An Android device, properly signed into a Google account and running all the Google Apps, generates an endless stream of little bits of ‘signalling’ information, way beyond what Google gets from a desktop search user even if they’re using Chrome. It knows where you live and work, how you commute – and which phone numbers on web ads you dial. Unlike a web browser, you are probably always signed in to Google, so all of your interactions with Search, Maps and anything else can be linked together. (This, of course, is also the main purpose of Google Plus.) source

Just like Google Analytics

From my experience, what I’ve seen were weather location and events cards that were deducted from things that I explicitly give to Google through web queries, Google latitude and Google Calendar.

But today things changed a little bit on a very twisted way. When I opened  Google Now, I had a smart card with driving directions to a hotel. If you think that I have searched for that hotel, been there or have an event schedule there you are totally wrong.

The only thing I have EVER done regarding that hotel, was to see its Facebook page for about 2-3 minutes, 10 minutes ago. On my Chrome desktop!

What are the implications of this?

1. EVERYTHING you do on a Google device/Service or app is real time monitored, processed and used in profiling you
2. As a marketer, is important to cover all the field when planning your strategy. Missing to cover a certain web property will lead to loosing clients in the near feature.
3. If you are paranoid (not even highly, just mildly), now would be the right time to cut all your online interactions and hide at the bottom of a cave

The technical infrastructure behind this level of data processing will (not even could) give Google a strong advantage over the competition (Read Apple & Microsoft) and will assure a strong financial future for the company

Well, in fact the Celullar version of Ipad Mini has a better GPS than Nexus 7. But still, comparing Wifi version of Ipad Mini and Nexus7, Nexus7 wins. We will see on the 29th October if the Celullar version of Nexus7 can keep up with the competition

And the questions is:

On what 7″ tablet I don’t have a full GPS?

This post is inspired by a question posted by the multi system GPS  app Copilot. As a Nexus 7 (proud even now) owner, I didn’t imagine even for a second that the new Ipad Mini doesn’t have at this moment a full GPS sensor. Amazed being, I looked at the 9.7″ Ipad specs only to find out that there is none there either.

What a hell?? Has anyone from Apple traveled lately outside their city? Haven’t they seen tons of tourists using their Ipads taking pictures? A full GPS sensor is a must for any tablet because it just makes a tablet a full XXI century travel guide.

Yes, the app ecosystem on Android is a disaster* with no known travel brands having city guides, but that doesn’t mean that Apple has even the slightest bit of logic in comparing on stage the Nexus7 with the Ipad Mini. At least on Nexus 7 are a few excellent GPS apps that make travelling more fun.

If Ipad Mini is good due to the ecosystem is because of the developers. And developers for some specific apps that feel crippled on iOS can quickly switch sides if there is profit to have.

*Android tablet apps section from play store looks like the digital section of Toys”R”Us not as a business/productivity/creativity section that it should be

In my SEO strategy, there are 2 types of signs for a quality domain:

When looking in your web analytics, your top referring keyword should be the name of the website (the brand) and at least other 5 other strings from your top 20 should contain it.

For searches within your vertical, or for searches of competitors brands, your targeted brand appears as a related search

Incoming search terms:

• inurl;profile
• want inurl:/user-

via Gizmodo

There are only a few POI (Points Of Interest) databases and listing your business is fairly quick and free (beware for the websites asking for a fee)

• Google Maps: This is a must. Not only it will show your business on their Maps app and all the other apps that use their API, it will also might show you on local search results
• Navteq: Navteq is a subsidiary of Nokia that operates independently and provides data for portable GPS devices made by Garmin, Lowrance, NDrive and web-based applications such as Yahoo! Maps, Bing Maps, Nokia Maps, and MapQuest. To list your business there use Map Reporter
• Tele Atlas is a Netherlands-based company founded in 1984 which delivers digital maps and other dynamic content for navigation and location-based services, including personal and in-car navigation systems, and provides data used in a wide range of mobile and Internet map applications. To list your business on their database, go here
• Just to be safe, also add your business to OpenStreetMap.

