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Rounds Brings Engaging Video Chat to Facebook

2010-08-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

Rounds (formerly 6rounds.com) has announced the launch of an interactive video chat platform for Facebook Platform. Users have already been using Rounds to video chat in real time while engaging in various social activities and real-time games. Offering it for Facebook obviously opens up the door for a great deal more use, given that Facebook has half a billion users.

"We created Rounds to give online social networking and social gaming more of a real-time, fun, and collaborative feeling," Dany Fishel, co-founder and CEO of Rounds tells WebProNews. "Rounds bridges the gap between real life and the online world by helping people feel close to one another no matter how far apart they are geographically."

Rounds was founded in 2008 and has raised $2 million in venture capital funding from Rhodium and Startup Factory investment groups. "Social networking and social gaming continue to grow in popularity, but with Rounds, social networking just got a lot more social," Guy Weltsch, Managing Director at Rhodium tells us. "We were attracted to Rounds because its technology is unlike anything on the market today. Rounds will help take social networking to the next level."

As Rounds prepared its Facebook launch, Facebook launched its own Facebook Live video channel. "Seems like Facebook is trying to dial up the engagement level through video and Rounds definitely ties into this trend," a company rep says.

With the Rounds Facebook app, users can participate in video chats with no download requirements. The company suggests the following use cases: take snapshots of yourself and share them on Facebook, jointly browse Facebook content with friends, watch YouTube videos together, play real-time multi-user social games, Collaborate on virtual whiteboards, or co-browse with Google Maps. source: webpronews.com/topnews/

Yahoo Aims to Mainstream Hadoop with New Security and Workflow Offerings

2010-06-30T02:23:00.001-07:00

Yahoo made a significant announcement at its Hadoop Summit today. The company says it's made significant enhancements to the open source software, accelerating the potential for enterprise-wide adoption by mainstream businesses.

"Hadoop is where science meets big data – it's the technical underpinning that powers our innovative consumer and advertiser products on the world's most-advanced digital canvas," says Blake Irving, Yahoo Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer. "Yahoo!’s cloud and Hadoop make it possible for Yahoo! to rapidly personalize our content and advertising, and deliver highly relevant experiences, while maintaining the trust of our 600 million users."

Yahoo says Hadoop plays a key role in its home page, Yahoo Search, Yahoo Mail, and other properties.

"Businesses across all sectors are looking for ways to leverage the vast quantities of data they are accumulating, and Apache Hadoop is an efficient solution for processing data at scale," says Melanie Posey, research director at IDC Research. "Now organizations of various sizes can leverage Yahoo!'s Hadoop investment and deployments to run it on their own systems and build out their own Hadoop deployments without starting from scratch on internal science experiments."

Specifically, Yahoo announced the beta release of Hadoop with Security and Oozie, the company's workflow engine for Hadoop. This means enterprises will benefit from better controls for managing business-sensitive data, according to the company.

PayPal Lets Apps Accept Credit Cards

2010-06-28T01:39:00.001-07:00

PayPal has announced that it now accepts credit cards in apps. The company's payments platform, PayPal X, now has a Guest Payments feature.

"With this new feature, developers will now be able to accept credit card payments without requiring customers to open up a PayPal account," a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews.

Guest Payments is a product of PayPal's Adaptive Payments API, and has been a heavily requested feature for users. PayPal says Guest Payments eliminates the complications merchants, developers, and startups face in accepting credit cards.

"We're aware that no matter how innovative the ideas are, our developers look to us to provide the features to make it all possible," says Naveed Anwar, senior director of PayPal's Developer Network. " We're thrilled to provide this new functionality to meet this need and look forward to seeing the ground-breaking apps our developer community will create with this."

Google's Blogger Users Can Now Customize Their Designs

2010-06-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

Google has announced tah the Blogger Template Designer is now available to all (not just Blogger in Draft).
Original Article: Google has launched the Blogger Template Designer, a way to customize the look and feel of your Blogger blog.

"Over the past few years we've worked to scale Blogger and ensure that it is capable of handling hundreds of millions of pageviews per day," Google says. "But we also believe that blogging is about self expression and that an important part of expression is creating a custom design that expresses your unique voice. So last year we started working on a tool that would allow everyone to easily customize their blog’s look and feel, and today we’re proud to introduce the Blogger Template Designer."

Features of the template designer include:

- 15 new templates (with more on the way)
- Custom blog layouts with one, two and three columns
- Hundreds of background images courtesy of iStockphoto
- Customizable colors, fonts, and more.

"While alternative offerings force users to choose among a limited set of rigid template designs, Blogger provides an intuitive yet powerful interface so anyone to customize their blog's design & layout - putting the user in complete control," the company says.

PayPal Announces Some Pricing Changes

2010-06-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today, PayPal announced that it is making some changes to its user agreements and pricing. The changes are specifically related to refunds, chargebacks, and Amex payments.

PayPal senior director of SMB Merchant Services Eddie Davis outlines the following changes:

Refund Prices – Starting August 10, PayPal will retain the transaction fee (typically $.30) when a seller issues a refund (U.S. and Canada merchants).
Chargeback Prices – Starting August 24, we’ll be increasing chargeback costs from $10 to the typical industry rate of $20 (U.S. merchants only, eBay merchants enrolled in the PayPal Preferred program are exempt).
American Express Card Acceptance – On July 13, PayPal and American Express will enter into a new card processing arrangement that requires merchants to establish a direct contractual relationship with American Express. You’ll need to accept a new agreement with American Express if you want to continue to accept American Express cards directly through Website Payments Pro and Virtual Terminal. PayPal will continue to service American Express transactions. As part of this new agreement, the fees we charge for American Express payments will change to be on par with their typical industry rates. You’ll also need to make sure that you comply with other terms in the agreement with American Express. As part of this new agreement, American Express pricing will change to be on par with their typical industry rates. You’ll also need to make sure that you comply with other terms in the agreement with American Express. This only applies to taking American Express credit cards directly. There’s no change if a consumer chooses to pay with PayPal, no matter how the account is funded

Davis notes that standard transaction fees for PayPal payments and direct credit card payments for Visa, MasterCard, and Discover will remain unchanged.

Google Named In Class Action Suit Over Street View

2010-05-26T01:36:00.000-07:00

Google has been named in a new class action lawsuit filed by Carp Law Offices on behalf of Galaxy Internet Services and it WiFi users in Massachusetts.

The suit is focused on the collection and storage of WiFi information by Google's Street View team. The suit alleges Google had covert packet sniffing WiFi receivers to help gather data on WiFi users. The suit says the practice is in violation of both federal privacy laws and Massachusetts's new data privacy law.

Google has admitted it did collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using its Street View cars. Google says the collection of private data from WiFi networks was unintentional.

"Google had no reason to collect WiFi information, despite their rationale that they had not used the information and that the 'payload data' they collected was only network information available to anyone," said Robert Carp of Carp Law Offices.

"It is our client's belief and the belief of the class action members that the data they extracted was private information, and they have violated both Federal and Massachusetts state privacy laws."

The complaint asks for class action certification, and for an injunction to prevent Google from destroying any of the data that could be used for evidence in a class action trial in Federal court.

Google says it has stopped its Street View cars from collecting any WiFi network data and it also has introduced SSL encryption on its search engine.

Google Partners With Biggest Energy Monitor Manufacturer

2010-05-25T02:54:00.001-07:00

The Google PowerMeter energy monitoring tool may be ready to go from interesting experiment to omnipresent product. Google announced today that it's entered a partnership with Current Cost, the largest global supplier of real-time displays that monitor energy usage.

Neither organization is wasting time on paperwork or small-scale tests. A post on the Official Google.org Blog explained, "Current Cost will now offer devices that are compatible with Google PowerMeter. They will also offer upgrades to existing customers so that they too can monitor their energy consumption anywhere online with our software."

The post then continued, "Devices that integrate with Google PowerMeter will first be available in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand." Plus, "E.ON, one of the UK's largest utilities, has also teamed up with Current Cost to offer its customers a Google PowerMeter compatible energy monitor as part of its free 'Energy Fit Starter Pack.'"

These developments should put Google's name in front of a lot more people on a regular basis, acting as free advertising. They constitute fantastic PR, too, considering that Google PowerMeter promises to help folks both go green and save money.

It'll be very interesting to see what sort of adoption rate the PowerMeter/Current Cost technology achieves in the weeks and months ahead.

Google Releases Playable PAC-MAN Doodle

2010-05-24T03:07:00.001-07:00

Google has released a really cool playable doodle of PAC-MAN to celebrate the game's 30th birthday.

The Google Blog offers all the fun details. "Today, on PAC-MAN's 30th birthday, you can rediscover some of your 8-bit memories-or meet PAC-MAN for the first time-through our first-ever playable Google doodle. To play the game, go to google.com during the next 48 hours (because it's too cool to keep for just one day) and either press the 'Insert Coin' button or just wait for a few seconds."

Google says it has included all the original sounds and graphics of the original PAC-MAN along with an easter egg for Ms. PAC-MAN.
source : www.webpronews.com

Will Google Buzz Change the Social Media Game?

2010-02-14T03:58:00.000-08:00

Buzz has gotten off to a great start in terms of attracting users. Google said in a blog post yesterday that over 9 million posts and comments had been created, and they were seeing over 200 posts per minute. Both numbers have likely grown since then.

In the post, Google addresses some of the privacy concerns people have been having, and improvements they're making based on user feedback.

Update: Google has uploaded the entire Google Buzz launch event. If you are interested in seeing the new product unveiled, you can watch it below:

Article starts: Google held a press event to announce the most "buzzed" topic of the week - Google Buzz. This is Google's new product, which is being compared to social networks like Twitter and Facebook. It is integrated with Gmail and other Google products, and appears to be one of the missing links in tying Google together as a social network, a concept we've discussed repatedly.

Editor's Note: The bulk of this article was written before the announcement was made and has been adjusted to reflect the announcement itself, after liveblogging the press event.

Google says Buzz has five key elements:

1. Auto Following
2. Rich, Fast Sharing experience...
3. Support for public and private sharing....
4. In-box integration
5. Just the good stuff...

Buzz will show a thumbnail of a YouTube video and make it easy to play in line. With photos, they will show thumbnails, but Google built a custom photo viewer, which lets you flip through pictures and see them "big and fast". If you share links, it will automatically fetch headlines and photos from the post (similar to Facebook). You can "like" and "unlike" stuff, and expand comments. It works with keyword shortcuts from Gmail.

Public/Private sharing - The post box will let you post updates publicly or privately. If it's public, it will go to your Google profile, and is indexed by Google's real-time search. You can share privately, and it will let you send to groups and custom groups.

In your in-box, you will see buzz notifications that contain real-time comments. It sits in the same in-box as your regular email, but you can move between your regular in-box and your Buzz stuff. It integrates it right into Gmail.You can also use "@" for replies like with Twitter.

While Google Buzz is presented as a Gmail feature, it goes well beyond Gmail. For one, all public updates you post will be posted to your Google profile page, (which is searchable). In addition, Google launched three new mobile products for Buzz:

1. The ability to use Buzz from www.Google.com on iPhone/Android
2. Brand new app at buzz.google.com
3. Maps Update for Nokia Symbian/ Android.

Mobile could be one of the biggest keys to the success of this product. Google says Google.com is the world's most popular mobile home page, and Buzz can be accessed from there on iPhone and Android devices. Android's popularity is growing quickly too.

Buzz will find your location (if you let it) and snap your updates to that location. With the Google Maps feature, you can see what people are saying based on location. You can even use voice recognition to post buzz updates by voice.

Google: "Buzz Will Be Just Another Node"

2010-02-14T03:57:00.000-08:00

When Google announced Google Buzz earlier this week, the company made it abundantly clear that it was interested in Buzz being as open as possible. Looking at the Google Buzz API page, you'll see that support for Activity Streams, AtomPub, OAuth, PubSubHubbub, Salmon and WebFinger are things that are "coming soon."

What all of this means is that Google is working to make Buzz content something that can be used in as many services as possible, while letting as many services as possible come into Buzz.

"The idea is that someday, any host on the web should be able to implement these open protocols and send messages back and forth in real time with users from any network, without any one company in the middle," says Google software engineer DeWitt Clinton. "The web contains the social graph, the protocols are standard web protocols, the messages can contain whatever crazy stuff people think to put in them. Google Buzz will be just another node (a very good node, I hope) among many peers. Users of any two systems should be able to send updates back and forth, federate comments, share photos, send @replies, etc., without needing Google in the middle and without using a Google-specific protocol or format."

Google has most recently turned on WebFinger in Gmail (via RRW). WebFinger is described as being about making email addresses more valuable, by letting people attach metadata to them. According to the WebFinger page at Google Code, that can include things like:

- public profile data
- pointer to identity provider (e.g. OpenID server)
- a public key
- other services used by that email address (e.g. Flickr, Picasa, Smugmug, Twitter, Facebook, and usernames for each)
- a URL to an avatar
- profile data (nickname, full name, etc)
- whether the email address is also a JID, or explicitly declare that it's NOT an email, and ONLY a JID, or any combination to disambiguate all the addresses that look like something@somewhere.com
- or even a public declaration that the email address doesn't have public metadata, but has a pointer to an endpoint that, provided authentication, will tell you some protected metadata, depending on who you authenticate as.

WebFinger is enabled for all Gmail/Google Profiles with public profiles. Google's Brad Fitzpatrick discusses more technical details about it here.

Twitter Launches Local Trends for Everyone

2010-01-27T09:25:00.001-08:00

For a week or so, some Twitter users have been seeing a new feature called Local Trends. This feature shows users things that are being heavily talked about at the city and state levels. Twitter has now announced that the feature is live for all users.

"Twitter trends began as a way to shed light on popular conversations. It's interesting to know that one topic can now spread across the world in real-time, and Trends help us discover which of those topics are paramount on a global scale," says Twitter's @jennadawn. "As Twitter evolves, and more people share what’s happening in their own world, we want to provide another way for people to discover topics that may be relevant to them."

At this point Local Trends are only available for the following areas:

"The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation, but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama's election victory, versus those São Paulo, Brazil?" she continues. "Local Trends will allow you to learn more about the nuances in our world and discover even more relevant topics that might matter to you."

The feature could prove especially helpful for bloggers and journalists covering local news. At the very least, it will show what people are most interested in, in any particular area.

Twitter says it will be improving the feature over time by providing more locations, languages, and data through the Twitter API. There aren't many locations available yet, but once the feature gets built up it should present an interesting picture of what people are talking about everywhere, which could be quite interesting.

Google Highlights Answers in Search Results

2010-01-23T23:38:00.000-08:00

Google has launched a new feature for search called "answer highlighting." This is based on Google Squared, Google's structured data project announced last year at the company's Searchology event. What it does is highlight answers to applicable queries within the search snippet.

For example, if the query is "empire state height," it will bold the actual answer for that, in addition to the words used in the query. Previously, it would have only bolded those words.

"Most information on the web is unstructured. For example, blogs integrate paragraphs of text, videos and images in ways that don't follow simple rules. Product review sites each have their own formats, rating scales and categories. Unstructured data is difficult for a computer to interpret, which means that we humans still have to do a fair amount of work to synthesize and understand information on the web," says Google. "Google Squared is one of our early efforts to automatically identify and extract structured data from across the Internet. We've been making progress, and today the research behind Google Squared is, for the first time, making search better for everyone with a new feature called 'answer highlighting.'"

Don't expect answer highlighting to be present in all search results, because in many cases, it just doesn't make sense. You are more likely to come across it when there are specific answers or data involved.

Google also launched rich snippets for events today. To learn more about the RDFa, which helps Google find content for rich snippets. Google has been using rich snippets for things like product reviews, and people information, but now events will sometimes utilize them. For example, if you search for a concert venue, you may see a few upcoming concerts listed.

Twitter Going To The Dogs

2010-01-23T21:46:00.001-08:00

Toy maker Mattel said today it is set to roll out a new product in the fall called "Puppy Tweets" that will allow dogs to send tweets to their own Twitter account.

Puppy Tweets is a plastic tag with a sound and motion sensor that attaches to a dog collar and connects to a USB receiver in a computer. The pet owner creates a Twitter account for the dog and then can receive tweets on a smartphone or desktop.

The tag features a number of pre-recorded tweets that are activated by a dog's activities. If the dog is running around a tweet might read, "I finally caught that tail I've been chasing and OOUUCHH!" Everyone knows that if dogs could tweet that's how they would sound.

If the dog is resting it will tweet "Somedays it feels like my paw is permanently on the snooze button!" If the dog is barking it will tweet "Yahoooooo! Somedays you just gotta get your bark on."

"Puppy Tweets capitalizes on two popular trends - the use of social media and real time communication, as well as peoples' extreme love for their dogs," said Susan Russo, Mattel's director of marketing.

