Yes, Your Mobile Experience is Faster!

Find yourself using the web from a purely mobile experience lately? That's perhaps because it s getting faster than other web delivery channels.

A recent study from Google Analytics shows that over the last year, the mobile net has improved in speed, according to its Site Speed reports. On average, mobile web sites now load about 30% faster than 12 months ago, while desktop web access speeds have remained about the same. Google writes:

"Over the last year, we have seen significant improvements in the core infrastructure that powers the Internet: the web browsers have gotten faster; there have been quite a few LTE/4G deployments making mobile networks a lot faster; and processing power on mobile devices continues to increase at a rapid pace."

TechCrunch suggested that that speed growth is pretty strong, citing that the size of the average web page has increased by some 56 percent over the last year, due to more video, infographics and other visual elements added to pages.

Anoterh reason to stick to mobile as it continues its meteoric growth across out population.

New Google Algorithm Update: Are You Ready?

Get ready, because it looks like Google is launching an algorithm update this coming weekend.

According to Search Engine Land, there will be a Google Panda update sometime around this weekend, according to Matt Cutts, head of Google's webspam team.

Matt Cutts said that there will be a major Penguin algorithm update sometime in 2013 as well. Digital Journal mentioned that Cutts said "he thinks will be one of the more talked about Google algorithm updates this year."

How can you be ready? You can likely expect that Google will double down even more on Web spam, which will impact keyword and content stuffing. That was the result of its algorithm update in 2012. Marketing Vox wrote in January: "About one out of 60 English language searches are affected by the new algorithm changes that Google just rolled out in what is being termed the 24th Panda update. The new release, the 14th since the beginning of 2012 shows the Panda team rolling out releases more frequently as time passes (11 releases were seen in 2011).

The now-about-monthly releases are a boon to SEO firms in their marketing efforts to their incumbent clients. Panda was an algorithm shift first launched in February 2011 geared to rewarding sites with richer content and punishing sites with "thin" content. At the time, it partially addressed the increasingly poor user experience due to spammy pages designed merely to attract organic search traffic, and even some automated content generators."

Keep your eyes peeled to the sites you manage this weekend as you're sipping your Guinness on St. Patrick's Day.

You can follow the Google Algorithm History at SEOMoz.

Chromebook Pixel - Built to Conquer?

Have you seen news of Google's new Chromebook Pixel?

The company offered up to the world this week a $1,299 laptop featuring a Chromebook first - a high-def touchscreen and all the bells and whistles you've grown to love about Google Chromebooks.

- Here's what Business Insider writes about in What you Need to Know about Google's new Touchscreen laptop: "The screen packs 239 pixels per inch and will be touch-sensitive. There's a 720p webcam for your video and photo needs. You have the option to get 4G LTE connectivity is built in. And an Intel i5 processor powers the whole thing. In short, it's a better device all around."

- Forbes shudders and calls it 'a $1300 Web browser': "But at $1,300, the Chromebook Pixel is simply put, a ripoff! The 32 GB Chromebook Pixel is actually $100 more expensive than the 128 GB version of the 13″ MacBook Air and just $200 short of a MacBook Pro with a Retina display. And I thought Apple was on the expensive side of the laptop market! Perhaps Google execs thought it was actually a deal, considering the 1 terabyte of online storage included for 3-years with the device and worth $1,800!"

- ZDNet likened the Chromebook Pixel launch news to a great publicity stunt: "What the insane Pixel does is, like Samsung's fridge, it gets everyone talking about Chromebooks. Twitter has gone on about nothing else for about six hours now. Google News has articles from 216 news sources already. I know of a number of people are going to be receiving their own trial/review hardware tomorrow, who are going to be doing some deep thinking about Chromebook and from there will be continuing to add grist to the Chromebook mill."

Maybe that *is* the whole point of the Chromebook Pixel - showing the world what's possible away from the Microsoft-Apply duopoly. After all, that's a pretty pricey browser. And with Acer and Samsung both offering lower-priced devices based on the Chromebook's iOs, maybe the Pixel is a attention getter at best, a status item for young elites at worst.

Watch a clip from Google on a few of the team's engineers' talking about the laptop:

Digital Ad Spend Growth Up for 2013 and Beyond

It pays to be diligent in your reading.

