StepForth SEO News Blog

Friday, May 30, 2008

"We won’t tolerate these hoax emails or having our brand used to deceive you, and we’re seeking maximum damages permissible by law." Says Mark Risher in the posting.

1. Is there a Yahoo! Lottery? - Yahoo's FAQ on the subject; where Yahoo's understandable frustration about the whole situation comes across loud and clear.
2. The latest Internet hoaxes shown by Hoax-Slayer including viruses, phishing, etc.
   -- Here is the direct link to the site's advisory for email lottery scams.
3. The FBI's Cyber Investigations team lists new e-Scams and other warnings.
   

Labels: Ross Dunn, Scams, Spam, Yahoo

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Yahoo Offers Tips for Stopping Scammers

Monday, May 26, 2008

I sent an email to google asking them about this issue. Here is the answer they sent me:

Thank you for your note. We understand your interest in seeing a Memorial Day Google logo. If we were to commemorate this holiday, we'd want to express reverence; however, as Google's special logos tend to be lighthearted in nature, this would be a particularly challenging design.
We wouldn't want to create a graphic that could be interpreted as disrespectful in any way.

We have a long list of holidays that we'd like to celebrate in the future. We have to balance this rotating calendar with the need to maintain the consistency of the Google homepage. We really appreciate your feedback regarding the Google logo, and please be assured that we're actively pursuing ways in which we can acknowledge Memorial Day and other such occasions in the future.

Regards,
The Google Team

Labels: Google, Ross Dunn

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google's Treatment of Memorial Day is Confusing

Friday, May 23, 2008

Labels: Mobile, MSN, Scott Van Achte

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Microsoft Joins in with Mobile Display Ads

Labels: Google, Scott Van Achte

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Earth Expands to Include News

Thursday, May 22, 2008

• You can jump from account to account using the top client list drop down or via the more detailed dashboard list.

• It allows for a wide variety of customizable reports for any or all client accounts, including scheduling, creation of templates and emailing.

• You can easily view alerts from any linked accounts.

• You can create customizable templates for keyword or site targeted campaigns that can be used from any linked account. I find this extremely useful, as my initial setup for a lot of new campaigns is very similar and this saves time getting a basic structure up.

• If you are AdWords Certified, the Pro Center tab allows access to your status page, access to various marketing tools as well as a link to your Promotional credits, which can be applied to any linked accounts, within the first 2 weeks of account creation.

• Only one AdWords account can be linked to a specific Analytics account. If you are working from within the MCC shell account, log out and login into the client account you wish to link. If you have 2 separate AdWords accounts, for best results, make a separate Google Analytics account for each, not just 2 different site profiles in one Analytics account.

• Ensure you enable auto-tagging for the most accurate results.

• For ease of disseminating PPC data, create a separate profile within your Analytics account specifically for AdWords information only.

• Remember to correctly install the tracking code snippet on all pages of your site for the best possible coverage.

• If this is set up incorrectly, you will need to make a request to Google support to have the account unlinked.

• Marginally annoying is the use of 2 separate fields for each Ad description line in the Ad creation process. Trying to fit in a useful description into 2 separate fields with a maximum of 35 characters in each can be awkward. In Yahoo and MSN you just plunk in the complete description and it will auto fit, unless you have too many characters of course. Still it is easier to adjust one big description than the 2 separate lines.

• I’m not particularly impressed by the information displayed when looking up keyword status and quality score. Some of the explanations range from poorly worded and confusing to absolutely useless:

• I have had issues at times where very similar keywords in the ad group for the same amount of time, at the same max bid and similar levels of competition have 2 different quality scores. This in and of itself should not be unusual, however the more relevant keyword receives the lower score. In these instances the lower scoring keyword is what I would consider more relevant as it is the exact keyword used in both the ad and on the landing page. While close but not exact, the higher scoring keyword receives an ok score, even though it is not in the ad or on the landing page as such. This makes me question sometimes how relevant relevancy is :)
  

• AdWords seems to have a built in governor, designed to not display ads if keyword bids are high and the daily budget is insufficient to sustain more than a few clicks. I was running a campaign with a particularly competitive keyword set and was getting little to no impressions. My colleague suggested that perhaps the budget was a problem, so I tested this by increasing the daily budget by a factor of 10. Almost immediately the number of impressions increased to the point that there was no doubt this was what had been blocking ad display.
  
