Facebook today announced that it is bringing hashtags to its service, letting users add context to a post, indicate that it is part of a larger discussion, as well as discover shared interests. The company says hashtags have become “a vital part of popular culture” and since it has seen users using them on the social network organically, it has decided to actually implement the feature.
While you could always technically create a hashtag on Facebook (just put a # before any word), they will now be clickable, taking you to a feed of what other people and Pages are saying about that event or topic. On hashtag pages, you will naturally only be able to see the posts that you would normally see elsewhere on the social network: those that your friends have shared with you as well as those shared as Public.
The new feature means Facebook users can now:
Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar. For example, #Wimbledon2013, #FathersDay or #Wedding.
Click on hashtags that originate on other services, such as Instagram.
Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, the hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol #. Facebook mentions other services that use hashtags, putting Instagram first on its list, and then noting competitors Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest, but notably excluding Google+. Although Twitter does not own the concept of the hashtag, the company has popularized it to the point most people associate the phrase with the social network – nowadays it’s difficult to find a Twitter feed without multiple hashtags, and many tweets have arguably too many.
Facebook and Twitter regularly grab features from each other as use cases for the two social networks continue to overlap. Many users nowadays have both Facebook and Twitter accounts, although the former service is still significantly larger than the latter.
Recently, Facebook changed the name of its “Subscribe” button to “Follow” and also renamed subscribers to followers. This tweak came after Facebook built its own button similar to Twitter’s Follow button.
A rumor suggesting Facebook could soon be adding hashtag support first surfaced in March. Given that Facebook last year acquired Instagram, which uses hashtags mainly to let users sort through photos, we noted at the time that hashtags could be a way for the company to bring the two services closer together, but right now that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Facebook is presumably adopting the hashtag for the same reasons as Twitter: to let its users organize and filter messages around a single topic or theme. This offers yet another way to browse the social network, in addition to manually going to people’s Timeline profiles and of course visiting the News Feed.
In fact, the company hints that hashtags “are just the first step” in a series of features that will bring conversations about public events, people, and topics on the social network to “the forefront of people’s Facebook experience.” Some of these include trending hashtags and deeper insights, slated to arrive “in the coming weeks and months,” but Facebook wouldn’t share more.
It has been widely reported that HTC is planning to launch a scaled-down version of its flagship HTC One smartphone. Engadget on Wednesday posted an image of what it claims is the HTC One mini next to the full-sized One smartphone. The website confirmed that the handset will be equipped with a smaller 4.3-inch 720p display, a 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor and an Ultrapixel rear camera. Like HTC’s larger smartphone, which BGR calledone the best designed Android devices of all time, the mini will feature an all-metal body, front-facing speakers and run Sense 5 atop Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that the HTC One mini will be available in the U.S. in August
As an increasing number of developers get their hands on Apple's latest iOS 7 beta, some have voiced concern over the seeming disappearance of Spotlight search, though closer inspection shows Apple has cleverly relocated for easier access.
Whereas previous versions of iOS, including iOS 6, relegates the global search utility to its own panel, accessible only by swiping left or clicking the home button while on the home page, iOS 7 makes the feature available on any app screen by swiping down from anywhere in the app field.
To access Spotlight, users simply employ a "pull down" gesture from an area outside of the dock, including the top row of app icons. This brings up the familiar "Search iPhone" text box, in which users can look for apps, files, email messages and more. A tap outside of the text box and keyboard area will revert back to a normal app page view.
The implementation may be troublesome for users with smaller hands, as reaching for the Notification Center, which is still accessed by a pull down from above the display, could instead trigger a Spotlight search. Apple appears to be taking gesture control to another level, relying less on the physical home button.
Whether you're convinced that Google+ is a virtual ghost town or not, it can be difficult to refute the social network's stable of unique tools and features for business users. One of the most valuable is Google Hangouts, the tool that allows you to host video chats online.
With Google+ Hangouts, up to nine people can chat face-to-face for free on the network. Participants can watch a YouTube video together, doodle and collaborate using Google Docs.
Business owners can take the chat tool a step further with Google Hangouts on Air, which allows you to host video discussions and broadcast them live to the public. All a viewer needs to do is have a Google+ account and connect with a business of interest by adding it to his or her Circles. The video is broadcasted on the admin of that Page's personal YouTube channel and on the business's Google+ page.
