Five for Friday – Google Does the World Cup, Pinterest as the Next Big Search Engine, and Facebook Playing Catch Up!
June 20th, 2014 by
Google revamps its algorithm, and its Doodles. Businesses are finding their audience on Pinterest more than ever before. Meanwhile, Facebook finally finds a way to mimic Snapchat, but with a catch.
1. World Cup Google Doodles – Google
If you haven’t noticed Google’s Doodles this week, here is a recap of the clever, funny, and sometimes interactive animations created by to promote the FIFA World Cup and the many countries trying for the title. Each Doodle changes several times during the day depending on the countries currently matched up. If you click on the Doodle you will also be taken to a live scoreboard of the current game. GO USA!
2. PayDay Loan 3.0 Algorithm Update – Search Engine Land
In other Google news, Matt Cutts has announced the rollout of another update to the ever-changing search engine algorithm that determines website rankings on the results page. This update is primarily focused on “very spammy queries,” which is an extension of the PayDay 2.0 update released couple of weeks ago. The types of queries and links that will be affected are pornography, payday loans, casinos, Viagra, and other similar topics most usually associated with “spammy” links and queries. It’s another great move by Google, an effort to clean up their search results and provide users with only the most relevant, and non-spam websites to choose from.
3. Four Pinterest Statistic you Need to Know – Search Engine Watch
As for any business or marketer, you should always know both where your customers or potential customers are, and how they are interacting with you online. Pinterest, one of the fastest growing and most influential sharing sites currently on the web, could give your business just the right insight about their target audiences. You should understand the following statistics before starting a Pinterest campaign:
- Women are the primary Pinterest users, and they out-pin men every day by far.
- What are these women pinning?
-DIY projects, home decor, weddings, recipes, beauty, fashion, travel, fitness, photography, and many other topics. - Who is your competition on Pinterest?
-Etsy, Urban Outfitters, West Elm, Brides.com., and Poketo among hundreds of other businesses. - When are these women pinning?
-Between 4p.m. and 10p.m.
4. Bing Attempts to Predict the World Cup – Search Engine Land
Using their prediction technology (a combination of team stats, weather forecasts, player line up, and homefield advantage among other things) Bing is attempting to predict the FFIA World Cup! Although it is not a perfect system by any means, Bing is getting a lot of attention for their prediction technology, which certainly is the end goal. If you search for something along the lines of “world cup predictions group b” you can see for yourself how Bing thinks your favorite team will fare.
5. Facebook Launches Slingshot App – ABC News
Facebook has launched the anticipated Slingshot app, which is very similar to the already widely popular SnapChat application. The biggest difference between the two image sharing apps is that there is a “pay to play” incentive to Slingshot. In order to the see the image that someone shared with you, you must first share an image back. The reason behind this feature is so that everyone becomes an active creator of content and images instead of just viewing from the sidelines. It is a clever attempt to force engagement of its users and incentivize overall creativity. As a direct challenger of SnapChat, it will be interesting to see how Slingshot fares in this highly competitive genre of apps.
