- But that question gets Alibaba all wrong. Yes, it sells stuff online, but Alibaba is very much its own beast. Parallels drawn between Alibaba and U.S. tech giants—from Amazon to Google to Microsoft—are bound to break down. The only real point of comparison is that Alibaba is poised to become just as giant as they are.Or even bigger. After all, unlike Amazon, Alibaba makes a lot of money.To understand Alibaba’s success—and its potential—you have to account for everything Alibaba does, which is not easy to condense into an elevator pitch. A recent Forrester Research report called Alibaba “the world’s biggest digital ecosystem.” That description may sound jargon-y and vague, but it provides a pretty good indication its sprawling operation.IF ALIBABA CAN RECREATE THE SUCCESS IT’S ACHIEVED IN CHINA IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD, ITS POTENTIAL REACH IS VAST.On the consumer side, Alibaba operates Taobao, which works much like eBay, and Tmall, which brands like Apple and Uniqlo use to reach out to an estimated 302 million online shoppers in China. It runs AliExpress, a site to connect consumers outside China with exporters, and a group shopping site, Jujuasuan. Its flagship site, Alibaba.com, handles wholesale business-to-business commerce, a huge market that neither Amazon nor eBay yet dominates online. It has a small business-to-small business marketplace, 1688.com. And it offers cloud computing in the style of Amazon Web Services.Alibaba is also tied to online payments giant Alipay, which is now bigger than PayPal and is used for buying products across Alibaba’s sites. Alibaba doesn’t own Alipay outright, which means it won’t be included in the IPO. But the connection shows just how many corners the Alibaba brand extends into. It has investments in messaging, online video, and ride-hailing service Lyft. Assuming Alibaba can replicate even a fraction of its dominance in China elsewhere in the world, its potential reach is enormous.“We are not a company from China,” Alibaba founder and CEO Jack Ma told potential investors, according to Bloomberg. “We are an Internet company that happens to be in China.”Alibaba even has bicycle parking, a Silicon Valley staple.
Leighklotz | CC BYNDThe Power of Profits
But don’t just believe the rhetoric. Believe the numbers.Sales across Alibaba’s consumer marketplaces totaled $296 billion over the past year, the company reported at the end of August. By comparison, eBay in 2013 sold $76.5 billion in merchandise, only about $5 billion more than Alibaba sold on mobile devices alone. Comparisons with Amazon are trickier—the company reported just under $74.5 billion in revenue last year, but that figure does not include the value of the massive volume of third-party merchandise sold on the site, and often sent out of Amazon’s warehouses.But whatever the precise figure, Alibaba does a huge amount of business—and compared to Amazon, it does business much more efficiently. Unlike Amazon, Alibaba doesn’t own its own inventory. Its marketplaces handle the selling, not the stuff itself. Even Alibaba’s logistics operation exists to coordinate deliveries, not to make them.MORE THAN MONEY, HOWEVER, THE RESOURCE WITH THE MOST POTENTIAL TO PUT ALIBABA ON THE SAME FOOTING AS A GOOGLE, AMAZON, OR FACEBOOK IS ITS DATA.By keeping its overhead mainly digital, Alibaba has managed to achieve profit margins in another dimension from those of even the most exceptional Silicon Valley companies—much less any company that has yet to go public. In its most recent fiscal year, Alibaba’s net profit margin—net profits divided by revenue—was greater than 44 percent, a figure that has climbed steadily over the past few years. “That is extraordinary for a company that large,” says Brian Hamilton, co-founder of financial data clearinghouse Sageworks.Amazon’s net profit margin in 2013, by comparison, was less than 1 percent. Net margins at Google and Apple last year, meanwhile, hovered at just above 20 percent.To be clear, Alibaba isn’t bringing in anywhere near the sheer amount of cash as any of these companies, at least not yet. Its most recently reported annual revenue totaled a little under $8.5 billion, and annual net profit just above $3.7 billion. And Alibaba’s potential future competitors in the U.S. are reporting smaller margins in part because of how much money they pour into growth, whether in the form of Google’s many acquisitions, Amazon’s many warehouses, or Apple’s vast supply chain. Getting big is more important to these companies than maximizing profits—though Apple and Google have plenty of those, too.As the share prices of those companies have shown, Wall Street has no problem with that approach. Despite the enthusiasm surrounding its IPO, investors could grow impatient over time if Alibaba doesn’t also aggressively spend the money it makes with a clear vision toward a bigger future. And if its IPO comes anywhere near the almost $22 billion it’s expected to generate, Alibaba will have more to spend than ever.Data Driven
