Google Lawyer Speaks About Kansas City Google Fiber Project at KCSEM Meeting

The Kansas City Search Engine Marketing group (KCSEM.org) met tonight, 9/27/2011, at the Wheat Room in Barleys Brewhaus. Greg Kratofil, Jr. Technology Attorney at Polsinelli Shughart, and attorney for the Google fiber project spoke about all the details concerning Google Fiber’s implementation in Kansas City. Sure, there have been questions answered by Google about the details of this project, but this was a Google-appointed lawyer from Kansas City, proud to announce some serious opportunities, so I had expectations. Google fiber pricing details were discussed, Google fiber location ground-breaking was discussed, Google fiber features were discussed, and Google fiber dates of availability were all asked by the crowd, but a guarded, Mr. Kratofil, held solid and did not answer a single question.

Here’s what Greg did say, however.

Google is protective of their brand. I took this as if they are focused on game-changing technology. One element of proof is that Time Warner Signature Home program, which includes the new Ultra-Wide Band Internet, is now more frequently advertised in the Kansas City market. It’s clearly an attempt to lock customers into the Time Warner product, so Google fiber penetration is minimized. Several people I know already have the Signature Home service and love it. I still think Time Warner has room to grow.

There are many business opportunities in many different markets for Kansas City that Greg spoke about. For example, real estate, start-up, medical advancement, and a venture capital booms were heavily discussed. If the town becomes an incubator for start-ups, for what I like to call them (finish-ups), there’s no telling how many business consulting opportunities could crop up. There also needs to be a good mix of business coaching that’s available in the Kansas City area from marketing to financial expertise if we expect any traction with start-ups.

In 2004, North Kansas City started liNKCity.com with the aim to draw in businesses with a ultra-high speed fiber-optic asymmetrical internet connection that was cheaper and faster than anything. linkcity.org has been down for maintenance for weeks now.



Google fiber is not aimed at Business, but instead, aimed at home consumers. Google is an advertising company first, so that only makes sense. Implementing in customer homes provides Google far more doors for their ads to knock on.

Check out the Google Fiber FAQ, blog or email kansascity-fiber@google.com for the most current information. If you have a business in Kansas or Missouri and need a website, please sign-up for Google's free Kansas and Missouri Business Website Offering at http://www.kansascitygetonline.com. In Missouri - http://www.missourigetonline.com and in Kansas - http://www.kansasgetonline.com

Great Opportunity To Geek-Out With The SEO's Of The World In Kansas City

In the Wheat Room at Barley's Brewhaus tonight, many folks met at the most recent Kansas City Search Engine Marketing Association meeting to compare several versions of analytics software.   When I walked in, I asked, "Where's the geek fest?"  They laughed.

Steve Wright, Digital Marketing Consultant  from vml started the evening covering omniture.  Steve says he comes to viewing analytics from a staticians view.  Take for example, If you look at conversion through the eyes of one channel, but operate in many, Steve likened that to the following statement.  Given a family with multiple kids of both genders, and when someone inquires about them, you respond the hermaphrodite is fine.   Interesting analogy Steve.

The main difference I could ascertain is that omniture has a more refined user-interface and is built for multi-dashboard-style custom displays and reports.   Ben Douglas of H&R Block presented on Omniture and how HR Block leverages the tool.  There were no company secrets released, but Ben did discuss how H&R Block uses Omniture to make data-driven decisions.  Viewing the screen shots of omniture, I could tell the application interface is well polished.  Since Omniture is sold on a per-license basis, they can milk excess dollars from companies who need multiple users to access the system.  Steve recommended using the report email tool to get around this issue.

The second speaker was John Koehler, from Vizion Interactive, who was presenting on Google Analytics.  John mainly focused on the differences between omniture and Google Analytics, so you know what you are paying for with omniture.  Then, John discussed some of the new attribution features in the new version of Google Analytics.

