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28 Jan This post is from from my other blog here Google have announced a range of new features for their experimental search, a place where users can sign up to preview a range of different search views. The new features include map view and info view that change the way results are displayed on the Google search page.If you haven't heard of Google Experimental Search before, it's simply a place where Google users can try a host of new features which change the way search results are displayed. Existing experiments include keyboard shortcuts for navigating through search results and timeline views for date based searches.Map View Map View is the first new search results page designed by Google. This search view uses Google maps to show location based searches which are typically difficult to represent using regular search results.The Google blog gives an example if the user was searching for live jazz in Manhattan.  experimental search page and give them your feedback!
28 Jan
28 Jan This post is from from my other blog here  It will be interesting to see what effect this policy does have on the political advertisements for presidential candidates. Let us know what you think.
28 Jan This post is from from my other blog here It appears that Google has renewed testing of "click-to-call", a system which allows searchers to contact local businesses via a free phone service. Users simply enter their phone number and Google does the rest, including paying for the calls.
Google tested "click-to-call" in 2005 and 2006 with an eye towards implementing pay-per-phone call advertising models. However, in June of last year Google stopped accepting click-to-call advertisers and the ads stopped showing up.
At the time, Google said "we are always working to improve the local search experience. We are constantly testing new features and iterating based on feedback from our users. Click-to-call was a valuable experiment that enabled us to learn more about the preferences of our users. While we are no longer providing this service, we expect to incorporate our findings into future developments for Google Maps."
Which is exactly what they have done. Min Zeng from the Google Maps Team has said that if you "search for a business, like a hardware store, on Google Maps, and click the 'call' link next to its phone number. Then, enter your phone number and click 'Connect For free.' Google calls your phone number and automatically connects you to the hardware store."
He also advised that "we're providing the 'call' link as a free service to all businesses. These aren't ads and don't influence the ranking of businesses in the search results. We foot the bill for calls (local and long distance), but airtime fees or other mobile fees will still apply if you use a mobile phone number. Currently, the calling feature works if you live in the U.S. and are looking for a business located in the U.S."
So, why would Google be testing something that they didn't see as a success last time? My guess is that Google has recognized the power of mobile/cell phones (especially the iPhone) and has realized that a one touch to call through a mobile/cell phone can be a pretty powerful revenue generator. Feel free to let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
28 Jan This post is from from my other blog here Yahoo! has announced their Weather Report for January 2008. The Weather Report, as usual, has included several changes to Yahoo!'s crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms.The Yahoo Search Index Update usually sets off movements across their search engine results and rankings - leaving webmasters and website owners watching anxiously to see how their placements are impacted.Thus far, the changes seem fairly minimal with few complaints from site owners. Here is some of the feedback from webmasters in the Yahoo! Weather Report blog post:It's still early days after the Search Index Update, so feedback will continue to roll in. If you've noticed any movements in your search engine listings and rankings on Yahoo!, share them with the rest of our blog community below.
28 Jan This post is from from my other blog here For small businesses, especially with a local focus, Local Search is an essential ingredient in surviving the turbulent economic times ahead. Local search plays a key role in getting your business found by potential customers online.It's no longer just a buzz term. Local Search is a pivotal part of the small business online marketing arsenal. And if you doubt its importance, try this search for "Local Search Listing service is only $199 per year).So if you're not Local Search savvy yet, then you need to get smart with local if you're serious about surviving the potential recession ahead.
