From: feedburner.com

Googles news archive search engine has a timeline option, mapping events and names. The usefulness of this feature greatly varies, as quite often its broken.

A search for techcrunch, for instance, reveals the earliest occurrence to be 125 AD. According to Wikipedia, this was the year of the construction of the Pantheon, the last year of the Yanguang era of the Chinese Han Dynasty, and the time when Pope Telesphorus succeeded Pope Sixtus I as the eighth pope… and apparently, it was the age of TechCrunch, though a closer look at the result shows its just a Google parsing error: the page Google analyzed talks about a 125-125 ad, used by big blogs like ProBlogger, TechCrunch, and ReadWriteWeb.

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Tag: Google, Archive, SEO



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From: feedburner.com

Posted by shor

^{Photo Credit - Steve Webel}

China. Even in this day and age, sensitive information rarely leaks out of the Great Internet Firewall.

Fortunately for Western pundits, China toots its horn every six months with the release of a half yearly report on Chinese internet development. The July 2008 edition was recently released in English but to save you from reading through 27 pages of dry research and occasional Engrish, SEOmoz has summarized the report for you.

Here are the top three facts that China wants you to know about the internet: 

1. China has the most internet users in the world 

• “...by the end of June 2008, the amount of netizens in China had reached 253 million, surpassing that in the United States to be the first place in the world.”
  

2. China has the most broadband users in the world

• “This report, the 22nd Statistical Report on the Internet Development in China, also indicates the number of broadband users has reached 214 million, which also tops the world.”

3. China has the most cc-TLD domain names in the world

• “...by the time of July 22, the number of CN domain names, which was 12.18 million, had exceeded .de, the country-code Top Level Domain for Germany, thus becoming the largest country code Top-Level Domain names in the world.”

So that’s what the Chinese government wants you to know about their internet but SEOmoz couldn’t resist creating a top 10 list, so we humbly suggest seven more nuggets you should know about China.



4. China’s internet penetration rate continues to grow and grow and grow...

• US internet usage has hovered around a 70% penetration rate in the last five years, while Chinese internet penetration has jumped from 7% to almost 20% in the same time period.
• Translation: China could plausibly reach a similar penetration rate to the US within 20 years
• What impact would a single nation of almost one billion Internet users have on internet activities such as blogging, creating videos or online commercial transactions (i.e. buying stuff)? How much additional user generated content would Chinese users unleash on the world wide web? What Western companies are ready to take advantage of this flood of internet usage?

5. China loves instant messaging QQ

• IM usage is more popular than email and using search engines in China
• 195 million Chinese (an incredible 77.2% of Chinese internet users) have used an instant messaging service in the last 6 months, compared to just 40.0% of US internet users who have _ever_ used IM
  
• Once online, 39.7% of Chinese internet users cite IM as the very first thing they do, more than any other internet activity

• Tencent’s QQ program is the leading IM program with 77% market share
  
• Who? A bit more about QQ from their website:
• QQ has 342 million active user accounts
  
• QQ has 42 million peak concurrent users
• QQ has 26.1 million paying internet subscribers & 13.4 million paying mobile subscribers - wow an IM program with 40 million paying subscribers, I feel a bit of envy from MSN and Yahoo
  
• QQ.com is one of the biggest websites in the world, ranking in the top 3 web properties in China, alongside Baidu and Sina
  

6. China loves mobile phones

• China has 601 million mobile phone users according to the latest government report
• From January 2008 to June 2008, there were 53.3 million new mobile phone users
• One carrier, China Mobile, has over 414 million mobile subscribers, ranked #1 in the world
• However, bad news: only 12% of these users have accessed the Internet. Because of the lack of proper 3G network (none of the Chinese telcos have a 3G license) an estimated 73 million had accessed the internet from a mobile phone
• Good news - the Chinese government plans to issue 3G licenses to the major telcos within the next 6 months, which means...
• A potential bonanza for phone manufacturers around the world as someone has to come good with 601 million new 3G handsets (the sheer size of the Chinese market will be beneficial for all as economies of scale ensure global prices for 3G handsets/accessories will fall)
  

7. The Great Firewall of China is alive and well

• Think you know how to game social networks? Try going head-to-head with the “Fifty Cent Party” - an estimated 280,000 strong army of government-trained social networkers
  
• The Far East Economic Review says the Fifty Cent party has one objective - ”To safeguard the interests of the Communist Party by infiltrating and policing a rapidly growing Chinese Internet”
• According to the Feer.com’s source, high authority Chinese websites are forced to have their own in-house team of government goons patrolling content for political correctness… ouch!
  

