Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device - Kindle
By Smitty | May 3, 2008
Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device
- Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
- Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
- Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
- Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
- More than 115,000 books available, including more than 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
- New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
- Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
Order yours today
Topics: News | No Comments »
Website Usability to influence your Ranking?
By admin | April 29, 2008
From Axandra Search Engine Facts newsletter:
More factors that may yet influence your rankings at least with Search Engines:
—————————————————————–
Can your website usability influence your search engine rankings?
Do search engines care about the usability of your web pages? Does it make a difference whether your web pages are easy to navigate or not?
A recent patent application from Yahoo indicates that search engines might take a look at your web page design. The document includes a long list of factors that search engines can consider to determine the usability of a web page.
Why can usability be important to search engines?
The patent application contains a short paragraph that explains why search engines might consider the usability of web pages:
"It can be important to make web pages easy and pleasing to use, which can be particularly important for web pages it is desired to monetize. [...].
If such web pages are not easy and pleasing to use, the money-making potential of those web pages can be jeopardized. One conventional indication of whether a web page is easy and pleasing to use is called 'clutter.'"
Web pages with good usability usually have a higher conversion rate than cluttered web pages. Web pages with good usability often have a higher quality than other web pages and search engines try to return high quality web pages in their search results.
Which factors can search engines analyze to determine the clutter of your pages?
Yahoo's patent applications provides a list of 51 web page elements that can be analyzed to determine the clutter of a web page:
Total number of links
Total number of words
Total number of images (non-ad images)
Image area above the fold (non-ad images)
Dimensions of page
Page area (total)
Page length
Total number of tables
Maximum table columns (per table)
Maximum table rows (per table)
Total rows
Total columns
Total cells
Average cell padding (per table)
Average cell spacing (per table)
Dimensions of fold
Fold area
Location of center of fold relative to center of page
Total number of font sizes used for links
Total number of font sizes used for headings
Total number of font sizes used for body text
Total number of font sizes
Presence of “tiny” text
Total number of colors (excluding ads)
Alignment of page elements
Average page luminosity
Fixed vs. relative page width
Page weight (proxy for load time)
Total number of ads
Total ad area
Area of individual ads
Area of largest ad above the fold
Largest ad area
Total area of ads above the fold
Page space allocated to ads
Total number of external ads above the fold
Total number of external ads below the fold
Total number of external ads
Total number of internal ads above the fold
Total number of internal ads below the fold
Total number of internal ads
Number of sponsored link ads above the fold
Number of sponsored link ads below the fold
Total number of sponsored link ads
Number of image ads above the fold
Number of image ads below the fold
Total number of image ads
Number of text ads above the fold
Number of text ads below the fold
Total number of text ads
Position of ads on page
According to the patent application, Yahoo might also consider the presence of animated and flashing ads and the average ad luminosity.
What does this mean to your web pages?
Good website usability can greatly improve the conversion rate of your website. If your website gets many visitors but only a few sales then it might be that your web pages are too cluttered and that you have to improve your website design.
Google has a similar patent application with the name "Detecting and rejecting annoying documents" so it seems that good website design becomes more and more important if you want to get high search engine rankings.
The HTML code of your web pages must make a good impression to search engines. If search engines find that your web pages don't have the right content then these pages cannot get high search engine rankings.
Analyze your web pages with IBP's Top 10 Optimizer to find out how search engines see the contents of your web pages and what you can do to improve your pages so that they get top 10 rankings on Google and Yahoo.
Visit http://www.Axandra.com
Topics: General | No Comments »
Google’s Page Rank Explained
By admin | April 25, 2008
I ran across a great article written by Phil Craven on webworkshop.net. It probably goes farther then most would like to know, but he does a great job explaining something so complicated.
http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html
Although many do not lend merit to a page rank, it can be best used as a barometer of sorts to measure how you can rank in Google.
It's worth the time to read.
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
Yahoo’s Changed its minimum bids
By admin | April 21, 2008
Looks like Yahoo is matching Google's minimum bid control:
Minimum Bids are no Longer Fixed at $.10
Starting today, the minimum bids for some Sponsored Search keywords are no longer fixed at $.10. Minimum bids can now be lower or higher than $.10. Content Match minimum bids currently will remain at $.10. Throughout the next week, you may start noticing new minimum bids on some of your keywords. You will be notified by email and within your account when the status of any of your keywords is affected.
