Users have already started to search for Black Friday and related terms; this could either be due to the general state of this year’s economy or due to the clever marketing strategy of the retail industry to boost its overall holiday sales. The Google Trends data revealed that since the advent of the Black Friday, its usage has increased exponentially. And this year, users searching for Black Friday deals have resorted to the web much earlier than usual.

A Nielson survey revealed that the number of website that attracts users and consumers towards Black Friday deals has increased by about eighty-seven percent this year. The report also showed that number of unique visitors searching the top websites for bfads.net which offer deals for Black Friday has increased tremendously during the last weeks of October to the early weeks of November.

Hitwise / Experian also revealed similar numbers quoting that the amount of web traffic from Black Friday sites have increased by almost twelve percent in the week preceding the day. This day which has become synonymous as the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season has attracted both online and multichannel retailers to show case their products. Cyber Monday, which is the first Monday following Black Friday has also seen an increase in the number of users visiting the sites.

Though Cyber Monday has been growing in popularity over the years, Black Friday still continues to rule as the biggest online shopping day of the year. A blog post on Bing also announced an increase in cashback offers up to 35 percent starting on Black Friday. This can doubled its traffic with many users making a beeline to finish their shopping before the discount offer closes. Online shopping seems to have hit skyrocket these days with companies coming out with such innovative schemes and offers.

Popularity: 5% [?]

In the past week, Google Product Search bought out three new and innovative features which include an ‘OneBox,’ product reviews and ‘gallery’ view. The new shopping ‘OneBox’ can feature products pertaining to certain categories of searches which are in total contrast to the ordinary ‘OneBox’ which can only display products along with its estimated price. The company mentioned that for certain type of search queries, it is better to show feature products which has been determined to be more popular based on ranking algorithms.

Reviews have always been a part of Google Product Search and these are usually obtained from various sources on the web for the different products advertised. But since users do not have the time to go through all the reviews that are displayed for a product, Google has decided to come in with a new review section which is basically a bar chart. This chart displays all the reviews with the number of stars and also small quotes based on the site’s algorithm; if you click on a particular quote, you will be directed to the full review.

The new ‘gallery’ view is quite an exciting feature as users can now visualize the products they search for in larger proportions which are very useful especially when buying certain types of merchandise like jewellery. Previously users could only see grid views which hardly captured all the details which the user wanted to see before making a purchase decision. But now larger images can be seen for clothing and accessories where close-up views can be of extreme help to the buyer.

To summarize, the three new features added to Google Product Search are innovative and can do a world of good to the online shopper especially the ‘gallery’ view.

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It is once again Thanksgiving, the time of the year when we thank our Lord for his abundant blessings and grace upon us. And also a time for most of the search engines to come out with their creative logos to depict how they perceive this day to be.

The famous Google Doodle for Thanksgiving has Snoopy at its star donning the chef’s hat and the equally famous roast Turkey and mashed potatoes. The logo exudes warmth and homeliness, two qualities which capture the main essence of this day.

Yahoo’s logo for the day was quite mellow with autumn leaves strewn around and also showed a pumpkin, a vegetable for the rich and poor alike. AOL had a logo which was predominantly blue and was more of Halloween than Thanksgiving. A witch’s hat was displayed along with pumpkins as if to say ‘trick or treat.’

Bing displayed a screensaver than a logo which depicted a giant turkey walking down the road held by many people with ropes. There was a caption that said ‘Don’t let today’s turkey dinner spoil tomorrow’s waistline. Can you feel the burn?’ But this line takes away the entire concept of a turkey dinner where diets should be forgotten completely.

Ask.com also depicted turkeys which have become synonymous with Thanksgiving; the picture showed two turkeys waiting near the shore looking out a ship sailing by and a caption that said ‘Why do we eat turkeys on Thanksgiving?’ Dogpile.com showed a bunch of doggie buddies around a table having a feast along with the caption ‘Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the traditions of this festive holiday!’

Cre8astie forums had a picture which showed turkeys and a tray filled with fruits and a goblet of wine. A man carrying a tray of roast turkey was the logo on PPC Heros. And to end, Search Engine Roundtable displayed pumpkins and turkeys along with the caption ‘Pulse of the Sear.’

Once again, wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving.

