Archive for October, 2011

This is really interesting as it shows clearly that Google are moving more and more into social signals for their algorithm.  For some time it was believed, then a short while ago Google announced that they use social as a signal, and this aquisition puts things beyond doubt. Google want their finger on the pulse of social, and what better way (other than buying Twitter of course).

http://socialgrapple.com/ released this statement:-

I am excited to announce that the SocialGrapple team is joining Google.

SocialGrapple started a year ago, and launched only a couple of months later as a social graph analytics service. It was an amazing learning experience and I am incredibly grateful to all the users who supported this venture. Much of what was built over the months came directly from your needs and requests, so I feel like we were all on this journey together.

Since the first launch, we also explored keyword tracking and branched out to other social networks, but this was only scratching the surface. I’m looking forward to taking these ideas to the next level and revealing metrics on an incredibly larger scale.

Thank you again for being a part of my journey. I strive to continue building tools that make the world more transparent and empowered, and I can’t imagine a better partner than Google.

Social more important than ever then.

In a move announced today on the Google Blog , Google announced that it will be blocking referrer data for all referrals from those signed in to a secure SSL. Oh… Apart of course from Google Adwords.

Various reasons have been given for this, but I think this is probably all about Google making it more difficult for marketers and site owners to get data about their own visiters.  Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done about this, which is yet another reason to be concerned about the nigh on Monopoly that Google has on search.

I for one have real concerns about the way Google is introducing change, that in no way benefits the site owner, but in many ways pushes them towards paid search via Google adwords system.  Is this good for site owners? Well of course it isn’t.  What google have done is effectively removed the ability to track converting phrases (AGAIN other than through paid search).  NOTHING on this earth will convince me that this isof any benefit whatsoever to site owners.

Anyone want to buy some adwords? going cheap at the moment, but set to rise massively as people turn to them to get conversion data