The amount set as your minimum bid on a keyword in Sponsored Search can vary depending on multiple factors, such as:
| • | The number of bidders and bid amounts in the particular keyword market |
| • | The quality of your keywords, or their relevance to advertisers, as measured by the quality of the ads associated with them |
How it Works
| • | Your keyword is active—or eligible for display—when your current bid is equal to or greater than your minimum bid for that keyword. |
| • | Your keyword becomes inactive if your bid falls below your minimum, and won't be displayed unless your minimum bid is met. |
| • | You'll be notified when your bid is too low, and will have up to several days to adjust your bid. |
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
Google Adwords is making some changes
By admin | March 24, 2008
From Google's Website….
What do I need to know about the updated display URL policy?
Based on feedback from both our advertisers and users, and consistent with our efforts to present relevant results, we'll no longer allow certain exceptions to our display URL policy. These include, but aren't limited to, redirects and vanity URLs. In line with our existing policy, we'll continue to require that your ad's display URL matches its destination URL (the URL of your landing page). This policy will be strictly enforced for new ads, regardless of previous exceptions. For more details about the current display URL policy, please visit
https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=47173.
Here are some other important aspects of the policy you may want to keep in mind:
Tracking URLs
Your ads will be approved if the URL of your landing page domain matches that of your display URL domain.
For example, the following would be acceptable:
* Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
* Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
* Landing page URL: www.google.com
However, this example would be unacceptable:
* Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
* Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
* Landing page URL: www.trackingurl.com
Sub-Domains
The use of sub-domains and additional text within the display will continue to be acceptable, provided the top-level domain matches the URL of your landing page.
For example, the display URLs below would be acceptable for the landing page URL of http://sub.google.com/miscellaneous, as the top-level domains match:
* sub.google.com
* google.com/extratext
* www.google.com/extratext
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
Is your E-mail Safe?
By admin | March 19, 2008
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY
For that matter, any file from a popular software application, sent by e-mail or accessible at a website, is no longer trustworthy. Why? Data thieves are increasingly using them as snares in attacks that focus on patrons of companies and agencies that collect sensitive data, or zero in on specific individuals within certain organizations.
For the whole article:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/
Topics: News | 2 Comments »
Hulu is live
By admin | March 12, 2008
Hulu launches free online TV, movie service
By Kenneth Li
NEW YORK — Hulu, the online video joint venture of News Corp and General Electric's NBC Universal, will make its public debut on Wednesday with programming from Time Warner's Warner Bros Television Group, Lionsgate and from sports leagues
http://www.hulu.com/
At launch, Hulu will offer full-length episodes of more than 250 TV series from current hits such as The Simpsons as well as older shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It also will offer 100 movies including The Big Lebowski and Mulholland Drive.
Topics: News | No Comments »
8 Useful SEO Techniques
By admin | March 7, 2008
8 Useful SEO Techniques Every Webmaster Should Know
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008
Every webmaster should have some basic understanding of these simple SEO techniques if they want to achieve Top Rankings for their site. The more you know about these Search Engine Optimization techniques; the better your web pages will fare in the different search engines, especially Google.
Optimizing your pages for the search engines should be your main priority because conquering and dominating your chosen keywords is often cited as one of the major determining factors in the success of your online site or business. You must have a rudimentary grasp of how SEO can work for you and your site.
These simple SEO Tips will help you understand the basics and help you reach your online goals.
1. Title Tag
The Title Tag is located at the top of your html page and it tells the search engines what your page is about. When you open your page in a browser these are the words at the very top of the screen. Despite its simplicity, the title tag is crucial to 'on-page optimization'; it should include your main keywords and it should be 63 characters or less if you want your title to appear in full on Google.
Many SEO experts create web pages in a three-prong approach. They place the title in:
- the title tag - on the webpage itself - and in the URL for that page
Sometimes they will just pick the main keywords from the title and place them in the anchor url instead. For example: www.yourwebsite.com/keywords.html
2. Meta Description Tag
The Meta Tag contains the description for your web page. Your description will show up in all the search engines so you have to be careful to write precisely and objectively. It should be about 140 characters or around 20 words. Make sure to include your keywords but don't spam - don't repeat your keywords more than twice - using variations is helpful.
