Google Plus Social Network Circles Recommended

When you signed up your Google Plus Social Network account, you are suggested with 4 Google + Circles by default:

Family
Friends
Acquaintances
Following

Circles is the core feature of Google Plus Social Network and are for you to organize your friends / friend list. The 4 suggested Google + Circles may not be enough and you should:

Split your people relationship into more new circles than those 4 suggested Circles by Google.
Expand into more Google + Circles to accommodate more new people.

21 New Google + Circles

Happy Place put up 21 Google + circle ideas that you can actually use.

People I faked my own death to avoid on Facebook
Family who will never comprehend Google+
Complete strangers
Complete strangers I’d sleep with
Possibily a relative
Possibly a relative I’d sleep with
People who know too much
People still making Casey Anthony jokes
Won’t stop posting pictures of their babies
Don’t post enough pictures of their kittens
Previous coworkers I owe apology to
Current coworkers who haven’t yet reported me to HR
Coworkers who think the company would fall apart without them
Bastards who sided with Alex in the breakup
People much more pleasant when drunk
People much less pleasant when drunk
People probably drunk right now
Weird friends of my dad who hug too long
May have coke
They saw me cry at that party that time
Dead to me

Google + to SEO, Adwords, Webmasters, Bloggers, Social Marketing

What Google Plus Social Network means to other people involving in the Internet industry:

SEO/Adwords professionals: Understand the effect of Google +1 on SEO, Adwords
Webmasters / Bloggers: Add Google +1 Button to Websites
Social marketers: Track Social for Google +1 in Google Analytics Social Reports
Self-brand Marketers: Get Google + Profile URL on gplus.to for other Google + users to remember you (or link to you)

Posted on August 3, 2011
Category: Google+ | Leave a Comment

Delicious Moves from Yahoo to AVOS

Delicious was founded in 2003 and has been the most popular social bookmarking website/tool/service for users to discover, share and save web addresses (URLs) as web bookmarks.

YouTube Founders Take over Delicious from Yahoo

Yahoo acquired Delicious in 2005 but has started looking for potential buyers of Delicious in December 2010.

We are not shutting down Delicious. While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive.

We’re in the process of exploring a variety of options and talking to companies right now.

YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen announced the acquisition of Delicious from Yahoo that have turned Delicious becoming part of the new Internet company, AVOS. The YouTube founders have plans to improve Delicious:

We’re excited to work with this fantastic community and take Delicious to the next level. We see a tremendous opportunity to simplify the way users save and share content they discover anywhere on the web.

We see this problem not just in the world of video, but also cutting across every information-intensive media type.

Delicious to Current Users/Members

All Delicious members/users have been asked to opt-in to transferring their Delicious account information from Yahoo to AVOS. After the transfer Delicious members will have uninterrupted use of Delicious social bookmarking.

Delicious members will see the same look and feel of Delicious interface as they have before the account transfer.
All bookmarks in the members’ Delicious account will be transferred.

If Delicious members choose not to move their bookmarks:

Members’ Delicious bookmarks and account information will be available until end of July 2011.
Members will no longer be able to use their exisiting Delicious accounts.

Delicious members’ account information that will be transferred:

Delicious username
Delicious password
Email address
First Name
Last Name
Bookmarks, Tags and Notes
Inbox items
Tag Bundles
Tag Descriptions
Network Members
Subscriptions
Blogpost jobs
Twitter Auth credentials (if supplied)

Websites/Services Yahoo Shut Down

Yahoo has previously shut down websites/services including:

Besides websites/services, Yahoo exited search and the gap left behind was filled by Microsoft via Bing/Yahoo Search Alliance.

Posted on July 30, 2011
Category: User Generated Content | Leave a Comment

Google Analytics Social Reports, Track Social for Google +1, Facebook Likes, Twitter Tweets

With the launch of Google + Social Network, Google Analytics Social Reports are now available under the Visitors reporting section with:

Social Engagement report
Social Action report
Social Pages report

The Social Engagement report lets you see how site behavior changes for visits that include clicks on +1 buttons or other social actions. This allows you to determine, for example, whether people who +1 your pages during a visit are likely to spend more time on your site than people who don’t.

The Social Actions report lets you analyse the number of social actions (+1 clicks, Tweets, etc) taken on your site, all in one place.

The Social Pages report allows you to compare the pages on your site to see which are driving the highest the number of social actions.

Google Analytics Help explains how Social plug-in tracking works.

Google Analytics metrics including visits, pageviews, and bounce rates are displayed in the social reports.

