Big data analytics involves examining huge amounts of data from a variety of different sources, including Web server logs and clickstream data, social media activity reports, mobile, among others things. This analysis lets users discover hidden patterns, correlations and other information that would otherwise be lost. Numerous experts have discussed the increasing importance for this kind of technology, as companies will need more and more help analyzing the now massive volumes of data they have access to. There is evidence that this is coming to fruition.
Recently, Google unveiled a public version of BigQuery, which, in the company’s own words: “Lets you take advantage of Google’s massive compute power, store as much data as needed and pay only for what you use. Your data is protected with multiple layers of security, replicated across multiple data centers and can be easily exported.” BigQuery is accessible via a simple UI or REST interface, andwill allow developers query up to 100GB of data per month for free, or up to 2TB of data stored.
Check out the video of Google’s initial announcement of BigQuery:
Not to be outdone, Yahoo has now launched a new tool for online advertisers. Called Genome, the tool will help target ads and campaigns by letting advertisers analyze large amounts of behavioural and advertising-related data from the Yahoo and interclick (which Yahoo acquired in December) networks. It is scheduled for release in July.
“Marketers have asked us for a solution that capitalizes on our vast data and our answer to that is Genome,” Rich Riley, EVP, Americas Region, Yahoo! said in a press release. “With Genome, we can help marketers transform consumer information and insights into actionable online media executions that enable them to attain the right context and audiences.”
Since its focus is on marketers, Genome differs significantly from BigQuery, which is geared toward enterprises looking to upload and analyze massive amounts of data. Clearly, however, there is going to be some overlap between the two in the future, which may add another interesting layer to the ongoing search engine war…
With Google focused on integrating Google+ with other services, and Facebook switching over to the much more archival Timeline, there is clearly something of a war brewing between these two Internet behemoths. Facebook, with over 990 million users worldwide, is far and away the social media leader, and as we’ve discussed, it is also very popular with prospective students.
Google+, however, has made inroads, and with Google’s other products, Google Analytics, YouTube and Gmail most prominently, it is well positioned to continue taking bites out of Facebook (particularly since they’ve incorporated social circles and social reports). The question is: should Facebook fight back by launching its own search engine?
They can definitely benefit from such a development, even if Google has an almost 65% market share worldwide. For one thing, search is the top dog when it comes to advertising dollars (Google still generates most of its revenue from search), and there is enough evidence to suggest that Facebook would be able to offer advertisers something of an unparalleled service. After all, people now spend more time on Facebook than all of Google’s services, combined, this includes YouTube and Gmail (which is open all day on my computer).
Clearly, if Facebook created a stand-alone website, similar to Google’s, it’s very possible that their results page would be much more personalized. The wealth of information that the social media giant knows about its user base (let’s be honest, they know everything about you), would also likely lead to higher CTR and conversion rates for advertisers. It’s doubtful, however, that they would go this route, as it runs counter to the way they’ve worked in the past.
It’s much more likely that they will implement a more elaborate search function within their existing platform. There are reports, in fact, that Facebook is currently focusing a lot of resources on improving the site’s current search capabilities (which is understandable, it’s frustrating to say the least). A drastically improved search function, combined with the vast social (and public) information available on Facebook, would be something very unique, and it may very well create something of a universal platform, a sort of portal through which users experience the Web. To that end, Facebook was awarded a patent last year called, “Visual tags for search results generated from social network information”. This is how it was described:
Search results, including sponsored links and algorithmic search results, are generated in response to a query, and are marked based on frequency of clicks on the search results by members of social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the member who submitted the query. The markers are visual tags and comprise either a text string or an image.
Clearly, something like that, something that incorporates a powerful search engine with a user’s social world, can compete with Google.
To hear more about the social network’s vision for the future, check out Facebook’s Bret Taylor talking at the Web 2.0 Summit:
What Will a Facebook Search Engine Mean for Higher Education?
