SEO News: Google to Offer Pay-Per-View Movie Service - Will It Stand Up to Its Competitors?

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Later this year, Google may begin offering pay-per-view movies via online video site YouTube. This will include new releases, possibly offered at $5 per film. YouTube already offers some older titles for a rental fee of .99 to $4, but their catalog is limited. Google is currently talking with various movie studios, such as Lions Gate, Sony, MGM, and Warner Bros. about including their titles in the YouTube catalog. New titles will possibly be offered the same day they are released on DVD.

It's also speculated that this service will be integrated with upcoming Google TV. According to Google Senior Product Manager Rishi Chandra, the purpose of Google TV is, "to bring the entire Web to the television set...to take the best of what TV offers these days and the best of what the Web offers and combine them."

Google TV will give television the navigation capabilities of the web. This will benefit viewers and advertisers alike. Viewers can navigate TV to more easily find the programs and channels they want to watch. And advertisers can include links in their commercials to take interested viewer to the company's website, which will allow for more effective internet marketing.

Both the pay-per-view service and Google TV are speculated to launch around the same time. They can be integrated in the way that those with the Google TV service can watch pay-per-view films on YouTube right through their televisions. This will provide a more comfortable viewing experience than sitting at a computer desk or watching a film on a small laptop screen.

With the decline of video stores like Blockbuster, streaming movies over the Internet is where the future of video rental lies. After all, you don't have to leave your house to get the movies, there are no late fees, and you don't have to worry about getting a DVD that is scratched and won't play or skips constantly. Netflix, iTunes, and Hulu already offer such services. Will Google offer a worthy competitor? Or will this service flop like so many of Google's other recent endeavors, such as Google Buzz or Google Wave?

Google is counting on the popularity of YouTube to make their pay-per-view service a success. Currently, YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the web, with approximately 100 million visitors every month, and an outstanding Alexa rating of 3 worldwide. This high traffic website already has a huge audience that will be aware of this new service when it launches.

However, it is possible that part of the popularity of YouTube is the ability to watch a bunch of short videos for free. Many people visit YouTube to see the latest viral video, watch that funny commercial they keep hearing about (Old Spice Guy?), or watch music videos from their favorite artist when the have a little bit of time to kill. Will the YouTube audience be drawn to visit the site to pay to watch full-length movies? Or is the plethora of user generated content and short videos the main draw?

Another factor that might hamper success is that Google may be a bit late to the party. Netflix has already implemented an instant viewing service that allows members to watch films instantly over the Internet and video game consoles like the Nintendo Wii. Other services like Hulu, iTunes, and Amazon Video on Demand are also gaining popularity as sites for viewing films and TV shows. Will the already large YouTube audience be enough to propel Google's pay-per-view service over its competitors? What will Google offer that its competitors won't?

It's obvious that Google is trying very hard to stay on top of the search engine and Internet realm. The Web giant already has plans for a social network that is said to possibly rival Facebook, which will prove to be a daunting task. However, Google is willing to take on the challenge of starting its own online social networking site, and has already acquired companies involved in social media services. Only the future will tell if Google will stay on top, or finally crumble.

Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an ethical SEO firm specializing in one-way link popularity building. The company also offers natural search engine optimization, blog marketing, Website copywriting and article submission solutions. As a certified search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO seminars throughout Cleveland, Ohio.

Getting Free Traffic From Google News

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You don't have to be a CNN or BBC news reporter to get considerable traffic from Google News. Google, as far as I am aware, only keeps news articles for the last 30 days.

How to use

Using the search bar at the top of the page start off by typing in site: - you would then enter keywords to search for a site's content. You will then see how many sites Google has approved in the timeframe that relates to your keywords. The lower the response, the less popular that keyword material is. For example, if you wanted to look at the search engine industry over the last 30 days, you would type in site: seroundtable.com and you will see that not a huge number of pages come up.

The owners of these pages have suggested to Google that their site is one with good news and if you think your site also has good news and is not included under your keyword search, you can submit it to Google for their approval. If your site gets approved by Google as being newsworthy, you can get a lot of traffic from this by people visiting Google News.

If you want to submit a page for approval, go to the home page and scroll down to the bottom, click on the link 'about Google News'. What will come up is quite a lengthy page so scroll down to the FAQs and go to Q 26 - What if I don't see my favourite news source in the search results? You can get in touch with them and recommend a news source by choosing the first option. If your site does have news and it is up to date (it helps if your site is industry specific rather than just a general news site), then just submit it for approval. It is possible that Google may not approve a site that is brand new but that shouldn't deter you from applying. A site that has been around longer generally has more authority.

