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WebiMax Blog

Digital marketing tips and advice.

March 30, 2012

Businesses must cater to each local context - have I said that before on this blog? Yes, it is a recurring theme but only because it holds great utility for businesses and it bears consistent repeating. This is especially the case when others are offering the same advice, like say Tom Smith, managing director of the market research firm GlobalWebIndex.

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March 30, 2012

There definitely have been more than a few businesses and organizations that were initially dismayed at the changing of their Facebook brand pages to the Timeline format. What they may not have realized yet, however, is that the Facebook Timeline format will turn out to be highly beneficial for meeting their SEO and social media marketing needs. In fact, what everyone really seemed to need was an article from Mashable, that was recently posted, which outlined and detailed the ways in which Facebook Timeline has been designed to enhance marketing on the social media network.

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March 30, 2012

March 29, 2012

I have written a good amount on the importance of local search for businesses with the rise in smartphones and more specifically, the rise in web searching on smartphones. The rate of search is impressive. In a recent Google study, 99% of global respondents indicated they use search engines on their smartphone, and searching for local businesses is one of the most popular searches. The essential point on this if you are unfamiliar, is that SEO companies and marketers can assist businesses that cater to local audiences by increasing their presence on local-centered platforms and features. SEO for geo-targeted search terms and optimizing pages on local features such as Google Places will improve the online visibility of businesses when searchers enter queries for their industry in their geographic area.

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March 29, 2012

The introduction of Facebook Timeline for brands officially brought to light a very important aspect of marketing through social media: brands must be humanized. In other words, a brand must communicate with its social media audience on a direct personal level. This can provide dividends of benefit for companies, because it increases the trust that customers place in them, which in turn produces positive results in profits.

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March 29, 2012

March 28, 2012

In yesterday's post, I looked at Google Autocorrect and how a Romanian brand responded to the unfavorable suggested terms for the Google search query "Romanians are…" launching a "Romanian are smart" campaign. The campaign was successful and more attractive terms replaced the undesired ones. Businesses and individuals can find themselves in similar reputation management cases where they seek the services of SEO companies to resolve the issue. Check out that post for thoughts on what companies can do in such a scenario. However, today we look again at Google's Autocorrect, but this time in relation to Japan and the object of unfavorable suggested terms is an individual rather than a nationality.

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March 28, 2012

How would you like to save marketing dollars by getting your brand valued within its community?  Wait.  The gentleman branding process doesn’t work for every person or brand.  There's something I would like to point out to business people, regardless of your industry.  There's one aspect which all of the online marketing, SEO, social media, black/white-hat tactics can't offer your company…personality.  I try to pass on sentiments of great people and branding onto readers; but, I honestly can't ingrain or grant character; that's the man-in-the-mirror's job.

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March 28, 2012

When it comes to Pinterest, far too many people insist that the image-sharing site is mainly geared towards a female user base, especially one which falls within the middle age bracket. However, there have finally been some facts presented to disprove that myth. A recent article from Mashable features a slideshow of 11 men who are all heavy users and big fans of Pinterest. Their activity on the site serves as evidence that Pinterest has appeal to both men and women.

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March 27, 2012

As search is their primary function and market, Google continually works to improve the search experience on their platform for their end-users. Google consistently rolls out improvements to their algorithm and search approach, some larger (such as Google Search Plus Your World) and some smaller (such as the continuous geo-targeting refinements), but all are detailed in their company blog, which is an important way that marketers and SEO experts keep abreast of the latest from the search giant.

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March 27, 2012

Recently, I wrote a post leveraging the WSJ's high costs of high-speed technology sentiments.  Today I see more of the same money leveraging taking place.  In this scenario it involves the coming presidential election.  In many ways, the election involves huge marketing campaigns, where loyalists and foil-ists endeavor at outdoing one another.  Behind the liaisons, the campaigning, the slights at others, is the purpose of it all, to provide value to the nation, by elucidating its next best leader.  Like with services and products, ideally all of the marketing is to supply end users, the general public, with value, right?

