Herb Firestone July 21, 2009 Not suprisingly, Google has more discontinued applications than most companies have in their entire portfolios of products and services.
Even more impressive is the fact that most of them were scrapped because of integration with other Google products, not because they were bad ideas.
My own personal top ten favorite applications discountinued by Google are as follows:
10. Google Answers
Question and answer service, allowing users to pay researchers to answer questions. Google announced the
closing of this service back in November of 2006. All past discussions have been publicly archived.
Certainly not a bad idea. Yahoo and LinkedIn, however, both still have free questions and answsers.
9. Google Catalogs
Search engine for over 6,600 print catalogs, that although discontinued back in January of this year, certainly gave participating sites a humoungous competitive advantage while it was around. Sounds to me like companies would have paid big bucks to keep their entire catalog of products on Google and possibly even more money if integrated with Google Checkout.
8. Google Music Trends
Music ranking of the songs played with iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player and Yahoo Music. Trends were
generated by Google Talk’s “share your music status” feature. Possibly just a case of you can’t be all things to all people, all the time.
7. Google Page Creator
Webpage-publishing program replaced by Google Sites.
6. Related Links
Script that places units for related Web content, including pages, searches and videos, on the owner’s Website, through embedded code. Although discontinued in July 2007, it’s possible that Microsoft Bing’s related links could inspire Google to bring some form of Related Links back from the dead.
5. Google Shared Stuff
A web page sharing system discontinued in March of this year. Too many other social bookmarking sites already around.
4. Google Voice Search
Automated voice system for searching the Web using the telephone. Now called Google Voice Local Search, it’s currently integrated on the Google Mobile web site.
3. Writely
Web-based word processor acquired by Google in 2006 and merged into what is now Google Docs.
2. Jaiku
Mobile micro blogging service that, just on a hunch, could see a rebirth if Google is unable to buy Twitter.
1. Google Notebook
Enabled users to View and add notes. Although there are others in the same space, this is one I’d still be using today if it hadn’t been discontinued in January of this year. My take on Google Notebook is that the reason it was dumped was because it was free and would have had to stay that way.
Check out a complete list of Google previous products on Wikipedia.
Herb Firestone June 17, 2009 When you search for your site in Bing, if it doesn’t come up in the search results or if its new, you can submit your URL in Bing Webmaster Tools:
Just go to Bing URL Submission and submit your site URL.
Create an XML Sitemap & Submit it to Bing Webmaster Tools
Whether your site comes up when you search for it in Bing or not, you still need to create an xml sitemap and submit it to Bing Webmaster Tools.
Go to bing.com
Click Extras in the top right corner and choose Webmaster Center.
Click on Sign in to Use the Tools. You’ll need a hotmail or live email account to do so, so if you don’t have one, simply sign up for one so you’ll be able to access Bing Webmaster Tools.
Once inside Webmaster Tools, just enter your web address and your site map address. Make sure, of course, that your sitemap address ends with dotxml
Next, you’ll need to verify ownership of the site by following the exact same procedures you follow when submitting your xml sitemap to Google and Yahoo.
If for some reason you are not submitting your sitemaps to Google and/or Yahoo, you absolutely must begin to do so.
Bing provides two ways to verify ownership:
XML file authentication or Metatag authentication.
Both require that you add an authentication code to your site that Bing provides.
As the technical details are far beyond the scope of this post, you can find specifics on creating your xml sitemap at xml-sitemaps.com and on verifying it at: http://help.sitesell.com/sitemaps/live-webmaster-tools.html#VERIFY
Herb Firestone June 12, 2009 The new Microsoft Bing search engine introduces us to seven new and useful features, ranging from categorized search and deep links to related searches and search history.
Best Match
Bing determines what it thinks is the best match for your search and features it at the top of the results.
Homepage Summary
When you move your mouse over a listing, a window appears in the right sidebar that shows you what’s on the page.
Deep Links
When you search Directory One, for example, and you mouse-over the orange dot, you get a description of the homepage along with links to five inside pages:
These must be what Microsoft means by deep links, even though they are titled: Also on this page!
Categorized Search
Categorized search helps users organize their search by increasing the authority and diversity of results. Bing groups search results by category. For example results for a specific city may include weather, airport, restaurant, and hotel groups
What they mean by groups is, for example, when you search the word Microsoft, the results are grouped by categories as you scroll down the page. So categories for Microsoft include:
- Microsoft Products
- Microsoft Online Services
- Microsoft Investor Relations
- Microsoft Company History
- Microsoft Jobs
- Microsoft Images
You can also click on any of the category headings to generate more related results.