Using press releases to get in Google News

If you are a regular submitter of articles through PRWeb, you may already have had some of these featured in Google News. If not, then this maybe something you should consider doing. A press release doesn't have to be written by a professional; they are reviewed by a team of editors, and can be written up in 10-15 minutes. A few paragraphs are sufficient and then submit it to PRWeb. You may get some publicity this way and also have visitors going over to look at your site.

If you go back to the home page and using the search command again, type in site: prweb.com and you will see a large number of pages on Google News are from this source. You may submit a press release and not actually realise you can also get a lot more traffic for this one release if it features on Google News. Another site that features highly on Google News is prleap.com so this site too should be considered when submitting your articles.

Watch out for my next article on using Google Images to also get some free traffic.

Trish Mullen is a successful online marketer and entrepreneur having moved into this arena following a very successful 15+ years in corporate management. She now coaches and mentors others in her online business to build on the turnkey business they are in and create their own world of wealth. For more information on this very lucrative and complete business visit her website at http://www.wealthyincome4u.com where you can sign up and receive a free set of video marketing tips.

Is the New Google News Only a High-Tech Echo Chamber Now?

When Google News first came online, the aim at Google was to target the profitable morning newspaper habit that millions of people across the country depended on to get their morning going. In large measure, Google News did succeed in drawing people away from the physical newspaper to check out its detailed listings each morning instead. When news came out recently that Google had revamped the entire service, there were lots of anxious people out there checking to see how far their tried-and-true Google News had been altered. By most accounts, the modification, has been a change for the better; they have changed large parts of the service of course, but important areas of the Google News experience have been left untouched.

The new and improved Google News still lists all its current stories along the center of the screen; but now, the right margin is utilized to stock up on a list of the most important world events - what Google now calls its Spotlight; the space lists a lot of local news as well. Where the old Google News had twin columns of news stories listed by category along the main page, the new design has only one. Ostensibly, this was done with an eye to making things simpler and less busy looking; but the effect overall is merely one of added complexity. Let's take a look at the best parts of all that has changed on Google News.

The first thing you notice about Google News now is that it's very easy to personalize it. The new daily News for You service will give you customized local news and socially edited reading material. The news sources that you read most often,get pushed up to the top of the listings as well. A source of news that you regularly find the most attractive will usually be featured higher than the rest of the general content there is. They've also brought in a communal sharing function. Any set of articles that share a common thread are brought together to highlight links to new sources of news on the subject.

Of course, being able to customize your news sources to make sure you only hear what pleases you goes against the very reason people find reading to be important. To have so many filters working for you screening the world from you ensures that you only always get to hear stuff that you agree with. The less you are exposed to opinion that challenges your own, the less enlightened you are, coming away from the experience.

Still, as long as Google News doesn't go on to become your sole source of knowledge of the world and instead only works to supplement it, these changes should be quite productive.

How to Get Your Blog Into Google News

If there is one thing that most webmasters or bloggers work hard to increase everyday besides their websites income, it has to be traffic. They are many different methods that one can use to drive traffic, some are easier to implement than others and some will get you more traffic than others.

One way to get more traffic for your blog is to get it approved for the Google news service. What this service does is search the database of news sources and tries to bring you the most relevant news stories based on your search.

When it comes to choosing news sources the Google service is quite picky as to who it includes in its database. I do know of an example of one blog that was allowed in and then after a few weeks was removed when they decided that the blog did not meet their requirements.

If the quality of your blog is high and if it has a proven record, there is a very high possibility of your blog being included into Google news and stay there. Your website has to be something that is relevant to the main subject areas of the service. If you go to their main page and look on the left hand menu you will see these categories like Top Stories, World, Sports, Health and Most Popular.

In order to submit your blog go to the main page and scroll down to the bottom. There is a link that reads 'About Google News'. When you click on that link on the next page you will get a page with a link to 'Help For Publishers'. Under the 'Getting Started' section, select 'Submitting Your Content' then click on 'Google News' and simply follow the instructions.

Many people worldwide visit the news section of Google daily. If you manage to get your blog listed in there you could start to enjoy hordes of free traffic from this source. More so, if your blog has relevant content that is updated regularly.