The “long tail“, in addition to being the title of one of my favorite books (and a must-read for anyone engaged in business online), is an oft-referenced term in our industry. In the world of search engine marketing, the long tail refers to the large number of search keywords that are long or specific, and searched not often. For example, “los angeles dentist” is a commonly searched keyword, while “where can i find a dentist in los angeles who works on kids” is very much a long tail keyword.
Anyhow, in one session at 2007’s Pubcon, I heard a statistic that made me take note: that upwards of 40% of all queries that Google sees every single day, it has never seen before.

I scoured for verification of this statistic, and while I did not find the 40% number repeated, I did find explicit mention that 20-25% of Google queries in 2006 it had never seen before. Perhaps the 40% is bloated, or perhaps the percentage has actually risen from 25% to 40% in the year or so since the last statistic. To me, however, the implications of any of these numbers are vast.

This means that of the tens of millions of searches performed each day, between 20-40% of them Google has never seen searched before, and will most likely never see again, otherwise their search volume would be expanding exponentially (it’s fast, but not that fast).

This is a difficult concept to get one’s head around. I can explain some of these unique queries to items in the news searched one day and not again, spelling errors that are bizarre and unlikely to be repeated, strange research-based queries and full sentences and questions entered as search queries. Those scenarios out of the way, it is still hard for me to fathom the sheer volume of unique queries that Google is seeing and processing, one at a time. It makes you realize what Google’s Udi Manber said quite eloquently: Search is a hard problem.

While I can neither explain or prove this unique query statistic, I can at least see if I am “part of the problem.” I am going to make a conscious effort for the next few days to note the queries I make in Google, and at the end try to evaluate the likelihood that that is a truly unique query, at least in my world of searching.

And no, I won’t pad the stats by smashing my hand on the keyboard and hitting submit!

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Hot on the heels of the recent Beacon/Facebook fiasco, Google has managed to stir up a sizeable controversy with the recent launch of its new Google reader feature, “Sharing with Friends.”

For those unfamiliar, the “Sharing with Friends” feature of the Google reader is designed to share a user’s saved links and feeds with his or her Gmail contacts.

Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? Isn’t sharing information about your likes, dislikes, and interests with a social network whose members have been selected by you precisely what makes networking sites like MySpace and Facebook so popular? What’s the difference between sharing links in Google and posting a MySpace bulletin anyway?

Apparently, a big one.

The first problem? When Google launched the “Sharing with Friends” feature on December 14th, 2007, it chose not to make an opt-in available to its users. Tsk tsk.

So, instead of users being given the conscious choice to share their links and feeds with their contacts, as one does when posting a MySpace bulletin, any and all users of the Google reader were subject to what seems to be a largely unwelcome broadcasting of their shared links and feeds to all of their contacts on their Google Talk list (or Chat List, as it is known in Gmail).

Ok, I’m going to stop here and admit that I’m not exactly sure how this “Sharing with Friends” thing works, or worked, for that matter. I’ve read the information on Google’s website along with a bunch of users’ complaints. However, I remain unclear as to what contacts receive what information. Is your information broadcast only to the Gmail contacts with whom you have chatted in the past? Is your information broadcast to all of your Gmail contacts who use Google Talk/Chat, whether or not you have chatted with them? Or is your information broadcast to everyone in your Gmail contacts list, chatty, tight-lipped, or otherwise?

I do not know. Google’s support pages say one thing, and users say another. And maybe that is part of the problem.

However, for the sake of this blog, let us assume the “Sharing with Friends” feature shares users’ saved links with all of his or her contacts within Google Talk (or Chat). This brings us to the second problem: not everyone in my Talk/Chat list is my friend!

Now, keeping in mind the above, let us assume you have spent a year researching a highly classified topic within your industry, and have been using the Google reader to share your findings with a select group of colleagues via your public page. Then, suddenly one afternoon, every single person in your Chat list (including industry competitors) is now privy to what you consider to be the most prized collection of market research known to man.

If you think the above scenario is far-flung, think again. It is precisely what happened to this guy. But I digress…

The current controversy surrounding the Google reader is only one talking point in the quagmire that is online privacy. And while I am no expert in the field, I can tell you that I find both the Facebook news feed and mini-feed impossibly annoying, and the fact that my friends can see the last time I updated my MySpace profile intrusive.

Don’t get me started on the fact that when I was no longer interested in dating a certain someone, that fact was broadcast to everyone on my Facebook friends list, as soon as I changed my relationship status to “single.” I may as well have blogged about it.

Onward, what does Google have to say about the whole Google reader mess? Their official response can be read here: however, the majority of Google users are not satisfied.

And it is not only users who are questioning the motives, tactics, and privacy policies of popular online destinations. In anticipation of the possible purchase of DoubleClick by Google, Google’s privacy policy has recently come under attack by Republican Congressman Joe Barton, who, in a letter to Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, asked detailed questions regarding Google’s collection and use of personal information.

What will happen next? Stay tuned. This is getting good.

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Spying online. We’ve all done it. For some, it’s practically a hobby.

With the advent of MySpace and Facebook, keeping track of the people in our lives (or in many cases, those we would like to be in our lives) has never been so easy. With the click of a mouse you can usually find out the relationship status of your latest crush, or, as my friends like to call it, your latest “stalk,” along with a plethora of other information that you may or may not want to know.

