Microsoft Takes Over Yahoo Search

Filed under: SEO — Greg @ 30 Jul,09

Microsoft and Yahoo have finally come up with an agreement that will see Microsoft take total control over Yahoo’s search technologies.

The deal still needs to have regulatory approval but both sides expect to have everything in place by early 2010, so here are some of the key points agreed so far:

Microsoft will have total control of Yahoo! search technologies for the next 10 years, which will see Yahoo! using Microsoft technologies in its search platforms, in this case Bing.

Bing will be the official search engine for organic and paid search for Yahoo! sites, but Yahoo! will still be allowed to use its technologies and data in other areas. Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

After full implementation and following regulatory implementation Yahoo estimates to provide a benefit to annual operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditures savings of $200 million, numbers are based on the current levels of revenue and operating expenses.

Yahoo! estimates that the deal will generate an annual cash flow of approximately $275 million – though there will be more than a few investors wondering why Yahoo! didn’t take the billions on offer last year.

We can only see Microsoft benefiting from such deal, and don’t see any advantages for Yahoo! itself. And it certainly gives Steve Ballmer a big boost as a lot of people thought he would struggle when he took over from Bill Gates.

What this means for search in the longer terms is interesting some people like Jason Calacanis commented that now there are only two major search engines maybe there is space for a new search engines  or will we see Ask step up to the mark and become a bigger player? Though as Jason owns Maholo (a search engine) he might be a bit biased.

“Interesting Times” as the Chinese proverb says but we suspect that it will be at least nine months to a year before we can see what’s really happening. And lets see if Google can resist making major mistakes like they did over the last time Microsoft and Yahoo tried to merge.

There is a merger specific website here that Yahoo and Microsoft have set up, to provide information on the deal.

twitter front page gets an overhaul

Filed under: SEO,online-marketing,social media optimisation,social networking — Tags: , , — Felipe @ 29 Jul,09

Twitter’s home page has been redesigned; the main focus of this overhaul was to demonstrate the power of Twitter as a discovery where users can find what is happening in real time through search and trends.

With this in mind Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone believes it will lead new users to more compelling questions like “How do I get Involved?” which theoretically will lead to more users joining the service.

Biz Stones own words:

“Defining a ‘tweet’ for the uninitiated and explaining how to create an account doesn’t resonate with everyone. ‘Why would I want to do that?’ is a common reaction. However, demonstrating the power of Twitter as a discovery engine for what is happening right now through our Search and Trends often awakens a sense of wonder which inevitably leads to a much more compelling question, ‘How do I get involved?’”

What’s New?

Besides the new look, Twitter’s home page now has a search box where non-registered users can search for a term of their choice and see what the twitter community is saying about it.

On the same lines as the search box, Twitter’s home page is also showing popular topics by minute, day and week, which highlights even further Twitter’s power for real time search results; again you don’t need to be a registered user to see what’s hot.

We want to hear from you now, what do you think of Twitter revamped home page? Will this incite more users to join the service?

P.S: If you already have an account you need to logout to see the new front page.

bing takes the first step towards real time search

Filed under: SEO,hedgehog digital,search engine news — Felipe @ 10 Jul,09

Bing continues to innovate the way we search and it is the first search engine to start showing Twitter’s results from some “prominent and prolific” Twitters without the need of a add-on or a script, hence the “Twitter Search Results on Google” script and the “Twitter Search Results on Bing Firefox add-on”.

Since the 1st of July Bing has been showing real time date from a few iconic Twitters based on their followers count and volume of Tweets as well as their influence in certain fields. The SEO field is represented by Danny Sullivan do a search for [Danny Sullivan Twitter] or [Danny Sullivan Tweets] or even [@dannysullivan] and you will get as the first result Danny’s latest tweets as well as link to see more tweets from him which will send you to his Twitter profile.

Aviary bing-com Picture 1

It is worth noting that Bing has no special relation or any kind of deal with Twitter and all data is coming from the Twitter API.

This new feature is not at its full potential yet, but we can expect innovations to roll out anytime soon as I’m certain Bing is not the only Search Engine looking into ways to integrate real time data to its SERPs.

