Google Brings Voice to Gmail With Free Calls

Google Brings Voice to Gmail With Free Calls

Content by Jared Newman, PC World
Aug 25, 2010 1:33 pm

Google just shattered the pay wall between VoIP and telephones, letting Gmail users make free voice calls to the United States and Canada.

Google promises that phone calls will remain free "for at least the rest of the year," while calls to other countries start at $0.02 per minute. The voice service for Gmail will roll out to users over the next few days. To get started using the service, you will have to install the free "voice and video chat" Web-based service to your Gmail account here.

Here's how it works: First, you'll need Google's Voice and Video plug-in. Within Gmail's "Chat" window, a "Call phone" option will appear. Up pops a little number pad, on which you can dial the phone you'd like to call. Your Google Voice number, if you have one, will appear as the outbound caller ID, and can be used to receive calls within Gmail. Otherwise, a generic number is shown, Search Engine Land reports.

Google doesn't mention whether free VoIP calls will be possible from cell phones, and an official blog post on the subject only shows Gmail's desktop application. However, the number pad that pops up for placing calls has the proportions of a cell-phone screen; maybe that's a hint of things to come.

With the introduction of voice calls in Gmail, Google probably just made a few enemies. The first is Skype, which only allows free VoIP calls to other Skype users. With Gmail, all calls within the United States and Canada are free. I imagine Gmail's calling feature won't go over well with home phone alternatives such as Vonage and MagicJack, not to mention telcos that offer digital phone service.

But Google's going to make a lot of people happy, as well. Home offices could use the Gmail service in lieu of a dedicated landline, and people who don't have landlines and want to cut down on their cell phone minutes could use Google's service for long conversations. If Gmail phone calls remain free beyond this year, it may be time to invest in a wireless headset and a mic.

Google releases App Inventor for Android App Development

How to build your own Google Android apps

There are so many apps available for smart phones these days, it must be really easy to make them, right?

Video Preview: App Inventor

 

Usually, you need to have some sort of programming skills. But the folks at Google have come up with a way for anyone to create apps for its Android mobile operating system, with App Inventor, a by-the-numbers app building website.

As with most new things from Google, the site is closed to the general public, but Google is taking applications for invitations to join "over the coming weeks."

Below, a fun video from Google showing how you and the cat can get to work making apps, just by opening the program, and connecting your Android device to the computer.

Read more on Android Apps and reviews at GigaDroid.com

By Jefferson Graham – Reposted from USAToday.com

Google Analytics - The Basics

Analyzing with Google

There are many ways to keep track of website statics like unique visitors, user browser preferences, location and other valuable information. If you already have an account with Google it's really simple to get started with Google Analytics by selecting it under "Try something new". Provide information regarding your websites and then simply paste the tracking code into your site, have Google verify that the code is correct and the rest is done automatically. Best thing is that it's free and has all the tools you need to discover the various trends of your website.

Overview of your websites














The opening screen is going to give you an overview of all your websites using Analytics which gives you a quick breakdown of current trends. Below you see some of my websites and what the trends are for the current week and comparing it with the previous week. You can also compare to the previous day, month and year depending on how long you've been analyzing your sites. Information at hand can be sorted by visits, average time on site, bounce rate, percent of change and website name. The information is valuable in knowing what kind of changes you might make on a site to keep visitors longer or where your traffic is coming from. By clicking on "View report" you'll get that more detailed information such as the type of browser one is using to view your site or what state, city or even country they are visiting from.

More Detailed Information

Right after clicking on "View report" the Dashboard for your site stats gets displayed with more valuable information. By default the date range is the same as the main Overview page and now gives you a graphical display and breakdowns of key site stats. The first stat you see is the amount of visits for each day in the date range and below that are the site usage information, visitor overview, map layout, traffic sources overview and content overview. By clicking on the down arrow on the Visits tab you can change the type of stat you want displayed here. You can choose from Visits, Pageviews, Page/Visit, Average Time on Site, Bounce Rate or the percentage of visits that are new. You can find description of each of these by visit http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics

What to look for

What kind of trends should you be looking for? Well that depends on what kind of goals you have in mind. If all you care about is getting visitors to your website then look for the Absolute Unique Visitors. But many of those visitors might have incorrectly made it to your site due to a bad search. The one trend I look at is the "Bounce Rate". The higher the bounce rate the more likely someone came to your site on accident such as bad search results. However if this number is low then chances are good search results got them to your site/landing page and they stayed and browsed. If they stay on your site then the next trend to check out would be "Average Time on Site" and "Pageviews". Those will give you a good indication of the quality of your website by showing you how long a visitor sticks around and how much stuff they checkout. It's most important to have great content that's relative to the visitor than just getting someone to visit your site. It's also great when people are coming back to your site so it's important to keep your content fresh and unique. Something noteworthy in the screen shot below is how many people are using Firefox, Safari and Chrome for their web browser. IE market share has been slipping and therefore it is important to keep this in mind when developing your website. I get frustrated when I can't browse a site correctly when I'm using Firefox. Firefox is one of the most respected browsers in the industry and I'm going to assume that Chrome is going to gain market share quickly. What's your browser of choice?

1-month view for one of my websites

Stay tuned

Next time we'll take a look at some of the other aspects of Google Analytics and how you can use those to increase the type of visitors you are looking for. Happy New Year!

More on AdSense and SEO

This is a follow up to the article I wrote on Making Sense of AdSense, Content and SEO. I recently received my first AdSense check from Google a few months ago for $100. That took me nearly 2 years to get to the $100 for payout. Now just 2 months after that payout I'm only $20 shy of getting my 2nd $100 payment from Google.

