As the Wall Street Journal tells us, for two years, Milo has tried to Put Store Stock Online.  That’s not the dog, but the company, Milo.com, named after him.

When you’re on the go, it is a whole lot easier if the Internet can tell you whether the stuff you are looking for is available at stores nearby.  Milo.com, in Palo Alto, CA., has been setting up a database for two years that knows what products are in stores near you and whether they’re in stock.

It’s an obvious need so it’s not surprising that the universal provider of all information has now decided to tackle this tough problem.

Google launched its service with inventory data from just five retail outlets — Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm (the last three of which are all owned by Williams-Sonoma). They’ll undoubtedly expand that list, and are taking volunteers from businesses that want to join in the program.

Milo has signed up 49 retail chains, covering 48,000 stores and 2 million products. Beyond brands like Best Buy and Sears, which have open systems that let any outside programmers tap into their inventory database, they’ve managed to sign up some big names, including Target, Nordstrom, Macy’s and J.C. Penny.

As Google explains, all you need to do is look for the blue dots.

If you’re searching for a product that is sold by participating retailers, you can just look for the blue dots in the search results to see if it’s available in a local store. If you see a blue dot, you can tap on the adjacent “In stock nearby” link, and you’ll be taken to the seller’s page where you’ll see whether the item is “In Stock” or has “Limited Availability” near you. You’ll also see how far away the stores are from you — as long as you’ve enabled My Location or manually specified your location.

It works with any iPhone, Palm WebOS phone, or any Android-powered device in the US.  Search with Google.com in your mobile browser, tap on the “more” link, and then select “Shopping.” Or you can check the “Shopping results” section in Universal Search results when you search on Google.com.

Google is now looking for retailers who would like to participate in the program. Provided your Local Business Center data is up to date, and your Product Search data is in great shape, then you can ask to be considered. 

The real question is whether Google can provide good information like this when data quality really is not easily scaleable.  Perhaps it’s better handled by a vertical portal like Milo.com.  After all even Google must focus its efforts if it is to do a good job for all its stakeholders.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google’s Blue Dot Marks the Availability Spot (marketingpilgrim.com)

Post from: StayGoLinks

Google Nearby Stock Information

Related Posts

• March 1, 2010 -- Langley BC Pizza Search With Google (1)
• February 17, 2010 -- Desktop PCs from a Mobile Perspective (1)
• October 25, 2009 -- Dipping into videos with Google’s GAUDI (1)
• October 20, 2009 -- A Real Google Phone (1)
• June 24, 2009 -- SEO Clients Deserve NoFollow Discounts (23)

For those on the go, Google continues to add interesting innovations to its search facilities.  As Google announced you can now refine your searches by location.

Location has become an important part of the way we search. If you’re a foodie looking for restaurant details, food blogs or the closest farmer’s market, location can be vital to helping you find the right information. We have now added the ability to refine your searches with the “Nearby” tool in the Search Options panel. One of the really helpful things about this tool is that it works geographically — not just with keywords — so you don’t have to worry about adding “Minneapolis” to your query and missing web pages that only say “St. Paul” or “Twin Cities.” Check it out by doing a search, clicking on “show options” and selecting “Nearby.”

Naturally this also works when you do a search on your mobile device.  If your local restaurant has also decided to add an advertisement using AdWords then you can now even click on their phone number in their mobile ad.  It would seem to be a win win situation.

Calling the business is now easier thanks to a feature that allows advertisers to add a clickable local phone number to their mobile ads. If you’re using an iPhone, Android, or other smartphone, you just click the number to call the business.

The results of this process can be really staggering.  Below you will see a Nearby search for pizza here in Langley BC. As might be expected, there are quite a number of pizza restaurants, many of which do not even have websites.  It was particularly pleasing to see a mention of a pizzeria in Fort Langley. 

