Central Perk

marți, 27 august 2013

Comparing the Google+ and Google Places Page Management Interfaces

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 04:23 PM PDT

Caveat: I am definitely not a professional interface designer; this task I leave largely to the experts on our UX & Design team. My goal behind this post is to increase usage of Places for Business, however, and raise the visibility of that destination among the small-business-focused marketing community.

Setting aside the difficulty that Google had integrating Zagat into its product mix, its own branding difficulties in the Local space have been well-chronicled. Following the zigzag from Local to Maps to Places to Places-with-Hotspot, back to just Places, then to Plus-Local, and (finally?) plain ol' Plus has been like observing a misguided exercise in corporate alligator escapism.

Although the result of this hodgepodge of brands appears largely the same to consumers, who probably weren't all that keyed into the evolution anyway, Google's ill-defined brand in Local has almost certainly been a contributing factor to its deficit in business owner engagement relative to Facebook.

It's just not clear to the average brick-and-mortar business owner, let alone the average SEO, where she should go to get started at Google. While Google's "first responders" in the support forums have been darned consistent in their mantra of using Places for Business to manage this presence, this destination gets very little love in Google's mainstream advertising â€" or even AdWords. It's impossible to get to from Google's primary business-oriented pages, and a number of searches (including "Google Plus Local Page") return this answer.

Which is a shame, because the Plus management interface offers a vastly inferior experience for business owners. Although I recommended it last year, here's why I no longer encourage business owners (or SEOs) to use it, and why I've come around to places.google.com.

The deficiencies of the Google+ page management interface

1. No UI hierarchy

This interface is a jumble of Pinterest-like modules, with none more or less important than the others. If I were to answer my own question ("What am I supposed to look at?"), my natural inclination would seem to be the big green box in the middle â€" "Start a video call with your followers." Hardly something the average business owner is going to have time for or get any value out of.

Meanwhile, attributes that are core to a business's success (categories, hours, location information) are hidden behind a white-on-white button, and my natural primary activity (posting as my business rather than as myself) is easy to miss when juxtaposed alongside the "green monster." It's no wonder that even LinkedIn beats Google+ for social sharing.

2. Mis-targeting the average SMB

The eager-beaver SMBs who explore the navigation beyond the first page are likely to find themselves pretty lost. They're asked to install plugins, buttons, and even connect to the Google APIs console (while being consoled that it's only a 3-step process). Something like 50% of this audience doesn't even have a website, and 90% doesn't even have a mobile website, for goodness sake.

3. Slightly misleading insights

The Places dashboard hasn't exactly been a paragon of useful information, but my main complaint with this tab is presentation, rather than data. There's actually quite a bit of useful information here, but unfortunately it's hidden in the default view. "Actions" and "Views" are presented flatly, where a view of a post is treated with the same importance as a click for driving directions or into a business's website. So a business is likely to miss out on what are actually some pretty important metrics, or at least see some inflated numbers.

4. No help

The only way to get help with this far-from-simple product is to click first into settings, and then into "Learn More" on the section that you're interested in.

The strengths of the Places management interface

1. Extremely clear messaging

Strong calls to action pop right off the page here: the green-backgrounded "Complete your business information," the blue-backgrounded "Edit information," and even the boringness of the grayed-out "Add photo" area all point directly to what Google and the SMB are both trying to accomplish with this product.

2. Perfect targeting of the average SMB

It's evident that the designers of the Places Dashboard have spent plenty of time watching business owners using their product. Clicking the question mark just once brings up tooltips alongside all the major sections of the tool. Not only does this decrease the number of questions Google is likely to receive from business owners, but it answers those questions in a clear, friendly tone that gives less-sophisticated owners a great first impression of Google's products.

3. Clear(er) insights

This simplistic interface is very transparent about the data it's showing (number of times this listing appeared in a local search result), and presents a much more representative view of a business's presence at Google (my page only has 3 actions) without overcomplicating the situation for the business owner.

4. Terrific tooltips and inline help text

Here's where the experience of the Places team really shines through: They don't take any pre-existing knowledge of how business listings work for granted, walking the business owner through every step of the page-creation process.

5. Phone support (!)

And of course, if a business owner isn't able to figure things out on their own, there are plenty of relevant links directly to the most-commonly asked questions, and the process highlights Google's revolutionary option of phone support.

Conclusion

Given how much effort has been put into the Local Business Center / Places for Business Dashboard over the last several years â€" and the extremely polished result those efforts have yielded â€" I'm surprised Google continues to throw any energy into promoting the Plus management option to small businesses, let alone developing and maintaining it.

