Infographics, also known as information graphics or data visualization, are graphic, visual representations of information, facts, stats or any type of data. The goal of Infographics is to present complex material in a clear and concise way, so more people can better understand and learn from it. Additionally, people tend to be more interested in information that incorporates graphics or leading image.

The benefits of an Infographics:

There are many benefits from creating an Infographic, to communicate more complex information, such as:

• Faster To Read

• Universally Understandable

• Self- Explanatory

• Gets Shared Fast

How to create an Infographics

To create a successful Infographic it is important to keep in mind that information has to be of value to the person reading it, as well as user-friendly. The following are the top five considerations when making an Infographic.

1. Data Gathering

In order to engage, it is critical to gather interesting information to present to the target audience.

2. Additional Research

Make sure to do some additional research after gathering all the information. Interesting facts and stats are always eye-catching.

3. Branding (Good Design)

The design is often the most important aspect of the Infographic. Even if the content is great, the audience is more likely to read if they find it attractive.

4. Target Market

Targeting the right market is always important, because the target audience needs to identify with the content, or else they will not share or even keep reading.

5. Linking

In order to get backlinks, and more traffic, you need to include a link to your website.

Additionally, here is a great link for designers on how to create an Infographic from scratch.

The SEO Point of View

A good Infographic will not only help you transmit information to your clients, fans, or peers, it can also help you generate a great amount of traffic and backlinks to your business’ website. Good Infographics gets passed along in emails, tweets, Facebook posts, and some people even print them to use in their offices as “cheat sheets.” If any of those things happen with your newly created Infographic, make sure you are getting a link back.

The Mobile Industry in 2010

In 2010, global mobile data traffic more than doubled for the third year in a row. The actual growth rate reached 159%, exceeding Cisco’s originally high projection for an overall growth of 149%. Even markets with high levels of mobile data adoption, such as Japan, China, and France also significantly underestimated traffic growth. AT&T reported traffic in the United States grew 30-fold from Q3 in 2009 to Q3 in 2010. China Unicom’s 3G traffic increased by 62% in a single quarter. According to Google reports, this progress was not only limited to large markets, as YouTube video deliveries nearly tripled worldwide.

This unexpected rise in mobile data traffic was partially due to an accelerated adoption of smartphones by mobile phone subscribers. iPhone and Android device usage alone grew 72 % in 2010. In addition to mobile phones, the number of mobile-connected laptops grew by 63%. Tablet devices, such as the iPad and the Motorola Xoom, have a 5 times higher data usage amount than a smartphone and made their first appearance on the mobile network in 2010.

2011 Projections and Trends

Mobile data growth today is similar to the fixed Internet growth of the late 90’s. For five straight years (1997 – 2001) the growth rate for fixed Internet was 150%. Cisco expects mobile data growth rates to remain higher than fixed Internet growth rates for the next 7 to 10 years. Afterwards, mobile and fixed Internet are expected to keep growing at the same rate.

According to a Nielsen study in March 2010, over half of Americans will have a smartphone by the end of 2011. Cisco estimates traffic will increase 131% in 2011. Consumers are expected to transition from fixed to mobile Internet in the next few years; however, tiered pricing may slow down this shift. Many service providers are moving from unlimited data plans to tiered mobile data packages, a shift which makes high-end smartphones less appealing. As a result, consumers are forced to be more conscious when, for example, clicking a YouTube video or streaming music from Pandora.

Mobile Trends

Mobile Activity

According to Mary Meeker and Matt Murphy from the Google Think Mobile presentation earlier this year, 47% of the time spent on smartphones is used for maps, games, social networks, utilities, and other new activities. 9% of the time is users checking email, while 12% is for the use of the web or web applications. The remaining 32% is used for Skype or text messaging.

Device Diversification

While laptops should continue to generate high traffic, newer devices will generate the majority of traffic by 2015, as they offer consumer content and applications not previously supported through mobile devices. Comparatively, the growth of traffic will increase as network connection speed increases and both device battery life and network capacity improve.

