Industry News

Catch up on interesting new discussion and industry news.

    Driving Directions vs. Reviews as Ranking Signals for Google Maps

    by Bill Slawski
    Sep 18, 2013
    In my college days, I cooked at some local restaurants (free meals made it an attractive option for a starving college student). One of the restaurants was in the center of town, at one end of Main Street, and it was a popular place for local...

    With iOS 7, Siri Drops Google For Bing, Also Gains Twitter Search

    dannysullivan
    by dannysullivan
    Sep 18, 2013
    Apple’s new iOS 7 mobile operating system officially rolled out today, and with it, the Siri assistant is finally out of beta. The most significant change to Siri is arguably that it no longer taps into Google for searches. As expected, a deal with Microsoft now makes Bing the default in Siri. Twitter also gets a new place within the tool. Supporting Role, Not Starring Role, For Bing

    After last year’s disaster of iOS 6 switching from Google Maps to Apple’s own maps, Apple might perhaps be...

    Study: Google+ Has No Direct Ranking Benefit, Like Google's Cutts Said

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Sep 18, 2013
    You can now stop clicking the +1 button on my articles, they have no ranking benefit.

    Eric Enge published an exhaustive study named Direct Measurement of Google Plus Impact on Search Rankings...

    Case Study: The Value of a Blog Post

    by Tadeusz Szewczyk
    Sep 18, 2013
    Sometimes when I tell business owners how much I charge for blog posts they tell me that it's expensive. At the same time they would gladly throw that same amount and much more money at "drive by" traffic from Google Adwords or some half-hearted attempt at manual link building (e.g. outreach).

    Even when it comes to services that are far less scalable I can in many cases charge more than for content creation that inherently earns shares and links.

    Other clients pay me without flinching but...

    Case study: redesigning Vumi Go

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Sep 17, 2013
    We recently had an opportunity to work with one of my favorite companies, Praekelt Foundation. They do amazing work with projects like MAMA (using mobile technologies to improve the health and lives of mothers in developing nations) and TxtAlert (automated, personalized SMS reminders to patients on chronic medication).

    One of their products is called Vumi — a conversation engine for the delivery of SMS, USSD (Star Menu), and chat messages to diverse audiences. Vumi is a custom development...

    Bing's New Logo & Search Features Preview

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Sep 17, 2013
    Late last night, Microsoft announced on the search blog the next phase of Bing, Microsoft's search engine. You can "explore" these changes at bing.com/new.

    The most obvious change is the new yellow/orange logo...

    Google AdSense Now Supported On HTTPS Web Sites

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Sep 17, 2013
    Google announced that HTTPS sites, SSL secured can now have Google AdSense ads on them without an issue.

    For this to work, you simply need to go into your AdSense console...

    How Facebook makes us feel inadequate

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Sep 16, 2013
    Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy is such a brilliant post. Funny, way too true, and great illustrations. It follows the story of Lucy, a fictional Gen Y yuppie who is not having such a good time right now. This part about social media sites (or what I guess is known as Facebook image crafting) really stuck with me:

    Social media creates a world for Lucy where A) what everyone else is doing is very out in the open, B) most people present an inflated version of their own existence, and...

    Will having a site available on both IPv4 and IPv6 cause a duplicate content issue?

    Sep 16, 2013
    As we are now closer than ever to switching to IPv6, could you please share some info on how Google will evaluate websites. One website being in...

    Why Apple introduced new processors in the iPhone 5s

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Sep 15, 2013
    Horace Dediu makes an interesting point about some of the new iPhone 5s features in M is for Mystery:

    Perhaps this is why Apple chose to describe the iPhone 5s as “forward-thinking”. The M7 and the Touch ID are like research projects whose actual value will be realized at some future time, in probably different contexts.

    Sisir Koppaka takes this idea further in The Most Forward-Thinking Apple Yet. On going 64-bit:

    I don’t believe Apple added 64-bit support to iOS 7 and all their...