It’s no different here at Harkins Creative except for the fact that we HAVE to stay on top of the changes in Google for our clients as well as ourselves. It is a part of our business and we spend time and resources making sure we find out as much as possible about what Google is doing. The reason we pay so much attention to Google is simple; they control more search traffic than the other search engines combined! When someone else comes along and knocks Google off that mark, and that could theoretically happen one day, then we will start watching the new king of search. Until then we will all have to learn how to “dance” with Google and try to follow its lead; like it or not.

It wasn’t long ago that the two big SEO (search engine optimization) choices businesses had to make online was Pay Per Click (PPC) and Organic Search. PPC would cost you money right out of the gate but had the potential to bring you immediate business if you could bid right and get on the front page in the Google PPC ads. Organic SEO would take longer but, once you got on the front page, you were on your way to making some real money. It was the old question; what did you have more of, money or time.

However, in Google’s world, the one constant thing is that changes are nonstop. That’s why it is imperative to stay on top of what’s going on at Google.  And what’s been going on for the last few months is all about local. In fact, it has been said that about 90% of everything Google is doing these days has to do with local search. The reason is money and Google goes where the money is.

It won’t take you very long to find out that it is estimated that between 75 and 85% of all searches are done for local businesses and services. That means that if you have a local business or service and thought that being on the internet wasn’t that important, you may want to rethink that position.

Also of local importance is Google Maps and Google Mobile. Working with someone who understands what each of these are as well as how best to optimize them is more important than ever before. Simply put, this is why you might want to think “local” when you think about why you should have an online presence.

For those who would like to follow along with the notes (there won’t be any slideshow for this one) you can download the PDF here.

• Math – Just enter your formula (ex. 120*16) hit enter and get the magic result. Note to students: do not try entering things like “A train leaving Boston at 5:30am and  another in New York leaving at 6:59 pass each other outside of Piscataway at 7:38. How many words per minute was each train conductor texting on average during the trip?”
• Definitions – Need to check the definition of a word before you embarrass yourself in a blog post? Just type define: the word or phrase. Google spits out a full page of definition results immediately. (ex. define: video production)
• Weather – You’re about to head out to make that big proposal, and you want to know if you really need to take along a heavy rain coat, because your girlfriend kindly told you last week how dorky you looked in it, and you’d rather not make that kind of impression on the company who stands to make your year, if things go well. Google to the rescue. Just type weather proceeded by the location you want to inquire about, and you’ve got a pretty good chance of getting the answer on the first line, complete with pretty little graphic aids. (ex: weather Nashville) Note: despite Google’s legendary algorithms, it is no better at making accurate weather predictions than that guy on channel 5. Remember, Google only shows you what it thinks you WANT to see…
• Shipment tracking – I just tried this one out by accident, only to find out it’s a real feature! Half-slain by sleep deprivation, but still eager to find out where TigerDirect was in the process of getting me some new toy I’d ordered, I copied and pasted a “onezie” (all UPS ground tracking numbers start with a 1Z) into the google search bar. Two clicks later, I was looking at my package online!  Try it!
• Area Code Lookup - Couldn’t be simpler. Just type the 3-digit area code into the search bar, and you’ll immediately know what part of the country it belongs to. Now you can know where that mysterious number is calling you from before you even send it to voicemail!
  
• Time – I frequently need to talk to people overseas (India, Sweden, France, Spain, Uzbekistan, to name a few) and trying to remember the time differences at any given point in the year is an embarrassing nightmare. Good client relations are not served well by accidental 3am calls. No problem, just enter time followed by the location in question, and you’ll have your answer, including the date, in case the time zone is over the International date line. (ex. time sweden)

So there’s six quick ones, and I have not even touched on the search modifiers like site: or link:, which are incredibly useful as well.  Let me know what other ones you regularly use!

Google is calling it Chrome, and I’m sure this is seen as a shot across the bow for IE6 and Firefox (my personal favorite), although they do tip their hats in Mozilla’s direction, acknowledging that some of their horsepower found its way under the hood. Who the heck knows what this might do to smaller projects like Opera or Flock.

Personally, I drink the Google Kool-Aid. They have proven that, while they’ll never win any fashion awards, power, ubiquity and forward thinking are always front and center on their runway. Quietly, Google has for some time been acquiring startups with promise (something everybody else does, too) and assembling talent and ideas. Google likes the long play, so not every company it has snapped up has been an obvious choice. But the release of the new browser beta, followed by more mentions about its JavaScript engine called V8, they clearly have the next generation web squarely in its crosshairs, and fully intend to be the browser to bring it to us.

Of course I have already downloaded Chrome, and am testing it as I write this post. It is living up to its stripped down, severe aesthetic, but for once, I appreciate it immensely in a browser. The design choice really promotes the web site content, not the window through which it is delivered. Curiously, however, there is a startling lack of the elements that have found their way into nearly every other browser experience; namely the Google Toolbar and the Title Bar. The latter is so entrenched in SEO practices, specifically because of how Google uses and views them, it is a little unnerving not to see it at the top of the window. It makes me wonder if Google has plans to deprecate its importance in upcoming page rank algorithms…Nah…Right???

I think the browser community, and hopefully the open source community, will be taking notes for a long time to come.

Go Google.

As a company involved in mostly early stage market activites – media design and content creation, audio and video production – we rely on other companies in our market to supply us with manufacturing and distribution, and ultimately we need consumers to complete our existence.

These days, audio and video distribution is easily accomplished via the web. But in a crowded marketplace with more choices than ever before, consumers rely on search to bring them what they want, when they want it.

For this reason, it makes a lot of sense for Google to offer a media server gadget, essentially bridging the gap between the TV set and the vast content offered on the net.

Sure there are other media player/content services out there that promise to deliver web content to the home theater, but none have the power of Google’s search to find virtually any audio, video or photo file on the web. And while Google is notoriously boring in the GUI department, no one can argue their superiority in their stock and trade. Combine that with the content from Google’s subsidiary YouTube, and this is clearly the future.

For now, it’s a Windows-only gadget, and judging from the comment thread, it is not without some beta-stage issues. Still, who can blame Google for testing the waters and extending the usefulness of its search to the TV?

(Self-Promotional Addendum: I think this gadget would be made all the more amazing if the content it displayed became participatory through the CrowdAbout Social Media Player technology!)