Perhaps the only surprising thing to remark here is that still Google has not included the new Golden Ears Bridge, now in operation for nine months. Perhaps it is a question of priorities.  After all, Translink, the agency for the Golden Ears Bridge has no need to spend money on Google advertisements.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Call more businesses from Google on your smartphone (reviews.cnet.com)

Post from: StayGoLinks

Langley BC Pizza Search With Google

Related Posts

• March 12, 2010 -- Google Nearby Stock Information (0)
• February 17, 2010 -- Desktop PCs from a Mobile Perspective (1)
• October 25, 2009 -- Dipping into videos with Google’s GAUDI (1)
• October 20, 2009 -- A Real Google Phone (1)
• July 3, 2009 -- Are You Mobile Web Ready? (11)

SEO clients may well be aware of the furor that has been going on in the SEO world. Danny Sullivan described why SEO experts were so incensed in signaling that Google Loses “Backwards Compatibility” On Paid Link Blocking & PageRank Sculpting.  It is all concerned with the NoFollow tag that can be applied as part of the code for hyperlinks from web pages.

If you want to understand the implications of the changes then an article, PageRank Calculation – Null Hypothesis, will provide a lead-in to the ongoing discussion.

What does all this mean for SEO clients who have paid their consultants fees for Search Engine Optimization.  The aimClear Search Marketing Blog has a good account of what they are telling their clients in a post, NoFollow noWorries: An SEO Linking Update.

Though this 180 degree about-face in what Google had been preaching (literally) to webmasters was poorly handled from a public relations perspective, presumably it was made because the tag was overused, abused and had the potential to skew Google’s rankings. No worries. We actually think the change will bring some positive changes to the SEO process, though as always there are tradeoffs.

Of course this has all been going on in a time of recession where companies are trying to make sure they get the maximum bang for whatever bucks they still have in their budgets.  Companies paying SEO consultants who have implemented PageRank Sculpting programs are now told that such programs were ineffective.  This only came to light when Google decided to spill the beans since it looked as though SEO experts had not spotted that the Google advice was no longer effective.

It is all rather messy but the bottom line is that clients have spent money that produced zero returns.  What recourse do they have?  Who should they be talking to?

Unfortunately the biggest culprit, Google, will provide the defense that they are providing a free search service.  Too much information given away would mean that webmasters could perhaps manipulate the search results so that less relevant web pages nevertheless  would appear high in the keyword query listing of results.  If any information is given out, then webmasters should do their own checking to be sure that the information works for them.  This is somewhat facile reasoning since it is very difficult to do Split A/B testing on anything other than simple changes to web pages.

If Google is off the hook, this leaves only the SEO consultants to listen to the SEO clients.  Here again the discussion is difficult.  Reputable SEO consultants use their best skills and knowledge to provide maximum search engine visibility to their client’s web pages but without any guarantees on performance.  In this case, they were following information put out by Google and which was never withdrawn or modified until very recently. They put in the effort.  Google rendered their efforts for naught.  It would appear that the SEO consultants are off the hook too.

If companies were doing their own SEO, then they would have paid the salaries and again would have seen no results from the PageRank sculpting.  Using SEO consultants or doing SEO in-house would have had comparable effects. Perhaps this is just grin-and-bear-it time.  Search engine marketing is on average very powerful, but its mechanisms are sometimes difficult to discern. The NoFollow confusion has just added to those ongoing difficulties.

Related articles by Zemanta

• SEO Best Practices: SEOmoz’s New Policies Based on Updated Correlation Data (mt-soft.com.ar)
• Link Building Q&A with Ben Wills, CEO and Co-Founder of Ontolo (marketingpilgrim.com)

Post from: StayGoLinks

SEO Clients Deserve NoFollow Discounts

Related Posts

• March 31, 2009 -- Death, Taxes And Google (4)
• November 29, 2008 -- Reputation Management and Social Media (5)
• May 23, 2008 -- SEO Cash Cows Anyone? (4)
• March 12, 2010 -- Google Nearby Stock Information (0)
• March 1, 2010 -- Langley BC Pizza Search With Google (1)

Google has announced that it will offer local search results for many items where it guesses you may want a local supplier. It clearly is responding to a real need, particularly when you are on the go. Although there will be many hurdles, the rewards of this approach are very obvious. Even though, Google May Not Always Find Local Restaurants In Canada at this time, the solution using IP location will work for most people.

Even local when you’re on the go, may not be close enough.  For some time there has been strongly growing interest in hyperlocal information.  It is interesting to see further confirmation of this in a New York Times item this morning (tip of the hat to Greg Sterling) entitled ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers.