All this makes me wonder, how long will it take to Google to respond to it? What are the search giant plans to deliver real time data in its SERPs? Will real time search results have any impact in search engine optimisation?

We want to hear from you now, what you have to say about this real time search trend? share you thoughts in our comments section.

Google OS The Emperors New Clothes?

Filed under: Google — Greg @ 09 Jul,09

Who would have thought that the rumors about Google launching an operating system would actually be true, well it is up to a point.

The Announcement from Google says:

“Today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be. Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.”

Google says that the operating system is a light weight one with the applications running in a browser – presumably an updated version of the chrome browser.

However, it actually turns out that this “New” Google OS is nothing more than an already existing operating system – with an updated windowing system and browser. It’s like a second hand car dealer claiming a 10 year old car with a quick re-spray was brand new. Its funny when Top Gear tries to “Improve their cars” in this way – not so much for operating systems.

And some of Googles’ senior employees claims that “users won’t have to worry about viruses” are not readily believable. A major problem with Google’s Chrome OS is the security implications, putting all your applications in the browser, has not been entirely thought through. Both the Firefox and IE development teams put a lot of time and effort into finding and fixing loopholes in their browsers that allow viruses and trojans to do nasty things to pc’s.

It’s a pity that Google haven’t really done something radical and, for example, bought out the rights to BeOS or AmigaOS, both of which where much better operating systems when launched than the competition at the time.

And Its certainly amusing to see Google claim that its system using Linux as the base is newer than Windows XP, as Linux is a derivative of Unix (developed in the 60’s and 70’s) than Windows XP (which is based on work done at DEC on successors to the VAX operating system in the early 80’s)

As with all Linux distributions the main problem that stops widespread use of Linux Is driver support and a consistent look and feel across applications (Apples greatest strength in my opinion). And getting the open source community to knuckle down and produce all the applications that will be needed would make herding cats seem easy.

Google is relying on the Open Source community to help it – though whether they will be happy to contribute to such a large and profitable company is another question.

Some more questions raised by this Announcement are:

  • What happens to Google’s support for Firefox.
  • Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s position on Apples Board looks even more untenable.
  • And the wisdom of drawing attention to your self when you have such a dominant position in the advertising market.
  • Has Google really got the resource and skill to do this? this posts author has worked for companies who had individual divisions with more developers that Google has employees in total.

michael jackson – king of pop and the internet

Filed under: search engine news — Tags: , , , — Felipe @ 07 Jul,09

Within an hour of Michael Jackson dying, the Internet was flooded with users searching for more information on his death, or simply to confirm what they’ve heard on the streets or watched on TV was true, the King of Pop was dead!

Hours after MJ’s death, 30% of all Tweets were about Michael Jackson, which led the terms Michael Jackson and MJ to be featured on Twitter’s trending topics, two weeks after the death both terms are still there at the top of Twitter’s trending topics.

Major Search Engines like Google and Yahoo recorded huge traffic for Jackson-related searches. On Facebook, Michael Jackson is already more famous than Obama and the King of Pops’ page on the social networking site is the most popular with 6,708,180 fans, 3 hundred thousand more than the US President’s page.

Michael’s tunes have been download more than 2.6 million times and the video Thriller is the most viewed on YouTube with 50 million views. But the biggest winner with MJ’s death was the site that broke the news on the web. TMZ.com traffic rose 70% attracting 7.95 million visitors in the week that ended June 28.

Today Michael’s memorial service will be held at the Staple Center in L.A and the event is expected to be the biggest online ever, which will put to the test the Internet infrastructure and web servers around the globe, as millions are expected to follow the service via the Internet.

Experts believe the event will be the MOST WATCHED ONLINE EVENT EVER, surpassing Obama’s Inauguration Ceremony.

Facebook and MySpace users will also have the privilege to watch it online thanks to an alliance made with major media companies, Facebook teamed up with CNN Live while MySpace made a partnership with the entertainment group AEG and both will be live streaming videos of MJ’s memorial service.

Sure, millions of Michael Jackson’s fans will be in front of a TV or a computer screen during the service, but not the lucky winners of one the 8,750 pairs of tickets raffled over the weekend via an online lottery, 17,500 lucky fans won a chance to go and see The Michael Jackson’s Memorial Service live at the Staple Center today. These tickets are like Willy Wonkers Golden Tickets – priceless, how much would you pay to get your hands on one?