Does categorized search actually improve relevance?
Not necessarily. When I searched the word Bing on Bing, of course the Bing search engine came up first. But Bing Crosby came up third, which is higher than where he came up when searching Bing on Google.
The bottom line is search engines by their very nature will never be 100% relevant because it’s simply not possible to serve up results that will please all searchers all the time. As the old adage goes, “you can’t be all things to all people.”
Related Searches
Bing gives you the opportunity to click on related searches in three places. First, a dropdown menu that appears as you enter your search word.
For example, when you enter the word Houston, you get eight choices in the dropdown:
- Houston Chronicle
- Houston Astros
- Houston Community College
- Houston Texans
- Houston Rockets
- Houston Weather
- Houston News
- Houston Press
You get five more to choose from at the top of the left sidebar:
- Travel
- Restaurants
- Jobs
- Hotels
- Attractions
And then seven more Related Searches under those.
Search History
Below the Related Searches you’ll see links to your search results from the last 48 hours. This is a nice touch because if you’ve searched for something once, chances are you’ll go back and search for it again later. Guess in a way that means you didn’t find exactly what you were looking for the first time.
Telephone Numbers
Another useful feature that even Microsoft doesn’t mention, or at least I haven’t seen them mention, are telephone numbers. Business listings actually include either local or 800 numbers, in the window that appears in the right sidebar.
1. Read the instructions
Sounds obvious enough but I can’t tell you how many times I tried to use commas when semi-colons were required or vice versa to create lists. Also if the last phrase on a list gets cut off between the words, it means the list is too long so simply delete your entire last entry.
2. When submitting multiple locations to Google Maps and Microsoft’s new Bing Local, each site needs to be verified. You’ll have the option to verify immediately by telephone or request they mail a post card to each location in about two to three weeks. When choosing the telephone option it’s absolutely critical to create a schedule and notify each location the day before. You’ll also want to allow about a half hour between calls from Google and call each location again just before you activate the call request. With Google when you submit multiple locations, if you don’t get verified on the first call, there may not be a second chance. You simply need to request the postcard alternative if the telephone verification link is not available.
3. For multiple submissions as you might expect Google Maps, Yahoo Local, the new Microsoft Bing and Superpages lead the way. The “big three” all provide a dashboard from which you can list and manage multiple locations from one page with a single email address and password. At Superpages, all you have to do is call and ask and they’ll set one up for you.
4. Take full advantage of the information opportunities offered by most of the local directories. Superpages leads the way, asking for almost the equivalent of a whole website’s worth of info, with Google Maps running a close second. Simply make sure to fill out the submission forms as completely as possible.
5. If you are submitting more than ten locations or websites, check out Google Maps multiple submission Excel data sheet. It enables you to submit both the basic information as well as optional data such business hours and payment types.
6. Take advantage of the opportunities to upload photos and even videos. What could be better than photos and videos directly accessible from your local directory listings?
7. Make sure to come up with a tasteful coupon offers for the local directories that offer them.
8. Briefly mentioned this one back in part one, “Submitting Multiple Locations to Local Directories:”
Do your keyword research and use keywords whenever appropriate in your site titles, descriptions, tag lines, products or services, specialties, photo & video file names, and video titles.
9. Whatever you do, don’t go overboard with keywords. Don’t just plug in keywords unless they make sense and are relevant.
10. Several local directories, for example, Microsoft Bing, offer the opportunity to include deep links. Make sure to use them appropriately by linking to pages inside your site that will provide useful or helpful additional information to your users.
The following post is meant to be a combination tutorial (How to Submit Multiple Locations to Local Directories) and case study of my current project, the Right Step Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centers.
Step #1 Client Information Checklist
Create a client information checklist for the client to fill out and return. You will then be able to copy and paste from this document when submitting each location.
