Android 6.0 Marshmallow with 7 most-exciting features in the soon-to-be-released OS

Google is expected to soon roll out the latest version of its Android OS, Android Marshmallow (version 6.0). While the company will list out, in further detail, the new features of Android Marshmallow once it releases to the public, we give you an overview of the soon-to-be-released OS with its 7 most-interesting features.

1. Android 6.0 Marshmallow has a new Doze power-saving feature that has motion detection which optimises battery usage. When the dozing feature is enabled, the device still continues to send notifications about priority-based activities.

2. The fingerprint functionality in Google's upcoming version of Android can be used either as a standalone feature to unlock Android devices or to authorise either Android Pay transactions, Google Play store purchases, or partner e-commerce app purchases.

3. With the Marshmallow upgrade, users will be able to summon Google Now to scan whatever content might be on a mobile device's screen so it can present pertinent information about the topic of a text, a song, a video clip or an article. The new Android feature, called "Now on Tap," will be activated by holding down the device's home button or saying, "OK Google," into the microphone. That action will prompt Now on Tap to scan the screen in attempt to figure out how to be the most helpful. Or, if speaking, users can just say what they are seeking, such as "Who sings this?" Google is hoping to provide Android users with what they need at the precise moment they need it without forcing them to hopscotch from one app to another.

4. Android 6.0 will include an alternative to the mobile payment system. Google's Android Pay, an answer to Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, will replace Google Wallet for making mobile purchases in stores and applications. Google Wallet, which came out in 2011, will still work for sending payments from one person to another. Like Apple’s system, Android Pay can be used to store major credit and debit cards in smartphones that can be used to pay merchants equipped with terminals that work with the technology. Android Pay will also work on devices running on the KitKat version of Android released last year.

5. Marshmallow also streamlines the "permissions" model for users to install and upgrade apps. Android 6.0 will make it easier for users to prevent mobile applications from grabbing their personal information. Permission will only need to be granted to each app if the access is needed for a specific action. That means Android users won't be asked to share information about their contact lists, photo rolls or locations until an app won't work without it.

6. Google has also announced support for the USB Type-C standard in Android Marshmallow, which will make your device charge faster than the usual. Also, for the Type-C port, a USB cable will be reversible which means both of its ends will be the same and you will not be required to check if you are inserting the cable in the right way. This means that the new type of USB cable can be plugged into a device in any direction. The new USB support in Android Marshmallow will also lets users use their phone to charge other devices.

7. The Direct Share feature will allow users to share content with targets, such as contacts, within other apps. For example, the direct share target might launch an activity in another social network app, which lets the user share content directly with a specific friend or community in that app.

The moniker for the 6.0 version of the dominant mobile computing system follows a tradition of using sugary treats for Android including Lollipop (5.0), KitKat (4.4), Jellybean (4.1) and Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0).

Android is used in nearly 80 per cent of smartphones worldwide, although many devices use older versions for which upgrades are not available. Android is also the leading platform for tablets, according to market surveys.

(Source)

Use These 4 Strategies to Jump-Start Your Content Marketing

You’ve probably heard this before: “Content marketing is hard…Content marketing takes a long time.”

Sorry to say, I’m not here to tell you that’s wrong: It is hard, and it does take time.

But that doesn’t mean content marketing doesn’t work. It does. It just takes consistency, dedication and yes, time, before you see results.

In the meantime, however, you’re going to be sad. You might even get mad. Hell, you may even be full-on depressed. You might offer a cry up to the heavens: “Why is my content not working!!!” And you hear no booming answers in return.

This, my friend, is called the content slog, as coined by Chris Bird of Vertical Measures (my employer) here. It’s that gap of disappointment where you’ve put in a good amount of time and effort into your content marketing strategy, and you aren’t seeing a return on your investment.

This principle rings true for other digital media, too, and is where this content slog idea originated. In particular, Moz’s Rand Fishkin and BuzzMaven Labs’ Scott Clark both talk about this idea in terms of SEO and its “lengthy period of diminishing returns” (per Fishkin).

Content marketing takes consistency, dedication and yes, time, before you see results.

Email Marketing

The oldest digital strategy in the playbook: email marketing. We’ve all been building lists since the dawn of the interwebs, so it makes sense this is where you should start while you’re waiting for your content marketing to kick in.

Take advantage of the list you already have, and start or amp up your email marketing strategies. You may need to prune your list or clean it up if it has been sitting there for a while, but these are people who have expressed interest in wanting to hear from you, so let them!

