Google Gets Into the SEO Scoring Game

Google wants everyone to have the right information. Search is a natural action for most people connected to the internet today and Facebook and Amazon have to catch up with Google.

Recently Google announced a new website Web.dev that gives you a rating for several  factors that may affect the appearance of your website in search results. The tool is in beta so it needs work. Just tried Hubspot.com and there are the results.

Google uses Lighthouse which according to Google "Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. You can run it against any web page, public or requiring authentication. It has audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, and more."

One thing to note here is that Lighthouse also checks for compatibility with Progressive Web Apps (PWA) which in my opinion is the future.

Most people use mobile devices and if you force them to download an app to interact (like Facebook does) you may lose them unless you adopt the Progressive Web Apps. If you were int he middle of continuing an order from a Google search, you are better off having a website that is:

a) Mobile friendly

b) Accessible using a Progressive Web App from the Browser

c) Does not need you to download a app on their mobile device for one interaction

Use this tool for your website and let us know how your website scores, specially in SEO. 

Hulu for 99 cents should be a cord cutter's dream

Among the deals this year for Black Friday, I noticed a Hulu deal, 99 cents a month for 12 months.

The will get a good amount of sign-ups as this is good opportunity to checkout Hulu. I was a Hulu member when they first started and after the free version stopped, I stopped watching.

Time to give Hulu a test again. You?

Hulu for 99 cents should be a cord cutter's dream

Among the deals this year for Black Friday, I noticed a Hulu deal, 99 cents a month for 12 months.

The will get a good amount of sign-ups as this is good opportunity to checkout Hulu. I was a Hulu member when they first started and after the free version stopped, I stopped watching.

Time to give Hulu a test again. You?

When Amazon Splits

If there is a human who achieved their dream, Jeff Bezos is among them. I have to thank Amazon for being among the first to start a affiliate program for webmasters. I was part of the Amazon EcoSystem in 1997-98 when I started a website for a restaurant because the fax machine broke. (That is another story)

Fast forward to 2005-2007 and meeting Jeff Barr an evangelist for Amazon Web Services and learning all about tech for startups.

Amazon is now in a lot of places and businesses and being dominant may mean they have to split their Lines of business.

Amazon with the addition of Whole Foods.

The biggest section of Amazon that delights  many of us is the Prime part of Amazon. Free shipping, free movies, offers, even a dedicated day for us.


If Amazon needs to split here are my predictions.

Business 1 : Amazon the logistic platform that enables anyone to sell online
Business 2: Amazon Local/Go shop in brick and mortar stores and get delivery. Amazon realizes that we want to touch, feel and try things and offline is important to online success.
Business 3: Prime video and membership.  Costco beware, the power of a membership is coming to take business away from you. Prime members can choose to shop online or get special privileges at the large Prime Stores.
Business 4: Amazon Web Services. It is kind of already a different business.

I think Jeff Bezos and Amazon do not want to be the monolith that the media and the stock market is making it to be. With Amazon split into 4 Jeff Bezos of course will be 4 times more valuable than today as all his 4 business will grow into monoliths and I will write another article in 5 years.

The "Prime" reason for Bezos' success is that among the 3 things he values the most is customer service. Over any profit, Bezos and Amazon want to make sure the satisfaction of customers transacting with anything Amazon is 98.9%. Pretty good. When was the last time you were looking for a support number on Amazon. The stuff just works and it will in all the 4 new companies that Jeff Bezos may be forced to own

What do you think ?

Google is the World's Biggest Social Network!

Google Plus may be dead but Google is fast becoming the world's largest social Network. Here are the reasons why:

1) Commenting on Google Search: For a long time you could add your reviews/comments for Google search results like Movie and TV Show reviews. Now Google announced that you can start adding comments on Google Search results.



Google says that "You can leave comments on things you’ve searched for on Google, like a sports game. You can also read and rate comments left by others."




2) Google Maps becomes Social: You can now follow and even send a message from Google Maps to a business.



Once you a follow a business on Google Maps, the business can send you offers and updates so you don't miss cool happenings.




3) Google My Business Posts: All businesses can publish events, products, and services directly to Google Search and Maps. Posts can be text, video, or photos and when people see your business listing on Google, they can see the post as well. Continue to refresh your posts once every two weeks

4) Reviews in Search Results:  Google bring in the review data from your website or other review sites like Houzz, Yelp, Foursquare etc

5) Twitter Results in Google Search: If you have built your website with structured data/schema and have associated your social properties with your website, it is easy for Google to associate the business social profiles to your Google search results. Your latest 3 tweets appear directly in the Google search results for your business.

6) Google Bulletin: This is a new community news site from Google that is till in beta. you can create posts about local happenings and news and publish them without the need to have a blog