8. China’s Tier II & Tier III cities - wait, there’s more to China than just Beijing and Shanghai?

• According to this fool.com article, 93 cities in China have more than 1 million population, compared to just 9 in the US
• Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau (and sometimes Guangdong and Shenzhen) are usually referred to as China’s Tier I cities.
  
• Tier I cities are already saturated by foreign companies and foreign direct investment in just about every market you could think of…
  
• Which is where Tier II cities come in - boasting huge populations, transport hubs and booming economies, most Tier IIs fly under the radar despite having lower barriers to foreign entry. For example, Chongqing is a Tier II municipality with a whopping 32 million residents and more than 3 million internet users
  
• Check out the big 30 Tier II and Tier III cities showcased in this April 2007 China’s 30 Rising Urban Stars

9. There are no girls on the Chinese internet

• Not sexism, as Chinese women are as likely as their male counterparts to go online -  the internet gender ratio corresponds almost exactly with China’s actual gender imbalance of 53% Male, 47% Female
  

10.  The rise of Chinese superbrands

• Q: What does China Mobile have in common with Google, GE, Microsoft, Coca~Cola?
  
• A: They represent the top 5 brands in the world, as measured by the dollar value of their brand
  
• From the way this dragon has risen from its slumber it may not be long before the first Chinese superbrand goes global - in 2007 four of the world’s 100 most powerful brands were from China (five if you include HSBC bank)
  

So there you have it folks, 10 things you should know about China - I hoped SEOmoz has helped lift the red curtain enough to unveil the potential in the East.

What do you think are the big opportunities for online marketers in China?

If nothing else, the first question I’ll be asking of our next generation of entrepreneurs is, 你会说中文åÂÂ�—?

Technorati Tags

internet, online, statistics, china, qq, tencent, censorship, tier, chongqing, cnnic, miit,

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From: feedburner.com

Posted by shor

^{Photo Credit - Steve Webel}

China. Even in this day and age, sensitive information rarely leaks out of the Great Internet Firewall.

Fortunately for Western pundits, China toots its horn every six months with the release of a half yearly report on Chinese internet development. The July 2008 edition was recently released in English but to save you from reading through 27 pages of dry research and occasional Engrish, SEOmoz has summarized the report for you.

Here are the top three facts that China wants you to know about the internet: 

1. China has the most internet users in the world 

• “...by the end of June 2008, the amount of netizens in China had reached 253 million, surpassing that in the United States to be the first place in the world.”
  

2. China has the most broadband users in the world

• 
  

3. China has the most cc-TLD domain names in the world

• “...by the time of July 22, the number of CN domain names, which was 12.18 million, had exceeded .de, the country-code Top Level Domain for Germany, thus becoming the largest country code Top-Level Domain names in the world.”

So that’s what the Chinese government wants you to know about their internet but SEOmoz couldn’t resist creating a top 10 list, so we humbly suggest seven more nuggets you should know about China.



4. China’s internet penetration rate continues to grow and grow and grow...

• US internet usage has hovered around a 70% penetration rate in the last five years, while Chinese internet penetration has jumped from 7% to almost 20% in the same time period.
• Translation: China could plausibly reach a similar penetration rate to the US within 20 years
• What impact would a single nation of almost one billion Internet users have on internet activities such as blogging, creating videos or online commercial transactions (i.e. buying stuff)? How much additional user generated content would Chinese users unleash on the world wide web? What Western companies are ready to take advantage of this flood of internet usage?

