Facebook launches own search engine, Graph Search

by Brian Oliver

Facebook is bringing a social networking element to search with the beta launch of its own search engine, Graph Search.

It will allow users to search for friends or people they have interacted with by using cross-sections of information within their social network. Initially, only photos, people, places and interests will be searchable, but more content will be added in future.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says “Graph Search is not Web search” and describes the new search feature as the social network’s “third pillar” after its news feed and timeline.

“Graph Search is a completely new way for people to get information on Facebook,” says Zuckerberg. “Graph Search is a really big project. It will take years and years to map the whole index of the graph. Eventually, we want to index all the posts and all of the content on Facebook.

“This is one of the coolest things we’ve done in a while.”

Zuckerberg insists that Graph Search is not intended to be a rival to Google. All searches will be restricted to Facebook. Users with wider search queries will be directed to Bing, through a new partnership with Microsoft.

“We have the social network, now we can truly search it,” says Zuckerberg.

Meanwhile, Bing has announced that its search results will now feature five times more content from users’ Facebook friends, including status updates, shared links and comments.

More information about Graph Search HERE…

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                       About the author:

Brian Oliver is a business journalist and the MD and founder of London-based strategic communications consultancy Focus Marketing Communications.

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CONTENTED MARKETER Magazine is brought to you by content marketing specialist Focus Content Marketing

Visit our website at: Focus Content Marketing

Content marketing set to benefit as Google bids to ‘humanise’ searches

New semantic search technology will penalise over-optimised sites…

by Brian Oliver

As part of its efforts to ‘humanise’ its approach to search, Google is understood to be planning the most significant changes yet to its search algorithm.

It is not replacing its current keyword-search system, but intends to blend it with new semantic search technology that will increase its ability to read and understand a page (and its content) almost like a human. This, says Google, will help to improve search accuracy and provide more direct answers to users’ queries.

The new algorithm – called Google Penguin –  goes even further than last year’s Panda update which downgraded the page-rankings of content farms and low-quality, advertising-heavy websites full of aggregated duplicate content.

Google’s new semantic technology will reportedly group data into three categories: people, places and things. It will then analyse every word and interpret how various keywords relate to each other – instead of simply counting how many times a specific keyword appears.

Role of content marketing enhanced

Observers believe these changes will further enhance the role of content-led marketing and will boost the page-rankings of websites that focus on delivering high-quality content to visitors.

At the same time, keyword density, backlinks, and on-page optimisation will become less important as a result of the Penguin update.

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam Team, recently warned that sites will now be penalised if they are aggressively over-optimised.

“We’re trying to level the playing field a bit,” said Cutts. “All those people doing, for lack of a better word, over-optimisation or overly doing their SEO – versus those making great content and great sites.

“We’re trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it – like too many keywords on a page, or exchange way too many links, or go well beyond what you normally expect.”

Cutts said Google wanted to reward people who “make a compelling site, make a site that’s useful, make a site that’s interesting, make a site that’s relevant to people’s interests.” 

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About the author:

Brian Oliver is a business journalist and the MD and founder of UK strategic communications consultancy Focus Marketing Communications.

________________________________________________________

CONTENTED MARKETER Magazine is brought to you by content marketing specialist Focus Content Marketing

Visit our website at: Focus Content Marketing

Bing, Yahoo and Ask growing, but Google still dominates UK search market

by Brian Oliver

UK content marketing campaigns should continue to focus on achieving high rankings on Google’s search engine results pages, according to the latest UK figures released by digital intelligence service Experian Hitwise.

While search engines such as Bing, Yahoo and Ask managed to marginally boost their share of UK search volume in the four-week period ending 4 February 2012, Google remained the clear market leader.

The Experian Hitwise figures show that Google.com and Google.co.uk achieved a combined total of 90.84% of the 2.3 billion visits to search engines made by UK internet users during this period. However, Google’s share slipped slightly – down 1.11% from a total of 91.75% in December 2011.

Meanwhile, Bing received 3.78% of UK search volume (up 0.14%), Yahoo 2.31% (up 0.09%), and Ask 1.83% (up 0.09%).

UK visits to search engines were 4.5% higher in January 2012, according to Experian Hitwise, with nearly 100 million more visits than in January 2011.

Some 89% of buyers now turn to Google, Bing or other search engines to find information on products, services or businesses before making a purchasing decision – that’s according to a February study by strategic communications firm Fleishman-Hillard and market research company Harris Interactive.

The study underlined the importance of creating high search engine results by implementing an integrated content marketing strategy – publishing high-quality original content that provides sales prospects with useful and valuable information when they conduct searches.

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About the author:

Brian Oliver is a business journalist and the MD and founder of UK strategic communications consultancy Focus Marketing Communications.

________________________________________________________

CONTENTED MARKETER Magazine is brought to you by content marketing specialist Focus Content Marketing

Visit our website at: Focus Content Marketing

Focus Content Marketing offers customer-focused blogs, eNewsletters, eBooks, digital magazines, videos, social media … and more

 

Focus Content Marketing is a London-based online news and content agency that provides integrated content marketing services – and helps companies of all sizes to implement a customer-focused content strategy.

Our keyword-driven content marketing solutions include the strategic planning, creation, distribution and curation of:

√ Customer-focused blogs

√ Social media content

√ Website content

√ Tightly-targeted eNewsletters

√ Interactive digital magazines

√ Videos

√ eBooks

√ White papers

√ eGuides

 

Journalist-led

We provide tailor-made original content – written by experienced journalists – that provides an efficient, low-cost method of ‘educating’ customers and building awareness of your products or services.

We cost effectively connect companies to customers at all stages of the buying process by telling engaging, relevant, informative and entertaining stories that audiences want to hear.

As a sister company to Focus Marketing Communications, we combine many years of experience in business journalism with a B2B communications consultancy that has been providing creative solutions and strategic advice for more than 25 years.

Customers need objective advice

A 2011 McKinsey & Co. report* highlighted customers’ growing “thirst for objective advice” and showed how a premium is now being placed on problem-solving and strategic-thinking skills.

That’s why we create trustworthy content designed to show your customers or clients how you can help solve their problems.

By giving them the information they’re seeking, you can interact with them on a much more personal level … building trust, and keeping you front-of-mind.

 

Communicating with customers is changing

In today’s ‘opt-in’ culture, telling interesting well-written stories is a more cost-effective way of attracting attention than traditional ‘interruption marketing’, such as advertising or direct mail.

As a result, more companies are now putting journalistic-quality content at the heart of their SEO and social media marketing strategies.

Customers who opt-in to your content are, in effect, giving you permission to market to them.

 

Google updates have pushed content to the fore

Google’s recent updates to its ranking system have pushed quality content to the forefront, while shrinking the importance of technical SEO tactics.

Now more than ever, the consistent use of high-quality, keyword-driven content can elevate your website to the top of search results … and keep you there.

 

Interested in working with us?

We’d like to hear about what you’re doing and how we can help. Just give us a call on 020 8641 8614, or email us at Focus Content Marketing.  

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*We’re All Marketers Now, McKinsey & Company, July 2011

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CONTENTED MARKETER Magazine is brought to you by Focus Content Marketing

Visit our website at: Focus Content Marketing.