Google+ Hangouts on Air can be helpful for internal and public use, but broadcasting them allows for deeper, face-to-face interaction with your customers that you might not be able to achieve with other channels online.
Here are some ideas for effective Google+ Hangouts on Air:
1. Offer free product demos and webinars to your customers.
Providing value to your customers for free can be a rewarding way to encourage them to pay for your services in the future. Whether you're giving a sneak peek into the cooking classes you offer or teaching your audience about the newest changes to Facebook's algorithm, using this feature can be ideal for turning viewers into customers.
2. Host customer service sessions.
Set times with your audience where you're open to question and answers sessions about your products or services. Hangouts allow viewers to take their turn and easily ask questions as they have them.
Try hosting one of these sessions to see if your audience is interested. If they are, be sure to remain consistent about when you hold the sessions and for how long.
3. Interview experts and leaders.
Grow your audience on Google+ and the variety of the information your company provides by inviting industry experts and leaders to do a Hangout on Air. Interview them from your company's perspective and allow for questions from viewers. It's important to leverage the expert's audience to increase viewers of the Hangout and the circlers to your Google+ Page.
4. Hold regular giveaways and contests.
Reward your audience by hosting Hangouts with the sole purpose of stirring face-to-face interactions through giveaways and contests. A live giveaway can encourage increased visits to your Google+ Page and increased viewership to your other Hangouts on Air.
Provide prizes that are valuable to your audience not just in price but relevant to their interests and the focus of your business. The cost of the items given away as prizes can be worth the circlers, viewers and increased brand awareness your business receives.
Snapchat, the application which allows you send photos and videos that automatically erase themselves has had a major update today which gives users a whole new GUI and some new features.
The most noticeable changes of this latest version, dubbed ”Banquo” includes:
Swipe Navigation from your inbox, to the camera, friends list, then add new friends screen
Double Tab on an opened snap to reply
More transparency on the camera screen
The option to save your own photos to your camera roll (after taking a photo on the camera screen)
View profiles in-app instead of the browser
Speed and Design Improvements (more colourful app background images)
Redesigned Camera Screen / Inbox – Double Tab on Snap to Reply
What I have also noticed, which I am not sure if a bug or a new design – the Snapchat icon now has a blank white face.
Old Snapchat iOS icon / New without facial features
However the official Snapchat website still has the full faced logo and no mention of a change. Sometimes app developers have icon issues when uploading a new update to the App Store (which may be corrected with a subsequent update).
The rub of the internet is that it is a collection of data centers filled with computing gear, networks that weave across continents, and a growing amount of battery-powered devices; all of these things need energy to operate. The disturbing part is that the energy consumption of the internet will only grow as the population hits 9 billion in 2050, and all of these people get connected to the internet.
But on the flip side of that energy suck is the idea that the internet can make processes and systems significantly more energy efficient, from transportation to shopping to the electricity network itself. Sustainability wonks call that dematerialization, or replacing atoms with bits. A study called Climate 2020 found that information and communications technology could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from other sectors of the economy, below business-as-usual growth, by 15 percent.
Other than that seminal report, there’s been a trickle of research that has reached conclusions along the lines of the notion that buying digital music online is a lot more energy efficient than driving to the store and buying a CD. Data center energy guru Jonathan Koomey, who’s a research fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and Stanford University, has led a bunch of this research, particularly around how the trend toward cloud computing has increased the energy efficiency of the internet. The web sharing economy is another much talked about trend that is indirectly making the use of goods (like cars and apartments) more efficient.
But all of this research is so new, and these issues are so complex, that answering that question — is the internet green or not? — is a very difficult one. After the day long Google event called How green is the internet? I have a lot more questions than answers.
More good than bad
Throughout the day of Google’s event it became clear that there are significant gaps in knowledge and in research. One of the problems for researchers has been getting access to really detailed industry data. The leaders of the internet industry have only just started to think about these issues, and are slowly warming up to the idea of giving their energy data to third party researchers. Google only revealed its total electricity use publicly a year and a half ago.
But if you ask that direct question — does the internet have a more positive or negative effect on the environment — there’s some researchers who are already leaning toward the positive camp. Koomey said at the Google event that he thought the preoccupation with the electricity use of the internet was misplaced. The overall system effects are more important than the direct electricity use, said Koomey, noting “Moving bits not atoms can have a major effect on efficiency.”
