Mark Kithcart on Social Media & Online Marketing » Search

Social Media, Facebook and SEO – It is Changing

Mark Kithcart — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:21:33 +0000

I believe SEO is still the fundamental foundation for everything we do online to help us drive to discover our target audience (or have them discover us) and resultantly get those targeted folks to take the action once they find our online assets and collateral.

Some earth shaking shifts are happening in the Google/SEO/Social Media arena that are going to get folks talking for a few weeks on what it all means and if the changes Google is making will stick.

Social Media is being influenced and affected by Google’s ranking algorithms – we’ve seen hints. I just noticed today that Facebook video is ranking individually and is also viewable via a google search – take a look!

I have a long term client who is now ranking for several positions on Google for a particular key phrase – but notice #10. The cool thing is the video plays WITHOUT being logged into Facebook.

So, will this stick and if so does that mean Facebook is a new SEO hot spot?

I have always been a big believer in the fact that you can intentionally set yourself up for success in Social Media but you must do it with solid SEO principles if you want to be on-purpose with your programs. What do you think? Is SEO still the foundation even when it comes to Social Media?

LeapFish – Where Web Meets World

Mark Kithcart — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

LeapFish released a new traditional, social and real-time search experience today.

I think a lot of people will perceive this as a release of “just another search engine” if they just read a press release or post and fail to go to the site. That couldn’t be further from the truth with this new version of LeapFish. This is the first search engine that allows socialization of all discovered content at the click of a button.

Social media adoption is at unprecedented levels and content is truly becoming “king” as engines like LeapFish allow a simple sharing mechanism that is integrated into the search stream.

From the Press Release:

“Aside from the Web’s growing size and variety there is an emerging duality of “real-time” and “traditional,” which now requires a completely different search experience. One that includes both the content and the “contributor” in the search experience, such that both traditional and real-time searching and sharing are integrated seamlessly in our use of this Living Web,” said Ben Behrouzi.”

This, in my opinion, was the missing step to a much larger movement in the search industry that is now moving away from static links and search results to a more dynamic search and socialization experience.

The best part of this release is that the combined searching and sharing functionality is only one of the incredibly innovative features that users will have access to when using LeapFish. My favorite feature is the customizable homepage that have feature-rich proprietary Twitter and Facebook apps that allow me to interact with my social communities without leaving my “personal dashboard to the web”.

Go to http://www.leapfish.com/ dive into this new experience and start Living the Web.

Why “WE” Will Change the Web

Mark Kithcart — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:26:00 +0000

The internet has always changed at a rapid pace. Recently (in the past 2 years) there has been a growing movement of real-time user generated interactions and content that is creating a completely new “internet” fueled by twitter, facebook and social media, essentially being fueled by “US”.

Ben Behrouzi, posted an article today that captures the movement of the real-time web and how there is a need for integrating and sharing this new mountain of content that is created daily and how “WE” are creating the new “Web that will take the form of a living breathing database”.

Excerpt from the article: Real-Time Search – 5 Reasons Why “We” Will Change the Web

“What is clear is that our daily use of the Real Time Web’s driving platforms — Twitter, Facebook and the like — is unprecedented. The Internet is no longer simply just a disconnected 3rd party container of tops down aggregation, “We” is now part of its determination. And, search as we know it will soon change to accommodate, thereby delivering a completely different experience of the Web.”

The new web will require new tools to address the bottoms up approach to content and interactions that occur in real-time. Ben Behrouzi does an excellent job of giving us a sneak preview as to why this movement is critically important to the search industry and how “WE” are influencing the internet today.

Ben Behrouzi of LeapFish Interviewed by Search Cowboys

Mark Kithcart — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Ben Behrouzi, CEO of LeapFish, was interviewed by the Search Cowboys blog last week. It is a deeper discussion of where LeapFish is going and why LeapFish is not just a meta-search engine or another aggegator in a sea of new engines that are appearing on a regular basis.

Ben Behrouzi in a quote to Search Cowboys makes it very clear where he believes search is going and especially where LeapFish is going to focus;

“We live in a time with a very multimedia and sophisticated Internet and we believe its time our search tools function in a similar way. LeapFish is undertaking a progressive and systematic application of advancements and innovations in search over the next several years that empowers users with the ability to access more of the multimedia web as well as interact with the data they find in a whole new way”

Search is heating up with a Microsoft/Yahoo partnership that was just sealed, Twitters new homepage and Google slowly sneaking in new features. Search is also evolving into a fresh, new, real-time and engaging experience for the user.

Read the rest of the interview at the LeapFish Blog

LeapFish Enables Search 2.0

Mark Kithcart — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:27:00 +0000

LeapFish has had an incredible increase in traffic as it has grown over the past few months. A foundation was built around the ability to allow users to get information that they normally do not get when using other search engines.

This foundation was recently expanded to include an incredibly fast search interface – deemed the Fastest Search on the Planet. This was the piece of the Search puzzle that has enabled them to increase traffic and users at an exponential level.

Search has been the same for quite some time. And the big boys of search have now determined what is relevant for us. But what about all of the information we are missing? When you search the Big Boys of Search do you make it to the second or third page of results? If you’re like me NEVER.

So who is to say some of that information isn’t important to you? What if it is that all important piece of information that you needed but you never find it because someone deemed it to not be important?

LeapFish solves that problem. Increasingly, there is more and more information that matters to you, blogs, social networks, videos, images, shopping, news and smaller pieces of information that you want and sometimes NEED to have to get a full picture of that product or service you are buying or researching.

LeapFish gives YOU what YOU are looking for. We don’t deem what is important you – You deem what is important and get it with LeapFish.