Archive for February 2010

Have a root around in the attic and you might be able to dig out an old photo album or two.

“What’s that” I hear you say?!

Back before digital cameras were the norm, we all kept our photos in gold ‘ole photo albums.

With the WebEden Photo crop you can replicate the look and feel of an old school photo album right here on your website. Perfect for a bit of nostalgia. And it looks pretty cool too.

Let us know how you get on!

It’s been a whilst since we talked about behavioural targeting on this blog. Behavioural targeting is where advertisers target web users based on their online behaviour. For example, let’s say you are visiting autotrader.co.uk quite a few times a week, and also checking out loans websites; it it looks like you’re thinking about buying a car. Behavioural targeting would allow car manufacturers to target you with their online advertising.

I like behavioural targeting

I for one am quite keen on behavoural targeting. I’d rather see advertising that’s relevant to me rather than general purpose.

But Privacy Groups don’t

However, online privacy groups have raised fears that behavioural targeting can represent an invasion of online privacy. Behavioral targeting firm ‘Phorm’ took the decision to close its doors in the UK last year, having faced a real uphill battle to convince stakeholders.

Google does it too

Google is in the behavioural targeting game too. The key difference with their ‘interest based‘ advertising is that as a web user you can see what categories Google has said you’re interested in, and edit them too.

Privacy Symbol

Now a good idea has come along that might help behavioural targeting get properly off the ground. There’s a new ‘privacy icon’ that’s being trialed by the US online ad industry. The icon will appear on adverts and be used to let users know that a website is using behavioural targeting.
The symbol not only allows users to know they’re being targeted, but when click the user can see who is targeting, and to opt out.

It seems like a sensible move. It allows consumers to be aware of that their data is being collected (albeit in an anonymous way). And it allows advertisers to take advantage of the powerful tool of behavioural targeting.

At the moment regulators have been hard to convince over behavioural targeting. This might just be the answer.

What do you think of behavioural targeting? Would you give up some privacy to get a personalised version of the web? Do you think this symbol can give users the reassurance and control they need? Leave us a comment below.

To ‘Google Yourself‘ – to search on Google using your name – can be an interesting way to find out where and how you’re mentioned on different websites. In the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) Google can reveal just how much it knows about you. It’s hardly a daily activity, but most of us will admit having done it at one time or another.

A survey by Microsoft published last week revealed that just a third of Brits had Googled themselves.

That’s in contrast to other European counties such as Germany (59%) and France (56%).

The survey – into online reputations – also revealed that even if you’re not Googlng yourself, recruiters certainly are.

Checking you out

Human resources personnel are increasingly using search engines to find information about individual job candidates. In the survey, 79% of people investigating candidates for jobs are using Google to find out more about them. And they act on the information they find: 70% say that reject candidates based on the information they find.

And they don’t just check you out using search engines, they use Facebook and other social media and photo sharing sites too. Surprisingly, all recruiters use these sites to a greater extent than professional and business networking sites.

Makes you think twice about putting those photos from the weekend up on Facebook doesn’t it?!

Control your online reputation

As we’ve discussed before, controlling your online reputation is an important activity for website owners especially. On a personal level, you can use a personal Google profile to dominate searches for your name.

And you can use a listing in Google local business center to make it easy deliver location information, and specific offers, right from either Google or Google Maps.

If you’re getting more serious, then make sure you get good reviews to boost your online reputation.

And you can always use your official business Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts to control the SERPs for your company and your name.

Have you considered employing someone and then checked them out online? Or have experienced being ‘examined’ on Facebook or any other social sites? Leave us a comment below.

Last week we asked you to submit to our ‘Website of the Week‘ on the forum. We’re picking the best websites and publishing them here on the WebEden blog.

First off, its Director Rob Watt and his highly impressive website RobWatt.co.uk

Website Address:
www.robwatt.co.uk

When did you build your website?

I started designing and building in late 2008 and made major changes in early 2009…

Why did you build a website?

I am a Director who wanted to build an online brand and a web portfolio seemed to be the best options. I have embedded my blog and twitter accounts into the site.

