A consumer watchdog is airing a video attacking Google’s privacy policies. The video shows Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt as the ice cream man giving away ice cream to kids. After giving the kids the ice cream he tells them he is going to take all their secrets. Then he goes on to tell them secrets about their parents.

The kicker though, is the video is being shown over and over on the giant screen in Times Square in New York City!

But interestingly enough the organization is also using the Google owned service, YouTube to promote store and promote the video…

Go to insidegoogle.com for more info. And remember as cartoon character Schmidt says “If there’s anything you don’t want anyone to know, well.. you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Muuuhaha!

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Last week at a Lancup a local Tweetup in Lancaster we were discussing search and a number of people commented that they noticed real-time search was not showing up in their regular search results. Well guess what, that’s because Google has given real-time search a new home. The page is www.google.com/realtime. Or go to the “Updates” link on the left side of normal search results.

There are also some cool new tools included in the new location. There is geographic filtering so you can find updates near you or if you are visiting Lancaster PA, you could search for what is happening right now in Lancaster. A conversation view has also been added, so you can follow discussions as the happen in real-time. Normally you need to click through a bunch of links to figure out what is being discussed and this can often be disjointed. With the “full conversation” function the tweets are organized from the newest to the oldest, giving a better real-time overview.

Google has also added real-time functions to Google Alerts. You can set up an alert to send you an email as soon as your topic shows up on Twitter and other microblogging services. You can also set it to email you once per day or week.

There is also a graph across the top of the results that shows you an idea of how hot a topic is. Check out the image below.

The new Realtime Search and updates via Google Alerts are now available in 40 languages around the world and the geographical filtering as well as the conversation views are available in English, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.

Google also posted a demo video for how to use the new features.

I was doing some SEO research today when I started thinking about the state of the SEO Industry. With social media becoming more popular and the merging of social media and SEO, what were people searching on when they want to bring more traffic to their site. Using Google Insights for Search I did a quick test. I compared three terms: SEO , search engine optimization, social media.

I wasn’t surprised by the climb in interest for social media. Mid 2008 is when it really started to explode. What I did find interesting is the trend between SEO and search engine optimization. Back in 2004 both terms were searched on about the same amount. However, in the end of 2004 and 2005 search engine optimization dropped off and SEO continued to climb.

The question is does this mean that more people understand that SEO means search engine optimization and therefor search for SEO or is it just that SEO is a buzz word that has really hit the mainstream. What do you think?

It’s no secret that the worlds of social media and search are becoming more and more entwined. Today companies are building up there social networking presence to create place where they can communicate with others in the industry as well as clients and potentials. While this in itself is a huge change in mentality for communication, it is also very important in search. The various social platforms where people are having relevant conversations about your product also creates a way for people to find you via search. Google is already including the various types of information in what they call Universal Search. This combines all types of media into search results including text, audio, video as well many other areas. You can see a list on the left side of the search results page. Google has taken it a step further though to include people in your “Social Circle.” They call it Social Search.

So, the big question is how do they do that?

Well as we know Google is the king of search so they put their spiders and search abilities to good use.

Here’s a quick list of where they find your social circle:

• People in your Gmail (or Google Talk) chat list
• People in your Friends, Family, and Coworkers groups in your Google contacts
• People you’re publicly connected to through social sites, such as Twitter and FriendFeed, that appear on your Google profile or in your public Google Buzz stream.
• People you’re following in Google Reader and Google Buzz
• People who are connections of those in your immediate, public social circle. This means that if you have a friend on Twitter, and he follows five people, those additional five people may also be included in your social circle.

Of course you have to be logged into your Google account for it to work. When you do a normal Google search below the normal 10 results you will see something similar to the image below.

Now if you want to see who Google has decided is in your social circle they have created a page that shows a list of your connections and how you are connected to them. Social Circle and Content. You might be surprised at who is on the list.

Google believes their new social search feature will help people find more relevant results when search and results that you trust because they are in your social circle.

Blog Posts

LinkedIn: New Feature for Companies Posted on August 16th, 2010

As the many social media platforms develop they copy ideas from each other with the hopes that they can entice more people to use their site. The three platforms that I like to call the “Big 3″ are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can now follow companies and receive updates via LinkedIn. They’ve also added a pre-made button you can copy and past into your companies website.

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Second Annual Be A Fan! Tournament Postponed Posted on August 16th, 2010

Unfortunately it looks like the tournament that we were supposed to play in has been postponed till October 23. I’m not sure if we will be able to play the new date, but I’ll keep you posted. Check out our team site for other games and tournaments.

Check out the team site: FC Blackbird

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B2B Marketing with Social Media Posted on August 16th, 2010

Do you think B2B social media doesn’t work? Check out this video, it gives information on how today’s executives and decision makers are using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. It also shows that they are using social networking to find B2B leads for their business. Watch the video.

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Web Analytics – It’s all About the Context Posted on August 18th, 2010

When you are analyzing the data you get from your website analytics software it really is all about the context. If you look at any number by itself that gets spit out, you have no way of knowing if it is good or bad.

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Facebook Removing Boxes from Public Profiles Posted on August 18th, 2010

Last week Facebook announced to administrators of public profiles, that they will be finally be removing Boxes from public profiles on August 23, 2010. The Boxes will be replaced with “Applications Tabs.

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Localization, Internationalization, Translation. Do You Know the Difference? Posted on August 20th, 2010

When it comes to marketing and selling internationally there are three things you have to plan. You have to plan how you are going to approach localization, internationalization and translation of your products as you enter new markets. But first you have to know what each means and how they differ.

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BbeS On Twitter

IBM Builds Search Engine, Redefines Analytics Tools http://bbes.us/dg9fAy 11:35 AM Aug 20th

In depth article about new location service: Facebook Places Banks On Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Booyah Steam @SEWatch http://bbes.us/ceg5r0 5:04 PM Aug 19th

Google bends to German privacy concerns & created an online tool to remove pictures of people’s homes from streetview http://bbes.us/aqKaqr 3:32 PM Aug 19th

Online Marketing Still A Faith Based Initiative. Why? What’s The Fix? | Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik http://bbes.us/9aq6fI 11:48 PM Aug 17th

RE: @briansolis And popularity is not influence. Great post! So many people get this confused. Just because an indi… http://disq.us/kk348 11:23 PM Aug 16th

Social Media often turned over 2 interns or juniors http://bbes.us/anpwPV My opinion: if u use interns u are not serious about social media 3:31 PM Aug 16th

When it comes to marketing and selling internationally there are three things you have to plan. You have to plan how you are going to approach localization, internationalization and translation of your products as you enter new markets. But first you have to know what each means and how they differ. Continuing this week’s them [...]

Last week Facebook announced to administrators of public profiles, that they will be finally be removing Boxes from public profiles on August 23, 2010. The Boxes will be replaced with “Applications Tabs. The idea is that it will simplify navigation and reduce complexity of the profiles. The move was also announced on the Facebook Developers [...]