A number of Web start-up companies are creating so-called hyperlocal news sites that let people zoom in on what is happening closest to them, often without involving traditional journalists.  The sites, like EveryBlock, Outside.in, Placeblogger and Patch, collect links to articles and blogs and often supplement them with data from local governments and other sources. They might let a visitor know about an arrest a block away, the sale of a home down the street and reviews of nearby restaurants.

This type of application will undoubtedly see explosive growth.  The location of the searcher could be determined by an IP Address Lookup.  That presumably is how the Twitter Advanced Search can show you activity within say 15 miles of your location.  If it works, that can certainly allow you to home in on that hyperlocal information.  Unfortunately Google Local Search seems to be having problems with that, particularly in the UK.

Since it is to the advantage of any searcher or service provider to ensure their geographical location is clearly identified, they might be expected to keep some reliable identifier of their position.  In 2007, we floated the idea of a very simple HTML file, luri.html, that any location would maintain giving its coordinates.  LURI stands for Location Uniform Resource Identifier.  Since it includes the postal code (or the Zip code in the USA), this allows quite precise determination of position.

That could also be used for mobile devices although if you expect to move over great distances, then GPS positioning is probably a wiser choice.

Related articles by Zemanta

• EveryBlock works with New York Times (cyberjournalist.net)
• Google Struggling With IP Delivery (blogstorm.co.uk)
• Google Adds GPS-Like Functionality to Search (mashable.com)

Post from: StayGoLinks

Hyperlocal Information

Related Posts

• November 19, 2008 -- Voices mumble, fingers fumble (4)

We have suggested elsewhere that Google should adopt a Weakest Link approach in its search algorithms.  There are far too many people spending far too much time amassing more and more links to their websites.  They do this with the mistaken understanding that this may help their websites be more visible when people do Google keyword searches.  If only Google would rely only on links with more authority, this time wasting and irritating activity could cease.  Unfortunately it has not happened yet.

The only links worth having are links that do command some authority. That is true now and will continue to be true however the keyword search algorithms may change.   Darren Rowse of Problogger as usual provides some excellent advice in his post on 11 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Being Linked to By a Blogger.  Here are his 11 items of advice:

1. Write something worth linking to
2. Suggest a Link to a post not your site
3. Develop a Relationship
4. Demonstrate Knowledge of the Blog and Blogger
5. Research
6. Add Value
7. Stay on topic
8. Be selective in what you promote
9. Reciprocate
10. Build on the Experience
11. Be Link Worthy

Most of these are almost self explanatory.  However his article is a good one if any of them are unclear to you.

Another way of trying to get on a blogger’s radar screen is to follow them on Twitter.  Most bloggers do tweet their Twitter followers to let them know when they have written a new blog post.  If you happen to spot such a tweet, then by retweeting their blog post tweet, you may well find they will start following you and the relationship begins.  I think this is sufficiently valuable, that it might usefully have been included in Darren Rowse’s list, if he had wished to extend it  to 12 ways. 

Of course only your followers see your tweets.  Only if the blogger does a Twitter search, will s/he see what you have retweeted.  To increase the chances it may be seen, you could always try using a hashtag.  If for example, your post is about TGIF then in your retweet add the #tgif hashtag. Others who find that of interest may spot it and retweet it and perhaps word will get back to the original blogger.

If you have found hashtags useful in making connections and gaining links, why not add your experience in the comments here.  Non-spamming comments are welcome and do get a link in consequence, which should be worth having.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Darren Rowse: The Changing Face of Interlinking Blogging Culture [And the Impact of Twitter] (via ProBlogger Blog Tips) (problogger.net)
• Ultimate Guide to Twitter Hashtags (tsurch.com)

Post from: StayGoLinks

Getting Links With Twitter Hashtags

Related Posts

• May 20, 2009 -- Titles Must ReTweet Well (8)
• October 11, 2009 -- Best Least Known Blogging Tool (11)
• June 11, 2009 -- Tweet Tips For Max ReTweets (RTs) (5)
• February 11, 2009 -- Getting Results From Twitter (8)
• January 29, 2009 -- Twitter, The Blog Killer (9)

It was Ben Franklin who said “but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.“   I was somewhat surprised at a recent article by Adam Penenberg in Fast Company that covered Google Bombing and the IRS.  He found that someone had cleverly arranged by manipulating search results that Google searches for IRS forms ended up on websites that could create serious online damage.  Google is everywhere now. 

