New Google Release Could Change Everything. Will it?

It's a simple concept, with enormous implications (even for non-Android users). The introduction of App Inventor has provoked a great deal of discussion around the web and with good reason. The product basically puts app creation into the hands of everyone (though you will still have to learn how to use App Inventor itself, as Jason Kincaid points out. Think Dreameaver for apps.) Businesses will be able to create apps on the fly. Consumers could be able to create apps that cater to their personal preferences, and therefore make their devices more useful.



Simplification often leads to wider adoption. Look at what blogging platforms did for online content creation. Look at what Twitter is doing for news consumption (essentially what RSS has been doing for years). If people have a simple way to create apps quickly that can be used by users of any Android device, they are probably going to take advantage, and those apps will get users, and inspire more app creation.

Too Many Bad Apps?

Users ultimately decide what apps to put on their phones. It's not like using the web. Your Android device is not going to be spammed with so-called bad apps. Android is an operating system, not the web. You don't use Android like you use the web, you use the apps themselves that you decide to use like you use the web. source: www.webpronews.com/topnews/

Google UK Chief Speaks Of Focus On Mobile, Social

In nine days' time, Google will report its second quarter financial results, and no matter how well the search giant's done, at least a few critics are sure to argue that it needs to succeed in new fields. Matt Brittin, Managing Director of Google UK, seems to feel mobile and social are the two main candidates.

Google isn't exactly trailing its competitors in terms of offering mobile products and services, of course. Android has become a fairly mainstream mobile operating system, and more and more info is starting to circulate about Chrome OS, which might function in a similar space. Plus, it's already possible to access just about all of Google's existing products using any sort of smartphone.

Brittin hinted that Google's mobile efforts may soon overshadow its more traditional endeavors, however.

Brittin told Jonathan Sibun this weekend, "As growth in broadband starts to flatten off, we're seeing the next wave. The big shift is to mobile internet. Between 25pc and 30pc of consumers use their mobiles to access the internet. But in three years' time analysts believe more people will be accessing it from their mobiles than from a desktop. That's a massive change."

As for what he said with regards to social networking, Brittin wouldn't go so far as to confirm the existence of Google Me. Still, he didn't deny that a new product's in the works.

Furthermore, Brittin implied that Facebook can be beat, and the UK exec even issued a reminder that one of Google's properties has already achieved some success in the field.

"Facebook is an absolute phenomenon but there are other social networks which are successful too," Brittin said. "We've got Orkut, which is fantastically successful in India and Brazil. And Bebo is successful in other countries. It's a phenomenon that is with us to stay. I think what we'll see is the internet becoming more of a social place, as well as people being social within the context of social networks." source: www.webpronews.com/topnews/

Google Adds More Extensions to Latest Chrome Browser

Google has just released the latest and most stable release build of its Chrome browser for Windows. Most notable features are the additional of more Chrome browser extensions and of course bookmark sync which has been tested in the browser’s previous beta version.

If you have not donwloaded the previous Chrome browser beta version, you might have missed the Extensions feature. These are just your usual Firefox plug-ins/add-ons which extend the functionality of the browser.

Right now, there are more than 1,500 available extensions in the Chrome browser extension gallery.

The other feature which made it to the latest release of Google Chrome browser is bookmark syncing. This is very useful if you used Chrome browser on different machines. It lets you synchronize all your bookmarks from one computer to another. After enabling bookmark sync, any bookmarks that you add on one browser installation will automatically appear on the other browser installation on your other computers.

For those using Chrome browser on Linux, the extensions feature is already available in the beta channel. While Mac users will have to wait some more to have the extensions and bookmark sync on their Chrome browser installations.

Google Gets 75% Of Paid Search Clicks & Dollars: Report

Three of every four paid search clicks happen on Google, and 75 cents of every paid search dollar is spent on Google. That’s according to the latest quarterly report from Efficient Frontier, a search advertising agency that manages more than $750 million in annual digital spending annually. The stats cover Q4 of 2009, and show Google’s share of paid search clicks rising from 71% in Q3 to 74.4% in Q4. Yahoo’s share of paid clicks, meanwhile, dropped from 24.4% in Q3 to 21% in Q4. Bing’s share was down slightly, but remains up 31% year over year.

The numbers are similar on the spending side, Efficient Frontier reports. Google is the clear leader, but the company’s 74.5% share is actually down year-over-year. For the year, Yahoo remained steady at 20.4% of spend, while Bing grew 25% from Q4 2008 to Q4 2009.

