Seach, Social & Content Marketing Blog

Guest Post By Chris von Nieda

Google Chrome is Google’s answer to Web Browsing.  In this article I’ll tell you a little about the new browser, what I like and what I don’t like and provide a few related links you may find useful.  Please help us make this article a valuable resource and submit your comments and opinions as well below!

Wikipedia describes it as a free web browser developed by Google. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or "chrome", of web browsers. A beta version for Microsoft Windows was released on 2 September 2008 in 43 languages.  Google promotes it like this: “Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.”

One of my main concerns with trying Chrome (and others shared my concern) was how much information Chrome sends back to Google about you or your web activities. Google’s own Matt Cutts wrote a great blog post that addresses that specific concern called: Preventing Paranoia, When does Google Chrome talk to Google.com

Here are the main features explained:

Each tab is a separate process: Unlike the other browsers each new tab you open runs individually of the others.  That way if a page or web application crashes it doesn’t affect the other tabs.  You just close the offending tab and continue browsing!

One box for search and web addresses: Google calls this “Omni box”.  No longer do you search from one box and enter URL’s in another.  You use the Omni box for everything INCLUDING running a search on Yahoo, Live.com or any other search engine.  Just start typing Yahoo.com and then hit your tab key and you will see what I mean.

Home page: When you first open Chrome you see 9 thumbnails of your most recent or most regularly used websites.  In addition to the right of that you’ll see links to recent bookmarks you created and a search box for Yahoo and Live Search

Dynamic tabs: Like the other browsers you can reorder the tabs by dragging them, however Chrome does it smoother. In addition you can drag a tab outside of Chrome (say to your desk top or other application) and Chrome will turn it in to its own window.  You can also drag it back to the main application.

Incognito mode:  Apparently the other browsers are working on this feature as well but when in Incognito mode, pages you view in this window won’t appear in your browser history or search history, and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be preserved, however.

Task manager: Chrome has a built in task manager that shows information about each tabs resource usage.  To see it just hit Ctrl + Esc.

Application Shortcuts: This one is very cool.  Let’s say you use Gmail daily or another “web application”.  Chrome gives you the ability to create a shortcut to that URL as a Favorite, Desktop shortcut or Quick launch bar in windows. But that’s not all, the reason they call it an application shortcut is because it creates a special browser window with no menu, address bar or tabs. It acts as an application would versus a webpage.

Faster bookmarking: Bookmark pages faster than ever.  Just click the star Icon next to the Omni box.  You can also create “folders” right on the bookmarks bar

Status bar Auto hides: In order to maximize the available space for viewing your web pages Chrome only shows the status bar along the bottom when needed, otherwise it auto hides.

Simpler downloads: When you download a file from a website, the downloads bar appears at the bottom of the tab where you can monitor the progress of your downloading file. The file button indicates how much time remains for the download. An arrow appears in the tab to signify a download in progress. Once the download is complete you can drag it to your desktop, open it or save it with one click.

What are the pros and cons of Google Chrome?

Link Building and SEO with Chrome:

For all you Link Builders out there…Chrome does not currently support the Google Toolbar (crazy huh?) and all the valuable add-ons Firefox supports that we all have come to love and use daily so don’t go uninstalling Firefox yet because I’m sure it’s coming.  In the mean time here is a very fast and easy work around for adding some Link building/SEO tools to Chrome similar to what is available in Firefox: Google Toolbar for Google Chrome

Overall I like Chrome and I think it will become a major player in the browser space.  Tell us what you think about it?

[tags] browsers, chrome link building, google chrome, google chrome review [/tags]

"Friend Connect is Google’s poster boy within their social network that will bring OpenSocial to your blog before Christmas this year, or so I believe".

Guest Post by Chris Lang

We have all heard about Friend Connect, at least in passing so let’s start with an explanation of what Friend Connect really does. First of all there is a Friend Connect widget (see sample here) that looks allot like MyBlogLog, but that is where the comparison ends. Here is how it works:

#1 You click the "Join" button on the widget.

