A lot of hype has been made about Demand Media and it’s IPO since it’s launch. One question everyone has been asking is can they sustain their business model? Personally I think so…they generate content from freelance writers and resell it to websites. If they are producing good, quality, and compelling content than it should be a solid revenue stream. Web owners know that keep up to date fresh content for your demographic can be difficult. So I do not think Google is looking to target anyone company specifically, they want to provide the best result for your search query.

Now Google’s lates algo change dubbed the “Farmer Update” has changes ranking’s for about 12% (11.8%) of websites in Google’s index. The name originated from the idea that Google is targeting content farms. I don’t think they mind you farming good content that is placed appropriately on the web but some notable sites were uprooted in the process. We’ll get to those sites in a moment but one must remember…Google tracks what happens after users click on a result and that information is kept and used as part of google algorithm. They HATE it when users don’t find what they are looking for on the first result. Now have you ever Googled something and landed on one of the following sites?

How did you feel about the information on those websites? Well those are some of the top losers in Google latest algorithmic change. Thanks to Sistrix for providing the chart above. There is only one reason site owners are going to spent time and money to get a a site to rank with shallow content. They want pageviews and clicks for advertisements. So the first clear signal change is in advertising and placement on the website. I have always been against display ads on websites but here is some validation. Second factors that have been looked at in this change is user data like bounce rate and time on site. Lastly authentic user generated social media content seems to play a factor as well. Nothing to new but I would assume this data also is weighted differently based on the query as well.

Pay per click….you know those Ad’s that show up on Google when you search for something. They may also appear in maps, youtube videos, and websites that allow Google to display ads on them. It can be a vast and complicated endeavor that many business owners fail at or run inefficiently. Many succumb to the common practice of Gladiator Bidding and quit when they can’t afford to fund their clicks anymore or some are lucky enough to offset their adspend with the revenue generated. We are pretty sure most business can run a profitable AdWords campaign and we offer $100 to anyone who is a new client looking to setup a new AdWords account.

We also offer free PPC audits on AdWords accounts with a monthly spend of $10,000 or more. These accounts are typically contain a large number of AdGroups, Keywords etc. Once we go through all the campaigns, run reports, and compile screenshots we find out a lot if interesting information. It’s a wonder how traditional agencies who understand media buying, printing, logos, brochures, video, PR, collateral, tradeshows, direct mail, radio, etc. are neophytes at organic search, pay per click, display network and contextual advertising. Are they measuring the correct metrics at the appropriate intervals to discern notable changes in the ecosystem and acting upon them? We can find out. This is a unique science that traditional agencies have been well place to assume to role. But as the web and search marketing progresses a clear distinction lies between lies between digital agencies and traditional (Physical Format) ones. Show us an agency that does both and we will show you room for improvement.

Blog Blog Blog….once for each year this blog you are currently reading has been in existence. Yep I have been blogging for 3 years now. I don’t consider myself a “blogger” since my income is derived indirectly form my blog. Please keep in mind that there are many successful individuals who make a living from blogging. There are many different reasons for blogging. I blogcast to you this evening in order to push down some content I am tired of looking at on my website. Onsite SEO is only about a third of everything at most that goes into making your website rank higher on Google but I guarantee you will see higher rankings if you being to start blogging. There are some key rules that you need to follow first in order to gain maximum benefit form your digital composition efforts.

First make sure that your blog resides on the same domain as your current website. This mean no blogs hosted on a domain other than yours because you want all of the SEO benefit and potential links to go to your website and not someone else’s like blogspot or wordpress.

Second you want to make sure that you blog on a regular basis. Nothing is worse than a dead blog. Are you going to abandon me as well if I become your customer? It may be true that you become busy but you are never too busy to blog and grow or your business. If you are then you can easily afford to hire a ghost writer as your time is more valuable spent working on tasks related to managing your business than blogging.

Third make sure you write about topics that your customers are interested in.  Having interesting content on your blog will make it go VIRAL!!!  Ha Ha not really but it will mean that people are more likely to link to you, share your content with someone else, or become more involved with your brand. You don’t have to make every post strictly related to your industry but instead use this as an opportunity to provide helpful knowledge as well as give your brand a personality. Use StumbleUpon for blogging ideas if your industry is not that sexy.

Blogging on your website should be as easy as opening you web browser, navigating to you specific URL, logging in and typing. If it is not this easy to edit your website you may consider converting it over to a content management system, or having a web developer install a wordpress blog for you. The more difficult it is to update your website the less likely you are to update it. It will do you no good to leave up old stale content. Blog at least once a month to increase search engine rankings over time and improve your web metrics. Sooner or later you sill notice a payoff from you actions including more business.

