Google *Stuff*

On the same spirit of my last post, April 1 always finds its fair share of April Fool’s Jokes. Google has been well known for sending press releases on new products or new ventures on April 1. The introduction of Pigeon Rank in 2002 was my favorite but you could have a good laugh reading the full collection of Google April Fool Jokes, including the latest one, the launch of an ambitious collaborative project between Google and Virgin called “Virgle”.

Here is an excerpt from the press release:

“Earth has issues, and it’s time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.”

You can become part of this exciting project by signing up online at google.com/virgle. You can also watch these explanatory clips about how Sergey, Larry & Richard are planning to accomplish their dream:

Alternatively, please find a lot more to read on April Fool Jokes 2008. 

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I am not sure what to think about this, if this is true or not, and I would really like to have your comments. I just got an email from Quebec about a new search engine (sic), ecogle.fr, a supposedly greener approach to our beloved Google. They claim that white pixels take way more energy than black pixels and as such we should turn to their solution instead. We would still get Google search results but with a different (black) user interface essentially. As such, this is what it would look like:

Please try it and let me know what you think. I am not convinced that I would like to search in the dark. I think the claim of saving energy would better suit traditional media people because of the insane amount of junk mail we receive and as such, we should leave Google alone for the time being, but that is just me.

Here is the original email, en Français:

Comme vous le savez, l’état de notre planète est de pire en pire. Effet de serre, pollution des océans, etc. Nous nous devons de faire des économies d’énergie, et ce pour la protection de nos enfants, de toutes les espèces animales, végétales, pour la protection de la Terre en général.

Un blogueur canadien a démontré il y a quelques temps que si le site Google était noir, on pourrait économiser 750 mégawatts-heures par an, soit toute l’énergie produite par 1000 petites éoliennes ou par 26 turbines du barrage des Trois Gorges en Chine (barrage dont la construction, faut-il le rappeler, a engendré le déménagement de plus d’un million de Chinois, qu’ils le veuillent ou non). Cette économie est dûe au fait que les pixels blancs nécessitent plus d’énergie que les pixels noirs pour s’afficher sur vos écrans.

Suite à cette démonstration, un nouveau moteur de recherches noir est né, Écogle (ecogle.fr), moteur de recherches qui utilise toutes les données de Google.

J’incite donc tous ceux qui reçoivent ce mail à mettre Ecogle.fr en page d’accueil, ou au moins à changer cette habitude d’aller sur Google, et d’utiliser Ecogle. Un geste qui ne coute rien, et qui à grande échelle, aura une influence sur la santé de notre environnement.

Merci de votre attention, et merci de faire en sorte que notre planète resplendisse à nouveau.

Bertrand Caussin
Président
Greenpeace France

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For those who are curious about this question, here is the answer to the number of employees at Google as of December 31, 2007. This information was released at the same time that Google Announced Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2007 Results.

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Darcy Foster from VKIstudios.com mentioned to me this morning during our monthly SEMPO Canada meeting about a great program he saw recently on the BBC channel. It is called ”The World According to Google”. Because Google still sees a phenomenal growth which leads to think that we are on a verge of another industrial revolution, you have to take the next 30 min to watch it. You can find all the links here. As a bonus, you can also see parts of the interview with John Battelle which was not broadcasted in full during the program.

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It has been brought to my attention this week that 25% of all search queries conducted on Google per month are NEW. For years, it has always been easier for Google to refine their algorithm & determine rank for repetitive & common search queries. They now find themselves in front of the daunting task of refining the algorithm for brand new search queries, composed of obscure or longer strings of text that no one has searched for before. This is quite an interesting challenge for everyone in this industry, including you, a website owner.

This information is coming from Udi Manber, Google’s VP of Engineering, in a speech that he gave recently on Search is a Hard Problem. He explained that with an audience like Supernova, he imagines we understand to some extent how difficult a problem it is, but it’s probably a harder problem then we even appreciate. He laid out three reasons why this is the case:

* Scale and diversity are almost beyond comprehension
* Expectations and needs will continue to grow
* 20 to 25% of the queries we see today, we have never seen before

What does this mean to you?
Since searchers are clearly becoming more sophisticated at refining their queries, the opportunity contained within the tail of search queries is greater than ever. We all know that blog is a great way to tap into this opportunity. If you do not consider starting a blog in 2008, please do so. It also means that your SEO plan as well as your PPC management might get a little more sophisticated this year than it used to. Break your site in smaller units of content. Break your Google adgroups the same way in order to dig deeper within the tail of search queries. You may want to try an SEO tool that is called HitTail.com that will allow you to find keywords your potential customers are searching for that you have not thought of before. That might guide some future SEO planning and you may win big in the process. First come, first serve.

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A lot of website owners are upset or puzzled when their website’s Google PageRank goes down or does not rise. Is it worth losing any sleep over changes in that green line and number that appear in a Google tool bar at the top of your browser? I think that excessive worry or thought about PageRank is not constructive, and it is better to put it all in perspective by taking a rational look at what PageRank is and what it is not. If you don’t even know what PageRank is, take a minute to download an install the Google Toolbar. Make sure you enable the advanced options, which includes the PageRank bar.

