StepForth SEO News Blog

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Search advertisers are offered two basic marketing models, paid-ads and free organic ads. While there are advantages and disadvantages to both models, one clearly stands out as a better advertising option than the other. Why is it then that advertisers from small business to mega-corporation tend to show higher interest in the more expensive and least effective of the two?

Most SEOs speculate that advertisers understand paid-advertising better than organic placement. As much of search marketing is conducted in-house and optimization is a learned-skill, corporate marketing departments lean towards the very simple model of paid-search. Organic search engine placement continues to be perceived as a nebulous service that can take time to show results. On the other hand, paid-ad placements tend to show up minutes after they are established and bidding one's way to top spot is relatively easy.

With search ad-spends sometimes topping five or six figures per month, many SEOs shake their heads at businesses that refuse to invest a much smaller (generally low to mid four figure) sum on organic optimization. Ranging from small to mega sized operations, the number of paid-ad advertisers that ignore organic optimization seems to be growing.

Over the past three years, independent research has consistently confirmed that search engine users tend to click on the center column organic (free) ads far more often than on paid ads. Earlier this year, search marketers benefited from a number of published studies that clearly demonstrate the higher value of organic placements. While the results of this research is easily available to all, traditional and tech media stories tend to focus on paid-search advertising.

Two studies that made an enormous impact on the search marketing field this year are the Eye Tracking research conducted by Enquiro CEO Gord Hotchkiss and a whitepaper published by Lisa Wehr, CEO of OneUpWeb titled, "Target Google's Top Ten to Sell Online ." Gord's study shows the basic F (or triangular) shape search user's eyes tend to follow when examining search results. Lisa's study found that search users are up to 6X more likely to click on the first few organic results as they are to choose any of the paid results.

A third study, "Accurately Interpreting Clickthrough Data as Implicit Feedback" , released earlier this week by Cornell professor Thorsten Joachims looked at the links users found on search engine results pages and questioned why they choose which link. The results show again the importance of high organic search engine rankings. The researchers asked subjects to perform searches and looked at which results they viewed, which they clicked on, and what happens if those links are mixed up.

The Cornell study found that search users tended to view (look at) the first five organic results with a high percentage of them (approx. 2/3) viewing the top two listings with 42% of them selecting or clicking on that link. The number of search-viewers halves to approximately 1/3 of users viewing sites appearing in positions 3, 4 and 5. The numbers drop to about 1 in 10 users tending to view the 9 th and 10 th placed sites.

When a search user views search listings, it doesn't necessarily mean they click on those listings. In this context, to view means to examine. Users tend to examine the text used to phrase the reference link as well as the descriptive paragraph appearing beneath the link before deciding to click on it. This is especially true for the smaller number of searchers who view listings found in the 3 rd to 10 th positions as users who examined those listings tended to spend more time on the results page before choosing the link to click first. In other words, 1/3 to 1/10 of users are conducting preliminary research by seriously reading the text used to phrase the results before clicking.

This finding was backed up in another part of the Cornell study that showed when the same Top2 results were reversed, the text used in the link and description had a notable influence on which link the user clicks. The research found that when results were switched around, 34% of the users would still click on the site ranked in first place, even when they had seen the now #2 site there earlier.

In his Alertbox review of the Cornell study, Jakob Nielsen succinctly notes, " If users always clicked the best link, then swapping the order of the two links should also swap the percentages, and this didn't happen. The top hit still got the most clicks."

These findings led the research team to suggest there are two biases playing out in the minds of search engine users. The first is the Trust Bias, which leads the searcher to believe that a site ranked in the number 1 position is there because it must be the best reference for that keyword. The second is the Quality Bias, which considers the text used in the results to determine which is the best site to choose from.

For search engine marketers and more importantly, search engine advertisers, there are two glaringly obvious implications.

First of all, it is extremely important to be found at the Top of the search engine results. Being in the Top10 is likely sufficient for many businesses but the sites getting the most business are found at the top. To further these findings, Gord and Lisa's research clearly shows that searchers are choosing organic placements over paid-ads.