Traffic Offload from Mobile Network to Fixed Networks

Interestingly, a survey conducted by Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group indicates “at-home” mobile Internet usage to be approximately 40% of total mobile data use. “On-the-go” usage is approximately 35%, with the remaining 25% occurring at work. The survey data suggests operators may be able to offload traffic from mobile onto a fixed network. This could be accomplished either by a dual-mode mobile phone, or through the deployment of femtocell technology.

Mobile Network Connection Speeds to Increase 10-fold by 2015

In 2010, the average mobile network connection speed was 215 kbps. Cisco suggests the average speed will grow at an annual growth rate of 60%.

The number of mobile subscribers is growing exponentially, and along with it, demand for bandwidth. It may be safe to say that in today’s world, mobile data has almost, if not already, become a necessity.

From Roy G. Biv and Arabic numerals to the rules of soccer and Winnie Cooper’s Erdos number, there seems little-to-no topic outside the consideration of Wikipedia’s knowledge scope – or should I say, beyond conversational validity for the ‘project’s’ countless writers, editors, and readers.

It is this creative plurality – numerous nameless contributors – that has allowed Wikipedia to change the face of the information world.

Within this online resource, expertise is the product of numerous ‘keepers of fact,’ rather than a singular pursuit of credential-driven validation. Shared knowledge – as a whole of many certitudes – is held to be as important, and likely as valid, as a well-established and meticulously-checked encyclopedic volume.

In ten short years, Wikipedia has become not only a knowledge resource of incomparable size, but an unparalleled game-changer in the battle for ‘reputable resource’ status.

However, it should be pointed out that sheer quantity of information may not be the hub’s most important quality. Rather, its uniquely egalitarian approach to the assemblage of ‘truth’ may be its greatest contribution to encyclopedic recording.

The power of singular perspective is neither lauded, nor protected within Wikipedia. In the construction of a unique article, multiple views or ‘historic accounts’ may be soundly incorporated – as long as documentation is available for each. Rather than subjugating differing accounts to varying volumes, ‘alternatives in fact’ are permitted to co-exist, shedding a richer light on both consistencies and nuances of presentation.

While only ten years old, Wikipedia has become an indomitable force in the information game – creating a universe in which we share the process of learning, rather than learning from a singular shared source.

The solution to this problem is “better search, better results.” Here, I’ve compiled a list of the most basic yet important search tools, called “modifiers,” that will help improve your searches and get you better results.

Basic Search Modifiers

1. Exact phrase search

When searching for exact words in an exact order, use double quotes (“ ”) around a set of words. 

For example, a search for [“Mudbug Media Blog”] will only display results for those same exact words, in that same order. However, do note, by using double quotes you might be missing on other results that utilize the requested words, but in a different order.

2. Specific website search

The result of the query is going to be from a specific website.

For example, the query [blog site:mudbugmedia.com] will only display pages relevant to “blog” at mudbugmedia.com. Another important use of this search modifier is to limit a search to a certain top-level domain. For example, the query [site:.gov New Orleans] will only display results from a .gov (government) domain.

3. Filling in the blanks

“Filling in the blanks” is an interesting modifier Google allows that provides interesting, “mad lib”-style results. By including the asterisk (*), or “wildcard,” for any unknown term, Google will fill in the blank and return all results that match the search. 

For example, the search [Mudbug Media launched *] will give you results about the projects that Mudbug Media has launched in the past. Likewise, the search [“Mudbug Media” * Specialist] will give results for all the different ‘specialists’ Mudbug Media employs.

4. Similar Words

By using the “approximate” sign (~) immediately before a word or search term, Google will return results for that term, as well as all of its synonyms. 

For example, the search for [~mobile phone web development] will display results for “phone” as well as “cell”, “cellular”, “wireless”, and other similar words to mobile.

5. File Type

Search engines index many different files beyond just HTML documents, and can be a convenient way of finding white papers in PDF form, mp3 files, or animated gif’s within Google’s index. By using the search operator [filetype:], users can search for specific file types. 

