Google has finally made it possible for Google+ to have brand pages so businesses can merge and communicate with Google’s social network. Rather than having a Google+ profile, it will be much easier for companies to promote themselves via their own page. This will make it easier for followers to interact with the company and hopefully will increase the brand’s followers.  Users can choose to follow brands, such as specific, news, games, or restaurants, and be able to interact with that specific brand.  Ben Parr states that “when users add a brand to their circles, it increases that brand’s follower count”.  Hopefully this will be beneficial to businesses! This is very similar to Facebook and we are curious to see how and if it will affect Facebook’s brand pages.

Zeny Huang, Emerging Media Strategist at JWT New York, thinks that Google+ will be better and more successful than Facebook for four reasons:

1. Better Search Opportunities: There must be better search benefits for Google+ users because of Google.com domain.
2. More Customization: Google+ users will be able to use the excess white space on the sides of the profile for custom skinning of the brand page as well as space for advertisements.
3. Better Analytics: Google Analytics will help guide brands in organizing and specifying content on their page to direct towards their followers.  Also Google Analytics will allow advertisers have space for media placement that and will create more interaction between their followers and media spending.
4. Google Can Learn from Facebook: Google can learn from Facebook’s advantages and weaknesses and make Google+ better.

Is Google+, also known as G+, Google Plus or Plus, really a competition for Facebook? As you already know, the major difference between the two is in the privacy settings. Facebook does allow you to create lists, but they’re incredibly time consuming and you can’t post directly to just those in a certain list (you can only view). Google+ allows you to manage the content as you post it through creating Circles of your networks. Also, there is that magic +1 button that apparently might influence the SEO presence of our posts. Today, for most of us Facebook has become a natural part of our every day communication process. G+ is great, but do we really need another social network to post to if we already have one, or two, maybe 5 that already serve this purpose? It really would be great to just have one platform for all of our online activities. Among tweeting, posting, blogging, sharing one can easily get confused. Personally, I am loving the Huddle video chat feature and have already conducted a few hour long business calls. Just make sure you take a shower first!

Does G+ have a chance of beating out Facebook? Should Facebook be even concerned? In any event, here at ABCey Events, we always look forward to changes and plan accordingly!

It’s as easy as ABC! We figured after running a story on the legendary Google’s future competitor, we should probably mention Google’s newest stroke of genius. Wednesday, Google launched its latest and greatest. “Google Instant” is a search ability in which Google predicts what you could be searching for, after only one letter! The search engine predicts what the user could be searching, and adds it in gray text after minimal lettering. All the while, the links it would normally show after pressing enter are continually showing up in correspondence with the gray finish. So what are the “ABC’s” of Google? Well, A is for Amazon and B is for Bank of America. The rest is up to you.

In perfect Google mantra, there are definitely some parental controls. Only G-rated website show up instantaneously.

Pros have established that this could save a total of 2-5 seconds per search. Considering Google gets a day, this is bound to save some serious time. After some serious research on our end, we have come to the conclusion that this development is very, very cool.

Have you checked out Google Instant yet? If so, what are your conclusions? If not, be sure to check it out ASAP!

We all get those obnoxious e-mails and click that link that turns out to be, at best, a dead end. Enter Blekko, a private beta search engine where one can use slashtags to specify what they are looking for. The slashtags are a feature original to Blekko, and one that should drastically improve search results. For example, when searching for “Ping” on the Apple website, simple search “Apple /Ping” to better focus your results. The goal is to create a more specific search without it being in the main bar. You can also note the most popular slashtags being used in other searches, and create your own public(or private) slashtags.

How does this reduce spam? With a more specific search, you are more likely to find that one link you are looking for. There is also a spam button below each link. Similar to the one used in your email. You can mark any link you don’t like as spam, and it will never show up for you again. This opportunity not only provides sanity for frustrated searchers who always seem to click the same link, but also encourages searchers to come back. It is personal enough that people will think of it as their own search. Programmers have also promised that should enough people mark a website as spam, the site will be investigated, and if necessary, removed.

While the launch date is TBA, users can be assured that this will be the search engine of the future. Developers have been working on it for almost three years and raised over 24 million to help fund their work in progress. Mashable was allowed a debut of the site, and was thoroughly impressed, and TechCrunch believes it to be more user friendly than Google’s specific searches. Who knows, could this be the search engine that finally give Google a run for its money?

Will you use Blekko when it launches? Do you think it could finally give Google the competition it needs?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the blessed way in which Google, Yahoo!, and Bing make their millions. When used correctly, SEM can be the most effective way to market and advertise your business. It is by far the easiest way to get your name out there, and should not be too expensive.

Some of the reluctance regarding creating a SEM is the possibility of being “attacked”. The way search engines charge you is called “Price-Per-Click” and used to charge whenever someone clicks your link, off of that particular search engine. This used to pose a problem for small business with big rivals. Competitors would hire employees to simply click on other businesses links over and over until funds were exhausted! Luckily, the search engines caught on quickly and started using IP addresses to monitor the number of times that address clicks a particular site. Too many clicks from the same user and monitors recognize what is happening and even has the power to ban users from clicking in the future. (I love technology!)

The most important aspect to creating your SEM are the keywords you use for the search. Use a formatting site to gauge which keywords will be most effective, and a keyword finder to figure what they will cost. It is imperative that you use keywords actually found on you site (the marketing Gods don’t like liars). Finally, keep it brief! The more specific you are with your keywords, the more effective the results will be. And the shorter the phrases, the higher the profit!

Search Engine Marketing is the key to success in our technological era. Follow these tips and your links will be blowing up in no time!

Happy searching!

What are the most popular SEM keywords? Do you find SEM to be profitable to your company? Let me know what you think!

Google TV will make your TV smarter and easier to use! It is television that is combined with internet and works just like a Google search. When you turn on your Google TV, you will be greeted by a search bar. Just type in what you’d like to watch and it will allow you to select and tune that channel. TV is becoming so much more complicated but also easier to use!

• Combines the web with TV
• Combines your TV with your phone
• And runs apps

Here is a short video that explains how Google TV works:

Would you choose Google TV or Apple TV?