#2 You click the confirm button in the popup window that opens.

#3 You have just added the Blog’s RSS feed to your Google Reader.

#4 Now you can click the avatars of others that have joined the Blog and you get the "+add friend" link since you are a member of the Blog’s following. Click that link.

#5 You can now add a short introductory blurb and click the send button to send a friend request.

#6 The other Friend Connect member accepts your friend request one of two ways:

- By accepting your Google shared items feed in their Google Reader "friend shared items."

- By accepting your friend request thru Gmail chat or Gtalk.

#7 Now this new friend will also be portable and show up as a friend on other blogs with the Friend Connect widget installed.

Google is rolling out the Friend Connect widget any day on Blogger first, before offering it elsewhere. Right now Google is calling it the "Following" widget.

On Monday night 9-15-2008, or early Tuesday morning, I saw Google running full Friend Connect on Blogger in the Following widgets for about 3 or 4 hours. The following widget is really Friend Connect, it just depends what code Google feeds it. At least that is what I was going on for the few hours that night.

Then about 10AM Arizona time the Friend Connect widget started to slow down, fail to fully load and then finally the "Following" HTML interface came back and Friend Connect was gone.

This is the most powerful Social Networking development to come along. Why? Because this is where you will find and make new friends thru the Google Social Network: Googling Social.

This is the last piece of the four application Google social network. That is comprised of Gmail, Google Reader, your Google Profile and your Google shared items page and finally Friend Connect.

The reason Google rolled out the Following widget is so that when they release Friend Connect on Blogger any day now, Friend Connect will simply replace the Following widget.

The really big development is that Google is going to finally take RSS to the masses by simply adding a "Join" button to the widget. When you click the button and then confirm that you want to follow the blog then the RSS feed is added to your Google Reader under the Google account you are logged into.

This obviously has some pretty big implications for you link builders out there that have used social bookmarking and RSS feeds as a part of your link building efforts.

You can learn much more about Friend Connect on my Social Marketing blog, and you can send a friend request to me thru Gmail chat at the address: chrislang [at] gmail[dot]com. See you on the Friend Connected web! – Chris Lang

Check out the Google Friend Connect Video.

[tags] google friend connect, chris lang, mybloglog, opensocial, google reader, google profile, social marketing blog [/tags]

We all know it is coming.  We all wait with great anticipation.  We all hope it doesn’t hit someone we know.

And we can all guess at who it is going to nail (or benefit), what changed in the algorithms, where it is happening first, when it will occur and why Google is making the changes.

Is it the 30, 90 & 950 penalties?  Something similar to last October?  Or will it be more PageRank carnage?

What’s the next Google Smackdown going to be?  When will it happen?  Any educated guesses out there?  Let’s hear from you!! 

[tags] google smackdown, google penalties, pagerank carnage [/tags]

Believe it or not we have covered almost 20 Vertical Markets in our DoFollow Tuesday features.  Everything from Real Estate to Jewelry to Law Firms.   Our team spent the last couple days looking at the popularity of various articles and posts we have added over the past year or so, and discovered that most of the interaction occurs on our general topics.  This is not a big surprise as our vertical market posts only reach a niche audience — as they are supposed to. 

However, we decided to return to our old format of general topics for a broader audience letting you apply the tips and techniques to your own specific markets.  Don’t worry, we do plan to offer solid link building advice for vertical markets once in a while, but it will no longer be on an "every Tuesday" basis.

Stay tuned as we get ready to roll out a whole series of informative posts covering ever thing from social media for link building, Google smackdowns, link building strategies and more   You will even see some guest posts from industry experts such as Dave Wallace, Chris Lang and Brian Offenberger.

One final note: we are link builders, we generally share the link love, but we are going to be a little more strict on the comment approvals in the future.  Only valuable comments will be approved from this day forward.   See this write up for some great blog commenting guidelines.

[tags] link building advice, link building tips, dave wallace, chris lang, brian offenberger [/tags]

Sorry for the "commercial interruption" but every once in a while we like to brag about our link building services.  And it’s even better when someone else does!