Tom Funk's Blog, page 2

Holiday 2010 eCommerce Sales Forecast Calls for 15% Growth

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Here's a long overdue dose of good news: 2010 online Holiday sales are forecast to climb a healthy 15% compared to last year.

Research and consulting firm Deloitte expects ecommerce, along with direct-mail catalog sales and TV shopping channels, to notch the big gains. Overall retail sales, which are still dominated by bricks-and-mortar stores, are expected to rise a mere 2%.

Deloitte's Alison Paul told Internet Retailer that the strongest results will be delivered by those retailers that...

5 Powerful Tactics for eCommerce

Okay, time for Tom Funk to take a deep breath. I've spent the better part of each day since September 8's introduction of Google Instant, panicking, gnashing my teeth, tearing my hair, rending my garments and dodging chunks of falling sky.

Search is an important source of lifeblood to any commercial website. Until now, I've always felt Google did an exemplary job in letting relevant results, from little guys and big guys alike, bubble up to the surface of search.

Now, Google Instant and its p...

From "Did You Mean?" to "I Know What You Really Meant"

Along with Google Instant, another recent change in Google's interface involves the handling of supposed typographical errors. The old behavior displayed results for the actual words typed, say "fahters day" but with the question "Did you mean Father's Day?"

Now, Google automatically displays the results for the predicted/corrected search.

Often, that produces good usability, but not always. For instance, our friends at The Scooter Store sell Zipr scooters, a popular mobility scooter (akin...

Stop Worrying About Google Instant, I'm Told

Good friends like my CommerceV3 colleague Marc Bigbie, and members of the New Marketing Social network, are trying to talk me off the ledge when it comes to my reactions to Google Instant.

Marc and others were kind enough to point me to Chris Crum's piece on WebProNews, Worried About Google Instant? Maybe You're Worrying Too Much About Search.

Crum's point is not to refute that Google Instant stacks the deck against long-tail search terms, and the folks who live or die by them.

Rather, he's s...

Google Instant Is On

I've sounded off about how disconcerted I am by the usability flaws in Google Instant, and what experts are saying about its potential impact on SEO and paid search marketing.

But Google has now introduced a simple, little interface change, which I really applaud: A subtle "Instant is on" link that allows easy toggling between Instant (type to search) and the old standard (press Enter to search).

This is a great, unobtrusive design choice that puts control of a crucial preference into the...

Avinash Kaushik Video: Use "Storytelling" to Communicate Web Analytics

We've all struggled to make sense of web analytics data. And then, after we've invested the blood, sweat and tears in truly understanding what our web stats are telling us, comes the second hurdle:

Communicating to the C-level execs what it all means.

Avinash Kausik, Google's official Analytics Evangelist, celebrated author and conference speaker, feels your pain. That's why he advocates storytelling and colorful metaphors as an approach to liven up what might otherwise be an intolerably dry ...

Three Is the New Six

Thoughts on SEO, Rank Creep, Google Instant, and Universal Search

Google and Bing have been changing their algorithms and user interfaces at a furious pace over the past 12 months. Once dominated by plain ole web pages, "universal search" results now pepper the SERPs with images, videos, stock quotes, weather, music, news, shopping results, social media posts, you name it.

You still see ten web pages (by default), but they're increasingly buried amid links for other content. Search for "Lady ...

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Google Instant

Google's new ajaxy, instant-gratification search platform, dubbed "Google Instant," just may turn the "enter" key into a dinosaur.

Or, depending on who you listen to, it may turn SEO consultants into dinosaurs.

The new feature has garnered loads of coverage and sparked tons of opinions. Here's a smattering of what the blogosphere is saying:

Usability

Alan Mitchell: Google Instant Will Change The Way We Search

Mike Moran: It's the Usability, Stupid!

Google Blog: The Design Challenge ...

Timberline Email Energetics - Hotmail in Firefox - UPDATE

Recently there have been some code changes in Gmail and Hotmail that are affecting the way email code is displayed in these inboxes in Firefox browsers. What’s happening is that some of the images are pushing extra space into the emails that shouldn’t be there. If you want to see if this is affecting your email template you can look at tests in your Gmail and Hotmail inboxes in a Firefox browser. I see this is also affecting IE8, at least in Gmail. Here are some updates you can make to your t...

Google Instant's Usability, and Impact on SEO

Google Instant is making a huge splash. No longer do are Google searchers required to finish typing their query, and click "enter" or "search."

Instead, with every single keystroke, real-time, predictive "search suggestions" are paired with constantly refreshing and refining search results.

Google says that people read faster than they type, so Google Instant represents a big speed and convenience breakthrough.

Cynics note that Google engineers have cooked up a technology that serves many...