WebProNews » Tips

Google Shares International Optimization Tips

Chris Crum — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:20:44 +0000

Google took to its Webmaster Central blog on Friday to share some tips for international sites. This comes at a time when an increasing number of online marketing professionals are viewing international SEO as gaining importance.

“Many websites exist in more than one language, and more and more websites are made available for more than one language,” Google’s Web Studio team writes. “Yet, building a website for more than one language doesn’t simply mean translation, or localization (L10N), and that’s it. It requires a few more things, all of which are related to internationalization (I18N).”

First and foremost, Google says you should always use markup, rather than stylesheets, for international purposes, when it comes to language and directionality. You should avoid coming up solutions like special classes or ID, Google says, and use @lang and @dir, at least on the html element ().

Google says you should use just one style sheet for all locales, make use of the [dir='rtl'] attribute selector and the :lang() pseudo class, as well as mirror left- and right-related values.

Google goes into further detail on all of this and more in the post, which you should definitely read if this concerns you.

According to a recent report from BrightEdge, six out of ten search marketers believe ranking in global search engines will become either “more” or “much more” important this year (compared to last year).

Starbucks Tip Jar The Subject Of New York High Court Case

Zach Walton — Tue, 28 May 2013 18:29:09 +0000

Who gets the money from the Starbucks tip jar? That’s the question currently up for debate in a New York courtroom this week.

CBS News reports that New York’s labor laws are currently being tested in the Court of Appeals. Baristas argue that only they are allowed to take money from the tip jar as they are the ones directly interacting with customers. Assistant managers don’t necessarily work directly with customers, but they feel that they are entitled to the money in the tip jar as well.

So, what’s the big deal? The big deal is that the courts now have to decide whether or not shift managers qualify as “agents” under New York labor laws. If the court rules that they are agents, then assistant managers would be barred by law from taking money out of the tip jar.

On the side of the baristas, they argue that Starbucks has not “seriously disputed that its shift supervisors are supervisors.” In other words, Starbucks has never explicitly told assistant managers that they are not supervisors. It should be noted that shift supervisors share in the tip pool with baristas while assistant managers are arguing in court to share in the tip pool.

As for the assistant managers, they argue that their inability to hire of fire employees makes them less of an agent and more of a low-level employee. They also argue that they do frequently interact with customers thus entitling them to tips.

What do the higher ups at Starbucks think about all of this? They argue that assistant managers shouldn’t get access to the tip jar because they are full-time, salaried employees. In other words, they get paid enough as it is. The tip jar is for the part-time baristas and shift supervisors to make a little more on top of their meager wages.

One federal judge has already ruled that shift supervisors aren’t agents, but she also said that New York’s labor laws don’t require companies to allow every eligible employee to collect tips. Now the Appeals Court must decide if assistant managers can share in the tips with everybody else.

As you would expect, the ruling from the Appeals Court would have wide ranging consequences beyond Starbucks and other coffee shops. If the court rules in favor of the assistant managers, tips will be spread across more people in service industries. It may be fair, but it would also force restaurants that practice mandatory tipping to charge more for tips so that everybody gets a fair share.

[Image: Gingerblokey]

Facebook Tips New Members of Congress on How to Properly Run a Page

Josh Wolford — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:01:16 +0000

Facebook has just published their official guide for new members of the 113th Congress on how to set up and maintain a successful presence on the site. Earlier this year, the company urged current members of Congress to step up their game and work on fan engagement.

Much of the advice, while specific to the actions of Congresspeople, could be used by any page owner to promote their product/service and enhance engagement.

For instance, Facebook suggests that they post behind-the-scenes photos and videos. Solid advice as users will definitely feel more apt to interact if they feel like they’re interacting with a real person. Facebook also suggests that the new Congressional members create a welcome video, perform regular Q&As with fans, and add milestones to their Timelines.

Social media is a tricky business for politicians. Of course, a social media helped likely helped President Obama get elected (and reelected), so we know how useful it can be in mobilizing supporters. But they have to do it right. That means real engagement, not simply the illusion of engagement. And naturally, they have to protect themselves from pulling the old Anthony Weiner.

