By Daniel Goldstein

Internet-marketing news breaks each day, if not each hour, so online marketers need to keep abreast of the latest headlines. Here’s what we at The Cline Group found interesting this past week.  Read more...

• Google +1 shares can now appear in your Google+ social-media account. In two prior posts, we addressed how Google +1 will affect SEO and SEM and how Google+ (Google Plus) will affect Facebook and social media in general. Now, Google has announced that people can have their +1s (“likes”) appear in their Google+ account – along with specifying which “circles” will see them. For example, if I like a certain article on social media, I may choose to share it with my “Work” circle and not my “Family” one. (I don’t think Grandma would be interested.) The marketing takeaway: It is becoming increasingly important to incorporate Google +1 and Google+ into your social-media marketing.

By Samuel J. Scott

In the so-called “Silicon Valley of the Middle East,” start-ups in and around Tel Aviv are increasingly the life-blood of many global companies that operate in the high-tech sector. According to the authors of “Start-Up Nation” – former Bush-administration official Dan Senor and former Jerusalem Post editorial-page editor Saul Singer – these are a few of the reasons (via the Wall Street Journal and Freakonomics):  Read more...

• Government per-capita spending on civilian R&D is 4.5% of GDP – double the percentage of the United States, Germany, and South Korea

By Samuel J. Scott

Keywords are the building blocks of any website whose creators – whether personal or corporate – want to attract a significant level of traffic from search engines (organic traffic, in other words). In a nutshell, if you sell widgets, then you want your website to appear high in results whenever people search for “widgets.”

Defining and implementing a keyword-based strategy, as we will see throughout this ongoing series, is crucial to building and marketing an effective website. The first step, which we will discuss here, is keyword research: For what is your target demographic searching in Google when they are looking for your company’s product or service?  Read more...

By Daniel Goldstein

Soon, your picture could be all over Google. But, do not worry: we mean that in a good way.

Hubspot recently reported that the profile pictures of people using Google’s new social-networking website – Google+ (or Google Plus) – now have the ability to appear in search-result listings for the websites, articles, and blog posts that are associated with them. It just requires a bit of new HTML coding. According to the company’s intrepid reporting, here is how to have an author’s image appear as in the image at the top of this post:  Read more...

By Daniel Goldstein

Google had never been very good at the “social” aspect of the Internet Age. After all, users of platforms including Adwords and Webmaster Tools who have questions are unable to get a customer-service person at Google on the phone.  In an emergency one time, I found the number of Google’s office in Boston and gave them a call. The person who picked up told me – at least in a very polite way – that she could only direct me to the website’s FAQ and support pages.  Read more...

By Alexandra Hackett

The Casey Anthony murder-trial, which ended today with not-guilty verdicts on all major counts, was a perfect example of how courtroom proceedings fascinate the public – and why it is important for attorneys to use public-relations strategies as well.

The trial had gone on for weeks, and the world had a front-row seat because cameras are allowed in courtrooms in the state of Florida. People were intrigued, perplexed, and downright sickened at the death of precious, little Caylee Anthony. Was her mother responsible for her death? Was her grandfather? Was it a murder or an accident?  Read more...