From: google.com

I don’t like New Year’s. Faux merriment, excessive drinking, ridiculous resolutions and general malaise. Not to mention Dick Clark.

There’s one great opportunity, though… Brand new expectations are set, expectations just waiting to be shattered.

Like an empty Moleskine notebook, the possibilities are exciting. Why not exceed them?

The place where expectations are lowest: leadership. Everyone expects you to get in line and follow, not lead.

The opportunity this year is bigger than ever: to lead change, to create a movement in a direction you want to go. While the rest of your world huddles and holds back, here’s a golden chance to use cheap media, available attention and great talent to make something that matters.

Read Original: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/BVYZqNv8Mbk/happy-new-year.html

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: sitepronews.com

f you are already advertising on the internet, you know the costs of having banners or pop up ads. Video advertising is not that much more and is twice as effective. If you do not believe this check it out. You can try this for a month and see if you get more stats on [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/31/web-video-is-video-advertising-expensive-for-your-business-or-well-worth-it-2/

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: sitepronews.com

There are a lot of different social networking sites that people are using to make money. If you find the right site and establish yourself you can take advantage of this. How do you capitalize to maximize your investment of time so you achieve maximum results? Choose the right site and get the right results. [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/31/web-20-tools-and-making-money-online/

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: sitepronews.com

Once upon a time, search engines may have used keywords and a few basic bits of code in order to calculate their rankings. This evolved to include other key elements, such as the number of links other people made to your page, and then evolved still further to blacklist certain links in order to avoid [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/31/evolving-algorithms/

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

If you missed my posts on Monday, it’s because I was up at 3am blowing chunks into the porcelain throne the night before. It takes a lot for me to not blog, even when I’m sick, so you know I was hit with something awful. And no, I wasn’t hungover.

Instead, as I later found out, I fell victim to this year’s stomach bug. I picked it up at a holiday party here in Ohio, where I am doing the annual visit the in-laws thing. After garnering enough energy by Monday afternoon to Tweet about my ordeal, I learned from the @ replies, that I was not alone.

The stomach bug was not only afflicting others in Ohio, but a search on Google News revealed that it had earlier been spreading in the western part of my home state of North Carolina and throughout the U.S.

I also learned that the British were more likely to call it “norovirus” and that it was spreading like wildfire throughout the UK. (It is also called the “Norwalk virus” which is only completely ironic since I’m in Norwalk, Ohio.)

The stomach bug is not generally deadly, though it gives symptoms that send many to the emergency room. But it’s lack of lethal-ness is perhaps the reason why Google has not been officially tracking it like it did the flu.

But oh - what a public service if it did! So, I went to Google Trends to see for myself how “stomach bug” and “norovirus” were, um, trending:

As you can see, the ailment is actually trending lower this year than in previous years, but it is on the rise.

Here are some tips to keep this trending lower:

Prevention Tips from the CDC:

• Frequently wash your hands, especially after toilet visits and changing diapers and before eating or preparing food.
• Carefully wash fruits and vegetables, and steam oysters before eating them.
• Thoroughly clean and disinfect contaminated surfaces immediately after an episode of illness by using a bleach-based household cleaner.
• Immediately remove and wash clothing or linens that may be contaminated with virus after an episode of illness (use hot water and soap).
• Flush or discard any vomitus and/or stool in the toilet and make sure that the surrounding area is kept clean.

Treatment Tips from the CDC

• Get hydrated The vomitting and diarrhea dehydrate you. Drink water, oral rehydration fluids (ORF), or juice. Sports drinks will not work in this case.
• Stay away from people You’re contagious from the moment you get the bug until 3 days after.
• If symptoms persist, see a doctor The stomach bug should go away in 24-48 hours. If it doesn’t, get medical attention.

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/499576115/081231-111624

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

TimesSquare.com is offering a free, live stream of the most famous New Year’s celebration in the world. It will begin the stream at 4pm and last until 12:15am. Mogulus will provide the streaming technology.

This way you can enjoy Times Square without being surrounded by thousands of drunk, screaming people, having beer poured all over you and not having access to public bathrooms.

Or, if you prefer, you can go to Times Square and use your Wifi-enabled device to access TimesSquare.com (provided you can grab a Wifi signal) and be completely ironic with yourself.

No matter how you ring in 2009, and to our friends our the globe who already have - Happy New Year!

Related Reading:

Live from San Francisco, It’s YouTube!