Puppy Tweets will be available at retailers in the fall for $29.99. No word yet if there will be a similar product for cats or if Puppy Tweets can alert dog owners if their pet is having an accident on the carpet. source from :www.webpronews.com

Do Facebook and Twitter Threaten or Compliment the News Industry?

2010-01-23T21:42:00.001-08:00

Five reporters from radio stations in in Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland are going to spend five days locked in a French farmhouse with only Twitter and Facebook to get their news. It's not a lame reality show, but an experiment looking at the quality of news from social media.

This experiment may be flawed from the start. One can almost imagine that people will purposely put out false information via Twitter and Facebook just to mess with these people (they can be followed on Twitter [updates in French]). Reporting on this story, AFP's Marie-Dominique Follain asks if social media is really a serious threat to established media.

It appears that the credibility of social media as a way to get news is what is coming into question (not that this is the first time that has happened). "People tweet about fake events. Social media is rife with hoaxes," people will say. Yes, that's true.

People do put out false information, but what seems to be overlooked is that Facebook and Twitter are just the platforms for people posting their updates. They often are accompanied by links to blogs and traditional news sources. While the group have agreed to only connect to the outside world through Facebook and Twitter, and no web surfing, they are reportedly still allowed to follow links to outside sites from these social networks. With the 140-character limit of Twitter in particular, linking out is often very necessary in getting the whole story across, or at least gaining access to that story from the reader's perspective.

Maybe I will be proven wrong, but I don't see any possible result coming from this experiment that indicates social media is not useful for finding news. I don't believe social media threatens traditional media. It compliments it, in a variety of ways.

Sometimes stories break there before they are reported by a traditional source...that's a source for that traditional channel. It could just as easily come from someone saying something in a crowded bar. If it's newsworthy, it might be worth covering, but it might be a lie, and facts are worth checking. It's just that with channels like Facebook and Twitter, those bars are as big as the entire world, and the patrons aren't all there to relax, drink, and have a good time (though some of them certainly are).
Not all news breaks on social media (although the ever-increasing accessibility to social media through mobile seems to be greatly narrowing the margin), but social media is always there for open discussion about the news, which tends to make for a more rounded outlook on any particular event. It doesn't eliminate the bias, but it provides a means for all biases to come together to form a more complete view of the story. Open discussion allows for points to be made that wouldn't necessarily be made by a traditional news outlet because maybe that outlet does have some kind of bias, even if it strives not to. Some say everyone has some bias.

The fact that people do turn to social media for news emphasizes the fact that they do want a look at the whole picture, and do want to have open discussion on matters. True, some of that is pointless noise, but strewn throughout that are often important facts and otherwise unconsidered viewpoints.
source from : www.webpronews.com

Google States Case for Online News in WSJ

2009-12-03T22:40:00.000-08:00

Original Article: Google has created a new web crawler specifically for Google News. What this means is that publishers who do not want Google News to index their content can more easily control that. That also applies to publishers who don't wish to completely cut out indexing, but wish to limit/restrict certain elements of their content from being indexed.

Google offers this new crawler at a time when Google's relationship with online news is a heavy focus of discussion throughout the industry, with the FTC's meeting of the media minds taking place. This week Google already announced some changes to how it handles paid content (by offering a five-article limit for the "first click free" plan). Now the company appears to be further extending its olive branch to concerned publishers (whether or not that will be enough is another discussion).

In the past, publishers have been able to block Google from content via robots.txt and the Robots Extension Protocol (REP). They have also been able to keep content out of Google News and stay in Google Search, by using a contact form provided by Google. Now, Google is making it so publishers don't even have to contact them.

"Now, with the news-specific crawler, if a publisher wants to opt out of Google News, they don't even have to contact us - they can put instructions just for user-agent Googlebot-News in the same robots.txt file they have today," says Google News Senior Business Product Manager Josh Cohen. "In addition, once this change is fully in place, it will allow publishers to do more than just allow/disallow access to Google News. They'll also be able to apply the full range of REP directives just to Google News. Want to block images from Google News, but not from Web Search? Go ahead. Want to include snippets in Google News, but not in Web Search? Feel free. All this will soon be possible with the same standard protocol that is REP."

"While this means even more control for publishers, the effect of opting out of News is the same as it's always been," says Cohen. "It means that content won't be in Google News or in the parts of Google that are powered by the News index. For example, if a publisher opts out of Google News, but stays in Web Search, their content will still show up as natural web search results, but they won't appear in the block of news results that sometimes shows up in Web Search, called Universal search, since those come from the Google News index."

Cohen says Google News users shouldn't notice any difference in their experience with the service. It will be interesting to see the reaction from disgruntled publishers, and whether or not this will make any significant difference in how they view Google News.

LinkedIn, Microsoft Outlook To Forge Ties

2009-11-19T02:14:00.000-08:00

Heavy users of LinkedIn and Microsoft Outlook will soon have to do a lot less tab-toggling. Microsoft has introduced something called the Outlook Social Connector, and early next year, LinkedIn will become the first networking site to support it.

As you'll see in a moment, the Outlook Social Connector is an accurately named offering. A post on the LinkedIn Blog explained that, with it, a user will be able to "[k]eep up with LinkedIn connections right from your email inbox." You can see a picture of what that'll look like below.

Then comes click-saver number two: the ability to email LinkedIn contacts straight from Outlook. The Outlook Social Connector will create an Outlook Contacts folder with all of their info, and automatically fill in "to" fields when users start to type out people's names.

Finally, while using Outlook, it'll become easier to forge new connections. The post suggested, "Just click a button next to any e-mail you receive and instantly send an invitation to connect to the e-mail's sender."

We'll admit: there may not be a huge market for this sort of thing. But in certain sectors (HR, PR, etc.), the Outlook Social Connector's tie-up with LinkedIn should come in handy, and will likely increase the profiles of both entities.

Get Your Videos Indexed in Google Results

2009-09-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

Google wants webmasters who offer video content to be able to get their videos displayed in search results more easily. The company has announced that that it now supports Facebook Share and Yahoo SearchMonkey RDFa, which are both markup formats that allow webmasters to specify information that is important to video indexing.

"While we've become smarter at discovering this information on our own, we'd certainly appreciate some hints directly from webmasters," says Google's Michael Cohen, Product Manager for the Video Search Team.

The formats cater to simple things like titles and descriptions within the HTML of a video page. Google by the way also suggests that webmasters make their markup on video pages appear in the HTML without the execution of JavaScript or Flash.

On top of supporting the aforementioned formats, Google has also kicked off a series of Webmaster Central Blog posts, which are aimed at giving tips to get your videos indexed. One subject they have already discussed is the submission of video sitemaps.

Webmasters can submit their video sitemaps to Google via Webmaster Tools. The video sitemap uses the Sitemap protocol, but it also has additional video-specific tags. The details on how to create a video sitemap are explained here.

Keep an eye the Webmaster Central Blog for further tips in the near future. You can see what Facebook Share and Yahoo SearchMonkey RDFa look like here.

Facebook Protects User's Data In Civil Case

2009-09-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Privacy advocates who are in the habit of protesting Facebook's policies may owe the social network an apology. When an airline subpoenaed a user's data, and even after fines were later levied, Facebook refused to hand anything over.

For better or for worse, we'll never know whether Facebook would have been willing to send armies of lawyers to the Supreme Court; the matter came to an anticlimactic end when the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission backed down and the woman at the center of things agreed to release the data, anyway.

Still, here's the story. Shana Hensley hurt her back while working for Colgan Airlines and began to collect disability benefits. Then, as Declan McCullagh reports, "After about 18 months . . . Colgan Air claimed that Hensley was not cooperating with its efforts to find her a desk job and appears to have concluded that Hensley's holiday vacation photos posted on her Facebook account would demonstrate that any back problems were not severe."

Hensley's Facebook info was subpoenaed, Facebook stood its ground, the Workers' Compensation Commission enacted a $200-per-day fine, and when Facebook cited the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, everybody backed down.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt explained his company's actions to Peter Bacque by stating, "Facebook is built on trust and users rely on us to enforce their privacy settings."
source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/09/15/facebook-protects-users-data-in-civil-case

Google Introduces New Drawing and Form Features for Docs

2009-09-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Google has launched some new features for Google Docs. They have made a couple improvements to drawings and added several new features to Forms.

As far as drawings, Google has made it easier for users to build flowcharts, by adding 20 new shapes for standard flowchart components. In addition, users now have more control over drawing text layout by supporting explicit line breaks in text boxes and text within shapes. The features can be accessed, by simply inserting a drawing into any document, spreadsheet, or presentation.

As far as forms, you can now gather responses for a group of similar questions in a new, compact grid format. The Grid question type lets users label several columns and create a limitless number of new rows. Row results appear in their own spreadsheet columns with their own summary charts.

The summary charts themselves actually have new formatting as well:

The form editor supports right-to-left text input now. “When you enter RTL text in the form editor, it will automatically switch the directionality of the form editor and rendered forms (similar to Gmail and other Google Apps),” explains User Interface Software Engineer Eric Bogs on the Google Docs blog. “This means your text and questions will flip directionality, making it easier for RTL users to create and use forms.”

Google Apps customers have two options for using forms within their organizations now. They can automatically collect respondents’ usernames as usual, and they can also now require sign-in to view a form.

Google Shares New Privacy Policy for Books

2009-09-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Google has introduced a new privacy policy for Google Books, to try and appease the critics of Google's enormous book indexing project. The company has also been in communication with the Federal Trade Commission, and has discussed both the new policy and a letter to the FTC on the Google Public Policy Blog.

Google is still waiting approval from the court on its settlement agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, so some services discussed in the privacy policy don't even exist yet.

"Our privacy policies are usually based on detailed review of a final product -- and on weeks, months or years of careful work engineering the product itself to protect privacy," says Google Global Privacy Counsel Jane Horvath. "In this case, we've planned in advance for the protections that will later be built, and we've described some of those in the Google Books policy."

The privacy policy can be read here.

Microsoft Answers Common adCenter API Questions

2009-09-08T10:33:00.002-07:00

API Still in Pilot Phase, Will Open Up Eventually

Microsoft says it has had a lot of questions lately about access to adCenter API tokens, and the company has addressed these issues on the adCenter API blog. The API program is still in the "pilot" phase, so API tokens are not available to everybody.

"Each request is reviewed for certain criteria," explains Microsoft's Chris Norred. "Users who have a track record of monthly expenditures with adCenter are provided access to the pilot. Other criteria are also considered."

"We receive several requests from new businesses or developers who build tools or services using the adCenter API and have goals to deliver more spend," Norred continues. "Currently, however, support for the adCenter API in the pilot phase cannot serve all these potential customers."

The API lets users create apps that can:

- Create and manage adCenter campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads.

- Obtain the status on ad groups, keywords, and ads.

- Pause and resume ad groups.

- Generate keyword estimates.

- Generate reports about campaign performance.

- Perform ad group targeting.

Microsoft is planning to extend adCenter API access, as well as access to more APIs related to Microsoft advertising services. Currently access to the API is limited to the highest-spending customers, and tokens aren't available for purchase or through other channels, but in the future, access will be opened up for users who meet "a minimum criteria."

Microsoft does not charge for tokens, and the terms of use prohibit their reselling. The company says it will keep interested parties updates via the blog.

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Google Releases Instant Messaging API

2009-09-08T10:33:00.001-07:00

Google has announced the release of a new API for building Talk bots on top of Google App Engine, Google's product that lets developers create and host web apps on the Google infrastructure.

Google has released version 1.2.5 of the App Engine software developer kit (SDK) for Python and Java. This happens to be the company's first simultaneous release for both. The API includes XMPP (also referred to as Jabber) support, which is an open standard for instant messaging. This comes in the form of the XMPP API for both SDKs.

"Like the other APIs that App Engine provides for developers, XMPP is built on the same powerful infrastructure that serves other Google products," says Google on the App Engine Blog. "In this case, we take advantage of the servers that run Google Talk. This new API allows your app to exchange messages with users on any XMPP-based network, including (but not limited to!) Google Talk."

Developers involved with the preview of Google Wave can also use the API to build bots that interact with waves. Wave will be available to schools and businesses this fall, by the way.
"We're very proud of our first XMPP release, but there's still more work to do," says Google. "In the future we hope to provide even more functionality to apps, such as user status (presence) and info on new subscriptions."

More information about the API and SDKs can be found in this post.

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Microsoft Granted Motion to stay Word Injunction

2009-09-08T10:32:00.001-07:00

XML-Related Patent Issues Cause Trouble for MS, Company Will Appeal

Update: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reportedly granted Microsoft's motion to stay an injunction that would prohibit the software giant from selling Word. The injunction had an effective date of Oct. 10, but the motion to stay blocks the injunction until the appeal process is complete, according to The Microsoft Blog.

Original Article: A Texas judge has reportedly ruled that Microsoft cannot sell any version of Word in the US that can open .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML. Seattlepi's Microsoft Blog points to an announcement by the plaintiff, i4i.

In May, i4i in Toronto got $200 million from Microsoft, when a federal jury found that Microsoft infringed on the company's patent. That patent is 11 years old. The abstract reads:

A system and method for the separate manipulation of the architecture and content of a document, particularly for data representation and transformations. The system, for use by computer software developers, removes dependency on document encoding technology. A map of metacodes found in the document is produced and provided and stored separately from the document. The map indicates the location and addresses of metacodes in the document. The system allows of multiple views of the same content, the ability to work solely on structure and solely on content, storage efficiency of multiple versions and efficiency of operation.

The entire thing can be read here.

"We are disappointed by the court's ruling," a Microsoft spokesman is quoted as saying in a statement. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We will appeal the verdict."

Four New Gmail Themes Released

2009-09-08T10:31:00.002-07:00

Gmail users who require that everything be just so may be in luck; a few new personalization opportunities have been made available in the form of four new themes. And in fact, one of the four themes caters to indecisive types, so members of the Gmail team really covered their bases.

All right, we admit it - these Gmail themes aren't going to generate Google's next billion dollars. In all likelihood, they won't even convince more than one or two souls (if that) to switch from Hotmail or Yahoo Mail.

Still, these are the first new themes in about ten months, so on we go.

Pictured on the left below is a screenshot of what Googlers Jake Knapp and Manu Cornet identified on the Official Gmail Blog as the "Orcas Island" theme. Knapp promised "a new image each day of the week."

On the right, you can see what Cornet called "High Score." It should seem familiar to anyone who spent more than a few minutes playing the original Nintendo.

The third theme is called "Turf." It shows some green grass and not much more. Finally, Cornet wrote that the "Random" theme "merely cycles through all the others."

Knapp and Cornet welcomed feedback if you're inclined to give it, and they also indicated that still more themes might wander down the pipeline at some point.

Bit.ly Shortens URL Shorteners

2009-09-08T10:31:00.001-07:00

On Twitter, Every Character Counts

URL-shortening service bit.ly, the favorite of Twitter, has introduced a new URL-shortening service, or an extension of the original one rather. The new one is j.mp, which as you can see by looking at it resides at a domain with very few characters.

That is exactly the reason bit.ly has introduced it. The company says that for some people, "every character counts," and that is certainly true in the Twitter age, where a maximum of 140 characters is allowed per tweet.

"j.mp has the same short URLs, metrics, history, user accounts (you’ll have to login again, but your bit.ly accounts will carry over), and customization you’ve come to enjoy on bit.ly, all on a short, memorable domain," says bit.ly on its blog.

So by simply using j.mp instead of bit.ly, you will be saving two characters automatically. This doesn't seem like a major difference, but it could be the difference between including one more word or not.

To some people - particularly marketers, tweets could almost be thought of like an email subject line. Having the right words can be key in getting someone to click a link (the tweeting equivalent to an email open).

Then there is the subject of being found in real-time searches. Keywords play a very important role in what tweets appear in these results. When there is a 140-character max, every character certainly can count. Either way, using a service like j.mp could save you from having to abbreviate certain words, which can frankly, sometimes make your message sound dumber.

We've certainly seen a lot of URL-shortening services appear over the last year or so, and I suspect we'll see quite a few more. I have a feeling that we might see more going for this as-short-as-possible approach with them in the future. J.mp has a pretty good advantage being an extension of bit.ly though.
source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/09/04/bitly-shortens-url-shorteners

Tips for Getting Found in Real-Time Searches

2009-09-08T10:30:00.001-07:00

Real-time search is still an emerging concept. At this point, using a real-time search engine will bring you results by time/date. This doesn’t always cater to relevancy, which is why there is still a lot of work to be done in this field.

So, if real-time results are based upon time/date, and the user’s query, it stands to reason that time and those queries are the most important components in getting your content found in these types of searches.

1. Use Keywords

This seems obvious, but use keywords in not only your content, but in your titles, and your updates. If you’re writing an article, you have to consider what people are going to include in their updates if they share it on a social network, whether this be Facebook, Twitter, or anything else.

