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Adobe Systems Inc. announced this week that they would no longer be releasing new versions of Flash. This came as no surprise to many who are already familiar with HTML5 and the ease-of-use it provides. Prior to leaving Apple, CEO Steve Jobs had publicly ridiculed Adobe’s Flash, stating that is was closed, unstable and antiquated. Mobile Apple products have never supported Flash; instead, users wanting to stream video to their Apple devices purchased an app at the Apple store which allowed them to utilize sites like Netflix and Youtube through HTML5 and other types of coding.

The gradual breaking away from Flash was certainly fueled by the increased number of mobile device users. Though Android phones have supported Flash, there are a number of problems that come with reliance on it. Any PC user knows that Flash needs to be updated constantly if you want it to work properly. Additionally, Adobe is the sole creator of flash; meaning that any site utilizing Flash is completely dependent on Adobe.

One of the major drawbacks associated with putting Flash on a mobile platform is the way that it processes data. Rather than occurring in the hardware of a device, Flash works in software; leaving it slow and creating a drain on battery power. In an April 2010 blog, Steve Jobs also pointed out that Flash usability in mobile devices was contrary to the way Flash operates; mobile devices being touch-driven while Flash was primarily designed for use with a mouse.

What’s Next for HTML5?

As HTML5 increases in popularity, users are becoming accustomed to enjoying richer graphics and streaming video that doesn’t require a plug-in. While HTML5 is rapidly becoming the Next Big Thing, it’s wise not to get too carried away too soon. For starters, the vast majority of websites include features that require Flash. That’s hundreds of millions of sites that will need to convert to HTML5. Also, HTML5 isn’t completely ready to start supporting what Flash currently does.

Adobe is wise to channel their efforts away from Flash and work towards providing better HTML5 programming software; particularly because of HTML5’s wide use in mobile devices. While it’s clear that Flash is retaining much of its usefulness (for the time being, anyway), HTML5 is the wave of the future. No one knows how long it will take to shift the web’s dependence on Flash, nor do we know when HTML5 will be completely ready to go. Maybe by the time our grandkids take over the web, there will be a whole generation of users who will never know what it’s like to sit down to stream a video and be told that their version of Flash is too old and they need to update it.

From the beginning, there has been a sizeable disconnect between information on Facebook and that information’s usability in SEO. Due to the encrypted nature of Facebook, information shared there disappeared into a virtual SEO vacuum; unable to be tracked or utilized. That appears to be changing.

It was discovered this week that Google has amped up their Googlebot technology and is now able to read and index comments that Facebook users leave on other sites via their Facebook account. Many site administrators, in an effort to encourage increased user participation, have utilized an add-on which allows FB users to leave comments on outside pages through their existing FB account; users do not have to create an account on the outside site. Thanks to Googlebot’s new ability to execute AJAX/JS, these comments are now being read and listed on the SERP.

While this new information is garnering celebration in the SEO community, some users are sounding the increasingly-tired privacy encroachment alarm. Interestingly enough, Google’s new ability to index comments coincides with Facebook’s two year battle over privacy issues presumably drawing to a close. The Federal Trade Commission’s complaint stemmed from what Facebook called a privacy upgrade; ostensibly meant to simplify privacy controls. There was a backlash when users discovered that much of their previously private information had become public overnight; due to a change in Facebook’s default privacy settings.

Though it does not appear that this will be the end of Facebook’s legal issues with privacy, many industry experts consider the scale to which the social network was brought to task to be a clear sign that Facebook has truly ‘arrived’. Coincidentally, Google had faced similar charges earlier this year when the FTC charged them with violating user privacy in February 2010 with the advent of Google Buzz.

Now that Google is indexing Facebook comments, visitors to the search engine who are looking for a specific person are likely to see that person’s comments left on various sites pull up on the SERP. User comments on articles discussing Google’s new capability have been pretty mixed, but it seems that most people are embracing the change. For those who think that this is a violation of your privacy, there’s one sure way to keep your personal thoughts and information from being shared with the world: don’t post it on the internet.

As contracts expire and new technology is introduced, some long-time bedfellows seem to be swapping partners. A surprising duo on that list is the Google/Firefox relationship that began back in 2005. The contract between the two was originally slated to expire in 2008, but was later extended through 2011. The contract stipulated that Google would be the primary search engine for the Firefox browser. Google in turn paid Mozilla handsomely for that position; generating 85% of Mozilla’s revenue for 2006.

Why did Mozilla Firefox and Google break up?

The breakdown of the mutually beneficial relationship began with the release of Google Chrome; the browser created by Google. Needless to say, the establishment of Chrome eliminated the need for a partner browser. In fact, before long, Google Chrome began to eclipse Firefox as the preferred browser of Google search engine users.