For example, for the query [search engine optimization filetype:pdf], Google will return a list of PDF files found containing information related to search engine optimization, or SEO.

6. Exclude Words

Excluding search results that contain a particular word or phrase can help find very niche information, and cut down on irrelevant results based on a different meaning of your keyword search. As an example, searching for [Apple] will display everything about “Apple Computers” and “Macintosh”. However, the search for [Apple –mac] will display results for the fruit, as well as other results related to the word “apple,” but not computers.

7. The OR operator

The “OR” operator allows searchers to find term 1 “or” term 2 depending on the relevance of the website. The “OR” operator must be capitalized; otherwise, search engines will recognize it as a keyword in the search query.

For example, the query [Advertising OR Marketing] will display websites that include either word. However, if the query is [Advertising or Marketing], Google will display the two terms together in a website.

8. Definitions

If you need to define a term, you might go to Google and search for the word. However, sometimes the first results might not show the definition; however, by using this modifier, you are limited to the textbook definitions Google has found in its index. For example, to define SEO, type [define: search engine optimization] in the Google search bar, and press enter for a full list of definitions.

9. Exact search plus (+)

Sometimes Google employs synonyms automatically to improve the search results. However, many times we don’t want Google’s help in our query. By attaching the plus sign (+) immediately before a word with no spaces, you are telling Google to match that word exactly as you wrote it.

For example, when searching for pay per click [ppc] Google will display results for “PocketPC,” as well as “project performance corporation”. However, the search [+ppc], Google will match only the acronym PPC – with “Pay per Click” being the most common use.

10. Numerical Ranges

Use numerical range modifier to specify a range of specific numbers. This comes in handy when searching for blogs written within a specific period of time, like from 2008 to 2010.

For example, in the search for ["mudbug media" blogs 2008…2010], Google will display only the blogs that have the dates 2008, 2009, and 2010. There are other uses, such as searching for businesses within a range of ZIP codes.

Other interesting modifiers

Type in Google any of the following modifiers:

intitle: searches in title for Mudbug Media and does a search on the term design

allintitle: searches in title for all the terms

intext: restricts the search to the body of web pages, excluding all URLs or titles

inurl: searches the URL for sites.

link: shows you the sites that point to a specific URL

cache: displays the page from Google’s cache

related: displays lists of pages that Google considers are related to one another

info: displays links with info about the given page.

Other Google tools to improve search experience

Google users are not always aware of the available tools that help improve and refine search results. One example of this is vertical search, which can be accessed through the “blogs”, “finance”, and “scholar” tabs on the top of the Google search page. Vertical searches are great for narrowing down results to the category the user is actually interested in.

Additionally, the left column of Google’s search results features other options that let users take more control over their search results. For example, if you were looking for the latest on [search engine optimization] or  [iPhone application development] you would click on the “Latest” option. Users can also narrow the search down to a custom date range.

So, next time you are going to search anything on Google, try using the “modifiers” that you just learned about. You will see that results are going to be more accurate, and this will enhance your productivity at the office while researching for anything.

The Meeting

It all started in 1995, when Larry Page, a University of Michigan graduate, visited Stanford University and took a tour of the campus. His tour guide that day was Sergey Brin, a Ph.D student.  During their first “meeting,” sources say that the two disagreed on most everything. One year later, Larry and Sergey, now both Stanford computer science grad students, found themselves working on a search engine called BackRub – named after the web’s structure of “back links.” This search engine was a “web crawler,” engineered to traverse the web by “clicking” on links. BackRub operated on Stanford servers for more than a year, but because it required so much bandwidth, the “Google guys,” as they were later known, were forced to take it down.

The Name

In 1997, Larry and Sergey got together and decided to rename BackRub. After brainstorming for a while, they picked Google—a play on the word “googol”, a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros.  The use of the term reflects their mission to organize all the information on the web. After confirming domain availability through a quick search of a domain registration database, Google.com was registered on September 15, 1997.

Google, Inc.

Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, was one of the few that saw true potential in Larry and Sergey’s project. In August 1998, he wrote a check for the amount of $100,000 to an entity that didn’t exist at the moment: a company called Google, Inc. 

