Online Business News

Latest Google Algorithm Change

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:16:35 +0000

Google continues to try to set itself apart from rivals as it makes a major change to their core algorithm resulting in a difference in 35% of searches according to Google.

The aim of the change is to make results more relevant so that anyone executing a search can choose whether they want the most up to date information or historical news and data.

As Google fellow Amit Singhal explained “The under-the-hood changes sought to understand whether a searcher wants results the last week, day or even minute.”

In contrast to rival Microsoft who’s Bing search engine emphasises social search, the updated Google algorithm is expected to be able to offer a better guess of how recent or ‘fresh’ the results should be.

Current news stories that are continuous such as the Euro crisis for instance will need to be distinguished from searches for regular events such as company reports, as Euro news updates are constantly being added. A search on ‘the Euro Crisis’ therefore would bring up the latest news items that are literally minutes fresh.

Other types of searches such as looking up a recipe, could call on older results of a few months or even years old, further explained Singhal.

Although the change will allow Google to keep its indexing up to date and add new sources quicker, there is a disadvantage to be noted of this shift in that relevancy could be diluted by spammers uploading light content.

Nokia launches Smartphone to rival Apple & Google

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:08:18 +0000

Things have moved fast since Finnish firm NOKIA’s CEO warned employers of the company’s predicament with his ‘burning platform’ & ‘icy waters’ speech earlier in the year. Two weeks ago Nokia proudly launched the Lumia 800 along with cheaper model 710 to go on sale this month in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. New man in charge Stephen Elop ditched Nokia’s two operating systems for phones – the esteemed Symbian and the Linux-based MeeGo – and formed an alliance with Microsoft Corp. Microsoft, of course, have for years struggled to gain ground in the mobile market – its most recent contribution, the Windows Phone 7 software, while being well received did not manage to gain much of a foothold.

Using the Microsoft Windows operating system, the new Nokia smartphones can finally offer an alternative to the preponderant iPhone and Google Android based devices. The dependability of the Windows software, along with sleek handset design and a favourable price should begin to readdress a balance.

To distinguish themselves from their rivals, the phones contain applications such as a navigation system for drivers, using Nokia’s maps, public-transport information over 400 cities worldwide and free streamed music, with new features to be added as future versions of Windows appear. The biggest innovation, though, is thought to be the Nokia Pulse, a service that combines elements of social networking with location services

In addition, just this week it exhibited four new ‘feature’ phone models aimed at the sociable young in developing countries. Although Nokia still sells the largest number of less elaborate ‘feature’ phones, it’s market share in America has virtually disappeared and these models will not be sold in the USA or Canada.

Amazon launches in España!

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:09:29 +0000

Amazon.es launched in Spain.

Amazon opened its online doors to SPAIN on Sept. 15th. This is good news for a country where e-commerce is way behind the times. That said, Spaniards have been using the co.uk/com sites for quite some time now and the figure quoted for Spanish visitors to the Amazon website stood at one million per month before the September Amazon.es launch.

The security, efficiency and excellent customer service offered by Amazon may go a long way to encourage an increased confidence in online shopping for a nation that credits less than five percent of his shopping habits to online purchases.

The site is expected to be in instance success but worries of how this success will impact on off-line retailers are not unfounded. The Spanish culture of shopping with local shopkeepers at independent stores still strongly exists but the lure of cheaper goods, particularly electronic goods, might be too great for the ash-strapped population.

We look forward to seeing just how successful Amazon.es will be in the coming months.

Value of Internet Companies – Hype v Reality

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:31:57 +0000

Hype v Reality?

As internet companies form a non-orderly queue to register an Initial Public Offering (that is first sale of stock to the public) some claim we have entered into a new tech bubble. They justify the claim by citing recent valuations of Facebook, Linked-In and Groupon and warn from this that investors should not assume that every big internet company that goes public will be a success. As for the public, as more and more money pours in on the back of an investment opportunity of a lifetime ‘impulse’, prices rise higher and higher until the valuation becomes unrecognisable from the original value. The fear that valuations are simply backed up by hype and most will decrease over the coming years, leaving just a few winners, is the main critical standpoint.

Opponents stress that to hark back to 2001 dot.com crash would be putting forward an invalid argument given that so much has changed within internet technology since the dot.com crash. The most important change being that the market is now atleast four times bigger than it was in the late nighties – it is estimated that over 2BILLION people worldwide now use the internet, and mainly via Broadband connection. Added to that astounding figure is the fact that cost of running an application has reduced dramatically and that programming skills have advanced considerably.
With internet businesses taking over the supply of radio, film, music and books the logic behind technology companies trading at Price-Earnings multiples of between 15 and 25 times seems to some to be wholly justified, and in fact, compared to industrial stocks, stocks in technology are currently trading much lower.

