Ever want an online counter on your site to track visitors.

Here ’tis!

Now you have one!

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So yeah. I have 18 more Google Wave invites. I may seem less than enthused, but it’s not because I don’t think Google Wave is/will be useful – I’m sure it will when enough people are on it for me to actually collaborate with.

If they like it.

And understand it.

And aren’t already using something else.

But seriously, I do like Google Wave, I just don’t have much of a use for it yet. I think some of the new stuff they’ve added will help take it to the next level, but what it really needs is more people – the several dozen people I’d like to use it with hadn’t been invited when I was ready, and by the time they were, I didn’t have time for the non-shiny, non-new toys.

the reason I’m less than excited about this is that I’m focused on the possible joys of Google Social Search right now. Ironically, I’m pretty sure Google Wave will fit into that picture pretty soon. I just don’t know how.

So, like, get a Google Wave account. Because it’ll be important someday in a vague way.

Respond to this post with any vague reason why you’d want one, using the email address where you’d want me to send it and… give me a superhero nickname. First come, first served. Oh, and remember that for some reason, the admission process is not automated like Gmail was.

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SEO Profesional Toolbar offers many SEO-related tools in one place. Display PageRank, S-Rank and the number of  backlinks  for visited pages. Stores the history of ranks for selected sites. Highlight words, links, view number of words and more.

History of ranks and back-links is stored in a database, therefore you may watch how your pages evolve in time. All equipped with beautiful colorful charts. You can view observed domains in the sidebar and check their ranks without even visiting them.

The extension also includes a customizable list of handy SEO-related links.

All this is packed together with a search tool for enumerating and highlighting words, and different types of links.

Well worth the time.

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Integrated Email allows you to make the Inbox Collapsible and loads your choice of Google Calendar, Reader, Tasks, Wave, Notebook, Groups, Maps, Picasa, Sites, News and Portfolio plus Custom URLs (w/navigation buttons in frame) and Google Gadgets seamlessly into the Gmail interface below the inbox (rather than the sidebar) using a collapsible box. If your are inbox minimalist, enable minimalist mode to clean up the inbox even more.

(Note: New Website and Help Wiki Coming Soon…)

Version 2.5 adds…
* Significant Performance Boosts and Reduced Resource Dependence
* (Beta) Google Wave Support
* Native Google Tasks Support
* ScheduleOnce Meeting Scheduler Integration
* Support for Firefox 3.6

Version 2.0 adds…
* Favicons in Titles (w/ unread counts thanks to Peter Wooley)
* Unread Counts in Titles
* Support for Splitting Multiple Inboxes
* Collapsible Header and Sidebars for Gmail and Google Calendar
* Drag and Drop Central Elements and Sidebars
* Hotkeys to Show/Hide Sidebars and Expand/Collapse Central Elements
—> Hit ` to enter Macro Mode for 1 sec then press 1-9 or an Arrow Key
* Import and Export of User Settings
* Per User Settings
* Auto-Theme Detection
* Auto-Resizing of Custom and Gadget Elements
* Finer Control for Header Removal of Google Sites
* https Controls for Supported Google Sites

This is too awesome.

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(Sound problem on video has been fixed.)

It’s a bit more clear how Google Social Search Impacts Your Business with visuals, as the video above “How Google Social Search Gives Your Social Media Efforts More Impact” will show.

Here’s a quick summary of what you’re looking at, followed by a few points I didn’t make in that video.

In the video I compare the search results without being logged in to Google to the results when I’m logged in. We take a look at the social circle page too. When you see the results live, you start to understand that just by participating in social media and including social links in your Google profile, you have given the people you are directly connected to, as well as the people they are publicly and directly connected to, another way to find you – in Google search.

Now it’s true that at least for now, these results are at the bottom of the page. But if people know they are there, and they feel that people they know are giving them personal suggestions for where to look for content, I believe they’ll make the effort to look at those results – ESPECIALLY if they haven’t found what they’re looking for in regular search.

I know I’d rather get David Bullock’s or Brent Leary’s suggestions on social media for business or social CRM than Google’s.

And what I didn’t say in the video, in case you didn’t piece it together, is that Google social search effectively gives you another shot at being exposed in searches you may never come up in on your own. There are only ten top organic spots for social media in the former, regular version of Google search.

