Google, Kansas

In a publicity stunt that can best be described as confused and misguided, the city of Topeka, Kansas has changed it’s name to Google. Yep, this Google.

The media spectacle is an attempt to bring Google’s Fiber for Communities experiment to the city. And while the temporary name change will last only the month of March, Mayor William Bunten will likely be remembered forever as the man who has no idea what the Internet is.

Says a CNN report:

“At 79, Bill Bunten doesn’t exactly understand the Internet boom. The Topeka, Kansas, mayor has an e-mail account, he said, but his assistants take care of most of his online communications and tend to search the Web for him.

But Bunten believes so firmly that younger residents of Kansas’ capital city will benefit from faster Internet connections that he wants Topeka — which he describes as a place of many lakes and the site of a burgeoning market for animal-food research — to change its name for a month.”

Read the mayor’s official declaration of the Google name switch here.

Welcome to Greenville!

We can’t deny that we love working and playing in one of the top 100 places to live, and we also love it when other people take notice of all Greenville has to offer. Check out our humble hometown featured among the city profiles in US Airways Magazine.

Planning a trip? We’ve got the inside scoop. Find all the best things to do and see in Greenville at 10Best.com.

Vinepulse by 10Best Solutions

VinePulse is a powerful tool to help your brand impact its online reputation and analyze the results of social media involvement by making engagement in numerous social media channels simple and manageable.

With 10Best Solutions and VinePulse, you won’t be a little fish in the big sea of social media.

VinePulse helps make social media manageable

Check out the 10Best Solutions VinePulse video intro that opened the presentation.

Google Street View van

Swiss privacy official Hanspeter Thuer argues that Google’s Street View camera is an invasion of privacy that shows more than a normal passerby would be able to see from the road due to the height of its camera above hedges and fences.

Google Street View has caught a number of indescretions on camera–like this fire truck hitting an elderly woman on a bike–but I don’t see it being a major invasion of privacy.

Caught on Google Street View

This image has since been removed, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Google Street View camera sees all.

What do you think of the Google Street View camera? Is it an invasion of privacy, a threat to national security or a way to provide useful mapping features to the masses?

Though still in development, the basic features are functioning. The main page lists top headlines or allows you to sort by section. You can also enter terms into the search bar to narrow the results. Once at the story level, readers can like the article, share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. or email it to a friend.

Google Fast Flip

A mobile-friendly version of Fast Flip is also in the works.

So what does it mean for you? If you’re simply a reader seeking information, Google Fast Flip may help simplify the search process (though I’d say they’ve still got a way to go before the search feature is up to par with Google News). If you are a business being discussed in the news, get ready for those stories (good and bad) to reach more people more quickly. Are you keeping up with your brand reputation online? Now would be a good time to start.

Will you abandon your morning paper (and black ink fingers) for news in Google Fast Flip? Or are you committed to the older tradition?

Whalen’s latest article on Search Engineland entitled “Cheers to SEO: How it Pays to Be Optimized” looks at three basic rules of quality website optimization in the context of what makes a quality bartender.

If you’ve never considered whether or not your local bartender is “optimized” or not, check out Whalen’s comparisons below and see how your bartender–and your website–stack up.

1. SEO shouldn’t turn people off… and neither should a bartender.

2. SEO can’t be faked… and neither can bartending.

3. SEO is hard work… and so is bartending.

Overall, it seems Whalen is arguing in favor of a genuine sense of authenticity for both a quality bartender and a quality website. Authenticity, accuracy and truth above all else.

We’ll drink to that.

Hotels in New York

The feature is still new and not easy to find on the site. To play around with it, click here (change the search to any phrase).

So say I’m interested in hearing what others have to say about “hotels in New York.” I get one result pulled from a comment on a Ramones guitar cover remake. Obscure, right? The point is that people are talking and they’re talking everywhere. Even on a home clip of a guy playing around in his living room.

The search only pulls comments from the past 7 days so they remain relevant. As this feature is enhanced and improved it will be an asset to companies working to monitor their brand mentions online and uphold a positive reputation.

Have you utilized the new YouTube comment search feature? Is it useful?

What does this mean for you?

If Sidewiki is used the way it is presented in Google’s examples as a place for experts to contribute valuable extra information to a page, then it’ll be great for users and site owners alike. But since we all know the Internet is not a happy magical land of unicorns and rainbows, odds are that Sidewiki will become an outlet for users to gripe, complain and criticize in ways they couldn’t before–on the site itself.

To be clear, the content contributed via Sidewiki won’t technically be on the page. Instead it will appear in a collapsable sidebar to the left as seen below.

Sidewiki on Bryant Park

Since online buying habits are heavily dictated by user reviews and comments, I predict that site owners will have to start paying special attention to their Sidewiki reviews to avoid negative publicity.

Sidewiki is currently only available for Internet Explorer and Firefox but a Google Chrome version is in the works.

What do you think about Google Sidewiki? Is it a valuable new tool or a threat to website owners who prefer not to include user reviews and comments on their pages?

CDC and social media

The CDC is active on Twitter (with 3 different profiles totaling more than 1 million followers), Facebook (with nearly 30,000 fans), MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and (um yeah) even Second Life. They’ve also got blogs and podcasts on their own site as well as mobile applications.

What exactly is the CDC doing on all these social networks? Warning us about diseases, of course.

Here’s what the CDC is doing right:

1. They are active. Yes, they have a lot of profiles and one could assume most of these sit idle for months on end. But you may be surprised to find that they are updated regularly enough to keep users interested.

2. They stick to what they know. Diseases. No one knows diseases quite like the CDC so this is what they talk about and nothing else.

3. They are timely and relevant. Nothing requires timely distribution of information more than a health warning or food recall. Social media makes it possible for the CDC to quickly disperse information to millions.

4. They let us do their jobs. By providing followers, friends and fans with widgets, badges and banners that they can repost on their own pages, the CDC takes a load off its plate by letting us spread the word for them.

5. They provide useful information. The CDC doesn’t just talk at you. They provide engaging, relevant content to help educate the masses.

So if you don’t think social media “fits” your industry, take a look at the CDC’s approach and see if you can’t mimic it in a way that works for you.

In the search below for “pizza” you’ll see web results, news results and map results.

Universal search

This type of search result likely garners mixed reviews from the businesses listed. While Domino’s and Pizza Hut are probably pleased to be in the top spots, I doubt they like the negative press that follows in the news results. Likewise, small local joints like Barley’s and Bertolo’s are surely thrilled to beat out the big guys and appear on page 1 thanks to the local map results. But it’s safe to say Little Caesar’s is less happy to have been moved below the fold as a result of the map results inclusion.

Despite being the 5th web search result, Little Caesar’s is placed as if it were the 15th result because of the news and map listings, which is a far less satisfying ranking.

It is important to constantly monitor your ranking and reevaluate your SEO strategy if you find you are getting knocked out of rank by other forms of universal search. If you find your former #1 spot is now filled by a video result, perhaps consider adding your own videos to YouTube. If you are being beat out by map listings, consider adding your information to Google Local Business.

For more universal search tips, head over to Search Engine Land.