Back on January 19^th, Larry Page of Google noted that their social networking site Google+ had reached the 90 million user mark. Now, Paul Allen, a “unofficial statistician” for Google posts that the membership has grown more than 10% since then. By the end of today, Google+ is on mark for a whopping 100.8 million users. That means sometime today maybe you could be that 100^th million member.

So what has contributed to Google+ recent growth? Earlier we heard about the Google plus Your World, a program where Google+ integrated company search results with daily search results. This may have convinced companies to utilize Google+ toward more of a business standpoint. Another intriguing scenario is the move to open the network doors to teenagers. Google+ started with restriction that only 18+ may join, since then Google+ has set the age limit to those 13 years or older – which has presumably gained a larger share in the younger audience.

Timeline Deadline

Another interesting factor is Facebook’s movement toward a universal Timeline. The widespread mandatory Timeline may have forced Facebook users to switch platforms and move toward the Google+ network. This is still taking affect so the real results of this won’t be seen till later.

Facebook or Google+ take your pick. We all know that this battle still has years and years of great competition ahead of these social media sites,  but who do you think will prevail?

Transmitters of phishing have been manipulating users out of credit card numbers and other personal information since the mid 90s. The problem has been brought to light more recently as users have become more knowledgeable of the Internet and the methods that phishing uses to lure people into revealing sensitive information to unreliable sources. However, the problem has still managed to spike recently.

Today, Google and Yahoo have teamed up to combat the perpetrators of phishing through DMARC.org – Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. The two search engine powerhouses are working with Bank of America and Fidelity Investments to create this technical specification that will provide reliable authentication results to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL users.

What’s To Blame For The Increase In Phishing?

DMARC’s group of search engines and financial services blame social media for the spike in phishing because of the readily available user accounts and personal information across social media platforms and e-commerce sites. Well-known brands are easily targeted in emails because users naturally find them more authoritative.

The following is an excerpt DMARC’s site explaining why spammers target email: “Email is easy to spoof and criminals have found spoofing to be a proven way to exploit user trust of well-known brands. Simply inserting the logo of a well known brand into an email gives it instant legitimacy with many users.”

There are already two existing authentication screening mechanisms – SPF and DKIM – that will become standards in the industry with the implementation of DMARC. The fact is that most phishing emails are already intercepted and sent to the user’s spam folder. The goal of DMARC is to remove those emails from the spam folder altogether. Inexperienced users are still easy targets for phishing emails to trick them out of their personal information.

How can you avoid being the target of spammers? Avoid clicking on URLs within emails and be aware of popular scams that are infiltrating the Internet.

ComScore reported December 2011 U.S. search engine rankings this past week with, to no surprise, Google still in the lead. On a more noteworthy finding is Bing surpassing Yahoo, coming in at the number two spot. When Bing launched as a search engine in June 2009, they were at a mere 8.4 percent search engine market share. As of this past year they now account for 15.1 percent of internet searches.

Google still dominates the market with 65.9 percent market share, and Yahoo dropped to the number three spot at 14.5 percent.

The reported search engine rankings for December 2011, according to comScore, are stated below:

• Google – 65.9% (up from 65.4% in November 2011)
• Bing – 15.1% (+.1 change from November)
• Yahoo – 14.5% (down from 15.1%)
• Ask – remaining at 2.9%
• AOL – remaining at 1.6%

More than 18.2 billion explicit core searches were conducted in December, which is a two percent increase from November. 12 billion searches were placed on Google sites, 2.7 billion were through Bing (up 2 percent), and 2.6 billion on Yahoo! Sites. We are anxious to see if Bing will remain in the number two spot in following months, and maybe even further the gap with Yahoo searches.

What is a better way to share those special moments between your family and friends then with Google+ Hangouts? Google announced last month via their blog that their social networking site will offer you the ability to “hangout” with your friends online. The days of commenting back and forth on a status update are over as users can go beyond the typical “status sharing” and begin a live face-to-face video chat.