Google Analytics Social Reports Setup, Track Social – Facebook Likes, Twitter Tweets, Google +1

In social, you want to track social activities that include Facebook Likes, Twitter tweets and Google + button recommendations.

If you have added Google + buttons to your website, Google Analytics tracks Google + button activities by default.

To set up Google Analytics Social Reports to reflect/track Facebook and Twitter social activities of your site, add the following line of code to your Google Analytics asynchronous tracking code:

_gaq.push([‘_trackSocial’, socialNetwork, socialAction]);

Google Code officially explains how to set up Facebook Likes, Shares and Twitter Tweets.

New Version Google Analytics

Google has released the new version of Google Analytics to all users. New reporting features that have launched alongside the new version Google Analytics:

Social reporting is now also available in Google Webmaster Tools.

Posted on July 23, 2011
Category: Google Analytics | 1 Comment

Yandex Webmaster Tool in English

Yandex Russian search engine made the webmaster tool available in English language. Previously, Yandex’s Webmaster Tool was only available in Russian language.

Navigation structure in Yandex’s Webmaster Tool:

- General information

- Indexing
--- Site structure
--- Pages on search
--- Links to website
----- External
----- Internal
--- Excluded pages
----- By type
----- By path

- Indexing options
--- Robots.txt analysis
--- Sitemap files

- Search queries
--- Popular queries
----- By impressions
----- By clicks
--- History
----- Click share
----- Average position
----- By query
----- Clicks
----- CTR
--- My queries
----- Statistics
----- Settings
--- My regions

- Site geography
--- Site region

- Appearance in search results
--- SERP links
--- URL letter case

- Security

- Verification

Without Logging on to Yandex’s Webmaster Tool, you can:

Add URL
Check URL
Run Robots.txt analysis
Use website spellchecker
Report spam
Remove URL
Run microformats validator

After submitting site to Yandex through the webmaster tool, you can discover:

The issues occurred during the indexing process
The web pages that are included in Yandex’s search index
The sites that links to your website
What search queries people use to find your site
How to protect your site from viruses
How to improve the appearance of your website in Yandex’s search engine results pages (SERP)

Posted on July 20, 2011
Category: Yandex SEO | 2 Comments

Add OPML to Google Reader, Export OPML from Google Reader

Google Reader is an web-based aggregator that was launched in October 2005 by Google. Google Reader allows you to keep all your feeds (in the format of RSS and Atom) that you have subscribed to in one place.

Start your first subscription by adding RSS feed or Atom feed from blogs (e.g. www.gordonchoi.com/feed):

Import OPML to Google Reader

Alternatively, let other Google Reader users share their feed subscriptions with you as OPML. You can add/import OPML files to your Google Reader account. An OPML file has a *.xml extension. Go to:

Reader Settings
Import/Export
Import your subscriptions

When you’re done with adding your feed subscriptions, Google Reader will automatically start checking the subscribed feeds for updates.

Export OPML from Google Reader

Say, you have subscribed to RSS/Atom feeds of all the blogs on SEM Blogs. To share your feed subscriptions with other Google Reader users, export OPML from your Google Reader. In your Google Reader account, go to:

Reader Settings
Import/Export
Export your subscriptions

Switch to Google Reader from Another Feed Reader

If you are switching from another feed reader to Google Reader:

Export your subscriptions from your old feed reader service as an OPML.
Import the OPML to Google Reader.

Google Reader Help

Visit and review Google Reader Help to find out more advanced use of Google Reader.

Posted on July 16, 2011
Category: Google Tools | Leave a Comment

Google Plus Social Network Profile URL Shortener, gplus.to

Have already played with Google + Social Network for the last couple of days?

My Google + profile page URL looks like below and is difficult to remember:

https://plus.google.com/108099088932620717110/posts

You can create a customized and shortened profile page URL through gplus.to by entering your nickname/username (that will show up in your profile URL) and profile ID.

Example:

Username: gordonchoi
Profile ID: 108099088932620717110

The chosen username will show up as part of your gplus.to profile URL:

http://gplus.to/[username]

Your username can be from 3 characters to 25 characters in length with letters only (no numbers or special characters).

My gplus.to profile URL becomes:

http://gplus.to/gordonchoi

Posted on July 7, 2011
Category: Google+ | 8 Comments

Google Plus Social Network, New Google Web Search Interface

Google launched a new web search interface, with new ways to display both organic/SEO results and Adwords ads. The new Google web search interface’s design is based on 3 concepts:

Focus
Elasticity
Effortlessness

We’re working on a project to bring you a new and improved Google experience.