Any business owner who visits Plus should be sent right over to the Places for Business Dashboard. It seems to be much more empathetic to the typical business owner's level of sophistication, and solves their most important needs more directly than Plus.

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For Conspicuous Gallantry

Featured

For Conspicuous Gallantry

Yesterday, President Obama presented Army Staff Sergeant Ty M. Carter with the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry. Carter was one of 53 American soldiers who woke up the morning of October 9, 2009 to an attack by more than 300 Taliban fighters.

President Barack Obama applauds Staff Sergeant Ty M. Carter, U.S. Army, after presenting him with the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Aug. 26, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Everything you need to know to create a successful news section

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 01:38 AM PDT

Along with blogging, a well-run news section is a great way of ensuring that a steady stream of new content is added to your website, bringing additional traffic to your site and giving the search engines plenty to crawl. It also shows you to be a source of relevant knowledge, demonstrating your expertise and interest in the area, making it a great way to enhance your brand. The principle is similar to retailers who produce their own free magazines (such as Sainsbury's, Tesco and Boots) – it's adding value to their customers, while subtly promoting them as a business.

To clarify, what I'm talking about is a section of your site dedicated to reporting on news stories that are relevant to your industry, as distinct from a section for storing your company press releases (though obviously it's still good to have a separate page for these, to give journalists a helping hand).

For example, a travel site could have a "Travel News" section that would keep readers informed of things like forthcoming strike action and other things that might affect their travel plans, recent research on travel topics, changes in travel regulations, and so on. It could also report on things that may help encourage bookings, such as the Northern Lights being particularly strong this December.

Some examples of good news sections

In my last post I talked about Skyscanner's Travel News and Features section as a great example of an engaging news section, with an entertaining mix of travel advice and topical news stories, with the example below being one of their recent stories.

Looking at other sectors, here are some other good examples of the kind of content I'm talking about:

Harvey Nichols: HN Edit (fashion, beauty and food news)
Knowthenet: Internet Safety & Security News
Ecole Chocolat: Chocolate News
Gramophone: Classical Music News
Stork Butter: Baking News (see what they did there?)

Blog, news section or both?

A news section is a bit different from a blog, so if you wanted, you could have both without having any overlap of content. While a blog allows a greater degree of informality and a far wider variety of topics and formats, a news section should be more formal and impartial, with no room for the personal opinion of the writer.

Like a blog, adding a news section to your site provides fresh new content on a regular basis, and can be used to report on recent news for your industry, thereby capitalising on traffic for relevant ‘hot topics’. You might even be able to get your news stories featured in Google News, giving you an extra source of traffic.

Sources for news stories

To start with, where are good places to look for breaking news and other hot topics? Here are some suggestions.

Watch the news! Or listen to it on the radio. You never know when something relevant to your business will crop up.
Bookmark news sources and check them regularly for new stories; for instance, if you're a travel site, simply bookmark pages such as the Telegraph, Guardian and Times Travel sections.
Set up Google Alerts for topics relevant to your industry.
Conduct your own survey or research and publish the results.
Include a form on your news page that allows readers to submit news stories for consideration.
Monitor press releases of companies and organisations relevant to your industry for any new and interesting stories and research results.

If you have any you think should be on this list, let me know and I'll update this post.

Here's a summary of what you should and shouldn't do with your news section.

Cite your sources.
Only use sources you know you can trust, and ideally have a back-up source as well.
If you can, include a quotation from someone involved in the story, such as a witness. This could even be just a tweet from someone. This helps bring your news story to life.
Proofread and, if necessary, sub-edit your news stories to ensure a uniform style across your stories and high standards of English.
Get your story up on your website as quickly as possible – this will increase your likelihood of being linked to.
Promote each news story on Facebook and Twitter with a compelling headline and a link to the story on your site.
Optimise your headlines and title tags using likely search terms.
Make it easy for people to share by adding social sharing buttons at the top of each article.
Submit your news section to Google News – more on this below.

DON'T

Post anything you can't verify as having actually happened.
Post anything defamatory.
Use stock photos – these may make readers less trusting of what you say.
Copy other people's content – make the effort to tell a story in your own words.