5. China loves instant messaging QQ

• IM usage is more popular than email and using search engines in China
• 195 million Chinese (an incredible 77.2% of Chinese internet users) have used an instant messaging service in the last 6 months, compared to just 40.0% of US internet users who have _ever_ used IM
  
• Once online, 39.7% of Chinese internet users cite IM as the very first thing they do, more than any other internet activity

• Tencent’s QQ program is the leading IM program with 77% market share
  
• Who? A bit more about QQ from their website:
• QQ has 342 million active user accounts
  
• QQ has 42 million peak concurrent users
• QQ has 26.1 million paying internet subscribers & 13.4 million paying mobile subscribers - wow an IM program with 40 million paying subscribers, I feel a bit of envy from MSN and Yahoo
  
• QQ.com is one of the biggest websites in the world, ranking in the top 3 web properties in China, alongside Baidu and Sina
  

6. China loves mobile phones

• China has 601 million mobile phone users according to the latest government report
• From January 2008 to June 2008, there were 53.3 million new mobile phone users
• One carrier, China Mobile, has over 414 million mobile subscribers, ranked #1 in the world
• However, bad news: only 12% of these users have accessed the Internet. Because of the lack of proper 3G network (none of the Chinese telcos have a 3G license) an estimated 73 million had accessed the internet from a mobile phone
• Good news - the Chinese government plans to issue 3G licenses to the major telcos within the next 6 months, which means...
• A potential bonanza for phone manufacturers around the world as someone has to come good with 601 million new 3G handsets (the sheer size of the Chinese market will be beneficial for all as economies of scale ensure global prices for 3G handsets/accessories will fall)
  

7. The Great Firewall of China is alive and well

• Think you know how to game social networks? Try going head-to-head with the “Fifty Cent Party” - an estimated 280,000 strong army of government-trained social networkers
  
• The Far East Economic Review says the Fifty Cent party has one objective - ”To safeguard the interests of the Communist Party by infiltrating and policing a rapidly growing Chinese Internet”
• According to the Feer.com’s source, high authority Chinese websites are forced to have their own in-house team of government goons patrolling content for political correctness… ouch!
  

8. China’s Tier II & Tier III cities - wait, there’s more to China than just Beijing and Shanghai?

• According to this fool.com article, 93 cities in China have more than 1 million population, compared to just 9 in the US
• Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau (and sometimes Guangdong and Shenzhen) are usually referred to as China’s Tier I cities.
  
• Tier I cities are already saturated by foreign companies and foreign direct investment in just about every market you could think of…
  
• Which is where Tier II cities come in - boasting huge populations, transport hubs and booming economies, most Tier IIs fly under the radar despite having lower barriers to foreign entry. For example, Chongqing is a Tier II municipality with a whopping 32 million residents and more than 3 million internet users
  
• Check out the big 30 Tier II and Tier III cities showcased in this April 2007 China’s 30 Rising Urban Stars

9. There are no girls on the Chinese internet

• Not sexism, as Chinese women are as likely as their male counterparts to go online -  the internet gender ratio corresponds almost exactly with China’s actual gender imbalance of 53% Male, 47% Female
  

10.  The rise of Chinese superbrands

• Q: What does China Mobile have in common with Google, GE, Microsoft, Coca~Cola?
  
• A: They represent the top 5 brands in the world, as measured by the dollar value of their brand
  
• From the way this dragon has risen from its slumber it may not be long before the first Chinese superbrand goes global - in 2007 four of the world’s 100 most powerful brands were from China (five if you include HSBC bank)
  

So there you have it folks, 10 things you should know about China - I hoped SEOmoz has helped lift the red curtain enough to unveil the potential in the East.

What do you think are the big opportunities for online marketers in China?