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March 27, 2012

March 27, 2012

For SEO professionals who have been grappling with the process of adjusting their companies' Facebook Fan Pages to the new Timeline format, here is some news that will inspire them to keep at it. A recent study was conducted by Simply Measured, a company that creates social media analytics software, on 15 companies that updated their Facebook Fan Pages to Timeline on or very close to February 29th, 2012, which was the date that Facebook made Timeline available to businesses on the social networking site.

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March 26, 2012

The reason for the immense appeal of the social media site Pinterest lies in its basis on image-sharing. We are living in a society that is increasingly becoming more drawn to pictures than to words. People are gravitating much more readily to websites that feature many images versus those that contain a lot of written content. Anyone who has been paying attention to the evolution of website designs over the past several years can definitely attest to this growing trend among internet users.

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March 26, 2012

Geo-targeting is a subject we have covered consistently on this blog, considering its prime importance for local and location-specific search. We continuously stress the value in incorporating geo-targeted search terms in on-site content and optimizing for them with a coordinated SEO campaign. Now, Search Engine Watch conducted a study to test the SEO merit of domain and site relevance to the target location. As the state of search evolves continuously, it is helpful to test certain practices in such a way and re-evaluate their worth, and the results give us some additional proof for what SEO experts have been finding in their work.

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March 26, 2012

March 25, 2012

March 23, 2012

March 23, 2012

It's that time of the week again…More news about the exploding social media site Pinterest from yours truly. Just when you thought you had heard enough, I reveal how much more there is to add to your store of Pinterest knowledge. After all, every week brings fresh news of how various companies and organizations are making good use of the site for their marketing needs. In addition to that are the changes that the fledgling company is starting to implement, in its efforts to keep apace with the rapid growth of its product on an increasingly massive scale.

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March 23, 2012

In yesterday's post, I introduced some research from Flurry that looks at mobile devices and their rise across the world. Specifically, I addressed the meteoric rise in mobile device activation in China and how Chinese activations have now surpassed the number experienced in the US, making them the fastest growing mobile device market in the world. This is very important for SEO companies and marketers currently operating in or contemplating operating in China as they can leverage mobile to further their exposure and achieve their goals. Today, let's turn our attention to Flurry's numbers regarding app use across the globe and see how marketers can maximize them.

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March 22, 2012

Last night I gave my first ever public presentation on SEO at Triumph Brewing Company in Philadelphia as a part of the monthly meetup, SEO Grail. I had been to 6 SEO Grail meetups prior and was extremely impressed by the level of knowledge each speaker possessed. And the beer was pretty good, too.

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March 22, 2012

Paul Adams, who is the Global Brand Experience Manager at Facebook, gave a talk yesterday to marketer professionals at the Federated Media's Signal conference in San Francisco. An article from TechCrunch reported on the interesting responses, comments, insights, and advice Adams gave to the marketers who were in attendance.

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March 22, 2012

We continue to cover the rise in smartphones and mobile device as well as how companies can strategically leverage the devices' associated technologies and consumer behaviors to drive more business. From optimizing your web properties for mobile browsing and mobile searching to maximizing apps, mobile ecommerce (or m-commerce) opportunities, local search for in-store shopping and utilizing social media, there are seemingly endless possibilities for mobile.

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March 22, 2012

I still have growing to do; I'm only thirty-two (thirty-three next week; send b-day sentiments to Anthony Pensabene, Web Office box Twitter, USA.)  This may seem immature but money isn't everything to me.  I feel some of you sneering; we'll have to agree to disagree.  From a business branding point of view, I think providing exceptional service holds more value than immediate income.  As a consumer, I shop by a golden rule; make me feel valued and I will value your brand.  It seems simple to me.  What seems more lucrative to you, showing your brand's money-making or service-oriented skills?  We know what holds more value for your target market.  You know them, the ones whose favor your entire business depends upon…

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March 21, 2012

I want to circle back to news from Google that broke earlier in the month regarding encrypted search and address how it can impact international markets. Google made a change several months ago to google.com where users who are logged in have secure socket layer (SSL) encryption added to their web searches providing an added layer of privacy. Google pushes the security and privacy aspects of the default SSL measure and calls on more companies to adopt SSL in their offerings. This move also set up the then forthcoming launch of Google Search Plus your World. A byproduct of this SSL measure, though, is that less search data is available for advertisers.  It brings the "not provided" keyword return in Google Analytics into existence and pushes SEO companies and internet marketers to reassess and adapt their practices.

