Whether you’re signed in or not, all the searches you run on Google are stored in your browser cookies. This data is referred to as your ‘Web History’ and Google uses it to customize your search results. If you’re not signed in, your Web History is stored for 180 days, then old data is replaced with new searches. If you’re signed in, there’s no time limit and you can manage your Web History.

So the searches you run and sites you visit will affect your future search experience. The sites you visit more often will be pushed higher in the search results on related queries.

As an example if you search for ‘website design’ and visit www.webdesign.com, next time when you search for ‘website design’ you may see www.webdesign.com in top 10 results even if it doesn’t rank there in the general impersonalized search. You can tell that your search results have been personalized by the ‘View customization’ link in the upper right hand corner. 

The personalized search results can differ significantly from the general SERPs. I ran a couple of tests searching for related keywords and clicking the same site each time. The results can be drastic – imagine a site page that is ranked for web design at number 30, it might be pushed to a ranking of 5 even if your signed out of Google.

To check a site’s rankings use a rank checker to get a list of impersonalized rankings.

Meta Descriptions have also changed recently

Your Meta description is a crucial factor that determines the CTR (click-through-rate) of your site in search results. The more compelling your description is, the more searchers will click it. When they click through to your site from search results this is recorded in their Web History. Next time they search for a product or service related to your site, it may appear high up in their personalized search results.

 Since everybody now gets personalized results, the scope of the effect your Meta descriptions have on your rankings can get really huge. That’s another reason why you should invest some time into testing and optimizing your Meta descriptions.

Google doesn’t always show the Meta description you provide. Sometimes it just compiles a random text snippet from your page that contains the keywords used in the query. But you can easily locate the keywords where your Meta description shows up by searching for them on Google.

There’s been a lot of criticism coming down on Google’s new design for introducing personal search to everybody. Some people are worried about privacy issues. Others don’t like it because this will help keep the small guy out of the game. And this makes SEO success harder to measure for search engine optimization firms.

For big brands it might be a different story, but what about smaller brands attempting to unlock some magic shortcut to sales, identity, or even pulling like-minded people together to realize business benefits. The fact is you can’t be out of the game, but doing it right is much slower than most people think.

The web 2.o expo is back this year in NYC—for web designers, web developers, digital strategists wanting to build online communities, market to a wide audience on a tight budget, design websites that stand out from the crowd, or work behind the scenes to make it all run smooth, Web 2.0 Expo New York gives you the tools, applications, and ideas to thrive in this challenging economy. They are discussing what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s on the horizon. I wonder when they will switch it to the web 3.o expo ?

Direct Link : http://www.web2expo.com/webexny2009/

Due to the fact that WordPress is open source, many say that it is not the best choice for a serious project due to insecurity – but we feel quite the opposite. To prove these points are not worthy, below we list and show you that WordPress can be used for serious projects and big brands that go big in scale (including The Wall Street Journal, Sony, and Ebay) :

http://ebayinkblog.com/

http://ycorpblog.com/

http://www.thefordstory.com/

http://blogs.wsj.com/

http://electronicsblog.sel.sony.com/sony/default.aspx

http://stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/topnews/blog-index.html

http://www.benjerry.fr/blog/

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Here is a great article on creating your own theme for WordPress. A theme for WordPress is the starting point for a web designer or web developer and the framework to the web design.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/creating_wordpress_theme_with_dreamweaver_pt1.html

A simple article highlighting and explaining the SEO ( search engine optimization ) importance and qualities inside of WordPress

http://wpbloghost.com/blog/wordpress-search-engine-optimization/

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Wordtracker SEO Blogger is a plug-in for Firefox that opens alongside your blog entry as you are editing it to aid in finding the right keywords for your article. (perfect for interactive copywriters, web designers, and business professionals)

http://labs.wordtracker.com/seo-blogger

There is also a service and application to help you evaluate, export and compare your keywords. I have not tried this package and there seems to be an abundance of these types of applications out there, however this one looks very good

http://www.wordtracker.com

Here is an article by Pingdom – rating the different blogging platforms – WordPress being at the top of the list

http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/01/15/the-blog-platforms-of-choice-among-the-top-100-blogs/

WordPress, in our experience, is by far the best solution out there for the small blog that is shared among friends and the super-huge serious full-blown websites that require a content management system with thousands of built-in options and inherently search engine friendly!

