Sunday, September 30, 2007

Not a MetaSearch, not a Toolbar - It IS very cool - Search anything

Most major search engines discourage automated searches. Many SEO's do it for 'whatever reason'. I have yet for any SEO to prove to me that it helped their results. Maybe it's the immediate gratification of the little up and down arrows?. Of course, others derive a little affiliate commission by recommending the programs that do it :)

Free tools are now available to give your client search engine position and other information without pinging the crud out of Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Every once in a while, though, we wonder how we're doing the the 'rest of the universe'. Other search engines, blogs, photos, news and targeted search engines.

Before we re-introduce you to this very cool web-based tool, we'll warn you it can be highly addictive. Plan to spend a few days (hopefully an hour or so) playing around with it.

Be sure to click across all the links at the top. That's the magic.

Formerly know as mrsapo, you owe it to yourself to check out the latest version of this very cool website / search tool - www.intelways.com

Friday, September 28, 2007

Yahoo and Live Search both make search changes

You may have noticed some changes in both the Yahoo and Microsoft's Live search indexes in the past few days.

Last month, Yahoo made an addition to their 'siteexplorer' website submission page and literally invited dynamically produced websites to 'adjust' their pages within Yahoo's index. Early this week, posts to their public blogs indicated that another 'index shuffle' was underway and users will be seeing new generic results soon.

It's been about 5 days since MSN's Live Search went through a format change. Much more user-friendly to customize than in the past, the change was significant. Now comes word that they too are looking at the algorithm used by the MSN bots, and promising 'more relevent' results soon.

SEO's around the world, no doubt, will be watch this. Google still commands more than 50% of the user search space, with Yahoo second and MSN third.

Index shuffles in the past have brought a barrage of both kudos and complaints from marketing companies and SEO firms. As 'search' becomes more and more important to the overall worldwide advertising landscape, it'll be interesting to watch this latest search engine chapter play out over the next few weeks.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Steve Case Returns and .. another Google Satellite deal?

Briefs : Sept 25, 2007

Steve Case, who co-founded (and consistantly 'rescued') AOL, prior to the 'Time-Warner' takeover) is back. Case's new venture is striking a challenge to PayPal and Google Checkout with a new venture. More at Revolution Money.

More 'Google satellite'? Among the blog buzz overnight was the potential of Google bidding for Satellite radio provider Sirius. Sirius, stalled in it's efforts to merge with XM, has several satellites, serving North America, not only capable of instantly to Google's audio advertising platform, but the satellites themselves are capable of delivering TV AND Internet. The 'Google direct bandwidth watch' continues!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Fox goes business - Microsoft looking at Facebook

It'll be called the Fox Business Channel when the new cable / satellite channel debuts in just a few weeks. Murdoch's Fox Network will be adding yet another market segment to their portfolio with an all business channel scheduled for next month. The multi-media Fox market-mix of print, cable and Internet continues to grow.

Primary competitors in the US include CNBC (a GE company) and Bloomberg LLC, the global financial reporting company owned primarily by New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

CNBC had just completed a total website 'makeover' a few months ago.

Another significant report today claims Microsoft is looking at investing in social networking website Facebook. Facebook has been a rumored takeover target throughout it's continued evolution, and so far has resisted the temptation. There continues to be speculation that MSN (Microsoft). Yahoo or Google would at some point will vie for Facebook. The report drove Microsoft's stock on Monday.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Google on bandwidth watch - Google Satellite?

It's becoming apparent that Google no longer wants to be dependent on anyone else's fibre or wireless networks.

First came their petition with the FCC which essentially changing some of the rules for the next US wireless spectrum offer.

Last week came news of a partnered satellite launch aimed at increasing the coverage of Google Earth ..... but one could assume the satellite has a 'few extra channels'?

This morning, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the search giant could be a potential partner in a new undersea transatlantic cable.

In most cases, we could assume this is a great PR department at work. In Google's case, it's all probably true.