With this initial investment, and after managing to attract other investors, they got the ball rolling and opened their first “corporate headquarters” in a friend’s garage in Menlo Park, California. While still in beta, The Google search engine was already getting 10,000 queries a day. In September 1998, Larry and Sergey hired fellow doctoral student and friend, Craig Silverstein, as their first employee.

In 1999, Google moved to a new corporate location in Palo Alto, California with a total of eight employees.

Google’s Mission

Google’s mission has always been to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. The innovative company is always looking for the next innovation that will improve our everyday tasks, making technology easier and more useful. Google is constantly doing changes that the end user may never notice, but that ultimately, make our lives easier.

Since its inception, Google has continuously pushed innovation on many levels, leading the vanguard in emerging web technologies and initiatives meant to make the Web faster and more accessible. Listed below are just a handful of the landmarks in Google’s history

Google Milestones

2000

October– Google AdWords launches with only 350 customers

December – Google Toolbar is released

2001

March – Google.com is available in 26 languages

July  – Google Image search launches, offering access to 250 million images

August  – Google opened first international office, in Tokyo

2002

May – Google partners with AOL
September  – Google News launches with 4000 news sources

2003

January – American Dialect Society members vote “Google” the “most useful word of 2002”
December  – Google Book Search launches.

2004

February – 6 billion items indexed
March  – Google Local introduced (Later, combined with Google maps)

2005

February – Google Maps goes live

March – Acquired Urchin—later Google Analytics

April – Google Adwords released “Site Targeting”

June – Unveiled Google Earth

August – Google Talk Launched

November – Released Google Analytics

2006

April – Google Calendars launched

May – Google Trends is released

June – Oxford Dictionary adds “Google” as a verb

October – Google acquires YouTube

2007

February  – Google Mail (Gmail) becomes available for everyone

May  – Google Street View debuts within Google Maps

2008

April – Google Website Optimizer launches in beta

September – Google Chrome becomes available for download

2009

March – Google Voice released to existing Grand Central users
June – Google Places gets a new dashboard

2010

August – Google Instant is released
September – Google TV is presented to the world.

Google Right Now

Currently, Google has offices in dozens of countries, providing the iconic search experience in more than 110 languages.

Google currently has the largest search engine market share in the world, and Google Maps has revolutionized the way people travel and look for local information. Additionally, Google Analytics, Gmail, Google Chrome, Android, and Google TV, the newest consumer endeavor, have changed how businesses work and how many individuals live their lives. Coming down the pipeline are incredibly exciting innovations, such as cars that drive themselves and voice recognition and translation for everyday use. Google will continue pushing the envelope and encouraging innovation within stale industries to make technology work for us, and not the other way around.

Apple’s announcement of AirPrint as part of its beta version of iOS 4.2 should bring this bit of convenience to the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Why does this prospect make me so very happy? Print CSS for these platforms + wireless printing = a great way to provide additional copies of materials when there’s one surprise person at a meeting or leave-behinds for clients who like paper. (I’m extra pleased that double-sided printing is an option so I can kill fewer trees in the process!)

Sadly, I can’t enjoy this until public release in November. Time flies like an arrow, so it should be right around the corner!

To read more, visit:

http://mashable.com/2010/09/15/airprint-coming-to-ios/

Google’s old algorithm would take around two weeks to index a site, while Caffeine gets the job done in minutes.  To test out Caffeine’s speediness, I4U News made up a gibberish word, and included it in the title of a post.  That new word, “cyberreblaus,” was indexed in a little over a minute, and speed that was previously impossible to achieve.

Redefining Relevance

While Google was built on a foundation of relevant search results, the factors that determine relevance have shifted as Internet usage has evolved. With Caffeine, Google recognizes that “relevant” also means up-to-date. According to Google, Caffeine offers 50 percent “fresher” results, which translates to more timely updates from news sources and credible bloggers.