More often than not, they are going to include the title. If the right keywords are in the title, then those keywords are also more likely to appear in any ensuing tweets, Facebook updates, etc. If someone searches for those keywords, they will be more likely to find your content in a real-time search.

The same goes for your own Tweets/status updates. Even if you are not sharing an article, if you want your update to be found, use relevant keywords. Again, obvious, but true.

2. Talk About Timely Events

Simply mentioning events that are current will put you directly into the results for any searches having to do with that topic, provided the right keywords are in play. This is a method that could and (surely is) being exploited by spammers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t provide legitimate conversation and simply put yourself on more people’s radars, without throwing links at them every time.

3. Have a Lot of Followers

If you have a lot of followers or friends on social networks, or even just readers of your blog, you are going to get more people sharing your content. The more people sharing your content, the more impressions of your content will be making their way into real time searches.

There is no easy way to instantly get a bunch of legitimate readers/followers. It will take some promotion. Provide useful content that people will link to and it will spread virally. Provide clear ways for them to follow you (like links to Facebook pages and Twitter accounts on your blog).

4. Promote Conversation

Whether on your blog or on a social network, spark conversations. Talk about topics that people are interested in. This is tied to number 2. The more conversations you are involved with, the more retweets (and equivalents on other networks) you are likely to get. And again, this means more impressions in real times searches.

5. Include Calls to Engagement

I recently talked about why there is more to retweeting than meets the eye for businesses. I mentioned the use of buttons like Tweetmeme’s and Digg’s. These are buttons you can put on articles that show the amount of retweets/diggs that article has. They kind of act as a meter for engagement.

These buttons are certainly not all-encompassing. They only represent the conversation on 2 channels, and not the web in general. I’m sure there are other buttons that can be used in addition.

More importantly though, they provide a “call to action” to share the content. People can digg or retweet a story with a simple click, and you’re one step closer to being found in somebody’s real-time search.

Wrapping Up

Real-time search is much more basic (at least so far) than say, Google Search. You’re not ranking for relevancy. Really, you could hardly call it ranking it all. It’s about visibility. That means, you have to get people talking about your content/updates.

Social media by nature is viral. Real-time search is nothing more than putting things in chronological order. You have to keep people talking to stay relevant to “right now.”

source: http://www.webpronews.com/

Facebook Pages to Get Click Through Rates

2009-09-08T10:29:00.002-07:00

If you are the owner or an admin of a Facebook page, you are probably familiar with Facebook's Insights. This is Facebook's analytical offering that lets page admins see how fans are engaging.

BuzzMarketing Daily discovered that there is a blurb in the Fan Interaction Dashboard, which you can get to by clicking "learn more" from the Facebook Insights page, which talks about a couple of new metrics that are on the way (via Inside Facebook).

The new metrics are Click Through Rate and Engagement Rate for content that appears in the Facebook news feed. As described in the blurb, if a user clicks on one of your posts, it will be counted as "Stream CTR" and if a user likes or comments on a post, it will be counted under Stream ETR.

One knock against social media marketing has historically been its lack of measurable success. Metrics like this should be able to go a long way toward curing that.

With Facebook's Insights, you can already look at interactions (numbers of comments, wall posts, and likes), Interactions Per Post (average number of comments, wall posts and likes for each piece of content), Post Quality (score measuring engagement), Discussion Posts (number of discussion topics created on your page), and Reviews (number of times fans use the Reviews app to rate you page).

Suffice it to say, there are a number of things you can look at to gauge the success you are having with your Facebook page, and depending on what areas you are lacking in, you can take the necessary steps to try and improve - just like with any other analytics program.
source: http://www.webpronews.com/

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Google News Italia Probe Expands

2009-09-08T10:29:00.001-07:00

Google received a piece of bad news - and perhaps a laugh - today as we prepare to go into the long weekend. Here's the serious part: Italian antitrust regulators have decided to expand the focus of an investigation from the Italian version of Google News to the entire corporation.

Things began to heat up last week when an Italian newspaper federation claimed that Google would exclude papers from its normal search results when they opted out of Google News. Google Italy's offices got searched, and the concept of an $18.5 million fine was mentioned.

Now, according to an AGI article, Italy's antitrust authority has stated, "On the basis of inspections by the authority, it has been found that the management of the Google News Italia service, currently under a preliminary investigation, was handled by Google Inc."

What brilliant detective work, right? Sherlock Holmes has been reincarnated in Rome.

Still, given a choice between chuckling at obvious statements and not facing an inquiry, Google would probably pick the second option. The fact that this investigation's picked up speed in just one week isn't a great sign.

source:http://www.webpronews.com/

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New Trend Tracking Feature in Google Finance

2009-09-08T10:28:00.001-07:00

Google has introduced Google Domestic Trends on Google Finance. This is a feature that tracks search traffic (on Google) across specific sectors of the economy.

"The changes in the search volume of a given sector on google.com may provide useful economic insight," Google says. "We have created 23 indexes that track the major economic sectors, such as retail, auto and unemployment. Each index value is baselined at 1.0 on January 1, 2004 and is calculated and displayed on the Google Finance charts as a 7-day moving average. You can easily compare actual stocks and market indexes to these Google Trends on the charts."

The trends the feature tracks include:

- Advertising and Marketing
- Air Travel
- Auto Buyers
- Auto Financing
- Automotive
- Banking and Personal Finance
- Business
- Computers and Electronics
- Construction
- Credit and Lending
- Durable Goods
- Finance and Insurance
- Furniture
- Industries
- Investments
- Jobs
- Luxury Goods
- Mortgage
- Real Estate
- Rental
- Retail Trade
- Travel
- Unemployment

Google shares an example of the Luxuries Index, which tracks queries like [jewelry], [rings], [diamond], [ring], [jewelers], [tiffany], etc.

Data from the indexes are available for download, letting users utilize it in their own models. More information about the indexes can be found here. The Domestic Trends feature comes as the result of research from Google's Chief Economist Hal Varian, who explains his methodology here.

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Google News SEO Tips - Ranking in News Search

2009-09-08T10:27:00.002-07:00

I thought that one of the more interesting topics addressed at Search Engine Strategies San Jose a while back was that of SEO and the publishing industry. This is an industry seemingly at war with entities like Google (at least partially), even though there are clearly measures publishers could take, which would make Google and Google News in particular work to their advantage.

Have you had success ranking in Google News? Comment.

Google News is a very useful resource to online news seekers. It seems to get more and more useful as time goes on. For example, they just started incorporating real-time search suggestions into news queries. Publishers should embrace such a tool (Google News) that users themselves embrace, and can ultimately gain them more traffic.

his week, Google has shared some insight into search engine optimization practices for news search. Publishers could learn a lot from the following video.
In addition to the video, Google's Maile Ohye answered a couple of questions about Google News SEO on the Google News blog. For one, she says that adding a city to the title of the publication will not help publishers target their local audience, because Google extracts geography and location information from the articles themselves.

"Changing your name to include relevant keywords or adding a local address in your footer won't help you target a specific audience in our News rankings," she says.

She also says that Google only wants recently added URLs in publishers' News Sitemaps, because they direct Googlebot to the publishers' breaking information. "If you include older URLs, no worries (there's no penalty unless you're perceived as maliciously spamming -- this case would be rare, so again, no worries); we just won't include those URLs in our next News crawl," says Ohye.

A few weeks ago, a patent was granted to Google for "systems and method for improving the ranking of news articles." The patent was originally filed way back in 2003, so there is no question that some of the details have changed, but within it there are a number of factors highlighted, some of which may be ranking factors Google News considers.

In one "implementation consistent with the principles of the invention," here are some factors that are mentioned:

- a number of articles produced by the news source during a first time period

- an average length of an article produced by the news source

- an amount of important coverage that the news source produces in a second time period

- a breaking news score

- an amount of network traffic to the news source

- a human opinion of the news source

- circulation statistics of the news source

- a size of a staff associated with the news source

- a number of bureaus associated with the news source

- a number of original named entities in a group of articles associated with the news source

- a breadth of coverage by the news source

- a number of different countries from which network traffic to the news source originates

- the writing style used by the news source

A couple months ago, Google posted a Google News publisher FAQ page. That answers questions like:

- Can I suggest my personal website for inclusion in Google News?

- What requirements do I have to meet in order to be included in Google News?

- My website was accepted in Google News a few days ago, but I still can't find my articles. Is something wrong?

- Why aren't my images showing up in Google News?

- Why do all my articles have a strange title in Google News, like "Share this" or "By Jane Q. Journalist"?

- What is the "unique number" or "3 digit" rule?

- Should I submit a News sitemap?

- Why can't I see the option to submit a News sitemap in Webmaster Tools?

- Once I've submitted a News sitemap, do I have to resubmit it each time I publish a new article?

- If I submit a News sitemap, will Google News stop crawling my regular section pages?

- How often does Google News crawl my News sitemap? In Webmaster Tools, it appears to be crawled only once per day.

- Why have my articles stopped appearing in Google News, even though they've been showing up previously?

The moral of the story is that there are a lot of things you can look at if you are serious about getting traffic from Google News, whether you are already being picked up or not. The best part is that most of it is straight from Google itself.

Google Homepage Patent Gratuitous?

2009-09-08T10:27:00.001-07:00

In early 2004, Google's lawyers didn't have nearly enough to do. A patent on the design of Google's homepage (AKA its "[g]raphical user interface for a display screen of a communications terminal") that they applied for at that time was granted Tuesday.

Let us know what you think in the comments section.

What Google's going to do with the patent is, frankly, anybody's guess. No corporation with the ability to approach Google's effectiveness at search would be dumb enough to copy its exact design. And it'd be a rare judge who would let Google take action against Yahoo or other search rivals on the basis of similarities born out of identical functions.

There's a question of prior art, as well, since Google might not have been the first entity to stick a search box in the middle of a mostly-blank page.

Anyway, in case you're curious, part of the patent states, "The single view is a front view of a graphical user interface for a display screen of a communications terminal."

Also, "The broken line of the display screen and the broken line showing of certain words and numbers in the drawing are for illustrative purposes only and form no part of the claimed design."

source: http://www.webpronews.com/

Another Google Summer Of Code Concludes

2009-08-26T22:29:00.001-07:00

Google's fifth Summer of Code has ended, and by all accounts, it was quite a success. Indeed, the students' official success rate this year was judged to be the highest ever, and with 2,000 mentors and 1,000 students participating, that's no statistical fluke.

The Summer of Code is, in case you didn't know, a program Google runs to bring young people into contact with free and open source projects. Accepted students are given a choice between many different projects (there were 150 options this year), along with mentors and stipends.

This presents them with the opportunity to pick up coding skills, forge professional connections, and make a little cash. It's a very good deal for which many people compete.

And that brings us back to this year's record-high success rate. As a post on the Official Google Blog acknowledges, "85 percent of our student participants have successfully completed their projects." That number hasn't been higher than 83 percent in the past.

Leslie Hawthorn, the Summer of Code Program Manager, then continued, "We'd like to congratulate all of our student participants for their hard work and tremendous achievements this summer. We're excited to hear that many of our students have planned out the next few months of their coding work with their chosen open source project."

Google Shares Interesting Malware Stats

2009-08-26T22:17:00.001-07:00

Google is sharing some interesting statistics on malware, such as the number of entries on the Google Safe Browsing Malware List that have occurred over the last twelve months, and search results containing a URL labeled as harmful.

“We’re glad to share this sort of data because we believe that collaboration and information sharing are crucial in driving anti-malware efforts forward,” says Niels Provos of Google’s Security Team.

Number of Entries on the Google Safe Browsing Malware List

“As we mentioned in our Top-10 Malware Sites blog post, we have seen a large increase in the number of compromised sites since April,” says Provos. “The number of entries on our malware list has more than doubled in one year, and we have seen periods in which 40,000 web sites were compromised per week. However, compared to infections associated with Gumblar and Martuz — two relatively large and well-known pieces of malicious code, many compromised web sites now point to hundreds of different domains.”

In January of last year, 1.2% of all Google search queries contained at least one such result. The trend has mostly been downward in the time that has passed since then, although you can see fluctuations.

Search Results Containing a URL Labeled as Harmful

Google says that as malware trends evolve, they’re constantly improving their systems to better detect compromised sites. The company notes that the increase in compromised sites they observed could partially be influenced by such improvements.

Yahoo to compete with Bing despite Microsoft deal

2009-08-25T03:29:00.001-07:00

Yahoo Inc said on Monday it has revamped its search to compete against Microsoft Corp's Bing, even as it relies on the Redmond giant to power its queries.

The announcement of plans to put a new face on Yahoo Messenger and Mail and add functions to its search engine came after news that Google and Yahoo each lost a fraction of a point of U.S. search share to Microsoft last month [nN18441019].

"We are not a version of Bing," Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president of Yahoo, said to reporters at the company's headquarters.

"We are Yahoo and that will continue...We collaborate on the back-end but we are competitors on the front-end," he said,

At a press event held at their headquarters, the company gave more details of its complex relationship with Microsoft.

At the end of July, Microsoft and Yahoo signed a 10-year deal under which search on Yahoo's websites will be generated by Microsoft's new Bing search engine. The companies hope the deal will take effect early next year.

Microsoft will license Yahoo's search technology, allowing it to integrate certain aspects of it into Bing. Microsoft's advertising search product, AdCenter, will also replace Yahoo's equivalent product, Panama.

Raghavan said that when Microsoft sends ads along with its answers to queries, Yahoo may or may not use all of them, depending on a complex formula.

A new series of boxes to the left of search results and ads will give users more ways to make use of what they have found, said Larry Cornett, Yahoo vice president of search products.

A box powered by Internet security company McAfee Inc, will filter dangerous links. Videos will play without leaving the search page.

A box to sites like Yelp, which provides user feedback on stores and restaurants, can be clicked to check out the quality of a sushi restaurant without leaving the search page.

Cornett, who demonstrated the new approach, said it was undergoing testing and will be available some time this year.

Comscore reported Microsoft gained 0.5 percent in July, but still only holds 8.9 percent of the search market, compared to 64.7 percent for Google and 19.3 percent for Yahoo.

Yahoo shares closed up 20 cents, or 1.35 percent, to end the day at $14.99 on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by David Lawsky, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

Change of Address tool to tell Google about your new URL

2009-08-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

If you’re planning to move your site to a new domain, use the Change of Address tool to tell Google about your new URL. This will help us update our index faster and smooth the transition for your users.

For best results, follow these steps:

Set up the new siteReview our guidelines for moving your site to a new domain. Set up your content on your new domain, then make sure all internal links point to the new domain.
Redirect all traffic from the old siteUse a 301 redirect to permanently redirect the pages on your old site to your new site. This tells users and search engines that your site has permanently moved. Ask webmasters to update their links to point to your new domain and make sure incoming links to your old site are redirected correctly using the 301 redirects.
Add your new site to Webmaster ToolsMake sure you have added and verified your new domain.
Tell us the URL of your new domain
New URL for www.vijaykumar.info:

After submitting the change of address, check your Webmaster Tools data periodically to see if your new site has been crawled and indexed (if you have a Sitemap, one way to determine this is by checking Sitemap details for the new site to see how many of the pages have been crawled and indexed).

Kickstart Your First WordPress Blog Now

2009-08-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

If you belive in investing in knowledge - *specialized knowledge* that is – then I have exactly what your’re looking for. For months, I sat down with my entire team to create more than 30 video tutorials that you can download right now. Everything was created with the absolute beginner in mind, so you’ll never feel like you’re listening to a rambling tech geek. Though our simple yet powerful step-by-step video instructions, you’ll discover: How to Register a Domain Name This videos shows you step-by-step how to search for domain names and register them using GoDaddy or NameCheap. You will also get some valuable tips on how to get the perfect domain name.
Getting Your Web Hosting from HostGator Web hosting is the lifeblood of any WordPress blog. In this video you’ll discover the basics of web hosting and how to choose the correct web hosting plan among the hundreds of junk offers out there.
How to Change Your DNS in Godaddy You cannot do anything with your domain name and web hosting if you don’t know how to change your DNS or Domain Name Server. This videos shows you how to do it in GoDaddy.com
How to Change Your DNS in NameCheap You cannot do anything with your domain name and web hosting if you don’t know how to change your DNS or Domain Name Server. This videos shows you how to do it in NameCheap.com
How to Install and Use FileZilla FTP Program FileZilla is a free FTP software every blogger needs! This video shows you how to download, install and connect FileZilla to your web hosting account.
A Brief Introduction to Using cPanel With cPanel you can manage your entire web hosting easily without relying on technical help. This video shows you how to create new email accounts, customize your cPanel layout and do other basic cPanel tasks.