What do you like best about your website?

How easy it is to update and its capasity to be expanded.

What is your best website building tip?

Be Bold.
Try something new… Try and catch the attention of the reader… think outside of the box…

Be Specific.
Know who your audience is and then tailor the website to them; it can’t be all things to all people.

Be Clear.
Be clear on what you want to say. Once you have this in mind then you are able to focus all your design through this.

———–

Thanks to Rob for that. If you want to be featured as our Website of the week, and get exposure to thousands of readers of the WebEden blog, visit the forum now!

According to a recent report by website monitoring firm ComScore, Internet users love affair with search engines continues to deepen.

For the month of December 2009, worldwide search volumes increased by a massive 46% over the same month in 2008. That means there that just in December there were 131bn searches, more than 4bn for every day of the month.

The country with the most searches was the US, with 17% of the global share. The UK hit a total of 6.2bn searches, more than punching its weight per head of population. That’s 100 searches for everyone in the country, and is a 35% increase year on year.

And which search engines are being used? Of course its Google who dominates, with 67% of the global search volume. Google grew by 58% over the 12 month period. But it was a great year for Microsoft, who saw a huge 70% growth year on year, from 2.4bn to 4.1bn searches. Yahoo was up a much more modest 13%, hitting 9.4bn.

And as have mentioned previously, it is Facebook that has also hit the search headlines, delivering 1.5bn searches, up 54% year on year.

“The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide. Search is clearly becoming a more ubiquitous behaviour among internet users, which drives navigation not only directly from search engines but also within sites and across networks”, said Jack Flanagan, executive VP at ComScore.

Do you always search on Google? How can you be sure that you prefer it? Why not take a blind search test? And then leave us a comment below.

Another great but simple video tutorial this week.

Remember when online video was slow and stuttery, full of buffering and such like? Youtube changed all that. Now online video is mostly seemless and smooth.

And the great thing about online video is that it keeps people on your website. It engages visitors, it inspires them, and it makes them more likely to stick around.

Thankfully the WebEden Website Builder is fully integrated with Youtube – you can place any youtube clip on your WebEden website. Watch the tutorial to find out how.

Have you got a good example of video on your website? Leave us a comment below.

“Can I insert a search box on my WebEden site” is a question us guys and gals at WebEden get asked on a regular basis.

And the answer is yes: you can use the Google search bar that is located in the library of your website builder.

Unfortunately there’s a shortcoming: this does search your website, but will only search those pages that have been indexed by Google.

If they haven’t been found and indexed by Google (for example if they are very recent, or are not well linked), then the Google search bar will not yield any results. As our SEO guide will tell you, Google can take up to 3 months to find and crawl your site so it can be a long wait before your website is fully searchable.

We’ve been scratching our heads to find a way around this problem, and we’ve just come up with a solution.

Drum roll…

[Enter Stage Left]: Atomz Site Search. Atomz have created a FREE Premier site search tool that crawls your site the moment you sign up. It grabs the Page Title – Description from your pages and displays them just like Google does.

To put this search facility on your website, you need to sign up on Atomz.com. You get to pick which type of search box you require from standard to advanced dependant on how detailed you would like the user to be able search.  Also you can change the colours of the links so they match the colour of your website.

HTML Snippet

Once you have setup everything with Atomz, grab the HTML code they give you, and paste the code into the WebEden HTML Snippet. In case you didn’t know, the HTML Snippet is located in the Library of your File Manager.

Once you have pasted the code in you will need to make just one change to the code in order for the results to appear properly.

In the line of code that has <form method="get" action="http://search.atomz.com/search/"> you will need to add target="_parent" so it looks like this <form method="get" action="http://search.atomz.com/search/" target="_parent">.

If you do not do this change then the search will open occur within the snippet rather than the whole website.

That’s it.

Have a go adding the Atomz search box and let us know how you get on. Or if you know a better solution then please comment below.

Last week we covered the launch of Google Buzz, the new social networking platform launched by Google.

