google Archives | waveSpawn Marketing

April 16, 2013

Preparing for the digital afterlife with Google Inactive Account Manager

Ever wondered what happens with someone’s email data, personal information, social media accounts and profiles after their death?

Google recently tackled the subject of the “digital afterlife” with the launch of a service that will allow users to designate how they want their accounts handled after they die. The new product, dubbed Inactive Account Manager, lets people “tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason,” Google said in a blog post.

“For example, you can choose to have your data deleted — after three, six, nine or 12 months of inactivity. Or you can select trusted contacts to receive data from some or all of the following services: +1s; Blogger; Contacts and Circles; Drive; Gmail; Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams; Picasa Web Albums; Google Voice and YouTube. Before our systems take any action, we’ll first warn you by sending a text message to your cell phone and email to the secondary address you’ve provided.”

It’s not the most pleasant topic to discuss, but it’s helpful to know that you can take proactive steps to plan for your Google data to be transferred or purged after your death. Other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have their own procedures for dealing with deceased users’ data, some third-party services have also offered to fill that need. Online storage site SecureSafe, for one, allows users to assign certain files to beneficiaries.

September 10, 2010

Flash coming soon to iPhones and iPads

Flash coming soon to iPhone After an antitrust investigation by the FTC and increasing competition from other mobile devices (such as Google’s Android), Apple has “decided” to relax their programming restrictions for third parties. Even though this sounds voluntary, Apple was certainly under pressure to comply.

So what does this mean? Essentially Adobe is now resuming its work on developing a version of Flash technology suitable for the iPhone and iPad devices. It had put those efforts on hold back in April when Apple placed severe restrictions on third party applications. This should come as good news for Apple users. Having additional functionality, such as Flash, will help to stay competitive in the rapidly changing space. As an iPhone user, why should I be limited because of a personal grudge between two CEOs? Get over it Jobs… let’s move on!

Downstream, this decision will also create new marketing opportunities. Since Flash applications are currently being utilized by ad agencies and media sites, they’ll eventually have the infrastructure to expand these campaigns to mobile devices. While some devices already support this technology, advertisers generally want to expand their reach without limitations. While it’s difficult to predict where this will lead, with Apple and Jobs in the mix, it should be an entertaining journey.

February 25, 2010

Facebook, what about the tree of trust?

Now that both Google and Bing have access to Facebook status updates, should you be concerned about the privacy of your posts? Of course you should… you need to control how the information you share is being rebroadcast or accessed by others. You probably don’t want to see your private information randomly appearing in a stranger’s search results.

Remember the therapy scene in Old School, where the marriage counselor says: “This is a safe place, a place where we can feel free sharing our feelings… a nest in a tree of trust and understanding… we can say anything.” Then after the information is exposed (on major search engines, in your case), your reaction is going to be similar to Will Ferrell’s: “What? I thought we were in the trust tree, in the nest. Are we not?”

While it’s an interesting concept (indexing status updates on Facebook), it’s contradictory to the purpose of a closed circuit social network. Since Google currently only has access to the public Facebook Pages – which are vehicles for marketing rather than personal content, it doesn’t appear pose an immediate personal threat. Bing on the other hand, does have full access to this personal data, since Microsoft has an investment in Facebook and provides the site’s search functionality.

Fortunately there are methods to restrict search engine access to certain information. It’s highly recommended to take some time and review your Facebook > Account > Account Settings and Privacy Settings. There are many options to restrict all of your information including photos, posts, comments, etc to only friends. Take full control of your social media usage. Understand your options and use settings that you are comfortable with.

What are your thoughts on search engines displaying status updates? Is this a positive trend?

February 11, 2010

Making sense of Google Buzz

I’ve been an avid user of Gmail for the past six years. Yesterday I was reading all about Google Buzz and their attempt to succeed in the social media frenzy. Sure enough when I logged into my Gmail account, I saw the “Buzz” icon right below my inbox… so naturally I clicked on it. Wow, I already have several people following me and following several people. Apparently, I’m connected with everyone in my address book. Since Google Buzz integrates with Gmail without the need for users to sign up, Google instantly added 176 million users to their social network platform… not too shabby of a start.