Submitting your site to Google News

If you do your news section well, you may be eligible to be featured in Google's News results. It goes without saying that you can't just submit any old site to Google News – Google wouldn't be Google if it didn't make things tricky for us, after all! Google offers some guidelines on the standards it expects from sites, with regard to quality and also the technical aspects that make your news stories easier for Google's algorithm to crawl successfully. These guidelines are summarised below for ease of reference:

General

You should offer "timely reporting on matters that are important or interesting to our audience". Content such as how-to articles, advice columns or things like weather forecasts and stock market data are generally discounted.
You should adhere to journalistic values – your content should be original and honest.
Aggregated content should be separated using robots.txt, as only your own original work can be included.
You should demonstrate authority and expertise.
You should include information about yourself, which should be clearly accessible, including things like author bio, email address and phone number.
You should ensure good user experience with high standards of English and minimal adverts and auto-playing videos.

Technical

You should use unique, permanent URLs with at least three digits
When linking to other pages, you should use "at least a few words" in your anchor text. Note that Google won't be able to see links if they're in JavaScript, graphic or in a frame.
Your articles should be formatted in HTML, not PDF or any other format.
Make sure you're not blocking your news section with Robots.txt or metatags.
Google can't index audio files or multimedia content, but they can crawl "supplementary text" and some YouTube videos. That means that if you're going to include an audio clip in your article, you'll need to include a transcript along with it.
You should ideally submit a Google News sitemap via Webmaster Tools.

Quality

Your content should comply with Google's usual webmaster quality guidelines – that means not trying to manipulate Google in any way.
You should only write about actual news, so your content can't be commercial. That also means no paid advertorials. If you do have this sort of content, separate it from your main news section.
Your site should be user friendly, with rapid page load speed, minimal redirects and so on.
You should ensure that if you do use Google's own meta tags, such as the news_keywords metatag, you should not abuse them by including irrelevant terms to try and rank for those terms.

As you can see from the guidelines above, the Google News section isn't suitable for all sites. The guidelines are also a reminder to maintain journalistic integrity and not to use your news section as a further promotional opportunity for your own products or services.

This is the link you need when you're ready to submit your site.

What to do when a story evolves

One final tip: if you're covering a story that's rapidly evolving, keep updating the story on the same URL, rather than creating a new URL/story for each update to the situation. That way, you'll gain SEO benefit from incoming links to a single strong page, rather than spreading links across several stories.

Hopefully these tips will have inspired you to create an interesting news section on your own site. If you need any further help or advice, do drop me a line.

Seth's Blog : Part of a community...

Part of a community...

or apart from a community?

We can choose to "give back," or we can choose to give.

Viewing the web as a platform for generosity is very different than seeing an opportunity to turn it into an ATM machine. The way we spend our time online determines not only whether or not the community we choose grows and thrives, but it decides whether or not we will be part of what is built.

"What can I contribute today," might be the very best way to become part of a community. Relentless generosity brings us closer together.

The alternative? The masses of web surfers spending their time wasting their time, taking, clicking, scamming or being scammed.

When you think of the real communities you belong to, your family, your best friends, the tribes that matter... of course the decision is easy. We don't try to earn a little extra money when we split the bill at dinner or calculate market rate interest on a loan to a dear friend. And yet, when we get online, it's easy to start rationalizing our way to short-term behavior and selfishness.

Take or give?

• Email to a friend •

luni, 26 august 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Reflections on "A Moral Obscenity": How Long Ago Was a War Against Syria Decided?
American Homes 4 Rent Update
Second Biggest US Landlord, Owner of 20,000 Homes, Terminates 15% of Staff Following Loss
Durable Goods Orders Plunge 7.3%, Nondefense New Orders for Capital Goods Plunge 15.4%; Plunge to Accelerate?

Reflections on "A Moral Obscenity": How Long Ago Was a War Against Syria Decided?

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 08:11 PM PDT

Secretary of State John Kerry says the use of chemical weapons in Syria is "a moral obscenity".

With that clue (and many others), note that Obama prepares wary US public for war with Syria.

The White House has begun to prepare a wary US public for military action in Syria, with a flurry of well-publicised meetings of the administration's national security team, backed by a statement by secretary of state, John Kerry, calling the regime's use of chemical weapons "a moral obscenity".

Mr Kerry said on Monday President Bashar al-Assad's forces' responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in an attack which left hundreds dead last week was "undeniable", cementing a sharp about-turn in Washington's response to the issue.

Mr Obama said last year the use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line" in a conflict which the US has stayed out of, apart from promising to funnel weapons to some anti-Assad forces. Subsequently, however, when faced with allegations that chemical weapons had been used, administration officials had suggested they could not be conclusively traced back to Mr Assad's military.

The US is now moving quickly, and together with its Nato allies, could launch air strikes as early as Thursday or Friday this week, said individuals familiar with internal administration deliberations.