Meanwhile, Google had been providing realtime content via Twitter on a subpage of their site through a contract also due to expire in 2011. When the time came to renew the Twitter contract in July, neither side was able to agree on the terms and the two companies parted ways. Shortly thereafter, Google closed down their realtime page, re-vamped their search algorithm, and began providing close to realtime results to users on their standard SERP.

Facing the expiration of their contract with Google, Firefox began searching for a way to stay relevant. What transpired was a new partnership with Microsoft’s Bing search engine. As Mozilla continued to churn out updated versions of Firefox, they scooped up Twitter and announced that users of Firefox 8 would be able to search Twitter from their browser; they wouldn’t even have to go to the Twitter website.

While it’s unclear whether these partnerships and innovations will be able to keep the struggling Firefox afloat, it’s obvious that Firefox is willing to do whatever it takes to retain their corner of the market. In a time when Google is defending itself against accusations of monopolizing internet search, a little healthy competition isn’t a bad thing.

After three months of beta testing, Google’s new Think Insights tool is ready. So what does it do? According to the Google Blog, it is an “information and resource hub for marketers.” The eye-catching graphics and clean design give way to an incredibly useful tool for finding out trends in what is being searched or talked about online.

Whether you’re interested in mobile-specific usage data or when cupcakes are most often searched, you can use one of the Think Insights tools to find your answer. You can find out what people are looking for over a period of time or in a specific region, how they are finding their information and what videos people are watching; among other things.

With the AdPlanner tool, by entering a specific URL you can find traffic statistics, ages of visitors, the gender of visitors, daily unique visitors, household income, general interests, other sites users are visiting, keywords bringing people to that website, and their education level. The theory is that the better you know your audience, the easier it will be to construct useful, relevant content for them.

There is also the ability to search what people are saying about your or your brand both on websites and blogs with the “What do you love?” tool. You search a brand-related keyword or terms and you are presented with relevant results from all Google Products about the query you entered combining image, video, location and text results in one convenient place. This is a great way to take in the full reach of your brand and the public’s attitude towards it.

While most of the tools are not new, they have been better organized and will return better searches thanks to Google’s latest update. Google has been getting a lot of negative attention as of late for some of their decisions including the loss of some keywords in Analytics; but if every time we gain a valuable and useful tool we have to lose something minor (in comparison), I’d say it all balances out. Check out the video the SEO.cc team created with the Search Stores video creator.

A week after Google’s announcement regarding the release of their new “freshness” algorithm, the results game is showing some clear SERP winners and losers. While many of the losing sites are considered high-quality and reputable, the way people use the internet has evolved to reflect the fact that realtime communication is so readily available. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook not only provide realtime information, they also contain reactionary material from other users.

This is not Google’s first venture into the world of realtime. The advent of this new algorithm came on the heels of Google parting ways with Twitter in regards to their former realtime feed, google.com/realtime. Ever the innovator, the new ‘freshness’ algorithm is designed to understand user intent based on current realtime events and apply it to the standard Google SERP.

Unlike the Google Panda updates whose results showed a decided commonality among losing sites, the freshness algorithm’s noteworthy commonality occurs among the winners. While Google shows a clear preference for news and video sites, there are many brand sites like MarthaStewart.com and Dominos.com that have benefited from the change. What may be most interesting is the presence of Google’s own Blogger.com on the list of losers. Searchmetrics compiled a list of winners and losers using their extensive in-house SEO software; the entire list can be found here.

What does this mean for organic SEO?

According to their official blog, Google predicts that 35% of search results will be affected by the new algorithm. Results that remain unaffected are those searches for which timing has no bearing on relevance, such as recipes or history. Since there are many brand sites whose internet presence has been boosted by ‘freshness’, it’s clear that continually adding relevant, new content to your site is more important than ever; particularly if you want to maintain a high position on the Google results page.

The full extent of the new algorithm may not be apparent for another few weeks; however, the implications are clear: content counts. Instead of racking your brain for continuous new content as you juggle the regular stresses that come with the holiday season, why not let the experienced team at SEO.cc do it for you?

Officially announced today, Google+ is now open to businesses who would like to create a page on the new social networking site. When Google+ was first made available to the general public, it was at the exclusion of business pages. This left many companies and other franchises frankly wondering why Google had left them out of the mix and what that might mean for the future. Google assured the public that Google+ would soon be supporting business pages, but there remained a cloud of doubt as to when that would take place.

For businesses that are used to utilizing the connection cultivated with consumers and fans on a social networking website like Facebook and Twitter, the invitation for brands etc. to create their own page on Google+ couldn’t come soon enough. Unlike Facebook, where data is encrypted and has no effect on a site’s rank or its position in an SERP, Google+ pages utilize the increasingly popular “+1” feature and can positively affect a site’s internet presence.