Check out Facebook’s complete guide to the 113th Congress below:

Here’s Some Tips On How To Best Localize Apps

Zach Walton — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:13:32 +0000

Regardless of platform, the app store is a developer’s way of reaching millions of people around the world. Those people speak a variety of languages and as such desire an app that’s tailored specifically for them. Others have offered tips on localization before, but here’s some tips from an actual developer in the localization trenches.

The Amazon Appstore Developers blog invited Playrix’ Head of Marketing and PR, Dasha Kobzeva, to talk at length about the process of localizing apps for the Amazon Appstore. The advice is meant for developers of Kindle Fire apps, but developers on all platforms should heed the advice.

First and foremost, Kobzeva says developers need to pinpoint their markets. Localizing an app in every language is foolish and wastes resources. Developers need to find which markets bring in the highest downloads and monetization rates. From there, localize for those markets. If you don’t have time for that, at least localize your descriptions and screenshots.

If you are going to localize everything, be sure to put considerable thought into the title. Kobzeva says that a good title that can be understood across different territories doesn’t need to be changed. A specific title that plays towards a very specific culture, however, would need to be changed so players in other countries can understand it.

Like in traditional film and game localization, events in your app may need to be changed to resonate better with a foreign audience. To better help those localizing the app, Kobzeva says that developers need to provide as much contextual information as possible. Many Japanese games in the 80s suffered from poor translation because the localizers were handed the finished game and just told to translate the text. There wasn’t enough information in the game to provide adequate context and the localization suffered for it. It’s now 2012 – you can provide translators with more than enough information to make a localization stand out.

Finally, Kobzeva stresses that a “bad localization is worse than no localization at all.” It’s suggested that developers carry out their own internal QA sessions to determine if a localization is up to snuff. Such tactics can help prevent embarrassing localization mistakes that can cost you customers.

Of course, Kobzeva works at a large developer who can afford professional localization services. Not every developer, especially smaller indie developers, can afford this. Localization is something that you should only tackle if you have the resources. Developers can, however, push their games onto app stores in other territories, and just hope for the best. Foreign apps can gain traction and become popular in other territories if the content can get across the language barrier. Art and music apps come immediately to mind, but good developers and artists can find ways to speak to people regardless of language or culture.

Bing Integrates Foursquare Tips Into Social Sidebar

Josh Wolford — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:35:39 +0000

Back in May, Bing unveiled a pretty significant redesign of their search results pages. The new design, which launched in the U.S. on May 16th, features a three-column format. On the left, you have your traditional search results. In the middle you have “snapshot,” which features relevant information like maps and images. and on the right is Bing’s “social sidebar,” which incorporates data from Facebook and other sources to allow you to see recommendations from friends across various social networks.

Today, Bing has announced the first new social sidebar integration since that big launch – and it involves location-based app Foursquare.

Now, searches will include Foursquare tips in the social sidebar, which gives Bing users even more information from the social community.

The tips will show the Foursquare icon and will also contain a link to the location’s page on the network.

“The tips that we surface on Bing depend on the venue you are searching for and your location. For example, if you’re in New York your Starbucks search results would be specific to that area and different than the results that someone might see if they search in San Francisco,” says Bing.

For Bing users in the U.S., the rollout begins today. They say that more Foursquare integration is on the way

LinkedIn Gives Tips For Successful Gossiping

Sean Patterson — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:30:33 +0000

When things are going well for a business, gossip can be a destructive force, damaging morale, creating cliques, and hampering productivity. In the worst of times, though, it’s best to have a network of informants to help stay on top of all the political maneuverings taking place off-the-record in the office. That’s why LinkedIn, the social network for professional networking, has chimed in with some tips on how to become an expert gossip in the workplace, while using LinkedIn to your advantage.

Nicole Williams, Connection Director at LinkedIn, provided the tips in a blog post over at the official LinkedIn Blog. She acknowledges that gossip is generally frowned upon, but says that eliminating it outright isn’t “consistent with human nature.” From the blog post:

Whether you like it or not, gossip is a part of the career landscape. While you should absolutely steer-clear of the malicious, bullying, back-stabbing, falsehood kind of word-on-the-street, there are times and places when getting and having the goods are going to be hugely advantageous to your career.

