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AMP Sets to Speed Up Mobile Browsing

Introducing Accelerated Mobile Pages, a look at Google’s current framework for tablets and smartphones

On the 07 October 2015, Google introduced AMP. Also known as Accelerated Mobile Pages, it aims to reduce loading times on portable devices. Known on the Moz website as Diet HTML, pages load in a quarter of the time of standard web pages. With people viewing sites on mobile browsers likely to give up after 10 seconds wait, this framework placates the impatient. Continue reading “AMP Sets to Speed Up Mobile Browsing”

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Chrome Blitz on Insecure Websites

Google’s Chrome browser set to ‘shame’ sites without secure domain

Vintage chrome Chopper bike.
Secure, as in this chrome Chopper being tied to a cyclist’s post.

 

Web browsers, when kept to speed with the latest updates are made more secure, immune from the latest insecurities. This year, Google is set to go a step further. Through its Chrome browser, it intends to ‘shame’ websites that are hosted on a HTTP domain. Continue reading “Chrome Blitz on Insecure Websites”

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RankBrain Explained: Google’s AI Based Algorithm

Could RankBrain be Google’s Ask Jeeves killer?

RankBrain Algorithm = Death of Ask Jeeves?
Could RankBrain be the algorithm that ruins Ask Jeeves? This enigmatic billboard photographed in San Francisco by John Trainor in 2007 could be poignant today. (Creative Commons License – Some Rights Reserved).

Over the last four months, Google have been quietly working on a new artificial intelligence based algorithm. Known as RankBrain, it aims to settle pub arguments and revolutionise semantic search. As well as being able to search for ‘Dorking’, you can also ask Google, ‘How far from Dorking to London’. Continue reading “RankBrain Explained: Google’s AI Based Algorithm”

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Google Search Location Filter Axed

Lack of demand cited as reason behind discontinuation

A useful yet underappreciated part of Google’s search tools has been axed with little protest this week.  The Google Search Location Filter allowed its users to filter results by location.  For example, browsers living in the United States were able to narrow results down to State level.  They could search for products and services within Detroit and narrow results down to businesses in Michigan. Continue reading “Google Search Location Filter Axed”

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Google Algorithm Updates Through The Ages

From Google Dance to Penguin in fifteen years

Google Campus2 cropped
The Googleplex, as photographed in 2007. Image by Sebastian Bergman. (Creative Commons License – Some Rights Reserved).
In its seventeen year history, no other search engine has had the same cultural impact as Google. Not to mention numerous businesses like ours, whom have thrived on the back of Stanford’s greatest export. Like Tannoy and Hoover, its name has become a verb (as in “I need to google the nearest pizza place”). Continue reading “Google Algorithm Updates Through The Ages”

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Net66 says: ‘Prepare for Penguin’

Only 24 indexing days till Christmas – and 31 till 2016

King Penguin Chick at Salisbury Plain
Stand out from the crowd: we at Net66 have proven success with whatever algorithm Google sends our way, from the Florida Update up to Penguin.

Winter has come to Manchester courtesy of Storm Clodagh.  For December, it is usually colder in these parts, but the weather has been more autumnal.  This apart from 80 mph winds in nearby Rochdale and Denton and heavy rain throughout the UK.  At this moment, too warm for seeing penguins in Albert Square, yet Olaf and Elsa managed to appear in Stalybridge (but that was for a Christmas lights switch-on). Continue reading “Net66 says: ‘Prepare for Penguin’”

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Net66: Typically Irish Google Doodle for St Patricks Day

As we all know Google LOVES making Doodles. None more so for special occasions and what a special occasion it is today.

Today, if you’re unaware, is St Patrick’s Day. St Patrick is the best know Patron Saint of Ireland and observations are held every year on the anniversary of his death to remember him. Or, if you’re a more modern observer of St Patrick’s Day, to make everything Green and drink Guiness until you’re…well, green.

Google are celebrating a bit more conservatively than the vast majority of people and has published an animated .gif of 6 little four leaf clovers having themselves a merry little jig. Continue reading “Net66: Typically Irish Google Doodle for St Patricks Day”

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Net66: Google Releases Annual “A Year In Search Video” Check Out These Trends

Google has taken a look at the past years search and put together a nifty little web page and video looking at all of the search trends in 2014.

One of the trends Google focused on was Sport. And what a year for sport it has been. There’s been the World Cup, the Sochi Games, La Decima and more.

In fact one of the questions that trended most in 2014 was “What is La Decima?”, which is, of course, the 10th European Cup/Uefa Champions League Cup for Real Madrid. They finally won their 10th trophy with the last one coming in the 2001/02 season over 10 years ago.