More than money, however, the resource with the most potential to put Alibaba on the same footing as a Google, Amazon, or Facebook is its data. The sheer volume of commerce moving across Alibaba’s many platforms means the company likely has the most comprehensive and most detailed picture of consumer behavior in the largest consumer market on the planet—a market whose spending power continues to grow.According to Forrester’s analysis, Chinese online companies tend to differ from their U.S. counterparts in their comprehensiveness. While Amazon is mainly associated with shopping and Google with search, despite their many other ventures, Alibaba and its primary competitors in China aim to insinuate themselves into as many aspects of customers’ online and offline lives as possible.“With great depth and breadth of visibility into consumer behavior, Alibaba will be able to assemble a highly detailed profile of its consumers — which will allow it to become much smarter and sell far more,” Forrester analyst Brian Wang writes.Many questions still dog Alibaba, among them doubts about corporate governance, China’s uncertain regulatory environment, and competition from other Chinese internet behemoths. But in Alibaba’s favor is that depth and breadth of data that puts it in the same league as the biggest U.S.-based tech platforms. The specifics of the company’s designs on markets beyond China are not yet clear. And it would take Alibaba years to chip away at the grip a Google or an Amazon has on the markets they dominate. Even so, they need to be wary. Between the business it has built, the profits that business churns out, and the potential to create something much greater atop that foundation, Alibaba could reasonably set its competitive sights on any tech company in the world.BY MARCUS WOHLSEN
Experts Weigh In On Google’s “Pigeon” Update Aimed At Improving Local Search Results
The “Pigeon” update (the name Search Engine Land gave it in absence of an official name from Google) aims to deliver improved local search results, with enhanced distance and location ranking parameters.
According to Google, the new local search algorithm ties deeper into the site’s web search capabilities, leveraging hundreds of ranking signals, along with search features like spelling correction capabilities, synonyms and Google’s knowledge graph.
Search Engine Land reported last week on how the “Pigeon” update solved Google’s “Yelp problem,” with local directory sites already experiencing improved visibility in Google search results:
It looks like Yelp and other local directory-style sites are benefiting with higher visibility after the Pigeon update, at least in some verticals. And that seems logical since, as Google said, this update ties local results more closely to standard web ranking signals. That should benefit big directory sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor — sites that have stronger SEO signals than small, individual restaurants and hotels are likely to have.
Now that we’re a week out, we asked a few local search experts what they have seen since Google set its “Pigeon” update free. Here’s what they had to say:
David Mihm, Director of Local Search Strategy at Moz
Overall, this update seems like an amplification of the previous silent Hummingbird update from last fall. Just like last time, I would argue that the quality of the SERPs has been downgraded, with “search results within search results” (i.e. directories) getting rewarded relative to their pre-Pigeon position.
Directories with strong brands (like Yelp, as Matt McGee already pointed out) often show up multiple times for the same search, especially on recovery searches for specific small businesses – many of which occur when the searcher clicks a Carousel result. But they’re even prevalent on far less-specific discovery searches, and on searches performed on mobile devices (in my own limited testing).
I fail to see how this is an improved, let alone a good, experience for searchers.
The outcome of Pigeon unfortunately rewards Yelp’s recent “whining,” and with the EU antitrust settlement largely behind them, it seems an odd time to move the SERPs in this direction.
A number of folks have commented in places like Max Minzer’s Local Search community, and Casey Meraz highlighted it as well, that there seem to be many more two and three-packs than there were before, which takes even more real estate away from small businesses and increases the relative opportunity for directories.
Perhaps in competitive industries where most companies have already maximized citations, reviews and user-generated content about their businesses, it is simply getting harder and harder for Google to identify the best of the best businesses by place-related signals? That defeatism seems decidedly un-Google, however.
I’m at a bit of a loss as to any economic benefit this boost to directories (with easier-to-reach, larger Adwords budgets) might provide Google, but I’m looking forward to hearing what other commenters have to say.