So, what do you think? Is this talk of a new tech bubble really justified?

Value of Internet Companies – Hype v Reality?

Online marketing and Kia Motors Ltd

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:26:04 +0000

Hyundia owned Kia Motors Ltd has reported massive success in its endeavour to fully embrace online marketing in 2009. Kia’s digital marketing management revealed that since their website overhaul in 2010, they have received 72% more traffic and recently stated that ‘People say you wouldn’t launch a new car without going on TV. But it is possible that we might decide to do that this year’
Evidence suggests generally that around 90% of consumers use the internet for information on vehicle purchases and recent Kia results pay good testament to this evidence, to the extent that they are even considering dropping TV advertising campaigns.
The true importance of an online marketing strategy is summed up in a quote from digital marketing management head John Bache in a recent interview with Marketing Week “Whereas people used to spend their Sundays driving around dealerships looking at seven different vehicles, they’re now looking at seven different websites and going to two different dealers,” Bache says. With dealers being absolutely essential for car sales then the website has to do the job of encouraging potentials buyers through the doors of the dealerships at weekends.
Most importantly, it is search engine marketing that has been given the thumbs up by the car makers “Search engine optimisation is the key for us. We think it’s the most effective way to increase traffic.” Indeed, ‘Kia’ is no longer a search for a type of car but an actual brand that people identify with due to their marketing efforts up to now. Because their brand is so strong, they get a high return on investment as it is easier for them not only to rank highly organically but also via pay per click campaigns, where they can dominate the paid search space operating with the strong Kia domain name. Getting to this certain threshold can result in growth exponentially and they are leveraging the brand strength that has been gained over the years via offline methods.

Social media is also playing a role within Kia’s digital strategy. In 2010 the company launched a YouTube channel, and the number of views the company’s videos generated exceeded all expectations, with more than 40,000 views in two months. The success of these videos was attributed to that fact that the content is factual, rather than entertaining, where viewers are able to gain valuable information about Kia’s vehicles.
“One thing we have noticed is that if we ask people to watch a video, or try to push product-related messages to them, interaction with those posts is a lot less than if we ask for user-generated content, such as ’where did you take your Kia this weekend?’,” said Bache.
With regard to Facebook, the Kia Motors UK Facebook page currently has around 3,700 ’likes’ but has said not yet seen the success they hoped for, but the page remains a work in progress, looking at regularity and content of postings.
Of course, mobile is now firmly on Kia’s radar as consumers increasingly embrace smartphones. January 2011 figures showed that 5% of all Kia’s web traffic was coming in via mobile devices. Kia intends to have a fully-optimised mobile website in the near future.
It goes without saying that traditional media will still keep its place in Kia’s marketing strategy and in order to ensure the various types of media can be aligned, Kia relies on MPG Media Contracts (part of Havas Digital) to fuse offline and online ideas across all types of media channels.

For information on how to help your business grow through search engine marketing and to discuss other strategies such as lead generation and affiliate programs within the field of online marketing, get in touch with us here at Panovista Marketing.

Groupon Enters Chinese Market

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:16:53 +0000

Groupon finally made its entry into the world’s most densely inhabited internet market as its Chinese site Gaopeng.com has begun offering daily deals in March.
Their emergence into the market has ignited the curiosity of some Chinese industry leaders, however the big question remains how they plan to distinguish themselves from already established firms. The online group-buying boom in China started in early 2010 and by the end of the year, there were over two and a half thousand groups involved.
And industry experts in China believe that first and foremost, changes will have to make to the margin the company can expect from operating in China. They will not be able to enjoy a 50% gains on each coupon often seen in the US market and should expect to see a more likely figure of 10% or lower.
Already, Groupon’s daily deals offer in Shanghai and Bejing have prompted China’s largest group-buying site Lashou.com to embark on an expansion into China’s smaller cities. Whilst at the same time, negative commentary from Chinese heads of business and media warn that western internet companies do not have a good success rate in China. Fraud is rife and the business environment is frenzied, this coupled with the cultural and consumer differences will prove to be a huge test for Groupon. As George Song, former head of Google China explained: “In the US, people are used to making a reservation in a restaurant, but Chinese rarely ever do that,”
All warnings appear to be being observed though as Groupon team up with Tencent Inc, China’s largest internet portal, as advisor, and unpertubed by the challenges that lay ahead, Gao Peng VP said the company intends to introduce a clever group-buying business model along with an international service standard to the market.

