Posted by Alex Postance on May 7th, 2008
Natural search
The hotel website Superbreak has dramatically increased its revenue in the last three years by investing in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to up its search results.
Improving Superbreak’s SEO required a complete overhaul of the company’s website with new slicker and easier to navigate pages with a tighter focus on content to increase the number of times the word "break" was used, according to the Times.
The process was not an easy one but the company’s utilisation of SEO now sees it sitting proudly atop the Google search results.
Matthew Trewhella, Google’s developer advocate, said: "There are 200 signals that determine a page’s relevance. Imagine it as a big wall of dials with a bunch of people turning them slightly every day," according to the Times.
Google is the world’s largest search provider and has over 81 million users each month. It offers results in 35 languages and is the number one search engine the UK, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain , Switzerland and Australia.
Posted by Malcolm Slade on May 7th, 2008
Natural search
Internet search engine provider Yahoo! has announced a security deal with antivirus and malware protection company McAfee.
The deal will see the launch of a beta version of Yahoo! SearchScan, which is being powered by McAfee’s award-winning SiteAdvisor technology.
SearchScan will enable the user to get alerts about potentially risky sites and protects them from damage to their PC and software from malware attack.
Tim Dowling, McAfee vice president, Web Security Group, said: "We are very excited to have Yahoo! as a partner to make the internet more secure for everyone. The advance warning offered by McAfee SiteAdvisor is one of the strongest weapons in the battle against online threats."
Microsoft has also recently withdrawn its bid to purchase Yahoo! following public speculation that a deal could be close. Yahoo! said that the offer tabled by Microsoft significantly undervalued the Yahoo! brand and the board therefore felt that a deal had become untenable.
Posted by Daniel Peden on May 6th, 2008
Paid Search
Anti-trust regulators are being consulted over a potential tie-up between Google and Yahoo!, it has emerged.
Reuters has revealed that a source close to Google confirmed the final details of a deal have not been finalised.
An agreement between the two search pioneers could involve the display of Google ads on Yahoo! search results.
The news comes out after Microsoft abandoned talks with Yahoo! over an acquisition arrangement this weekend.
After talks fell apart, shares in Yahoo fell by 15 per cent, with investors said to be angry at the company’s failure to negotiate.
Steve Ballmer, the software company’s chief executive, cited the potential of a tie-up between Yahoo! and Google as one motivation for its move away from the deal.
Microsoft raised its offer for the company from $31 (£15) per share to $33 per share, but Yahoo said it wanted $38.
Mr Ballmer had previously expressed his intention not to pay more than he thought Yahoo was worth.
Posted by Mike Gomez on May 2nd, 2008
Paid Search
DoubleClick, the advertising company purchased by Google earlier this year, is set to integrate with a number of mobile advertising networks.
The firm announced the move this week, asserting it would offer greater choice to publishers and help them monetise mobile web content.
"This integration is a great example of how DoubleClick is working with key industry players to bring value to publishers by enhancing the liquidity of mobile display inventory," said the company’s group product manager Ari Paparo.
Google bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion (£1.5 billion) earlier this year, following which it emerged in the New York Times that the search behemoth was planning to cut jobs at the internet advertising firm.
The new deal is to see DoubleClick team up with networks including AdMob, Google AdSense for mobile content and Millennial Media’s MBrand network.
Publishers will be able to sell mobile display inventory indirectly due to the deal, the company asserted.
Posted by Daniel Peden on May 2nd, 2008
Paid Search
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, wants to reach a decision on the company’s potential purchase of Yahoo! soon.
The boss of the world’s largest software firm told employees at a meeting this week that the company had three options – a hostile acquisition, a friendly takeover or leaving the deal altogether.
According to AFP, Mr Ballmer said that Microsoft’s chosen route would have to be announced "in very short order".
He also asserted that his company would not raise its offer for the pioneering search company, founded in 1994.
"I know exactly what I think Yahoo! is worth and I won’t go a dime above," Mr Ballmer told employees.
The software giant initially set a deadline of last weekend for Yahoo! to reply to its $44.6 billion (£22.6 billion) offer.
Since the deadline passed without comment from either party, reports have speculated that Microsoft was considering raising its bid.
Posted by Alex Postance on May 1st, 2008
Paid Search
Microsoft failed to reach a decision over whether to raise its offer for Yahoo! this week, according to a report.
