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In March, Google made a number of changes to its search results layout. Jon Wiley, Lead Designer for Google Search, summarized the modifications in his Google+ post:

We’ve increased the size of result titles, removed the underlines, and evened out all the line heights. This improves readability and creates an overall cleaner look. We’ve also brought over our new ad labels from mobile, making the multi-device experience more consistent.

Previously, ads were placed over a shaded background and now, they are differentiated by a small yellow “Ad” button. People who cover industry news can’t seem to agree whether the new layout makes ads more obvious, or less obvious. Many believe the ads now blend in with organic search results and more people will click on them—an advantage, perhaps, for advertisers with well-structured PPC campaigns.

WhatsApp is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows users to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. Last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced an agreement to buy WhatsApp for $16 billion—$4 billion in cash and $12 billion in Facebook shares. Much like Instagram (another startup acquired by Facebook), WhatsApp will operate independently within Facebook.

In a February 19 Facebook post, Zuckerberg wrote: “I’m looking forward to what Facebook and WhatsApp can do together, and to developing great new mobile services that give people even more options for connecting.”

Privacy groups have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission that reads (in part):

WhatsApp built a user base based on its commitment not to collect user data for advertising revenue. Acting in reliance on WhatsApp representations, Internet users provided detailed personal information to the company including private text to close friends. Facebook routinely makes use of user information for advertising purposes and has made clear that it intends to incorporate the data of WhatsApp users into the user profiling business model. The proposed acquisition will therefore violate WhatsApp users’ understanding of their exposure to online advertising.

Click here to read the entire complaint.

The laptop freed us from the desktop computer. The smartphone and tablet took us mobile. If recent Google news (Google is Finally Getting Serious About Wearables) and popularity of SXSW conference sessions on the topic of wearable devices are any indicator, we’ll all soon be suited up with smartglasses, smartwatches and other tech devices.

The standing room only SXSW “Accelerator” event consisted of five-minute pitches by 16 new businesses selected from 500 companies that applied. Companies selected for the wearable technologies category were:

• BioNym - presented the Nymi, a wristband that uses an electrocardiogram as a means to connect people to devices and services without requiring passwords.
• Wearable Solar - showed off its clothing designs that feature cells that charge a phone when the clothes are worn for two hours in direct sunlight.
• Skully (winner in the category) - demonstrated the Skully motorcycle helmet with an advanced situational awareness system, showing navigation and blind spot data. The company has already partnered with Harley Davidson.

Imagine the marketing opportunities when wearable technology becomes ubiquitous!

Did you know that Pay-Per-Click Advertising can be targeted exclusively to people who have visited your website? These are people who have already demonstrated an interest in your products and services.

The large majority of first-time visitors to a website leave without completing a conversion. One visit to your website is usually not enough to close the deal. A PPC Retargeting campaign brings people back and gives you more opportunities to convert your prospective customers.

Click here for more information about PPC Retargeting (aka Remarketing) and click here to read a Retargeting success story.

Who could have predicted that an online social network would change the world?

In February 2004, Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg launched “The Facebook” as an exclusive social network for Harvard students. Gradually, Facebook was opened to more users and by 2006, anyone over 13 could join. By December 2013, Facebook had grown to 1.23 billion monthly active users. (Source: Facebook Newsroom).

Click here to read Key Dates in Facebook’s 10-Year History and click here to see the first article ever written about Facebook.

Facebook not only changed the world, it changed the way we interact with our customers and prospects—at least for those of us who take advantage of the opportunities Facebook and other social media sites offer.

At minimum, every small business should have a profile on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter—customers and prospects expect to see you there. Social media is important for building brand awareness, connecting with customers and prospects, sharing your blogs, articles, videos, infographics and other content created for your SEO campaign.

In January, Google paid 3.2 billion cash for Nest, a company that designs and manufactures sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled, self-learning, programmable thermostats and smoke detectors.

Marcus Wohlsen of Wired wrote, “The value Google sells its customers—that is, advertisers—lies in its peerless understanding of our online behavior...One area of human behavior Google has yet to colonize as successfully is what we do when we’re not directly interacting with a screen...That in theory changes with Nest.”

When asked if customer data will be shared with Google, Nest founder Tony Fadell said, “Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services. We’ve always taken privacy seriously and this will not change.”

