Thursday’s torrential rain also made for a wet track at Three Sisters, but it dried out as the race continued. There were a few spin-outs, but luckily nothing more exciting than that. Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun during the race – it’s hard to tell when everyone’s got a helmet on – and there was definitely some good chat going on in the pub afterwards.

Although we had to cut the race a bit short because of traffic on the way, there was still time for a good 44 minutes and 52 seconds of racing. 13 teams competed – 26 people in all – with Joe Critchley and his partner finishing the endurance race as the fastest team. But it’s the taking part that counts, isn’t it? Mike from Fudge (he’s @13twelve on Twitter) has put together a results table, so you can see exactly who came where.

We’re already talking about organising the next one, so watch this space (and Twitter – #digitalgokarting). We think the next one will probably be indoors, and we’re not sure if we’ll stick with the endurance race / team set-up or go for something different – let us know what you think. On a more general note, if anyone fancies organising some digital paintballing (sorry, #digitalpaintballing) we’d definitely be up for it!

Take it away blog.facebook.com:

“To help us show your question to the most relevant people and ensure the best answers, you can tag it with a specific topic. For instance, if you have a question about what type of camera you should buy, you could tag it with “Photography.” If you want to find the best bike routes in the area, you might tag it with “Cycling.”… The questions you ask will be shown to people who have expressed interest in the particular topics you tag.”

It’s a user-generated development; Facebook have spotted a pattern in usage – “Millions of people ask their friends questions on Facebook every day” says Blake Ross on the official Facebook blog – and have developed a feature reflecting that pattern.

Here are some Facebook Questions questions:

Has Yahoo! Answers come to mind yet? It’s a good example of the shortfalls of expecting answers from the internet. Wikipedia works because it’s moderated; will Facebook Answers be compromised by its open nature? Only time will tell. There’s been some discussion of Facebook Questions as a replacement for Google as the go-to for quick answers. Can the massed expertise of Facebook users rival Google’s algorithim? Answers in the comments please…

So, what happens next? What scope is there for expansion in Bing’s market share? Microsoft appear to be taking opportunities where they’re available – helped of course by a healthy amount of investment – and have been targeting mobile web users. With 23 million mobile web users accessing Bing (and 4.3 million downloads of Bing’s iPhone app) it seems to be paying off.

According to Erik Jorgensen, senior vice-president for mobile at Microsoft : “People drive themselves crazy trying to type on these mobile devices so the more we can understand what they are trying to do and provide an easier way to get to it through visual, voice and touch is a key insight into how mobile search is going to evolve.”

How much bigger can Bing grow before they hit the brick wall that is Google’s market dominance? Or could Bing be the legendary Google-killer? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

What are the potential repercussions of Louis Vuitton’s campaign to have exclusive rights to “Louis Vuitton” as keywords? Google said this back in March:

“We believe that user interest is best served by maximizing the choice of keywords, ensuring relevant and informative advertising for a wide variety of different contexts,”

They’re clearly of the opinion that limiting certain keywords to the use of those who’ve trademarked them could compromise AdWords as a whole:

“Some companies want to limit choice for users by extending trademark law to encompass the use of keywords in online advertising. Ultimately they want to be able to exercise greater control over the information available to users by preventing other companies from advertising”

And they’re confident that their AdWords anti-counterfeit-goods policies are enough to deal with the problem of knock-off goods being advertised as genuine on Google. At the moment, trademark owners can report individual sites for infringing trademarks, and it seems that as far as Google are concerned, that’s enough. This is bolstered by a mid-July update to AdWords policy, extending the prohibition of implying affiliation through deceptive business names.

Since the French Supreme Court’s decision, however, it seems that the argument is going to continue for a while yet.

Louis Vuitton claims the judgement will “ensure greater legal certainty to the benefit of both businesses and consumers operating online”.

The Mozzies definitely deserve their position as league champions, having won every match since the start of the season and the beginning of our sponsorship. They’ve done us – and themselves – proud.

As well as the impressive result, it was also great to see the Mozzies getting a bit of publicity. The BBC covered the build up to the final on TV as well as the online. As this article on the BBC news website says, Aussie Rules Football is becoming increasingly popular. In fact, one of Moo Marketing even joined in with a pre-match kick-about at the final… (he did need a bit of a breather afterwards).

The Mozzies have completed their season in the best possible way. Moo Marketing would like to say a big congratulations to the whole Manchester Mosquitoes team; it’s not just the people who play on the pitch, after all. Well done to all of you. We’re already looking forward to the next season, and we’re glad our sponsorship helped the Mozzies make it to the top!

Race-day is going to be Thursday the 12^th of August. We’ve set up an eventbrite page for it, but the order form is at the bottom of this blog as well (because we know what a lazy lot you are). The race will be taking place at Three Sisters in Wigan; check out their website – looks pretty good, doesn’t it?

As well as a chance to zip about in a 70mph twin-160cc-engine Go-Kart, it’ll also be a good opportunity to catch up with some other marketing and design types. We’ve already had confirmations from people from a number of other agencies around here, so you’ll be in good company.

Fancy it? You know you do. We’ll do a follow-up blog afterwards – with pictures, if someone remembers a camera – so the winners will get the recognition they deserve. And we’re talking about it on Twitter, as you’d imagine. All the tweets are being tagged #digitalgokarting. Have a look, join the chat on Twitter, and come down for a race.