The report offers an overall positive outlook on search advertising. Efficient Frontier says the retail sector led a strong Q4 2009 that was up 6% from quarter to quarter and from year to year. Retail advertisers spent 17% more in Q4 than they did a year earlier, but retail CPC was down 9% from Q4 2008 levels. The report suggests lower cost-per-click may be due to search engines experimenting with new ad formats:

“Google and the other engines are adding more features to provide comparative shopping data within the SERP, a move that is likely contributing to a retail CTR drop-off of over 40% YOY.”

Looking ahead, Efficient Frontier is optimistic for 2010. The company expects that a “moderate amount of CPC growth will accelerate growth in Q1 and throughout 2010,” and that “2010 spend growth will exceed earlier estimates of 10-15%.” The report also predicts solid growth for Bing in 2010, saying that a 30% gain is possible, which would put Bing between 6-7% of click share by the end of the year. But there’s also a warning that Yahoo’s falling share of paid clicks could offset Bing’s gains if and when the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal is approved and takes effect.

source: http://searchengineland.com/google-gets-75-of-paid-search-clicks-dollars-report-33780

Google Makes Google Docs a Cloud Storage Service

It has been quite awhile since Google’s GDrive project has been talked about. In fact it seems that Google may have shelved the project already. But not until now, as Google just announced that Google Docs users can now upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. This may not be GDrive per se, but it could be Google’s baby steps towards launching GDrive or possibly turning Google Docs into it.

Users can now upload any file, not just those currently supported by Google Docs, up to 250MB at a time. Free storage is up to 1GB and this does not include the files converted into any of the Google Doc supported formats. If you need more storage, you can purchase additional space at $0.25 per year.

So basically, Google is going up against other cloud storage service such as Dropbox, Box and others. And given the popularity of Google Docs, Google just might give those other cloud storage service a run for their money.

In addition, those files can be stored in shared folders as well. Hence making it easy to store, organize and collaborate on files. Uploaded files are also easily searcheable just like any Google Docs documents, spreasheets, presentations and PDFs.

source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/

Google: Page Speed May Become a Ranking Factor in 2010

Over the course of 2009, a consistent theme that Google has been involved with is that of speed. In announcement after announcement, Google has talked about the importance of speed on the web, and how the company wants to do everything it can to make the web a faster place. Has it occurred to you that how fast your page loads may have a direct effect on how your site ranks in Google?

Don't worry, it hasn't had an impact...yet. In an interview with WebProNews, Google's Matt Cutts told us that speed may soon be a ranking factor.

"Historically, we haven't had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast," says Cutts. "It should be a good experience, and so it's sort of fair to say that if you're a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don't want that as much."

"I think a lot of people in 2010 are going to be thinking more about 'how do I have my site be fast,' how do I have it be rich without writing a bunch of custom javascript?'" he says.

I would say that based on Matt's comments it is probably fair to assume that Google will indeed begin taking page speed into consideration as a ranking factor, although he doesn't come right out and say that they definitely will. That said, making your site faster is going to benefit your users and possibly your sales anyway, so you might as well start optimizing it for speed anyway. Then if Google really does start using this as a ranking factor, you will have a head start on boosting your rankings.

Google has generally been pretty good at providing webmasters with tools they can use to help optimize their sites and potentially boost rankings and conversions. Google recently announced a Site Speed site, which provides webmasters with even more resources specifically aimed at speeding up their pages. Some of these, such as Page Speed and Closure tools come from Google itself. But there are a number of tools Google points you to from other developers as well.

Google News Italia Probe Expands

Google received a piece of bad news - and perhaps a laugh - today as we prepare to go into the long weekend. Here's the serious part: Italian antitrust regulators have decided to expand the focus of an investigation from the Italian version of Google News to the entire corporation.

Things began to heat up last week when an Italian newspaper federation claimed that Google would exclude papers from its normal search results when they opted out of Google News. Google Italy's offices got searched, and the concept of an $18.5 million fine was mentioned.

Now, according to an AGI article, Italy's antitrust authority has stated, "On the basis of inspections by the authority, it has been found that the management of the Google News Italia service, currently under a preliminary investigation, was handled by Google Inc."

What brilliant detective work, right? Sherlock Holmes has been reincarnated in Rome.

Still, given a choice between chuckling at obvious statements and not facing an inquiry, Google would probably pick the second option. The fact that this investigation's picked up speed in just one week isn't a great sign.

source:http://www.webpronews.com/