Installing WordPress Automatically Using cPanel The easiest way to install a WordPress blog! You’ll discover how you can get your new WordPress blog up and running in under 1 minute, with just a few mouse clicks..
Installing WordPress Manually Using FTP Never try to install WordPress manually unless you’re 100% sure of what you’re doing! In this video, I clearly explain the 4 important steps in installing WordPress manually using MySQL and an FTP program..
How To Clean Up A New WordPress Blog A brand new WordPress blog has a fair amount of “junk” in it, which includes fake posts, comments, and useless links. I’ll show you exactly what you need to clean up before you can start using your blog..
How to Change Your Permalinks Structure for Better Search Engine Ranking By default, WordPress uses a permalinks structure that isn’t too SEO-friendly. In this video I reveal how to change your permalinks to a better format that is guaranteed to get you more free traffic from Google..
How to Customize Your WordPress Dashboard Did you know you can move all WordPress components around and arrange them according to your preference? In this video I show you exactly how easy it is to customize your WordPress dashboard..
How to Create New Posts in WordPress Discover how you can add new content to WordPress, how to use the built-in WYSIWYG editor to format your content, and how to publish your content. I also reveal how to automate your content using the “timestamp” feature – a great tip you can use!
How to Create New Pages in WordPress Discover how you can create new pages in WordPress, which are separate from your regular blog content. I’ll show you how easy this is to do, and how to change the order of your pages as well..
How to Use and Format Images in WordPress A picture speaks a thousands words indeed! In this extremely rare video, I reveal how to upload images to WordPress and access them using the built-in WYSIWYG editor. I also reveal how to format pictures, use captions, and much more..
How To Install Plugins Automatically Plugins add important functionality to your WordPress blog. I show you how to use your dashboard to find the plugin you want and how to install it automatically without touching an FTP program..
How to Upgrade Plugins Automatically Sick and tired of having to update your WordPress plugins? I’ll show you how to update them automatically in WordPress with just a few clicks of your mouse. Upgrading plugins has never been this fun!
How to Delete Plugins Automatically So you’ve installed way too many plugins, and want to get rid of some? I show you how easy it is to do within your WordPress dashboard itself. No need for FTP here, and no more deleting the wrong files!
How to Upload and Install Plugins Manually The good old way of adding and activating plugins on your blog, and still important to master because not every WordPress plugin can be installed automatically. Avoid making silly mistakes with this clear, informational step-by-step video..
How to Upload and Install Themes Manually Make your blog shine with WordPress themes! There are literally thousands of free themes you can download and use to spice up an otherwise dull-looking blog. I reveal exactly how to download themes, unpack them, upload and activate them easily..
How to Use WordPress Widgets in The Sidebar WordPress widgets add even more cool features and functionality to your blog’s sidebar. In less than 4 minutes, I’ll reveal everything you’ve ever wanted to know about using widgets on your blog..
Using The Akismet Spam Plugin / Controlling Spam Right from your very first blog post, you’ll get obnoxious spam that is not only annoying, but potentially embarrassing! I show you how to activate and use the Akismet plugin, as well as some simple tweaks you can make to automatically block 99% of SPAM..
Getting and Using Gravatars for Your Blog Put a face on your blog comments, and start developing a long-term relationship with your readers. I reveal how to do this automatically using Gravatars, and how you can get your own Gravatar..

How to Upgrade WordPress Using cPanel

cPanel is one of the easiest ways of all time to install and upgrade open source software.

In this video I show you how to upgrade your existing WordPress blogs in cPanel easily, and error-free..

How To Upgrade WordPress Automatically Using The Dashboard

Every a new version of WordPress is released, you need to go through all the hassle of updating all your blogs.

In this video I reveal how you can update your WP blogs automatically using the dashboard itself..

How to Install and Set-Up Windows Live Writer

The Windows™ Live Writer blog editor is a god-send!

This versatile tool lets you write new content, save drafts, and publish content to your WordPress blog even if you’re offline! In this video I reveal how to download and configure WLW..

How to Use Windows Live Writer to Write Content

I this 8-minute compact video I reveal how to write new posts and pages, how to insert and edit images, and how to publish content to your WP blog using Windows Live Writer.

One of the most popular videos of all-time!

Installing New Plugins in Windows Live Writer

WLW is great out of the box, but why stop there when you can add all sorts of cool plugins to it.

Imagine searching for YouTube videos and embedding them directly into blog posts within WLW itself, and you get the idea of how powerful these little plugins can be.

How to Create Backups for Your WordPress Blog

Mistakes are made all the time and some of these mistakes can be costly if you don’t regularly backup your WordPress blog data.

This video reveals how to easily backup your entire blog database to your PC or email address, as well as how to schedule automatic backups.

How to Edit WordPress Theme CSS Styles

This video reveals how to make minor changes to your theme’s appearance by editing the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) file.

It’s a very simple process that can be done directly from your WordPress dashboard. I will give you a few vital tips to get started with CSS editing.

How to Create a Static Front Page in WordPress

Want to make WordPress look more like a static page or a sophisticated e-commerce website?

This video reveals how to use the built-in static front page options to capitalize on the awesome Content Management System or CMS features in WordPress..

Introduction to Getting a FeedBurner Account

This video guides you step-by-step to setting up your FeedBurner account and creating your first feed.

You’ll also discover the most important optimization steps and how to create “Feed Flares” easily.

Redirecting Your Default RSS Feed to Feedburner

It’s no point getting a FeedBurner feed if your default WordPress RSS feed is still active.

This video shows you how to automatically redirect your default RSS to FeedBurner using a WordPress plugin, and avoid losing valuable subscribers.

Google Rolling Out AdSense Relevancy Improvements

2009-08-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

Google announced (subtly) that it is rolling out a series of enhancements to AdSense’s contextual targeting capabilities to more accurately match relevant ads to AdSense publishers’ pages.

Unfortunately, not many details about these enhancements were given away, but Google says AdSense publishers will not have to update their AdSense accounts or ad code. Changes will be applied automatically.

“Our machines are very good at the matching process, but there are still a few cases where their definition of relevance differs from our human definition of relevance,” says AdSense Product Manager Woojin Kim. “In these few cases, the system might end up serving ads that don’t seem immediately relevant to users. We understand that increased ad relevance contributes to a positive experience for users, publishers, and advertisers, so we’re continuously working on ways to improve the relevance and quality of ads that appear on your sites.”

The changes will not affect how other types of ads are matched to your sites. Placement-targeted ads that advertisers bid on to appear specifically on your page, for example, will continue to appear.

These relevancy-determining changes are not the only thing the AdSense team has been up to. This week, they announced that they have tweaked the default fonts for different ad formats, in order to trigger better performance. Category filtering was also announced for AdSense for Feeds.

Google's Matt Cutts on .com Relevancy in UK

2009-08-21T01:49:00.000-07:00

Some UK Google users have noticed that search results pages are showing more results from .com sites these days, than in the past. They are used to .co.uk sites getting better rank, and assuming that they are more relevant to their geographic location.

Certainly in some cases the .co.uk site would be more relevant to a UK searcher, but that is not always the case. Google's Matt Cutts has posted a video in which he answers a question on this subject from a user. The question was:

Why are the UK SERPS still really poor with irrelevant non UK sites (US/Aus/NZ) ranking very high on Google.co.uk since early June?
Cutts says it is true that searchers in the UK will see more .com results, and that is simply a product of Google getting better at determining geographic relevancy.

As Google gets better, they're more willing to show .com results if they're relevant to the country. "If the best result for a British searcher is something that ends in .com, we still want to show that to that British searcher," says Cutts.

According to Cutts, this is a change that Google will not likely reverse, although he does encourage users to let them know if they see such results that aren't relevant, because they would want to improve this.

The bottom line is that Google is just learning more these days about what sites are associated with what countries, and they're better at detecting it. The goal is to supply relevant results.

As a bonus, Cutts posted to his blog that he's already received some criticism about his answer in the above video and responded:

There’s a couple effects going on:

- first, we’ve been making changes that make it much more likely to see .coms in the UK. I’d say that’s 80-90% of the changes that people are seeing. Most of the generic TLDs (.com, .net, etc.) that are showing up now are .com sites like tescofinance.com and churchill.com that are relevant to the UK even though they don’t end in a .co.uk.

- I’ve been following some of the examples people have pointed out. I remember kiva.org in particular was mentioned and that probably is off-topic for the UK. I dug into that one, and it was an unrelated ranking experiment that was going on that we changed.

Google Suggest Suggestions for Indians & Americans

2009-08-20T01:34:00.000-07:00

Google Suggest Suggestions for Indians & Americans

Google Update August 2009 Caffeine Update

2009-08-19T01:52:00.000-07:00

Google start to make major changes in is search engine results.

Google Update August 2009 called “Ceffeine Update” are not been update yet in Google normal search results and been test in -> Google Caffeline Test.

this update look like it’s going to be more all about in site seo then links back.

i think this is a smart move from Google because this way the real interesting sites with content on them will rank hi then sites with lot’s of links just because webmaster that locking for links all day and paid of links instead of writing useful information, that is all about when a internet user looks for information in search engines.

i hope this will put an end of this links war and make the internet a better please

read more about this update at Matt Cutts Caffeine Update.

Analytics Data In Excel Through Our API

2009-08-17T02:06:00.001-07:00

Many of our clients use Excel to manage their ad campaigns, visualize marketing performance, and perform complex data analysis. Most analysts use the Google Analytics Export feature to manually export their report data to CSV files. Then they import the CSV file into Excel. No longer! Now, with the Google Analytics API you can bypass this manual step and export Google Analytics data directly from within Excel! Once you’ve set it up, there’s no need to visit the Analytics reports to view data in Excel.

Thanks to a variety of developers, here are four solutions that can transform you from a reporting monkey to an analysis ninja (as Avinash would say).

VBA Macros – The simplest solution of them all. Mikael Thuneberg’s page explains how to make API requests directly from Excel using VBA Scripts and includes a pre-built Excel worksheet to get you started.
The Tatvic Excel Plugin – Another easy-to-use plugin for Windows users that supports both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007. To get started you download the plugin then register to use the tool. Its simple UI helps you build complex queries and get data from Analytics right into your Excel worksheet.
Tatvic’s Plugin Query Builder
Excellent Analytics – Is an open-source initiative by Mark Red and Dropit. This Excel 2007 plugin works on Vista/XP and comes with a query builder to help you create Google Analytics queries and pull data right into Excel. Webanalytics.info put together a great step by step tutorial to get started using this plugin.
Excellent Analytic’s Query Builder Interface
ShufflePoint – Works somewhat differently than the solutions above. ShufflePoint has developed a query language that works with the Google Analytics API to achieve common tasks, such as defining the last 30 days as a date range. One then uses this language to construct an Analytics Data Export API query either by navigating to a URL within Excel, or by using their web-based query builder, then importing this data into Excel. This process allows the ShufflePoint solution to work across most versions of Excel, as well as Powerpoint, and iGoogle gadgets.
Shufflepoint’s Web Based Query Builder

We continue to be impressed by the new solutions developers are bringing to market by leveraging the Google Analytics Platform. If you have developed a useful new tool or integration on top of Google Analytics, drop us an email at analytics-api@google.com. If it’s innovative and useful we’ll highlight it to our readers on this blog.

Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics API Team

Google buys On2’s video technology. Why?

2009-08-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

Google announced today that they intended to purchase On2 technology for $106.5 million. While just a drop in Google’s seemingly limitless ocean of cash, this acquisition seems to be for a technology component (or two). On2 specializes in making video processing codecs and software that optimizes video for the Internet.

The big question is: Why?

Here are some reasons which I think may make the most sense:

First, Google’s YouTube unit has many Petabytes of video stored on Google’s server farms around the world. Every day that number grows. It costs a lot of money to keep that data live, online and backed up. It also costs a lot of money in bandwidth to deliver it to Google’s users. One of On2’s core competencies is bringing the size of SWF Flash (and H.264) files down while keeping the quality level high. As Google moves to make more and more of Youtube’s videos High Definition, this becomes even more important.

Even single digit percentage drops in file size to Youtube’s collection would make the technology valuable enough over a few years to make the sale a good deal. But there could be more to it than that.

On2 also makes software that optimizes video for mobile. Not only does Google have the Android handsets, but it also has users with iPhones, Blackberries and Windows Mobile devices that are going to be downloading more and more of their content.

Another big deal is the HTML5 standard that embeds native (not Flash) video. The standard is up in the air right now because Apple and the Open Source community both have different ideas of what should be the standard format for video. Apple obviously wants its Quicktime friendly H.264 while many in the Open Source community want Ogg Video. On2 could have either a third choice or a technology that allows both to be generated for webpages using HTML5. Either way, google is a big player in this space and will want to have a say.

What I think is at play here is that major advertisers are getting ready to sign up for big campaigns with Hulu. Google, when all is said and done, is an advertising company. They make 99% of their money from ads and everything else they do are just ways of getting those ads into our eyes.

They see Hulu’s platform (based on the On2 technology btw) as the biggest competitor to their Youtube juggernaut. While Youtube can be mildly entertaining for viral videos, Hulu is grabbing more eyes for a longer period of time with better quality programming. If Google wants to participate in this space, they are going to want a piece of that action. And at $100 million, they can afford to get into the game.

Who Can Take the Cake in Chrome Creativity?

2009-08-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

Update: Google says the Google Chome Icon Project is over now.

Original Article: Feeling creative? Fan of Google's Chrome browser? If your answer to either of these questions is yes, you might be interested to know that Google is hosting a global project in which it is asking fans to submit creative videos in which they create a Google Chrome icon.

Jason Toff from the Google Chrome team says the idea for the project came when the team itself was experimenting with using different objects to create the icon - like this cake for example:

What Google considers to be the best entries to this project, it will feature on Google and YouTube. "We know from past experience that users are the ones who come up with the coolest stuff. So with that, we now turn the challenge to YOU to make a video showing the formation of the Google Chrome icon in a big, unusual or creative way," says Toff. He tells me he likes the magnets one so far (video below):

You may recall that earlier this year, Google created its first television advertisement, and this was for Chrome. I don't know if any of these designs will make it into an actual commercial or not, but I suspect the initiative itself is designed to generate buzz and draw awareness to Chrome. Not a bad viral campaign.

Participants have until July 22 to submit their videos. You can do so here, and while you're there, you can also check out what other people have done. I'll leave you with a few samples below. By the way, they should be between 15 and 60 seconds long.

source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/06/11/can-you-take-the-cake-in-chrome-creativity

Intel Launches Facebook App For Research

2009-08-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Intel has launched a Facebook application that allows people to donate their PC's unused processor power to research diseases and study climate change.

Intel developed the app called Progress Thru Processors, which allows Facebook users to choose to contribute their extra processing power to research efforts of Climateprediction.net and Africa@home. Climatepredicition.net is focused on understanding global climate change by predicting the Earth's climate testing the accuracy of climate models.

Africa@home is focused on finding strategies to fight malaria by studying simulation models of how the disease spreads and the potential impact of new anti-malarial drugs and vaccines.

In addition, Progress Thru Processors also allows users to contribute to Rossetta@home, which is focused on finding cures for cancer and other diseases such as HIV and Alzheimer's.

"Progress Thru Processors underscores our belief that small contributions made by individuals can collectively have a far-reaching impact on our world," said Deborah Conrad, Intel vice president and general manager, Corporate Marketing Group.

"By simply running an application on your computer, which uses very little incremental resources, you can expand computing resources to researchers working to make the world a better place."

Launched in public beta, the application activates only when a PC's performance is not being fully utilized. The application runs automatically as a background process and will not affect performance.

For Progress Thru Processors, Intel partnered with GridRepublic, a not -for-profit volunteer computing organization.
source

Is Google Really Threatened By This Yahoo Microsoft Deal?

2009-08-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of reading about the Microsoft Yahoo deal yet? Obviously not or you wouldn't be reading this. There has been a whole lot of coverage to digest, and there will certainly be a whole lot more as the deal gets scrutinized and continues its journey to fruition.

There has been a lot of talk about the deal being bad for Yahoo and good for Microsoft. This may or may not be true, as it's really way too early to tell for sure, but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been doing his best to try to convince people (mainly Yahoo shareholders) that Yahoo is in fact getting a good deal.

Yahoo's shareholders of course didn't see it that way, and Yahoo's stock plummeted after the announcement of the deal. But that's because "nobody gets it," according to Ballmer. Shareholders wanted cash, but Ballmer says they should be happy with the elimination of Yahoo's search costs and the added advertisers that will surely come from the deal.

Others in the industry feel that Yahoo is simply making a big mistake by eliminating its own search business. Although there's no denying that Bing has been building some buzz, and those pricey TV ads are helping to fuel that, but how many of the average Yahoo users will even care?

