How Google + (Plus) Can Increase Your Search Engine Rankings

Did you know that Google Plus is a DoFollow site? Oh yes and not only is it dofollow but it's anchor text backlinks coming from a Page Rank 8 site. This is great news for the Search Engine Optimization community. These free anchor text dofollow links are a gift from the Google gods! Google Plus allows multiple anchor text links in your profile and your +1's are also dofollow. For those who are not familiar with the NoFollow and DoFollow concept here is a quick break down.

NoFollow and DoFollow Definition:
If a site is DoFollow, then links to external sites are acknowledged by search engines and get credit for being linked to (which helps search engine ranking and authority). If a site uses NoFollow tags within links, search engines do not acknowledge the links to the external site.

Facebook and Twitter are both nofollow which puts Google Plus ahead from an SEO perspective. This does not diminish Facebook and Twitters social marketing capabilities at all as both sites are great for traffic and building brands, but Google Plus ties both the social and search engine marketing together. Google recently launched their +1 (plus one) feature where users can "plus" or "like" a web page or website in the search results. The user's plus ones are stored on their Google Plus profiles where it's visible to their contacts and friends.

Google Plus Ones are similar to Facebook Likes but would have a greater affect, specifically on how websites are going to be ranked. Obviously the more plus ones a website has the better it will rank in Google's search engine results. And much like Facebook Likes it will be shared with a user's friends and followers which is a big influence, as people tend to trust what their friends or contacts recommend. So if 10,000 users have +1'd your website Google will definitely rank you well!

It is now important for businesses and website owners to have Google +1 buttons on their websites and to have a Google Plus profile. This will ensure users can easily +1 your site and you can take advantage of the dollow backlinks. If you're not a member of Google Plus as yet, Get a Google Plus invite here.

Find out more about Google +1 here http://www.google.com/+1/button/

Read More

Google To Buy Motorola Mobility

Google's deal to purchase Motorola Mobility puts the company that makes the Android operating system in the business of making smartphones. The search and online advertising company is buying the company for approximately $12.5 billion (or $40 per share), in cash. This is a big step for Google as it will now become a full fledged cell phone manufacturer. This deal can be likened to if Microsoft were to start making PCs.

Acquiring Motorola Mobility is not only about making phones but about patents for Google, as it helps the company to fend off legal challenges from Apple and Microsoft related to Android. The purchase provides Google with legal ammunition, the tech giant can now bring in it's 17,000 patents and protect it's ecosystem a little better. This should provide Google with a little more room to punch harder in the mobile wars going forward. With a worldwide market of 5 billion smartphones there is plenty at stake, it's a cage match out in the smartphone market right now.

Where as Apple's IOS operating system is used exclusively with the iPhone, Google allows many smartphone makers to use Android, this practice has made it the number one operating system in the world. But the purchase of Motorola Mobility could complicate that arrangement. The major Android cell phone manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung have not commented on the deal but several months of scrutiny awaits before the deal is finalized.

Read More

Discovery Shark Week's Amazing Interactive YouTube Ad

Have you seen the amazing Shark Week Ad on YouTube yet? If you haven't here is a video of the interactive full page ad.



Discovery Channel has been trying to "bait" viewers through social media for it's Shark Week series. They have went all out this year for their YouTube ad campaign which is extremely creative. This ad features SNL comedian Andy Samberg as the Chief Shark Officer for Shark Week. The interactive ad appears on YouTube's homepage and prompts you to wake up Andy Samberg who is sleeping, once you wake up Adam he tells you to click "watch now" to watch shark week clips. When you click the watch now button that's when the real fun begins, you are taken a page that looks like a normal YouTube page but it really isn't, it's actually a flash or html 5 page.

The ad shows a normal YouTube page with a video of Andy Samberg talking but then the page starts to collapse as something is ramming it from behind. Water starts dripping on the page and the page breaks apart to reveal a Shark who then furiously moves forward toward the viewer and the background becomes an underwater scene with Sharks swimming in the background. A series of videos then rise up from the water. At the bottom of there are social media links to Facebook and Twitter, accompanying these links is a Shark fin that follows your mouse cursor which is very cool. There is also a collage of comments from YouTube users about Shark Week.

Discovery did an amazing job on this ad, it's definitely one of the most creative and visually appealing ads I've seen online.

Read More