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A while back, the Yodle blog shared a really cool infographic from a referral partner. There is loads of great information from consumers, like mobile habits, local search spend, what sources they most use to search for local businesses, and more. Check out what’s working for consumers to help fine-tune your online marketing plan. You can find the info. by clicking here.

Bing is testing ads within organic search results. Doesn’t that pretty much destroy the definition of organic search?

That’s all.

Read the article here, at search engine land.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Businesses are starting to more readily adapt to the concept of employees working remotely. And if you’re a consultant, freelancer or entrepreneur this topic likely applies to you as well. Frankly, since most interaction happens via email, it makes plenty of sense. And where SEO is concerned, it’s all about being online! With the advent of skype, cell phones and even the old land line, really, there isn’t much we can’t do remotely — it just boils down to personal taste and management style. Granted, nothing can replace the impact of human interaction, but we adapt. Check out this post on sustaining company culture remotely. You’ll find some helpful tips for remote operations and ideas about management style in general.

Some people work remotely from their home office, some have a shared space and some move between different establishments or work at their favorite coffee shop. It has been revealed that there are some unspoken rules for working remotely out of coffee shops if that’s how you roll. Basically, they are the same as they are for any patron. It’s just common courtesy. There is fine print, so be sure to read the full article on the topic here. You might learn a few things you didn’t know about sharing Wi-Fi with the public, too.

Here are the rules:

Buy something
Don’t wear out your welcome
Don’t blab on your phone inside
Use headphones if you need sound
Don’t take up extra space for your belongings
Be considerate of Wi-Fi bandwidth

Good news for search, in the general sense of the word! You can now download Google Maps for Android to view offline. So, if you’re no good at operating machinery while driving (hopefully you do pretty well behind the wheel, at least) you can have a physical print-out of your directions to get you to where you need to go. Also, there’s a handy bus transit navigator that helps you get around in unfamiliar territory. Check out details here!

Apparently, there’s a rumor that Samsung is going to be the first to premiere the Ice Cream Sandwich, Google’s android platform for smartphones.

About Ice Cream Sandwich, it was said that the smartphone would share some of the same features of Honeycomb – the mobile OS for Android tablets. I talked a bit about tablets and Ice Cream Sandwich in a post back in May.

There has been discussion about a filter bubble lately. Leading the discussion and revealing the idea that search is so personalized, largely for marketing and advertising purposes – is Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org. MoveOn.org, a nonprofit organization, is engaged in a campaign to reform the media and other work aimed at bringing real people back into the democratic process by making sure legislators hear their voices.

Pariser’s argument is that the individual’s view of the world is becoming increasingly narrowed because search engines are showing us what they think we want to see based on our interests (via social media data) rather than presenting a more well-rounded picture of what’s really going on in the world. He is an advocate for social responsibility.  

DuckDuckGo is a new search engine that combines wikipedia’s user-generated content with algorithms to provide what they determine is a more authentic experience that helps you find what you want on the internet, rather than what technology says you want.

What do you think about the notion of a filter bubble?

To help you start some research, there are lots of interesting links in this TechCrunch post.

Recently Google improved their image search so that when users search for given images the size is enlarged when you scroll over it with your mouse. They also started to include dates associated with images. The date identifies when an image was posted or found (X hours ago, 1 day ago).

Rather than using information to search for images, now Google has found a way use images to search for information. For example, I was trying to find out the name of a certain plant and how to care for it but, for the life of me, I couldn’t come up with an accurate description of the thing to find out what it was. If I could have snapped a photo of the plant and dropped it into the Google search box and let Google work some magic, that would have been pretty cool! Here’s how it works: either upload an image, drag & drop in the search box, paste an image URL or use Chrome or Firefox extensions. Then Google will interpret and identify what it is and return relevant results.

There you have it! What do you think?

Google says: to start your search with an image instead of text go to images.google.com and click the camera icon. You can copy and paste an image URL, drag and drop it into the search box, or upload a picture from your computer.

Mobile users are engaging more in check-ins. Female smartphone users between the ages of 25 and 34 make up the majority of the check-in population, according to comScore.

Although check-ins often offer “frequent flyer” points, discounts and coupons, privacy and security have been concerns of both women and men of all ages. However, people are adopting the practice more often as they try it out and become more comfortable with location-based apps.

For small businesses, the mobile market is a great place to leave a marketing message and create and engage a loyal network. It’s important to educate users about check-ins and special deals because it’s a neat tool to incorporate into your marketing plan. Special deals via check-ins are a nice way to thank consumers who support your business – and a fun interaction they can share with, use to meet up with, or recommend to friends. Don’t forget to have a component that drives consumers to your website, where they can learn more about your service, make an appointment or a purchase and sign up for your newsletter if you have one.

On Mashable this morning, I read a short post, How 7 Black Hat Hackers Landed Legit Jobs. First, it’s important to point out there is a difference between a “hacker” and a “black hat hacker”. A hacker is valued as a developer with precise, maybe even magician-type skills in the high tech world. Black hat techniques are considered unethical and possibly illegal, depending on how and where a black hat hacker uses their skills. As we can infer from the title of the Mashable article alone, even black hat hackers draw value.

The Mashable post spotlights 7 hackers – what their dark pasts consist of, where they landed legitimate jobs and what they’re doing now. Hmm. What do you think about this? What kind of message do you think it sends to black hatters … kids, even? One of the hackers to get hired at a corporate job is a kid!

I’m all for people turning their lives around to get on a positive path and not take advantage of unknowing ethical people but this seems a little strange. Hey, if everything works out, fine. We’re busy getting our clients ranked highly on major search engines, over here. Check out our video on YouTube!

Google attempted to acquire Path for $100 million. Path is an online network where you can share photos and videos with 50 friends and/or family members of your choice. Google said they really liked Paths’ design and team.

Path declined Google’s offer because apparently the terms were sort of unclear. Dave Morin, who used to work at Facebook,  works at Path. His role, if Path were to be bought by Google, was uncertain … if even guaranteed a position. Morin told TechCrunch he wished he was at liberty to speak about the situation.

Anyone use Path? What do you like/dislike about it? Besides the amount of people you are able to share with, how is it different than other sharing platforms such as Facebook?