Easy to develop iPhone applications with the low price from Apple to become a developer and download the SDK—it is actually tougher than we think, to come up with that app that will sell one million times. But maybe just talking about the iPhone and making a video about it will result in viral numbers and can amplify your brand or online presence. That’s exactly what happened here [ title: LEAKED New iPhone commercial ]

1. Creating a Strategy. Your competitors have already created a strategy for using social media, so chances are you are already behind. This means thinking intentionally about how to use social media instead of randomly opening an account here and joining a group there. Spend some time determining the kinds of sites available and evaluating what role they might have in your marketing strategy. Then make a plan to use them consistently and effectively. If you just go with the flow you will be wasting your time and effort.

2. Brand Building. Social media marketing is like having one enormous billboard advertising your company. Everything you post, every tweet you write, and every comment you make should be treated as a chance to show your audience what your business is all about, what you value, and what you stand for.

The first step to consider is creating a business blog. Chances are you have employees who are already involved in social media in one way or another, so ask them to post some articles to the blog. Make sure your blog entries include things that will help you promote your brand.

3. Choose Wisely. Do not feel like you need to use every single social media site available. Stick with a few and spend time using them to your advantage. Choose sites that help you connect with your target demographic, that help you show off the components of your business that interest potential customers, and that will be most helpful in connecting potential customers to your business.

4. Find the Right Balance. Social media is so popular that it might initially be difficult to find the right balance between it and traditional marketing strategies. In the end, they should all work together to serve your business effectively. Start with LinkedIn and create a business profile where you can post testimonials and make connections with your customers. Then create a Facebook group tied to your industry or product.

Finally, use Twitter to create a community of those with interest in your industry. Connect traditional strategies with online strategies by printing your Twitter ID on business card and make a place on your website that shows visitors where they can connect with you using social media.

5. Mobility. Many platforms allow you to communicate in real time by downloading applications to your phone. Imagine what you could do as a business owner attending a conference. Sharing with your readers what you are learning, as you learn it, is a great way to build rapport with and interest in your customers.

Overwhelming or not—young people are exchanging information and making decisions based on social media sites. If you are interested in connecting with them as they age, procure more discretionary income, and spend money on things that interest them, then you need to find a way to connect with them now. And you need to make sure you are defining your business online rather than waiting for others to define you in your stead. Get connected online and spread your message and reach many people online.

So if the user is already engaging with this, why not make it an ad? That appears to be Microsoft’s mentality, as it has proposed exactly that with a patent application. The concept is simple. It works just like any other CAPTCHA, but it shows you a picture of a product (the Xbox 360 in an example from Microsoft) and asks you to type the name of the product you see.

Todd Bishop at TechFlash points to this and actually another mention of this concept from as long as four years ago, at Ad Lab, which simply presents the concept, showing logos for Tide and UPS.

Clearly this is a concept that has been around for some time, but you don’t see it very often, and you have to wonder why that is. There’s no question that the CAPTCHA is intrusive, and perhaps brands won’t always want to be associated with that kind of advertising, but in reality, it’s not the ad itself that is intrusive. It’s the step of completing the CAPTCHA form, which is already there. If it’s already there, you might as well utilize that space for some further benefit.

What Designers and marketers would not want to do is start displaying more CAPTCHAs specifically for the purpose of advertising. That’s where things could go sour. On the other hand, a user might not know the difference, and could reach the conclusion that you’re just throwing an intrusive advertisement at them.

It is an interesting strategy—and I like it and I would take a picture rather than those hard to decipher CAPTCHAs any day. There is no click value to this from the advertising standpoint, but the brand value is definitely there.

Source: Web Design Library

Well—Now you can Publish to Twitter from Facebook Pages

Over the next few days Facebook will be releasing a feature that allows administrators of Facebook Pages to publish their Facebook updates to their Twitter accounts automatically. This will only link Facebook Pages to Twitter, not your individual profile.

Web Designers and digital gurus always want to share across all channels to ensure the most penetration. For instance I have my WordPress blog set up such that it automatically updates my Facebook business page and my Twitter page. People may want to share  news to both their Facebook fans and their Twitter followers, all at the same time…. and now they can.

If you manage a Facebook Page, you now will be able to decide whether to share updates with their Twitter followers, and you also will be able to control what type of updates to share: status updates, links, photos, notes, events or all of them. If you have multiple Pages, you will have the option to link each of those Pages to different Twitter accounts. This new feature will soon be available at http://www.facebook.com/twitter.

Facebook Says “…Twitter was a natural next step to link with Facebook Pages because it is a powerful tool for broadcasting short messages widely.”

Source: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=123006872130