There are two ways that users will be able to find a given brand’s Google+ page. The first is through organic search results. When you search for the Dallas Cowboys, their Google+ page will be included in the results, along with a list of your friends who have +1-ed that particular page. Unlike Facebook, where thousands of “likes” have no bearing on the value of your site in the search engine arena, Google+ takes that information into consideration.

The second way you’ll be able to access your favorite brand’s Google+ site is through something called Direct Connect. For example, if you typed “+Dallas Cowboys” into the Google search engine, it will open the Dallas Cowboy’s Google+ page with no stop in between.

Though Google+ boasts 40 million members, they have quite a ways to go if they want to eclipse Facebook’s 800 million members. It’s difficult to predict whether Google will be able to really make a place for themselves in the social networking world; however, allowing users’ support of a given business’s site to positively affect its position is a great start. Regardless of which site dominates the social market, it’s clear that the individual user will enjoy the benefits that result from such stiff competition.

Not surprisingly, the use of smart phones is on the rise. Nielson surveyed mobile users to see what percentages of people were using smart phones during the third quarter 2011; they compared those results to their third quarter findings for 2010. The results were impressive. Of those surveyed, more than half of users aged 18 through 44 utilize smart phones. Leading the pack are users in the 25 to 34 year bracket with smart phone use at 62%.

With Black Friday right around the corner, it’s not surprising that a recent Admob study is predicting more than 33% of mobile internet users will do their shopping on their tablets or smart phones. This is great news for those mobile business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce sites that are already very user-friendly and well optimized; they will probably dominate in their number of actual online purchases. Those who have not put the necessary effort into translating their retail sites for mobile shoppers are more likely to miss out on a sizeable percentage of holiday revenue.

Because mobile devices are used differently than a standard desktop, it would be foolish to assume that your site is going to provide the same ease-of-use on a smart phone or tablet as it does on a regular computer. Additionally, if you don’t optimize relevant landing pages for a mobile search, your customers may be redirected to your home page, which can be frustrating for shoppers and cause you to lose sales.

What Can SEO.cc Do For You?

Working with the experienced team at SEO.cc will not only make your site accessible to tablet and smart phone users, it will help to get your company bumped up to one of the top results positions; crucial for maximizing mobile traffic. By doing thorough keyword research, SEO.cc will know just how to translate your effective desktop campaign seamlessly into one that has high functionality for mobile device users. Instead of automatically utilizing the ad copy that you have in place for desktop PPC marketing, SEO.cc understands the value of providing mobile users with mobile-specific wording which converts into a higher click-through rate. Lastly (but certainly not least-importantly!), SEO.cc will work to maintain your site’s standing on the mobile search results page. Simply pushing your site to a high position is no guarantee that it will stay there; it takes vigilance and an expert hand if you want to remain in that elevated spot.

Mobile internet usage is quickly becoming one of the preferred ways of accessing the web. As the holiday shopping season begins, it’s apparent that the increasing population of mobile device users will be doing an ample percentage of their holiday shopping on their tablets or smart phones. Put your company in a position to benefit from this increased mobile shopping traffic by contacting SEO.cc today!

Google announced on their blog today that they’re re-vamping the way they are going to present users with search results, deeming that in certain circumstances, people are looking for new, updated content- even if they don’t specifically say they are. Their updated “Caffeine web indexing system” combined with a brand new over-haul to their algorithm allows them to crawl websites containing new content even faster and more efficiently while ranking them higher in the search results.

With this change, fresh, relevant content is going to become an even more important factor in keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of the Google results page. One way to continually produce fresh content is with a blog. A well written, industry relevant blog can be updated as frequently as you like and will keep all of the little robots at Google working over time. Easy ways to generate content for a blog is to write about things that are newsworthy in your industry.

If you don’t have the time to constantly update your website or blog, it’s going to become crucial to hire a professional to manage your Search Engine Optimization strategy. Each time a website in your industry is updated with fresh content, your website could be knocked out of the running for the top spot. Depending on what industry you’re in, this new change in the way Google generates results can lead to a loss in traffic to your website. Several studies have shown that the top 3 organic positions on the search engine results pages get the most traffic. If you’re currently in one of the top 3 positions and you begin to notice a decline in visits, it could be time to look into hiring a Search Engine Optimization company.

When Google announced that logged-in users’ search criteria would be encrypted, there was a noticeable backlash from the SEO community. Despite assurances that the percentage of affected data would remain in the single digits, many long-time members of the search engine optimization community were skeptical. As it turns out, rightfully so.