Yahoo Wins Gold Medal for Online Olympic Traffic

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/499554680/081231-104048

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

It was one heck of a year for the search industry. The convergence of outside economic forces, a wild presidential election and the 2008 Beijing Olympics were all signs of an industry becoming more and more mainstream and global. Here’s a look at the completely subjective biggest stories in search from 2008:

1. Microsoft Makes Unsolicited Offer for Yahoo! - On February 1, one of tech’s biggest companies made a generous offer of $31 a share for the number two search engine. CEO Jerry Yang was defiant in his stance that the company he founded over 10 years ago would remain independent. Yahoo! turned the initial offer down, endured an “ultimatum” from Steve Ballmer, was rumored to have rejected an increased offer of $33 a share, and neglected to negotiate selling off just the search portion of Yahoo!. Yahoo!’s stock price is now hovering in the low double digits, and many analysts think it will be sold in 2009.
2. Search Advertising Plays Major Role in Elections From the primaries to the general presidential election, it appeared that whoever outspent their competitor headed to the next step. Barack Obama, with his arsenal of cash, went on an online advertising shopping spree and will be inaugurated in a mere 21 days.
3. Google and Yahoo! Form Search Advertising Partnership, DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit Threat Shuts Down Google/Yahoo! Deal - Google made it quite clear they didn’t want to see search engines #2 and 3 integrate. So they offered up a search advertising deal to Yahoo!, who in their desperation to avoid a hostile Microsoft acquisition said yes. After the Microsoft negotiations died, so did the Google deal. It seems the team over in Mountain View wasn’t up for a battle with the Department of Justice and nixed the deal just an hour before the suit was served.
4. Carl Icahn Threatens Yahoo with Hostile Takeover of Board, Later Agrees to Compromise and Joins Expanded Yahoo! Board Investor Carl Icahn wasn’t happy with Yahoo’s rejection of Microsoft’s generous offer, so he threatened a hostile takeover of his own for the annual shareholders meeting. But just before the meeting occurred, a deal was struck. Yahoo would expand its board, adding Icahn to the table.
5. Jerry Yang Steps Down as Yahoo! CEO After spending just a little over a year in the CEO seat, Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang announced his resignation. He will remain in the position until a replacement is found and then will remain at the company as Chief Yahoo.
6. Twitter Becomes Agent of Search Whether you deem it a microblogging tool or a mass chat client, Twitter went mainstream this year and the search industry was smack dab in the mix of things. Many users found Twitter useful for the actual conducting of searches, while others found it useful in networking.
7. Google Completes DoubleClick Acquisition with EU Approval Even though Google announced the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 and it was approved by US regulators late last year, the deal wasn’t finalized until EU approval was gained earlier this spring. Once it was, Google began the great integration. Google also sold the search marketing arm, Performics, to Publicis.
8. Page Load Time Affects Quality Score In its everpresent goal to improve ads, Google AdWords added yet another factor to Quality Score - landing page load time.
9. Microsoft and Facebook Enter Into Search Partnership. After rumors of a possible acquisition, Microsoft and Facebook simply expanded their existing partnership, which has the software giant invested in a 1.6% stake in the company, to include a Live Search on the social network.
10. Yahoo Wins Gold in the Search Engine Olympics. Yahoo was the big search winner when it came to Olympics-related web traffic. Microsoft won big, too, with its partnership with NBC, which covered the big event. Meanwhile, Google seemed to sit the event out entirely.
11. G1, the First Google Android Phone, Released Through T-mobile
12. A Judge orders Google to hand over user data in a suit brought by Viacom over YouTube. Later, Viacom agrees to let Google scramble user IDs and IP addresses. A Judge threw out a similar case that IO Group brought against YouTube competitor, Veoh.
13. Hulu, an online video site for copyrighted work by major networks, launches to compete with YouTube.
14. Google Adds Ads across various sites
15. Google launches VisualRank, which is PageRank for images
16. Microsoft acquires semantic search engine Powerset
17. Yahoo Indexes Microformats, Opens Up Search Technology with SearchMonkey, BOSS, and Fire Eagle.
18. Microsoft incentivizes Live Search with Cashback and Search Perks
19. Yahoo changes minimum bid policy on search ads
20. Yahoo rebrands display advertising platform AMP as APT and launches
21. Google Launches Search Within Search Results
22. Yahoo! acquires assets of the Inquisitor 3 Plug-in for Safari, speeds it up, adds languages and then expands the search suggestion plugin to Firefox and Internet Explorer.
23. Google sites surpass Yahoo sites in traffic for the first time.
24. Google, Yahoo & MySpace Team Up for OpenSocial, AOL signs on later.
25. Cuil launches under much fanfare and then much criticism.
26. Live Search implements instant answers, Wikipedia into search results.
27. AOL and Yahoo redesign home pages
28. YouTube rolled out sponsored videos
29. Google launches Image Search by content type
30. Yahoo! acquires analytics company, IndexTools.
31. AOL buys Bebo and SocialThing
32. Ask.com to acquire Dictionary.com family of reference sites
33. YouTube launches Insight, limited analytics for users regarding their uploaded videos.
34. Adobe Provides Flash Technology to Google and Yahoo for Better Indexing, Google Analytics now tracks Flash Content.
35. Yahoo, Ask, Zillow conduct layoffs
36. Google offers video Adsense units.
37. Compete acquired by TNS.
38. Googlers Head to Facebook, Friendster, Twitter, and Zillow.
39. Cable firms collaborate to compete with Google
40. Visual search engines Searchme, Viewzi launch
41. Answers sites see increased traffic; Hearst acquires Answerology, Answers.com integrates with Wikianswers.com.
42. Google AdWords offers TV Ads for everyone.
43. AOL’s display advertising platform, Platform-A, expands to Europe.
44. Google Trends goes from hourly to daily, launches Trends for Websites.
45. Google launches Ad Planner, a media planning and buying aid for media buyers.
46. Time Warner announces AOL split
47. Yahoo! Buzz opens to all publishers
48. IAC, parent company of Ask.com, splits into five companies.
49. Google enables cross-language search for News and Enterprise Search Appliance.
50. LinkedIn launches new search platform

