SEMANTIC SEARCH..Changing the Game for Google SEO By Kelly Howe While the SEO game has changed drastically over the past months, one thing has remained fairly consistent: It's been driven by keywords -- keywords in your URL structure, your META tagging, your content, your links. Whatever way you slice it, keywords are everywhere in SEO. Even among Google’s most recent algorithm updates -- Panda, Search Plus Your World and Venice -- to name a few, keywords remained relatively unchanged. But the upcoming update to move Google to semantic search technology, according to an article posted on Mashable, is adding a whole new element to the game: the Human Element. The factors that have been so crucial to SEO for many years remain so, like how you use keywords on a page, inbound links containing target keywords in their link text. But branding, user behavior and social factors are becoming increasingly important.
Semantic search uses artificial intelligence in order to understand the searcher’s intent and the meaning of the query rather than parsing through keywords like a dictionary. When you search now, Google gives you results based solely on the text and the keywords that you put in that search. Essentially, Google gives you its best guess.When you use semantic search, Google will dive into the relationship between those words, how they work together, and attempt to understand what those words mean. Google will understand that “their” and “they’re” has two different meanings and when “New” and “York” are placed together, it changes the meaning.
What this means for SEO..Keywords are easy to manipulate; intent, not so much. In order to rank well in semantic search, you don’t just have to put your keywords in the right places, you have to figure out the actual meaning behind those keywords and create content around that specifically. That puts more emphasis on your keyword research.When people search, they aim to answer a question. They just search in the truncated version of that question. Keyword research is largely data-driven around the popularity of the terms in their question. Keyword research in semantic search will have to focus on what that person actually means when searching for that keyword.
Facebook steps up its game
By Stephanie Costa
What a Facebook search engine might look like.
The rumor in Silicon Valley being perpetuated by articles in Business Week and IT World is that Facebook is revamping its search engine. Facebook’s search box, which helps users search for friends, pages, and other content within Facebook, has been lagging in output of relevant results, but that should all change soon. Lars Rasmussen a former Google engineer is leading a team of twenty-four engineers in developing a more efficient search engine that will help Facebook users go through all of the user-generated content on the site.
If Facebook does a good-enough job, their improved search engine has the potential to take a piece of Google and Microsoft’s search engine market share. If users can look up “Sushi San Diego” and be taken to a page of a San Diego sushi bar with the most “likes” by Facebook users, users may not feel the need to leave Facebook and go to Google to look-up that type of information. Sponsored search results are also the most profitable type of advertisement in the web; if Facebook entered the realm of search, it could potentially dramatically increase its profits. However, Facebook’s search engine will not likely be successful if it is a model of Google’s search engine because although competitors, Google and Facebook are very different. Facebook’s improved search engine should be something unique that can benefit its current users.
Music has become a major part of our culture. People spend hours on end downloading and listening to music. In our society, wouldn’t it be great if there was a music search engine that suggested and/or found songs based solely on music itself rather than words? According to Xconomy, this technology exists. Clio is the name of this search engine. It works through the use of a code that breaks up music into grammatical parts-rhythm, harmony, and melody. This search engine is similar to apps like Shazam, a smart phone application that allows people to hold their phones up to a speaker playing music, and tells the user what the song is called and who the artist is. Unlike Shazam, Clio not only can find the name and artist of a particular song, but it can suggest similar styles of music. One may believe that this is similar to Pandora; however, Clio is the first search engine that relies solely on music, rather than words, as the basis of its searches. This allows for much more cost-efficient song and genre matching. The only downside of Clio is that it currently has 10 employees and is generally for industry professionals, rather than the general consumer market. Because the company is in the beginning stages of growth, I believe that we can expect to see its expansion into the general consumer market sometime in the future.
Project Glass
By Trevor Straub
Google has released a video of their latest augmented reality or AR glasses. Its latest endeavor, Project Glass, combines the aspects of a cell phone, computer, GPS, camera and puts them in the form of glasses. In the video the user performs a number of tasks such as sending messages, receiving updates on weather and train delays, listens to music, and even video shares with another person. This seems very futuristic and like something out of a sci-fi novel but Project Glass may not be all that farfetched as the glasses have gone beyond the concept phase of production. The search engine giant has taken mobile media to a new level and the ability to access to information is on the rise. Back to Search Engines Homepage
By Kelly Howe
While the SEO game has changed drastically over the past months, one thing has remained fairly consistent: It's been driven by keywords -- keywords in your URL structure, your META tagging, your content, your links. Whatever way you slice it, keywords are everywhere in SEO.
