When Twitter, Facebook, Google and other reputed social networking websites implemented their own URL shorteners for sharing links, how could YouTube, whose videos are amongst the most shared videos on Facebook and Twitter, stay behind? It has joined the league with its own YouTube URL shortener.

So now if you don’t want to take a risk clicking on links of videos of unknown websites, with YouTube’s URL shortener, at least you can distinguish the links of YouTube videos from the rest.

Of course, that’s beside another benefit of saving you some precious character count, which is, almost necessary, if you’re sharing video links on Twitter.

To use this feature (YouTube URL Shortener), you must first activate the Auto Share feature on your YouTube account. This will link your account to Twitter and Google Reader and help you get any YouTube video shared with your social networking site as soon as you mark it as favorite. The link will contain the shortened version of the video’s You Tube URL.

Alternatively, you can use You Tube’s URL shortener manually by replacing the part of a YouTube video’s URL that says – “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=” with “http://youtu.be/”.

So for example I have this video URL -

“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7__F5boLIk”

and I replace it simply with

“http://youtu.be/o7__F5boLIk“, the link is good to go.

Michael Jackson’s collapse on June 25, 2009 at his rented mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills, Los Angeles proved to be the brightest day for Cyberspace. No wonder, the world has embraced the last moments of this legendary singer, lyricist, dancer, author, and above all, an  entertainer, in the same way they did years back to his music albums- “Thriller”, “Off the Wall”, “Bad”, “Dangerous”, and “HIStory”. Not to forget, his live concerts made the audiences go mad!!!

The news of Jackson’s death created such a stir in the digital world that it led to a severe cyberspace traffic jam on June 25 and June 26. Truth to be told, Michael Jackson’s death was among the most high-interest events in the digital age. The largest wave of traffic erupted about 6 p.m. ET, soon after the celebrity-gossip site TMZ.com reported that Jackson was dead. Soon search terms like “Michael Jackson died,” “Michael Jackson cardiac arrest,” “Michael Jackson death hoax”, and the like thronged search engines- Google, Yahoo, MSN, accounting for almost 50% of the top 100 most searched queries.

It was not merely the search engines, but also the social media sites that witnessed a gigantic spur in their traffic soon after Jackson’s death was confirmed. The fans from different corners of the world posted their last tribute to the legend. They discussed his glorious years as a performer, his tough days of trial, his days of financial slowdown, and above all, his contribution to music and entertainment. While as his true fan, some preferred to participate in vigils held on his honor, others used social media sites to share their thoughts. YouTube, a top destination for user-generated video, received thousands of new fan clips about Jackson, including “video blogs” and tribute dances. More than 16% of Twitter posts on 25th June revolved around the controversial, legendary star.

25th June was truly the brightest day in cyberspace history, marking an event certainly bigger than President Obama’s inauguration or Swine Flu. While the cyberspace rejoiced, true Michael Jackson fans mourned.

Google has come up with a new metric for their display ads, called “The Mouse Over Rate”. The Mouse over rate is defined by Google in the below snapshot which we have captured from one of our running accounts, where we could find a column of this new metric.

In a way, the mouse over rate is a measure of how interesting your ad is to the viewers.

Though this cannot be a sure shot means to derive at a conclusion regarding the quality of your ad (as people do not track where they are looking with their mouse), it would certainly give some insight into how people react to your ads. The ads which they find more interesting, & might want to click have the likelihood of showing a higher mouseover rate.

It may or may not have a value because it isn’t a perfect window into the searcher’s mind. However, we cannot even consider it useless as it might give advertisers some useful data about the interestingness of their ads.

The decision to retain or scrap this metric, will have to await certain case studies from advertisers who do or do not derive benefits from it in future. We shall have to wait & watch!

The Adwords team has decided to stop investing its time & resources in the Print Ads domain for the simple reason that not many advertisers have benefited from this product. Google came up with the concept of running Print Ads for its US based customers in November, 2006 with the aim of diversifying its gamut of advertising platforms further. However, not many customers tried it. Out of the ones who did, just a handful could derive some benefit.

As per Google official blog, below is what the team has to say about doing away with this product:

“It is clear that the current Print Ads product is not the right solution, so we are freeing up those resources to try to come up with new and innovative online solutions that will have a meaningful impact for users, advertisers and publishers

They clarified that they will stop offering Print Ads from February 28. For advertisers who have already booked their campaigns, Google will place their ads through March 31, 2009.

After making it mandatory to have same top level domains in display & destination URL, Google is now about to ensure that advertisers do not use more than one domain name in ad copies of the same ad group.

Advertisers today are allowed to have an ad group with multiple domain names in each ad which include multiple display and destination URLs.

An example of the same as per PPC Hero is mentioned below:

Ad Group: Shoes

Ad text #1:
Title: Lot’s of shoes
Description: Nike shoes for sale.
Display URL: www.nike.com/womens
Destination URL: www.nike.com

Ad text #2:
Title: Lot’s of shoes
Description: Puma shoes for sale.
Display URL: www.puma.com/womens
Destination URL: www.puma.com

However, starting February 24th, 2009, Google Adwords will re-review all ads and disapprove any ads that contain multiple domain names like in the above example.

