search more up-to-date, Caffeine will index new content within minutes of it being published with Google to “provide search results that are 50% fresher than their previous algorithm.

Google’s new indexing system called Caffeine will produce real-time search results that previously only covered breaking news articles, and will now include information from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Google have commented on their blog: “Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.

Some background for those of you who don’t build search engines for a living like us: when you search Google, you’re not searching the live web. Instead you’re searching Google’s index of the web which, like the list in the back of a book, helps you pinpoint exactly the information you need. (Here’s a good explanation of how it all works.)”

What impact will it have on a business? The considerations will both be:

1. Some businesses search engine rankings within Google may increase or vanish.Historically, large Google updates have seen some sites significantly affected both positively and negatively through the algorithmic updates. While for some the position change is marginal, other more significant movements have seen websites entirely vanish from view. However as always, Google’s focus is around keeping its search engines results fresh, accurate and up-to-date and so these regular updates are crucial in Google maintaining its position as a market leader in the search engine industry.
2. Real-time search resultsWebsites that have previously sat at the top of Google’s organic results will now find that their sites move down to make way for real-time results. While real-time results may only show temporarily, for sites that are currently getting top spot through a fixed could find a dramatic drop in website traffic even over a temporary drop. A company who has no social media strategy, (or not a strong one) will need to rethink their approach to web marketing to keep the Google as a viable source of traffic.
3. Real-time inclusion of social media updates within organic results may also see more widespread usage of social media platforms as it increases reach to search engine users. A study found 51% Facebook users and 67% Twitter followers were more likely to buy the brands they liked and followed on these sites. Social media gives a face to a brand and by engaging customers in sharing content that demonstrates their expertise, will help divert quality traffic to their website and hopefully into conversions.

If your company’s website has been affected by the recent changes, you may want to talk to your SEO expert to find out what can be done to help improve your site rankings and make it more robust for the future.

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