With their eyes now focused on Social Networking as well, it appears that Google has a keen eye on every market segment that could effect their core business (and well beyond). Add to that the fact that the two owners joined Bill Gates last week in the top 5 richest Americans list put out by Forbes, and one could come to the conclusion that Google already has their hands in the pockets of almost every American already. In our eyes, that has always been the formula for making that list.

Staying there will be the interesting part .... to be continued.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Getting your photos noticed on Yahoo and AOL - A cool 'trick'?

While a lot of websites are out there offering you free space for your photos, some of you may want to have a reason for getting them noticed.

If you're a traveler and take decent pics, try uploading a few to Flickr and AOL's photo gallery.
then put the city (and state) or 'searchable region' in the tags.

After you've established 'a little' credibility ... Take a peek at what AOL and Yahoo are doing with their Travel sections. Just wander over to 'Travel' on either portal, type in the place you took the picture, and there's a pretty decent you may see one of your photos at the bottom of the page.

AOL is still in their infancy with this so you'll probably appear much faster. Flickr has upteen photos to choose from so they need to be current and/or really good stuff ...

Going somewhere? Sometimes it's better to lose those 'travel review sites' (except ours of course :) and just wander over to Flickr and see what your destination looks like. There's a real good chance it's there ...

Friday, September 21, 2007

Google Blog Search hit with spam and Yahoo continues log-in consolidation

While finally getting around to doing some analytics and 'just search' on some client websites, I couldn't believe the amount of website scraping that is going on, mostly likely to confuse and/or have sites excluded from search engines. This is nasty business and I have no hesitation in saying "Use the search engine spam reporting tools". It's going to take all of us to keep this place clean ... if that's possible. Maybe we need a new coordinated trade organization to do just that? If one doesn't already exist, I might just promote it.

Another 'nasty', which actually resulted in one of OUR blogs being delisted, are these outrageous randomly-generated blogs filled with keywords and little or no content. Every time one gets delisted, another appears in the same space.

MSN's Live search (which just got a facelift this week) was a MESS with these blogs but seems to have made great progress. Now it's Google's blog search. Try a blog search on a competitive market on Google Blog Search and you'll see tons of these 'random blogs'. Luckily, the REAL blogs for each 'interest area' that we checked still seem to be listed at or near the top. The solution, (and yes, our "unique SEO and Tech Blogroll' will premier right here this week) is a good Blog SEO technique anyway. Link your blog to other blogs in the same interest space. Hook up on Technorati as well.

Finally lately, I think malware is probably driving me more nuts than someone who gets paid for getting rid of it (Yes, Matt Cutts). Brand new computer on our network. 2 days. Pop-up heaven.

We like ccleaner (or Crap Cleaner) .. but it's not for everyone. (Watch out for the sneaky pay-for downloads and ads that don't look like ads on their site ... and toolbars that install by default ... all of that aside, this is a GREAT tool for a quick clean-up!). Anti-virus and Adware programs still just don't cut it.

So off to the post headline ... No big secret that Yahoo, MSN, and Google have been busy on the acquisition front. They are FINALLY starting to consolidate user log-in's, further eliminating 'duplicate identities' and better 'authority' and 'trust ratings' for websites AND blogs.

The latest is MYBLOGLOG.com, one of Yahoo's better acquisitions, which moved today to 'allow' you to consolidate your log-in. One less password to remember and a more legitimate history of who actually owns what. The downside? Unfortunately, many Flickr (another Yahoo company) applications still don't recognize consolidated log-ins, so be careful when switching.

Suggestion of the week ... for what it's worth. While it may be a 'small profit center', it's time for Flickr to offer Flickr PRO for FREE. There's tons of free photo sites out there and it's probably only a matter of time before Google's Picasaweb.com begins to catch up and I doubt seriously this would be a major hit to Yahoo's bottom line ....

Finally ... our vote for the absolute best Internet recognition and integration exec of the month.
Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. Despite the intense Facebook hype lately (watch this ... Facebook IS on the move), MySpace, Fox, Fox Sports, and all of the other entities in the News Corp portfolio have been cutting cross deals with just about everyone. The Dow Jones acquisition is icing on the cake.