A research fellow from the Center for Industrial Ecology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, Vlad Coroama, echoed those thoughts at the Google event: “Sending bits is usually much more efficient than sending atoms.” Carnegie Mellon Professor Scott Matthews, who’s done research showing how e-commerce is more energy efficient than shopping at physical retail outlets, wondered if the introduction of digital goods and e-commerce could have such a large impact that it could reduce carbon emissions and energy use compared to the current physical processes by a factor of ten.
But the complexity of the internet as a system, and how it effects people’s behavior, makes calculating numbers around this very difficult. For example, the process of driving to the store to buy a physical book is clearly more energy intensive than hitting a button to buy a Kindle single on your Kindle. But then you also have to take into account more complex questions like the embodied energy of making the Kindle, and the idea that when consumption is so easy and efficient, you might buy and download exponentially more e-books.
Throughout the day at Google, many noted, like Google’s Urs Hoelzle, senior vice president of technical infrastructure, that problems and opportunities need to be looked at from an entire systems perspective. Looking at just one aspect of the equation doesn’t give the entire picture. A couple people at the event also noted to me that one of the universities or research centers should be acting as more of a research hub for this type of data.
Even some of the data that is out there is difficult to prove. Professor Coroama’s number — that it takes an average of 0.2 kWh/GB to send data across the internet — was head-scratching to some, and several people noted to me that the number seemed high.
Then there’s the soft effects of the internet on the planet that don’t have to do with energy consumption at all. The high level visionary speakers — both Gore and Schmidt — focused more on the internet’s ability to open up access to information and organize people, which could be used for environmental, and climate-fighting, causes. Gore said that the digital revolution and the explosion of data are some of the most powerful tools that can be used to help solve the climate crisis. It’s hard to quantify such soft effects, but they could still be very powerful.
Keep it that way
The main issue now will be as internet access grows, mobile phones connected to the web proliferate and internet companies build ever more data centers, how does the industry maintain sustainable growth so that the equation doesn’t flip, and so that the internet doesn’t start to have a negative effect on the environment? There’s going to be 9 billion people on the planet by 2050 that could have a handful of connected devices each, and some of them will be spending their lives immersed in digital data 24/7.
That’s exactly why I thought Google’s Summit was so important: As a way to shine a spotlight on the issue, address its complexity, and see how the problem can be solved as the internet grows. Essentially designing the growth of the internet with sustainability in mind. Google can be one of the leaders of this discussion, as can other internet companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook in addition to hardware companies like Cisco, IBM, and Intel.
Going forward, I’d like to see a hub grow at a university or research center that can act as a collection point to draw together this type of research, and also to help validate it. I’d also like to see more mainstream attention on this topic of the intersection of the Internet and the environment. At the Google event, it was invite-only and had about 100 people that had been thinking about these topics for years. This topic is important enough that is needs more mainstream attention and discussion.
Advertising legend Lee Clow has created some of the most iconic commercials of all-time thanks to his time working with Steve Jobs for over 30 years. He was the guy behind Apple’s 1984 commercial the ‘Think Different’ slogan and many more Apple ad campaigns.
At a recent PTTOW! summit, Clow shared what it was like to work with Steve over the course of their 30-year relationship. Clow also shares his personal theory that Steve was heavily influenced by Sony’s branding strategies when he chose to name his computer company ‘Apple.’
Qualcomm has added a former mobile chief to its board, naming Jonathan Rubinstein as a new director.Rubinstein then continued at HP, most recently leading product innovation for the personal systems group after the company largely wound down Palm's operations. Earlier in his career, Rubinstein ran Apple's ipod Divison and also served as senior vice president of hardware engineering at the Cupertino, Calif., electronics giant.
Rubinstein's appointment to Qualcomm's board is a logical pick. The company is the dominant provider of chips for smartphones, and it continues to expand its footprint in tablets and other devices. Rubinstein's experience at a handset vendor, as well as at a large computing company like HP, will help Qualcomm with its strategy.
The bulk of Qualcomm's board members have limited experience in the technology sector. Other current members of the board include Susan Hockfield, president emerita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Thomas W. Horton, president of AMR and American Airlines; and Francisco Ros, president of business consulting firm First International Partners.
