Is this a clue to the MSN search engine algorithm?

"WHAT is the next stage in the evolution of internet search engines? AltaVista demonstrated that indexing the entire world wide web was feasible. Google's success stems from its uncanny ability to sort useful web pages from dross. But the real prize will surely go to whoever can use the web to deliver a straight answer to a straight question. And Eric Brill, a researcher at Microsoft, intends that his firm will be the first to do that. "

Dr. Brill plans to use information on the Internet to help identify the most meaningful answer to a question submitted to his search engine. If this works out, it means that his approach will get smarter and smarter as the web itself grows.

His concept may be launched sometime soon under the name "Answerbot". The question for webmasters and owners is, "how will I use this information to maintain my rankings in the search engine arena?" It is probably too early to speculate much about the details, but it seems certain that the idea of content on the web site will continue to be the most important factor in achieving and maintaining rankings.

High Rankings Advisor: Optimize or Advertise? - Issue No. 110

The latest issue of a newsletter that I read regularly addressed the question of "when and whether" to use PPC (Pay Per Click) to boost your traffic. They provided a good set of criteria for making the decision.
In the list below, items 1 and 6 would give you reasons to avoid PPC. The other items might cause you to consider making an investment in some paid advertising. The newsletter, of course, provides more discussion on each point.

(1) Limited Ad Budget
(2) Website That Can't Be Modified
(3) Need Immediate Results
(4) Guaranteed Top Placement
(5) Need To Control Ad Content or Timing
(6) Ad-Adverse Audience

Funding research on blood related cancers through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!

"The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funds research to cure blood related cancers and programs to help families with the many hardships associated with the diseases. This is my second time to help raise money for this organization & since I got involved two years ago I have been touched with many stories of friends with cancer stories in their families. "

My eldest son, Nolan, is going out for another round of fund-raising for cancer, doing a "mini-triathalon" in California. While my family has not been personally touched by blood related cancers, we have had our personal experience with other forms of cancer. Medical research into these kind of problems will help many of all our friends and family, and the more money we can put into research, the sooner it will help will arrive. You can't know who will be effected by these diseases, but you can be fairly sure that someone you know will be. Do what you can now to help them have alternatives when they come face-to-face with one of these devastating diseases.

Quoting on a blog, is it legitimate?

In our Internet Marketing Clinics, the question has arisen about whether it is legal to post information from another web site on your blog. I recently posted a quote from the Smithsonian Magazine to a blog I maintain, and sent them an e-mail notifying them that I had done so, and asking for their approval. I received the following note:

"This is in response to your e-mail informing us that you have linked an article on your website to the abstract of the article, "Can Great Coffee Save the Jungle?" by Katherine Ellison (SMITHSONIAN, June 2004, pp. 100-107) on our website, www.smithsonianmag.com. You ask whether this form of use is acceptable to us.
Your use does fall within our permission guidelines, in that you have quoted a very small part of the text (less than 200 words) and linked to our website (rather than posting the article on yours). However, as a courtesy, you may also wish to contact the author (who holds the copyright to the article) to inform her, and you might include her name in the text on your website."

I think this serves as a good guideline for quoting from other sources. Note that this refers to the policy at a particular magazine,and others may not have the same policy. The principle involved is that you should quote only a limited amount of text, and you should cite the source and link to it. Few sites are likely to object if you follow these simple guidelines.

Economist.com | The future of advertising

"More people are rejecting traditional sales messages, presenting the ad industry with big challenges



"After the technology bust it was easy to dismiss the internet. But the phenomenal success of many e-commerce firms, such as Amazon and eBay, shows that millions of people are becoming comfortable buying goods and services online. Many more are using the internet to research products, services and prices for purchases made offline. Some 70% of new-car buyers in America, for instance, use websites to determine which vehicle to buy�and often to obtain competing quotes from dealers."

"No one knows just how important the internet will eventually be as an advertising medium. Some advertisers think it will be a highly cost-effective way of reaching certain groups of consumers—especially for small companies operating in niche businesses. "

More confirmation of the increasing importance of the Internet for businesses, particularly small businesses! Perhaps the most intriguing thing about marketing over the internet is that it is all "opt-in" in the sense that the consumers take action themselves to get to your advertising message! It is like stacking your brochures at the supermarket entrance and letting people pick them up on their way in or out of the store, except that you don't have to pay for printing the brochures!! Also, in the case of the internet, the supermarket is the whole world!

