I’m not sure I understand. I already use Google Alerts to track myself with Alerts. (And you should, too!) So why do I need it in a different place.  I mean it’s not like the Google Alerts section of the Dashboard is more than two sections down from Me on the Web; less than 100 pixels away. That is, of course, if I forget the difficult URL of google.com/alerts. So what’s the real deal?

The rest of Me on the Web section is only a few links to how to manage your identity online.  So how do you manage your identity online? According to Google, search for yourself. Then create a Google profile. What? Seriously?

You can’t actually use Me on the Web unless you have a Google profile. Convenient, no? (But you certainly can use Google Alerts!)

You know what other Google feature you can’t use without a profile? Google’s +1 button. And it makes sense; think about it. A +1 is, essentially, a “like.” Who likes it? Well, no one if there is no profile to go along with it.

The +1 button was a hot topic at SES Toronto recently. It was brought up in the SEO is Dead, Long Live SEO panel and in the Panda-pocalypse panel. In each, it was argued that the +1 button means nothing if there’s no buy-in from Google’s user base. I further conjecture it means nothing without actual human information, too. So what, then? Now Google needs you to get a profile. You’ve seen the commercials. They’re all about building a desire in you to “go Google” in hopes you’ll get a profile.

You can try to have social, but you can’t have a “network” without people. Whether or not Google Circles (or whatever it may be called) actually comes to fruition as a full-fledged social network, they need user acceptance. Google isn’t just coming out and saying they’re building a competing product and you should join. It truly appears they are trying to find other ways to make you join under a different guise. Once critical mass is obtained, then they can release the service that will bind all their existing social features together. Sneaky, no?

The Radio Shack Holiday Hero badge directly compliments The Shack’s Holiday Hero Campaign which has its own tab on Radio Shack’s Facebook Page.  While two-thirds of CEOs still are not bothering with social, Radio Shack is going full-tilt. And why shouldn’t they? They are an old brand, known by older generations for many items they don’t carry anymore. Social is the vehicle big brands need to market and stay relevant with the younger generations. In the past year, Foursquare usage has jumped quite a bit.But is it the answer to reach the younger generation?  It certainly can’t hurt.

However with it comes a new layout that has moved the maps location box info all around. This has two implications:  one to the sites who previously sat above results in the map area, and second to the PPC ads, which are further down the page now.

Location URLs, Map and Ad Position

If you enter a local query, one of the first things you’ll notice is the map has been moved to the right, where the ads usually are.  Legend pins are now inline with the search results, not next to the map at the top of the page.  This makes the search results longer, as the pin, location and phone info and new links for reviews and the Google Place page are now included.

More importantly, the ads are now starting  about another 280 pixels further down the screen.  Generally, ads will be starting as low as where the 4th organic listing starts.

Does it get worse for advertisers?  Yes.  The map image stays as you scroll the page and covers up the ads. Where, then, is my incentive to pay more for ad position?  At my first impressions at the end of day one, it would appear to me that something is going to change here.

If I’m a paying advertiser, I am not happy with this new solution.  If I had good organic ranking and wanted two placements – one for map and one for the location, I’m upset too.

Is this the direction Google wants to go?

According to Google, no. The results and how they are ranked will not change; they will just show up faster.  One boxes will still appear. Conversion data (km to miles, celsius to fahrenheit, etc) also appear in the results. So will mixed results for local, news image and other search results. As evidenced by the image at right, Google Instant will even correct your spelling on the fly and display the appropriate result set.

What the engineers will say, however, is that Instant will change how people search. On one hand, this may mean that people may look less past the first results page. On the other hand, many are saying that people will explore queries more and as a result, may find new sites.  That has some merit. However, if people “explore” the suggested queries, will they stop thinking on their own? Will they simply go with what is shown to them and will that assimilate all queries into one, unified result set?  I, for one, do not save my history, so I am – presumably -  not receiving personalized results.

Organic Is Safe. But What About AdWords?

AdWords will continue as normal. According to Wright, there will be “no change in how the ads are ranked or served.” During Q&A, a question was asked about ad impressions and how it will affect account. All the Googlers on the Q&A panel agreed that Google Instant will change how people will search and Google “will be changing what a search is.” For the purposes of displaying ads there are three factors as to what defines a “search” for the purpose of counting impressions:

1. If a user pauses for three seconds after the instant results are displayed, the ads will count as a search and therefore an impression.
2. Clicking the Search button (or presses enter), making the results “stick,” will count as an impression.
3. Clicking any link on the instant results page will also constitute as a search and impression.

The Googlers were also very quick to point out that AdWords charges per click, not per impression. However, are people able to click on these ads as they scroll by?

