Googles Privacy Policy Letter for March1, 2012

Dear Google user, We're getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that's a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google. We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.
One policy, one Google experience
Easy to work across Google Our new policy reflects a single product experience that does what you need, when you want it to. Whether reading an email that reminds you to schedule a family get-together or finding a favorite video that you want to share, we want to ensure you can move across Gmail, Calendar, Search, YouTube, or whatever your life calls for with ease.		Tailored for you If you're signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries – or tailor your search results – based on the interests you've expressed in Google+, Gmail, and YouTube. We'll better understand which version of Pink or Jaguar you're searching for and get you those results faster.		Easy to share and collaborate When you post or create a document online, you often want others to see and contribute. By remembering the contact information of the people you want to share with, we make it easy for you to share in any Google product or service with minimal clicks and errors.
Protecting your privacy hasn't changed Our goal is to provide you with as much transparency and choice as possible, through products like Google Dashboard and Ads Preferences Manager, alongside other tools. Our privacy principles remain unchanged. And we'll never sell your personal information or share it without your permission (other than rare circumstances like valid legal requests).		Understand how Google uses your data If you want to learn more about your data on Google and across the web, including tips and advice for staying safe online, check out http://www.google.com/goodtoknow		Got questions? We got answers. Visit our FAQ at http://www.google.com/policies/faq to read more about the changes. (We figured our users might have a question or twenty-two.)
Notice of Change March 1, 2012 is when the new Privacy Policy and Terms will come into effect. If you choose to keep using Google once the change occurs, you will be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Design Tips: Images for landing pages

Images are good to use on landing pages to give a visual representation of the product or service as long as these following rules are followed:

·         Don’t make the image too large. The purpose of the image is to add some visual candy to the page and help orient the visitor to the product and headline. If an image is too large and dominates the page, you lose the opportunity let the headline do the heavy lifting and you push other content below the fold. 

·         Don’t make it too complex. Multiple versions of the same item in different colors won’t help. Keep it simple and clean. 

·         Make sure it renders properly and is sized correctly. A jagged image will reduce the perceived quality of the page while a large image file will slow the page load. 

·         Use a caption. After headlines, captions are the next most read pieces of text.

5. Show Brand Validation

People want to feel an affinity for your product or service. By transferring recognition or good will from other sources you can help reinforce their desire to act.

Liberally use logos of well-recognized client brands. Add the badges of media sources that have covered or mentioned your company. Prominently display glowing testimonials from existing customers.

Do everything possible to reduce anxiety for your visitors, by using safe shopping seals and other indicators of your trustworthiness. The logos of trade associations, acceptable payment methods, and money-back guarantee seals can all be powerful ways to make your visitors feel that transacting with you will be safe and secure.

SEO Tips: What will Google penalize you website for?

What Can You Get Penalized For?

If we now know the difference between algorithmic changes and penalties, what is a penalty?

A few of the more known ones include;

• Link manipulation: Paid links, hidden, excessive reciprocal, shady links etc.
• Cloaking: Serving different content to users and Google.
• Malware: Serving nastiness from your site.
• Content: Spam/keyword stuffing, hidden text, duplication/scraping.
• Sneaky JavaScript redirects.
• Bad neighbourhoods: Links, server, TLD.
• Doorway pages.
• Automated queries to Google: Tools on your site, probably a bad idea.

Source:  http://searchenginewatch.com

Google Places: Google is introducing a streamlined process for updates to potentially incorrect listings.

Rob D. Young

Google is giving more trust to user reports on the address, hours, and operating name of businesses. Submitted updates will show up regardless of business verification, though business owners will receive a notice and have the option to halt the change.

The Automatic Listing Updates

According to the official announcement of the change, In instances where data such as the business hours, address, or name of a location are submitted, "the organic listing will automatically be updated and the business owner will be sent an email notification about the change."

Additionally, Google is working with partners to receive up-to-date information about businesses and has trained its web-crawler to look for current business data. In cases where Google's systems gets new information from a trusted source, they'll make an automatic update.

Meanwhile, business owners will get an email indicating that a change is going to be made. According to Blumenthals, the message from Google indicates that, "your listing data on our consumer properties such as Google and Google Maps" is going to be changed, but that "We use many sources to determine the accuracy of our listing data and to provide the best possible experience for business owners and consumers."

Then, after receiving a summary of the submitted changes, the business owner is given the option to "prevent any of these changes from being made on your Place page and listing" through their Google Places account.

Google states that they're pushing for "a digital representation of the real world" that doesn't rely on business owners "remembering to update their Google Places account." Instead, Google is relying on "a neighborhood local or a loyal customer" who wants to help out by providing the correct information.

Businesses sending out promotions via AdWords and AdWords Express won't see changes to their ads, but all other segments of Places will be impacted. While this feature has already seen official release, its full implementation seems to be gradual.

Is Google Making Businesses Vulnerable?

Honestly, considering the abuses of the previous system, this seems like a brash move. Even with an improved system of vetting and a window wherein business owners can negate a change, the potential for abuse both directly through Google and through manipulating "trusted external sources" is highly visible.

Businesses could still become the target of shut-down campaigns, only now the false data would be implemented automatically and the business owner would have to back-track to input the appropriate data anew.

It seems a proper solution would be to offer a "lock/unlock" feature for business owners, allowing them to declare permanent information or set aside certain fields that won't be updated automatically. Meanwhile, since any business owner who doesn't have their email address attached correctly is left in the open, it's absolutely vital that you both verify your business and ensure that your account is attached to an email address you check frequently.