SEO Komodo

Komodo Links: Connecting with Customers, Great Company Blog, and EDU Blogs

2008-04-18T14:40:00.008-04:00

Komodo Links is our only post for this week, but its full of quality links for any small business owner looking to grow their business online.

Nick Berliner posted five more solid tips to help you connect with local customers through your website. To read the first five tips, click here.

So what makes a great company blog? Check out Mack Collier's series of posts at Search Engine Guide for some solid insight. All four are definitely worth reading. On a related note, we are in the process of overhauling and upgrading our blog. The final product won't be ready for a few more weeks, but we'll keep you posted.

ZDNet has an interesting post about a newly-launched site called blogs.pi.edu. For the low low price of $50, you can have your own blog with a .edu domain. This has bad idea written all over it.

Check out this clever graphic by Elliance. Search benefits of the Blogosphere....for song birds. ;)

Komodo Links: Widgets, Semantic Web, and Website Legal Liability

2008-04-11T16:47:00.005-04:00

This week's Komodo Links is all about variety. Everything from US law and websites to widgets and the semantic web. Check out the links and have a great weekend.

Greg Howlett wrote an interesting post over at Marketing Pilgrim about online retailer's approach to social marketing and widgets. Take a look at the widgets we developed for Abrakadoodle.

Nick Berliner posted 5 tips for locally focused websites to connect to local customers. The five tips are basically 5 best practices that all locally focused websites should follow.

The CNET News Blog has a great post regarding some interesting legal cases and decisions that could have wide ranging affects on website operators' broad legal shield from lawsuits.

"But a pair of recent rulings by federal district judges have chipped away at that protective shield. If those decisions are upheld on appeal, and if more judges follow suit, Web site operators and Internet service providers may find themselves compelled to police what their users post--or face the unsettling prospect of being held liable for the contents."

The Economist has an informative article about some promising software services and initiatives to help online content publishers mark up their web pages for the semantic web.

Search Engine Users Prefer Their News, Video, and Image Results Blended...Not Vertical

2008-04-07T11:49:00.004-04:00

Search marketing firm, iProspect, published the results of a study regarding user behavior and blended search results. The study was conducted by Jupiter Research and sponsored by iProspect. Blended search results are a combination of traditional web page results and one or more specialized results such as news, videos, or images. See the screen shot below for an example of a blended search result. (click to enlarge)

Over the past year Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Live have launched versions of blended search. The iProspect study revealed that search engine users click on news, image, and video results in blended search results more than they click on results in a vertical only search such as Google News or Google Image search.

Key statistics from the study:

36% of search engines user click "news" results within blended search results, while only 17% click a "news" result after conducting a news-specific search
31% of search engine users click "image" results within blended search results, while 26% click an "image" result after conducting an image-specific search
17% of search engine users click "video" results within blended search results, while only 10% click a "video" result after conducting a video-specific search
While images are the most clicked type of result after a vertical-specific search, news items are the most clicked type of result within blended search results

Komodo Links: Google Universal Search, Robot Language, and EULAs

2008-03-28T14:06:00.003-04:00

We've got a short edition of Komodo Links this week. Two posts from the Google Webmaster Central Blog and a humorous post from Techdirt regarding companies EULAs.

The Google Webmaster Central Blog had an interesting post from earlier this week about taking advantage of universal search. The post has some good tips for small businesses to make the most of local search, video search, image search, and personalized search basics.

Google Webmaster Central also launched a Robots.txt Generator available in Webmaster Tools. Read all about it at the Webmaster Central Blog.

Techdirt has a humorous post about how companies don't even read their own EULAs. The post includes some funny examples.

YouTube Gives Insight Into Who Likes Your Videos

2008-03-27T15:36:00.004-04:00

Yesterday YouTube announced the launch of Insight, a free tool that enables anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics about the videos that they upload to the site. Currently Insight offers a few key metrics, including a breakdown of video views by geographic location, a video's popularity in a market relative to other YouTube videos, and video popularity growth rates over a given period of time. The YouTube blog post also mentions that they will be releasing more features in the near future.

