One June 8^th Google release it’s new version of Google search called “Caffeine“. An upgrade If you will. On their blog, Google states that the web has evolved and so must Google. Claiming faster and more detailed results of the web. Basically, bigger, better, faster.

Some think this release is a response to Bing. This new search has a focus on increasing speed, relevancy, accuracy, and the index volume, things that Microsoft really does well with Bing. Even though it’s been in the works long time before Bing launched, it feels as if Google “Caffeine”  is leveling the playing field.

In a quest to provide more relevant results for each query and index more of the web, Caffeine is utilizing real-time search traffic that previously only encompassed breaking news stories. With Facebook and Twitter creating millions of updates each day, the old Google’s day-or-two delay will no longer do. Also, the increase of semantic search, localized keywords and  local SEO will also play a part in the new Google.

What does this mean to the average user.

The average user will notice faster and more accurate results. They may realize that they no longer have to click though several pages to find exactly what they where looking for. This will be a seamless transition and almost undetectable by the average Joe. There will also be an improvement on localized results

What does this mean to developers

For web developers and SEO companes it’s a different story. Google touts that “oh… SEO stuff will work the same… just keep doing what your doing.” This is slowly turning out to be untrue.

Remember in 2009, Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithms. It’s not advantageous for Google to let you to know how it all works so you can’t manipulate the results.

Because Google will be more accurate it will be harder to fool Google. To rank well in a Google Caffeine world, you need to think about how you can encourage other people to want to link back to you within a meaningful context.

Below are some items that help you improve, or at least not loose, your positioning.

Website Speed and Page Load Time: Google now places a greater importance on the speed and reliability of your website.  Incorporating speed means that page load times are going to come into play more than in the past. While it is standard to have a low page load time, 2-3 seconds and a page size of 30k or less, it now hold more weight.

Keywords and Phrases: Keyword relevancy is now more important than it has been in the past. This means more fine tuning for your SEO campaign. This will help filter out some of the sites that are more about spam and SEO than they are about the quality of content they produce.

History of URL Purchase - buying your domain for a few years in advance (5-10yrs) shows dedication to the domain, and thus gives it a higher value.

A Greater Value on Real-Time Web: Real-time web integrating like Twitter and Facebook updates directly into their search results will now have greater importance. This means that utilizing social media and social bookmarking as part of your SEO strategy will not only assist in ranking within the real-time search results, but will also help Google index your content faster.

Quality Content: Google Caffeine has been created to find the highest quality content at fastest speeds and then to serve it up to the user in real time. Producing and posting high quality content to your website and then actively promoting it online will be critical to building authority and achieving SEO rankings.

Site Authority: This is the big question… how do you get site authority. Well, no one has a definite answer. What we do know is that it includes having all kinds of backlinks pointing to different pages of the site, especially the homepage (hence a high homepage PR), and has lots of fresh contents (anything new will do) and last but not least, it is old.

Ads: It seems that your PPC management will become more important as well. Caffeine puts more emphasis on organic search results, rather than paid advertisements, so the ads that you do pursue are even more individually important.

As the slow decline of traditional  advertising dollars shift to digital media buys, there is a battle brewing between the Internet big boys and social networks. All, of which, are trying to carve their own niche and gain the local advertising dollar.

Google’s re-branding of it business center to Google Places was the gun-shot to begin the race.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Foursquare, Yelp and even Apple are all stepping up their local advertisement game. Google already offers a new advertising program called Tags. For $25 per month you can make your business stand out in Google Maps

Local adverting can be broken down to 3 main categories; Search, consumer review sites and  social networks. The mobile presence is also very large and begining to explode. Although the mobile market seems to be more app drive than search engine driven.

SEARCH

Obviously the main players have the upper hand here. Bing diplays Foursequare data in maps. Now that the Yahoo deal(get Link here) is final, Microsoft will gain more market share. And, Google is Google. The services of  Google Places such as tags and promtional tweets get deaper in to the local advertising market. Let’s not forget Twitter which also doubles as a search engine. Twitter offers geotagging and the news, soon-to-be Twitter for business. (get Link here)

CONSUMER REVIEW

Yelp and City Search – Foursquare with its “tips” section lets user comment their current location and give a review. All Google Place Pages include consumer reviews with both text and star ratings. These reviews are also easily accessible via Google Buzz for Mobile and Google Maps

SOCIAL NETWORKS

Twitter, Foursquare, Google and Facebook are the main palyers in the local advertising competitition.

Google’s Google Buzz  has not hit a home run with users. There’s also Google Latitude — an always-on location-sharing service that started as a Loopt clone — which now has 3 million active users. It’s the intersection of Buzz and Latitude on mobile devices that will help Google nail down local advertising dollars.

Twitter is really trying to ramp up relevancy of geo-located tweets, but they’ve never quite been able to do what Foursquare has done — demonstrate the significance of location-sharing. As discussed above, there could be a perfect storm brewing for the day when geo-aware tweets are tied to places and Promoted Tweets are available to all potential advertisers.

Facebook announced it has plans to start adding location tweets which will give Foursquare a r un for it’s money.

All in all it’s going to be a bumpy advertising ride. I think the small business will win out in the end.

Estimates from BP executives say a leaking well could spew up to 60,000 barrels of oil in the Gulf. Which translates to 2.5 million gallons a day. A more likely scenario if the leak gets worse is 40,000 barrels, or 1.7 million gallons.  The oil spill is growing. View the satellite views from NASA
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=43846

Just to give you an idea how bad this spill could get, BP has already given $25 million grants to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to help them pay for their cleanup work. And it hasn’t even hit Florida yet.

On Thursday, a 40-foot-tall “containment dome” — which looks like a giant carton of milk — was lowered to the ocean floor to cover the leak and trap the spewing oil. Over the weekend the plan on hooked it to drill ship to pump out the oil and contain the spill.

At the end of the day, how does this effect us? The average Joe or Jane America?
Oil, oil, oil equal gas, gas, gas. No doubt gas prices wihch already rise in the summer is bound  to go throught the roof this summer. Today, gas is now hovering at $2.96 in Florida and I can easily see it going to over $4.00 (yet again) in the near future.

Near and dear to my heart is food. Seafood prices are already on the rise for fish, shrimp, oysters and crawfish. All are big business for Gulf coast fishermen. If we are feeling the price crunch in Florida imagine someone purchasing Gulf shrimp or fish in Chicago.

At this point the fishermen are plain out of luck. BP has no plans on compensating the fishermen. http://www.politicolnews.com/bp-no-compensation-for-fisherman/

I’m sure that we are in for a long summer of environmental dissater, dead animals, ruinned beaches and coastline. We will hear adnauseum about the clean up efforts. And the media will spin  the blame, the cleanup, the good and the bad into what ever the direction the wind is blowing that week.   Who know how long the entire clean up will take? I, for one, hope my trip to the Keys in June isn’t ruinned by oily coastlines. It makes for crappy snorkling.

1. St Louis Rams 2. Detroit Lions 3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4. Washington Redskins 5. Kansas City Chiefs 6. Seattle Seahawks 7. Cleveland Browns 8. Oakland Raiders 9. Buffalo Bills 10. Jacksonville Jaguars 11. Denver Broncos (from Chicago Bears) 12. Miami Dolphins 13. San Francisco 49ers 14. Seattle Seahawks (from Denver Broncos) 15. New York Giants 16. Tennessee Titans 17. San Francisco 49ers (from Carolina Panthers) 18. Pittsburgh Steelers 19. Atlanta Falcons 20. Houston Texans 21. Cincinnati Bengals 22. New England Patriots 23. Green Bay Packers 24. Philadelphia Eagles 25. Baltimore Ravens 26. Arizona Cardinals 27. Dallas Cowboys 28. San Diego Chargers 29. New York Jets 30. Minnesota Vikings 31. Indianapolis Colts 32. New Orleans Saints

O’Neal

Coach Mike Brown said O’Neal will miss the Cavs’ game Friday night at Toronto.

“I don’t know how long Shaq will be out,” Brown said after Cleveland’s 108-88 victory over Boston.

O’Neal will be re-evaluated Friday in Toronto, the team said.

Brown could not say how O’Neal was hurt, but it appeared to be when Glen Davis blocked his shot with just over 7 minutes left in the first half. The Cavaliers called a timeout soon after to take O’Neal out of the game, and they later issued an injury report saying he had a “significant right thumb sprain” and would not return.

O’Neal was not available for comment after the game.

“We need him out there,” Cavaliers forward LeBron James said. “We play faster without Shaq in the lineup … but in the playoffs you can’t play fast all the time. You need to establish the half-court offense. That’s what he does for us.”

His absence is even tougher to overcome because the Cavaliers traded backup center Zydrunas Ilgauskas to Washington before the trade deadline.

The Wizards bought out Ilgauskas’ contract Thursday and was waived. Under NBA rules, he must wait 30 days before he can re-sign with the Cavaliers. However, he is allowed to sign with another team immediately, and several have expressed interest in him.

O’Neal had six points and two rebounds before leaving.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.