“In its first serious bid to challenge the dominance of Apple’s ubiquitous iPod and the iTunes cyberstore, Microsoft today will release a more compelling software ‘jukebox’ that partners with an MTV-programmed music service called Urge.”
It’s a subscription service; you can subscribe for $14.99 a month, or download individual songs at .99 a pop.
If you go to the Urge site, you can get a free 14 day trial. In order for Urge to work on your computer, you have to have Windows Media Player 11 and at least Windows XP. Doesn’t work on Macs and it’s not fond of Firefox, either. URGE is actually a property of MTV Networks, but is partnered with Microsoft. Basically everytime someone downloads Windows Player 11 or upgrades their Windows Player, they’ll also get Urge.
A battle is brewing between Geosign’s TrueLocal search engine and News Corp.’s newly minted Australia-only (for now) local search site, awkwardly also called “True Local.” True Local (the original) has been operating in Canada and the US for at least a couple of years, while News Corp.’s engine launched earlier this year.
What doesn’t make sense is why News Corp. would’ve started to build a brand when they knew they probably weren’t going to be able to take it global. That either reflects hubris or a lack of homework. But it’s curious. Perhaps they just thought they’d buy True Local and take the North American domain. But True Local (the original) isn’t going to roll over and may — as Bush likes to say — “bring the fight” to News Corp.
One outcome is that Murdoch’s True Local is allowed to operate in Australia and only there. Another is that News Corp. loses that right/ability and must rebrand and relaunch completely. And in the third, most unlikely scenario, News Corp. coughs up some big money for True Local here and uses that as the launching pad for local search in the US.
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Greg Sterling is the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm focused on online consumer and advertiser behavior and the relationship between the Internet and traditional media, with an emphasis on the local marketplace.
Google Japan’s quest to grow in the Yahoo dominated Japanese search market has taken a new turn with a recent agreement with KDDI Corporation to become the mobile search provider of choice for KDDI’s EZ Web service for au mobile phones.
The mobile partnership with KDDI will include Mobile AdWords which will serve Google’s text advertisements along with mobile search results.
Going forward, KDDI and Google will strive for rapid improvement in search functionality, enabling simple and direct access to a wide range of information via mobile phones and in doing so, enhancing their usefulness. Through the development of such innovative services, the partners are seeking to invigorate Japan’s mobile Internet market.
Along with Docomo, KDDI au is a major mobile phone and mobile Internet service providers in Japan.
In Japan, Yahoo Japan’s Overture also offers Mobile Search Ads as does SearchTeria, which is a strong partner of Ask Japan & Infoseek Japan. It should also be noted that Yahoo Japan and Vodaphone Japan are both owned by the same parent company, Softbank.
Classifieds search engine Oodle has launched a Garage Sale Finder which indexes over 15,000 garage and yard sales from hundreds of sources including local newspapers and community classified sites.
Users can sign up for the Garage Sale Finder and receive alert emails detailing what garage sales are occurring near them. Think of it as a Google Alert service for finding local treasure.
“We created the Garage Sale Finder to make it easy for people to get information on the sales going on in their neighborhoods,” said Faith Sedlin, co-founder and vice-president marketing of Oodle. “The first step to finding a great deal is knowing where to shop.”
Features Include:
See all local sales. With over 15,000 new listings added every week, the Garage Sale Finder lets consumers learn about sales from all the relevant sources, from local and suburban newspapers to national sites like PennySaver and Bargain News.
Don’t miss out. Announcements for new sales happen around the clock. The Garage Sale Finder enables consumers to find out about events minutes after they are posted.
Map your course. Consumers can view locations for sales on a map making it easy to plan a weekend treasure hunt.
WebAdvantage.net SEO & Search Marketing for Security Industry
Although we tend not to write much about the accomplishments of Search Engine Marketing firms here on Search Engine Journal, I’d like to go against the grain today with an announcement from WebAdvantage.net.
WebAdvantage.net is carving an SEO & Search Marketing niche in the the tech security sector and has recently added three new clients, Pointsec Mobile Technologies, with its encryption software and technology for mobile devices, Voice Verified, voice authentification and voice verification and ITT Night Vision, with image intensifier tubes and system for the military and law enforcement.