The way people use and experience the web is evolving, and our goal is to give you a more seamless and consistent online experience – one that works no matter which Google product you’re using or what device you’re using it on.

New Google Web Search Interface

Every web search page including the web search homepage now has Google’s navigation bar at the top. Notice Google’s navigation bar is black.

Organic web search results are displayed with the web page URL before the description.

Google Adwords ads are displayed with the ad’s display url before the ad’s descriptions.

Google+ Social Network

Google launched the + Project, Google’s social network project. Google + was initially opened up for limited number of sign-ups for a short time period.

Google + Project includes:

+ Circles
+ Sparks
+ Hangouts
+ Mobile

We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project.

Your Google + profile page shows the stream of your friends’ updates and latest activities. The interface looks very similar to that of Facebook’s, while in 2010 microblogging tool Google Buzz (similar to Twitter) was launched for broadcasting/sharing messages to friends/followers.

Google +1 has been built into Google + social network. You can “+1″ a friend’s items/messages that appear in your stream.

The search box of Google + allows you to search for people. The buttons next to the search box are home, photos, profile, and circles.

Posted on July 2, 2011
Category: Google+ | 1 Comment

List of Popular Chinese Websites

The number of China’s Internet users has grown to 420 million, 31.6% of China’s total population, in 2010. Below is a list of the popular Chinese sites with web addresses (URLs), including Chinese search engines, Chinese SNS and Chinese B2C websites.

Search Engines

Baidu: www.baidu.com
Google China: www.google.com.hk
Sogou: www.sogou.com
Tencent Soso: www.soso.com
Yahoo China: www.yahoo.cn
Youdao: www.youdao.com
Bing: cn.bing.com

Web Portals

Sina: www.sina.com.cn
QQ: www.qq.com
Sohu: www.sohu.com
NetEase/163: www.163.com
Yahoo China: cn.yahoo.com
MSN China: cn.msn.com
Tianya: www.tianya.cn

Weibo / Microblogging Sites

Sina Weibo: www.weibo.com
Tencent Weibo: t.qq.com
Sohu Weibo: t.sohu.com
163 Weibo: t.163.com
Follow5: www.follow5.com
Fanfou: www.fanfou.com
Digu: www.digu.com
139: shequ.10086.cn
Baidu Microblog: t.baidu.com

Social Network Sites (SNS)

RenRen/Xiaonei: www.renren.com
Kaixin001: www.kaixin001.com
51.com: www.51.com
Pengyou: www.pengyou.com
Ushi: www.ushi.cn

Social Review Sites

Douban: www.douban.com
Dianping: www.dianping.com
Koubei: www.koubei.com

Community Sites

Tianya: www.tianya.cn
Mop: www.mop.com
19lou: hangzhou.19lou.com

Blogging Platforms/Services

Qzone: qzone.qq.com
Sina Blog: blog.sina.com.cn
Blogbus: www.blogbus.com
Blogcn: www.blogcn.com
Bokee: vip.bokee.com
163 Blog: blog.163.com
Baidu Hi: hi.baidu.com

Business-to-consumer eCommerce / B2C Sites

360Buy: www.360buy.com
DangDang: www.dangdang.com
Taobao Tmall: www.tmall.com
Vancl: www.vancl.com
Joyo Amazon: www.amazon.cn
Paipai: www.paipai.com
Newegg: www.newegg.cn
Mbaobao: www.mbaobao.com
Letao: www.letao.com
M18: www.m18.com
Rakuten: www.rakuten.com.cn
Moonbasa: www.moonbasa.com
Gap: www.gap.cn
Zbird: www.zbird.com
Redbaby: www.redbaby.com.cn

Consumer-to-consumer eCommerce / C2C Sites

Taobao: www.taobao.com

Business-to-business eCommerce / B2B Sites

Alibaba China: china.alibaba.com
HC360: www.hc360.com
Txooowww.txooo.com

Supermarkets

Yihaodian: www.yihaodian.com
Dahuozhan: www.dahuozhan.com
Womai: www.womai.com

Group Buy Sites

Lashou: www.lashou.com
Meituan: www.meituan.com
24quan : www.24quan.com
Gaopeng: www.gaopeng.com

Bookmarking / Sharing Services

QQ Bookmark: shuqian.qq.com
Baidu Cang: cang.baidu.com

Video Sites

Youku: www.youku.com
Tudou: www.tudou.com
Ku6: www.ku6.com
56.com: www.56.com
Xunlei: www.xunlei.com
Letv: www.letv.com
Joy: www.joy.cn

