Cricket : Sport or Religion Socially? Top Social Media Trends

Just by checking out the attendence today and having a look at the social media trends, one can predict there is something special and 'must see' event this afternoon.

Here are some of the tweets about the high octane India Pakistan World Cup Clash 2011 cricket match:

For those who would like to enjoy the cricket as a passion, this is the ultimate occasion in the sub-continent.

Cricket and Social media mentions are closely knitted or do I say religiously?

Top 10 Queries Today on Google Trends:

1.     india vs pakistan
2.     mohali rain
3.     mohali weather today
4.     chandigarh weather
5.     pratibha patil
6.     india pakistan semi final
7.     mohali match
8.     bleed blue
9.     michael clarke
10.     mohali temperature

People in the sub continent are focussed on the Cricket Fever so much that its anybody's guess for the latest trends and who wont like to see the mother of all clashes - India Vs Pakistan in World Cup Semifinal?

Twitter Shows a Cricket inclination too:

Here are the Top Twitter Trends (India) currently

# Poonam Pandey
# #mohali
# India-Pakistan
# #idontunderstandwhy
# #srilanka
# RIP Jackie Chan
# Bleed Blue
# Jai Hind
# Chandigarh

Top SEO SEM (Search Engine Optimization & Internet Marketing) Groups Online

In order to start learning about various online learning and business activities and buzz, among several sources such as books, articles etc. one major and developing source is group activities.
Asking general or specific questions, surveys and opinions is a characteristic property of an active community/ group.

Specifically for 'seo, internet marketing' as there are very less takers on printed books as compared to the online audience, groups play a vital role in learning online.
Whether you are a new learner, ethusiasts, just surfing and found interesting person, or a serious researcher, practicing professional or consultant, everyone needs the latest knowledge, news and happenings online in what interests him/her.

Many internet aware business leaders too are part of various internet marketing communities and group sharing knowledge online.

The perfect place for Hiring and staffing (HR) people to post jobs and find specific skillset talent,as SEO, SEM and web analytics experts are hard to find :)

Some of the top SEO, SEM and Internet Marketing groups online, you can join for free!

Group Info:
SEO SEM PPC SMO Search Engine Optimization,digital forum for professionals / Experts, business owners, entrepreneurs, advertisers, email & affiliate marketers, webmasters, online marketing, Analytics, Mobile, Gaming, Internet ecommerce with Google,Yahoo, MSN Bing. Feel free to join, post jobs & ask!
Currently having 4,335 members
URL: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=71207

SEO SEM Group:
Group Info:
Facebook Group with top search marketing professional, organic and PPC. Share information with some of the ignited minds in the internet industry.
URL: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29114212202

Internet Marketing Group:
Group Info:
Orkut Group for SEO and online marketing, currently having 850+ members
URL: http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community?cmm=19447047


SEO SEM (Search Engine Optimization & Internet Marketing)
Group Info:
Group with people across the search marketing and internet/ecommerce platform. Includes students, pros, hiring and business leaders too.
URL: http://www.brijj.com/group/seointernetmarketing

Feel free to add your comments and feedback.

How to chat in Hindi using Gtalk and gmail?

Ever wondered how people have Hindi language status or do other than English conversations ?

Local language support such as Hindi is a cool thing to talk with friends and everyone will ask you - hey how to do that? how to type in hindi using Gtalk / Gmail ?

The simple answer is :
Gtalk / Gmail has a unique application/ way in which you can type in Hindi with your friends.

All you have to do is -

1. add en2hi@bot.talk.google.com
2. The bot will also add you in reply
3. Talk to the bot ( your new friend) and the text you can paste it elsewhere.

Example of the chat is -


Google Translation Bot information:

December 2007, Google has released the translation bots which are not getting popularity among the local language converstions. These bots are getting intelligent per day in terms of accuracy.

The new bots speak Bulgarian (bg), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Finnish (fi), Hindi (hi), Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Swedish (sv) and Traditional Chinese (zh-hant).