But with these new results, you have three more chances, through social search, news and blog results.

Sure, not everyone is logged in when they search in Google. But they never had a good reason to do it before.

And that’s the wrong way to look at it anyway. I’m more focused on how, if I have 10,000 connections in Twitter, who each have about 100 connections, how much bigger my Google audience can potentially be from just that one social site addition to my social circle.

If for some reason, you aren’t already getting amazing results from your social media participation, this should be new incentive for you – more free traffic from Google is rarely a bad thing.

In a future update I’m going to do a longer free video, for newsletter subscribers and my Warrior forum friends only, about some things you’ll want to do in order to get in on this action. It won’t be in the blog, so if you want to know about it and you’re not a warrior, click through to the site and subscribe in the box below where it says “free ebook’ or send any blank email to 0-gridlock@aweber.com.

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As we’ve discussed recently, there’s a lot of confusion around the issue of social media and getting a return on one’s time and social investment, to the point that some people think social media for business is ineffective.

If you’ve been thinking that lately, think about how happy you’d be if social media helped you get into your target market’s path through Google. According to a recent announcement by Google, social media may now be able to help you in ways you hadn’t ever dared to dream.

Everyone knows that social media can already help you with search in 3 ways, the first being the own 1, lease 9 method of making your mark on all of the top ten results, which I discussed in Traffic Reality about 4 years ago in great detail. The second, of course, is in getting links to your site from social media profiles or voting submissions, the third that popular submissions get rapid link boosts from multiple sources.

In October, Google started an experiment called Google Social Search, which you could opt in to, in order to see information from what Google is calling your social circle, in your search results.  Last Wednesday, they also rolled out Google Social Search Results to anyone who is logged into a Google account when they search.

What could that mean to you?

Well, if you’ve been cultivating a social presence in Twitter, for example, and become connected to 1000 people, all those people, and  their connections, will be added to your social circle, from which Google will pull extra search listings to be integrated into the current set when a user is logged in.

Of course, when you start to think that even though Google has a dominant market share, even if a full 25% of them have a Google account and are logged in, you might think that doesn’t give you much of a boost.

That’s not necessarily true. You have to look at three factors: first, are you the only person in your niche that the person searching is connected to?

If you’ve been building your social network for quality from potential clients and customers rather than only quantity, where you just follow peers, auto-follow friends and existing friends so they’ll follow you back, the answer is, probably.

Second, personal suggestions are stronger than what any search engine says. Being found in search helps dramatically. But when it comes down to the tie-breaker, folks buy from folks they know.

Third, it’s not just the people you’re connected to, it’s the people THEY are connected to as well. If you look at the video below,  it says towards the end that the people your friends are connected to are included in your extended social circle.

Well, that means you’re included in the friends of your friends as well.

How many people could that be if you have 1000 Twitter friends who have 1000 Twitter friends?

Add in the recent changes to Google Reader, the move to Google Caffeine, even Google Friend connect starts to look extremely relevant, as Chris Lang alluded to this past summer.

Of course, this can be blown out of proportion – social media is important, as is search, to traffic generation. But they are each one tool in a well rounded strategy. It’s folly to lean on any singular method to get traffic to a site to the exclusion of all others, because if your strategy fails or its effectiveness changes over time, you’re putting your entire business at risk.

So keep in mind as you strategize that you still have regular search engine optimization to contend with – your primary Google traffic focus ought to be the people who are not logged into Google, as they are the majority.

Remember also though that even they have live updates from social sites like Twitter, streamed into results.  So, like it or not, ignoring social media or denying its influence is to do so at the peril of your own business. And hyper-targeted traffic to a smaller audience is still more money in your pocket at the end of the day. Keep it all in perspective is my only warning.

If you’re not already seeing a return on your investment in social media through better links, higher traffic, and viral spread of your messages, now is the time to fix whatever is wrong with your social media traffic strategy.

In upcoming posts, we’ll be discussing more about Google’s Social Moves and what you need to do in order for your business to maximize your social media returns across the board.

A sound social media strategy is already critical for you to gain or keep your edge over competition. Now it’s factoring into search strategy as well. Search is now social. Get ready.

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Firefocus, that is.

