The Google direct AdSense For Domains program is being shut down by Google. The last day is April 18, 2012. This is not effecting the whole program, but specifically the "direct AdSense for Domains" program. Google posted this news on this page and people have started to notice the news.

Here is an interesting bug reported in the Google Web Search Help forums. Open up your smart phone, go to Google Sweden...

The Google AdSense blog announced they are doing away with the AdSense for Mobile Content ad type and replacing it with the core content ad creation section...

Today on Google's home page is a special logo for Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Hertz was born a 155 years ago and Google wanted people to remember him and his contributions to the world. Here is the logo: It is basically an animated gif. The wave logo represents electromagnetic waves...

Apple defended its right to use the “iPad” trademark in China in a mainland Chinese court on Wednesday.

In a David-and-Goliath legal showdown, Shenzhen Proview Technology, a fledgling Chinese electronics company, is suing Apple, claiming they never sold Apple the right to use the name of the popular tablet device in China.

Proview, an LCD screen manufacturer, owned the copyrights for an “IPAD,” short for Internet Personal Access Device. Apple argues that it purchased that name from Proview for use in China for $55,000 through an intermediary company. However, Proview’s lawyer has claimed that the sale, which was made by the company’s Taiwan-based affiliate, was invalid.

“Apple has no right to sell iPads under that name,” said Proview’s lawyer according to the Associated Press.

Apple parried by saying that Proview violated the deal after failing to give Apple the sought-after trademark rights in mainland China. Apple also claimed that Proview, which is struggling financially, has not recently sold its “IPAD” in China and has no capability of doing so, voiding Proview’s hold on the copyright.

“They have no market, no sales, no customers, they have nothing,” Apple’s laywer said of Proview. “The iPad is so popular that it is in short supply. We have to consider the public good.”

The case was brought on by Proview in order to get Apple to stop selling iPads in China under that name.

In an earlier case, a court in Hong Kong, which has a legal system separate from that of mainland China, decided in favor of Apple. A Shenzhen court located in southern China sided with Proview. Apple is appealing that decision and a higher court is expected to hear the case on Feb. 29.

Proview has sought out help from local authorities around the country, and iPads have since vanished from shops in a few Chinese cities. But at many Chinese Apple Stores, customers are snapping them up as quickly as they’re put on shelves. The Apple iPad makes up more than 70 percent of tablet sales in the country.

SEE ALSO: Apple Hit With 250,000 Signatures Protesting Labor Conditions in China

The Chinese market is hugely important for Apple. Chinese citizens are just as eager to get their hands on the latest Apple technology as Americans, evidenced by quasi-riots when Beijing’s Apple Store failed to open on the morning of the local iPhone 4S launch.

Despite this consumer craze, Apple has something of a tumultuous relationship with China. The company has recently come under pressure from human rights groups for allegedly poor working conditions at Chinese factories which produce components for the iPad and other Apple devices.

Apple representatives were not immediately available for comment.

What do you think of the trademark dispute? Does Apple have the right to the “iPad” name in China? Sound off in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, TommL

More About: apple, china, Foxconn, ipad

Google announced on the Google Webmaster Central blog that they are now adding video support for schema.org. They are doing this in combination with Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search as a “joint effort.” Google says using the schema.org video markup is the “recommended way to...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

The Perfect Palette, a wedding blog that explores “the color palette possibilities for your wedding” and serves as a resource for other wedding ideas, would seem to be a perfect match for Pinterest, and it is.

The site is far and away the biggest brand on Pinterest with more than 240,000 followers, according to Zoomsphere. The rest of the list illustrates that media titles that cater to the nesting instinct have a definite advantage. (As do publications that write about Pinterest, including Mashable, which clocks in at number 10.) In fact, while the likes of Coca-Cola and General Motors might not have much use for Pinterest right now, brands like Rachael Ray (about 500 followers) and Diapers.com (400 followers) might want to step up their game.

SEE ALSO: 10 Most-Followed Users on Pinterest

Zoomsphere released a list of the top Pinterest brands on Wednesday. As you may note, even the The Perfect Palette is a mere piker compared to Jane Wang, Pinterest’s top overall user, who has around 2.4 million followers.