The idea behind Google+’s Hangout is to initiate a live, instant chat whenever you and your fellow followers read or write a compelling status update. Have a funny picture or an interesting news feed? The Hangout button will be seen at the bottom of every status update and you can click the Hangout tab and the poster will be notified that you are interested in video chatting. If the chat has already started then that will be notified on the wall.

On Air Hangout
Move over Skype and Facetime, in addition to Hangout a program called On Air provides a broadcasting platform to record and post live videos. While on the go do you want to share a baseball game or a new dance you learned? Google+ Hangout mobile allows an instant video stream to capture those feel good moments. We have already seen the Black Eyed Peas, the Dalai Lama and even the Muppets use and promote On Air but Google is now releasing the feature to a larger list of celebrities, public figures, and powerful social media users with a large following. Although many of us are unable to use it, the ability to chat or perform a presentation to a large audience raises some interest. The platform is also connected to YouTube and is completely self service which makes On Air Hangout a very enticing program to use in the future.

With the holidays right around the corner, many forget to stop and think about those who have little to nothing. Now we can thanks to Google. Since the launch of  Google+, many nonprofit organizations have been able to raise awareness about their contribution to society. The social networking site has also recently served as a gateway for people to connect with specific causes around the globe. Google was thrilled to see in the past few days countless celebrities and entertainers beginning to direct attention towards their favorite charities; using the clever phrase #CauseILoveEm. They then are finding creative ways to show their followers what they love most about these nonprofit organizations. Here are some ways public figures are reaching out in attempts to give back to the community:

+Dolly Parton is encouraging followers to add +Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to their circles in hopes to benefit the children of her home country in East Tennessee, USA.

+Usher is also attempting to spread the word about +Usher’s New Look Foundation, which certifies young people in four leadership pillars (talent, education, career and service) to ensure their success as leaders throughout the world.

 +Linkin Park also posted a video asking people to share information about the nonprofit organization, +Music For Relief, which supports disaster relief and works to reduce global warming. Specifically he directed attention to the Power the World Give Light campaign, which encourages people to donate to provide solar-powered light bulbs for families in Haiti without electricity.

So join in on the cause this holiday season and include #CauseILoveEm with any post directing followers to your favorite nonprofit organization. Let them know what you like most about the nonprofit and don’t forget to type “+” before the nonprofit name.

As we all know one of the best holidays of the year, Christmas, is right around the corner.  The closer we get to the holiday, the more anticipation arises throughout the families that celebrate the holiday.  The man that goes hand in hand with Christmas, Santa Claus, will be making his way around the world passing out presents to all the nice children in the world.

Thanks to Google and the help of NORAD, you can trace the man who is known as Père Noël, Weihnachtsmann, Babbo Natale, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus on his trip around the world, more specifically being able to pinpoint his exact location. Here is a YouTube video about Santa’s trek.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking the position of Old Saint Nick since a misprinted advertisement led to kids calling NORAD’s director of operations, instead of Santa Claus.   The director of operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, decided to play along and NORAD has continued to do so ever since.  NORAD men, women, family and friends have all taken the time to personally respond to phone calls or emails from children around the world.

Google has been helping NORAD in its efforts for many years now and 2011 is just another year to help stir up the Christmas spirit during this winter holiday.  By using Google Maps, Google Earth, or Google Maps mobile application one will be able to keep track of Santa’s location.  Also, thanks to the new developments of Google we will be able to see the first year of “NORAD Tracks Santa” on Google+.

In addition to the yearly tracking efforts of Santa Claus, Google is also helping NORAD’s web site with Countdown Village, which displays activities for children to use.  New activities are added daily throughout December before Christmas on December 25th.

Last year, Google introduced support for web pages with the same content translated into different languages. This week, Google is extending this support in two situations: multiregional websites using the same content and multiregional websites using fully translated content.

For example, multiregional websites using the same content would be English web pages for the US, Australia and Canada. The difference would only be the price of the page. Multiregional websites using fully translated content proves to be a bit more difficult. Substantially different monolingual pages targeting different regions need more support in providing accurate URLs to users. An example of this would be a product page in German, English and French.

