Search Privacy - An Education from DuckDuckGo

With the recent news about PRISM (government access to US Citizen's search information), would you make the switch to a search engine that promises privacy?

DuckDuckGo is a search engine whose privacy policy is they do not share any searches with third-party sites or store user data.  In the weeks since the major news stories on PRISM, DuckDuckGo has seen a major up-tick in searches and traffic, although, the surge is certainly not a threat to major search engines like Google.  However, this is not their goal.  The goal at DuckDuckGo is to provide a private search experience for those on the internet that are concerned about such things.

In addition to being a search engine, there are a number of insights you can learn from this private search engine.

1.  What Are Search Engines Tracking?

DuckDuckGo has a neat graphical explanation of exactly what search engines track and why you see the same or similar ads across a variety of websites.  If you've ever wondered what all the fuss regarding PRISM is all about, it's worth a minute to read through it.

2.  How Can I Stop Some of It?

It's impossible to stop every website from tracking information about your searches.  Though, you can lessen the effects.  DuckDuckGo offers great insight about improving you're browser's privacy settings and tools that prevent third-party tracking.

3.  Do I Live in a Bubble?

One last issue DuckDuckGo discusses is what they call the "filter bubble".  What is this bubble?  It's your past clicks, searches and purchases all stored by search engines to create your perceived preferences.  When a new search is performed, the engines use that bubble of reference to give you the results the engine thinks you'd prefer.  So, your results for a search term or phrase may differ from your Mom's, your best friend's, or the guy sitting in the cube next to you--all because of this "bubble" of data you've created.

At lunch today, why not do a quick test while dining with coworkers?  Pick a common search term and see if/how search results vary on the same search engine given each person's "bubble".  We'd love to hear about it over at our Facebook page!  Are the results quite different?  

4.  Tools

DuckDuckGo has a ton of neat tools to quickly find whatever you're searching for.  What to know how many calories are in a bagel with cream cheese?  Need a strong password that is at least 7 characters?  Need to convert currencies?  There are a ton of fun, useful tools to be found here.  

5.  Search

Of course, DuckDuckGo is also a search engine.  Why not give it a try for a few days?  Upon our initial queries, it doesn't seem to be as comprehensive as a Google or Bing search.  However, it is nice to have alternatives when Google or Bing don't find what you need.  We'd love to hear your thoughts!

--

Care to read a bit more?

SearchEngineLand has an article on why DuckDuckGo is no threat to Google.

Here's a different take on DuckDuckGo and private search engines courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.

DuckDuckGo's Wikipedia article.

Facebook Hashtags on Personal Profiles

How do Facebook hashtags affect your personal profiles?  Many businesses and pages can be seen
rolling out hashtags with their updates, photos and statuses, but what does this mean for personal profiles?  It seems a number of people are asking.  We'll help clear up any confusion.

1.  Who can see my hashtags?

For public pages, anyone can see updates marked with hashtags.  However, for personal profiles,
Facebook always looks at the setting on the status update.  If it is marked "Friends", only your friends will see the posts with hashtags.  However, if your status update is marked "Public" anyone will be able to see it.

Takeaway:  Your statuses privacy setting always trumps the hashtag.

2.  What are hashtags for?

Hashtags are a way to mark a status update with a category or description.  For example, if you've posted a picture of your summer vacation, you could mark the post with #summervacation.  Then, your friends can easily click on the hashtag and view all of your #summervacation updates, photos and more, with one click.  Think of it as a social-version of labeling your updates.

3.  Beware of becoming a hashtag-a-holic.

Once you begin, you may quickly learn to enjoy tagging updates.  You may feel more social media savvy than your 16 year old niece.  While the goal of tagging updates is to add to Facebook's social atmosphere, please be cautioned that you could make your friends upset with you in real time.

Here are a few tips to keep you from losing your friends:

Tip:  Avoid long tags

Hashtags are fun and even a bit useful.  However, please remember that a run-on of more than three words is difficult to read.

#summervacation

That one is easy to read and even adds to a post.

#bestvacationofmylife

This one is more cumbersome and has less of an impact - there is really no reason to use that tag as it's probably not relevant to anyone other than you.  But, it can be fun to use once in a while.