Chemical Weapons Questions

Q: Were chemical weapons used in Syria?
A: Highly likely

Q: By Assad, the rebels, or both?
A: Good question (and no one knows the answer for sure)

Q: Does it matter?
A: Apparently not. The US is headed for war anyway.

We Know Where They Are

Reflect back on the inane war in Iraq. Recall Donald Rumsfeld's statement regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction: "we know where they are".

We didn't know then. Do we know now?

Does it matter? Apparently not.

Iraq War Quotes

Please consider a few Iraq War Quotes.

11/15/1999, Dick Cheney, CEO of Halliburton (later, Vice President)

"Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow." (at the London Institute of Petroleum)

10/11/2000, George W. Bush, Candidate for President

"I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation building."

10/29/2001, Michael Leeden, American Enterprise Institute

"Just wage a total war against these tyrants; I think we will do very well and our children will sing great songs about us years from now."

02/13/2002, Kenneth Adelman, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board

"Liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk."

09/18/2002, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense (before Congress)

"We do know that the Iraqi regime has chemical and biological weapons. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons -- including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas. ... His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of biological weapons—including anthrax and botulism toxin, and possibly smallpox." (presentation to Congress)

10/7/2002, George W. Bush, President

"The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas."

Curiously, every statement except the first one by Dick Cheney was a blatant lie or blatant stupidity (take your pick).

Pentagon Had Plan in 2001 to Attack Seven Countries in Five Years, Including Syria

Want proof?

Fair enough. I would too.

Please consider this 2007 article Gen. Wesley Clark Says Pentagon Had Plan in 2001 to Attack Seven Countries in Five Years.

Better yet, please play the video: General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned – Seven Countries In Five Years (Syria Included)

15 Signs

Via ZeroHedge here are 15 Signs That Obama Has Already Made The Decision To Go To War With Syria

What Do US Citizens Want?

I am glad you asked.

As Syria war escalates, Americans cool to U.S. intervention.

Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria's government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed, a Reuters/Ipsos poll says.

About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria's civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, taken August 19-23, found that 25 percent of Americans would support U.S. intervention if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces used chemicals to attack civilians, while 46 percent would oppose it. That represented a decline in backing for U.S. action since August 13, when Reuters/Ipsos tracking polls found that 30.2 percent of Americans supported intervention in Syria if chemicals had been used, while 41.6 percent did not.

Taken together, the polls suggest that so far, the growing crisis in Syria, and the emotionally wrenching pictures from an alleged chemical attack in a Damascus suburb this week, may actually be hardening many Americans' resolve not to get involved in another conflict in the Middle East.

"A Moral Obscenity"

Those looking for "A Moral Obscenity" now have it.

I am willing to define the term as follows: A pre-ordained war, on inconclusive evidence, with only 9% support (24% even IF chemicals were used by Assad).

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

American Homes 4 Rent Update

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 06:00 PM PDT

In Second Biggest US Landlord, Owner of 20,000 Homes, Terminates 15% of Staff Following Loss I inadvertently made this comment about American Homes 4 Rent: "56% of their properties are not rented and the group still wants to spend $100 million a month to buy 800-1000 more homes."

A careful reader noted that it is 56% of the homes rented, and thus 44% not rented. Apologies offered.

I posted this correction.

Addendum:

I originally posted "56% of their properties are not rented". The person who caught my typo, said "I would be worried silly if only 56% of my properties were rented".

Not to worry, this is OPM (Other People's Money) American Homes 4 Rent is playing with. I am sure the CEO and executive staff of AMH will do quite well no matter what happens, even if AMH goes bust and takes down all the investors in the process.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Second Biggest US Landlord, Owner of 20,000 Homes, Terminates 15% of Staff Following Loss

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 12:27 PM PDT

Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo bank pinged me with a few comments this morning.

1. The 2nd biggest employer in the US is a TEMP AGENCY – Kelly Services (with more than 550,000 people working for them in the average year). GE is 3rd largest with 300,000. Wal-Mart is first with over a million employees.

2. American Homes 4 Rent, the 2nd biggest landlord following Blackrock shed 15% of staff following a second quarter loss.

Please consider American Homes 4 Rent Said to Fire Employees After Loss.

American Homes 4 Rent (AMH) yesterday fired a group of workers, with a focus on acquisition and construction staff, after the housing landlord reported a fiscal second-quarter loss, according to a person with knowledge of the terminations.

The company, owner of almost 20,000 single-family homes, has cut about 15 percent of its workforce this year, including an earlier round of terminations before its initial public offering last month, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The Malibu, California-based company, which raised $705.9 million in the IPO, had a net loss of $14 million, or 15 cents a share, on revenue of $18.1 million in the quarter ended June 30, according to a statement this week.

