Usernames in your Facebook URL

Facebook has announced that on June 13th they will allow users to select a username which will show up in their individual Facebook URL. Currently Facebook users all have an assigned number which appears in their URL. Having a username will allow for users to easily connect with family and friends by being able to provide them with an easy to remember Facebook URL. This is also great news for search engine optimization, because Facebook profiles will have a better chance of ranking organically for people’s names once there is the option to include a name in the URL.

Here is an example:

My current Facebook URL: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=652579865

On June 13th I can change it to: http://www.facebook.com/allison.goldberg

But, keep in mind that selecting your new username is on a first come first serve basis, so if you have a common name (like mine) and want to be able to change your URL to include your full name you might want to set your alarm for 12 am EST on June 13th.

For more information on this change you can visit the Facebook Blog.

Google Video Adds Search Options

Last month I blogged about how Google added a new feature which they call Search Options.

Now, we are seeing the search options also available on Google Video. When you type in a search query on Google Video you will have the following options on the left hand side: TV view, duration, time, sort by relevance, and source.

These additional search options make finding the specific video you are looking for much easier.

Twitter Vs. Impersonation

Twitter has a broad range of users including many well known celebrities, musicians, sports figures, entrepreneurs, search engine marketing professionals, etc…..

Last month there was a lawsuit against Twitter by La Russa, the St. Louis Cardinals manager, after someone unknown created a Twitter account in his name and sent tweets (posts) on the site. La Russa claimed the tweets to be “derogatory and demeaning”.

As a result of this lawsuit, Twitter is going to be trying out verified Twitter accounts this summer. The verified accounts are going to be first tried out with a small group of people including some public officials, artists, etc. The verified accounts will have a seal showing they are authenticate. These accounts are not going to be tested yet on businesses, but will hopefully be available in the future.

Twitter has stated that impersonation violates their terms of service and they delete or suspend accounts known to be doing this. If you are an active Tweeter and follow many people on the site, be sure to check out official websites to ensure you are following the right person.

Google Squared

Google Squared is Google’s new experimental search tool that presents information from the web in an organized spreadsheet making it very easy to compare data.

For example, since I like to read, I typed in “best selling books” to Google Squared and the results I received were in a spreadsheet and showed me a list of some of the best selling books. Next to each book was a small image related to the book, a description of the book, the language the book is in, the author, and the publisher. At the bottom of the spreadsheet there was an “Add” box where I could suggest other topics I you would like to show up in the spreadsheet.

For more information, below is a video from Google explaining Google Squared:

Yahoo Search Update - June 2009

Yahoo has officially announced that over the next few days they are rolling out some updates to their crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms.

So if you see fluctuations in your rankings, don’t be alarmed. Hopefully these updates will be minor.

Get Ready for Google’s New Adwords Interface

For those of you who haven’t tried it out yet, Google’s new Adwords interface is rolling out very soon!

Many advertisers, including us here at Getupdated, received an email a couple weeks ago saying that within 30 days we would automatically be switched to the new interface. This was sent out as Google’s attempt to warn us to be prepared for the switch.

If you are an active Pay Per Click advertiser, get ready for switch and familiarize yourself with the new interface. The feel is very different, so it might take some time to get used to.

Bing is Now Live

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing is now live. If you try and go to live.com you will be redirected to bing.com.

Here is a great article on Bing Tips & Tricks.

Try it out and let us know what you think.

Google Launches Web Elements

Internet giant Google took the opportunity at its own Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco to launch Google Web Elements. This tool will allow site owners to integrate widget-like Google tools into their own Web pages.

The widget-style tools, announced May 27, gathers together 8 Google widgets on a single page - Calendar, Conversation, Custom Search, Maps, News, Presentations, Spreadsheets, and YouTube News. Even though many of the widgets offered on the Web Elements page are old news, at least putting them all in one place is helpful.

The company is flaunting the user-friendliness of this new feature since it allows the code for the tools to be integrated into the site via cut-and-paste. For example, the News element adds headline news about the topics you choose to any page. You just need go to the News element page and use the wizard to update the live preview as you change the topics and pick the best size for your site. When you like what you see, simply copy the short embedded code and paste it into the HTML of your page.

Don’t Stress! Google May 2009 Toolbar PageRank Update

There seems to be quite a lot buzz in the SEO community and throughout the internet pertaining to the Google Toolbar PageRank update last night. As of May 27th, 2009 people began noticing that the small green pixels in the Google Toolbar began updating, AGAIN.

A Toolbar PageRank update means nothing in terms of your organic search engine rankings changing anytime soon. So everyone out there who thinks that PageRank toolbar is the bee all end all, do not stress out. The PageRank scores shown in the toolbar are outdated and have zero direct impact on your Google rankings. That doesn’t mean that PageRank has no influence, it is just that the toolbar score does not have any influence on them.

The last PageRank update was in early April 2009, so this one is coming in right on the heels of the other one. Typically Google updates the PageRank value in the Toolbar every few months or so, but I guess they felt the need to update it a bit earlier this time.

Google Suggest Tool Makes Improvements to Help Search Engine Marketing

Google is improving its Google Suggest Tool so that it can better aid the efforts of search engine marketing. The Google Suggest Tool was introduced as a way to speed up the process of finding particular information that web users are looking for.

In an official blog post product managers, Matt Kulick, Jonathan Effrat and David Kadouch said that a number of new features will be added to Google Suggest.

The first new feature will be that while suggestions were previously only offered while making queries from the Google homepage, now suggestions will also be provided to users when making further search queries from the result pages.

Google Suggest will also show relevant past searches when users have web history enabled, thereby allowing them to repeat some of the searches that they carry out most often.

Finally, sponsored links will appear in the list of suggestions. This could be beneficial for companies looking to reach those most interested in their products and services with search engine marketing and pay per click ads.

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