The following sample client information checklist is a compilation of the info requested by the local directories for each location:
Business Name: (exactly as you want it to appear):
Street Address:
City, State:
Full Zip Code: (all 9 numbers)
Telephone Number:
Fax Number:
Toll Free Number:
Payment Options: (circle all that apply)
VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Diners, Discover, Debit
Cash, Check, Other: ______________________________
Up to 5 Products or Services you provide in order of priority:
Up to 5 Product or Service Brands:
Up to 5 Specialties:
Languages Spoken:
Year Founded:
Number of Locations:
Number of Employees: (not published):
Business Hours:
Special Offer or Local Listing Deal:
Please provide at least one photo for each location. (Maximum: 10)
You may also provide at least one video for each location. (Maximum: 5)
Optimization
Many of the above including product or service names, brands carried, and specialties provide additional opportunities to legitimately use keywords in your listings. You will also want to optimize the file names of the photos and both the file names and the titles of the videos.
Services:
Alcohol treatment, alcohol treatment center, alcohol counseling, alcohol recovery, drug treatment, drug treatment center, drug rehab, drug rehabilitation, drug counseling, substance abuse treatment
Brands:
The Right Step, Spirit Lodge, The Next Step, TRS Behavioral Care
Specialties:
Detox, residential treatment, intensive outpatient, sober living, aftercare
Step #2 More Optimization -Optimize the location business names
Make sure that you have the correct optimized business name for each location. If, for example, they are already listed in any of the local directories, chances are pretty good that many of the locations will be listed using different business names. Work with the client to arrive at optimized business names for each location. By optimized in this case I mean names that include either a primary key phrase or an appropriate geographic descriptive keyword, or preferably both, as in the following examples that are part of the Right Step multiple location link building campaign I’m working on now:
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Houston
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Dallas/Fort Worth
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Plano
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Austin
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Hill Country in Wimberley
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Albuquerque
The Next Step for Men Drug and Alcohol Treatment DFW
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Beaumont
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Dallas
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Clear Lake
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Fort Bend
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Baytown
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment North Houston
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Northline
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment NW Houston
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Pasadena
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment San Antonio
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment The Woodlands
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment West Houston
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Baton Rouge
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Houma
I would have preferred to have added the word Center, for example,
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Center Baton Rouge, but that would have exceeded the number of characters allowed in the name of the business for many of the directories.
Step #3 Description & Tagline
Write a 200 character description and a business tagline if they don’t already have one and add them to the client info document so that you’ll be able to easily copy and paste from a single document.
Description:
Alcohol and drug treatment center provides residential and outpatient solutions to alcohol and substance abuse. End addiction and begin a new life with The Right Step. Most insurance accepted.
Tagline:
Providing compassionate, comprehensive substance abuse care
Step #4 Create Optimized Coupon Offer
Please call 1-877-627-4389 to arrange a Free Evaluation by a licensed drug & alcohol addiction professional.
Step #5 Set-up Email Addresses
In order for your listings to be accepted, verified, and published, you will need a unique street address, local telephone number, and email address for each location. More than likely the individual street addresses and telephone numbers in most cases will already exist. If the unique email addresses don’t already exist, you’ll need to create a master gmail account along with an individual gmail address for each location. In the above example I used rightstepd1@gmail.com for the master account email. The individual email addresses already existed and were not being used, so I forwarded them to the master gmail address. That way I was able to verify the email addresses on my own without having to rely on 21 different people to click the verification links from the directories. Also, by using a generic email address for the directory account user IDs, all the submission data can easily be handed over to the client simply by giving them the gmail account.
Step #6 Document
Create an Excel spreadsheet for the project to keep track of the directories, completion dates, and directory user IDs and passwords when applicable,
which also makes it a piece of cake to provide the client with all the info connected with each submission.
Step #7 Submit
Here’s a link to the list of local directories I submit to. In part two next week, I’ll add tips and comments for each of the individual local directories.
With today’s economic situation, interest in discount coupons is definitely on the rise. While everyone loves a good grocery store coupon, discount coupons have now become the rage in the world of online directories.
Call it a wake-up call or just a little reminder that we’re in the middle of an economic recession, but many of the paid directories included in the Directory One up-and-coming link building package are offering discount codes for submissions during the months of May and June.
Examples include:
- Rubber Stamped
- Aviva Directory
- Greenstalk
- Global-Weblinks
- DirJournal.com
- eWilla Directory
- Best of the Web
- Sezza Directory
- Site Sift
- Ezilon
- Massive Links
Check out the complete list including specific discounts and discount codes at Deborah Mastaler’s Link Spiel blog or Contact Directory One for all your link building needs.
