The company may be tightening restrictions on free food, charging lots of money for childcare, and handing out cell phones instead of proper holiday bonuses. But according to new findings from Glassdoor, good old Google remains one of the best places to work.

Glassdoor has collected info on more than 11,000 companies, and Google came in seventh with a rating of 4.1 (5.0 represents a perfect score). CEO Eric Schmidt, meanwhile, received an approval rating of 88 percent. Both of these numbers sound great, and are all the more remarkable since none of Google’s main competitors appear on Glassdoor’s list of the top 50 employers.

Really, the only businesses that WebProNews even sort of covers to make that cut were Bain & Company (at number two), Netflix (number three), and Apple (in eighteenth place).

It’s at the other end of the list that a more familiar name appears. Glassdoor’s users judged eBay to be about the 47th worst company on the site, giving it a rating of 2.7. eBay’s CEO, John Donahue, got an approval rating of just 20 percent.

Wags of the finger and pats on the back should be doled out accordingly. A hat tip goes to Erick Schonfeld, too.

It’s likely to be a little while before Christmas traffic statistics start rolling in, but even without those numbers, it’s safe to state that Google Product Search is becoming more popular. A measurement of growth extending through November has the service putting its rivals to shame.

Pete Barlas reports, “Google Product Search had 11.8 million unique visitors in November. That’s up a whopping 786% from the year-ago period — the biggest one-year increase by far of any online comparison shopping service, says market tracker comScore.”

This gain says a lot about what Google can accomplish when it focuses a little energy on something. Google Product Search isn’t even one of the search giant’s most heavily promoted services, either, which points to all sorts of bright possibilities for things like Gmail and Chrome.

Still, Google Product Search has a ways to go until it can claim true victory. Yahoo Shopping remains the category leader, attracting 27.6 million visitors in November - or about 2.5 times what Google’s offering got.

Look for more interesting developments on this front after the December numbers are released. And keep an eye on Google Product Search’s “beta” tag, too.

For Amazon, business was good this past holiday season. In fact, it was better than ever. On its peak day alone—December 15—Amazon sold 6.3 million items, or 72.9 per second.

To commemorate that, Amazon released a few fun statistics.
– Amazon shipped to over 210 countries.

– One of our most remote shipments was Take Along Thomas & Friends toys, delivered to Unalaska, Alaska. (Editor’s note: Unalaska is where Sarah Palin sends people who are deemed un-Alaskan. It’s close to Russia. Just kidding.)

– On the peak day this season, Amazon’s worldwide fulfillment network shipped over 5.6 million units.

– Amazon shipped over 169,000 units to APO/FPO addresses.

– Amazon shipped more than 99 percent of orders in time to meet holiday deadlines worldwide.
Amazon.com 2008 Holiday Facts (www.amazon.com only):

– Amazon.com sold enough “Breaking Dawn” books that stacked end to end they would reach the summit of Mt. Everest eight times.

– During the period from Nov. 15 - Dec. 10, Amazon sold one copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 every 2.5 minutes.

– The weight of all GPS devices sold from Black Friday through December equals the combined weight of 151 Mini Coopers.

– Amazon sold enough high-performance headphones that everyone attending the last three Super Bowls could grab a set and rock out.

– Amazon Grocery sold enough coffee to give each resident of the highly caffeinated city of Seattle a cup per day for two months.

– Amazon sold enough Casio G-Shock watches to outfit every Kanye West fan attending the 2008 Glow in the Dark Tour concert at Madison Square Garden, N.Y.

– Amazon sold enough Coldplay CDs that laid side by side they’d stretch from Seattle to Violet Hill (a street in London and the album’s first single) and more than halfway back.

– Amazon sold enough Munchkin Mozart Magic Cubes to fill every seat in the Sydney Opera House five times over.

– Amazon sold enough Wild Planet Hyper Dash games that the total weight of sets sold is over 81,000 pounds — almost the size of two 747 aircrafts.

– Amazon sold enough Spalding basketballs to fill three C-130 cargo planes.

– The last One-Day Prime order placed on Dec. 23 in time for Christmas delivery contained a “Dora the Explorer” micro-shell helmet, and was delivered to Sherman Oaks, California on Dec. 24.