Firefocus is a simple Firebug extension that tracks the element that currently has focus. Its primary purpose is to assist the debugging of advanced keyboard implementations without having to rely on platform specific tools such as MSAA Inspect.

Features

• Logging of focus changes
• Highlighting of the element with the current focus within the HTML panel

Developer Comments

Usage

Individual Firefocus components can be enabled or disabled through the Firefocus options dialog (Accessible through the Firefox Add-ons dialog).

• Log Focus: Log focus changes to the console.
• Highlight Focus: Highlight the focus element in the HTML panel. This functionality is also linked to the HTML panel’s highlight changes options. The highlight behavior will change based on the HTML panel’s Highlight Changes, Expand Changes, and Scroll Changes into View options.

Wow!

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This is short and sweet.

This extension allows easy access to common commands and troubleshooting tools for sites hosted on the Clickability platform.

Told you it was short and sweet!

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Voizle will trim your longer URL to an easily manageable URL. Voizle will provide you to have a look on title, meta description and meta keywords along with short voizle url. This extension will allow you to have a look on analytic of any web page.

Voila Voizle!

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This past week I’ve had social media on the brain.  The more I teach about social media as part of a traffic generation or marketing plan, the more I realize how ineffective it can be in the wrong hands.

There is a famous LinkedIn discussion stating that Social Media for businessis is crap, which has even spawned its own group. The irony that it was posted in LinkedIn and generated 2000 responses doesn’t escape me, however it did make me wonder how many people really get how to use social media, and how to measure the results of what they’ve been doing.

The part of the thread I saw made some great points, and just reinforces my belief that the general thrust of marketing social media marketing is absolutely backwards and confusing the issue. Not to mention that it turns off the people  it was most meant to help.

Then again the money I make from products and services about social media is minuscule in relation to my overall income from teaching traffic generation and building traffic systems, so perhaps I’m the wrong person to ask. I’m just not in the camp that thinks social media is the Second Coming. I think it’s one tool in a huge toolbox.

But I digress.

I bring that up to be very clear that I’m not asking whether social media as a marketing tactic, traffic generation method or way to facilitate networking is a con.

Nor am I asking if the people who call themselves social media experts are con men.  As much as I make fun of people who call themselves social media experts (as opposed to those who are called social media experts by others), much of it is tongue in cheek. If you compare me to Mark Joyner, I’m not a marketing expert.

Of course that’s not a title I claim either, but you see what I’m getting at – many of the self-proclaimed experts may not know as much as I do, but they know more than they need to in order to help a newbie.

So I don’t look at titles, I look at results.

No, I’m talking about the topic of my last social media guide on Social Media Traffic  Strategies, in which I taught that the core mission of using social media was to get other people to do what you wanted – buy, subscribe, visit your site, or in spreading your content, cause others to do the same.

I didn’t stop there either, I went through a how-to process that some people feel is dangerous – it is generally frowned upon to teach people how to get other people to do what you want them to do.

Today, I was led to these thoughts by a post at Cornwall SEO, regarding Social Media Myths.

And while I don’t quite agree that social media isn’t about conversation, I will say that the extent to which it is, is to get people on your side, and engaged in your content, product, site, cause, struggle, whatever.

Why?

Because at some point you want them to do something for you.

And in black and white, stark naked on the page it looks so… Machiavellian.  On its surface it sounds so manipulative and…. cold.

There are two theories to answer this.

Theory one – it is manipulative if we’re being honest, because everything is. At the core of all our marketing actions is a selfishness. Even when we give we’re doing it to receive – even if it’s to receive that good feeling that comes from giving.

That seems like one of those “dark but true” things. But take a look at theory two:  while it’s true that we are committing acts of marketing for our own selfish gain, social media is showing us that it’s deeper than that.

Because with social media we are on the spot to be the initiator if we want results. The return good deeds seldom come as the fruit of the originating tree. So in order to be any good at social media, it can’t be all about what’s in it for me or our actions ring hollow and we end up with no connections.

Otherwise we have our choice of other, less touchy-feely, interactive ways to get similar results.

We can buy links.

We can place ads.

We can use IM or email instead of Twitter and Facebook and still convey information.

We can trade favors privately to get content spread.

And we don’t.

So I don’t think that social media is about the ultimate con job…

BUT I’ll stop short at saying it doesn’t follow some of the same rules…

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