Microsoft may be the largest and wealthiest tech-firm in the world but they were the last of the "Big3" to create their own proprietary search engine. While it may have taken MSN a bit longer, the beta version of their new search engine has impressed many in the tech-community with quick, highly relevant results.

In a move that signals the end of the beta-test phase, MSN is starting to display results from their beta-search engine in the listings shown at MSN.Com. Until recently, listings displayed at MSN.Com were drawn solely from the Inktomi database which is owned by MSN rival Yahoo. Users should expect increasing integration of results though it will still be at least a month before MSN(beta) becomes the real source of results at MSN.Com.

With market dominance estimated at about 85% of the Japanese search sector, Yahoo-Japan is the favourite search tool on the island nation.
Yahoo's hold on the Japanese market is so tight it has forced South Korea's largest Internet search-portal, NHN to discontinue supporting Japanese language search.

NHN is one of Asia's largest tech firms, at least as measured by annual sales. Based on its enormous success in the Korean market, NHN introduced Japanese language search in the last quarter of 2003. Although the broadband market in Japan is growing as rapidly as it is in the United States, NHN has seen little success competing against Yahoo-Japan. NHN will continue to support Japanese language blogs and will still produce a Japanese language portal-site.

With NHN on its way out, the door has been opened for other Korean search firms such as Neowiz and Daum, both of which are expanding on their current Japanese language search features.

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Their dedication to superior client service includes a prompt response to your applications, email and telephone calls. In fact, LendingMax guarantees a 1 hour response time during normal business hours.

LendingMax is in the business of getting to YES!!

In previous StepForth newsletters we have addressed a variety of Link Building topics. Today in Part 3 of Link Building 101 we take a quick look at some of the tools that can make the difference between a link building nightmare and a quick and somewhat painless experience.

PR Prowler
Developed by TopNet Solutions PR Prowler this handy tool allows you to fine tune your link building targets. The software literally "prowls" the internet for link building targets based on the criteria you enter such as your keyword targets and sites with a minimum PageRank to search for. This tool can help reduce the time it takes to generate a successful link campaign by finding the key high PR sites. Placing your link on a highly relevant site with a high PR does more for you than finding multiple backlinks from very low PR sites.

Link Checker
Developed by the folks at Axandra Link Popularity Check is a freeware program that checks the link popularity of your website on several search engines and compares it to other web sites on the Internet.
A great tool if you have multiple link campaigns on the go. You can track your link popularity with multiple search engines. A must have if you live and breathe link building!

Total Optimizer Pro
Another great piece of software from TopNet Solutions, Total Optimizer Pro takes the link building game to a whole new level. A fantastic tool to use to see what your competitors' sites are doing to achieve such high placements and backlinks.
This tool goes far beyond helping you target your link building campaign it also produces results such as what keyword your competitor's page is focusing on; the keyword density of their page; the number of pages on their site; the number of links pointing to their site; the anchor text of the links pointing to their site (very important); the page rank of the links pointing to their site and more.

Excel
As odd as it sounds Microsoft's Excel can be your best friend when doing multiple link building campaigns. With a bit of Excel formula knowledge you can create a template that can record and generate reports based on your link building targets. It is important to track the exact path(s) that you are attempting to place your link on as some sites you submit to will be fairly large and trying to verify your link months later can be troublesome if you have not recorded the exact location you were shooting for. You can also make notes on websites you are targeting such as the Google PageRank at the time of submission and any notes such as relevancy of the topic you are targeting.

A small investment in money and in time learning these products can definitely benefit you in the long haul. Tracking, recording and refining your link building efforts is a must these days as the task can be very time consuming to say the least.

Happy Linking to YOU in 2005!

by Mark Johnstone , StepForth Office Manager

In recent survey of 1286 Internet security professionals conducted by Pew Internet and American Life, and Elon University, over 2/3 of respondents agreed that the US would suffer at least one devastating cyber-attack during the next ten years.

"What's surprising is the number of experts with the general sense that the more important the Internet becomes over time, the more juicy of a target it will become for terrorists and people wishing to do harm." said Lee Rainey, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

To combat the threat of attack, researchers and respondents expect both the US government and major corporations to expand on their ability to intrude into the lives of citizens and consumers.

"Both the government and corporations are growing more able to intrude on our lives in new ways a lot of people in the public aren't aware of," said report co-author Jane Anderson. "They are able to collect more information about our behavior on- and offline that is stored in increasingly large databases."

Items such as RFID tags are among other privacy concerns sited by many survey respondents, backing Anderson's statements about corporate privacy intrusion.

source: Rob McGann - ClickZ

by Jim Hedger, News Editor