Keep in mind, successful webmasters make their descriptions stand out from the crowd and entice the surfer to click their link. It is also the first contact with your potential visitor or prospect so make a good first impression.
3. Anchor Tag or URL
The anchor tag is used to form links within websites or from site to site. This tag should have your title or the main keywords from your page title to be the most effective.
Anchor text is also important to know - these are the underlined, clickable text or words in a link. <*A xhref="url"> anchor text <*/A>
If you want to check Google for all web pages containing your keywords in the anchor tags.
Just type into Google Search:
allinanchor:yourkeywords
4. Finding Backlinks
One of the keys to higher rankings is building quality links from relevant, related quality sites. The search engines, especially Google, count each link as a "vote" for your site or content. Many experts suggest you include your main keywords in the anchor text of these inbound links in order to rank high.
If you want to find the number of backlinks your site has.
Just type into Google Search:
link:yourURL
and it will give you the number of backlinks you have.
Google doesn't give you all your existing backlinks, so you can try Yahoo! to find a more exact number.
Just open Yahoo! and type in: linkdomain:yourURL
5. Checking Indexed Pages
If is very important for you to know what content the search engines have indexed from your site. You can also check to see how your links are displayed and to see if any titles or descriptions are missing from your pages.
You can see how many of your pages are indexed in Google by using the site command.
Just type into Google Search:
site:yourURL
Another way to look at your pages in Google is to type in "http://yoursite" and "www.yoursite" with the quotation marks to see the exact number of listings for each.
6. Checking Google Cache
You can also check to see the Google Cache of your site by using the cache command. You will also discover when it was last retrieved.
Just type into Google Search:
cache:yourURL
7. Finding Associated Keywords
Keywords are the heart of the Internet, you must dominate the search engines for your chosen keywords if you are to succeed online. So make sure you have your main keywords in the Meta Keyword Tag on your page. Many experts suggest you place your page's main keywords in the first and last 25 words on that page.
You must also be able to find and use variations of your keywords to completely conquer your targeted niche. To find what other keywords Google has associated with your main keywords, just use the tilde ~ command to find associated phrases in Google.
Just type into Google search:
~keywords
Variations will be highlighted in bold print.
8. Finding Titled Keywords
If you want to find competing sites that have your keywords in the title just use the allintitle command.
Just type into Google search:
allintitle:yourkeywords
In summary, if used consistently, these basic SEO techniques should help improve your rankings and keep you in the picture with regards to your standings in the search engines. Your site's stats or raw traffic logs will also confirm the rise or fall of your keyword rankings. You must have complete knowledge of both your site and your keywords in the search engines, especially Google. Since Google will deliver most of your quality traffic, you must optimize for it and be aware of what is happening to your site and keywords within Google. This is yet another example where knowledge equals success.
===========================================================
The author is now a full-time web marketer who regularly sells 1000's of dollars worth of affiliate products/services each day. He owns and runs numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: http://www.bizwaremagic.com or http://www.marketingtoolguide.com
2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
Topics: Marketing, Optimization | No Comments »
ASK.com is going to change
By admin | March 6, 2008
Ask.com gets a makeover, lays off 40
In a dramatic about-face, Ask.com is abandoning its effort to outshine Internet search leader Google Inc. and will instead focus on a narrower market consisting of married women looking for help managing their lives.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/05/ask.makeover/index.html
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
The Top 5 Search Engine Market Shares
By admin | March 6, 2008
|
comScore Core Search Report* |
||||
|
Core Search Entity |
Share of Searches (%) |
|||
|
Dec-07 |
Jan-08 |
Point Change Jan-08 vs. Dec-07 |
||
|
Total Core Search |
100.0% |
100.0% |
0.0 |
|
|
Google Sites |
58.4% |
58.5% |
0.1 |
|
|
Yahoo! Sites |
22.9% |
22.2% |
-0.7 |
|
|
Microsoft Sites |
9.8% |
9.8% |
0.0 |
|
|
AOL LLC** |
4.6% |
4.9% |
0.3 |
|
|
Ask Network |
4.3% |
4.5% |
0.2 |
|
* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.
** In January 2008, Time Warner Network was split into two distinct properties: AOL LLC and Time Warner Network excluding AOL, with AOL LLC representing the core search business.
Source:
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
