Google seems to have their hand in everything, and rightfully so.  They happen to be one of the few that have the Midas touch.   ( In Greek mythology King Midas possessed the ability to turn everything he touched to gold.)  To say that Google has the ability to do the same is an understatement.  What makes Google so different?  Its not the ability to develop applications that makes them have the golden touch, its the ability to do it right… or as close to right as possible.   Now that doesn’t mean that Google applications have had their share of problems and bugs.  All applications have their share of problems and bugs.  Usually after the first round of testing you have a laundry list of issues, and each testing phase brings less.   Not to mention, usually at some point the developers think of a “better” way for something to react.   What google does better than anyone else is project what technology is needed , when it is needed and how it is needed to interact with all other Google applications.   This is what makes Google King Midas.

I have tried to compile a useful list of Google top applications and uses.  I use most of these myself in one way or another, and find them to be not only addictive but as needed and as useful as my smart phone.

Google Application 1.) Gmail has to be one of the Internets top email tools.  Now because of its inventive message-organizing methods, it takes some getting used to, but once you master it, you will not be without it.

Google Application 2.) Do you need a chat program with no added features?  Maybe a way to communicate internally at your comapny. How about something that integrates with your Gmail?  Well Google Talk is for you!

Google Application 3.)  Google Calendar!  How about… yes… just yes!  Google Calendar enables you to manage appointments and discover events from other sources that different users have made public.

Google Application 4.) Ever wish you could crunch some numbers and and track some information when you were not at the office and able to access Excel?  How about Google Docs…. Google Docs lets you make calculations on the fly from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection and a browser.

Google Application 5.) Google Sketchup.  Way Cool Application!  Don’t know a thing about CAD?  Have no clue what CAD even is?  Well, Google Sketch lets you build your dream house in 3D detail without a lick of CAD or architectural expertise.

Google Application 6.) Google Reader continuously checks your favorite website for new content and puts it all in one place.

Google Application 7.) Google Secondary Search Engines:

A.) Google Scholar – This Google search engine is for people who want to search scholarly literature, such as academic articles, peer-reviewed papers.

B.) Google U.S. Government – You can use this search engine to limit your Google search to government websites.

C.) Google University Search – Search to a specific university website–great for finding information about admissions, school scholarships and alumni news.

D.) Google Product Search -  This search engine limits results to products and e-commerce sites.

E.) Google Book Search – Google has created a reference page for each book in its system that includes previews, reviews, publisher information and much more.

Google Application 8.) Now even though this is cool.  I am very cautous and have not used it myself…Google Health.  Organize your medical records online.

Google Application 9.) Google Custom Search.  Yes, I said Custom Search.With Custom Search Engine, you can harness the power of Google to create a search engine tailored to your needs.

Google Application 10.) Lastly, but not in any way the least, announcing Google Mobile! Stay connected on the go with Gmail, Search, Maps and other Google products.

Try them out.  I will be shocked if you are disappointed.

-Kimberly Veautour

Tuesday Google rolled out 2 new improvements to Googles search feature, both of which will help users to more effectively get the information they need.  The first improvement has an expanded list of  related searches.  Google has implemented this technology to better understand associations and concepts related to your search.   One of its first applications allows Google to offer better related searches.

Google says, ” For example, if you search for [principles of physics], our algorithms understand that “angular momentum,” “special relativity,” “big bang” and “quantum mechanic” are related terms that could help you find what you need.”  Google search is now able to look at  more queries and make suggestions more relevant to what you actually need.

Secondly,  is the addition of longer search result descriptions, or as coders would say longer snippets.

When you search, each result gives you answers that start with a dark blue title and is followed by text.  This text is called a snippet.  Both of these together help you to know what each page is about.  Furthermore, important words in the snippet that are related to your search appear bold.

Most queries over 3 words are to long to do you any good.  Now with Googles enhancements they have been able to increase the number of lines in the snippet, which will allow for more information.  Showing more of the words that you type in the text of the page.

Google states, “Suppose you were looking for information about Earth’s rotation around the sun, and specifically wanted to know about its tilt and distance from the sun. So you type all of that into Google: [earth's rotation axis tilt and distance from sun]. A normal-length snippet wouldn’t be able to show you the context for all of those words, but with longer snippets you can be sure that the first result covers all those topics. In addition, the extra line of snippets for the third result shows the word “sun” in context, suggesting that the page doesn’t talk about Earth’s distance from the sun”

What does this mean to the average person?  Easier methods to find exactly what you need.  As search items grow and become more refined, less time will be spent looking through irrelevant listings.  Now for the website owner, this becomes more important.  Search engine optimization will be increased through keyword recognition.  Longer snippets allows for more exact search terms and keyword associated hits.

-Kimberly Veautour

Acknowledgments: Google Blog

Alex Goldman of InternetNews.com writes “Salesforce Taps Into Twitter”, he goes on to say, “Customer contact centers have moved far beyond the phone, says Salesforce, embracing Facebook, Twitter, and other Web applications.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Central Mass Web Design has been actively using, reporting, and promoting the use of Social Media to promote your business.  We looked into the effect Social Media sites have on our clients and the internet long before the reports that Social Media sites were on the fast track.  We encouraged all of our SEO clients to be blogging, and using Social Media sites to drive traffic to their website.

Now on the wake of all this… a new report made available a few days ago from Nielsen reports that Social Media and blogging are the fastest growing searches on the internet today.  Growing at over 2x the rate of others.  With an average age of not 16, 17 or 18 year old users…  but users in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.

