Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Google and Bing Face Off with Real-Time Facebook and Twitter Social Search

As Google continues to topple Microsoft’s Bing in the area of online search, Microsoft showed us that they’re not backing down, and surprised the social media world with a major announcement on Wednesday: Bing will now feature “tweets” – and soon, Facebook status updates – in real-time as part of their search engine results.

Initial reactions were a bit negative, as users worried about their privacy, and why it was even necessary to include them in results in the first place. After all, there are already many Twitter-specific search engines that produce real-time and analytical results, such as Twitter’s own search feature. Twitter was quick to assure users that privacy settings could be adjusted accordingly, and also stressed the fact that not all tweets would be included in searches. Twitter creator @Biz wrote on the Twitter blog,

“Twitter is providing Bing access to the overwhelming deluge of public, real-time tweets rushing in from all around the world so they can help you find those that make the most sense right now. While Twitter currently presents tweets based simply on timeliness, Bing is experimenting with new solutions such as “best match.”

While the announcement has definitely generated more buzz and usage of Bing, the question still remains: how relevant will it really be? If you’ve ever used the Twitter search, either by keyword or hashtag, the results can be overwhelming, streaming in at hundreds or thousands of results each second. If this happens with the Bing searches, will it turn users away? Microsoft claims there will be a feature to sift out irrelevant results, by analyzing keywords, number of retweets, and more in order to produce the best information; just how well it will work is still to be determined. In the end, users who use Bing as a “decision engine” will definitely have more opinions to chose from in order to make their choice.

This new feature has the potential to be big, as long as it can actually add value. While it may be more convenient, and raw results are interesting to see, but without a purpose, it will slowly become irrelevant. There is more data than ever before, between Web sites, blogs, social media profiles and more. In the race to relevancy, it’s the one who can find a way to bring all of that information together in a useful, interesting, and easily accessible way who will ultimately cross the finish line first. In the eyes of most users, that “one” is still Google.

Just hours after the Bing announcement, Google went one step further and announced the new Labs feature of Social Search, which will not only pull in Twitter results, but those from other social media platforms as well (similar to how you now see Google News and Images results). Already ahead in…

To read more about Google and Bing, go to Sparxoo, a digital marketing, branding and business development.

Mary Steadman Google Biz Kit Scam – The Real Truth

Mary Steadman is a very popular woman these days. I mean, itâ??s hard to miss her seemingly innocent ads proclaiming how sheâ??s making good money from posting links on Google. For most people looking for part-time or full-time work during this economic recession, her story really catches their attention.

After all, Google is a huge company that is known for having deep pockets. The Mary Steadman ads claim that sheâ??s finding it really easy work to post these links and pocket good money. Mary seems like an honest-to-goodness regular person who is in the same boat as everybody else. It looks like a local station did a news story on her because sheâ??s someone whoâ??s beating the odds in a tough economy.

Well, this would be great if it were true. The fact is: the Mary Steadman home income claims are false â?? and so is the Google biz kit.

The people behind these ads are nothing but scam artists trying to dupe unsuspecting people into handing over their hard earned money. Money most people can ill afford to lose. These heartless jerks are literally taking food out of the mouths of people who may desperately need to earn extra income. Even worse, there are people who have been jobless for months falling for this scheme.

While there are legitimate ways to earn money using Google, these involve either buying whatâ??s called a Pay Per Click ad using their Google Adwords program, or, setting up a website or blog with useful content, then placing Google Adsense ads on them and earning a few cents per click. Both of these methods involve lots of effort and time to get going.

If you are looking to be hired as an employee of Google to post links, the truth is that these positions do not exist. Mary Steadman is a fake character designed to get you to trust her enough to part with your credit card information. Google themselves are telling people to steer clear of these ads. They do not endorse any type of money making kit or schemes.

Some of the popular kits using the Google brand name are:

Google ATM, Google Biz Kit, Google Fortune, Google Profits, Google Startup Kit and Google Works.

All of the above are pitching easy money to be made with Google.

These Mary Steadman ads are popping up all over the place and the U.S. Government cannot keep up with it all. So, itâ??s up to you, the homebased opportunity seeker, to be aware of these scams and how they operate.

The main thing to remember is to NEVER give your name, address and credit card or bank information to anyone claiming to offer you a job or easy income system. No matter how convincing their claims sound. If you remain skeptical and keep personal information to yourself, youâ??ll be okay.

If you, or someone you know, has already fallen for this scam, be aware that youâ??ll be charged $80 per month by these bogus companies. People whoâ??ve been victimized are finding it nearly impossible to cancel these charges. The best way to stop them from charging your card is to have your bank cancel your credit card. While this is an extreme step, it seems to be the only thing that really works.

Remember, youâ??re not dealing with an honest company. If you call their customer service line to cancel, they can tell you any old lie, but will still keep charging away. Donâ??t trust them. Instead, deal with your bank directly.

I know it seems hard to believe that some people can be so heartless as to scam jobless people out of their money, but scammers have no problem with it. They could care less about your individual situation. All they want to do is get as much money out of you as possible â?? even if it means you canâ??t afford to buy food!

Now that youâ??re informed about this particular scam, I hope youâ??ll tell as many people as possible, so that they too can avoid becoming a victim.