Are you surprised to not see a certain brand on the list? If so, let us know in the comments.

1. Perfect Palette

244,163 Followers

113 Boards

6,925 Pins

Looking for a color theme for your upcoming wedding? Well, you've come to the right place.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Advertising, brands, kate spade, Marketing, pinterest, real simple, whole foods

Yelp is ready to hit the marketplace with a $100 million IPO on March 2, and both investors and the tech community will be watching to see how the location network will fare.

While the numbers are certainly nowhere near Facebook IPO territory, Yelp has proven itself over the long haul with steady user and revenue growth since 2005. But despite the upward climb, Yelp has yet to turn a profit, posting a net loss of $16.8 million in 2011 — its biggest shortfall to date. It’s presumed public investment will garner Yelp the capital it needs to finally get into the black.

SEE ALSO: How 9 Tech Giants Traded After Going Public [INFOGRAPHIC]

Our friends at Statista have aggregated Yelp’s financial history and created the infographic below for a clearer picture on where the company has been, and where it might be headed.

Do you think buying stock in Yelp is a sound investment? Does the site have what it takes to stave off other up-and-coming location networks? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Infographic courtesy of Statista.

More About: infographics, ipo, yelp

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Today is the 155th birthday of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, the German physicist who was able to prove the existence of electromagnetic waves. To celebrate his contributions to the world, Google has a special animated wave logo on their homepage. He built an antenna that was able to detect and measure...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

1. First Frost by Meredith Winn

A first frost is crisply captured in New England with an iPhone 3GS and processed with Camera+ and Instagram.

Click here to view this gallery.

Changes in the weather make for great photo opportunities. With the recent snowfall, we thought it would be a good time to see what kind of ice-cool snaps iPhone photographers have been capturing.

From the first frost through to adventures in sledding via some beautiful nature scenes, our selection captures many aspects of wintery weather.

SEE ALSO: iPhotography Calendar: 12 Months Captured in 12 Stunning Snapshots

Wrap up warm and take a look through our gallery of snowy scenes. Link us in the comments to any great wintery shots you’ve captured on your cameraphone.

Thumbnail image courtesy of John de Guzmán

More About: apple, features, gallery, iphone, iphotography, photography

Google+ Pages have sparked a lot of discussion in B2B marketing circles. The ability to add multiple management functionality, site verification, and easy to integrate Google+ badges have leadership teams asking whether this truly is the next social media platform B2B marketers must focus upon....

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories.

Google’s Heads-Up Display Glasses

Google plans to launch glasses with a tiny heads-up display that will stream real-time information about the surroundings into the wearer’s field of vision, the New York Times reports. The glasses will cost approximately as much as a typical smartphone, and we could see them on the market by the end of 2012.

EU Court to Rule on ACTA

The European Commission has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the controversial anti-piracy agreement ACTA, the BBC reports. Though the agreement has already been signed by the U.S., UK, Japan and several EU countries, Germany, Denmark and Bulgaria have postponed the signing, fearing the document might be detrimental for their citizens.

The European Commission said it “decided today to ask the European Court of Justice for a legal opinion to clarify that the ACTA agreement and its implementation must be fully compatible with freedom of expression and freedom of the Internet.”

Samsung Galaxy S II Coming to US Cellular

Samsung’s flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S II, will be coming to US Cellular “soon” for a price of $239 on a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. The 4.5-inch device sports a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU, an 8-megapixel shooter and 16 GB of storage.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

More About: ACTA, eu, first to know series, Galaxy S II, Google, Google glasses, samsung

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The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.

If modern technology is a universal language, the world is getting schooled in innovation, especially in the public transportation sector.

The global transportation industry has become a testing ground for new payment systems, as cutting-edge technologies have been introduced to taxis, buses and trains worldwide to streamline your jaunts around town. From reserving and paying for a cab with an app to purchasing train tickets via an iPod, various countries are experimenting with new ways to reach out to travelers and make payment and transport a whole lot easier.

Get Taxi

Israel is already making an impact on the mobile payment industry with an app called Get Taxi, which coordinates cab pickups and payments. Without making a phone call, Get Taxi — which is available for Android, BlackBerryand iPhone devices — allows consumers to get a taxi at the click of a button in less than 30 seconds, as though it were an OpenTable reservation.