I think Insight can deliver significant value to small businesses and franchise companies that make use of YouTube videos to drive traffic to their site or locations. Even the Google Analytics Team is pumped up about it. As YouTube adds more features and metrics, businesses will be better able to gauge the ROI of online video production. One metric that the YouTube blog post mentions that should be rolled out "fairly quickly" is "a specific breakdown of how viewers discovered the video." This metric alone will offer businesses and franchises great "insight" into how to title and describe future videos, as well as, what the subject matter should be. One specific case is the use of YouTube videos in Google Local business listings. Franchise companies with numerous locations that make use of business listing videos will be able to see which listings get the most video views. Perhaps people searching for their business in California watch the videos a lot more than people searching in Florida.

Let us know what you think of Insight.

Komodo Links: AdWords Demographic Bidding, Limiting Consumer Tracking on the Internet, Phorm Knows Everything About You

2008-03-21T15:26:00.005-04:00

Today we have a short but very sweet edition of Komodo Links. This week's edition is all about online consumer data, those who track and sell it, those who use it to target ads, and those who want to stop it. Read on and let us know what you think.

In January, Google invited AdWords advertisers to join a beta test of a new demographic bidding feature. Today demographic bidding is available for all AdWords advertisers. Demographic bidding is a feature that helps advertisers target ads to users of certain age groups, gender or a combination of both. Advertisers can use demographic bidding for both contextual and placement targeting and with CPC and CPM bidding. You can also use demographic bidding to refine your ad's reach on certain sites in Google's content network. Advertisers can also access demographic reports in the AdWords Report Center to see how well their ads are performing across different demographics.

Here is a perfect follow up to the AdWords demographic bidding announcement. The New York Times reported yesterday that New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has drafted a bill "that would make it a crime for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent." Yahoo and Microsoft have already sent lobbyists to meet with Mr. Brodsky. The article covers some interesting issues that this bill raises.

Some interesting highlights from the article:

“A law like this essentially takes some of the gold away from marketers,” said Joseph Turow, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. “But it’s the right thing to do. Consumers have no idea how much information is being collected about them, and the advertising industry should have to deal with that.”

“There has really been no harm shown by behavioral targeting or third-party advertising, so this rush to regulate the Internet is really unnecessary,” said Mike Zaneis, vice president for public policy for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an industry group that represents companies like Google and Yahoo.

Moreover, Mr. Zaneis said, the New York bill threatens to undercut the business model that supports the Web. “If you take the fuel out of this engine, you begin to see the free services and content dry up,” he said.

And to finish up, check out Janet Meiners' post at Marketing Pilgrim about the British company Phorm. Apparently Phorm is using British ISPs to track every single action a British web surfer takes to be able to show them ads. The company claims they have access to the surfing habits of 70% of all British households that have broadband.

Google Local: Add Videos to Your Business Listings

2008-03-20T15:51:00.009-04:00

Another great reason to use YouTube for your business...

We logged into to the Google Local Business Center today to edit the listing for our search engine optimization company SEO Komodo. We were excited to see that Google now allows you to add up to 5 videos to a business listing. This feature is in the photos section of the listing editor. The videos must be on YouTube first but then it is as simple as adding the YouTube URL.

Motion pictures have existed for 100+ years. If you are not convinced of their power to shape human thought and emotion by now then I can't help you. Your savvy competitors probably are. Why not beat them to the punch by adding a few nice videos to your Google Local business listings? When users are presented with a business listing that has video vs. one that doesn't, guess which one gets clicked?

Video is a simple but extremely powerful medium for conveying large amounts of information in a short amount of time and with minimal effort by users. Adding video will truly engage users with your Google Local listings. With the rise of YouTube and other video based websites, businesses that could not afford TV commercials in the past are beginning to learn just how effective video can be for showcasing your location/products/services etc.

Uploading videos to YouTube is free and so is adding/editing your Google Local business listing.

If you haven't made the jump yet give us a call.

Komodo Links: Self Serving Reviews, FriendFeedFeed, an Open Letter to Google, and AOL Buys Bebo

2008-03-14T09:04:00.003-04:00

We've got some interesting and humorous links from the past week for this installment of Komodo Links. So sit back and enjoy while you wait for the weekend to begin.