The ultimate question of this whole thing is will this really give Google significant competition in the search space? Again, it's too early to truly tell, but my gut is telling me it's not going to make an incredible difference.

If a typical Google user has tried Bing and decided to continue using Google as their primary search engine of choice, they're not going to abandon it because Yahoo's using it. Does it matter that much to Google if Yahoo users are using Bing? They were already using Yahoo over Google, so what's the difference?

Microsoft and Yahoo may get some more advertisers out of this with the combination of Bing and Yahoo making up a greater percentage of the search market share, but it's not like its going to draw advertisers away from Google, which still controls an incredibly dominant amount of that market.

And let's not overlook the fact that when something eye-catching occurs in the search industry, and Google's not the one catching eyes, they are usually quick to counter with their own offerings (or at least acknowledge that they will be forthcoming). When Bing launched and started highlighting all of its "cool new features," Google was quick to add a link to its homepage highlighting some of its own "decision-engine-like features."

As some discussed back then (namely Danny Sullivan if I'm not mistaken), Bing's launch merely highlighted some things you could do with a search engine that other search engines (like Google, and in some cases even Microsoft's own Live Search) were already doing. Bing's launch has been more about branding than anything (despite the fact that it does bring some new things to the table).

I could be incredibly wrong, but I just don't see this partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft having a tremendous effect on Google. Many want to see more competition in the search industry, and that's a good thing. Competition can only make the industry as a whole better.

But Google is so dominant for a reason. People like Google. Like I said when Bing launched, even if the competition offers a product that is just as good or even better in some ways, it's going to take Google dropping the ball and driving people away on their end to make a significant impact on its share of the search market.

Google is so far ahead, and it has been for so long. Think about all of the products that Google users are already tied into from Gmail to Google Docs to AdWords to Google Calendar, etc. Google search is always right there. Users have a lot of their online lives invested in Google, and switching is probably asking a lot to most of them. Yes, you can use both Gmail and Bing, but it's about convenience and familiarity.

Microsoft has done a very good job combating the branding issue that has held them down in the search market for so long though. Bing appears to be doing much better than Live Search from that standpoint. We'll see what happens.

source

Facebook Offers A Username Mulligan

2009-08-03T02:29:00.000-07:00

Just last month, Facebook announced that they would allow users to choose a custom username, a.k.a. vanity URL, for their Facebook profile. A post on the Facebook blog warned users to:

"Think carefully about the username you choose. Once it's been selected, you won't be able to change or transfer it."

Well, that's not true anymore. You can now change your username, but only once. At the time of this writing there is no official announcement from Facebook about the username change option.

It's unclear when Facebook added this new option, but we're sure some Facebookers will appreciate it, as ReadWriteWeb points out. If you wish to change your username, go to the "Settings" tab at the top of your profile and click on "Account Settings". The second option down is "Username", just press "Change" and pick your new username.

Last month, Mashable put together a pretty comical list of the "15 Silliest Facebook Vanity URLs", maybe some of those users would like a mulligan on their initial username choice.

source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/07/23/facebook-offers-a-username-mulligan

Do Meta Geo Tags Influence Google?

2009-08-01T01:48:00.000-07:00

Google's Matt Cutts frequently posts useful tips for webmasters on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube channel. The short clips generally offer valuable nuggets of info that can have an impact on your site's performance in Google.

In these videos, Matt always answers questions submitted by users, and in a recent one he answers the question: "How do meta geo tags influence search results?"

Cutts says it's not something Google really looks at at all. He says they do look at:

- IP Address
- gTLD
- ccTLD

He also points out that there's a feature in Google's Webmaster Tools where you can tell it that your site pertains to a specific country even though it's a dot com. "Typically the geotags that are in meta tags are not as useful and We don't tend to give those as much weight if at all," says Cutts. He suggests spending your time:

- trying to make sure you have the right domain name

- trying to make sure you have the right IP address if you can

- If you have content (even if it's geo-located) even if it's a sub-domain or a sub-directory, you can specify it in Google's Webamster Tools. You can tell it that certain content is relevant for a particular country.

These are good things to keep in mind if geographic information is important to your site. Have you used the Webmaster Tools Feature Cutts refers to?

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/07/06/influencing-search-results-with-geographic-info

Yahoo gets hard look from investors following deal

2009-07-31T00:15:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc shares fell for a second straight day after the company announced a Web search partnership with Microsoft Corp that failed to live up to Wall Street expectations.

Even as the broader market rallied, Yahoo shares dropped as much as 6 percent on Thursday. The stock recovered a little in late trading, but is still down 14 percent since the agreement was announced on Wednesday morning.

The deal, in which Yahoo essentially outsources search to Microsoft, is being viewed by analysts as more positive for the software company than for Yahoo. Microsoft's stock rose about 1 percent on Thursday.

"Everybody was anticipating something much more than this," said Bob Bacarella, portfolio manager at the Monetta Fund, which does not own Yahoo shares. "To me it's like Yahoo sold their soul, but they still don't have a body."

Some investors had hoped the deal would help pave the way for an acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft, which offered as much as $33 a share to buy the company last year. Yahoo shares were down 3 percent at $14.65 in Thursday afternoon trading.

Others were disappointed that Microsoft did not agree to pay Yahoo an upfront payment, which some had expected to be several billion dollars.

With the prospect of a Microsoft acquisition no longer on the table, investors are taking a harder look at Yahoo's fundamentals, said Mark Coffelt, a portfolio manager at the Empiric Core Equity Fund.

"People are reassessing why they own Yahoo and where it's going to trade and how fast it's going to grow," said Coffelt.

Yahoo currently trades at around 34 times historic earnings, compared with Google Inc's 21 times multiple.

"It's priced to see the company grow really rapidly and there's certainly no evidence of that in the last few years," Coffelt said.

Cowen & Co analyst Jim Friedland said the PE ratio does not tell the entire story on account of Yahoo's significant holdings in Asian assets, including the Alibaba Group, which owns Alibaba.com Ltd.

Looking at Yahoo from an enterprise value to EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) ratio basis, he said the stock has valuation support. But that does not mean it has any upside in the near term.

"Just because something trades at a low multiple doesn't meant there's not a good reason for it," said Friedland.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday the deal was not understood in the market.

"It's a win-win deal from my perspective," he said, adding he was surprised by the steep fall in Yahoo's shares.

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE56T6H220090731

Microsoft and Yahoo Finally Announce Deal

2009-07-30T02:30:00.000-07:00

Well, they’ve finally gone and done it. Microsoft and Yahoo have partnered to “change the search landscape.” The two companies today announced a long-awaited deal, in which Microsoft will power Yahoo search while Yahoo will become the exclusive search advertising provider for Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.
You know this history by now. Here’s what the companies have to say:

”This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development,” said Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. “Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, “Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said Ballmer. “Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.”

Key Terms as highlighted in the announcement:

- The term of the agreement is 10 years;

- Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;

- Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;

- Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process;

- Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;

- Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;

- Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites;

- Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and

– Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.

- Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;

- At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and

- The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

About the author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003.

Microsoft releases Windows 7 code to PC makers

2009-07-29T00:25:00.000-07:00

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it is releasing the code for Windows 7 to PC manufacturers, keeping the software company on track to have machines running its new operating system in the stores by late October.

The move means Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc, Acer Inc and other computer makers can start to load up new PCs, laptops and netbooks with the operating system, the successor to the unpopular Vista.

Both Microsoft and the manufacturers are hoping the full launch of Windows 7, scheduled for Oct. 22, will help lift PC sales out of the slump caused by the global economic downturn, and give the holiday shopping season an extra lift.

Manufacturers have been testing early versions of Windows 7 for several months, but this week marks the release of the “gold code,” according to a Lenovo Group Ltd executive, referring to the software industry jargon for the finished product.

PC makers no longer have to fly discs in helicopters to their manufacturing plants, as the transfer is now done electronically. But it still marks a dramatic day as manufacturers hustle to get new products into stores in time for the release date.

Machines that have Windows 7 installed, or devices that are compatible with it, will simply have the Windows 7 logo on them, a Microsoft executive said. The company will not be splashing the word “capable” around in marketing efforts, after it received complaints at its last launch that some machines branded “Windows Vista Capable” could only run the lower-end versions of the software.

Few industry watchers expect such problems to hit Microsoft this time around as the company has spent more time making sure PCs will be able to run the new software.

Strange Ad Copy for Google Adwords

2009-07-20T05:34:00.001-07:00

Today I came across an absolutely strange Adwords ad in my Gmail interface. I am absolutely clueless why would any advertiser put up an ad like that and even if they do how can the Adwords editorial team approve such an ad copy. On top of my Gmail inbox the Adwords ad displayed as

Text ad - www.url.com - Desc1 Desc2

Just to satisfy my curiosity I clicked on the ad to find that it leads to a page that apparently doesn't exist, however, I was even more surprised by the fact that the landing page URL is completely tagged to keep a tab on the performance of the campaign, which indicates that the person who has set up the campaign definitely knows a bit or two about Adwords and PPC

Landing Page:
http://www.test.0000000184.com/path?keywords=keyword&creative=3849139695&adGroup=7711

While the ad copy mostly complies to the Google Editorial policy except for the fact that the landing page URL isn't working ( and that should get the ad disabled ) it is rather strange for any company to put up an ad like that.

There are just two possibilities that clicks my mind on this..

a) The ad is run by Google themselves to test any internal feature or gather any specific user behavior data ( by passing the editorial policy is not an issue for them)

b)Any major agency is running these ads for the purpose of finding out any user behavior data or calculating some other competitive matrix like minimum cpc, ctr or minimum impressions on specific keywords etc. However, in this case I am not sure how they have been able to bypass the Adwords editorial policy.

If you have any other ideas about the possible reasons for such an ad copy please do mention in the comments.

Free Web Directories Lists

2009-07-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

I have compiled a short list of Directory of Directories/Lists of SEO friendly directories that accepts your websites/directories for free.

1- Add URL.nu : Add your URL to free SEO friendly directories Listing 850+ Free Directories

2- A List Of 200 FREE Directories To Submit Your Blog To – Daily Blogging Tips and Web 2.0 Development 200+ Free Directories

3- Free Directory List – Directory Critic 1150+ Free Directories (growing each day)

4- Info Vilesilencer: The Original SEO Friendly Free Directory List Updated Frequently

5- Free Web Directory List List of Strong and Best Free Directories

6- Free Web Directories – Free Directory Submissions 260+ Free Directories

7- ManhattanService – Website promotion and search engine optimization » List of Free Directories (Over 250) 250+ Free Directories

8- SEO Reloaded » Search Engine Friendly Directories Another Great List sorted out with Free/Paid Directories

9- Free Submission List of Universal Search Engines and Directories

10- phpLD Network- General Free Directories

11- Free Directories with high PR. Search Engine Optimization. List of free directories with high PR. BestCatalog.net – Web Site Development Resources Directory. Free Directories with high PR

12- Directories – seo advantage – Free directories

13- 427 Free Directories Sorted By PageRank | Stephan Miller

14- Free Web Directories List from TSW Professional Seo Company Experts

15- Value Directories List | Free Directories List | Paid Directories List | Niche Directories List

16- Free Directories List – Directory Rate

17- Web Directories- General Directories > Free 1300+ Free Directories

18- Free Web Directories – List Of Websites That Offer Free One Way Link 1750+ Free Directories

19- Free Directory List – Free Web Directories

20- Free Directory Listings – webseodesign.com

21- http://www.zinginfotech.com/storders…irectories.php 990+ Free Directories

If you know any more List or Directory of Directories (free directories only) feel free to share on this thread please, I will keep on updating this thread.

Webmaster Central YouTube update for July 6th – 10th

2009-07-15T00:46:00.001-07:00

Want to see what’s new on the Webmaster Central YouTube channel? Check out the answers to the latest Grab Bag questions:

How do meta geo tags influence the search results?
Will Google find text in images someday?
Is Google doing away with use of the meta description?
“Query deserves freshness.” Fact or fiction?
Which is more reliable for searching: Google or Twitter?
Matt’s clarification about Google’s use of the meta description tag:

botw promo code

2009-07-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Valued Member,

Last year we introduced BOTW Local, a user-driven directory of businesses throughout the United States. The adoption rate has proven to be nothing short of astounding, and daily traffic and users continue to skyrocket. Business owners have flocked to the Premium offering, driving targeted users to their businesses and improving visibility in the major search engines. Meanwhile the BOTW Web directory continues to dominate site owners internet marketing dollars, providing unparalleled ROI.

Now for the first time ever, we are pleased to offer business owners an exciting opportunity to get both great products at one incredible price. The BOTW Bundled Submission combines a Local Premium Listing with a Web Directory Listing and saves you money! As a special offer to our loyal members, you can take advantage of this great product and SAVE an additional 50%!!

That’s right – for the remainder of July you can use the special promo code and take advantage of a web directory listing and a dedicated page about your business on BOTW Local for half price! 50% off the already discounted price makes this an offer you can’t afford to pass. Don’t miss out – prices will never be this low again. Two great products combined into one awesome, cost-saving bundle – and a 50% discount to blow out your ROI.

By combining these two products, you will not only save money, but you will also generate highly relevant leads to your business and increase your visibility in the major search engines – Bundle & Save Today!

When prompted, enter Promo Code: BUNDLE

If you already have a web directory listing and would like to take advantage of this special deal to have your business included in BOTW Local, please email us at bundled@botw.org for further instructions.

Thanks again for your support!

Best of the Web
http://botw.org/

read PDF without adobe reader

2009-07-13T02:24:00.000-07:00

There is no dout in say that e-mail is the fast growing ans high speed tool to communicate with each other.This is tech savy time so allmost we have E-mail ID Gmail is one of the well knowan E-mail services provider.

If you have a Gmail ID then your friend,buisness partner,or family partner may be send you a PDF file in attachment,then its must you have install Adobe Reader in your persional computer to read that file but problem is that you have no install and don't want to install no problem :) now you can read a PDF file directly with out install Adobe Reader, how you can read it in your Gmail without Adobe Reader to read your PDF file click on view button .

You will see a “view” link in any email that contains a PDF attachment. The email has to actually contain the PDF and not just have a link to a PDF.

Google takes aim at Microsoft with new PC platform

2009-07-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Google takes aim at Microsoft with new PC platform
By Alexei Oreskovic and Edwin Chan

SUN VALLEY, Idaho (Reuters) – Google Inc is planning a direct attack on Microsoft Corp’s core business by taking on the software giant’s globally dominant Windows operating system for personal computers.

Google, which already offers a suite of e-mail, Web and other software products that compete with Microsoft, said on Tuesday it would launch a new operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.

Called the Google Chrome Operating System, the new software will be in netbooks for consumers in the second half of 2010, Google said in a blog post, adding that it was working with multiple manufacturers.

Netbooks are low-cost notebook PCs optimised for Internet surfing and other Web-based applications.

“It’s been part of their culture to go after and remove Microsoft as a major holder of technology, and this is part of their strategy to do it,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. “This could be very disruptive. If they can execute, Microsoft is vulnerable to an attack like this, and they know it,” he said.

Google and Microsoft have often locked horns over the years in a variety of markets, from Internet search to mobile software. It remains to be seen if Google can take market share away from Microsoft on its home turf, with Windows currently installed in more than 90 percent of the world’s PCs.

The news comes as executives from the world’s biggest technology and media companies, including Google and Microsoft, gather in Sun Valley, Idaho for an annual conference organized by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.

A spokesman for Microsoft had no immediate comment.

Key to success will be whether Google can lock in partnerships with PC makers, such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc, which currently offer Windows on most of their product lines.

HP, the world’s largest PC brand, declined to confirm if it would sell PCs running on the new operating system.

“We are looking into it,” said HP spokeswoman Marlene Somsak, referring to the operating system. “We want to understand all the different operating systems available to customers, and will assess the impact of Chrome on the computer and communications industry.”

Google’s Chrome Internet browser, launched in late 2008, remains a distant fourth in the Web browser market, with a 1.2 percent share in February, according to market research firm Net Applications. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continues to dominate with nearly 70 percent.

FAST AND LIGHTWEIGHT

The new Chrome OS is expected to work well with many of the company’s popular software applications, such as Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Maps.

It will be fast and lightweight, enabling users to access the Web in a few seconds, Google said. The new OS is based on open-source Linux code, which allows third-party developers to design compatible applications.

“The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web,” Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google, said in the blog post. The Chrome OS is “our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be”.

Google said Chrome OS was a new project, separate from its Android mobile operating software found in some smartphones. Acer Inc, the world’s No.3 PC brand, has already agreed to sell netbooks that run on Android to be released this quarter.

The new OS is designed to work with ARM and x86 chips, the main chip architectures in use in the market. Microsoft has previously said it would not support PCs running on ARM chips, allowing Google an opportunity to infiltrate that segment.