Even among Google’s most recent algorithm updates -- Panda, Search Plus Your World and Venice -- to name a few, keywords remained relatively unchanged. But the upcoming update to move Google to semantic search technology, according to an article posted on Mashable, is adding a whole new element to the game: the Human Element. The factors that have been so crucial to SEO for many years remain so, like how you use keywords on a page, inbound links containing target keywords in their link text. But branding, user behavior and social factors are becoming increasingly important.
Semantic search uses artificial intelligence in order to understand the searcher’s intent and the meaning of the query rather than parsing through keywords like a dictionary. When you search now, Google gives you results based solely on the text and the keywords that you put in that search. Essentially, Google gives you its best guess.When you use semantic search, Google will dive into the relationship between those words, how they work together, and attempt to understand what those words mean. Google will understand that “their” and “they’re” has two different meanings and when “New” and “York” are placed together, it changes the meaning.
What this means for SEO.. Keywords are easy to manipulate; intent, not so much. In order to rank well in semantic search, you don’t just have to put your keywords in the right places, you have to figure out the actual meaning behind those keywords and create content around that specifically. That puts more emphasis on your keyword research.When people search, they aim to answer a question. They just search in the truncated version of that question. Keyword research is largely data-driven around the popularity of the terms in their question. Keyword research in semantic search will have to focus on what that person actually means when searching for that keyword.
Facebook steps up its game
By Stephanie Costa
The rumor in Silicon Valley being perpetuated by articles in Business Week and IT World is that Facebook is revamping its search engine. Facebook’s search box, which helps users search for friends, pages, and other content within Facebook, has been lagging in output of relevant results, but that should all change soon. Lars Rasmussen a former Google engineer is leading a team of twenty-four engineers in developing a more efficient search engine that will help Facebook users go through all of the user-generated content on the site.
If Facebook does a good-enough job, their improved search engine has the potential to take a piece of Google and Microsoft’s search engine market share. If users can look up “Sushi San Diego” and be taken to a page of a San Diego sushi bar with the most “likes” by Facebook users, users may not feel the need to leave Facebook and go to Google to look-up that type of information. Sponsored search results are also the most profitable type of advertisement in the web; if Facebook entered the realm of search, it could potentially dramatically increase its profits. However, Facebook’s search engine will not likely be successful if it is a model of Google’s search engine because although competitors, Google and Facebook are very different. Facebook’s improved search engine should be something unique that can benefit its current users.
Clio Searches for Music-Using Music
By Sonya ModiMusic has become a major part of our culture. People spend hours on end downloading and listening to music. In our society, wouldn’t it be great if there was a music search engine that suggested and/or found songs based solely on music itself rather than words? According to Xconomy, this technology exists. Clio is the name of this search engine. It works through the use of a code that breaks up music into grammatical parts-rhythm, harmony, and melody. This search engine is similar to apps like Shazam, a smart phone application that allows people to hold their phones up to a speaker playing music, and tells the user what the song is called and who the artist is. Unlike Shazam, Clio not only can find the name and artist of a particular song, but it can suggest similar styles of music. One may believe that this is similar to Pandora; however, Clio is the first search engine that relies solely on music, rather than words, as the basis of its searches. This allows for much more cost-efficient song and genre matching. The only downside of Clio is that it currently has 10 employees and is generally for industry professionals, rather than the general consumer market. Because the company is in the beginning stages of growth, I believe that we can expect to see its expansion into the general consumer market sometime in the future.
Project Glass
By Trevor StraubGoogle has released a video of their latest augmented reality or AR glasses. Its latest endeavor, Project Glass, combines the aspects of a cell phone, computer, GPS, camera and puts them in the form of glasses. In the video the user performs a number of tasks such as sending messages, receiving updates on weather and train delays, listens to music, and even video shares with another person. This seems very futuristic and like something out of a sci-fi novel but Project Glass may not be all that farfetched as the glasses have gone beyond the concept phase of production. The search engine giant has taken mobile media to a new level and the ability to access to information is on the rise.
Back to Search Engines Homepage