I can take this all in stride.  I mean, well, we predicted it over a year ago.

Imagine my shock when I received a news notice, that stated The Boston Massachusetts Police planned on using TWITTER.  Now for those of you that dont know what TWITTER is, it is a web based Social Networking tool where people post updates and tips on what they are doing.   To follow Central Mass Web Design on TWITTER visit, CentralMassWeb.

So how will Boston Police use TWITTER next week.   Imagine a city gridlocked with traffic.  Thousands of people converging on Boston to witness the annual St. Patricks Day Parade.  The Boston Police pulled in every direction directing traffic, moving people along, and keeping the peace.  Now imagine updates directly to your computer or smart phone, on TWITTER.  Police will be reporting up to the minute reports on traffic and crowd control issues, to give everyone a heads up coming into the area, so they may be able to replan their routes.  This also allows TWITTER followers to post their own updates that the police may not be aware of yet.

Simply brilliant!  Kudos to you Boston Police for being on the cutting edge, and making things easier for all of us!

See the story at The Boston Channel.

Kimberly Veautour

NIELSEN REPORTS , SOCIAL NETWORKS & BLOGS NOW 4TH MOST POPULAR ONLINE ACTIVITY, AHEAD OF PERSONAL EMAIL .

For months I have been on the social networking to grow your business band wagon.  We have personally seen the effects of its use here at Central Mass Web Design.  Now Nielson, www.nielsen-online.com has produced findings that show Social Networking and blogs via the internet is the fastest growing online category and is growing twice as fast as any of the other sectors.   Today, March 9, 2009, Nielsen released a report proving Social Media and Blogging are growing at a staggering rate.

Member Communities ( which includes Blogging) grew over 5 points in the past year, placing it above e-mail, and showing a growth of more than double any other.

Reports also show that time spent on social networks has increased globally by 18% in the past year.    Do you know what your employees are posting on their Facebook and Myspace accounts?  Do your employees know what you are posting on yours?

I recently gave a presentation to a local networking group on the benefits of using LinkedIn to grow their business and networking.  Part of this presentation talks about researching prospective employees via internet and social networking tools like LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Presentation

Time spent on Networking and Blogging sites is growing at over 3x the rate of all internet growth.  So much time is being spent on social networking sites it is eating into the time spent on other websites and activities.

The average age of online Community Networking Site Member has changed. Facebook started out as a service for university students but now almost one third of its global audience is aged 35-49 years of age, and growing.  Almost one quarter of all Facebook users are over age 50.

This is the way of the future, and I encourage you to get involved and grow with the times…before they leave you in the dust.  You can see the Nielsen report, in its entirety at http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nielsen_globalfaces_mar09.pdf

Central Mass Web Design has actively been pursuing this avenue, and helping our clients to understand their Online Media presence.  All companies should be considering their Online Media presence when thinking about their website SEO.  Stay tuned for more information, on how to make MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook work for you!

Kimberly Veautour

The number one thing you can do to improve your website is add content. Content is the key to driving traffic to your site. Your content needs to be page specific. What I mean by this is that each page should have very detailed information regarding that page title. If your page title is Boston Based Widgets, then you content needs to contain those terms. Keep in mind that as you write your content you don’t just want to copy this term over and over again, that will get you banned from the search engines. Instead, construct reasonable sentences that will make sense to your reader. But also pay attention and utilize things like bullets. Most users won’t read this content you are writing, but they will read the bullets or other call to action items on your page. Write a good amount of content that will attract your prospect. Your prospective customer will find your site because Google, Yahoo, and MSN will crawl your site and index all the content, making it available as a search result. The more content you have on this particular topic, the more likely you are to be found. When addressing content, you have to think about the law of averages here. The more tickets you have for the lottery, the more likely you are to win it. However if you don’t even have one ticket, you have no chance in winning the lottery; therefore you must create your “tickets”, to get entered into the lottery.

You can edit your existing content to improve your rankings on search engines. Once you know where you rank and where your competition ranks then you can formulate a plan. Review your competitor’s website to determine what they might be doing to be ranked well on a particular search engine. Read their content, look over their site. Never copy their content that is against the law. However you can create your own content by learning what they have done. Simply begin editing the content on your site to reflect more of what you have learned from your competitors. Don’t be afraid to learn new things from other sites, and don’t be afraid to try things on your site. Consider including some call to action graphics that will get noticed by your visitors. Make these graphics clickable and deliver the user to a form page to complete when they click the graphic. Keep that form small so that the prospect will complete it.

Every site should have a robots.txt file. It can often be overlooked but it doesn’t take much to add one. Wikipedia says “The robot exclusion standard, also known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol or robots.txt protocol, is a convention to prevent cooperating web spiders and other web robots from accessing all or part of a website which is otherwise publicly viewable. Robots are often used by search engines to categorize and archive web sites, or by webmasters to proofread source code. The standard complements Sitemaps, a robot inclusion standard for websites.

A robots.txt file on a website will function as a request that specified robots ignore specified files or directories in their search. This might be, for example, out of a preference for privacy from search engine results, or the belief that the content of the selected directories might be misleading or irrelevant to the categorization of the site as a whole, or out of a desire that an application only operate on certain data.
For websites with multiple sub-domains, each sub-domain must have its own robots.txt file. If example.com had a robots.txt file but a.example.com did not, the rules that would apply for example.com will not apply to a.example.com.”