Could it be that the company who’s mantra states don’t be evil….end up being the most evil of them all?  Let’s face it we live in a world where privacy no longer exists, and everything you do on the web is public domain. And if you think that private browsing in safari or chrome is anonymous…..lol. everything you do on the web is tracked and recorded. Everything. That data trail is valuable and tells anyone a crapload about yours likes dislikes, habits, personality, and the list goes on and on.

Anyone who has been paying attention the last few years realizes that Google loves to collect any kind of data it can from any source including your unprotected WiFi network in your house. A lot of times we are completely unaware of the data trail we are leaving behind. A scary example I recently encountered was with my new android phone, which of course runs Google’s operating system. As I casually browsed through my contacts without searching for anyone in particular I noticed phone numbers in my contact list from 2 cell phones ago. Yea, and I washed that cell phone and Sprint said I was SOL in regards to my contacts. But now they have magically re-appeared in my android, an HTC EVO 4G running Froyo.

I have consciously made the decision to use Google products for my business in exchange for Google having a treasure trove of information on me. Its a tradeoff I willingly accept in exchange for all of their free services. I figure I have nothing to hide, and I don’t plan on committing any crimes.

If you haven’t heard of Google’s latest venture with the CIA called “recorded future” I suggest you check that out. Basically with all the data trails we leave behind Google and the CIA will be able to predict when and where criminals and terrorists will strike. Unless they are smart enough to engineer misleading data trails.

All this to say that net neutrality is in jeopardy by the biggest player on the web, Google. Yea that’s right Google and Verizon have entered into a deal to charge for a tiered internet. So why Google has done this? Is money the motive? Are shareholders having an effect on Google? Lets look at the fact that the Android platform has finally eclipsed iOS and is poised to pretty much be THE platform when it comes to the smartphone market which is steadily growing and wont slow down anytime in the next few years. And in the future the mobile web will be THE medium in which a majority of internet searching will take place. It seems that Google and Verizon are preparing for this transition by create new channels for revenue.

I seriously wonder if Google took into account the serious backlash they will face from developers as we reject this attack against the internet and the free flow of information. We knew that was only a matter of time before the first shot was fired in this looming battle for a free internet but I never imagined that that shot would be fired from Google. The fact that Verizon is involved doesn’t surprise me. But I will drop my Droid and my gmail if they convince congress to adopt their idea on “Net Neutrality”….Those Win 7 phones don’t look too shabby anymore.

Only time will tell how this plays itself out but I encourage you to sign Al Franken petition preserving net neutrality. You may ask why does this matter to you? This is paving the way for two internets. One where those who can afford to pay extra have websites that load quickly and rank high, while everyone else is left to perish. If it sounds like a doomsday scenario to you, that’s because it is.

Web M vs H264

There is a battle brewing for the top video codec. The H264 codec will no longer be free in 2015. Apple has a dedicated chip in all of their mobile devices to save on battery power and decrease encoding times. H264 is supported by all browser the fact that it will require a license fee in the future means that it goes against the philosophy of the major open source browsers.

At Google’s most recent I/O conference they announced their new Web M video format which will be completely free and opensource. All major browser will support Web M except one notable browser, which happens to be Safari. The question remains how much of a factor can Safari be when Google Chrome has just eclipsed, Safari as the #3 browser?

As this opens a new front in the war between Google and Apple, I can only see Safari continuing to bleed users despite the fact that Safari outperforms Chrome in terms of speed. I can personally attest to this as the latest release or Chrome (5.0) continually crashes on my MacBook Pro.

Not long ago, answering a query meant traveling to the reference desk of your local library. Today, search engines enable us to access immense quantities of useful information in an instant, without leaving home. Tools like email, online books and photos, and video chat all increase productivity while decreasing our reliance on car trips, pulp and paper.

But as computers become a bigger part of more people’s lives, information technology consumes an increasing amount of energy, and Google takes this impact seriously. That’s why we have designed and built the most energy efficient data centers in the world, which means the energy used per Google search is minimal. In fact, in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query.

Recently, though, others have used much higher estimates, claiming that a typical search uses “half the energy as boiling a kettle of water” and produces 7 grams of CO2. We thought it would be helpful to explain why this number is *many* times too high. Google is fast — a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.

In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, but most cars don’t reach that level yet. Thus, the average car driven for one kilometer (0.6 miles for those in the U.S.) produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.

We’ve made great strides to reduce the energy used by our data centers, but we still want clean and affordable sources of electricity for the power that we do use. In 2008 our philanthropic arm, Google.org, invested $45 million in breakthrough clean energy technologies. And last summer, as part of our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative (RE

We’re also working with other members of the IT community to improve efficiency on a broader scale. In 2007 we co-founded the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a group which champions more efficient computing. This non-profit consortium is committed to cutting the energy consumed by computers in half by 2010 — reducing global CO2 emissions by 54 million tons per year. That’s a lot of kettles of tea.

Posted by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations