How does it work?

Through Google Base and Google Merchant Center, you can describe any content you post with attributes. These attributes, which reveal characteristics of your item, help people find your posts when they do similar searches.

Google Base and Google Merchant Center serve as types of queries for Product Search, Adwords, and other Google properties. When users search for an item, Google will pull items that match the search from these listings. The attributes that were entered into Google will be given to the user to help them make a better product choice. The more relevant the item’s description is to the search at hand, the more likely that item will be selected.

A Golden Marketing Tool

Although a major component of the original Google Base was an online classified ads service, it can also be used to list things like current events, recipes, and profiles. You can list services on Google Base, as well. Virtually anything a person is trying to sell or promote can be listed using Google Base.

Google Base versus Google Merchant Center

In September 2009, Google released its Merchant Center to replace Google Base for product-type submissions. Google Base remains available for other, more content-based listings, but the Merchant Center is where Google will spend the time making tools and improvements for product listings.

The Google Merchant Center interface is very similar to that of Google Base, and you can access all of your feeds, items, and settings by logging into the Merchant Center with your existing username and password.

The Goal of Google Base

Although the role of Google Base has shrunk with the release of Merchant Center, the service is still the best place to list items like classified ads and professional services. Non-product items are best listed on Google Base.

What’s in it for me?

The benefits of Google Base and Google Merchant Center for everyday Internet users and businesses are innumerable.

Some advantages of Google Base and Google Merchant Center include:

- If the content is not yet online, Google will host it for you.

- There is no cost.

- The service is available in English and German interfaces.

- Items you submit to Google Base and Google Merchant Center may be found on Google properties like Google or Google Maps.

Google Base and Google Merchant Center allow the average individual with no HTML knowledge to list items online. These Google services also allow users to get their content into the search results without being reviewed by web crawlers and sitemaps.

Although a mountain of good things can be said for this site, certain components exist as flaws, leaving a field of space for development and enhancement. We have already created an extensive overview of Compete.com, including its basic functions, a review of its features and the pros of the site. There is always room for improvement though, with several existing factors only needing small additions, while others could significantly change the statistics (and amount of users) of the site.

IF IT WERE TO GO GLOBAL: COULD BE DRASTICALLY IMPROVED

Complete.com searches only U.S. internet traffic while Google Insight analyses and compares the interest levels of Google searches across the globe and can focus in on individual countries to see where high traffic is on certain sites or where Apple is most popular due to amount of searches. Compete only is available to US traffic.

INTERESTING ENOUGH (BUT MAKES LITTLE SENSE):

Users are able to search sites that are completely unrelated, though conclusions cannot be made on the unique visitor count per site. Users with specific goals in mind may find this useful, while others looking to make direct comparisons will have little conclusions to make if their keywords or sites in their searches have little to nothing to do with one another.

For Example: In a Target and Walmart comparison search, the results were strikingly similar, two sites geared with similar products. Google and Yahoo also were extremely similar, although Google’s graph typically showed millions of users more.  A clothing site and a plastic surgeon’s site would, on the other hand, not have anything to do with one another yet still produce results with ‘comparable’ numbers.

IMPROVING THE TRIAL VERSION: GOOD WITH ROOM FOR CHANGE

Things that can be done with the Compete free trial plan:

• Compare up to 5 sites at one time
• Tag sites and explore tag clouds
• Export data and run your own analysis
• View subdomain data

A plentiful amount of data is unable to be reached with the simple trial version, and of course the creators won’t make any money if they show all their cards upfront, but a little more info in areas that further demonstrate Compete.com’s power can enhance the visitors desire to purchase.

Thus:

Provided that the trial version were adjusted accordingly so that users would be able get more complete information, they would be more likely to upgrade to a paid account.

COMPARISONS CANNOT BE MADE: COULD BE BETTER

Under the “Tag Profile” option, users cannot compare tagged sites. I tried a comparison for the tag “electronic” at Target, Bestbuy and CompUSA. A graph was not made, though it does show ‘amount of users’, and it only gives a graph of Unique Visitors.

COUNT LOG: A NEW PROCESS OF HEAD COUNT COULD BE BETTER

Unique Visitors are extremely hard to track! Some characteristics make you independent, including an IP address. The idea of ‘Unique Visitors’ is more about the location a user is coming from (IP Address), demographics aside. Statistical data relating to particular groups within the population have nothing to do with the way Unique Visitors gets its ‘headcount,’ as it only credits a user with one visit in a given month rather than a pure count of how many times the site was actually visited (even by the same user) in a given month. Specifics should be looked at and perhaps a new method could be developed.

