Tagged with 'google'

I was reading SEObook’s blog regarding marketing lessons from Google and particularly enjoyed the suggestion that you should strive to “become a verb.”  Google, of course, has entered the vernacular as almost synonymous with search engine.  And the act of “Googling” is simply searching for things on Google. Thus Google has become a verb.

Therefore, it was with great excitement that I learned the other day that we had been “Duo-ed” Or said differently, somebody was “Duo-ing” us. OK, it doesn’t have the same ring as “Googling” but the concept is the same.  If mimicry is the highest form of flattery, certainly having someone bid on your firm name in search engines is second highest in the flattery department.

We have the greatest regard for Greenfield Belser, a leading branding and design firm in Washington, D.C. In fact, we are even working jointly with them on a web project. Greenfield Belser has chosen to use Google AdWords to bid on our firm name. Eight years ago when we entered the same law firm marketing arena in which they compete, I doubt that we were a blip on their radar. Today they are paying hard coin to be found when people are searching for us. We’ve been “Duo-ed.” We’ve become a verb. Watch out Google, here we come.

Apparently Google is not content with merely taking over the world. From their early beginnings as the ubiquitous little search engine that could, they’ve made a name for themselves through adding innovation on top of their acquisitions and partnerships. Until recently, web browsers were immune to this innovation—Google applications required Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera, and any other modern web browser to run.

But as of September 2, 2008, Google stepped onto even their toes, releasing the Google Chrome browser that is fast, standards-compliant, and above all, looks ready to do business as a shell for Google’s web-based word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail, calendar, and other applications. The fact you can also browse the world wide web through the program is a bonus.

Bigger Better Browser

Life hasn’t been the same since browser technology advanced to where developers could create interactive experiences within a web browser that looked and felt like desktop applications. These rich internet applications (RIA) paved the way for what we refer to as cloud computing: software and data that exists anywhere on the Internet are funneled through an application on a user’s desktop, who doesn’t need to know how they work or where they’re stored. So long as the applications behave as expected, and reassure the user that their data is safe, they are happy with not knowing.

Google Chrome seeks to build on everything for which we’ve used a web browser to date, and move us all into territory we have yet to explore. The very nature of the product lends itself to more creative uses, many of which don’t even exist, or may be twirling cartwheels inside developers’ heads.

In most companies the browser is the central application on a user’s desktop. In my previous life as a logistics data analyst, we used our web browser to connect to a software suite to manage our workload, cut purchase orders, pay invoices, write contracts, follow up on back orders, process returns, communicate with our co-workers, track our time… standard business stuff. Looking back, this was a rather limited use for our browser in terms of an application enabler.

In other parts of the Internet world, the web browser has been used to run more complicated web applications like wikis and blogs, content management systems, document control systems, and of course, true desktop-like applications. The developers behind Google Chrome saw this brave new world and designed the product to be invisible. After all, the important part of your day includes everything but the technology.

If Looks Could Kill Other Browsers

The first thing I noticed about Chrome is how it looks. The interface is basic, but sleek. There is no application menu, and no toolbars that take up a lot of space. Everything that could happen happens in the browser, or at least in a browser tab. The tabs appear at the very top of the window, creating the look of a physical filing cabinet. Other browsers’ tabs also point upwards, but still underneath a lot of menus and toolbars that drove me to buy a bigger monitor.

Google Chrome: A Browser Without Menus

What this means for me is that I can write this article in Google Docs (or Zoho Docs, for the non-partisan) with as much writing room as possible, before posting it into our blog CMS. This is a major plus for me. I use Google Docs to keep track of stuff between my day gig and my home life. I use Docs to record notes, and Spreadsheets to track my cash expenses. All this information is available to me from any computer connected to the Internet. Some may argue that using the free versions make my information less secure “in the cloud”, but as my information isn’t CIA-level top secret I feel pretty safe.

Of course, I do copy my data from Google’s servers into other formats, and store some of the information on my own hard disks. Adam Pash wrote an article about backing up your data from Google’s servers on Lifehacker.com, the core focus of the article isn’t that Google is evil, but that redundancy is always the best option. I’ve heard it said that digital data doesn’t really exist unless it exists in at least two places.

No More Hurry Up and Wait

Google Chrome takes the browsing experience to new heights, in both web-standards–compliance and rendering speed. Based on a recommendation from the Android team the developers chose Webkit, the same w3c-fascistic rendering engine used by Apple’s Safari browser. I say, “fascistic”, because I’m still hurting from the experience of Safari breaking one of my web projects. Eventually I’ll come to grips with the understanding that this will teach me to write more standards-compliant code.

I see a noticeable speed improvement when viewing pages through this browser. The speed also improves my experience using browser-based applications. I read that Google uses techniques like DNS-pre-fetching and caching, and separate virtual machines (V8) that operate separately within each tab, but all this means to me is that web pages load more quickly and applications operate invisibly. Period.

