Efficient Frontier and Macquarie Capital have released a report which makes the prediction that mobile search will make up 22% of search revenue by the end of 2012. As of right now, there is a suggested pattern that mobile search has and will continue growing 300% each year with no reason in to slow down.

Okay – mobile is important, you understand that and now you’ve got the numbers (and clever graph) above to support that statement.

Well, not surprisingly, Google is taking the initiative to get their hands into the mobile game with the release of GoMo. Short for Go Mobile, the howtogomo.com site created by Google has several features to help you create a site for mobile devices.

• Mobile View – shows you what your site will look like on a mobile device, and then gives you a customized report on how to improve your site.
• Mobile Info – shows you why mobile sites matter and mobile trends
• Great Examples – shows you sites that are using good mobile site practices, and a list of best mobile site practices.
• Find a Mobile Site Dev – shows you a list of mobile site developers who can help you develop a mobile site.

As you can see from this list – there are some cool features to tap into. Great examples and the ability to see any site in different mobile browsers is a plus.

So 2011 is over and out, and we’re looking forward to another year in search. At the beginning of 2011 Google was a very different place. Search looked different, there was no site preview feature, we were still using Buzz because there was no Google+, and Google had just attempted to buy Groupon for a couple billion dollars before deciding to just create their own version.

For a great overview of search in 2011, Google’s Zeitgeist has compiled several top 10 lists from 2011, the most prominent of which is the fastest growing global search trends of 2011, meant to capture the spirit of 2011 in search form.

The list is as follows:

10. iPad2

9. Steve Jobs

8. The Japanese nuclear powerplant crisis as a result of the tsunami.

7. Adele

6. iPhone 5

5. Battlefield 3

4. Casey Anthony

3. Ryan Dunn

2. Google+

1. Rebecca Black

We’re not sure if this list is supposed to be interesting, exciting, or depressing. At a glance it’s a semi-nostalgic overview that reminds us of all the ups, downs, and whatever random horrible fad (think the Macarena and Rebecca Black) was of the last year. After some consideration however, the list shows us that minor celebrities, electronics, video games, and social networking are very high priorities in the search universe, and of course our society.

For example, the death of a visionary like Steve Jobs is only ranked at #9 on the list, but a minor celebrity like Ryan Dunn, a guy from the Jackass show and movies (who put a toy car in his anus so he could get an x-ray of it) is #3, and where is the ‘death of Osama Bin Laden’, or Kim Jung Il?

While we can appreciate that people searched so much for information about the tsunami and the nuclear power plant that was heavily damaged in the disaster, but what about the revolution in Egypt? Or perhaps the people from nearby countries that were inspired by the Egyptian revolution to start their own like Libya? These are global trends aren’t they?

We only have one answer to all those questions: Rebecca Black. Think about it (please don’t). Of course none of this is Google’s fault, and the graphs and information are all pretty cool, so check them out!

Keyword Density
Panda has been coming down heavy on duplicate content, poorly constructed language, and intense keyword density to penalize sites that use too many keywords to try to increase their site rankings. Maintaining a keyword density ratio of 5% to 8% is a safe range to avoid being considered spam by Google or your users. Remember that creating original, unique, quality content is the most important.

Relevancy of Keywords
Keep an eye on the relevancy of your keywords and phrases. Sharing keywords and phrases with sites that tend to abuse those words and phrases for rank can be detrimental to your site. Watch the domain authority score for those keywords and phrases, and do a search to see what kind of sites are using them along side you.

Fix Broken Links
Check all links and make sure that the URLs still exist. If you find some that are no longer working, fix them or remove the links so that Google will not think that you are intentionally trying to abuse the search algorithm. Broken links give Google the impression you’re just a link farm.

Here is a quick Google video on this new addition:

This is one of those features that has been a long time coming and with the help of weather.com it’s now a reality.

Music Beta (by Google) has been quietly growing and now has a new feature they’ve named Magnifier. This feature showcases a different artist each week and provides extras like video interviews, live recordings and free tracks for Music (by Google) users.

If you’re interested in learning more about Music (by Google), which is still in beta, then you can submit a request for an invitation here.

Google’s New Music Rich Snippet

Google has also added a new rich snippet for sites hosting music. This music rich snippet is capable of displaying the title, length and the artist of a song you’re hosting on your site. For your snippets to work they must match the markup specs on schema.org. You should always test any newly added snippets with Google’s rich snippets testing tool. And as always – keep in mind that even if you’ve got everything correct on your end, Google may or may not use your snippets.

If you’re new to Rich Snippets then this featured article is a must read: Your 2011 Cheat Sheet to Understanding and Leveraging Rich Snippets to Dominate Your Industry

And to finish off the music news, Google won a class action suit filed against them by a group of licensing companies that were upset about free music videos being uploaded to YouTube by users. The case is currently being appealed, but in the meantime, Google has the ability to leverage YouTube as a popular place to find music.

