Tag Archives: Google

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Time on Facebook Exceeds Google

comscore-chart
Americans spent more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google for the first time in August, and Yahoo edged out the search giant in monthly traffic, according to recent data from marketing research firm comScore.

Users spent 41.1 billion minutes on Facebook in August, 39.8 billion minutes on Google, and 37.7 billion on Yahoo. Yahoo beat out Google in monthly traffic, with 179 million unique visitors to Google’s 178.8 million. Microsoft came in third with 165.3 million.

When looking at these numbers, it is important to understand that Google is a gateway to the Web. People go to Google to be directed to someplace else, hopefully in milliseconds. On the other hand, Facebook and Yahoo want you to linger on their sites for hours, reading the news, liking things, and generating ad impressions.

The other consideration is that users can only increase the amount of time they spend on these sites by spending more total time online. At some point, however, total time spent online will flatten. When that happens, time spent on one site will come as a result of less time spent somewhere else. That’s when the competition will really get fierce.

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Agency Internet Boot Camp

You know you need to move your agency online – not just a website – but an online business.

But you are overwhelmed. You don’t know what to do or how to do it.

Now there is a way for you to jump start your online presence. Duke Williams and I have created the Agency Internet Boot Camp. This is the most requested class I have ever worked with…

Hands-on Learning with Two of the Leaders in Agency Automation

Duke Williams and myself are teaching a day and a half class just outside of Nashville in Franklin, TN (my hometown) on Monday, February 8th and Tuesday, February 9th. The class will start at noon so you don’t have to come in a day early. We are ending at 4:00 PM on Tuesday so you don’t have to stay a day late.

The Focus of this Agency Internet Boot Camp:

  1. Learn how Google and other search engines find you
  2. Learn how to understand your online competition and exactly how to move above them in search results
  3. List your agency in Google Local Business
  4. Track your online reputation and your competition with Google Reader and Alerts
  5. Create your own blog.
  6. Learn to add pictures to a blog and add video to a blog.
  7. Learn about Google Adwords and Adsense. Find out how and if you should use them for your agency.
  8. Learn how to comment on other blogs to build your web presence and your business.
  9. Create a Facebook profile.
  10. Learn how to use Facebook advertising to attract prospects to your agency.
  11. Create a Twitter account.
  12. Learn exactly how to use Twitter to build your business.
  13. Create a YouTube account.
  14. Create and upload your first YouTube video.
  15. Embed that video in your blog.
  16. Learn exactly what functions need to be on your agency web site – what real customers want.
  17. Learn how to create an online and offline business sales and marketing plan for your agency.
  18. Learn how to measure and adjust to be sure you are reaching your goals.

Find out the details here…
http://agencybootcamp.blogspot.com/2010/01/insurance-agency-internet-boot-camp.html

Class size is limited to 20 so we can spend time individually working with each person that attends.

What Others Have Said

Attending the boot camp made me realize how many useful programs are out there on the web…..for free!

Jose L Miraya, CIC, LUTCF
Advantage Insurance Agency

I was unable to attend the first boot camp but I can tell from reading the blogs that everyone who attended is light-years ahead of most agency principals in their understanding of how to integrate Internet Marketing into their agency operation.

I plan to attend the second Agency Boot Camp in Franklin, Tennessee and highly recommend it to everyone in the insurance industry! I hope to see y’all there.
Eddie K. Emmett, Editor / Publisher
FYI Express, AIANC’s STREET WISE

If your are not able to attend this Boot Camp but you would be interested in something near you, please let me know by sending me an email to Steve@SteveAnderson.com and let me know your are interested.

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Google Dashboard

Google knows a lot about you and me. In an effort to become more transparent to users about how it collects information and to allow individuals to modify that information, Google has created the Google Dashboard.

The Dashboard provides, in a central location, a place where users of Google services can see which Google services they use, change how they use them, and find out what information Google collects about their usage habits. This new dashboard provides insight into the amount of data Google collects about you as well as a central access point to all Google services that you use (whether you remember signing up for them or not).

To access the Dashboard, simply visit Google.com and click the “My Account” link. Under Personal Settings, click on the Dashboard to see information about your account. Each Google service you use is listed, along with information about your last login, recent items, and links to read the service’s privacy policy. You can also change your settings or customize your account, or go directly to the account so you can see what information you have stored in that service.

In addition to listing Google services you use, the Dashboard pulls data about your recent Web searches. You can see what you’ve been searching for and even go to your search history. Some items in your profile information have people icons next to them. This indicates that the profile information is public, or the data behind that link is shared with other users of that service in some way. This allows you to quickly see what information is stored about you, but also what information is public and available for the world to see. Each service also includes a link to their respective privacy policies, so you can read about what information is kept about you and why, and modify your settings right from the Dashboard.

You may be surprised at how much information about you is already online. At least Google now provides a way to learn about and better manage this information.

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Google Fast Flip

Google has launched a new service through its Google Labs called Fast Flip, a visual version of Google News. Fast Flip is a visual browser of online publications, designed to give you a quick snapshot of what’s being blogged and talked about at many major news sources.

Current sources include Esquire, BBC News, New York Times, TechCrunch, and Salon.com, in addition to about 35 other magazine, news, and general information sites that receive regular updates. You can browse these by popularity, subsection, topic, or by source using Fast Flip’s new visual interface that works a little like Apple’s Cover Flow technology. Each site is represented by an image capture of the relevant page.

Clicking on a displayed page does not actually take you to the site. Instead, it opens the article in an interface that displays a portion of the article as an image file. This allows you to see a quick preview before clicking through to the full story at the site itself.

Arrows at the side of the image in Reader View allow you to browse other stories in the category you’ve chosen, and an expandable tray allows you to access the thumbnails of all stories in that series. You can also e-mail and “Like” any story you find, which requires sign-in with your Google credentials.

Is it useful? It might be for those who use the Internet as their primary news source. You can quickly see what the major news outlets are talking about without having to visit each individually. An RSS reader might be more efficient, but for people who process information visually, Fast Flip might prove more effective or more comfortable overall.

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Google Voice

It can be tedious to manage multiple phone numbers—office phone, home phone, mobile phone, and any other numbers. Google’s new Google Voice service can help.

Google purchased GrandCentral Communications two years ago. That service has now been renamed Google Voice. For the last two years, only people who had a GrandCentral account were able to use the service. Google recently purchased over 1 million phone numbers and allowed a limited number of people to sign up for a new account.

Google Voice is a free service that lets users unify their phone numbers, allowing them to have a single number that rings a call through to all of their phones. Google Voice has a number of unique features, including call transfer between a user’s devices, multi-party conferencing, conversion of voice calls to text messages, cut-rate international calling, and call transcription. Google also has integrated the Voice service with Gmail contact lists.

The real gem is the fact that you get one phone number others can dial to reach you, regardless of where you’re located. Google Voice uses VoIP to link collections of phone numbers.

To sign up for an invitation to acquire a Google Voice phone number, simply complete the registration form. You will be notified when a block of numbers becomes available.