Duplicate Content Issues: These have become a major issue on
the Internet.
Because web pages drive search engine rankings,
certain 'black hat' SEOs (search engine optimizers) started duplicating
entire sites' content under their own domain name, thereby
instantly producing a ton of web pages (an example of this would
be to download an Encyclopedia onto your website).
As a result of this abuse, Google aggressively attacked duplicate content
abusers with their algorithm updates. But in the process they
knocked out many legitimate sites as collateral damage. One
example occurs when someone scrapes your website.
Google sees both sites and may determine the legitimate one to be the
duplicate.
About the only thing a Webmaster can do is track down
these sites as they are scraped, and submit a spam report to
Google.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Yahoo snaps up video-sharing site
Yahoo has acquired Jumpcut, a video-sharing site that provides web users with online editing tools for creating their own movies.
The San Francisco-based start-up will become a part of Yahoo's Social Media group, which includes photo-sharing service Flickr, and bookmark-sharing service Del.icio.us.
Jumpcut was created by MiraVida Media, and lets users publish and remix video clips using a suite of editing tools. Jumpcut will be working with Yahoo media and advertising partners to offer more content that subscribers can use in remixing movies. "
Netimperative 29-09-2006
The San Francisco-based start-up will become a part of Yahoo's Social Media group, which includes photo-sharing service Flickr, and bookmark-sharing service Del.icio.us.
Jumpcut was created by MiraVida Media, and lets users publish and remix video clips using a suite of editing tools. Jumpcut will be working with Yahoo media and advertising partners to offer more content that subscribers can use in remixing movies. "
Netimperative 29-09-2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
YouTube becomes fastest growing UK online brand- research
User-generated content websites such as YouTube, Flickr and MySpace have been the biggest Internet success stories of the year so far, according to new research.
A report from Internet research firm Neilsen//Netratings indicates that the three fastest growing online brands in the UK highlight how generating and sharing content is this year’s online theme, with half of the ten fastest growing brands fall under the “Web 2.0” umbrella.
YouTube, Flickr and MySpace all focus on technologies that allow users to define the content that their peers are looking at online.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings, said:
“The idea of the user in charge through these so called “Web 2.0” technologies is now a reality. The audience to video sharing phenomenon YouTube is testament to this, having grown by a factor of almost five during the year, meaning that more than one in eight Britons online now visit this site.”
Top 10 Fastest growing brands of 2006 Top 10 brands in 2006
by UK Unique Audience (UA)
Growth * RankBrand % Growth Jan-July 2006 (000’s) July 2006 Nature of Business
1 YouTube 478% 3,585 Video sharing
2 Flickr 131% 1,008 Photo management and sharing
3 MySpace 98% 3,502 Social networking
4 American Express 97% 1,178 Financial services
5 Photobucket 91% 838Image / video hosting and sharing
6 Mozilla 91% 1,202 Web browsing software
7 Vodafone 86% 1,340 Telecommunications
8 Bebo 85% 2,784 Social networking
9 Odeon 82% 985 Cinemas
10 B&Q72% 1,370Home and garden retail
Netimperative 14-09-2006
A report from Internet research firm Neilsen//Netratings indicates that the three fastest growing online brands in the UK highlight how generating and sharing content is this year’s online theme, with half of the ten fastest growing brands fall under the “Web 2.0” umbrella.
YouTube, Flickr and MySpace all focus on technologies that allow users to define the content that their peers are looking at online.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings, said:
“The idea of the user in charge through these so called “Web 2.0” technologies is now a reality. The audience to video sharing phenomenon YouTube is testament to this, having grown by a factor of almost five during the year, meaning that more than one in eight Britons online now visit this site.”
Top 10 Fastest growing brands of 2006 Top 10 brands in 2006
by UK Unique Audience (UA)
Growth * RankBrand % Growth Jan-July 2006 (000’s) July 2006 Nature of Business
1 YouTube 478% 3,585 Video sharing
2 Flickr 131% 1,008 Photo management and sharing
3 MySpace 98% 3,502 Social networking
4 American Express 97% 1,178 Financial services
5 Photobucket 91% 838Image / video hosting and sharing
6 Mozilla 91% 1,202 Web browsing software
7 Vodafone 86% 1,340 Telecommunications
8 Bebo 85% 2,784 Social networking
9 Odeon 82% 985 Cinemas
10 B&Q72% 1,370Home and garden retail
Netimperative 14-09-2006
UK Web users more responsive than most to online ads- study
Online marketing and advertising affects French and British Internet users the most, according to a new European Internet study.
