Daily Internet Marketing News, SEO News

The following was posted within the past 24 hours and taken from top Internet Marketing experts.

M$ Playing Chess with Apple - Apple to lose again.... (Sunday, January 09, 12:30 AM EST)

Some enlightening analysis of Microsofts consumer electronics and DRM strategic moves in the context of a rerun of the PC market battle Apple and M$ fought so long ago.

From Russell Beattie, threadlinked above.

Well, I've been watching Microsoft's moves over the past few weeks and I can pretty much say that it's game over for a lot of Microsoft competitors, though they may not realize it yet. To me the decisive move was their MSN Video announcement which included deals with MTV as well as TiVo to make sure that TiVo To Go recordings play on Microsoft Mobile devices. That's when I saw the big picture: Microsoft's DRM strategy and Windows Media WMA codec are going to allow them to have a massive advantage in the consumer electronics market, which includes everything from MP3 players, to mobile phones to your set-top box, to a host of other converged devices.

and..

What's important is that Microsoft *owns* the alternative to Apple and is already branching out to areas like movies and home-recorded content. It's amazing to see history repeating itself, no? Apple lost the PC desktop because it refused to license its Graphical User Interface and now they're going to lose the Consumer Electronics market because they've failed to license their FairPlay DRM technology.

and...

Everyone was laughing at Bill Gates' gaffs this week at the CES. The bluescreen of death, etc. But did you *see* what they were showing off? They have set top boxes, mobile phones, PDAs, portable video players, game consoles and more all running Microsoft software, and most importantly, all supporting the same Windows Media codec and DRM. The final piece of the puzzle was the TiVo To Go announcement. Now it's not just content you buy, it's your personal content as well.

There's a fair bit more to read and it's a great post, check it out and tell us what you think.

Why is it that Apple are so great on one hand, the GUI, the COOL, and so utterly blind on the other? What is it about Apple that seems to doom them to ultimate failure despite fantastic kit like the iPod?

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads

Cyber Stalking - Dan GIlmore picks up a Nutcase... (Saturday, January 08, 11:50 PM EST)

Some months back popular blogger Russell Beattie attracted a Cyber Stalker - Some nutcase that had it in for him and was doing his best to harm him online.

Now, grass roots journalism guy Dan Gillmore formerly of the Mercury News has picked up a similar fruitcake:

I'm removing a series of comments from a troll who haunted my old blog and has followed me here.

I will not permit this site to be taken over by these kinds of folks. Period

I didnt get to see the comments but it does seem that (surprise surprise..) online celebrity attracts the same kind of lunatics that we see harrass folks in the offline world.

I want one too dammit! heh..

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads

MSN Beta to Ramp Up (Saturday, January 08, 11:38 PM EST)

msnsearch's WebLog notes that starting next week they'll increase the amount of search traffic they send to the new MSN search engine. Oshoma Momoh also points out it's still in beta and "we will officially launch it when it’s ready." Seems like a lot of search products stay in beta for a while.

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads

Iran Censors Blogs and other Social Media (Saturday, January 08, 07:12 PM EST)

Saw this a few days back and thought i'd wait to see if anything else emerged but as i've not heard much else about it im going to assume there's some truth to the rumour that Iran have censored blogs, Orkut, Yahoo Personals and other social media:

Friends in Iran, journalists and technicians, are saying that judiciary officials have ordered all major ISP to filter all blogging services including PersianBlog, BlogSpot, Blogger, BlogSky, and even BlogRolling.

They have also ordered to filter Orkut, Yahoo Personals and some other popular dating and social networking websites.

For ISPs this means a big loss, since much of their recent sales have been because of people writing and reading blogs and surfing Orkut. So the government is effectively eliminating small and private ISPs by bankrupting them, whiteout paying a political price for it.

I see Dan Gilmor is also reporting this today but he doesn't appear to have any additional information other than hoping that proxies and so forth get set up quickly.

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads

Sleep - Getting enough of it? (Saturday, January 08, 03:45 PM EST)

Thanks so much to Cory at boingboing for pointing out this essay on sleep. As geeky tech types many of us are i suspect quite familiar with odd sleep patterns right? Personally, I resent the time it takes out of my day and am constantly fighting to stay up late and still get up early to try and fit the most into my waking time that i can.