– The last Same-Day Prime order placed at 7:25 a.m. on Dec. 24 in time for Christmas delivery contained a Pinzon 400-thread-count, 100 percent Egyptian Cotton Hemstitch full sheet set, and was delivered at 6:12 p.m. to Las Vegas, Nevada on Dec. 24.
Amazon.com’s Hot Holiday Bestsellers (Nov. 15 through Dec. 19 based on units ordered):

– In toys, top sellers included the Eyeclops night vision stealth goggles, Blokus classic board game and Wild Planet’s Hyper Dash.

– Top sellers in consumer electronics included Samsung’s 52-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color, the Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation) and the Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive, XP Home, 6 cell battery), sapphire blue.

– Nintendo Wii dominated the top sellers in video games and hardware including the Wii console, the Wii remote controller and the Wii nunchuk controller.

– The top-selling items in the Sports & Outdoors Store included the Razor A Kick scooter, Victorinox Swiss Army Champion Plus pocket knife and Klean Kanteen sports cap.

– Jewelry top sellers included a 14-karat white gold Journey Curve pendant (1/2 cttw, H color, I1 clarity), the platinum, round, diamond 4-prong stud earrings (1 cttw, G-H color, VS2 clarity) and the sterling silver marcasite & garnet 18-inch glass heart pendant.

– Top-selling watches included the Invicta men’s Pro Diver stainless-steel watch, Citizen’s Eco-Drive men’s Chronograph Canvas watch and Movado’s Juro stainless-steel watch for men.

– Top sellers in the Beauty Store included the Sephora Brand Ultimate Blockbuster - collector’s edition makeup palette, Bare Escentuals Mineral Veil and Sephora’s Piiink So Belle multi-use makeup palette.

– In DVDs, top sellers included “Wall-E,” “The Dark Knight” for Blu-ray and “The Dark Knight.”

– Top sellers in books included “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” by J.K. Rowling (standard edition, hardcover), “Eclipse” by Stephenie Meyer (The Twilight Saga, book 3, hardcover) and “Breaking Dawn” by Stephenie Meyer (The Twilight Saga, book 4, hardcover).

– In music, top sellers included “Fearless” by Taylor Swift, “And Winter Came” by Enya and the “Twilight” soundtrack.

– Top sellers ordered from Amazon Mobile web and TextBuyIt include Monopoly Here and Now World, the Nintendo Wii and “Wall-E” (three-disc special edition + digital copy and BD Live) for Blu-ray.

– The top-selling home and garden items included the Oster 4207 electric wine opener, Vinturi Essential wine aerator and the Cuisinart CSB-76 SmartStick hand blender.

– Top sellers in apparel and accessories included the Kenneth Cole Reaction men’s Eden wool pea coat, the AK Anne Klein women’s double-breasted Pea coat with hood, and Columbia Sportswear’s Trinity bomber jacket.

– Popular shoes and handbags at Amazon.com and Endless.com include crocs Mammoth clog, Bearpaw women’s T410 12-inch boot and Steve Madden women’s Bonanza tall shafted flat boot.

– Top-sellers in health and personal care included the Groom Mate Platinum XL nose and ear hair trimmer, the Anti-Snore and the Natrol-Carb Intercept with phase 2.

– Top-selling items in Amazon’s Gourmet Food Store included the Taste of Italy gift basket, the Holiday Cheer gift basket and the Create-a-Treat gingerbread house kit, deluxe model.

– Top sellers in home improvement included the Stanley 95-155 3-in-1 tripod LED flashlight, Rockwell RK9000 Jawhorse and Toro 38361 power shovel 7.5-amp electric snow thrower.

– The top-selling products in the Automotive Parts & Accessories Store included the Bulldog remote starter with keyless entry, Deltran’s SuperSmart Battery Tender Plus 12-volt 1.25-amp battery charger and the Wagan heated seat cushion.

– Top-selling items in the Baby Store included the Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube, Cloud b Twilight Constellation night light and Baby Einstein’s Takealong Tunes.

– In software, the top sellers included Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Norton Antivirus 2009 and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student Edition.

– Top-selling items in Amazon’s Grocery Store included Numi’s Bouquet Bamboo gift set with clear teapot and nine flowering teas, Gloria Jean’s coffees, K-Cup, flavored coffee variety for Keurig Brewers and Haribo gummi candy Gold-Bears.

source: WPN

What is Considered a Bounce?

Some questions about how bounce rate relates to SEO came up over at Webforumz.com, where our own Mike McDonald was kind enough to step in and try to get some answers about. Mike asked some questions to a couple of Googlers, and the following responses are the result of that. This should shed a little light on how Google takes bounce rate into account.