Once ordered, users can watch and track the reserved taxi on a smartphone’s map as it comes to pick them up — Get Taxi estimates the time of arrival and displays motion in real time. Much like airline travel, passengers can collect miles for free rides or prizes, and payment can be streamlined by saving your credit card information in the app.

The app has been hailed by Time Out Tel Aviv as app of the year, and the host of popular show Big Brother, Israel Assi Azar, tweeted on Friday that after several failed attempts to hail a taxi, he ordered one through the app that showed up just minutes later.

“We’ve had hundreds of thousands of downloads since the app launched, and the news of the service has gone viral,” says Nimrod May, vice president of offline marketing and strategic partnerships for Get Taxi. “Since you get the driver’s contact information ahead of time, parents feel safe sending their kids in Get Taxi cabs, and passengers also feel less frustrated when waiting for it to arrive since they can see where exactly the taxi is headed from.”

Get Taxi’s innovative concept also benefits the driver, bypassing the need for a dispatcher and welcoming cash, credit cards and business accounts for payment. Drivers are also assigned pick-ups close to their last drop location, so they don’t have to waste time or gas getting to their next location. A five-inch device — which is free for drivers and resembles a GPS system — can be installed in taxis to keep track of the latest reservation requests.

“A main component of the success is that the app is simple, it allows users to get full control over something they didn’t have control over before, and that the experience is optimized and seamless,” May says. “We couldn’t be happier with the results so far.”

Founded in 2010, Get Taxi seeks to reinvent the taxi market in Europe, which is valued at about $22 billion, according to the company. In addition to having a presence in Israel, the app is also available in London. Get Taxi plans to roll out the app in Moscow in March and then has its sights set on Paris, Spain, South Africa and eventually the U.S.

To spread more global awareness, Get Taxi is launching a Guinness Book of World Records initiative called “It’s on the Meter,” which will follow a taxi as it travels three continents, 39 countries, 10 time zones and more than 31,000 miles. Right now, the taxi is in San Francisco and will be headed to New York before it takes a ferry to Europe, Russia and then Sydney, Australia.

“We have already tremendously and positively disrupted an industry that wasn’t being tapped with cutting-edge technology,” May tells Mashable. “We think in the next five years that businesses will either have to keep up with the innovation or cease to exist.”

VeriFone Payment Terminals

In addition to being an early adopter to the GetTaxi app, London is no stranger to being at the forefront of other emerging technologies. In fact, taxi drivers in London were incentivized last year with nearly $5,000 to trade in their old models for newer vehicles that are more eco-friendly and boast state-of-the-art technology, such as back-seat TV sets and mobile payment machines powered by San Jose-based VeriFone that let you swipe or tap credit cards.

VeriFone is one of the most innovative mobile payment providers currently testing the waters with new technologies worldwide. Beyond its experimentation in London, the company recently deployed validator technology on bus systems in Turkey, allowing travelers to tap a pre-paid contractless card, issued by the country’s transportation authority to make jumping on board buses easier and more efficient. VeriFone is also using GPS-tracking on buses, so people waiting at a bus stop know in real-time how soon a bus will arrive.

“The buses in Turkey are equipped with GPS tracking and are constantly reporting their location to Verifone’s system in the cloud,” says VeriFone’s senior vice president of marketing, Paul Rasori. “VeriFone then sends messaging to signage at various bus stops to inform travelers that their ride is only four minutes or so away.”

High-Tech Subway Payment

Taxis and buses aren’t the only modes of transportation getting a taste of new tech. Austrian railway WESTbahn recently rolled out new payment technology onboard its trains with the help of the Apple products and mobile technology provided by VeriFone.

“There is a general trend in mobility with companies taking advantage of consumer mobile devices, such as iPhones, iPads and iPods,” Rasori says. “Customer service representatives on WESTbahn trains carry iPods that fit into a cradle to enable easy payments. It takes the customer service windows away, and it also allows people with near field communication-enabled (NFC) mobile phones to tap their devices to make a payment.”

