Infinite Path » Search Engines

Google Nexus One hype continues to build

Infinite Path — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:37:22 +0000

It is thought that today will be the day that Google launches the Nexus One, its new mobile phone which has been described as a model intended to rival the Apple iPhone.

The Nexus One has been largely shrouded in mystery and details about the phone such as its costing and release date are few and far between. However, this has only served to increase the hype surrounding the launch of the mobile phone, which will take advantage of the massive popularity of touch screen models and has been developed around Google’s Android software.

The Nexus One will not be the first mobile phone to bear Google’s golden touch. The Motorola Droid is another example of the search company trying to move into the highly competitive mobile market by building on the technological advances at their fingertips. However, the new model is expected to surpass the quality of the older one in terms of speed, feel, appearance, and usability.

Certain aspects of the Nexus One have arguably been designed with the aim of going one better than Google’s rival, Apple. For example, the new Google model will provide consumers with all the functionality of a 5 megapixel camera, which will put the iPhone’s 3 megapixel offering in the shade.

At the moment, the consensus is that consumers will be able to buy the mobile phone directly from Google whilst it will also be available from mobile operators.

Content of Content is King

Infinite Path — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:16:10 +0000

Everyone is a publisher. Everyone wants their content to be seen. Everyone thinks that lots of content will eventually lead to lots of conversions which in turn will lead to lots of money.

In most cases, this isn’t true. Publishing a lot of content on a regular basis will undoubtedly get traffic to your site. However, if the content isn’t what people want to read, or it doesn’t satisfy their query, they will most likely bounce straight off your site in search of an answer elsewhere.

The content of your content is what will lead to conversions; and quite possibly improvements in search engine rankings. If you are writing “search engine copy”, you will most likely alienate users once they hit your site as they will recognise the content to be content for content’s sake.

Content doesn’t just have to be words. Content can be videos and audio and as long as that content is relevant to the user, that’s all that matters. Even though a search engine can’t necessarily read video or audio content, it will still recognise that if certain content is popular, it will class it as important. And we all know what happens if a search engine thinks your content is important…

Content and publishing are hot topics at the moments, especially as Rupert Murdoch is trying to pave the way for monetising content online. The importance of content has never been under-estimated, but maybe the quality of content is now going to become much more of a concern.

Would we ever Twitter it?

Infinite Path — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:27:02 +0000

Because Google has such a monopoly in search, and it makes so much money, and it has so much money, and it buys lots of clever small companies, and it looks to provide services where Microsoft have previously dominated, and it is slowly taking over the world…we’re all consumed with the idea of something else toppling the big G.

As things stand, we all use Google – and the other search engines, of course – for most of our information gathering, whatever we want to find; or at least in the first instance. We ‘Google’ everything. The simple platform and sophisticated algorithms have ensured that Google has become the leader in search and has opened the internet up to the masses. However, are there any other options for search?

Many suggest that Twitter could become a search engine in its own right. Its live, real-time updating stream can provide information which is so current that it is almost inadvertently more powerful than a standard search engine.

The question is whether people would ever use the service as a search engine? At the moment, it is probably not really considered as anything like, and most users will not consciously carry out searches that they would normally ask Google to perform. Obviously there are many differences between Twitter and a search engine. It is not, after all, actually designed to be a search engine…or so we think.

If users did start using it for search it’s quite possible that many would be quite surprised by the results. It is especially good if searching a news topic which has recently broken and is being discussed and spread virally.

It would take one hell of a service for people to move away from the search engines that we know and love, but it could happen. And maybe, it is already is.

Will Google Chrome OS Provide a Real Challenge to Microsoft’s Dominance?

Infinite Path — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:57:42 +0000

Web geeks across the world woke up this morning to the exciting news that Google is developing an OS for personal computers, in a move designed to be a direct challenge to Microsoft’s dominance (particularly since Microsoft aims to release Windows 7 in the next couple of months).

So, what’s all the fuss about? Well, Google claim that Chrome OS, which will almost certainly be free, will be “fast and lightweight”, allowing users to start using the web within seconds. It has been designed to optimise user experience whilst keeping the user safe and protected from viruses at all times. Aesthetically, the user interface has been described as “minimal” and constructed to “stay out of the [user’s] way”.

The big question now is: will it catch on? Since the announcement this morning, numerous blog posts have appeared across the web heralding the beginning of the end for Microsoft. However, the truth is that Google may have to work a lot harder than they think to assert any kind of real dominance over Microsoft in this particular realm.

In fact, a lot may depend upon brand identity and the psychological aspect of the online world. Google undoubtedly possess a strong brand identity but Internet Explorer is still favoured by a large majority of Internet users and this is unlikely to change overnight. Internet users often fall into habits with regards to online activity and making the transition from using a desktop based system to web-based software may be a long and complex one for some individuals.

This said, it’s important to realise the extent to which Google has infiltrated many users’ online behaviour without them even noticing a defined transition. Many of those who grew up familiarising themselves with Hotmail are now proficient with Gmail and, similarly, those of us who grew up searching for sites which would offer maps to take us from point A to point B now spend five seconds using Google Maps before taking a look at Streetview.

One thing which will certainly be interesting is how Microsoft will react to Google’s latest challenge to their dominance. Chrome OS is likely to be available in mid-2010 although this date may yet be pushed back. This leaves the folk over at Microsoft a good few months to consider their reaction to this most troublesome (in their eyes at least) of competitors.

How Clever is a Search Engine?

Infinite Path — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:54:35 +0000

We all know that search engines are pretty good at delivering search results. We also know that many of the companies behind the search engines provide us with lots of other services and products, as well as investing millions in research and development. However, are search engines really as clever as we think they are?

The answer is: probably not. The reason for this is that no matter how good a search engine is, it can?t (yet!) predict what a human is going to do. It can look at everything that has been done before, attempt to alter algorithms, and create rules and systems to recognise if something is being done again (consequently deciding whether to allow or disallow it). However, it can’t make an accurate prediction as to what Joe the SEO is going to do next.

People talk about how one day the search engine will be so sophisticated that there will be no way of deceiving it, or trying to optimise your site for search. However, because a search engine is programmed by a human, the human will always be one step ahead. And there are many clever humans around who can innovate and experiment with new tricks and techniques.

So, no matter how sophisticated the search engine becomes, and no matter how small a difference the things we do today may make in the future, we can be sure that, in some way, the human will be a step ahead of the search engine and therefore able to add value to websites and the online world.