WebAdvantage.net’s new clients join their existing security client, SafeNet, Inc., which is a provider of encryption technologies to protect communications, intellectual property and digital identities.
The new organic SEO & paid search WebAdvantage.net, represents at least $255,000 in revenues to the Maryland based agency.
One reason this announcement brings me such joy is that for one, it’s warming to see an SEO agency doing so well in the Tech Security field. Although WebAdvantage.net is not just about Security, as its client base also includes other high profileSEO & Search Marketing clients such as:
* Nokia
* Zurich Insurance
* Nature Made
* Johns Hopkins University
The second reason is because WebAdvantage.net’s President Hollis Thomases (who is also a ClickZ columnist and Search Engine Strategies Speaker) hired me as an Intern back in 1998. I stayed onboard with Hollis managing the search & online advertising divisions of the Internet Marketing agency and worked (with a wonderful staff) to help develop their SEO strategy into what it is today.
I still work with WebAdvantage.net in a different role on specific projects and as a search & blog marketing consultant, and highly recommend their services to businesses looking for a Search Marketing company which prides itself on its track record & references, customer service, professionalism, attention to details and performance.
Jennifer Aniston & Vince Vaughn Break-Up on Google Video
Google has been doing some major integration of Hollywood marketing campaigns throughout their network recently with the Google’s Da Vinci’s Code promotion and now featuring previews and clips of Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston’s the Break-Up on Google Video.
Google Video is promoting the new comedy with a preview and three different promo spots available for viewing on Google Video.
To accompany the promo, Google Video is also asking its users to get involved by uploading their own “break up” videos to Google.
As an added viral marketing bonus for the new film Google Video is also allowing embedding of the shortened preview clips on web sites and blogs.
I’ve been testing out video embedding via Google & YouTube recently, so here’s a Break-Up preview via Google Video’s Embed tool:
Digging into YouTube’s selection of Google oriented videos unearthed this recruitment video by Google.
Sure, the video is totally 60 Minutes-esque Google PR with Google lava lamps, employees having meetings while sitting on brightly colored balance balls (which has to be excellent for developing core muscles), and the Google 15, which is the legendary 15 pounds gained by employees after getting hooked on the delicious Google food.
Googleplex health gyms (to counter the Google 15), volleyball, childcare, flexible hours and leave time for expecting and new mothers, 20% employee time projects and the Google interview process.
There’s also a special guest spot in the video by Sergey Brin, who happens to be wearing “high heels for men” during the promo - which makes the video worth checking out even more.
Two of the many major differentiation points between YouTube and Google Video are YouTube’s easy video upload and video author profile pages, which are the core of YouTube’s Flickr-like media sharing community. Philipp Lessen says that Google Video has addressed the video upload obstacles with a more user friendly browser based program:
For those who always wondered why Google Video forced you to upload via a desktop tool instead of simply offering a browser form: well, it looks like Google listened, as they’re now offering such a browser upload.
At SERoundtable Barry Schwartz points to a WebmasterWorld (subscription required) thread on the lack of credit to the original producer of the video footage available via Google Video:
What is astounding is googles lack of credit to the publisher, no profile page, just an unclickable url. So, this is really google branding, we takes your content, no credit for you. do no evil to G$! Bad google, another shining example of total disrespect for those who make the medium happen.
youtube.com has a nice profile deal set up so that you can learn more about the person uploading, go to their web site etc., pretty cool (and fair).
I’d like to also add that the ability for easy blog integration of YouTube’s videos, tagging and sharing functionality is what attracts this author to its offerings. Although one major benefit which Google Video does bring to the equation is featured videos from television and sports programing (some available for sale) and the default size of the video screen.
Ironically enough, here is an instructional video on Google Video which I found on YouTube:
And here is a video I found on Google Video about downloading videos from YouTube via a TubeRaider GreaseMonkey script (kind of funny the most popular video on Google Video about YouTube is about stealing content from their site). The video is embedded here:
How are the embedded videos working for you, the viewer here on the Search Engine Journal?
