Google SearchWiki

Nov. 20, 2008 – Nov 22, 2008

Tested. Lived. Died. Resurrected.

But, just as I was finishing this blog post, Google SearchWiki came back to life on the evening of Nov 22 (or morning of the 23 for some)!

Wiki, by definition, is a platform for universal editing. So Google’s SearchWiki is a way for you to edit or “mark up” your personal search results yet enable other Google users to see what you have done, to see what you added, promoted and demoted for specific keyword phrases.

Is this Search by influence?

Today, we don’t know the full reason for its rise and fall and coming back to life so mysteriously.

SearchWiki – Tested

Google started testing SearchWiki on October 30, 2008 – an experiment. Was this social search coming to pass before our eyes? Many users didn’t know and couldn’t see or modify their SERPs. Only those randomly chosen had ability to customize results.

I discovered that one of my Gmail accounts was part of the experiment on Nov. 14, 2008. Why was a specific Gmail account chosen? Who knows!

I spent that Friday night researching Google’s Promote / Demote feature. I played around a lot with it, took screenshots, etc. It felt like being in a sandbox, playing and playing. Screenshot below shows Promote / Demote icons:

The Promote / Demote icons are initially gray. The icons turned green once you “customize” your results, as shown above.

Options – You can:

• Move results up or down on your customized page;
• Remove or add results to your page;
• Delete or hide results for future searches for the same keywords;
• Show your results on future searches;
• Comment or annotate – make notes, about a search result for future reference.

Your actions are recorded:

Each SearchWiki function applies to your Google account only while logged in. If you don‘t want SearchWiki, you need to search Google while logged out, anonymously. Google’s SearchWiki Experiment page once explained:

Your customization is shared and tagged with the nickname of your account used while logged into Google, usually your Gmail user name.

Customize your search results with your rankings, deletions, and notes — plus, see how other people using Google have tailored their searches. Please remember that your SearchWiki notes will be visible to other users, identified with your Google Account nickname.

Limitations – You cannot:

• Delete Google’s Shopping results in the SERPS;
• Delete Google’s PPC results;
• Turn it off for your account, as mentioned.

Shown below are my original results and my customized, wiki’d, search results for “mac os x.”

Google SERP for “mac os x” – w/o customization:

I deleted the Wikipedia results, played around and watched SERPS change. Finally, I added a result from Yahoo! Search for “mac os x” at the top.

Google SERP for “mac os x” – customized:

Google’s new social search enables us to personalize our preferences. I wonder how Google feels about my deleting Wikipedia and adding Yahoo! to Google SERPs? I’m wondering if they anticipated this?

It is quite easy. From the bottom of each page, I clicked on “Add a result” and entered my desired Yahoo! URL to each future search for “web os x.”

The functionality for those of us in the experiment then carried over to the Google populist.

SearchWiki – Lived

Talk about Google’s SearchWiki abounded throughout the Internet on the “official” launch on Nov. 20, 2008. Not all accounts had access to the customizable search features immediately. Slowly, more account holders were able to add, remove and change the order of their SERPS.

The Official Google Blog announced, “SearchWiki:make search your own.”

The changes you make only affect your own searches. But SearchWiki also is
a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the
community has collectively edited the search results

What is, or was, SearchWiki?

Google’s explanation about the SearchWiki is below. (The page that once explained the experiment is gone. It now redirects to Google’s Help page.)

This feature allows you to influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again while you are logged in to your Google account, you’ll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you’ve made.

SearchWiki Died

SearchWiki died instantaneously on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 in the afternoon (PST). It lived 2 short days.

The “experiment” remained available on Google’s Experimental Search page. BUT, when I tried to add it back to my account, the following message displayed:

Your current experiment is no longer available.

This same page reads:

Google is always experimenting with new features aimed at improving the search experience.

Good Bye, SearchWiki. I didn’t like you anyway.

BUT…

SearchWiki Resurrected

Just as I’m about to hit “Publish” on the evening of Nov 22, 2008… YOU’RE ALIVE AGAIN! But you didn’t come back for everyone. However, you took over more of my accounts.

At least you didn’t censor my added Yahoo! listing for “mac os x,” but you did put Google Shopping at the top. You are NOT OBJECTIVE.

