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From The Outline Google’s Featured Snippets are not only often wrong, they’re also damaging to small businesses that depend on search traffic. CelebrityNetWorth.com launched in 2008 because Brian Warner, a former finance major working at a digital media company, wondered what Larry David was worth. "Honestly, I wanted to know how much money Larry David had," Warner said. "I think Curb Your Enthusiasm had just come back, and I was like, 'God, he must have made so much money from Seinfeld.' I Googled something like 'Larry David net worth' and the results were garbage." According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, Larry David is now worth $400 million. Warner acknowledges that it’s an inexact science, but he and his employees don’t simply conjure their numbers. They look at real estate transactions, news reports of large purchases and salaries, and sometimes even correspond with the celebrity or their reps. Floyd Mayweather, whose net worth Warner estima

More from eMarketer Pointing not only to an influx of fake news and spam, but also an ongoing challenge to distinguish what's real and what's not, Google took down 1.7 billion ads last year that violated its advertising policies—more than double the amount it removed in 2015. In a post the company published yesterday, Google said it removed a vast amount of different types of ads. Google removed more than 17 million bad ads for illegal gambling violations and suspended around 6,000 sites, as well as another 6,000 accounts, for attempting to advertise counterfeit goods. In addition to keeping an eye out for these types of ads, which have been around for a while, Google also saw a rise of a new type of scammer, what it calls "tabloid cloakers," but many know it simply as fake news.

Google Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, handling more than three billion searches each day. The main purpose of Google Search is to hunt for text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers, as opposed to other data, such as with Google Image Search. Although many are familiar with the basic uses of Google search, there are a few tricks that some people don’t know of. The most basic example is the “I’m Feeling Lucky” search option on the home page. When you search using the normal Google Search option it brings out a list of possible results from different websites. However, Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” option opens the very first link it generates from your search. It can save you time if you are searching for websites, but may not be accurate when searching for people or some products. Yet, this barely scratches the surface of Google Search’s capabilities. Have you ever struggled to fi

Last June, Facebook released a tracking pixel, a snippet of code that allows advertisers to track customers who come to their websites from Facebook ads. For Amy Norman, co-chief executive officer of Little Passports, the pixel was a game-changer. Ms. Norman, whose San Francisco company sends children a monthly package to introduce them to geography and history, began testing ads on Facebook to see which ones brought in more customers. In June, Little Passports spent about $30,000 on Facebook ads and the company’s revenue for the month was about $130,000. By the end of the year, the company’s monthly advertising spending on Facebook had grown to as much as $150,000 and its revenue for December was $700,000. Ms. Norman acknowledged that $150,000 was a huge amount of money to spend on advertising in a month for a company with annual revenue of just under $2 million, but she said “we also tripled our customer base in six months.” More from the New York Times .

In 2013, organizations finally began in earnest to integrate social technologies into recruitment, development and engagement practices. In 2014, this social integration will become the status quo. The digital immigrants have now caught up to the digital natives – we are now all digital citizens. The fastest growing demographic on Google+ is 45-54 and on Twitter it is 55-64! And it’s a good thing that baby boomers and other older generations have embraced these tools, because using social media inside companies will be increasingly important in 2014 and beyond. More from FORBES .

Google is introducing Friday 15 , a series of talks with industry experts designed to help small businesses succeed online. It promises to provide small business solutions in 15 minutes or less. You have an opportunity to join the live Hangout with Google on Friday, January 11, 2013 at 11am PST/2pm EST. The topic will be Google Trends; an industry expert explains how to use Google Trends to grow your business. Visit www.gybo.com/friday15 to learn how to join the Hangout, sign up for email reminders, and watch previously recorded sessions.

From Marketing Profs : On average, nearly one-half (47%) of social media users say they've taken some type of action offline (e.g., attending an event, meeting someone in person, making a purchase) after interacting with a social networking site, according to a survey from ACTIVE Network. Across the five social networks studied—Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest—Facebook drives the most offline actions overall: 87% of Facebook users have taken some type of action offline as a result of an interaction via the site. Pinterest (70%) ranks second in generating offline actions, followed by LinkedIn (60%), Twitter (56%), and Google+ (37%).

From Manta.com "When’s the last time you Google’d your own business? Set time aside today to search for your business name on Google. Review which websites are listing your business information, keep track of those online listings and update them when your company information changes. Consistency and accuracy are key to being found online by customers!" But try checking on different computers. Google will often give you the results it thinks you want.

From SmallBusinessNewz With Google’s ever evolving algorithms, producing fresh content is more important than ever. Importance of good content marketing But does it have to be high quality or will any old thing do? If you’re outsourcing your content production, don’t let financial matters cloud your judgement, as quality will always outweigh quantity. Not convinced? OK, look at it this way. Everything you put out on the web is there to promote your business in some way shape or form. It may not be a blatant advert, but it will be designed to drive traffic to your website and therefore will be associated with your company. Now are you beginning to see why quality is important? If you’re still struggling, here are 6 points worth remembering when it comes to content marketing.

Think about it: Most customers will hear your business name before they know anything about your products or services. Like all first impressions, you only get one, so you better make it count. Leonard Green, professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College, suggests that a name be quick, unique and easy to remember. “You have 10, 15, 20 seconds to catch people’s attention,” he says. “Just get in there and do things differently than what everybody else is trying to do, because that’s where the home runs come from.” More HERE .

Google introduced a new program in partnership with American Express called My Business Story. This lets small businesses tell their stories through videos, and leads up to the second annual Small Business Saturday, which is aimed at encouraging communities to spend and support local businesses. Deadline is November 15. More HERE .

