It is terrible to think of the destruction that we have seen in Burma and China over the past month.
If you didn’t know already, Google, Yahoo, Baidu and all the other major search engines have changed their interface to black and white to commemorate the happenings in China. I think it is a nice touch and it shows communal spirit. Heads of these search engines have obviously got their heads together in China to do this. Or, if you want a pessimistic view, all search engines are run by the government in China, therefore it is a decision made by one person and the search engines have to obey.
The latter view is probably the most realistic and it is the tip of the iceberg. Baidu is the most used search engine in China with Google second. I have friends that work in Hong Kong and who have an internet connection through the local network and a work connection provided by the company based in Germany. The difference in the search results is staggering, and honestly unjust. The search results are being limited and therefore the Chinese population don’t get to see the true picture. This includes Google and it’s search results are being manipulated as per the request of the Chinese government. This goes against Google’s saying of ‘Do No Evil’.
If you can conclude anything from what has happened then it is this: mother nature governs all, including governments and search engines.
Checkout the sites:
google.cn
yahoo.cn
baidu.com
Google announced their profit for the first quarter have increased by 30% to $5.19Bn. A huge amount in anyone’s eyes but is it well deserved?
This boost in profits has been assisted by the innovations in the Google Apps systems and no doubt helped by the push of sponsored links on Google properties such as Maps and You Tube. The worry is that the growth in traffic on the sponsored links has slowed and is to less than 2%, a figure dwarfed by the growth in revenue and profits. How can this come about?
Google have openly said that they are serving less pay per click (PPC) ads per page in a bid to increase relevance, but this would certainly appear to have had a knock on effect to the cost per click (CPC).
Google Adwords serves between 7 and 11 pay per click (PPC) ads per search engine results page (SERP). If this was reduced to 7 for every page, those PPC advertisers bumped off the bottom will need to increase their bids to get back on the first page. Add that to all those other advertisers that have been nudged down the list and competition is growing. Cost per click (CPC) bids will have to increase to defend those top spots and before you know it so does the advertising bill! Hey Presto! Google can dip the traffic yet boost the value of sales to appease the very nervous share holders.
The most shrewd advertisers can avoid this bid hike as the maximum cost per click (CPC) is not the only attribute that affects the positions. By making the ads as relevant as possible not only improves the quality of your traffic but will also reduce your cost per click.