RealSelf.com, an independent site for consumers to discuss anti-aging treatments, has accused plastic surgery corporation, Lifestyle Lift, of breach of contract and computer fraud. Basically RealSelf.com claims that Lifestyle Lift agents posed as patients and posted positive reviews about Lifestyle Lift procedures. These charges were filed as a counterclaim to a Lifestyle Lift lawsuit filed against RealSelf.com for trademark infringement. MediaPost has more on this plastic surgery soap opera.

Here's a funny post (and comments) about FriendFeedFeed. FriendFeedFeed, currently in "pre-beta," aggregates all your social networking aggregator feeds into one aggregated feed of aggregator activity feeds. Definitely a quality piece of Web 2.0 satire.

On a more serious note, Danny Sullivan writes an open letter to Google. In the letter, Danny asks Google to divest itself of Performics, DoubleClick's SEO firm. "Google's in the SEO business now, ...conflict of interest? You bet."

And in an unexpected move, AOL buys social network Bebo for $850 million. In response, AOL users ask their grandchildren, "what's a Bebo?"

Miami Business Resource: Where to Go and What to Do in Miami - Miami.com

2008-03-13T12:49:00.006-04:00

Miami.com is a site dedicated to showing you what there is to see and do in Miami and South Florida. Miami.com staff and users can write reviews of restaurants, nightclubs, lounges, hotels, best beaches, museums, movies, best places to shop, celebrity sightings, and more. Users can also rate and comment on businesses listed on the site. Miami.com is owned by Miami Herald Media Company, which is owned by McClatchy Company. Miami.com is a great resource for locals looking for something new, tourists looking to plan the perfect South Florida vacation, and relevant local businesses for a host of reasons.

Check out this video from Miami.com to find out what they are all about. Yea, the video is a little cheesy...but just roll with it.

For local businesses:

Miami.com is a great resource for South Florida businesses, especially those in the entertainment, restaurant, and tourism industries. The site does offer advertising space for businesses, but they also write articles on varying nightlife and entertainment topics. These articles and reviews are independent of advertising. The About Us/Contact Us page of Miami.com states:

Our reviews and stories are not paid for by advertisers – our pages spotlight the best of South Florida, handpicked by our editors and users.

As an example, Miami.com currently has an article with information and reviews about local bars that offer the best (and largest) selection of beers. Now thats my kind of topic. Getting reviewed on Miami.com is a great source of free publicity for these businesses. Once a business has been added by the staff or a Miami.com user, the business can see what other users think of their location, product, or service by reading user comments and additional reviews. Check out the screenshot below of the Miami.com page for The Bar in Coral Gables, Florida. (click to enlarge)

So what are people saying about your business?

Marketers Preparing for Pricier PPC Ads

2008-03-11T11:06:00.004-04:00

MediaPost published a great article yesterday about the increasing costs of paid search and how marketers are coping by investing in natural search. The article includes many quotes from Tim Kauffold, director of business development at Oneupweb.

The following are some of Mr. Kauffold's quotes from the article along with some of my thoughts on the issue.

"In most cases, natural and paid search campaigns perform better together than they do separately. Greater awareness of a Web site created by a paid ad can lead to more natural traffic. In similar fashion, people are logically more likely to click on a paid promotional ad of marketers they recognize, such as those they've encountered during a natural search." -Kauffold

I would also add that paid search and natural search campaigns perform better together through shared data analysis. Paid search campaigns provide detailed data about which keyword phrases are performing the best. This data is also great at spotting keyword trends like what keywords have increasing conversion rates and vice versa over a given period of time. Marketers can use this keyword data for their SEO campaigns to optimize content around those keyword phrases. On the flip-side, traffic data gathered from search engine optimization can give insights into user behavior on your website. These insights can help marketers improve the quality of paid search landing pages.

"One of the things that surprises marketers--particularly those who have been using the media for several years--is how the costs are rising. They think, 'Why doesn't the same dollar buy me the same volume it used to?' But there are really big inflation numbers with cost-per-click. It's still a great avenue, but as more folks jump in, costs are going higher." -Kauffold

I briefly covered this basic market concept about two weeks ago in our post covering the Kelsey Group's annual forecast, but it's worth repeating here. As Kauffold says, paid search is still a great avenue but costs are increasing. Companies that optimize for natural search will reduce their dependence on paid search for leads and customers.