Secondly, the copy used in your Title tag and site content has to be more compelling than that of your competitors. Search users are reading before clicking. If they have to make a choice between three sites that are all perceived to be equal (those in the 3 rd to 5 th positions), they will almost always choose the one with the most topically relevant descriptive text and link-copy.

Put together, the results of the three studies show that search engine users are able to tell the difference between paid and free listings and tend to trust the free organic listings more than they do the paid ones. The studies also show that search users, while still tending to put a higher bias on the Top5 results are becoming sophisticated enough to seriously consider descriptive copy before choosing to select a link. In other words, the search users are starting to make what appears to them to be the wisest choices when selecting search advertising. The advertisers are advised to do the same.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Search Engine Advertising Choices

Monday, September 26, 2005

For budding Internet entrepreneurs Andrew Holt and Rishi Khaitan, building a better mousetrap was the key component in their vision of the upstart comparison search engine dontbuyjunk.com. Behind the sparse front page is a wealth of products, information and consumer recommendations on a wide array of consumer and business electronic goods. Searchers are offered a number of comparative tools to change and narrow results, ranging from general price and product-specifications, to much more specific details relevant to each product type.

Like many other IT engineers, Andrew and Rishi are electronics enthusiasts who know how to find product information quickly and can rap tech-specs off the tips of their tongues. They are therefore considered experts in all things electronic by their friends and families, an honor of sorts that can quickly become a major burden around Christmastime or when a product recommendation goes awry.

Andrew and Rishi saw a significant hole in a growing marketplace and decided to develop a search engine that provides "product recommendations in the same manner a highly knowledgeable friend might." Faced with a hole in the market, they did what any talented risk-taking techies should do; they built their own solution. In the process, they developed an engine designed to consider a question based on how they themselves would work through a product recommendation. This month, they felt they had finally reached their goals of creating an easy to use product comparison engine which is also complex enough to offer excellent advice to almost any individual user.

As their thinking goes, they would first consider what other people had told them about a specific product. They would then likely recall and reread articles they had spotted that mentioned the product. The personal needs and preferences of the person asking for the recommendation would also be fuel for consideration.

The best way to describe the search tool is to invite readers on a product search tool. I am looking for a new laptop computer. Fortunately, this is one of the ten most searched for product types and DontBuyJunk.com has a handy icon representing its laptop category on the front page. I click on it and am taken to a page that is divided into three columns. The left hand column contains tools to narrow my search. The center column contains search results. The right hand column contains two ranking scores, rated on a scale of 1 - 10, generated by users and reviews found on the web.

Let's start with the center column, which for my initial search displayed 9 immediate results with images to the left with product information in the middle and to the right. This column was divided into three rows. The first offered 20 results for Ultra-portable laptops, displaying the first three. The second row offered 71 results for mainstream or typical laptops, again displaying the first three. The third row offered 30 results for desktop replacement laptops with the top three results displayed.

The column to the right shows product ratings derived from direct-user reviews and from reviews published in 200-odd sources drawn from the tech-media. Scoring user and professional reviewer opinions on a scale from 1 - 10 might seem easy, if the reviewers wrote their reviews using a numeric system. Unfortunately for Holt and Khaitan, they don't. That necessitated the creation of a complex algorithm referred to as TotalRank.

TotalRank finds and extracts keywords and phrases used to express an author's opinion of specific products and their attributes. These phrases are quoted on product results pages. They are also assigned a value based on how the author describes a particular product or product attribute, the stated battery life of a particular laptop for example. Using a simple scale consisting of, "Very Negative, Negative, Neutral, Positive, and Very Positive", a numeric value is assigned to that phrase in relation to the product. All ratings for all attributes of a particular product are then mixed, sorted, weighted and scored to produce the TotalRank score.

