E-Life

• If you haven't set it up yet. It's coming | Facebook Timeline Heading to All Profiles http://t.co/1XD91S1D 2012-01-24
• RT @visitpa: Congrats! MT @visitphilly: GPTMC Closes Out 2011 with Record-breaking Web Visitation & 15 Web Awards: http://t.co/vPW6uOTk 2012-01-24
• Wow, has Larry become the Evil Emperor? | Larry Page to Googlers: If You Don’t Get SPYW, Work Somewhere Else http://t.co/zqQUc9cu 2012-01-24
• @themamamac @JaminTony5 I think it was available on the White House site afterward last year. in reply to THEMamaMAC 2012-01-24
• I love that it's. Getting lighter earlier and staying light later. 2012-01-25
• @mdieterle Glad to hear things are going well. That trains leaves Lancaster at 5:35. Too early for me! in reply to mdieterle 2012-01-25
• YouTube Update: The New Google. Does “Don’t be Evil” Still Apply? – Part 2 http://t.co/tjZEnc29 | e-Life 2012-01-25
• 1 Login to Rule Them All | Google to merge user data across more services http://t.co/zxUmh4g0 2012-01-25
• The new @Google integration is not that different than different than @Facebook open graph… and discuss 2012-01-25
• @kvashee They can stop using Google products. Just saying in reply to kvashee 2012-01-25
• SEO Tip – @Twitter links are "no follow" links. That means search engines don't follow Twitter's links. 2012-01-26
• Google’s New Privacy Policy To go Into Effect on March 1 http://t.co/GixGmyiQ | e-Life 2012-01-26
• @jbairy Aren't they optional? in reply to jbairy 2012-01-26
• Shouldn't they be playing?? | NFL to Players: Fine, You Can Tweet During Game http://t.co/smQu6cLP via @hitwise_us in reply to Hitwise_US 2012-01-26
• Nice to see there r still good ppl. Spoke 2 a woman who offered a random German tourist to stay in her home since she had no place 2 stay. 2012-01-26
• Mmmm chocolate (@ Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man) http://t.co/e4YWSS1X 2012-01-27
• Facebook IPO could value it among top companies http://t.co/WFOsOaSI #socialmedia 2012-01-28
• Twitter's new censorship rules face opposition http://t.co/ais5kpdw 2012-01-28
• Our annual trip (@ 2012 Philadelphia Auto Show w/ 19 others) http://t.co/FW8ysqFV 2012-01-28

Google recently announced their new privacy policy which will go into effect on March 1, 2012. Here’s the overview of the new plan:

Effective March 1st, Google will be consolidating over 60 different privacy policies across Google properties and replacing them with one that they say is a lot shorter and easier to read. The new policy covers multiple products and features. Google says they are trying to create a simple and intuitive experience across all of Google.

How do you think this will effect end user privacy? Good? Bad?

Read it straight from Google on the official Google Blog.

This is the second entry of our series about the changes at Google and Larry Page are making a lot of changes as we head into 2012. Decide for yourself if they are still following the “Don’t be Evil” mantra.

Read the first post in the series here: The New Google. Does “Don’t be Evil” Still Apply? – Part 1

YouTube Homepage Makeover

The new redesign, which YouTube describes as the biggest redesign in history, is a move to personalize the user experience on the site as well as better integration with social media services. Plus if that wasn’t enough, Google has changed the focus of the site to a channel centric experience, which puts them in competition with broadcast and cable tv.

When you first log in you’ll notice that the homepage is focused around channels and the “homepage feed.” The feed contains the channels that a user is subscribed to, which can contain channels such official music from the Warner Music Group, video hobbyists or branded channels. Users can control what is in their feed with the navigation bar on the left and recommended videos and ads populate the right column. It looks very similar to social media sites such as Facebook.

Also found in the left column is a list of “Suggested Channels” including a “Featured” listing where companies can have their channels displayed f Users can also link their Google+ and Facebook accounts to see what their friends are sharing. The new look and the prominence of G+ in homepage is further evidence to Google’s push Google+ across all platforms.

YouTube is also adding original content. The new channel centric YouTube creates a way for the platform to promote the new offerings they have set up with some major stars including Madonna, Jay-Z, Shaquille O’Neal and “CSI” creator Anthony Zuiker.

The redesign revamped channels which put an emphasis on Brand Channels. Brand Channels are a great way for users to interact with the brands they love. As a Brand you can customize to match your brand’s look and feel. For this, YouTube has added new templates:

• Creator Template A featured video from a playlist with a group of featured playlists
• Blogger Template A reverse chronological vlogroll of a featured playlist or your recent activity
• Network Template A featured video from a playlist with a group of featured channels
• Everything Template A featured video from a playlist with a group of featured playlists and channels

Each template comes with a feed tab that contains that can contain any of the following actions from the channel owner: Liking, commenting, uploading or favoriting a video, as well as adding a video to a playlist or subscribing to another channel. We also expect to see more social features introduced in the future.

Some other exciting features of the new channels include comment approval, control over who can comment, filter videos that show on your channel, playlists, gadgets that you can use for contests, games and downloads that revolve around your brand, custom tabs, and much more.

To complete the circle YouTube has also beefed up their analytics offering for YouTube analytics so you can track “how”, “why” and “why” people are interacting with your brand’s channel. The look and feel will definitely remind you of Google Analytics and you can track many familiar metrics such as:

• Views
• Unique views
• Demographics
• Geographic breakdowns
• Traffic sources

What’s really exciting though are the engagement metrics that are available:

• Track playback location (YouTube watch page, Embedded player on other websites, etc)
• Discover what videos drive subscriptions
• Analyze likes, dislikes and favorites by channel, video, geography and region
• Track audience retention and attention levels
• And much more

As you can see Google is going through an exciting time right now. The changes, updates and new products are coming fast, and we haven’t seen them be this aggressive in sometime. I expect 2012 to be an exciting year for working with Google.

If you have any questions about any of the new updates and how your company can take advantage of them, please let me know and we can see what options are the best fit for you. 

In the last few months since Larry Page has taken the helm as CEO at Google he has been making a lot of changes to their services. They’ve been changing the look and feel of their various properties, even changing the functionality of their search pages. Larry has even said the company would “put more [...]

Our Week in Twitter 2012-01-15 http://t.co/h8cjejys | e-Life 2012-01-16 @bradfry Thanks for the recommendation. Looking for a USA based service though. in reply to bradfry 2012-01-16 White House Responds to Anti-SOPA Petition http://t.co/LcBWhh8c 2012-01-16 Behavioral Targeting Doubles Ad Effectiveness http://t.co/pPY2WSwO 2012-01-17 So true! I've posted/spoken about this 2 | Social Media Is NOT Free -You’re [...]

By now I hope you have already heard something about the bills that the US government is discussing: SOPA and PIPA. A very basic description is that the laws would give the government free reign to shutdown, seize domains and websites from sites that they deem to be breaking copyright laws. There is also a [...]

Our Week in Twitter 2012-01-08 http://t.co/x6SvVvCb | e-Life 2012-01-09 Great post by @dannysullivan | 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers http://t.co/FRKc3WTT 2012-01-09 Are you following what's happening at CES? 2012-01-09 What do you predict for the 2012 economy? Up/down/steady? | Marketers and Agencies Split on 2012 Prospects http://t.co/hgFCWQj4 2012-01-09 [...]

In the last few months we’ve seen a number of changes released by the search powerhouse Google. The updates are coming at a fast and furious pace. Today’s addition as well as one of their previous changes have been doing more than raise a few eyebrows. There is sure to be more talk about anti-trust [...]