Greg Gifford, Director of Search and Social at Autorevo
In the automotive niche, we seem to be isolated a bit from the crazy effects we’re hearing about elsewhere. In some cities, we haven’t even seen a significant shift in map pack rankings (any more than what we’d see on a monthly basis anyway).
We’re still seeing map packs on auto dealer related search queries, and the vast majority of results are mostly the same.
We have noticed a few random anomalies though. In the past, “used cars CITY” always brought up a map pack. We’ve seen a few isolated cities where the map pack has disappeared for that query. For example, in Louisville, Kentucky, in an incognito search with location set to Louisville, we saw:
- “used cars” = seven-pack
- “used cars louisville” = no map pack
- “used cars louisville ky” = three-pack
Before Pigeon, those would have all resulted in seven-packs. Other than a few random map pack switcheroos like that, we’re not seeing much difference.
Nicole Hess, Senior SEO Strategist at Delphic Digital
After reading about the potentially spammy results being brought in by the newest Google local algorithm update, I immediately began wondering the affect of it on several of my clients.
First and foremost, a national client of mine has hundreds of locations that conduct business independently and need organic traffic to produce valuable business leads. I began digging into the data to spot any trends that already may be happening or developing and take action on it.
In reviewing the local rankings pack, I did not find spammy results creep into listings; although, I have seen this in some searches – such as “Casino” and “Interior Design” – but not in this client’s space.
My three primary observations:
- Locations not appearing in local results: There were a few locations that are not appearing in the local pack of results, though at some previous point did appear there. The average drop in traffic for a location that is no longer in the local pack is 16% less traffic month over month (and this is in a good season where overall organic traffic is increasing).
- Locations appearing in local results, less traffic: Of the 50 locations I reviewed, seven are receiving less organic traffic month over month, though still rank in the Local results and have the same organic rankings. Five of the seven locations rank second in a pack of seven local results and for each of these, there are paid ads with star ratings that appear above the local pack.
- Locations getting more traffic: Ten of the 50 locations I reviewed are receiving more organic traffic, on average 24% more organic traffic than the same week of the previous month. Each location ranks in the local pack and most rank No. 1 or No. 2 in the local pack. Their organic rankings have also maintained steady positions month over month, so that factor can be eliminated.
Also, while there were still paid ads, most listings had paid ads that didn’t have star ratings to detract from the organic results. Noting that this is a good season for the client where organic traffic is improving in general, I’m not ascribing all the lift to the local pack rankings, though the lift in traffic for these locations is greater than the month over month lift in organic traffic overall.
So it appears there has been some favorable shifts caused by Pigeon driving more organic traffic.
From what I have witnessed, some local ranking shift has occurred and is driving more organic traffic to several locations. Being out of the local pack correlates with a loss of organic traffic for a few locations. A loss of organic traffic is also occurring where listings are competing against paid ads that have star ratings.
Andrew Shotland, Local Search Engine Optimization Consultant at LocalSEOGuide.com
We are really interested in how this update moved Google more in the direction of hyperlocal search. Something that has been flying under the radar on this update is the neighborhood specific location settings that previously seemed to be just a test are now live everywhere as far as I can tell.
I am also seeing a number of the local directory type sites I work with have almost all seen five to ten percent increases in organic traffic since the update. This lines up with the contraction and elimination of many of the local pack results that others are reporting. Directories would be one of the benefactors of this.
We are waiting to see if this holds over the next week before publishing any of the data. It’s highly likely there will be a fair amount of algo “tuning” so I wouldn’t be surprised if the results we are talking about change dramatically over the next few days or weeks.
Mike Blumenthal, Search Expert and author of Google Places and Local Search blogBlumenthals.com
To a large degree the jury is still out on the what, whys and outcomes of the recent Local algo update. Things have been changing since the roll out Thursday evening and are just now stabilizing.
Things we do know: there seem to be fewer seven-pack results than before although the drop is not as big as first reported as Google seems to have changed the impact of some local query modifiers. It was originally reported as a sixty percent drop in MozCast, and by their metric it was. However many of their search queries no longer seem to function the same way.
Things that seem to be “more so” since the change include:
- Localization of geo search results appear to have increased based on user’s location.
- Brands appear to have benefited with additional listings in the pack results and more three-packs.