Off the topic of Sport there were the more serious trending topics such as ebola and the Malaysian Airlines plane that vanished into thin air.

Ebola caused the 5th highest spike in search traffic in October this year, despite initial reports of Ebola all the way back in March. This coincided with the virus’ first appearance in Spain and most likely had the whole of Europe searching on the topic. Continue reading “Net66: Google Releases Annual “A Year In Search Video” Check Out These Trends”

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Net66: Google Releases Festive Search Bars

Google LOVES a doodle, and this year it looks like they’re not letting the chance to throw one out there get away. They’ve already released a feature rich Santa Tracker, and now they’ve updated their search bars for queries relating to Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah (Chanukkah).

These bars are triggered when either of the seasons festivals are included in a search string. Check them out below of search for yourself. [Christmas] [Hanukkah] [Kwanzaa] Continue reading “Net66: Google Releases Festive Search Bars”

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Net66: Penguin Goes Panda, Moves to Continuous Updates

There’s been quite a bit or furore over the latest penguin algorithm. Initially it rolled out, and then continued to roll out even over Thanksgiving which Google usually tries to avoid doing.

It now seems that there will be no “end” to the algorithm rollout. A Google Spokesperson has today confirmed that the rollout of Penguin will be continuous.

Here’s what they had to say:

That last big update is still rolling out — though really there won’t be a particularly distinct end-point to the activity, since Penguin is shifting to more continuous updates. The idea is to keep optimising as we go now.

This means that we’re likely to stop getting updates from Google when they do update the algorithm. As we all know Google stopped confirming Panda updates some while ago. And now it looks like they’re set to do the same for Penguin. Continue reading “Net66: Penguin Goes Panda, Moves to Continuous Updates”

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Net66: Yahoo Search Share Jumps to Almost 30% on Firefox

We’ve announced previously that the default search engine for Firefox has switched from Google to Yahoo. The resulting traffic boost has been huge for Yahoo with a reported 29.4% increase of searches on their search engine from Firefox users.

This was rolled out with the automatic upgrade from Firefox 33 to Firefox 34 and analytics firm Statcounter have released the following information:

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They also added:

Yahoo search was used three times more on Firefox 34 than on Firefox 33.

Continue reading “Net66: Yahoo Search Share Jumps to Almost 30% on Firefox”

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Net66: Google Launches This Years Santa Tracker

Google has today launched they’re annual Santa Tracker. As if the excitement of getting to open your Advent Calendar for a whole two days now wasn’t enough, you can now count down the days to Christmas Eve and the start of Santa’s journey online.

Check out the video below:

There’s also a whole host of festive games to play, along with some educational sections too. Including one that looks at the different Christmas Traditions around the world.

Check out the images below of some of the great features of this years tracker:

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Blog Post by: Greg McVey

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Net66: Google Takes Action on Polish Link Network

Today Google announced that they have taken manual actions against a link network in Poland. You can see the Tweet confirming this below:

There was a lot of speculation about which link network was targeted but now it seems that Prolink.pl was the network penalised. They actually confirmed it via a post on Facebook later. Check out the post:

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

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Latest Google Doodle Celebrates the Life and Works of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, more commonly know as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, was a painter from the late 1800s who was celebrated for his colourful work in Paris.

Along with Vincent Van Gogh, Henri was one of the most famous artists from the post-impressionist era and is well know for his colourful works of the life of Parisians and the City itself. Check out the doodle below:

Screen Shot 2014-11-24 at 17.28.03

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

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Net66: Yahoo! Usurps Google as the Default Search Provider for Firefox

Firefox has been very busy updating itself as a Web Browser recently. Not long ago it announced an update to itself and also added support for DuckDuckGo to be a default browser.

With the news that Yahoo were going to be the default browser, they’ve changed the layout of their search results and it’s eery how similar they are to Google’s own results. Check out the images below:

Yahoo Results

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Google Results

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Blog Post by: Greg McVey

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Net66: Google Finally Announce Launch of Mobile Friendly Labels in Listings

We all know that Google have been testing mobile friendly and none mobile friendly labels for search results. They initially tested out different formats such as icons and then written labels.

Well now, in an official blog post, they’ve confirmed the support is rolling out. They’ve added some best practices, an example mobile friendly listing and even a mobile friendly testing tool.

Check out the example image Google sent out:

mobile-friendly

They also offered a bit of advice on what you can do to get these labels and advise that your website will get the mobile friendly label if it:

  • Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
  • Uses text that is readable without zooming
  • Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
  • Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped

They’ve even released a tool that can use to test your mobile website friendliness.

Net66 Qualifies as Mobile friendly, does your site?

Blog Post by: Greg McVey