fidzu : search engine

Today, Google announced the roll out of Consumer Ratings Annotations in AdWords. The annotations spotlight strongly rated aspects of an advertiser's business such as customer service, a rewards program or shipping practices in search ads. Along with Review Extensions and Seller Ratings,...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

10 Mar 2014 9:31pm GMT

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Using First-Party Data For SEM On Google & Way Beyond! As a general rule, the marketer with the most actionable data wins. There are many types of data but...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

10 Mar 2014 9:00pm GMT

Tobi Mueller started coding when his grandfather, who works in IT, gave him access to a spare PC. It was a sweet 286 machine which Tobi learned to program with the then-popular teaching language Pascal. He eventually became interested in free and open source software, but it was Google Summer of Code (GSoC) that helped transform Tobi into the free software contributor he is today.

Tobi was a GSoC student in 2007 for GNOME, a free software desktop environment. He's been a regular contributor to the GNOME community ever since-and in 2012, Tobi was elected to the GNOME Foundation board of directors.

Tobi is one of more than 7,500 students who have participated in Google Summer of Code program over the past nine years. Every summer, GSoC participants work with various organizations in the open source community, building important technical skills and gaining workplace experience. Students aren't the only ones who benefit; their projects also give back to the open source community. Karen Sandler, GNOME's executive director, told us how Google Summer of Code "encourages and empowers" new contributors and helps "invigorate projects."

So if you're a university student looking to earn real-world experience this summer, we hope you'll consider coding for a cool open source project with Google Summer of Code. We're celebrating the 10th year of the program in 2014, and we'd love to see more student applicants than ever before. In 2013 we accepted almost 1,200 students and we're planning to accept 10 percent more this year.

You can submit proposals on our website starting now through Friday, March 21 at 12:00pm PDT. Get started by reviewing the ideas pages of the 190 open source projects in this year's program, and decide which projects you're interested in. There are a limited number of spots, and writing a great project proposal is essential to being selected to the program-so be sure to check out the Student Manual for advice. For ongoing information throughout the application period and beyond, see the Google Open Source blog.

Good luck to all the open source coders out there, and remember to submit your proposals early-you only have until March 21 to apply!

Posted by Carol Smith, Google Open Source team

10 Mar 2014 7:00pm GMT

As a general rule, the marketer with the most actionable data wins. There are many types of data but the most useful kind - the GlenGarry data - is first-party data. This article will show you how you can use the data you already have about your best (and worst) customers to improve...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

10 Mar 2014 3:00pm GMT

Thanks to Google Analytics, we have all the data necessary to formulate a successful SEO campaign and measure its impact. If you aren't already using custom reports, this is a great selection to start with (and NO technical skills are required).

10 Mar 2014 1:30pm GMT

Video is a must-have format for marketers. Here are a few video resource sites that deliver value to potential buyers and accelerate funnel conversion. Across these examples, we'll illustrate five common traits of useful video resource microsites.

10 Mar 2014 12:30pm GMT

Mobile-first networks Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine reach strategic, engaged audience segments (i.e., young people), which is clearly compelling to marketers. So it's only a matter of time before these networks can turn on the revenue faucets.

10 Mar 2014 11:30am GMT

Picture the women in your life-the women you admire. Your grandma. Your daughter. Toni Morrison. Maria Klawe. Temple Grandin. Malala. Somaly Mam. International Women's Day is an opportunity to celebrate these phenomenal women and all the others around the world-to recognize their impact on society, and to focus on what still needs to be done to achieve gender equality. Today, Google is joining in and showcasing inspiring women of the past and present through a series of events, new content on the Cultural Institute and-of course-a doodle. Join us in celebrating women worldwide!

Celebrating technical women on stage at global Women Techmakers events
To help increase visibility, community and resources for technical women, we're launching a series of 100+ Women Techmakers events in 52 countries to celebrate and support passionate techmakers around the world. Starting today and throughout March, the event series will feature panel discussions with talented female technology leaders, hands-on career planning workshops, networking opportunities and more. To learn more about the program and find an event near you, visit g.co/womentechmakers.