Here are some email types you can start creating right away: 

• Monthly newsletter
• Product or service updates
• Point of view/opinion pieces
• Special promotions or discounts
• Repurposed content 

Take advantage of the list you already have, and start or amp up your email marketing strategies.

Pay Per Click

PPC isn’t always uttered in the same breath as content marketing, but they can work well together. Whereas much of content development is targeted at organic traffic and rankings, PPC is a direct line to drawing in traffic, leads and possibly more business.

Plus, it’s predictable. You know how much you want to spend, where you want to spend it, and exactly what results you need for a positive ROI.

Don’t shy away from PPC; embrace it during the slog! Take advantage of AdWords if you have some keywords you can competitively bid on, and even more importantly, start to increase your budget for content promotion on social networks.

I’ve seen companies get major returns through Facebook Ads or Sponsored Tweets, so get your feet wet with optimizing your ads and audiences while you’re churning out great content that will soon be published. 

Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion Rate Optimization, otherwise known as CRO, is a form of testing and tweaking until you see the results you want. CRO can often go hand-in-hand with your active PPC campaigns, as mentioned above, where you are optimizing your landing pages for the most completions.

Hub and Spoke Content

If you haven’t jumped on the hub-and-spoke train, welcome aboard. This is probably my favorite type of content model for a few reasons:

• Hubs drive traffic.
• Hubs drive leads.
• Hubs are great pieces of evergreen content.

This is especially true when you’re new to content marketing and working on many projects in the background, but you have yet to publish much content. If you shift your mindset to creating a hub right off the bat, you’ll see results quickly.

So what’s a hub? A hub is a larger piece of content that usually hides behind a gated form. It requires the interested visitor to provide some information to obtain that piece of content — maybe it’s a PDF download or multiple files. The visitor shows intent and interest, and you get some of his or her personal information in exchange.

And what’s a spoke? Spokes are pieces of content that point back to your hub. Oftentimes, they can be repurposed sections of your hub content or something related to the topic you cover. Spokes always link back to the hub or integrate a strong CTA.

Spokes can take the form of blog posts, press releases, videos, graphics, emails, on and on. Spokes have one singular goal: to point the content consumers back to your hub so they will then convert.

(Check Full Article @ MarketingLand)

(Source: MarketingLand)

 

Wikipedia Is Losing Traffic From Google

Google is sending less and less traffic to Wikipedia, calls this a "long-term issue."

There have been a lot of rumors about the decline in traffic Google is sending Wikipedia’s way. There have been reports from SimilarWeb that Wikipedia has shown a “sudden” and “massive” decline in traffic from Google’s organic search results.

But Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, said this week that this is not a sudden or drastic drop in traffic from Google, but rather a “long-term issue with decreasing traffic from Google.”

Wales added that the SimilarWeb article also misrepresents how Wikipedia needs those clicks from Google:

“It is also false that ‘Wikipedia thrives on clicks,’ at least as compared to ad-revenue driven sites… The relationship between ‘clicks’ and the things we care about: community health and encyclopedia quality is not nothing, but it’s not as direct as some think.”

Wales seems to be correct. Wikipedia is noticing a long-term and gradual decline from Google. SearchMetrics shows this in their “SEO visibility” charts, which don’t measure traffic, but measure how visible a website is in search results.

He noticed this decline back in March, so this has been happening for a long time now.

Back in the day, Wikipedia dominated Google’s search results. It was likely the most visible site in the Google search results.

The question is, why is there a decline in Wikipedia’s traffic from Google? Some have theorized it might have to do with the Google Answer box, others say the algorithm has changed. It is hard to say for sure, but overall, it’s clear that Wikipedia is noticing a steady decline in traffic from Google.

Postscript: Based on all the news around this, Wikipedia released a PDF document discussing the reports on their Google traffic lose. The paper tries to downplay the news, saying there is no decrease in Google traffic, depending on how you look at it. Here is what they wrote:

• Based on the data we have we can establish that the most obvious avenues for verifying or dismissing SimilarWeb’s claim show no evidence that Google traffic has declined. However, we do not have the data at our end to eliminate all avenues of possibility.
   
• Our next work should be to reach out to Google themselves and talk to them about the data we’re seeing, and to build out infrastructure to begin tracking metrics like this on a consistent and automated basis, rather than relying on costly ad-hoc analysis.

 (Original Source: SearchEngineLand)