Search results are altered and ultimately narrowed using the features found on the left hand side of the screen. The first is the price range slider that allows the searcher to sort search results based on the cost of items. The second is a general attributes box that asks the searcher to specify product attributes that are of particular importance to them. For example, I am very concerned with how long the batteries on my laptop can operate between charges. I am also concerned with reliability and with ergonomics. By selecting the general attributes I am most interested in, my search is narrowed considerably.

DontBuyJunk takes the narrowing of search results much further than general attributes, allowing me the option of telling it exactly what I need in a laptop. Another feature allows me to choose results that based on: Screen size, resolution, aspect ratio, processor class, processor speed, installed memory, wireless attributes, stated battery life, h/d capacity, optical drive type, USB ports, peripheral connectors, OS, and the manufacturer. Surprisingly, colour and flavour weren't options.

Just to remind folks, my birthday is coming up in a few weeks. By using DontBuyJunk.com, I have found the new laptop I truly need and have conveniently distributed the search results page the engine produced to family and friends. That page will be very helpful to them as it lists a great deal of product information, laid out using five easy to follow tabs.

The first tab shows general product information under four headings The Good, The Average, The Bad, and Not Sure. Each of these headings shows where specific attributes of the product might fall. For instance, while the laptop I found excels in battery life and reliability as noted under The Good heading but the gaming performance seems to fall under The Bad. The business performance is Average as is the audio quality. The second tab is labelled specs and offers highly detailed technical specifications. The third tab displays user reviews and the fourth displays web reviews. The fifth and final tab lists a number of places to purchase the product online. Shopping.Com currently feeds this information.

DontBuyJunk.Com is a better mousetrap. Having built what is arguably the most complex product comparison engine to date, Holt and Khaitan hope to see it adopted by electronics consumers who want a simple and quick solution for finding exactly the right products.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Don't Buy Junk.com

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

SurfWax, a Menlo Park based software developer, has introduced an anticipatory onsite search tool known as LookAhead that makes looking for and finding information on most websites much simpler.

Ask yourself a question. How often do you visit commercial, governmental, academic, or non-profit websites and get lost or lose focus when trying to find specific information? Now, how many website visitors lose interest or focus when trying to find specific information on your website?

LookAhead aids onsite searchers by creating a dropdown menu of words, phrases and terms relevant to site content as the searcher enters keywords into the site-search text box. As an example, Tom Holt, CEO of SurfWax created a demonstration by using the StepForth News homepage as his model.

When a site-visitor enters words or terms into the search text box, LookAhead's dropdown menu expands to note all documents containing those words, phrases or terms. As the searcher types the full word or phrase, LookAhead eliminates potential references that no longer meet the searcher's query. The result is a much more detailed view of the contents of a website than is possible using a text-based sitemap.

LookAhead is simple for users and very easy for webmasters to set-up on their sites. There is no software to install for webmasters or site visitors, as the entire package is web-based. A small snippet of code, approximately 12 lines long is inserted in the source-code of the search page by the site webmaster after creating the site's lexicon of terms. Creating and populating the lexicon LookAhead draws from is a simple two-step process.

First a lexicon of terms is necessary. This lexicon can be created by importing a self-made file of these terms to LookAhead or by using LookAhead's page crawler LexIt. When the lexicon is complete, it is imported to the LookAhead system and the webmaster is prompted to add the LookAhead code to the search-page of their site.

Once there, LookAhead makes the job of finding specific information much easier for site visitors. For more examples or information, please visit LookAhead or SurfWax .

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: LookAhead - Dynamic Site Search and Navigation

Google is working on its most ambitious project to date, the creation of a global data transfer network that could effectively serve as a private Internet. Since the introduction of AdWords three years ago, Google has become the world's largest media company and advertising vehicle. It has grown to rival Microsoft in scope and scale. The process has made it a fully globalized corporation.

Google has an estimated $7billion in the bank and employs many of the brightest brains in IT. It also has a reputation for being one of the best tech firms in the world to work for and has been known to use that reputation to headhunt intellect from its rivals. It is focused on the burgeoning Chinese market and appears to be performing better there than its chief rival Microsoft is. Google has the obvious capital and intellectual resources to do just about anything it wants to.