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March 21, 2012

Oh boy. The latest news on the street is that the re-designed profile page that Pinterest happily rolled out last Friday – and that I blogged about on Thursday and Friday of last week – is facing a severe backlash full of harsh criticism and complaints from members of the Pinterest community.

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March 21, 2012

March 20, 2012

IPO Board RoomIs your online business concerned with search engine rankings (surely, you've heard about potential Google changes to come) or fiscal business strategies?  Trends often ferment online; leveraging IPOs and 'boards' is a current trend of big-boy brands, those banking on increased revenue, impressing brand consumers, and (more importantly?) investors too.

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March 20, 2012

Have you ever wondered about the characteristics that make a Twitter account credible? If you are an SEO marketing professional, it is quite likely that you have, and often. Luckily for all of us, Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University took it upon themselves to conduct a study on the trustworthiness of tweets, and released a ten page report on the results of their analyses.

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March 20, 2012

March 20, 2012

The domain landscape has been largely untouched for years now, but that is set to change come January. At the beginning of 2013, new top-level domains (TLDs) will be rolled out that expand the available domain options. The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and 

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March 19, 2012

There's no better way to start off the week than with an incredibly important question: how many followers do you have on your Twitter account? Any business that is running a social media and SEO campaign on this integral micro-blogging site knows just how important the number of followers it has is to developing its online presence.

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March 19, 2012

Athletic and cultural giant Nike had a significant misstep last week when they named a limited edition shoe after the drink known in this country as a "Black & Tan," a layered combination of a stout and lager beer. The company was doing so to honor Ireland in the run-up to St. Patrick's Day, however, the gesture was received as an insensitive and somewhat confusing insult. Nike did not fully understand the significance of the "Black & Tan" phrase in Ireland.

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March 19, 2012

March 18, 2012

March 16, 2012

Do you think that the release of the new iPad is the only exciting event to take place this morning? Think again! As I reported in my blog post from yesterday, Pinterest had announced earlier in the week that it would be rolling out a re-designed profile page for users of its popular social media site. Well, today was the big day for Pinterest, just as much as it was for Apple, and the time has come for us to peel our eyes off of that bright, brand-new retina display and onto the new format of the Pinterest user profile page.

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March 16, 2012

SEO and cultureIn Monday's post, I introduced the idea of cultural characteristics and looked at power distance. Certain characteristics of culture influence the way people act and experience their world and, of most interest to those in international SEO, experience the internet. Many aspects of certain cultures have changed over time, however core elements of culture tend to remain unchanged, they only adapt to the times. As such, certain tendencies of those from a specific culture can be expected, and as internet marketers, we must cater what we do to best suit the tendencies of a certain market.

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March 16, 2012

I recently had a business concern with my cellular phone provider.  I took it upon myself to contact corporate headquarters.  I want to be heard.  Unfortunately, it took weeks and several actions to get the result I was working toward.  At first, I used emotion and frustration to cloud my logic.  If I sought the proper channels first, things would have progressed in an expedited fashion.  Such a dynamic is related to a client's SEO campaign.  Established channels are there to ensure the service supplier's company runs smoothly as well as attends to client matters in the most efficient manner.  Consider the following search engine optimization campaign suggestions.

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March 15, 2012

March 15, 2012

Breaking news! This past Tuesday at the South by Southwest Conference that has been taking place in Austin, Texas all week, Pinterest Co-Founder and CEO Ben Silbermann announced the release of a re-designed Pinterest profile page that will roll out this week.

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March 14, 2012

If you're not in this business names like Rand Fishkin and Matt Cutts may not ring any bells.

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March 14, 2012

The world of SEO is continuously morphing. Whereas optimizing a business or organization's website has long been the primary goal of search engine optimization, the tables of the game are just starting to tilt in a new direction. What is this change, and why did it happen?

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March 14, 2012

In yesterday's post, I discussed open source mapping and how both Apple and Foursquare dropped Google Maps as their mapping provider. Both have gone to open source solutions with Apple using OpenStreetMap and Foursquare using MapBox. I finished yesterday's post with the questions -how is the emergence of open source mapping impacting the sector, and second, how would a mapping service by Apple further impact the sector and SEO? Let's address these.