21 Jan This post is from from my other blog here Experts are predicting that small business will be the lifeline for search engine marketing companies moving forwards. While big firms move their SEM in-house, SMEs (small to medium enterprises) are getting wise to the value of search and outsourcing.Matt McGee, the SEO Manager at Marchex Inc, recently highlighted why the SEO industry needs small business for sustainability. As we've been servicing the small business sector for over 11 years - it's no surprise to us why it will drive the industry and is building momentum.Search Marketing is "NOW" EssentialSearch engine marketing is no longer a niche element of the marketing mix. Now bricks and mortar businesses are getting the real value out of online marketing, especially given the shifts in services that suite their needs (i.e. local search), and seeking experts to leverage its power.Beyond better SEM services for sector, small businesses are now starting to realize the real value of the marketing channel - which is accountability. Every marketing dollar is easily measured, which is vital for businesses with smaller budgets.SEM Outsourcing is Cheaper than In-houseSmall business operators have two choices if they wish to go in house;1) They employ a marketer with online experience (sizable salary) or2) They go down the path of DIY. As most operators don't put a value on their time, it ends up costing them more than they realise, including distraction from their core focus - running the business.Both options eventually leave small business operators with little choice but to outsource unless they have endless amounts of time or money.Increasing Small Business Online CompetitionSmall businesses will copy their competitors' marketing strategies, not wanting to miss an opportunity. With more small businesses taking their marketing online, business owners are turning to search engine marketing experts to get quick results and keep up.As the search marketing industry continues to grow and steal dollars away from tradition marketing mediums, more small business operators will continue to outsource their online marketing needs to keep up. Their challenge will be finding SEM companies that offer affordable solutions that generate results.
20 Jan This post is from from my other blog here A modern small business owner is expected to be adept in all areas of their business, whether it's running online advertising or updating website content – they're all just elements that fall under the 'webmaster' umbrella. Unfortunately for many business owners, this means certain areas can be neglected as an ever increasing amount of tasks compete for time.If you're feeling under the pump, or think certain areas of your business haven't been developed to their full potential, outsourcing may help to release some of the strain. Online advertising can be easily outsourced to professionals like ineedhits who specialize in maximizing search traffic and return on investment for their clients. Below are some of the reasons why a company like ineedhits can help improve your business:
20 Jan This post is from from my other blog here  comScore have released video stats for November 2007 showing that americans are increasingly turning to online video with an average of 3.25 hours of video per person. Considering most videos on YouTube and similar sites are only 5 or so minutes long, this is quite a lot of viewing.Americans watched 9.5 billion videos in November with Google/Youtube leading the charge. The sites were ranked as follows:
It's obvious YouTube is the clear leader in the online video category, which was acquired by Google in November 2006. Since then videos have been a promiment feature on Google's homepage, as well as cleverly integrated into search results.
20 Jan This post is from from my other blog here MSN announced last week that it will partner with WhatOnEarthIsGoingOn to create an online community for consumers who are interested in a variety of social issues and will be a place where brands can showcase their values to these connected users.The whatonearthisgoingon.msn.com portal will utilize MSN's existing user base to create an online community where they can learn about and act upon social issues. The site will then target these users with relevant marketing programs from "like-minded brands." WhatOnEarthIsGoingOn is a set of marketing initiatives proposed by Grey London's former creative director David Alberts to create what he calls socially relevant brands. Alberts recently told Clickz News, "Nowadays, brands need to differentiate themselves through their values. Who you are as a brand is just as important to the consumer as what you make, or the services that you offer. Brands will be able to use this as a platform to demonstrate their values to consumers, and feel comfortable in doing so." Adding further to this theory, Gayle Troberman, head of branded entertainment at MSN has said, "There is no one place that consumers can come together to discuss socially relevant issues. This will enable us to harness the power of brands and bring together consumers and marketers with the right causes." MSN is no stranger to environmental causes. In July 2007, the firm sponsored the Live Earth series of international concerts in conjunction with the "Save Our Selves (SOS) - The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis" initiative. The concerts were shown on MSN, and according to the company, received a total of over 15 million video streams. Alberts doesn't see any reason why effective marketing and the promotion of good causes can't go hand in hand. "We want brands to see a return on their investment, but why shouldn't good messages be spread through good marketing? I love the fact that brands are doing well out of supporting good causes, and I think we should applaud that," he said. This new portal is currently still in development, but is due to be unveiled soon- we will keep you posted.It will certainly be interesting to watch the success of this online community, to see if it is an area that MSN can really tap into and have as an advantage over Google and Yahoo!Let us know what you think about this new project by MSN, by leaving a comment below.
20 Jan This post is from from my other blog here
Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, has announced five core initiatives that it plans to focus on over the next five to ten years.
Google.org will "collaborate with experienced partners working in each of these fields, investing its resources and tapping the strengths of Google's employees and global operations to advance its core initiatives." More than $25 million in new grants and investments from Google.org, will be handed to these initial partners.
Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have committed to devoting approximately 1 percent of the company's equity plus 1 percent of annual profits to philanthropy.