Happy chatting :)

Top 10 Social Networking Websites & Forums

With UK’s leading social networking site Bebo.com, previously acquired by AOL(America On Line) in March 2008, entering India's online activity, lets checkout the US market share capitalization of Top Social Networking sites:


Note: The Hitwise data featured is based on US market share of visits as defined by the IAB, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. The market share of visits percentage does not include traffic for all sub-domains of certain websites that could be reported on separately.

Top Search Terms in India for Internet

Crucial Data for internet marketers and SEO's ( India)

Latest data from Google Zeigeist shows that in Search queries, Indian internet surfers clearly show what they do mostly on the web - its emails!

No suprise that out of the top 10 keyword searches on Google in India, 8 searches are for email or for search engine names.

Google seems to have understood the trends with Indian perspective long back when the introduction of ads in Gmail came in to picture.

Rising Searches: Latest Trends in India

Among the rising searches, surprisingly Microsoft Windows 7 is the rising search word on Google in the last 30 days with a whooping 120% rise.

Infosys makes a 40% rise and scores a 4th position while rediff money is 3rd with the same percentage rise.

Conclusion:

All the future online marketing decisions should be conceptualized using Google ( search for content tool) and email marketing campaigns to the best of results, specially for India and the online internet user community.

Social - Political Awareness via SEO SEM : Case Study

After huge political success by Barack Obama in the prestigious US Presidential Elections 2008, which the world was observing, its India's general elections coming soon.

Here is a news from US Gov

Washington -- Electioneering changed in the 2004 presidential campaign when Democratic contender Howard Dean used the Internet as his staging ground and the public responded by donating time and money. Four years later, Internet fundraising has leapt ahead, with prospective Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama enjoying particular success thanks to Web 2.0 interactive and social networking tools that enhance online community participation.

read the full story here

Now in India, this is what is catching an awareness online via Google India search engines and also on the blog content ads ( via adsense)



http://www.lkadvani.in, a nice looking and focussed website for the BJP leader was launched on November 8th 2008, happens to be his 81st birthday.
Tech savvy BJP ( Bharatiya Janata Party) is promoting their Prime ministerial candidate Mr. L.K. Advani in a unique way of Google Adwords ( Search and Content ) advertising.

Using the advance features of Google adwords keyword bidding, the site ad comes for the keyword bjp in sponsored searches as shown below:


Also one thing to be noticed is that, the site is being listed in sponsored searches for the competitor political party name ( congress) , thats intelligent online marketing :)

Lets do some SEO analysis of this Politial Promotion / Brand building / Awareness via website concept:

Here are the visitor statistics from Alexa.com


Tag cloud of the website lkadvani.in home page shows the content has given prime importance to keywords like "advaniji" , "bjp" and "2008" among others:


Meta tags on the landing /index page of the website shows there is scope for SEO optimization.
Here are the tags for reference:

As shown above the keyword "bjp" can be used more effectively in occurance, which will be beneficial to rank the site organically on top SERPS ( Search Engine Ranking Pages).

Disclaimer: The article writer is not associated / sponsored with the site and there is no intention to hurt any sentiments or create any mis-understanding. This is only an attempt to study and analyze the political campaign online as a case study via SEO / SEM Point of view.

Top Google search keywords this month!

Google has just published the top keywords for the month. Interesting to see that top searches on google are prominently search engines and email providers. This leads to conclude that in India, internet is still used for search and email purpose for most of it.

The rising searches include web 2.0 awarness of video chat and messaging. Considering the recent terror attack on Mumbai , news websites are mostly searched for the updates and chat / messengers to convey and discuss things.


When checked for the SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) term awarness, there is still a lot of scope. In practical many people working in IT companies under technology and consulting dont know the meaning and the profile. So dont be surprised if someone compares an SEO with the CEO of a company ;)

When it comes to check the regional interest ( search about the search engine keyword)
Delhi tops the list followed by Tamilnadu and Maharashtra before the state of IT capital Bangalore.





concluding to all the searches in India, we can say that there is still a lot of scope for search, search result refinement and search experience to the end user which will be improving each day as the search engines are getting 'smart' with search trends and records.

A search engine optimizer (SEO) has a moral responsibility to help quality website get the desired value and avoid any black hat techniques to stuff the search results.

Pakistani Hackers deface websites : online fight continues !!

