Gmail Supports Latin and Special Characters

Whoa I was really busy! Here's a new update for you.

Yup! More than A-Z, Gmail now supports names that include these characters.

More details on Google Blog:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-first-step-toward-more-global-email.html

Enjoy!

SEO Prediction in 2014

Happy New Year! It was a crazy Q3 and Q4 for me but gladly we hit our company target, thanks to the efforts of all! While new targets are rounding up for different companies, we digital marketing professionals should have some insights to guide us as we move forward with our craft.

I say:

• More Knowledge Graph data
• Some redesigns for Adwords ads
• More mobile results appearing in the results page including (in app content)
• Better overall UX and UI in Google results
• More personalized results and targeted results to seamless UX with Google's acquisition of Behavio
• Guest blogging will have lesser impact or correlation to ranking
• Mobile sites will be a default

With all the changes (versions of both Penguin and Panda and Hummingbird) and these predictions, "Search Engine Optimization" will seem to veer towards to be more of "Search Experience Optimization" in 2014.

How about you? What's your prediction? :)

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!

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.