"Paid search is a media buy, and natural search optimization is an investment in the site itself, and that can take some time--maybe even a few months--to see results," -Kauffold

This statement pretty much speaks for itself, and it is a statement that is important to remember. Many large companies and tech/internet related companies have known this for years. However, many small businesses and franchise companies are just beginning to realize the importance of natural search optimization and how long it takes to see results. If anything, undertaking a search engine optimization campaign is all about building a foundation for the future.

Google Finally Gets EU Approval for Acquisition of DoubleClick

2008-03-11T10:33:00.003-04:00

The European Commission announced today that Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick can proceed without conditions. Google proposed the deal back in April to increase its sales of online display ads. Microsoft had vigorously opposed the deal saying it would hinder competition in the global online ad market. In the end Microsoft could only stall the deal, not kill it. You can read the rest over at Bloomberg.

Komodo Links: Why Data Matters, Landing Page Load Time and Quality Score, New Yahoo Maps Data, Zuckerberg on Facebook

2008-03-07T09:54:00.005-05:00

It's Friday and its time for some Komodo Links. Google, Yahoo Maps, and an interview with Mark Zuckerberg are on the list.

The Google Blog posted Why Data Matters a couple days ago. A great read including "a brief history of search."

In the next few weeks Google's AdWords will begin to factor landing page load time into your quality score. The primary goal is to improve the user experience.

Yahoo Maps has been updated with new data and functionality.
Improvements include:

300 cities with new neighborhood data added throughout North America
12,000 new neighborhoods added
Expanded worldwide coverage
New Points-of-Interest (POI) information

And to finish up, BusinessWeek has a short interview with Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. In the interview Zuckerberg discusses Sheryl Sandberg's role at Facebook, their expansion plans, and his perspective on a possible initial public offering of stock.

Ask.com Wants to Answer Your Questions...Again

2008-03-05T09:02:00.006-05:00

Ask.com, one of the major players in the search engine space, has announced that it will be cutting 8% of its workforce and focusing on its core user, married women. The Wall Street Journal article outlining ask.com's new strategy (free preview) goes into greater detail. The San Francisco Chronicle touches on the ask.com retreat in their Daily Digest.

After years of trying to compete as a credible, all-purpose alternative to Google, Ask is throwing in the towel. Ask's new strategy will be a return to their AskJeeves days where they catered to the married women of middle America "looking for help managing their lives." As a result, Ask will go back to focusing on answering search queries posed as questions.

It will be interesting to see how Ask's loyal users react to this new strategy. How many users who don't fit Ask's core demographic flee to one of the remaining major search engines? I think Ask will loose a fair amount of search traffic, as once loyal users become dissatisfied with the new strategy.

Another interesting question to ponder, will Ask's retreat create a viable opening in the major search space for a new search engine player such as True Knowledge or Cuill?

Apple: America's Most Admired Company

2008-03-04T09:21:00.004-05:00

Apple took the top spot in Fortune Magazine's "America's Most Admired Companies" ranking for 2008. Google came in at number four and Microsoft made it into the Top 20 at number sixteen.

The Industry Champions list is worth looking at as well. Anheuser-Busch is not only the King of Beers but the King of Beverages. Altria Group is the champion of the tobacco industry. I guess thats a good thing... Two companies with a large presence in Florida made the Industry Champions list. Publix Super Markets took the top spot in the "food and drug stores" category, and FPL Group (Florida Power and Light) took the honors in the "electric and gas utilities" category.

Add BBC Videos to Your Blog with Mochila Marketplace

2008-02-26T16:32:00.003-05:00

BBC Motion Gallery streamlines distribution of video clips online by joining the Mochila Marketplace. (Press Release)

Mochila Marketplace is a content syndication platform that helps publishers grow their businesses, content owners promote their content, and advertisers reach target audiences. Once registered, a user can search for news articles, videos, and images from a wide range of sources including: the Associated Press, Reuters, the Boston Globe, and MSNBC.com. A user can select individual content assets to use on his or her website. For example, say you need a picture or a video of a high speed train for a blog post you are writing.

Mochila users can also select a channel widget to display on their site or blog. Mochila has hundreds of pre-made channels such as 2008 Presidential Election, Fitness and Health, and Technology Trends. If pre-made isn't your thing you can also create a custom channel with specific content items and providers.

