Why Google Should Acquire Pinterest! My Message to Googleplex

Google should acquire Pinterest!

Build a better mousetrap, and Google will beat a path to your door. A virtual truth! Had Ralph Waldo been alive, he would have quoted so! After many acquisitions, I believe pinterest is the one that Google should acquire for many reasons.

The popularity of inforgraphics is surging with a growing users’ base. ComScore reports that the site has seen a 900% increase in unique visitors with 17.8% million unique views in February 2012 in a short time since its inception in September 2009. Further, Pinterest is only third to Facebook and Tumblr, as per a story published in Mashable, where users spend an average 98 minutes per month.  

Huffingtonpost reports that nearly a third of all Pinterest users have annual salaries of $100,000 or more, almost 70 percent are female and the largest age demographic represented on the site are people between 25 and 34. What more could an advertiser want?

High profile people and brands such as Barack Obama, Oprah, STA Travel, Windstar Cruises, and many others have joined the site purposely. 

Users’ growing love for Pinterest is due to several reasons including visual infographics that interact users and mesmerize them. The old rule of lengthy text content and optimization technique as per Google guidelines is taking a back seat. Digital users spend less time in reading content of a website/portal. They simply scan. The F-shaped pattern of Jakob Neilson confirms that users don’t read text thoroughly. They scan the information.   

Recently, I have observed that users likes' and 'share' of infographics are significantly increasing. Also, noticing plenty of requests from my internal clients come to me asking for my thoughts on using Pinterest to market their products. I do believe that Pinterest has potential to reshape retail and e-commerce strategies. My research is going on as how best we can use this site for e-commerce companies. 

Recently, Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram hogged the headlines. Of course, Facebook had reasons to buy Instagram because it did not want another trouble to challenge their territory.  Also, Google has a history of acquiring many such companies. Recently, Google acquired Digg @ $15 million and scooped up Digg founder Kevin Rose. I don’t understand why Danny Sullivan posted in his blog that Digg was affected by Google Panda. I believe @Danny, you have got the answer why digg got affected.:)

One of the strong reasons as why I believe Google should buy Pinterest is mainly because of its easy social applications. Google has android but its struggling in social arena in mobile. Pinterest has already won the hearts of desktop users and I believe it has an ability cater to mobile users. 

In gist, I would advise Google that it’s better to be managed by a wise employee of any organization than by a foolish manager of its own company!  In a small enterprise, such quote has relevance but Google is neither small nor its management is a foolish entity. Hope, G stakeholders are listening to this piece of FREE advice. :)  

Google Contains the Seeds of Its Own Destruction

bels:

Courtesy Image:  uncyclopedia.wikia.com   

Google’s love for brand is not a new thing to cover in my blog. Much has been written and talked about it but what is not talked about is the declining share of Wikipedia on Google search results. There was a time when Google would display Wikipedia on the top of the search result but now the top organic slot is replaced with big brands like ebay and Amazon. 

There are many SEO experts who always write their opinion on the best practices of optimizing a website. Does a site like eBay or Amazon follow the so-called SEO advice? I cease to believe this and one citation would be adequate to prove my belief. Example: how many of you think -‘http://www.ebay.com/sch/Furniture-/20091/i.html’ is SEO friendly ULR? And how many of you think this particular ‘web page’ has followed basic On-Page? Search for ‘antique furniture’ in Google for US location.

Do you also think that ebay on top of Google has very good title? In webmaster, Google always shows ‘short title’. What about eBay’s title? Is it so enticing? Also, see the description and I’ll let you judge the quality of such a dynamic page from SEO perspective.  

The logic for top SERP for such a store is ‘reputation’ more than following the so-called Google’s guidelines. Many experts favor this biased approach of Google that causes a sprawling growth of such ‘mash up’ ecosystem. I don’t deny the merits of ‘mash up economy’ but I also see the danger of such economy that tends to produce a monopolistic competition. Undoubtedly, Google encourages such development for being in ‘that area’.  

SEO/SEM Job Opportunity and Average Salary in India

Jakob Nielsen, the web usability expert

I’ve always pondered over the job market for SEO/SEM professionals in India. There has not been any single survey ever done on this to provide an idea to people associated with this industry. Based on my experience and preliminary web study, I have attempted to provide unverified data. While the accuracy of the data is questionable but they represent some facts that might help us take a sensible decision with respect to SEO/SEM jobs in India.    

Fig (1.0)

The above graph represents the average salary of SEO/SEM professionals. The average salary of SEO ranges from 2.5 to 9.5 Lakh depending on the years of experience. I have also observed that the job opportunity for these professionals abounds especially for 0-2 years and 3-4 years of experience. After 5-7 years experience, the job opportunity for SEO/SEM professioanls falls by 30% while the job opportunity for 8-10 years of SEO/SEM experienced professionals falls by 50%. See graph below.

Fig (1.1)

The graph shows a jump of 20% job opportunity for SEO/SEM professional with 3-4 years of experience is greater than 0-2 years of experienced professionals. After this, a rapid fall in job opportunities for people with higher experience in this field. The % gap will be higher that shows lower job opportunities for people with 8 years + experience.

Compared to CTC, the % job opportunity for experienced professionals falls greater than the % increment in CTC. Given the fact that % CTC increase is lesser than % of increase in experience, it would be interesting to know which cities in India pay you off more to relocate for SEO/SEM jobs.

Table 1.0

Based on my preliminary study, I have observed that Mumbai tops the job opportunity for SEO/SEM professionals followed by Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad and many others. Delhi & NCR, as shown in lower column of this table, is due to low CTC and poor compensation being paid to these professionals  compared to other cities including Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai where the job opportunities for SEO/SEM is GREAT.    