First Mike got a response from Google Search Evangelist Adam Lasnik:

If you’re talking about bounce rates in the context of Google Analytics, I’m afraid you probably know as much as I do. I love the product, but don’t know the ins-and-outs of it very thoroughly.

If you’re talking about bounce rates in the context of Google web search and webmaster-y issues, then we really don’t have specific guidance on bounces per se; rather, the key for webmasters is to make users happy so they find your site useful, bookmark your site, return to your site, recommend your site, link to your site, etc. Pretty much everything we write algorithmically re: web search is designed to maximize user happiness, so anything webmasters do to increase that is likely to improve their site’s presence in Google.

Mike also sent a few questions to Matt Cutts, who forwarded them to Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, which produced a nice little Q&A:

Mike McDonald: What is the duration for a single page visit until it is no longer considered a bounce when a visitor leaves?

Avinash Kaushik: Bounce is a Visit level metric.

The definition is simple, if there is a Visit (a session technically speaking) with just one page view in it then it is considered a bounce. IE Someone came to your site, saw just one page, did not other action, left your website.

If you want to get a graduate level explanation about bounce rates and a business / marketing perspective on it here it is:

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/…unce-rate.html

MM: What if a visitor lands on a page, and then visits another page within 5 seconds and then closes the browser. Is that considered a bounce?

AK: No bounce.

Remember time has no bearing on bounce computations. Just page views. In this case there are two page views in a session. No bounce.

The WAA standard definition of bounce rate, and that of Google Analytics, only considers the page view. Time has no bearing on the equation.

MM: When external links are opened in a new window (i.e. target_blank, rel=”external”, onclick=… etc) is it considered a bounce? Is there any difference between using HTML and Javascript to open a new window?

AK: Depends.

If in your external link popping strategy you are also sending a “hit” back to GA, as in this strategy….

http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55527

Then the behavior you describe won’t be considered as bounce because you have just sent a “hit” (a page view really) back to GA.

If in your external link popping strategy you are not sending a hit back to GA then if the person comes to your site, clicks on a link to leave the site, then that is a bounce.

Note that with Event Tracking (advanced AJAX, Flash, Flex, Video etc) released by the GA team Analytics can handle a lot more complex scenarios intelligently. Say if I come to your site. Watch the video you did with me at SES and leave. Most tools would consider that bounce. But if you are using GA and have event tracking for your videos (or 100% flash site) then that won’t be considered bounce. In fact GA will accurately compute how long I stayed on your site, how much of the video I watched etc etc.

MM: If opening external links in a new window is considered a bounce, does it change anything if the user then comes back to the site which has remained opened and then starts browsing around?

AK: See above for first part of your answer. It depends on how you have encoded the external links (with ga tracking or not).

For the second part….

A session in Google Analytics (and pretty much every other web analytics tool out there) is “29 mins of inactivity”. So I come to your site. See just one page. Go away to say google or whatever. Come back in 15 mins (or under 29 mins). Do another click. That’s still the same session. No bounce.

Hope this helps.

There is definitely some useful information there. To read the rest of the conversation, or to contribute to it, you can find the thread at Webforumz here.

This is strictly rumor, but Valleywag is reporting the gossip that one of Google’s more “famous” employees may be on the way out. That would be Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, Marissa Mayer. Owen Thomas at VW writes:

Top Googlers, overheard at a holiday party, chattered about Mayer’s departure as a matter of if, not when. And in some ways, it’s surprising she’s stayed as long as she has.

First of all, she’s wealthy. That “19th employee” bit is code, within Silicon Valley, for “rich”; the earlier an employee joins a startup which succeeds, the more money they make. With Google, which is still worth $96 billion after its stock tumble, that translates into hundreds of millions of dollars for Mayer, who owns a penthouse apartment in San Francisco’s Four Seasons, another home in outrageously pricey Palo Alto, and a large (if questionably tasteful) art collection, including original glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly. A couture hound, she once paid $60,000 for a lunch with Oscar de la Renta, and she owns part of I Dream of Cake, a “cake gallery” in North Beach, as a way of indulging her pastry fetish…So she’s already made her money.

Frank Watson at SearchEngineWatch.com notes that the idea of her leaving seems contradictory to her words in an interview with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, discussing the future of search.

Mayer also discussed the future of search on an Official Google Blog post a few months back, and as we head into the New Year, it seems like a good time to revisit that anyway.

So whether the rumor is true or not, thanks Valleywag for reminding us of Mayer’s talk of the future. It makes for a good year-end piece.