http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

Very interesting stuff.

If you don’t use supermarket loyalty cards, are opposed to the idea of identity cards and balk at the size and scope of the police DNA database, think before you click that “search” button…

Google, which has an approximate 90% share of the UK search market, is working harder than ever to profile its users and their (read “your”) online behaviour in order to… err… well who really knows?

Google is a highly secretive company and is not fond of sharing the secrets which are both a source and a result of their huge competitive advantage.

All of this leads to a lot of speculation as to what is going on in the dark, secret chambers of the Googleplex. Well, technically they are more likely to be bright, glass-walled flexible feng shui approved work spaces with strewn with primary-coloured space hoppers, flowers and bowls of fresh fruit, but I digress; observers and regular internet users have noticed a clear trend towards the collection of more and more data for unqualified purposes.

Before you wrap tinfoil around your head, encode all of your emails and start leaving comments on YouTube videos, remember Google’s fabled motto: ‘Don’t Be Evil.’ A company with a motto like that couldn’t be evil, right?
Let’s consider some of the evidence.

Google Toolbar. Before the advent of personalised browsing there was the Google toolbar. If you are reading an SEO company blog, chances are you have the Google toolbar across the top of your browser. Google Toolbar gives you easy access to your gmail (more of that later), bookmarks (why use your browser’s bookmark function when Google’s is 5cm closer and you can take your bookmarks with you?), spell check, awesome translation tool, PageRank (how we’ll miss you when you go) and a wide variety of search options.

In return, Google gets your data.

What sites do you visit? How do you browse? What services do you use? How long do you spend on a site? Even if you are not logged in to any Google account, the toolbar sends this data to… well… somewhere.

Google Chrome is the next step along from the Google Toolbar. Another good tool for the user and another great source of browsing data for Google. But we still prefer Firefox in the office.

Gmail offers us loads of free storage. So we store loads of private, personal things with Gmail. You receive targeted messages from advertisers alongside your private messages.

This is from Gmail’s privacy page:

When you use Gmail, Google’s servers automatically record certain information about your use of Gmail. Similar to other web services, Google records information such as account activity (including storage usage, number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI elements, ads, links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL).

Google Analytics. Why would Google provide a service that is really worth thousands of Pounds for free? Adding Analytics code to your pages allows Google to learn a huge amount about how people really interact with your content. It’s not hard to see the logic behind this one – all of those interactions that Google could not capture through the toolbar or its own services are trackable from the website end as opposed to the user end. Great stuff!

But how is the data being used? Google ain’t sharing.

So is Google being evil? Depending on your definition of ‘evil’, probably not; but who really knows? What we do know is that they are collecting a huge amount of information about how people use the internet and using that information to offer users better services and shareholders better value.

There is a recurring theme in the way that Google approaches these interactions. Much like supermarkets with their loyalty cards, Google offers something of value for no financial cost, asking only for your data in return. Personally,
I’m happy to make this deal most of the time, but not always.

The recent introduction of personalised results for everyone, whether signed in to a Google account or not, feels like the crossing of some sort of intangible line. Of course, all of Google’s data hoarding has been leading to this: search remains Google’s core product and personalised results are a logical next step to improve experience and create a further separation from competitors (who, it must be said, don’t have the best history of “not being evil”).

You can see Google’s announcement of that service here.

The biggest annoyance with this – and what has concerned some observers – is that the service is an opt-out service as opposed to an opt-in service. So my search results are being “personalised” according to websites that I have visited before? Great. Maybe I don’t want to revisit the sites that I have already seen. This reduces the quality of my “personalised” search results – the opposite of Google’s intention.

Google gives the impression of being a company with a well-tuned moral compass and I am not suggesting that anything else is true. Why would they use all of this harvested data for anything other than providing the best service possible and therefore making money and therefore becoming an even ‘better’ company. And the services that they offer are consistently excellent.

This said, just because a company has no malevolent intentions for all of the data that it holds, does that mean that every single individual within the company is equally as well-intentioned? Who knows.