Both video viewing windows give the ability to play, stop, forward & reverse videos along with audio control. However, one difference is that YouTube’s viewer offers a button to SHARE the video, which shows a commitment to the YouTube community and distribution of a producer’s work. Whereas Google Video’s viewer offers a “Google Video” button which directs the clicker to the Google Video Homepage.
Irrelevant & obviously over promotional reciprocal link trading networks and untargeted link buying campaigns can hurt a site’s indexing in Google and its rankings according to a recent blog entry by Google’s SEO Czar Matt Cutts.
If your site participates in link trading or link exchange network schemes with thousands of other sites which result in untargeted and spammy links being served throughout your web site - BEWARE, Google has a keen eye on this search spamming practice.
This does not mean that buying or trading links is bad. Buying and soliciting highly targeted links or exchanging links with sites that either :
1) Have content relevant to your own site
2) Attract the same demographic
3) Are in the same geographic location are your business
…will bring targeted and responsive traffic to your site which has a high chance of converting into a sale or interested visitor.
Such practices are the backbone of the Internet and are not being targeted by the new Google updates.
However, if you participate in a link trading, link selling or link marketing scheme which serves links on your sites, or the sites you trade links with for such spam-slappin’ themed sites as poker, gambling, ringtones, seo contests, mortgages, payday loans and other questionably anchor texted links which have absolutely nothing to do with your site’s content - STOP!
It’s time to halt such link spamming practices and direct your linking budget (whether it be measured in time, favors or dollars) into more targeted link building practices like relevant blogs, trusted directories, niche sites and local business listings programs.
One linking rule of thumb is that if the link would send you a paying customer and people actually find the links on a prominent part of the web page (like above the fold or embedded within main content) - it is of quality.
Here is what Matt Cutts has to say about Google indexing ‘penalties’ on link farms and link swapping network campaigns as he reviews complaints from webmasters who are seeing their sites dropping from the Google BigDaddy update:
This is… a real estate site, this time about a Eastern European country. I see 387 pages indexed currently. Aha, checking out the bottom of the page,
I see this: Poor quality links (Matt shows image)
Linking to a free ringtones site, an SEO contest, and an Omega 3 fish oil site? I think I’ve found your problem. I’d think about the quality of your links if you’d prefer to have more pages crawled. As these indexing changes have rolled out, we’ve improving how we handle reciprocal link exchanges and link buying/selling.
- Moving right along, here’s one from May 4th. It’s another real estate site. The owner says that they used to have 10K pages indexed and now they have 80.
This time, I’m seeing links to mortgages sites, credit card sites, and exercise equipment. I think this is covered by the same guidance as above; if you were getting crawled more before and you’re trading a bunch of reciprocal links, don’t be surprised if the new crawler has different crawl priorities and doesn’t crawl as much.
Yahoo’s Flickr photo sharing & tagging community is out of beta, is in gamma!, and has updated with all kinds of new features. The most prominent addition is that of an actual SEARCH BOX to the entire site. No longer do users have to download custom extensions to their browser or scroll to the bottom of the Flickr page to look for the “Search for Photos” link… no, no, no. Now we can actually search Flickr images and tags directly from the home page.
My first impressions are that navigation is much simpler around the site and there is a new absence of contextual advertising by Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network within the photo pages. Instead of the photo page contextual ads, Yahoo has taken full advantage of the new Flickr search feature by adding Yahoo Search Marketing Sponsored Results to the right site of the photo search results.
The new search advertisements are sleek, well targeted (because they are search targeted ads and not content or tag targeted) and should result in an increase in Yahoo revenue from their Web 2.0 flagship.
Mark Flickr as one more effective and useful Yahoo Search powered channel to their ever-expanding portfolio.
George Oates lists the new Flickr updates on the Flickr blog:
* New Navigation
We’ve rationalized the site’s navigation, cleaned it up and (hopefully) made it much easier for both new users and experienced users. The new system breaks down into: You, Your Contacts, Your Groups & The World (aka Explore).
Aside from that, there are some other large changes in the new release:
* New Search
Search has been greatly improved (with full booleans and multiple tags, you’ll be AND, OR, NOT and +ing and -ing your heart out), We’ve also added a search box to the top of every page and redesigned the results pages, so you can search for anything from anywhere.