As the Guardian blog is quick to point out, there are big differences between searching on Twitter and searching via Google or other search providers. Twitter indexes very differently from Google’s Caffeine or the indexing algorithms used by other search providers.

So, Twitter and Google will deliver very different results. The helpful example given in the Guardian blog explains further:

“If I want to find out what people are saying about the World Cup right now, I might search Twitter… But if I want to find fixture lists, stadia capacity and previous tournament winners, I’m going to Google.”

So, Google, for example, will offer a much more sophisticated field of search results, whereas Twitter allows up-to-the-minute monitoring of conversations occurring across the social web (turning up Tweets containing links to posts on Posterous, Facebook pages, photographs on Tumblr, etc.)

Twitter’s Biz Stone, quoted in the Guardian article, is aware of this difference:

“Searching the web – …is about I, me, I’m asking the search engine to give me something – and when you are on Twitter, you are open to information that’s coming to you.”

That’s an important point of the argument; what search services deliver defines how people use them. People are increasingly search savvy. With Google integrating real-time results on to SERPs, would it be worthwhile for Twitter to try and offer a more sophisticated search? Answers in the comments please…

We’ve been working with Complete Driveway Designs – a Bury based pattern imprinted concrete driveway company – for a couple of years now. And in that time our services have had a definite, measurable impact on the effectiveness of their web presence; thanks to our Web Analytics supported SEO and PPC work, they’re now getting conversions and qualified leads for approximately 10% of what they were paying before we got involved.

In the time we’ve been working for Complete Driveway Designs, we’ve built up an excellent understanding of their work, their business, and their goals. This is something we do with every one of our clients; it’s the only way to achieve sustainable results.

The longer we’ve worked with Complete Driveway Designs, the more we’ve come to identify with the skills they use when they’re installing pattern imprinted concrete driveways. Like, for example:

• A professional attention to detail.
• An excellent understanding of the capabilities of different specialised tools.
• An appreciation of client’s needs.
• A willingness to put the effort in.
• Pride in the end result.

Despite the differences in the services we offer, at a core level we’re very similar.

We’d be interested to hear what values other agencies and freelancers feel they share with their clients: leave a comment and let us know.

Benchmarking allows users to compare key metrics such as visits, page-views, pages per visits, and bounce rate with an average value that’s been generated from data provided by other Google Analytics users. The Benchmarking feature will display your data on a line-graph; the graph will also feature a line indicating the average result for that metric for other websites within your industry.

Because you can select which category your website falls into from a hefty list of options, the Benchmarking average you see should be reasonably contextually valid. Google further focuses the Benchmark by splitting websites into three categories (small, medium, and large) depending on the amount of visitors they receives; you should be presented with an average that reflects the size of your web presence.

Why Use It?

Remember that because the Benchmarking line represents an average, it’ll be affected by erroneous results within the analytics data that it’s drawn from. So a few sites with unusually high or low bounce rates, for example, could skew the average seen by other Benchmarking users.

While Benchmarking isn’t an authoritative source for competitor analysis, it is a useful tool for rating your site’s metrics against something other than previous performance. Use it to identify opportunities for improvement, spark strategy, and inspire site development.

Accessing Google Analytics Benchmarking:

All analytics data used in Benchmarking is anonymous, and you have to agree to share your data in order to access the Benchmarking service.

To activate Benchmarking, you need to agree to share your analytics data “.Anonymously with Google and others” in your Data Sharing Settings. You can access this either via your over-arching account settings, or, if you’re setting up a new account, at the Accept User Agreement page; the option you need to agree to is below the Google Analytics Terms Of Service. Then you can overlay the Benchmarking line on your data visualisations by clicking on the ‘Benchmarking’ tab in the visitors section of Google Analytics. Benchmarking can be used no matter which version of the tracking code is installed to your Google Analytics account.

The dashboard is the first screen you see once you’ve logged in to Google Analytics. It’s an overview page, and it displays a number of reports. You can choose which reports you want to be displayed; this means that it’s possible to set up an Analytics Dashboard that presents you with key analytical business information as soon as you log on.

A well set out, well thought-through dashboard will give you a general idea of your website’s performance through bounce rates etc, important business metrics like conversion rates, and any anomalies. Then, if something catches your eye, you can drill down to get more detailed information.

You can incorporate any of your analytics reports into your dashboard by clicking on the ‘Add to Dashboard’ tab within your Google Analytics. Let’s say, for example, that you’ve been concentrating on SEO (always a good idea!) and want to track bounce rates for visitors generated by a certain keyphrase. Find the relevant report in analytics, add it to your dashboard, and it’ll be one of the first things you see next time you log on.

Some Tips:

• Don’t swamp yourself with too much information. You can have a maximum of twelve dashboard elements; use them wisely.
• Clear Identification of your business’s key metrics should dictate which reports you prioritise. Picking reports that represent your website’s goal completion rates is a good place to start.
• Remember that each of your websites or businesses may require different dashboards to show key data.
• Different analytics users need personalised dashboards so each person sees the information that’s relevant to their role.

You can add and remove new reports with ease. And, when it’s necessary, you should. Over time your business will develop, and your use of analytics will become more sophisticated. Remember that the dashboard is customisable for a reason: don’t miss an opportunity to keep tabs on relevant information, and don’t be afraid of streamlining your dashboard.