From: searchenginewatch.com

2008 has been an up and down year for Google. From their stock price to the various products they have introduced or updated - it would seem the bloom is finally off the rose.

All investors are aware that Google has had a 52 week swing of 707.95 to 247.30 this year and they are currently hovering around the $300 level. While this can be partially blamed on the general economic malaise of 2008, another part is the drop in growth rate of the company. Not surprising, given the large percentage of the market they already had going into the year and the decrease in overall advertising budgets.

All year long there have been claims that search advertising is recession proof. Well apparently, in the short term, this has not been the case, though given many bigger budgets are preset, it is possible we will see this swing in 2009.

The Yahoo-Google as partnership seems like another misstep by Google this year. What was once seen as a move to stop Microsoft from buying Yahoo, has left Yahoo in even worse financial straits following the dissolving of the agreement due to pressure from the Department of Justice.

I suggested another more sinister possibility, in my own blog, where Google knew what it was doing, but perhaps that was a mere conspiracy theory. But the demise of Ringside Networks despite involvement with Google is a sad story.

Google’s entry into the browser space did not go the way of most previous Google product launches. After 4 months, Chrome has barely grabbed 1% of the market - despite its promise and definite unique properties. Meanwhile, Mozilla has managed to increase to over 20%, and gets the bulk of its income from Google.

Though Chrome could be the future for Google - because while a browser it also is a web application execution platform. If they stay with their commitment, Chrome may be the product that ultimately makes Google the true organizer of the world’s information.

Meanwhile, they have also had some successes.

The search engine, itself, added a few features that are very handy and will only become more popular with time such as the information on when pages were created, improved the use of snippets, and indexing of Flash. Many also see the including of search suggest as a default as an improvement.

The jury is still out on some of the new products Google launched this year. SearchWiki - the ability to shape your search results - and Knol - the Google version of a wikipedia.

The introduction of the much hyped G-phone - G1 - has not yet been the iPhone killer it had been thought.

Google has been increasing its involvement with its users reaching out through a number of its publishing and social networking products - such as providing insights into converting traffic with Conversion Room, their commitment to Open Social and the Black Googlers Network.

They have even improved the quality of the videos over at YouTube and offered niched landing pages.

It has been a mixed bag this year for Google, but without a doubt the company continues to provide helpful products. What 2009 brings we will have to wait and see, but can know it will not be passive.

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/497729032/081229-035606

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From: sitepronews.com

Many of the videos uploaded to Youtube don’t use good video encoding settings and hence don’t look good when viewed. This spoils the viewing experience and can lead to your videos getting a lot less views than they really deserve. However this is a problem that is easily fixed. This article covers the main factors [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/29/essential-youtube-video-encoding-settings/

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From: sitepronews.com

Times are not easy, and writing articles online can help you get through this difficult period. The credit crunch is affecting just about everybody right now, and there is a way to use articles other than in traditional article marketing. Not that there is anything wrong with article marketing, but it takes time to [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/29/how-writing-articles-online-can-help-beat-the-credit-crunch/

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From: sitepronews.com

Thinking from the perspective of a computer science engineer, what is the fastest way to combat search engine spam and websites with low quality?, simply de-index them by raising the bar.
Are Search Engines Raising the Bar?
Everything leaves a trail, or rather a digital footprint. Things like the relationship of link clusters (when links were built/created/indexed), [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/29/seo-are-search-engines-raising-the-bar/

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From: google.com

It’s not surprising that Malcolm Gladwell’s new book has made a splash. All his thought-provoking writing does and deserves to.

The argument of Outliers:

• Where you’re born and when you’re born have an enormous amount to do with whether or not you’re successful.
• Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.
• Both of the bullet points above are far more important than the magical talent myth.

Bill Gates, the Beatles, Beethoven, Bill Joy, Tiger Woods--do the math, 10,000 hours of work.

In some ways, this is a restatement of the Dip. Being the best in the world brings extraordinary benefits, but it’s not easy to get there.