The software giant’s board of directors met on Wednesday to mull over whether they would take the company’s $41.8 billion (£21 billion) bid higher, following Yahoo!’s lack of response to the initial offer.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has suggested he is ready to walk away from the prospective deal – but analysts maintain that this is merely a scare-tactic.
Meanwhile, the original $31 per share bid offered by Microsoft has declined in value along with company stock, now being worth just $29.06 per share.
And the computer behemoth is reportedly considering taking the bid to $33 per share – still below the $35 to $37 per share deal that Yahoo!’s major shareholders are looking for.
The news comes after a report in the Guardian suggested that Yahoo! conceived a poison pill strategy in 2001 that would see its stock sold for bargain prices in the event that any shareholder gained a stake of more than 15 per cent.
Posted by Alex Postance on May 1st, 2008
Social Media
Social media site Facebook views itself as a service that complements existing friendships, rather than a facility that helps users form new relationships, one expert has said.
Rachel Hawkes, co-founder and editor of Social Media Portal, commented that the company’s introduction of Facebook Chat illustrates its commitment to the former definition.
The new application does not suggest that Facebook wants to follow Google in its steady expansion into different areas of the web, maintained Ms Hawkes.
It is merely a "natural progression" for a social networking site, she said.
Hitwise and Experian recently released a report suggesting that companies cannot afford to ignore social networks’ influence, which is set to increase over the course of 2008.
"Facebook likes to be seen as a social utility, rather than a network – what this means is that their aim is to help people connect and communicate more efficiently with the people they already know, as opposed to locating new friends and social groups based around a particular interest area," commented the expert.
Posted by David Wilding on April 30th, 2008
Natural search
Search engine optimisation (SEO) was a factor in the Telegraph’s March online traffic boost, an editor with the website said.
Edward Roussel, online editor with the Telegraph Media Group, told the Guardian that the 38.7 per cent rise in unique user numbers could be attributed partly to SEO.
Unique user figures are "hugely dependent on the quality of your search engine optimisation (SEO) and the extent by which your site is picked up by aggregators and portals", Mr Roussel said.
The number of users accessing the site increased by 38.7 per cent last month, taking the number of visitors received by the Telegraph’s internet incarnation to 17 million – a five million hike.
Other factors to which the growth was attributed by the Guardian included news provision, a field in which production increased and stories grew stronger, buoyed by events like the Budget and the credit crunch.
The newspaper also switched its internal measurement tools – also Mr Roussel claimed this would not have affected unique visitor numbers as both strategies used the same methodology.
Posted by David Wilding on April 29th, 2008
Natural search
Yahoo!’s unenthusiastic response to Microsoft’s overtures were not expected by the software giant, according to a new report.
Wall Street analyst Scott Kessler, of New York firm Standard & Poor, told the Guardian that the software giant could bring a slate of potential directors to Yahoo! in the next few days.
Three weeks ago, Microsoft imposed a deadline of 07:00 on Sunday April 27th by which Yahoo! had to accept its takeover bid of 31 cents-per-share.
This deadline passed without comment last weekend, and according to Mr Kessler, Microsoft is annoyed.
Mr Kessler told the publication: "Yahoo!’s more critical to Microsoft than people might have thought.
"I think they’ve been surprised and pretty frustrated by the fact that they’ve really got nowhere."
However, the report observes that Yahoo! could have a defence against Microsoft in the form of a "poison pill".
The search pioneer in 2001 introduced the mechanism, which would see Yahoo! stock sold at a bargain price if any company acquired a stake of more than 15 per cent.
Posted by Daniel Peden on April 29th, 2008
Social Media
Companies should not be afraid of the consumer tendency to share customer experiences with other users on the web, it has been claimed.
Jeffrey Frau, eMarketer senior analyst, says that comments and reviews can be used to companies’ advantage.
"Web retailers that offer ratings and reviews report a number of benefits, including more traffic, higher conversion rates and increased spending per transaction," he comments.
Mr Grau cites a survey conducted by the Society for New Communications and commissioned by Nuance Communications, showing that 70 per cent of US consumers surveyed in February and March claimed to use social media at least occasionally for peer reviews of customer care.
Of those polled, three-quarters reported having chosen brands and providers based on information read on the web about consumer experience.
In related news, a recent report from Forrester Research asserted that the next five years is to see increased investment in web 2.0 technologies among businesses.
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