Google has also closed a deal that offers users a limited range of music for a set price and the licensing companies involved will get paid royalties. This allows artists and companies to submit content as a source of income and exposure.

Keep your eyes open for more, Google seems to jumping into the music business with both feet.

A few months ago Google released a feature called Instant Pages in their newest version of their Chrome browser. The idea behind this technology was that Google could predict which page in the search results you would most likely click on and then pre-render or pre-load the page for you. This made it so that when you clicked the link there was no load time, and the page instantly popped up on your browser.

Sounds cool right?! Well, to users it is but to webmasters there’s a big catch to this shiny new toy…skewed analytics results. When Google pre-renders a site it could be mistaken as a conversion by some analytics programs, effectively creating a false positive. Nothing makes us number junkies more upset than someone messing with our stats.

So what does Google have to say about this? They simply state that it’s a possibility. Google analytics has a built in work around to know when a site is getting an actual conversion or just being pre-rendered, so they aren’t worried about it. Simply put – if you want the most accurate results you need to use Google’s analytic software instead of someone else’s. And of course as Chrome takes more of the browser market share, the numbers of false positives will increase.

Google is shifting focus from everything to almost everything, and to prove it they’ve decided to clean a little house. All around the Google-verse you may have noticed that certain features no longer work or have simply been removed.

Here’s a list of some of the Google products that are either being shut down or currently aren’t available:

With Google’s Larry Page taking over as CEO in April, this might be the first big change we’ve seen with him getting direct credit. Only time can tell how things will be different with a more focused Google.

Well, Google has decided to take this a step further and expanded its local, grass roots work to all of Texas with a new service called Texas Get Your Business Online.

It provides a free professional Web site for any Texas business along with a domain name. Sound too good to be true? Here’s the fine print…

The Web site has an extremely detailed frequently asked questions section that provides even the most novice business owner an idea of what it takes to get online. As with other local Google programs whether it will be coming to an area near you is still unclear. If your business operates out of Texas get ready for a surge in the local competition as many business owners are sure to take advantage of this offer.

I so wish that Google would do the same for the entire Philippines. Call it monopoly, but what the heck, I love Google. All Hail Google!

The next cities on the coming soon list are Boston, Austin, Denver, Seattle, and Washington D.C. That’s 3 cities down and more than 400 to go if they want to catch Groupon. It’s good to see Google taking their time with this launch and getting it right. I wish they have something similar in Asian countries.

When I say it’s a lot like Facebook – I am not kidding. Does this look familiar?

As you can see everything is pretty much where you expect it to be, including notifications.

Unlike Facebook, Google+ has tons of helpful information for the user built right in. When sharing things you get easily understood explanation right in the process.

And although all Google+ profiles are going public as of August 1st, they seem to want to do their best to make users aware of how they share.

Google has also added what they call Circles, which allows you to quickly read posts from or share a post to a specific group of contacts. Creating your circles couldn’t be easier. You just drag and drop your way through the process.

Another great addition that hasn’t been seen in a free product before is group video chatting. This is in an interface that Google calls Hangouts allowing you to invite as many people as you want from your Circles.

What you may be noticing is that this is a consumer profile for Google+. Why aren’t we showing you all the benefits of the Business Pages? Google+ is in the testing phase and the business pages have not yet been launched. That should not deter you! Google+ is really looking to be the next big thing and you can still start setting the foundation for your business now.

That being said, don’t do this by side stepping and using a consumer profile for your business. Google has been shutting these types of profiles down. Google initially indicated that they weren’t going to rush their business profiles, while promising they would be worth the wait. It seemed that Google may have been a bit unprepared for the huge response they got from businesses. When they asked for volunteers to test potential business profiles Christian Oestlien at Google said he had tens of thousands of businesses volunteer, including some through more creative means, such as tracking him down in person. He states,

“Your enthusiasm obligates us to do more to get businesses involved in Google+ in the right way, and we have to do it faster.”

As previously stated, Google indicates that business profiles are going to be worth the wait and are expecting them to work with other aspects of Google, such as AdWords and Analytics.

Instead of setting up a profile for your business we recommend getting yourself and your employees signed up for consumer profiles. If you need an invite drop us a note and as long as we can still send them out, your in! It might be fun to motivate your staff with a contest to see who can get the most people in their personal circles by a certain date. As you are building your circles, focus on the specific circles of people that will help when your business profile is launched.

You can also take Google+ on the road with the iPhone and Android apps. What isn’t clear is whether Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerburg will be taking it on the road. Mark was one of the first people to open a Google+ account with a huge following on the new platform. The fact that he’s checking out the competition shouldn’t surprise you.

However, what was a little more surprising is that Facebook has been blocking migration tools that would make an easy conversion from Facebook to Google+ They have also gone so far as to block ads that refer a person over to Google+. Is Facebook feeling a bit nervous about the competition?