Williams’ first tip is that to receive good, informative gossip, you’ve got to be ready to give it as well. She suggests being up-to-date on all of your social networks and your colleagues’ recent status updates to be ready to provide some pertinent info.

Her second tip is to be prepared for whatever gossip may come your way. The LinkedIn Today newsfeed is suggested as a good place to keep up on all of the industry news that could affect your career, but there are plenty of other online sources where workers can obtain up-to-the-minute information.

The third tip is to learn how to make rumors stop when they are about you. To do this, Williams suggests outing the truth without embarrassing yourself, confronting bully gossips, and getting out ahead of the rumor mill by providing plenty of good news about yourself on your social network profiles.

Before you criticize LinkedIn too much for encouraging rumor mongering, realize that gossip is a part of the socializing that defines humanity. Whether or not you choose to participate, in a sufficiently large workplace you will still have to be prepared to deal with it, and its consequences, on a weekly basis.

Social Media Privacy Protection And You [Infographic]

Chris Richardson — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:49:09 +0000

With privacy becoming an incredibly popular buzz word, instead of focusing on a specific platform, perhaps we should focus on the user, too. Who’s responsible for making sure users understand the importance of privacy in a social media world? Is it Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms, or do the users have some responsibility for keeping their profiles secure?

Considering the lack of attention people give the concept, it’s as if they expect the platform to take of their privacy issues. In fact, back in 2007, Geek and Poke tackled this issue brilliantly with a simple, one-panel comic:

To many, the Geek and Poke installment sums up users’ attitudes towards privacy almost perfectly. It seems if you’re a casual Internet user, the only time online privacy becomes something to concern yourself with is when a friend posts something about it on your Facebook timeline.

With that in mind, the upcoming infographic should be helpful, provided personal privacy in relation to social media is something you care about. While a big portion of the information is something of a review–percentage of people posting regrettable content, which sex is more concerned about their privacy settings (women)–the last portion provides some helpful tips on managing social media privacy. While these may seem like common sense approaches, it’s clear people need to be reminded:

Click for full size image
As you can see, the suggestions are quite elementary, but hidden in the tips is a simple, little message: Privacy is not that difficult of concept if you actually pay attention to what you’re doing. Essentially, the tips are simply enough for most, if not all, social media users to follow. It also begs the question, if it is this easy, why aren’t more people taking responsibility for their online privacy?

Don’t leave it up to Facebook, Google, and others to do it for you.

H/t to The UltraLinx for pointing this out.

Optimization Tips For AdSense Rolling Out To Publisher Accounts

Chris Crum — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:58:11 +0000

Google just announced a new kind of optimization tips it will be rolling out for AdSense users. They’ll show publishers how to make changes to their AdSense for Content ad unit type or format setting right in the account.

Google indicates that these tips wil help publishers earn more, so they’re probably worth paying attention to.

“To generate these new types of notifications, we use our technology to simulate the ad auction for a specific ad unit using different ad type and/or ad format settings,” explains AdSense engineer Gregory Block. “If our simulation shows that any of these changed settings consistently result in higher revenue for that ad unit, we’ll show a recommendation in your account. Please note that these simulations will not affect your live traffic or earnings, and you’ll only see a recommendation if our simulated auction demonstrated increased revenue for your account.”

Publishers will see the recommendations on the “Home” tab in their accounts. The “Do this now” button can be clicked to quickly implement the suggestion.

“For ad format recommendations, clicking the ‘Create this unit’ button will create a new ad unit of the recommended ad format on the ‘My ads’ tab,” says Block. “To complete the implementation, replace the current ad unit code in your webpage(s) with the newly created ad unit code.”

The new tips will roll out over the next few weeks, Google says.

For more on all things AdSense, check out our AdSense coverage page.

Facebook Single Sign-On Pro-Tips

Mike Tuttle — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:36:50 +0000

Today, Facebook released a list of best practices for developers of iOS and Android apps that implement the Single Sign-On (SSO) features that Facebook debuted a year ago.

Using SSO, developers are able to save their users time and frustration of logging in to their apps repeatedly. The developers also have access to the Graph API to build in-app social experiences.