Wireless carrier China Telecom Beijing Limited Company is also testing a new way to pay for its bus and subway systems with its “e-Surfing Traffic Card” program. The service incorporates a radio frequency user identifier module (UIM) card that integrates with China Telecom’s 3G mobile network and Beijing’s transport cards. To pay for a ride, users just need to swipe their mobile phones at designated spots. It can also be used to pay for products at participating merchants.

“Mobile payments technology has made advancements in the past few years across the globe, and it’s only expected to grow,” Rasori says. “What’s happening overseas will eventually come to the U.S. and in some cases, it’s already started.”

Rasori notes that just five years ago, New York City taxi cabs were cash only. Now with the incorporation of credit card systems attached to TV systems, 60% of fares are now electronic, and there could be more innovation on the way.

“In the future, you will even be able to buy lottery tickets from the back seat of a taxi,” Rasori says. “The capability exists and so does consumer interest, so it’s only a matter of time before we see more innovative technology in the public transportation industry.”

Series Supported by BMW i

 

The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles; it delivers smart mobility services within and beyond the car. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.

Are you an innovative entrepreneur? Submit your pitch to BMW i Ventures, a mobility and tech venture capital company.

More About: features, Global Innovation Series, mashable, Mobile, mobile payments

In order to mine social media marketing gold, you really need to roll up your sleeves, put on a pair of sturdy work boots, get into that little elevator, and descend that deep shaft into the gold mine yourself, pick in hand, and get to work.

Message boards and forums are full of marketing gold, but if gold were that simple to collect, everyone would be loaded.

Instead of walking you through the boring pedantics required to be an effective message board marketer, I will instead share with you an exemplar using the author and journalist Paul M. Barrett, author of the new New York Times best-selling book about the cult and culture of the Glock handgun, Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun.

Long story short, I received a direct message via Twitter last November from @GlockTheBook asking me if I might be interested in receiving a copy of a forthcoming book about Glock, the gun. Out of nowhere. Obviously someone had done their homework, and I was identified as a gun owner and sports shooter. I jumped at the opportunity to receive an early copy of the book. The folks at Crown hooked me up with a copy for my Kindle, and I read it through and was wowed. I wrote an earned media review and quickly became part of the author’s street team.

Paul had an ambitious plan: divide and conquer the entire online Glockosphere. His marketing strategy was unique and bold, at least in comparison to other high-caste and high-pedigree writers I have met and consulted for. His marketing plan included not only the influential grass-tops but went for a deep-dive into the passionate world of the firearms, pistols, Glocks, and the Second Amendment grassroots – into the deepest reaches of the gold mine and into the lowly and often-ignored message boards and forums.

As it turned out, his lovely wife Julie Cohen was the reason why Paul reached out to me and to dozens of other gun  buffs and communities all over the Internet throughout the course of his book promotion campaign. In fact, I recently discovered that it was Julie who discovered that I was a brand new gun owner who loved taking my Glocks to the range to make holes in paper and sent me the DM asking if I wanted to received an advance copy to review.

Whether Julie is Paul’s puppetmaster, guiding him into the nooks and crannies of Glock-related conversation online no matter where they happen, it was Paul who was willing to get in there, all fisticuffs, and open himself up to trolls and haters in the rarefied air of anonymous communities with the ultimate goal of making friends and selling books. And yet I hope Paul Barrett’s experience marketing online by virtually shaking hands and kissing babies was well worth his valuable time. Actually I know it was.  A few weeks ago I got to meet Paul and Julie for coffee in person before he did a reading at Politics & Prose.

Message boards allow others to join the conversation — whenever

I will paraphrase Julie here when I say that no matter how prestigious a live book tour is and how personally fulfilling doing readings in bookstores always is for a writer, tours are insanely expensive, time-intensive, exhausting, and all too often completely ephemeral.

However, when you’re willing to add to this real-world dog and pony show the same kind and quality of community engagement online that you do during the book tour (all from the comfort of your home), then spending the time meeting people online, where they congregate anyway, is worthwhile.

Some of the benefits are simple: Message boards are a permanent record, so all the sharing that Paul did, all the questions he answered, and all the good will he fostered is there for the life of the board. Not only that, but because of the asynchronous nature of message boards, Paul needs to linger around each board for weeks to make sure he’s a responsive participant. It’s not as quick as just popping into a bookstore, spending a few hours reading and chatting, and then leaving.