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A recent blog on Google AdWords posted that advertisers who make use of the v2009 API can gain advantage with the company introducing two new, dynamic parameters in the ad copy. The new and unique parameters that were added include prices, quantities, discounts, offers and so on.

For example, if you run a search on an airline and want to find the latest prices for a trip from California to New Orleans, it can be done using API with the added parameters. The displayed ad copy will resemble something like this, ‘Fly from California to New Orleans for $250, Five Seats Left.’ This is definitely a very powerful way to display ads and can help publishers make the best use of it. You can practically search for any product or service and get results displayed in a similar manner making online shopping a highly pleasurable experience.

Google also mentioned a few other points that have to be kept in mind regarding these new parameters of AdWords. These dynamic Ad parameters can only be added or updated by the publisher through the AdWords API interface and not using any other tool like AdWords Editor or any other similar interface. At a time, only two new parameters can be added for any Ad. Another thing publishers have to keep in mind is that the dynamic value of these parameters must always be numeric unlike default values which can be non-numeric too. Currency symbols can also be added to the Ad.

As a last word of caution, Google mentions that all publishers must make sure that their ads comply with the policies of Google AdWords and any breach of this can terminate the contract. These new and dynamic parameters of AdWords are definitely a powerful tool for all publishers and can be used to gain maximum benefit.

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Google News service does not make use of the regular ranking algorithm ‘PageRank’ which is used by Google Search. Instead, it has its own unique ranking system which is based on a number of factors like user clicks, freshness of the article, geographical location and approximate authority of the publication on the particular news topic. This revelation was made by Josh Cohen who is the business product manager of Google News in a recent interview with Danny Sullivan.

A common complaint that is often put forward by news publishers especially the Italian counterparts is that Google does not provide adequate transparency about Google News system and the way it operates. Cohen clearly disagrees to this fact stating that the company started a news blog to make sure information regarding the same is available to all users and publishers. A recent blog titled ‘myths of Google News exposed’ was specifically on this argumentative subject.

He also mentioned that there is a special forum for publishers on Google News and also a help area which is exclusively for publishers to post any sort of queries they have regarding the site. It is true that the ranking system of Google News can seem like a mystery when compared with the regular Google Search but the company maintains the stand that they are doing everything to keep things simple and transparent for its publishers.

Cohen explained that by ‘story ranking’ does not mean a single story or news item but a cluster of publications or a group of related articles for a particular news item. The unique ranking algorithm of Google News can figure out how to cluster these related stories but within each cluster, the user can click on any individual story or news item.

He also stressed on the fact that the company does not employ any human editors but the entire editing process of Google News is left to its ranking system.

Popularity: 5% [?]

An offensive image of the First Lady Michelle Obama has been doing the rounds lately on Google’s search index. Since it has been ranking highly on search pages, Google is buying ads left and right to explain the appearance of this picture on its search index.

As per reports last week, Google had removed the offensive image of the First Lady as the website which was hosting the image had violated the company’s guidelines and was selling malware to its visitors. But the same image could be viewed through other sites which were still not looking at the rules.

There is an ad on the Google site termed ‘Offensive Search Results’ which can lead searchers to http://www.google.com/resultsinfo.html.; this site is used by the company to apologize to users who end up having an unpleasant search experience with Google. The page also explains in detail the company’s policy, rules and regulations regarding offensive content.

It is mentioned on this site that disturbing or offensive content that may sometimes be displayed on search results comes out of the internet or innocuous queries but the views expressed or images displayed are in no way endorsed by the company.

Google representatives reported that the results displayed by the search engine are a direct reflection of the content that is present on the internet. Site ranks are performed in Google by using complex mathematical algorithms which is in turn based on many factors. Hence, the ideals and preferences of the company’s staff cannot have any impact of the results thrown up on the Search page.

Earlier in 2006, Google was caught up in a similar situation when George Bush’s page ranked first for the search query ‘miserable failure.’ The company finally changed its algorithmic ranking system to exclude this search item. But nothing so far has been done to do the same for the offensive search result on the First Lady.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Google is once again proving their efficiency in the field of online news. As of now they do not have any ultimate solution to carry out their dreams. But they are experimenting new methods and solution to make their vision come true. They are coming up with super specialized products which will track down the news of a person and keep updating them about the recent happenings. This will be a great help to the person and he can make changes if required according to the circumstances. They expect atleast some of the experiments to succeed, while others need not really succeed. During a conversation with the product manager of Google, he states that these experiments are not conducted to compete with any of the publishers.

