Facebook has put a new service into beta: Facebook Questions. Broadly speaking, it’s a way of crowd-sourcing answers to your queries, no matter how specific (or inane). Pose a question in much the same way as you’d update your status, and it’ll be displayed to your friends, their friends, and any other Facebook users who’ve declared an interest in that topic.
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…
August 9th, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Social Media | Tags: crowdsourcing, facebook questions, google, wikipedia, yahoo
The spat between Google and Louis Vuitton continues, and at the moment it looks to be going in Vuitton’s favour. Despite a ruling back in march that Google had not infringed trademark rights by allowing Adwords users to bid on the Vuitton brand name, the French Supreme Court has decided that Google are liable. Next stop: the Paris Court of Appeals.
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”.
August 4th, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in PPC Management | Tags: adwords, google, google adwords, louis vuitton, trademarks
There’s no 100% accurate way of comparing your website’s performance metrics against those of your competitors. When managing your website analytics, arguably the best way of getting some contextual information is Google Analytics Benchmarking.
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.
June 23rd, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Website Analytics | Tags: benchmarking, google, google analytics, measure, web analytics
Google Analytics provides a massive amount of information. A big part of getting the most from your analytics platform is setting it up in a way which highlights the information that’s relevant to your business aims.
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.
June 22nd, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Website Analytics | Tags: analytics dashboard, google, google analytics, seo, web analytics
