Over the next few days, Google will be upgrading their search to respond to more than just typed queries; bringing their smartphone technology to your desktop.</p> <p>In a news conference held on Tuesday in San Francisco, Google announced the advent of voice and image search. Initially, the voice search portion will only be available through the Chrome web browser; however, Google?s executives have said that they hope others will want to implement the technology into their browsers as well.</p> <p>Appearing as a small microphone on the right hand side of the Google search bar, the speech recognition portion of the new service allows users to speak a phrase or ask a question into their computer?s microphone. Although Google has attempted to account for accents, according to testers, the results are somewhat mixed.</p> <p>The image search feature using recognition technology, which applies algorithms to any images, is provided to help determine certain factors; for instance, show it a family photo and Google image search may be able to determine where it was taken. Other uses include helping explain images that become internet memes or artwork.</p> <p>To use the image search feature, users simply drag the image file into the search box. People using the Firefox web browser will also see additional features if/when they install the Google toolbar. It is important to note that facial recognition is not part of the new technology.</p> <p>In addition to the above, Google has also announced a feature called Instant Pages, which is designed to speed up searches. This feature, and others announced on Tuesday, will only be available via Chrome.<br />

In an article published by Reuters, it has been announced that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of popular social media website Facebook, has lost a court ruling against Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, which could have potentially ended, at least in part, the battle over whose idea Facebook actually was.</p> <p>The feud, which was highlighted in the film ?The Social Network?, was thought to have concluded in 2008 when a San Francisco federal court ruling saw the brothers receiving a $65 million USD cash and stock settlement. However, the brothers are now challenging the outcome, appealing to the US Supreme Court. Meanwhile, all litigation has been placed on hold; which means Zuckerberg is unable to seek dismissal of a related lawsuit being processed via Boston federal court.</p> <p>Facebook was created by Zuckerberg in 2004 from a dorm room at Harvard University. However, according to the identical Winklevoss twins, the idea for the social networking site was originally theirs. According to the brothers, they have dismissed the $65 million settlement as fraudulent, based upon their belief that 1) Facebook withheld information from them and 2) they deserve more money.</p> <p>"Facebook bargained for litigation peace," said Zuckerberg's solicitors in a filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The time to end this litigation has long since passed."</p> <p>In an unrelated case, Zuckerman and Facebook are also being sued by Paul Ceglia, a wood pellet salesman in upstate New York. According to Ceglia, he has a contracted stake in the social media website that has not been properly honoured<br />

Having content on your site that engages with your audience is likely to be one of your key content strategy objectives. But how can this be done?

Last night?s US New Hampshire Republican Presidential Debate was just another sign of how real-time events go social through content and opinion sharing venues such as Facebook and Twitter.</p> <p>Even before the programme began, CNN made it quite clear that the debate would be a social networking event; announcing that tweets and posts from Twitter, Facebook, and CNN?s own web page would be used as part of the live debate.</p> <p>On Twitter, the conversation was accompanied by the hashtag #CNNDebate. On Facebook, people were not only able to post opinion, but select the candidate of their choice through the Like button ? giving candidates a better idea of how they actually did.</p> <p>According to Likester, a start-up company that analyses Facebook Like data, Mitt Romney was the clear winner for the US Facebook crowd, with an additional 19,658 Likes added during the debate, for a total of 955,748 Likes in total. Next came Michelle Bachmann, with an added 9,232 Likes, bringing her total to 326,225. ?Losers? in the contest were Newt Gingritch and Rick Santorum, with Newt having the lowest percentage of new Likes and Rick having the least Likes overall.</p> <p>Over on Twitter, users live tweeted debate issues, adding their own opinions and questions as they went. There was also some behind-the-scene tweeting going on, with Twitter users such as journalist Anderson Cooper posting photos and video from inside the debate hall.<br /> Based on Trendistic data, at around one and a half hours into the debate, #CNNDebate was appearing in 1.5% of all tweets ? a significant number considering the global nature of the client.<br />

China?s highly popular Twitter-like microblogging client, SinaWeibo, is planning to expand its services to beyond Chinese borders by the end of 2011. </p> <p>Because of China?s strict censorship rules, Twitter has never been allowed to enter China. Instead, the country uses SinaWeibo, a Twitter/Facebook hybrid. Now, SinaWeibo is looking to expand beyond China ? providing an English language service to users around the world. The only catch ? Chinese censorship will still apply.</p> <p>SinaWeibo was originally launched in 2009 by SINA Corporation, owners of China?s biggest web portal. According to SINA, the site has amassed over 140 million users, with 20 million more being added each month ? all sending millions of messages each day. Of course, the content is all censored, with posts containing censored topics or inflammatory wording never making it to the published content stream. However, users do not seem to mind; a code of sorts has developed to circumvent certain banned keywords; other topics just are not discussed.</p> <p>In anticipation of moving beyond China?s borders, SinaWeibo has commercialised its services; adopting features that Twitter seems to be reluctant to add. According to Financial Times? Katherin Hille, the commercialism will give Weibo an edge:</p> <p>"Sina Corp, Weibo?s parent, has developed features to make it more suitable than Twitter for commercial use. Pictures and videos can be easily posted and re-posted. Re-posted messages form a long thread in which pictures remain visible, and such a conversation makes it much easier for a commercial product or service to go viral."<br /> However, whether Weibo will ever serve as true Twitter competition remains to be seen.<br />