Do most internet users know how to delete a cookie? Probably not. Would most internet users feel a little bit differently about Google if they knew just how much data the big G was storing? And, due to secure backups, that some of the data is effectively “undeletable”?

Pass the tinfoil…

One of our most in-demand services at Upstream Connections is multilingual SEO work.

Our office has always been a multicultural place, with native German, Spanish and English speakers among the full time staff and a raft of nationalities working with us on a part-time basis.

We currently offer internet marketing and SEO services in Spanish, German, French, Italian and Swedish. The work is all based in our Hove office, which means that we can maintain the high level of quality control that clients expect.

We do not outsource and we will not take on work that we cannot fully understand. Your brand is worth more than that.

One of the most interesting aspects of multilingual work is gaining insight into the way that different markets work. There is no substitute for genuine local knowledge, which is why we work closely with our clients and staff to find the right approach for multilingual campaigns.

Some important things to remember when planning a multilingual SEO campaign:

Do market research.

There is no substitute for local knowledge. This is true for every step of the multilingual SEO process, from website translation through to link building and content promotion work.

Don’t assume that your keywords will translate directly.

…and be aware of local differences within a language. I learnt Spanish in Buenos Aires, which has left me with a different vocabulary to the Spanish staff in our office. An ordenador to them is una computadora to me.

We have the same quirks in English. Our US travel clients provide vacations while our UK clients offer holidays. The same is true of cell phones and mobile phones (in Spanish too, with celular and telefono movil). These are significant differences that need to be addressed before you start promoting your site.

Get a translator that really understands your business.

When translating a site, there is a risk of the dreaded literal translation. This problem can arise if a translator is not fully briefed or does not understand what your website and business are really about.

It always makes sense to have a trusted native speaker check over your translated site before it goes live.

At enterprise level, literal site translation is not usually a problem, because there are (usually) native speakers within the organisation who a) understand the business and b) speak the relevant language.

Don’t underestimate the power of images

Images transcend language barriers. Be sure to translate the ALT tags and, where appropriate, image names on your translated website.

If you want to rank well in overseas search results, create a great resource for your target markets.

While the idea of translating a couple of pages of your website into foreign languages and hoping that this will “do the trick” can be appealing, it is highly unlikely to actually “do the trick”. Foreign language search markets are less competitive than English language markets, but the rules of SEO are just the same – a great site deserves visibility.

There is a balance to strike. For some less-spoken languages, translating a couple of pages of content can be a great “easy win”, especially if you are offering a location-based service. If you offer something niche and are the only website with relevant content in a specific language, you have a good chance of gaining some easy results.

Do you have someone who can handle enquiries in foreign languages?

Again, this isn’t a problem at enterprise level, because foreign language enquiries are likely to go to the relevant office/department, but it can be a real issue for smaller businesses.

Depending on your industry, it could be that enquiries will arrive in English, whatever the language used to find your site. However, in many cases you will receive enquiries in your targeted language and need to find a way to manage these.

Appreciate different business cultures.

While the EU has made international trade relatively easy within Europe, be aware that different customers will be used to different treatment.

There’s a wide world out there waiting to do business with you. With our experience in planning and executing multilingual campaigns, we can help them find you.

If you’d like to discuss our multilingual SEO service, email alex@upstreamconnections.com or give us a call in the office on +44 (0) 1273 773 616.

Put in simple words, Twitter is the way of letting the world know what you are up to (or what your business is up to). It is a free social networking and micro-blogging service but if you are new to tweeting here is the very basic information you need to start familiarising with Twitter:

- Tweets: Messages (known as tweets) which you can post in your Twitter account. At the same time, you will have access to millions of tweets posted by other users which might interest you or your business.
- Twitter followers: Other Twitter users who have decided to follow your tweets (because your messages are original, because they know you/your company, because company/user x follows you, etc.)

Remember: the more interesting and original your tweets are, the higher the chances of increasing the number of followers. If you tweet for business, having a Twitter account and keeping it up-to-date can be key to move your business forward but it is also important to choose carefully who you are going to follow.