Honorable Mentions

• Microsoft adds Image Hotspots to Live Search
• Georgian conflict exposes online mapping weaknesses
• Google launches Knol, its own version of Wikipedia.
• Google Lively comes and goes.
• Yahoo tests Glue Pages in India, then brings modified version to the States

What are your most memorable moments in search for 2008? Leave a comment and let us know!

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/499464594/081231-084009

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

It’s the news I hoped I didn’t have to share, but alas it has arrived. We hoped during the flat Black Friday and decent Cyber Monday that we could edge out the holiday season with a slight gain. But while web site traffic was up by 5% to retail sites this holiday season, it didn’t translate into an increase in sales. Instead, e-tailers saw an overall decline in holiday sales of 3% in 2008, according to comScore

“The 2008 online holiday shopping season has declined 3 percent versus year ago, falling behind our expectation of flat sales this year,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “This marks the first time we’ve seen negative growth rates for the holiday season since we began tracking e-commerce in 2001. The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has made this a really tough season for retailers, both offline and online.”

The good news, in my humble opinion, is that 2007, the year to which 2008 is being compared to, was somewhat of a banner year. It was up 19% over 2006. So, 2008 was still up 16% over two years ago. 2006 was also a huge year over 2005. I think when we hear Wall Street folks talk about the markets correcting themselves, this 3% decline is symbolic of that. I just don’t know how the growth of online sales in 2006-2007 could really have been sustained.

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/499455771/081231-081934

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

Touted as a possible Google killer when it launched July this year, Cuil has had a disappointing start.

Traffic numbers reflect the company’s lack of stickiness following its launch. TechCrunch sees it as flat lining.

Interesting that Business Week has it amongst its most promising start ups of 2008.

Kevin Ryan gave us a thorough examination of the problems with Cuil and DaniWeb did an interesting analysis of their search results in comparison to Google.

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/499351710/081231-045317

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

Rumor has it Google VP Marissa Mayer will be leaving the company in 2009, Gawker reported.

Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, joined Google from Stanford’s graduate computer science department in 1999 as the company’s first female engineer. She also is a part-time introductory computer programming teacher at Stanford and has been given the Centennial Teaching Award and the Forsythe Award.

In a recent interview Mayer seems to contradict these rumors when she talked about the future of search and Google. “We think that when you look at the winning search engine in 2020 and what traits it’s likely to have, we think the one thing that will be true is that it will understand more about you the user.”

Mayer was the keynote speaker at SES San Jose 2007 and is one of the more public faces of the company. She has worked with many of the company’s newer products and has been known as a long time advocate of the minimalist homepage.

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/499335465/081231-035643

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

If you’re considering drastic changes in the volume of pages on your site, you might want to reconsider. In today’s By the Numbers column, “Use Caution When Growing Your Site,” Eric Enge explains how user experience combined with the infamous Google sandbox could derail your best of intentions.

» Full story

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/499586239/081231-015017

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: google.com

Was Jackson Pollock a good painter? The critics at the time certainly didn’t think so.

