Ever since every major brand has announced their entrance into the daily deals arena (Google, Facebook, AT&T, Amazon, Gilt, Groupon, etc.) I’ve been wondering who was going to be the first brand to create an application to aggregate all of this information into one easy-to-use interface. I mean, if you’re like me, you don’t want to comb through 10 emails a day from 10 different sources, or have to download 10 different applications to what is probably already a crowded smartphone home screen.

At first, my thought was that the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial would be crushed by Facebook and Google, since they already have your attention each day, and integrating a daily deal into that user experience is a no-brainer, and sure to drive usage if it involves recommendations from trusted sources like your friends.

However, today Foursquare announced that they will be integrating multiple daily deals partners into their application for their 10 million plus users. They intend to offer you, the user, the deal that makes the most sense for you, based on the types of establishments you’ve checked into, your geographical proximity, and whether or not your friends have checked into the location offering the deal. While they are launching this new feature in the US with a handful of partners (AT&T, LivingSocial, Gilt City, Zozi, and BuyWithMe), it is easily scalable and may become the de facto mode to purchase a daily deal if you are an avid Foursquare user.

Here is a screenshot of what the deals will look like (from Foursquare’s website).

Foursquare Integrates Daily Deals

It’s still early, but I like where this is heading…

Taken at The Beach
]]> http://by7am.com/2011/06/12/perfect-start-to-the-day/feed/ 0 psubuzz Media_httpimagesinsta_lonni http://by7am.com/2011/06/10/permanence/ http://by7am.com/2011/06/10/permanence/#comments Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:11:07 +0000 Brad C ]]>

via xkcd.com

So true… sort of like picking a social media username or email address…

One thing is for sure, it’s always bound to be a caffeinated adventure.

Back in November, Google rolled out the instant preview capability within their search results. And at the time, a lot of fanfare was made about how this will speed up the end user’s search behavior by giving them a better idea of what they would see, before they clicked on the result.

However, after doing a little impromptu poll around the office and of my friends and family, not surprisingly, most didn’t even know what the magnifying glass on their search results meant, let alone know that the instant preview option was available.

Now let’s take it a step further. On April 25 Google rolled out this same instant preview technology to the Adwords results that you and I see. Same DC United example, but this time with the paid search Google Adwords highlighted on the right hand side.

So what does this all mean? Well, if you read some accounts of this change, it may mean that advertisers will benefit because a potential customer can preview the website before clicking on the ad (Reminder: Adwords are PPC or pay per click — so the advertiser only pays when we click on their ad), thus sending more qualified traffic to the destination website. Others think that it puts a significant onus onto the publisher or advertiser to make sure that their site (or the landing page they are linking to in the ad) is optimized for the preview.

What do I think? Well, first of all, you have to convince me that a large percentage of the ad-clicking population even knows that the preview exists. I’d love to see the stats, but I just don’t buy that a significant number of people are currently interacting with the preview feature, let alone have it influence their ad-clicking experience. So, my thought is that it’s not something a brand or advertiser needs to pay too much attention to at this point, other than ensuring that your site at least shows well in the preview. Second of all, supposing that the ad preview does influence the total number of ad clicks. Given that so much of their revenue derives from Adwords, do you really think Google will allow this experiment to continue if it truly decreases clicks and thus decreases advertiser spend? I’ll take a quick stab and say, “no.” Regardless, I’ll be interested to see how this shakes out.

What I do know is that I’m glad I’m not a search marketer. I have a lot of respect for this profession given that you are held to immediate, measurable results by your client, all while dodging every bullet Google fires at you on a daily basis. For the rest of us standing on the sidelines… thanks for giving us something to comment on.

And then this happened.

Kudos to INOVA for the quickest emergency room visit ever. In and out in under an hour!

Anyway, you can catch some of the highlights from our family day over at E’s blog.

Now, having a family, it is just another day where my Facebook and Twitter feeds fill with the celebratory remarks of others while I spend my time with the ones who really matter to me, doing things that I’ll actually remember 5 years from now.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone…

Last week, as most of you probably heard, Google finally unveiled the much talked about, Project Emerald Sea, which has officially been called, Google Plus One (or +1, there still seems to be some debate about how to write it). And now that the dust has settled somewhat, and the various search engine optimization authorities have had a chance to parse through the publicly-available information, I thought I’d spell out the basics and provide you with some helpful links. So, let’s get started…

What IS Google +1?

Google +1 is essentially Google’s version of a Facebook “Like” button, and it will appear next to both organic search results and Google Adwords. In honor of the Washington National’s season just starting, I’ve included two examples below. One version of the search engine results pre-click, and one version post-click.

Google +1 Example (pre-click)

Google +1 Example (post-click)

Also, here is Google’s official product launch video that walks you through +1.

I don’t see this +1. How do I see it?

The +1 feature is only visible to users who have created a Google profile which could be a Gmail address, Google Reader account, etc. And if you are one of the few who has not created a Google account, you can create one here. If you still do not see the feature in your search results, Google may not be done fully rolling the feature out. If you do NOT see it, you can sign up for the +1 feature for your account here.

What does this mean for my search results?

When performing an organic search, your results may be influenced by people within your “network” who have +1′d something or others on the web who have +1′d it. In other words, it functions very similarly to how Google’s social search works now, but now on top of seeing results that your connections on Twitter or other social networks have shared, you will see items that they may have +1′d.

Who makes up your +1 Social Network?

• People in your Gmail & Google Talk chat list
• People in your “My Contacts” group in Google Contacts
• People you follow in Google Reader or Google Buzz
• Other connections from other social networks will be integrated soon

What does this all REALLY mean?

Well, in the short term, I don’t see this having much of an impact as it will take some time for people to get into the habit of +1ing a result, and depending on the size of a searcher’s network, it may have no influence at all (assuming you have no friends or do not participate in other networks). However, should this catch on, and Google begins to integrate the results +1′d by folks outside of your network, “liking” a site could dramatically change the search result landscape.

In reality, the +1 button is a natural and logical extension of their social search and probably a next step towards creating their own social network as a few people are hypothesizing. Which is OK by me. I wouldn’t mind seeing search results that have been validated by my friends versus results that may have been artificially “gamed” by an SEO expert. In fact, SEOMoz has a great article speaking to the correlation of social metrics to Google rankings, and they believe that inbound marketing is going to overtake SEO as the primary function of SEO professionals. In other words, we’ll have to work harder to engage our target customers across social channels to get links, shares, likes, comments and +1s if we want to generate relevant and substantial traffic to our sites.

At the end of the day, regardless of what new feature or variable is integrated into Google search, it boils down to having a good, quality product, and a website that contributes valuable, relevant content to your audience. And isn’t that what we should be worried about?

But don’t just listen to me, learn more about +1 and form your own opinion. Here are a few links to get you started:

Official Google page: http://www.google.com/+1/button/
Official Google post: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendations-right-when-you.html
Google News results for +1: http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=Google+%2B1
Search Engine Land Article: http://searchengineland.com/meet-1-googles-answer-to-the-facebook-like-button-70569
Techcrunch Article: http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/30/google-plus-one/