SHOWN DATA: NOT BAD

On any given site profile, unique visitors, visits, page views, and Compete rank statistics are shown.

THE IMPROVEMENT:

The rest of the site makes you type in each time on the different pages when you want the rest of the information. If it were all to go to the bottom of the search page as information does on the ‘Compare’ page or ‘Site Profile’ page, it may decrease time spent searching and increase user satisfaction.

The Compete Wrap-Up

Overall, Compete.com’s user-friendliness, unique capabilities and statistical data have been an interesting research project and not too much of a task to comprehend. With an easy to follow overview, how-to manual and lists of the positives and the improvements to be made, this all-inclusive blog series delves into Compete.com from various angles.

At its peak, Compete tracked 6.5 million visits, though 2.4 of these visits were from Unique Visitors. My guess is that a significant number of Uniques are repeat users, and Compete cannot track the amount that these users actually are on the site. This says that the same group of users were repetitively getting data from the site rather than a number of various users, posing a problem to the validity of statistical data across the site.

This is the final installment of the Insights for Search blog. The first section covered how Insights operates, the second concentrated on the pros of the site and the third section addressed some concerns about Insights for Search. This last section will help the bewildered user master Insights and reap all of its benefits.

Let’s Get into the Mindset of Insights Users: A ‘How to’ Walk Through of Google Insights for Search

For any overwhelmed Insighters out there, lets do a little role playing and hopefully that light bulb will go off for you…”A-ha! I get it! Insights is awesome!” Maybe you won’t get that excited, but at least you’ll understand the site and how to go about utilizing it.

So let’s just say you’re a business owner. You own a Trailblazer, you know one of those hiking, camping and outdoorsy stores. You sell everything from mountain climbing gear and running sneakers, to kayaks and bathing suits. So with the economy being on somewhat of a low these days, you decide you can’t sell all the products you once sold. You have to make some eliminations in your inventory and you have decided that it’s between Sigg bottles and Nalgene bottles. (Both are containers that carry fluid in air tight, unbreakable bottles). It’s hard for you to make a decision and you recently heard about this Google Insights thing that compares the interest in certain products around the world…so here goes nothing.

A Walk Through Google Insights

Step One: Basic

Go to Google Insights. http://www.google.com/insights/search/#

Your search is simple. You want to compare the interest of Sigg bottles to Nalgene bottles.

Step Two: What are you Comparing the Interest in?

Type in Nalgene, then click add search term and type in Sigg.

Step Three: Where do you Want to see Interest Levels?

Because your store is located in Connecticut you’re concerned about the interest in these products in this area, so under “Compare by” click on “locations” then click “World Wide” and change that to “United States.”

Then under sub regions you find Connecticut.

Now just click search and wait for the results page to load.

Step Four: The Results are In

Now you have the results page. The “interest over time” chart is the first graph that appears before you. It is quite clear that at first glance Nalgene (which appears in blue) seems to have sparked the most interest over the years.

(Nalgene vs. Sigg Interest Levels)

Step Five: Check out News Headlines

Because you want to see why the slumps and peaks have occurred for both products over the past couple of years you click “News headlines” to get a list of informative articles that could explain maybe why some of these trends have occurred.

Once this box is checked off you get a new and improved graph and list of articles.

(Interest levels: Nalgene vs. Sigg plus News headlines)

These articles allow you to see why interest in these products has varied through out the months. New products, findings and scandals have come out that allowed the interests to go up and down. For example, the harmful chemical BPA (a substance used to harden plastic) was found in these bottles causing a variation in interest for Google searches.

As a business owner, you are aware of the issues these bottles had in the past. You are pretty sure that these problems have been fixed and both brands offer BPA free products. This still doesn’t help you decide which product you want to sell.

Step Six: Results in the Region

The next graph displays the regional (Connecticut) interest for Nalgene.

To change the regional interest to Sigg, you just have to click on the bar after “regional interest” and select “Sigg.” You then get Sigg’s graph.

The final graph on the result’s page shows you what other terms people use to search for these bottles. (To get Sigg results just change the term in the “search term” box).

After observing this final chart it seems that most people are concerned about BPA. A lot of people search for Nalgene and BPA more than Sigg and BPA. Although Nalgene sparks more interest for searches, it’s only popular because of the BPA findings. This doesn’t seem like a positive trend.

Step Seven: Repetition and Decision Making

You have an idea on which product you’re going to pick to be sold in your Trailblazer, but before you make any final decisions you’re going to search another New England state, Massachusetts, and see which product people are more interested in.

