Marketing Pilgrim

40% of online consumers turn to social media in managing their health, according to a new survey by Epsilon. 80% of those engaging with social media in their health care are “the highly engaged patient[s] who [take] an active role in health management.”

However, most people using social media for healthcare aren’t asking Dr. Twitter for a diagnosis. First and foremost, they’re looking for connections, says Epsilon:

• Emotional needs are primary. Many healthcare social media users want reassurance, support, and a sense of intimacy from people who are going through a similar experience;
• Rational needs are secondary, but also important. Social media users are searching for foundational information about their specific conditions and symptoms, information about drugs and supplements, and the latest health news.

Last December, Google publicly announced a new ranking factor: site speed. Today, Google announces that site speed has joined the 200+ other ranking factors in their algorithm.

However, not all sites will be affected. In the blog post, Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer, Google Search Quality Team (you’ve heard of them?), say that the change has actually been in place for “several weeks,” and isn’t even that widespread:

Currently, fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation and the signal for site speed only applies for visitors searching in English on Google.com at this point. We launched this change a few weeks back after rigorous testing. If you haven’t seen much change to your site rankings, then this site speed change possibly did not impact your site.

It looks like Google has been busy making changes to the products they are most known for as of late. This is a nice diversion from the other news they make by continuing their move to be all things to all people.

One area that Google should dominate by default is mobile search. Of course, if you sit back and rest on your laurels then you leave the door open for someone to walk through it. Then that automatic “lead dog” position is trouble. Google is not just sitting back in this important area. The latest update it is providing for mobile search is giving universal search result in the Google suggest lists. This will help mobile searchers find more information more quickly.

Many of our readers use Google’s Gmail service during the course of the day and anything that can make it more efficient is always welcome. We like to report on these updates because as marketers efficiency can mean the difference between getting work done and feeling good or being behind and feeling not so good.

When we saw TechCrunch report on a new offering in Google Labs for a Sneak Peek feature to help get a preview of your email messages we had to take a look. I’m sold. It’s pretty cool.

OK, bear with me hear, but I’m going to put some pieces together to explain why Google and Apple went from being great friends, to arch-rivals.

At the time, this looked like a coincidence:

August 3rd, 2009 – Eric Schmidt resigns his position on Apple’s board of directors, citing "conflicts of interest" in some of Apple’s "core businesses."

November 9th, 2009 – Google acquires mobile advertising platform AdMob for a reported $750M.

December 28th, 2009 - Consumer Groups start lobbying the FTC to block the AdMob acquisition on the grounds of decreasing competition in the market.

March 11th, 2010 – The FTC suddenly starts asking Google’s rivals, what they think of the deal.

Yesterday, April 8, 2010 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs let’s the following slip during his Q&A with the press:

If you’re one of the many people that hates, just hates, the phrase social media guru, I have good news for you.

They’re slowly being killed off by an elite group of ninjas!

According to LinkedIn, the use of the word “guru” in professional titles is on the decline.

However, in its place is a disturbing upward trend for the word “ninja.”

Really people? Ninjas? What’s next “superhero” or perhaps “rockstar?”