It's amazing to watch to major US TV networks trying to keep up ... and already making mistakes?

Enough for this post. Beautiful weekend here in the Poconos. Come on up to Pike County PA and breath some fresh air :)

-- Charlie Anzman Sept 21 2007

Canada Keywords Hot !

With the recent decline in the US dollar, we noted a unique keyword buying and marketing trend this week. CANADA.

Canadian shoppers not only make up a good portion of EBay buyers, but they also TRAVEL quite a bit in the US, vacation here, and come down to our malls to shop for the holidays.

They are used to 'high' gas prices and have been for years.

We noticed a significant increase in geo-targeting Canada this week, most actively by Real Estate companies seeking a 'fresh' market No doubt, the current exchange rate makes it much more interesting for Canadian shoppers potentially buy second homes or land here (and noone really knows how long it will last).

Other merchandisers in the US were targeting Canadians as well throughout the week in larger numbers.

It'll be interesting to see how long this trend continues.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Google to profit by Real Estate mess and Zillow gets 30 Mil

We've been watching the Internet Real Estate space lately, frankly because we put small home in the Northern Poconos on the market just before the sub-prime mortgage bomb ... and the media hype that followed.

It made the average person think the world was coming to an end?. Could OJ have rescued the Real Estate market?? :)

Certainly there were some very real factors here with many jobs lost and undetermined effects on the overall economy but we feel the media overplayed the reality, especially with the fed cut.

Very,simply, if you look at 'historic' interest rates, we're still at some of the lowest rates in 25 years?!

So the Real Estate market briefly drops dead (yes, I said briefly!) ... the 'smart guys' are out there in markets that are still JUST FINE buying stuff.

Back to the 'techie' side. An informal survey here (by us yesterday) in various parts of Pennsylvania, showed more Real Estate agents and brokers buying higher spots on Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK and more terms and phrases than they have at any time in the past 6 years.

Proof - Your ROI is right here on the Net IF you know what you're doing. Buying keywords is an art, just like SEO. Do it right and you win. You don't need megabucks to compete with the 'big budget guys'.

Techcrunch reported today another heavy-duty round of financing for Seattle-based Real Estate start-up Zillow. We were impressed by some of Zillow's roll-out and recruiting early on.

When we began re-exploring the Real Estate Internet landscape last month, we found Zillow to be sleek, well executed and easy to use. They also had a vehicle that ensured the home you were selling was yours. Makes sense to us?.

We took both the conventional and not-so-conventional-approach to selling the house, enlisting the services of a prominant local realtor, while reserving the right to sell ourselves. We found the realtor already marketing the house on our other Real Estate website-to-watch Trulia.com (I was impressed), along with a slew of the established names (Realtor.com, etc.).

The house was NOT on Zillow, so we put it there (A little shameless self promotion, take a peek here ). We also launched a webpage (with a little very-clean White Hat SEO), which to our surprise, Google picked up in a heartbeat in a fairly competive market (Thanks Google?!).

PROOF POSITIVE of one of our earlier posts that, Google is, in fact, dynamically indexing. No more waiting for Big Daddy in a lot of cases.

Hey, if you're in a crappy market, you're going to wait. There's just no two ways about it. The search engines will make A LOT of money on Real Estate in the coming weeks.

If you're out there in a stable market, the fed just sold your house ... or soon will.

Market guru Jim Cramer predicted on CNBC.com that interest rates are coming down even more. He also had Google as No. 2 on his list of stocks that would benefit from the fed rate cut.

Say no more?

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

IBM gives away Lotus Symphony for FREE

In a follow-up to our previous post, the link to IBM's software suite can be found here.

Microsoft Office SP3, Firefox Updates and Lotus 1-2-3 -FOUR?

Wednesday Briefs .....

Microsoft subtly released Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 on Monday. It is available from the Microsoft download center, Office Updates or Microsoft Update Live.

Firefox also released an update on Tuesday. Your version should automatically update but if not, just click 'help', then 'check for updates'.

