Category: Google

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Google Maps Adds Route Images

Image of Google Maps showing an intersection photo.
Image of Google Maps showing an intersection photo.

Well, Google Maps have outdone themselves this time. First, their maps were so accurate and useful and now they even have on-site pictures of any turn’s you think you might miss.

The images are perfect and allow you to get a clear picture of the turns that are key in your route with interactive arrows. Also the map has an interactive 360 degree rotator cam. You just click on the compass and move the arrow around to see all angles of the turn. So if you need to look for the turn that has a BP gas station now you’ll know before you even get in your car!

I am a very visual person, so being able to see the surrounding of an important turn in my route helps me to find the location better. I have no idea how Google is getting these pictures, because when you rotate the picture you realize it’s in the middle of the street. There are no traffic cameras in the street that Google could possible use.

Now you have to wonder, is a Google Maps “spy van” driving around your neighborhood taking pictures of your roads. Hmm I’m not sure, but whatever they are doing I like it. It is very useful and it helped us get from our home to Post Home of Marjorie Merriweather in Washington DC.

If you would like to take a look I’ve added the two locations at the end if you would like to take a look at the directions yourself.
2254 Ravenna Ct Waldorf MD 20603
To
4155 Linnean Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008 (Hillwood Museum & Gardens) (202) 686-5807

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Google Friend Connect New Easy Interaction for Your Website

I am not a programmer and simply do not aspire to be one. I consider my expertise to be in other areas, but that does not mean that I do not want to add cool new interactive features to my website that typically require a strong knowledge of web programming. This is why I am so interested in checking out Google’s new Friend Connect.

Created just for people like me, Friend Connect lets Google do the heavy lifting for you. You can now install into your source code cool little mini applications that allow for users to become members on your website, add comments about a page or your website, and to rate your content. It is the beginning of a very neat interactive component that I am sure many will actively embrace. More applications and sharing tools are sure to be created as Friend Connect allows people to add programming-like elements into their static website without programming or database integration.

Friend Connect allows users with a Google account (which Google early on nearly forced on everyone who advertised in AdWords and when Gmail was initially introduced, so many users already have one), Yahoo accounts, and even AIM accounts. You can visit our website today to check out what we’ve done with Friend Connect integration. Just visit our resources section and click any top tip link to see just a bit of how we are using Friend Connect.

Although every page in our website is not using Friend Connect, we see it as a content interaction tool and so on some of our content pages which are really focused on teaching or sharing we want to help others to share our information and leave comments.

Friend Connect is easy to install for users who understand HTML, but not for the person who does not update their own website. You can find out more about Google’s new Friend Connect by visiting the official Friend Connect website.

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Google’s New Friend Connect

Finally I have finished integrating Google’s new Friend Connect into my website content pages. If you don’t know what Friend Connect is, it is a new programmer-free social interface that allows any website to use hi-tech programming features to allow site visitors to interact with the content. The key is that with Friend Connect you do not need to have any programming skills.

I have used the page review rating and comment module in many pages of my website. You can visit our instruction section to click through the various pages to see how it looks and how it works. Click into a few pages and you can see how the modules act and work on the page. Leave a comment, mouse over the stars and leave a rating and you can do so anonymously.

Personally I found the application after a few dry runs, extremely easy to work with and simple to install. There are several modules you may want to consider for your use. You can install a comment module that even allows video upload, a website rating module, a page comment and rating module, and a friend network module. For my needs, I am only using the page rating.

One thing that I have found is that it is best to only have one comment or rating module on a page otherwise the application gets confused.

It is easy to style the modules anyway you want from inside Friend Connect and then style the <div> that contains the content back in your source code. Implementation of Friend Connect is still best for webmasters or people who know their way around source code.

I consider the application a new exciting way to interact with website visitors. Take a look and tell me what you think by clicking comments below.

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Anchor Text Explained

Anchor what?Anchor what? Anchor text- this is the phrase that appears underlined in any link, and search engines consider anchor text highly important.

Here are few examples fo good and bad anchor text in use as a quick tutorial:

Poor use of anchor text:

Click here to download our white paper of Google AdWords. (Note the anchor text in this example is click here.)

Great use of anchor text:

Review our 9 page white paper comparing Google AdWords to Yahoo Sponsored Search now! (See the difference? Much more meat for search engines and actually more descriptive of what the link is actually about.)

Not only should great anchor text be used in websites, but in blog posts, e-newsletters and any online content including feature articles and even press releases. If you provide reciprocal link exchanges change your anchor text to not underline your business name, but rather your services using important keywords.

Using improved anchor text in all you do online is just one small yet simple way to boost your organic search placement.