Technorati Tags

internet, online, statistics, china, qq, tencent, censorship, tier, chongqing, cnnic, miit,

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From: sitepronews.com

A press release or media release, as it is also called, is a condensed article that is written in a journalistic style. The purpose of the news release is to highlight what is interesting and newsworthy about your company or organization.
Press release publishing offers many benefits to your business, and is a powerful marketing tool [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/09/29/what-the-heck-is-a-press-release-anyway/

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From: sitepronews.com

f you have a blog, then you can count yourself among the thousands of other people on earth who have a blog, who can sell their products and services online, and who find ways to network through friends, former classmates, relatives, even acquaintances, in order to make more money. There are thousands upon thousands of [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/09/29/top-blog-directories-to-submit-your-blog-to/

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From: sitepronews.com

Click Fraud occurs in pay per click advertising campaigns when somebody clicks on an ad over and over again in a deliberate attempt to either: Make the advertiser pay for multiple click-throughs; or
Earn the owner of the site (where the ad is featured) commission on click-throughs Click fraud can [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/09/29/how-to-protect-yourself-from-click-fraud/

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From: searchenginewatch.com

Google has opened a new office in Reston, Virginia and staffed it with sales people tasked with getting their products used in the government. Their neighbors include widely known government contractors including Northrup Grumman and Raytheon.

Their challenge is to convince government agencies to shift to a cloud computing method. Of course, when you’re dealing with so much confidential information, the gravity of the challenge seems intense indeed.

There is also a Washingtonian sense that the more complex a program is, the more sophisticated it must be. This works against Google’s success which is largely based on making things easier on the user.

What works in Google’s favor is that workers want to see the same kind of simple-yet-advanced programs at their workplace that they use in their personal life.

What do you think of Google’s government aspirations? Let us know in the comments.

via Washington Post

Related Reading:

Larry Page to Keynote White Spaces Advocacy Event in DC

Google Getting Serious About Lobbying U.S. Government

Google Launches Public Policy Blog

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/406366755/080929-105526

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From: searchenginewatch.com

A new study is showing that 93% of Americans expect companies to have a presence in social media. 85% say companies should interact with consumers via social media, according to the data released by Cone, Inc.

Specifically, those surveyed believe:

• Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
• Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
• Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)
• Companies should market to consumers (25%)

Men are twice as likely to interact with companies via social media than women. 33% will interact one or more times a week while only 17% of women will.

Two-thirds of households with 3 people or more and those making $75,000 or more feel a stronger connection to brands they interact with online.

What do you think about this survey? Does it change the way you think about social media as an advertising medium? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Related Reading:

Facebook Traffic Up 50% Over Last Year; myYearbook on the Rise

Could Social Media Be the Google Killer?

Moms See Search as Task-Oriented; Websites as Entertainment

Social Networking Taking Market Share from Dating, Adult Entertainment Sites

Less is More: What Social Media and Electronics Can Teach the Establishment

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/406296130/080929-092851

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From: feedburner.com

...that you’re afraid of.

And it’s easy to be afraid of something that you don’t understand.

Read Original: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/406487156/its-easy-to-be.html

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From: searchenginewatch.com

Yahoo President Sue Decker took to the Yahoo Anecdotal blog to defend the search advertising deal her company struck with Google a few months ago.

Google has been doing the heavy lifting when it comes to defending the deal to the critics. So, it was about time we heard from Yahoo again on the deal.

But Decker started off with a sarcastic tone. Her first paragraph ended with:

Since the critics clearly don’t understand the deal and what it means for Yahoo!, Google, advertisers, and users, it’s time for some myth-busting.

Sue, if you want to win friends to your side, you shouldn’t alienate these critics. Many of them are AdWords customers!

But Decker devolves even further by saying making her two points about what the deal does for Yahoo instead of making it about the customer:

• Yahoo! will use this agreement to help us become a stronger competitor in all aspects of online advertising; and
• Yahoo! is not exiting the sponsored search business. We plan to remain a strong player in sponsored search.

I know that Decker has probably been consumed with trying to save a flailing Yahoo. But the fact that she’s going after this argument by defending the business aspirations of Yahoo might show why this company is struggling in the first place.

Companies succeed when they focus on the customer. But Yahoo is focused on stock prices and board preservation. This is not the way to win the hearts of search advertisers or investors.

Otherwise, Decker made points that Google has made. She says there will not be price setting between Yahoo and Google because advertisers set the prices through the bidding process. The price is related to the value which is based on demand.