I wonder what level of censorship you will add to SearchWiki to stop us from adding Yahoo! or MSN Live results.

• PLEASE add the option for each Google user to turn you off.
• We don’t know how much human behavior will be a factor in search.
• We don’t know how much, if any, our previous searches and online activities
  will affect our search results. But we don’t like it.
• We want de-personalized search!

Why are you doing this? Are you using this information to create buyer and demographic profiles and sell our information? There is some money in this – somehow.

Our personal preferences, and the preferences of others, will surely impact Google search of the future. You have just opened up a whole new can of worms for gaming search results.

Google SearchWiki, please go back to your grave.

Surprise? No! This fast? Yes!

@JonathanNelson predicted on Nov 5 that Eric Schmidt of Google will be USA’s first ever Chief Technology Officer (CTO):

I, too, have been wondering and discussing Google’s involvement in the new US Govt. under Obama’s leadership. But we don’t have a CTO, right? Not yet…

Should you be concerned?

Transition

What does Obama’s new “Transition Team” mean to you?

What type of transitions should the American people ready themselves for? No one knows, but we do know the Internet and technology will play a bigger role than ever before.

A post on Google Blogoscoped announced that Google’s Eric Schmidt has been chosen as one of Obama’s Economic Advisers. Eric Schmidt’s video in this post shows his endorsement of Obama in October and his discourse about how much the next President of the US understands the Internet.

Knowledge of the Internet, in itself, is good. We are technology-driven.

An article on TechCrunch talks about how Obama would not have won without the Internet. He deserves credit and kudos for being the best online candidate! Obama exhibited excellent marketing strategy in his use of online search advertising and Social Media participation. (Read a breadown of his $8 Million dollar online  spend at ClickZ.)

Transitioning to the Internet is exciting, especially for an online marketer. But, how does this “transition” play out for us with our next President?

US Search?

Is the new US government going to be search-driven? Obama’s government will have a Chief Technology Officer.

ZDNet.co.uk reports on Obama’s search for a national CTO:

The person in this new position…could be given the directive to create new levels of transparency and access to government agencies…

“The fact that this is difficult is, in some ways, an example of why we might need a CTO,” said Alan Davidson, head of Google’s Washington office. “There is no one place for unified technology leadership in our executive branch right now.”

Unified technology? Unified technology leadership?

Are we transitioning into Big Brother? I hope not. Am I being alarmist? I hope so.

The government’s databases, however, may soon know a lot more about you due to the unknown new level of transparency.

A Google Merger?

Does Obama’s choice signal a merger of Google and the US govt.? Isn’t there a conflict of interest?

The Google and Yahoo merger was declared a “conflict of interest” by the Department of Justice on Nov. 5. The DOJ released this statement:

Yahoo! Inc. and Google Inc. abandoned their advertising agreement after the Department of Justice informed the companies that it would file an antitrust lawsuit to block the implementation of the agreement. The Department said that, if implemented, the agreement between these two companies accounting for 90 percent or more of each relevant market would likely harm competition in the markets for Internet search advertising and Internet search syndication.

Antitrust between Google and Yahoo! is a concern. However, Google and the US Govt, together? “Anti Trust,” for sure!

The DOJ statement on the antitrust issues also reads:

Google and Yahoo! are search engine companies. A search engine allows people to search for information on the Internet.

The Department’s investigation revealed that Internet search advertising and Internet search syndication are each relevant antitrust markets and that Google is by far the largest provider of such services, with shares of more than 70 percent in both markets.

Google has >70% share of Search & Search Advertising. <Ponder the scope of that DOJ premise.>

Who can we trust? Google with our new US Govt.? Isn’t this the ULTIMATE Antitrust case?

Here are some of the thoughts I’ve seen on Twitter so far today:

• “Does govt get access to my info that Google stores if Google CEO Eric Schmidt part of new govt?”
• “Obama’s list of econ advisors includes GOOG’s Schmidt? My enthusiasm dampening slightly…”
• “I so call BS on eric schmidt if @obama was for net neutrality why did he remove it from his website http://zi.ma/80986a … well”
• “hah! we’ll know if Eric Schmidt’s has any influence over Obama when we see Google Adsense ads on whitehouse.gov”

The TEAB

Some intelligent minds comprise Obama’s new TEAB. Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is a key member of this transition team. Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox, is also on the new TEAB as well. Why are so many corporate CEOs part of our new government? We are told the team’s goals are to develop a strong set of policies to respond to the economic crisis. I hope we are not relinquishing too much control in the name of crisis?

