Category: News
Google Updates Search Toolbar
Article from Official Google Blog
Two months ago, we announced our plans to roll out a new design for the Google bar. Our goal was to create a beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google. Based on your feedback, we realized there were some elements of the new bar that we could improve, and with that in mind, we’re introducing an updated version that we believe will provide a better experience.
The new design retains many of the feature changes we made in November that proved popular, including a unified search box and Google+ sharing and notifications across Google. The biggest change is that we’ve replaced the drop-down Google menu with a consistent and expanded set of links running across the top of the page.
We’ll be rolling out this new version of the Google bar over the next few weeks. In the meantime, we invite you to read about the new design in our Help Center, and send us your feedback.
The Northern Office Innovative Marketing Announces Launch of Springboard Foundation’s Website
The Northern Office Innovative Marketing, Philippines – Sales & Marketing Consultancy firm, together with Springboard Foundation, announced the launch of its redesigned and retargeted website http://www.springboard-foundation.org.
Springboard Foundation is a charitable institution that caters to at-risk children, focused on continually providing a healthy growing environment for unfortunate Filipino children. The Northern Office donated its website design and development services to Springboard Foundation to improve the organization’s online public exposure and assist in increasing public and NGO donations through the website.
The Northern Office, with its dynamic web development team, created a contemporary designed website that features Springboard’s latest projects with an emphasis on how others can help and contribute to its cause. The website’s latest overhaul will have a positive impact on search engine rankings and visibility as well. Key features include improved navigation for easy user access, enhanced information display, organized and updated project list, and detailed info on how to sponsor chosen projects.
The site offers an overview of Springboard’s missions, projects and beneficiaries, board of trustees, sponsors, donation guide, public engagements, recent news and updates, and testimonials.
John Joe Morgan, Director of The Northern Office stated “I am proud of the great effort put into this project by the web design, marketing and SEO staff and I am sure that the new site will benefit Springboard’s cause for many years to come.”
Annette Helbig of the Springboard Foundation stated “The new website is fantastic. Really great work! Thanks to The Northern Office team again for all the hard work.”
Founded in November 2002, Springboard Foundation aims to help Filipino children by raising funds to give quality education, proper nutrition, health care and career opportunities. The Springboard Foundation works with various local charity groups such as Give a Life, Hope Worldwide Foundation, Kinderhilfe Philippinen, and Jesus Loves the Little Children Foundation. For more information, visit http://www.springboard-foundation.org/.
The Northern Office (TNO) – Innovative Marketing Support is an established sales and marketing consultancy firm in the Philippines servicing clients based worldwide. “Results oriented” in philosophy, TNO’s core mission is to provide solid results with full transparency. The company’s aim is to help clients generate profits by maximizing various online marketing mediums. Services include sales support, online marketing, content design, social media, traditional media, content development, back office support, e-mail campaigns, and marketing consultancy.
For more information, please visit www.thenorthernoffice.com or call (632) 499-1082.
Google Chrome improves on graphics, safe downloads and privacy controls
Google Chrome has recently implemented several changes that aim to improve the overall browsing experience of each user.
Here’s a quick rundown of what they’ve updated.
- Implemented support for hardware-accelerated 3D CSS which allows web developers to apply 3D effects to website content.
- Chrome now warns users when downloading malicious files. This is on top of their safe browsing features that protect against malware and phishing websites. Google assures Chrome users that Chrome will be doing all these without tracking what sites you visit or what files you are downloading.
- Users can now delete Flash Local Shared Objects (LSO) directly on Google Chrome which increases your control over your online privacy.
- Chrome features preliminary support for screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver which are highly useful for the blind or visually impaired.
- Chrome has removed the Google Gears plug-in, to maximize the use of HTML5.
via the Google Chrome Blog
Inbound Marketing: The next big thing!
Hubspot has been in the news these past few weeks due to the $32 million investment of Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures and Salesforce.com into the HubSpot company.
Hubspot has been in the forefront of the inbound marketing trend.
Inbound Marketing is a marketing strategy where in a website/company gathers information about themselves, their product/services, and any other social news and information, optimizes them for search engines and finally share them via social networks (eg. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Social bookmarking), blogs, forums, etc to generate interest and leads which will also generate website traffic.
Why is Inbound Marketing the latest trend in online marketing?
The mere fact that Google (the company) itself has invested millions of dollars into a company that specializes with inbound marketing is reason enough to take notice. There is no doubt that inbound marketing produces good quality website traffic and leads. This only shows the growth of the market in giving importance to good unique content and creating value for users.
In all of these latest development, early adopters of online marketing and inbound marketing like The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing Support, can rest on the fact that the market is becoming more mature and seeing the value in online marketing, SEO and social media strategies.
Now Crawling: Microsoft’s BingBot
MSNBot is about to retire and its predecessor, BingBot, is taking over. To make the technicalities clearer, below is a list of what to expect from this new crawler:
Name change in user agent name: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; bingbot/2.0 +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm)
HTTP header form: bingbot(at)microsoft.com
Important reminders:
1. Implementation will start on October 1st. Shortly thereafter, other MSNBot crawlers will be phased out. No change will be seen in its performance.
2. Review server configurations in case adjustments are needed.
3. BingBot will still recognize all applicable robots.txt directives, including those of MSNBot. On the date of implementation, BingBot will take precedence on detection of separate sets of custom directives for both MSNBot and BingBot robots.txt.
4. Bing is now powering Yahoo! so it is important for it to have the same access to your site as given to MSNBot.
5. No changes done for IP addresses.
6. Crawl rate is not affected.
7. Use standard search engine optimization (SEO) methods.
This new spider is an opportunity to maximize your online presence. Check your web logs now to see the new crawler.
Need help in assessing your online presence? Click here.