Decker even played on Google’s unofficial motto “Do no evil” by saying the partnership would be implemented through respect for the Hippocratic Oath “first, do no harm.”

To be fair, Yahoo probably needs this deal in order to bring in some extra income. What they need to do what that income is invest in innovation that brings a better search experience to users. That’s what the search industry needs right now. And it’s the only way to truly compete with Google.

Related Reading:

To Fear or Not to Fear: That is the Question (About the Google-Yahoo Ad Deal)

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/406260239/080929-085338

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From: feedburner.com

Posted by randfish

It should come as no surprise that having a widget or sidebar element on a news, blog or articles website is great for traffic and page views. Online outlets have been using them to boost readership, email-a-friend features and page views per session counts for years. But, did you know that they’re also great for SEO?

Let’s take a look at some examples, and investigate the myriad of benefits “most popular” sections provide:

Slate.com

Slate’s most popular widget isn’t the best designed or most fully featured, but it provides the basic concept - display a list of stories from your site, ordered by a popularity metric. In this case, Slate’s offering both “most emailed” (stories that have had lots of people use the “email a friend” feature) and “most read” which I’m assuming they calculate on raw page views.

Newsweek.com

Newsweek’s widget has the clever slider at the bottom, allowing you to see popularity on a granular time scale from as little as 12 hours ago to as much as 7 days. If it were me, I’d increase the granularity option all the way up to the last 1-2 hours, just so bloggers can get their hands on the very freshest stuff. The “most viewed” vs. “most emailed” is smart, too, as is the opportunity to share the widget on your own website (which I’ve done below).

 

 

My only complaint is that all those beautiful links are contained in an object the search engines won’t parse, and thus, Newsweek doesn’t get any credit or juice from them. At the least, placing a straight HTML link below the object would be a smart way to increase link popularity in a natural and search engine approved way.

Yahoo! News

Yahoo! News does things a bit differently and features an entire page (linked to in the top, tabular menu) labeled “most popular” that lists the stories from the day getting the most attention. It’s not a bad system, and I imagine that a lot of folks really enjoy having a full page of content that displays the most popular news, but losing the widget format means those stories don’t enjoy the ability to tease right from another story page, one of the big draws of having the “most popular” widget.

NYTimes.com

The New York Times is putting a lot of the best practices together. Not only is their widget shown on the vertical sidebar half to three quarters of the way down the page (in a spot where the eye falls during or just after reading a story), it’s got three tabs showing the most e-mailed, most searched and, in a move of shear genius, most blogged. Bloggers love this stuff - it’s a tab just for them, showing what they’re talking about and what they think is important. Just as pandering in politics can win you elections, pandering to bloggers, particularly if you’re a big media outfit, can win you blog links. Finally, NYTimes also a link off to the “complete list” for each section, so those heavily into the popular news can browse from there. Once you’re there, you can then use a time sort feature to see stories from different time periods.

So, while the user benefits are pretty clear, why is this so great for SEO?

• Quick link juice - the links, so long as they’re HTML links the engines can parse, send a flood of juice to the top stories; which are often the ones most likely to benefit from Google’s temporal rankings push (for hot search terms) and the inclusion of “news results” in the SERPs.
• Helping to earn links - the most popular stories can convert someone who wasn’t interested or had only a passing curiousity in one story into a fervent reader, and often, inspire the sharing behavior. After all, if a story is “most e-mailed” or “most-blogged,” there’s a fair chance you’ll email it or blog it, increasing the ROI for the site.
• Ongoing internal link juice for big stories - Having a most popular page that links to all the stories generating the most buzz for the last week or month continues to send link juice in to stories that are likely to attract the most searches.
• Opportunity to better know your audience - If you personally play around with and pay attention to your most popular stories on a day-to-day basis, the results can help you learn more about what your audience likes, what earns links, attention and sharing behavior. This can also help you generate stories and content for the future that will continue to leverage these strengths and earn greater links and traffic.

I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback and potential suggestions for how to leverage these features to even greater degrees.

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From: feedburner.com

How much of your day is spent doing things you have to do (as opposed to the things you get to do.)

