Normally, as a business grows, the difficulty of remaining nimble and creative precipitously increases. To date, Google has avoided this increasingly sizable challenge.

Google’s CEO Larry Page has recently given an update on the current status of the business, and it is still definitely full of innovation. This update, which was the corporation’s quarter 1 earnings call, focused primarily on Google’s new and exciting products like Google Glass and Fiber.

Very little time was spent talking about older Google offerings like the search engine, Google Plus, or YouTube, despite their importance to the business. Larry Page did comment that these more traditional products must still be given time, innovation, and focus. However, his own personal focus during this update was on the newest of the new. He said during this earnings call that “Minor changes make things obsolete.” Clearly, Google wants to keep pushing the internet and tech industries into the future, serving as a forerunner and leader of innovation.

This can serve as an important lesson to everyone involved in internet business, e-commerce, or entrepreneurship. No matter the size of your business or the past success of your products, constant innovation is required if continued success is the goal.

Drew Olanoff of TechCrunch wrote an article  on Page’s presentation which further elaborates on Google’s commitment to  innovation.

From the title of this post, you are probably expecting to read about some new app that writes term papers for you, or is able to translate “text-talk” into an intelligent conversation using the English language.  Now that you know it is really about Google Docs, you might be tempted to glaze over.  Think again.  What I had long-since written off as a useful tool to make sign-up sheets and store documents, Google Docs contains several features that truly do turn it into a wordsmith machine.

Chat/Comment Presence

You can actually create comments within comments using this feature, instead of having to toggle between screens or write on top of someone else.

Translate

The entire document can be easily translated into 40 different languages with a few clicks.

On-The-Go Editing

Need to make some last minute changes minutes before a presentation?  Google Docs easily switches to mobile editor mode.

Chart it up!

Google Docs now offers new features in chart-making, where the website practically makes the chart for you by matching headers and data, auto-selecting colors, and even putting it into motion.

Spy Mode

The new revision interface makes it easy to see who, when, and where contributions have been made.

If you’ve decided Google Docs is old news, think again.  This powerful tool can make your life much easier whether you are in a group project or on the go.

It’s not everyday that fashion meets innovative technology.  I first heard about Google Glass when Diane von Furstenberg’s models showed the product off last year during Fashion Week (the designer herself made a behind-the-scenes video).  At the time, I knew she was collaborating with Google, but I couldn’t begin to understand why the fashion world goddess would stoop to pairing tacky glasses with her finely curated Ready-To-Wear collection.  I now understand how badly Google needed her.

Google Glass is essentially a wearable computer that finds and displays information (no hands needed) through voice commands, and can also be used to share information and communicate with others.   Google is considering making the glasses so that they can attach to normal glasses, match prescription, etc.  The problem Google has anticipated is getting customers to wear them.  The glasses need to be accepted as fashionable attire, or they cannot succeed on a large scale; hence luring Diane von Furstenberg to give a public approval of the glasses.

Image is immensely important in the success of any product, whether a small time retailer or the giant enterprise Google.  Google Glass will make its way into society, but only time will tell if it will increase in popularity and social acceptance.

Google has expanded into every conceivable category of business. Now Google’s Knowledge Graph is powering LoveFlutter, a London-based startup that helps customers find the love of their life by matching them up to people with similar interests.

The business operates by utilizing Google’s Knowledge Graph, a contributor to the search engine, to find people who would fit well together. LoveFlutter even helps the potential couple find a great first date by using Foursquare. The site’s users can either use their interests from Facebook or upload them manually. This unique approach to online dating ensures some level of connection with the other person because of mutual interests.

Google makes self-driving cars, glasses that take videos, the world’s best search engine… now can it make your soulmate too? This is a terrific internet business idea; it utilizes one of the world’s greatest online networks for a thriving industry. Mashable has an interesting article on the new venture that can be found here.

Advantages of Social

1)      Social improves SEO. Just like backlinks are such a huge part of SEO, Google’s algorithm is learning to recognize social sharing much more. Social is on the rise in its importance to search.

2)      You’ll build strong relationships. Gen-Y is a vastly more social generation than previous ones. Connecting and communicating well with customers is increasingly important.

