Google announced on Friday that moving forward they will take into account a website’s loading time when allocating ranking to the website.  A page’s loading speed will form part of the more than 200 factors that Google takes into consideration when ranking a website. Although according to Google there is no need to panic, page load time is only going to affect about 1% of queries.

Amit Singhal who runs the core ranking team at Google has said that there are two primary ways Google will measure page speed:

• How a page responds to Googlebot
• Load time as measured by the Google Toolbar

As stated on Google’s official blog “faster sites create happy users” meaning a fast website contributes to great user experience.  A study done by Forrester Consulting indicates that 47% of Internet users expect a web page to load in two seconds or less and 40% will abandon a web page if it takes more than three seconds to load.

Read more on how to speed up your website’s loading time:

• Run your website through Site Performance, a Google Webmaster Tool
• Article:  Tools to Speed Up Your Site – Ready for 2010
• Article:  Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site
• Article:  Increase Website Loading Speed With PHP Speedy

It is important to note that the new ranking factor does not mean that if your website loads quickly that it will achieve top rankings, the relevance of the page is still one of the most important ranking factors.

Mobile apps that are useful and add value form an integral part of a brand’s mobile strategy, especially in the travel industry.  Why?  Smartphone users make use of their mobile devices whilst on holiday to research various attractions and activities in a specific area and PhoCusWright predict US travellers will spend $76 million on direct domestic hotel bookings through a mobile device this year.

According to this article on Adweek.com there were more than 150 000 applications available in the Apple App Store in March 2010 and eMarketer.com predicts that by 2013 free and paid-for app downloads will have increased to 16.2 million (see graph below).

eMarketer.com also mentioned that travel app users are mostly interested in apps like mapping and trip-planning apps that will help them on the go.  For instance, WorldMate is a popular mobile app that allows users to schedule flights, check flight status, receive weather updates, convert currency and give directions among others.

What can brands learn from the above?  Stay ahead of the curve and come up with an app that will add value for your target audience.  Before launching the app make sure it is easy to use by testing it on a few users.  Think your brand can do with a mobile application but you don’t know where to start? Don’ worry if you’re not that web savvy, just ask us!

A new home page for Twitter

Twitter introduced a new, more dynamic home page earlier this week and it seems as if Twitter is differentiating itself from other social networks by positioning their network as the foremost source for real-time updates.  This is reflected in their new description of their service:  “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.”  The new home page include has a scrolling list featuring trending topics, a constant stream of tweets from random Twitter users and a box featuring current Twitter users inviting visitors to “See who’s here.” Do you like the new home page?

Facebook bug reveals private email addresses

For about 30 minutes on 30 March a bug made private email addresses public information on Facebook.  It seems as if the error occurred during a “regular code push” and thus far there has been no official explanation from Facebook.  In an online world where we’re all concerned with privacy this is a big blunder from Facebook’s side.

Posterous adds easy custom domain registration

Earlier this week Posterous announced their new one-stop domain registration feature.  With the new feature Posterous will take care of all the “geeky details” – all you have to do is register your personal domain and link it to Posterous.  The new feature integrates with Google and you can set up Google Apps like email, calendars and so forth easily on your domain.  At the moment only .com, .net or .org domains can be registered through Posterous.