What is organic social traffic as referred to in Google Analytics?

Alphabet Inc. announces their intent on “Bringing Google to Chicago’s Thompson Center.”  The company announcement posted on July 27, 2022 under Google’s Company News section, conveyed the company’s plan to purchase the Thompson Center and “support (their) engineering work in Chicago,” in effort to “advance the growth of Google’s partners and customers across the Midwest and nationally”.

While Google, and their parent company “Alphabet Inc.” (both mostly known for their Search Engine Console) are both headquartered in the same Mountain View, California corporate complex, known as the “Googleplex.” The Googleplex has been reported to possesses roughly 2 million square feet of office space, the Thompson Center is not far behind with approximately 1.5 million square feet, spread across 17 floors of office and retail space.

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, the World is seeing a shift in the way business is done. With much of the World’s work-force sidelined, and with retail stores closing across the United States, our economy is evolving and consumers are looking for virtual spaces to wander. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, for those of us who are fortunate enough to remain healthy, some of us have taken advantage of the World being paused, by getting our Spring cleaning accomplished at home.  Clearing closets and clutter have been accomplished. However, if you are a business owner and/or website owner, knowing where the World's economy is headed (online), have you reviewed your business plan and website to make sure they are both adequate vehicles that are capable of carrying your business into the future? 

This article provides some insight into copyright infringement and/or copyright claims, as it relates to the use of images on websites, while also offering ways to avoid copyright claims. This includes providing proactive actions and links to resources for free royalty-free stock images and paid royalty-free stock images.

If you own a website, or are a web designer who has used images without securing licensing then you probably know this can be a real costly endeavor. Copyright infringement is a real and occurs more often than you think.  This occurs both on purpose, and inadvertently.  In any case, the attorneys who will be contacting you do not care if it was a mistake or not. This is why it is important to use images from a trusted source (not Google Image Search), and/or license your images from a trusted stock image resource.

Before we get into providing solutions to avoiding copyright claims, let us first understand the nuts and bolts of the issue which can be realized by reviewing some frequently asked questions and answers relative to copyright infringement as it relates to "image usage on the internet".

In October of 2018 Google announced they would be "Protecting your data, improving our third-party APIs, and sunsetting consumer Google+".  Later in December another update would come as Google announced "Expediting changes to Google+". Most recently in December of 2018, deletion dates were provided when Google emphasized that it will shut down Google+, "due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations." as provided in Google's official statement.

While the number of mobile device users is growing, the number of social media networks is also constantly growing. However, with the recent news of Google sunsetting Google+, the "social media battle field" just got thinner.