First of all, the concept behind PageRank is indeed at the heart of Google’s ranking process. The Google founders noticed that in many academic documents some sources were continually cited. They reasoned that if a particular document such as a book or research paper was mentioned in many places then it must be important. They applied this to the web and assumed that if one website links to another it is in fact, giving a “vote” for that site. A website that has many incoming links (or vote) must have a certain degree of importance. In the current Google algorithm the quantity and quality of incoming links is certainly a factor in deciding the ranking of a particular website for any given search-query.

Think about it. In the early days of the web people would build websites and then they would tell their visitors to check out other “cool” sites and they would link to these sites. This is the process of natural linking and it still goes on today. If you really have good content people will link to you without letting you know. Similarly if your name is Nickelback and your website is http://www.nickelback.com , thousands of people will link to you without you having to send a cheesy email begging for a link.

Various government agencies, educational institutions, established companies and anyone else who is “big” in the “real world” is likely to also be big on the Internet simply by virtue of their previous fame and accomplishment. This is not always true though. Google’s ranking system took this into consideration and this is one of the reasons why Google is currently the number one search engine. It gives better results and that is the main reason why people use it.

But, does that mean that only the big players can be seen on the net? Far from it. While there is a difference between one guy working in his house with one computer and a corporate giant with a whole staff, and this is indeed reflected in rankings. Prior to 1995 it would have been very hard for someone to spread their news and views far and wide as bloggers do today. It costs millions of dollars to publish a daily newspaper or to print and circulate a magazine, but it costs far less to publish a website or a blog, and lots of “little guys” have taken advantage of the power of the Internet.

But what about PageRank, how much of it do I really need to get my site noticed?

For those who are not familiar with the PageRank system:
Google supplies a toolbar which you can download and install on your browser. If you make a complete installation with all the advanced features, then every time you open a new website you will see a green and white bar with the label PageRank. Put your mouse on the bar and you will see a number from 0 to 10. If a website is not indexed by Google or banned by Google the bar may be grey or all white.

But what do the numbers mean? Is it worth worrying about a number 3 PageRank figure? Based on my observation I answer with my unofficial view on the rankings. Here is how I currently see it:

Page 0-2 shows that a site does not have many links and needs work. However, that does not mean you could not rank well if you have PageRank of 2 for several search terms in a fairly competitive industrial category. Therefore, PageRank is not everything; it may have an impact on your rankings and traffic, but in some cases it may not matter. In any case, if you have a PageRank of 0-2 (out of 10), you can work on it through proper link building activity which I will explain a little more at the end of the article.

PageRank 3 can be OK in some cases but in highly competitive industries you should work to improve it.

PageRank 4 is quite a normal number and indicates that you have enough links in either quantity or quality to make your site competitive.

PageRank 5 indicates that a site has many links or links from authoritative sites, and that Google has good “trust” in the site. It is a respectable and attainable PageRank.

PageRank 6 is very difficult to attain. This rank indicates that the site has many links and links from respected places. Remember the example of http://www.nickelback.com, which I mentioned above, it has a PageRank 6, so you can get an idea of the difficulty involved.

PageRank 7-10 is usually earned by large and established institutions or websites which have tremendous authority, due to the quantity and quality of the incoming links. It is extremely difficult to attain this ranking. You really have to be special to get it.

So, don’t worry excessively about PageRank. First look at your traffic, then look at your sales and finally at your bottom line. They are all important numbers to watch. If you want to increase your traffic and also PageRank, then here are a few steps that you can take:

1. Add content to your website. Make your website is so good and so useful that people will link to you without you asking for a link.

2. Write articles and get them published on other websites and blogs with a link back to your site.

3. Distribute online press releases

4. Judiciously exchange links, or even better, exchange content (containing links back to your site) with other websites.

5. Get your site listed in online directories.

These efforts will certainly help you to build targeted traffic, and they most probably will also help you to increase your PageRank as well. If you want me to get the job done for you on increasing your PageRank, then get in touch with me.

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Sergey Brin, Co-Founder of Google, was invited to be a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley on Search Engines and Technology as part of the course SIMS 141. His session is called: Search, Google, and Life:

UC Berkeley have started to post all of their lectures on YouTube. Other topics in the course include search advertising and auctions, search and privacy, search ranking, internationalization, anti-spam efforts, local search, peer-to-peer search, and search of blogs and online communities. The rest of the SIMS 141 lecture videos are here. 

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My friend James from Up In Ontario wrote a story today on Google’s influence on how we seek and connect with information, across generations. He talks about how his grand-parents perceive our intense daily use of Google. Very touching. You should read it. The Onion also talks about the same topic where they report the launch of ”The Google”, the same great Google search engine results with a different interface to appeal to older adults. Hilarious in a typical Onion’s style. 

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