Message boards aren’t real time. They required Paul to monitor responses and come back over the course of couple of days or a week. This allows more people to engage over time, allowing Paul the ability to really consider his responses or draft and revise his response before committing. It also allows members and participants to get over being star struck and get real.

It also needs to be said that, for every message board member who actively asks questions, makes accusations, or debates an issue, there are at least a hundred, maybe a thousand, non-participants who are every bit as committed to their message board community.

These “lurkers” were completely engaged when they saw Paul and “NYC Shoots” go at it in a heated debate on The High Road forum. By showing commitment to the community and a bit of bravery when challenged, Paul earned respect in the community, earning new fans and protectors as well as showing what he was made of in front of potentially 143,051 High Road registered members.

If bravery, boldness, and heroism under duress and challenge can’t sell books, I don’t know what can.  If Paul M. Barrett, an assistant managing editor of Bloomberg Businessweek and author of American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion and The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America, still thinks it is essential to engage the lowly, antiquated message board and forum as part of his book publicity tour, what’s your excuse?

Via BiznologyChris Abraham is a partner in Socialmedia.biz and co-founder and principal of Abraham Harrison LLC, an international consulting group with specialties in online word-of-mouth/conversation marketing and online business & technology strategy advising. See his profile, contact Chris via email, Twitter, or leave a comment below.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported.

Google plans to launch glasses with a heads-up display by the end of 2012, the New York Times reports citing sources familiar with the matter.

The glasses, who were previously rumored to have a front-facing camera with flash and a voice input interface, will be Android based, sources say.

They will include a display, mere inches from the wearer’s eye, streaming real-time info about your surroundings, similar to the various augmented reality applications we’ve seen on smartphones.

The data will be fetched through a 3G/4G data connection, and the glasses will retrieve information about their surroundings through GPS and several sensors.

The glasses will cost “around the price of current smartphones,” sources say. While definitely not very precise – current smartphones cost anywhere from $150 to $600 – this price range shows that Google intends the glasses as a product for the mass market.

Will these glasses be something you need as opposed to want? We doubt it – we haven’t seen a must-have augmented reality application yet, although we have seen some very cool ones in the past.

AR heads-up display glasses, however, are the stuff sci-fi dreams are made of, and it’s a product we’d definitely like to see in the real world – even if they make us look like total geeks.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Jason McDermott.

[via New York Times]

More About: Google, Google glasses, heads-up glasses

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Today’s Google Doodle barely resembles the usual company logo, as Google celebrates the 155th birthday of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.

The name Hertz is today familiar to practically everyone who’s in contact with computer technology. The processors that power today’s computers, smartphones and tablets all have their heartbeat expressed in hertz (Hz), or – more likely – megahertz or gigahertz.

Hertz is a SI unit of frequency which measures the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. German scientist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, who was born on Feb 22 1857, was the first to prove the existence of electromagnetic waves, and the hertz unit was established in his honor in 1930, thirty six years after his death.

Interestingly enough, though he was the first to prove that electromagnetic waves can travel over distance, Hertz did not find a use for his discovery. Nevertheless, his experiments with electromagnetism paved the way for the invention of radio and television.

Google Doodle in Hertz’ honor is one of the relatively rare animated doodles from the company. How do you think it compares with previous animated Google doodles?

Bonus: Here are the best Google Doodles of 2011:

1. Martin Luther King Jr.

This Google Doodle, displayed Jan. 17, features a group of children playing hopscotch — an homage to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: google doodle, Heinrich Hertz, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz

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There have been many mixed reviews about the latest Google Analytics UI. Putting the frustration of having to learn a new UI aside (here's a great guide to navigating the new Google Analytics interface), the new Google Analytics actually brings to the table great customization options. One of my favorites being custom dashboards.

Both the old and new interfaces offer a standard dashboard that acts as an overview of your analytics profile. But where the new UI has its advantage is with your ability to create your own dashboard - in fact, you can create up to 20 of them for each profile.