The update does appear to have reduced duplication between the organic and local results. After the October 2013 update that ended blended results, a number of sites were seeing both organic and local pack results. Those seem to have been reduced to one or the other.
The directories, at least anecdotally, appear to have benefited from the change.
On many searches the radius of the “view port” of the Map has changed. This obviously leads to an effective ranking shake up as the businesses visible within the view have changed. On some searches we are seeing cross geo border expansion of the port and on others a reduction in the radius, totally excluding the locations in the burbs.
Whether this is a cause or effect, we simply can’t yet tell but it does lead to turmoil in the rankings.
One could group this update with a number of other recent Google updates that have reduced visual “distractions” from the main search results; loss of video snippets, the loss of author photos, reduction in the number of review stars shown, etc. etc.
The impact is still unclear; we will have to wait for analytics data to accumulate to assess the net of the change both specifically and more broadly.
Mary Bowling, Co-founder at Ignitor Digital
I think it’s too soon to tell what may be temporary and what might stick, but overall I think Google may be trying to hyper-localize desktop results more.
Google has made several moves lately for the purpose of better aligning desktop and mobile results. Google’s interpretation of the searcher’s location may now be playing more into which results they see on their desktop, just the way it has been playing into which results they see on smartphones.
Some of the things people are reporting are a reduction in the number of local packs seen in the SERPs and a widespread reduction from 7 results in the local packs to 3 results. This may also be an attempt to better mirror on the desktop what mobile searchers see.
Chris Smith, President and Strategist atArgent Media
It’s actually still early to definitively state precisely what all Google may have changed to produce the results we’re seeing. While it is very clear that a significant number of local search queries have stopped displaying local search results, some of the anecdotal reports have been a bit too all-encompassing in declaring particular search queries as “no longer displaying local packs.”
For instance, while the term “house rentals” appears to invoke the local pack in far fewer cases, there are still significant markets where that query continues to invoke local pack results (at least, when I test the search in combo with city names). Searching for “house rentals estes park” or “house rentals gatlinburg” still has good seven-packs of local listings embedded in the SERP.
This suggests that the part of the search results page composition algorithm that handles determining when to serve local pack results has undergone a revision rather than elimination for many of these effected terms. The dial has been turned back some, if you will, and other qualifying elements have been introduced in how it functions.
Specificity of the query is an additional element. When Google first began displaying the local pack, they inferred locality intent associated with queries like “house rentals” or “pizza”, etc. For whatever reason, the assumption of local intent has now been dialed back in a number of cases, most likely based upon some sort of usability testing, or out of desire to further reduce “clutter” in search results.
Overall, the news that this update bumps up web search ranking signals more so than some of the local factors doesn’t necessarily pose a huge fear factor for local businesses. On the other hand, local companies that were enjoying good local pack rankings, despite having an SEO-weak website presence, will now have to step up their game in order to recover.
Some have reported spammy local companies have enjoyed better rankings since the update; but, I don’t think the dust has altogether settled. These companies may have a lot more to fear after another few weeks.
Finally, some directory sites appear to have benefited. To me, the recent shift has heavily benefit Yelp (I think they likely need to Shut-The-Front-Door on whining about Google mistreatment). Yellowpages.com also appears quite prominently in my sampling, as well as some vertical directories.
Some of the more marginal, less-popular online yellow pages and business directories are not all that visible or prominent these days. In some business category and market combinations, the organic search results are more populated by these directory sites than by the websites of local businesses – which will necessitate a bit of a shift in local companies’ online strategies.
If these ranking changes for local-intent queries were intentional upon Google’s part, it seems clear that they feel that there are many cases where searchers desire to perform comparative research to decide upon businesses prior to selecting listings. Businesses will have to adjust their strategic approaches accordingly.
