Google.ca loves Fish and hates FIFA!!!
There. I said it. It does appear though, that I am correct….here, let’s look at this.
Everyone else in the world (least all the clicks I did on google’s myriad of sites) got the FIFA icon up top….as the World Cup launched their series of games today in SA….
‘Cept us canucks. We got a Jacques Cousteau icon….of a nice looking reef scuba diver and some fish and some kelp and stuff….all very nice indeed!
So, here’s the story from the AFP wire –
Google honors Jacques Cousteau(AFP) – 3 hours ago WASHINGTON — Google paid tribute on Friday to Jacques Cousteau on what would have been the French undersea explorer’s 100th birthday. The Internet giant replaced its colorful search page Google logo with a drawing of a scuba diver. Placing the cursor over the drawing reveals the phrase “Happy 100th Birthday Jacques Cousteau!” Cousteau, who died in 1997, would have been 100 years old on Friday. Cousteau was well known in the United States for his TV programs and his ship called Calypso used for diving and filming the underwater marine habitat.
Hrmph! Okay….so, like when will we get a hockey icon? Now THAT’D be a swell one, eh?
What Google.ca are you today?
Yup, got in early today and yes, the pix shown is what I see when I go to google.ca!
Not google.com, mind you…for that screen I continue to get the same pure white background….but as you can see, you’re now allowed to use a photo to background your google home search page, a la BING, eh!
Not bad, google lads…now all I gotta do is find some pix to use….down in the bottom left hand corner btw, is the text button to change same, fyi!
If you ‘see’ sumthin different, would love you to post same too….as a sort of a google.ca survey type thingy….
What’s a Google #1 Ranking Worth Anyways?
The simple answer, according to the latest Chitika Research study is — a ton! A FULL TWICE what the #2 ranking offers! In order to track same, the folks over at Chitika tracked their own traffic and it’s referrers and learned that almost 35% of that traffic came from the #1 ranking spot — almost as much as the numbers 2 through 5 slots combined, and more than the numbers 5 through 20 (the end of page 2) put together!
So….a #1 ranking brings new traffic, that’s not news, but the size of the lead of the #1 spot over all the rest is somewhat surprising, eh!
PAC-Man’s 30th Birthday on Google!
Yup, been playing it now for about a half-hour and I’m no better now than back in the 70′s, eh?
It’s a fully working Pac-Man game that you can run right from the google.ca 0r google.com (aint had the time to spend to look globally as I’m too into the game, eh!) and it’s true nostalgia!
Google Ain’t “NEW” in Canada!
The web is awash this morning with how Google has updated/changed/modified their UI (user interface) and while that is apparent in the US at google.com — us canucks up here in Canada using google.ca didn’t get any of that love!
As you can see from the top logo, the colorations have changed — Google has both brightened the hues of the various primary shades used as well as decreasing the 3D bevelled look and lightened the drop-shadow too.
But not for us canucks, eh!
LOCAL Search Refinements for Google Search!
The official Google search blog noted the following changes to their major algo and responses in this way — and this is important, so sit up and listen!“Refinements for local searches: Whether you’re looking for info close to home or while you’re traveling, it’s now easier to find things to do in the cities you’re searching for on Google. Now when you search for a city name, we’ll show you popular query refinements for places in those cities. We’ve found that people like to explore several places during a trip, so when we show one point of interest, we’ll also show you related points of interest. For instance, if you’re looking for food or a place to stay, you’ll also see some of the top category and neighborhood refinements to help you choose a place. This new feature will be rolling out over the next couple days for 200 U.S. cities, and in the coming weeks we’ll expand coverage to more cities internationally…”
Google Schmozzles it’s own Analytics!
Well, word’s out on the street today, that for those of us SEO practitioners and clients too, who’ve been using Google Analytics to measure our web traffic — the game has just changed, eh!
Yup, Google has announced, that they are now finalizing an OPT OUT tracking tool for anyone who chooses to use same that will allow that user to NOT be included in any site traffic serps.
The official word from Google is available here… and the release on same is yes, short and to the point, but is it?
Many many of us, perhaps millions as I understand the usage of Google Analytics, use this free website traffic aggregator, to measure our client’s traffic on a daily basis. We enjoy the great looking charts and note always on changes to percentages, to real time numbers and gather same up to show a client that yes, we’re doing a job for them in getting their website traffic. Oh, sure..there’s the whole matter of conversions and ROI on the SEO Campaign itself to factor in…but as a free tool, Google Analytics works wonders and has been the #1 IMHO website traffic measurement tool in use online today.
Using Google to Search for Gold Medals!
During the past 20 or so days, in case you’ve not had your tv turned on, the 2010 Olympic Games held in Vancouver were just about the biggest draw ever in sports television history! Yes, I know…so what does that have to do with SEO?
Well, the interesting part of all of the competing nations and their striving to win gold medals is the search patterns layed down by global or nationalistic searchers….and that shows peaks that are very interesting, eh!
Google Targets SEO Practitioners!
Well, the word is out and I’m more than a bit upset by this news…it appears that Google is “targeting” us SEO practitioners in their web search engine index! How’s that — well, backstory first.
Go to Google.ca, and say search for a “Hamilton plumbers” or “Hamilton plumbing firms” and what do you see? Yes, a web search results page that includes the Google Local search map with a 7-pack showing business names and addresses, URLs etc for those chosen by Google to be shown. Fine. I like that. We’ve got lots of clients who come up in these web results pages for services and products throughout the region and this is how it should be. This is a good thing, and we continue to do well for our clients knowing that Google offers up these listings for one and all….or do they? Here’s a shot of that google.ca search results screen….
SEO for 2010 EBook Launched!
No matter how long and how often I try to help newbies to SEO, it seems like I continue to hear the same old false “SEO tips” from them that they’ve picked up somewhere on the web that are so outdated, so wrong that following them will mean a site banishment from Google!
I read them on forums all across the web, on blogs as comments, on more forums that support these same outmoded and surely “past their best-before date” opinions, that this is the ‘good stuff’ to get your site up onto page #1.
And they’re wrong!
We're in the Globe!
We're in the current Canadian Dealer News Magazine!