The thirteenth annual NetObserver Europe study, published this week, revealed there are significant differences between the behaviour of European Internet Users.
The study found over half of French internet users declared having participated in an online competition organised by a brand or e-commerce site in the past 3 months, which is significantly more than other European internet users.
Also, French and British internet have clicked on advertising links featured on the results pages from search engines in the past 3 months.
Furthermore, 2 out of 5 British internet users declared having visited a brand or company site just several days after having seen its advertisement on the internet.
This confirms that only the direct click rate is not sufficient to measure the effectiveness of an online advertising campaign.
According to the study, Spanish Internet users make most use of new information and communication services offered by the Internet, such as blogs, Internet telephony, and podcasting, while Germany was the slowest adopters of these new formats.
Meanwhile, Germany comes out ahead in the use of paid online services making the most of sending SMS messages, playing video games (online or downloaded), developing digital photos and are – together with the UK Internet users - amongst those who pay the most to download music and also logos and ring tones for mobile phones. The German Internet users also use more paid practical services, such as auctions, classifieds ads, meeting services, than other European Internet use"
Netimperative - 27-09-2006
The thirteenth annual NetObserver Europe study, published this week, revealed there are significant differences between the behaviour of European Internet Users.
The study found over half of French internet users declared having participated in an online competition organised by a brand or e-commerce site in the past 3 months, which is significantly more than other European internet users.
Also, French and British internet have clicked on advertising links featured on the results pages from search engines in the past 3 months.
Furthermore, 2 out of 5 British internet users declared having visited a brand or company site just several days after having seen its advertisement on the internet.
This confirms that only the direct click rate is not sufficient to measure the effectiveness of an online advertising campaign.
According to the study, Spanish Internet users make most use of new information and communication services offered by the Internet, such as blogs, Internet telephony, and podcasting, while Germany was the slowest adopters of these new formats.
Meanwhile, Germany comes out ahead in the use of paid online services making the most of sending SMS messages, playing video games (online or downloaded), developing digital photos and are – together with the UK Internet users - amongst those who pay the most to download music and also logos and ring tones for mobile phones. The German Internet users also use more paid practical services, such as auctions, classifieds ads, meeting services, than other European Internet use"
Netimperative - 27-09-2006
Blog sites join forces
Shiny Media has partnered with UK entertainment site Hecklerspray to expand its ad-funded blogging network.
Under the terms of the joint venture, Hecklerspray will become a core part of the Shiny Media stable creating a blogging network with a monthly reach some 1.9 million unique visitors. Shiny Media will manage advertising sales for Hecklerspray.com, which currently attracts about 550,000 unique users and 850,000 page impressions per month.
Hecklerspray is a UK-based entertainment blog that was launched on 1 May 2005. It focuses on music, movies, TV, videogames and celebrity news, as well as gossip and reviews. Advertisers on Hecklerspray have included CNN, Turner, VH1, 4AD Records, Variety Magazine, MSNBC, PETA, and AT&T. 'Shiny has developed a portfolio of original and innovative blogs,' says Hecklerspray's Editor, Stuart Heritage.
'We have always admired Hecklerspray,' says Shiny Media's Creative Director Ashley Norris. 'It is the best UK entertainment blog by some distance.'"
Netimperative 09-2006
Under the terms of the joint venture, Hecklerspray will become a core part of the Shiny Media stable creating a blogging network with a monthly reach some 1.9 million unique visitors. Shiny Media will manage advertising sales for Hecklerspray.com, which currently attracts about 550,000 unique users and 850,000 page impressions per month.