This essay has me thinking about my habbits in some new ways and if you have sleep trouble or just a general interest i'd highly recommend the loooong read :)

Here's one paragraph that really struck a chord with me:

As Robert Anston Heinlein said:

"Waking a person unnecessarily should not be considered
a capital crime. For a first offense, that is."

One thing I noticed upon arriving to the States is that nobody here seems to have any notion of "sleep manners". I have seen (and experienced) many times people barging into the room containing a sleeping person, switching on the lights and TV, talking, even talking to the sleeping person, all the while not being even aware that this is a Big No-No, very inconsiderate, and extremely rude. When confronted, the response is usually very defensive, stressing the person's individual right to do whatever he/she wants and not bother about being considerate about some lazy bum who is sleeping at an inappropriate time. Whoa! Stop right there!

First, individual rights are assumed to mean that you can do whatever you want as long as that does not hurt another person in some way. Waking someone up is harassment - of course it hurts someone. Second, there is no such thing as inappropriate time. If you can, you sleep whenever you can. There is no appropriate or inappropriate time. What do you do if someone is working the night-shift (like my wife often does, and I sometimes do, too)? That person will sleep during the day, so you better shut up. Third, what is this about sleeping being a sign of laziness. The "owls" are constantly being treated as lazy, though they are more likely to be sleep-deprived (cannot fall asleep until the wee hours, then being rudely awoken by the alarm clock after just a couple of hours) and spend more hours awake (and presumably productive) than "larks" do. If you are asleep, this means you need it. If you are rested enough you cannot physically remain asleep or go back to sleep again. You are wide awake. Thus, when you see someone asleep, it is because that person needs sleep right there and then. Sleep is not laziness.

G'night everyone...

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads

HP Preaching Digital Democracy - Power to the People! (Saturday, January 08, 02:44 PM EST)

It's been interesting to watch Hewlett Packard move into the digital lifestyle area, they seem to be taking to it well and im impressed with the fact that their new media hub is based on Linux! :)

The BBC has a nice summary of Carly Fiorina's, HP's top dog of tech, speech at CES this year. Here are some of the more notable quotes:

"The digital revolution is about the democratisation of technology and the experiences it makes possible, Revolution has always been about giving power to the people."

Part of giving people more control has been about the freeing up of content, such as images, video and music.

Crucial to this has been the effort to make devices that speak to each other better so that content can be more easily transferred from one device, such as a digital camera, to others, such as portable media players.

There's a whole bunch of good stuff in there so do check it out. Could HP be an exciting company? - I've always thought of them as rather stuffy, but some of the things they have coming out now are really quite cool...

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads

Gizmodo Score an Interveiw with Big Billy G (Saturday, January 08, 02:11 PM EST)

Well, a transcribed audio interview is certainly more palletable than watching Calacanis beaver his way round CES 2005 with a microphone and camera heh..

It's not a bad read, and apparently there is more to come so i'll post it as a comment when/if i catch it. From the intro:

I would ask the hard questions: Does Balmer really eat children? Can I swim in your Money Bin? I didn't quite muster the balls to ask those, though, and instead acted like I had real questions or something.

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads

Google's Auction-Style IPO Might Have Been Influential After All (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
The financial information company Morningstar is (finally) going public, and has announced its intention to operate an auction-style IPO with W.R. Hambrecht as the lead underwriter. W.R. Hambrecht developed level-playing-field IPO mechanisms long before Google ever dreamed of getting all Nasdaq on us. Observers have criticized Google for its IPO method on several fronts, noting that the company failed to capture a tremendous amount of money that flowed into the stock after it went public. Fair

Affiliates Demoted in AdWords (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
The rumor of Google making some sort of change to AdWords policy regarding affiliates has proved true. A new policy limits displays of AdWords ads run by affiliates, and leading to the same landing page to a single ad per search results page. This will largely solve the affiliate glut that pushes non-affiliate ads off the page. Several results that change the nature of affiliate marketing on Google should follow: First, competition for that single affiliate slot wi increase, and the per-click

Google-Scraped Dictionary (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Google Blogoscoped has a work in progress: a dictionary scraped from Google's define operator, and the translation tool. Translations are complete for the letter "A." Naturally, the thing searches for words, as well as listing them in alpha order.

Page and Brin Make Business Week "Great Innovators" List (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Not much to say beyond that--here is the article. Business Week is celebrating its 75th anniversary by profiling great business innovators of the past 75 years. The profiles aren't deep; just quick backgrounders.

