Ask Kalena

Oooh you're back! Lookin good. Have you lost weight? Yes, that was a compliment designed to butter you up for my next question. Subscribed to my feed yet? :-)

Google’s worst-kept secret phone finally launched last week.

Despite the fact that details about the phone have been leaked all over the web for months, the Nexus One was officially revealed at a good old fashioned press conference at Google headquarters in Mountain View.

Referred to by Google staff as a *Super Phone*, the Nexus One is already being touted as an iPhone killer and has been designed specifically for Google’s Open Source Android operating system.

At first glance, the Nexus One does look very much like an iPhone. The major difference between the two is the trackball in the Nexus – reminiscent of the IBM ThinkPad. At 11.5mm, it also features a thinner profile than the iPhone, a 5 megapixel camera, 2 microphones (one for noise cancellation), a 3.7″ OLED touch-screen display and it weighs in at a tiny 130 grams.

Comparisons to the HTC Droid Eris phone leaked last month are no coincidence – Taiwanese firm HTC manufactured the Nexus One. Another gloat-worthy, geek-pleasing feature that the Nexus has over the iPhone is the voice-activated keyboard, which I noticed a few launch attendees testing yesterday on Twitter, with amusing results.

Read Danny Sullivan’s live coverage of the launch for more details.

Clearly, Google are throwing a LOT of money at the Nexus project and are very keen to show it off, even installing the world’s largest Nexus One in their foyer. So proud of their new hardware are they that every Google employee was given one of the phones for Xmas, resulting in early buzz via social media.

But don’t be fooled into thinking it’s all about the phone. If you read the official Google blog post, you’ll realize that it’s the launch of Google’s consumer web store that’s the real story. The launch of an online mobile store to sell Nexus One means Google has crossed the threshold from search company to consumer electronics retailer.

Why would they do that? If you look at the global smart phone market, currently Nokia and Research in Motion (makers of the Blackberry) have the dominant share, followed by Apple with the iPhone. In comparison, handsets using Android have a tiny share of the market (source = Gartner) and Google wants to boost that. What better way to achieve this than to launch their own smart phone?

The other big incentive for Google to launch its own hardware is to protect its online advertising business in the mobile computing arena. As more and more people surf the web using their handsets, Google wants to ensure they are the default search engine in those handsets.

However, rumors that Google might offer a pricing structure for their handset partly subsidized by AdWords revenue proved unfounded, disappointing some expectant launch attendees.

In an interview with BBC News following the event, editor of Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan commented:

“It would have been nice to see them roll out something a bit more unique. Google has speculated in the past that there one day might be phones that are entirely ad-supported and because Google is this huge ad behemoth, this was a natural opportunity to roll out a phone like that.”

US consumers are now able to buy the Nexus One directly from Google’s web store for US$179 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile USA or the unlocked handset for $529, allowing people to use a carrier of their choice. Only available in the US right now, the Nexus One will soon be sold in Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong via Vodafone.

When asked during the launch if the Nexus One was an iPhone killer, Google’s Andy Rubin replied “Choice is a good thing”.

Forget Yahoo and Bing, Google is now targeting Apple.

Hi Kalena

I was just wondering, does a longer URL registration period have a positive effect on a site’s search engine ranking?

Thanks,

Louisa

Hi Louisa

Google has confirmed in the past that both domain age and ownership history may impact the way a site is handled by the algorithm, albeit slightly. But what you’re asking is whether registering a domain for a longer period of time makes a difference to the site’s ranking?

I haven’t researched this for other search engines, but I recall that a couple of people have asked this question in the Google Webmaster forum in the past.

Google staff member John Mu responded that the length of a domain’s registration period does NOT impact how Google ranks the site. As he states, many registrars don’t publish expiration details and so if Google can’t adequately determine when a site expires, they can’t compare it to other sites so they don’t include that as a ranking factor. Besides which, a registration period for a domain doesn’t reveal much about a site.