The channel widgets serve up ads in addition to fresh syndicated content. Mochila splits the ad revenue, 40% to the content owner (Getty Images, Boston Globe, etc.), 30% to the site or blog that publishes it (you), and Mochila keeps the remaining 30%. I think its a pretty fair deal. The content creator/owner gets the lion's share, the publisher gets a nice chunk, and Mochila makes a buck for providing the platform. Not too bad, as long as you don't mind some advertising on your site. ;)

Kelsey Group Annual Forecast: Interactive Advertising Revenues to Reach US$147 Billion Globally by 2012

2008-02-25T15:45:00.004-05:00

The Kelsey Group released their Annual Forecast (2007-2012) today. The Kelsey Group is the leading provider of research, data and strategic analysis on directories, small-business advertising, online local media, vertical market advertising and mobile advertising. According to the Annual Forecast, the global advertising market will be fueled by exceptional growth in the interactive segment.

Some interesting highlights from the press release:

Interactive advertising revenues will increase significantly from US$45 billion in 2007 to US$147 billion globally in 2012, representing a 23.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

“We see Internet development—including increased subscriber/user access and broadband penetration—as a driver of both interactive advertising revenue as well as migration of traditional ad spending to new media platforms.” -Matt Booth, senior vice president, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group.

Interactive advertising, which comprises search (including local search), display advertising, classifieds and other interactive ad products, grew its share of global advertising revenues from 6.1 percent in 2006 to 7.4 percent in 2007. By 2012 Kelsey Group analysts expect the interactive share of global ad spending will reach 21 percent.

Directional advertising, which comprises local search, print Yellow Pages and Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), will grow from US$33.3 billion in 2007 to US$41.4 billion globally in 2012 (4.5 percent CAGR).
Local search revenues will grow from US$2.1 billion to US$6.6 billion (25.5 percent CAGR).
Print Yellow Pages revenues will decline from US$27.5 billion to US$25.6 billion (-1.4 percent CAGR).
IYP revenues will grow from US$3.7 billion to US$9.2 billion (20.1 percent CAGR).

What does this mean to a small business's online marketing budget? My bet (and I'm really going out on a limb here) is that costs are going to increase as more small businesses begin advertising online. Cost-per-click (CPC) bids are going to increase for the majority of keyword phrases and advertising rates for local search directories and Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) will increase.

Small businesses that follow best practices for search engine optimization and provide the informational content that online consumers want will reduce their dependence on online advertising for leads and customers.

Komodo Links: News Corp and Yahoo, Search Engine Audience Profiles, NewsClipper, and RFPs

2008-02-22T15:51:00.003-05:00

Komodo Links is back and we've got some quality links for you this week.

First up Stephan Spencer, founder and president of Netconcepts, wrote a guest blog post over at Search Engine Land titled How to Write a Killer RFP (Request for Proposal) for Hiring an SEO Firm. It was a very good read and Stephan gives some great advice.
Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch put together a nice post with the details of what a possible News Corp/Yahoo deal would look like.
Another one from Tech Crunch: a review of the streaming news video site, NewsClipper, and its creator, Onar Vikingstad.
And lastly, a very interesting post from the Hitwise blog, MSN Search and Ask Audience Profiles. Also check out the post from last week: Yahoo! search draws younger audience; Google users big spenders.

Enjoy.

Google AdWords Display URL Policy Update

2008-02-20T15:52:00.004-05:00

Google's AdWords blog, Inside Adwords, has posted an advance notice of new changes to their display URL policy. According to the post, redirects, vanity URLs, and certain uses of tracking URLs will no longer be acceptable. This new policy will go into effect on April 1st and will be strictly enforced. The blog post gives a brief example of what will still be allowed in regards to tracking URLs and sub-domains.

I don't think most advertisers will be unduly affected by this new policy, but I encourage you to read up on the new policy so you aren't caught off guard.

Recession Resistant: Marketers Likely to Rely on Mobile, E-mail, and Search

2008-02-19T16:30:00.002-05:00

Advertising Age published a great article yesterday, How Media Would Weather a Recession. The article covers all the major media channels and gathers opinions from some major players in media buying and selling. There is a general consensus among these media buyers and sellers that online marketing will remain strong through a recession due to marketers' ability to accurately measure online marketing ROI.