Charlene Li, partner at consulting company Altimeter Group, said Google’s new OS could initially appeal to consumers looking for a netbook-like device for Web surfing, rather than people who use desktop PCs for gaming or high-powered applications.

But eventually, the Google OS has the potential to scale up to larger, more powerful PCs, especially if it proves to run faster than Windows, she said.

Google did not say how much it would charge for the operating system (OS), but Enderle expects Google to charge at most a nominal fee or make it free, saying the company’s business model has been to earn revenue from connecting applications or advertising.

Microsoft declines to say how much it charges PC brands for Windows, but most analysts estimate about $20 for the older XP system and at least $150 for the current Vista system.

Li added: “A benefit to the consumer is that the cost saving is passed on, not having to pay for an OS.”

“It’s clearly positioned as a shot across the bow of Microsoft,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Kelvin Soh in Taipei)

Matt Cutts Talks Geo Tags and Webmaster Tools

2009-07-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

Google’s Matt Cutts frequently posts useful tips for webmasters on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube channel. The short clips generally offer valuable nuggets of info that can have an impact on your site’s performance in Google.

In these videos, Matt always answers questions submitted by users, and in a recent one he answers the question: “How do meta geo tags influence search results?”

How To Find A Good Web Host?

2009-07-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

How To Find A Good Web Host?
Usually when someone contacts me online, one of the most frequent questions I get asked is this: “How do I find a good web host?” or “Which web host do you use?”
This is one of those essential things you will need in order to earn that online income. You will need a web site and you will need a web host – somewhere to place that web site.

Sure there are countless marketers who work without a site but most have at least one main site which acts as their online calling card; where people can find them on the web. Of course, you can always use the social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter… but that’s like operating your office out of Starbucks!

Instead, a well designed site is just more professional and business like. It also means you’re serious about your online business.

Picking a good web host is not easy. I have had numerous different web hosts over the years. Most of them have been very good and served their purpose, but I have had some bad experiences too – what long term webmaster or marketer hasn’t? Something always goes wrong eventually, especially if you have a lot of sites and many different web hosts.

Sometimes having a web host can be downright scary. Several years ago, the web host that I had my main site on was first sold and then went bankrupt. One day your site is running fine and the next day the web host is completely gone. Shut down. Your site and all your files completely gone. Vanished. Your host can’t be reached. Total blackout!

Fortunately, I had my site backed up on several systems and since that experience I always back my sites up on several computers and I go even further by copying them onto DVDs should those computers crash. If you have a site, I always suggest you back up your site files and make it redundant. The very worst can happen to you.

Overall quality and good 24/7 support should be your first objectives in choosing a good web host. You want a site that’s fast, easy to use, rarely down and has good support that you can reach at all times, should something go wrong.

You need to check exactly what features your web host is offering and for what price:

- How much storage space?
- Daily traffic limit or transfer?
- Email system? How many accounts…
- What type of server Linux or Windows?
- How many other sites will be sharing your IP address?
- Do You need SSL or a secure site?
- Are sites/files backed up? How often?
- What are the support hours?
- And of course the Price?

But don’t always try to get the cheapest price hosting, keep in mind, you always get what you pay for. A cheap web host won’t save you money if it’s a poor service and your site is always going down. So don’t always pick the cheapest web host.

Match up your hosting service with the type of site you will be running; a simple HTML site will have or make simple demands on your hosting service. So a shared hosting service may be quite adequate to meet your hosting needs. For SEO reasons, you should always check the location of your site, I have found which country your site is hosted in, plays a role in your rankings, especially in Google.

However, if you have a site that’s extremely interactive with forums, discussion groups, get large bursts of traffic or you’re running a lot of server-side scripts and programs – then you may need a more robust hosting service to meet your needs.

In this case, you might need a dedicated server to handle just your site. Many web hosts offer this service and it’s worth looking into if you have a site with extreme amounts of traffic or if you’re running forums, affiliate programs, email services… from your site. Most of my own sites are very simple and I have them on many different web hosts. Mainly because of my own experiences, I just don’t want to have all my sites on one host… the old “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” reasoning.

At the moment I am quite pleased with all my web hosts… many of my sites are on GoDaddy and I find them OK for simple sites like mine. I also find it convenient because they are also a domain registry so I can easily use them to buy my domains. Although many experts suggest you should always keep your domain registration separate from your hosting service because if your host should suddenly vanish, it is only a simple matter of moving your site to a different host. If your host controls your domain, this can be a major problem. Always keep control of your domain in your own hands, but you probably already knew that.

Another web host I use is Bluehost which is very good, can’t remember the last time my site was down. They are very popular with around a million sites and my only concern is that they may become too popular and their services will be spread too thin. However, I have had very few problems with them and you can always reach their support.

I also have a site with Ken Evoy’s SBI (Site Build It), but I created that one mainly to get access to the enormous resources connected with SBI. It is slightly more expensive than some of the ones listed above, but SBI is an overall online marketing system that in my opinion can’t be equaled on the web. Well, perhaps the Warriors group could give them a run for their money, but it’s the community of like-minded webmasters with SBI which makes it special. They are always ready and willing to help you out, doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced pro or a complete newcomer. Several years ago, I took a very close first-hand look at the hosting service provided by SBI. You can find my opinions/review on SBI located in the resource box below.

There are countless webhosts you can choose from when picking a web host. But do your homework, check around to the different forums and see how everyone is rating the web hosts they are using. First-hand experiences are the best judge of whether or not a web host is good and reliable.

Although moving a site from one web host to another can be a real pain, especially if you have a large scale site, but if you’re not totally satisfied with a web host and are having serious problems – simply change your hosting. Just make sure you’re not going from bad to worst.

Still, finding a good quality web host will be a major chore, no matter how you look at it.

Perhaps, in the final analysis, nothing beats checking with your friends and fellow webmasters you trust. Ask them which hosts they’re using and if they’re satisfied with it. Nothing beats first-hand experiences when it comes to choosing a web host. Just make sure you’re comparing oranges to oranges, that is: make sure you have similar site requirements as your webmaster friends. If you both have similar type sites, then finding a good quality web host can be as easy as having a friendly chat over a cup of coffee.

About the Author: Titus Hoskins is a full-time professional online marketer who has numerous niche websites. Here’s a review of Ken Evoy’s popular marketing/hosting system: Site Build It Review For the latest web marketing tools try: Internet Marketing Tools.

Geo Location and Search Engine Rankings

2009-07-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

Source: googlewebmastercentral: As part of Google’s goal to make the web faster, we uploaded several video tips about optimizing the speed of your website. Check out the tutorials page to view the tutorials and associated videos.

Matt Cutts answered a new question each day from the Grab Bag:

And during Adam Lasnik’s visit to India, he was interviewed by Webmaster Help Forum guide Jayan Tharayil about issues related to webmasters in India. We have the full three-part interview right here.

Matt Cutts Answers: “Could you confirm whether the geographic location of the web host has any significant ranking factors for organic SEO?”

SEO Trends 2009

2009-07-07T00:40:00.001-07:00

If you know anything about the fundamentals of search engine optimization ( SEO Tips ), you will know that the experts’ opinions on what to do, what is now considered redundant and recommendations of the absolutely necessary elements you must put in place on your website, change with mind-spinning frequency.

However, the bigger trends in search engine optimisation are easier to keep up with and most seem to be here to stay, as business owners become more attuned to just how important SEO is to their success.

SEO Trends 2009 And Beyond

The industry and ‘bigger picture’ trends have become relatively easy to identify as the SEO world becomes more established - increased awareness of SEO in general being the first major trend.

Search engine optimisation used to be an exclusive world, with only those practising it really knowing what it entailed and how it boosted a website’s visitor stats.

Now, most people know what it means, and most business owners are aware of just how important the internet is and how SEO can help them gain more customers.

The next major trend and one which is definitely here to stay, is the rise and rise of Google - they have dominated the world of search engine optimisation for years, and their lead over competitors such as Yahoo and MSN is only getting bigger.

When Google speaks, SEO consultants listen and if your business is not being found on Google, it’s almost certain it’s not being found at all - around 70% of user searches are done using Google.

SEO tools and automated processes are becoming an important part of the reporting of website results - individuals are focusing on developing these tools for companies to buy, who may be struggling to find or afford a good search engine optimisation agency. Such tools can offer good basic data, but it’s worth remembering that it’s still what you do with the data that’s important.

Dipping into the actual technicalities of good SEO practice, good content has been king for a while and remains so.

As a business owner, if you write, or employ an SEO copywriter to write good quality articles and press releases, this will benefit your search results hugely, encourages links to and from your website - and links are extremely important as the ‘currency’ of good quality SEO.

Finally, a trend clear to all - not just those operating in the search engine optimisation world - is the rise and rise of social networking sites.

Facebook and now Twitter are educating people to communicate in a whole different way, and business owners should be engaging these people in order to develop a whole new audience.

Keep Up With SEO - Your Business Will Benefit

There are many more trends in search engine optimisation, too many to mention here, but one thing remains clear - business owners small and large cannot afford to ignore SEO and must become well-versed in good SEO practice if they want to keep up with the ever-changing world of consumer web behaviour.

Author: Harvey McEwan

5 Most Common Link Building Mistakes

2009-07-05T23:04:00.001-07:00

After getting to know that link popularity is the most important factor that search engines consider when deciding your Pagerank, almost everyone has taken to posting their back links all over the internet. However, gaining credible link popularity that increases your page rank is really not as easy as it sounds and most people who do not know much about how Pagerank works keep creating text links that are either useless, or even harmful for their webpage. In order to make link popularity work for you, it is important to avoid the most common link building mistakes.

Creating Links On Unrelated Pages.
Search engines nowadays are smart enough to decipher whether your link is relevant to the users of the webpage that they are placed on or not. So if you are putting the text links of your webpages which are related to cooking on websites that deal with high end electronic goods, wrestling or real estate, you can be sure that these links will be trashed by the search engine, doing zilch for your Pagerank. So create links on sites that have related content. For example, if you have a cooking related website, placing links on home improvement, restaurant, recipe and kitchen equipment sites will be helpful.
Creating Text Links That Proclaim,"Click Here".
Google search engine spiders use the text on your hyperlink to determine what your website is all about and this plays an important role in determining both your Pagerank as well as your search engine rankings. By putting hyperlinks that simply say " click here for more information" or "know more here", you are telling the search engines that your website is about clicking and knowing more and that is where you will be ranked high instead of getting high search engine rankings for your own domain. Make it a point to use relevant keywords in your text links.
Creating Links On High Pagerank Pages That Already Have Hundreds Of Links.
Yes, it is true that the higher the PR of a page linking to you, the higher will be the value assigned to the link by the search engines and the greater will be your page rank. This is because the value or points that you get from a page that links back to you is determined by the formula — page rank of linking page / number of links on that page. But it is equally important to pay attention to the denominator of the formula, since a highly ranked page with lots of back links may end up giving you lower value than a page with lower rank but lesser links.
Placing Links On Dynamic Pages.
Web pages that are generated dynamically take ages to get indexed, and in all probability, a text link on such a page will never help in increasing your page rank. Identify dynamic pages by URLs with special symbols in them (&,? etcetera) and save your time by not posting any text links to your site on such pages.
Creating Links On Pages That SE Spiders Cannot Crawl On.
The whole point of building link popularity for increasing page rank is to make your site accessible to search engine spiders. However, search engine bots have not become smart enough to read pages generated by Flash or JavaScript. They are also unable to read text links placed within frames, so it is a complete waste of time creating back links on sites that are either Flash generated or framed, since these links would be totally ignored by search engine spiders.

Semantics for SEO

2009-07-04T01:42:00.000-07:00

Semantics is the study of meaning and relationships and plays a role in SEO. Google makes its money from being successful at crawling, indexing, and ranking data. One important aspect of this procedure is being able to understand content in a manner that is more complex than keyword density. One way of doing this is Latent Semantics Analysis or LSA. Google may not use this exact approach, but Google is sure to use some similar system of semantic analysis to look at textual content.

Intro to SEO Semantics

By using semantics, search engines can have a basic understanding of the English language. There is an understanding of synonyms, antonyms, and polysemes. In addition, Google can relate niches and keywords. They’re able to develop complex relationships with keywords through their huge database of information and linking relationships.

For example, Google can understand the following relationships for a Make Money Online site.

Make Money Online

Make Money
Make Money Online
Make Money Blogging
Make Money on eBay

Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing Services
Online Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Social Media
Social Bookmarking
Web 2.0
Digg
StumbleUpon

Blogging

Blogger
Wordpress
Plugins
RSS Feed

SEO

Search Engine Optimization
Link Building
Article Marketing
Directory Submissions
Dofollow
Nofollow

Google knows that the usage of any of the above keywords is related to the primary keyword of make money online. It can relate long tail keywords as well as related keywords and the long tails of those related keywords.

Role of Semantics when Writing for Search Engines

Knowing that Google uses semantics is important when writing your site’s content and building links. You should use this knowledge to solidify your page’s focus on a keyword.

Quick Note on Keyword Density

Google content analysis is more advanced than keyword density. Do not stress keyword density. Keyword density will not help you rank higher. Anyone still teaching you to achieve a certain density is wrong. Keyword usage is important, but there is no set density that you should target. Simply use it naturally, but ideas like LSA move Google away from basic keyword density analysis. Keyword density is not a direct measure of relevancy. The usage of a keyword 10 times does not make it more relevant than a page that uses its keyword 3 times. If anything, the over usage of a keyword can hurt your rankings. The usage of semantics can be used to determine if a site is using natural language. An over optimized keyword stuffed page does not use natural language and may hurt your rankings.

Use Long Tails

Instead of trying to use your primary keyword over and over, use long tails. Research your keyword before you write your article to determine long tail keywords. Select two or three long tails that have your main keyword as their parent keyword. Use them in your content to support your main keyword and do it without keyword spamming. Not only does this create natural content, but this increases the number of terms you can rank for. You can now work your primary keyword as well as the long tails.

Related Terms

In addition to long tails, use related keywords. If you’re writing about SEO, talk about internet marketing. If you talk about McDonalds, talk about hamburgers. If you talk about hamburgers, discuss hot dogs. If Apple, discuss Mac and Ipod. These related terms will support your main keyword because Google understands the relationship. In addition, it will increase the number of keywords you can rank for.

Role of Semantics when Link Building

The classic advice of varying your anchor text. If you get too many links with the same anchor text, Google will consider it a Google bomb. Varying anchor text is important for two reasons. First, it looks natural. Having the same anchor text is a sign of self generated links. Second, semantics comes into play. You can use related anchor text to support your primary target keyword.

A post about BANS (Build a Niche Store) could use any of the follow keyword(s) as anchor text and still support the primary keyword.

BANS
BANS site
BANS ebay
Build A Niche Store
Make Money on eBay
Make Money Online
eBay Niche Store
Build an Online Store
eBay Affiliate

Google understands that all of these keywords are related.

Dominating Multiple Long Tails Keywords

By using this approach instead of keyword stuffing one keyword phrase, you’re able to dominate multiple keyword listings for long tails. You can rank for many long tails by simply mentioning the keyword. Instead of repeating one keyword phase over and over, use semantically related keywords. This will reinforce your main keyword while also increasing the number of long tails you can rank for. As your page gains authority for the main keyword, your authority for the semantically related keywords will also increase. And the opposite is also true, as you gain authority for the semantically related keywords, your authority for the main keyword increases.

Conclusion

Understanding that Google uses semantics to evaluate content can help you improve your on site SEO. Simple measures like keyword density are out dated and should not be used to determine how targeted a page is. So when developing content, consider developing a list of long tails and related keywords that you can sprinkle through your content to help support your targeted keyword.

How can use good robots.txt for Search engines

2009-07-03T01:44:00.000-07:00

Using robots.txt, you can ban specific robots, ban all robots, or block robot access to specific pages or areas of your site. If you are not sure what to type, look at the bottom of this page for examples.

An example of SEO optimized robots.txt file (should work on most blogs… just edit the sitemap URL):

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-includes/
Disallow: /wp-content/

User-Agent: Mediapartners-Google
Allow: /

User-Agent: Adsbot-Google
Allow: /

User-Agent: Googlebot-Image
Allow: /

User-Agent: Googlebot-Mobile
Allow: /

When robots (like the Googlebot) crawl your site, they begin by requesting

Robots.txt Samples

Following are a few simple examples of what you might type in your robots.txt file. For more examples, read the robots.txt specification. (In the specification, look for the “What to put into the robots.txt file” heading.) Please note the following points:

Important: Search engines look only in top-level domains for robots.txt files. So this plugin will only help you if typing in http://blog.example.com/ or http://example.com brings up Wordpress. If you have to type http://example.com/blog/ to bring up Wordpress (i.e. it is in a subdirectory, not in a subdomain or at the domain root), this plugin will not do you any good. Search engines look do not look for robots.txt files in subdirectories, only in root domains and subdomains.

