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The StepForth SEO Blog
The SEO Blog - Keep up to date on the latest breaking SEO news and tips. The SEO Blog is updated regularly to keep you informed and on the cutting edge of search engine optimization techniques.
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How to Optimize for Google – Part 1 of 3
2008-04-17 23:54:00
In today's online world search engine rankings can make your business succeed, and while rankings in Yahoo and MSN are very valuable, their combined market value is still less than that of Google. This makes achieving top rankings in Google that much more important.In this three-part series on How to Optimize for Google we will touch on a number of important aspects for top Google rankings including website optimization, links, Google Webmaster tools, and a number of other considerations.The focus of Part 1 will be with on page website optimization.THE RIGHT KEYWORDSThis article is not about keyword research so I will not spend too much time on this topic, however, I felt it was important to at least brush on this slightly. If you are interested in reading more please see Keyword Research for Organic SEO.Make sure that your targets are achievable. If you select the wrong keywords it can make your entire optimization experience essentially a waste. Choose keywords that are attainable bu ...
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Top 5 Ways to Keep it Up - Rankings That Is
2008-04-17 22:06:00
Today I was kindly offered the opportunity to participate in Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm with Jim Hedger and Dave Davies. The discussion we had was all about what it takes to keep rankings high in search engine results after successfully attaining them. Here is a link to the episode on the Webcology page where our show will be archived and to Jim's article on Keeping it Up and here are a few tips from me on the essentials of maintaining rankings:Keep adding content to your website in the form of a blog or informational pages and where appropriate provide relevant textual links to the pages you want to maintain rankings. Check out our comprehensive tutorial on how to create, market and manage your own blog.If you write articles for your blog(s) try submitting them to article sites like ezinearticles.com. If your article includes links to your website these external sites will provide link juice to your content and help you maintain visibility.PRWeb is a great tool for telling the wor ...
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Matt Cutts Pipes in on Google Spidering Forms
2008-04-11 21:54:00
At the exact same time (both at 10:50 am PST) Google announced it's spider (Googlebot) was now indexing a variety of forms Matt Cutts jumped in on his blog with his perspective where raised a great point that hadn't occured to me. Essentially this new spider function will allow the indexing of form-based drop-down menus which previously were road blocks to search engine spiders. This form of navigation is unfortunately used quite often as primary navigation by web site owners so this recent addition to Googlebot's super spider powers may mean huge rank increases for such websites.That said, according to Google this doesn't always mean this content will be indexed... which begs the question whether form navigation is still a good idea to rely on. At this point I hardly think it is now an acceptable navigational tactic. After all the other search engines first have to jump on board and implement a similar capability or else form navigation will alienate them entirely.Thanks Matt for your ...
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Google Now Fills Out Forms When Spidering
2008-04-11 20:24:00
I am in disbelief. Less than 40 minutes ago the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that Google can now fill out web forms and spider the resulting content. Previously this was not only not done by search engines but it was well known that such content would be useless since it wouldn't 'necessarily' be formatted for the eyes of searchers. Apparently Google is now throwing this concept to the wind.How to Block Google's Spider From Your FormFrom the announcement it appears that Google is not yet spidering forms on a wide spread basis. Here is a quote that sums up their policy on forms quite nicely:"Only a small number of particularly useful sites receive this treatment, and our crawl agent, the ever-friendly Googlebot, always adheres to robots.txt, nofollow, and noindex directives. That means that if a search form is forbidden in robots.txt, we won't crawl any of the URLs that a form would generate. Similarly, we only retrieve GET forms and avoid forms that require any kin ...
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Part 3 - The Genesis for a Successful Online Marketing Campaign
2008-04-11 07:23:00
In this article two important marketing strategies are reviewed: search engine optimization and social media.Just as the spokes of a wheel are held together and strengthened by its hub so too is the planning for a successful marketing campaign. The greater the integrity and quality of the hub, the better are the chances that the spokes will stay true and provide far reaching performance. In this series we have looked at several ‘spokes’ that contribute to a winning web marketing strategy. Part 1 looked at several of these building blocks: marketing budget and timelines, market research, and competitor analysis while Part 2 discussed the importance of keyword research, focus on achievable phrases, creating relevant textual content and search friendly website design. A future article will deal with the remaining spokes: link building, blogs, newsletters, and website analytics.But central to all of this, the hub, is search engine optimization. A properly optimized site wi ...