I did some Google searches on some very popular topics and the results may surprise you.  The following shows the number of web pages on each of these very basic words. (M stands for million here.)

• 1,700 M for Google
• 1,420 M for Yahoo
• 747 M for air
• 660 M for water
• 611 M for sex
• 404 M for fire
• 395 M for death
• 238 M for search engine
• 230 M for seo
• 134 M for taxes

Death and taxes may be certain but it is quite clear that some other topics are much more on our minds.  Indeed there is much more written on seo (search engine optimization) than there is on taxes.  It is perhaps indicative of how ‘top of the mind’ Google is and why there should be such a demand for search engine optimization services.  Even if you go for quite local services such as MA seo or CT seo, you will find quite a slew of web pages on these topics.

Since people seem to use Google now-a-days rather than following some URL they may have, perhaps it is time for the IRS to be using some seo services to guard against these Google bombers.  After all, if you cannot trust the IRS, who can you trust?

Post from: StayGoLinks

Death, Taxes And Google

Related Posts

• June 24, 2009 -- SEO Clients Deserve NoFollow Discounts (23)
• November 29, 2008 -- Reputation Management and Social Media (5)
• May 23, 2008 -- SEO Cash Cows Anyone? (4)
• September 5, 2009 -- Designing High Performance Websites (17)
• August 22, 2008 -- Better Marketing Through Dialogue (6)

When Does Reputation Management Become Unethical? That is an interesting question posed by Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People.

There is obviously a great deal of power in being able to hide certain search results from the majority of searchers. With this power however, comes great responsibility. This responsibility becomes even more important if one considers that there are currently no guidelines to help guide us through the murky waters of morality.

It is certainly true that by careful SEO (Search Engine Optimization) one can push negative references down the Google search page, or with sufficient other online properties perhaps even off the top 10 page.  however you cannot make them disappear.  Now with the rise of social media, it is even harder to still all those dissident voices.

The words of Katie Delahaye Paine as recorded by Liana ‘Li’ Evans reflect current reality.

Trying to manage your reputation in a social media environment of today, is just plain silly (and futile), you just can’t.

Both PR Coverage and Social Media (it’s better when they are working together) have a big effect on how companies are perceived and in the end a big effect on what they are doing. The key though, is to measure both what is working and what is not working. Companies also need to understand that people are talking online, they are saying and doing things with brands, products & services, whether you are active in the conversation or not.

The first imperative of course is to try to make sure that the actions of your company are blameless, as far as you can achieve that.  With such a policy you no longer need to hide but can become active in the conversations.  You probably need a blog and may well decide to be active on Twitter. 

One example among many is the CPA advertising network, ClickBooth.  Early in the year, there were a number of negative comments from disgruntled affiliates that could be found through search.  Now there is a ClickBooth blog and you can also follow ClickBooth through Twitter.  The two approaches provide the best possible channels for dialoguing with any who may be dissatisfied.  Now that is the way to do reputation management.

Post from: StayGoLinks

Reputation Management and Social Media

Related Posts

• June 24, 2009 -- SEO Clients Deserve NoFollow Discounts (23)
• May 29, 2009 -- Social Media Is An Oxymoron (19)
• March 31, 2009 -- Death, Taxes And Google (4)
• May 23, 2008 -- SEO Cash Cows Anyone? (4)
• September 5, 2009 -- Designing High Performance Websites (17)

It is hardly a sign of a successful product when they have to rely on gimmicks to get it into the prospect’s hands .. or rather under their mouse. That is one reaction you might have to the Live Search invitation to Sign in to the SearchPerks! Program.

Apparently Microsoft is going to pay you to use its search engine. Until the end of the year, you�ll get points every time you use Microsoft�s Live.com service. With enough points, you can buy free music downloads, gadgets, even frequent-flier miles. (The offer is limited to the first 1 million people who sign up. .. and it only works with Internet Explorer for Windows.) (Tip of the hat to Pay Per Click Offer)

In some ways it is a further extension of their Live Search Club where you can win points by playing games. It may be that they are leveraging out what has already proved to be a successful strategy. However I am from St. Louis on this one.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Get Paid to Search the Internet?