What are people talking about now that Google is on the TEAB team? Google and the government! I don’t see a lot of conversation or concern about Anne Mulcahy or Warren Buffet? Why? They don’t hold the controls to 70% of Search!

Opt In?

Remember, Google has 70% share of our technology-driven world, of us. We are search! We, the people, make up the databases of search.

We opt into Google to give them access to our information, our emails, our habits and behaviors:

• We “opt in” to the Google Toolbar to tell Google our every need and desire when we search.
• We “opt in” to Google Analytics to give information about our website traffic and visitors.
• We “opt in” to Google AdWords to share the value of our advertising dollar.
• We “opt in” to Gmail and give Google and AdWords information about our personal lives, including email attachments.
• We “opt in” to GTalk to share our chats and conversations.
• We “opt in” to Google Reader to share the information we favor and pull via RSS.
• We “opt in” to Google Apps to give information about our business processes and email discussions.
• We “opt in” to Google Docs to share about our documents, spreadsheets, presentations.
• We “opt in” to Google Desktop to search and index EVERY file on our hard drives, our personal thoughts and journals.

We check the “I agree” boxes and opt in to share…almost everything!

Separation of Search & State

So much for the controversy of separation of Church and State. Now we have Search and State!

I’m surprised we didn’t see this coming. The cry for change in the US has been huge and warranted. But that cry also involved asking the US government to step in and bail us out and take control. We also voted and opted in to give more control in this election. We may have opted into more than we realize with Google as part of the new government.

Consider…

• Should a CEO of the largest Search company in the world be part of making government policy?
• Isn’t there a conflict of interest?
• Is this an antitrust issue? For me, it’s an “anti trust” issue.

What can you do?

I’ve expressed concern about Google’s databases for months now. I’m guilty of opting in and have a love/hate relationship with them. I live Google as part of my daily work in SEO. But each of us can choose alternatives. We can control how much more information we share. It’s time to opt out.

Transition to non-Google properties and software where possible, with hopes they are not purchased by Google…or by our new US Government.

Let there be separation of Search & State!

Spoofing

Spoofing occurs when your email account is hacked and used to send a spam message to all your contacts.

A friend’s Gmail account was spoofed this week. Below is the message sent to all of her contacts:

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IF YOU RECEIVE SUCH A MESSAGE!

Spoofed email messages also revealed every address in the victim’s contact list!

She called Google, changed her password, and deleted all her contacts. What a mess!

Why does Spoofing happen?

Why does one get targeted? I don’t have that answer. big sigh… Did someone exploit the Gmail service? It looks like it occurred randomly. It’s strange. It didn’t happen to everyone, but a search of the forums show random Gmail spoofing, especially in April of 2008. (hmmmm… This is September.) Maybe they picked up an alias from a forum, and then they gained access to contact lists through an exploit.

Okay, enough of trying to figure out why. What can you do to avoid the break in?

Secure your Email Account!

Choose a strong password and security question.

1. Change your password. Use at least 8 characters, including upper & lower-case letters and numbers (0-9), preferably something without words. Use exclamation points and any of those characters that require you to hit the Shift+ a number on your keyboard – !@#$%^&*().
2. Change your security question. How about choosing a favorite color that doesn’t exist? Too many security answers can be guessed by someone who knows just a little about your background.

Gmail Secure Access

Google made it possible to connect to Gmail via secure http, known as https in July 2008. (Read Gmail Blog post, Making security easier.)

1. Click on Settings.
2. The new Browser connection option is at the very bottom. Select “Always use https” then Save Changes.

Whallah!

Look at your URL (website address) as shown below. You will see that it became https immediately after hitting “Save Changes.”

This means you can go to https://mail.google.com to access your email for your Gmail.

NOTE: I also use Google Apps for my company email. The https security option is only available to those with Google Apps Premier Edition. (To stay or go Pro, that is the question.)

Now, if you use Gmail, you don’t have to be so nervous about snoops! I wish that spoofing would go poof in the night and be gone!

