It’s no surprise that each year, the amount of individuals who participate in the hunt for gifts during Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday seems to be increasing at a significant rate; this year, however, shoppers went a step beyond that and set new online shopping records.

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While announced back in March, Google recently reinitiated the “Block all [URL]’s results”, causing an uproar within the digital space.  To remind everyone, this feature works as follows: (more…)

In the past months, there has been some confusion as to the actual popularity of Google +.  Google +, the newest addition to the Google Empire, is rapidly gaining subscribers, but how often are they actually using the platform?  Google has yet to release any information about the frequency in which + is being used, leaving many to wonder what their release of 40 million users really means. As part of Google’s earnings announced on October 13th, CEO Larry Page announced that Google + had 40 million members, stating, “Google+ is now open to everyone and we just passed the 40 million user mark. People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started!” (more…)

Search experts, search clients and web aficionados everywhere took to Twitter as news of Google’s new secure search roll-out broke.  The search giant announced that it would begin encrypting searches by default if people were logged into Google.com via a secure connection, thereby keeping the search query a user enters and any websites they visit afterwards inaccessible to third parties. (more…)

On Wednesday, October 5^th, Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple and the genius behind the brand passed away.  Within minutes of the news breaking, RIP Steve Jobs was trending across Twitter and now, as with so many legendary people who have passed before him, we will all most certainly be able to say, “I remember where I was when Steve Jobs died.” (more…)

In late June, Google launched their “Facebook killer,” Google+, to great fanfare.  People were legitimately excited for this alternative social network that would improve upon all the things Facebook couldn’t or wouldn’t do.  Social media pundits and commentators wrote hundreds of articles about why Google+ would beat Facebook (and yes, I’m willing to admit I was wrong).  Within one month, g+ reached over 20 million registered users and became the fastest growing website of all time—and that was all in an invite-only beta mode! (more…)

Facebook is, in many ways, the quintessential social network.  After all, when a major motion picture about your company is titled “The Social Network,” you know you’re pretty much synonymous with the whole concept. Facebook, however, wasn’t the first social network and they’re not even close to being the last one.  Others have come and gone, but Facebook continues to dominate the space by evolving with new trends and technology, while others stand idly by and get left behind. (more…)

I don’t have to tell you how computers have changed our world (when was the last time you actually wrote something more than an address or a shopping list – if even that?).  Nor are the effects of the internet on our lives any big mystery.

However, as I mentioned in my previous blog, “When Search Met Social”, social media has changed the world yet again. While social has caused big changes in search marketing and marketing in general, it has had a much larger impact in world events and life as we know it over the past year. (more…)

On August 31^st, the Justice Department blocked the move by AT&T and T-Mobile to merge into one large conglomerate. Though there are many T-Mobile users who are happy about not being forced into a partnership with AT&T’s services, this is an important step for the government. Already this year, we have seen several significant mergers that have been approved by federal ruling organizations, which could have significant impact on American consumers. (more…)

One thing in particular that is still somewhat of an enigma in the world of SEO is the QR code. QR codes have “high-speed decoding” capabilities and are one of the many things in our everyday life that are overlooked and undervalued.  The bits of information that QR codes contain can range from a page URL to persuasive text: (more…)