After simply changing the location to “Massachusetts” and reviewing the graphs you have decided to sell Sigg bottles in your store. The product shows a rising interest in Connecticut and Massachusetts (you could continue to compare more New England states to truly finalize your decision) and with all the commotion over BPA and Nalgene it seems that Sigg is a safer, more trusted bottle. Plus a headlining article briefed you on how Nalgene is making a stainless steel bottle…kind of what Sigg already does. It just proves that Sigg’s products are more in demand than Nalgene’s at this point in time.

Overall…

Google Insights is an extraordinarily useful web site for researchers, business owners, advertisers and your average curious consumer. After a brief visit to the site, users will grasp its purpose and will be able to utilize it for their own needs. It gives a boatload of information to the user by displaying interest levels of products in clear, concise graphs and charts. Visitors can tailor their searches to their specific needs to find out what products are the most popular in all areas of the world. The site doesn’t give you much to complain about and if any problems were to arise, Insights for Search personnel are only an email away.

]]> http://www.buzzwordchasers.com/buzzworthy/google-insights-review-4/feed/ http://www.buzzwordchasers.com/technology/online-business-tools/compete-review-part-3-online-business-tools-compete-pros-and-cons/ http://www.buzzwordchasers.com/technology/online-business-tools/compete-review-part-3-online-business-tools-compete-pros-and-cons/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:00:16 +0000 bethany http://www.buzzwordchasers.com/?p=1128 What’s Great and What Can Compete.com Make Even Better?

In previous entries, we reviewed the basic aspects of Compete.com and its capabilities, along with a deeper look at the individual sections of the site and the resources within these sections.

Compete.com creators have produced a site useful for an innumerable amount of reasons for a wide range of users.  Certain parts of the site excel while others leave critics (and users) eager to give their input to improve an already impressive site. Specific aspects receive a gold star, though other elements need a tune up and to be expanded upon.

AWESOME TEACHING TOOLS: GREAT

There is an About section that delves into each part of the site, explaining to unaware users what tools are available, a renowned blog for its “timely, entertaining and fun commentary across a wide range of topics”  (about how people are using the internet)

SIMPLICITY: GOOD

The Ranked Lists section provides an impressive amount of data and is extremely user-friendly (too simple, perhaps), although the majority of the site is very basic (as long as the terms are understood)

INTERACTIVITY: SOLID

A fun part about this site is that it is very interactive- or at least active (drop the inter) because the people behind Compete.com keep users up to date via Twitter, pulling in the power of Social Networking (and people love to get involved with their sites).

TOOLS FOR GOOD MEASURE: EXCELLENT

Compete has a toolbar that you can try and obtain which alerts the user on his/her computer and provides valuable information at your fingertips.

THE POWER OF THE MOUSE: GOOD

Right clicking on a site can be an even bigger convenience, with options including:

View Site Profile, Add to Portfolio, Run Search Report, Run referral Report, and Run Destination Report.

HELPFUL SUBCATEGORIES: USEFUL

Within the Category Index exists the Category Profiles of the Top 250 sites (with free trial account) within each category.

For example, under the category “Hobbies and Interests”

• Cooking
• Crafts
• Environment/Green Information and Advocates
• Family and Lifestyle
• Fashion and Style
• Filmmaking and History of Film
• Genealogy
• Home Improvement, Humor
• Music Lessons and History
• Photography and Art
• Politics and History,
• Reading and Writing, Science,
• Technology
• Volunteer and Non-Profit- are the subcategories.

So Far

We have taken a look at the direction users can go when using Compete.com and the tools available on the site. We have taken a brief look at the individual sections and their capabilities, and finally the Pros of the site. Next we will be looking at the Cons, and the improvements that can be made among these.

This is blog entry three of four. Previous sections included Part 1:  how Insights works and Part 2:  positive aspects of the site.

Get more Insightful!

There’s no doubt that Insights is helpful, useful and interesting. It’s fascinating to look at the trends, see what people are interested in and where certain items create the most buzz. As cool as this site might be, there certainly is room for improvement. The following are some ideas that could make Insights even more powerful:

Blog, Please!

Google Insights provides its users with a helpful and useful forum to find out information and post questions. But perhaps a blog would serve as a more effective and efficient tool for visitors trying to find out information. A blog would help those newcomers out there who are truly trying to understand the site and what it’s used for. Bloggers could write about the recent, important trends that affect companies and their consumers. Yes Google Insights you have a great help spot and a place to pose questions, but we want more! A blog would also enhance the website, allowing for more help tips and user advice to show up for those in need.