Creating Dashboards

The first thing we'll want to do is click the "+ New Dashboard" link on the left navigation of your profile's Home tab. Google will then ask you to name the dashboard and to choose either a "Blank Canvas" or a "Starter Dashboard." The Starter Dashboard is just like the default dashboard you already have in Google Analytics, so let's choose "Blank Canvas." Now it's time to populate your dashboard with widgets.

There are two ways you can customize your new dashboard:

1. Use the "Add Widget" feature on your dashboard
2. Navigate to the view you want in Google Analytics and click the "Add to Dashboard" link.

When you use the "Add Widget" feature, there are four types of widgets you can choose from:

1. Metric - This will show you a single metric as well as a "sparkline" for that metric (which is basically a tiny line graph)
2. Pie - Displays a breakdown of various metrics in pie chart form
3. Timeline - A graph (only) of any metric (or compare two metrics) over any period of time
4. Table - Your traditional Google Analytics table, but it can be customized to only display what you've setup (including filters)

You build each widget the same way you would segment/filter data in Google Analytics normally. The key here is saving the view to your dashboard so you can quickly login and review performance without having to set everything up again.

As you add more widgets to your custom dashboard, you can easily drag, drop and rearrange your widgets into one of the three dashboard columns.

Now that we know how to setup dashboards, let's take a look at some useful SEO dashboards you should consider creating.

SEO Monitoring Dashboard

The purpose of this dashboard is simple: a quick look into the health of your SEO campaign.

Widget #1: Total Organic Non-Branded Keyword Traffic (Metric/Timeline)

With this metric/timeline widget, we're simply wanting to look at our total number of organic, non-branded search traffic. Remember, with the metric widget, you can only look at a single metric. If you only want to see the total number of visits, add a metric widget. However, if you'd like to see the total visit count broken out over the selected date range, you'll want to add it as a timeline widget.

For this widget, we'll add a Metric/Timeline with the following dimensions:

Widget #2: Total Organic Non-Branded Keyword Conversions (Metric/Timeline)

In this widget we're looking to get a snapshot of just how many total conversions (or transactions) that have been generated by our non-branded organic keyword referrals.

For this widget, we'll add a Metric/Timeline with the following dimensions:

Just like before, if you'd prefer to see this over time you can change this widget to be a timeline instead of a metric widget.

Widget #3: Total Organic Non-Branded Keyword Traffic (Table)

This widget filters out your branded search keyword referrals so you can get right to the keywords you're most interested in. You may also consider adding an additional filter to remove (not provided) if it takes up a significant number of the results.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

You'll notice that I didn't choose any goals for the secondary metric. We'll cover that in the next widget. For now, we want to get a good understanding of what keywords are driving

Widget #4: Total Organic Non-Branded Keyword Conversions/Transactions (Table)

In this widget we're looking to get a quick look at our top converting/transaction keywords. Once again, I recommend filtering out your branded search terms. Depending on how many important conversion points you want to keep track of, you may need to add more than one widget of this type because you can only view two metrics in each Table widget.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

Widget #5: Top Social Action Content (Table)

You'll find it easier to navigate to this report in the Standard Reporting section of Google Analytics (Audience > Social > Pages) and adding the widget using the top navigation bar in Google Analytics. The goal of this particular widget is to quickly see which content on your site is getting shared the most in social media. That way you'll know what content topics have the best chance of going viral.

By default Google will show you information for only Google+, in a future post I'll walk you through how to get other sites like Twitter and Facebook setup on here, too.

If your blog content lives under a /blog/ subfolder, you may want to consider filtering the report to only look at that content.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

After I added the widget to our SEO Monitoring dashboard, I went back and edited it to also include total visits as well.

Widget #6: Top Content Traffic & Conversions (Table)

In addition to knowing what content is getting shared the most, I like to keep an eye on what blog content is getting the most traffic and conversions.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

Don't forget to filter in just your blog content if that is the area you want to focus on.

Widget #7: Organic Search Engine Referrals (Pie)

I like to keep an eye on which search engines are sending me traffic and how it changes over time. The best way to get a snapshot of this is to add a pie chart widget.

For this widget, we'll add a Pie with the following dimensions:

I chose to only look at the top three organic search engine referrals, but you can select up to six for your pie chart.