There are a number of reasons backing speculation that Google is building its own global digital communications network. Google has formally entered the telecom business with the release of a VOIP client known as Google Talk. VOIP is an acronym for Voice Over IP, which is a synonym for Internet telephone. In order to provide this service Google has had to acquire technical and physical resources that, along with other assets held by the company, point to the construction of an alternative Internet.

As Microsoft has so ably demonstrated over the past twenty-five years, there are a number of profitable ventures found in a space monopolized by a single mega-corporation. If that is the path Google is taking, building the infrastructure to capitalize on it would be considered the crucial but difficult first step. Over the past ten months, Google has been purchasing a large quantity of redundant fiber-optic lines, (commonly referred to as dark-fiber), in cities around the world. This fiber was laid during the boom years of the late 1990's but left surplus after the dot-com crash in 2000. Speculation about Google building an alternative Internet has been circulating since early January 2005 when Google started buying and accumulating lots of dark-fiber.

Telecommunications industry news-source Light Reading today reported on some of Google's recent real estate acquisitions. Google is leasing large amounts of floor space in or near major telecom interconnection facilities such as the recent leasing of about 1/10 th of the rentable space at 111 8 th Ave in New York, one the world's largest telecommunications interconnection hubs. It is also said to be in negotiations for large amounts of space at enormous co-location centers (known as carrier hotels ) on the west coast, with the goal of linking Google's North American and Asian networks.

In early 2005, Google began issuing RFP notices to relevant tech firms for the development of a DWDM fiber optics network. The RFP process ended earlier this month and Google is now reviewing bids from multiple tech vendors. Google is said to be planning to first establish a network in North America and then connect it with similar networks established in Europe and Asia . The construction of such a network could give Google the ability to deliver multiple branded media such as music, video, online telephone and other Internet services to every home in the United States .

DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is a technology that exponentially increases the carrying capacity of fiber optic cables. According to an article in yesterday's IPMedia Monitor (sub req.), only a handful of the largest telecommunications providers operate commercial DWDM networks. A small number of private DWDM networks exist but few are large enough to need such capacity.

Google's need for bandwidth capacity is increasing rapidly. It currently pays the traditional telecom firms like AT&T who own the long-haul fiber lines a premium for bandwidth. Building its own data transfer network could be seen as a cost savings solution, especially as it could cost as little as $100million (in new spending) to construct one. Google already owns fiber throughout North America and around the world. It just needs to connect it all together.

Once connected, what could Google possibly do with a homebrewed state-of-the-art fiber-optics system? It could develop the kind of exclusive branded environment AOL originally dreamed of. It could capitalize on its recent innovations to provide life-service technologies such as Google Talk (VOIP) and interactive information resources such as local search alerts and the delivery of news, video and music files.

According to the IPMedia Monitor article, "... those who have reviewed the RFP say that Google's plans extend far beyond cost-saving motivation, with an architecture that puts a Google-controlled hub deep within all major metro areas."

Google's stated goal is to organize the world's information. A big part of that goal is to turn a profit while doing so. Google turns a very tidy profit each quarter but has long been seen as too reliant on one form of income, paid search advertising. Google draws between 90 - 95% of its revenues from paid ads. The development of a Google operated data transfer network would give Google any number of ways to expand the number of productive revenue streams from 1 to 1+ more.

Then again, Google has always prided itself on its ability to organize the world's information and provide it free of charge to its users. The cost of Google's services is bourn by the advertisers. Google might simply be exponentially increasing its online real estate inventory by enticing hundreds of millions of new registered users to take a look at whatever it is they are creating. Assuming it is the coolest thing on the block when released and is faster and cheaper than its competitors (as most of Google's new products tend to be), many of those new users will choose to stick around to use the services offered by a Google branded network.

