Tag Archives: google

Announcements, Blogging, Blogging tools, Gadgets, Reviews, Social Networking, Web 2.0

Own a mini Facebook using Google’s Friend Connect

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It is as simple as it sounds, with Google friend connect you will be able to insert little gadgets that will turn your blog or site into a mini Facebook or a Myspace!
Still in beta, but has a lot of social gadgets, Google’s Friend Connect is the result of a greater project that Google started a while back called OpenSocial.
Without the geek talk, a very good example will be Facebook. Think of your Facebook’s profile as your own blog or site and the facebook add-on applications is (instead) your Google Friend Connect gadget.
You choose your social gadget, copy the code then paste it into blog or website and your done, now your blog’s readers can sign from within Google Friend Connect and interact just like any social network.


Now your site is more social than ever, your visitors can sign into Friend Connect using their Google ID, Yahoo ID, Twitter ID, or their OpenID. Pretty easy and slick is the feeling they will get.

Still worried about the coding and geek stuff? Worry no more, at Wahol.com there will be an entire video class (Still for free) about Friend connect as part Wahol’s setting up your Online life section. (Sign up at Wahol.com)

Or maybe the following image will explain:

Adding Friend connect to your self hosted WordPress blog could make your blog as powerful as Facebook in terms of interacting social readers. (A video on Wahol will also go though how to add it to your blog)

You can visit Google Friend Connect here!

Don’t forget to get the RSS and follow me on Twitter.
Any questions about Friend connect? Ask in the comments below and I will answer 😉

Advertising, How To's, Pay Per Click (PPC), Web 2.0

Manage your advertising with Google Ad Manager

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Although it’s still say that it’s in beta, but Google Ad Manager has been open for public use for a while now.

I have been invited (secretly) to use the service a while back and I found it extremely useful.

Basically the service aims to help web site publishers and blog owners to integrate ads into their pages, whether it’s Google’s AdSense, other ad networks, or even your own in house ads.

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Here is what they offer (From their site):

Inventory management

  • Inventory levels: Define inventory at granular levels for more efficient line item creation and trafficking. Use ad slots to generate Ad Manager tags for your pages, ad placements to group related ad slots, and ad products to bundle and sell inventory packages with the same cost and targeting criteria.

  • Inventory availability tracking: Easily confirm whether ad impressions are available for specific dates, placements, and targeting criteria. Avoid overbooking and underselling.

  • Simple ad tag generation and management: Copy and paste tags directly into your HTML. Avoid the need to re-tag your site when you change the way you sell your inventory. (Available upon request: iframe tags.)

Yield optimization

  • Optional AdSense Integration: Use AdSense to fill unsold inventory or compete on price against other ad networks.

Ad targeting

  • Built-in targeting options: Target ads to your site visitors’ geography, day and time, bandwidth, browser, browser language, operating system, and domain.

  • Customizable targeting criteria: Target ad impressions by passing your own custom key-value pairs to Ad Manager.

Trafficking, ad delivery, and order booking

  • Delivery options: Choose one of five delivery types (exclusive, premium, standard, remnant, or house) to determine, automatically, how ads may be delivered.

  • Frequency capping: Set multiple levels of frequency capping, which limit the number of ads the same visitor sees over a minute, hour, day, week, month, or lifetime.

  • Roadblocking: Deliver multiple creatives together on the same page. (Available upon request.)

  • Proven Google infrastructure: Enjoy fast, reliable ad delivery and load time.

  • Support for various ad pricing models: Choose from cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM), cost-per-click (CPC), and cost-per-day (CPD).

  • AdSense integration (optional):Consistently deliver the highest-paying ad by enabling AdSense.

  • Ad network management: Easily manage your third-party ad networks with network orders.

Creatives and rich media management

  • Rich media support: Use tags from a variety of rich media providers. Automatically detect macros.

  • Free ad creatives hosting: Save bandwidth and costs.

  • Redirect creatives support: Easily track ads from a third-party network, affiliate provider, or other URL you provide.

Reporting

  • Multiple reporting options: Run reports on order delivery, inventory performance, or overall sales.

  • Detailed reporting: Break down reports by date, line item, placement, advertiser, and other categories.

  • Fast report generation: Create reports in seconds.

  • Interactive views: Sort data, add or remove columns, review different data subsets, and make other edits without having to leave the page or run a new report.

  • Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited: Feel confident in Google Ad Manager’s ad impression measurement process, accredited by the Media Rating Council to be fully compliant with Interactive Advertising Bureau standards.

User interface

  • Search functionality: Locate order, inventory, or advertiser data from any page in Ad Manager.

  • Intuitive work flows: Quickly and easily create orders, approve orders, and review status of orders. Decrease training time and trafficking steps.

  • AdSense channels integration: Import your existing AdSense channels into Ad Manager (optional).

  • Browser session support: Use your browser’s ‘Back’ button and other built-in navigation without losing data.

Administration

  • Access controls: Set various viewing and editing permissions for your team.

  • Contacts organization: Store and manage advertiser and agency company information.

  • International language and currency support: Use Google Ad Manager in your native language and currency.

And a great 5 slides demo explains it easier is available here.

As of January first we are re-opening our advertising opportunities here at Guru Of Sales and we will be using Google’s Ad Manager 🙂

Announcements, Tools, Video

Yahoo Launches Web Analytics

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A few months ago, Yahoo! bought the Hugarian based company IndexTools. That was a big upgrade from Yahoo! specially to their Search Marketing program and to the Yahoo Small Bussiness users.

I have been watching for the re-emerging update, and it came in today. Of Course I will compare it to the only 2 Analytics services that I use on a daily bases, Google Analytics and StatCounter.

The only problem is that I am still waiting to get access to Yahoo’s Web Analytics, since it’s still in beta.
But I know this for now: The 2 features that I really like about the new service is this:
1. The real time insights that’s updated within minutes from any activity on your site and showing the visitors behavior, which will make me switch from Google Analytics into this service. (This is the only problem I face with Google Analytics because of the one hour delay in stats!)
2. The drag and drop filtering option (I wonder if it’s AJAX?!) that will add a rich user experience to the service.

Here is a video that I found on YouTube for a quick review of the service: