Tag: SEARCH

The Google “Mobilegeddon” Starts Today

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Business Insider

Back in early March, Google announced its decision to prioritize mobile-friendly websites in its mobile search results soon with a tweaked algorithm. Now that day has come, and any website without a mobile-ready version, which includes 44% of the Fortune 500 companies according to a TechCrunch survey, can expect to see their rankings plummet in Google’s search results on smartphones. This change, however, is only for organic listings and does not impact AdWords ads. If your site relies on organic search and has yet to develop a mobile version, now would be the time to make one.

Hyperlocal Search Soars As Mobile Usage Grows

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: USA Today

On Wednesday, Google released new search data highlighting the surge of localized searches. The report shows that Google’s location-specific “near me” searches have increased 34 times since 2011, and have nearly doubled in the past year alone. The vast majority of these local searches—80% in the last quarter of 2014—come from mobile devices, cementing mobile’s dominant position in the hyperlocal market. 

Moreover, the “here and now” immediacy of hyperlocal searches is great at moving consumers down the sales funnel. Half the consumers who conduct a local search visit a store within that day, with 18% of them making a purchase. Among people who are looking for places to dine out, nearly half of them—and 60% of millennials—search for nearby restaurants within an hour of going.

 

Mobile First—Google Prioritize “Mobile-Friendliness” In Search Results

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

as more and more people use mobile devices to get online, Google has continued to adapt its algorithms for search results ranking. Most recently, the Mountain View company announced two notable changes that will optimize the search results for mobile users.

First, it will now take into consideration websites’ mobile-friendliness as one of its ranking criteria, putting mobile-friendly sites first for mobile users. Moreover, information from indexed mobile applications will also begin to influence ranking for signed-in users if they have the apps installed on their smartphone.

Facebook Buffs Up Its Mobile Search

Posted on by Lab Team

 Read original story on: Re/code

Nearly two year after launching Graph Search on its desktop site, Facebook is finally bringing its powerful search engine to mobile. On Monday, the company unveiled Facebook Search, a rebranded version of Graph Search that lets users search to locate specific Facebook posts and photo captions via keywords, while previously, a keyword search would only return relevant names or pages.

This new search engine is currently only available on its iOS app, with plans to roll out to other platforms in coming week. As mobile search is predicted to surpass desktop search in 2015, Facebook’s shift to focus on mobile search seems quite timely.

Google Rolls Out App Indexing To All

Posted on by Lab Team

Google Play is now letting developers appropriately index the content within apps so they can be integrated into Google Search. Google can now search within apps, including deep links to the content within the application. For instance, a search for a recipe might yield results to a cooking site as well as a deep link to a recipe within the Epicurious app. Expect this to increase discoverability and have search lead to deeper app engagement.

According to Google: “App Indexing helps you drive usage of your app through Google. Deep links to your app appear in Google Search results on Android so users can get to your native mobile experience quickly and easily.”

AppURL Wants To Link Between Mobile Apps

Posted on by Lab Team

A new initiative by mobile app search engine Quixey aims to integrate “deep linking” with standalone mobile applications.  The initiative is called AppURL and would allow users to navigate between individual apps from within them, calling restaurant reviews in Yelp from within a social media app, for example.  The concept of deep linking isn’t new, and there have been several efforts in the past to push it into the mainstream, but most companies using any form of deep linking have a proprietary method of doing so.  AppURL aims to standardize deep linking to allow more immersive, efficient app use experiences.

Snickers Runs Search Ads Against Misspellings

Posted on by Lab Team

Search marketing does not usually lend itself to the most creative executions, but don’t tell Snickers that. The classic candy ran a search campaign against misspelled Google queries as part of their “You’re Not You When Your Hungry” positioning. The playful campaign hinged on the fact that hungry people often make typos and apparently reached 500,000 people that could use a Snickers.  

Foursquare Revamps Business Pages

Posted on by Lab Team

In a continued effort to rebrand and expand its offerings, Foursquare has been evolving from a friend-finder to an expansive recommendation engine. Yelp is their foremost competitor, and with that in mind, Foursquare is revamping its online pages to keep pace with the high standard that its mobile apps have set. According to the company’s data, 50 million people come to the site every month for recommendations and reviews, and most of these viewers are actually from Google. The new design puts the emphasis on the advantages that Foursquare presents, namely its ability to generate relationships between similar places and judge appeal based on hundreds of check-ins and likes. The service, in its new incarnation, isn’t too different from a Pandora for restaurants and bars. Whether it can compete with Yelp’s already established 100 million monthly visitors remains to be seen, but they’re definitely trying to make a concerted effort at trying. 

Google Adds GIF Search

Posted on by Lab Team

In a Google-dominant day, the company made another major announcement regarding the expansion of the popular search engine: it will now be adding a GIF filter to its search function, available today. The file-types filters that are filterable, located in “search tools,” now include faces, photos, clip art, and animated GIFs. The feature allows users to preview the animations directly within the results page, making executive decisions about which GIF to include in an email or blog post that much easier. Though GIFs have been included in search results in the past, this filter allows the user to search specifically for the animated GIFs. The deluge of animations in the digital age looks set to continue in full force thanks to this easy-to-use functionality. 

Google Now’s Grammy Ad Takes Shot At Siri

Posted on by Lab Team

Google Now took direct aim at Siri last night during the Grammy’s with an advertisement that showed users around the world making use of the new service. Google Now is a response to Siri, but instead of taking on the voice-recognition features directly Google Now focuses on providing useful information instantaneously in one place. It works through the power of Google’s massive database; it analyzes everything Google knows about where you are, your schedule, who you’re with at that time, etc., and feeds back relevant information based on these variables. For instance, if there’s traffic on the highway I use to commute to work, Google Now will let me know to leave a few minutes early. 

Though there’s no direct mention of voice-activated interaction in the advertisement, Google Now ostensibly does precisely what Siri is advertised to do, only more effectively and though a slicker interface. Whereas Google Now can keep your day on track by giving you transit updates and the best time to leave based on this information, Siri can, at best, direct you to the app store to buy a good transportation apps. In brief, this is a developing battle, and the heartfelt ad that aired during the Grammy’s took direct aim at Siri’s functionality. And if it’s anything to go by, this will be a large part of the ongoing back and forth between iOS and Android devices for the foreseeable future.