After months of rumors that smaller, cheaper Windows 8 tablets are on the way, Asus will reportedly release such a tablet later this year. Jerry Shen, Asus' CEO, also told the Wall Street Journal that he believes prices for Windows 8 tablets will drop to an average of $300 before the year's end. Currently, most Windows 8 tablets are priced around $400 to $500, with displays of about 10-inches, so a cheaper option would give Windows a chance to compete more directly with the likes of Apple's iPad Mini and Google's Nexus 7.
Microsoft knows all this, and knows that it needs to get into the mini tablet game. So far, Asus appears to only be joined by Acer with plans to create a smaller Windows 8 tablet. On Friday, we saw an an 8.1-inch Acer tablet appear briefly on Amazon. Microsoft is alsorumored to be building a 7-inch Surface tablet that could launch later this year.
One matter that is still unclear at this point is what version of Windows 8 Asus' mini slates will run. Choosing between Microsoft's two versions of Windows 8 has been a contentious issue. Acer President Jim Wong said there's "no value" in Windows RT, although that company has said it was committed to making Windows RT products. And there's still the open question as to whether or not anybody wants to buy a smaller Windows 8 tablet. With Surface sales sluggish so far, and Microsoft failing to clearly statehow many copies of the Windows 8 it's sold to date, we just don't know yet if Windows tablets can match the success we've already seen on Android and iOS
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Fitbit on Monday released its Flex fitness tracker, a wristband device that combines technology from the company's other offerings with Bluetooth 4.0 to create a product meant to be worn 24 hours a day.
Source: Fitbit
Building on the success of its earlier fitness trackers, Fitbit is entering an already hotly-contested space with Flex, going up against the likes of Nike's FuelBand and Jawbone's Up.
Fitbit's new $100 wristband is actually a tracking module, with built-in accelerometer, Bluetooth 4.0 and near-field communications, that slips into a silicon wristband. The band can be purchased separately or in packs of three, with colors ranging from black to tangerine.
Fitbit Flex module.
Much like the firm's ONE and ZIP, Flex counts a user's number of steps, distance traveled, calories burned and minutes of activity. Also carried over from the ONE is a sleep quality tracker, which promises to take stats of how well a user slept during the night.
Hardware interaction is minimal, with only five white LEDs used as an interface to let users know when they reached their goals for the day.
One of the Flex's main features is claimed real-time tracking via Bluetooth 4.0, which automatically syncs with PCs, Macs, the iPhone 4S & 5, third-generation iPad, iPad mini and iPod touch. NFC is enabled for Android devices, which allows owners to open the Fitbit app by tapping the Flex and handset together. Battery life is said to be around five to seven days, and early reviews from CNET and TechCrunch seem to back up those claims.
Tracking software is the same feature-rich app Fitbit users are accustomed to, with goals, social connectivity, trends and support for third-party apps like My Fitness Pal and Run Keeper.
Whether you love Google or love to hate Google, you have to admit one thing. Google offers a lot of free tools to use with the convenience of being able to access them with one login.
Marketers in particular should take advantage of these tools to get more out of their search engine and social media marketing experience. The following are some of the top Google tools marketers should embrace from A to (almost) Z!
1. Google AdSense
Ever created a niche website for linking purposes, affiliate marketing, content development, or another reason that never panned out? If the website gets even a moderate amount of traffic, and you have no other use for it for the time being, why not earn a little income off of it using Google AdSense? By simply placing some ad code in the header, content, and sidebar of the website, you can earn some passive income. The amount you earn will depend on the topic of the website and the amount of visitors it receives.
2. Google AdWords
If you’re not getting good enough traction with organic search traffic, then you might want to consider a paid search campaign using Google AdWords. By bidding for the right keywords, you can gain a considerable amount of qualified traffic where the conversions will meet or exceed the value you pay for your ads. Be sure to use advanced targeting options for location, mobile or desktop browsers, and other criteria to get the target audience you want.
3. Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Need keyword ideas for your search engine marketing campaign or paid search advertising? Try the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. When you enter a term that offers a wide range of ideas, like SEO, you will get groupings of keyword ideas that you can dig deeper into. While the total of the global searches is not always spot on, it can give you an idea of whether one keyword is more or less popular than another. You can also see an approximate cost per click (CPC) amount, if you were trying to target the keyword using Google AdWords.