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"Boring" Photos Result in Google Lawsuit
2008-04-08 01:30:00
What would you do if you suddenly found your private residence plastered over Google Street View, along with photos of your yard, pool, and other private property? Well, this very thing has happened to Christine and Aaron Boring, and they have since filed a lawsuit against Google. According to The Smoking Gun, when one of the vehicles shooting photos for the mapping service made a wrong turn up a 50 foot private driveway, it also continued snapping photos and those photos made it onto the live version of Google Street View. Google spokesman Larry Yu told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "There is no merit to this action. It is unfortunate litigation was chosen to address the concern because we have visible tools, such as a You Tube video, to help people learn about imagery removal and an easy-to-use process to facilitate image removal.” The Boring’s are seeking “in excess of Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars for compensatory, incidental, and consequential damages, punitive dam ...
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StepForth Named One of the Best Blogs on the Net
2008-04-08 00:35:00
We are proud to announce that StepForth is once again rated one of the best blogs on the net by the BIGLIST of Search Marketing Blogs. Created and managed by respected web marketer Lee Odden of TopRank the BIGLIST is a comprehensive list of the best marketing blogs online - at least it is now that we are on it ;-)All joking aside the StepForth team is proud to be recognized for their writing efforts in the search marketing space and plan to continue delivering the best work we can - or not at all. And of course I would be remiss if I didn't stress that the StepForth SEO News Blog is comprised of articles from more than just myself - our team rocks!Here is the entry as it is shown on the BIGLIST:StepForth SEO News Blog - (Welcome back!) Since 2003 the StepForth blog has covered a range of search marketing industry news and sets a great standard for SEM blog writing. Kudos to Ross Dunn for a great job.If you haven't subscribed to our blog feed yet or our weekly SEO newsletter then just c ...
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Yahoo Launches Shine, a Site Geared to Women
2008-04-04 18:22:00
As posted at Yodel Anecdotal, Yahoo has developed and launched a new website targeted at women. Unveiled on Monday, Yahoo! Shine "features the best writers and bloggers in women's publishing". It helps "connect like-minded women, share stories, and more". Shines editorial team features editors from Lucky, Jane, and the Wall Street Journal. They created Shine to appeal to a large demographic of women and give them a "smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get info, and connect with each other". Content found on Shine is derived from some the best of the best, and features works from women at Glamour, Self, Cosmo, Women's Health, and more. Shine does not focus on "how to please a man" or "lose 10 lbs fast" but rather more real world, intellectual content, as well as entertainment news. While many women appreciate and seem to be quite pleased with the site, this is not the case across the board. One woman commented "It's a rather scary thing that Shine is being pushed a ...
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Google Docs is Now Available Offline
2008-04-04 18:12:00
If you've been swayed away from your Microsoft Office products and are now a frequent user of Google Docs you may be interested to know that a select few users will now have offline access to their Google Docs files, as Google begins rolling out their offline editing access. On Monday Google announced in the Official Google Docs Blog the upcoming functionality to their software. The big push came with requiring the ability to work on your documents when on an airplane, commuting to work, or when your home internet access goes down. Now users will have the ability to work on their files offline and synchronize when they again have an active internet connection. This is all made quite seamless and easy as it all happens behind the scenes. Users will not have to remember to save documents locally, or to save their changes when an active connection is restored, everything is done automatically. This increased functionality helps Google get one step further in their pursuit to ...