Show Me More

I think seeing the rising trends in products is fascinating to most people, but is there a way to show sales of these products? Or a way to link statistics of these products for consumers and producers to observe right away? Companies want to know if consumers are buying one product over another, and its one thing to see that people are interested in something, but it’s another to see if they actually follow through and buy a product. I think it would benefit the consumer, the company and Insights if data expressing the buying rates on products was made available. Suggestion: Maybe Insights can give links to various consumer reports web sites.

How Many People are REALLY Interested in a Product?

Alright, I think I get it, Google Insights somehow figures out how many people search for “Apple” products in the Google search engine daily. Anyone can go onto Insights and find out more about Apple computers and see the rising or diminishing popularity in that product. That’s fantastic. But let’s say I searched “Apple” about ten times today and about five times yesterday. (You know, I can’t really decide if I want to buy a Mac or not). My point is, does Insights have a unique visitor counter, or are all of my fifteen searches counted? Doesn’t this make the interest level of Apple go up? And wouldn’t this be a false representation of interest just because one indecisive woman can’t make up her mind on a computer? Shouldn’t I be counted as one? Because I certainly think so. Think about the amount of times you go onto Facebook daily; wouldn’t you want all those hits to be counted as one?

In the previous entry, we had a meet and greet with Compete.com. We reviewed the multiple directions users can go in when using the site, and we took a look at the Compare site profiles tool.  In this entry, a deeper look at individual sections will be taken and multiple aspects will be explained within each sub domain.

Profiles

Under profiles, we have already used ‘Compare,’ but other information is given within the other tabs. A Site Profile is an individualized chart (separate from the compare tab). The same information is given of a single, specific site. On this page, users can view the searched site’s:

• Compete Rank
• Page Views and Visits (as circled in red)
• Referral Analytics,
• Search Analytics and
• Tags

More Profile Plusses: Another useful tool is the Site Description, given on the lower left-hand side of Site Profile (as can be seen in the photo below). Tag Profile lets users see how other users tag, or label, a site. An alphabetical list of all tags is given, though the list can also be sorted by size (amount under each tag). Compete describes this section of the site as “A macro level view of traffic, search, and engagement metrics across over 220 industries.”

Analytics Tools

Under Keyword Destination in the Search Analytics tab under Analytics Tools, a user can search a keyword and find:

• The volume rank of the keyword
• The % total keyword volume
• The % of site’s search traffic
• Average monthly search referrals.

If a user wants to better understand what each title means, there are small question marks that can be clicked and an explanation will pop up.

Ranked Lists

Ranked Lists under the Analytics Tools tab is another user-friendly section of the site. Users can create their own list of ranked websites using specific criterion. On the right side of the page, a list will appear of the sites under the specified criteria. By experimenting with these options, users can come up with a plentiful amount of data, tailored to their research goals.

What comes up once the criterion is chosen is a statistical chart similar to this one, provided that Ranking + All Metrics in the ‘Add Traffic Data’ section on the right is chosen. Included in the data are:

• The domain name
• Unique visitors,
• Visits, page views, total time spent (in hours)
• Monthly attention

This data can be vital to owners looking to further their knowledge of their own and competing websites within their industry.

Resources

The Resources Section of the site is quite extensive. It includes a well thought- out help section that can be vital to new users. A blog is available to read and is renowned for its “timely, entertaining and fun commentary across a wide range of topics”  (about how people are using the internet).

Compete.com Toolbar

Compete actually has a toolbar that you can try under the Resources tab- and obtain if you really enjoy using it- that alerts the user on his/her computer and provides valuable information. Included:

• How popular the web site is
• The website’s rank (the website’s ’significance’: based on Unique Visitors)
• How fast it is growing
• Warnings of potentially malicious (spyware, phishing) web sites

Other options are also available under this tab, including Contact, an About section, and Data Methodology.

Linking it all together

In the first two parts of this series, an overview of Compete.com’s capabilities, tools and a how-to within the individual sections has been looked at. In the next 2 parts, we will be taking looks at the Pros and Cons that exist on the site and ideas for improvement. Stay tuned!

This is part two of the four part blog series. You can find part one here, which covers how Insights for Search works and what it provides for users. This next entry focuses on the positive aspects and benefits of Google’s Insights for Search.

What is Great about Insights?