Language And Location Specification

Google has improved support for the rel=”alternate” hreflang link element that handles content that is translated in multiple geographic regions. The hreflang can specify the language and the country (optional) and any other corresponding content. The purpose of this specification is to better provide users with relevant search results.

These changes will help make search results more efficient for users in other countries. It will be interesting to see how these improvements will allow internet marketing companies to better target consumers who speak different languages.

Do you ever wonder who started the juicy gossip you catch up on from day to day? Well now you can find out who were the top contributors to those stories and much more through Google+ Ripples. A few weeks ago Google announced this “Ripple” feature that seemed to almost be overlooked, when in reality it should be of much consideration to us marketers, and here’s why:

The ripple effect allows us to:

1. Find a influencer (Dalai Lama)
2. Make a connection to that influencer
3. Repeat to find who the influencer is sharing with (Vic Gundotra) to virally spread your content even more

The above example was a public post shared by Dalai Lama which illustrates the spread of the post (you can find the Ripple of any public post using the dropdown arrow menu at the top right of the post). If you watch the spread, you will see the content being shared to more and more users over about a months’ time frame.  Also, at the bottom of the page you will see the influencers (people with many public reshares), Statistics (how this post publicly spread), and Languages (of public shares of this post). As seen below:

So How Will This Help Us?

If we’re able to locate the influencer that is sharing content of our interest, then we’ll be able to connect to that influencer through Google+. Usually many other social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) are linked with their Google+ account which allows you to tack action with your preferred method of making a connection.

Once you’ve made the connection, put out something of value to them or possibly share their post so they know you’re interested in what they’re sharing. Hopefully at that point, they will see you sharing their posts and return the favor by sharing your content to their huge circle of followers. It’s important to not bombard the top contributor with too much content; rather research into who they’re sharing posts with (the influencers of the influencer) and reach out to them as well.

It’s all about finding that niche target market, and now thanks to Google, it’s easy (and fun!) to watch content go viral with the use of Ripples.

Google Panda has reorganized the way that Google evaluates search results. As a result of this update, some websites have been pushed up in search engines, and others have been pushed down. This new update aims to provide users with the most up to date results. According to Searchmetric, “Google thought that Panda 2.5 was a bit too much,” and rolled back large portions of the update a week later. Then, on Nov. 3, 2011, Google rolled out a “freshness update” that impacted 35% of queries.

“Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old,” Google says in a blog post announcing the big change.

 This Panda update is estimated to have an affect on up to 35% of all Google searches, specifically those for recent events and hot topics. SearchMetrics has been tracking the effects of the recent update on different sites and it brings both good and bad news.
One of the companies that was hit hard was Demand Media. According the Forbes.com, Demand Media’s site  lost around 29% of their search engine traffic due to the update targeting content farms that contain low quality content. Shares of Demand Media are off more than 70 percent from its year high in March of $26.25 due to worries that Google’s search engine changes have hurt the companies prospects. During the third quarter, Demand said that around 31 percent of their revenue was from Google, compared to the 33 percent in the second quarter of 2011. To fix this issue, Demand is putting more of an emphasis on video and is partnering with YouTube in three new channels on home improvement, pets, and health. It is also evaluating the content of its site eHow.  Ehow brings in about 29 percent of total revenue for Demand, so they are placing a main focus on increasing its content quality.

On the contrary, this update of Panda has helped many news sites such as Washington Post, Rate my Professors, ScriBd, Zappos, and Last.fm. However, the biggest boost was to Youtube and Android, both properties of Google themselves. Google and Android saw a gain by 10%, with YouTube topping the list of absolute gains.

Google’s latest tool  involves revamping the search algorithm to allow for a search, verbatim. A normal search on Google will auto correct misspelled words, and substitute synonyms (for example, automobiles to cars), but Google Verbatim will do neither. This will allow for you to search for your exact terms without all the fluff.

“We’ve been listening, and starting today you’ll be able to do just that through verbatim search. With the verbatim tool on, we’ll use the literal words you entered,” says Google.

The Google Verbatim search tool will be located under the “more search tools” on the left side of the Google search results page. Check it out!