Google Hotpot can be a powerful consumer tool as it is part of a 50 million business listings database. You can sign in and then are prompted to search for a general theme and establish your location. The default search is “restaurants”. For the most accurate results, enter your city or town for better geo-targeting.

Similar to Yelp.com, Citysearch.com, and other rating sites, users can proactively rate the businesses they’ve patronized. Ratings are on a 5 star system — 5 stars being excellent and 1 star being terrible. As a user rates places, Google’s Hotpot determines other places the person may be interested in visiting.

Google has also created a Hotpot rating application so that users can quickly and easily rate and find friends while on their phones. The company also upgraded Google Maps on Android to allow users to input and view ratings on the go.

1. 85% of people who click on a search result click on the organic search result. The only way to rank in the organic results is through continuous SEO efforts.
2. 100% of searchers click the first organic search result. Less than 50% click the first paid (Sponsored Ads) result. That’s from Google’s Vanessa Fox’s excellent book, Marketing in the Age of Google.
3. SEO has a cascading effect. Most of the work you do for organic SEO – content creation, site performance
improvements and link building via outreach – also improves conversion, grows your overall brand and strengthens other marketing efforts.
4. It scales well. If you spent $5000 on organic search and then get 1,000 clicks from an organic listing, it cost you $5/click. As your rankings improve, though, and you get, say, 10,000 clicks, your cost doesn’t increase. Now your cost is $.50/click. And so on.
5. You’ll learn critical stuff about your customers. Improved search visibility will mean more unpaid search traffic. That will tell you more about the words, phrases and questions on customers’ minds when they look for your product or service.
6. Search puts you in front of the customer when they need you. Unlike traditional advertising, banners and such, search-driven marketing appears in front of the customer right when they need your services. You know that, because they’re searching for you. Hopefully you know why that’s good.
7. SEO is a fantastic deal. Even the most expensive SEO campaign costs a fraction of offline marketing. A typical print ad in a national magazine will cost you $40,000, minimum. A banner campaign on a major site? $10,000/month. Television? Don’t even ask. Even plain old face-to-face selling may cost more by the time you’re done missing work, buying meals, traveling around and wearing holes in your nice shoes. Try this: Take 5% of your offline marketing budget and invest it in a smart SEO person. See what it gets you.
8. Paid search costs increase over time. There are very few topics for which pay-per-click (PPC) marketing has become cheaper. “Bid inflation” means that most companies have seen a rapid rise in their PPC expenses. SEO only gets more expensive if your consultant increases their price, or your in-house team asks for raises.
9. SEO is a lasting asset. Assuming you stick to SEO techniques with long-term viability, your search engine optimization work will help you for months or years. Every improvement you make, every page you add to your site, every link you earn will stick around, boosting later efforts. Think of SEO as a marketing savings account:
Your work will generate compound interest.
10. SEO is a small business’ best chance to beat out incumbents. SEO requires a degree of agility that most companies often can’t manage. They may not have the knowledge, experience, or the time.

I was wondering, although sort of in the background, how Google and other social networking widgets, websites and such could so easily want to potentially invade my privacy.

I mean, here we are, inside our Gmail account, and having the opportunity to “Buzz” with other Gmail users. Come on, isn’t having an email enough? Oh wait, no….we have to be as close to “real-time” as possible. Why not just pick up the phone and call? Oh wait, Google email does that, too. You can call someone using the keypad within the Google chat….or something like that….I’m confused at most of it. Wasn’t the internet supposed to make communication easier?

Skype. MagicJack. Face to Face on iPhone…..George Jetson, are you out there?

And why is it when I try to use these forms of communication, nobody answers? I don’t want my privacy compromised, but didn’t we think about that years ago?

Cancel my accounts….I’m leaving the internet…..getting rid of my cell phone….leaving the planet…..

Just kidding. But this privacy thing is just scarey to most people….I wonder how many want to get off the “merry-go-round” we call the internet.
Here’s the email sent from Google, if you didn’t see it already:

Subject: Important Information about Google Buzz Class Action Settlement
Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we’ve reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz

(http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users’ concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about
privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.