Facebook recommends the following 4 Pro-Tips for developers:

Pro-tip 1: Include Facebook Login at User RegistrationApps will often only use SSO and Facebook Login when asking the user to enable Facebook features in the app. You should also include Facebook Login anywhere you prompt the user to Register for your app, often times when users launch your app for the first time. Users can enjoy a simplified registration process, and you can request the same information, such as e-mail address, that you would normally collect manually from the user.

Pro-tip 2: Store the user’s session in your appAfter your user authenticates for the first time, you should immediately store the authentication result locally. This way, you can keep the user logged-in to your app without having the user re-authenticate each time.

Pro-tip 3: Request only the permissions your app needsWe have streamlined the SSO permissions dialog, along with all permission dialogs in our recently announced Improved Auth Dialog. You should only request the permissions you need to get the user registered and using your app’s social features.
As part of our ongoing efforts to improve privacy protections for Facebook users, we’ve deprecated the ‘offline_access’ permission. Instead, you now have the option to extend the expiration of existing, valid access tokens for a limited amount of time without requiring the user to login again. Learn more about upgrading access tokens. Also, many apps incorrectly ask for ‘publish_stream’ when using our Feed Dialog. Your app only needs ‘publish_stream’ if it will be publishing to the user’s feed programmatically with the Graph API.

Pro-tip 4: Complete all iOS and Android Fields in your App SettingsBe sure to fill out every field related to your app in your app settings in the Native iOS App and the Native Android App fields. You can access these app settings for your app here. On iOS, If these fields are not configured, we will not be able to drive traffic to your app or the iOS App Store. In addition, we use the iOS Bundle ID to streamline authentication for users who have already authenticated your app.

How to Effectively Live Stream Video

Abby Johnson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:40:33 +0000

In the online video world, the hottest new trend is live streaming. It’s a fascinating concept, but one that not a lot of people and companies have mastered. Brian Gramo, the founder of theStream.tv, however, is one of the exceptions. He began streaming several years ago out of his bedroom back before Justin.tv, Stickam, and other streaming networks were around.

“We started doing it cause it was fun,” said Gramo.

The business quickly grew out of his bedroom and began to gain sponsorships. As Gramo explained to us, one aspect that was and continues to be key to live streaming successfully is consistency. He believes in having consistency not only in content, but also in production value.

Gramo told us that the lighting, sound, and product have to be “awesome.” If the production quality is high, it brings about consistency. As a result, it also frees up the talent to do what they do best – be creative. They don’t have to worry about audio not working or the stream cutting out and can concentrate on connecting with viewers.

For companies and individuals that want to begin streaming, Gramo said that, in addition to consistency, you need to have a strong, reliable Internet connection. Also, you need to be concerned with latency speeds to avoid delays in the stream. In other words, it’s ideal to have a solid Internet connection with low latency.

Gramo also recommends that beginners utilize free streaming services such as Justin.tv, Stickam, Livestream, and Ustream. Although theStream.tv doesn’t use the software, it does use some of the services. It uses the Adobe Flash Media Encoder and the TriCaster XD850 to send the signal to Justin.tv to be streamed live. Gramo did point out that they use a separate computer for every aspect in order to make sure the stream is secure.

Another interesting element of theStream.tv is the interactive experience it creates. Each show is first broadcasted live on Justin.tv, and during the program, it has a person monitoring all the conversations taking place online. Gramo said it allows everyone to be on the same page and the voice of the viewer to be heard. Any issues that need to be addressed can be taken care of while the show is airing live.

Gramo also emphasized proper testing before going live. He suggests that the talent and the production rehearse their roles in order to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Going forward, Gramo believes that live streaming will become more popular than television. TV currently has more leverage because it is where the old media buyers that are stuck in the old ways are spending money.

“Once everyone figures it out that you can actually track the amount of people watching on the Internet and the duration that they are tuning in for, I think eventually it’s gonna change,” said Gramo. “It will switch, but it will just take time.”

He went on to say that there is a lot of power of advertising during live programming since viewers cannot fast forward few commercials as they are accustomed to doing with DVR devicea. He thinks that advertisers will soon realize this and take advantage.

By the way, I think it’s safe to say that Gramo knows what he’s talking about because, even though his business had a humble beginning, theStream.tv now occupies a 4,000 square-foot studio in Hollywood.