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Wednesday, August 27, 2003

A New Marketing Tool That is Difficult to Ignore

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 2:38 PM

The blogger.com interface - very simple to use!

If you have yet to hear of blogging then let me warn you now, you will be hearing a lot about it over the next few months.

What is a blog? Here is the answer straight from the pioneers of blogging at Blogger.com:

"A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically like a what's new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction."

Why Should You Consider Starting a Blog?
It would be a bad idea to underestimate the value and marketing potential that a blog can offer you.
Here are some significant selling points for maintaining a company blog:

1. Setting up your own personal or business blog is totally free! No setup fees and no monthly fees are required. With some basic customizations you can even have the system upload your posts to your own web site. This basic version will allow you to post your industry related news or insights on your site on a daily basis. This provides two massive benefits; daily fresh content which the search engines award web sites for and a reason for your visitors to come back to your web site more often.

2. The paid version of Blogger (currently being upgraded so it is offline) offers the most significant tool of all... automated RSS feeds. WHAT?! Well, RSS means either "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary" depending on who you talk to. In both cases the intent is the same; instant syndication of your content throughout the Internet. By combining the quality content that you include within your blog with automated syndication your 'word' will be instantly transmitted to millions of online viewers through the news portion of such search engines as Google, AlltheWeb and Yahoo!. In most cases content provided via an RSS feed is updated to the major search portals within 1 hour!

3. Build industry credibility! Blogs are your way of showing that you or your company is truly on the cutting edge. Write articles about the latest industry events and even provide tutorials to help your readers.

Essentially blogging is a simple and effective way of both keeping your clients informed and to build credibility in the online marketplace. If your content is useful and original you will not only build a healthy following of readers but a stronger and more loyal client base. The advantage of better search engine placements is also a plus :-)

If you want to know more about blogging or you would like StepForth to help you setup an optimized blog please let us know: contact Ross Dunn at 1-877-385-5526 or ross@stepforth.com

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 2:38 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
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Paid Listings Continue to Confuse Search Engine Users

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 2:36 PM

According to a recent study from Maryland-based, Context-Based Research Group, three of five search engine users can not tell the difference between a paid listing and the traditional un-paid listings. In May 2002, the US Federal Trade Commission developed voluntary guidelines for search engines to follow that were supposed to clarify for end-users which ads were paid and which were organic, (or free). According to the study, the guidelines have made it even more difficult to distinguish paid ads as people seem not to notice the words sponsored links or featured products. When told that the listing they had selected was a paid advertisement, many of the study participants expressed negative emotions, saying they felt somewhat duped. In response, ConsumerReports.Org will be releasing a set of their own guidelines for search engines to follow when displaying paid advertisements.

Labels: PPC

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 2:36 PM.

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Sizing Salvos in the Search Engine Wars

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 10:53 AM

Size is the latest salvo fired in the search engine wars. Last week, Overture announced that its recent acquisition, AlltheWeb had expanded its database to cover 3,151,743,117 pages and had grown larger than Google’s database by about 68Million pages. Google responded yesterday by quietly announcing that it is now spidering 3,307,998,701 on an active basis. In the world of search engines, size matters from an end user perspective. The more pages in the database, the better chances of finding the information you are looking for.

Google and AlltheWeb have a history of competing to be the biggest database that goes back to 2001. This time however, the battle will be a bit more interesting as Overture also announced that AlltheWeb is introducing a stronger ranking algorithm in the coming weeks in an ongoing attempt to produce more relevant results than Google. With the coming integration of AltaVista and AlltheWeb, both owned by Overture, (which in turn is owned by Yahoo), this latest skirmish in the over-all search engine war will be a long and hard-fought one.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 10:53 AM.

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Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Copyright Laws May Ultimately Censor Search Engines

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 3:27 PM

The federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (view the entire act here) currently holds any search engine liable for linking to a web site which may be infringing copyrights. As a result, if a search engine refuses to remove all links to an infringing web site, the copyright holder can sue. What is wrong with this? Search engines such as Google with over 3 billion web pages indexed simply do not have the time or the legal backing to investigate every claim of copyright infringement. Despite this obvious limitation, however, Google is forced to review and rule on all complaints summarily. For example a claim by the Church of Scientology requested an anti-scientology site be removed because it contained copyrighted excerpts from their writings. When Google promptly removed the web site, free speech advocates made quite a commotion, citing that such censorship reduces the freedom of speech that the Internet naturally provides . (click here for this story)

Should search engines have to deal with this or should all legal preceedings be focused on the infringing web site? The search engines don't believe they should have any liability. Unfortunately, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act cannot be reviewed simply on the basis of this claim. In the future there are chances that a culmination of other unrelated claims will prompt a review, but until then we just may not know what we are missing on the search engines.

