The Digital Lookout

Google announced this week that it was launching a from of events tracking, allowing web masters to track flash and social media elements and how their users interact with them (reported on the google analytics blog).

Is this something new? Something which will revolutionise the world of web analytics?  No!

This functionality has been available through many other leading analytics packages, and is already available through Yahoo Web Analytics, the new challenger to Google analytics since Yahoo bought out Indextools.  So why is it newsworthy?

Well, it shows that Google are serious about the whole analytics game, and that they are trying to build something competitive which has benefits aside from an ease of integration with AdWords.  So far this, and the fact that it was free, were (and I suppose still are) the only reason to choose Google Analytics over the more advanced tools in the market.  But since Yahoo made Indextools free after they bought the analytics tool, and since most tools can incorporate AdWords data in one form or another, this wasn’t going to last them for long.

So its a step in the right direction for Google and a shot across the bow for its competitors as they show signs of taking the analytics market seriously.

Ok, so I’m a little behind in reporting this one but Ive been a little busy lately!

After entering the world of social media with the launch of lively.com only 4 months ago (google launches lively.com) Google has performed a huge u turn and pulled the plug on the virtual world which will be binned completely at the end of the year.

According to the google blog this is to allow it to focus it efforts on its core, “search, ads and apps business” but it is surely and indication that things weren’t going so well for lively.com and that the global credit crisis may even have reached as high as the big G, forcing them to cut unnecessary out goings and focus on core business units.

Now 4 months doesn’t seem like a fair amount of time to allow before deciding something is a no go, but lets face it, lively.com never appeared to have much going for it in the first place.  A virtual world which would sit in websites through applications and allow users to interact with the need for a central portal.  The format of the avatars was more sims than second life which would attract the youth audience, but how many teenagers have their own website? myspace and facebook page maybe but nothing which is stand alone.

Proof that even the strongest are susceptible to making mistakes and making knee jerk investments in the latest craze.  The difference?  Google was man enough to admit its error and is also rich enough to make 100 more in the hope that one of them is the next big thing!

Google has announced it is pausing its foray into the world of the financial comparison market to make some necessary amends to the programme.  The Google merchant programme was first spotted by the digital lookout in June of this year and caused a stir in the financial markets by replacing the top 3 sponsored listings with the merchant tool, annoying some of Google’s higher spending clients.

But it has now decided it needs to go back to the drawing board with the programme and has put it on hold while it makes some changes.  These changes are thought to be around the way in which applicant information is provided to advertisers and moving from a situation where Google held the information to one where it is sent directly to the service provider.  It is also believed there will be some slight tweeks to the commission structure and on what basis Google receives remuneration for leads.

So moneysupermarket, go compare and confused dont have anything to worry about for now.  But by the sounds of it Google will be back, and once they get their model worked out and decide to occupy top spot on key results consistently, there probably isnt much which can stop them.

Google has launched via its webmaster central blog a best practice guide for SEO foundations.  This is an interesting move by Google and contradictory to its usual smoke and mirrors approach to giving away SEO tips and secrets.

It is a pretty basic guide though, listing basic website structure and meta implementation which should be the bread and butter of anyone claiming to know anything about search engine optimisation.  It will however be a useful tool for website and company owners who do not want or do not need expert SEO advice but just a reference point to ensure hey are doing the basics right for achieving decent listings.

It isn’t anything for SEO professionals to be worried about as it doesn’t give away any trade secrets or cover of specifics of “what happens if?” “what do I do when?” and so they wont be putting anyone out of business.  In fact it should make their lives easier, as if all websites arrived at your door having adhered to these Google tips, it would be a much easier process to get them ranking well, quickly, as there wouldn’t be the need for the site overall before the real work can begin.

This was first announced at the Google Above and Beyond Summit in Dublin last month but it appears it has reached the UK, at least in Beta format. (searchengineland article)

The plus box on PPC listings is one of Google’s latest developments in Universal Search and aims to provide more useful PPC listings and (much like the search within a search results) allow a user to select the most appropriate page or product within an advertisers site before leaving the Google SERP.

The plus box example given by Search Engine Land is the inclusion of product listings on the expansion of the plus box along with images, prices and descriptions.  This is one of the main uses for the plus box Google is looking to introduce and is linked to a Google Base account for the individual product information.

The other use for this technology that Google indicated was the ability to show branch locations on brand terms (and location specific keywords) so that a user could see and possibly click through to the appropriate web page or even website for their nearest branch.  This again is linked to Google Base and driven by the same technology as Google Maps.

Google is starting to join the dots with their different channels with integrations such as this and it is becoming more and more important for advertisers to consider the whole Google suit as part of their strategy.  Even if they aren’t going to get much significant volume directly from Google Product Search or Google Maps, it will have an overall benefit on both their PPC and SEO campaigns as Google introduces more and more initiatives such as this.