Google Updates

Google has released a few pretty interesting things this week.

The first is their browser, Chrome.  Although it might never end up dominating the browser market, it does have some unique features that set it apart from IE and Firefox.
•    Each tab is sandboxed.  This means that web applications running in one tab do not hurt the performance of any other tabs/websites you have open.  This is especially useful if one of your web applications crashes or freezes.  You only lose that particular tab, not the entire browser.  And if the browser is running slow, you can determine exactly which application or tab is causing the problem.
•    Search your web history.  With every tab you open in Chrome, websites you frequently visit are displayed, giving you the ability to quickly go to a favorite page.  And if you saw an article online earlier, but can’t for the life of you remember where you saw it, you can also search your browsing history from a new tab.
•    Built to search.  Typing in a web address in the navigation bar will pull up a list of popular websites according to Google.  You can also enter in search terms in the navigation bar and be taken directly to the results in Google.  (You can also set your search engine preferences to make Yahoo! or another engine your default if you wish.)
•    Privacy mode.  Google collects a lot of information, and the default setting on Chrome is to send your browsing history to Google, allowing it to customize search results, etc.  Not everybody enjoys this sharing of information, so there is an InCognito mode which will ensure your browsing privacy.  No history, no cookies, no sharing with Google or other people who may also use the same computer.

However, if you’re using Chrome, you’ve probably noticed there’s no Google Toolbar and (gasp!) no PageRank checker on it.  We’re not quite sure what this means, but it could be a signal that Google wants to move away from showing PR.  Matt Cutts, Google’s search guru, has stated in the past that he’d like to see the Page Rank indicators removed.  And checking Page Rank alone isn’t as good of an indicator of how your website is doing as it was in the past.

There were also two great updates to AdWords: geographic reports and separation of search and content network statistics.

The Geographic Performance reports will allow you to see how your ads are performing in different locations, as sorted by country, region, metro, and city.  This could also be a good way to find where your markets really are.

The separation of content and search network PPC statistics will better show how your ads are doing budget-wise.  This means better performance analysis and better optimization opportunities.  It seems an obvious thing to do, but it’s taken a long time for Google to introduce this.  Hopefully this will increase the ease of managing PPC campaigns, particularly if you’re running multiple search and content network ads.

Be sure to let us know what you think about some of Google’s latest updates.  Also, what do you think about Google’s position in the search engine and web application markets?  Are they the next Microsoft?

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