RIP Google Wave

Aug 4, 2010

Google Wave, Google’s high profile product is no more. Google have announced on their blog that they will no longer be developing the product, but the source code will continue to be available.

Google Wave launched in 2009 and was mooted to be the next big thing. Google described it as how they would have invented email if email had not already been invented, however, they forgot to integrate it into gmail. A large error if you ask me.

I sat through the entire hour long video on how Wave works and watched the real life examples but I still didn’t understand it. I couldn’t for the life of me think of a use for it.

Well, it seems I wasn’t alone. Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure I know what Buzz is all about either.

Will Buzz – touted as a Twitter killer (by me) – be next?

Google rolls out Property Search on Google Maps

Jun 18, 2010

It’s been talked about for some time and now it’s here.

Google has put together a deal with property search companies in order to stream their data to Google Maps. The companies I have seen using this service so far are:

Zoopla, Zoomf, Ezylet, Property Pal, Net Movers, and SmartNewHomes with glaring omissions being Rightmove and PrimeLocation. Continue reading

Google Caffeine update underway.

Apr 21, 2010

It appears that the much-discussed and long-awaited update to the Google ranking algorithm; called the Caffeine update, is rolling out. Certainly it appears to be in operation on the data centre(s) used by Google UK.

I had a meeting with a client this morning and we were both quite surprised to see some major changes to the established rankings. Some long-term number 1 performers dropped and some we were pushing suddenly in. On my return to the office a quick check of client accounts confirmed that irregularities are widespread. Continue reading

Are link exchanges good or bad? The definitive answer.

Apr 20, 2010

Bad!

Google Twitter Search. That’s how to do it!

Apr 14, 2010

Google have once again added their own little finishing touches to an existing product by rolling out an improved search option to look deeper into Twitter results and to roll back time.

This feature is found under the “show options” on a search result page and will display a graph of updates. The x axis is the time line and the y axis is the tweet frequency. The user can select years and months in history to see exactly what was being said at that time.
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Look out Twitter. Here comes Google Buzz.

Feb 10, 2010

Avid Google watchers will have been keeping an eye on the latest releases from Google such as Wave, Chrome OS, Android  etc and have been watching Google Labs for the rumoured Twitter style application.

Well; nothing appeared in Labs but that’s not to say nothing has been happening.
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How important is site speed?

Feb 3, 2010

There has been a big buzz about site speed lately. It is now part of the ranking algorithm since the Caffeine update.

Why the buzz? Well Google has added a site speed section to their Webmaster Central and have developed a plug-in for Firefox. Continue reading

Does your choice of host have an effect on your SEO and rankings?

Feb 2, 2010

In a word; yes, but don’t worry there are a few simple rules and if you get stuck, there is a fix to get your SEO back on track.
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Google to drop support for IE6

Jan 30, 2010

Coming roughly 2 weeks after Google reported attacks on their servers originating from China, Google announces the withdrawal of IE6 support. The attacks used a security flaw in IE6 which has been a godsend to hackers.
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All change for Search Engine Optimisers in the New Year

Nov 18, 2009

Search Engine Optimisers and Webmasters have been in a quiet panic for a while now about the upcoming major change to the Google ranking algorithm.
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