Google更新“鸽子”算法，离你最近的搜索对象将获得最高的排位
这是谷歌继去年的“蜂鸟”之后又一次更新搜索引擎的算法，“鸽子”这个代号并非是谷歌官方的称谓，而是搜索引擎博客SEL自己起的代号。因为从 2012 年的“企鹅”开始，谷歌喜欢用一种鸟类来冠名自己的的搜索引擎算法更新。就像苹果之前用猫科动物来命名 Mac OS 版本一样。
如果说“蜂鸟”是谷歌对搜索进行的一次外科手术。那么“鸽子”就是涂上了 LBS 药剂的贴膏。它是根据搜索者的地理位置信息重新调整网页的排名。比如当搜索“Pizzahut Yelp”时，排在第一位的将是离你最近的必胜客餐厅在 Yelp 的评分，而不是之前必胜客在 Yelp 的主页或者必胜客的官网。右侧出现的卡片也将是这家餐馆的地理位置和用户在 Yelp 上的评论。
当你仅仅搜索“必胜客”的时候，排在最前面的也不会是必胜客的官网或者 wikipedia 词条，而是附近必胜客餐厅在各种各样生活服务网站上的页面。
目前“鸽子”算法只有美国的谷歌用户可以体验到，暂时还没有向其他地区扩散的时间表。毫无疑问，这样的算法更新会让用户享受到便利的 LBS 服务，极大提升生活服务网站的流量，但是这也引起了争议。一些人担心这种算法会助长 Yelp 等生活服务巨头的竞争优势。Twitter上有一个叫YelpIsEvil的用户控诉，Yelp 在谷歌搜索结果中显示的用户评价是经过过滤的。
这个信息是否属实36氪也无法查证，但是 Yelp 曾经由于过滤了 20% 的店铺评价遭遇集体诉讼。Yelp 当时辩解说他们只是隐藏了有嫌疑的垃圾信息。
Google免费电话Call me maybe? Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts
Google明白同朋友同家人保持聯絡有幾重要，就算大家身處世界各地，都可以親口同對方傾下近況你話幾好呢！Google Hangouts 宜家就多咗一個新嘅語音通話功能，等大家可以隨時隨地以Android、iOS或者電腦，透過Hangouts 打比其他Hangouts用家。喺美國或加拿大打返俾當地嘅電話號碼更加係免費添！大家快啲將Hangouts 更新到最新嘅版本試下啦！
We know how important it is to keep in touch with friends and family, especially when they’re spread around the world. Hangouts already makes it easy to send a quick message, or start a group video chat. But sometimes it’s best to just call to say “I love you,” and with the new version of Hangouts you can.
Starting today you can make voice calls from Hangouts on Android, iOS and the web. It’s free to call other Hangouts users, it’s free to call numbers in the U.S. and Canada, and the international rates are really low. So keeping in touch is easier and more affordable than ever.
Whether it’s your sister in Paris, your best friend in Boston or Jenny at 867-5309, Hangouts lets you call the people you care about at little or no cost. So download the app and dial your loved ones today!
We know how important it is to keep in touch with friends and family, especially when they’re spread around the world. Hangouts already makes it easy to send a quick message, or start a group video chat. But sometimes it’s best to just call to say “I love you,” and with the new version of Hangouts you can.
Starting today you can make voice calls from Hangouts on Android, iOS and the web. It’s free to call other Hangouts users, it’s free to call numbers in the U.S. and Canada, and the international rates are really low. So keeping in touch is easier and more affordable than ever.
To get started on Android, just grab the new version of Hangouts (v2.3, rolling out over the next few days), then install the accompanying dialer to turn on voice calls. On iOS and the web, voice calls will be available the next time you open the app.
Voice calls in Hangouts: call history (left); dialer (middle); in a call (right)
Whether it’s your sister in Paris, your best friend in Boston or Jenny at 867-5309, Hangouts lets you call the people you care about at little or no cost. So download the app and dial your loved ones today!
