Social Media and Narcissism

Do you have these signs? Maybe, unconsciously, you're being one of these.

Infographic Credit:
http://www.bestcomputerscienceschools.net/selfies/

SEO: Separate IP Address for Each Country-Specific Site

Should I use a separate IP address for each country-specific site? Today, Matt Cutts answered this question in another webmaster video. He said ideally it would be great to have different IPs on different locations for their respective locations or countries. But it seems that SEOs and Webmasters shouldn't worry about this too much as Google is smart enough to take TLDs (top level domains) as a strong indicator that your site is operating normally.

Click here to see the video in Google Webmaster YouTube Channel.

Cheers to 2013, Google Zeitgeist

Google has released a video today celebrating search for 2013. Nothing much to say but just watching the video sums up the best of 2013 for search. To online marketers, social media professionals and readers of this blog, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! :)

Google Video: 

(I would have uploaded from YouTube but the video was too fresh and not yet indexed. lol)

Instagram Introduces Instagram Direct

Instagram, the photo and video sharing app acquired by Facebook, announced today that they launched a new feature to support private sharing through Instagram Direct.

Instagram pointed out that there will be moments in our lives that we want to share, that will only be most relevant to a smaller group of people, thus this feature.

On their blog, Instagram wrote the steps to use this feature:

When you open Instagram, you’ll now see a new icon in the top right corner of your home feed. Tap it to open your inbox where you’ll see photos and videos that people have sent to you. To send a photo or video to specific people, tap the camera button to enter the same simple photo or video capture and editing screens. At the top of the share screen, you’ll see the option to share with your followers (“Followers”) or to send to specific people (“Direct”). To send using Direct, tap the names of the people you want to send your photo or video to, write your caption, tap “send” and you’re done.

Instagram added that the photo and video will be received immediately from people you follow. Photos and videos from people you don't follow can send you but a request notification will appear - enabling you to decide if you want to view it or not.

I think this is another step to data collection for monetization - a typical thing about apps. Promoting everything publicly at the first phase and then giving privacy control to users once they get huge database of users. I'm predicting ads (sponsored posts) too will probably appear here soon. A couple if months ago, Instagram did announce that they will slowly introduce sponsored photos and videos. With the promise of giving users the ultimate control over the experience, Instagram opened another door to more and better insights on how users use their app and that data can be another sounding place for "targeted ads" in the coming month/s. Hey it's business after all. For whatever it's worth, cheers to Instagram for a great app!

Cheers!

Save Gmail Attachments Directly to Google Drive

It's been a very October for me and only now I've realized I haven't posted anything that month. Oh well, we all have busy days and for that reason, busy months.

Welcome November!

Today update is Gmail's capability in saving attachments directly to Google Drive. Wow! Now we can save pictures, documents and videos directly to our Google Drive without leaving Gmail. Google is continuing to do a good job in improving the user experience for all their services. This also supports the "one email - all of Google", so that with one account all of Google's services will be incorporated to each other. According to the Official Google Blog, the new attachment experience is available on desktop and will be rolling out over the following week. Now if you belong to the more than 120 million active Drive users, you are aware that saving your files to Drive lets you get to them from any phone, tablet or computer. Cool isn't it? With this change, active Drive users will feel a more personalized experience. We also can expect more revenue to Google as this is a great feature for businesses especially teams needed to be synced with all of Google's Services.

Image source: 


Thanks for reading and enjoy your Google experience! :)

Hummingbird: Google Algorithm Update

Hummingbird update today (9/26/2013). Google announced that this update will be optimizing for Voice Search and long search queries. According to Moz "Hummingbird has been compared to Caffeine, and seems to be a core algorithm update that may power changes to semantic search and the Knowledge Graph for months to come." Amid Singhal, search executive of Google, said that users can now be comfortable searching for long queries instead of breaking the thought into keywords. I think this is a real game changer for Google and another step to help those who were left behind in using their search.

Another thought for me is that Hummingbird tells me more that SEO is not dying - instead, it's just moving to a path towards Content Marketing. The reason is that Google keeps on telling SEO's to create compelling content and with this update, it beats how SEO's battle it out on a keyword basis. Google hasn't announced how this update would affect sites that primarily rely on target keywords but nothing has changed as to how websites should do their SEO and content marketing: Link Naturally and Provide Great Content.

How do you think this update can impact you and/or your business?

Promoted Pins: Pinterest Will Start Showing Ads and Going Mobile

I've got an email yesterday from Pinterest.

Pinterest has been around for 4 years now and now they are taking their baby step towards monetizing. Yes, they will be putting their years of effort to leverage on ROI and mobile usage.

The first tests of ads will be in the categories feeds and search results. For instance you search for "Men's Fashion", you might see a store selling men's clothing nearby - like how Promoted Tweets work.

A lot of comments from netizens spurred from this, mostly negative. Some said that Pinterest just signed their death wish and some say that this is goodbye for them using the pinning platform. A few number of neutral responses say that as long as Pinterest will do it in a "not intrusive and spammy" way, they have no problem against it.

It is a fact that successful platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Dropbox start with free service before they introduced Twitter Promoted Tweets, Facebook Ads and Dropbox Plans. Little do most people know that in the end, it is all just business - and all business have costs to carry on their shoulders. Having to make an exceptional innovation and exquisite UI/UX platform should not be expected "free all the time" and/or there's always a price to pay for something "more".

At the end of the email it was signed by a guy named "Ben" who is obviously represented by Ben Silbermann, the CEO of Pinterest.

iPhone Launch Event Today - Live Blog Update

Today, Tuesday, September 10th, at 10am PT/1pm ET Apple's special event launching the new iPhone expecting the release of the rumored 5c and 5s. This will happen in the Cupertino headquarters. Apple will also present the public release of the iOS 7.

Apple announced all invited guests and media partners that "this should brighten everyone's day".

I will try to get the latest update from the most reliable sources and update this blog.

Update:

From Greg Kumparak:

He was early... :)

From TC:

Media Registration

These birds want to get the "best worm".

Angel investor, Ron Conway and Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey arrive at the venue.

Greg: Almost go time.

Your main man, Tim Cook, ladies and gentlemen. @ 1:00PM ET

Tim Cook: “Our store [in Stanford] has long been overdue for an overhaul. This weekend, we’re launching this store”

Craig Federighi: "its new interface, its new color palettes, things like parallax wallpapers, a single-swipe control panel for things like airplane mode."

IOS7 supports the following:

Apple Sales

Introducing iPhone 5C! “The iPhone 5C has an incredible new design, one that’s more fun and colorful than any design we’ve done before."

Now, time for the 5S! Say hello! 

The 16GB iPhone 5C unlocked is $549. 32GB is $649. 

iPhone 5S is $649, $749, and $849 (16GB/32GB/64GB) unlocked.

IMO, it's still not cheap. :)

Thanks for reading!

Photo credit: Greg Kumparak