Shining a light on women in history and their collective impact
The Google Cultural Institute is launching Women in Culture, a new channel featuring exhibits that tell stories of women-some familiar and some lesser-known-and their impact on the world. Starting today, you can browse 18 new exhibits, from both new and existing Cultural Institute partners, including:

• Showcasing Great Women by The National Women's Hall of Fame
• Makers by WETA (Makers.com: the largest video collection of women's stories ever)
• Frida Kahlo: ¡Viva la vida! by Museo Dolores Olmedo
• Pioneering Musicians: Women Superstars of the Early Gramophone Era by Archive of Indian Music
• Pathways to Equality by the National Women's History Museum
• The Struggle for Suffrage by English Heritage
• Profiles for Peace by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security
• This Mad, Wicked Folly: Victorian American Women by the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation
• World Changing Women by Vital Voices
• The painting Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico / Out Back of Marie's II contributed by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Since history has so often been biased, leaving out or sidelining contributions from women, the channel is also integrated with the rest of the Cultural Institute collections, making it easier for people to discover even more amazing stories about women throughout history.

A homepage homage
Women have been underrepresented in the history-telling of almost all fields: science, school curricula, business, politics-and, sadly, doodles. In addition to our continued effort for doodle diversity and inclusion, today's truly International Women's Day doodle features a host of more than 100 inspiring women from around the world, including the President of Lithuania, a brave Pakistani education activist, the most recorded artist in music history, an ever-curious explorer and dozens more.

Happy International Women's Day!

Posted by Kyle Ewing, People Operations

08 Mar 2014 8:00am GMT

At age 40, my mom quit her job to start an employment agency for people with disabilities. Over the next few years and without a college degree or any formal funding, she grew her business to employ more than 30 people and serve thousands of clients.

Though to me she's one-of-a-kind, it turns out there are other women like my mom out there. According to the National Association of Women Business Owners, women make up 30 percent of U.S. business owners and employ nearly 7.8 million workers. Even though women-owned enterprises operate with far less capital, in the venture-backed tech industry, they produce 12 percent higher returns. That means that not only is supporting women in business the right thing to do, it's also the smart thing to do.

In an effort to find new ways to advance female entrepreneurs, this week Google for Entrepreneurs is committing $1 million in aggregate to 40 startup-focused organizations, challenging them to increase the representation of women in their respective tech communities. From simply changing the times of events to accommodate busy moms to teaching young girls to see themselves as entrepreneurs, 40 of our partner communities will soon launch new programs and outreach initiatives to encourage women founders. We're calling this collective effort #40Forward. Here are a few highlights from our global community:

• 1871 in Chicago is launching a new accelerator program for women founded or co-founded companies that's more flexible and family-friendly, with a customized plan for each startup.
• Gaza Sky Geeks in Gaza is providing rewards for women attending startup events to demonstrate the economic value of them getting involved in tech to their families.
• Startup Grind chapters all over the world are hosting Women Take the Stage fireside chats featuring successful women business leaders in their communities.
• Outbox in Uganda is launching a year-long training to teach young women programming and entrepreneurial skills.
• Astia is increasing female entrepreneurs' access to capital by creating monthly opportunities for women-led companies to pitch to world-class investors.

Along with our 40 partners, we hope to create more inclusive networks and to move the needle for entrepreneurs like my mom-and young women like me who aspire to be like her. Follow and participate in the conversation throughout the month of March using #40Forward on Google+ and Twitter.

Posted by Bridgette Sexton Beam, Global Entrepreneurship Manager

05 Mar 2014 5:00pm GMT

In January, my 30 day challenge was to limit my social media. That was a productive month. In February, my 30 day challenge was to eat more slowly. I did that by counting to ten between chewing bites of my food. I tend to wolf down my food, which doesn't give my stomach time to […]

26 Feb 2014 8:41am GMT

There's a new Google Easter Egg: search for [blink html] and the words "blink" and "html" will start to flash slowly. It also works for [blink tag] Google uses CSS3 animations to emulate the <blink> HTML element because it is no longer supported by modern browsers.

"The blink element is a non-standard presentational HTML element that indicates to a user agent (generally a web browser) that the page author intends the content of the element to blink (that is, alternate between being visible and invisible). Despite its initial popularity amongst home users in the 1990s, it has since fallen out of favor due to its overuse and the difficulty it presents in reading," explains Wikipedia.

{ via Search Engine Roundtable and Ilya Grigorik }

24 Feb 2014 2:46pm GMT

Chrome 33 brings some bad news for those who dislike the updated new tab page.