Single-family landlords have struggled to turn a profit while acquiring homes faster than they can fill them with tenants. Hedge funds, private-equity firms and real estate investment trusts have raised more than $18 billion to purchase more than 100,000 rental houses in the past two years. American Homes 4 Rent, founded by B. Wayne Hughes, is the largest single-family landlord after Blackstone Group LP's Invitation Homes, which has spent more than $5 billion on 32,000 homes.

American Homes 4 Rent executives Peter Nelson, Jack Corrigan, Sara Vogt-Lowell and Janice Stack didn't respond to e-mails and telephone messages seeking comment on the firings.

The landlord is slowing its property purchases, with plans to spend as much as $100 million a month on 800 to 1,000 additional homes, Corrigan, the company's chief operating officer, said on an Aug. 21 earnings conference call.

"As far as being able to put money to work, I mean we could easily ramp back up to $300 million-a-month pace if we have clarity that we would have that capital available," he said. "But we don't want to get too far out over our skis."

American Homes 4 Rent owned 19,825 properties for an investment of $3.4 billion as of July 31, according to its earnings statement. About 56 percent of the company's homes were leased as of June 30.

Only 56% of their properties are rented and the group still wants to spend $100 million a month to buy 800-1000 more homes.

Don't worry! They could triple that "but they don't want to get too far out over their skis".

Really?! What if they already are?

Such silliness explains why existing home sales are relatively robust compared to new home sales. The latter is now slumping because of higher mortgages rates.

Any downturn in the property market will sink this group. And such a downturn may easily be at hand.

For further discussion, please see New Home Sales Plunge 13.4% in July, June Revised Lower; Blame Rising Mortgage Rates

Addendum:

I originally posted "56% of their properties are not rented". The person who caught my typo, said "I would be worried silly if only 56% of my properties were rented".

Not to worry, this is OPM (Other People's Money) American Homes 4 Rent is playing with. I am sure the CEO and executive staff of AMH will do quite well no matter what happens, even if AMH goes bust and takes down all the investors in the process.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Durable Goods Orders Plunge 7.3%, Nondefense New Orders for Capital Goods Plunge 15.4%; Plunge to Accelerate?

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 10:18 AM PDT

US treasuries rallied a bit again today, with the 10-Year yield down 12 basis points in two days to 2.80% in the wake of a huge plunge in durable goods orders as reported by the commerce department.

New Orders

New orders for manufactured durable goods in July decreased $17.8 billion or 7.3 percent to $226.6 billion

Transportation equipment, down following three consecutive monthly increases, led the decrease, $16.7 billion or 19.4 percent to $69.7 billion. This was led by nondefense aircraft and parts, which decreased $14.5 billion.

Shipments

Shipments of manufactured durable goods in July, down three of the last four months, decreased $0.8
billion or 0.3 percent to $228.8 billion. This followed a 0.1 percent June decrease.

Computers and electronic products, also down three of the last four months, drove the decrease, $0.9 billion or 3.2 percent to $26.6 billion. This followed a 1.1 percent June increase.

Inventories

Inventories of manufactured durable goods in July, up three of the last four months, increased $1.3 billion or 0.4 percent to $379.1 billion. This was at the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis, and followed a 0.2 percent June increase.

Transportation equipment, up fourteen of the last fifteen months, led the increase, $0.7 billion or 0.6 percent to $117.1 billion.

Capital Goods

Nondefense new orders for capital goods in July decreased $14.2 billion or 15.4 percent to $78.0 billion. Shipments decreased $1.0 billion or 1.4 percent to $73.6 billion. Unfilled orders increased $4.4 billion or 0.7 percent to $610.2 billion. Inventories increased $0.6 billion or 0.3 percent to $171.3 billion.

New Durable Goods Orders

New Durable Goods Orders Excluding Transportation

New Durable Goods Orders - Nondefense Capital Goods

Plunge to Accelerate?

Is this the plunge that accelerates or is another bounce coming?

Given the "unexpected" plunge in new housing and the rise in mortgage rates, I suggest an acceleration to the downside.

For further discussion, please see New Home Sales Plunge 13.4% in July, June Revised Lower; Blame Rising Mortgage Rates; Starts 896,000 - Sales 394,000 - Hmmm.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

marți, 27 august 2013

Comparing the Google+ and Google Places Page Management Interfaces

Comparing the Google+ and Google Places Page Management Interfaces