Didn't Like Web Accelerator / Prefetch? - Read On (Monday, April 10, 12:28 PM EST)

Well, cacheing reaches new heights with this one:

Laptop comes preloaded with abridged Web

Squeezing Web onto a laptop

Bob's Back! (Well, TBPR anyway...) (Monday, April 10, 10:31 AM EST)

Not finding much time to post these days, but this just popped up. Bob Massa - of this parish - has PR7 at SearchKing. Via SEW Blog.

Disney Free Free Free on the WWW (Monday, April 10, 10:10 AM EST)

The WSJ reports that many popular ABC shows will be streamed over the WWW free:

Walt Disney Co. plans to make much of its newest and most popular programming on ABC and other channels available free anytime on the Web, in a move that could speed the transformation of television viewing habits and help revive the struggling TV advertising business.

The Top 500,000 Keywords Are for Sale (Monday, April 10, 08:48 AM EST)

The top 500,000 keywords from the Wordtracker's database are available for £1370. Probably worth a bit more than the recent list of top AdSense words.

UK: Free Broadband for All! (Monday, April 10, 05:47 AM EST)

The BBC news is reporting that the Carphone Warehouse is planinng to offer free broadband connections to deepen its foothold into the broadband market - Currently it has only about 75,000 punters compared to the millions served by the handful of other main players like NTL, Wannadoo etc...

Official AS Blog Profiles "Optimisation Specialist" (Sunday, April 09, 07:49 PM EST)

G's official AS blog profiles an optimisation expert who boosted one site's earnings from $10/day to $1,700/day, just by changing the ad placement!

The secret to AS preponderance...

Shoemoney the $10,000 PPC Experiment (Sunday, April 09, 01:54 PM EST)

Jeremy Schoemaker (aka Shoemoney) is quickly becoming a marquee name in the SEO world. He's just put up part 1 of The $10,000.00 experiment with ppc . In it he details his PPC learning experience where he goes from losing $75 a day to turning a profit.

Filtering Bad Leads & Filtering Information (Monday, April 10, 12:07 PM EST)
Post offering tips on filtering out bad leads to be more productive.

Monthly Keyword Research Marketing Data (Monday, April 10, 08:59 AM EST)
Post offering keyword research tips, pointing out tools to track keyword search trends throughout the year.

Easy Linkbait... (Monday, April 10, 04:29 AM EST)
Example of a post calling someone out which is spreading well through the WWW.

New York Times Changes Web Only Headlines To Be Search Engine Friendly (Monday, April 10, 02:28 PM EST)
A featured Search Engine Watch Forum thread named SEO & Newspapers discusses a recent NYTimes article named This Boring Headline Is Written for Google. The first paragraph of the article somes it up; Journalists over the years have assumed they...

Google's New Popularity Measurement; Traffic Versus Links (Monday, April 10, 01:06 PM EST)
There is a fresh thread at WebmasterWorld named Google algo moves away from links, towards traffic patterns. This reinforces what many have been saying for the past year or so. Google's popularity came from using linkage data and PageRank to...

Google Buys Israeli Search Engine, Orion (Monday, April 10, 12:39 PM EST)
Haaretz reports that Google has purchased Orion, "an advanced text search algorithm invented by Ori Alon, an Israeli student." The search forums are buzzing on this right now. Ori Alon worked on Orion while at University of New South Wales...

SearchKing Regains Google PageRank After Four Year Penalty (Monday, April 10, 12:23 PM EST)
SearchKing has regained its PageRank valyue for its Web site, after a four year penalty. The Search Engine Watch Forum thread, Four Years Later, SearchKing Regains Google PR has Danny Sullivan providing the historical guide as to explain why this...

Newspapers to Become Mostly Online Entities (Monday, April 10, 02:00 PM EST)
Within a decade, newspapers will evolve into mostly online entities, according to Ken Doctor, analyst at research and...

Google Acquires New Search Algorithm (Monday, April 10, 01:00 PM EST)
Google has acquired a new text search algorithm developed by University of New South Wales student Ori Alon...

Dreary Headlines, Too, Are Google's Doing (Monday, April 10, 11:00 AM EST)
At a time when website traffic - readers, that is, and therefore advertisers - can make or break...

Being an SEO - Can We Start SEO 2.0? (Monday, April 10, 04:08 AM EST)
We’ve already discussed SEO generations, how some folks entered the industry at different times and learned from others. Outside of the SEO sphere, however, SEO seems to elicit a much different response from folks based on their different (often negative) experiences with those claiming to be an SEO. To me, SEO has been a very [...]

Relative Openness of Mapping APIs (Sunday, April 09, 04:46 PM EST)
some good comments about the varous on-line mapping services

Creating the Search Optimized Press Release (Sunday, April 09, 06:30 PM EST)
The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote recently that's not been published yet. The article's called: "Reach Your PR Search Presence Goals through Optimized Press Releases, Blogger Relations and Social Networks." I excerpted the following section because it's directly related to the SEM and PR info request that got me writing in the first place.

A quick note about the coming article:
It first addresses - briefly - the proper formulation of a Public Relations campaign and outlines how to reach your PR search presence goals through optimized press releases, blogger relations and social network participation. In other words it's the article you've been waiting for that ties together social media, search and PR efforts :)

Without further ado, here's: Creating the Search Optimized Press Release

Because you're a savvy marketer, you've already mapped out your competitive search marketspace and know precisely the terms you should target in order to reach your key publics through the search engines.

Now that you're involved in your company's PR efforts (which is only right, because search engines are the primary PR vehicle of the online space, inasmuch as many aggregate news sites and blogs and typically include links from such sources as key factors in determining relevance), you must ensure that your main keyphrases find prominent places in your press releases.

Tips for Maximizing Your PR Efforts in Search Engines
• Include company name and your most important keyphrase in the title of the press release.
• Include company name and keyphrases in line with your PR and SE presence goals throughout the release, though not conspicuously and not to the detriment of readability or sense
• If you're publicly traded, include your ticker symbol in the title of the press release.
• Link your keyphrase in the body of the press release to the page on your site that's optimized for this keyphrase.
• Include contact info and a paragraph targeted specifically towards bloggers

A quick word on the reasoning behind these techniques:
When search engines collect news items, as opposed to pages they gather from the wild web, they're more likely to determine relevance based on key phrases utilized. Determining how relevant a page REALLY is to a given search term takes quite a bit of time, and news, by its nature, makes standard relevance determination tougher because of its short shelf life.

Google Finance, Google's recent entry into financial news coverage, includes blog entries and recent news stories for every publicly traded company. This fact means that your company must start blogging, or at least cultivating relationships with bloggers in your space. It's fairly certain that Google uses an algorithm for its finance section that's similar to the one in its news section.

This makes the inclusion of your full company name and your ticker symbol in the press release title - plus the title of related blog posts that your company writes - even more important in order to reach the buyers and sellers of your company's stock.

We employe keyphrase linking in the event that automated sites, bloggers or reporters lift that portion of the press release and give it a permanent non-dynamic page.

Though you should typically NOT be sending press releases to bloggers unless you've contacted them before hand, the press release you put on the wire should include links to your blog in addition to a non-directorial contact person, someone who will be seen as more authentically and meaningfully involved in the news relating to the press release than a VP or someone equally trained in spin.

This person should be lightly basted in PR principles and current PR goals, but must be allowed to speak plainly and frankly.

The concept of treating employees as a media-creating public may be difficult for readers steeped in traditional PR. Please familiarize yourself with the Cluetrain Manifesto and the techniques surrounding cultivating your employee generated media.

Also check out John Battelle's recent interview with Gary Flake of MSN for an example of whom should be talking with whom. I see this particular blog interview as a PR masterstroke for MSN. Call me and I will explain: 919-433-3139. Or I'll probably end up blogging about it later this week ;)

Here are a few sites - which I have not personally tested - that distribute press releases on the web. They may or may not actually be press release optimizers that resell distribution across already established PR channels:

www.PRWeb.com
www.PRFree.com
www.sbwire.com
www.ereleases.com
www.corporatenews.com
www.massmediadistribution.com
www.eworldwire.com
www.PR.com
www.marketwire.com
home.businesswire.com/
www.free-press-release.com/
www.24-7pressrelease.com/

Yahoo Launches Local Search BETA (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Lycos Sells to Korean Internet Portal (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Google Launches Bidding Site (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Search Engine Marketing Organization Cops Criticism (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

MSN Previews New Search Engine (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Free access to for-fee articles with Congoo (Monday, April 10, 07:55 AM EST)
Congoo is a search engine launched this month that gives registered users free access to a selection of online publications that normally requires a subscription or fee to read. Does this sound too good to be true? Well, there are a couple of snags.

Banging down the doors (Sunday, April 09, 08:43 PM EST)
Finally, a sunny day. Did some errands, walked around the West Village and realized what a phenomenal cue queues provide. In other words, there must be a reason for that line. Stew Leonard's, a mere shell of its former glory...

Preview: Google testing new site design (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

James Yu has a screenshot of a new design Google has been testing lately.

Launch: Google Pages, new Geocities-style site-building software (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Google has released a new program that gives users 100MB of web space to make simple HTML pages in.

Launch: Google running AdWords in newspapers (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Google is buying the leftover ad space in the _Chicago Sun-Times_ and filling it with AdWords ads related to the rest of the content. I wonder how they're going to charge advertisers. The domains posted are the real domains, so it can't exactly be pay-per-click.

Launch: Google Music, search for bands and albums (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Story: Xooglers, Google's former Marketing Director tells his story (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Some great stories about Google's early days, with more to come.

Launch: Click-to-Call AdWords, Google will let you call advertisers (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

(screenshot)

Update: Blind test reveals Google offers best results (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

The Search Engine Experiment gives you the results from Yahoo, MSN, and Google without saying which is which. Currently, 41% of those who have taken the test picked Google (33% Yahoo, 26% MSN).

Launch: Google Analytics, see the statistics on your website (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

A free version of Urchin, a company Google bought. (official blog post)

Announce: Google to unwire Mountain View, WiFi on street lamps (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

You could also buy equipment to extend it into your house. (proposal)

Launch: Google adds Creative Commons support (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

The Google advanced search page now lets you limit your search to CC-licensed results.

Launch: Google Local Mobile, get Google Maps and more on your mobile phone (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Satellites, drag and drop, and more.

Preview: Google on the future of advertising (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

In a long New York Times piece, top Googlers speculate about the future of advertising, including Google selling TV ads, using more personalized information, and links to store inventory information.

Launch: Google Video adds 450 interviews with top television producers (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

(official blog entry)

Update: Google "Smart Pricing" charges less for clicks from poorly-converting sites (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Details about how it works in the link.

Launch: Frappr, place photos of you and your friends on a Google Map (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

(sample map) It uses your zip code to figure out where to place you on the map.

News: Google strengthens focus on Greater China (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Appoints "President of Sales and Business Development".

News: Google donates $350,000 to open source projects at Oregon State (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

(Google blog post)

Preview: Google Base, a structured database hosted by Google (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

(screenshots) An official statement from Google says the site was designed to "provide content owners an easy way to give us access to their content". (more screenshots)

Update: Google briefly releases Google Web Accelerator 2.0 (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

The product that drove webmasters crazy was back...for a moment, at least.

Launch: Google Maps Mainia, a blog covering Google Maps apps (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

There sure are a lot -- everything from ZipCars to urinals.

Update: Google now helps search for plane tickets (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Search for something like [lax nyc] and Google will help you buy plane tickets for that trip.

Update: Google Local adds restaurant details (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Now when you search for restaurants on Google Local (formerly Google Maps), you get details about the restaurant (location, food, reviews) along with its location. (example)

Launch: reservemy.com, displays hotels on a Google Maps (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

See exactly where the available hotels are on a Google Map.

Update: Google adds tagging support (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Tagging has been all over the place recently and apparently Google couldn't resist. Now you can tag sites in your search history for later retrieval.

Launch: Google RSS Reader (Monday, April 10, 02:25 PM EST)

Google joins the already crowded RSS aggregator space with their new ajax RSS reader, done in the style of Gmail. Blogger project manager Jason Shellen led the project.

Create Your Own Dummies Book Cover (Monday, April 10, 02:15 PM EST)
You can generate your own cover... [Via Generator Blog.]