Displaying Sponsored Links Only (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Thanks to reader Tom for pointing out something I wasn't aware of: If you want to display only the sponsored links (AdWords ads) in Google for any keyword, use this dedicated engine.

Battelle's Most Important prediction (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Among John Battelle's 17 predictions for 2005 (one of which is the revelation that he will start a new media-technology business), the most important, in my opinion, is this: 12. By the end of the year, there will be no question that search is a media business, and that the major players in search are major players in the content business. This point might be driven home by the introduction of media-content searching (Yahoo! has already started down this path with its video search engine,

Google's 2004 (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Following are highlights of 2004 from the Google perspective. All links are to blog entries. Enjoy the reminiscence. JAN: Google hires Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to organize IPO, hoping to raise $40B. FEB: Google releases social networking site Orkut, not realizing at the time how extremely short-lived would be the buzz. FEB: Google shoots down Booble, a parody porn search engine. FEB: Google makes Microsoft froth at the mouth, motivating Bill Gates to admit defeat, then promise

Who Needs to Chill Out? (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Have you seen the indignant responses of the Google team to an anonymous writer who criticized (tongue in cheek, I believe) the holiday logo doodles? I'm not certain who needs to get a sense a humor more, but it makes for fun reading.

New Santy Worm Targets Yahoo!, and Doesn't Forget Google (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
After Google terminated the original Santy worm, which used Google's Web index to find vulnerable sites to deface, new generations of the virus are slithering into the search indexes of Yahoo! and AOL Search, while still attempting to launch attacks from Google. The Santy descendents (Santy.b, Santy.c, and so on) maintain the same mission as the original, which was and is to deface Web sites using the phpBB message-board system.

Will Google Keep Its Cachet? (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
A CNET story mostly rehashes the question of whether Google can maintain its status as the "It" place to work, while expanding into a mainstream company. We also learn that Microsoft has been raided, losing some engineering talent to Google.

Googleplex Photos (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Chris Breikss at 6S Marketing took some meetings at Google during the fall, and has posted photos of the outside and inside of the Googleplex.

2004 Google Zeitgeist (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
It's not quite end-of-year, but Google has released the 2004 Zeitgeist. An interactive Flash version is loads of fun, even if more detail could have been built into it. Froogle and Local search queries are included for the first time.

SearchEngineBlog: Year in Review (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
"None of this is true. Surely." But most of it is, with exceptions for scorching satire.

AOL Readies Free Webmail for Everyone (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
AOL is not new to the Webmail game, but so far has restricted its Web e-mail interface to subscribers. In 2005 WOL will launch a free Webmail service in competition with Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail, thereby filling out the Webmail landscape with entries from the four major Internet giants.

What you would do if you ran Google? - Win the crazy glowing Google Radio thingy! (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
The good folks at Google sent me a really cool glowing AM/FM clock radio as gift, and since we don't like to keep gifts here at Weblogs, Inc. (that whole "ethics" thingy) we've decided to give it to one of our readers in a joint contest with Engadget.com. Now, you can't buy one of these, it can't be found in stores at any price (as least that we know of!). You could probably turn around and sell this bad boy on EBAY for 20 large and finally get out from under (or

Google Responds Sluggishly to Virus (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Robert Lemos at CNET reports that the Santy.a worm could have been stopped quicker if Google had responded sooner to pleas from security company F-Secure. The worm used Google's index to target the sites it defaced. "By the time Google put defenses in place, as many as 40,000 sites had been defaced by the worm, according to search statistics from Microsoft's search engine, a competitor to Google's service. By late Tuesday, Google had set up filters to weed out the

Incoming Book About Google (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Watch for a business history of Google, The Google Story, authored by David Vise of the Washington Post. (According to Publishers Weekly.)

Interviews with Googlebot (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Google Blogoscoped is running a tongue-in-cheek Interview with the Googlebot. Never one to shy away from stealing a good idea, here is an interview with Googlebot just as it's coming off work: Q: You just finished a deep crawl. How do you feel? A: I need a stiff drink. Or two. Q: Did you find anything interesting out there? A: It's all a blur. Q: How many pages did you hit? A: Like McDonald's says, billions and billions. Or was that Carl Sagan? Whatever. Q: After

Google Desktop Patches Security Hole (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Occasionally the official Google blog posts something useful, as now: the product director for Google Desktop reports that his team has patched a potential security hole discovered by researchers at Rice University. According to the Google Desktop version update page, this patch represents the first updated beta version of the product.