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A Net Reality - Cybercrime & Punishment
2008-04-04 00:43:00
The evolution of the internet is anything but dull. It is a precarious world that is subject to the influence of both devious and altruistic actions. Just like any human society, there is order and there is chaos. Yet, what makes the cyberworld so unique is the opportunity for people to come together that may never have done so by traditional networks. Through communication on different websites and blogs, individuals can discover new ways to make mischief or find assistance in solving crimes.Recently, there have been some particularly interesting happenings in Internetville that I’d like to share with StepForth’s loyal blog readers. Top of the list is the now infamous Craig’s List Hoax; where a man’s property was raided by loads of people who read a false ad on the popular classifieds site stating, “Everything must go”. At first, it was unclear who perpetrated this spiteful and sinister act. Theories exist, but now that the dust has settled it seems clear to authorities wh ...
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PPC Management - A User's Review of MSN
2008-04-03 07:32:00
This is the first in a series of articles intended to convey my personal impressions of managing PPC through Google Adwords, Yahoo Panama and MSN Adcenter.Each engine has its pluses and minuses and I thought I would write a short blurb describing my experiences using the interface for each of these. The first engine I will be looking at is the lesser utilized of the three, MSN Adcenter. Interface One of the things I like about working within Adcenter is the clean look. Although from time to time I wonder if the uncluttered interface is more a product of its relative youth, there’s no denying it’s easier on the eyes than either of its competitors. In part, this appears to be due to the lack of clutter that plagues both Panama and AdWords. Perhaps Microsoft hasn’t had time to fill every gap on each page as seems to be the case with the others. Part of the reason however, is the use of bullet links. More often than not, clicking on these causes the additional information to ap ...
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Recessions Can Teach Valuable Marketing Lessons
2008-03-28 21:50:00
Recession, recession, recession… I don’t know about you but I have had my fill of this doomsday word! It seems to me the panic caused by this word simply increases the chances of a recession occurring. Recessions, however, have a silver lining because they provide business owners with the opportunity to look long and hard at their expenses and this can provide valuable insight in strengthening the business long after a recession recedes. Some cut backs may become obvious such as eliminating frivolous office expenses and are a wise move but should business owners cut back on their web marketing? Lets look at the circumstances within web marketing where cutbacks may or may not make sense.When You Should or Should Not Cut Back on Pay Per Click or Search Engine Optimization CampaignsSo what is unnecessary marketing? Logic dictates that any marketing that is not profitable is not worth keeping. That said, how certain are you that a particular form of marketing is not profit ...
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Today's Social Media and SEO Linkforth
2008-03-19 23:45:00
AOL Time Warner had acquired Bebo, one of the largest social networks outside of North America. Bebo is huge in both the U.K. and New Zealand. It's the third biggest social network in the U.S. after Myspace and Facebook and for AOL it "positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers." With 4.1 billion supposed to be spent on social network advertising by 2011 it's understandable why the major players want to secure a spot on these sites.Myspace mobile has been officially launched and people using this social network can use this site to connect with one another on the go.Mobile phone search is reaching large proportions and search engine's are well aware of this trend and are finding new ways of speeding up this process. This article has a good rundown of "a Google search plug-in that puts a search box on the "home screen" of the phone and reduces the time it takes to get there (to Google) and get results." ...
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Google, Youtube, Blocked by China
2008-03-18 22:50:00
In order to help curb the possibility of rioting, the Chinese government has blocked all access to both YouTube and Google News to prevent the viewing of news reports and video footage documenting riots and protests in Tibet. Other web properties blocked include giants Yahoo, CNN, and the BBC. Cnet reported on the blockage over the weekend and many others such as the New York Times have also picked up the story. Google has before been blocked by the Chinese government. Back in 2002 searches through the internet giant were blocked to the Chinese population leading into a Communist Party congress in November of that year. In 2002 the Chinese government reported that an estimated 45.8 million Chinese were online. In July of 2007 this number had increased to approximately 137 million. Since then the total of those online has continued to skyrocket. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, and reported at the Register, the communist country, exceeded that of the US and reached an estima ...
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What is PPC?
