Reno - 4:56 pm on Jul 14, 2011 (gmt 0)

Re the criteria that Google uses to determine a "brand", I would postulate that it's not just links but also the sheer number of times a specific brand name is mentioned across the entire WWW, be it on blogs or forums or product pages or even in gmail. Google can keep that tally and score accordingly. The word "Nike" for example has probably been used many millions of times, so anyone going into that niche will have to face the fact that Google will inevitably conclude that the "Nike" tally makes it an important brand to people. Given the emphasis that many of us believe Google is putting on established brands, it's all the more reason to seek much smaller niche markets when launching new online efforts.

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