5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend
June 14th, 2013 by
1. Google Acquires Waze to Improve Local Search Experience – Brafton
On June 13, Google announced that it had acquired Waze, a social-sharing platform that uses crowdsourcing to gather real-time information about road closures and traffic jams to give mobile searchers accurate, up-to-the-minute directions. The deal will provide new data for Google Maps that might improve local search capabilities and help fuse online content marketing with in-store sales.
2. Apple Makes Bing The “Default Search Engine” For Siri – Search Engine Land
Apple announced this week that when iOS 7 comes out this fall, Siri will have a new integrated web search feature powered by Bing. This update could go a long way toward making the voice activated virtual assistant a better web search option for iPhone users, and could potentially drive a lot of new traffic to Bing.
3. Twitter Offers Free Analytics For All Users – Search Engine Watch
New analytics are available on Twitter to help users identify trends in their accounts without having to go to a third-party tool. While the data is basic, it may provide marketers and small businesses with valuable insights into the behavior of their followers.
4. Marketers See Big Data Analysis As Critical Skill for Success – Marketing Pilgrim
A recent study shows that the “ability to use data analysis to extract predictive findings from big data” is the most prized skill for a marketer to have. You might be surprised by which skill ranked second. Overall, the list shows that some “old school” skills still have a lot of value.
5. How to Build Links to Your Blog – A Case Study – Moz
Proper link building is a key ingredient in developing a successful blog. Paid advertising and social media strategies will only take so far. This author shares the story of how he got the links he needed to get his travel blog out to a wide audience.