2008-03-14 21:41:00
PPC (Pay-per-click advertising) has been around for a while now and many site owners have either experimented with, or have at least heard of the marketing platform but surprisingly, there are still a large number of potential advertisers who have had no exposure to the world of PPC.After fielding questions from new clients as well as our newest sales representative, I have decided to write an article to explain a few of the basics of what PPC is, some pro's and cons and provide some insight into how it works.PPC advertising is a means to let businesses advertise their products or services online, within search results or on other websites participating in an advertising network. The advertiser pays only when a potential customer clicks their ad and follows it to their site. The advertiser competes on ad display and positioning by bidding on relevant search terms.Pro’sMatches consumer specified search terms for something they are already interested in researching/purchasing, with the ...
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Welcome to the World Emma!
2008-03-10 21:39:00
With great joy the staff at StepForth want to welcome into this world Emma Marnie Van Achte, the newborn daughter of Scott Van Achte; our Senior SEO at StepForth and friend.Emma was born March 03, 2008, 5:54pm, at 7lbs, 8ozCongratulations Scott and Lyndsay! You have an absolutely gorgeous baby girl and we can't wait to meet her and spoil her silly :-)Here are more pictures of Scott and Lyndsay's long awaited day.Lots of love from yourStepForth family.
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Free Google 411 Available in Canada
2008-03-07 19:30:00
1-800-GOOG-411 is now available in Canada! First, I must admit, this may very well have happened a while ago but if it did I must have missed the news; thanks to Garret Rogers at ZDNet for the heads up. Either way, it is cool and I haven't heard of anyone in my circle of friends that uses it yet but they really should.Here is an illustration on how Google's free entirely voice-activated 411 service works:Looks simple right? It really is and there are some even cooler options that are available. For example, lets say Google finds the business you are looking for... you can have Google connect you OR you can have Google send you a text message with more details and a map. Simply say "Text message" or "Map it."Honestly this is way too cool and although it is totally old news in the States it is new to us Canucks. Yup, believe it or not Google remembered us!By the way, the voice activation is hands down the best I have experienced anywhere; our Telus 411 service doesn't even remotely comp ...
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Google Calendar Gets Vital Usability Boost
2008-03-06 22:25:00
Yesterday the Official Google Blog rather quietly announced the availability of Google Calendar Sync; a program for synchronizing Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Now this is something that many of us have been eagerly waiting a long time for so I have to say the rather itty-bitty post is a bit uncharacteristic... perhaps I missed the first unveiling or something?Anyway, this update now brings Google Calendar to a new level where user adoption will increase because it now can coordinate with Outlook; the most popular email client in use today. Here is Google's complete tutorial for setting up Google Calendar Sync.Ahh yes, yet again Google has found a way to wiggle its way a little further into our daily lives.There are Other Options AvailableGoogle Calendar Sync for Outlook rounds out a fair list of apps that allow synchronization with Google Calendar between Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and even Blackberry's.For Mozilla ThunderbirdProvider Add-on is a plug-in for Thunderbird ...
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Ask Claims it is Still Committed to Search
2008-03-06 20:27:00
According to an interview Search Engine Watch's Kevin Newcomb had with Ask spokesperson Nicholas Graham, the search engine is still committed to search and denies allegations that Ask is "dead". In fact, apparently the search community overreacted.Kevin has more of the interview feedback in his article but these quotes sum up Ask's position nicely:"The idea that we're going to become a women's site is just plain wrong. We know that a sizable group of our core user base is women, and we know they come to us for a certain kind of search: to get answers, often in areas of reference, health and entertainment," Graham said...."We want to address the answer-seekers, who put things in a search box in certain ways," Graham said. "We think it's smart to identify who our most active users are. It's smart to identify the kind of searches they're looking for, and focus on building that up. We want to be the first place our core customers come when they're looking for answers."Ask explains their mo ...