谷歌和亚马逊之间不得不说的竞争
Google 和 Amazon 看似是两家基因完全不同的公司：Google 以广告为生;Amazon 则是一家电商。但是，商业世界中是没有明确的界限的，哪里有市场、哪里有利益，大家就会蜂拥而至，这在互联网巨头之间也不例外。当人们都在谈论 Google 和苹果之间的风格路径差异的时候，可能大家没有注意到，Amazon 正迅速成长起来，并已经成为了 Google 最强劲的竞争对手之一。
双方不仅在各自的核心业务领域(零售和广告)展开了激烈的竞争，并且在不断扩展自身业务线的过程中，在智能手机、流媒体视频、云计算、无人机等非核心业务领域也形成了直接对抗。市场研究公司 Forrester Research 分析师 James McQuivey 表示，Google 和 Amazon 正朝着同一个目标前进，那就是：双方都希望在用户有任何需求的时候首先想到的是自己。
核心业务的竞争
零售业务领域
虽然 Amazon 的核心业务是出售各类商品，Google 则是广告销售，但这两项业务本身就是有所重合的，因此两家也不可避免的会产生竞争。Google 希望用户在想要购买蓝牙耳机或登山靴的时候，首先想到的是使用 Google 的搜索引擎，这样它就可以向用户展示相关产品的广告。但调查显示，现在越来越多的网购用户直接在 Amazon 上进行搜索，并不通过 Google。
ChannelAdvisor 公司(一家帮助零售商管理在线广告的公司)的 CEO Scot Wingo 说：问题就在于，消费者在网购的时候会从哪里开始?Google 一度长期统治这个领域，是人们进入互联网世界的首选入口，包括网购。但如今 Amazon 夺回一城， 至少已经开始成为大部分冲着网购去的用户的首选入口。
一些分析师认为，Amazon 的崛起与移动互联网的发展密不可分。不同于浏览器对 PC 互联网世界的统治地位，App 才是移动互联网上最重要的入口，由于智能手机和平板电脑的的使用率越来越高，下载和使用 Amazon 官方 app 的用户数量也越来越多。Amazon 的 app 可以直接搜索商品，并且只需很简单的几次点击就可以完成整个购物过程。因此对于网购用户来说，先在 Google 上搜索再跳转至 Amazon 网页进行购买的购物方式已经不太适合移动端的购物体验。
对此，Google 也有应对措施，利器就是其擅长的广告业务。2012 年底，Google 推出了新的广告产品 Product Listing Ads，这可以说是一个专门针对中小商户推出的广告产品。PLAs 同样是关键字广告，和自然搜索结果一起出现在搜索栏里，但当用户把鼠标移到搜索结果上时，搜索栏的右边就会出现这个商品的图片和具体信息，包括价格、用户评论等。从数据来看，PLAs 在吸引用户点击和购物方面卓有成效。最初，PLAs 是免费提供给商家的，但是后来，它也开始向商家收费。但 Amazon 并没有接入 PLAs 广告系统，这将会影响到 Amazon 商品展示的位置和信息量，从而大大降低从 Google 导流过去的用户量。
在与零售相关的领域，两者也打的不可开交。例如，在支付服务方面，Google 率先推出了 Google Wallet 用于线下的手机支付场景。而就在最近，Amazon 也在线下支付领域频频动作，先推出了管理礼品卡 / 会员卡的Amazon Wallet，后又推出了信用卡刷卡器Local Register。再例如，在当日送达服务方面，Amazon 不仅在全美大量建设大型仓储设备，还率先在去年底推出了Prime Air服务，即”利用无人机在半小时内把快递送到你家“的一项服务。而就在今年 8 月底，Google 公开了其秘密进行了 2 年的无人机计划Project Wing，也将主要用于送货。
广告业务领域
而在 Google 的核心业务领域——广告方面，Amazon 也已经开始布局。在广告行业，Amazon 一直被称作“沉睡的巨人”，因为它汇聚了海量的与消费相关的数据，在广告主眼中价值不可估量。多年以来，Amazon 一直在自己的网站上投放广告。2010 年底，它悄悄的开始在第三方网站上为广告主做精准广告的投放，却一直没有被披露，直到 2012 年年中，Amazon 才正式将其命名为“亚马逊广告平台”(Amazon Advertising Platform)。这项服务将与 Google Adsence 产生直接竞争，并且，分析师都非常看好这项业务，认为很有可能成为 Amazon 的下一项支柱性业务，虽然在营收上尚无法对 Google 造成威胁，但难说 Google 就没有感受到压力。