4. Google Alerts
Want to keep on top of the latest news, mentions of your brand, or other items in Google search? Then set up your Google Alerts. When you enter a search query, you will get a sample of the results you would receive and the option to have them delivered regularly to your email inbox or RSS reader. You can use this to keep up with your competition as well to see where they are getting mentionedor are building profiles.
5. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is probably one of the most powerful Google tools that you can use a as a marketer. You can learn so much about your website’s visitors including, but not limited to, the following:
Demographics – Learn more about your audience, including their location and language.
Social Engagement – See what social networks visitors come from and how they interact with your website’s social plugins (custom coding must be implemented).
Technology Used – Find out what browsers, operating systems, and networks your visitors are using to view your website.
Mobile Information – Curious if you need a mobile website? Find out how many of your visitors are using mobile technology.
Traffic Sources – Analyze what websites, keywords, search engines, and other referrers send traffic to your website.
Top Content – Get a handle on how effective your content is by seeing your top entry and exit pages.
What Leads to Conversions – Set up goals in Google Analytics to find out which visitors complete conversions such as purchasing a product or signing up for a mailing list.
So really, there is no excuse for not using this powerful and, best of all, free tool on your website.
6. Google Blogger
If you want to start a blog, but you’re not ready to commit to a self-hosted blogging platform such as WordPress, then you might want to consider Blogger. If it’s been awhile since you last took a look at it, you might be interested in some of the latest improvements noted in the above video. There have been rumors in the past that getting links on Google-owned properties can help with the indexing of your website, so don’t overlook the power of Blogger!
7. Google Blog Search
You may be wondering exactly what is so special about Google Blog Search that merits a mention as a powerful Google tool. It’s not necessarily the search itself, but the fact that you can turn the search results into an RSS feed. Why is this so great? If you take the following URL:
Then replace domain.com with your website, you can get an RSS feed of the latest links to your website on a blog.
You can use this to keep up with mentions of your website on blogs, or you can use this to keep up with your competitors. For example, if you are looking forguest posting opportunities, seeing what your competitors can get might lead you to some good places to submit to yourself.
8. Google Books
If you love reading, then Google Books can be a good place to go to find books online in all genres, some of which you can read for free. But from a marketing perspective, if you have a book, then you will want to get it listed on Google Books so that you can sell it to an even larger audience, especially now that Google is competing with iTunes and other online media retailers with their newGoogle Play store for music, books, movies, and Android apps.
9. Google Calendar
Want to keep up with important events in your daily schedule? Then Google Calendar is the answer. You can share your calendar with other users or even to the public and embed it onto your website. You can even set reminder alerts to be sent as a popup when you’re logged in to your Google account or via email. Use it to keep track of guest posting opportunities, Twitter chats, advertising expiration dates, editorial calendars, and much, much more.
10. Google Chrome
If you’re not using Google Chrome, then you’re missing out. This browser really is fast and has a ton of extensions, apps, and themes that you can install to increase your marketing productivity including some favorites such as:
Google +1 Button – +1 and share a web page to your Google+ profile anywhere using this extension.
Google+ Notifications – See your Google+ notifications on your browser (when logged in to your Google account).
Klout – Addicted to knowing Klout scores? Use this to see Klout scores next to users while using Twitter.com.
SEO Site Tools – Learn a lot of valuable on-site search engine optimization information about any website you are browsing (including Google PageRank) using this extension.
Simple Social Metrics – Install this extension to quickly see the number of tweets, likes, and +1s for any page you are browsing.
11. Google Docs
Want to share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and tables with other users to view online or download? Then Google Docs is for you. You can collaborate with multiple users or just give access to a read-only version of documents like the publicly accessible Twitter Chat Schedule spreadsheet. You can even create forms and send them via a link or directly in an email to collect survey answers, crowdsource post information, and other data.
12. Google DoubleClick Ad Planner
Need some quick traffic or demographics information for a website? Get it usingGoogle DoubleClick Ad Planner. The larger the website, the more information you will be able to find about it including the average visitor’s age, gender, education, household income, other sites visited, interests, and keywords searched for.
13. Google Drive
Want to share files online? Then Google Drive might be worth a try. You can currently store 5GB in Google Drive, 1GB in Picasa, and 10GB in Gmail for free. Pricing begins at $2.49 per month for 25GB and goes all the way up to $799 per month for 16TB. Welcome to the Google cloud!