Finally, IBM has announced they are going to release their latest suite of Lotus products free.
More on this in the next post.

Sept 19 - Charie Anzman

Lottery websites are HOT on the Net

A recent post in Compete's Blog showed that Lottery websites are fast becoming hot web destinations.

No doubt, with some states now running 2-3 lotteries per day, computers throughout the country are visiting the lottery sites much more often.

Sidenote: Here in Pennsylvania, the already-approved new video casinos are rapidly opening across the state, dramatically exceeding preliminary expectations. With 5 PA casinos currently in operation, the first 'resort casino' is set to open next month in the Poconos. Just across the river in New York, the green light has been given to expand the 'mini-casino' at Monticello....and, just this week, 3 casinos licenses have just been proposed in Massachussets.

No doubt almost every state in the nation will see casinos (and lotteries) of some sort in the not-to-distant future.

While gaming sites have had some legal difficulties on the Internet, the proliferation of land based casinos continues throughout the country.

The social and economic impact still remains to be seen.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

HSN and IAC's new building 'on the web' in New York City

Two days in a row .... more New York, New York .....

We couldn't help but notice today as a we read brief mention of IAC Interactive's new building in New York City. The company held true to it's moniker and has posted a very cool interactive time-lapse demo of the building construction in New York City's Chelsea District online .... which can be found here. Check out the construction modules and particularly the '360' !

The parent company which split in two earlier this year with Hotels.com and their other travel units (Expedia, Hotwire, TravelNow, TripAdvisor and others) now operating as a separate entity, still lies claim to names such as HSN (Home Shopping Network), Match.com, ASK.com, Lending Tree, Ticketmaster, and numerous others that that don't even list yet on their website.

Wall Street has been paying particular attention to the possible spin-off of HSN. Likely suitors include QVC, the Westchester PA based Home Shopping Television Channel which has dominated the space for some time.

Charlie Anzman - Sept 18, 2007

Monday, September 17, 2007

AOL plans move - Offers own keyword tracking soon

With numerous betas already in progress (including the new 'my AOL'), Time-Warner revealed today that AOL's corporate headquarters will be moving to NY soon, as well as offering independent keyword purchasing and tracking tools.

Organic SEO and Destination Weather

Need REAL inbound links?

There are over 10,000 personal weather stations around the world, interlinking, sharing data, and generally keeping weather nerds (me??) happy.

These are REAL, non-paid-for, legit, white hat yada-yada LINKS.

One of OUR examples: The Original Poconos Weather Station at Milford PA

More on this 'fine' SEO tool in our next post.

Thanks for the e-mails on our itty-bitty start-up :)

Check out this dynamic rendering fed back from 'across the country' in flash ...
(Works for them ... works for us!)





Charlie Anzman Sept 17, 2007

Friday, September 14, 2007

Yet, another upgrade to Google Webmaster Central

Those logging on to Google's Webmaster central this morning in most areas are reporting a new GUI that makes navigation easier and is a bit more graphically user-friendly.

With Microsoft (Live Search Team) soon to announce a closed beta of their own version of a sitemap / position website for webmaster, it appears Google is staying quickly ahead of the curve.

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and ASK are all participating in a 'standard' being developed at sitemaps.org.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Google updates and simplifies Webmaster Central

Google's Webmaster Central (despite the loss of Ms. Vanessa Fox to a Real Estate start-up earlier this year) has made a significant leap forward with their new look just unveiled.

Non-geeks - This is for you! Google has made it a lot easier for the 'less-technically-literate with this revised look (and examples) of numerous Google products.

Don't forget the important stuff (sitemaps!) ... and be sure to add the new sitemap line to your robots.txt file.

Be sure and check it out ... This is a great step forward, plus a little eye candy for some who'll want to grab some Google Gadgets for their websites....

.....Charlie Anzman Sept 10, 2007

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Launch date?

There are so many great SEO blogs out there. Why would you want to bookmark us.
You'll find out .... September 30th .... Stay tuned :)