Following are a few examples of what you can type in a robots.txt file.

Ban all robots

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Allow all robots

To allow any robot to access your entire site, you can simply leave the robots.txt file blank, or you could use this:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Ban specific robots

To ban specific robots, use the robot’s name. Look at the list of robot names to find the correct name. For example, Google is Googlebot and Microsoft search is MSNBot. To ban only Google:

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /

Allow specific robots

As in the previous example, use the robot’s correct name. To allow only Google, use all four lines:

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Ban robots from part of your site

To ban all robots from the page “Archives” and its subpages, located at http://yourblog.example.com/archives/,

User-agent: *
Disallow: /archives/


robots, robots.txt

Web Optimization – Four Common Problems That Stop Your Success

2009-07-03T01:43:00.001-07:00

Anyone interested in online marketing knows that web optimization is critical to a successful business. Web optimization comprises a number of different ideas, including search engine optimization, website analytics, and design factors, among many others.

However, optimization is more than just a standard set of practices. As every good interactive marketing agency knows, it is different for each business, and within each industry.

Those differences are one of the primary aspects that make ‘do-it-yourself’ optimization without an interactive marketing agency such a risky prospect. An interactive marketing agency keeps abreast of the ever-changing landscape in order to implement best practices to achieve good positioning and visibility for a website — they are also able to conduct in-depth research to understand what your competition is doing as well.

If you are learning from scratch and implementing as you go, you can be put at a disadvantage compared to competitors who hire professionals.

In this article, we’ll walk through some of the most common misconceptions about optimization. We’ll also look at what your company can do to see real optimization success.

Problem 1: Seeing Optimization as a Project With An “End Date”

Optimization, and online marketing in general, isn’t a destination. Rather, it’s a road, one that must be constantly traveled for optimal levels of success. There is no time when your optimization is “complete”, in fact, even once your initial online marketing plan sees success, there will be other ways that you can improve your online presence. The process can always be improved.

Problem 2: Not Planning For Optimization In The Long Run

Because online marketing is a process, wise companies will plan for optimization in the long run. Don’t think of it as a short-term investment, and don’t divert resources you are only comfortable diverting for a few weeks. Think about it more broadly, and give your optimization plan the time and support it needs to be successful. Like any company initiative, if the program is understaffed or underfunded, it won’t be able to thrive as it ought to.

Problem 3: Not Monitoring Progress

In the old days, it was next to impossible to know if your agency’s plan was doing the job. But now, tracking online marketing results are easy. Think of it like cooking: you have to test the food every so often to see how it’s going. If you need to make a change, you learn about it early on, and if the food is great, you know more about how to make it the next time around.

Web optimization is exactly the same way. Keeping track of what policies bring success and which don’t will help you in the short term and in the long term. You will have more to work with when you start additional campaigns, and you’ll have real results that you can point to. So much depends on customer preference, and only when you start to get a feel for that preference will you see the best outcomes.

Problem 4: Working Alone

It is the rare person who can successfully design and implement an online marketing optimization strategy without the help of an interactive marketing agency. Optimization is a very particular process, with a number of techniques and strategies to learn. Articles like this one can help, but it takes years of experience to become a real optimization expert.

Does it really make sense for you to spend your time learning, rather than hiring the expertise of an interactive marketing agency? In almost every case, focusing on what you do best – running your business – is the best idea.

Putting it All Together

Now you know some of the most common pitfalls that make optimization programs fail. Do any of them sound familiar? If so, then you’re now equipped with the knowledge to change the problem. You can start fresh, and get the optimization results you’re looking for. You might not see them overnight, but with time the effect will be noticeable.

How to get your lens into the top 100 & other great tips

2009-07-02T00:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some tips on what I did:

* Be sure to have at least four modules (so your lens gets featured on Squidoo)

* Add as many tags as you can (you can use 40) about your topic so it is indexed higher when searched--Try to use phrases that people will actually enter when searching

* Post comments to other lenses so they will hopefully return the favor & visit your lens to comment, rank, and favorite. I also post messages in groups & forums online. I use the forums; Yahoogroups & Cafemom regularly.

* Search other lenses about tips to making a good lens.

* Add Widgets to get more traffic. Lensmaster, thefluffanutta, has created a number of widgets you can easily add to your lenses. Check out his Love this lens? lens to get them. Love ya Fluffa...you create awesome stuff!!!

* Search for lenses to make money with Squidoo.

* Search other lenses on your topic to see how they did theirs. You don't want to make one that is already covering your topic...or you will want to make it differently...

* Join Squidoo groups for even more exposure for your lenses.

* Create back links to your lens by posting messages with your full lens address to blogs, social networking sites, forums & groups. Be sure to have your lens URL in email, blog & forum signatures lines too.

* Spread the word about any new content to your lens. Use a Squidcast, Twitter & Facebook first. The lens I was promoting is for Baby & Kids Freebies so it was easy to send out messages (posts) to my groups & blogs about any new freebie finds. I really concentrate on making sure the freebies are legitimate and I think that helps get return visitors to my lens & website because the freebies are real not a bunch of surveys & trial offers you have to fill out to get the freebie.

* Social bookmark your lens on sites like tagfoot, digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Facebook & Twitter. Make sure your Squidoo bio has set up the Twitter setting so you can send updates to Twitter with a single click!

* Be sure to "Ping" your lens. Do this every time you have a significant update to your site. Pinging your lens sends out a notice to search engines that your site has been updated. This helps your lens, blog, or site so it may be noticed sooner by google, yahoo, msn and the other search sites when they crawl the web. You can Ping your lens easily at SquidUtils.com after logging in and going to the "advanced dashboard".

* When creating a lens address use something that is a short phrase or words that would be searched on your topic and use an underscore or dash between the words. Ex: Use special_education_tips or special-education-tips not specialeducationtips.

* Let all of your friends know you have published a lens and ask them to visit, rate, comment, join and favorite. Friends will help you like that. :-)

* Lensroll lenses to yours that are appropriate and send a note or comment to that lens owner and ask them to do the same with yours.

* Add the google blog or news search to your lens (usually at the bottom). A lot of lensmasters use this module. I like it too. I usually mention how often it is updated too. This is a easy quick way to keep your lens updated without doing a thing. When search engines crawl for updating sites yours will be one of those. I usually set mine to update 1 x per day.

* Include a comment module on your lens. People like to comment. And, people like to read what others have to say. It is a useful module. It really bugs me when I have something on my mind to say and there is NO comment area. Plus again this keeps your lens updated (in the eyes of search engines).

* Include a links plexo for visitors to add their lens, blog or website. Great way to give others a way to get "Back Links".

* Look through the module selection list and play around with what is available. There is lots of great modules and more being created.

* Search Squidoo for "How to Monetize your website or Blog" & "How to get more traffic". Great tips can be found.

* Search Squidoo for lens that give tips to improve your lens--there are a lot of helpful lenses already made. (I am going to make a lens that highlights the lenses that I have found most beneficial to me--I just do not have it done yet) Here some places I found helpful ~ The Squidoo Answer Deck and for sure the best resource.... Squidutils.com

* Be sure to go to "my dashboard" and find near your picture "edit bio" and be sure Allow Contact is set to yes so others can contact you through Squidoo. This has been a great help to me. It is very frustrating to want to contact a lensmaster and this feature is turned off.

* Save all of your hard work! Back-up your lens. To do this you must be in the "edit" feature of your lens. Look along the right column of tasks under tags & lens settings you will see "Export". Click that to save (back-up) your lens. I recommend saving it to a specific folder in your hard drive in html format.

Site Architecture and SEO – file/page issues

2009-07-01T00:37:00.001-07:00

Source: Bing.com: Search engine optimization (SEO) has three fundamental pillars upon which successful optimization campaigns are run. Like a three-legged stool, take one away, and the whole thing fails to work. The SEO pillars include: content (which we initially discussed in Are you content with your content?), links (which we covered in Links: the good, the bad, and the ugly, Part 1 and Part 2), and last but not least, site architecture. You can have great content and a plethora of high quality inbound links from authority sites, but if your site’s structure is flawed or broken, then it will still not achieve the optimal page rank you desire from search engines.

The search engine web crawler (also known as a robot or, more simply, a bot) is the key to website architecture issues (Bing uses MSNBot). Think of the bot as a headless web browser, one that does not display what it sees, but instead interprets the HTML code it finds on a webpage and sends the content it discovers back to the search engine database so that it can be analyzed and indexed. You can even equate the bot to a very simple user. If you target your site’s content to be readable by that simple user (serving as a lowest common denominator), then more sophisticated users (running browsers like Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 3) will most certainly keep up. Using that analogy, doing SEO for the bot is very much a usability effort.

If you care about your website being found in search (and I presume you do if you’re reading this column!), you’ll want to help the crawler do its job. Or at the very minimum, you should remove any obstacles under your control that can get in its way. The more efficiently the search engine bot crawls your site, the higher the likelihood that more of its content that will end up in the index. And that, my friend, is how you show up in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

With site architecture issues for SEO, there’s a ton of material to cover. So much so, in fact, that I need to break up this subject into a multi-part series of blog posts. I’ve broken them down into subsets of issues that pertain to: HTML files (pages), URLs and links, and on-page content. I even plan a special post devoted solely to tag optimizations for SEO.

So let’s kick off this multi-part series of posts with a look at SEO site architecture issues and solutions related to files and pages.

Use descriptive file and directory names

Every time you can use descriptive text to help represent your content, the better off your site will be. This even goes for file and directory names. Besides being far more user friendly for end users to remember, the strategic use of keywords in file and directory names will further reinforce their relevance to those pages.

And while you’re examining the names of files and directories, avoid using underscores as word separators. Use hyphens instead. This syntax will help the bot to properly parse the long name you use into individual words instead of having it treated as the equivalent of a meaningless superlongkeyword.

Limit directory depth

Bots don’t crawl endlessly, searching every possible nook and cranny of every website (unless you are an important authority site, where it may probe deeper than usual). For the rest of us, though, creating a deep directory structure will likely mean the bot never gets to your deepest content. To alleviate this possibility, make your site’s directory structure shallow, no deeper than four child directories from the root.

Limit physical page file size

Keep your individual webpage files down under 150 KB each. Anything bigger than that and the bot may abandon the page after a partial crawl or skip crawling the page entirely.

Externalize on-page JavaScript and CSS code

If your pages use JavaScript and or Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), make sure that content is not inline within the HTML page. Search bots want to see the tag content as quickly as possible. If your pages are filled with script and CSS code, you run the risk of making the pages too long to be effectively crawled. In fact, ensure that the tag starts within the first 100 KB of the page’s source code; otherwise, the bot may not crawl the page at all.

Removing JavaScript and CSS code from your pages into external files offers additional advantages beyond just shortening your webpage files. By being external to the content they modify, they can be used by multiple pages simultaneously. Externalizing this content also simplifies code maintenance issues.

Follow these examples on how to reference external JavaScript and CSS code in your HTML pages.

A few notes to consider. External file references are not supported in really old browser versions, such as Netscape Navigator 2.x and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x. But if the users of such old browsers are not your target audience, the benefits of externalizing this code will far outweigh that potential audience loss. I also recommend storing your external code files separately from your HTML code, such as in /Scripts and /CSS directories. This helps keep website elements organized, and you can then easily use your robots.txt file to block bot access to all of your code files (after all, sometimes scripts handle business confidential data, so preventing the indexing of those files might be a wise idea!).

Use 301 redirects for moved pages

When you move your site to a new domain or change folder and/or file names within your site, don’t lose all of your previously earned site ranking “link juice.” Search engines are quite literal in that the same pages on different domains or the same content using different file names are regarded as duplicates. Search engines also attribute rank to pages. Search engines have no way of knowing when you intend new page URLs to be considered updates of your old page URLs. So what do you do? Use an automatic redirect to manage this for you.

Automatic redirects are set up on your web server. If you don’t have direct access to your web server, ask your administrators to set this up for you. Otherwise, you’ll need to do a bit of research. First you need to know which type of HTML redirect code you need. Unless your move is very temporary (in which case you’ll want to use a 302 redirect), use a 301 redirect for permanently moved pages. A 301 tells the search engine that the page has moved to a new location and that the new page is not a duplicate of the old page, but instead IS the old page at a new location. Thus when the bot attempts to crawl your old page location, it’ll be redirected to the new location, gather the new page’s content , and apply any and all changes made to the existing page rank standing.

To learn how to set this up, you’ll first need to know which web server software is running your site. Once you know that, click either Windows Server Internet Information Server (IIS) or Apache HTTP Server to learn how you can set up 301 redirects on your website.

Avoid JavaScript or meta refresh redirects

Technically you can also do page redirects with JavaScript or “refresh” tags. However, these are not recommended methods of accomplishing this task and still achieving optimal SEO results. These methods were highly abused in the past for hijacking users away from content that they wanted to web spam that they didn’t want. As a result, search engines take a dim view of these techniques for redirect. To do the job right, to preserve your link juice, and to continue your good standing with search engines, use 301 redirects instead.

Implement custom 404 pages

When a user makes a mistake then typing your URL into the address bar of their browser or an inbound link contains a typo, the typical website pops up a generic HTML 404 File Not Found error page. The most common end user response to that error message is to abandon that webpage. If that user had gone to your website and despite the error, you actually had the information they were seeking, that’s a lost business opportunity.

Instead of letting users go away thinking your site is broken, make an attempt to help them find what they want by showing a custom 404 page. Your page should look like the other page designs on your site, include an acknowledgment that the page the user was looking for doesn’t exist, and offer a link to your site’s home page and more importantly, access to either a site-wide search or an HTML-based sitemap page. At a minimum, make sure your site’s navigation tools are present, enabling the user to search for their content of interest before they leave.

Implementing a custom 404 page is dependent upon which web server you are using: For users of Windows Server IIS, check out the new Bing Web Page Error Toolkit. Otherwise, browse the 404 information for Apache HTTP Server.
Other crawler traps

The search engine bot doesn’t see the Web as do you and I. As such, there are several other page-related issues that can “trap” the bot, preventing it from seeing all of the content you intend to have indexed. For example, there are many page types that the bot doesn’t handle very well. If you use frames on your website (does anyone still use frames?), the bot will only see the frame page elements as individual pages. Thus, when it want to see how each page interrelates to other pages on your site, frame element pages are usually poor performers. This is because frame pages usually separate content from navigation. Thus content pages often become islands of isolated text that are not linked to directly by anything. And with no links to them, they might never get found. But even if the bot finds the frame’s navigation pane page, there’s no context to the links. This is pretty bad in terms of ranking in search engine relevance.

Other types of pages that can trip up search engine bots include forms (there’s typically no useful content on a form page) and authentication pages (bots can’t execute authentication schemes, so they are blocked from seeing all of the pages behind the authentication gateway). Pages that require either session IDs or cookies to be accessed are similar to authentication pages in that the bot’s inability to generate session IDs or accept cookies block them from accessing content requiring such tracking measures.

To keep the search engine bot from going places that might trip it up, see the following information about the “noindex” attribute to prevent indexing of whole pages.

We’re only getting started here on site architecture issues. There’s plenty more to come. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post them in our SEM forum. See you soon…

– Rick DeJarnette, Bing Webmaster Center

15 Nifty SEO Google Alert Tips

2009-06-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

You may know that you can get the latest news headline links using Google alerts. Simply go to http://www.news.google.com and put in a search for something you want to know more about.

For instance, I may want to get updates on news about "search engine marketing". After you get the results on that page, drag down to the bottom. In the middle you will see New! Get the latest news on search engine marketing with Google Alerts. Click the link to got to the Alerts page.

On the Alerts page you can tell Google how often you want to receive the alerts (I always choose "once a day" and to which email account you want to receive the alerts (some people have many email accounts to choose from). Then hit the "Create Alert" button and you will start receiving the alerts for the term you searched. Easy enough unless you are lazy like me. See, I never thought to investigate the "Type" of search result I was looking for so I was getting just news. I could also have been getting blog, web, video and groups alerts, You also have the option to receive "Comprehensive" alerts. Now I select that option. You can subscribe to alerts in multiple languages.

You can receive up to 1,000 alerts. Woot!

Here are some ideas about how you can use Google Alerts.

1. monitor your competitors - new products, ideas, financial changes - competitive intelligence
2. monitor your customers and prospects - It would be nice to send them a card when they do something newsworthy
3. track your name and your business name - put quotes around the phrases like "Joe Jones" or "Pete's Pies" - what are people saying about you or your company in the blogs?
4. in the "Advanced Search" page you can narrow you search by geographical location, date and other parameters.
5. Track news about new software releases or version upgrades
6. local news - track the subject and the newspaper
7. Want to know when someone links to your website or blog? Search link:myblogname.com
8. authors - get ideas for a new article
9. niches - more ideas and what is happening in your niche
10. job seekers - think of the many ways to use this to learn more about the job market
11. when is a new page from you blog included in Google? type in a unique line from your article
12. cache- what a page looked like earlier cache:sitename.com
13. site: get results from just one website
14. related: what does Google think is related to the site - related:www.sitename.com
15. inurl: search for the page URLs - inurl:seo Leave your good Google alert tips in the comments.