Online stalking or “lurking” on MySpace and Facebook is so prevalent these days that there are now entries for “Mystalking” and “Facestalking” in UrbanDictionary.com, the tell-tale resource that sheds an often comical and sometimes frightening light on what is happening in pop, youth, and underground culture, defining the very terms by which we express, understand, and classify our world.

At first, spying online seems like harmless fun - you can look at pictures of your friends’ friends, catch up on the activities of long lost acquaintances from college, check in on your significant other, and find out a little more about that hottie you met last night at the bar, all anonymously, from the privacy of your own home. But sometimes, you find out a little more than you bargained for; once that happens, you’ve opened up a virtual Pandora’s Box.

“My girlfriend was looking through the Facebook pictures of a mutual friend and found a picture of me dancing with another girl in a Vegas club from a month before (we were together at the time). Turns out she had class with the girl from the picture that semester. I was in quite a bit of trouble at first, but she forgave me and now she sarcastically gives me very a hard time about it ANYTIME we hear this girl’s name.” - Chris, SEM Specialist, Wpromote

Luckily things turned out all right in Chris’ case; for others, like an ex-boyfriend of mine for example, it wasn’t so simple.

Yes, I too am guilty of mystalking – but not without good reason.

I was dating a guy some time ago and things were going pretty well. Then, one morning, he called me from work in a panic. “I have to talk to you about something important. It’s not something I want to e-mail.” I returned his message right away and what I found out left me highly suspicious.

Apparently, my boyfriend had called to warn me that an “ex-girlfriend” of his found me on his MySpace page, and subsequently lost her mind. She began harassing him constantly, asking him personal questions about our relationship, and demanding that he show her all of our MySpace correspondence. You would think he could have simply ignored her, but the stalker in question was his assistant at work. And at that point, no one else at work knew about their affair. Ahem.

“She might start sending you messages on MySpace,” he said. “She knows who you are now, she has seen your profile and she is threatening to start harassing you, too. I just wanted to let you know so it doesn’t come as a surprise.”

I responded calmly. I told him maybe it best he found another job, but that I would support whatever decision he made.

Then, later that evening, it happened. The first MySpace message from his “ex-girlfriend” arrived in my inbox. What she said is not important, but I now knew who she was, and, fortunately, her page was public.

What was the first thing I saw when I looked at her profile? A comment from my boyfriend: “Xoxo,” posted around 11pm that evening. Moments later my cell phone went off. It was a new text message from my boyfriend. “Xoxo.” 11:20pm.

Clearly, the guy wasn’t very bright (or trustworthy, for that matter). Needless to say, the next morning I called and told him that it was over. He begged and pleaded, trying to convince me that the only reason he was being “nice” to her was so she would keep quiet about their affair, and he could keep his job. Right. He still calls every few months in hopes of rekindling. I still have to answer and tell him there is no chance.

While I am grateful that mystalking helped me to uncover my significant other’s true colors, for people who are stalked, mystalking is just plain annoying.

“Ok so I may not have the most dramatic stalker story pertaining to either MySpace or Facebook. However, I find it very annoying when ‘that girl’ uses it as a GPS. I hate when the girl I am obviously avoiding calls or texts me saying that she knows I must be avoiding her, because she saw me online - or even worse she saw that I changed my profile - when she was on MySpace. Then I have this psycho person proceeding to berate me, as if we are in some sort committed relationship, citing my repeated lack of communication as a source of considerable personal hardship for her. The operative word here being ‘repeated.’ Way to help people not take a hint MySpace/Facebook!!!!” - Damion, Sales Guru, Wpromote

Online stalking is a slippery slope. What starts as innocent fun can eventually invite unnecessary drama into your world, and, if you are stalked, it can be a huge pain in the you know where. The conundrum? It can also prove useful, helping you to suss out a bad situation before it gets worse.

My advice to you? Be good, or be careful.

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Greetings!

My name is Amanda Moshier and I am the new girl here at Wpromote. It is my second week on the job and my first day on the blog, and I have to say, I am rather impressed with the quality of writing found on The Search Insider. It is witty, enlightening, and engaging. I am happy to be on board.

As the staff copywriter, I will focus on writing and editing content for Wpromote’s SEO, Market Local, and Performance Marketing clients, as well as reporting to you on the latest and greatest in search engine optimization, online marketing and the ubiquitous, ever-changing world of cyberspace.

A film school graduate turned marketing guru, I have been writing since I learned how to spell. Luckily, I grew up in a time when kids my age were being forced to abandon their word processors and learn how to type their history reports on a computer. It was traumatic, to say the least. What would have taken a mere 25 minutes to type up on my trusty word processor proved to be a seemingly insurmountable task using Microsoft Word.

I was convinced that I was being punished. I was sure the computer did not like me. It was all part of some evil technological scheme.

I went to battle with a machine, I won, and the rest is history. I have been working in online marketing since 2003 and there is never a dull moment.

That being said, I look forward to getting to know you better, to finding out your likes and dislikes, keeping you informed about what is happening online, and sharing tips and tricks for creating content that ranks.

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