——————————————————————–
This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern

District of California.

Google Inc. | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway | Mountain View, CA 94043

Are my speculations correct? I had mentioned in an earlier blog post that my opinion was that Google would eventually charge to be on the first page of Google Maps (Google Places). Moving the map to a position just above the first sponsored listing leads me to believe they just may be preparing to set it up so that they appear as sponsored listings…..an experiment?

What’s your take on this?

A Like button can be gnereated from the Developer page at Facebook. Altough the Like button was easy to embed onto our website, it take some poking around to find the actual link for the “Clicks Online SEO Las Vegas” page I had created this morning. What you need to understand is you must have a regular name and profile linked to your “Page”. The whole process was confusing at first, because it appears that Create a Page is not a seperate account.

If someone is logged into Facebook and does a search for your Page, they can then click the Like button to “share” your postings with their friends.

Likewise, Social Media Optimiztion, or “SMO”, can be compared to Search Engine Opimization (SEO) in that it refers to the method of optimizing content postings on social media networks.

Of course, in the area of SMM, the goal is to obtain immediate response by paying for clickable ad space while appearing in front of a targeted audience. But again just like its SEM counter-part, it can be costly unless properly constructed.

SMO, however, can be more cost effective in the long term, but you must understand, like regular optimization, Social Media Optimization results seldon happen overnight. Just like Search Engine Optimization, results will vary, and can take time to realize the results.

Why would your business want to use Socail Media Nwtworks:
There is a wide market using Social Media – think of it as “relationship marketing” – building relationships with potentail customers. The advantage is that you have the possiblility of reaching more people through networking “friends of frineds”.

Take Facebook, for example. A person has a Facebook account. Their profile is linked to other people they know or have invited to network with them. This can potentially lead to a wide audinece to which you can target your paid ad or “Write on my wall” message. The trick is to use properly formatted postings.

It is easier to target a particular demographic with Social Media Network Optimization and Marketing, which can yield a higher ROI, Return on Investment.

The process, however, can be time consuming, and the results can take time to see and measure, but in the long run, can be very rewarding.

Just like SEO, results will be more forthcoming if a monthly effort is in place.

If you are serious in getting more visitors and customers to your website, contact www.clicks-online.com at 702-272-0454.

Is it the Facebook Phone? Does it have something to do with the new “Social Network” movie? Or maybe it’s going to be “Facebook TV”…..or the Facebook Car of the Future?

What’s your take?

However, on the 29th day of the “bring it back within 30 dyas” policy, I went to Apple and returned the iPhone. Why? Well, after I saw a commercial and speaking with some colleagues, promoting Android has more available free apps, I decided to go back and get the Samsung Captivate.

Personally, both phones are good, but I am really begining to like my “Google Phone”. I love playing with it….with the voice activated and text-to-speech apps and such.

Howver, being that it’s Google based, you would think the Google Talk (Chat) would work properly. It doesn’t. When I go to my computer and to my gmail accounts, I can chat with others there, but when you go to the mobile, it just shows my account…no friends, no communications…..it just doesn’t work.

And the forums are filled with like-complaints, not only on the Samsung Captivate, but other Androids as well. Google, What’s up with that? Didn’t you guys invent this stuff?

The free app I installed for use with AIM and other chat services seems to work ok…..

Are you having the same issues with Android and Google Chat? We would love to hear your comments.

And now Google TV? (www.googletv.com). This looks promising. Everything on your TV…..web, tv, media…..I guess the “Apple” doesn’t fall from the tree.

What’s next, Google Internet Radio? The “Google Powered” Car? Or will Apple beat Google to the punch?

And where does this all fall into play with search?

This will certainly give Skype and MagicJack some competition, and as we all know, Google seems to be “everywhere” when it comes to communications.

After a short tryout with family, Google Voice seems to be pretty stable and only takes a few seconds to set up.

So, go to your Gmail account and start communicating!

So, if you’re in the San Francisco area, check them out!