Tech consultant for Olympia, Lacey, And Tumwater

Things I’d like to see from Google’s URL shortener

Google Overlords

Not long ago I made a post about the top ten reasons I liked this service, so consider this as my follow up. To see that article CLICK HERE. Ever since Google launched their own URL shotener I have been pretty loyal to it. But there are a few things that it is missing to really squash the competition and not let this become another Google Wave.  Some of these are very serious, some of them are pipe dreams, and one is just me being a smart ass. You guess which is which.

1. A Search
Let me search for a url I’ve already shortened in case I need to use it again.

2. Public Stats
Let me post my stats on my site in case I want to brag.

3. Custom URL
This is the one thing all their competitors have and they don’t. Let me make up my own shortened URL ending.

4. Deep Analytics
With a click of a button I should be able to see the top links within the month, week, day, or hour. I should be able to see what source gave me the most traffic as well.

5. Some Google Live Love
Imagine if there was integration with Google’s live search results. It would be nice if we could see a live feed of when our shortned url’s were sent out on services like Twitter as they do with regular Google search.

6. Per Website Separation
So currently everything is in one big messy bucket of puke. It would be nice if it could be separated by the website. Otherwise any analytics are pretty much useless.

7. Share
Just like I can share a Google Doc or Google analytics I would like to share the Google url shortener accounts, especially if they can be specific to one website.

8.  Share Widget
Give me some code I can put onto every page of my site (side menu or footer) that gives people the shortned url they can use to share the article.

9.  Make It A Game
Everything on the web is a game now it seems, so why shouldn’t a URL shortening service? Imagine having a chart on the side of your site that shows who has spread around your shortened urls?

10. Breakfast
Yes, Google. I would like my eggs over easy, my toast dark brown (but not burnt), my juice freshly squeezed, and a slice of ham on the side. Thanks. I figure Google seems to be able to pull off everything else so why not my damn breakfast? Come on Google, get on it!

Are Search Engines A Dying Service?

Socia lMedia

So this last week I was looking at my search analytics and saw something interesting. Facebook had sent me about 300 unique visits over the past week. Google had sent me about 100 unique visits. Are people no longer finding things through the traditional search engine? Or is that more of a difference between things being tossed up in front of you by people you connect to on social networks as opposed to having a specific item you are searching for? Let’s face it, most people only add a “friend” on Facebook if they have the same interests. So if they follow me there is a really good chance that the content I post on my Facebook is going to be something they will be interested in.

Many people in social media discount Stumble Upon, but many times they send my site way more traffic than even Facebook does. Facebook sends my site traffic on a more dependable basis, but when Stumble Upon kicks in I get a pretty good day long spike. So why do so many in social media dismiss it? Maybe the experts are full of crap? Maybe we should try everything and see what connects with our target audience the best and damn what works for everyone else?

So maybe this is a question of “Which Is Better For Driving Traffic” instead of “Are Search Engines Dying”? One is clearly better for driving traffic than the other, but is this a true threat to search engines? I know it used to be that if you didn’t exist on Google that your site pretty much didn’t exist. Now it seems that if you work hard enough on Social Networking it could mean 10 times more traffic than a search engine will ever bring you.

So what does this mean for SEO? Why should you care about your search engine optimization if search engines are only bringing in ten percent of your traffic? Or maybe this is just my experience? I want to know what other people are experiencing. What brings you in the most traffic? Is it networking, search engines, or just your regular readers coming back? Facebook was around 300, but all of my networking brought me in about 1,000 unique visitors within the past week. Is this an anomaly or is this a pattern?

Consider this post more about asking questions. I want to know if others have experienced the same thing. Where does your traffic come from?

Top Ten Reasons Google Is The Instant King Of The URL Shortners

Goo.gl

1. QR codes
The whole QR thing is exploding like crazy. To be honest I’m not even sure why an article needs a QR code, but they give you one for everything you submit.

2. Google Rank
I don’t know if it actually counts to your Google rank, but it can’t hurt.

3. Analytics
Yeah I know the others give this too, but this is Google so it will be of course end up linked in with everything else. When it’s linked in with everything else Google offers it will be analytics on a big bag of crack!

4. Brand Recognition
The problem with URL shortners is that most people still feel unsure about them. Spammers and virus makers use them to hide their suspicious links. People (The non tech savvy) will feel more comfortable with the name of Google than anyone else.

5. All Our Bass Belong To Them
Google is the king and trying to go against them is just suicide

6. Tools, Widgets, And API
Google has been known to make things open source, give the most powerful API’s, and offer the greatest tools. It is why they are king. This will evolve to be one massive beast.

7. Security
A few years back Google started giving alerts to websites that are not safe. I’m pretty confident this level of security will be a major part of this service as well.

8. You Are Already Logged In
If you run a website (or two, three, four), chances are pretty big that you already are logged into the Google system. No need to remember what your username is for that other service.

9. Longevity
The biggest problem with URL shortners is that they are start ups that may go under once the initial funding runs out. Google will be around much longer than any of them. The chances of them going away are smaller than with anyone else. So your links won’t stop working or be taken over by some spammer.

10. Trust
I don’t see Google adding advertising frames around my content anytime soon like some others have done in the past. I can trust them from the webmaster point of view.

Many of Google’s projects a full of all kinds of fail. But notice recently how that is becoming the outcome less and less? Android is kicking butt, Google voice is doing great, and this has the other URL shortners running scared for a good reason too. Has Google become too powerful? Well I for one love our new leaders and will obey them without question. All hail the great and powerful Oz…er, I mean Google.