Labels: Google, Ross Dunn

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 3:27 PM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Copyright Laws May Ultimately Censor Search Engines

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Friday, August 22, 2003

More Scivy on Microsoft's Search Plans

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:33 AM

What will Microsoft do to increase its presence in the search engine industry? For a long time MSN has barely been a going concern in the search engine industry, but now with Google whispering about a '04 IPO and Yahoo! buying Overture and Inktomi, there doesn't seem to be many options left for the software giant. Here is some insight from MSN product manager Lisa Gurry:

"Lisa Gurry says the company plans to move aggressively to develop its in-house search expertise while continuing to rely on Yahoo as a supplier. 'We will make the right investments to stay competitive in this space,' says Gurry." (USA Today)

Does "make the right investments" highlight a potential buyout of a known search service? This target has long been debated but the field of potential targets have narrowed considerably if we rule out a major buy of Google or Yahoo! by Microsoft.

"For the record, Gurry says Microsoft is not considering buying Yahoo or Google 'at this time.'"

Who does that leave? Our money is on an acquisition of Teoma/AskJeeves. Teoma is really the only search engine that I can think of which has demonstrated the potential to innovate and maintain the clean search image that Google so quickly rose from. I suppose, however, that this prediction is a no-brainer since there is really very few to pick from.

Till our next news.
- Ross Dunn

Labels: Ask, Google, MSN, Other Engines, Ross Dunn, Yahoo

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:33 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: More Scivy on Microsoft's Search Plans

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Thursday, August 21, 2003

Will Google Go IPO? The BBC World News Interviews Jim Hedger

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:51 PM

StepForth SEO Manager Jim Hedger discusses his thoughts on a potential IPO at Google with Sally Hardcastle of the BBC World News.

Listen to this BBC interview (in MP3 format)

Here is the interview transcribed:

StepForth's BBC Interview
Sally Hardcastle (SH) asks what Jim Hedger (JH) thinks of Google's potential public offering:

JH: "I think the Google IPO is the most watched game in town right now. I don't think they will be going for it until late next year, it would make sense for Google to issue an IPO, they certainly need to beef up their warchest to fight off MSN and Yahoo!, and we know that MSN is investing about 50 million dollars this year alone in their search feature. Google is the #1 search engine in the world and search is, this year, a 2 billion dollar a year industry and is projected to be a 7 billion dollar a year industry within the next 5 years. So, there is a number of companies that want a share of Google's action."

SH: "What kind of share does Google have of the market?"
JH: "Either through someone entering www.google.com or through Google's distribution to other search engines about 76% of all search traffic goes through the search database."

SH: "Why has it been so successful?"
JH: "Mostly because it is concentrated on focusing on relevant results with a very clean interface,"
SH: "Don't use the jargon; they just keep it simple and it works."
JH: "Yes and that is very appealing to search engine users."

SH: "Now you are saying that others are batting down the door, but the others don't have this simple way of doing things. Can they change their act? I wouldn't have thought they could."
JH: "Oh I think they are trying to change their act, MSN specifically is trying to introduce a new search engine probably within the Spring of 2004, thats going to be very simple, stripped down, much like Google."

SH: "So is 2003 a pretty crucial year for this business? Which I should say is obviously an important business nowadays."
JH: "Yes, 2003 has been the year of big changes. I guess the business end of search engines has dominated in 2003, with mergers, acquisitions, and all of the companies, including Google trying to grow as big as possible quickly, to fend of their rivals. But 2004 is going to be radically different; I think we are going to see a number of the smaller players either absorbed by the big three or simply put out of business."

- Ross Dunn

Labels: Google, Jim Hedger, Ross Dunn

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:51 PM.

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View this Article Only: Will Google Go IPO? The BBC World News Interviews Jim Hedger

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Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Watch Your Domain! The End May be Near

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:51 PM

Your website address, or 'URL' (uniform resource locator) is like your street address on the information super-highway. Like a street-address a URL is a commodity, like a property. Unlike a physical address, however, URLs are portable and can be changed, moved and re-registered at the push of a button. Another difference is that URLs can only be leased through the registration of that URL. Herein lies a potential problem for all webmasters and website owners. There is a large number of squatters out there watching popular URLs to see when the registration expires and if the webmaster or site administrator has or will renew it. Quite often, the squatters get to the renewal before the site-owner or administrator does and ends up with a lease on the use of that URL. The onus is on the site owner or administrator to keep their domain registration up to date and out of the hands of entrepreneurial squatters. Recently, a well visited community news site in Canada, lost its domain to a porn-squatter. When folks in that community logged in to read the news one morning, well... let's say they saw images that generally don't appear in local newspapers.