Attracting quality followers will add value to your Twitter account as well as to the social network you are starting to expand. Let´s try the following formula:

If company/user x is being followed by company/user xx then their tweets/messages have got to be interesting and it is worth checking out their products. For this reason I, company/user w, I want to follow company/user x too.

Does the above formula sound too complicated? Then simply keep in mind that Twitter is the current version of a very old way of advertising: word of mouth (but online!). If your product is good, if your message is original, say it loud!… but if you want to increase the number of followers ask yourself the following questions:  why should people be interested in what you have got to say? How are you adding value to other companies/users?

If you are thinking business, Twitter may or may not be the best service for you but the best way to find out is trying it out yourself. Do you want to explore its possibilities? You can start now: create an account and start tweeting today.

Being part of so many communities is giving you the opportunity to increase your business, family and even old friends network but at a price: how are you going to keep up? On one hand you’ve got the possibilities of a great social network you are already involved in (in most cases not very well organised, let’s face it) and on the other hand you are literally holding a “smart” phone you are not using very smartly… yet. Let’s go mobile and let’s do it the smart way.

Organise your contacts

Have you started to count your contacts in hundreds? It doesn´t matter anymore if your social network is spread across different communities (Facebook, Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, etc.). Everybody is trying to keep up with the latest ways of communications and so are you. Now it’s time to organise your social network.

I love testing applications that are going to help us being in contact and in a very simple way. This is why I recommend Nimbuzz Mobile. Nimbuzz is a new-generation mobile service that allows you to combine all your buddies from Skype, Messenger, Facebook, ICQ, Yahoo, Google Talk, etc. into one contact list. It allows you to chat, make phone calls, send messages and files… and it´s free

In your growing social community an important step is being able to communicate, keeping up-to-date. The concept of being in touch adopts a new meaning and goes further with applications like Nimbuzz.

Try it out and don´t forget to let us know what you think! We appreciate your comments.

Download Nimbuzz and start to really enjoy being in contact.

As the furore about free content and advertising revenues rumbles on, the two companies appear to have settled upon a deal that is beneficial for both content provider and content host. It will be very interesting to see how this pans out as it is the first significant UK deal between a television channel and YouTube.

The deal will allow Channel 4 to sell the advertising space around its content. If successful, this could form the blueprint for similar future deals.

This is interesting as it shows that Social Networking is still in the ascendency; the figure is up 85% on this time last year. It may also go some way to explaining why Britain is in it’s current financial condition. If everyone is on Facebook, who is doing the work?

The invite system is rather reminiscent of how they rolled out Gmail, allowing the service to spread among people actively interested in the internet and web development (and likely to give useful feedback).

Check out this (long) video for more about Wave:

Alex can’t wait to see you there!

8 weeks later and he’s posted some results on his blog, and as somebody who works a lot with Google and thought that Bing wouldn’t stand a chance against the almighty yardstick of search, I was a little surprised by the results.

From 559,239 search queries, the experiment showed that Google was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the top choice as the engine that gave the best results, with 41% of the vote. But following closely behind were Bing at 31% and Yahoo at 28%. I was relieved to learn that I wasn’t the only one surprised that Google’s results had not wooed the lion’s share of searchers: even users who were consciously trying to pick Google from the available results were left wondering how they had ‘accidentally’ chosen Bing.

So, does this spell the end of an era as Google is slowly usurped by search competitors? Well, the answer is… no. Google is still the first choice for those out there who do know which one they’re choosing, but it just goes to show that the alternatives probably aren’t that far behind. The influential Joy Of Tech continues to poke fun at the newly-forged Bing/Yahoo partnership, but for a webcomic that is fundamentally a four-panel leadup to an anti-Microsoft gag, that’s hardly surprising.

In his conclusions so far about the experiment, Kordahi does mention the surprise aspect of the results:

Many were surprised that Google wasn’t always their choice. There were many instances of surprise that Google wasn’t as superior as they thought it was.

Still, “hang on, I’ll Bing it” just doesn’t have the same ring to it…