If you have ever gotten lost in an airport, the mall (during Black Friday) or any other public building, then Google Maps’ latest app will put a smile on your face. On Tuesday November 29, 2011, Google announced the release of Google Maps version 6.0 for Android applications (apps). With Google Maps you can now negotiate both the outdoors and the indoors, making it harder to get lost in malls, stores, airports, and more.
The indoor mapping navigation is similar to Google Maps for outdoors. Users can zoom in on any public building where indoor map data is available. Google Maps for indoors will automatically generate detailed floor plans on Android smartphones and tablets. The “My Location” blue dot shows your location in a building with multiple floors and will automatically update as you move from floor to floor.
“When you’re inside an airport, shopping mall or retail store, a common way to figure out where you are is to look for a freestanding map directory or ask an employee for help,” Google said via its Lat Log Blog. “With the release of Google Maps 6.0 for Android, that directory is brought to the palm of your hands, helping you determine where you are, what floor you’re on and where to go indoors.”
The goal of Google Maps Indoor is to help people navigate public spaces. Google has partnered with 60 businesses in both the United States and Japan for the initial roll-out. Here is a partial list of where indoor mapping is currently available: Read more…
How To: Mobile PPC
Part Two of a Two Part Series on Mobile Search Marketing
Last month we covered mobile search engine optimization; now we turn our attention to mobile search advertising (PPC). As we had said, mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year (source). And this year, marketers in the US will spend over $1 billion on mobile advertising for the first time (source).
Things to Know About Mobile PPC
Mobile PPC campaigns generate, on average, click-through rates nearly three times higher than desktop campaigns…but conversion rates can be much lower, depending on the vertical (source). Google reports that 40% of all mobile searches are related to the person’s location, while Microsoft reports 53% (source). Read more…
Toyota is offering a “collection of popular mobile applications and data services” that’s being built into several of its new models. It’s called Entune and it acts like a smartphone that’s built into the car. In addition to Pandora, Open Table, weather, traffic and such, Bing is included as its voice-activated search engine.
Entune appears to be more evolutionary than revolutionary to me at this point. I mean, if you own a smartphone, you’ve already got access to all those apps while you drive. Although it can be cumbersome to get to them on a loose phone with a small screen while you’re trying to keep your eyes on the road and at least one hand on the wheel. Having Entune built into the dashboard, with a big touchscreen, is probably easier and safer.
What really caught my eye about this is that Bing is the default search engine, not Google. It’s reminding me of the battle soft drink manufacturers have to get their beverages into restaurant chains. If Bing ends up in more cars beyond Toyota, that’d be quite a coup for them. Perhaps some users of “Bing in the car” will transition to users of “Bing out of the car”?
How To: Mobile SEO
Part One of a Two Part Series on Mobile Search Marketing
You’ve no doubt already heard the statistics imploring you to care about mobile search. If not, here is a smattering of factoids:
• More people worldwide will access the Internet on a mobile device than on a PC by 2013. (source)
• Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year. (source)
• 77% of smartphone users visit search engines (more than any other type of website, including social networking). (source)
• Nine out of ten smartphone searches result in an action (visiting a store or brand website, making a purchase, etc.). (source)
• 88% of local information seekers take action within a day, mostly within one hour. (source)
It’s crystal clear that marketers need to ensure that they can be found by people searching – and looking to buy – on their mobile devices. But how? We’ll cover mobile search engine optimization this month, and mobile search advertising (PPC) next month.
Things to Know About Mobile SEO
Mobile search is different from desktop search – Search Engine Land lists 14 ways. Note that searchers are more likely to be looking for local results, so these types of sites (and Google Places pages) are typically ranked higher.
Read more…
In the midst of congressional hearings late this past summer, Google received steadily mounting criticism and some pretty negative PR from many brick and mortar businesses. It turns out that users, most likely the local competitors, were abusing the open and democratic nature of Google Places by reporting that a business had been closed permanently, when in fact they were still alive and well. Read more…
Our coverage of SEMPO Atlanta’s Mobile Search event continues…
“Putting Mobile Into Action”
By Elliott Nix, Senior Account Executive, Google @google
So what are mobile users really like, and what do they want?