Well, after the Mumbai Terrorist attack, see whats next on the rivalry ....

Dont guess too much, its the web that is the new platform to fight.
Yes, there is the internet, www and the websites on the attack list.

See what happens when an intelligent brain turns to the negative side , the hackers are great programmers , intellectuals but in a wrong direction.

A news about Indo-Pak online hacking activities is here:

Indian and Pakistani hackers have once again taken politics to the web, hacking and defacing web sites in the two countries.

A group believed to be composed of Indian hackers took control of the Web site of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Ratlam, a government-run school in Madhya Pradesh state of North India, after the site was hacked by a pro-Pakistani group.

The Indian hackers left a message on the web site for the site owner, stating that the site had been hacked by Pakistani hackers, but is now under the control of Indian hackers. The message also advised the site owner to fix the site.

India and Pakistan have a long feud over the disputed territory of Kashmir which is partially under Indian control. This dispute has spilled over into online communities, Web sites, discussion groups, and social networking sites like Google's Orkut.

The Press Trust of India, a news agency in India, reported Wednesday that a number of government-run Web sites in India and Pakistan had been defaced since mid-November, as hackers from both countries try to score points.

Source: Yahoo News

Gmail launches new colors and themes

Gmail seems to be too fast with the updates, thanks to Google Labs.
After successful launch of the video chat ( voice enabled) functionality to Gmail, morning today greets all the gmail visitors with new colors and themes.


Yes be surprised with the new updates, all credit goes to the people behind the scene working hard on customer feedback and suggestions.

Now you can customize your email experience with Gmail in the most beautiful way of colors , themes as per your wish.

There are 30+ theme options to choose from, all of them wonderful. I expect Gmail got this idea from the Orkut theme change option , must be a tried success formula and set to apply in all Google properties.The location selection option helps in selecting the factors based on your city and country.

Web Search Volume: India in Last 30 days

Lets checkout what people in India are searching these days?

Any clue, do you think its something like "US Recession", "Lehman brothers", financial crisis, inflation, bomb blasts, elections, new movie releases etc etc etc...

A lot to understand for webmasters and search marketers (both SEO's and SEM's) to put their heads down and think on whats going on the nearby web.
The search terms prove to be the "keywords" as they call to capitalize on and generate returns and revenues.

With the data we have from Google Insights for search, most of these guesses are wrong.
In fact internet users on a high volume is searching for social media sites including google and its search properties like orkut, gmail and youtube.

Here are the top searches ( search terms) within India in the last 30 days.


Awarness about news and then to games will be a good potential opportunity for online content creation via news feeds and gaming consoles. In India gaming industry is on a rise and it shows upward trends in the coming future with broadband ( net based) games reaching far than ever.

Now lets move the rising trends data from Google.


Here is something "fishy" word [ large hadron collider ] with a 3400% rise.
Hard to believe that such a word is searched so much as compared to the current national and international financial crisis and political blame game in India.

A growing search about BSE ( Bombay Stock Exchange) and NSE ( National Stock Exchange) shows interest and anxiety among those who are concerned about the Indian Bull run tragedy and losing money per day.

Important Note:
Google Insights for Search aims to provide insights into broad search patterns. Several approximations are used to compute these results.

Search Engine : All Year Trends : Analysed : Indian Perspective

Whats going on in the search industry recently?
Well a lot, but to get a bird's eye view here are some of the graphs and illustrations via Google Trends ( strange thing is that it does not include Google.com itself, but lets move forward)

Graph showing Top Data fetching search engines and properties:


Regions ruling the search world are United States, India and China respectively for the highest numbers of internet population and IT revolutions.

One time high competing rivals Yahoo! and MSN are keeping a distant parallel lines when it comes to unique visitors, Yahoo! holding the upper limit.

Interesting thing is Facebook ( top social media / networking site) shows better performance than ask.com, a major search engine.
Confirming the fact that more and more users are being attracted on social networking sites, due to the web2.0 concepts, more inter-activeness and contact / concept sharing

Top keywords searched include ever green directory Craigslist, emails solution providers, a latest buzz word in US Politics "Sarah Palin" and financial terms like Bank america.