Google has announced that it will be making changes to its recent Panda algorithm. According to reports, the 2.2 version will address the problem, which has sites that are republishing information ranking higher than the original source sites.</p> <p>The news comes via Search Engine Land, who report that Google made the announcement at their SMX Advanced conference held in Seattle, Washington earlier this week.</p> <p>Earlier this year, Google launched Panda in order to address the issue of a new type of spam ? content farms. These low quality sites use SEO and trending word-heavy content to boost their rankings. While the result of Panda implementation was a reduction in content farm spam, there were some legitimate sites also affected.</p> <p>In April, CNET conducted a study to determine how Panda affected search results. The results showed that news sites were placed at an advantage while sites such as WikiHow and eHow were hard hit. Demand Media, the company that operates eHow, confirmed the findings.</p> <p>"In February and April, we experienced two major algorithm changes," said the company?s CEO Richard Rosenblatt. "For eHow, here is the impact: as compared to the levels before the first February change, we saw a net decline in search engine referrals of 20%."</p> <p>As a result, Demand Media promised to increase the quality of its content, publishing higher-quality content on topics that were of interest to users.</p> <p>While it is unclear exactly how the Panda 2.2 update will affect sites, it is a signal that Google is paying attention ? working to ensure quality content is readily found by its users.<br />

On Tuesday, search engine giant Google announced that it will not be complying with demands from Kazakhstan?s Ministry of Communication and Information to relocate its Kazakh server (Google.kz) to within the Kazakhstan borders.</p> <p>The Ministry?s order was delivered to Google by the Kazakhstan Network Information Centre and stated that all .kz domain names must operate from within the country?s borders on physical servers. </p> <p>Bill Coughran, Google?s Senior Vice President of Research & Systems Infrastructure, addressed the issue in Google?s official blog, writing: ?We find ourselves in a difficult situation: creating borders on the web raises important questions for us not only about network efficiency but also about user privacy and free expression.? </p> <p>Coughran goes on to say that to operate from in-country servers only would create a fractured internet.<br /> As a result of the order, Google has decided to redirect google.kz users to google.com in Kazakh. While this allows the search engine giant to circumvent the Ministry?s orders, it will also mean a reduction in search quality for the country?s users. Instead of results customised to Kazakhstan, Kazakhstani users will now get untailored Google results.</p> <p>?The internet ?is not limited by national boundaries.? says Coughran.</p> <p>This situation is a reflection of another that Google faced just last year, when China?s government requested that they be allowed to censor search results filtered through Google.cn. As a result of that request, Google is now redirecting China-based users to an unfiltered server based in Hong Kong (google.com.hk).<br />

As Google?s algorithms get more sophisticated in order to filter out those websites that try to hijack attention by posting low-quality articles full of keywords, some of you out there might be thinking that SEO no longer really matters.</p>

In a study put conducted by ShareThis, in conjunction with StarcomMediaVest Group and Rubinson Partners, it was shown that when it comes to sharing and referrals, Facebook reigns supreme.</p> <p>The study looked at the clicking and sharing habits of over 300 million people who used the ShareThis button to share links with friends and followers. The button appears on over one million websites and produces over seven billion page views each month. The results showed that Facebook was the leader in sharing and referral traffic, at 38% with email and Twitter coming in at 17% each. The remaining 34% of content sharing was achieved via ?other? ? i.e., blogs, bookmarks, etc.</p> <p>While this is impressive, the raw numbers are even higher. When you include content that is shared but never clicked on, Facebook constitutes 56% of all shared content, while email constitutes 15% and Twitter accounts for 8%. This is a rise of 45% for Facebook from August 2010 and a drop for both email and Twitter.</p> <p>In terms of shared content and actual clicks per link, Twitter takes the lead at 4.9 clicks on average for every link shared. Facebook links average 4.3 clicks while email averages 1.7.</p> <p>Another interesting aspect of the study is the type of people who are most likely to click on a shared link. Results show that people are more likely to click on a link shared by a friend than one shared by the friend of a friend or someone further removed.<br />

Yesterday at this year?s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) being held in San Francisco, Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS software at Apple, announced that Twitter would be a part of the new iOS 5 expected later this autumn.</p> <p>"People send more than a billion tweets per week," he said. "And we hear from a lot of our customers on iPhone and iPad and iPod Touch that they love Twitter. And so we want to make it even easier for all of our customers to use Twitter on iOS products."</p> <p>Through their iOS 5 running devices, Twitter users will be able to sign on to the microblogging site with one touch. Once enabled, Twitter and all Twitter related applications will respond, without the need for repeated entry of username and password. This single sign on will allow the user to easily post photos through Photos and Camera, send links through Safari, video through YouTube, and locations through Maps.</p> <p>In addition, iOS 5 also integrates Twitter information with contact information ? attaching the corresponding Twitter username and avatars to the contact?s real name and contact information.</p> <p>Writing about the integration of iOS 5 and Twitter, Jack Dorsey, Twitter?s co-founder who oversees product development wrote a short blog post saying, ?"Building Twitter into iOS 5 truly creates the easiest way to share everything that's happening in your world. Take a picture, tap 'Tweet.' Tweeting has never been simpler.?<br />