  If the budget is too low for more than a few clicks, Google should not arbitrarily decide to not show ads. Instead, the ads should be displayed until the budget is depleted, at which time ad display should cease. I would have thought this an anomaly; except that it happened on two separate accounts we were running for the same client.
  

• Another thing that seems an unnecessary restriction, is limiting the use of the same keywords within the same account. Recently, we queried Google support about using the same keyword set for a client that has the same services, but in different and specific geographic locations. We were told, regardless of the difference in geo targeting we could not use the same keywords in the same account. This seems ridiculous to me. I had a client wanting to advertise a franchise in a number of different cities.
  
  In this case it would make sense to use the same set of keywords, but with a separate campaign for each location, so ad copy could be tailored specifically to the area. I cannot see a disadvantage to searchers for allowing this. I can see, however, additional cost to the client if this is not allowed, both in the relatively minor fees for setting up additional accounts and in the amount of time it takes to set up and monitor these accounts.
  

Labels: Analytics, Google, PPC, Tim Rule

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: PPC Management - A User's Review of Google AdWords

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Labels: Analytics, Free Tools, Ross Dunn, Usability

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: 4Q is a Free Survey Tool Not to be Missed

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Microsoft offered a sneak peak back in February, and as of Tuesday the public beta of WorldWide Telescope has been made available, according to a Press Release issued by Microsoft.

The online virtual telescope has been created in response to Google’s launch of Google Sky a few years ago, and takes things to the next level with a huge database of high resolution images from various stars, galaxies, and other non-earthly entities. Ray Gould spoke about WorldWide Telescope back in February and noted that some of "the best images from the worlds greatest telescopes from earth and in space are woven them seamlessly to produce a holistic view of the Universe."

"The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe," said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. "By combining terabytes of incredible imagery and data with easy-to-use software for viewing and moving through all that information, the WorldWide Telescope opens the door to new ways to see and experience the wonders of space. Our hope is that it will inspire young people to explore astronomy and science, and help researchers in their quest to better understand the universe."

WorldWide Telescope, Much like Google’s Earth & Sky products, is offered free and is currently available for download. While the user interface is quite different, the overall experience is very similar. WorldWide Telescope has a more modern and sleek interface than Google Sky, but in the end both have about the same to offer.

I prefer the Microsoft interface with easy graphic thumbnails to take you directly to the celestial body. Personally I find that this new beta release offers a higher level visual experience, which is why I would likely turn to it in the future.

Labels: Google, Microsoft, Scott Van Achte

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Microsoft’s New Beta, Out of this World.

The social web is rapidly growing and Google is trying to tap into this massive industry with the launch of Friend Connect. Released in a limited preview, Friend Connect allows web site owners to incorporate a number of gadgets to their site in an effort to improve the overall user experience.

Friend Connect helps webmasters make their websites more appealing, engage users, and help increase the average time on site. Incorporating a number of available social features is made easy, and does not require any programming skills whatsoever.

Webmasters select from a list of Google and Member gadgets, choose their colors and other options, and then simply cut and paste the code directly to their site.

When your site visitors opt in to use Friend Connect within your site, when they enter a review, post photos, or interact with your gadgets, notices are posted within their friends various social media accounts which can attract them to visit your site.

Currently Friend Connect is available only in a preview release, with select sites being accepted. If you are interested in participating, fill out the application form and cross your fingers that Google will accept you.

Labels: Google, Scott Van Achte, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Goes Social, Launches Friend Connect

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Labels: Online Statistics, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: UK Mobile Phone Usage for Social Networking

"Can you recall a technology/business purchase where a vendor got the sale (or the inside track) because they were more open than other vendors?"

Labels: E-Commerce, Online Statistics, Ross Dunn, Usability

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Open Pricing Can Improve Sales on Your Website

Saturday, May 03, 2008

May 3, 2008

Mr. Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo
Yahoo Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Jerry:

After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo.