Common-sense Search Engine Optimization

"... basically all engines appreciate the same things that real people look for in a Web site:

• A simple, cleanly coded design.
• Well-thought-out, intuitive navigation.
• Well-written, descriptive copy.
• Titles and Meta tags that help identify relevant keyword phrases .
• Links that accurately describe what can be found at the site. "
  
  

Here is some good advice from a search engine professional! As we say in our classes, "Content is King!" If your site really provides something of value to the people browsing the internet, you will be rewarded with the attention you seek.

Everything we talk about in our classes is consistent with this simple advice. There are things that can be done to enhance the ability of the search engines to interpret the page content and determine what the page is really about. For example, keywords should be utilized within the content, as well as in the Meta tags, links should make use of keywords to emphasize the importance of the keywords to the linked page, variations on important keyword terms can help to capture more of the interested searchers, etc., but these things are all refinements of the simple message, "Provide good content!"

Google Sandboxing, Sandbox Theory

"The waiting period for any new site from the first quarter of this year to begin showing some relevancy in Google's index has been about 3 months. Some webmasters have seen this occur for up to 4 or 5 months. "

First time I had heard of this. The concept is that Google will put a site in the "sandbox" for some period of time to prevent webmasters from achieving a high rank by purchasing links from very high-ranking pages. If true, it explains a lag in getting a new site ranked in Google, even when you have done everything just right.

The message is that it is a mistake to ever expect immediate results from a new web site. It can happen, but it requires a site of extraordinary sophistication to accomplish. Most new sites will have to continue to focus on a longer time horizon to measure their initial results.

Yahoo Targets Google, Yellow Pages with New Local Search

"Yahoo estimates that 20-25% of all search queries have a local component, either stated explicitly (Home Depot; Washington acupuncturist) or implicitly (flowers, doctors). Yahoo hopes not only to provide relevant results for its current volume of local search queries, but take share away from other providers of local information and content, regardless of whether they're online or not.
'Local content represents a $100 billion offline market,' said Paul Levine, General Manager, Yahoo Local. This includes things like yellow pages, direct mail, local television and radio and so on. Of that, the yellow pages market represents $14 billion in annual revenue, all of which is addressable by search, Levine believes."

You can have a look at the beta here.

The point to learn about for webmasters and designers is, "what is required on the site to take advantage of this new approach?" Since results can be sorted by distance from the search point of interest, items like street address, city, & zip are clearly important to have on your site. The article does not really specify where this information comes from in the search results, and the engine does make use of other references such as restaurant directories. It provides price rankings and hours of operation, which would seem to have to come from such a source.

In any event, this bears watching for any business on the web that has a locational relevance.

Information source about internet business!

Forrester's First Look At US eCommerce 2010
"If your company does not have a person in charge of multichannel strategy and projects, you're going to be left in the dust in 2010. True. This is our opinion, but many leading retailers have elevated executives from the online organization to broader roles with titles like VP Multichannel Programs, VP Multichannel Marketing, and GMM Multichannel Merchandising."

Forrester is a research organization that provides some very high-priced (at least by the standard of my budget!) information reports of interest. More in line with what I can afford, they also offer a free newsletter where I find a lot of useful information.
In everything I have read, the internet is a phenomenon that businesses cannot afford to ignore. Sales, which are only one measure of the importance of the medium, are increasing every quarter at huge rates of growth.
For the visitors to my web site, the significance is that small businesses do have a chance to compete in this marketplace. There is a niche that an effective strategy can get you into!

New tools from the Internet adopted by businesses!

"While the phenomenon of web logs � or blogging � as it's more commonly known, has largely been confined to internet-savvy enthusiasts, IT business leaders are starting to wake up to its business potential. "

Another example of something pioneered by the Internet community being recognized as having a business value.

In this article, business leaders are recognizing the value of blogs as an internal communication device for businesses. Our take on the value of blogs is as a way to add relevant content to your web site. Results of your readings on the web can easily become material that you communicate to your web site clients with a simple "cut & paste" operation.

It is also a simple matter to e-mail content to your site from anywhere that you have Internet access.