Some highlights from the article:

Digital, said Bryan Wiener, CEO of digital agency 360i, is the least vulnerable media spend in times of economic downturn because it is inherently more measurable than other media. [Wiener] add[ed] that the categories that tend to drive the best return on investment are e-mail and search -- so marketers are likely to continue investing in those categories regardless of the economy.

Search marketing, because it's so closely tied to sales, more often is thought of as a cost of goods sold rather than a marketing and administration expense. Therefore, it is assumed to be the most recession-proof of all marketing channels.

"As consumers get more frugal, [Consumer Package-Goods] will shift their media to things that have a more immediate return on investment," Mr. Garga said. "Shopper marketing is a captive audience in the store with an immediate effect. ... Online is a medium, too, that supports more value-oriented messages."

I highly recommend reading the article. It offers some great insights.

Stumble Cards: A Growing Pandemic

2008-02-19T11:02:00.006-05:00

Welcome fellow Stumblers. I'm sure most of you are well aware of this latest sensation to sweep the web. What started out as an ill conceived viral marketing campaign, by the web design firm uP'n'@tom, has quickly morphed into an all out spam attack on the StumbleUpon Community.

The problem with uP'n'@tom's stumble cards is that they lack creativity and are extremely easy to duplicate. Spammers have quickly made their own stumble cards to drive traffic to their sites serving advertising. This is degrading the user experience of StumbleUpon. Another problem is that ad-driven blogs, like Cult Press, are jumping on board and posting collections of stumble cards to drive stumble traffic to their blog posts that are loaded with ads.

The biggest problem fueling the stumble card pandemic is the collection of stumblers who thumb up the cards. If the majority of StumbleUpon users, who dislike the cards, can get the word out that these cards are nothing more than spam, then maybe fewer and fewer people will thumb them up. Over time these spammers will see less and less traffic coming to their stumble card pages and it will not be worth their time to create new ones. As long as people keep thumbing up the cards, the more of them we will see on StumbleUpon.

So my question to the StumbleUpon community is this: what do you think the SU community should do to address this problem?

2008 IFA Annual Convention Round-Up

2008-02-15T14:13:00.004-05:00

The 2008 International Franchise Association (IFA) Convention was held last weekend and the first of this week at the Marriott World Center in Orlando, Florida. It was our first time attending and exhibiting at the convention and it was a great success and a great experience for us.

We were exhibiting as a supplier at booth #117, and we received a great deal of interest from franchisors and industry suppliers alike. Below is a picture of us manning our booth.

In addition to the great reception we received at our booth, I also really enjoyed having the opportunity to network with many very successful franchisors outside of the exhibit hall. It was great to hear about the insights they had gained from their experiences as successful entrepreneurs. We also met many other business people who serve the franchise industry in one way or another.

Monday evening from 5-7pm was Fun & Games time with the exhibitors. Most of the exhibitors had prepared fun, simple games for the franchisors and other industry people to enjoy during the final hours of exhibiting. We hosted Dragon Jeopardy at our booth. Just like real Jeopardy a contestant would pick a square, we'd give them an answer (in this case, SEM/SEO related) and they would have to give us the question.

Below is a picture of the Dragon Jeopardy layout.

We attended the annual Monday Night Bash hosted by Fishman Public Relations at the House of Blues. The party had a great turnout and was a lot of fun. Good party music and an open bar made for a great time. I also enjoyed catching up with the franchisors and suppliers I had met earlier in a more relaxed, party atmosphere. Monday night was our last night at the convention, so the Bash made for a great final event for us. Thanks to Fishman PR for putting it all together.

All in all, the IFA Convention was a great experience and we hope to do it again next year. Thanks to all who stopped by our booth. It was great meeting everyone.

Komodo Links: It's all about Microsoft and Yahoo

2008-02-08T21:24:00.000-05:00

It's the end of the week so that means it's time for Komodo Links. Yes I'm still in the office on a Friday night. We're heading out for the IFA annual convention tomorrow so we've been tying up all the loose ends today. This week's Komodo Links has a laser focus. It's all about Microsoft and Yahoo.