This is what Google has to say about the new change:

Starting February 24, 2009 each ad group in an AdWords account will only be allowed to contain ads that have the same display URL. It won’t be possible to create ads that have two or more different display URLs within a single ad group

Google also says that they would apply this policy to existing ad groups that contain multiple display URLs starting around April, 2009. So they are encouraging advertisers to update any accounts they might have that contain such ad groups and separate the ads into their own ad groups as soon as possible.

Social Media Bookmarks has become very popular among blog users. A lot many customizable plugins are available through out the net.

I have analyzed some of the SMO plugins available. You can go through the descriptions provided below and make your own choice of plugins. Some of the Plugins are given below:

Quick Social Bookmarking Plugin

You can set this as an icons at the bottom of a post that allow you to quickly bookmark the current page at a number of social bookmarking sites (Digg, Del.icio.us, blink, furl, etc.)

Features:

Wordpress 2.0 compatible
Produces XHTML valid code
Easy to install
V 0.8 plays nice with Digg (forthcoming)
Images can be styled using CSS class=”socialbkmark”
Automatically generates appropriate submit links for:
Spurl
Simpy
Newsvine
Wists
Blogmarks
Del.ici.ous
Digg
Blinklist
Furl
Reddit
Fark
Yahoo My Web

Download This Plugin

Social Bookmark Links

Social Bookmark Links is a plugin that has the same functionality as the Social Bookmark Link Creator.

Social Bookmarks

Social Bookmarks is a plugin for WordPress that adds a list of XHTML compliant graphic links at the end of the posts that allow the visitors to easily submit them in a number of different social bookmarking sites.

Download This Plugin

Hope these plugins will make your Wordpress blog more active in social media marketing.

Is this the end of SEO as we know it?

Well, no, but I think things may have just gotten a whole lot tougher!

Google has released this new Promote and Remove feature to its Search Engine Results Page (SERP) which allows you (the searcher) to rank the relevancy of their results.

Welcome social media to Google!

And I totally understand it, too. Google wants to provide its users with the best result possible. By asking you to rank their results, the Google Promote feature does just that!

But how far does this go? Do your rankings affect the way others see their own results?

Right now, I don’t think so. These results are personalized to you…sort of.

One test I did perform was Promoting my own site on one computer and then seeing where it appears in the SERPs on another computer. Sure enough, my OTHER computer showed the promoted ranking (and it was highlighted to show me that it was, in fact, manually promoted).

Of course, I immediately called my dad (who lives about 10 minutes away) to do the same search, but my site was NOT promoted there.

What does this mean?

Well, I am assuming that Google is tracking these rank promotions on THEIR side through your IP address. (i.e., no cookies) But these Promoted rankings do not extend beyond your own IP address.

Still, this also means that Google is gathering data. It is tracking these results. (And I strongly doubt that they are doing it for fun, either). My guess is that they will start to record and correlate this data with their own search results.

Does this mean a whole new Google Algorithm for the future? Maybe.

Does this mean that we will now have to receive votes for top placement in Google? Maybe.

Does this open huge doors for black hat tactics and manipulation of rankings. Of course.

And that is probably what will ultimately prevent a full voting based search engine results system. I don’t have any clue where this is all going to go (if anywhere), but I do know two things:

• SEO will STILL have to exist to some degree - Google will still need some type of algorithm to determine who serves to be voted on.
• Social Marketing and Media are growing FAST! We thrive on democracy in this world and it was only a matter of time for the internet to really catch up.

Since 2006, AdWords local business ads have been connecting your business with local customers. Today, Google Adwords team is excited to announce some new features for local business ads, making it faster and easier for potential customers to find your business.

Before the details, please note that while local business ads can appear in several countries and on a number of web properties, the changes described here will only affect local business ads that appear on Google Maps.

Info Window Features

Beginning today, your ad’s information window in Google Maps will feature new interactive links that are designed to connect users to your business quickly. The info window is the window that opens when a user clicks on an organic search listing or a sponsored result on Google Maps.

Previously, a click on your ad’s info window could only take the user to your website. Now, users will be able to interact with the info window to get the information they’re looking for about your business, right away. The new links include “Get Directions,” “Street View” (where available), and “Save to My Maps.” Shortly after these links will be implemented, it will also have a “Send” link, allowing the user to send your business info to their phone or email. Users will still be able to click through to your site if they wish — the info window simply offers additional free functionality.

Reporting Capabilities

Google says that they also heard the requests for a local business ad report so, starting in a few weeks, a new interaction report for local business ads will be available through your account’s Report Center. The report will help you accurately assess your return on investment with local business ads by detailing how many users opened your info window and clicked on each of the new interactive links.

Often, Maps users are looking for different information than Search users. The new interactive links and the interaction reports should not only help customers connect with you faster but should also help you understand how to better target Maps users versus Search users.

With these changes, Google says they are excited about providing users with more information about your business and providing you, their advertisers, with more features for your ads. If you’re not already advertising with local business ads, this might be a good time to experiment. If you’re interested in learning more about this format, check out the AdWords Help Center’s section on local business ads.