Post from: StayGoLinks

Frequent-Flier Miles With Live Search

Related Posts

• October 13, 2009 -- Smart Hospitals Speak Your Language (9)
• July 14, 2009 -- A Microsoft Future Vision (13)
• June 11, 2009 -- Tweet Tips For Max ReTweets (RTs) (5)
• April 23, 2009 -- Best Practices For Great Web Design (6)
• April 10, 2009 -- Customer Legacy – Good Or Bad (1)

Long, long ago in 2003, Miles Burke was mourning the Lost Art of Conversation and wondering how it could be encouraged. Since then things have gone from bad to worse. Online forums, the natural home for conversations, seem to have a questionable future as John Carcutt points out. There certainly is a decline in conversations as opposed to chats and instant messages.

As we will show, there are two main reasons for this happening. The first is a natural phenomenon, while the second is a result of actions by one major player. The natural phenomenon is that the Internet brings with it incredible connectivity. Everyone can connect with everyone, provided they choose to do so. If they wish, they can also broadcast to the world in real time any significant happenings in what some call their Life Stream.

The Life Stream

One of the oldest and most popular is Twitter. Your life can be recounted in a series of short (140 characters) Tweats (newslets) to any of your friends who are watching. It certainly is difficult to have a meaty discussion in such short tweats. Somewhat ironically, a Twitter competitor Jaiku, now owned by Google, is titled Your Conversation. It will shortly be open to all and describes itself as your own microblog.

Perhaps the best illustration of the nature of these life streams is provided by another newcomer, Plurk. Its display looks very much like a river.

As time passes, we move downstream to the left and see the comments of those we have chosen to follow. It’s almost like logs floating down a river. If you wish you can jump onto such a log and add your own comment. It can be amusing but it’s hardly a conversation.

Many are finding this plethora of social media where you can stay connected is overwhelming. Merely staying in touch can eat up a great deal of time. There’s hardly any time left to have any meaningful conversations. This is the natural phenomenon that we talked about.

Google’s First Blow To Conversations

Google is a powerful influence in the way things happen on the Internet. It has taken two major initiatives that have affected both the quantity and quality of the conversations that were occurring. The first is that its highly successful keyword search algorithm gives a major weighting to (hyper)links that point to web pages. Since this was widely known, this opened the floodgate to spammy comments on blogs seeking only to be given a link back to the author’s web page. This was so prevalent that some blog owners would block all comments to avoid this. Overall the Google algorithm has caused a significant reduction in the average quality of web conversations.

Google’s Second Blow to Conversations

The second Google initiative was a natural follow-on to their first. Noting that many website owners would pay others to create links to their websites, Google wished to block this. So they introduced the NoFollow tag. They insisted that anyone who created a page link to another web page for monetary gain should mark that link with the NoFollow tag. In this way, the search robots would disregard the link and it would count for nothing in the keyword search algorithm. The merit and efficacy of this approach for treating paid links could certainly be questioned.

What is more questionable is then using this NoFollow tag in a blanket way to devalue all comments on blogs. Spam comments on blogs are indeed a problem. Google suggested that it should be applied to all blog comments. Wordpress now adopts this as the default position. However unless there is some incentive for a genuine commenter to add a useful comment, it is unlikely to happen. As noted earlier, the flood of new social media leaves little time to add a blog comment that may be read by very few. Another approach is needed here.

Fighting Back With DoFollow

David Harry has pointed out the absurdity of this approach in his Monday morning rant this week.

It is a sad statement on the times
It?s a damned funny preposition really if we think about it. At its core Google is a nodal/link based algorithm that depends largely on the links of the web to establish popularity and to a certain degree, value. Now, what if?. by some strange twist of fate, the majority of the world?s webmasters and site owners decided to Nofollow all of their outbound links in a sort of, ?better safe than sorry? manoeuvre?

