If you’re a Google user, you have probably gotten to use the search engine’s latest offering, Google Instant Preview.  While it has been in beta testing for some time, it officially launched last week (November 9, 2010 to be exact).

Instant Preview results can be identified by a little magnifying glass icon that, when clicked, enables a popover with a thumbnail of the corresponding landing page.  In some cases,  Google also includes an orange box (or boxes) that highlight important and relevant content related to the searcher’s original query.

Instant Preview allows webmasters to show off a preview of their site and how the content is presented before users even click a search result.  The quality of the screen grab is all-important: if it’s poor, the feature could have a negative effect on users’ actions.  In other words, web design and development now plays an even greater role in search.

Google says this new feature makes searchers 5% more likely to be satisfied with the results they click. For them, this is a win because they are constantly looking for ways to make their results more relevant to users.  For site owners, it is essential to ensure Google is able to take a screenshot that properly represents their page.  This screenshot should look clean, without errors or content gaps, since these sorts of items may deter users from clicking through.

A few important things to keep in mind:

• Keep your site’s pages laid out in a structured and clear manner, with an emphasis on the main content without overwhelming distractions.  Cluttered sites will be apparent within the preview and may deter users.
• Avoid interstitial pages, ad pop-ups, or modal windows that load automatically since these interfere with your page content and may show up in the preview image.
• Previews are generally created during the normal crawl process; however, Google has the ability to do a specific crawl using their new “Google Web Preview” user-agent.
• Instant Preview does not affect the ranking algorithm or how clicks are tracked.
• Previewing a result does not count as a click.
• Adding the nosnippet meta tag to your site will disable Instant Preview as well as all other text snippet features.
• Some Flash and video content is currently appearing as a puzzle piece icon or a black box, but Google has stated they are working to resolve this issue.

Additional information can be found on Google’s Blog.

Or: how to please nearly 500 million people.

Here’s an interesting presentation by Henry Blodget, called The Moral of Facebook’s Success.  It contributes to the debate over Facebook’s growth path, taking on the naysayers who criticize Facebook for poor execution of new features or for meddling with user’s privacy. Some themes to like:

Beware the “squeaky wheel” phenomenon.  Put criticism and failure in context: you can’t let the fear of failure or criticism paralyze you.  In fact, you may have to embrace that every decision will fail to satisfy some and aggravate others – but in the end, are you improving the value for the other 490 million?  Don’t ignore the cases of the outliers, but don’t let them put you on a leash.

Embrace what’s different.  This resonated with one of the comments made by The Trusted Advisor (a recommended read for everyone) about listening: we tend to listen for what’s familiar when we should listen for what’s different. “Me too” solutions build off what’s similar; looking for a “me too” solution will guarantee you second place (first loser!) at best. When we offer to put a square peg in a round hole – or let others convince us to do so – we’re doing everyone (us, clients, consumers) a disservice.

Own your mistakes. Blodget doesn’t make this statement, but there is something in Zuckerberg’s comments on each failure that keeps him out of the “he is satan” camp: he acknowledges the mistake and recommits to keep innovating, but doing it better.  The trust this generates amongst users will vary, but we don’t see them repeating the same mistakes or neglecting Facebook users entirely.

And the quick quiz questions at the end are both “cute” and right on.

Everyone at Razorfish Search is getting ready for the search Alliance between Yahoo and Bing. Since the traffic distribution officially started moving over on October 11, the numbers have taken a swing into the right direction. If you have been reviewing your Bing traffic numbers, both impressions and clicks should now be higher in Bing while your Yahoo traffic slowly diminishes. On average, results show that impressions and clicks have increased on Bing by 35% – 50%. Bing impressions will continue to increase throughout the month, as Yahoo distribution will reach 100% by October 31. Everything so far is looking promising across the board.  The big question is: how will your CPC’s and performance be impacted when the Alliance is completed? Only time will tell…

Google (i.e. John Wayne) is roping in the bad advertisers (bandits) once again in the recent crackdown in the online space. If you think this feels like the intro to a John Wayne Wild West movie where the good guy goes after the bad guy through a series of standoffs, you might be right.

Google announced  on September 22, 2010 it is going after rogue pharmacies and filed a federal lawsuit against fraudulent pharmacy advertisers that illegally advertise on its’ search engine. The announcement may not be surprising when you consider that Google has been facing exponential growth in the number of advertisers claiming to be a source to sell online drugs. Plus there are additional regulations coming down on the healthcare industry from the FDA, which impose further restrictions on advertising. 

Google does have safeguards in place to prevent the promotion or misuse of illegal pharmaceutical products. However, even with these safeguards in place there are still a small percentage of pharmacy ads from rogue pharmaceutical companies that continue to appear on Google.  So the showdown continues….

2010: the Year the West was Won?

The FDA has also been involved in combating “fake” pharmacies and advises consumers to alert their doctor and pharmacists when they encounter non-approved FDA drugs.  According to the FDA, “this practice undermines safeguards of direct medical supervision and a physical evaluation performed by a licensed health professional,” says Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., medical officer in the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Policy, Planning and Legislation.  While the FDA has come down on drug companies for advertising, the agency is trying to maintain the regulated advertising practices so consumers know when they read or view drug information in the online space it is 100% accurate and safe.

Google, along with other online spaces, is under a microscope from not only the government but legitimate advertisers. This latest move from Google will hopefully deter rogue pharmacies from continuing to illegally advertise online. Will this be a happy ending like in most Western movies, or is this only the beginning on this frontier?

Last night, Facebook announced the launch of Facebook Places at their headquarters in Palo Alto, California.  Facebook Places is a location-based check-in service that allows users to share where they are, find out where their friends are and discover places in their area. Users can also tag friends when they check in, something that other services do not currently offer. The service allows businesses to create or claim Places on Facebook and encourage users to check in. Eventually this could lead to the ability to offer discounts or promotional messages to users at a location or nearby.

Location based check-in services have been growing in popularity and it’s been hard to ignore the rumors and hype surrounding the launch of Facebook’s own product. The big question has been: will a Facebook check-in service destroy competitor applications?

During the announcement, Zuckerburg joked about all the features Facebook would not be integrating into the new platform.  However in a dazzling display of netizenship, Facebook decided to play nice with Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and Booya (the makers of MyTown). While Facebook will continue to port over all your social good from the most popular location-based services, the impact on these competitors remains to be seen. According to the most recent Mashable poll, only 30% of people say they will use the service (but another 30% responded “Maybe: I’m going to wait and see”), suggesting adoption may start off slow.

Much like Social Graph, Places promises to unify even more data from across the web. It is only a matter of time before Facebook launches other services such as: peer to peer payment systems, similar to Paypal, group deal sites, similar to Groupon, and online classifieds, similar to Craigslist.

According to comScore, as of July Facebook is the third largest video site in the U.S. Last March the Private Data Equity Center valued Facebook at $35 Billion. InsideFacebook.com states they are projected to hit $1.1 Billion in ad sales revenue after hitting 700 million in 2009. With these numbers, we’re not to far away from saying, “Hey I’ll just Facebook you the money,” or “Just sell it on Facebook.”

Are you going to use Facebook Places? What’s next for Facebook? We want to hear from you!