Amazon to offer online film service

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:38:04 +0000

Amazon plans to take on online video streaming big gun Netflix by launching its own film service, offering TV and film that can be watched directly from the Amazon site. In the beginning they won’t be offering as many films and programmes as their rival, but said they plan to increase the number available over time.
Netflix Inc. who have been operating in the DVD via mail subscription service since 2002, have already gained 20m customers and secured deals with major Hollywood film studios and TV producers, which means that Amazon have a big challenge on their hands.
Amazon clearly mean business though with their recent acquisition of postal/online dvd company Lovefilm helping them secure a place in the UK market they had sought after.
And Amazon are not the only giants entering into the world of online entertainment. Last year Walmart bought online movie service VUDU, so the battle for digital dominance further hots up!

Mobile Internet is here – official!

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:49:47 +0000

Google’s view that the age of mobile internet has arrived is backed up well and truly by the fact that over 7 million people in the UK are now users of mobile internet. In fact, Google searches on high-end mobiles such as the iPhone increased by almost two-thirds as 2009 went into 2010.

The main reasons for the evolution of mobile internet are considered to be a combination of ‘computing, connectivity and the cloud.’ Indeed, the rise of cloud computing providers in such as Salesforce, Eloqua, Zoho, Boxnet have had a massive impact on progress.

Ian Carrington, mobile advertising sales director at Google recently gave a guide to responding to consumer demand for your brand being online and mobile. He offered an insight to how to approach your mobile advertising strategy, summarised by us below:

Objectives: Determine what your business objectives are for mobile application; i.e. is it to create brand awareness, to attract customers to your business’ actual location or to enable them to buy a product direct from your site.

Infrastructure: A high-end ready mobile website is essential and it should have clickable user interface features for touch screen users. Have the necessary resources in place to handle the increased demand you may experience.

Online visability: Separate your mobile platform from your main website. Adwords should have various campaigns set up for specific targeting. Remember to focus keywords towards mobile users. Incorporate into your offline media by using QR codes (if appropriate to your business.) Set up conversion tracking and mobile site analytics to analyse performance metrics.

Embrace mobile culture: The expert view is that purchases made via mobiles will have increased 600% in 2014 (from the 2009 figure). Realise the value of mobile marketing and feature it into all future activity as a given.

Panovista Marketing offer a range of services to businesses that enable them to leverage new technology including CRM Automation Management and Mobile Marketing Services.

Google Property Search halted

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:11:15 +0000

The 2010 venture in property searches by Google has been halted. Street View, which enabled potential buyers to see photos of individual properties, a feature used alongside Google Maps, was made available the UK, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

However, the world’s most used search engine cites low usage as the reason for the withdrawal of the service, along with the admission that excellent property search tools already exist with the real estate industry. Google Earth Vice President Brian McClendon did however say that Google would continue to explore the field.

Unsurprising, online property service companies were jubilant upon hearing the news. UK company Rightmove’s shares climbed 3% at the announcement of Google’s withdrawal. At the end of 2009 they experienced a slump at expectations of Google’s property search plans but estate agents have reportedly stayed faithful to Rightmove and other online property portals, as have the vast majority of consumers it now appears.

Over in the US, the main question asked was always how Google would be able generate revenue from home searches and how they would deal with the burden of keeping accurate records of so many properties. In a country as large as the States the job is no easy feat and a simple listing was just not enough to entice potential buyers to a property.

Anyone taking an interest in Google’s endeavours will note that this is of course the second slice of abandonment by internet giant Google with the space of a year. Remember Google Wave??

ASOS’s Shop on Facebook

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:28:03 +0000

Fashion retailer Asos.com, which attracts over 11 million unique visitors to its site per month, will launch its Facebook shop at the end of January. Users will be able to make purchases from its entire range via social networking site. Social sign-ins to its website will mean that customers can use their Facebook or Twitter details to log on and share their purchases with friends. ASOS currently has almost 400,000 followers on Facebook.

The Facebook app will have the same functionality as the Asos website, including add-to-basket, edit cart contents, check out and order-tracking features. Users’ purchases will appear in their friends’ newsfeeds, that will then offer the chance to click through to the Facebook store. The system has been developed by Usablenet.com which current drives the ASOS.com