So I have tried all of these services. Granted, I have used Friend Feed and Ping way longer. I have been using those two for years. But this blog post is about why I will keep paying attention to them and ignore Google Buzz.

Strategy Fail

Now there has been tons of “buzz” about how Google Buzz has a horrid privacy issue because they expose a person’s email address. I don’t care who has my Gmail address. For years I have used it as a place to send email I don’t want to ever see. It is pretty much my spam catcher. So please send all spam to rockmymonkey@gmail.com. I can give you a 100% chance I will never even see it. I have two email addresses that I check almost daily. One is at RockMyMonkey.com and the other is at this site. Contact me there. My Gmail has been ignored for years. I never even look at it. So the privacy issue is not an issue. Since I never look at my gmail I don’t want any social network through that account. With Friend Feed I don’t have to worry about that at all. Friend Feed is like Google Buzz without the annoyance of being forced to have it connected to Gmail.

Plus, what if I am burnt out for the day and just want to zone out on Social networking? Sure Social networking is a business tool for someone like me, but it is also a place for pure brainless fun. I try to keep my social networking updates about 90% fun and 10% business. Otherwise my followers get annoyed and stop following me. So I do a lot of social networking after i am done “working” for the day. Sending links to sites like Giant Bat Farts is work, but not anything like email. I want to keep those things separate!

Now Ping.fm is great for sending one update to all my social networks from one place. For those that are getting confused, http://friendfeed.com/markcarras & Google Buzz is for catching all your updates in one place where as Ping is for sending all your updates from one place. I like it because I can do it from my phone as an SMS (text message) or through their website. I have heard that people use Friend Feed and are now using Google Buzz for the same thing, but I would find that annoying myself.

Now the biggest thing that will kill Google Reader though is that I couldn’t find a way to send my profile url out to people. With Friend Feed is painfully simple. http://friendfeed.com/markcarras is about as simple as it gets. Facebook is the same way. http://www.facebook.com/markcarras is pretty easy to send out to friends. What is the url to my Googel Buzz? Is it buzz.google.com/MarkCarras? I seriously doubt it. Is it Googlebuzz.com/MarkCarras? I don’t think so, but it should be. Did they even think to reserve that url? I don’t care because it is not the one they are using and I was not able to grab my “vanity url” for it. If I could I might care.

Now I love the Google Reader and I would rather have people connect with me through that. I would post a link, but I have no clue what that is either. Whatever it is, I am pretty sure it is one long annoying url. Either that or I have to expose my email address. Which of course with Gmail is not a security problem for me, but would be for most people. However, it is a problem for me. If I expose my Gmail address people will think that is my contact info. They try over and over again to contact me there. I don’t ever see it, so I don’t reply, so they think I am a jerk because I “ignored” them.

Google might be one of the most successful online companies around, but they have had more failures than successes. I predict that Google Buzz will be another one unless they make some major changes quick. And it better be more than just weak ass placating.

The reason Rupert Murdoch might win the battle against Google

There is one piece of information that I have yet to see in the debate over Rupert Murdoch pulling his content from Google. He own Fox news and they have an insanely huge pull with people. Fox news viewers are the worst of the right wing wackos. These people do not think. They just do whatever the pundits at Fox news tell them to. The reason Bush was able to cause so much destruction is the same reason why Obama has had such a hard time fixing things. The right are kind of Borg like. The left will debate and scrutinize things until well after the proverbial bell has rung. Liberals (I’m a liberal myself) can’t get anything done because they can’t ban together as one. For the Dems it means nothing to have a majority because they won’t ban together on anything anyways. The right however will. They will do it every time without even thinking. This is why they always win when screwing over the American public and the Dems always loose when trying to fix things.

So back to the whole Rupert Murdoch thing, this is why he can win this. Notice what he has done to news? Gone are the days of the non-biased news anchor. Everything is either far right (Fox) or far left(MSNBC). A news network has no chance of ratings if they try to compete with silly things like journalistic integrity. That is a goofy pipe dream in today’s times. So now we have to depend on getting our news from search engines. Read from enough sources and you get an idea of where the truth might be. However, imagine if Rupert Murdoch used Fox news to make Bing the right wing search engine and Google had to become the left wing search engine to compete? This would make the news even more partisan then it is already!

Don’t think he has the power to do this? Think again. We liberal douchebags don’t call them Fox News Zombies for nothing. As I have already said, Fox News viewers do not think. They let Bill O’Reilly do that for them. Imagine if Fox got their 7 million viewers to all switch their browser favorite to Bing and remove Google as their default search engine all at once. Imagine if they put up a link to the “Bling add on” right on the top of every page on the Fox News site. Fox can make Bling the default search engine for right wing wackos in a second. Don’t think they can’t or you give them more power than they ever had before.

Why is Google calling me names and how can it help your band? If you pull up the search terms “how do you know if your a poser” on Google about halfway down the second page of results you will see this…

I'm a Google Poser!

Why is Google calling me a poser? Well actually what happened is more my fault. On this site you can search for articles with specific “tags”. Each tag basically is given it’s own page. I was lazy on one article and only gave it one tag. That tag was “poser“. Google works by sending a bot around the web to collect data to base it’s searches on. That bot found the page of results on the tag poser for this site. So a search engine found a results page for the internal search feature for MarkCarras.com. Yes, that makes it a search result of a search result.

So why is this important to your band? Well, if you use modern website software (known as CMS or content management system) you will be asked to give tags to each update your band does on your site. Don’t be lazy about your tags like I was for this article or Google might start calling you names. Worse yet, people might not find your band’s website when they are looking for something your band sings about, does, or cares about. New people finding your band is important right? Your tags should be just as important.