For me, though, some of the 10k analysis doesn’t hold up. The Doors (or Devo or the Bee Gees) for example, didn’t play together for 10,000 hours before they invented a new kind of rock*. If the Doors had encountered significantly more competition for their brand of music, it’s not clear that they could have gotten away with succeeding as quickly as they did. Hey, Miley Cyrus wasn’t even 10,000 hours awake before she became a hit.

Doc Searls and Scoble didn’t blog for 10,000 hours before they became the best, most important bloggers in the world. Molly Katzen didn’t work on her recipes for 10,000 hours before she wrote the Moosewood Cookbook either.

*(There were bar bands in Buffalo, where I grew up, that put in far more than 10,000 playing mediocre music… didn’t help. Hard work may be necessary, but not sufficient).

Here’s my take on it:
You win when you become the best in the world, however ‘best’ and ‘world’ are defined by your market. In many mature markets, it takes 10,000 hours of preparation to win because most people give up after 5,000 hours. That’s the only magic thing about 10k… it’s a hard number to reach, so most people bail.

Yo Yo Ma isn’t perfect… he’s just better than everyone else. He pushed through the Dip that others chose not to. I’m guessing that there are endeavors (like being CEO of a Fortune 500 company or partner at a big law firm) where the rewards are so huge that the number is closer to 20,000 hours or more to get through the Dip.

But, ready for this? The Dip is much closer in niche areas, new areas, unexplored areas. You can get through the Dip in an online network or with a new kind of music because being seen as the best in that area is easier (at least for now). You can get through the Dip as a real estate broker in a new, growing town a lot quicker than someone in midtown Manhattan. The competition is thinner and probably less motivated.

Yes, it matters where and when you were born. It matters that you get lucky. And it matters most of all that you saw the Dip, realized how far away it was and chose to push through it.

Read Original: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/JAJK4Ta52qE/10000-hours.html

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From: searchenginewatch.com

We began our discussion of site structure last week by looking at meta tags. In today’s SEM 101 column, “SEO Site Structure 101, Part 2,” Ron Jones continues exploring the SEO impact of site structure, including title tags, URL structure, and other on-page elements.

» Full story

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/497868471/081229-000001

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From: searchenginewatch.com

Many companies still believe they need to get users into their prospecting databases in order to market to them. But businesses capture a lot more information via social media about their consumers than they’ve ever had before. In today’s building brand equity column, “Will Social Networks Become the New Inbox? Part 2,” Erik Qualman explains that good businesses realize that the relationship still needs to be cultivated. Just like dating, companies need to learn how to court their customers in social networks.

» Full story

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/497868471/081229-000001

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From: google.com

Let’s say you’re stuck in the airport and you need to figure out if you can transfer your seat from your airline to another. Would you pay $20 to talk to a competent, empowered agent who answered on the first ring?

That’s four calls an hour, $80 an hour for an agent that costs the airline a fraction of that. A new profit center, one that causes joy, not hassles.

Of course, no one would use the service if it wasn’t worth paying for.

So, that’s the interesting challenge. If you had to charge for service, what would the service be like?

Increasingly, the web makes pricing cutthroat. And service suffers, because it’s expected for free. So charge. Or at least act like you could if you wanted to.

Read Original: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/yAFN9q8hKRU/service-worth-p.html

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From: google.com

If your pipes break at 3 am, Roto Rooter is happy.

They’re organized for emergencies like this, for moments when you have no choice but to do business with them. Since you’re out of options, their high-priced service is your best shot.

They do far less well in the light of day, when you can take your time and compare plumbers and perhaps bargain a little.

Some businesses prefer to catch you when you have no choice. They use market conditions or even patents to ensure that they can be the bully. I’m not sure that there’s anything wrong with this, but I’m certain that it is a deliberate choice.

Other businesses, like Amazon, do better when they have lots of competition. Amazon has made it easy for other vendors to use their technology platform and even to sell items on their site. Why? Because they understand that more competition brings more attention, more business, more commerce. And since they are organized for volume and are eager to compete, more competition helps them.