The Google Instant announcement presented eye tracking research. In presenting their discoveries, Google said it takes users 15 seconds to scan the results and make a selection. Later in the Q&A, they stated a “search” in deference to ad impressions is defined as results that “stay” for three seconds.

We’ve also learned previously that click through rate (CTR) is part of the equation for what position on the page Google will place your ad. (Click through rate is the number of times an ad is clicked divided by impressions).

Presuming Google’s primary data are correct, there will be many “searches” and therefore impressions, since people take 15 seconds to view a page, will the multiple impressions hurt ad position. Subsequently will that presumed lower ad position further lower the CTR?

According Google product manager Johanna Wright, it’s “not search while you type” it’s actually “search before you type.”  Google tries to predict what you are typing and provides those results immediately while you are still typing. If you keep typing, Google keeps changing the results, fairly instantly.  Unfortunately, Google Instant is only for people who who are signed into their Google accounts.

Google Instant will be rolled out today. Depending on which server you hit, you may or may not see it on the Google home page. It will hit browsers like Chrome “soon.”

How Does It Work?

Start typing. It’s that simple. When you type, results appear.  As it previously worked, the search box will have suggested searches immediately underneath the search box. What’s different now is the rest of the text of the suggested phrase will be gray, letting you know what Google thinks you’re searching for. This is what Google calls the predicted text. If you use your arrow keys to “scroll” through the predicted text, the results will change instantly. Google calls this scroll to search.

So what’s the down side? You have to be logged into a Google account to for Instant to be available. I suspect that may change as the product evolves.

Some Cool Searches To Try

• Type w – Google will use your IP address to figure out your location and the first result nearly as you type the w is weather for your location.
• Type mov – Again, using your IP information, Google returns Movie times for your location

The movie search can also return instant results for specific movies. Search fora movie currently playing and you’ll see times at theaters near you for that movie.

This is certainly a product that will be evolving. The Google engineers demonstrated Instant Search for mobile browsers – not an app. They are still working on it, but expect to unroll it in the coming months.

But Why?!

The math was interesting. After much research, Google claims the average search takes about 25 seconds. Users spend 9 seconds typing in their query. Network traffic to Google is about 400 milliseconds (ms) to get there and 400ms back. The average search is just under 300ms. We’re now just around the 10 second mark. Using eye-tracking software, Google researchers have discovered people (on average) spend 15 seconds looking all around the screen before actually clicking on a result. Since they can’t make the 300 ms search time faster, they wanted to help people pick up the pace typing, shaving off most of the 9 seconds on the front-side. Somehow they claim that they will save people 11 hours for every 1 second they have previously spent on search.  I, for one, still want to see that calculation.

The very pro-Apple-drinking Kool Aid guy who provided me the demo admitted that the iPad is not a good device for taking to a meeting to take notes and syncing with Exchange. There’s a drawing app from Adobe and some notepad/notebook looking app that you can use a keyboard to take notes.  Apparently the latter app will sync notes you take with Exchange, but extremely slowly.  And, of course, if you want to take notes with something more than your finger or the not-so-speedy on-screen keyboard, there is a special stylus you can purchase to do so.

If you’re a cloud computing person, go for it. There are apparently enough apps to sync to various clouds, including Google’s document cloud. Hopefully, you don’t have to worry about encryption or other data security issues for your notes.

Other take-aways:

The keyboard was surprisingly simple to use, but not perfect. You still can’t type normal on it.

I played with YouTube, Google Maps and Street View and the rendering speed of the graphics is impressive.

It still doesn’t do Flash.  With apps for YouTube and NetFlix, one problem is solved.  However, if I want to surf Facebook and play Farmville, while lounging on my couch, I’m out of luck.

As I said earlier, it’s a neat little device, but not for me.  Is it for you?

The ability to dictate to any text field is impressive. I have used this in the car with the sunroof open and lots of white noise and it rarely misses. However, when it does miss the result is quite amusing.

Pinching is nice, but I had the map upgrade before the 2.1 upgrade and the addition to the browser is not much different, either.

Active wallpaper is nice and according to the phone barely using CPU cycles or power, respective to other apps and radio signals.

So why has it dramatically slowed down? Sometimes it seems very unresponsive. On the other hand, I haven’t had to reboot it. It slows, but is never completely unresponsive.  Many have already blogged about frame rate dropping after upgrading and there’s arguments whether that is OpenGL or the OS.  However, I’ve noticed more memory usage and much more battery usage.

All in all, the Motorola Droid is far superior to any phone I’ve ever owned and still does everything I expected it to.  The Android platform seems more phone to use than iPhone (we’ll see about OS 4, though).  I guess I was expecting more from an “upgrade.”