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Mouse movements may influence Google search rankings

Google’s extensive arsenal of ranking factors used to determine a website’s position in search results has broadened even further, with the granting of a new patent that accounts for the position of a user’s mouse cursor on the screen - even without any clicks. This innovative ’system and method for modulating search relevancy using pointer activity monitoring’ was assigned to Google on Tuesday and credited to Taher H Haveliwala. It allows the search engine to collect information about where users hover mouse pointers when viewing search results and advertisements, and when using Google’s OneBox music service . Writing for SEO by the Sea, Bill Slawski explained that such information may be more useful to Google when determining page rank than relying on click-through rates (CTR), partly because some search results alone will already provide all the information searchers are looking for without them needing to advance to the page - particularly with Rich Snippets and Google’s inclusion of site hierarchies in search results . While the behavioural science underlying this new development is far from clear-cut, the search giant has certainly done its homework when it comes to analysing browsing habits. Google explained: “A typical user’s behavior [sic] is to move the mouse pointer (or any other pointing indicator) over or near a target informational item, keep the mouse pointer there for a period of time while the user reads the item’s information (e.g., title and snippet), and then click through the underlying link or move to another item. “Sometimes, a user may review multiple informational items responsive to a search query, moving a pointer over or near each of the informational items that the user reviews. These various pointer activities can provide another way to evaluate the user’s feedback with respect to a particular informational item.” Google is making a number of assumptions that may not hold true with all users - with actions such as a longer hover over a search result being indicative of either sustained interest or perhaps confusion over its meaning. However, it remains to be seen how seriously webmasters will need to take into account this additional factor when bumping their pages through the rankings of Google’s untouchable search engine

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Mouse movements may influence Google search rankings

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Bing to launch entertainment portal for music, TV and games

Microsoft is poised to launch an all-encompassing entertainment page to its Bing search engine , to provide a single hub for users to watch TV shows, play online games and listen to music. The company issued a statement yesterday in which Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft’s online audience business, revealed that a survey of Bing users found that 76 per cent desired a central destination for online entertainment services - something that Bing will aim to provide as Microsoft’s ‘decision engine’ continues to gain ground against Google . “As the content on the Web has exploded, it has become difficult to navigate and find what you are looking for,” Medhi explained. “So we see a great opportunity to help customers make important entertainment decisions.” BusinessWeek reports that Microsoft’s statement also invited the press to the official announcement of the updates, to be held in West Hollywood, California. One of the most prominent features will be Bing’s incorporation of the Zune music service - Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s iTunes, which allows users to stream or download music, as well as watch TV shows hosted on sites such as Hulu and YouTube. But Bing will also go a step further, in providing users with reviews and schedules for TV programmes and the ability to invite friends on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to watch shows together. As for video games, Bing is expected to host 100 casual games that can all be played within the search results page, and these will also include multiplayer options within the user’s social network

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Bing to launch entertainment portal for music, TV and games

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5 SEO Tips for Retail Websites

An online retail store contains products from various or niche manufacturers. A retail website can sell anything from toys, books, furniture, bags or perfumes. The best example of a retail website is Amazon, which lets you purchase almost anything under the sun. In order to generate leads, you need to drive quality traffic to the website. Search engine optimization is the most commonly used technique to drive traffic to the website. It is also the technique many webmasters are ignorant about

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5 SEO Tips for Retail Websites

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10 Simple Steps to A Successful Local Listing

Local search has become one of the most affordable and important ways for small businesses to be found by their customers. In a recent ComScore study, they found that 42% of local searchers wanted to find a business within 6-15 miles of their home or place of work*. Searchers are looking for more relevance than ever before. With statistics like this, it’s more imperative you are giving those local users every opportunity to find your business. The reality is that there are many factors that can contribute to a successful local, online presence

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10 Simple Steps to A Successful Local Listing

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Facebook exec defends website’s privacy policies

After enduring a stormy 2010 thus far, where its initiatives to further connect disparate areas of the web and impending user mapping have taken a backseat to rails against its privacy policy, one executive of social site Facebook has stepped forward to address concerns in the international media. Accepting questions regarding Facebook’s approach to privacy through a blog posting and its own Facebook portal , the New York Times compiled a list of consumer concerns, with vice president of public policy Elliot Schrage fielding questions for the recently vilified company. Schrage described reading some of the concerns as “painful”, but said that he and the company empathised with people questioning their policies. “It’s clear that despite our efforts, we are not doing a good enough job communicating the changes that we’re making,” Schrage said. Responding to allegations about the website’s personal data sharing from a reader who asked, “Why can’t you leave well enough alone?”, Schrage insisted that the company would “do better”, and that it is a misconception that Facebook uses personal information for anything other than to target a demographic, likening its activities to that of magazine sales

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Facebook exec defends website’s privacy policies

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Social Media Marketing Agencies

Experts exist for a reason. For example, there are many tasks the average car owner can perform on their own with a little practice; they maybe can change the oil, replace brake pads, tune a few elements. But in many cases it’s far more efficient and effective to let an expert dig into the heart of the machine to make it really purr. Marketing has its own experts, for every conceivable aspect. Entire businesses are founded on the effort to market a product to a client, and there are people who are very, very good at what they do. Almost as soon as there was radio, there were commercials. Television followed suit, and advertising on the Web has begun to follow the same trend

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Social Media Marketing Agencies

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Landing Pages: What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company

The definition of a landing page is simply “the first page that visitors hit on your site,” so it is not strictly a certain page but any page that a user “lands” on. All websites have landing pages, whether they like it or not, even if it was not specifically designed as such. Landing pages can have a substantial impact on your e-commerce website. A poorly-developed one can hasten its breakdown just as an effective landing page can drive traffic to your site, respond to calls to action and make your business website a success. One vital measure of the effectiveness of your website is the “bounce rate,” or the percentage of visitors who immediately leave your site without making any other click. The bounce rate is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the landing page.

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Landing Pages: What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company

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Building Brand Identity – Marketing With Twitter

Twitter, the net’s networking success story, is intriguing and intimidating because of its message limitations: they can be 140 characters, and no more. This is to say; each message sent on Twitter can be no larger than the previous sentence. Not an additional letter, space, period or dash can be added. These limitations have proven to be the greatest asset and the greatest challenge for people trying to use Twitter for any number of purposes. On the advantageous side, the short messages have created an entire culture of Twitter-fluent writers. The brevity of the message stretches creative muscles, making people use every trick to get the most information into the fewest characters

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Building Brand Identity – Marketing With Twitter

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Historic public tweets archived by Congress

The Library of Congress has deemed the microblogging site Twitter a significant medium of public record, and announced that it will archive every public tweet made since the site’s inception in July 2006. In a blog post, the Library’s Director of Communications, Matt Raymond, explained the federal institution’s decision to place tweets made in the public sphere alongside other significant historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence. “I’m no PhD, but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data,” he said. Twitter’s general counsel Alex MacGillivray told BBC News: “I think it shows the tweets are an interesting part of the historical record. “This project however is not about us, it is about our users and the fact they use the service to chronicle these amazing events.

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Historic public tweets archived by Congress

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Online ad pioneer sets sights on Twitter searches

A pioneer of search advertising has announced a new foray into online promotions - namely TweetUp, a service that will allow users of the microblogging site to bid on key words in order to improve page rankings. Bill Gross, along with his tech company Idealab, has courted big-name investors, garnering start-up funds in excess of $3.5 million (

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