2008 March - Pod1 Blog

March 26, 2008 by NB Japanese URLs are out…

Awesome blog entry from the Co-Founder of Panic Inc, detailing how Japan is shifting from using URLs on adverts, to showing people the search terms they should use in their favourite search engines.

It makes sense, right? All the good domain names are gone. Getting people to a specific page in a big site is difficult (who’s going to write down anything after the first slash?). And, most tellingly, I see increasingly more users already inadvertently put complete domain names like “gmail” and “netflix” into the Search box of their browsers out of habit — and it doesn’t even register that Google pops up and they have to click to get to their destination.

See the full post here

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March 20, 2008 by JP Search within a search within a search

Recently I was searching for certain big brands on Google and I started finding a new feature in the results, which Google has quietly slipped in there. It’s a search box that site beneath the site links in some brand name searches. I first saw it on results for Virgin Holidays (One of Pod1’s favourite clients), but there seem to be a few other sites, such as Audi which also have this box.

The search box apparently allows you to search the site without needing to go to it first. This saved a fair bit of time, especially with graphics heavy sites that take forever to load. I managed to get to the page I wanted in about half the usual amount of time.

The first question I heard when I asked other people about it was ‘How do I get that for my site?’ The answer, of course, was ‘I don’t know,’ a very common problem when it comes to Google and natural search. The inevitable next question is ‘ Will it affect natural search rankings?’, however I don’t think this will be the case.

As far as I can see the main factor in whether a site is ‘blessed’ with one of these boxes seems to be the amount of searches that take place on a site. Unfortunately, this is not a good reflection on site structure and navigation. While I wish all my clients had a search box like Virgin Holidays, I can help feeling proud that visitors don’t have to use the search box to find the page they want.

As the search box becomes as standard as site links have become now, the benefits and drawbacks of it will become more apparent. For the moment though it’s just something cool to play with, a sign that Google is still trying to be innovative on some level.

testPosted in Online marketing, Online strategy, Technologies
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March 13, 2008 by MB London SES 2008 – Everything you ever wanted to know about search but were too afraid to ask.

As a complete newbie to the SES events I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but I was hoping this would be an informative day out. I guess I was looking for a combination of some ‘top tips’ and some ‘myth busting’.

Let just say I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve read a few other posts about the event, some more positive than others, and if you were expecting a trade show and exhibition you’d be disappointed but if you were looking for a top notch informative seminar then this would be right up your street.

I started the day with the keynote presentation “The Changing Search World”, which was as good a place to start a day of SEOism as any.

The first problem arose trying to decide which of the presentations to attend, so after much deliberation I chose the following sessions;

News Search & SEO - This was a very useful session for me and I picked up lots of tips as well as reinforcing what I already new with good presentations from Greg Jarboe, Lee Odden and Tim Gibbon.

Blog & Feed Search SEO - This wasn’t quite as relevant for my clients but triggered a couple of good ideas we can use like a Widget for e-shop clients that notifies users of the item of the day, new stock & sales items.

Podcasts & Video SEO - Some interesting stuff here like Google only indexes videos if they have been posted on sites like You Tube, Metacafe etc. letting user do the hard work for them by applying the tags & descriptions.

Balancing Organic & Paid Listings - Paid V’s Natural Search, the age old question PPC or SEO (well not that old as neither have been around for long). The answer DO BOTH;-)

Linking Strategies – This was tricky how do you turn down the opportunity to listen and hopefully learn from some of the industries big dogs but it did clash with the new kid on the block Social Search Overview. In the end the allure of the perfect linking strategy won me over, and on reflection it was the right choice as the nice people at SES have put all the presentations online (including all the ones I missed) http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/london/presentations.html.

So in summary a great day out informative and well worth a look, I’ll definitely be there again next year.

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by SN A night at the Media Momentum Top 50 Fastest Growing Agencies Awards

Pod1 were chosen as the featured agency for GP Bullhound (Media Momentum) to create the visual installation the awards.

The event yesterday was at Sketch restaurant in the West End, so we took full advanatage of the fantastic venue by using bold liquid-effect animation that covered all four walls of the Gallery. That, combined with some classic tunes made the night a memorable one for everyone!
S x

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March 7, 2008 by MA Wisdom of words

From Martin Firrell who has a way with projecting words. His next project can be seen on St Paul’s Cathedral in November 2008. More information on his site www.martinfirrell.com