Widget #8: Page Load Speed (Table)

We also need to keep an eye on any pages that are loading slow. We can actually setup the widget to only look at organic traffic page load speeds, although it would be in your best interest to look at all your content, not just that just with organic visits.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

The above table shows you your top ten slowest loading landing pages, and also includes how many visits that pages receives. You can sort by either, but it's probably best to tackle the pages with the slowest load time first.

Widget #9: Site Search Keywords (Table)

The final piece to our monitoring puzzle: a list of keywords being searched for the most on our internal site search. This is a great way to generate new keyword ideas and to find new usability ideas (more on that later).

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

I also like to add conversions as a dimension to this widget so I can not only keep an eye on which terms are getting searched for the most, but also which lead to the most conversions.

Website Redesign Dashboard - SEO Focus

So it's time for the dreaded redesign process. You have a pretty good idea of what's ahead: long nights, lots of frustration and hopefully, a great looking website not too far down the line. With this dashboard you can quickly gain insight into what changes you should be making in the upcoming redesign to help out your SEO campaign.

You might also consider renaming this dashboard to be a Usability dashboard so you can frequently check-in on how well your site is performing for your visitors.

We'll be borrowing a few of the widgets in our SEO Monitoring dashboard, but also adding a few. Let's first look at which widgets we should be re-adding to this new dashboard:

Widget #1: Top Converting Keywords (SEO Monitoring Widget #2)

A website redesign offers a great opportunity for keyword inclusion throughout our site's architecture (navigation, URLs, etc.) With this widget we can keep an eye on which keywords we should be focusing these optimization efforts on.

Widget #2: Top Social Action Content (SEO Monitoring Widget #5)

Which social networks are engaging the most with your content? What pages are getting the most engagements? Answering these questions will help you create a user experience that is not only tailored to your top social network traffic drivers, but that also encourages social sharing.

You'll also want to look closely at what makes the content in this report so shareable. Is it because of the way they are laid out? The images they use? These insights can really help you carry that experience throughout your new site.

Widget #3: Top Converting Content (SEO Monitoring Widget #6)

Just like with the top social action content, you want to keep an eye on the content that is working best (and worst). This will allow you to duplicate your successes and (hopefully) eliminate your failures.

Widget #4: Page Load Speed (SEO Monitoring Widget #8)

The redesign is the perfect time to address page load speed problems. Take a look at the slowest rendering pages in this table and determine what the common problems are that are slowing the load speed down.

Widget #5: Site Search Keywords (SEO Monitoring Widget #9)

Site search is great for finding new keywords, it's also a great way to figure out what problems people are having navigating your site. With this widget you can quickly see the types of content people are expecting to find on your site - but aren't able to.

On to our new widgets!

Widget #6 & #7: SEO Geographic Summary (Table) & Language (Table)

Is it time to consider translating your site for a new geographic audience? This type of change will definitely need your attention as an SEO. It's also an opportunity for you to branch out your link building into new languages.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

The organic traffic filter I have in place is definitely optional. I think it helps keep the data set you're looking at more consistent by restricting it to organic visits only like the other widgets are set to.

For the Language widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

You'll note that I also filtered out all non-organic traffic here, too.

Widget #8: Top Exit/Bounce Pages (Table)

For this particular widget, we're once again trying to identify problem pages. Any pages that have a high exit/bounce rate should get a close review to see if the cause for people leaving can easily be identified.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

It's important that we filter out any blog content that naturally creates high bounce rates. If you also have an event like a Account Login on your site, you may wish to use Google's Event Tracking to filter out those visits as well.

Widget #9: Mobile Devices (Pie)

Which mobile devices are your visitors using to access your site? Are you getting a substantial number of visits? Do you anticipate it growing during the life of the next site design? More than likely this will be an area of focus for your redesign. It's important that you know exactly which devices your consumers are using to view your site so you can ensure compatibility.

For this widget, we'll add a Pie with the following dimensions:

Widget #10: Browser Conversion Rate (Table)

Finally, I like to take a look into what browser our visitors are using most, and what their conversion rate currently is. We all say we test all browsers for compatibility, but there are always pages that were rushed or that just fell through the cracks that might not be presenting themselves the way you had hoped.