Google talks about the concept of hyper personalized products and how it can be useful for the people. It is as simple as reading a newspaper or magazine. You only have to flip through the pages and read through the contents. This concept has been in their heads since a long time, but takes a lot of effort and experiments to put into reality. They also mentioned about the importance of journalism in this new venture. People will accept the news written by the journalists even if published through online. They plan to combine all the aspects of news reading and then bring out their new concept of news online a mile stone of the modern generation.

Google fast flip is an example of their new experiments and products in the field on online news. This was launched in September and was a massive hit among the public. The art of reading has become more easy and convenient using this method. There are options for personalization in this new software. You can sit back and relax at your home while reading through the news.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Google is going to strike again and prove their efficiency in today’s world. Even before the National Association of REALTORS could bring out a national property database for the benefit of the human kind, Google is going to launch the first real estate search engine. The idea struck them before any other search engines and it will become a massive hit among the public. People will be able to locate a home at any place just by browsing from their home. This has been possible with the help of Google maps. You can easily view a home in Seattle just by clicking your mouse on your screen.

You can view information regarding the property, recent photos, exact location, street images and transportation to the area. Each and every minute detail is covered in the real estate listing. The pages are clear and provide all the information required for the individual. Using these pages you will never have a difficulty in locating the place. The directions to the place are well explained in the pages. If you have any enquiries, you can click on the search button which is also provided in the page. You can also view the source from which the details are taken and given in the directory.

Google discovered this new invention today in the Google Australian Blog officially. They also mentioned that the pages will include inspection times and videos. The page is designed in such a way that there are options to include more information in the future. In this way, they can always update the pages in the coming days. Google real estate search engine will be a boon to the public in many ways. Even though Google maps also show individual properties clearly, this new software will be more accurate and user friendly. They will also have links which are clear and short.

Popularity: 6% [?]

iPhone has got enough features to implement and stimulate the needs of people. Google Mobile Blog came up with this great news for iPhone users. Apart from them, the smart phone and Android users can avail this new redesigned Google News on their phones. The new version introduced is simple and at the same time easily accessible. It can be considered to be something interesting and similar to the desktop version which can be seen on Google News. There are just a few changes made on it to make it unique, fitting and appropriate on the mobile screen.

The latest design which has been come up by the giants have special additional features on it like images, stories and lot more specialized and personalized features. It is easy to use and at the same time the easy jump feature makes it easy to use and search.

The small widget like assistance from Google makes it easy to get into any news you wish to search. The search box is unique and easy check out the different categories easily. Apart from news you can also get into certain searches with Google on the ‘More” feature. Image is yet another button on the screen through which you can search for images right on your phone. Isn’t that a wonderful way of knowing the world your own way?

People are getting in with iPhone to avail all these splendid features to make things easy in your own way.

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Google has always been in the news for its ability to think out of the box and add interesting tools and features to its website. The latest and newest addition to Google Labs is an amalgamation of the tools Google Images, Google Similar Images and Google Wonder Wheel which is a visual query refinement tool. This new tool is called Google Image Swirl and what it actually does is cluster similar kinds of images based on certain visual analysis techniques and also based on characteristics and features that can be found in the surrounding pages.

The results of Image Swirl which are displayed are quite similar to the thumbnails that are displayed during regular image search results but actually there are many images that are stacked one behind the other and feature the topmost result first. If you click on the thumbnail, the entire stack expands and opens up all the images in a tile like manner which are related by similar visual characteristics and features. If you click on one of the images, an enlarged version of the image will open up but this time it will be based on conceptual or textual relationships.

Currently, Google Image Swirl will work for about 200,000 of the most popular search queries. It is easy to make out which queries have Image Swirl results even as you start typing in the Google Search box. The search images which are available will auto-complete in a similar manner to Google Suggest. The web site is also planning to increase the number of Image Swirl results for more queries in the near future.

This is definitely going to be a very interesting feature and one that will be used extensively by all loyal Google users worldwide.

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