“Mobilegeddon” Is Coming on April 21 – Will You Be Ready?

Google recently announced:
“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

What does this mean for you?
If your site is already optimized for mobile or uses a properly working responsive design, nothing except the possibility of profiting from your competitors not being ready. If your site is not ready, then time is running out. Google has made it clear that they see the future is in mobile and they are going to give a higher priority to those sites optimized for mobile.

How do I know if I am ready for Mobilegeddon?

Google has provided a simple tool, to quickly test your site to see if it is optimized for mobile. Just type your web address into Google’s Mobile test site and wait for the results.

What do I do if my site does not show that it is mobile ready?

The best thing to do is contact your web designer and ask them about options in getting your site optimized for mobile devices.  Don’t have a web designer, we offer these services through both in house designers as well as many contract designers.

Whatever you do, do not ignore this change. Google has the largest search traffic of any of the consumer search engines and they can really hurt your web traffic if they do not consider your site ready for mobile.

 
Visit the original posting on Google’s Webmaster Blog on Finding more mobile-friendly search results

The new year is upon us and at this point has passed us. We thought for 2015 we would update our logo to better represent who we are. Granite State Networks is a full service technology consulting firm that specializes in information technology for small business. We offer a complete consulting service for everything technology related that a small business needs. This includes consulting, repair, design and installation services. Check out the newly redesigned Granite State Networks logo and call us for your next IT project.

We are pleased to announce that Apollo Steel of Jaffrey New Hampshire has launched a new website www.apollosteelllc.com. Even though Apollo Steel has been in business since 2007, they had been so busy servicing the miscellaneous and structural steel needs of their customers they had not been able to get their website up and running. They chose to partner with Granite State Networks to create a custom website that highlights the strengths of their company and the quality of their craftsmanship.

Granite State Networks has launched this new site today as phase one of a multiple phase online marketing endeavor for Apollo Steel. This new website will be combined with local search engine optimization and social media marketing to become a source of new projects for Apollo Steel.

Apollo Steel is a leading provider of miscellaneous and structural steel for customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and throughout New England. The specialize in welding, miscellaneous metal, and structural steel planning, fabrication and erection.

Top 10 Trends from this years Consumer Electronics Show

1. 4K Televisions – It seems as though every vendor at this years show was showcasing there latest offering in 4K resolution TVs. Many vendors had multiple models and styles to choose from.
2. Curved Electronics – In addition to flat 4K tvs many tv manufacturers were displaying televisions with curved glass displays. This was limited to just televisions, several smart phone manufacturers were showing off models with curved glass displays.
3. Bluetooth Speakers – While Bluetooth speakers are not necessarily new technology the number of companies producing Bluetooth speakers has jumped tremendously. We saw portable Bluetooth speakers, mini Bluetooth speakers, waterproof Bluetooth speakers, even LED light bulbs with Bluetooth speakers built in.
4. 3D Printers –The number of companies offering 3D printers and 3D scanners was amazing this year. What was even more amazing was the number of entry level 3D printers priced at less then $1000.  More amazing was the quality of the 3D prints being produced.
5. Health Sensors – With a dedicated section for health sensors and health technologies this years show is a testament to how much technology has become a part of healthcare. One the best exhibits was the emergency room of the future.
6. Fitness Electronics – What used to be a small field has grown into its own market segment with fitness sensors to measure heart rate, movement sleep patterns and more. In addition to the niche players, many major tech manufacturers have begun producing electronics for the fitness market.
7. App Controlled Electronics – Everywhere we turned at the Consumer Electronics Show it seemed we were faced with companies producing electronics that could be controlled with a smart phone app. This included everything from smart outlets, switches, lights all the way to app controlled slow cookers.
8. Action Cameras – What used to be a market dominated by Go Pro has become one of the fastest growing segments of the video market. We saw action cameras from Polaroid, Garmin, Sony and more. In addition to the major video camera manufacturers, many small companies are also entering into this market. Go Pro is still one of our favorite cameras for recording video action they had a large booth showcasing their action camera products.
9. Instant Photo Printers – We often hear about the death of paper and printing, but I am hear to report that printing is alive and well at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show. In addition to amazing photo printers from companies like Canon, we also saw many companies producing instant photo printers including a very cool camera from Polaroid that has a built in printer that produces prints like the Polaroid instant cameras of the past.
10. In Car Technology – While having technology in cars is not new for 2014, the number of major technology companies that have partnered with automotive manufacturers is.  The automotive section of this years show looks like a glimpse of SEMA or the Detroit Auto show, with booths from Ford, GMC, Toyota, KIA, Audi, BMW and more. All of these companies were showcasing the latest in technology that they are building right into their current model year cars and trucks.

 
Google

Anyone who has purchased a new Android smartphone has probably discovered that it comes with a bunch of free apps that your did not need or want. This problem has only gotten worse as more and more people purchase Android handsets.

The bad thing about these preloaded Android apps also known as crapware, is that most of them cannot be removed from the phone with rooting it.  While the option of rooting your Android phone might appeal to the techie amongst us, it is not for the faint of heart. I prefer a more humble and less technical approach, simply disabling the apps that you do not use. This will not remove them or free up any disk space they use, but it will keep them from launching in the background when you start up your Android Smartphone.

While the specific instructions for doing this vary by handset, the basic procedure is the same:

1. Go to settings on your Android Phone
2. Now go to Apps
3. Select all Apps
4. Pick the app you want to disable
5. Click the disable button
6. You may get a warning message that says “If you disable a built-in app, other apps may misbehave”. Press Ok
7. Repeat for all the apps you would like to disable

While disabling crapware Android Apps does not remove them from the phone or free up disk space, it does stop them from running and helps to make your Android more secure. Plus you can go back in at any time and enable an app if you decide you would like to use it.

We have been so busy providing high quality web and information technology solutions to our clients that we had let our website get behind. So in the spirit of summer we decided a relaunch of the Granite State Networks webpage is in order. Some of the new things you will see are our new help desk program for logging in technical support calls. A redesigned interface with more information on our products and services and more consistent flow to all of our pages.

We hope you enjoy the new Granite State Networks home page and please visit often as we will be updating this page on a frequent basis.

Thanks

Ray

Granite State Networks

Information Technology and computer solutions for small business.