Bing Webmaster Tools

2009-06-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

Source: bing.com: Use the Webmaster Tools to troubleshoot the crawling and indexing of your site, submit sitemaps and view statistics about your sites. Get data on how many pages of your site have been indexed, backlinks, inbound links and keyword performance.

To submit your site to Bing:

To request that Bing crawl your site, submit your site’s domain to http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx .

To submit your Sitemap:

To submit an XML-based Sitemap for your site, copy and paste the below URL into the address bar of your browser–be sure to change “www.YourWebAddress.com” to your domain name–and then press ENTER:

http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?sitemap=www.YourWebAddress.com/sitemap.xml

Get the SEO Toolkit: The IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit helps improve a Web site’s relevance in search results

More>>http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/default.aspx

New tools for webmasters in the Bing Toolbox

2009-06-29T02:12:00.000-07:00

Today we’re really excited to announce the arrival of the Bing Toolbox, a new portal for all you Bing webmasters, publishers, developers, and advertisers out there. The Toolbox is an organized set of tools for the entire Bing community, plus links to our Webmaster and Developer community blogs and forums.

Matt Cutts Answers Questions About Directories and Ranking

2009-06-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

As you may know, Google’s Matt Cutts frequently answers questions from Google users on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube channel. There are a couple recent ones in which he addresses questions about directories and how they contribute to a site’s rankings.

The first question is:

Will Google consider Yahoo! Directory and BOTW (Best of the Web) as sources of paid links? If no, why is this different from another site that sells links?

When Google looks at whether or not a directory is useful to users, Google looks at:

- What is the value-add?

- Do they go out and find entries on their own or do they only wait for people to come to them?

- How much do they charge?

- What is the editorial service that’s being charged?

“If a directory takes $50 and every single person who ever applies in the directory automatically gets in for that $50, there’s not as much editorial oversight as something like the Yahoo! Directory, where people do get rejected,” says Cutts. “So if there is no editorial value-add there, then that is much closer to paid links.”

The second question is:

We sell a software product, and there are 100s of software download directories on the web of varying quality. Could submitting our product to all of them hurt our rankings or domain trust/authority?

Infosys co-chair Nilekani quits to join India govt

2009-06-25T22:03:00.001-07:00

Source: NEW DELHI, June 25 (Reuters) – Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd (INFY.BO), India’s No. 2 outsourcer, has resigned from the company’s board to join the government, the company said on Thursday.

Nilekani, one of the founders of Infosys, has been invited by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head government agency Unique Identification Authority of India in the rank of a cabinet minister, Infosys said in a statement.

Nilekani, a former chief executive of the company, was not involved in active management since becoming co-chairman in 2007.

Shares in Infosys, which has a market value of about $21 billion, were up 0.7 percent at 1,771.25 rupees at 0849 GMT in a Mumbai market down 0.5 percent. (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

Weiner Becomes LinkedIn CEO

2009-06-25T03:19:00.001-07:00

LinkedIn has named Jeff Weiner(a former Yahoo! executive) as its CEO, replacing Reid Hoffman, who wil remain on as founder and executive chairman. Jeff Weiner has updated his profile from President to CEO of LinkedIn.

Bing White Paper for Webmasters

2009-06-25T03:15:00.000-07:00

The Microsoft Bing Webmaster Team has just released a new white paper titled, Bing: New Features Relevant to Webmasters.

Microsoft released white paper documentation for webmasters about its new Bing search engine, explaining how Bing affects search-engine optimization (SEO).

This white paper discusses the key new features of the Bing search engine results page (SERP) presentation that are relevant to webmasters and web publishers. It also discusses search engine optimization (SEO) considerations needed for Bing.

The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

Bing for Webmasters – New Features Relevant to Webmasters white paper
This white paper is an overview of the key features in Bing of interest to webmasters.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b93cfee4-7dfb-40ae-a405-dfa269a33a18&displayLang=en
Download PDF -> Bing–NewFeaturesForWebmasters.pdf
Download XPS -> Bing–NewFeaturesForWebmasters.xps
As an owner of a website or a publisher of content on the Web, you are no doubt interested in the big changes Microsoft has implemented with the newly released version of its search engine, dubbed Bing. There are a great number of innovative changes in how searchers access search content in the Bing index, and as a result, on your website. This white paper was written for you, the folks whose content populates the Bing index. You’ll want to know what Bing is, what changes in Bing pertain to you, and how to make the most of those changes so you get more eyeballs on your website’s content. Let’s get right to it.

Google Profile | Create your Profile in Google

2009-06-25T03:08:00.000-07:00

Social community sites are very famous and popular for making lots of fans and sharing your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, stories, blogs, sites, some products which you sell on internet. And especially we use our common profile in some most popular and famous social sites, like Digg, Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace.

Google today promote on page to create profile in Google.com with below text, as google always mention some new updates from his side on main page of Google so all visitor can take a serious not about it. Also we can make static url of our profile on Google.com

Hidden Content Sources for Your Website

2009-06-25T02:06:00.000-07:00

As I travel through the Google search engine, there is one element that defines almost all of the top-ranking websites. It's great content. People come online for information and those that offer the best content reap the greatest rewards.

Unfortunately, this type of content is hard to come by. In most cases, you either have to spend hours in front of the keyboard or outsource the job to others. Both of these options are very costly. One requires your valuable time and the other requires an investment of around $10 - $20 per article.

That's why I have scoured the net in search of valuable free content sources. I'm still not quite sure why I'm revealing my treasured piles of free content, but I certainly hope you enjoy them.

One of my favorite sources of content is public domain. This comprises the body of knowledge without a copyright. Anyone can use this material for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Below are some excellent sources for public domain material.

Archive.org

At Archive.org you can find thousands of works that are currently in the public domain. Want to put some cartoons on your web site? Check out the "Film Chest Vintage Cartoons", which is full of classic animated cartoons from the 1930's and 1940's. The collection includes Popeye, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, The Three Stooges and Betty Boop. They also provide tons of other reproducable content including:

Brick Films: Commonly called "LEGO Movies". Brick films are dedicated to the art of stop motion animation.

SabuCat Movie Trailers: The world's largest collection of theatrical trailers.

Feature Films: A large number of classic feature films and shorts.

Universal Newsreels: Newsreels were shown before every feature film in the pre-tv era.

Computer Chronicles: Was the world's most popular television program on personal technology during the height of the computer revolution.

Net Cafe: Television series covering the revolution during the height of the dot com boom.

All of these content sources are available for you to put on your website. check them out at Archive.org.

Another popular public domain destination is Wikipedia.org. Here you will find over 1 million articles ranging from Greek mythology and Egyptian history to business, health, and technology.

Go to Wikipedia.org for a huge collection of articles you can reprint on your own website.

Creative Commons

Every creative work receives copyright protetion as soon as you put pen to paper, hit save, or press record. Because of this, no one can use that work without express permission from the author.

Creative Commons provides a new content license that allows you to share your work with others. If you want, you can even allow other people to expand upon your existing work. This allows for creative co-authorship.

The Creative Commons license has made piles of content available for use on your web site. Whether you are looking for audio, images, video, or text, you can find an abundance of reusable information within the creative commons.

To search for content to put on your own web site, go to CreativeCommons.org.

Government Web Sites

Works produced by the U.S. Federal government are not copyrighted. If you obtain a government document from the net, you are free to copy and distribute the document. I have found plenty of great content about finance, retirement, health, business, and traveling on government websites.

To search for content offered by the United States government, go to http://www.google.com/unclesam.

Article Directories

There are thousands of writers on the internet and many of them would love for you to reprint their articles on your website. You can find thousands of free web articles at the following article directories.

GoArticles.com
EzineArticles.com
ArticleCity.com

Interviews

I consider interviews to be one of the best sources of quality content for your site. Simply interview industry professionals and post the recording and transcript on your website. This allows you to create original content very quickly.

Don't be afraid to ask for an interview, most experts would be delighted to speak with you. Remember, this is probably one of their greatest passions. If you ask them politely, your chances for landing an interview are good.

You can conduct an interview in person, over the phone, or even through an e-mailed questionaire.

RSS Feeds

RSS is changing the way we consume information online. In addition, it has also provided thousands of new content sources for the online publisher. RSS is simply a file format similar to XML that is used by publishers to make their content available to others in a format that can be easily understood by web publishing software and content aggregators.

By using RSS feeds, you can enhance the content on your site without ever writing a single word. And remember, on the Internet, content is King.

Want to put Amazon products on your site, updated news from the New York Times, financial advice from Motley Fool, or press releases from PRWeb?

This is all possible with RSS. No matter what type of information you are looking for, RSS can provide you with a constant stream of updated content for your web site.

To search for an RSS feed to enhance your own website, go to Syndic8.com. You can even mix and match a variety of rss feeds at RSSMix.com.

Facts & Statistics

Looking for facts or figures to put on your website? Take a look at some of the sources below. You'll likely be surprised how many facts, figures, and definitions are available in the public domain.

The CIA World Factbook provides a number of statistics on countries, territories, and dependencies. Each profile tracks such demographics as population, ethnicity, and literacy rates, as well as political, geographical and economic data.

http://www.census.gov/: One of the largest repositories for data and statistics related to the U.S.

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Main_Page: One of the best encyclopedia's ever written was published over 90 years ago. Search over 40,000 articles, all of which are available for publication on your own site.

http://www.bibliomania.com/2/3/257/frameset.html: A searchable interface of the 1913 public domain Webster's dictionary.

Private Label Articles

Private label articles can be bought for pennies per article. This is possible because they are sold in bulk.

Many people criticize these articles and have declared them as worthless. However, I am here to tell you that private label articles can be very powerful when used appropriately.

Unless you have hours of free time every day, it is unlikely that you are going to be able to create the amount of quality content that your web site deserves. This is where private label content enters the picture.

You can use private label articles to:

Add content to your web site.
Acquire hundreds of inbound links by syndicating the articles to article directories.
Create a free report for your visitors and other website publishers.
Create an information-packed RSS feed.

However, the key to using private label articles effectively is to optimize them. Straight out of the box, these articles are near worthless. To give them value, you must add your own touch.

Inject your personality into the article. Combine multiple articles and do some additional touch-ups to ensure that the article is in top shape for your readers.

Once you are finished you can add your resource box and send it off to article directories and website publishers.

If you are looking for one of the top private label article providers, go to InfoGoRound.com.

Images

Quality images can make your content much more inviting and keep people at your site for longer periods of time. Fortunately, there is a site that offers thousands of pictures completely free of charge. Find it at Stock.XCHNG.

Quotes

Quotes can give your website a special touch. Quotes provide interesting content in addition to an element of credibility. I often like to add related quotes to my web site simply to engage the reader's attention.

To find some quotes for your website, go to QuoteLand.com.

In the end, you always want your content to be unique. Not for the search engines, but for your visitors. With quality content comes quality links. Once you have built up a reputation for delivering unique content, you will never have to worry about having an audience eager to visit your website.

Meet Wonder Wheel & Google Squared - The Next Frontiers of Search

2009-05-14T01:30:00.000-07:00

Source from Here
We may be coming upon a new era for the Internet search results. And, despite what you may think, Google is not the only player.

New search engines that are popping up across the Web strive to make searches faster, smarter, more personal and more visually interesting.

Some sites, like Twine and hakia, will try to personalize searches, separating out results you would find interesting, based on your Web use. Others, like Searchme, offer iTunes-like interfaces that let users shuffle through photos and images instead of the standard list of hyperlinks. Kosmix bundles information by type - from Twitter, from Facebook, from blogs, from the government - to make it easier to consume.

Google also showed off something it called the “Wonder Wheel,” a graphical way to explore topics by clicking on related searches that go deeper into the subject of the main query. It also showcased Google Squared, a tool designed to chart research into columns and rows for those who are trying to track and organize information they get from the Web. Google Squared will be available in Labs later this month.

Wolfram Alpha, set to launch soon, is more of an enormous calculator than a search: It crunches data to come up with query answers that may not exist online until you search for them. And sites like Twitter are trying to capitalize on the warp-speed pace of online news today by offering real-time searches of online chatter - something Google’s computers have yet to replicate.

As of this writing the new options aren’t available to everyone, but Google says they should be available to all users in the next 24 hours. These new features will be very helpful to students in need of assistance in refining searches or help in thinking of alternative search terms.

US President Barack Obama Has Targeted Outsourcing Industry Once Again - NASSCOM

2009-05-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

US President Barack Obama has targeted outsourcing once again in his attempt to bring back the ailing US economy on track and the clouds seem to be getting darker for Indian IT companies.

Indeed, Obama’s proposal to limit U.S. companies’ ability to defer paying U.S. taxes on offshore earnings does put Bay Area companies doing a lot of business overseas directly in the crosshairs. “It would adversely impact our ability to invest and grow our business in the (United States) and to compete against our foreign competitors,” said a spokesman for Cisco.

Google, whose CEO, Eric Schmidt, is supposed to be a close buddy of Obama’s, said it is “too early to evaluate the potential effect on Google’s operations, as there will likely be multiple proposals considered.”

IT body NASSCOM said it is still reviewing the tax proposals announced by Obama. However, “prima facie, the proposals appeared to be aimed at addressing the tax rate differentials that exist across the world and if implemented, this would impact American headquartered companies with overseas operations,” it said.

source from here

Adam Lasnik, Webmasters Search Camp

2009-02-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

Adam Lasnik, Google’s first Search Evangelist who broadens the company’s online & offline communications with all Webmasters will be part of Search Camp, and will be answering participant questions and doubts on SEO. Don’t miss this golden opportunity...

just register for Search Camp now
Visit: http://searchcamp.in/

What Is SEO?

2009-02-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

What Is SEO? (Search Engine Optimization)
Search Engine Optimization is not just getting top ranking on SE’s. SEO is a process of making the web site (pages) search engine friendly. The main aspire following a good SEO is getting good number of visitors to the site and convert them to sales.

A good SEO is that which fetch sales are not the ranks. It is a widespread practices that if your website ranks on top of the searches the more visitors you get. If your website ranks good in SERP’s and you have quality information and services you will get more sales.

SEO is the way to drag huge amounts of free traffic from SE. sure; you need to find an efficient search engine optimization company to make it happen.

Search engines frequently index millions of pages for certain target keywords, and website can be hidden deep on page 100 or not as good as if it is not optimized correctly.

Black Seo Techniques - The Harmful techniques for any website.

2009-02-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as procedure that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These Black Hat search engine optimization techniques are deemed to be sneaky and deceptive and generally practices that are not accepted by the search engines or to break search engine guidelines, such as doorway pages,content generating, keyword stuffing, misrepresenting content, buying links, spam indexing, cloaking, link baiting, data mining, link spamming, and even page rank hijacking.We should not use these black hat seo techniques.

Depending on the competitiveness of a keyword you can see results very quickly. Sometimes within a day - for more competitive terms you can see placement within a few weeks.However,SEO Blackhat is watched closely by the search engines and shows the bad results who use black hat techniques.Black Hats see search engines as the enemy; deceit is the name of the game, seo’s are constantly looking to expose trickery and penalize guilty sites.and finally your site will be banned. Being banned means your site is removed from the index completely from the search engines and the rank gained by these tactics will be finally reduced.

Doorway Page is a procedure of highly optimized web page whose purpose is to direct traffic to target pages using either a code like redirect method or merely by being full of links that direct you to these other web pages and stays as representative to other pages.

Keyword stuffing literally the practice of repeating a keyword in high rate again on a given web page. If search engine suspects there is a good chance they’ll penalize you for it.

Interlinking Setting up various websites for some topic and having them all weblink to each other in order to boost up their relevance and subsequently their rankings in the search engines.

Buying Expired Domains buying expired websites that had some good Page Rank in order to try and keep the sites inbound links.

Cloaking will be technique where a webmaster will have two different copies of a given web page, one copy of page which is shown the search engine spiders and one copy of page is shown to the regular web surfer means showing one page to Googlebot and a completely different page to real human visitors.

Selling Page Rank if you have a high PR website, you sell links from your website to another for money. This in turn leads to boost up the site rank higher in Google.

Invisible Text is the technique of filling a web page consisting of the text that is same color as the background ex: white text on a white background.

Spam Page This page which is encorporated with a bunch of ads or listings of other sites as doorway pages that a webmaster makes money off of if someone clicks on them.

genuine seo,sem, ppc

2009-02-10T02:00:00.000-08:00

genuineseo