Google AdWords - Bid Simulator

Google Adwords recently disclosed their new Bid Simulator feature. It is still in Beta stage, however...

The Bid Simulator is a tool you can use to view estimated costs, impressions, position and clicks for a specific keyword based on a proposed bid.



every advertiser can take advantage of these suggestions, however, mine is "be careful"... you will see that the increase in 'estimated traffic' is not in analogue to the cost you will be paying should you increase the bid. Why should you be paying double for keywords that are already doing well without the need to increase it for more traffic? Analyze the % in increase and total clicks you are estimated to receive and you can determine the convenience and results of this action.

If you are willing to test and invest some money on in: Monitoring is the KEY WORD here!


Read about this new feature at the Google Blog:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2009/08/bid-like-pro-with-bid-simulator.html

Google Updates... update!

Recently there was this article posted by Nathania Johnson that talks about the new releases/updates that Google has made, that may or may not be their way of saying...'Bing who?'

Read on:

"I don't know if Google is trying to distract you from Bing's launch or if it's just that they're just this huge of a company (or more likely both), but they've released a ton of updates on many of their products this week. Today alone, there are 11 updates. Normally, I like to try and give each one a single post, but I don't have that kind of time! So, here they are in consolidated form:

Webmaster Central released a tool called Page Speed which works in conjunction with the Firefox extension Firebug to give suggestions for improving loading time.

Google Analytics is now offering Event Tracking for all accounts.

Chrome, Google's web browser has been released in alpha (that's right, pre-beta) for the Mac. It's definitely not ready for primetime, folks. They're looking for developer feedback on it.

Google Maps improved Street Navigation by allowing double-clicks (the action, not the ad network) to access Street View.

Google Friend Connect has four updates to help developers create widget for the social networking feature.

Google Search, Maps and YouTube are built into the hot new mobile device, Palm Pre.

Android has released Activity and Task Design Guidelines.

YouTube debuted a new political debate tool called Google Moderator, which was recently used in a Virginia gubernatorial democratic primary debate.

Sony has joined VEVO, the online music video project initiated by Universal and YouTube.

An orkut mobile app has been released that should work on most Java-enabled devices.

Picasa Web Albums are now faster without sacrificing image size."

What are your thoughts on this?

Source: Nathania Johnson, searchenginewatch.com

Twitter to Launch Verified Accounts to Help Prevent Impersonation

This is a post Nathania Johnson I found at SearchEngineWatch.com that talks about the plans Twitter has regarding privacy and security...

Take a look:

"When public figures and celebrities have people pretending to be them, the self-important get all bent out of shape. Twitter has been ripe for impersonations, despite the ban of such accounts via the Twitter Terms of Service. While Twitter is aggressive in suspending fake accounts, I would argue most people are able to spot these fakes a mile away. That doesn't prevent the impersonated from getting their egos bruised.

For these celebrities and also for the rare down-to-earth ones, Twitter is launching Verified Accounts. It will begin as an experimental offering this summer. The experiment will begin with individuals, though Twitter sees potential in extending verification to businesses in the future.

You'll know if an account is official by a notification on the user's page. Twitter also suggested checking out the official website of the public figure you're interested in to see if they link to their Twitter account.

In the meantime, continue using that brain of yours to spot the fakes. Usually, they're as obvious as the Prado street vendors in New York City."

Source: Nathania Johnson , SearchEngineWatch

Social NetworkingTool: Google Friend Connect Event Widget

"Google Friend Connect has added an event widget to help site administrators harness social media for event planning..." read more

source: SearchEngineWatch.com

Ashton Kutcher and Twitter CEO Evan Williams talk Twitter with Oprah

Ashton Kutcher and Twitter CEO Evan Williams explain the growing frenzy for Twitter, its influcence on today's society and media and well give a scoop as to what is to come!

Article: Connecting with your community through Twitter

Insightful article/interview by JD Lasica about the value Twitter gives to connecting journalists with their communities. Journalists seem to be starting to use this growing social platform (and other social media applications) as tools to interact with their local communities in a more effective and direct way.

Read on

OR

Watch the video:


Using Twitter to engage the community from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Social Media - You never know...

Hey everybody, just came across this video about the use of Twitter from Chris Pirillo (Lockergnome) I think you will like...

Social Media - how many can you reach?

Recently actor Ashton Kutcher decided to 'challenge' CNN in a 'top the million followers' contest were he bet he would reach the 1 million TWITTER followers mark before CNN did (at the time, CNN held the highest 'Followers' rank). Read CNN coverage

Actually, it is said no single Twitter account had previously reached 1 million followers on Twitter, a site on which users post 140-character messages that are displayed to groups of followers.

Well, he said it and he did it. He got to 1 million around 30 minutes before CNN did! "This is [a battle between] David vs Goliath", as he puts it, and it seems 'David' is a snazzy guy who went all out and won!

However, what is the actual point to this? What is the lesson learned? I would say the influence of mainstream social media where one person can be heard as loud as a media network/source?

Some state that Kutcher's popularity was due to his usage of Twitter to actually interact with his followers, whilst CNN simply 'delivers the news'. This raises many questions though regarding the needs, use and influence of mainstream media and what people look for today...only information or actual interaction?

Read a post about the Ashton Kutcher/CNN Battle as well as CNN's 'promotion' of Twitter.

SEORAMAS