According to MJ’s family more than a dozen famous artists, singers and sports personalities will be involved in the 90 minute service which will feature performances from Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, Usher, John Mayer and 12 year old Britain’s Got Talent contender Shaheen Jafargholi hand picked by the Jackson Family to a tribute to the late King of Pop.

According to Michael’s family the list is a subject to change as other big-name stars could be fitted in at the last moment.

Will you be watching tonight’s good bye to the King of Pop, if so where will you watch it, on TV or via the Internet? Please leave your answer in our comments.

google webmasters guidelines don’t apply to google itself

Filed under: SEO,hedgehog digital,search engine news — Tags: , , — Felipe @ 06 Jul,09

“Your site’s reputation can be affected by who you link to”

If you are an SEO you know exactly where the above quote comes from, for those of you not familiar with it, that is a quote from Google Webmasters Guidelines, basically is saying that if link to bad neighbourhood sites, you could be penalised.

But apparently that doesn’t seem to apply to Google itself, a few months ago search experts noticed that Google was displaying fake ads for US Government Grants; it took a while but they removed it from their sponsored links section.

Now another type of fraudulent advertisement is polluting the SERPs, the “Get Paid by Google” ads from sites like Kevinlifeblog.com, Scottsmoneyblog.com, Maryslifeblog.com and Googlemoneytree.com are being visited by millions of people each day, all offering a guide of how to make thousands with Google in the comfort of your own home.

Anyone with basic education could see that as a scam, but in times like this where unemployment is sky high and collapsing industries many people are falling for those kind of ads, but the million dollar questions is: Why don’t Google Ban those Site or even allow them to create an account with Adwords?

The answer is very simple, because Google makes lots of money with those sites, first they have to pay Google for the advertisement via their Adwords accounts and second these fraudulent ads increase the bid price of certain keywords making legitimate marketers pay more for their keywords.

What is more revolting is that for us SEOs and legitimate marketers, Google is always trying to make things harder, at least that is how I see things as an SEO, why don’t Google and its spam fighting team focus more on those “Scammers” and let us legitimate professionals carry on with our work.

Let’s face it, we are doing a service for our clients and the search engine as we make it quite clear what a site has to offer to the humans and the search engines, so they can accurately index each page accordingly.

What do you have to say about all this? Could scam ads lead web users to lose faith in online marketing and advertising? Share your thoughts in our comments section below.

seo round up – june09

Filed under: SEO,search engine news,social media optimisation,social networking — Tags: , , , — Felipe @ 01 Jul,09

Without a doubt June has been the most exciting month so far this year for the SEO community, a bunch of new products have been announced and introduced not to mention a new Search Engine, in case you missed all the action here is a quick round up of what happened.

In the beginning of the month, Digg surprised its community by removing its shouts systems, this action divided Digg’s community and raised the question: Is Digg a Better Place without Shouts?

Straight after that came one of the most exciting news of the whole month, Microsoft launched Bing with a record breaking marketing campaign of $100 million.

To outshine Bing, Google announced on the same day two new products to revolutionise customised search, real time communication and file sharing. The first is Google Squared, a search tool that helps you quickly build a collection of facts from the Web for any topic you specify and it is already available for users.

The second is due to make its day view later this year, its name, Google Wave, a real time communication platform that combines aspects of email, wikis, web chat, social networking, project management and file sharing all in one powerful in-browser communication client.

After two weeks from its launch, Bing’s first statistics showed an increase in its market share by 2% and that was enough to raise Sergey Brin eyebrows, Google’s co-founder himself will be leading a team of search engineers that will study Bing’s algorithm to determine where it differs from the one he created together with his classmate Larry Page back in 1998, more about it here: “Fear Grips Google” says the NY Post.

And last but least the announcement by Matt Cutts that PageRank Sculpting could no longer be performed using the nofollow tag in links, this sent a shockwave over SEO community with the proportions of a tsunami, for detailed information about this announcement you can read: Tofollow or Nofollow: That is the Question.

That is all the action from the search engine optimisation world, hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for more.