Until now, you could disable the new interface in chrome://flags: the Instant Extended API flag allowed you to do that. In Chrome 33, the flag has been removed.

Google says that "there are no plans at the moment to provide a way built into Chrome to change the new tab page. You can find a number of alternative New Tabs in the Web Store".

There's a Chrome extension that redirects the new tab page to chrome://apps and shows the apps you've installed. You can also set the new tab page to an empty page or pick any other page.

To learn how to use the updated new tab page, check this Help Center article. Recently visited pages are in the Chrome menu, apps have a dedicated page you can find in the bookmarks bar, there's also an app launcher you can use.

21 Feb 2014 11:09pm GMT

Last year, Google released a completely new Google Maps interface for desktop, but made it opt-in. Since then, the Google Maps team fixed bugs, improved performance and added some of the missing features (Pegman, My Location, short URLs, multi-point directions). The next step is obvious: the new Google Maps will become the default version.

"Over the coming weeks, the new Google Maps will make its way onto desktops around the world. Many of you have been previewing it since its debut last May, and thanks to your helpful feedback we're ready to make the new Maps even more widely available," informs Google.

The new Google Maps promised to bring an immersive experience, a personalized map that shows what's relevant and helps you make smarter decisions using recommendations from your Google+ circles. It's a simplified interface that's closer to the mobile UI. Google removed some of the features from the classic interface and focused on the basics: a map you're encouraged to explore, unified directions that show the best options, instant search, permalinks, panoramic images, Google Earth and Street View without plugins.

Classic Google Maps is still available: you can switch by clicking the "?" icon at the bottom of the page and selecting "Return to classic Google Maps". You'll see this message: "You have switched back to classic Google Maps for this session. Remember this choice for next time?". Click "Yes" to always go to the old interface when visiting Google Maps.

21 Feb 2014 9:53pm GMT

Okay, I'm calling it: if you're using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it's become a more and more spammy practice, and if you're doing a lot of guest blogging then you're hanging out with really bad company. Back in the day, guest […]

20 Jan 2014 7:51pm GMT

Today I made a Bluetooth garage door opener. Now I can open my garage from my Android phone. There's a short how-to YouTube video from Lou Prado. Lou also made a website btmate.com that has more information, and you can watch an earlier howto video as well. The project itself was pretty simple: - Acquire […]

28 Dec 2013 12:39am GMT

The Emperor instructed the gardener to set up the new court's garden. "I want you to plant five trees growing the Crataan fruit," the Emperor said, "Because we asked people what fruit they like best, and most named the Crataan fruit!" The gardener replied, "Emperor, that is excellent thinking! But let me make some suggestions: First, how about we make one of the five trees bear the Muran fruit. Only one out of ten citizens loves it, but those peculiar citizens tend to love multiple times as much!" "Second," the gardener continued, "How about we make one of the five trees bear the Dratean fruit. No one loves it, but that's because no one knows it yet!" "Third," the gardener said, "How about we leave one spot in the garden empty. Who knows what new type of tree we'll discover that we can put there in the fut ...

26 Aug 2011 12:12pm GMT

For those of you who've been wondering whether I had turned to stone, fallen into a bottomless pit, or been climbing the Himalaya... no, none of that is true, even though you probably did notice I'm not actively blogging about Google here anymore*! Just now, a new iPad app I've been working on called Color Sound Machine went live, and this -- and all the other apps and games at Versus Pad** -- are actually what I am doing while not blogoscoping. *I've drafted unpublished posts explaining much more about past, present and future of Blogoscoped, and the history of Google news reporting, but ... oh, for now le ...

15 Aug 2011 4:00pm GMT

One of the earliest specialist services provided by Google was reverse phone number lookup. If you used the "phonebook:" or "rphonebook:" operators together with a 10-digit US phone number, Google would show you the owner of that phone number, unless the number was unlisted. Google no longer provides that service. Not surprisingly, there was no press release marking the closure, but Google employee Daniel Russell has acknowledged the closure of the service in his blog. He hints at the possible pressures leading to the shuttering of the service: "As you can imagine, this was an endless source of hassles for people (who were surprised to see themselves searchable on Google) and for Google (who had to constantly de ...

25 Feb 2011 11:23am GMT