Anyone notice the way Google changed its look?

They do not just A/B test design, they also test results. (Why sometimes not all people here see the same results).


NPR (National Public Radio) Did a piece with the guy in charge of 'Mobile Search' for Google. He said they are continually testing and that as much as half the searches made on smart phones (& desktops & tablets), depending on what they are testing, may return test results. (They then check bounce rates, etc).

So in addition to there being 6 global search databases returning slightly different results, there is the chance when checking your SERPs that you are getting test results back! (Not to mention the ever present Google Dance).

He said they have had some goof ups, for instance: 'American Express', (which is what you would enter when looking for a local American Express office), returned businesses closest to the GPS location that accepted American Express because those words were on those near sites, instead of the AE office which would come up somewhere in page 20 or 30 depending on how close the phone was to it. (They have since fixed that).

Local search from a smart phone will always return the nearest businesses to that phone's GPS, where as a local search on a desktop or tablet that goes through your ISP returns the businesses closest to the center of the town that your ISP's server is in! (Barring some exceptions). Obviously, local businesses NEED to have 'phone friendly' sites.

More and more people are using the net through phones. Other than talking.... The most time spent on the web by phone users is:

1. Games
2. Texting
3. Search
4. Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
5. Watching videos and TV programs
6. Getting directions or using a GPS app while driving

It will soon be that more people access the net through their phones than any other medium. So as a marketer, one must have a site that will look good in a small browser, while making the text large enough to read. Several site templates, (like Wordpress), already have easy ways to make your site phone friendly, in Wordpress, the easiest way I know is downloading Carrington and having the WPMS Mobile Edition plug-in which when it detects your site being accessed through a mobile device returns the site using the Carrington mobile theme. (You know, I have not checked that yet, because I myself, do not have a smart phone! Guess I better. And you should too, if you are using it.)

Depending on the product, delivery will also be an issue. A huge E-book that they want on their Kindle or Nook, but order on their phone would need to be delivered one way where as a phone app would need to delivered another. (Or perhaps in this case, both by e-mail would work, as long as their e-mail setting were configured correctly or they knew how to sync).


In any case, it is an evolving world. Not just search algorithms, but how people are accessing the net and what they are doing on-line will be absolutely necessary to know in order to have the right products, the right delivery systems, the right advertizing and the right marketing (or sales) pages. These things are changing FAST! In some cases weekly stats turn a huge corner, (never to return). If you are inclined to take a month and sit on a beach, you may come back to find things have changed so much that what you were doing 30 days ago is now prehistoric!

Just rambling, but that NPR piece was a real eye opener.