Google has released a non-API embed feature for Google Maps which is a much easier way to put an interactive Google Map into a webpage or email.

I just did one for Riteway Delivery Solutions:

http://ritewaydeliverysolutions.com/map-directions-ritewaydeliverysolutions.html

Go to Google Maps and type in the physical address, city, state, and zipcode (i.e.: 2580 N. Powerline Road, Suite 605, Pompano Bch, FL 33069) into the search bar. When the map comes up, click on “Link to this page” on the top right hand corner. You will be given HTML code for either email or webpage. Copy the html code into the body of the webpage. That’s it. You also have an option to change the size of the map.

The process took less than five minutes to create….much less than the “long division” method.

“…the mouse ran over to the computer clock…..” Ok, so it doesn’t make sense. I came across this website, a directory of directories of which to submit your url for free…..but, beware, as the quality of these directories is not yet known by me, anyway, since I’ve done no research - yet. http://www.auscan.biz/directories/submit-directories.html

According to this article in Biz Report, in the upcoming weeks, Google will be changing the algorithm that determines which AdWords ads will be featured in the top placement spots. Has anyone else heard anything about this?

How many DMOZ editors does it take to screw in a light bulb?   The so-called “human edited” DMOZ.com Open Directory Project reminds me of a guy who has climbed up a 100 foot ladder to change a light bulb, only to discover he forgot to take the light bulb with him! I’ve continuously resubmitted urls to the DMOZ directory, and even went so far as to apply to “Become an Editor”. No response from anyone at DMOZ…..what a surprise. Are the lights even on? ‘Cause it seems nobody’s home!

Perhaps Google should stop using DMOZ descriptions in its indexing and use the old meta description tag. Better yet, maybe Google should use its own directory in which to index from.

How about a new meta tag, Google? Something like: “no_dmoz_cause_it’s_dead”.

One of the latest trends in the Internet world is having the Internet at one’s fingertips on their cell phone. Apple’s Iphone has grabbed headlines all over the media.

Google which has worked with mobile carriers in the past to help adapt Internet technology in cell phones, is now in the process of coming out with its own cell phone called the Gphone.

Google has talked to carriers about having a partnership, but Google wanted majority of the revenues which carriers did not acquiesce with.

Google, which makes majority of its profits from running ads on its network, see the cell phone industry as an additional untapped source of revenue. Ads will be able to be even more personal and more targeted.

The Telegraph says Google will preload services such as interactive maps, email and its search engine onto the phone.

Spock.com which already has indexed 100 million people and is adding a million people a day to its search engine. The search engine plans on becoming available for public use at the end of August.

One of the ways that Spock.com is finding individuals, is through social networking websites such as MySpace, Friendster and Bebo.

Google is now giving Adwords clients the option to purchase print ads in local newspapers through the Adwords medium.

Businesses should seriously take a look into this option if they feel they are in the market for print advertising. Many people who read print newspapers may take print ads more seriously than other forms of advertising. Also, people who usually read newspapers, are only reading newspapers while not doing anything else at the moment.

Google is giving a promotion of $1,000 credit toward using Google print ads.

Are they or aren’t they using “behavioral targetting” in AdWords or, for that matter, organic search?

Behavioral targetting is a controversial approach to search-driven advertising which attempts to use data collected about a user to customize ads served to that user. In other words, a search engine could try to analyze the contents your not-so-private Gmail or Yahoo mail accounts, your web browsing history, shopping habits, to sketch a profile of you which might help them present ads that a person “like you” may be more interested in.

Even on the face of it, it’s not difficult to see how technically and ethically complicated the behavioral targetting concept might get, with user outrage over privacy concerns and advertiser confusion being just two of the more obvious symptoms.

[Read more →]

After a bit of searchin’, rummagin’, plunderin’, & hackin’, I think I’ve found the easiest possible way to add a Google Map & “Get directions” form exactly like this one - http://www.webcast1.com/googlemaps/datamax-contact-us.html - to your client’s website.

One caveat right off the top:

Be careful when copying and pasting from Word Press.  It might be better to “view source” of this post and copy from there.

Frank had some issues with mangled characters and weird stuff that took some time to hammer back into shape.   We also ran into CSS issues there - the default <p> and <a>  styles were light and so text did’nt show up clearly within the popup “marker” window.

Check webcast1.com/googlemaps to see several working examples.

If you follow the painstaking yet simple instructions laid out below, you can spend just an hour or two to create content which offers a lot of value to site visitors, and is therefore justifiable as a marketing tactic and value-add, even though it does not promote organic search rankings (as far as we know right now - that could change, especially in terms of the benefits to a site’s local search profile).

Find out how Google Maps API 2, some poorly understood javascript, and HTML ducttape can be used to create simple, pretty, scrollable, useful maps with - bonus! - a clickable “marker” with pop up “Get Directions” form integrated into the map … [Read more →]

While setting up Adwords conversion tracking on your client’s website is a good idea to monitor how effective a pay per click campaign can be, people need to realize they may not see all Adwords-generated conversions showing up in the dashboard or in reports.

Keep these things in mind:

1- Conversion tracking on Adwords only picks up users that have cookies enabled. If not, it wont pick up the conversion or lead.

2- Conversion tracking can track when a sale was made, but on Ecommerce sites of course, the dollar value of each sale may vary wildly. It’s true that AdWords conversion tracking does offer the possibility of measuring a shopping carts dollar value and providing a total dollar value of Ad Words-referred sales. However, on many Ecommerce platforms it is difficult and costly to try to implement. OSCommerce, a very flexible open-source platform that many Webcast1 sites are using, can be tweaked to allow AdWords to grab this shopping cart value info, but the solution may have to be customized for some sites.

If you are working with a E commerce or shopping cart site, it is important to monitor the sales from the Admin side as well. This will give you a better idea of how well the entire marketing campaign is performing.