Google appears to be preparing to become the world's greatest data delivery vehicle. Perhaps this phase of Internet history will be summarized with the neo-business aphorism, "If you can't beat them and you can't join them, you can just make your own reality and make lots of money over there. "Google has $7big in the bank, much of it being investor money. From all accounts, it is preparing to light up and connect millions of miles of dark fiber, starting in North America possibly as early as the first quarter of 2006. Today we wire America . Tomorrow we wire the world. On Saturday, we'll do bunch .

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Building Alternative Internet

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Long known for its external secrecy, Google has been opening up lines of communications over the past year to the delight of SEOs and webmasters. About eighteen months ago, an anonymous character known as Google Guy began appearing at certain search-related discussion forums sharing information and answering questions. The experiment with the Google Guy persona was very successful and now one of Google's top engineers, Matt Cutts is a regular contributor to several search related discussion forums.

Starting last week, Google has been sending notices to webmasters whose sites have been temporarily removed from its index for violations of Google webmaster guidelines.

Dear site owner or webmaster of [url removed],

While we were indexing your webpages, we detected that some of your pages were using techniques that were outside our quality guidelines, which can be found here: [link]

In order to preserve the quality of our search engine, we have temporarily removed some webpages from our search results. Currently pages from [url removed] are scheduled to be removed for at least 30 days.

Specifically, we detected the following practices on your webpages: On [url removed], we noticed that pages such as [url removed] redirect to pages such as [url removed] using JavaScript redirects.

We would prefer to have your pages in Google's index. If you wish to be reincluded, please correct or remove all pages that are outside our quality guidelines. When you are ready, please submit a reinclusion request at [link]

You can select "I'm a webmaster inquiring about my website" and then "Why my site disappeared from the search results or dropped in ranking," click Continue, and then make sure to type "Reinclusion Request" in the Subject: line of the resulting form.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team

Over at Threadwatch where the story first broke, Matt Cutts confirms that these notices do come from Google stating, "Google is trying out a pilot program to alert site owners when we're removing their site for violating our guidelines. JavaScript redirects are the first trial, but we've also sent a few emails about hidden text, I believe. This is not targeted to sites like buy-my-cheap-viagra-here.com, but more for sites that have good content, but may not be as savvy about what their SEO was doing or what that 'Make thousands of doorway pages for $39.95' software was doing."

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Testing Penalization Notices

Monday, September 19, 2005

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Behemoth Battleground - AOL being sought by Google and Microsoft?

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Last week Google hired a net-god, Vinton Cerf, as its "chief Internet evangelist". Google's hiring of Cerf has set off a wide range of speculation among Internet watchers. Vint Cerf is not what many would consider a "normal" person and is no where near a "normal" employee. Cerf has been called the Father of the Internet and the most important person alive.

Do you ever wonder how so much data can cross the global network every second? In 1972 and 1973, Cerf who is now 62, co-invented the Internet's primary data-transfer protocol known as TCP/IP. Cerf and fellow TCP/IP developer Robert Kahn figured out how to make the Internet work efficiently. TCP/IP is based on the simple concept of breaking large chunks of data into byte-sized packets, directing those packets from computer to computer through a scalable network, and reconstituting the individual packets to replicate the original document.

Since he was hired, Cerf has given two interviews, one to TechWeb News last week and the other to CNet news earlier this week. Both articles offer comprehensive glimpses of what interests one of the world's most significant geeks and how he sees his role at Google. Cerf's tenure as Google's chief Internet evangelist officially begins October 3 rd but, being the Father of the Internet, nearly anything Cerf says about the 'net is by nature evangelical. Quotes used in this article are lifted directly from the CNet and TechWeb pieces. In some cases, quotes from each article are used in the same paragraph to paint what I believe is a clearer picture of how Cerf is thinking.

Cerf admits his job description is currently undefined but likened his role to that of a bumblebee in transporting and cross pollinating ideas among Google engineers around the world. While he won't be working directly on writing code or managing programmers, he will be working to "... probe deeply into design philosophy, parameters and constraints", of Google's systems. "This is a place that's just full of creative energy, and I like places like that," Cerf said. "I want to have the opportunity to challenge people in the labs with problems that need solving."