It started just after 2:00pm PST on August 11, 2008. I was on the phone with a friend/client and planned to follow-up with information via email. Oh, “Temporary Error” – hmmm… turns out it was not that temporary.

What does one do when stranded by Gmail and Google Apps?

Here was my trouble-shooting and decision-making process:

1. Test access to Google Apps and Gmail accounts using various browsers.
2. Check my connectivity. (All other sites work well; move to next step.)
3. Check Twitter to see if any of my friends were also down to ensure this was not an isolated incident.
4. Call client who heavily relies on Google Apps for their email and inform their office so they don’t panic.
5. Use Yahoo! mail for urgent alternative electronic communication.
6. Check Twitter stream of conversations and be amazed at how many people are stranded.
7. Decide that other tasks can be done. (Be thankful I track tasks with a Franklin Planner – old fashioned pencil & paper.)
8. Pick up phone and call friend who was on list to call today. (Good thing her phone number was in my cell. My contact list is in Google Apps.)
9. Water the plants and feed the baby doves in our back yard.
10. Check Twitter stream again. (Oh, boy!)
11. Write blog post.
12. Finish non-email-related tasks. (Unfortunately, many of us rely on Google Apps for our files, calendars, etc.)
13. Determine other alternatives to Google Apps & Gmail dependence for future. Maybe it’s time to look at Zoho. Lucky number 13?

The Twitter stream was amazing. The following image shows a search for “gmail” on search.twitter.com. In a little over an hour, over 7,000 additional conversations were tracked for people discussing their email woes.

Thanks to Twitter, my friends told me Gmail was back up! Just under 2 hours later, it’s been a good chance to think about decision-making process and productivity.

What does one do when Google Apps and Gmail go down in the middle of the work day?

• Be thankful you didn’t pay for Google Apps Premium Edition!
• Be thankful Twitter’s “Fail Whale” didn’t appear during Gmail’s outage.
• Do something non-electronic. (Call a friend!)
• Remember that all challenges are opportunities to re-evaluate.

Google Trends: Get 5 gallons for the price of 1!

Google Trends for Websites give you valuable data on five competitive sites during each visit.

1. Visit www.google.com/trends.
Look toward the bottom to “Explore…Trends for Websites” as shown:

2. Determine your top competitors.
Suggestion: Choose 4 competitors and your website. That’s 5 gallons of gas for the price of 1, all for free!

3. Determine the “leader” in your niche or your closest competitor. Enter this domain name first in the Search Trends box. The data displayed will be shown based on the first website listed. Vary data by changing the order of domains listed. Imagine your site provides news about cycling…

Example shown above compares trends for cyclingnews.com, velonews.com, pezcyclingnews.com, dailypeloton.com.

4. Feast your eyes on the graphical display of your competitiors’ traffic that shows historical popularity! Graph below indicates CyclingNews is the leader for “Daily Unique Visitors” – cycling fans who are looking to know the latest news about cycling. Velo News ranks a close 2nd for this audience. (NOTE the spike in traffic during the Tour de France last year. Another trend to note is that traffic began rising in May and June of this year. It’s race season!)

5. How are cycling fans thinking, talking and getting to these cycling-news-related websites? Google has their “ear to the ground” to help you “listen in” on their search-related activities and conversation.

Shown below are the keywords these visitors “Googled” to reach cyclingnews.com.

TIP: Rearrange the order in the Search Trends box to see what they typed in Google’s search engine to reach your competitors’ sites.

For those in charge of Search Engine Marketing for cycling news, this trendy information is obviously valuable as you strategically plan your SEO efforts, PPC campaigns, Social Media participation, etc. You have easy access to how your target audience and our competitors’ audience think, what they type to access these sites. You can also spy on the other sites visited by these cycling fans. Importantly, you now have some good inside information for link building. All this is FREE without paying at the pump.

Your new Google Trends gas-saving tool gives you the following data:

• Site traffic per region;
• Other related sites users visited
• Other search terms users search on and directed them to the sites
• Google Trends for Websites Lowers Price of Gas

More competitive data is now at your fingertips for FREE. You get better fuel economy and save on gas by not having to drive around and pay for competitive intelligence information. Hitwise and comScore have been the big players with paid options gather competitive intelligence. Google Trends for Websites offers a complimentary alternative.