Ridiculous Auto-Generated AdWords Ads (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Greg Linden reports on the rash of affiliate ads in Google keyed to pointless keywords like misfortune and fraudulent. Finding misfortune on eBay? Possible, if your bidding gets out of control. Ads like that make a good argument for the rumor that Google will eventually limit affiliate ads in some way.

Gigablast now indexes 1 billion pages (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
The Gigablast search engine is growing

Google to establish charity foundation (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Google plans to establish a foundation this year based on 1 percent of its stock.

Everything I know about web marketing I learned from my gas station (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
How do you design a site and a search engine strategy that actually sells?

Blinkx desktop search for Mac (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Next week you may download Blinkx for the Mac.

Everything I know about web marketing I learned from my local gas station (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
How do you design a site and a search engine strategy that actually sells?

Alternative desktop search tools (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
There is more to desktop searching than Google and MSN.

Search Engine Trends 2004 (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Pandia takes a look at what happened in the world of search engine this year.

New version of the Santy worm (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Santy.e uses Yahoo! and AOL Search to spread.

Google Scholar advanced search interface (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
New menu based search form for Google Scholar.

Behind the scenes at MSN desktop search (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
On interviews with the teams developing the Microsoft Toolbar Suite.

Pandia launches search engine search engine (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
A new topic search tool that lets you search the best search engine oriented sites in one go.

Internet Explorer rapidly loosing ground (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
On the new browser war.

Worm uses Google to attack sites (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
A Web worm is using Google to identify sites using the vulnerable PHP Bulletin Board software.

Survey of desktop search tools (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Pandia presents various tools for searching your own computer.

New European search engine for the UK (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Seekport UK gives priority to British sites.

Blinkx launches radio and TV search engine (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
A search engine that captures spoken words.

New Yahoo! Video Search (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Yahoo! adds video search.

Google to scan books (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Google to include text from library books.

Ask Jeeves launches desktop search tool (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Ask Jeeves lets you search your own computer.

MSN has launched its new MSN Toolbar Suite (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
MSN has launched its new desktop search tool.

New from Google: automatic suggestions (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Google betatests a new feature.

More local versions of Google News (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Google has added seven new national incarnations of the Google News portal.

Search the Web and win prizes! (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
The new Blingo search site is powered by Gigablast.

The new Accoona search engine (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
New business search engine.

Trouble at Webmaster World (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Several moderators have left the Webmaster World discussion forums.

Search Engine Marketing Resolutions (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
A New Year! and why don´t we start with some New Year resolutions? These are some of the tips I saw on Shari Thurow´s interesting article SEM New Year´s Resolutions on the Clickz site. Resolution 1: I will stop focusing...

Merry Christmas (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year...

British eCommerce Success Story (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupitermedia, has an written interesting article on his blog Internet Media Comentary about a British artist who has created a phenomenally successful online business. Entitled Internet Commerce Success Story, this is a brief overview of...

Real-time Keyword Suggestions from Google Select (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
According to 4WebResults Google is testing a new tool called "Google Suggest". The tool sounds really cool as it will throw up keyword suggestions as you type in the words. As Tom says in New Internet Tool Offers Suggestions...

Help Inc.com Build the 2005 Entrepreneurs' List (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
This year (2004) Inc.com published their 25 Entrepreneurs We Love list. They are now inviting people to submit entries for their 2005 list. All you need do is go to their Entrepreneurs We Love page; check your candidate meets their...

Blogging till the Cows Come Home (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
Rick Bruner has got an interesting post on his blog, Business Blog Consulting, about the blog marketing exploits of organic dairy seller, Stonyfield Farm. Stoneyfield produces quality dairy products, such as yoghurt, which strictly adhere to organic principles -...

Pictures from Google's Googleplex (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
As I mention Google rather a lot on this website, I thought it would be nice to let people view some photos of the Google complex, taken by an Internet Marketing company on a recent visit there. Chris Breikss,...

Biggest Internet Growth Comes From People Over 55 (Sunday, January 09, 08:55 AM EST)
A recent survery, by International Demographics, has found that the biggest U.S. growth in the Internet has come not from young people but from the 55's and above. The report is based on the findings of 80 U.S. Metropolitan markets...

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