In my experience, as people become successful and happier (the subset that are both) I find that the percentage shifts. These folks end up spending more and more time on the get to tasks.

You’d think that this happens because their success permits them to skip or delegate the have to tasks. And to some extent, this is true. But far more than that, these people redefine what they do all day. They view the tasks as opportunities instead of drudge work.

A simple redefinition transformed the quality of their day, and more important, the perception of their work.

Read Original: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/406147088/get-to-vs-have.html

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From: searchenginewatch.com

Knowing how and when to make decisions about your PPC campaign’s keyword and ad performance can make or break your campaign. In today’s Profitable PPC column, “Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions,” David Szetela reminds you that almost every action you take to improve your PPC ad campaign should be based on conversion data.

» Full story

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/406319260/080929-000001

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From: feedburner.com

Last year, Google came out with the Google Toolbar version 5 for Internet Explorer. Now the version is available for Forefox and is geared up with a lot of changes as well.

According to Google, :

“A few months ago we launched several new features for Google Toolbar in Internet Explorer. Since then, we’ve received many emails asking us when we plan to support all our new features in Firefox.

Guess what: Starting today, you can download the latest version of Google Toolbar for Firefox, available in 29 languages. This new version is the first Toolbar launched out of our St. Petersburg, Russia office. It includes all the Toolbar features you know and love, such as Search, Bookmarks and Translate. When you install it, you can try out some of our newest features .

We don’t like to play favorites among Toolbar’s features, but it’s hard not be wowed by Autofill. You can create several profiles with personal or business information including different addresses, email addresses and credit card details. So anytime you want to fill an online form, just click on Autofill and the right information will appear in the form automatically. All your information is safely stored only in your own computer, with your credit card numbers encrypted and protected by a password.

We also love Google Gadgets in Toolbar. Gadgets bring information from your favorite websites closer to you. For example, you can add the YouTube gadget to your Toolbar. When you want to have a quick break from work, click on the YouTube icon and search or view videos in a box that pops down from the Toolbar, without leaving the web page you are on. Close that box when you’re done with it (or when your manager starts walking towards your cube). You can find the YouTube gadget and thousands of others in our gallery.

Have a look at the video

<iframe class="embeddedvideo" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FpLkOiAT4uo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="344"></p>

Click here to subscribe to our RSS feed to get a daily digest of news around search engine industry. PageTraffic SEO Blog is updated four times a day and is ranked as one of the best search engine resources blog by Pandia!

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Tag: Google, Firefox, SEO



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From: feedburner.com

Politics is nothing but stories. Governing, of course, is more complicated than that, but not much. But storytelling is all we’re seeing these days, stories that resonate, stories that spread… Two semi-random thoughts for Sunday:

We need more debates. Not just for President, but for every elected office and for issues as well. (Yes, politics is largely marketing.)

Here’s my idea from four years ago. I wish I had pushed it harder:

Dedicate a half hour every night during the last month to a debate series. Put it on a major channel. Or devote an entire cable channel to this, year round. Or a special section of YouTube.

Each side is invited. There is no moderator. There’s a chess clock. Each side gets 15 minutes total. While you’re talking, your clock is running, but the other side’s is not. When you’re done, her clock runs. You can talk for ten seconds or ten minutes or whatever you choose. You can ask questions of your opponent, answer questions, make a speech. Whatever you want. It could even be done from two different locations.

Every night. Thirty days.

If you don’t show up, your opponent gets the entire airtime slot.

This works best in a limited channel universe, where the airtime is actually worth something, and who knows, it’s possible this will be true in four years (but unlikely). Either way, it goes a long way to helping us find thoughtful people who can think clearly (hard to fake it for thirty nights in a row). It’s also hard to run negative, untrue ads when you know you’ll be facing her tomorrow night.

And here’s a clever way to spread ideas: printhetruth.org. Even if you disagree with what’s on the posters, it’s a fascinating bridge between the digital and the physical world. Find posters you like and print em out and distribute them. If freedom of the press belongs to whomever owns a printer, that makes everyone obligated to print something…

Read Original: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/405326394/politics.html

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