Google's stated mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Cerf's view of this mission extends to include all possible information infrastructures such as appliances, interactive advertising, movies and any other form of digital data. "I see Google creating information infrastructure, literally, as it goes about adding applications to the things it can do. And that's what's exciting, because that information infrastructure has all kind of possibilities," Cerf said.

The Internet, as seen by Cerf, is comprised of layers of technology stacked upon one another starting with the basic connectivity protocols TCP/IP. As the layers of technology grow upwards from one computer or server to an entire network, the model grows outwards, sort of an inverse pyramid. Google has already inserted itself into several of these layers with its core search tool and supporting applications such as GMail, Google Earth, Local Search, Blogger, and Google Talk. Cert sees Google working towards forming what he calls an "Upper-Level Infrastructure" of products, services and applications.

"While it presents itself as a web interface to most people, Google could just as well present itself as a programmable interface, which means that you can start writing software that gets information through the eyes, sort of speak, of Google," Cerf said in the TechWeb interview. "That creates a vocabulary, if you like, that programmable systems can use in order to take advantage of what Google is capable of doing with its gigantic database."

CNet cites an example Cert offered while speaking at a conference on broadband connectivity in Washington on Tuesday. The article quotes Cert speculating on what he sees developing when the next-generation Internet, IPv6 , is universally adopted. "Wouldn't it be great," he suggested, "to order that bottle of champagne that James Bond is now opening simply by mousing over on the same screen where a movie is playing?"

Over the years, the Internet has become far more than Cert and his partner Kahn could have imagined. It was originally designed to allow researchers at academic institutions to share information and as a nuclear-war proof communications backbone for US national security. Just over a decade after it was opened for commercial use, the Internet is now the primary means of global communications and data transfer.

For Cert, the biggest change in the three decades he's known the Internet is its exponential growth. The "avalanche of information that's out there," is, for the most part, accessible only through the use of search applications such as Google. "Having the world's knowledge at your fingertips is amazing," he said in the TechWeb interview. "The second [biggest] thing is the flexibility and richness of communications among people and between computers."

It is difficult to imagine a wired world without the TCP/IP protocol. One of the many ways TCP/IP can be used is to create and connect micro-networks or grids of computers. Grid computing utilizes the power of multiple CPUs to create a networked super-computer. The SETI@home project is a popular early example of the power of grid-computing.

Google currently uses grid-networks in its array of data centers but Cert hints at a larger Internet based grid-system. In the TechWeb article, he speaks of an evolving computational platform based on grid-computing and peer-to-peer interactions between systems. These comments will undoubtedly unleash more speculation on future plans to create a new form of online operating and storage system. It can also be seen as an indication of future Google-branded, Internet-based software, information, and entertainment platforms.

In the CNet article, Cerf mentions approaching movie makers to discuss the Internet as a distribution outlet. "Some are responding positively, but some legal departments are still having trouble swallowing the idea," he said.

He also sees great value in local search providing what he calls "spacely" information. "I think what's very clear, based on the excitement associated with Google Earth, is the exploitation of geographically indexed information is clearly ripe for more development," he said. Google is currently seen as the leader in local search applications, being the first to merge local search and mapping for PC users and more importantly, for handheld devices.

In hiring Vint Cert, Google has acquired one of the most nimble IT minds on the planet. Even though he invented the basic routing protocols that allowed the commercial expansion of the Internet, he is still striving to understand exactly what it is he created. An evangelical urgency around the Internet's development has always been associated with Cert whose career accomplishments include work with MCI and NASA. What makes him, quite literally, one in a billion, is the depth of knowledge and experience underpinning an articulate and reputably highly-personable scientist. Cert is an engineer, a lobbyist, and an industry pioneer. He is as significant as Thomas Edison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Tim Berners-Lee, and Bill Gates. His hiring is bound to spur Google and its competitors on to bigger and much more interesting things.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Vint Cerf Talks Google

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Searching for a Career - Eight Skills for Entry into SEM

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Vinton Cerf - Father of the Internet, Google Employee

Earlier this week, Fortune magazine editor John Huey wrote a call to action editorial to American businesses and corporations telling them to put their vast resources to good use in this national emergency. On Monday, Toronto based automotive parts magnate Frank Stronach showed how it should be done.

