Freetimers Web Marketing - Blog

After the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decided not to pursue a lawsuit against Google, it would seem that the internet giant has free reign to develop the future of search engines how it sees fit.

This has got us thinking about what could be next for Google. Over the past few years, we have seen some massive changes in the way that Google displays our search results. It's been a long time since a search resulted in the 10 most popular links. Google has moved away from directing you to other sites and has started to answer your questions. Think about it: you search for an address. Google maps provide you with a map and directions whether you need to get there by car, public transport or foot.

Search for a local restaurant; Google local will display opening times, contact information and reviews from other customers. So what do we think is next for the search engine? Google has always said that they want to make the search experience easier, faster and more accur...

Despite being branded as the 'boring social network', LinkedIn has proven to be a moneymaker after going public unlike its more social rival Facebook.

The business networking site has several money-making revenues which have all performed well over the last 12 months. LinkedIn made $40.2 million last year - a massive jump from the $13 million figure registered previously. Over half of the company's revenue came from the sale of job recruitment tools on the site. Unlike Facebook, who rely on ad sales for 84% of their total revenue, advertising accounts for just 1/4 of LinkedIn's revenue, with 1/5 coming from premium member subscriptions.

Having recently passed its two million member mark, with an average of two new members every second, the site looks set to go from strength to strength.

Greg Poulson of Freetimers is not surprised at the site's growth. LinkedIn has become an increasingly respected and well-used site by the business community with healthy...

The UK now has over 10 million active Twitter users, according to the micro-blogging site's latest research.

With more than 200 million users worldwide, this means that the UK now accounts for around 5% of the site's total users. We Brits also appear to have a greater need to tweet on the move, with 80% of users regularly tweeting from their mobile phones - considerably higher than the world average of 60%. Unfortunately, all this tweeting is not doing much for our social skills with 50% admitting to tweeting in bed and a third saying that they tweet during social situations.

For those Twitter addicts out there, you can now download every tweet you've ever sent. Simply request your archive in your settings to start your download.

In previous years, email spam was big business. Companies selling top-shelf products could easily (and cheaply) send out millions of emails in an attempt to find paying customers. Now it seems that these former spammers are being forced to pursue more legitimate avenues when it comes to online advertising.

The improvements in spam blocks and the popularity of social media sites such as Facebook who survive off advertising is the reason why email spam is at its lowest in five years. We have all seen banner ads on websites and the small adverts that sit to the side of a Facebook profile, selling a range of products from gadgets to cheap clothing. The good thing is that these ads are usually targeted to an individual's recent internet searches - and unlike spam emails can be easily be ignored.

If you're an iOS user - about $1b according to analysts Morgan Stanley. But why would Google happily pay in excess of an estimated £641 million to one of their biggest rivals? According to reports, Google take only 25 cents from every dollar they earn advertising on iOS, with Apple taking the rest. But apparently, it's the price they are willing to pay to keep iOS users from jumping ship to Microsoft's Bing search engines. However, Google doesn't come away empty handed - every search carried out provides them with data which they store. “Google has worked hard to ensure the popularity of their search engine and are keen to protect that popularity – even if it means giving Apple a large chunk of their advertising revenues,” comments Greg Poulson of Freetimers.

The article below is repeated from Business Matters online magazine. Greg Poulson of web developers and SEO specialists Freetimers (www.freetimers.co.uk) looks at how advances in internet technology have affected businesses, offering an insight into the future.

It's hard to imagine how a business could function effectively in 2013 without the internet. Yet the development of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee and his team came about relatively recently in 1989, whilst internet giants like Amazon and Google first appeared on the scene in the 1990s. As one of the pioneers of early web design, I have seen huge changes in the industry. Initially, the internet was much like an empty street not much traffic and it was easy to get people's attention. In fact, when my company Freetimers built its first client ecommerce site in 1998, there were only 400 competing sites worldwide. However, times have changed and that figure is now several million, meaning that whichever industry...