Brand Hijacking on Google Places?

I always concern about the Google Places Quality. I found another one that made me so disappointed. You try query for "Intercontinental Hua Hin", so surprise that their competitor (Accor) listed #1 on Google search result, if you click the listing, it goes to Ibis Hua Hin Hotel. The address appears on the result is Ibis Hua Hin Hotel address not Intercontinental Hua Hin.


Why Google not use local information (e.g., Address, Telephone) on the official site?  

New Google Ads Format for Online Hotels

I just noticed new Ads format for hotel keyword (i.e., "New York Hotels").  The display looks like hotel listing thumbnail on online travel websites that most users are familiar with. Interesting to see how this impact to CTR. Of course, it will kill meta-travel search like Kayak again! Let share what do you think about this? 

Google Adds Custom Search to Google Webmaster Tools

Today I have noticed that Google adds Custom Search into Google Webmaster Tools. This is still testing ground for experimental feature. What I predict here, Google might migrate from Google Custom Search (www.Google.com/CSE) to here as they try to make Google Webmaster Tools as portal for Webmaster.

Bias Rich Content (Video) on Google Search Results - Bing Case

I just read what Google posted few days ago "How are videos ranked". It quite interesting that they try to defense what people talking about their bias of search results. You can see what they wrote here. 

Our intent is to represent the video content of the internet fairly and accurately. We don't give special ranking preference to videos hosted by YouTube or Google Video, nor do we manipulate search results in any way. We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the Web to determine the inclusion and ranking of videos in our search results.

After determining the content of the video using our spidering technology, Google then combines sophisticated text-matching techniques to find videos that are both important and relevant to your search. Our technology examines dozens of aspects of the video’s content (including number of hits and rating) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

Please be assured that we’re continually working to improve our algorithms to provide the most relevant results for your query.

          Source : http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66493 

What I see is far different from what they wrote above. Try this query "Bad Dog: Maria the Jealous Goose Bing Video", this query is very strong intent that users are looking for Video for Bad Dog : Maria the Jealous Goose Video from Bing. Unfortunately Google is not display rich content for their video but show rich content from YouTube and Discovery.com.

This Video is available at Bing Video and found that Google indexed their video.

             

             

Real-Time search result Google VS Bing

I feel disappointed to Google search today when I try to find out the news about the Norway shooting. I went to query "Oslo" on Google, all above the fold of results are nothing about news and then I go to check at Bing, it gives me better result, it shows "breaking news" on the first position of SERPs. You can see the screenshot as attached here. Norway attack news is breaking to all major news publication : CNN, BBC, WSJ, etc. This should trigger to Google result. I am quite surprise on this result, Google always does a good job on return the result based on user intent. Something leak on user intent algorithms?

Let's discuss why it was happen. 

Update : Google Social Connection Data & Facebook

Update from my post yesterday about Social Search and Social Connection on Google, I have found interesting cases as following. 

1. Google gives the link weight value (associated to social search) to the link which post in Facebook in accessible profile. You can see the information as example of this snapshot. My connection is connected Mashable but I got content feed from Facebook & his website (Bigbang7.com). This is interesting to debate on how much value Google assign to this.

 2. I seen lot of my secondary connection came from indirect Twitter connection which I am not follow her yet (@ womendeliver)  For this case, I connected to @Mashable and then @Mashable has ton of connections to feed to me. One of must be @womendeliver. One of big reason is social authority, @Mashable is very strong on this case. 

How Google Identify Relevant Social Search Results.

 This is interesting to see how Google identify relevant. It is based on a combination of the following:
- Direct connections from your Google chat buddies and contacts
- Direct connections from links that appear on your Google profile
- Secondary connections that are publicly associated with your direct connection


This is my snapshot social circle for example.
In addition to web pages from your social circle, posts from your Google Reader subscriptions may also appear in your social search results.
That you can see from above example of my Google Account, I have small number of contacts on my Gmail account and very less number of links on my profile, but I have strong secondary connection, mostly from Twitter. In this case, In my opinion, Google will give more weight to Direct Connections rather than Secondary connection. You can find more details on Social connections here : http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=1067707
It would be interested to experiment on this in different account and geographic. Will share to you guys soon. 

Image Ads on Search Result Pages

I have found this ads when I am doing research for my client. This is interesting that Google shows the images ads next to Text ads. See the screenshots here. This Home Depot ad linked directly to branded-site. This will be impacted on CTR, current image ads now mostly place at Content Network, but once this happens on Search Network, I just wonder how much of this CTR, Any thought?

Update : This ads feature is part of Product Ads Extension (New Product from Google Adwords which now available only US Advertisers.

Update Google Search Interface

Today I discovered new improvement of Google search result from Google.com, It highlights each listing with soft-blue color when you do mouse-over.  The highlight will appear only when you are using mouse. If you use keyboard, it still look the same as usual. 

You may also notice in this screenshot, Google also displays the "Zoom" icon, this icon will use as Full Preview of the listing, it will be partially launching and testing for some particular markets at this moment.. 

Google keep testing on new user interface, introduced this year more than 150 User Interface changes. User feedback and interactive from users will be used as ranking signal in the future. 

Google's patent of "System and Method for Modulating Search Relevancy Using Pointer Activity Monitoring", was filed on February 16 2005, as Google currently used click-through rates (CTR) as ranking signal. The new patent takes the idea a step further, looking to reorder search results by monitoring when users show interest in web content without actually clicking on it. 


On October 19, 2010, I have found another search result differently from usual search result. It shows only 4 listings. Let check it out.

Google Instant - Findings

Google recently launched the new service to change the Search Experience, called "Google Instant", this new service becomes talk of the town to all news and media including CNN as well. This new service, SEO community started talking about a month ago and discuss in 
different perspective from SEO and Users. 

The one that I have discovered from last couple days, check it out these findings.

- Search evaluation process will be more competitive (for example : Searching for Kindle , you will see Google suggests "Kindle VS Nook". 

We can use the data visualization tool (ie., Whatdoyousuggest.net) to retrieve  the Google Suggest data for expanding your idea when you develop keyword strategy. This below figure is example of Kindle suggestion. 

- Trend is inspiring the searcher who looking for new product and alternative. For each market, the trend is different. You may see the example for Samsung (US market VS UK market), the product interests and keywords are significant different.

- Search Listing is more significant important (SEO is playing important role on this). As users will have spend less time to scan on each AJAX refreshing the result and will keep searching until they found what they are looking for. Title and Description will be key role to attract their eyes.

- Online Reputation Management will be more important as Google suggestion might create some suggestion which devalue the brand to users and make them notice and continue searching on in-depth information. This search query is good example for Thailand Travel, Google suggests "Thailand Travel Warnings", that you will see the different result when you search for other destination.

- Search Analytic , this is interesting that we need to start tracking the partial search query apart from usual full keyword tracking. After this launch for a week, you will start seeing people sharing the discover and findings from the new tracking methods. Love to see other analytic reports. Please do share if you have started implementing. 


You may try this set up method and share what you found. I've already implemented for my own blog. 


For people who wanna see full launch of Google Instant, you can check it out this video. It's a bit long video but really worth for watching.

Will keep you post more on findings for Google Instant.