Microhoo At One Week: Decision Nears? Yahoo Brand to Survive?
Yes it's another open letter addressed to someone who is involved with the Microhoo deal. An Open Letter to Steve Ballmer.
Is it too late for Yahoo? I have both feet in the maybe camp.
Congress delays first hearing on Microsoft's Yahoo bid. Congress delaying something...that's about as surprising as the sun rising. ;)
Yahoo and Microsoft: Will 'Microhoo' be the ultimate community? I'm pretty sure Google and a few others will have something to say about that.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Google News Gets Local

2008-02-07T13:22:00.000-05:00

Google News launched a local news feature late last night. Simply enter the city and state or the zip code in the local news section and Google will populate it with news pertaining to that locality. I took a look at it and so far I like what I see. I have used Google News for quite a few years and it is one of my go to destinations for news stories. It's great having a local section right there in the mix, so that I can quickly see what's going on without having to go to individual local sites.

The Google News blog post briefly (and generally) describes how their local feature works and how it's different from other local news aggregating sites.

While we’re not the first news site to aggregate local news, we’re doing it a bit differently -- we're able to create a local section for any city, state or country in the world and include thousands of sources. We’re not simply looking at the byline or the source, but instead we analyze every word in every story to understand what location the news is about and where the source is located.

Below is a screen shot of the local news section for Miami Beach. (click to enlarge)

As you can see...it's a pretty slow day in Miami Beach today. But the weather is nice. ;)

Social News Site Mixx Adds Private Message Functionality

2008-02-06T18:01:00.000-05:00

Today Mixx added private mail functionality to its site. Mixx joins Propeller as the only two social news sites to offer private mail. Currently, you are only allowed to send private messages to your Mixx "friends."

I'm sure there will be some folks out there that will say that offering private mail functionality is bad for social news sites, because it will encourage shameless marketers and promoters to create voting blocks and send messages back and forth on what to vote up and what to vote down. I think its a good move by Mixx because it's just another little thing that differentiates them from the mighty Digg. Plus, if marketers, promoters, and spammers start using private mail to artificially inflate votes on their submissions, Mixx admins will surely be able to track messages and who is sending what to who. As with most socially focused sites, there are systems in place at Mixx to report spammers. So if users become "friends" with some one who turns out to be a spammer, they can simply report that they are getting spam private messages.

So do you think this is a good move by Mixx? Let us know.

Yahoo is Feeling the Pressure from Microsoft's Bid

2008-02-05T16:53:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! is feeling cornered after Microsoft made its takeover bid last week. The Yahoo! board said it would take its time to review the Microsoft bid. They haven't acted on the bid yet.

The New York Times posted an article reviewing the current situation with some great commentary from Wall Street analysts. The article also explores some other options open to Yahoo! if they decide to decline the Microsoft bid, including an advertising partnership with Google, courting other buyers, or forcing a leveraged buyout to take the company private.

Some highlights from the article:

But if Yahoo spurns Microsoft, analysts believe it probably will have to swallow its pride and forge an advertising partnership with Google if the alliance could win antitrust clearance.
Under this scenario, Yahoo would rely on Google to run its search engine while joining thousands of other Web sites that depend on the Internet search leader for a steady stream of ad revenue generated from text-based links that produce commissions with every click.
But getting Google's advertising help probably wouldn't be enough to trump Microsoft's offer by itself. To placate shareholders, Yahoo probably would have to line up enough money to pay a special dividend or perhaps even take the company private in a leveraged buyout.

The list of so-called ''white knights'' willing to come to Yahoo's rescue appears to be dwindling. Several of the most logical candidates, including News Corp., AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp., reportedly have no interest in trying to top Microsoft's bid.

Yahoo's board conceivably could even turn down Microsoft on the grounds that the current offer grossly undervalues the company, given its stock traded as high as high as $34.08 in late October.
If Yahoo assumes that stance, it might provoke a showdown at its annual meeting in a few months. Microsoft has until March 13 to nominate its own slate of directors if it tries to seize control of Yahoo's board.

What do you think Yahoo should do? Should they take the Microsoft offer, partner with Google, or something else? Let us know.

I personally like the suggestion made by the Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post, who "believes Yahoo should dangle the prospect of a Google partnership to persuade Microsoft to raise its bid and then accept the higher offer." Microsoft could call their bluff believing that either Yahoo won't approach Google or that regulators would deny the partnership on anti-trust grounds. I don't believe they would call the bluff though. I think Microsoft is just too eager to get this deal done.