There are other players in the market. Alexa, Compete and Quantcast offer website data for FREE. Is the basis for their data as broad as Google’s?

There are other “keyword tools” to help you “spy” and get keyword information for organically-rated sites and those active in the PPC space. (To be discussed later.)

Are Competitive Intelligence numbers accurate?

Not 100%! Just like keyword research tools, no service represents 100% of the Internet. Think about the Nielsen Ratings, which are only a representative sample. Google Trends numbers do, however, represent their source. Google as a search engine is the major oil, I mean, search refinery, known around the world.

From where does Google Trends data come?

Google Labs has been at work digging to aggregate keyword and data refineries. They dugg and opened up new oil reserves when they opened Google Analytics, a free analytics tool used by many sites.

• Use Google Analytics?
  Months ago, they launched benchmarking options to allow site users to share their data.
• Use the Goolge Toolbar?
  Web browsers who use the Google Analytics tool bar have the option to share their data.
• Do you “Google?”
  You share your interests and desires every time you search on any search engine.

Only sites with high traffic, and possibly those who opted-in to “share” their vital statistics, are shown in Google Trends. Did Yahoo! and MSN Live Search opt in?

Shown below are the Google Trends for Websites results for google.com, yahoo.com, live.com:

Google.com does not have data available for ranking. Interesting…

Does anyone know the total oil field from where this data comes?

Did you opt in to Google Analytics?

You can opt-out from sharing data, or you can modify your robots.txt file to tell Googlbot to not index your site. OUCH!

Check your Google Analytics account to find out. What are your options?

Did you agree to provide information about traffic and geographic visitation patterns?

Did the lure of benchmarking and advanced features entice you to share data?

Want to opt out?

Consider the ramifications. Make sure you know the trade-offs and have a full understanding of what is being shared and what you want to share. Keep in mind that a lot of information about your company is already on the Internet and available via other resources.

Here’s one way to opt out.

1. Login to your Google Analytics Account
2. Look above your Website Profiles chart for:
   Analytics Settings – www.yourdomain.com (Edit Account and Data Sharing Settings).
3. Click on Edit Account and Data Sharing Settings.
4. Under Google Analytics Data Sharing Settings, click on
   [ ] Do not share my Google Analytics data
5. Sites that are “opted in” will get the following, “Are you sure…? message:

IMPORTANT: Read Google Analytics data sharing options before you do anything. Their site says,

“When you opt in to data sharing, we will include data from up to a month before your opt-in date to enable features such as benchmarking. When you opt out, data sharing stops on that day.

The data collected while you were opted in will not be removed when you opt out.

If I opt in then opt back out, will my data be removed?
If you select “do not share my Google Analytics data” in your data sharing settings, you will not be able to use benchmarking and may not have access to specific ads-related features such as Conversion Optimizer.

How will it affect me if I choose not to share my data but other companies do?
If you select “do not share my Google Analytics data” in your data sharing settings, you will not be able to use benchmarking and may not have access to specific ads-related features such as Conversion Optimizer.”

FAQ – Repeated Theme

Reading Google Analytics Frequently Asked Questions about “”data sharing options revealed a repeated theme:

“Google will use the data to improve the products and services we provide you.”

Apparently, access to data (yours and your competitors’) is one of the improvements.

Google Trends Terms of Use

Lower gas prices comes with a catch. You are bound on how you use this gas-saving device. Google Trends’ Terms of Use states how you can use this competitive intelligence:

“You may use Google Trends for your own internal purposes and for educational and research purposes. You may also use Google Trends as an aide when managing your own Google AdWords accounts and Google AdWords accounts that you manage on behalf of others. If you wish to use Google Trends for other purposes, you must obtain the prior approval of Google.”

How can you use Google Trends data?

Do you interpret this to mean…

You cannot use the information for SEO efforts and online marketing campaigns to rank higher on Yahoo! or MSN? (But, Yahoo!, as of this past week, now carries Google AdWords, so I guess that’s okay?)

If you are a marketer and developing an overall online and print strategy, do you need to obtain Google’s permission to use this data?

Are you happy that these keyword and competitive intelligence reserves have been opened for exploration?

Remember, you’re saving gas by not having to drive around spying to gain competitive intelligence data.