Posts tagged google
Google Search Changes
03 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
It seems like the good folks at Google like to change things up, even in their bread and butter search segment, which they did last week. If you missed it, it’s that some of us signed into our Google accounts are getting redirected to https://www.google.com, note the “s”. Most are certainly in favor of more security, in particular with companies like Google which have a large volume of our preferences even in innocuous things such as search. But what Google has done is taken the step of stripping referer data from links referred to from pages that are search via SSL connection. This just clicked last Tuesday and I can see an appreciable uptick of what Google now call “not provided” keyword searches in a Google Analtyics account report:
Sorry for all the redacting blurring.
If you want to look for yourself, it’s under traffic sources/search/overview and then select “keyword” in the viewing selector. And if you want a deep dive on all the implications on this switch from the best in the business on search, check out this post on Search Engine Land.
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Flight news and more flight news
04 months ago
Is it me, or does it seem like there’s suddenly a flurry of interesting news in regards to airlines and flying. Now, for many ski resorts, this probably isn’t that big of a deal, but for destination resorts, I think it’s news to keep an eye on.
First off, is the fact that Google has finally unveiled their first integration of their purchase of ITA Software in their new Flight Search. I do like the speed and user interface (super clean, but with some real guts as you click down), but am pretty disappointed in the quality of results – as an example, it’s adamant that I can’t fly from SLC to RST (where my parents live) even though I get 1400 results when searching the same route on Kayak? In any case, the features are slick and are better presented than anything I could describe in this slick video:
The second, and nowhere near as ‘neat’ news, is that airlines are planning cut back on their flight capacity, more than usual for the upcoming winter months, with even Southwest Airlines holding off on expanding its fleet at all. The potential for higher fares is not as big as threat to destination ski resorts as the fact that it will be even harder for ski and snowboard vacations to find empty seats to even get to the resorts. Here’s hoping the airlines are judicious in their winter flight planning and keep plenty of capacity to all the winter destination gateway airports…
Fascinating Research and Analysis of Social Networks
21 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in presentation
I recently read this presentation by Paul Adams of Google on John Battelle’s Searchblog, and wanted to share it myself as I was quite taken by a number of the things that are put forth. First, I’m amazed at how quick of a read it is at 216 slides with notes! Second, as John notes, it has a number of digs at Facebook, but I also find that Paul does put forth a number of very positive design recommendations.
The Real Life Social Network v2
View more documents from Paul Adams.
Online Travel Changes Underway?
01 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Just a few quick thoughts, predicated by Google finally closing on their deal to purchase ITA Software, a flight information software company, for $700 million. If (or when) Apple comes out with a full featured iTravel and Microsoft continues along with the path that they’ve already set with Bing Travel, what will this mean for travel world, and more specifically, what will this mean to ski resorts? Might this give ski resorts motivation to innovate and expand in how they distribute and sell their products in the already competitive online marketplace? Or will ski resorts’ distribution options get swallowed up by the big boys (Google, Bing, Apple) as they focus their attentions on the process of travel booking?
Personally, I hope it’s a combination of the options. I think the companies mentioned will come up with some very innovative ways to simplify the travel planning, booking and even experience itself but that there will be plenty of opportunity for ski resorts to create unique and powerful ways to market and sell their products as well. So, by having new ideas injected into the overall online travel market, everyone will benefit. What do you think?!
Creating Video Content? Do you have a Video Sitemap? You should.
01 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in video
HT to ReelSEO.com for posting this video featuring Matt Cutts from Google discussing how anyone publishing online video should be sure to create and submit a Google video sitemap to ensure optimal indexing of their video content (notice how he mentions, “this Fall and into the future” – kind of important for those of us with content we want highly visible around that time frame).
Mobile Apps, How Accurate do They Need to Be? Ask Google Maps
51 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
A lawsuit has been recently filed against Google Maps for allegedly providing “unsafe directions” for a pedestrian here in Park City, Utah back in January of 2009. There are a lot of people labeling this a frivolous lawsuit, see the comments on a Mashable post about the suit, but it makes me wonder if this case demonstrates potential issues in posting real-time information online, in particular via a mobile app, perhaps even using an augmented reality, style map.
There is some history to this kind of issue…I found this CNET article from over two years ago describing a case in which a driver was in a rental car, followed the GPS direction from that car too closely and managed to get the vehicle stuck on some train tracks which was then hit by a train – thankfully the driver was smart enough to have gotten out of the vehicle! This isn’t a US issue either as this Computer World article from a few years ago demonstrates (I love the part about signs being posted that say ‘Ignore your SatNav’).
As mobile and geolocation services become more and more prevalent, are there lessons that businesses need to take from this as they design apps and tools for their customers? I hope it’s just that we need to design for the end user, to build apps that add value and are useful, but do we need to keep other things at the forefront as well?
Photo credit: Flickr user arrayexception per CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Interactive Content Editor and SEO
02 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Here’s a quick observation on the speed of Google in terms of targeted SEO. I recently posted about the Interactive Content Editor position that we’re in the process of interviewing for at the resort (sorry, the application process is now closed). I wound up Googling the phrase “Interactive Content Editor” as I’m in the process of fleshing out some details of the jobs’ flow and I was amazed at the results:
Yep, in just about two weeks our blog post about the job has vaulted to the top listing in Google for that exact phrase and the top five listings are all for our job posting! Wow, that’s impressive, it got me to head back to Google to check again on a search for the phrase”Resort Marketing Blog”, and, drum roll, yeah – this blog is number two and my old blog on wordpress.com is number one – woohoo! So, the lesson here is to be aware of the power of blogs on targeted Google search results.
A Blizzard About Google
32 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in review
This past Tuesday, I took a few hours out of my last week of vacation, to attend “All About Google: How to rank higher for more keywords“. In this seminar, Trent Blizzard from Blizzard Internet Marketing lead a great discussion that ranged from basic Google SEO/SEM to many features that people in the tourism industry tend to miss or approach in a less effective way.
I was really surprised to see that there were weren’t that many people in attendance. When I hear FREE for a seminar on a dynamic topic like Google SEO/SEM, my ears perk up. When the topic is refined to the tourism industry, I stop listening and sign up! I’m not sure if it’s the fact that people feel like they’re too busy or that don’t understand the subject matter, but either way, I know that there were a lot of people in the Park City area that really missed out by not attending. I’d also like to give the Dakota Mountain Lodge kudos for valeting my bike, never thought I’d do that, but it sure was cool…
After getting through his intro, Trent was kind enough to forgo any Powerpoint presentations and keep his presentation focused on what was of interest and value to those of us in the room. He did a great job of critiquing each of our websites and then moved on to looking at various search elements such as local, images, news and more. He also listed several sites to help with search/reputation management, including:
- LinkVoodoo – great tool for ranking the quality of a link from a particular site, but be sure to click on the “Quality Score Tool” in the secondary menu.
- SEMRush – Trent recommended paying for their service (it’s quite affordable) to track and find new keywords for SEO and/or SEM.
- TinEye – an image search to see if there are other sites using your images. Good to use, particularly as many sites are ‘scrapping’ the web for tourism content.
- Copyscape – this site lets you search other sites for your text content, because you don’t want your hard earned SEO copy to be “stolen” by other sites!
There were many other tools brought up, but these were the ones that stood out to me. Thanks again to Trent and Lisa for putting together a such a quality seminar within an easy mountain bike ride of my house!