There were many questions for each speaker, which I enjoyed.  However, even though the A/V equipment was great, the sound was not.  The speakers needed a podium so they could continue to see their slides, but view the crowd so their voice-level would sustain.  What really happened, is that the speakers viewed their slides while speaking which meant they faced the same way as the audience.  Some people in the back had to move forward, but once they did, we were back to the seminar.

Breht Burri spoke on the recent MozCon conference in Seattle, Wa.  There were many speakers he mentioned and pulled slides from.  Brett covered the best parts from that event.  Every month someone that attends a conference is encouraged to present.

If you are interested in Search Engine Marketing or just want to hang with some nerds and drink some adult beverages, then KCSEM is the right thing for you.

Come see us at kcsem.org.

An SEO View at Google's New ebookstore

Google's new ebookstore system debuted today.  I visited the site to see what I could learn from an e-Commerce SEO standpoint.  Here's the condensed version.  The store was designed by engineers, which is good and bad.  It's very fast and compressed, but needs more user-interface magic to make it really work.  I would, however, buy from Google's ebookstore today.  

Always ambitious, Google, does not disappoint with their new ebookstore site.  The sites starts out with a list of supported devices.


The kindle is the obvious missing device.

I examined the front page to observe any trends and found they take the approach many e-Commerce websites do - clustering and grouping popular website entry-points in the form of navigation elements. Some text based, and some image based.  


As you can see by the above image, there are numerous lists that serve as entry points for customers. There are lists for top selling, by subject, new arrivals, top rated, expert list (New York Times), free, and most popular genres. What's interesting to note is the subtle differences between all the lists. Top selling includes the title and author, but no price.  New arrivals includes the title, price, and author.  Top rated includes the title, price, old / slashed price, and a new, lower price.  That's not by accident.  They are appealing to persona's.

Expect to see these lists expand, contract, and move around based on customer usage and preference over time.  I like the use of Google colors to help the user remember where they are.

I have high expectations when I the search for any Google product.  As I hovered over the Google ebookstores search box, and began types sincl - for Sinclair Lewis, auto-complete began to help me. Good job Google.  You did not disappoint.  Take a look at the search results for Sinclair Lewis, however.


Results all over the place.  I think Google can do better and will once they get a chance to fix the data.  I can see a n engineer's response being, "we just assumed the search would work..."

Looking at the book detail page to glean any ideas how to improve my SEO, I noticed how clean and simple the Google ebookstore site was. Looking at the source code reveals tightly-packed css / js / html loaded into a ready-to-use file - a joy to see.  This is a huge factor in what makes Google lighting-fast.


Here's the product detail page.


Breaking down the detail page shows one H1 tag, a simple table for layout, an attention-grabbing call-to-action, and awesome metadata.  Most sites match the H1 and the title on page, by Google surprised me by adding boiler-plate text to their title.  At the bottom of the page, is a load of meta data and related-links.  Take note SEO experts - no formatting and pay particular attention to the lack of formatting.  Simple, clean, text.



Viewing snippets of the book, using Google's in-browser viewer, was a pleasant experience.  It did not require any third-party software, it just worked, fast.

 

The new Google SERP's now include references to the new ebookstores site when searching for books as you would expect.


Amazon is king of content according to Google as you can see the above image, but Google does not care since they own the joint.  Look at the bottom of the page if you have any question.  

Clicking a book at he bottom of the page and being taken to Google's book site still offers the customer a choice of other ebookstore providers like Amazon, but the Google option is the most loud and clear.  


Overall, the design is clean and simple, but sterile at times.  Some of the data for the books are aggregated, so those pages are bare and non-enticing.  The pages are lean and mean, packed for speed.  In general, there are improvements to be made with search and content that I know Google will fix with ample time.  As for SEO lessons, my first observation is that it's good to own the place.  Build out your sites with relevant content and cross-link where appropriate.  Do not complicate the linking structure.  As you can see by how deliberate Google has been, the linking structure is the heart of their site and was designed/developed to maximize the information architecture.  This is core SEO.  Study what Google has done and learn from it - there's so much to learn.