With the advent of constantly updating sites like Twitter, Internet users have become accustomed to a real time flow of information. Caffeine is an attempt to bridge the gap between what is traditionally relevant or authoritative and timely results.

Google search results are drawn from over 100 million gigabytes of storage – the largest collection of web content ever offered.  Before the Caffeine update, web searches pulled data from the most recent Google index of every site deemed relevant.  With Caffeine, that information is seconds old, not days or weeks.

The old Google index updated information one layer at a time, analyzing the entire web before any single layer could be updated.  Think of this as Google running a lap around the entire Web before updating its results. Caffeine takes a radically different approach, with spiders analyzing the web in smaller chunks and updating as they go, bringing the Internet closer to real time than ever before.

With all layers being updated simultaneously, users can find new content that was published seconds ago rather than days ago.  From the user’s perspective, this amazing leap forward in indexing and retrieval means users can pull up the most timely news stories with any query.

Focusing on Fresh Content

Google’s new indexing algorithm comes down to one lesson for websites: fresh content is now more important than ever.  Google already placed an emphasis on timely information, but it’s now become the focal point of the search engine.  In this sense, Google will reward more aggressive SEO tactics for continuous updates on the Web. This puts enormous pressure on websites to increase the flow of original content.

Uploading a new blog every other week or once a month used to supply Google with enough new content to keep your site bobbing along in the middle of the pack, but not anymore.  Web publishers are going to have to start paying much more attention to the way Google views output on the Web, because Caffeine’s spiders will move on within a few seconds of arriving at a site if the information is not deemed fresh enough.

RSS Wrinkle

Another interesting aspect of the index overhaul is that right around the same time Google first announced Caffeine, they also introduced an open-source RSS technology called PubSubHubbub, or PuSH.  This new RSS technology brings RSS feeds closer to real time, so when a blog or website with an RSS feed publishes something, that update reaches subscribers within seconds.

Inspired by how we work with and use the Internet, Google is constantly pushing the boundaries on how the Internet works with us. With Caffeine’s innovations in crawling and indexing, the Google Dance is a thing of the past. While it’s always great news when Google revolutionizes the way we interact with the Internet and the way it interacts with us, every change comes with a new set of rules and requirements.  Keeping up with Google is the fun part.  Making sure Google doesn’t pass you by is where the work begins.

The cloud movement gained serious traction this week as Netflix announced it will move most of its online resources to Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, or S3.

In Netflix’s case, user queues and a massive movie library will be moved over to Amazon’s servers for storage.  When you download a movie from Netflix, you will actually be receiving the information from an Amazon S3 server.

With such a high profile web-based business turning to a cloud for storage, what does this mean for the future of cloud computing?

Up in the Air

For any business, big or small, cloud computing services represents a significant cost saving tool that outsources storage and maintenance to a third party.  While cloud networks are still expensive to construct, companies with global server networks are now focused on selling the right to use their infrastructure at an attractive price.

For most organizations, this is significantly cheaper than constructing their own cloud from the ground up, and the computing world is beginning to take notice.  If a business relies on a cloud service, all it takes is an internet connection to upload and access data while taking advantage of the same technical and security benefits a company like Amazon enjoys.

Netflix may be the biggest convert so far, but that doesn’t mean Amazon isn’t already a major player in cloud computing.  The number of individual items stored on Amazon S3 skyrocketed from half a billion in 2006 to more than more than 40 billion by the end of 2008.

Building to Scale

Cloud computing is eminently scalable.  If you run an online tax service, for example, your data load and bandwidth demands on January 1 will be a fraction of what you’ll experience on April 15 as legions of late filers scramble to beat the deadline.

You could build your own network with enough computing power and redundancy to cover your busiest week of the year.  If your network can’t handle that workload, your service may be slow or even unresponsive.  Or you could use a service like Amazon S3, which is already built to accommodate spikes in traffic without any interruption of service.

With proven advantages and cost savings, it seems like all cloud computing needed to become the storage method of choice was a big client willing to phase out their own infrastructure and climb on board.  Like it or not, Netflix may just be the impetus for a cloud revolution.