14. Google Gadgets
Want to extend the functionality of your website, browser, or Google Account? Check out the line of freebie Google Gadgets available at your disposal. Gadgets are organized in categories including news, tools, communication, games, finance, sports, lifestyle, technology, and politics.
15. Google Insights
Google Insights allows you to search for keywords to see their trends over time. This way, you can see whether a keyword is gaining in popularity, see worldwide search trends over the course of a year to find popular months or seasons for a search, see search volume by region, and find a list of top ten related searches and rising searches.
16. Google Mail (Gmail)
Need email with a smart filtering system? Gmail might be the answer. One of the best features in Gmail is the ability to filter messages into multiple labels and have them skip the inbox or simply label them for easy archiving. Using your Gmail filters wisely can help you keep your inbox clean and organized. Plus, the search function on Gmail is not too shabby either.
17. Google Places
Want your local business to show up before organic search results? For some keywords, it can thanks to Google Places. Be sure that you claim or add your listing on Google Places, complete your profile, add photos & videos, and encourage reviews so that your business will make it to the first page of search results.
18. Google+
Google+ is Google’s latest and, to date, most successful foray into the social networking world. They have not only created a thriving social network, but they have incorporated it into almost every aspect of the Google experience, including Google search results themselves. Thanks to personalized search results, you can actually rank higher than normal in search results for those you are connected with on the network. Be sure to check out this quick guide to learn why you should be on Google+!
19. Google +1 Button
With +1 counts showing up in search results, you might want to go ahead and install the Google +1 Button on your website and content. This will make it easier to share on Google+ as well as add to its social engagement numbers. In addition, when someone +1s your website, their connections might see it placed higher in search results as well.
20. Google Reader
Google Reader allows you to view and organize your RSS feeds all in one place. If you’re already using your Google Account for Gmail and Google+ on a regular basis, why not keep track of your favorite blog’s RSS feeds, Google Alerts, and other feeds in the same account.
21. Google Translate
If you run into an email, blog comment, or webpage in another language, useGoogle Translate to quickly translate it into yours. The best part is you don’t even need to know what language it is in thanks to the auto-detect features. It may not be a perfect translation, but it will get the main point across.
22. Google Trends
Google Trends offers a variety of information such as the searches that are currently popular, Google Insights data for keywords, and traffic trends for websites if you search for a particular domain.com. You can even enter multiple domains, separated by a comma, to compare traffic. Note that traffic trends are only available for websites with a high volume of traffic.
23. Google Voice
Google Voice allows you to create a phone number to make and receive phone calls and text. You can view your messages in an interface similar to your Gmail. It’s a good alternative if you don’t want to give out your office or cell phone number for particular contacts!
Another cool little trick with Google Voice is that you can set up a Google Voice number specifically for tracking how effective your phone number placement on your website is. Every time someone calls in using your Google Voice number, you can count the calls in your Google Voice account. This will allow you to test the size, location and color of your website phone number.
24. Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools is another Google product that puts a large amount of valuable data at your fingertips. If you have already set up your website with Google Analytics, you can easily add it to Google Webmaster Tools to start learning the following.
Site Configuration – This section checks your website’s settings on the web, including preferred domain canonicalization, sitelinks, URL parameters, change of address, and users who have access.
Site Health – This section includes crawl errors, stats, blocked URLs, and malware alerts.
Site Traffic – This section includes search queries (aka, possibly some of the keywords omitted from Google Analytics thanks to the keyword not provided, links to your website (a comprehensive view of your backlink profile), internal links, and +1 reports. +1 reports tells you the search impact of results showing your website’s +1 count vs. without showing it, +1 activity on your website, and audience demographics.
Site Optimization – This section includes your sitemaps, HTML improvement suggestions, content keywords, and other resources.
Also, be sure to keep an eye on the Labs section at the end. It changes with new, experimental Google Webmaster Tools features. One Labs feature that I would like to see return is statistics on any pages for which you are the author usingGoogle authorship.
25. Google (Owned) YouTube
Last, but not least, if you want to dominate the video market, then start with Google-owned YouTube. Not only will your video be available to YouTube’s millions upon millions of visitors, but it will also be on prime real estate for showing up in search results. Even if you can’t get your website on the first page of search results through traditional SEO, you might be able to get there with video!