The press release read: "Through a partnership among GSA, the U.S. Government Printing Office, and Google, 100 of the most popular government publications are now available to download for free online. This partnership will allow for greater access to these documents and contribute to an open and transparent government. As more documents become available online, it will eventually reduce the number of documents that GSA’s Federal Citizen Information Center prints while reducing costs and the environmental impact." Sounds great! So I decided to check it out at pueblo.gpo.gov/FreePubs.php . I should note that one can order almost any of the physical items and receive them in one to three weeks, rather than writing to Pueblo, Colorado, like I used to. First couple categories, Cars and Consumer Action Handbook, each had only one item, but one could click on the link and make a PDF. But several areas had no such link. Under Small Business was Diversifying Your Workforce, with no

From SBA: Recently, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Google announced a new partnership and unveiled "Tools for Online Success," an array of online resources and training designed to help small business owners harness technology to grow their businesses. The site at www.google.com/help/sba , features tutorials, video testimonials, and tips from savvy small business people who have leveraged the web to become more efficient, more cost-effective, and more successful. "The SBA is pleased to partner with Google to put these important tools in the hands of small businesses across the country," said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. "As the web evolves and consumers adapt accordingly, we know that more customers are finding traditional ‘Main Street’ businesses online. With these tools for online success, we can ensure these small businesses reach new markets and customers so they can continue to create jobs." "One fifth of searches on Google

This week, Google and the Small Business Administration announced a partnership and unveiled Tools for Online Success , a website designed to "educate local businesses about how to succeed online". Through tutorials, tips, and short videos of business owners who have found success online, small business owners can "become more efficient, more cost-effective, and more successful". “The SBA is pleased to partner with Google to put these important tools in the hands of small businesses across the country,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “As the web evolves and consumers adapt accordingly, we know that more customers are finding traditional ‘Main Street’ businesses online. With these tools for online success, we can ensure these small businesses reach new markets and customers so they can continue to create jobs.” The best part, Mills said, is that it’s free.

I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to using search engines - I tend to use one search engine for every search. Obviously, I use databases and specific resources when I am doing research, but if I want to start a search from scratch, I head straight to Google. If I were to search for a video or audio file, I use Google. If I want to search for a topic or article, I use Google. But by doing this, I am limiting myself. There are hundreds of search engines available for use and many of them are geared toward searching for a specific type of file or result. 100+ Alternative Search Engines You Should Know lists many niche search engines that allow the searcher "to search for the things you’re looking for, and because they are more focused, their results tend to be more accurate." For example, MyPlick is a free service that lets you share, embed and discover presentations and slide shows online. TooDoc searches the web for PDF files and nothing else. You can even

About a week after Google announced its plan to launch an open-source operating system, Microsoft announced it will launch a “free version of its dominant Office software that users can access over the Web,” according to Jim Finkle’s article from www.wired.com . The web-based operating systems and applications will allow users to create, store and share information quicker and for less money. This is a great concept but there may be a downside. Is there enough bandwidth to support more people accessing the Internet and more people participating in bandwidth-demanding activities?

Google recently launched an application, Latitude , that tracks users’ location using GPS and cell-tower triangulation. "Latitude" is an opt-in application meaning users can choose to share their geographic location with friends. This application broadcasts the users’ location but is equipped with "fine-grained privacy controls" built into the application that allow the user to control how precise the location they broadcast is. The location can be as specific as available through "Latitude's GPS and cell-tower triangulation technologies" or as broad as city-level. Users can also control who is allowed to view their location by limiting the audience to a circle of friends or a specific person. Is this creepy or is it another way to minimize geographic distance and provide another avenue for information? Google Latitude video - Amy Peker

On a website, I saw a reference to the price of gas as 1.279. Initially, I didn't get it. Then I realized I was on a Canadian website and it was a reference to Canadian dollars per liter. So what is that in US dollars per gallon? And how do I figure it out without having to do two calculations, one for liter to gallon and another for the currency. Google, of course. To use my example, type: 1.279 CAD per litre in USD per gallon and click "Google Search". When I did it at noon on August 11, the result was "1.27900 (Canadian dollars per litre) = 4.58349234 U.S. dollars per US gallon". By the way, it doesn't matter if you spell it "litre" or "liter". What you will need is the three-letter code for currency, which you can find several places, including here , one of the sites noted on this website . More about Google's unit conversions here . Tip of the cap to Arthur @ AmeriNZ , who mentioned this on his podcast.

A new search engine, Cuil - pronounced "cool" - started today. You can read all about its claims of being "better than Google" here and here , among many other places. Apparently, it was having start-up jityters, as one person indicated that one couldn't access it at all fotr a time. But I got through and tried New York State Small Business Development Center ; it actually suggested the whole name after I had typed New York State Sm My result: We didn’t find any results for "New York State Small Business Development Center" Some reasons might be... a typo. Please check your spelling. your search includes a term that is very rare. Try to find a more common substitute. too many search terms. Please try fewer terms. Finally, try to think of different words to describe your search. It’s the first item on Google. Meh. And as a matter of vanity, I cuiled my blogs and they showed on the 7th page, while they're on the first page on Google. As this wri

Mary Ellen Bates is a respected information consultant. I receive an e-newsletter from her, and this month's issue had this bit that I think is pretty cool: "If you are based in the US, you can search for local companies through your cell phone, regardless of whether or not your phone has web capability. If you call 1-800-GOOG411 (1-800-466-4411), you will be asked to say the city and state you want information on - Boulder, Colorado, for example - then you say the type of business or specific business name you want - for example, "book store" or "Barnes and Noble". A text-to-speech program will read you the top eight results from its local search ( http://local.google.com/ ). If you want, Google can automatically dial any of the first eight businesses' phone number, or you can ask to have the address and phone number read to you." (From Bates Information Services, www.BatesInfo.com/tip.html ) A visit to the Google website for this service repeated