Apple and Google are in trouble over privacy issues with customers. The scandal is called Locationgate, according to Search Engine Land’s Greg Sterling. It has recently been revealed that the iPhone and Android enabled phones are tracking customers’ movements without their consent.

This claim is of course being disputed by Apple and Google, however both companies do utilize mobile tracking software in their products. The software does allow them to track every move a customer makes. An interesting fact: the iPhone collects data even when location services offered are turned off. Now that’s creepy.

Apple has declined to comment on the issue at hand, but Google had this to say:

All location sharing on Android is opt-in by the user. We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices. Any location data that is sent back to Google location servers is anonymized and is not tied or traceable to a specific user.

The statement above is not comforting at all. It just confirms that data is being collected. What I – and others in the industry – want to know is what happens to the data and who has access to it.

It has been argued that the data is beneficial to city planners, health officials, and a variety of researchers. The data has proven to be quite revealing of a person’s mood, health, and more. That is great, but what about my right to privacy? I would rather have the ability to keep my location and movements to myself rather than have a researcher poking through it. Apple and Google should give customers to ability to opt-in to location tracking, as well as the ability to opt-out. With Foursquare and Facebook Places, you have the choice to disclose your location. No one is collecting that information without your consent.

Currently, Congress is taking a closer look by launching formal investigations into the practices at both Apple and Google. I am glad that this happening now so that laws can be written and everyone will know where they stand in regards to location tracking via mobile devices. I am unsure of what actions Congress will take, but it will set a precedent for future issues, especially regarding privacy within search logs.

How do you feel about Locationgate? Should Apple and Google be able to track your movements and store that data?

***4/27/11 3:46PM – Apple has finally opened up about location tracking on the iPhone

Earlier this month Giselle and I headed to New York City for the SMX East conference. We both learned a lot and met some great people in the industry. The sessions that I attended were informative and all of the speakers shared valuable knowledge.

One particular session that I want to discussed Google Instant and its impact on both SEO and users. The speakers at the session included Othar Hansson, Google Senior Staff Software Engineer, Ian Everdell, a usability consultant from Enquiro Search Solutions, and Eli Feldblum the CTO & co-founder at RankAbove.

According to Othar, the main focus of Instant is to make search faster than ever before. Here are some key facts that Othar presented:

• The average query in English takes 9 seconds to enter and 15 seconds to scan the SERP’s.
• Impression is counted when there is a 3 second pause on the SERP – impressions will increase, but clicks remain the same.
• The results shown are for the predicted query, not what you have typed.
• Instant is present in the US and 6 European countries, but will be global soon.
• Users are still searching for good content – that has not changed.

As a usability consultant, Ian Everdell from Enquiro was able to offer a unique perspective of Instant and how it affects users:

• Instant saves 2-5 seconds per search.
• Users are now looking further down the SERP’s than ever before.
• Majority of users surveyed think Instant is ‘ok’ ( > 25%).
• About 65% of users surveyed do not think that Instant changed how they search.
• 83% of users surveyed say the length of their queries has not changed.

Eli Fledblum from RankAbove offered a few interesting points:

• Instant’s predictions have pushed more results below the fold.
• Despite the change in location, results 5-10 have experienced the most growth.
• Video results are up 28% across the board (use rich media to attract users).
• It is important to investigate how your site traffic has changed, if at all.

Google Instant has been live for 45 days (as of 10/21/10) and those in the SEO industry are still unsure about how it will affect the way they work. I am glad that I was able to attend this session as each speaker brought up great points about Google Instant and SEO. Hopefully, those in the industry will feel better after reading what was said at SMX. I found it comforting to know that Instant is NOT the end of SEO!

In case you haven’t heard, Google Instant has made a quite an impact on the world of search since its launch last week. It has lit the SEO world on fire with questions such as:

•    How will this impact my rankings?
•    Will Adwords count impressions the same way?
•    What if users no longer look past page 2 of SERP’s?

Of course, the biggest question last week, and the one on everyone’s minds, is: Will Google Instant kill SEO?

In simple terms: No, no, and NO! SEO is not going anywhere.