For people on the go, on the road, and rarely sitting still, the idea of always-on access to Internet applications and data is a big plus. When the browser steps out of the way, it makes even remote collaboraton easier.

The End of the Hourglass

Have you ever been surfing the web with a handful of tabs or a couple of windows open, when suddenly one page hung on the hourglass and your system froze in the process? Then, when you killed the offending tab or window, the entire application shut down, and you were forced to start your browsing experience afresh. Most web browsers run as a single application even when multiple tabs and windows are open. Hang one, you hang ‘em all.

Google Chrome ends the hourglass behavior by keeping applications in separate tabs and windows separate from each other. This way, when an application in one tab hangs, closing that tab shuts down only that application. All the other tabs are left intact. Plus, applications cannot read information between tabs, so your information is more secure than in other web browsers.

The best part of the hype surrounding the browser’s launch was the 38-page comic book by Scott McCloud (aptly chosen, considering the benefits of Google Chrome to cloud computing technology). Page 14 explains in a more technical manner why V8 technology runs JavaScript faster than other browsers.

Google Chrome V8 Technology Processes JavaScript Intelligently

Looking Forward

I don’t think an application exists that doesn’t have faults. Google Chrome is no exception, though its faults are miniscule in comparison to other *cough* commercial applications.

First, Chrome is in perpetual beta. This frees the developers to continue to make tweaks and improvements with no timed release schedule. This also helps Google answer any complaints with, “This is only a beta, so some features are still being worked out.”

Second, at the time of this writing, Chrome can’t access any trusted sites that require a password. I downloaded the browser for the first time at work, and tried to test how well it let me edit the wiki on our corporate Intranet. The program couldn’t save my credentials, and our network locked my account after the fifth failed login attempt.

Finally, Chrome is open source, which really isn’t a fault at all. By licensing the source code for external developers to work with, Google opens the door for improvements and feature adds from the developer community outside Google. I’m sure this will prove to be a big win in the long run.

Links to Google Chrome Stuff

• Direct download to the Google Chrome installer (inactive—Google forces you to download from their Chrome home page).
• Google Chrome home page
• Detailed information about Google Chrome

If you wanted to know the absolute latest information on what was happening in the nail biter Democratic Primary in Indiana, there was only one source. And it wasn’t CNN or FoxNews. It was a blog from The Times in Munster, Indiana. And Google returned the blog as the second choice for the search “Indiana Election Results”

One commenter’s opinion:

Melvin Says: May 6th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

“BTW- I have definitely switched from both CNN.com and FoxNews.com to your website- much much faster updates! Kudos!”

I suppose website benchmarks are inevitable. They worry me. But everyone wants to know how they “shape up.” If you have benchmarks, people may come to believe a popularly quoted performance measurement is important even if it has nothing to do with their website. And worse, one might believe that a certain achievement level, usually represented by a number and often carried to two decimal places, implies a precision that is simply untrue. Benchmarks worry me.

So it is with some chagrin I found myself partying last Saturday night with Google Analytics and their benchmarking feature which is still in Beta (i.e. pre-release but available to the masses). The quid pro quo deal is if you agree to share your site’s analytics to an anonymous data pool, you’ll have access to a selection of website parameters and data aggregated from other sites in the data pool. And here’s the cool thing – in a web analytics geek kind of cool. You can benchmark your site against any of a selection of other sites that you desire. For a hobby site I manage, I benchmarked it against other Recreation > Outdoor > Hiking & Camping sites of similar size to my site.

Looking at the results for my hobby site against Google’s benchmark performance charts, I felt pretty good about the warm fuzzy green (not red) plus signs & numbers displayed to two decimal places. For a given parameter my results are 134.15% better than the benchmark. And that’s exactly the problem! You have to ask yourself, “So what?” Unless you’re a corporate dweeb who takes pleasure in reporting meaningless numbers to other people who are similarly clueless, benchmarks may lead you toward unearned complacency or needless distress. Benchmarks worry me.

I think the alternative to benchmarks – or perhaps the complement – is two-fold. First, identify the key performance indicators (KPI) that are important to you and to your website’s performance. If the Google Analytics parameters can inform your uniquely defined key performance indicators, then great. Second, think Personal Best. Keep working on your site to improve its performance metrics that you’ve identified to be important. Don’t just be better. Be the best you can be.

We felt aftershocks in the office at around 10:15 this morning. The search term “chicago earthquake” is “spicy hot” right now according to Google Trends. Search activity peaked about 6 hours ago … what’s interesting (and note that the timescale is P.S.T. and we are in C.S.T.) is that search activity picks up immediately after the earthquake occurred. I experienced an earthquake in 1988 while living in upstate NY and we had to wait an hour, glued to the radio, to learn whether or not I was hallucinating. I’m not sure how quickly official news of the quake was posted, but many turned to Google for information as soon as the event occurred.

Surfing around I found this great USGS user contributed data earthquake experience map. If you felt the quake post your experience.