Nest cams

Google announced yesterday that they acquired Nest for $3.2 billion (yes billion) in cash. You read that right, they spent about 5% of their cash on hand to acquire a startup company that builds smart thermostats and fire detectors. Why? Is it so Google can know the temperature in your house? Is it so Google can pitch you products based on your sleep patterns? Is it to completely freak out Google consumers?I think not.If I had to guess, it is about acquiring a company that knows how to make Apple-like hardware. Google does awesome software but their hardware isn't at the level of Apple. The iPhone vs Nexus device, no one would honestly say that holding a Nexus smartphone feels as good as holding an iPhone. If you do, you are lying. The software or features might be superior but the hardware feel is not.Anyway, is that worth $3.2 billion? I guess to Google it is.Forum discussion at Google+ and WebmasterWorld. … [Read more...] about Google Buys Nest For Hardware Design

Here is a photo of the Nest barn, in blue, with a nest, near the Google offices. I think it isn't there now but was there for some event. Google owns Nest, the thermostat, smoke detector, etc company. So they did this company thing around it.The photo was posted on Instagram back in 2016.This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers. … [Read more...] about Google Nest Barn

In an age of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) may seem like yesterday’s news, but, of all the technologies currently developing, it has the greatest potential for near-term changes that affect local search. While it remains murky how AI will benefit agencies, IoT is reaching a critical point in adoption and maturing to a stage where it provides actionable data. Or, as Brian Buntz with the Internet of Things Institute stated, “The IoT is about to shift into ludicrous mode.” The growth of the IoT is spurred by decreasing costs of hardware, such as sensors, together with the ease and availability of wireless connectivity. IoT devices already outnumber smartphones by about four times, and growth is expected to accelerate further with Cisco estimates topping 50 billion devices by 2020. The amount of data generated by these devices is enormous. Source: Cisco Annual global IP traffic already exceeds 1 zettabyte of data and will double by 2019, Cisco … [Read more...] about 6 ways IoT will make local search for SMBs scalable

I’ve run across a number of local business sites which offer event calendars of some sort, and many of these companies may not be aware that they can and should add hCalendar Microformat to their pages to further optimize them for both search and user experience. I’ve previously recommended hCard Microformat for optimizing local business sites, and hCalendar can offer similar advantages, particularly as the evolution of blended search results continues. I’ve seen store locator pages which list all the events happening at all of a company’s outlets, as well as smaller scope events such as custom wine tastings or special holiday meals at restaurants. Even otherwise staid companies often participate in charity events in their areas. When you think of optimizing for local events content, the concept can apply to many types of businesses in addition to obviously event-oriented businesses like theaters and sporting event centers. The direct advantage of tagging this … [Read more...] about Optimize Local Events With hCalendar Microformat

These “content thieves” are able to do damage to the original site’s rankings, causing a loss of search visibility, potential sales, and leads. The examples here call into question the effectiveness of Google’s handling of content scrapers. At the moment, Google seems to be unable to recognize the original source of content consistently. This is a real problem for content creators. In advance of Pi Datametrics’ talk at last week’s Brighton SEO conference, we devised a test to see how easy it was to disrupt another site’s rankings by copying their content. In this post, I’ll look at the results of these tests and discuss what publishers can do to combat the problem. Note: these examples are from Google.co.uk. Can Copycat Sites Outrank the Originals? The original idea for the test came when Pi Datametrics noticed the volatility of a client’s search rankings. After some investigation, they found the cause was content thievery. Example … [Read more...] about Is Your Content Working Better for Someone Else?