The only way to enjoy competition is to have something different, or better, or something that scales. You need to offer a community that increases in value as it scales, or a unique perspective or technology.

Compare Amazon to the folks that make the Invisible Fence® dog containment system. They hate competition. In my experience, they have really high prices, nasty policies and a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. That’s okay, as long as you really don’t have a choice--you need a system like this, and they have it. If there were a transparent market for this product, they’d fail in a heartbeat.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, and competition does show up. Then what?

If you run your restaurant knowing that there are dozens of other restaurants on your block, things will be easier when in fact there are other restaurants down the block.

Which situation benefits your church or your political candidate or your store? Do you better when you’re the only choice, with all the power that this brings, or when there are many choices, with all the audience and excitement that this brings?

You can pretend that you are unique, that you have no competition and never will. Inevitably, this will create an attitude that, while fun for a while, will probably harm you later. The alternative is to acknowledge that the competition exists and in fact, to encourage it. I have never met an author who believes that her book is the only one in the world you can buy… and this realization changes the way books are written and marketed.

The internet turns just about every category of goods or service into a bookstore-like bazaar of competition. You can either fight that or encourage it. No one will be exactly like you, not if you work hard, but it’s inevitable that there will be replacements just a click away.

Read Original: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/13EK4kNo77A/in-search-of-co.html

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From: sitepronews.com

If you have a child who still believes in Santa Claus, chances are you know about the NORAD Santa Tracker.
NORAD is the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization responsible for the aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada. NORAD’s Santa Tracker began in 2004, shortly after Keyhole technology was acquired by Google and the [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/27/how-google-tracked-santa-in-2008/

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From: searchenginewatch.com

Motley Fool has reported that holiday spending at eBay this year is lower than last year, despite the fact that one would expect them to be a good source of lower priced gifts in these hard economic times.

Meanwhile Amazon has reported higher sales numbers over last year.

Are people forgoing secondhand for discounted new items? Or is there another reason eBay is being bypassed?

To truly see what is happening I would like to be able to track the number of sales being done through Craigslist. Given you have to generally pay for shipping when buying through eBay, is it possible people are going through Craigslist to save the shipping and increase the buying power of their total dollar spend?

If we had these numbers maybe they would give eBay a way to continue their growth potential.

Online spending did have a spurt for the last weekend before Christmas as we reported the other day.

Could eBay have another growth spurt if they made localization easier to organize? Right now they have hit a wall, but it could be one they can move by making the interface a little more intuitive for new users and add better access to local auctions.

If you guys over at eBay use these ideas don’t forget to drop a few bucks in my Paypal account.

Read Original: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/495806803/081226-143615

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From: verticalmeasures.com

I often get asked what I do for a living, and when I reply all I get are confused looks. I often find myself explaining what a link is, and how link building can benefit website owners. This usually is a great introduction for my business and has landed me a few clients in the [...]

Read Original: http://www.verticalmeasures.com/link-building/what-is-link-building/

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From: sitepronews.com

Almost anyone can create a website these days, but only a select few will be able to maintain enough traffic for their site to be considered successful. Maintaining and increasing traffic to your website may not be a priority if you only have your website for personal purposes. If you run your business through your [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/26/donâ€(tm)t-be-a-bump-on-a-blog-how-to-effectively-use-a-blog-to-increase-website-traffic/

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From: sitepronews.com

Almost anyone can create a website these days, but only a select few will be able to maintain enough traffic for their site to be considered successful. Maintaining and increasing traffic to your website may not be a priority if you only have your website for personal purposes. If you run your business through your [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/26/donâ€(tm)t-be-a-bump-on-a-blog-how-to-effectively-use-a-blog-to-increase-website-traffic/

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From: sitepronews.com

How long do people stay on your site when they get there? In this article let’s talk about 8 ways to increase how long a visitor stays on your site so you can achieve more positive responses!
Getting traffic to your website is only half of the battle. The other half is getting them to stay [...]

Read Original: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/12/26/8-ways-to-increase-how-long-a-visitor-stays-on-your-site/

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