- Are they rude or really engaged? 90% have witnessed people using mobile phones in the bathroom, so yes, they are rude.
- They’re also engaged. 61% will call a local business, 59% will visit the business they called, and 44% will make a purchase. The “clicks to bricks” holy grail is reachable.
- It’s always on. One out of five check their phones before getting out of bed. For the most part, phones are within 3 feet of people 24/7. It’s a very personal device!
- It’s immediate. On this past Super Bowl Sunday, where GoDaddy is a big advertiser with Danica Patrick, GoDaddy’s website traffic was 38 times higher from a desktop PC than usual, but 315 times higher than normal from mobile.
- It’s used for shopping comparisons. 53% buy what they’re searching for within one day. 48% find promotions and coupons. 49% compare prices. Even given this, 79% of large online advertisers don’t have a mobile site, so they could be losing a large part of this audience post-click.
Elliott also presented three quick case studies: Read more…
Our coverage of SEMPO Atlanta’s Mobile Search event continues…
The audience at SEMPO Atlanta's Mobile Search event
“Mobile Search – Local Relevance”
By Andy Chu, Director of Bing Mobile Product Management, Bing, @bing
Bing on the PC has experienced 65% growth since its relaunch two years ago, and mobile Bing has grown by 344%.
Consumers’ behavior on mobile is very different as compared to on a desktop PC. Mobile is more task-centric – 70% of tasks are completed in an hour or less, whereas many tasks take up to a week on the PC.
Key trends for mobile: Read more…
Our coverage of SEMPO Atlanta’s Mobile Search event continues…
Host Matthew Pritchard of Google (& SEMPO Atlanta's VP of Sponsorships) thanks this year's sponsors
“Mobile Insights & Advertising Strategies”
By Paul Cushman, Senior Director, Mobile Sales Strategy, Yahoo!, @yahoo
While this particular audience probably didn’t need convincing as to the power of mobile, the data that Paul shared was attention-getting. Papa John’s sold $1 million worth of pizza less than 6 months after implementing their mobile strategy. eBay generated $2 billion worth of mobile sales in 2010. Mobile commerce is expected to grow by 875% in the next 5 years.
Paul let us all in on a dirty little secret…mobile is the Internet, only smaller (shhh!). People want to do the same things on their phones as they do on their desktop PCs. So we can stop making this overly difficult. In fact, if someone tells you that you’ve got to have a mobile website…do you really? Think about it – it’s a phone – they can call you! Read more…
SEMPO Atlanta’s meeting last Thursday on Mobile Search was rated five stars by every attendee that rated it. Detailed, up-to-the-minute data and insights were shared by four experts in the mobile search space. They presented in Google’s Midtown Atlanta offices to a packed room, and the event was simulcast in Boston and New York to those local SEMPO groups as well.
Paul Gelb, Paul Cushman, Andy Chu & Elliott Nix at SEMPO Atlanta's Mobile Search Event
Special thanks to SEMPO Atlanta’s fantastic sponsors: Search Discovery, Google, Yahoo and Bing. With their help, this event (including food and beer/wine) was free to all attendees.
The event was moderated by Chang Yu, Group Media Director, 360i (@360i). We’ll spend the next four days covering each presentation. First up was Paul Gelb. Read more…
By Kristin O’Neil, Senior Account Manager
From Google Local to Google Places, from the Local 10-Pack to the Local 7-Pack, to the new floating map and blended local listings – everything about Google Places continues to evolve. Business owners must keep up with this evolution to stay relevant in local rankings. Search engine optimization is not only important to organic rankings but is now also one of the leading drivers of Google Places results. You must optimize your website AND your Google Places page to gain good rankings in both regular organic and Places results. And the balance of these two components is imperative – one can’t perform well without the other.
You must keep up with the recent – and significant – changes in Google Places or your business will be left behind. Google is currently rejecting listings that were previously approved, as well as completely shutting down some Places accounts. Make sure you’re following the rules or your Places listing could disappear. If you already have a Google Places listing – stop what you’re doing and log in to your account right now to check it. Chances are, you’ll need to make some changes to stay within Google’s updated guidelines. Read more…
