Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

By now I am sure you have heard about Google’s new search infrastructure upgrade / update called “Caffeine”. Anytime Google makes a change to how their search functions it is big news…based on what people are saying this is one of their biggest updates since the “Big Daddy” update of 2005.

From the Google Webmaster Central Blog:

For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.

Since the changes are more on the back-end and are meant to improve the speed, size, accuracy and depth of Google search, I am viewing this update as having a bigger impact on how Google handles what people love to call  the “future of search” - semantic and real-time. I am not viewing this update as having a major impact on rankings…at least just yet.

The biggest question is of course how will this update impact SEO? Until it goes live and you can test in a real search environment you just cannot be sure.  In Google’s announcement they mention how most users won’t notice a difference in search results. However, they seem to contradict themselves by saying it will impact accuracy - which to me relates to search results.  My guess is that any changes in the SERP will be based on the inclusion of real-time results as opposed to changes in the foundation of how sites are ranked. Tests that I ran on the developers preview were inconclusive - some differences but nothing that would change my SEO strategies.

As with most changes Google makes to their search engine this is going to have to be a wait and see game. For more information on Google’s Caffeine update check out the links below:

• Google Webmaster Central Blog post that announced the update
• More info on the Caffeine update (via MattCutts.com)
• Matt Cutts Explains Caffeine Update (video)
• Run your own test of Caffeine: http://www2.sandbox.google.com/

No one can deny that Twitter has become a game changer. Gone are the days where social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace ruled the online world - now, no matter where you turn someone is talking about Twitter. However, regardless of the amount of buzz, the ability for Twitter to actually monetize its popular service is the hot topic with everyone adding their own two-cents.

The good news for Twitter is that there is no shortage of  money making opportunities. One revenue channel Twitter seems to getting serious about revolves around Twitter  “business users”.  To prove their relevancy and win over companies hesitant to jump into the Social Media world, Twitter posted a “Twitter 101 for Business”.

Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter.

Twitter 101 for Business offers:

• What is Twitter
• Getting started guide
• Learn the lingo
• Best practices
• Cast studies

Twitter’ guide does a good job of going over the basics and should be used by any company who has questions about how or why to use Twitter. However, the guide can only take a company so far - they need the internal resources and knowledge to put a solid Social Media / Twitter Marketing plan into action.

Visit the site for more information or download the slides here. Also, check out our own take on how companies can use Twitter and ideas on Twitter monetization.

Today I got an interesting email from a former co-worker with the subject line of  “The JAR Group wants you to create your own *damn* search marketing job!”. Since I have never heard of The JAR Group before I was a bit skeptical about what this really entailed. However, I was easily convinced that this was legit after checking them out and reading in more detail about their interesting hiring plan.

So what is The JAR Group really looking for? A Search Marketing thought  leader…but, in their words:

This position has no title. You can apply to us as a Director of Search Marketing, a Search Strategist, or even a Lion Tamer for all we care. We just want to find a good person who rocks hard on search marketing (air-guitaring while developing link bait… bonus points) and who fits in with the team like a well-placed puzzle piece. You know what you can do so we want you to create the role around our needs, and more importantly, around the needs of our clients.

To be considered, you need to do more then just send us a resume (resume email bombs go straight to our archives). Just tacking on a generic cover letter will also probably get you archived without any conversation. Email us, twitter us, blog about us, or hire a skywriter and let us know what you want to create. We have the team to make you great, so all we ask is that you make us great. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Avoiding the traditional hiring process should yield some interesting (and colorful) results. However, will this get the person they are actually looking for? I am not so sure and will be interested to see how this plays out. Hopefully they will write a follow-up blog post after the hiring process is finished.

But beyond finding the Search Marketer of their dreams what else will this accomplish for The JAR Group? Quite a lot actually if you look how I interacted with them - not only did I read and then forward the email to various search marketing friends, I visited their site, read their blog, followed them on various Social Media platforms, tweeted about it and of course wrote this blog post. Not a bad way to get your name out there don’t you think?

With all of that being said…if you are interested in seeing what the The JAR Group has to offer head on over and let them know.

I randomly searched for the term “Search Engine” in Google this morning and was very surprised at the results. The three big search engines ( Google, Yahoo and Bing) all ranked below the top 3 prime spots -  Google was 4th, Bing was 5th and Yahoo was 7th.  However, I was more shocked to see  that search engine powerhouse AltaVista came up #1 and my favorite search engine from 1998, Dogpile, came up #2. Of course if Google was in the top spot people would cry fowl, but still…#4? Google you can do better than that. Yahoo on the other hand should just be happy they are on the first page.

Is there any greater buzz right now when it comes to Search Engines then the promise of real-time search? Over the past couple of weeks I have had numerous conversations revolving around the possibilities brought on by Twitter search and the promise of real-time. But, is it really the future of search? Depends on who you ask. I for one see real-time search as being a huge part of where search engines are heading in the not so distant future. However, right now, I am seeing three major issues with any search engine that pushes their “real-time” search results.

• Results
• Relevancy
• Spam

In my opinion the true “Google Killer” will be a hybrid of both real-time and standard “cached” search results. Searching for a current topic like “Swine Flu” you want the most recent results to see what is going on at that very moment and content offering in-depth / credible information.Creating a hybrid search engine offers the best of both worlds and limitless possibilities. Take for example a standard e-commerce query -  a user searches for a product  and the results that comes back are for sites that are not only  selling /  reviewing that product but also real-time results for active coupons that have just been posted. Same thing for news or anything related to current events - real-time results for what is going on at that very moment and standard results for more in-depth information. Now all of a sudden real-time search results are creating more value in the SERP, which is true game changer.

So is the future of search real-time? Yes. But with some modifications…