Hecklerspray is a UK-based entertainment blog that was launched on 1 May 2005. It focuses on music, movies, TV, videogames and celebrity news, as well as gossip and reviews. Advertisers on Hecklerspray have included CNN, Turner, VH1, 4AD Records, Variety Magazine, MSNBC, PETA, and AT&T. 'Shiny has developed a portfolio of original and innovative blogs,' says Hecklerspray's Editor, Stuart Heritage.
'We have always admired Hecklerspray,' says Shiny Media's Creative Director Ashley Norris. 'It is the best UK entertainment blog by some distance.'"
Netimperative 09-2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
The Future: Online Video Ads
I believe that the online video market (ads etc.) is one of the most exciting areas and it will take the Internet by storm. Here is a good article to quickly get-up to speed on what's going on in this market:
The Future of Online Video Ads
The online video ad market hit $225 million in 2005 and is expected to reach $385 million this year, $640 million in 2007 and $1.5 billion by 2009 (eMarketer). Other projections range as high as $2.5 billion in 2010.
There is no doubt that as broadband penetration multiplies, and both video technology and ad serving technology advance, most major advertisers will want to use this branding strategy because of its ability to engage viewers.
Online Video Engages Users
A study by F. N. Magid Associates for the Online Publishers Association shows that consumers engage with video advertising as follows:
5 percent of consumers view online video daily
24 percent view once a week
46 percent view once a month
While many are attracted to humor, video news clips are most popular, with each genre being viewed by more than 25 percent of visitors at least once a week.
Online video ads have great potential on the web and are particularly appealing to a young, wired demographic. As online videos become more popular on user-generated sites like YouTube, the audience for video ads will increase, as will the number of video ads created. "
By Bruce Clay - September 18, 2006
Read the whole article here.
The Future of Online Video Ads
The online video ad market hit $225 million in 2005 and is expected to reach $385 million this year, $640 million in 2007 and $1.5 billion by 2009 (eMarketer). Other projections range as high as $2.5 billion in 2010.
There is no doubt that as broadband penetration multiplies, and both video technology and ad serving technology advance, most major advertisers will want to use this branding strategy because of its ability to engage viewers.
Online Video Engages Users
A study by F. N. Magid Associates for the Online Publishers Association shows that consumers engage with video advertising as follows:
5 percent of consumers view online video daily
24 percent view once a week
46 percent view once a month
While many are attracted to humor, video news clips are most popular, with each genre being viewed by more than 25 percent of visitors at least once a week.
Online video ads have great potential on the web and are particularly appealing to a young, wired demographic. As online videos become more popular on user-generated sites like YouTube, the audience for video ads will increase, as will the number of video ads created. "
By Bruce Clay - September 18, 2006
Read the whole article here.
Your Own Wikipedia Page
Most savvy SEOs know that Google is placing an increased weight on links from “authority” websites.
Wikipedia, a free internet encyclopedia that can be edited by any user, is certainly one of the top authority websites in the eyes of Google and I´m certainly not the first SEO to observe that an awful lot of Wikipedia pages are currently ranking quite highly in the SERPS.
By Todd Mintz - September 15, 2006
Read how to create your own Wikipedia page here.
Wikipedia, a free internet encyclopedia that can be edited by any user, is certainly one of the top authority websites in the eyes of Google and I´m certainly not the first SEO to observe that an awful lot of Wikipedia pages are currently ranking quite highly in the SERPS.
By Todd Mintz - September 15, 2006
Read how to create your own Wikipedia page here.
Have Your Company Listed Free in Google Maps
Watch out 'local search is going to become big - I believe. So here is a great article about how to set-up your own local listing on Google for fr.ee:
"Do you want to advertise the physical location of your business for free and get a little extra Google exposure? Thanks to Google Maps this is possible and not many people seem to know about it.
Why Should You Bother With Google Maps?
If simply getting more exposure on an emerging Google tool isn’t enough here are the frills that Google provides freely with this map listing:
Google allows you to offer coupons to visitors of your map listing. These coupons are touted as a way to “reward loyal customers and attract new ones”. At this time, coupons are only available to businesses located in the US.
Once your address is fully verified you have full control over your listing. You can add or delete non-address information at will.
You can add all of your business locations from a single account.