My eyes could've grazed over, my thoughts might've wandered, and I could've gotten a call during reading the story. But buried at the end of this mostly dismal WSJ article on 2013 global ad spending projections was this nugget of information:

"Internet ad spending, which includes things such as mobile, social, display and search ads, is expected to jump 18.1% to $36.2 billion."

Wow! Digital ad spending across the globe is expected to grow nearly 20% higher in 2013. That's huge. Conversely, the weakness is ad spending across the board seems to be weakness in European ad growth, which has traditionally been more robust to economic ups and downs.

According to the ZenithOptimedia report, the new emerging formats for digital distribution will be responsible for the expected growth. Tablets, mobile, social media streams, SEO spend and more account for the high points. Among the social categories to watch are:
- Mobile advertising // increase 58% in 2012
- Social-media advertising // increase 37% in 2012, 35% in 2013 and 2014, and 32% in 2015.
- Video spending will increase 29% in both 2012 and 2013.
- Online display advertising // increase 11.5% in 2012
- Paid search spending // expected increase 15% in 2012, 14% in 2013, 13% in 2014 and 12% in 2015.
Print and magazine advertising will be down for print editions, but publishers are finding new rev streams in its use of tablet applications.

All in all, good news ahead as marketers find excitement in spending cold hard cash on ad spending for search, social, tablets and more. Looking forward to an exciting 2013 and beyond!

Cover your Apps for Smartphone Security

As an Android smartphone user, I like to try out new apps. Don't you? Of course you do. I like finding new apps for work and play. I'll search in Google Play for either new productivity enhancing apps, or wonderful time-wasting apps. In either instance, I consider my self wary of dodgy app makers and suspect permissions. I check out the install permissions, read the reviews, make sure it's from a trusted source, check the updates and try to make an intelligent decision about installing the app on my phone or not.

How about you? How wary are you of suspect apps lurking in Google Play or the App Store? I write this tonight wondering about the new cautions that might arise from Android phone users regarding installing bad apps. Linux Insider writes about a German university study on Android apps that showed how a large number of apps in the Google Play store "had serious flaws in their Secure Sockets Layer implementations and thus were vulnerable to hack attacks", according to the study.

The authors wrote: "Android app buyer, beware -- Google Play has no system in place for vetting apps to make sure they're secure, and a whole bunch of them evidently are not. The problem springs from carelessness or ineptness on the part of app creators with respect to SSL implementation. The result is that millions of Android users are at risk -- and there's no easy way to tell if you're one of them."

And even one director of security operations told Linux Insider - "Absolutely anyone can write an app and put it in an Android app store," he said. "A lot of these apps are written by people with no security knowledge in their spare time."

Ouch! Even with some concerned vetting by users, you (me) may really be susceptible to some weak security for your phone. It's really a crap shoot for some privacy intrusions on your smartphone from app downloads. That's an issue that many people are probably not paying much attention to lately.

And for that matter, are we (you? me?) looking into anti-virus software for our phones yet? Check out a deeper dive into the background and technical sides of smartphone security issues at TechRepublic from earlier this year.

Who's got advice on best measures for smartphone security out there? If you have good suggestions, leave a note in the comments. Thanks.

Facebook Active Users Infographic

I found this chart on Facebook users fascinating, if indeed it's as accurate as purported. (Via The Joy of Tech and Mashable)

The Wonder of the iPhone 5

Apple has again stirred the world of mobile connectivity with an awesome new iPhone 5. It's smaller, thinner, more connected and oh-so aesthetically beautiful.

Apple launched its iPhone 5 yesterday in San Francisco, and it goes on sale in 11 countries later this week. Here is a sampling of what some of the big tech pubs wrote:

- GigaOm wrote: "The all aluminum and glass handset brings support for faster LTE mobile broadband and although lighter and thinner than the prior model, has a larger 4-inch screen, adding more room for icons, display space in applications and widescreen movies. To power the new iPhone 5, Apple redesigned a new A6 chip, claiming twice the speed and performance of its A5 silicon."

- Gizmodo wrote: "The new iPhone 5 is here. It's thinner and faster than ever, with a new form factor that uses a gorgeous panoramic screen with more resolutions and less consumption. It also surfs the web much faster, thanks to its new LTE capabilities. Overall, it seems they have incrementally improved every single aspect of the iPhone. It's not a revolutionary phone, but it is a very nice release."