Twyla Tharp’s London debut was panned.

The Prius was largely ignored by car magazines, mostly because it wasn’t a very good car.

If we define ‘good’ as showing reasonable skill in the expected areas of performance, then good is not only useless, it’s dangerous. Good authors rarely change minds. Good politicians rarely get elected.

The worst thing you can be given as a marketer is a good product to sell.

Read Original: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/vK3VAj731A0/why-be-good.html

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

Small business owners can make it big on the web, but they must understand how online retailing works. In today’s Big Biz column, “Taking a Small Business to the Big Time Through Search,” Aaron Shear shares how site usability, store credibility, and the right keywords can make or break an e-commerce effort.

» Full story

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/499595538/081231-000455

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: feedburner.com

Posted by Danny Dover

About six months ago, I created a list of the top 100 domains based on estimated monthly visits. This list identified the elite corporations that had found the success that most entrepreneurs (and SEOs) are striving to attain. Afterwards, I started informally tracking the companies to see if I could glean any tips from their experiences.



One of the metrics for these companies that I tracked was stock price. I created a mock stock portfolio based on my top 100 list where I “purchased” one share of stock from each publicly traded company on the list. (Note: By “purchased” I mean I added them to my fake portfolio, I didn’t actually spend any money) If the company owned 1/4 of a web property in the top 100 (like eBay’s stake in Craigslist) then I “purchased” 0.25 shares. This stock portfolio was, in my opinion, well diversified in regards to risk.






As open and free as the internet is, it is easy to lose sight of how intertwined the internet and major corporations really are. Just like the real world, the internet’s success is largely the result of big corporations working to supply consumer demand.



When the consumers stop buying and subsequently the corporations stop making money, the internet hurts as a whole.






As we all know, over the last two months the stock market has plummeted and the major stack-holders in the internet have suffered.



The real question is, has the internet itself suffered during this recession? Do these numbers quantify internet health? If not, then what numbers should be used to test if the internet is recession proof? Is it the number of bits transmitted? The amount of concurrent users? The amount of money exchanged?



I like to think the internet’s health is actually something much more complex. Something that can’t be quantified. IT’S THE THE SPIRIT OF THE INTERNET. It is made up of the millions of people who will never physically meet but go online everyday and interact. Its the smile we all share from reading a nerdy XKCD comic. It’s the fact the we no longer are surprised to hear someone has dedicated an entire website to pictures of upside-down dogs. It is that spirit that makes the internet recession proof.



So why did I choose to name this post like I did? Simple, I am out $1035.58 theoretical dollars and I want to make my money back I think betting on the spirit of the internet is always a sure win. The collective wisdom of millions of people is ultimately the safest bet that anyone can make.



This is precisely why I am an SEO. All of the most successful SEOs that I have met are good at optimizing websites for search engines but they are better at being Internetists. They do their job for the love of the internet not just for a boost in the search engines. Just like how firefighters care more about saving lives than distinguishing flames, great SEOs care more about helping people find information than improving their clients rankings.



This year my New Year’s resolution is going to be to focus on the really important part of SEO. I am going to work hard to do research and publish content that makes the internet a better place. I hope that even with the economy slowing, I can stay optimistic and help promote the spirit of the internet.



Have a happy new year everyone!

Do you like this post? Yes No

Read Original: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/seomoz/~3/499219989/i-will-bet-you-103558-that-the-internet-is-recession-proof

Permalink /// Comments (0)

From: searchenginewatch.com

I’m a big fan of The Soup (Fridays, 11pm EST), an E! network clip show that makes fun of the entertainment industry. It’s where I first learned that the camera-shy Amish were selling fireplaces that you can roll around the house (only 2 per household!). It’s also where the whole Cameron Mathis’ thong-no-wait-it’s-a-tshirt scandal erupted.

So when I was reading The Soup blog featuring a YouTube video about the Amish fireplace (here’s visual proof, click to enlarge)

and the copy below included a link about the Cameron Mathis situation, naturally, I clicked on it. Here’s what I found:

In case you can’t read that, it says:

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by E! Entertainment Television

That’s right. E! linked to a YouTube video which it had YouTube take down because of its own copyright.

Give it up, E! YouTube had 100 million unique visitors in October. Don’t you want people watching your network? Ok, at least The Soup?

Related Reading:

YouTube Doesn’t Change The Way We Think - It Matches the Way We Think

Online Video Wins the 9-5 Hour, Weekdays

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/498846569/081230-140550

Permalink /// Comments (0)

Page 1 of 31 pages  1 2 3 >  Last »