Wiki Sites

Wikipedia: zh.wikipedia.org
Baidu Baike: baike.baidu.com
Hudong: www.hudong.com

Q&A Sites

Baidu Zhidao: zhidao.baidu.com
Soso Wenwen: wenwen.soso.com
Zhihu: www.zhihu.com

Classifieds Sites

58.com: www.58.com
Baixing: www.baixing.com
Ganji: www.ganji.com

Travel Sites

Ctrip: www.ctrip.com
eLong: www.elong.com
Qunar: www.qunar.com
Kuxun: www.kuxun.cn
17U: www.17u.cn
Daodao: www.daodao.com
Lvping: www.lvping.com
Tuniu: www.tuniu.com
Uzai: www.uzai.com
Lotour: www.lotour.com

Maps

Google Maps: ditu.google.com
Baidu Map: map.baidu.com
eDushi: www.edushi.com
Mapbar: www.mapbar.com
ddmap: www.ddmap.com
Sogou Map: map.sogou.com

Navigational Start Pages

Hao123: www.hao123.com
265.com: www.265.com

Webmaster Communities/Sites

Chinaz: www.chinaz.com
CNZZ: www.cnzz.cn
Admin5: www.admin5.com
CN Webmasters: www.cnwebmasters.com

Gaming Sites

4399.com: www.4399.com
17173.com: www.17173.com
7k7k.com: www.7k7k.com
3839.com: www.3839.com

Jobs Sites

51Job: www.51job.com
ChinaHR: www.chinahr.com
Zhaopin: www.zhaopin.com

News Sites

iFeng: www.ifeng.com
Xinhuanet: www.xinhuanet.com
People: www.people.com.cn
163 News: news.163.com
Sina News: news.sina.com.cn

Financial News Sites

EastMoney: www.eastmoney.com
Hexun: www.hexun.com
JRJ: www.jrj.com.cn
Stockstar: www.stockstar.com
Wall Street Journal: cn.wsj.com

Properties Sites

Soufun: www.soufun.com
Anjuke: www.anjuke.com

Web Mail Services

163.com Mail: mail.163.com
126.com Mail: mail.126.com
263.net Mail: www.263.net
QQ Mail: mail.qq.com
Yahoo Mail: mail.cn.yahoo.com
Sina Mail: mail.sina.com.cn
Sohu Mail: mail.sohu.com
Sogou Mail: mail.sogou.com
TOM Mail: mail.tom.com

Network Security / Anti-virus Software

360: www.360.cn
Rising: www.rising.com.cn
Kaspersky: www.kaspersky.com.cn
Duba: www.duba.net

Posted on July 1, 2011
Category: China Internet | 3 Comments

Google Adwords Longer Ad Headline

Google can automatically make your top ranked Adwords ads more attractive to searchers – Your Adwords ad’s description line 1 can be moved up to append in your ad’s headline/title.

Top ranked ads appear above the search results, often with the headline followed by one line that joins Description Line 1 and Description Line 2 and then the display URL. In some cases, if Description Line 1 is a sentence (ending in appropriate country-specific punctuation), that line can be added to your ad’s headline, separated by a dash.

How Does Adwords Longer Ad Headline/Title Appear?

When Adwords longer ad title appears, the original headline/title is immediately followed by description line 1 (in the same line), separated by a hyphen symbol.

An example with Booking.com which was ranked above Google’s organic search results:

Before Google applies Adwords longer ad title:
Hotels: Booking.com
No reservation fee.Pay at check-out Save up to 50% on your reservation.

After Google applies Adwords longer ad title:
Hotels: Booking.com - No reservation fee.Pay at check-out
Save up to 50% on your reservation.

The display URL of your site may also appear within the ad headline/title:

When there’s enough space, we may also add your domain (taken from your ad’s display URL) to the first line of the creative. The domain will be separated from the text by a vertical pipe (“|”). So, if your display URL is www.example.com, your ad might look something like this:

Airfare sale - Low rates from SF | example.com

Test Results on Adwords Longer Ad Headline/Title

RKG Blog tested Google Adwords longer ad headline/title and shared the results:

The longer ad headline/title format makes the ads look more like organic search results which makes searchers less likely to click on another Adwords ad that contains mostly promotion ad copy.
Brand/Trademark keywords: CTR has improved from 3% to 25%.
Non-brand/Non-trademark keywords: CTR has improved 7%.

Eligibility to Adwords Longer Ad Headline/Title

The longer title/headline can only be applied to the top 3 ranked Adwords ads. To ensure your ad appears within the top 3 positions, improve Google Adwords Quality Score.

Posted on June 23, 2011
Category: Adwords Tips | 1 Comment