If you see Google Insights, you’ll find Delhi tops for SEO jobs followed by Maharashtra. To my knowledge, SEO/SEM job opportunity in Delhi is as great as Maharashtra but the ‘search for SEO jobs’ in Delhi & NCR is higher than Mumbai. See the search trends in Google Insights.

Where to Relocate?

The following graph can help you take decision for taking up job offers in India cities.

Assumptions –

·         You must think that you should get decent CTC, at least average as per standard

·         You must be ready to relocate

·         You must see cost of living 

See the graph

Fig (1.0)

This graph represents the above table. Bhubaneswar is at the bottom next to Kolkata both in terms of CTC and job opportunities. As you move from Mumbai down to other cities, the job opportunities as well as salary for SEO/SEM professionals become lesser. Delhi is a just an exception because the city has plenty of job opportunities but CTC being paid to these professionals is low just above Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.

The graph also helps an SEO/SEM professional relocate a city for a job. For example, if a job offer is made for Mumbai and for Hyderabad, you’ll definitely opt for Mumbai as far as CTC and job opportunities are concerned. If you look other factors beyond these two and opt for Hyderabad, you’ll have to settle with lower CTC and lesser number of job opportunities. In that case, the decision is purely yours.

But after 8 years in SEO/SEM industry, things become very tough to live in Hyderabad or Kolkata or any other lower zones unless you further jump to another company as a project manager. 

I welcome your feedback on my observations!

Google Is Smarter Than You Think

Google is getting smarter and smarter, everyday. Faster than you may realize.

Let’s look at this example to see how Google was able to translate what I wanted and what it was able to provide me.

I did a search for “mytunes for mac” expecting to find some sort of app to let me steal borrow music from someone on my network, for OS X. Sure, there are utilities for Windows, but there aren’t that many apps for OS X.

Here’s where Google gets really smart. Below, I have the same search query on the top 3 search engines; Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

Google was smart enough to know exactly what I was searching for and provide me the results I wanted to see, the first time. The app I was trying to actually see was an app called “ourtunes,” which Google provided me results for.

Let’s take a look at the 3 different engines. First Yahoo!, then Bing, and finally Google, the winner.

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4 Important SEO Infographics

#1 - Pie Chart of SEO Time Expenditure

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#2 - Hat Color vs. Value Scatterplot of SEO Tactics

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#3 - Flowchart of SEO-Friendliness 

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#4 - Venn Diagram of Internet Marketing Professions

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details :-http://www.seomoz.org/

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The Effectiveness of Link Baiting and Seeding

A great way of driving traffic to your website is by writing link bait.  It’s very effective if you can target the right people, but not the easiest thing to do. So what is link bait?

Link Bait and Seeding

Link bait is content that is designed to get links. Not necessarily good content, but content that is worth writing about and linking to. Don’t mistake good content for link grabbing content. Although link bait can be done by writing such great content, you can also enrage people with your writing and get links, or you can make them laugh so hard they have to tell their friends and link to you. Truth to it is it’s an art.

Here’s the deal though - maybe you’ve tried it and failed. That doesn’t mean you weren’t any good. Often, it means you weren’t able to seed it effectively. You can write fantastic link bait but if no one reads it, it’s not going anywhere. You need to seed it, get initial traffic to it. More importantly, the right type of traffic. Your average 13-year-old might laugh but he might not have a website to link to you with. On the other hand he might visit a forum and link to you from a forum page. Those links all count, especially in search engine optimization.

You now have a few options to get seeders. Maybe connect with other bloggers, get them to laugh, link to it, and generate a spurt of traffic.

Another idea, although a little shady and not always a good idea because it can be though of as spamming, register 2 to 3 users on a forum, start a conversation between them all, and then drop your link into the middle of it to get the initial visitors. Or, if these ideas don’t work for you, you can also use a social bookmarking site.

Social bookmarking

All of these systems need to be worked at. You might have to try again and again to get it. Social bookmarking requires you to interact in the community every day and build a profile. It’s like using facebook but as a job. It is a job you have to do with discipline. Once you build a powerful profile, you have a very big asset at your disposal. A powerful profile will automically get votes from people who are friends of that user and allow you to push stories to the front page with more consistency. It’s definitely a long term investment but one that is worth thinking about.

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When It Grows Up, the iiView A2 Wants To Be a MacBook

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery than Apple is a-blushing and a-giggling right now. iView's iiView A2 is hitting Singapore next week and, aside from running Windows 7 RC 1 of all things, it seems a bit familiar.

Sleek and sexy, this $467.78 netbook looks good enough to slice cake with. Its design mimics that of Apple's MacBook Air, right down to hidden monitor-out and USB ports. No word on how the lack of an optical drive is being dealt with though.

The specifications don't have anything worth getting excited about except for that last item:

• Atom 1.6GHz processor
• 2GB RAM
• Intel 945 chipset
• 12.1-inch 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution
• 320GB HDD
• Two USB ports, mini-HDMI port, 2-in-1 headphone/mic jack
• 802.11b/g, 10/100 Ethernet
• Six-cell battery
• Windows 7 RC1 with Vista Home Premium license

Yes, the iiView A2 runs Windows 7 RC1, but comes with a Vista Home Premium license so that you can upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium when the time is right. iView explains that this OS decision was made because Vista just doesn't "provide an adequate experience" on netbooks. (Does it provide an adequate experience on anything?)

This is the best looking netbook I've seen so far and a great deal for those craving the style of Apple's line, but dreading the price tag. All that's left is the wait until the iiView A2 hits US shelves.

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