It’s no secret that Google is anxious to compete in the social media space. While their social media platform Orkut has not reached the masses as Facebook has, this has not seemed to deter Google. Buzz seems to be a much more strategic way of penetrating the market.

While it’s intriguing to have built-in connectivity features in my email, I must admit it feels a little invasive. There comes a time when consumers want the convenience of aggregated information on a single platform. Who has time to login to dozens of different systems to manage their information, respond to questions, and provide updates? I’ve got login credentials for so many accounts – I can’t even keep track of them all. It would literally take me a few hours just to login to each of them for 5 minutes each on a daily basis.

In order to solve this issue, I think we’ll begin to see a convergence of the top players in this space. While some of the systems are already compatible, most users want a single stop destination. Think Facebook on steroids. The best features of the top platforms need to collaborate and partner to develop the ultimate social media networking destination.

What are your thoughts? Is there an easy solution to all of these disparate systems? Is Google Buzz the savior?

February 1, 2010

Successful PPC search engine marketing strategies

Targeted keyword sponsorship allows a business to buy the rights to a highly relevant keyword or phrase. Every time someone searches for that word or phrase, the sponsor’s listing appears as a highlighted text link at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This type of marketing is rather expensive – thousands of dollars a month for the most popular phrases – because you pay to be listed whether or not your listing is clicked. This technique is frequently used by large companies for corporate branding and new product introductions.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, on the other hand, is a less-expensive means of selectively targeting an audience based on their search criteria. It allows you to display highly relevant text ads directly on the search results page of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other networks. To achieve maximum benefits, your ad needs to reach the top of the listings when prospects search for your specified keywords.

In order to be effective, continuous monitoring is needed to ensure the maximum number of clicks at a minimum cost per sale. The first and most important step is to focus on the keywords that your target audience is most likely to search for. For example, if you have a coffee distribution company, you may want to consider “coffee delivery service” or “coffee shipment”. Those may be common search phrases performed by your intended audience. There are many analytical tools available to assist with this keyword selection process.

Next, the process requires keyword bidding in an open auction to secure the top listings, which appear as a text link on the right side of a search results page. You also need to invest a considerable amount of time tweaking messages to maintain and improve response rates and top positions. When executed properly, this can be a very cost-effective advertising technique because you only pay when someone clicks on your ad to view your website.

The final component to this program is to create a custom landing page for each advertisement. Don’t simply link the ad to your homepage, as visitors will get lost. Having a focused page that coordinates with the message in the ad allows you to present a logical solution and immediate access to the most relevant information or services.

Since pay-per-click advertising prices rose about 15% last year, the top slots do not always offer the best value. Smaller niche-market targeting often creates more productive and profitable results. Careful analysis of test results can help determine the most cost-effective positioning, and help focus your message to the most receptive audience for your products or services.

You can easily set and adjust monthly expenditure limits that fit within your budget. Furthermore, analytical and reporting tools allow you to easily calculate your return on investment (ROI) for pay-per-click advertising.

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January 28, 2010

Google activates social search

Ever wanted more control over your Google searches? Perhaps filter and highlight relevant information from your network of friends, family, colleagues, and online contacts. Basically, have the ability to filter out a lot of the noise and take advantage of the knowledge of your network. I sure do. Well, this new beta release of Google Social Search is intended to do just that.

By releasing the facilities to enable social networking search, Google is adding more purpose to all of the various social communities being created online. You can quickly setup a profile and link social content. Let’s say you’re in the market for a new Gibson Les Paul guitar. Traditionally, you may go to Google and do a random search for “Gibson Les Paul” guitars (or some variation). You may get results from Gibson, Guitar Center, eBay, Craigslist, and many other distributors. Ok, that’s great… but wouldn’t it be cool to instantly search your network of musical friends who may have some personal insight or photos uploaded right from the Google search results page? You could interact with your contacts directly to answer basic questions that they may have already experienced. See for yourself at google.com/profiles

While this is an early release, certainly there is a lot of future potential… especially as more people embrace the various social networking tools. It allows integration with blogs, Picasa, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, etc. I just gave it a test drive… pretty slick. The video to the right gives a nice brief overview.