The fact that Google Instant completes a search before a user has finished typing his/her query does not harm SEO at all. Above all else, search engine marketers need to consider who the audience is and how they search. Yes, this new interface may change the way that users search, and as search engine marketers, we need to evolve with them. There is no set list of tactics that we need to implement right now. There are SEO tactics that continue to hold true such as on page optimization, article distribution, link development, etc.

Many have argued that SEO is now irrelevant because Google Instant supplies highly personal results but Google has been giving users personalized results since 2005, so that is nothing new. Google Instant is actually going to be a great tool for SEO. It provides valuable information on what users are searching for such as local weather, super brands (i.e. Best Buy), etc.

As search engine marketers we still influence the results users get for their queries. As we learn more about Instant and what it has to offer, people see ways that Instant showcases good SEO tactics and fundamentals.

What are your thoughts on SEO and Instant?

Google’s Press Event

Today, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Google held a press event. For those of us who weren’t lucky enough to be at MOMA, Google broadcasted the event live over their YouTube channel. The event announced a brand new aspect of Google’s user-side interface.

Leading up to the event, Google changed its homepage logo. Yesterday, the logo consisted of flying colored balls that eventually formed “Google.” Before the press event, Google’s logo was blank – until you began to type. The theme of these logo changes? “Fun, fast, and interactive.”

So what was the “fun, fast, and interactive” change to Google that was announced at the event? The one that would, in the future, save 350 million hours of users’ time?

Google Instant

Google Instant was introduced as Google knowing “searches before you type.” Google claimed that Instant would predict what you’re likely to search and the bring results to you in real time. Google Instant was created using AJAX. AJAX is a programming language that basically allows a web page to provide new information without reloading the entire page. It’s quick. It’s simple. It’s… just plain neat.

The folks at Google said that there are three parts to Instant: Predictions, Instant Results, and Scroll to Search. When Instant is live, the engine is going to predict what you want to search, give you the results as soon as you begin to type, and let you scroll through the provided results.

Google Instant is live in Chrome, FireFox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 8 in the U.S.. In the next few months, other countries will see it as well. You will be able to turn Google Instant off. However, there is one caveat – you must be signed in to Google.

Google Raises Questions

Even though Google Instant is incredibly cool (and an amazing distraction), how is it going to affect us? What issues should be addressed in the future? After this streaming event was over, these were my primary concerns:

• How will this change SEO? Even if the fundamentals of optimization for search engines will remain the same, how will the users interact with Google moving forward? Will they abandon checking past page 1, if they can instantly change their query? Why would they want to spend more time on one search, when they can complete multiple in nearly the same amount of time?
• Since Big Brother Google will require users to be logged in to use Instant, will these cause any privacy concerns? If they are “predicting” our searches, how much more information are they going to collect from their users?
• For those who are still stuck with 256mb of RAM (if that’s even possible), will this slow down their machines? For the uneducated user, this could pose a problem.
• If you use Google Adwords, will the way impressions are counted be changed? With the dynamic of the search changed, I imagine there will be additional changes to these policies in the near future.

In summary – Google Instant is “fun, fast, and interactive.” But it will also pose a challenge for search engine marketers who are trying to adapt and stay ahead of the curve.

Privacy is hard to come by on the Internet. You never know who has access to your data and who could be profiting from it. Issues over user privacy certainly do get people fired up, and for good reason. No one wants their information to be sold and used to sell products/services. The latest business to consider selling user data is none other than Google.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal published an article with information from a ‘secret’ document outlining Google’s plans for user data. For years, Google has avoided this for fear of negative repercussions and user backlash. So why are they considering it now? Most likely this is due to the success that Facebook Advertising has seen and the fact that they are second to Yahoo! in ad revenues.

In my opinion, Google has access to too much information. Some people rely exclusively on Google and its programs (such as Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, etc) to help them run their professional and personal lives. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t feel comfortable with Google scanning my emails and using that information to ‘sell’ to me.

On social networks, users can choose to omit or hide certain information from their profiles. However, Google has access to so much more personal data across their various programs; information that needs to be documented somewhere such as that meeting with your divorce attorney. Do you really want Google know about that?

What are your thoughts about Google and YOUR data? Do you think that Google will push ahead or take a step back?