非核心业务的竞争
移动数据领域
Google 在移动领域通过 Android 执掌一方天下。通过 Android，Google 大量置入其搜索引擎、地图、支付等自有服务，不仅带动了 Google 广告业务在移动端的发展，也帮助 Google 获取了大量用户在移动端的使用数据。而 Amazon 也相继推出了 Kindle Fire 和 Fire Phone，希望构建自己的移动生态。为此，Amazon 用自家服务大量替代 Google 的服务，比如默认的应用程序商店就是 Amazon Appstore 而非 Google Play。并且，这对于 Amazon 获取用户全方位的需求和行为数据也很有价值。
数字娱乐内容领域
Google 有 YouTube，Amazon 也有针对 Prime 会员的 Instant Video 视频服务，并且这两年也一直在做自己的视频内容。近期，Amazon则花10亿美元收购了游戏视频直播网站Twitch，这也是 Google 一直觊觎的对象。Twitch 不仅有坚实的游戏用户基础(大部分是年轻的用户)，有助于 Amazon 将其数字娱乐内容版图扩张至游戏领域;还有着很完备的视频流媒体基础设施，有助于 Amazon 未来搭建流媒体视频服务。
云计算服务领域
云计算服务是一个利润可观的商业领域，尤其是企业级云服务，正成为越来越多中小企业的选择。目前，AWS 是企业云服务的领先者。有报告称，AWS 正成为史上增长最快的企业云服务之一，很大程度上支撑了 Amazon 近年来的股价上涨。Google 也不甘把这么大块蛋糕拱手让人，于是也借助自身强大的数据承载能力和高效的计算能力推出了 Google app engine。从客户上来看，AWS 既有 Netflix 和 Instagram 这样的互联网企业，也包括 NASA、中情局等重量级客户。而 Google 的云计算服务相对年轻，其客户包括 Snapchat、Secret 等。
两者在云计算服务商一度大打价格战。光脚的不怕穿鞋的，为了追赶 Amazon，Google 在今年 3 月宣布下调其云计算服务的价格，其中数据库服务 BigQuery 价格跳水达到 85% 之高。Amazon 也不甘心，隔天便宣布了降价措施，最大降价幅度达到 61%，大有与 Google 对抗到底的意思。
科技界的分析人士认为，Google 和 Amazon 之间的竞争只是未来互联网发展的一个缩影。互联网巨头们都在争相扩张自己的业务线以覆盖更广泛的服务领域，希望最大限度的将用户留在自己手中。在这个过程中，互联网巨头们不可避免的会进入彼此的核心业务领域，或同时进入新的业务领域。因此，巨头们的针锋相对在未来将会越来越普遍。
2014Google 搜索引擎排名因素简析
近日，搜索引擎研究平台SearchMetrics发布了2014版的谷歌搜索引擎优化调查报告。SearchMetrics每年都会发布对谷歌搜索引擎排名进行分析，得出影响谷歌搜索排名的相关因素，并给出相应的优化建议。在今年的调查报告中，再次肯定了“网站内容”的王者地位。没有内容的网站，就没有资格谈SEO！
以下为报告的主要内容：
网站内容
网站内容质量和网站排名绝对是成正比的；文章长度也会有影响；网站内链的建设也是一个非常重要的因素，而且这个因素是最容易被忽视的。
详情如下：
 |
| 网站内容 |
站内优化
关键词对SEO结果仍有很大影响。关键词优化需做到标题、网页描述、正文、H1标签、H2标签等网页元素相互协调。切勿为了排名而做出关键词堆砌等行为；网站加载速度是衡量网站性能、以及用户体验度的一个重要指标；好的网站结构是SEO的基石。
详情如下图：
反向链接
反向链接的数量、尤其是质量对搜索引擎排名都有很大的影响；即使相关性的重要性在逐渐增加，但关键词反向链接的影响程度仍在减小；相对普通网站，反向链接对那些有一定“品牌效应”的网站产生的影响可以说是小之又小。
反向链接详情如下图：
社交媒体因素
与2013年有些许不同，在今年的调查报告中，社会化媒体对“搜索引擎排名”的影响度有所下降；整体而言，社交媒体对网站的价值有所上升。
社交媒体因素的具体情况：
用户
那些搜索引擎排名相对高的网站，在用户点击率和网站停留时间上都比排名稍差的网站做得更好；对于那些搜索引擎排名靠前的网站，它们的网站跳出来往往都低于排名相对较差的网站。
品牌
对于大品牌来说，上述那些因素并不是绝对的；品牌效应对网站的搜索引擎排名有很大的影响。相比2013年，今年主要体现在影响力的质量上。
本文仅为概述，详情请继续关注本站后续报道！
博文