* New and Improved Organizr
We’ve given the Organizr a complete overhaul, aiming for maximum speed, more flexibility in searching and browsing while making your workspace bigger.
* Person Menu
The pink balloon? Popped! Now you can mouse over anyone’s buddy icon and get a useful menu which lets you jump directly to their photos, profile, favorites and more.
* More Photos
In our continuing efforts to show you the millions of photos on Flickr, we’ve bumped up the number of photos you can see on most pages around the site. (And, when you’re searching, you can toggle between seeing thumbnails or a larger version of each photo with some extra information.)
Now that Google’s Quality Czar and Webmaster Ambassador Matt Cutts has taken on a new staff member to lighten his load, he’s making some high profile appearances at ClickZ and WebmasterRadio/Search Engine Watch.
Mike Grehan of Market Smart Interactive interviewed Matt at ClickZ, where Mike contributes as a ClickZ Expert.
Is PageRank such a big deal? Can you value a link on a page by its PageRank?
Matt says:
“There are over 100 factors in ranking. And PageRank is just one of them. It’s an important factor, but it’s by no means the be-all and end-all.
To me that shows the danger of short-sighted thinking and getting obsessed with just one facet of things, and not the facet which matters most. So paying attention to the content on your site, building good stuff, those are the things that will help. Not “can I get my PageRank higher with one more sprinkle of green fairy dust?” or something like that.
The best links are those which are editorially chosen. Linked because of the site’s merit. Some of the best SEOs these days are those who are really good at buzz marketing, viral marketing, and word-of-mouth marketing.
Tactics like lavishing on reciprocal links; or reciprocal links don’t work as well — let’s try this fad called triangular linking; or let’s try buying links; all these sorts of things. These are not the sort of links that are best for your site. They’re certainly more high risk. Buying links is extremely risky. It falls outside of our guidelines, unless you add a no-follow tag. And that’s a very simple way to say, “You know what? I only wanted the traffic. I’m not concerned with search engines.”
As for the Search Engine Watch Daily SearchCast Appearance, I’m having problems finding the exact archived file, if it’s even available yet. Until it’s made available (or until a reader would like to place a link to the file in the comments below), here’s a rundown of the theme of Danny’s exclusive on-location interview of Matt from the GOOGplex.
“Presence” will ultimately become a more prominent feature of local business websites and IM/VoIP calling should, over time, become a more common and frequent way for consumers and local merchants to interact. Once local merchants — notorious for not returning phone calls or answering emails — clearly understand the benefits they’ll start adding presence buttons/IM clients to their sites.
I previously blogged about AIM Pages becoming a small business website substitute. Presence is a feature of that offering. And eBay recently announced that it would rolling out Skype more broadly on its sites and building new ad vehicles around Skype and presence. MySpace also introduced a branded IM client that similarly could be used on small business profiles to let consumers know if they’re there. And Atlanta-based ContactAtOnce has a range of ad vehicles and enhancements built around presence.
According to founder Paul Youlten, this is a first for a yellow pages directory. Youlten has also permitted merchants to add video from YouTube.
Yellowikis is an incredibly ambitious project that relies on users (and local businesses) around the globe building the directory. That’s a daunting proposition — to say the least.
Yet until recently Wikipedia seemed a long shot and almost preposterous notion itself. And if the directory follows in the footsteps of Wikipedia it will become a highly successful (and visible) way for local businesses to be found. It could also be radically disruptive if successful.
In fact, according to comScore’s recent global traffic ratings, Wikipedia is the seventh most visited site around the globe:
Global ranking by traffic:
* MSN-Microsoft Sites
* Google Sites
* Yahoo! Sites
* eBay
* Time Warner Network
* Amazon Sites
* Wikipedia Sites
* Ask Network
* Adobe Sites
* Lycos, Inc.
* CNET Networks
* Apple Computer, Inc.
* Real.com Network
* Monster Worldwide
* Wanadoo Sites
Thus the potential is there over the long term for Yellowikis to become the definitive source of local business data and information around the globle. Youlten and company have a very long hard climb to get there, but Wikipedia has proven their vision is not impossible.