- Mashable wrote: "The iPhone’s camera also got an upgrade. It’s still an 8-megapixel sensor, but it’s 25% smaller and includes more features. Dynamic low light mode is said to give you better pictures without using the flash. Other enhancements, such as spatial noise reduction and a smart filter, will improve image quality as well. Apple says the upgraded camera will snap pics 40% faster. There’s also a built-in panorama mode for capturing massive widescreen pictures."

It may cost older iPhone users some $$$ to upgrade their connection capabilities due to its Lightning connection, which is a completely different connector than before.

What do you think? Is it the greatest device ever? Or are you a staunch Android user and could care less? Share a note in the comments.

Annoying Friends and Information Overload

How are your social media feeds looking these days? Are they becoming full of political rants from friends, TMIs from others and way more information overload than you can ever imagine?

Well, guess what, you're not alone. A recent online poll about online sharing found that users all over the world are increasingly growing tired of friends' sharing inappropriate photos, unsolicited opinions and mind-numbing details of daily life. About 60 percent of adults and teenagers in eight countries polled said too much is being divulged online.

The study, commissioned by Intel, wanted to find out what bugs us around the world, with the increasing use of mobile technology and information sharing so readily accessible to people.

I'm not sure what the study really proves, other than we love to share and then we love to hate on others for what they share. I routinely see comments on Twitter and FB about too much sharing of children photos and activities, daily routines magnified into heroic tasks, and other excruciating minutia. I might be guilty of one of those.

What about you? How much is too much?

Google+ for Businesses - AZIMA + CrushIQ CEO Tim Moore

How's your understanding of Google+ for your business? Or should we ask... Are you using Google+ for your business?

Perhaps you should, as the Google social network is gaining a lot of users in recent months. Google claims it has 250 million registered users and that 150 million users are actively using the network. That's a lot of users to ignore, if you're marketing only to Facebook and Twitter feeds.

If you'd like to understand more about the tips, tricks and insights that Google+ platform can offer you and your business, then an upcoming AZIMA meeting should be on your calendar. AZIMA is the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association, and via its members and Board, the group has been bringing some excellent Web professionals to speak at its monthly gathering (I blogged about last month's speaker)

For AZIMA's August 16th meeting, CrushIQ CEO and co-founder Tim Moore will speak on some client case studies his teams have used with Google+ success. He'll discuss:
*How NASCAR’s Roush Fenway Racing became one of the first to reach more than 1 million fans on Google+
*The secrets to Roush Fenway Racing’s social success
*Best and worst practices for Google+
*How to create a richer and more engaged experience online
*Insights into how to build a better Google+ strategy for businesses and/or clients

Here's a small taste of what to expect from Tim Moore of Crush IQ - it's a presentation from Feb 2012 that explores specific tactics to use with Google+:

Here are the details for the August 16th event:
Date: Thursday, August 16, 2012
Location: Scottsdale Hilton (6333 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85250) Dinner, and one drink is included.
Time: Doors open at 6:00 p.m. for networking. Dinner served at 6:45 p.m. and presentation will begin at 7:00 p.m.
Pricing: Corporate & VIP Members *Free*- but you still must register online by noon the day before the event or you may be charged at the door.
Non-members: $40 pre-register, $50 at the door.

Are social networks overwhelming most marketers?

A recent Newsweek cover story suggested that we're all going nuts with too much Internet, and too much web usage is affecting our brain processes and driving us crazy? Is it already happening in large corporations and small-to-medium-sized businesses as well? Perhaps.

A new eMarketer report finds that marketers are having a tricky time keeping up with all the social buzz that their brands and companies are creating on the web.

Its new report "Dealing with Negative Buzz on Social Media" finds that brands are finding it increasingly difficult to keep track of all the content mentions that social media produces. And to do so, internal teams within corporations must be aligned with strategic integration for all of it, and especially on ways to deal with the buzz if it turns negative.

The Internet research firm writes: -- "In a world of social sites that allow consumers to post photos, videos and opinions about companies and brands, disparaging comments and other content detrimental to brands are bound to bubble up," said a new eMarketer report 'Dealing with Negative Buzz on Social Media.' "And that content can stay online forever."

Increasing numbers of tools to monitor web buzz on social networks is emerging and eMarketer notes that companies should make use of these tools rather than ignore negative social buzz.