In the past, Google.org has focused mainly on environmental issues but they are now expanding their vision. The five initiatives Google.org will focus on:
Predict and Prevent - supporting efforts to empower communities to predict and prevent the spread of diseases before they become local, regional, or global crises, by identifying "hot spots" and enabling a rapid response. The initial focus will be on Southeast Asia and tropical Africa in the areas' global health threats (specifically SARS and potentially bird flu), humanitarian crises, biological threats, and climate variability.
Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services - improving the flow of vital information to improve basic services for the poor in India and East Africa. With failing essential public services, especially for the poorest members of these countries, Google.org will work with their partners to empower citizens and communities, providers, and policy makers to improve the delivery of essential public services such as education, health, water and sanitation.
Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises - Along with their partner, Google.org wants to help increase the flow of capital to small and mid-sized businesses specifically in Ghana and Tanzania, by tackling some of the root causes that prevent these firms from becoming profitable investment opportunities.
Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal- working toward a goal of producing one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. The aim is to have this accomplished within a few years, not a few decades. The focus will initially be on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.
Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT) - an initiative that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology. Google.org will 19 Jan This post is from from my other blog here  Top Rankings in the Search Results.Unfortunately, top organic rankings are difficult to guarantee as the search engines control the algorithms that govern these results. However, just like search engine listing, some SEM companies will offer their own guaranteed ranking services, providing you some peace of mind on ...
13 Jan 13 Jan This post is from from my other blog here Yahoo! are testing the use of images next to sponsored listings in Yahoo! Directory search results. As reported by Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal, the images are being provided by a company called ImageAdvantage which are generated from a photo database or the advertiser's website.The ads definitely attract more attention to the listings and should have a positive impact on their overall CTR (click-through-rate). For Yahoo! this means existing advertisers are likely to spend more (as they are receiving more clicks) and new advertisers are given an incentive to join the program.A screenshot of the Business and Economy section of the directory is below:
13 Jan This post is from from my other blog here Every now and then when trawling the industry news online - you see a statement that you just have to read no matter how unrealistic it sounds. Enter SpaceTime 3D - a new browser that promises 3 dimensional searching.Hat tip to Gord Hotchkiss down at WebProNews, who got my attention by posting the following quote which is published on the SpaceTime 3D website:"I think I've found a product that makes the Google interface look like it was designed by Apple."That's a fairly big call - so I was compelled to see what a 3D search experience that makes Google's interface look like an Apple design is actually offering.The browser isn't exactly hot off the press, as Duncan Riley over at Techcrunch blogged about the launch of SpaceTime 3D back in June 07. But as it's a new year, SpaceTime have had time to iron our some bugs and I'm looking to see what innovations might take hold in Search in 2008 - I thought I'd see what 3 dimensional searching might look like.In a nutshell - SpaceTime 3D is a supercharged version of the firefox browser, with a 3D tabbed browsing experience. 
13 Jan This post is from from my other blog here The SEO quagmire is complex at the best of times with a myriad of elements to manage. But one of the easiest to control and most often forgotten is a sites' internal linking strategy.Jeffrey Smith over at SEO Web Design put together a useful internal link checklist in his recent post "Internal Links - Are You Making the Most of Yours?". While it covers slightly more than just optimizing "internal links", its all valuable site based optimization know-how.I've summarized these best practice strategies below (non internal linking strategies are denoted with NLS), but for the complete unabbreviated rundown ' check out Jeffrey's article.9. ...
13 Jan This post is from from my other blog here
Search engine giant Google just keeps getting more and more popular. The latest figures from Hitwise, which tracks search market share, show Google with a record 66 percent share of Web searches in the United States for December 2007. Google had just over 63 percent share for the same period a year ago, according to figures released on Tuesday 8th January. Meanwhile, Yahoo!'s share dropped 0.7 percent to 20.9 percent, Microsoft's dropped 2.8 percent to just over 7 percent and Ask rose 0.3 percent to just over 4 percent. The remaining 49 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.71 percent of U.S. searches.
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13 Jan This post is from from my other blog here
Google has just released a version of iGoogle, their personalized home page, for the http://google.com/ig/i. There is still a limited amount of space for gadgets on the page, so you'll need to be selective. Also, this new Google feature is only available in the USA thus far, so everyone else will have to wait a little bit. Anyone who is using this new service let us know what you think.
