Google Books have announced an amazing 10 day competition which has been designed to promote the use of the new Google Book search. Each day Google Books will ask 5 new trivia questions, with a few hints, the answers can be found by using the Book Search inself. Each day a lucky reader will win a Sony Book Reader.



Google Books is a universal book search which allows users to search and find almost any book ever printed. It gets even better than that, you can search for a book by character or story line and even find direct snippets from the book itself which include your search term. It really is an amazing resource and allows simple and easy methods to find new publications and undertake research. What’s even more amazing is that some publications are available to view online, free of charge. If you particularly like a book you can then go on and make a purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Border and many other book sellers.
So why not give the competition a go and check out Google Books, its truly an outstanding piece of work.

Article by Creative SEO UK

According to a new report by Chikita, Bing users are over 50% more likely to click on an advertisement on a third party website than both Google and Yahoo generated users. According to Chikita the click rate averages are as follows:

Google: 0.97%

Yahoo: 1.24%

Bing: 1.5%

It looks as though Bing has made some good gains since its launch at the end of May. Although growth has been good and Bing has made up some ground on its competitors it is unlikely to directly affect the existing search marketplace. Microsoft still need to strike a deal with Yahoo to broaden the Companies advertising reach and start to make an impact on Google’s monumental popularity. AdAge is reporting that that a deal between both Microsoft and Yahoo is due to be released anytime this week. The article mentions that the payment structure has been the main issue preventing the deal from going forward. Yahoo has requested a revenue share rather than upfront payments and revenue guarantees.

“Execs in Redmond never conceived of the deal as an upfront purchase of Yahoo’s search traffic but as a deal in which Yahoo would be compensated from a share of revenue from the sale of search ads. Yahoo would be allowed to sell search ads on Bing.com as well as its own site, giving it more search inventory to sell and making it a bigger player in the search sales front. It would also immediately be able to save millions by not having to maintain its own search infrastructure.

The latest terms of the deal underscore Microsoft’s devotion to developing and owning technology vs. selling media. The deal won’t make it a bigger seller of online advertising but it would allow it to eliminate a search-technology competitor in Yahoo and consolidate roughly 30% of the search marketplace on its own platform — a large enough share, CEO Steve Ballmer seems to believe, to dent Google’s dominance”

If the article at AdAge is correct then Yahoo would still be able to sell search and display to its existing advertisers. Let’s hope the article is correct and deal is announced this week.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Google have released the latest incarnation of its lightweight OS, codenamed Donut, to the developer community. This exciting new update has really excited and impressed Google developers from around the world, so what’s so amazing?

The new release appears to have the ability to support multi-touch technology, although quite confusingly a Google source has confirmed that this will not be part of the next release. So it looks like Google are testing the technology.

The new OS update also features Voice to text, a more user friendly camera interface and the ability to select widgets from the home page to give easier access to services like Wifi. There is also a rumour that the new interface will feature gestural recognition, we are not sure if this will be through using the multi-touch screen technology but rumours confirm the possibility of finger movement launching programs and functions.

The new OS is backward compatible, so now the Magic and G1 users can improve their OS, well done Google.


Article by Creative SEO UK

The much anticipated new Edinburgh trams project is to use online social networking services to improve its communication with the public, providing regular ongoing development updates.

The £545 million works have received much press and bosses wanted to find a way of communicating more effectively with the public.

“Followers” of the trams’ Twitter feed will be able to see brief news flashes as and when they are released, and an in-depth Facebook page is being developed.

Mandy Haeburn-Little, TIE’s director of customer services and communications, said: “It is vital that we engage with members of the public during the construction of the Edinburgh Tram system.”

It’s another example of the power of social networking and its ability to communicate effectively with a target audience.

Article by Creative SEO – Search Engine Marketing

Google Latitude is a clever application which shows the location of your phone on a map. As you move in real time your icon moves on the map. A user can allow a single person or a group of people to watch and follow their location and see exactly where they are. What’s even better is a group of people can all follow each other on a single map, so they can all see exactly what each other is doing. This could be particularly fun for a group of friends who were out for the night and wanted to keep an eye on each other, or for a family to keep track of their children. The best thing about the software is that it’s completely free.

“Our Latitude web app provides all the core functionality you might expect: you can see the location of your friends on a map and modify your privacy settings so that you control how your location is shared and with whom. In fact, if my friends and colleagues back in London haven’t yet noticed my absence, they’ll see in Latitude that I’m currently vacationing on the beach in Australia. Hi guys, remember me!?” Google Mobile Blog.



Google Latitude has been available on Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian for some time. The Iphone has been a little harder to work with and unfortunately there has had to be a small reduction in functionality.

“Unfortunately, since there is no mechanism for applications to run in the background on iPhone (which applies to browser-based web apps as well), we’re not able to provide continuous background location updates in the same way that we can for Latitude users on Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Window Mobile. Nevertheless, your location is updated every time you fire up the app and then continuously updated while the app is running in the foreground. And, of course, you can check in on where your friends are, so we think there’s plenty of fun to be had with Latitude.” Google Mobile Blog.

Click here http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/latitude/intro.html to find out more about Google Latitude.

Article By Creative SEO