Finally my personal favorite; all that your client or prospective client has to do to find your office is click on a link on you"
Article by Ross Dunn - September 14, 2006
"Do you want to advertise the physical location of your business for free and get a little extra Google exposure? Thanks to Google Maps this is possible and not many people seem to know about it.
Why Should You Bother With Google Maps?
If simply getting more exposure on an emerging Google tool isn’t enough here are the frills that Google provides freely with this map listing:
Google allows you to offer coupons to visitors of your map listing. These coupons are touted as a way to “reward loyal customers and attract new ones”. At this time, coupons are only available to businesses located in the US.
Once your address is fully verified you have full control over your listing. You can add or delete non-address information at will.
You can add all of your business locations from a single account.
Finally my personal favorite; all that your client or prospective client has to do to find your office is click on a link on you"
Article by Ross Dunn - September 14, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
MSN begins testing YouTube rival
"MSN has begun testing a video sharing service in the US that looks to rival the likes of YouTube, MetaCafe and Google Video.
Available as part of MSN Video, the Soapbox service lets users upload, search and share personal videos with community members. The service will be integrated throughout Microsoft’s portfolio of online services, including Windows Live Spaces and Windows Live Messenger.
Viewers can search, browse through 15 categories, find related videos, subscribe to RSS feeds, and share their favourites with their friends without interrupting whatever video they’re watching. Soapbox users can also rate, comment on and tag the videos they view, share links with their friends via e-mail, and include the embeddable Soapbox player directly on their Web site or blog.
Rob Bennett, general manager of Entertainment and Video Services for MSN, said:
“Soapbox delivers on a critical component of the MSN growth strategy of deepening audience engagement by enabling people to participate in the content experience. By adding a user-uploaded video service, we are rounding out our existing investments in commercially produced and original content on MSN Video.”"
Available as part of MSN Video, the Soapbox service lets users upload, search and share personal videos with community members. The service will be integrated throughout Microsoft’s portfolio of online services, including Windows Live Spaces and Windows Live Messenger.
Viewers can search, browse through 15 categories, find related videos, subscribe to RSS feeds, and share their favourites with their friends without interrupting whatever video they’re watching. Soapbox users can also rate, comment on and tag the videos they view, share links with their friends via e-mail, and include the embeddable Soapbox player directly on their Web site or blog.
Rob Bennett, general manager of Entertainment and Video Services for MSN, said:
“Soapbox delivers on a critical component of the MSN growth strategy of deepening audience engagement by enabling people to participate in the content experience. By adding a user-uploaded video service, we are rounding out our existing investments in commercially produced and original content on MSN Video.”"
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
"Google helps you increase sales"
Google has launched a new merchant program called 'Checkout' which processes sales for free when you advertise with Google.
Every online merchant has two goals: sell more and spend less. Google Checkout™ is a new way to process transactions that helps you achieve both. Checkout works with Google's search advertising program, AdWords, to increase your sales and minimize your expenses throughout the online sales and marketing process.
Attract more leads.
Shoppers who see the Google Checkout™ badge on your AdWords ads will more easily find you when they search.
Convert more leads into sales.
A fast, secure checkout process helps persuade shoppers to buy on your site and buy more often.
Process sales for free.
For every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free. For sales that exceed this amount or if you don't use AdWords, you can process them at a low 2% and $0.20 per transaction.
Protect yourself from fraud.
Google's fraud prevention tools stop invalid orders from reaching you. And their Payment Guarantee policy helps protect you from chargebacks."
More information:
The Official Google Checkout Blog
News and updates for sellers using Google Checkout.
Available so far only in the US.
Every online merchant has two goals: sell more and spend less. Google Checkout™ is a new way to process transactions that helps you achieve both. Checkout works with Google's search advertising program, AdWords, to increase your sales and minimize your expenses throughout the online sales and marketing process.
Attract more leads.
Shoppers who see the Google Checkout™ badge on your AdWords ads will more easily find you when they search.
Convert more leads into sales.
A fast, secure checkout process helps persuade shoppers to buy on your site and buy more often.
Process sales for free.
For every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free. For sales that exceed this amount or if you don't use AdWords, you can process them at a low 2% and $0.20 per transaction.
