Baidu Launched Beta Testing Personalized Homepage

Google released new product Google+ in its late effort to rival Facebook and Twitter in social networking area even after several unsuccessful attempts including controversial Google Buzz, Google Wave and so on. Its Chinese counterpart Baidu also had a tough trip ramping up its own social network services, with the latest release of brand-new Baidu personalized homepage (pictured below), it seems Baidu has made up its mind to keep trying.

Today is the first day of Baidu Technology Innovation Conference 2011 in Beijing, a very important event for Baidu where several new products will be announced. Baidu launched their new homepage for login users with newly added modules as shown above last night around 8pm.

The new homepage scraps the “empty page with a search box,” the minimalism first pioneered by Google and adopted by search engines everywhere, including Baidu. The change took effect last night for users who are registered with a Baidu account.

It seems the giant Chinese search engine is beta testing the new feature, only a small proportion of its users are directed to the newly-revamped personalized homepage, on which lots of Baidu services are integrated there, including updates from Baidu Tieba(BBS), Baidu Zone(SNS), Baidu Zhidao (social Q&A) and other apps from Baidu Open Platform.

Baidu’s new homepage adds four new sections below the search box:

1.       Favorite sites: Users are encouraged to add their favorite sites to this space. Baidu has announced ‘Connect’ functionality with a number of third-party sites that require log-in, such as Sina Weibo and Renren. If a user is logged-in to their Baidu account, he or she won’t have to log-in again for the other site.

2.       Hot topics: Trending topics based on searches on Baidu and the user’s interests.

3.       Applications: Recommended web applications (games, life, productivity, e-commerce) for the user. CEO Robin Li announced that application downloads on Baidu’s open platform have reached 1.64 billion. This section is an extension of Baidu’s ‘box computing’ strategy, which displays applications directly in search results.

4.       Social Feed: The latest news from social sites, including both Baidu’s properties and other third-party sites.Baidu has failed to build a winning social media product itself, but seems cognizant of this growing user need.

According to some observers, the beta-testing product looks like the profile page on SNS websites, users can personalized it based on one’s needs. And in the future it could integrate with Baidu’s social networking platform. Baidu founder and CEO Robin Li said in this June that ”Baidu is building a common social networking platform as infrastructure, when user comes to Baidu, he may switch seamlessly and intuitively among different Baidu products and apps. He may spend more time on Baidu, and he can also have instant access to desirable information.” One may wonder, could this be the common platform Robin talked about.

In general, Chinese sites tend to be far ‘busier’, more crowded with content than their foreign counterparts. But Baidu had always resisted, maintaining a homepage nearly as sparse as Google’s.

Baidu’s new homepage reflects the firm’s aim to become a destination site for far more than just search.

References:

http://news.ichinastock.com/2011/09/baidu-launches-new-richer-homepage-with-apps-social-feed-and-hot-topics/

http://technode.com/2011/07/02/baidu-beta-testing-personalized-homepage/

http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/1245/baidu-launched-new-homepage-with-modules/

http://looooker.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=42969&extra=

8 Ways PPC and SEO Are Better When Used Together

Pay per click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the hosting service when the ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.

Many people approach SEO and PPC as completely separate strategies. And while they are different in many ways, it can be helpful to think of SEO and PPC as being two sides of the same coin: search. There are many ways in which SEO and PPC efforts complement each other, and lead to a more successful search strategy. Consider these eight ways that make a coordinated SEO and PPC strategy greater than the sum of its parts.

1.        Visibility

The most obvious benefit of combining SEO and PPC efforts is added exposure on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Clients are often tempted to reduce PPC efforts once a search term ranks number one. However, it's important to remember that the top two or three results on most SERPs are PPC ads. Dominating the organic and paid search results will greatly increase traffic, and give the impression that you're an established presence in a particular market.
 

2.        Share Keyword Data

Simultaneously running organic and PPC campaigns gives you double the data to analyze. Determine which organic and PPC keywords have the highest conversion rate, and use that information to optimize your overall strategy.
 

3.        Use Best Performing PPC Ad Copy to Inform Your Organic Content Strategy

What works for PPC often works for SEO. By determining which PPC ads result in the most conversions, you'll have a good idea how to create title tags, meta descriptions and page content for the pages that you want to rank organically. The benefit of using PPC ads to test page attributes is the immediacy of the results. You'll know pretty quickly what works and what doesn't, while organically testing titles and metas can take a long time.
 

4.        Integrate E-Commerce Feeds into AdWords Results

Google is doing some pretty cool things when it comes to e-commerce. You can now link specific product pages to PPC ads. The ad will feature the product, often with reviews, and will take the user directly to the product page, where a purchase can be made. This is a great way to give your existing e-commerce efforts a boost.

5.        Use Site Search Data to Inform PPC Keywords

The main goal of PPC advertising is to figure out which keywords your customers use to find your product or service. Enabling site search on your website, and analyzing the terms that are frequently used, can give valuable insight into your customers' needs and search habits.
 

6.        Combat Negative PR

Occasionally, someone will say something negative about your company. It happens, and when it does, combined PPC and SEO efforts can be great damage control. The principle is similar to the first point in this list: visibility. You can guide the conversation more effectively if you control the SEO and PPC results for a certain term. A great example was seen during the Gulf oil spill. For some time afterward, BP paid for PPC ads linked to the keyword 'oil spill.' The PPC ad led to a page on BP's site about the cleanup effort. They wanted to make sure that whenever someone searched 'oil spill,' BP's PPC ad was at the top of the list. Use this technique to help tell your side of the story.
 

7.        Social Media Visibility

The social media landscape is changing dramatically, and part of that change has been the emergence of highly targeted advertising opportunities. Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube (owned by Google) can serve up ads targeted to incredibly specific groups of people. Using Facebook user profile information, it's possible to show an ad only to 22 year olds living in Kansas City who are interested in motorcycles and horticulture. It may be a small group, but it's precise. The data that you collect from these campaigns may uncover granular details about your target audience, and help refine your overall SEO strategy.
 

8.        Test Strategic Organic Keywords with PPC

PPC ads are a great way to refine your organic keyword strategy. As your long term organic keyword strategy evolves, test the conversion rate of the words you want to rank for with PPC ads. You'll get immediate feedback on the effectiveness of the organic keywords you're after, and can fine tune your strategy accordingly.

References:

http://www.seomoz.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_click

Coming back from Manali, get a new project about the on-page SEO for a poker book company

have no time to tell the details. maybe tonite!

时光飞逝，我想寻求改变，吐槽和跳槽

转眼已在公司履职一个月了，新鲜感完全荡然无存，可怜的上班族成了真正的IT民工，我想寻求改变。
三个AIESEC的朋友成立了自己的互联网市场和电子商务公司，到访参观充满了活力，http://www.cueblocks.com/aiesec/videos.php， 可以看看这个链接。邀请我一起，于是陷入了纠结，我终究是需要改变的，或许就是现在！