If more worthwhile conversations are to be encouraged on the Web, then some different approach is needed. If comments are to be accorded links, then there must be a strong process in place to avoid giving value to worthless posts created only for links. Many are now adopting this approach and you can find some of these listed in the following:

• “Do Follow” Blog Directory
• Do Follow List Of Lists
• Courtney Tuttle’s D-List

Tougher Love For Blog Commenters

This Dofollow policy has been running for the SMM blogs for two months now and there has been a very slight increase in the spam comments. Perhaps too many are assuming that comments of little value to subsequent readers will be acceptable. You might assume that from what Digerati Marketing says about its Over 160 Relevant Link Following Blogs.

Even for white hatters, I don?t think there?s an ethical issue here. So we?re putting our comment there for the sole purpose of getting a link, yes. However, if the blog author can read this comment and they think it adds value to the post, where?s the harm in that? If bloggers are so concerned about who they are giving their link juice to, they should be using the nofollow attribute in the first place.

The SMM policy sets out to deliver best value to our readers. Unless a blog comment is helping that aim, it will be deleted. Merely leaving the blog comment there with a NoFollow tag is the worst of all possible approaches.

Related:
We DoFollow And Remove NoFollow From Comment Links

Post from: StayGoLinks

Who Killed Conversations?

Related Posts

• April 5, 2008 -- We DoFollow And Remove NoFollow From Comment Links (18)
• June 24, 2009 -- SEO Clients Deserve NoFollow Discounts (23)
• October 1, 2008 -- Twitter Chitchat Or Even Conversations (1)

The Internet continues to get ever more crowded. Google is continually modifying its algorithms and its ways of presenting more personalized results to searchers. It’s no surprise that many feel that SEO, or organic search engine optimization, is getting increasingly difficult. That’s the view you’ll see in many forums. Just check a discussion at Cre8asite Forums for confirmation. It was titled ‘Been Reading That SEO Is Slowly Dying / Changing‘.

A coming SMM newsletter will discuss the state of the nation on SEO. As always, the aim is to create something useful for our readers but also create a memorable and search visible item. As we have recommended, potential titles were checked in both a Google Web search and a Google Blogsearch. The results were intriguing.

One possibility was the notion of a SEO Cash Cow. That kind of talk has not been around for some time. Back in 2006, a website offering SEO Cash Cows claims that all packages were sold out within 15 days of launch. Early in 2007. you could still find other sites that would help you build your cash cow or would turn your website into a cash cow. Since then, the Internet seems somewhat quiet on the subject of cash cows.

Another possible phrase to draw the eye might be fat cow. This seems to be in more current usage. That’s because of the efforts of Garry Conn with his John Cow dot Com website. His tagline is Making Money Online by Milking the Internet. Of course to an extent he is riding on the coattails of the much better known John Chow dot Com website. John Chow is a resident of Vancouver and and has the tagline, I Make Money Online by Telling People How Much Money I Make Online. It was visible on the fat cow query, because of a little sniping at John Chow from Garry Conn. Whether the efforts of either of these gentlemen and their interactions can be regarded as examples of fat cows or cash cows that others might wish to copy is open to question.

Clearly something is happening and webmasters must adjust. Perhaps the final word should go to John Mueller, one of the more visible Googlers who is always delivering eminently good sense, in his post on that Cre8asite Forums thread.

If you “fall” for a product/service that doesn’t deliver close to the expectations that they set in their marketing, you’re not going to fall for it a second (or at least a third time). If a search engine notices that it’s falling for content that doesn’t deliver close to the expectations set with regards to SEO, it’s going to work on recognizing and ignoring that. If you constantly have to adjust your SEO efforts because the search engines aren’t falling for it anymore, perhaps the problem is not the SEO.

What seems quite clear is that SEO is no longer a license to print money. There are increasing challenges which the successful practitioner of SEO must overcome. However, the ROI (return on investment) will still well reward the effort.

Post from: StayGoLinks

SEO Cash Cows Anyone?

Related Posts

• June 24, 2009 -- SEO Clients Deserve NoFollow Discounts (23)
• March 31, 2009 -- Death, Taxes And Google (4)
• November 29, 2008 -- Reputation Management and Social Media (5)
• September 5, 2009 -- Designing High Performance Websites (17)
• August 22, 2008 -- Better Marketing Through Dialogue (6)