At the time of Google’s secure search disclosure, sites were losing somewhere between two and three percent of their organic keyword data; however, as Google continued their implementation process, many sites found themselves missing a higher percentage of data than was projected. One analytics user surveyed their sites and found that out of 37 sites, 16 were missing more than 10% of their keyword data; one was up to 21%. Another user put the average “not provided” keyword data percentages between seven and fourteen.

For those of you not sure how much your site is affected, go to your Google Analytics account and look under “traffic sources” and then “keywords”; you should be able to see how much of your internet traffic has been encrypted.

What’s Next For Google Analytics?

Though it seems that Google has finished implementation, it’s probably safe to assume that the percentage of “not provided” data will still increase; particularly due to Google’s active campaign promoting their social networking site, Google+. It’s still not certain what the full impact of this change will be on SEO, but many site administrators are clearly starting to panic.

There are numerous theories as to why Google enacted encrypted searching to being with. Certainly added user safety, as Google claims. Another may be that Google is reacting to Facebook, which encrypts all of its data. There are even those who foresee a migration to Google Analytics Premium, where it is presumed the encrypted keyword data will remain accessible. Of course, this is all speculation; there has been no hinting on Google’s part that the encrypted data will be available through their premium analytics package. It does bear mentioning that all of this missing data is still being provided to paid advertisers; which makes it hard for some to believe that Google’s reasoning for the modification was altruistic.

While frightening, these revisions on the part of Google make using an experienced SEO source paramount.  Qualified search engine specialists understand that the world of SEO is ever-changing and they adapt. See what SEO.cc can do for your business today!

It’s no secret that Facebook is an advertising gold mine, but how advertisers go about reaching the Facebook masses can be a little tricky. Sure, your business’s Facebook page has 2,000 “likes”, but what does that translate into, revenue-wise? It all depends on how you promote it.

Facebook Limits Ad Space

Since Facebook’s inception, creator Mark Zuckerberg has been adamant about keeping the look of the site uncluttered. This has translated into providing a comparatively minimal platform for paid advertisers. While many long-standing members of the advertising industry think that Facebook is limiting its revenue potential, there is certainly a method to Zuckerberg’s madness.  Namely, should Facebook open its doors to the sized ad campaigns that corporate giants would prefer, would it be able to retain its popularity? When you take into consideration the flaming wreckage of the once-popular myspace, it’s easy to see where Zuckerberg is coming from.

To date, the most effective use of Facebook does not seem to directly involve purchasing ad space, although that helps (particularly since the information available for targeting a demographic is so expansive). For many of the corporate heavy hitters (Ford, Friday’s etc.), the key to successful branding via Facebook has involved many other types of traditional advertising. When Ford was interested in revitalizing the demand for its economy car, the Ford Focus, they approached the campaign from a number of different angles.

For starters, Ford created a ‘spokespuppet’; a small orange puppet they named, Doug. When they initially launched Doug’s Facebook page, they were pleased to see that users were sharing his funny videos and slightly off-color commentary with each other. After purchasing some ad space on Facebook which encouraged other users to “like” Doug, the page soon had 10,000 fans. With 10,000 Facebook fans and counting, Ford stopped purchasing ad space. It’s important to note that while Ford would not comment on what their budget was, they did state that the Facebook campaign used only 5% of that budget. Pretty incredible.

Translating Facebook “Likes” Into Revenue

But don’t lose sight of the big picture. Ford spent 95% of the campaign’s online advertising budget on creating picture and video content that people would think was worth sharing; they bought space on several major sites like Yahoo and Microsoft and populated it with articles and videos all pointing back to Doug’s Facebook page. And it paid off. Sales of the Ford Focus have eclipsed last year’s numbers.

Friday’s utilized a similar approach when they introduced their new “every man” spokesperson, Woody to audiences. Instead of relying solely on providing entertaining online content, Friday’s acquainted the world with their new character through a series of television commercials. What was Woody’s message? The first 500,000 Facebook users who “like” his page will receive a coupon for a free burger at Fridays. The result was almost immediate. Users were flocking to his page in the thousands to claim their free burgers. The tactic was so successful that Friday’s extended the offer to the first million users who “liked” Woody’s page. Unfortunately, once the campaign was over, Fridays was left with hundreds of thousands of fans of a character’s page whose main focus was giving away free burgers. Now what?

Creating a Facebook page to promote your brand can be an incredibly cost-effective way to advertise online; however, it would be unwise to assume that legions of Facebook fans will translate into annuity. An effective Facebook campaign needs to incorporate traditional marketing techniques and requires careful planning in regards to content. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how many “likes” your page has if no one is actually buying your product.