The Stats

Why the change you ask? SEO and good content on my website has drawn new traffic to my site and kept visitors there longer resulting in more clicks on the ads. I recently reviewed the website statistics provided by my hosting company 1and1.com. The trend was that visits to the site had increased each year and then took off this spring. I used the website tool Google Analytic installed on my site and checked the period of 6/01/2008-9/20/2008 vs. the same period last year for my sites statistics and showed 1660 vs. 651 visits for an increase of 154.99 percent. Page visits for the same period grew from 997 to 3739 for an increase of 275 percent. My studies of Search Engine Optimization started earlier this year by reading the book Search Engine Optimization - An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin.

Organic Search Results

There are 2 types of results when doing a search on sites like Google, Yahoo, Live and other search engines. PPC or Pay per Click allows you to bid on keywords and have more control where your site ranks. When someone clicks on your sponsored ad you pay depending on the value of the keyword that produced your search results. Depending on the amount of clicks this can be quite costly for those with a limited budget. That's why I've taken the time to learn about SEO because there's no expense involved in landing on the top of an organic search result. By reading the book I mentioned above and researching online I can now see the benefits.

Research

Do some footwork and check out what your competitors are doing online. Do a search using keywords related to your product or service to see who ranks near the top. I took the keywords "Volunteer Software" and searched Google and found out my site ranks 19th out of 411,000 results. Not bad considering that you want to land on page 3 or less on a search engine search result. Most lookers aren't going to go much further than that when looking for a product or service online. When searching for "Volunteer Management Software" the results are even better and the site lands on page one and ranks 4th out of 332,000 results. Not bad when you consider that I didn't have to pay anyone to get my website ranked high. There are several places to check your keywords for popularity.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker Free Keyword Tool

Google Keyword Tool

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Try. Try. Try and Try again

With your research behind you try and apply what you've learned to your website. Keep in mind that changes in ranking don't happen overnight and can sometimes take months. But it's your job to consistently be refining your site until you get the right results. It's a good idea to review your site daily even after you start ranking higher because a good ranking is never guaranteed.

I would suggest that besides your home page that you try creating a few landing pages with different keywords. Then monitor your visitor trends using something like Google Analytic to see which page draws the most visits to your site. Keep in mind that you want to use powerful keywords and repeat them on your page in a logical pattern. I have used the keywords "Volunteer Management Software" in several different areas of the home page of my site. Make sure you don't overdo it otherwise you might risk getting penalized by the search engines.

Final Thoughts

SEO doesn't mean your site will move to the first page of a search results overnight but eventually you might be there. I suggest check a local community college for possible classes in Internet Marketing and SEO. I've always learned web development by reading books, studying online and reading forms on the subject. Please feel free to comment if you have any thoughts or would like to contribute what has worked best for you.

Best wishes,
Dennis J. Smith

Making Sense Of AdSense, Content and SEO

The Land Of AdSense, Content and SEO
Written By DJ Smith

January 28, 2008

I was reading some of the postings on the Google AdSense forum recently. It's funny how people think they can toss AdSense advertisements on a web page and expect for the money to roll in. People have this notion that the money will come without doing any leg work.

Click Me

Before AdSense will even work, you have to have a site with traffic. Chance are you aren't going to get many clicks on your ads if you only have a few visitors a day. So how do you create traffic? Well there's several ways you can create and build traffic on your site. It really depends on what kind of content you are providing and how well you've optimized your pages. Boring content or content that you rarely update isn't going to bring visitors in droves. Updating your content, optimizing your site and creating content that keeps people coming back. So what is good content?

Content Is King

Writing good content depends on your knowledge of the subject matter. You won't find me writing articles about how to tune-up a car. Write about stuff that you are knowledgeable in so you can enlighten others. Make sure to use good grammar and spell check before you post your article. I've seen so many postings out there with poor grammar and numerous spelling errors. Use your resources! Most blogs have built in spell checking and the same goes for word processing programs such as Microsoft Word. When writing content think about how search engines will view your site. Keyword are relevant to how well your site will rank with the search engines. Don't overdo it when writing content but keep it in mind as you create. By writing good content you gain the respect of your peers and your visitors. This generates repeat traffic, links to your website and a host of other benefits.

Queen SEO

You have your website and you have content written so where are the visitors? Well have you notified the search engines? You don't move without informing the Post Office of your new address do you? The search engines might eventually find you but you really need to let them know about your website. I use a program called Simple SEO which is offered by my web hosting company 1&1.com. Simple SEO lets me submit my websites to all the major search engines and lots of the other players you don't hear about often. You can go to each search engine and request to add your site. In Google just type in "Add My Site" and you'll see a link that will allow you to submit your website. One of the books I've read that you might want to check out is
Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin. I bought mine through Amazon.com along with a few other books on AdSense, SEO and Internet Marketing. Besides the books there's a lot of great websites and online resources to learn more about AdSense, SEO and writing good content.

Part II - Updated information is coming soon.

More Resources:

Check out these great resources for more information on AdSense, Content, Search Engine Optimization(SEO) and Internet Marketing.

What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense e-book
The web's best-selling e-book helps people make more money with AdSense and pays great commissions!

Learn more...

KillerAffiliateMarketing.com - KAM features e-books from some of the best in the industry. Joel Comm (author of the Adsense Code), Mark Joyner and more.

SpreadViralVideo.com - Showcases the best video on the internet along with videos on Internet Marketing. Sometimes people find it easier to learn from a video rather than read about a topic. Personally I like a mix of both formats depending on my mood.

Learn how to make your on viral videos
Learn the secrets to making viral videos with Charles Trippy's Viral Video Fever!

Thanks for reading!