The content on the domain is much more important from a search engine perspective than how many years it has been registered for.

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Hi Kalena

In the past, I made sure I was not logged in to Google when I checked my Client website standings in search. But, now are we going to have to clear *Web History* and Disable customizations every time we want to check our client’s rankings manually?

This article claims that Google’s new ‘cookie’ extends Personalized Results to All Users. Here’s a quote:  “Google has begun using a cookie placed on users’ machines to track their search behavior and offer personalized recommendations, even when they are not logged into a Google account.”

Regards

Mitch

Hi Mitch

It’s true that Google have extended Personalized Search to all users, whether they’re signed in or signed out of a Google account. But you can turn history-based customization off – both temporarily and permanently. The method of turning it off differs depending on whether you’re logged in or out of Google, but in both cases the instructions are very simple.

Probably the easiest thing is to run your searches as normal and check to see if the SERPs you’re seeing have been customized based on personalization. As per Google’s official blog post:

“You’ll know when we customize results because a “View customizations” link will appear on the top right of the search results page. Clicking the link will let you see how we’ve customized your results and also let you turn off this type of customization.”

You can then choose to view the same SERPs without customization to ensure you know how the results look to persons who have opted out of personalized SERPs. But keep in mind that personalization has been in place since 2005 and SERPs all look slightly different to everybody.

There’s really no such thing as a consistent SERP in Google so traditional *rankings* are somewhat meaningless today. I know that’s sometimes a difficult thing to explain to a client, but it’s true!

For more on how Google Personalization does or doesn’t impact SEO, you might like to read my article: Can SEO Exist Beyond Google Personalization?

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Google is no longer a search company.

That’s right – the launch of an online mobile store yesterday to sell their new smart phone means Google has crossed the threshold from search company to consumer electronics retailer.

The Nexus One was officially revealed at a press conference at Google headquarters in Mountain View yesterday, but details about the handset had already been leaked and available on the web for weeks. Referred to by Google staff as a *Super Phone*, the Nexus One is being touted as an iPhone killer and has been designed specifically for Google’s Open Source Android operating system.

While the Nexus One does look very much like an iPhone, the first difference that strikes me is the trackball. How very IBM ThinkPad. It also features a thinner profile at 11.5mm, a 5 megapixel camera, 2 microphones (one for noise cancellation), a 3.7″ OLED touchscreen display and the handset weighs in at a tiny 130 grams. Comparisons to the HTC Droid Eris phone are no coincidence – HTC manufactured the Nexus One.

Another gloatworthy, geek-pleasing feature that the Nexus has over the iPhone is the voice-activated keyboard, which I noticed a few launch attendees testing today on Twitter, with amusing results. For more details about the launch I recommend Danny Sullivan’s live blog coverage.

To coincide with the launch, Google installed the world’s largest Nexus One in their foyer (see photo). While it’s not an actual working phone, it’s still pretty impressive.

US customers can now buy the Nexus One directly from Google’s web store with a two-year contract with T-Mobile USA for US $179 or the unlocked handset for $529. Vodafone will supply Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore with the Nexus soon.

Google expects it to roll out to other countries and carriers within the coming months.

*Photo courtesy of Search Engine Land

Using a special animated logo, Google has paid tribute today to the English physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton who was born on this day in 1643.

It’s widely recorded that Newton *discovered* the concept of gravity (and the resulting science of physics) as a result of observing apples falling from a tree. In tribute, the drop apple theme is mimicked on Google’s global Home Page today.

The Google logo is partly obscured by the branch of an apple tree. After a second or so, an apple drops from the branch to the bottom of the home page. It’s unusual for Google to create an animated tribute Doodle and it makes a nice change from the static images. See the logo in action below:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Clicking on the logo takes you to SERPs for the search query “Isaac Newton”.

Apart from his wide influence on modern physical science, Newton also made great strides in mathematical research, chemistry, history and theology.