3)      Social content can be repurposed. It can be used across multiple sites and, as it grows old, can be refreshed.

4)      More targeted networks means more customers. Social is great for targeting. On a broad scale, Facebook leads in number of B2C customer acquisitions (77% of companies on Facebook have acquired a customer there) while LinkedIn leads in B2B, with 65% of companies having made an acquisition.

5)      Social media provides the user generated content needed to drive sales. Over 80% of Gen-Y is influenced by user generated content. Many won’t make a large purchase without consulting user generated content.

Disadvantages of Social

1)      Social needs content to succeed.

2)      It can take months, even years, to grow your social media presence successfully. Building a list that will drive traffic, like any marketing effort, takes time to reap a reward. If you choose to speed that up, it is going to cost you money and time to invest in paid-for ads.

3)       Content expires quickly. It should be updated regularly, but be careful, because people are not fans of having their feeds clogged with your posts.

4)      Monitoring is time intensive. You have to watch your SM every day. Not getting bogged down with responding is a challenge.

So, which is better?

In today’s world, they feed off of each other more so than ever. Both rely on great content and the lines between both are blurring (as Google pays more and more attention to nodding its head towards social sharing). Hubspot endorses mutuality, but recognizes you may have to choose. They propose that you must choose between investing in a social media manager or a technical SEO expert.

However, the trend of Google’s increased recognition of social sharing seems to imply that social’s importance will continue to grow. This means that the work done for social will inevitably increase offsite SEO. With that in mind, it would seem that the best investment would be to learn the ins-and-outs of social now in order to stay abreast this trend. Fresh, relevant content, pushed through social networking, the blogosphere, and PR sites, will do most of your SEO work for you. What do you think?

(Source: Hubspot, “SEO vs. Social Media: Which is Best for Your Marketing?”)

Search has traditionally been driven by SEO, or search engine optimization. However, since social media has emerged on the scene, it has been making headway in importance to online business. The problem is that, because of how new it is, people are still trying to figure out how to best leverage its power. So which is the best investment of your time, money, and energy? Online marketing expert Hubspot chimes in with their analysis.

Advantages of SEO:

1)      Content creation. Content is the core of any SEO strategy. Utilizing keyword rich content will always provide a boost to search-ability. And the content created for SEO can be repurposed for other business needs, such as email, lead generation, etc.

2)      Long term gains that don’t diminish. Search engine indexing means that a page has the potential to return in search engine results pages for any amount of time (assuming the content remains relevant). This implies long-term ROI.

3)      Long-tail search yields targeted traffic. If you are optimizing for long-tail search (long keywords that are more targeted) your traffic will be more easily convertible.

4)      Inbound links help your website and reputation. One of the best ways to get inbound links is to serve as a guest blogger. This provides links and relationships with others in your area.

5)      SEO gives an edge to local business. Using SEO for mobile will put your brick-and-mortar ahead of the game, as you will be targeting people traveling in your area who are searching for what you offer, on the go.

6)      SEO is easier than it used to be. Google’s algorithm is getting smarter, meaning it’s focusing more on content designed for readers, not search engines. Coming back to the first point, it is more and more coming back to creating amazing content.

Disadvantages of SEO:

1)      It takes a lot of time. Simply put, good content creation takes a lot of effort and time. For some, it is overwhelming.

2)      You still have to invest in technical SEO. Unless you are an SEO expert yourself, you will need to hire someone to handle redirects, site structure, meta tags, etc.

3)      You have to worry about multiple search engines. Google is not the only one out there. Particularly in the case of niche engines, you may find yourself having to deal with SEO on multiple levels.

4)      Too much is out of your control. Offsite SEO is the biggest part of SEO. But this also happens to be the part that is most difficult to control.

5)      You can’t measure everything. After some changes in 2011, marketers lost serious insights into their sources of organic traffic. This has impacted anywhere between 11.36% to over 50% of searches.

6)      Requires long-term upkeep. You need to be constantly updating your content in order to maintain your placement. This once again brings us back to the first point: you need to be constantly creating new content.

(Source: Hubspot, “SEO vs. Social Media: Which is Best for Your Marketing?”)