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March 13, 2012

The results of a marketing study that Facebook conducted in collaboration with Forrester Research were recently published. They reveal some very interesting and significant changes in the world of marketing, and how professionals in the field now approach the task of promoting brands and products to consumers. The final verdict is that social media has produced great changes in the landscape of marketing. It has established its place on the list of primary mediums through which businesses now carry out their SEO and other marketing campaigns.

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March 13, 2012

It's easy to get encapsulated in a microcosm.  We, as search engine specialists, forget what it's like for those outside our industry; at present, many are unsure how to brand the evolution of SEO.  Also, it's easy to think about marketing practices within the boundaries of the United States; yet, there is such a service as international search engine optimization.

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March 13, 2012

Online maps are essential to our lives. We all rely on them to some degree as they have grown in relevance and applicability over the years. Gone are the days when checking online maps was reserved for seeking answers to curious geography questions, though. Now, digital maps are integrated into our mobile apps as well as our in-car navigation, and we use them to give us detailed directions on the roadways and to search the the location of local businesses. Some of these applications of the maps lend themselves to internet marketing and search engine optimization more than others, most notably, local business searching, however they all factor into the mapping market and impact the direction the sector will take.

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March 13, 2012

March 12, 2012

Culture is a dynamic, living thing. This may be an exaggeration of sorts, but the point is culture is an evolving entity that impacts just about every aspect of our lives. It impacts the way we experience our days, structure our time, share with friends, work at our jobs, and - how we experience the web. Cultures adapt as time passes, but core elements of cultures can and do remain unchanged. These core elements account for cultural tendencies that exist from culture to culture influencing the way people behave and, for our purposes, experience the internet.

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March 12, 2012

The world of social media may seem large and confusing to many small businesses that are just starting out. However, there is absolutely no reason to shy away from including social media in your SEO marketing initiatives. The benefits of using social media marketing far outweigh any negatives and, if done properly, can ultimately prove to be profitable.

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March 12, 2012

March 12, 2012

Online Marketing - Gifts from the Gods or Just Seuss Reiterations?

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March 11, 2012

Good morning or afternoon (depending on SEO hemisphere).  A lot of good posts and discussion took place recently.  Let's tear into last week's can of online marketing posts.  You know you can't read just one.

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March 9, 2012

March 9, 2012

Of course it was only a short matter of time before an analytics tool for Pinterest, the latest phenomenon in the social media world, would rise to the surface. PinReach is a service that measures the amount of a user's influence on Pinterest. This is done by gathering information about the total numbers of pins, repins, likes, liked-s, followers, following, comments, and boards.

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March 9, 2012

Geo-targeting has been utilized to deliver location-specific content to web users in many ways for several years and is now having greater potential in the political arena. Geo-targeting itself has gone through several iterations on various platforms, but the essentials remain.

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March 8, 2012

Yesterday, I wrote a piece for International Business Times focusing on the growth of US online retailers in the EU market. Some of the figures are worth repeating to set up our discussion here today. US e-retailers had collective sales of $26.1 billion in 2011 up from $20.6 billion a year earlier. The 2011 numbers accounted for 25% of sales in that year for the Top 400 online retailers in Europe, growing from 23.4% from the previous year.

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March 8, 2012

As if you didn't need any more reasons to start using Pinterest for your business: the latest news on the Pinterest front is that the new social media star has surpassed Twitter in generation of referral traffic, as reported by TechCrunch. This is an incredibly huge piece of news, mainly because Twitter has long been the giant among social networking sites in sharing links and generating huge referral traffic back to original sites. Well, not anymore – Pinterest is taking the crown from Twitter, and placing it on its own image-laden head.

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March 8, 2012

March 7, 2012

March 7, 2012

With the announcement about the new iPad officially made, and the well-sought details regarding its attractive new specs and features finally revealed to the eagerly-awaiting public, it only makes sense for everyone to continue their speculations into what Apple will next be introducing to its many offerings of mobile device-related services.

