Better Googling

Sorry I'm in Google mode today! Just read a nice article in The McKinsey Quarterly, 'Google like a pro' (not free). I Google a lot and mostly just use the simple term or string search. Occasionally I use more powerful queries. However, in this article I learned some new ones. I thought I'd share them with you (- and by typing them in I'm learning as well!).

• intitle: "plane crash" > finds the string in the title of a webpage
• site:nl or site:us for Dutch or US sites only. inurl:news or inurl:forum for news sites and forum discussions respectively. inurl:2008 to limit your search to a time period.
• view:timeline, gives search results in clickable timeline
• ~airplane, searches for airplane, plane, air, flight, aircraft, etc.
• Samuel is a *, gives search results telling you who Samuel is (according to Google...)

I've been using these more often lately. I was thinking: why not put a little cheat sheet on the Google homepage to help users remember?

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Tags van Technorati: google

Contact Info? Google Me!

Ran into this interesting post and picture of the "new business card". I think it really neat. It relates to what is happening now. What do you do if you have an appointment with somebody new? You Google them. At least I do. The same goes for when someone's applying for a job and I have to interview him/her. I Google them.

This relates well to what Dell's Bob Pearson said some time ago: 'Google is our homepage'. I think doesn't only account for companies, but for people as well.

If this business card is not for you, try this one!

Thanks Geekdad, Jeremiah Owyang and Gizmodo for the posts.

Tags van Technorati: google

Social Media for B2B too?

Just wanted to point you to two interesting posts on the use of social media for the B2B market. Everyone seems to agree on the fact that the social web is great and a must for the B2C market. Most B2C companies are actively using social media to engage with their customers. The B2B market seems to be lagging and wondering if 'social media' is really something they should get into.

PR Squared and Chris Brogan don't understand this reluctance and clearly state what B2B companies need to hop in. And I fully agree with them. Some B2B companies (mostly with a US home-base) are showing how it's done. If I'm not mistaken most of these companies have some relatedness with the internet or computer world. I haven't seen many companies yet using social media that sell wafer steppers, large dump trucks, complex tractors, windmills, etc. Most of these companies still have very 1.0-ish websites too. But if I am mistaken, please let me know!

Could it be that the reluctance to jump on the bandwagon has to do with the distance of the business to the internet? Or is the distance to the internet the same for all companies, B2B and B2B? Your customers are there, so you'd better be there too.

Tags van Technorati: b2b,b2c,social media