Precision

It seems that Insights wants the user to get the best possible results they can obtain and that’s why as a user you can really tailor your search to your specifications. For example, on the search page you may want to search for the term “Apple” but perhaps you want to be more specific. Under “compare by” you can select “locations” to pick an exact area you would like to see product interest. You can then select United States, pick any state, then specify any sub-region or metro. (I selected United States, Connecticut, Hartford).

Now fix your search to any time range; maybe over the past couple of days, years, months and so on. This allows the user to see what kind of interest is generated by Apple in a specific region, at a specific time. (The results page and its graphs will then show the interest of the “Apple” search over that specific time span).

Comparisons

Google Insights not only allows you to search one item, but you can compare up to five items at one time (all made to your specifications). So you can compare the trends of Apple, Dell, Acer, IBM and HP all at the same time. (Just click on “add search term” to type in your desired products).

Each company will appear in its own color (a legend is nearby) on the graphs, showing what and where the products have received the most interest. Pretty cool, huh?

Precision II

Not only does Insights allow for specific products to be compared and searched in certain regions and time periods, but it allows users to search items in specific categories. The whole search of the five computers can be searched under internet, or electronics, or social networks, and much more. These categories allow for different results. Depending on what a user is searching for (what types of interests in specific areas they are looking to discover) the site can make such information readily available.

Informative

Insights shows us these charts and graphs, but it also relates and links the certain points of interest on the graph to articles. For example, when Insights provided me with the “interest over time graph” for Apple it showed me that in January 2009 there was a rising interest in Apple because the company’s CEO, Steve Jobs, took a leave of absence. There is a link to an article about his leave. The graph shows you that the peaking interest (the letter C icon) was perhaps due to the fact that the CEO was taking some time off.

Comprehensive & User Friendly

It’s always useful to have a search website that provides comprehensive factual information and statistics, but it’s even more effective when it’s done in a straightforward, easy-to-use fashion. Insights does just that. If you ever have a problem their “About” section is very informative. The section clarifies what the information on each chart and graph states. Helpful tips explain how the site works, what it’s used for, and how the information is even obtained. You can even search for answers to your questions by using “about contacting support” on the Insights page. (Just click on “examples” on the Insights homepage, and you’ll be directed to its help page with links to support and much more).

• A Compete Overview: a synopsis about the website and its capabilities
• Compete Features: a look at individual sections and how to use them, along with extractable, available data
• Compete Pros: a briefing of what is great, useful
• Compete Improvements: recommendations on aspects of the site that can be improved

The Compete.com Overview

Compete.com is an aesthetically pleasing site that gives and graphs website rankings based on traffic, along with competitive analytics. Its user friendly capabilities are only a slice of this reference site, as this invaluable source is quite revolutionary for company owners, workers and consumers.

The site seems to have rolled out the glitches (everything works fine). Combine this with the infinite amount of comparisons that can be made, searches on information about other websites, and the individualized searches of keywords, and Compete.com proves to be a streamlined experience serving up a massive amount of business intelligence.

Meet and Greet Compete

The homepage contains 4 short blurbs which, when clicked on, bring users to specific topic pages. Including the following:

On the homepage, a user can immediately begin by comparing up to 3 sites with the test version of Compete.com (5 if the user creates a login name and password), or can start by looking at

• Profiles
• Analytics Tools
• Client Solutions
• Resources.

I anxiously started with the comparison section, as I was curious to see the idea behind the site. I put ‘Facebook,’ ‘Myspace’ and ‘Twitter’ into the white squares (the first circled in red) in the blue comparison box, then clicked ‘Compare’.

What came up was quite impressive, including a color-coded chart of each site and where it stands in comparison to the others based on Unique Visitors.

A unique visitor is someone who visits a site once.  Any additional visits for that user are not counted except under total visits. (Software can track this)

This graph below is shown in a one-year span, but can be changed from 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or even 2 years (with a Pro subscription).

To change from Unique Visitors to another type of visitor to a site, click the down arrow next to the Unique Visitor box:

Users can only use a limited amount of options with the trial version, but this drop down does show the advantages to having a Pro Subscription.

Underneath this graph on the same page, other statistics are given in a nicely laid-out manner.  The sites, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, are listed on the left side, while Unique Visitors, Monthly Change and Yearly change are listed across the top of the chart. Circles and arrows in the chart below show Facebook.com’s numerical data, and other website traffic information useful for marketers and business owners.

After experimenting with the compare section, users can look up other parts of the site to find more interesting statistical data.

When the mouse is placed over each of these options, users can choose to explore and use specific parts of the site.

Keeping up with Compete.com

Look out for Parts 2-4! We will take a closer look at the individual sections, the Pros, and the Cons with ideas for improvement.