#summervacationshouldlastforever

Woah!  Slow down slugger.  Tags with more than three words are difficult to read and your friends will soon hate you with a passion if each of your updates come with one (or more!) of these bad boys.  Remember the whole point of Facebook is being social.  Don't pull out a whopper of a tag and expect all of your friends to read your updates with willingness and anticipation.  You're not a celebrity.  Yet.

Tip:  No more than 3

We wouldn't recommend using more than three tags to a status update.  While tagging updates is a ton of fun, the goal isn't to make anyone's eye's gloss over looking at the long list of hashtags that accompany your update.

Choose three of the most relevant tags you can think of and always remember your audience.  No one likes a person that tags more than a graffiti artist.  Keep it in control.

#hopeyoulikedthattip  #thinkyoucanagree #toomanytagsaretoomanytags #yougetthepoint

Yuck!

Tip:  Kick it up a notch

Be smart when tagging your updates.  If you've got a class reunion coming up, tag the updates, photos and posts with the same tag all of the time.  Your classmates may catch on and it can quickly become a great way to share everyone's content under one tag.

The hashtag should be easy to read and remember.  If you see other's posting content about the class reunion, encourage them to use the hashtag.  There are many Facebook users that still don't understand what hashtags are all about.  Once they see tags in action, they'll never forget.

--

The point of all this is to have fun on Facebook and enjoy one more neat feature.  The second point is not to become frenemies with those that follow your Facebook feed.  Remember your audience when posting, updating and tagging.

Be social!

Hashtags on Facebook - 3 Tips for Business

Hashtags have crossed over from Twitter to Facebook.  Remember when spam emails were just catching on?  Email marketers would use every trick in the book to get you to open their email.  Hashtags can have a similar "spammy" look to your posts on Facebook if you're not careful.

So, how can you best harness hashtags for your brand?

1.  Be Relevant

Hashtags are best used when they're specific to your brand.  Remember, the hashtags you use can then be clicked upon by your audience.  So, be sure to tag posts with words you want your brand associated with.

• Investigate industry-related hashtags
• Think about obvious connections
• Do a quick search before you tag your post - be sure you want to be associated with the content that's presented in the search results.

How to - If you're a local restaurant and it's 90 degrees outside, you could post a shot of your trademark dessert along with the hashtag's #dessert #icecream #summer.

Here you've used relevant terms customer's can associate with your restaurant/dessert.  At the same time, you haven't narrowed the hashtags down so much that no one in their right mind would search Facebook for those terms.  You've hit the hashtag sweet spot!

2.  Easy Does It

Hashtags seem to be like potato chips: some people think you can't just use one.  While one or two or even three hashtags may best fit with your Facebook post, remember to value your reader's time.  A post with way too many hashtags is annoying to read.  Most likely, your readers will just scroll away from whatever you've just shared.

• Try not to use more than three hashtags
• Only use hashtags with obvious connections to what you post

How to - That local restaurant with a photo of their dessert shouldn't use every summer and dessert-related tag they can think of:  #ilovesummer #dessertisthebestpart #savedthebestforlast.  If you find yourself tagging posts like you're a proud scrapbook Mom, it may be time to step away from the keyboard

Instead, keep your tagging to a limit of three.  Remember, your business page should be enjoyable for your audience to read.  It should not be a brag-fest or so convoluted that it becomes an annoyance.

3.  Be Consistent

If you've begun using a hashtag on your page, try to use it consistently.  That way, your audience will be familiar with it and more apt to click on it to view all of your posts (as well as other public posts) with that tag.

• Keep a short list of regularly-used hashtags
• Be on the lookout for other relevant hashtags to add to your list
• Use the same hashtag across platforms--Google+, Instagram and Twitter

How to - Your local restaurant could use the same hashtags all summer long to feature your desserts.   Maybe post a different dessert each week using a few of the same tags: #summer #dessert and one specific tag, if relevant: #chocolate.

--

Hashtags are just one more way to make your posts fun and relevant on Facebook.  Give them a try on your brand's page and then tell us how it goes!  https://www.facebook.com/DMIStudios