07 Jan This post is from from my other blog here As 2008 beckons, most companies are seeking a bigger and better new year which is why serious small business owners should be turning to Google Advertising to achieve their goals (if they haven't already).Last year several changes in search marketing have led Google Advertising to be more than just a nice to have in the search marketing mix - it should be a definite addition to any small business online marketing program.Why Your Small Business Needs Google Advertising?choose to DIY or outsource - the important thing is to get started and get the jump on your competitors.
07 Jan This post is from from my other blog here Once upon a time, using images on a web page to display text was a major SEO "no-no" as search engines were unable to index pictures and graphics. A Google patent application suggests that "text in image" indexing may soon be a reality.As revealed by a Google patent application that surfaced this week, the search giant is working on OCR (optical character recognition) technology that could revolutionize the future of search.The concept behind the patent application could see Google indexing text in any "digital images" which would significantly increase the search engine giant's index and improve the search-ability of its various other media search databases (image, video etc).According to the "Recognizing Text In Images" application:"Digital images can include a wide variety of content. For example, digital images can illustrate landscapes, people, urban scenes, and other objects. Digital images often include text. Digital images can be captured, for example, using cameras or digital video recorders. Image text (i.e., text in an image) typically includes text of varying size, orientation, and typeface. Text in a digital image derived, for example, from an urban scene (e.g., a city street scene) often provides information about the displayed scene or location. A typical street scene includes, for example, text as part of street signs, building names, address numbers, and window signs."The real draw card of this technology is the potential impact it could have on Google's universal search. Suddenly more of its indexed content becomes accurately searchable and this allows for a greater level of convergence between Google's various search services.While the technology is probably some time off (so don't abandon your commitment to using text for SEO purposes), accurate "text in image" search does open up a world of possibilities. Stay tuned to see when Google puts its patent application into action.
06 Jan This post is from from my other blog here I first covered ChaCha around this time last year, when the people powered search engine recently launched the ability to search with a human guide. While they have struggled to gain mainstream adoption, the crew at ChaCha has released a new service which allows users to search via a text message sent from their mobile phone. 
06 Jan This post is from from my other blog here Google recently celebrated the New Year and 25 years of TCP/IP internet with a new logo which linked to the search query "January 1 TCP/IP". This unintentionally exposed a feature of the search algorithm which artificially boosts the ranking of new web pages.  The Results? The site received over 300,000 unique hits of traffic converting at below half of a percent. That's roughly 1500 conversions. Not bad for a couple of hours work I'd say.
06 Jan This post is from from my other blog here AOL announced last week that it will no longer continue support and development of the world's first web browser, Netscape Navigator, as of 1st February 2008. Netscape's director Tom Drapeau explained that because Netscape couldn't capture Microsoft's Internet Explorer market share, AOL won't put any further resources into Netscape, and will instead focus on developing its web business. AOL has encouraged Netscape users to take on Mozilla's Firefox instead: "AOL's focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be. Given AOL's current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox." The popular browser of the 90's, once commanded 90% of the market and has been running for 13 years, but has since fallen behind. It was purchased by AOL back in 1999 and was quickly updated to Netscape 6 which was the first Netscape-branded Mozilla based browser. Since then AOL has had a string of bad luck with Netscape and although it's reported that they have "invested a great deal of time and energy" they have just not been able to compete with Internet Explorer. Let us know what you think on the rise and fall of Netscape by leaving a comment below.
06 Jan This post is from from my other blog here Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced last week the launch of Wikia Search, a new community driven search engine. This new search engine is available as of today (Monday 7th January 2008) and its aim is to establish a platform for the development of a new open/source search engine with user-editable search results. The community driven search initiative is based on the four organizing principles of transparency, community, quality and privacy, relying on human intuition to bring results which spiders/crawlers and algorithms cannot. Perhaps most exciting about the project, is the Search Wikia Whitelist, which "is a list of sites that the community considers to be prime "must have" sites for the first crawl of the web." Wikia Search anticipates to have around 35 million URL's in the first of three indexes, which will be a list of URL's "that should evolve to be a generally accepted consensus of a good starting point of sites that should be deep crawled and included". Currently, the top tier in the order they appear on the list include:
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