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Greg Sterling is the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm focused on online consumer and advertiser behavior and the relationship between the Internet and traditional media, with an emphasis on the local marketplace.
“A prominent Republican on Capitol Hill has prepared legislation that would rewrite Internet privacy rules by requiring that logs of Americans’ online activities be stored, CNET News.com has learned.
The proposal comes just weeks after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Internet service providers should retain records of user activities for a “reasonable amount of time,” a move that represented a dramatic shift in the Bush administration’s views on privacy……Executives at companies that fail to comply would be fined and imprisoned for up to one year.
…Sonia Arrison, director of technology studies at the free-market Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, said the Internet Safety Act “follows in a long line of bad laws that are written in the name of protecting children.”
This is something that five years ago..even less, perhaps, that most people would have brushed off as a wacko conspiracy theory.
Google Notebook has been released and is now live and ready to be used. I have not had the chance to download it as of yet, but the browser extension is getting a flip through by Bill Slawski, who’s initial thoughts are worth mentioning.
The idea behind it is that you can use it to take notes about web pages , and copy snippets from those pages, and keep them in notebooks, which you can keep private, or make accessible to the public. A link to the page where you found the material makes it easy to return to the source of the information.
Notebooks can be organized into sections, and can contain images as well as text. The program can be accessed from more than one computer, which means that the information contained within it is stored by Google rather than on your own computer.
I really like the way that the mini notebook, and the full page notebook work together. As a tool for tracking information on the web, it’s pretty useful. I could see some value in using it as a work tool when looking at a site, and considering rewriting content on the pages of that site. Or in writing notes for a blog post, or article or paper.
One of the features that isn’t working yet is the ability to search other public notebooks. The message that I received is that “Search will be available in a few days .”
And here’s a rundown of the features from Google :
* Clip useful information.
You can add clippings of text, images and links from web pages to your Google Notebook without ever leaving your browser window.
* Organize your notes.
You can create multiple notebooks, divide them into sections, and drag-and-drop your notes to stay organized.
* Get access from anywhere.
You can access your Google Notebooks from any computer by using your Google Accounts login.
* Publish your notebook.
You can share your Google Notebook with the world by making it public.
If you too have had the chance to try out Google Notebook, please fee free to lend your thoughts in the comments below.
May 15th has come and gone and the date marked the end of the V7ndotcom Elursrebmem SEO Contest which was, according to what V7N’s John Scott told Google Blogoscoped, “the biggest SEO contest to date, and I’m guessing it’ll be a hard one to top.”
The much heralded contest, which paid $4,000 and an iPod to the winning site which placed at #1 on Google for the fictional term “V7ndotcom Elursrebmem”, has brought a new amount of media awareness to SEO practices via coverage by the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.
Winners of the V7ndotcom Elursrebmem SEO Contest are V7ndotcomElursrebmem.net, JimWestergren.com, and v7ndotcomelursrebmem.com.
(via John’s Google Capture):
V7ndotcom Elursrebmem news, reviews comparisons and v7ndotcom …Things you should know about v7ndotcom elursrebmem, v7ndotcom have launched an SEO competition based on the keyword v7ndotcom elursrebmem.
www.v7ndotcomelursrebmem.net/ - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
V7ndotcom ElursrebmemThis is a white hat V7ndotcom Elursrebmem SEO Contest page, … V7ndotcom Elursrebmem is a term used for a SEO contest started by John Scott from v7n …
www.jimwestergren.com/v7ndotcom-elursrebmem/ - 128k - 13 May 2006 - Cached - Similar pages
V7ndotcom ElursrebmemWelcome to The Grand V7ndotcom Elursrebmem Hotel web site, offering appartments in both … Who’s got no shoes on in the V7ndotcom Elursrebmem hotel? …
www.v7ndotcomelursrebmem.com/ - 12k - Cached - Similar pages
More analysis into the sites and techniques which led to the top Google rankings in the V7ndotcom Elursrebmem competition are sure to follow.
Microsoft to Challenge iTunes with Urge
Now 