Indian Search Scene :

Now taking the Indian Context (having second largest population on the planet) of all the google trends goin on for the year.

The graph above shows Yahoo! ( including the search properties i.e. sub sites and partner sites) dominate the Indian Online Market. MSN shows its presence while Ask is nowhere ...

Facebook is having some upward movements in terms of growing users online via social media networking.
Checking regionwise :
Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka tops the list of states while the next surprise here in andaman and Nicobar islands ... is it a wrong data ? nothing can be proved but lets take it for the sake of information.

Other visited sites mostly include email service providers ( rediff, yahoo) job sites ( monsterindia, naukri, timesjobs) and railway ( irctc). Ibibo makes a surprise entry here along with hdfc bank, while orkut or youtube seem missing in the top 10.

Top keywords searched within India this year:


BSNL tops the list along with the pay commission ( mostly by central government employees). Indian railways also being searched a lot considering the forthcoming festive season online railway booking.

Browse the most popular sites on the web.

Here are some of the most popular sites on the web , India specific.
1. Google India

Indian version of this popular search engine. Search the whole web or only webpages from India. Interfaces offered in English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi and Tamil.
google.co.in

2. Yahoo!

Personalized content and search options. Chatrooms, free e-mail, clubs, and pager.
yahoo.com

3. Google

Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. The company's focus is developing search technology.
google.com

4.Orkut.co.in
Social networking and discussion site operated by Google for India.

5. Rediff.com India Ltd.
Online portal with free e-mail and many other services.
rediff.com

6.YouTube

YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide!
youtube.com

7.Blogger.com

Free, automated weblog publishing tool that sends updates to a site via FTP.
blogger.com

8.RapidShare

Users can upload up to 100 meg files for sharing. Provides downloads of 100 megs per hour on the free service. Premium service also available.
rapidshare.com

9.Windows Live

Live Search , MSN , Windows Live · United States |Search engine from Microsoft.
live.com



10.Microsoft Network (MSN)

Dialup access and content provider.
msn.com

11.Wikipedia

An online collaborative encyclopedia.
wikipedia.org





12.Facebook

A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.
facebook.com

13.Microsoft Corporation

Main site for product information, support, and news.
microsoft.com



14.Naukri.com

Search Jobs in India - Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata. Find career openings in top companies.
naukri.com

15. Orkut
Social networking and discussion site operated by Google.
orkut.com

16. Indiatimes

Portal site; includes news stories under subject headings, and links to other information sources.
indiatimes.com

17.Bharatstudent.com

India's Largest Free Social Community Networking Site for Indian friends & Indian student.Friends,Gangs,Film News,Gossips,Photo Galleries,Wallpapers
bharatstudent.com

19.Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

Offers online rail ticket booking, and checking of ticket reservation status. Includes train schedules, availability of tickets, and a travel planner.
irctc.co.in

20.Sify.com

India s leading portal for news, business, shopping, sports, movies, vedic astrology, food, and bollywood videos for Indians and NRIs. The largest Indian Community
sify.com

21.Cricinfo

International cricket news, live scores, photos, columns and player profiles. Provides archive scorecards, statistics database, ratings and email newsletter. Part of ESPN International. UK.
cricinfo.com

23.WordPress.com

Free blogs managed by the developers of the WordPress software. Includes custom design templates, integrated stats, automatic spam protection and many more features.
wordpress.com

24.Fastclick

An online advertising agent that provides products, such as Ad Network and AdServer, to ensure optimal output and performance for its clients.
fastclick.com

25.The Internet Movie Database

Features plot summaries, reviews, cast lists, and theatre schedules.
imdb.com



26.MoneyControl.com

MoneyControl.com is India s leading financial information source. It s the official site for CNBC TV18, and provides news, views, and analysis on equity / stock markets, commodities, personal finance, mutual funds, insurance and loans.
moneycontrol.com

27.Googlesyndication.com
Those who advertisers who are from Adwords ( online advertising / publishing wing of Google) know how it works!

28.ICICI Bank

Offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers.
icicibank.com

29. Monsterindia.com
Find Jobs in India, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad. Apply For Jobs in IT,Sales, Call Center at Monster.com

Source : Alexa