When it comes to education marketing, a Facebook search engine may be a very powerful tool. For one thing, a majority of colleges and universities are already on Facebook. A Varsity Outreach study on 150 American colleges and universities in 2011 showed that 79% of schools had an admissions-specific Facebook presence (this was up from 65% in 2010.) We’d be surprised if it didn’t increase in 2012, as Facebook has been testing a new feature that is directly related to higher education: Groups for Schools.
This feature will let colleges and universities create a separate and specific community limited solely to people with active school email addresses. Essentially, this lets students and faculty create or join specialized groups within the site for specific classes, clubs and more. Should a powerful search engine be integrated into this mix, it means a whole lot of social information will suddenly be easily searchable by prospective students (of which 83% would view the Facebook page of a school they were considering). It also means that schools really need to implement and maintain a comprehensive social media plan.
Stay tuned for more developments on this topic.
What do you think about the idea of a Facebook search engine?
As it often happens in the Google world, companies bought by the search engine giant are often gobbled up and incorporated into an existing Google service. An example of this would be the shuttering of Urchin Software in the beginning of the year. Well, the latest voluntary “casualties” are PostRank and PostRank Analytics, which are being shut down by Google on May 1st, 2012 (today).
Here’s what PostRank founder and CTO Ilya Grigorik (who is now a Software Engineering Manager, Google Analytics at Google) had to say on the PostRank blog.
“It is bittersweet news that we remind our users that PostRank will be sunset on May 1, 2012. The sweet part is that Google Analytics now allows you to conduct much of the same measurement and analytics that you’ve enjoyed through PostRank. We invite you to access the new Social reports within Google Analytics. Learn more about the new Social reports in our blog post. As of May 1st, PostRank.com, PostRank Analytics, Top Posts widgets, and Google Reader plugin, will be taken offline.”
(Note: he never mentions the “bitter” part, though maybe it’s obvious.)
If you never used it, PostRank had developed a number of free tools to help make sense of social engagement data on the Web. This included plugins (the now defunct Google Reader plugin among them) and RSS feeds that would score and rank posts based on their discussion, linking patterns and social interaction. It was, basically, an easy way to find popular posts.
Google’s new social reports will be taking its place. The reports will allow users to analyze a number of different factos to see how Social impacts your company, or in this case your college or university. These social reports include:
Sources: As your content is shared and people come to your site, it’s important to understand how visitors from different social sources engage with your site.
Conversions: Shared content URLs become the entry points into your site, driving traffic from social sources. Measuring the conversion and monetary value of this traffic will help you understand the impact of Social on your business.
Pages: People increasingly engage with, share, and discuss content on social networks. It’s important to know which pages and content are being shared, where they’re being shared, and how.
Social Plugins: Adding Social Plugin buttons to your site (for example, Google “+1″ buttons) allows your users share content to social networks directly from your site. Your social plugin data shows you which content is being shared, and on which networks.
In the past, the only way to get Goggle to index the YouTube videos on your school blogs and program pages, was to create a video sitemap. This was often so confusing for colleges and universities that video sitemap plugins have been developed solely to help make it easier. Furthermore, creating a sitemap didn’t always guarantee that they would be indexed as YouTube videos. In fact, it often didn’t work at all.
Well, it seems that Google is now indexing embedded YouTube videos, without the video sitemap hurdle. The discovery was made by the folks at ReelSEO, who noticed the change and then tested it. What they discovered is that you can get your embedded YouTube videos indexed automatically and quickly, simply by using YouTube’s new frame method (which is their new default embed option). The next time your program pages are crawled, any embedded vids will be indexed in Google videos. Simple and unexpected.
As ReelSEO states, the reason Google did not index embedded videos was likely to avoid a mess of duplicate content and to help maximize ad revenue (by driving all the traffic to the Google-owned YouTube.com). For whatever reason, this is no longer the case.
The change brings up a number of relevant education marketing discussions. For one thing, effective web content can no longer be restricted to text. Now more than ever, your program pages and student blogs should include a variety of media formats, with YouTube videos prominent among them. Not only can they liven up your content, they can now also help boost your online presence.