Stronach is the founder and chairman of Magna International Inc. and Magna Entrainment Corporation. Displaced by WW2, Stronach arrived in Canada in his teens with $40 in his pocket. On the eve of his 73 rd birthday, he made a commitment that will eventually cost hundreds of millions of dollars to providing immediate housing to 260 refugees and is scouting the Baton Rouge area for 500 - 1000 acres of land on which to build a community to house thousands more.

Stronach had recently built a horse training and racing complex in Boca Raton, FL complete with over 200 apartments, cafeterias, communications centers and other necessary amenities. He plans to use this facility to provide immediate assistance to hundreds of displaced people.

In the long run he plans to build a community complete with schools, community centers and other pieces of public infrastructure and invites others to join the effort.

"We would like to build a small community where we would try to be sponsors for the next five to seven years," he said in an interview with the Toronto Star .

"We would hopefully be able to put in an infrastructure whereby you would create a new life for them, a life of hope, spirit, so that they will be self-supporting and not on welfare. That's the idea."

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Magna Relief

Along with our colleagues in other parts of the tech sector, the search engine community is starting to respond to the devastation Hurricane Katrina left along the northern Gulf coast. Several blogs, forums and search tools have been redesigned, rewritten or refocused to aid in relief efforts. Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Lycos have all announced the development and implementation of tools to assist disaster victims and those who want to help.

Over the past few days, civic officials and police have stated that most of what was New Orleans has been rendered uninhabitable. This condition will not change after the waters are pushed back behind the belatedly reinforced levies. Homes, business and pubic structures will need to be destroyed or reinforced before a decontamination effort the likes of which has never been contemplated in human history is undertaken. The city will not be livable for months at best.

Refugees, who number in the hundreds of thousands, have lost their homes, possessions and jobs. Everything was washed away, broken or contaminated. There are few paying jobs in a city that no longer exists. The most romantic city in North America has, for all purposes other than relief, simply ceased to be.

Google has added a Katrina filter to Google Maps that shows flood damage in most parts of New Orleans . Reports earlier today said that 60% of the city remained under water, down from the peak of 80% in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. Bill Kilday, a member of the Google Earth team, used the GoogleBlog to explain how images provided by the NOAA were used to create over 100 map overlays within 24-hours of the hurricane. Brave words aside, nobody knows if the city can be rebuilt in its present location. Having defied the elements for over two hundred years, the great city on the Mississippi delta might ultimately be uninsurable.

The first concern is the health of survivors and reuniting families. During the confusion of the first days, evacuees were sent to dozens of centers in New Orleans and in nearby cities such as Houston , Baton Rouge and Atlanta . Families were divided by urgent necessity and now have no way of contacting their loved ones or friends. The Red Cross is using lists compiled by FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security as the basis of a survivor database. A FEMA press release issued on Sunday states "Evacuees wishing to inform loved ones of their location can register their name by clicking on "Family Links Registry" on www.redcross.org or by calling 1-877-LOVED-1S (877-568-3317)."

Both Yahoo and Lycos are also working to provide lists and information resources to Katrina Survivors and the millions around the world who are interested in helping out. They also provide a great deal of news resources culled from the mainstream media, discussion forums and blogs.

Yahoo is using its spidering and directory-sorting technologies to run the Yahoo People Finder , a tool that scours every available survivor and refugee lists with RSS-feeds to provide as up to the minute information as possible.

Lycos is also spidering survivor lists, media sites and discussion forums to provide a list of names of those impacted in one way or another by Katrina. These lists can be lengthy so people searching them should use the FIND option provided by both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.