There was a time when Google put users’ privacy first—from 2002: Google uses cookies to track user trends and patterns to better understand our user base and to improve the quality of our service. Google may also choose to use cookies to store user preferences. A cookie can tell us, “This is the same computer that visited Google two days ago,” but it cannot tell us, “This person is Joe Smith” or even, “This person lives in the United States.” Now, compare that to Google’s current policy.

Considering Google’s privacy policy evolution, some question Fadell’s assurance that Nest’s privacy policy won’t change. Tech industry blogger Sam Biddle tweeted, “If your house is burning down you’ll now get gmail ads for fire extinguishers.”☺

In an August 2013 interview, Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann said, “The big-picture assumption of the company is that there is a direct link between the things you pin and the things that you eventually spend money on. In there, we think, lies a model where we can actually make Pinterest more useful. And we can help businesses by bringing in more customers and helping them sell things and connect with people.”

Pinterest’s investors have helped boost the company’s value to $3.8 billion and now the pressure is on to start generating revenue. Though it has experimented with Promoted Pins, Pinterest has yet to develop a viable advertising product. That could soon change.

Earlier this month, Pinterest acquired VisualGraph, an image recognition and visual search platform. Currently, Pinterest’s search functionality relies largely on user-generated, haphazard descriptions of pinned images. In theory, with VisualGraph’s image recognition technology, Pinterest could detect items in the pinned images and deliver ads to users based on the products and services represented in their pins.

A study by J.D. Power discovered that in 2012, 47 percent of vehicle owners indicated they used a downloaded app on their smart device for navigation in their car or truck, compared with 37 percent in 2011. Notably, 46 percent of owners indicate they "definitely would not" or "probably would not" repurchase a factory-installed navigation system if their smartphone navigation could be displayed on a central screen in their car.

Who wants to pay for an old style navigation system when we have smartphones with free map service? And a pricey built-in DVD package when we have hand-held devices to keep passengers (i.e., whining kids) occupied during car trips? Car manufacturers are on the losing end of these advances in technology; they've seen the future and they want a piece of it.

In June 2012, BMW, GM, Mercedes, Jaguar, Audi, Land Rover, Toyota, Chrysler and Honda coordinated with Apple to incorporate "eyes free" Siri-compatibility into their automobiles. Using a voice command button on the steering wheel, Siri Eyes Free enables the driver to make and receive calls, select and play music, audibly send and receive text messages, access Maps and get directions, audibly receive notifications, set reminders and more, all without looking away from the road.

This month, Google, along with technology and auto industry leaders, announced the "Open Automotive Alliance" (OAA). The OAA is committed to bringing the Android platform to cars, with the goal of making technology in the car safer, more seamless and more intuitive for everyone.

Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA said, "The car is the ultimate mobile computer. With onboard supercomputing chips, futuristic cars of our dreams will no longer be science fiction. The OAA will enable the car industry to bring these amazing cars to market faster.".

The first cars with Android integration are expected to be delivered by the end of 2014.

In 2014, Content Marketing is still the key to a powerful SEO campaign and an active, engaging social media presence. The opportunities for content placement are increasing because online publishers will need to generate income!

The banner ads on newspaper and magazine websites are not doing the job; the typical click-through rate is approximately.1 percent. (Source: DoubleClick). Online publishers, including such heavyweights as The New York Times, Buzzfeed and Vanity Fair, are hoping Native Advertising will boost click through rates and increase revenue.

The objective of Native Advertising is to complement an article with helpful information from a paid sponsor. Like other forms of content marketing, native ads do not specifically market the sponsor's product or service. The expectation is that a reader will would like to engage with the sponsored content because, unlike a banner ad, a native ad contains information that is specific to the article that has already attracted the visitor's attention.

While a small business probably can't afford a native ad placement on The New York Times website, there are affordable options-- 73 percent of online publishers and media companies offer some kind of native advertising program. (Source: eMarketer)

Many companies use video to promote the brand, products and services. Some are taking it to the extreme, using pretty amazing cameras like the GoPro to demonstrate a product from the user’s point of view.

The GoPro camera was originally invented for surfers, to shoot the view inside the curl of a wave. But that was just the beginning. In the March 2013 edition of Forbes, Ryan Mac wrote: “The cinema-grade, panoramic, point-of-view footage that comes out of a GoPro transforms mere mortals into human highlight reels, without blowing a huge hole in the budget.”

Cameras like the GoPro let you get hugely creative, but a nicely produced video that highlights your company and your brand gives a strong boost to your SEO campaign. Video tends to be more engaging than text. And, video is a great way to add content to your website, attract organic traffic and build up your presence on YouTube.