Back in May, Google was awarded a patent for a new methodology in rankings. Everyone understands how important links are and prior to this new patent, a link was a link (in theory). The new patent puts more emphasis on the psychology behind web users.

Google’s new “Reasonable Surfer” patent in it’s most basic sense tries to determine what a links a user would be most likely to click on. This new patent allows links to carry more weight than others. Eric Enge over at Search Engine Land explains how this will change the SEO landscape.

This new patent is a very easy concept to understand. What would a visitor be most likely to click on when landing on a page?

The real question that needs to be asked, how do we influence users and funnel them into important pages?”

Here are some very basic things that you should consider with this new patent:

• Pages that you want to rank should be linked within the homepage. I’m not just talking about the main navigation. Create a bulleted list of your most important content. When a user lands on your site, what do you want them to see first? Make it easier.
• Utilize unique sub navigation that is specific to the content with links that are relevant. Create a list of related pages and related content.
• Use more images with keyword rich captions. Embed links within the captions if appropriate.
• Start utilizing bold links more often. Add color to your links.

This new patent is definitely a good thing. Google has built their brand on having a good user experience. People trust Google search results. This new patent tries to look at how users think and is really enriches the user experience. It’s clear they have been looking at these types of things for a long time, but now its out in the open.

The Google Caffeine update has been in the works since August of last year. Last night at SMX Seattle Matt Cutts who heads up Google’s Web Spam team spoke out about the update.

The Caffeine update is officially live on all of Google’s data centers and all users are seeing the updates. From the official Google Blog:

Today, we’re announcing the completion of a new web indexing system called Caffeine. Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.

As the name implies, the Google Caffeine update makes Google faster and more relevant. They are able to crawl the Internet at a much faster speed and provide instant real time results.

Image Credit: Official Google Blog

As a side note, the Caffeine update has also been called the “May Day” update by webmasters.

I recently learned that Google is adding an interactive component to YouTube called ‘Google Moderator’ which looks like it will result in a better video experience for users. The YouTube blog explains:

“That’s why, starting today, we’ve integrated the ability to use Google Moderator into every single YouTube channel. Moderator is a versatile, social platform that allows you to solicit ideas or questions on any topic, and have the community vote the best ones up to the top in real-time. We previously used Google Moderator as part of our interviews with President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.”

“Here’s how it works: You set the parameters for the dialogue, including the topic, the type of submissions, and the length of the conversation. Watch as submissions get voted up or down by your audience, and then respond to the top-voted submissions by posting a video on your channel. The platform operates in real-time, and you can remove any content that you or your audience flag as inappropriate. You can also embed the platform on your own website or blog.”

This interactive feature will help channel owners with everything from developing content to interacting with their viewers and getting their feedback! Here is a great example of the ‘Google Moderator’ in action with Chef John from Foodwishes:

I recently learned that Google Maps is doing away with the “community edit” option on local business listings. This is great news for business owners that have been fighting to keep their Google Maps listings spam-free and professional. Prior to this change, it was possible for anyone with a Google account to edit a business listing and the changes would automatically go live unchecked. This gave competitors, ex-employees, unhappy customers, etc the opportunity to “get even” with a business owner by making whatever changes they wished to a listing. These changes are to blame for false information which, for some, ended up costing companies that were affected a lot of business.

However, now any changes that are made will be manually checked by Google Maps staff to determine if the edits are correct or not. I am not sure how many edits Google will be reviewing or what their process is, but I would expect that there will be a few days lag between submitting edits and getting approval. Hopefully, the edits won’t take too long to approve! Business owners should sleep easier knowing that their listings are no longer at risk; just make sure that you claim your business listing! All of these new updates to Google Maps have left me wondering what they will think of next!

I noticed a new Google Doodle today. This time it’s for the 30th Anniversary of PAC-MAN. However, to the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time Google has made an interactive Doodle.

If you wait a few seconds while on the Google home page, you can begin playing the game with the arrows on your keyboard. Or you can click the “Insert Coin” button that replaces the normal “I’m Feeling Lucky.”

According to Joystiq, the Google Doodle is a full featured game with 255 levels and a 256th “kill screen” just like the original.

Give it a try. Lets hope we can expect more interactive Google Doodles in the future.

Source: Joystiq