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March 7, 2012

March 6, 2012

I really appreciated this recent article on TechCrunch that detailed five main reasons for which companies experience failure in their Facebook marketing endeavors. The fact of the matter is that Facebook marketing possesses a world of potential in profitability – but only if it is used correctly, and consistently.

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March 6, 2012

Today's post continues from yesterday's piece on the subject. Once an organization understands the message their presence would send in their new environment, they can make strategic business decisions and take actions considering the communication value they hold.  Such actions send specific messages to the various publics in the new context, and it is the job of the decision-makers to strategically engage in actions that send the desired messages.

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March 6, 2012

At the Facebook Marketing Conference that was live-streamed on Wednesday, February 29, 2012, Facebook unveiled some interesting and important new marketing solutions for businesses both big and small. There are several key points from the conference that TechCrunch decided to highlight in a recent article. Overall, the general goal that Facebook seems to be striving towards is creating a more streamlined ad experience that would improve the user experiences of its site, and force businesses to develop more creative SEO and social media marketing campaigns that feature engaging content.

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March 6, 2012

Technology!  It's exciting!  It's eye opening!  It may be hurting your brand!  Technology is moving at…modern-day computer speeds; it's getting faster with each passing moment.  Yesterday, I wrote upon Apple's newest iPad and analyst forecasts of mobile devices killing the 'PC star.'

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March 5, 2012

March 5, 2012

Business Personality

What kind of personality traits are involved in your brand's marketing?  Of course, inanimate sentiments don't have direct personalities as we understand people to behold.  However, the way in which brands market and leverage specific online implementations affects consumers in the same manner.

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March 5, 2012

Disclaimer: This is elementary knowledge, purposed for beginners and optimization shoppers, not industry cohorts though industry contributions in comments would augment the information.

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March 4, 2012

Aloha, readers, from the snow-capped terrains of rocky-mountainous Colorado.  I was jeeping my way through the western country and missed the latter portion of the week in online marketing.  Okay.   I admit.  I snuck some peeks in on my Android.  I can't stay away.  Let's see what treats online marketers left for us on the trail.

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March 2, 2012

local search with Google+

We have touched on Google+, its worth, applicability, and where it will likely go in the future a good amount lately, and most recently in a blog post by JWersits. Google+ is firmly carving out its own dimension within social media and will not likely look like the archetypal social media platform that we've come accustomed to seeing (not that one true standard exists, but a site that allows users to share and engage with each other in the basic ways that Facebook and others offer). With that said, it will most-likely continue to grow and increase its relevance for personal users and businesses alike, especially given its relevance for Google Search Plus Your World results.

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March 2, 2012

A week ago I wrote on businesses that use Pinterest as a great social media and SEO marketing tool for their products and services, citing several great examples. However, you don't need to be a for-profit organization to take advantage of the promotional services that Pinterest provides. There are more than a few non-profits that are jumping onto the social media site to spread the message about their organizations, inspiring others while bringing well-needed attention to their causes. And the attention is definitely coming, if you can take recent articles by Mashable and The Huffington Post on non-profits' Pinterest boards as evidence.

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March 1, 2012

When it comes to social media and SEO, I've discussed two major players so far: Twitter and the up-and-coming Pinterest. Here is yet one more: Foursquare. This is primarily a mobile app for smartphones, but it can be so much more for businesses that know how to utilize it for promotional and marketing activity. Foursquare trades on the currency of fun, but the app and social media tool can produce tangibly profitable results if businesses use it in just the right way.

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March 1, 2012

With Google's new privacy changes rolling out today, March 1, push pack from users, analysts, and now regulation authorities has been firm. On Tuesday, though, the resistance gained traction in Europe as well. Negative feedback in Europe came in the form of statements from the National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL), the French data protection authority. The agency issued a letter to Larry Page, Google's co-founder and CEO, contending that the policy changes cloud the actual ways the company uses private user information. This data is of course what Google uses to sell targeted advertising, one of the primary revenue-generators for the company and areas of competition between them and Facebook.

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Need an Expert Contributor?

Ken Wisnefski is a seasoned web entrepreneur and a frequent contributor to news outlets and business publications. Ken’s vast knowledge of how to make online businesses succeed has made him a sought after consultant from businesses wishing to improve their online initiatives. Contact pr@webimax.com to collaborate!

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