May 30th, 2011
Google Correlate is Innovative SEO
The Internet is rapidly embracing the age of social business, yet search marketing is still the old reliable for Internet marketers! It’s a no-brainer that without content, social media tools are useless. Data mining and search activity using Google is still a practical means of acquiring substantial and relevant data.
Recently, Google announced a bevy of new products like the Google Wallet and Google Flight Search (It works in 10 languages!). As Google continues to launch new products, the search engine giant has provided users with innovative ways to utilize search data like forecasting flu trends and rescue efforts. Aside from Google Wallet and Google Flight Search, Google recently created a tool that will enable users to correlate search trends with just about any data thrown into the mix.
In 2008, they launched Google Flu Trends to provide updated estimated of flu activity in 28 countries. Researcher including Google’s own use search activity data to acquire estimates of real world activities. Thing is, either Google Trends or Google Insights weren’t intended for such research approach. Both systems allow entering a search term then seeing the trend, but researchers wanted these tools to work the other way around. Thus, Google Correlate was born.
Google Correlate has yet to be launched and still being developed in the Google Labs. Correlate will enable users to upload data charted over either space or time and will seek matching patterns in search volumes. What’s great about Google Correlate is that if ever you don’t have your own data to upload, you can simplify search terms so Google can show matching patterns upon calculating trending patterns. Google says it’s like Google Trends in reverse:
“Google Correlate is like Google Trends in reverse. With Google Trends, you type in a query and get back a data series of activity (over time or in each US state). With Google Correlate, you enter a data series (the target) and get back a list of queries whose data series follows a similar pattern.”
Google thinks search activity is very useful in determining data which may pave the way to breakthroughs in fields like economics and health. However, Google is very particular with privacy controls. Handling data is very delicate and entails privacy requisites. Google also specified that it relies on millions of random search queries issued over time and mining patterns are meaningful across significant large populations. To read more about Google Correlate, here’s the link to the white paper and comic. It will provide you with examples to understand the value of Google Correlate.
May 27th, 2011
Google Launches Google Wallet and Google Offers
Google seems to be launching a gamut of new products this year. Weeks ago, Google’s social plugin, +1, was trending topic among the SEO and Social Media circles. But before Google +1 and Google Circles join the social media wars, Google just launched Google Wallet yesterday, Google’s Commerce VP Stephanie Tilenius announced that the company wants to offer the best shopping experience and introduce users to an open payments platform which will “bring online and offline together. As ecommerce sites and mobile banking becomes a popular means to for online purchases, Google aims to usher the future of online shopping. Google Wallet will have offers, payments, and social experience work in synergy.
Tilenius looks to officially launch Google Wallet by summer. Google Wallet will support multiple credit card account; Citi Mastercard and Google pre-paid card will be supported to kickstart the product. Eventually, other cards will be available as well. According to Tilenius, “You tap, pay and save” with NFC-enabled devices, which will number about 150 million later this year.
Among the retailers who will break the ice and dishing out offers are: Subway, Macy’s, American Eagle, and Noah’s Bagels. Google Wallet will have gift cards, store offers, and loyalty cards as well. Google Offers will be delivered as Deals of the Day which can be accessed through Google Wallet and Gmail. Google Offers will go live in New York, Portland, and San Francisco this summer. The most interesting and genius aspect of Google Offers is that there’ll be check-in offers, offer ads, and Google Places offers for local businesses as well. It’s like Paypal, Foursquare, and Groupon all rolled into one.
And speaking of Paypal, it considers Google Wallet a threat. The online payment giant has sued Google after yesterday’s launch. Sources from GigaOm claim that PayPal is developing and about to launch a similar system soon. Osama Bedier, former executive at PayPal, has been accused of bringing the extensive knowledge behind PayPal’s new product for the mobile payments space. PayPal believes it’s the same formula that lead to the creation of Google Wallet. Nevertheless, Google Wallet and Google Offers will be launched soon, and we’ll see how Groupon and Foursquare will react as well.