The flip side to that coin, however, is that there is a very real chance that this increase in online visibility can also lead to more frustrated searchers (a video may not always be the main point of the page it is embedded on). Clearly, there is going to be a learning curve, one which may even affect the way multimedia content is created, posted and shared. Stay tuned.
We’ve often trumpeted the importance of Google Analytics when it comes to online marketing (and education marketing in particular), but Google’s recent Q1 2012 earnings call has revealed just how important it is to today’s online landscape. Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora revealed that “over 10 million marketers and websites globally use Google Analytics to measure the effectiveness of their online presence in real-time”.
That figure, by the way, would mean it is used on over 55% of all websites, giving it an analytics tool market share of over 82%. Impressive indeed, and considering the additions Google has made to GA, including email scheduling, social reports and flow visualizations, that share may continue to grow.
Here is the announcement during Google’s Q1 2012 earnings call:
In the meantime, Google has been working on their other big product: Google+.
The search engine giant has announced a redesign for its social networking platform, which will allow more user customization. New features, which will be rolled out progressively, include:
The ability to customize apps
A new navigation ribbon
A new Explore page that highlights posts that are trending across the site
Bigger photos
A chat list
An always-updated list of invitations from the people in your circles
Quick access to every public and On Air hangout, for those times when you want to meet someone new, or watch a live broadcast
A rotating billboard of popular hangouts, pro tips and other items you don’t want to miss
These changes will allow users to:
Drag apps up or down to create the order you want
Hover over certain apps to reveal a set of quick actions
Show or hide apps by moving them in and out of “More”
Follow community around your content
Quickly join discussions and conversations
Here’s a video that takes a look at the new navigation ribbon:
“More than 170 million people have upgraded to Google+, enjoying new ways to share in Search, Gmail, YouTube and lots of other places. It’s still early days, and there’s plenty left to do, but we’re more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google… We think you’ll find it easier to use and nicer to look at, but most importantly, it accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google.”
Clearly, Google+ still has ground to make up to be able to compete with Facebook, but the more Google improves this product, the more important it will become for your college marketing department.
Way back in November 2011, Google came out and told users of its analytics that it would be adding email scheduling and PDF reports to the new version of Google Analytics. As you may recall, these were features of the old version of Google Analytics, and their abscence in the new version irked quite a few users. In fact, the company call them “two of the most requested features from the old version of Google Analytics that have been absent in the new interface.”
At the time, they claimed both emails scheduling and PDF exporting would be available in a few weeks and started soliciting feedback from users. And then…nothing. At least until now. Google has very quietly rolled out both features, with something of a staggered release at the end of last week (users were progressively given access). Both features, which are in BETA, are now open to all.
A Google Analytics Help thread was the first to pick up on this, with one user stating: “Good news!!!! Pdf and email functions are now available. I saw them this morning. How crazy of them to leave them out for so long.”
Email scheduling, in particular, can be very helpful for college marketing departments, as the feature allows users to schedule a regular report from Analytics. This report can then emailed to relevant stakeholders (you may also export a snapshot of data in PDF format) across a number of different departments, ensuring that everyone is on the same page when it comes to data and the performance of your program pages. Clearly, the easier you can share this information, the easier marketing decisions (and budgets) can be.
What do you think about these additions to Google Analytics?
These new social reports are an exciting prospect for education marketing departments, since they will bridge the gap between social media and the metrics important to your college or university. This will help you measure the full value of your social media platforms (and, one would think, the platform that is most beneficial to your marketing and recruitment needs).
More specifically, the new Google Analytics Social Reports can help your school:
Identify the full value of traffic coming from social sites and measure how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions
Understand social activities happening both on and off of your site to help you optimize user engagement and increase social key performance indicators (KPIs)
Make better, more efficient data-driven decisions in your social media marketing programs
Best of all, though, is that these new social reports will give you the chance to analyze this information together in one place, providing a much more complete picture of your share of social media voice.
