Occasionally you find an extreme case of talent where least expected. This is one of those cases. Jason is a truck driver for Gamble Parts Dart Inc., based out of Mt Olive, Alabama.  Take a listen; with a voice like this, I’m sure he has no problem keeping himself content on those long hauls!  Amazing…

In order to answer questions which have arisen about the Rich Snippets feature for Google Maps, Google has issued a new FAQ. Most of the questions which were brought up after the announcement regarding rich snippets have been answered here. 

Now, as an internet marketing company, this is important.  The FAQ covers a number of different areas. It mentions that call tracking numbers should not be used, and that only the real phone number for a business should be given. Users have the option of providing precise geo-coordinates, but failing to do so if they have the physical address will be deemed acceptable. They also want people to know that verifying your Places listing isn’t meant to be replaced by structured data. Instead, it should supplement your use of Places.  An SEO company will certainly have to modify strategies.

When dealing with Rich Snippets for local search, there are only two currently recognized micro-formats. Currently, support is only offered for the hCard and hReview formats. Although RDFa format support could be an option at some point in the future, for now, users need to stick to the two previously mentioned micro-format options. 

The big surprise for many people was in regards to how testimonials will be treated. The new features are going to mean that testimonials are going to be able to be used as reviews on the Places page for a business. This may have a very large impact going forward. 

Google Cars 

Google’s technology has helped to impact almost every aspect of our lives, and now Google is taking on the way we drive. In their constant efforts to innovate, the founders of Google have now taken on the automobile, and hope through their efforts that both emissions and accidents can be reduced dramatically. 

Google’s new cars have been in the news a lot recently, because they have essentially created a car that drives itself. The cars are automated, and have been driving all around California with a backup operator inside the cab.  The total logged distance in these cars, including navigating cities and the Pacific Coast Highway, is over 140,000 miles. 

How is this possible? Well, by utilizing the massive amount of information that can be processed by Google’s data centers, of course. The cars combine data taken from on board cameras, lasers, and radar, and combine it with map data to see hazards and navigate the road safely. 

The team which has helped develop this car includes Chris Urmson, Mike Montelmerlo, and Anthony Levandowski. All three men have had significant achievements in past DARPA Challenges regarding autonomous vehicles.

 Embrace the value in taking the time to reflect on all the things that we have to be thankful for. Thanksgiving is a time for family to gather together and if there is one thing that it is important to be thankful for, it is our families. Unlike many other relationships, through the difficult times is when family tends to come closer together. Families know us more intimately than anyone and love us despite our faults, flaws and mistakes. If you’re lucky, like me, you may also have a friend or two that you would consider to be family.

Thanksgiving is a time that we should devote to appreciating our families and more. You may find it an interesting fact that more Americans travel home for Thanksgiving than they do for Christmas. This is a testament to the belief that the small act of spending time with your loved ones and giving thanks for their presence in your life is an important and precious thing.

 Thanksgiving is a time to reconnect with the family that we all have. It offers a way for the generations to come together in appreciation of each other and those that have come before us. Taking action and committing to spending that time with each other can make us all the stronger, as it is important to reconnect and learn to appreciate the gifts of knowledge, support and love that families share with each other.

As an internet marketing agency we understand that Google has historically been great about helping people understand how to use their advertising systems.  That trend is continuing with some advice that Google is now publishing regarding how to make the most of Google advertising. These tips are going to be very useful for an SEO service provider anyone trying to promote a small business on the web. 

AdWords is the flagship advertising product at Google, and is the tool that advertiser use to promote their sites on Google itself, and across the content network. When you’re trying to promote a business for a client, you are going to need to harness the massive power of this tool. 

It is the control in this tool which is so critical. You can measure results clearly, and can great marketing programs which conform to your exact specifications. You can easily measure your ROI through the available tools. The control over cost is another valuable tool when dealing with small businesses with limited advertising budgets. You can control exactly how much you want to spend on each click you obtain, as well as setting a fixed limit to spend each day on the advertising campaign. 

The speed at which campaign adjustments can be made is another unique property of AdWords. When you change the text of an ad, the changes become implemented almost immediately. 

If you have a client that doesn’t see the value of AdWords, there are some things you need to get across to them. One of these is that it is very difficult to rank organically for as many terms as may be applicable to their site. It is much easier to add terms quickly to an AdWords campaign which might be relevant to a business than to suddenly get a site to rank well in natural search for new terms. 

Some customers hear about how the PPC model works and immediately worry about artificial clicks which will cost them money. This happens much more rarely than people think, and there are many ways to help make sure that this doesn’t take place. 

Finally, many feel that if they’re doing well in natural search they don’t need the added element of paid advertising. Natural search results are essential, but they lack the precision control of AdWords. When you use AdWords, you can send the exact message you want, and send your customers to the exact page that you want them to land on. This is a valuable advantage.

There are many ways that users of the internet find the businesses that they are looking for. An internet marketing agency or SEO firm can certainly help, but one of the ways that unsers do this is by looking at the business listings which appear after they search for a given term. As a business, making use of the free business listings available as part of Google Places can be one of the most effective ways to reach out and acquire new customers. Every part of this listing is important and needs to be considered in order to make the most of it. The first element that we want to look at is the titling of the business.

The first thing that you need to remember to do is to be careful to accurately list all of your businesses information. This could represent contact from many customers, so you need to make sure that they get the right information when your business comes up in a search. For the “company/organization” field, you need to enter the name of your business in its entirety. 

There are quality guidelines which Google has in place to govern these listings. You don’t have to include extensions like LLC if they are part of your business name.  Your business name in the listing should look exactly like it does on your business card or storefront.

This means that you can’t add in any descriptors or keywords as part of your business name. Some people do this thinking that it will improve the searches which their business will appear for. However, listings which include descriptors or keywords will be flagged and refused. Also, you cannot include the name of your city or region in your business name in an attempt to get more hits. Only include such if it is part of the registered name of your business. No phone numbers or websites may be inserted into either.

The important thing to remember is that there are fields for all of these different types of information. You can use the description field to add in words which describe your business in more detail. This is the place to outline the services that you provide. Your phone number and address all have specific fields where they are supposed to go further on in the Places listing. The same also goes for your website’s URL.

Remember, if your listing does not comply with the regulations, your listing may be rejected. You should check out the official guidelines at Google to make sure your listing title is fully compliant.

Google TV is, yet again, changing the way that we view the internet. Just like the mobile revolution put the internet in the palms of our hands, Google TV is now putting it in our living rooms. Google TV is going to bring an awesome combination of current TV programs, applications, and the web onto our television sets.  This opens new doors for a business, website development company or SEO firm.  

Just like we needed to think about how to optimize our sites for a great mobile experience, it is also worth taking some time to think about how to optimize the experience of your site for people viewing it from the Google TV platform. An internet marketing agency should be aware of the changes.  The browser’s capabilities mean that everything should work, but you need to think about interface. To once more draw the mobile comparison, when everything is tiny and on a phone, certain types of navigation make a site more usable. On a TV when you’re sitting across the living room, and using a remote, keyboard and pointing device to control your browsing, a different type of navigation again might be best.

 Television Browsing Considerations

 -        Don’t make it confusing which element on a site a user has selected. It should be VERY clear, even when they are sitting ten feet away.

-        Your text needs to be big enough so that it can be comfortably read without strain from the far side of a room

-        The navigation structure of your site needs to be able to be utilized via remote buttons instead of a more traditional computer UI

 Testing a Site

 Of course, the best way to test a site for Google TV is to have a Google TV enabled device and test the site on that. These devices are available now, so this is possible. If you don’t have access to this type of device, there are still ways you can test a site.

 Essentially, you want to load your site in full screen mode onto your monitor with a window size of 1920X1080. The larger the monitor you can do this on, the more accurately it will represent the TV experience. Then, you want to magnify the view to a 1.5X magnification. Now, step far away from the monitor. Try to be about as far away as a normal couch in a living room. Now, see how your site looks! This is a great test to give you a preliminary feel for your site through the Google TV experience.