Adding you business to GPS apps through POI databases can be considered as real life SEO and should be done by every local business owner.

Incoming search terms:

• gamification in information architecture

That’s why many companies feel now confused, not knowing why they did that, what they did and what to do next. They lack a purpose, a destination.

For comforting themselves, many have hired “social media specialists” to tell them how many miles have passed in their journey. Because this is what a significant part of the professionals hired do: they tell you how many likes you have, how to increase the number of followers and so on.

What should they tell you instead is simple: what to do in order to sell. Because no matter how you put it, the end goal is the same. You need to sell in order to make profit.

And you are not going to sell and increase your happy customer base with basic tricks like:

• Good mornings – How many greetings do you think that the average Facebook user can answer?
• The bullshit coffee image – Yes being greeted by a coffee image is what every SM consumer wishes every morning
• Stereotypes about Mondays and Fridays – Really? Mondays suck and Fridays rule? You should patent that
• All the cheesy images that attract engagement from bored white-collar employees. Yes that puppy is cute and I see how that relates to your product
• Questions – Yes I know you are sooooo interested in what your user base thinks on all the crappy questions you have. Exploiting the (stupid) natural desire of every human to give an opinion is going to bring tons of customers because of the virality of your carefully chosen SM questions

While this kind of strategies might seem efficient on the surface (artificially and temporarily increasing  engagement), you’ll have more to gain if you use the money invested in the “SM expert” to buy donuts and hand them for free in the street.

Adding custom blocks of information using the Custom Field Widget

Use cases for the Custom Field Widget:

• Show a map for each post (make sure that you have the correct width of the sidebar when adding the embed code)
• Show alerts or important information related to the post
• If you are using guest authors display their information (including G+ authorship) without creating a new user
• Showcase products related to the post content
• Add some post specific downloads

Extra tips:

• The widget is conditional. That means that you can create more than one custom field and add multiple widgets to the sidebar. Each time a matching custom field is found in a post, the content will be displayed
• If you don’t want to show the whole custom fields section in the editor, use the More Fields plugin to have a nice area to entry your aside text.

NOTE: Even though the Custom Field Widget was last updated in 2008, it works perfectly in 2012 with the latest version (3.4)

Incoming search terms:

• using article directory plugin
• powered by wordpress using article directory plugin
• allintext:“Powered by WordPress · Using Article Directory plugin”
• allintext:Powered by Article Directory
• Post a commentPowered by wordpress

The main difference between blogging and CMS is the first is focused on posts (time based articles) while the later focuses on pages (generic articles that are no time dependent).

WordPress has been built and in it is being built with a fairly limited number of pages in mind (Contact/About etc). With a standard installation you can go to an apx 5-10 of pages and if you use custom menus and dropdown menus is ok to go up to 25-30  pages (5 main pages each with 5 subpages).

But what do you do when you have, let’s say 300 static pages? The first answer will be: who needs 300 pages in a CMS? Well, on an academic website you can reach that number very easy. There are a lot of programs, departments, classes and staff and posts (or custom posts) are not the solution.

For this type of project I used a 3 columns theme and i wanted a simple feature: have one main menu on a column, and on a second column show subpages, but only when available. For a few years I have used a unupgraded version of GD Navigator. Once I have upgraded both the WP and the plugin a few errors started to appear: the GD Navigator widget was gone and when I have re-added it, no matter of the configuration random subpages kept appearing.

The best solution for WordPress Submenu Widget

Looking for an alternative wasn’t an easy job, most of the alternatives being either dead or too complicated. Finally I have found the simplest, working plugin, BE Subpages Widget by WP Consultant Bill Erickson . The plugin is extremely easy to use and has only two options:

• Title – this one is optional and I don’t recommend you to use it. Basically you could put in there something like “Submenu”
• Use top level page as section title. – Check this instead of using a title. It will show the parent page and can be used as a breadcrumb
• Make title a link – Also check this to make the parent page act as a true breadcrumb

There. Problem solved. A working implementation you can see over here 

Incoming search terms:

• SubPage Widget