Pandora Squared - Web and Business Architects, Consultants, Social Media Marketing, Software and Blogging hope not hype

Before leaving back to Manila, I had to get my fix. ManresaRestaurant.com

They were rated 39 of 50 best Restaurants in the World.

Because of that rating and proper site exposure they were ranked under the term “World’s 50 Best Restaurants” in Google. Let me tell you that got them traffic.

Now, they just implemented a blog, not allowing comments, but it’s a step.

Dell also (now) understands that they need a tool to communicate/converse with users.

Direct 2 Dell “one-2-one communications with DELL.” another blog w/ comments.

• You can not control the conversation you can only participate, listen or ignore.

• You must lead in search or be part of the user’s conversations.

• We have an operating system for social networks making the invisible markets and invisible converations visible to your organisation both within and without your company.

What would happen if you enabled your users with the tools that empowered them? Conversation Squared

MySpace Outage Boosts Google Traffic
Thursday, Aug 3, 2006 6:00 AM ET
MYSPACE’S RECENT DOWNTIME LAST WEEK, caused by rolling blackouts in the Los Angeles area, sent its legions of users scattering across the Web in search of their Internet fixes, causing traffic spikes at Google and MySpace competitor Facebook.com, according to data released Wednesday by Hitwise. Google, among top sites, experienced the greatest spike—shooting from about 4.1 percent of total Internet visits to roughly 4.45 percent at the height of the outage, on July 23. Facebook.com went from .45 percent to roughly .50 percent during the same period. Hitwise also noted that MySpace users looking for love apparently went elsewhere. Dating sites experienced an increase of more than 10 percent in market share, and adult sites also experienced a “mild bump-up.”—Shankar Gupta

Whether a site goes down, or a shift in the industry – your search team should be getting those leads.

The power of Pay-Per-Click is instant TOP results.

Users default to search!

Be TOP in Search, be Part of the Conversation.

I will take those “mild bump-ups”.

After working closely in the moving and storage industry for the past couple of weeks. (Case Study coming soon) I have realized search is even more important then ever.

Companies frequently ask me how they can control the top 10 listings under their company name.

Why? References!!

Google is the #1 place to search for a reference.
Individuals moving want to make sure their belongings are safe and the move goes as smooth as expected. With sites like RipOffReport.com and BadBusinessBureau.com any competitor, disgruntled ex-employee, or unhappy customer can reach 1st page ranking with a single complaint/post if done correctly. Now these sites above are not just for moving companies but any industry.

These sites are a form of User Generated Content (filled with ads) that is regarded highly as “relevant” to the search engines.

What to do?

Control the top 15 listings at least. Make sure your listings have high Google PR (page rank) and can withstand a complaint or two.

Once a complaint reaches the top, two things can save you.
Time and another higher ranked page.

Listings can change daily. How are you tracking your companies name?

Kinda like Google Trends but not as cool.

AdLab does offer some more features like “Search Funnels” this tells you what the previous or next search terms in a sequence of a searcher. Normal people search up to 6 times before clicking on anything, I just need one try. :)

An outgoing funnel is a search that starts with the keyword; for example, an outgoing funnel for “BMW” displays all the queries that customers searched after searching for “BMW”.

You can use adCenter technology to predict a customer’s age, gender, and other demographic information according to his or her online behavior—that is, from search queries and webpage views.

See the technology, try it, Yes it works.

Now become an Advertiser.

Targeting is great if you have enough relevant real estate.

Oh by the way numbers just came out.

Google with 44.1 percent of all searches. Yahoo claimed 27.9 percent, while MSN garnered 12.9 percent.

June 28th Google’s GBuy (Google’s new online payment system) is going to rock the stage.

Starting with a free no transaction beta stage, then moving towards a 1.5-2% fee.

Snap watch out. Pay-Per-Action’s second coming is happening very soon.

In the long term Google will tie Google AdWords with GBuy to serve more relevant ads to web searchers. Reducing click fraud and getting a bigger cut from the ecommerce world.

CIA official Freedom of Information Act (foia) site

Top 25 Search Phrases

• soviet analysis: 1647
• ufo: 1066
• iran: 690
• cuba: 652
• south africa: 457
• assassination: 400
• brazil: 367
• iraq: 366
• area 51: 364
• soviet+analysis: 358
• afghanistan: 352
• bay of pigs: 323
• jfk: 304
• israel: 295
• chile: 294
• kennedy: 280
• vietnam: 244
• nicaragua: 231
• france: 226
• poland: 215
• pbsuccess: 212
• nato: 202
• soviet: 198
• korea: 175
• turkey: 170

”...the most frequent phrases used to search for documents on this site during the previous month, along with the number of times that search phrase was entered.”

When working with a lot of clients AdWords accounts, trying to do bulk and quick changes is a tough thing to do. I mean how does one create new ad campaigns while on the plane?

Now I can!

“AdWords Editor is Google’s free, downloadable account management application for your computer. Download your AdWords account to your computer, make your changes, then upload your revised campaigns.”

It has been out for a while but of course invitation only. Now all can enjoy.

This exe application reminds me of the popular Flickr Uploadr tool which quickly allows you to upload pictures from your desktop. (faster then a speedy ff browser)

And you thought everyone is going toward the hosted Software as a Service apps.

What can I say, it’s what users demand..

visualizing online social networks

“Vizster provides a visualization of such services, providing an interactive sociogram for exploring the links between network members. In addition to visualizing “friendship” linkages, Vizster supports a range of exploratory search features, providing visualization of the rich profile data characteristic of these services, features which traditional sociograms are not designed to communicate.”

Vizster reflecting a search query for the term “simpsons”. Matching nodes highlight in yellow, as do text matches in the profile panel.

Check out the video demonstration This stuff makes me drool.

Planting grass and waiting for paths to appear.

Check out Danah’s You Tube Videos

What happens when I enter your name in one of the top search engines or a social network?

Your search – “andie beckman” – did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

• Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
• Try different keywords.
• Try more general keywords.

Does this person exist? They say they graduated from here, and used worked here but yet I see no reference.

No reference on LinkedIn No reference on MySpace

No reference = no Existence

So what are some solutions?

• Write a Blog
• Comment on a blog post that you like
• Create several profiles on social networks
• Create a Personal Website
• Start or participate in a conversation online

You personal brand is directly correlated with a Google search of your name and remember everything online is indexable.

social development

“We’re excited to take the Tom Sawyer view, and see how our users paint the fence.” Marissa Mayer, vice president for search products and user experience, Google

Google wanted to help users generate content, and also organize and search for work created by fellow users.

They are late in the UGC game but understand that if they facilitate the content they will be in a much better position. With Wikipedia, MySpace, and YouTube gaining huge audiences, Google will not be left out.

Big brands are also trying to harness UGC. Chevrolet, Sony, L’Oréal, Converse, and Toyota are just touching the water of letting the users define the brands.

“The trick is that you have to let go…We’re used to dictating our messages and we’re used to being in control.” Mike Fasulo, the chief marketing officer for Sony Electronics.

Let Go and Let the User