Google Sliding Puzzle (Monday, April 10, 02:14 PM EST)
Now you can play the Google homepage as a sliding puzzle (note the "make your own" link to the right). [Slider via Generator Blog.]

Harassment Blog (Monday, April 10, 02:01 PM EST)
Kinda cool... Holla Back New York City exposes exhibitionist or sexist men (NY and elsewhere) by publishing phone snapshots of them, blog-style. [Via Boing Boing.]

Google Your Race (Monday, April 10, 01:14 PM EST)
This guy assembled some racial prejudices using Google (he might have seen the prejudice map).

Saving Bandwidth with CSS (Monday, April 10, 12:50 PM EST)
ESPN.com apparently saves 730 terabytes per year. How much could Google save? Even when there's CSS around on Google.com, they're using some of the most depreciated HTML on their web search. [Via Digg.]

NYT: Tweak Titles for Searchbots (Monday, April 10, 12:40 PM EST)
This article by the New York Times doesn't seem to get microcontent. It insists that it's necessary these days to come up with headlines for search engine bots. It's true that puns or irony, or not getting to the gist, don't fare well with online but titles (Google itself was one of the worst offenders in the beginning of their blog). But it's not just about search engines. Understanding microcontent means you as a writer understand a headline can appear in a great variety of contexts; a bookmark, a title within the browser, a title in the search results, an automated link from another website, a ...

Google Alerts Hebrew (Monday, April 10, 12:09 PM EST)
Google Alerts are now available in Hebrew, Hanan Cohen reports.

Orion? (Monday, April 10, 11:45 AM EST)
Orion is a search algorithm that's apparently hot. So hot in fact that Google grabbed its Australian Israeli inventor Ori Allon, who's now working at Mountain View. Previous discussion is in the forum. [Thanks Or.]

YPNBlog Launches : Yahoo Publisher Network Blog Community (Monday, April 10, 01:24 PM EST)
YPNBlog Launches : Yahoo Publisher Network Blog Community Even though Yahoo Publisher Network remains in an invite only Beta offering, it is growing larger by the day. Yahoo, in an effort to ad more of a sense of community and communication between its YPN publishers, has launched the Yahoo Publisher Network’s Blog at YPNblog.com. Yahoo! Publisher Network [...]

Google’s New Popularity Rank; Traffic Versus Links (Monday, April 10, 12:56 PM EST)
Google’s New Popularity Rank; Traffic Versus Links There is a fresh thread at WebmasterWorld named Google algo moves away from links, towards traffic patterns. This reinforces what many have been saying for the past year or so. Google’s popularity came from using linkage data and PageRank to score how popular a Web page is. Times are [...]

Yahoo Video Search Browsing by Source (Monday, April 10, 05:05 AM EST)
Yahoo Video Search Browsing by Source Christopher Akhavan, Yahoo! Video Search Editor, has made a post on the Yahoo Search Blog about an alternative form of searching Yahoo Video - by source. In order to view videos by source (eg. iFilm, vsocial, grouper.com), just perform a site specific search using the “site:domain.com” command with Yahoo Video Search. This [...]

Google Buys Student’s Search Algorithm (Monday, April 10, 04:52 AM EST)
Google Buys Student’s Search Algorithm The Haaretz Daily reports that Google recently acquired the text search algorithm of student Ori Alon, an Israeli student studying at Australia’s University of New South Wales. According to Haaretz, Microsoft and Yahoo were in the bidding for the search technology and now Alon works for Google. Google, Alon and the university [...]

Google Toolbar Turning Homepage into Google’s My Yahoo (Sunday, April 09, 11:56 AM EST)
Google Toolbar Turning Homepage into Google’s My Yahoo The Google (RSS) Reader, which I like, has met with mixed reviews and limited adoption (so far). Far more successful as a personalized home page and RSS reader is MyYahoo. (My belief, however, is that Yahoo! has yet to fully leverage the potential of MyYahoo!.) Google’s IE Toolbar has [...]

Amazon cuts electronics commission by 50% (Monday, April 10, 11:58 AM EST)
Though times for the few remaining big guys that advertise with Amazon... With 1st of April (no Joke) the commission for electronics is now a flat 4% (before it was tiered and up to 9%) add the one day cookie and you see why people in the internal Amazon Forum are ...