Anyone who uses Google Merchant centre will or should be aware of the changes which Google have introduced to improve the end user experience.  In essence this means categorising products properly, ensuring that brand names are listed as well as supplier code and ideally barcodes.

For most this has been a painful process but having gone through this with a client I can see that there are huge benefits to be had from doing this.  There is a real opportunity to get ahead of your competition if you take the time to do it.  And if you don't have time then find someone who does because if you get this right it could be a source of high converting free traffic which we all try so hard to obtain through a multitude of other approaches.

It was interesting to note the growth of Android as can be seen in a recent article on Clickz.    This is welcome news because it will eventually translate into more traffic to my client's websites and with the larger format phones that will also mean more sales (for ecommerce sites).  At the moment from the analytics I am looking at, the iphone is miles ahead.

The number of U.S. smartphones running on Googles's Android operating system continued to grow in the three months ending April 2011, and outpaced the number installed with Apple's iOS platform.

According to data from comScore, 74.6 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during that period, up 13 percent from the three-month period ending in January 2011. Android grew its market share by 5.2 percentage points in that time, reaching a total of 36.4 percent of U.S. smartphones. The number running Apple's iOS, meanwhile, grew by 1.3 percentage points, representing 26 percent of handsets.

BlackBerry manufacturer RIM saw its own share of devices decline further, dipping 4.7 percentage points to reach 25.7 percent of the market.

See more here

Along with every other SEO we are all learning about how the Google Panda roll out is affecting client sites.  Google have put together a useful checklist for website owners to consider with regard to their content.

Google lists the following as “questions that one could use to assess the ‘quality’ of a page or an article”

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

There is a lot to take in but in essence the emphasis is on quality original content which you can't really argue about.  If you sell product and your product information comes from the manufacturer site then clearly there is some work to do and new practices required moving forward.