The reports involve a number of features, including:
An overview report (which provides social performance and impact on conversions)
A conversions report (indicating what goals are being impacted by social media)
Social sources (showing how visitors from different sources behave)
Social plugins (indicating most shared content)
Activity stream (showing you what’s happening outside your website)
Here is a screen shot of the overview report from the Google Analytics Blog:
As we’ve discussed many times, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for colleges and universities looking to make the most out of their marketing and recruitment strategies and online presence. However, what is becoming clear is that the quality of SEO efforts may soon be more important than the “quantity” (substance over style, in other words), at least according to Google’s Matt Cutts.
Cutts spoke at a SXSW panel about search engine optimization and revealed that the company may soon have a new strategy when it comes to determining rank. There is an audio clip available on Search Engine Land, but here is a rough transcription of what Cutts said:
“Normally we don’t pre-announce changes, but there is something we’ve been working in the last few months and hopefully in the coming weeks we hope to release it. The idea is basically to try to level the playing ground a little bit. So all those people who have been doing, for lack of a better word, over optimization or overly doing their SEO – compared to the people who are just making great content and trying to make a fantastic site, we are trying to level the playing field a bit.
We try to make the GoogleBot smarter, try to make our relevance more adaptive, so that if people don’t so SEO we handle that. And we are also looking at the people who abuse it, who put too many keywords on a page, exchange way too many links, or whatever else they are doing to go beyond what you normally expect. We have several engineers on my team working on this right now.”
He didn’t mention, however, how Google would decipher quality content from overly optimized sites, nor did he mention how the latter would be punished – one would think, though, that a lower rank would do the trick.
So, does this mean you have to rethink your SEO work? Not exactly. SEO best practices are not set in stone, mostly because search engines will often update the manner in which they crawl sites, and the standards their crawlers are looking for. This means that SEO campaigns are generally long-term affairs, with continuous keyword research and on-page and off-page efforts. Changes, therefore, are par for the course.
Clearly, though, it’s becoming more important for your college or university to produce great content (and to make sure SEO campaigns are well run and properly thought out). We’ll just have to stay tuned to see what Google has in store.
If you’re curious about over-optimization, here is a Google video on the topic:
Much has been said about Google’s controversial changes to its privacy policies, but new data is suggesting that even with these changes, Google remains the leading search engine in the US.
83% of American internet users say they mostly use Google
6% say they use Yahoo most often
All other search engines (including Bing) accounted for 6% , with another 5% of respondents claiming that they did not favor one search engine over the other.
While it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to see Google in the number 1 spot — it has after all been there for years — what is surprising is the way that it has cemented its position in the top spot. A 2004 Pew survey had the number of respondents who used Google most often at 47% (Yahoo was at 26%!). This represents a massive increase.
The question now, however, is if searchers will be turned off by Google’s new privacy rules, which will pull personal information from Google Plus and use search history and user data to target advertising. According to the survey, close to 75% of respondents do not want their search engine of choice to tailor ads with personal info and data. Something has to give.
It’s important to remember, however, that at the end of the day, this is Google’s bread and butter. Their search engine is the heart of a system that generated $36.5 billion in revenue last year. It’s unlikely, therefore, that they will scale this back. It will be interesting to see if any backlash occurs, of it there is any room here for Google’s rivals to slither in.
The Pew Search Engine 2012 survey, by the way, interviewed 2,253 adults, of which 1,729 responded via the Internet. The results based on Internet users have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
Google is providing a bit of a blast from the past today, releasing a video that highlights some of the key milestones in search over the last ten years. It seems like Google has been around forever, so it’s easy to forget that Google.com was not even registered until 1997. We’ve certainly come a long way since then.
Particularly interesting is the effect that September 11th had on the creation of Google News, and the way the search engine giant has continuously adapted to the changing online landscape. Search, as this video makes clear, has to be progressive. This Google video, therefore, also seems to be something of an introduction to future changes in the pipeline.
The company posted this on their blog:
“Our goal is to get you to the answer you’re looking for faster and faster, creating a nearly seamless connection between your questions and the information you seek. That means you don’t generally need to know about the latest search feature in order to take advantage of it.”
Check out the Google Evolution of Search video:
Google also released a Search Timeline (Click here to see a larger version of Google’s Search Timeline):
