Google Sends Warning to Sites & Webmasters?

"While we were indexing your webpages, we detected that some of your pages were using techniques that were outside our quality guidelines, which can be found here: [link]"

An article in the SearchEngineJournal describes a new program from Google (now in beta) that will warn webmasters that they are inviolation of practices that Google approves of.

This could be a great boon to webmasters who are attempting to be as aggressive as possible in promoting their sites, but want to avoid problems like getting thrown out of the listings entirely.

It could possibly be a good thing for people who hire outside search engine marketers who employ "bad practices", but I have to wonder whether those site owners would ever see any such warning issued by Google. If they did, it should be a real wake-up call to get another webmaster, but, in most cases, I suspect the webmaster would receive the notice. It seems unlikely that they will pass along this kind of information to their clients, since it points out that they are potentially contributing to harm to their clients.

In any event, it is another indication of change and growth in the search engine field. I have provided a short description of "good practices" in creating a web site for those interested.

Microsoft, Time Warner discuss online partnerships

"The AOL executive said one aspect of the talks originally centered on using Microsoft's new MSN search engine on AOL, replacing AOL's current relationship with Google.
More recently, the executive said, the two companies have been talking about the possibility of deeper relationships, such as collaborating in the lucrative market of selling advertising online.
Such a collaboration could allow the two companies to benefit from growing interest in search-based advertising, helping them better compete against search leaders Google and Yahoo.
But, the executive said, 'the discussions are not advanced.'
The person familiar with Microsoft's thinking said the company's MSN unit has always been interested in striking a deal that would allow it to benefit from AOL's market-leading instant messenger program.
AOL's instant-messaging product, AIM, had more than 53 million unique users in August compared to about 29 million for the competing MSN Messenger, according to Nielsen/NetRatings."

The Business Section of the Houston Chronicle reported on this news today. We have been talking in our classes for some time about moves that MSN is making and the impact that it will have on our activities. This is another indication of the serious interest that MicroSoft has in the search field.

Think how your efforts will be effected by AOL dropping Google as its search engine!

Adding RSS to your site & getting it out to the public!

One of the most powerful techniques you, as a site owner, can use to distribute your content to your readers is to set up an RSS feed on your web site. We address the questions you have to answer to be able to do this in our Wednesday evening Internet Marketing class on September 14, 2005.

After the class has been presented, information about the class can be found in our Internet Marketing class archive.

To stay in touch with the latest tips for improving your web site marketing, follow the instructions from our class and pull our feed into your own personal MyYahoo page, or pick it up in your favorite newsreader program. We will be posting more detailed information about how to do this in the near future.