Buzz sits inside Gmail, and allows users to follow people, post status updates, share content, and find out what followers have been up to online. It’s like a hybrid between Twitter and Facebook.

Think Again

Google has been forced to have a rethink about how Buzz works, following criticism that users face a loss of privacy.

The reason for the privacy concern is that Google automatically creates followers amongst people who you regularly exchange email with. It then publishes those follower lists on your Google profile, meaning that anyone can see who anyone else is following.

That’s fine for the most part. It’s possible to go and edit your settings so that these follower lists remain private. But for those users who would prefer to keep their email correspondents private, and who don’t know how to change the settings, it’s an invasion of privacy.

Test and test again

Google have been forced to admit that they probably didn’t do enough user-testing before rolling out the platform. The company usually makes products available in BETA, allowing selective users to test and give feedback before a full product launch. This time around, Google jumped straight in and launched the ‘finished’ product.

Todd Jackson, Google Buzz product manager said that his team were working “extremely hard” to fix the problems.

“We’re very early in this space. This was one of our first big attempts,” he continued.

“We’ve been testing Buzz internally at Google for a while. Of course, getting feedback from 20,000 Googlers isn’t quite the same as letting Gmail users play with Buzz in the wild.”

Google Trusted Tester Program

Even before a product gets to an open beta, it is usually tested by the Google Trusted Tester program, a group of company-linked people given advanced access before beta launch. That didn’t happen with Buzz.

In a rare admission of error, Mr Jackson said that users were “rightfully upset” and that Google was “very, very sorry”.

Wow. Google saying sorry? Whatever next!

For the average user to have followers published might be just slightly embarrassing. For political activists working under hostile regimes, it’s potentially life threatening.

Is Google losing it? Or is it a minor blip on their intergalactic journey of web domination? Leave us a comment below

Google released its Q4 2009 trading data a couple of weeks ago, and despite the global recession is reporting a 17% increase in revenue. The company racked up $6.7bn dollars in the previous 3 months, of which profit came in at a shade under $2bn.

UK Still a healthy proportion

And it’s a healthy reflection of the UK market that we contributed 12% of that turnover, down just 1% on Q3. That’s despite the UK search market being relatively ‘mature’ compared to some fast growing overseas ones.

It also means that as Google’s popularity continues to grow amongst users. And that UK advertisers believe it is an effective way to gain new customers.

UK contributes 12% to Google’s rising global revenue

Adsense is getting bigger

There is also a shift in where Google makes its money. Adsense publishers – website owners who display ‘Ads by Google’ on their websites – contributed 31% of the total, up by more than 1/5th in 12 months. As a website builder, you too can make money by placing ‘Ads by Google’ on your website. Here’s a video tutorial that shows you how to sign up to Google Adsense.

The growth in revenue came both from an increase in the number of clicks on ads (up 13% yoy) and cost-per-click (up 5% yoy)

“As we enter 2010, we remain hugely optimistic about the internet and are continuing to invest heavily in technological innovation for the benefit not only of our users and customers, but also the wider web” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive.

Mobile is the Future

So what next for the world’s most successful Internet company? It looks like the mobile Internet is getting an increasing amount of their attention. There was recently huge coverage of the launch of the first Google phone, the ‘Nexus One’, which takes the company head to head with previous allies Apple. And of course their bought mobile ad technology outfit AdMob for $750m back in October.

And you can hardly escape billboard and press adverts for Google browser ‘Chrome’ these days. That product is itself a pre-cursor of the widely anticipate Google operating system for PCs.

Plenty to do then. Like Google’s domination of all things Internet (and phone, and PC)? Leave us a comment below.

Are you chuffed with your WebEden website? Then we want to know about it!

Pop along to the WebEden Forum and tell us all about your website. We’ll choose the best and publish them here on the on the main WebEden blog, along with a few comments of our own!

Here’s what you need to include in your post:

Website Address: EG yourwebsitename.co.uk
When did you build your website?
Why did you build a website?
What do you like best about your website?
What is your best website building tip?

We’re looking forward to seeing all your entries!