I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo's Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.

I am disappointed that Yahoo has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.

Also, after giving this week's conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a "hostile" bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo undesirable to us for a number of reasons:

-- First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo's own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.

-- Given this, it would impair Yahoo's ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.

-- In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.

-- This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.

-- It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google's search services.

Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft's proposal to acquire Yahoo.

We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.

I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.

But clearly a deal is not to be.

Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.

Sincerely yours,

Steven A. Ballmer

Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

"We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo! for success and leadership in its markets. From the beginning of this process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our belief that Microsoft's offer undervalued the company and we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view. Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making. Today, Yahoo! has:

-- a refined strategic focus to drive enhanced volume and yield;

-- reorganized to focus its efforts on its most promising products and services;

-- invested in innovations designed to revolutionize display advertising and facilitate closing the competitive gap in search; and

-- enhanced expense and resource management to support improved profitability."

Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. added, "I am incredibly proud of the way our team has come together over the last three months. This process has underscored our unique and valuable strategic position. With the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users."

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 5:18 PM
To: Microsoft - All Employees (QBDG)
Subject: Withdrawal of Offer to Acquire Yahoo!

This afternoon I sent the attached letter to Jerry Yang announcing that Microsoft has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo. We proposed the deal in the belief that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would create a combined company with the resources and assets to win in the fast-growing market for advertising and online services.

Although the acquisition of Yahoo would have accelerated our ability to deliver on our strategy in advertising and online services, I remain confident that we can achieve our goals without Yahoo. We have a strategy in place to do so and we will continue to expand on this strategy and accelerate our progress.

Our strategy has three components:

• Deliver on the basics. We will continue to improve search relevance and build out our ad platform.
  
  
• Change the game through innovation. We will expand investments in engineering and deliver transformative tools and Web experiences.
  
  
• Expand our global scale and focus. We will pursue partnerships and investments to realize the competitive advantages that come with scale.

At the heart of our strategy is a commitment to bring the benefits of competition, choice, and innovation to everyone who uses the Internet--from consumers to content creators to advertisers.

We are 100 percent focused on executing on this strategy and we have made good progress in a very short time. We've improved search relevance dramatically, introduced compelling new search verticals, successfully integrated Aquantive, and added nearly 100 new publishers to our ad platform. In the last couple of months we've rolled out new versions of key products including Internet Explorer and Silverlight, and introduced new technologies like Live Mesh. We now have over 430 million active users of our Windows Live services worldwide. And we continue to add new technologies with acquisitions such as YaData, which brings leading-edge behavioral targeting technology, and Caligari, which gives us advanced 3D modeling capabilities that will help us continue to improve Virtual Earth.

Ultimately, our goal is to build the industry-leading business in search, online advertising, media, and social networking.

We are absolutely committed to being the leader in each of these areas. Now is the time to do what we have always done best--be tenacious, focus on the long term, innovate, and keep working hard.

I want to thank all of you for your patience during this process and for your dedication and hard work across all of our businesses. We asked that you remain focused on our goals through these cycles, and you have done this extremely well. We are committed to making the investments that will enable us to compete and, ultimately, lead in the online services and advertising businesses. Together, I know we will succeed.

Steve

Labels: Microsoft, Ross Dunn, Yahoo

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Microsoft Backs Down from Yahoo

Thursday, May 01, 2008

"Mobile web browsing is gaining popularity and acceptance thanks to the extensive proliferation of iPhones and other mobile appliances with surf-friendly interfaces. As a result it is becoming more and more important to offer a mobile-friendly alternative to your current website. The reality is, however, that many website owners seem to have no inclination to spend money on a medium that (as far as they know) is unproven and could generate zero income. Fortunately there is a way for every website owner to create an alternative to their website and not only is it exceedingly simple but it is FREE. Now no one has an excuse to ignore this growing medium!"

Labels: Google, Mobile, Ross Dunn, SEGuide, SEO Tips, Yahoo

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Create Your Own Mobile Website - Easily and Free