For this widget, we'll add a Pie with the following dimensions:

Holistic Dashboard

It's no secret that to succeed in today's online marketing world you need to be doing more than just SEO. Not just from the sense that other marketing efforts can help drive in new leads, but because it helps your SEO campaign succeed.

This dashboard highlights how your PPC and social media efforts are performing, so you can take that information and apply it to your SEO campaigns.

Widget #1: Top Social Action Content (SEO Monitoring Widget #5)

This widget will allow us to keep track of what types of content are performing best from a social perspective.

Widget #2: Top Referral Conversion/Transaction Sources (Table)

Within this report we'll be able to quickly see which social networks are the most profitable in terms of conversions and/or actual transactions. This is a great way to see which social networks respond well to your offering, and that you should be investing more time in.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

Ideally you'll want to setup a filter to only look at social networks. If you're good about tagging your URLs with custom variables, then you can change the filter to look at the medium and enter the medium value you use for social URLs (example: social).

Widget #3: Top Paid Converting/Transaction Keywords (Table)

Ever since the (not provided) update, we've all lost out on valuable keyword data. But just as Google hoped we would, we can get this information from our PPC spend. With this widget we'll look at the keywords that are driving the most conversions/transactions for our PPC marketing, so we can look into targeting them in our SEO marketing, too.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

Widget #4: Top Paid Revenue Generating Ad Groups

Just like with our previous keyword widget, I also like to look at the top performing ad groups. This is a good way to know what top level topics are performing the best for your paid search campaigns, so you can prioritize them in your SEO campaigns.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

Widget #5: Top Paid Landing Pages (Table)

If you're not using custom landing pages for your paid search campaigns, this is a great way to see which keywords are working best for the various pages on your site. I like to run these types of tests before I commit to any keywords for SEO.

For this widget, we'll add a Table with the following dimensions:

That's just three of the 20 dashboards you could setup in Google Analytics. What are you adding to your dashboards to make them more actionable?

Categories: conversion tracking

Social media storytelling tool Storify finally untethered itself from the desktop on Wednesday with the launch of a free iPad app.

Like the web-based version of Storify, which has been used by news organizations such as the New York Times and Al Jazeera, the app makes it easy to scroll through and assemble Tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook photos and Instagram photos in a social media timeline. Its drag-and-drop interface translates perfectly to the iPad.

Storify stories, which can now be published and shared through the iPad app as well as the web app, are easy to embed on any web page. No matter where the stories are posted, each element within them maintains its functionality. Tweets, for instance, can be retweeted directly from a Storify timeline.

In web-based form, the tool has been used by media organization and citizen journalists to cover everything from arrests of reporters at Occupy Wall St. protests to Fashion Week.

Going mobile makes sense for the two-year-old startup. Good reporters leave their desks — and if Storify wants to be a go-to reporting tool, it had better do the same.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, jallfree

More About: Storify

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Calling all supertaster space nerds: NASA wants your help to improve the bland food astronauts would have to eat while on a mission to Mars.

The space agency is looking for applicants to eat astronaut food for four months during a simulated trip to the Red Planet. Participants will try instant foods, and ones with shelf-stable ingredients, and scientists will record their reactions. The goal of the experiment is to discover what foods people like to consume consistently.

Cornell University and University of Hawaii-Manoa researchers want six people to eat space food and wear spacesuits on a lava flow in Hawaii for 120 days. Although, participants won’t actually go to space, the participants will act as if they are on Mars. The researchers will record the participants’ reactions to typical NASA foodstuffs, such as flour, sugar and dried meat.

Applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in engineering, biological or physical sciences, mathematics, or computer science, and they need to have professional experience. Don’t apply if you’re a smoker or don’t speak English. Selected participants will go through a two-week training mission and will be paid $5,000 upon successful completion of the mission.

Round-trip travel, space food and lodging will be paid for. The application is open until Feb. 29.

Who wants to apply for this project and fulfill (at least part of) their childhood dream to be an astronaut? What food would you want to take on a Martian mission? Tell us in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, adventtr

More About: Mars, NASA, space

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