Arguably the most successful blog of all time, Craiglist.org has lent the weight of its massive popularity to providing lists of resources for Katrina Survivors. Craigslist provides localized lists with information on finding Lost Family and Friends , locating Temporary Housing Resources and a Volunteer Resource List for those who want to help out.

While not an official information site, Earthlink Hurricane Help is meant to help connect friends and family. Earthlink is one of the largest ISP and web services firms in the states.

On the ground, relief was originally organized and provided on a grassroots level. New Orleans based Hip-Hop artist Master P with wife Sonya Miller emerged to organize the first significant relief effort in the TeamRescue Mission.

TeamRescue, along with a number of other relief organizations in the black community (list from NYC Pacifica Radio, WBAI.org) need immediate donations of funds and material supplies. These groups are serving the hardest hit survivors directly in their communities and are likely to get relief donations to those who need them faster and much more efficiently than larger governmental and NGO organizations have been able to.

When we think about helping out, we need to think far into the future. Many who lived in the area will have absolutely nothing to move back to. Homes, family and jobs were swept away. With schools to be closed for at least a year, many are already relocating for good. A migration of hundreds of thousands of people is underway.

Some large corporations like Walmart have announced that employees of stores in affected areas will be able to find jobs within their organization wherever they end up. For many though, the small and medium sized businesses and the tourism trade that supported the city are gone. After reuniting with family and friends, housing and employment will become the pressing concerns for survivors.

The democratic leaning online political movement MoveOn.org provides two databases for those who need or who can provide housing at HurricaneHousing.org. This registry already includes tens of thousands of offers for temporary housing all over the United States and is continuously updating. People who can provide temporary or permanent housing can register and contact people who need it in their area directly.

In the coming days, it is reasonable to expect the tech world will begin to move its resources toward helping displaced people find work in their new communities. It is also safe to assume the availability of jobs will create migration threads across America as large groups move to where they saw jobs were available. Perhaps access to instantly updating information can help prevent the horrible social upheaval previous mass-migrations have caused. Think "Grapes of Wrath".

Already, the largest tech firms are working with the Red Cross to reestablish communication channels between evacuation centers and throughout the area. Wired News reports that "Intel, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, SBC Communications, Dell and others are working with the Red Cross to build voice and data communications at hundreds of evacuation shelters, and link them together." Most large corporations are also matching employee relief donations dollar for dollar. According to the Red Cross, over 75% of the $21 million it has received in donations thus far has come from the Internet.

In New Orleans , two major tech firms have managed to keep up and running from the upper floors of a skyscraper though supplies of diesel fuel for their generator are limited. Again as reported by Wired, New Orleans ISP and web hosting firm Zipa and a related firm, DirectNIC remained online throughout the hurricane and still continue to provide hosting services. Their Internet connection, a fiber line buried ten stories below the city, survived the disaster intact.

Another way to help survivors is to keep them out of harms way. When disaster strikes, predators come out of the woodwork to prey on people. A post at Threadwatch titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", points out the sadly obvious, scammers are using this tragedy to phish for personal information. It is vitally important that people be aware of the potential for information theft, especially when trying to reunite with loved ones or file for Federal relief funds.

Katrina is the second major test of the grassroots nature of the Internet in a national disaster; one the community has risen to again. It is truly amazing to see how many people want to help and the number of emerging resources being posted across the web. In Washington State alone there are over 1500 offers of immediate housing resources at HurricaneHousing. As the human cost of Katrina is yet to be known, the web community is starting to help individuals move into the new situations they have been thrust into.

The real relief effort is going to take a long time. Every state in the US is going to be effected by an influx of people needing housing and jobs. The assistance will be provided primarily by those NGOs. There is a lot of need at the grassroots level, much of which will need to be met by privately generated funds.

Search marketers might want to think about lending their services to the various NGOs in their area. A search marketing website, SEMCares.com offers a list of projects SEMs can donate their time and talents to. It also invites SEOs and SEMs to contact local organizations, donate their time and share their experience after.

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