Protect yourself from fraud.
Google's fraud prevention tools stop invalid orders from reaching you. And their Payment Guarantee policy helps protect you from chargebacks."
More information:
The Official Google Checkout Blog
News and updates for sellers using Google Checkout.
Available so far only in the US.
Alert: "Extremely critical" Word flaw
Alert: "Extremely critical" Word flaw - Breaking Business and Technology News"
Published: Tuesday 5 September 2006
An 'extremely critical flaw' in Microsoft Word 2000 is currently being exploited by malicious attackers, which could lead to remote execution of code on a user's system.
The vulnerability affects systems running Windows 2000 and occurs when processing malicious Word 2000 documents.
Security company Symantec, which several days ago detected the exploit, Trojan MDropper.Q, noted that it uses a two-step attack.
Trojan MDropper.Q exploits the Microsoft Word vulnerability to drop another file, a new variant of Backdoor.Femo, according to a security advisory by Symantec.
Symantec's advisory stated: 'As with other recent [Microsoft] Office vulnerabilities, documents incorporating the exploit code must be opened with a vulnerable copy of Microsoft Word 2000 for it to work. As such, it makes the vulnerability unsuitable for the creation of self-replicating network worms.'
Microsoft has not yet issued a patch for the vulnerability, and users are advised to forgo opening untrusted documents.
Published: Tuesday 5 September 2006
An 'extremely critical flaw' in Microsoft Word 2000 is currently being exploited by malicious attackers, which could lead to remote execution of code on a user's system.
The vulnerability affects systems running Windows 2000 and occurs when processing malicious Word 2000 documents.
Security company Symantec, which several days ago detected the exploit, Trojan MDropper.Q, noted that it uses a two-step attack.
Trojan MDropper.Q exploits the Microsoft Word vulnerability to drop another file, a new variant of Backdoor.Femo, according to a security advisory by Symantec.
Symantec's advisory stated: 'As with other recent [Microsoft] Office vulnerabilities, documents incorporating the exploit code must be opened with a vulnerable copy of Microsoft Word 2000 for it to work. As such, it makes the vulnerability unsuitable for the creation of self-replicating network worms.'
Microsoft has not yet issued a patch for the vulnerability, and users are advised to forgo opening untrusted documents.
Monday, September 04, 2006
"See your site's Inbound Links"
"See your site's 'Inbound Links' with Yahoo! Site Explorer"
Yahoo! launched a useful tool called Site Explorer, which provides information about your site's visibility in the Yahoo! search engine.
Yahoo! recently announced that Site Explorer has been updated, and if you're not yet familiar with Yahoo! Site Explorer, then I would recommend trying it on your web site.
It's a good resource for web site owners to gain insight into their site's presence in Yahoo!.
The tool shows which of the site's pages are indexed and which pages are linking to the site (inbound links).
If you go through the process of verifying that you are the site owner (authentication), then additional information is available, including what subdomains of the site are indexed by Yahoo!, when the Yahoo! web crawler last visited the site, and additional site metadata such as language.
Detailed information about Site Explorer can be found in the Yahoo! help area. Note that Yahoo! also recently announced that normal queries on their search engine using 'site:', 'link:', 'linkdomain:' will be redirected to the Site Explorer results page.
Karl
Yahoo! launched a useful tool called Site Explorer, which provides information about your site's visibility in the Yahoo! search engine.
Yahoo! recently announced that Site Explorer has been updated, and if you're not yet familiar with Yahoo! Site Explorer, then I would recommend trying it on your web site.
It's a good resource for web site owners to gain insight into their site's presence in Yahoo!.
The tool shows which of the site's pages are indexed and which pages are linking to the site (inbound links).
If you go through the process of verifying that you are the site owner (authentication), then additional information is available, including what subdomains of the site are indexed by Yahoo!, when the Yahoo! web crawler last visited the site, and additional site metadata such as language.
Detailed information about Site Explorer can be found in the Yahoo! help area. Note that Yahoo! also recently announced that normal queries on their search engine using 'site:', 'link:', 'linkdomain:' will be redirected to the Site Explorer results page.
Karl
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