January 30th Published by: Mike Sachoff Filed under: Uncategorized
The number of mobile game downloaders grew from 17 percent from November 2007 to November 2008, when 8.5 million people, or 3.8 percent of mobile subscribers, downloaded a game to their mobile device, according to comScore.
“The rapid growth in smartphone adoption in the United States has provided a boost for mobile gaming, as 34 percent of those downloading a game in November did so using a smartphone,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, comScore.
“Last year, not one smartphone appeared in the top 10 devices used for mobile downloads. This year, six out of 10 are smartphones, excluding devices with smartphone-like functionality, such as the Instinct and Voyager, which also make appearances.”
The iPhone and the BlackBerry Curve have replaced the RAZR and low-end flip phones as the most popular gaming platforms. In fact the number of smartphone owners downloading a game nearly tripled, while dipping 14 percent among owners of feature phones.
iPhone owners accounted for 14 percent of mobile game downloaders in Novembers, with 32.4 percent of all iPhone users reporting they downloaded a game in the month, compared with a market average of 3.8 percent.
“As the mobile phone has evolved into a better platform for both playing and merchandising games, the games being offered have also been improved, drawing in a broader user base,” said Donovan.
“Over the past year, we have seen mobile gaming expand into a broadening demographic, with strongest growth among teens, who previously eschewed their mobile device in favor of handheld gaming devices, and those 35 and older.”
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January 23rd Published by: Mike Sachoff Filed under: Search Engine Optimization
Google has released tips for setting up a search box on your Web site.
1. Make your search box easy to find.
2. Make sure your search box is always available.
3. Customize the appearance of search to fit your site.
4. Experiment.
5. Be open to feedback. Ask for it.
6. Learn what users are looking for.
7. Let visitors know who powers your search.
If you don’t have a search box you can consider using the Google Custom Search Engine, which is available in both free and paid versions.
If you have a search box you may want to track visitor search activity.
Google offers more tips in the video below.
Using Site Search
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January 16th Published by: Mike Sachoff Filed under: Search Engine Optimization
Google offers some good advice on its webmasters/site owners help page about hiring a search engine optimization firm.
The company says that a good time to hire an SEO firm is when you are planning a site redesign. Google also says a good SEO can help improve an existing site as well.
Here are some questions to consider before paying an SEO company to improve your results:
Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
What’s your experience in my industry?
What’s your experience in my country/city?
What’s your experience developing international sites?
What are your most important SEO techniques?
How long have you been in business?
How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
Google warns to be careful about SEO firms that send you email unsolicited as they are likely not legitimate.
It also cautions people to not fall for claims that guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. From Google’s help page: “There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.”
Google offers more information here. If you don’t want to hire an SEO firm right now there are plenty of free tools to be found online. This is a good place to start.
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January 9th Published by: Mike Sachoff Filed under: Social Networking
A new social media search tool has recently launched in public beta called WhosTalkin.
The tools creator, Joe Hall says the new tool is, “a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations surrounding topics that they care most about.”
The service distinguishes itself from other similar tools by aggregating results from over 60 different services on the Internet. “There is no other social media search tool online that aggregates data from this many sources,” says Hall.
The tool’s goal is to present the most relevant and current conversations happening in the world of social media. Hall says that the content freshness is one of the most important aspects of the tool’s search results.
“We are trying to connect people around similar ideas that they can engage in, so therefore we are interested in finding the freshest conversations in social media.”
Hall recruited around a dozen well known people in the search industry to take part in the private beta launch of WhosTalkin.
“We were real fortunate to have some industry all-stars sit in and give some great advice on the tool,” Hall says.
The tool is free to use, but Hall says that the long-term plan includes offering a separate subscription based service that will give users access to a number of other tools for a monthly price.
“We intend to always keep the basic functions free, however we will be offering a subscription service designed for small and medium sized business in the coming months,” says Hall.
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December 19th Published by: Mike Sachoff Filed under: Search Engine Optimization
Google has announced that it has made it easier for webmasters to submit a Sitemap.
Sitemap submission will not require webmasters to say what kind of file type they are submitting because Google says it will determine that type of data.
The Google Webmaster Central Blog details the Sitemap files it supports:
XML Sitemap files for web pages – Use these files to submit all of your web pages (this is the preferred format for web pages). While not all search engines may support the Sitemap types listed below, the XML Sitemap for web pages is supported by all search engines of sitemaps.org.
RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 feeds for web pages – Many blogs create these automatically.
Text files with web page URLs – If you can’t automatically create one of the above formats, you can create a text file with your URLs in it.
XML Sitemap files for Video Search – Videos on your website can be indexed and made available for Google Video Search.
Media-RSS feeds for Video Search – mRSS feeds are used by various other systems, we can use these for Google Video Search as well.
XML Sitemap files for Google Code Search – If you make programming samples or code available to your users, you can submit these for Google Code Search.
XML Sitemap files for mobile web pages – Using this kind of format allows us to recognize content that has been optimized for mobile devices (please note that there was recently a small change in the format).
XML Sitemap files for geo-data – If you have geographic data on your website in the form of KML or GeoRSS files, please let us know about these files.
XML Sitemap files for News – News websites can submit their news content in this special Sitemap format (please note that you must first register with Google News before these files are processed).
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December 12th Published by: Mike Sachoff Filed under: Social Networking
People are spending more of their online time communicating and social networking sites are helping to drive this trend according to a new report from Netpop Research.
Forty million Americans with broadband connections now contribute regularly on social networking sites. The majority (76%) of broadband users are active contributors online via social media.
Among social network users 60 percent are on Facebook while 63 percent use MySpace and 34 percent use both sites.
Facebook grew 500 percent between 2006 and 2008, catching up to MySpace in regular users last year.
Social networkers use multiple ways to express and stay in touch, from IM to texts, blogs and micro-blogs. The also use multiple digital devises such as laptops, mobile devices and public computers to stay connected with their digital lives.
The Netpop study found that social networkers are avid consumers who shop for a variety of products and services, spending an average of $101 online per month. The top category is clothing and accessories (70%), followed by media/entertainment (58%) and health and beauty (57%).
To make purchasing decisions 28 percent use search engines, followed by 20 percent who visit branded sites and 17 percent use online only retail sites. Six percent use social networking sites.
In an average week, Facebook users connect with more people than MySpace users. Facebook users connect with an average of 17 people per week.
Facebook users use more devices to access the Internet, but MySpace users spend more time online (5.5 hours versus 5.1 hours).
Social networking sites turn everyday user into natural connectors, promoters and influencers. They are a critical audience to understand and engage.
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