Banking on the Cloud

When we started building the First Bank and Trust Tuition Lending site, it soon became clear that cloud computing was the way to go.  With over 100 schools and over 20,000 families signed up for the online tuition application and payment service, demand on the system skyrockets every year as thousands of parents apply for loans shortly before the deadline.

Instead of building out for the largest possible number of parents that could be using the system at the same time, we transferred hosting duties to EngineYard, which leverages S3, allowing us to scale the amount of processing power for the system up and down as demand fluctuates.

After seeing one of our major clients benefit from cloud computing, we began looking for ways to utilize Amazon S3 for ourselves.  Mudbug Media has developed over 750 websites for orthopedic surgeons affiliated with medical technology provider Stryker Corporation, each of which features an assortment of videos.  With so many videos to store, we are in the process of moving our entire catalogue onto Amazon S3, putting valuable content at our fingertips without having to buy more disk space or tie up server resources.

One thing that is a safe assumption for the foreseeable future is a steady increase in online data as websites continue to evolve, and relying on cloud computing for data storage may play a big part in that evolution.

If your business advertises online, the clear choice for pay per click ad campaigns for much of the last decade has been Google, but competing search engine Bing could end up giving Google a run for its money.

But it’s Not Google

When you compare the success of online ad campaigns on Google and Bing, the well-established Google really holds some major advantages over Microsoft’s Bing, which will celebrate its first birthday on May 28.

First of all, Google has become a verb.  How often does someone tell you to “Just Google” something at work?  Has anyone ever told you to “Just Bing” it?”  Unless people start “Binging” things on a regular basis, I just don’t see Google’s domination of the search engine market ending anytime soon.

What this means for businesses is Bing may not be the most effective choice for PPC advertising. One of our major clients has an extensive PPC campaign going on right now, and the results tracked by Google’s AdWords service and Bing’s AdCenter speak for themselves.

Over a four-week period, the campaign wracked up 421,456 impressions and 5,743 clicks on Google.  During that same time period, Bing only generated 202,041 impressions and 503 clicks.  Despite the fact that half as many people saw the ads on Bing and less than a quarter of one percent of the Bing impressions led to clicks, the Bing ads cost on average three cents less than Google.

One Big Step for Bing?

But don’t rule out Bing just yet.  As Mudbug Media Marketing Specialist Tara Curtis cleverly pointed out in this recent blog, Google’s long running domination of the United States internet market ended earlier this month when Facebook became the most visited website in the country for the week ending March 13^th.

While Bing has fluctuated between the 16^th and 23^rd spots this week, Yahoo has held steady at the number three spot.  With the announced merger of Microsoft and Yahoo, the nascent search engine will get a huge boost, exposing Bing advertisements to millions more people nationwide.

More Bing for Your Buck

With Bing potentially riding that merger to the top of the charts, advertisers will find themselves in an interesting situation.  Like all things Google, AdWords is an extremely user-friendly system.

AdWords allows for constant and easy manipulation of all aspects of a paid search campaign, while Microsoft’s AdCenter is not nearly as user friendly.  Making changes to ongoing campaigns in AdCenter is a time consuming process, and since Bing is only one year old, few people have had the time to get acquainted with its ins and outs.

So if Microsoft’s alliance with Yahoo brings Bing into more direct contention with Google as one of the top search engines in the world, online marketing professionals like myself are going to find it necessary to know how to optimize paid search campaigns for Bing with the same expertise as they do Google campaigns.

What This Means to You

While it may be too early to abandon AdWords and focus all your energy on AdCenter, it would certainly be a wise move to be proficient with both systems.  Paid search campaigns are dynamic and can fluctuate as market values and economic landscapes change.

Online marketing is an evolving but necessary facet of today’s advertising landscape requiring constant attention and adjustments.  If you are doing everything on your own or if the marketing firm you contracted for the campaign isn’t on top of new developments or possible market shifts, you can end up with ads that no one sees.

Google is already a powerful search engine and Bing could become one soon.
Use your advertising dollars wisely.