Source URL : http://adwords.blogspot.com/

Comment : As always, Google has provide this feature which will really help not only the advertiser, but the user searching for their offerings. Moreover, getting Local Business Ads Reports will reflect your return on the local business ad spend.

This step-by-step detailed instructions covers some of the basics of Stumbleupon:
>> Stumbling on sites and pages

>> Rating the sites and pages that you Stumble!

>> Reviewing your Stumbles

>> Finding and Adding Friends

>> Where to find more Help

Stumble!

Click the Stumble! icon on your toolbar. Stumble upon will send you sites and pages based on the Topics that you choose. Stumble! as much as you want. Stumbleupon has millions of sites in its databases, all submitted and recommended by other Stumblers. There is a drop-down menu (beside the icon) that allows you to Stumble! in many different ways

Exercise your thumbs!

As you Stumble! you, click the thumbs to tell the system what you like (or dislike). = I like this! (send me more like this, please!) = I don’t like this! (don’t send me any more pages like this, thank you!) Made a mistake? No problem! Simply click the same thumb again to un-thumb the page, or click the opposite thumb to change your rating.

Have your say!

When you Stumble! a page or site, first thumb it, then click on to see reviews & comments made by other Stumblers, and to add one of your own. On the Reviews page, click on: Add your own review and tag the page for future reference . Type your comment into the Review box, then press: Try it! (You will learn how to delete comments in the next step).

You have mail!

Chances are that you have already discovered the mail icon: It changes to alert you when you have a personal message (PM) from another Stumbler: You have to Stumble! a bit, choose a nickname and be displaying a photo (or avatar) before you can message other stumblers. There are ways to block messages from Stumblers, if you choose not to be contacted.

Look at Your Pages

Click the icon to see Your Pages - this is where your comments and reviews are displayed for you, and for other stumblers to read. From these pages, you can edit (or delete) your reviews, and Add Comments. When you have more than 10 reviews the oldest is moved off the front page - but you can still use the PREV and NEXT buttons to see ALL of your reviews! There’s another drop-down menu here: Stumble! a bit and get some reviews & comments on your pages before exploring this facility (or see how it works when you visit other Stumblers’ pages).

Choose some Friends! On Stumbleupon, the term Friends means something very specific: Friends are other stumblers that you select because you like their pages. The system uses your choice of Friends to help select the sites and pages that you see when you Stumble! Click the icon on the toolbar: You won’t have any friends when you first start Stumbling, but the system will suggest some for you. This list will change as you Stumble!, rate sites, change your topics, and so on. Visit some of these suggested friends, look at their reviews and comments and then, if you like their sites, click this button (you’ll find it at the top of their pages):

Explore your Network

Another good way of finding Friends is to look regularly at your Network page. Initially, you will just see a view of Stumblers that have recently visited your pages, but as you Stumble! and add friends, you will see more information here.

Get to know the Toolbar

This guide has shown you the key functions of the toolbar, but there is more to discover. Lots more! Part of the fun of SU is in finding out some of the secrets for yourself, or to meet your fellow Stumblers and ask them How do you do that?! Take a look, too, at this icon on the toolbar: It reveals a drop-down menu that contains all sorts of useful stuff, including Toolbar Options which will let you customize your toolbar. You can update your topics here, change your password, and lots more.

Getting Help!

On Your Pages, there are links to Help and Prefs - (you will find these links on other pages as you explore). The Help resources are constantly being improved upon, with many of the contributions coming from other Stumblers. There are FAQ’s, You ask questions of other Stumblers in the Help Forum. (You have to join forums in order to be able to post, and some restrictions apply). Take some time to explore Prefs - here you will discover options to provide more information about yourself and your interests. You can also add (or change) your photo or avatar here. Note that you have to press Save Changes to make any changes permanent!

Now, Go Stumble! And have fun!

Source URL :http://www.stumbleupon.com/guide/

Comment: This posting will definately help those who are new in the domain of social networking.Today people know only the name of Stumble Upon but how it works,what is its purpose is not so well known.So this was my effort to let you know how to begin with Stumble upon.

More updates soon !!

Here is an update on New Keywords tool by Google :

Google has launched a new keyword research tool intented for Adwords research, to find more PPC keywords, BUT, this tool can be used to find relevant and longtail keywords for any website pages or blogs and blog post titles.

This keyword research tool is different BECAUSE it is based on YOUR SITE, not just on general words.

Lots of Research Options:

1. You can just enter your URL

2. Enter you URL and enter specific keywords to research

3. Set up additional filters, like monthly searches, competition amounts, like low and high and more.

The results are:

• Based on actual Google search queries
• Matched to specific pages of your website

Just log in with your Google info, enter your information and get:

1. Set of keywords related to the pages of your sites/blogs

2. Actual number of monthly searches

3. Competition

4. Cost of PPC bidding for each keyword, this can tell you how valuable that keyword phrase is.

How to Use This Information:

This tool is not meant for researching new site keywords but the best way to use this tool is to get good keywords and long tail keywords when writing blog posts and adding additional pages to any websites using keywords that people are searching for.

URL: http://getinternetmarketingstrategies.com/2008/11/new-google-keywords-tool/