Most domain registrars will send a notification letter when the domain is about to expire. Unfortunately, there is also a number of scam-domain registration letters circulating out there. Even if you haven't received a registration letter, it might be a wise idea to ask your IT staff, (or check for yourself), when your business URL is due to expire. You should also ask your staff where the domain was first registered to avoid the false renewal notices that are spamming-up the system.

- Jim Hedger

Labels: Jim Hedger

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:51 PM.

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Overture Goes Deep

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:51 PM

Overture has introduced a new feature that will allow its paid advertisements to come up under a wider range of keyword phrases. Advertisers will be able to choose between two unique listing formulas, Phrase Match and Broad Match. Phrase Match will allow listings to be displayed when a portion of a keyword phrase appears in the search-user's request. For instance, when a search engine user types "Good Toronto Tours", a site with the keyword phrase Toronto Tours would be displayed. Currently, advertisers bid on specific keywords and phrases and only appear when that phrase is entered directly. The other option, Broad Match will serve a listing when a portion of a keyword phrase is used in the search query, regardless of the order of words. For example, "Tours of Toronto Ontario" would produce a site bidding on the keywords Tours, Toronto or Ontario.

- Jim Hedger

Labels: Jim Hedger, PPC

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:51 PM.

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Yurweb.com - Changes

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 11:19 PM

Two weeks ago we wrote about a new search tool, yeswacked.us. Our editor noted the silliness of the name, as did several others. Late last week, the site designer contacted us to let us know he had changed the name and made the search tool easier to use. While the tool was already easy to use, the redesign makes viewing results much simpler on the eyes. The old design opened four results pages on one page, (using FRAMES). Now, results are shown on two pages, making each set of listings readable without the need to scroll to read the results. The new name fits well, yurweb.com. It is worth a look.

- Jim Hedger

Labels: Jim Hedger, Other Engines

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 11:19 PM.

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Yahoo! and MSN Continue to Grab for Google's Gold

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 4:52 PM

Someone, somewhere is going to write a great business book about the search engine wars of 2003 however, their publishers will likely send it back for a rewrite because business books are not supposed to be more interesting and action packed than a Tom Clancy spy thriller. For a recap of previous events (and if you haven't been keeping up, you'll need it), please visit the StepForth search engine news site and check our back issues. By 2004, the search engine world will look very different than it does today, starting with Yahoo.

Yahoo purchased one of the largest search databases, Inktomi, earlier this year. Inktomi powers HotBot and provides some of the listings for Yahoo's rival MSN. Currently, Yahoo receives its search engine listings from Google and inserts paid advertisements from another recent acquisition, Overture. Overture and Google are direct competitors in the Pay-Per-Click market and the emerging contextual-focused advertising markets. Yahoo announced today that it will be replacing results generated by Google with results generated by Inktomi on its Australian search engine and other, unnamed regional search tools. This indicates a significant change as Yahoo has been displaying Google results for over 18 months.

MSN is also breaking news about how they wish to break Google's virtual dominance of the search engine market. In an announcement that will have massive financial impacts on Overture and LookSmart, MSN stated that it is advancing the release date of its new search engine from the autumn of 2004 to the spring of 2004. This move will hurt Overture's bottom line and could cripple LookSmart as both search tools rely heavily on revenue from providing both paid and "free" listings to MSN. Over 25% of Overture's annual revenues come from MSN. LookSmart depends on MSN for almost 50% of its annual revenues. For Google, the advance of the release date means they must work much harder to win back the waning faith of the professional internet community before Microsoft either earns or co-opts it from them. Google has started to receive unfavorable press, most notably in Monday's edition of the Wall Street Journal as the mainstream (non-IT) community starts to notice how inconsistent Google's results have been over the past few months. In Monday's article, the WSJ noted a loss of confidence in Google from the SEO community and touted new comer TEOMA as their new search engine of choice.

At this week's Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose CA, Search Engine Watch editor, Danny Sullivan, noted that the search engine world will be radically different next year. Last year's search engine business buzzwords were "relevancy", "personalization", and "strong site content". This year, words such as "consolidation", "merger", "back-room dealing", and "winner-take-all", are the keywords which best describe the industry.

Labels: Google, Jim Hedger, MSN, Yahoo

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 4:52 PM.