What Artificial Intelligence really means

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It’s getting ridiculous. My Uber driver today was telling me how AI is changing the world. I just wish they knew how to change lanes safely. See below. That’s how you should think about Artificial Intelligence.

The core of AI is data and and statistics. Somehow that got manifested or redefined into Data Mining (the proceed of retrieval and extraction/ collection) then analysis (statistics, pattern recognition) and then machine learning. So many buzz words. This information is stored in databases and that is often referred to as knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) … then AI came around to bamboozle investors thinking there was some secret sauce beyond Data Mining and Machine Learning.  This graphic is a good one to I like to share. AI is just an extension of all these core ingredients.

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The Google My Business Matrix

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There’s a saying in technology here in Silicon Valley that ‘hardware’ is hard. So when we speak to our clients for which we manage over 3,200 Google My Business pages, we often start by explaining that Google My Business is inextricably linked to Google Maps and Google StreetView.

You’ve seen Streetview when looking at external pictures attached to the Google Map listing on Google results pages. The pictures are taken from a high lense 360 degree camera perched on top of a Google tech car. A few weeks ago in Palo Alto, I took a ride in one to preview the new camera’s, robotic arms and computer tracking systems.

One of the biggest issues clients have is the correct latitude and longitude ‘Map Pin’ to show their address. Often the picture taken by these Google Cars don’t show the actual location of the business intended but the gas station on the corner next door, the empty lot on the corner or the brick wall of the building where the shop is located in. So how do you fix these along with all the other issues of Google My Business.

It’s a little bit like the Matrix movie. You have to step inside of it and wonder around to discover it. There are no manuals Google provides, its constantly evolving and takes experts to drive correct citation listings, image management and measurement.

If you are not receiving reporting for  Return on Investment of Search Queries, Map Queries, Driving Direction Requests and Phone Calls Made from Google My Business Pages, you are not being properly serviced.

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What David Beckham can learn from Rank Brain

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Yesterday in New York City, the team got together for a late lunch at Balthazar for a steak and chips. Simple no fuss. Until the David Beckham circus arrived along with paparazzi and disturbed a casual late lunch for all those dining. We were told that Beckham phoned ahead signalling the photographers to crush the diners trying to get in and out. That’s technically off line spamming.

If “Becks” understood Google rank brain, he would have already realized that it would have been better to slide into the restaurant with a pair of loafers and shades surprising diners who would have surely taken photos and shared them on social media. Let Google’s new machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithm take hold of the # hashtags and geo-locations of phones used to take pictures to promote presence on social media.

Fortunately, we were able to find some good Cannoli in Little Italy.

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Is SEO like the Lottery?

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The recent US Lottery of $758 Million Powerball jackpot that captivated the USA last week holds a lesson for all marketers who think that there lucky number will come up or should I say website will appear on page 1 of Google.

There are many uninformed online marketing people (and senior management) who believe that once SEO is undertaken, their website will magically appear on page 1 of search engine results pages (SERPs). We tell our clients it isn’t an instant lottery result!

Many colleagues have expressed to me over the years that like lotteries, ranking in search engines has the same “random number generation” mechanics. That is, like dice rolling or casino roulette, the result cannot be reasonably predicted better than by a random chance.

While no one really knows to what extent the randomness that search engines like Google and Bing apply, we do know it’s not 100% like a lottery. Yet these mega lotteries have massive appeal. Our long time client in William Hill in Australia last month launched Planet Lottery that taps into international lottery systems for mega hundred million dollar amounts.

Are Algorithms laundering data?

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The core of SearchForecast is analyzing data. Every day, our team is analyzing Google Analytics, conversion data, CRM data  and email campaign metrics. We provide insights from this data, using our experience learned from client work. Cathy O’Neil has a very insightful TED talk here on algorithms. We too warn clients not to seed emotional input into algorithms as this can have and does have negative effects. This is worth watching if you’re providing solutions with data.

When one door closes, another one opens

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Famous words from a famous film! RIP DMOZ. You inspired SearchForecast to be founded. For the record, SearchForecast has always known the meta description tag need not be exact on characters as Google often shortens the sentence. Here is the proof from the Google Webmaster Tools Blog dated 2nd June 2017. Screenshot attached or long form at https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/06/better-snippets-for-your-users.html

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15 per cent Daily new searches on Google

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Crazy to think that “15 percent of searches we [Google] see every day are new” as cited in https://blog.google/products/search/our-latest-quality-improvements-search

That’s 1 in 7 searches. If you apply the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) where roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes, then there is serious work to do understanding the intent of these new words and effect on client leads, conversions, etc.

Action Point: Get to work analyzing new keywords!

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What does Easter Bunny and Google Home have in common?

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We’re working harder and are fatigued. We are tired of searching using our keypad and with Amazon Echo and Google Home appliances accelerating the voice search market that is estimated to reach out 50% of all search traffic by 2020, no wonder I can draw comparisons between this poor old Easter Bunny asleep at 11am in Stanford Mall in Palo Alto as I walked along with my recently purchased Google Home device.

Like many of you, I have found the physical component of searching using my fingers and keypad increasingly laborious and arduous. The brain wants a faster way to search and retrieve results. My first few months of Google Home use has taken time to adjust to the voice phrases I use to get the results I want. It takes a longer time for all of us to verbalize what we are thinking than if we are typing. That said, Google Home voice understanding/ recognition is pretty much spot on. It understands everything I say !

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I don’t need Google

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From all of us at SearchForecast who spend days and weeks deconstructing search engine algorithm updates by Google (from Penguin to Possum this week), thank you to the person who sent us this. I would only say that finding one that says ‘My husband knows everything’ is certainly worthy as many of our clients and co-workers are quite sure about this as well as the gentleman referring to their wives!

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