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An Interview with Jeremiah Andrick of Live Search Webmaster Tools
2008-03-05 08:34:00
On Feb 28th at SMX West I was fortunate to spend some time with Jeremiah Andrick, Program Manager of Live Search Webmaster Center. To start I let Jeremiah give an introduction to Live Webmaster Tools and soon after we began discussing some of the latest additions to the tools and he gave an inkling that some major stuff is coming down the line. I hope you enjoy the interview because I had a lot of fun doing it. Microsoft is very lucky to have a talented down-to-earth guy like Jeremiah on the team. I am surely going to hit him up for more interviews in the future but he won't get off quite so easily... I will have more pointed questions next time around ;-) This, however, is a great introduction to Jeremiah and the tools that Live Search Webmaster Center provides.And now, the video: by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.Celebrating over 10 years of web marketing excellence
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Apparently ASK Doesn't Always Have the Right Answer
2008-03-05 02:00:00
Today the Wall Street Journal broke incredibly sad news... indeed I think it is one of the saddest moments in my SEO career. Ask.com is letting go of 40 employees and conceptually restructuring itself by moving away from mainstream search and focusing on question-related searches for their supposed primary audience "middle-American, predominantly female consumers."Now this may just seem like yet another change of direction at Ask (they are fans of change) but the fact that Ask maven Gary Price was let go made it clear that Ask is no longer interested in competing with the likes of Google or Microhoo (a popular nod to the impending doom that is Microsoft buying Yahoo).So what does this mean to you and me? Well first, me ;-) I am feeling mighty upset. I was so upset that I went and took down the painted Ask logo we have in the StepForth office proudly espousing Ask as a favorite search engine... a sad day indeed (see picture).I along with many of my industry peers had high hopes for Ask. ...
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Yahoo Open Search
2008-02-28 20:57:00
How would you like to change the way your site rankings appear within the search engines? I am not talking about the ranking itself, but rather the listings appearance. This idea may soon become a reality, at least at Yahoo, with the introduction of Yahoo Open Search.As noted in the Yahoo Search Blog Monday: “..instead of a simple title, abstract and URL, for the first time users will see rich results that incorporate the massive amount of data buried in websites -- ratings and reviews, images, deep links, and all kinds of other useful data -- directly on the Yahoo! Search results page.†Rafe Needleman at Cnet reported on the announcement made by Yahoo at SMX West Tuesday noting details on how exactly this program will work have not yet been released. It does appear that both new and small sites will continue to have their listings displayed as they currently are, with the new customized appearances being available to larger sites such as the New York Times. A formal launc ...
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YouTube Offline
2008-02-24 21:51:00
It appears that YouTube is having some serious problems because it has been unreachable for over an hour now. I checked with a fellow Twitterer and there is no question this is a widespread outtage. What I find the most odd... Is there isn't even a error page provided by Google which is highly irregular and does not bode well. I hope you are all having a great weekend. Tomorrow I am off to Santa Clara for SMX West... I hope to see some of you there. If you want to hookup drop me a note: Ross at StepForth and that dot com thing.
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ASK Has Highest Growth Rate in Latest comScore Study
2008-02-21 19:34:00
Today comScore released the search engine rankings for January 2008 and although the leaders of search are still holding strong to their positions Ask.com has experienced 20% growth! By far, ASK has shown the most significant improvement of all search properties. Furthermore when the report included all of the Ask Network the growth still trumped all other networks with 14.7% growth; the network includes other search properties such as MyWebSearch.com, Bloglines.com , etc.After all was said and done Ask only had 477 million searches in comparison to Google's 6,181, million searches... a substantial difference to put it mildly. That said, it is great to see growth at Ask because I see it as a vastly underrated search engine; it has evolved into a leader of Web 2.0 search. I was so impressed with Ask I determined it was well worth writing an article on How to Optimize for Ask.Now About those Other GuysIn other news, in order of their overall traffic share Google.com increased its search ...
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Google and the Mobile Internet - An Update
2008-02-16 00:03:00
Over the past few days there seems to be a lot of action with Google and Mobile search. As the advancement in mobile technology continues, the major search engines are finding their place in this infant marketplace to seek out as many advertiser dollars as possible.Google Searches Abundant on iPhonesOn Wednesday, Google reported that it has seen more mobile searches by users using Apple iPhones by 50 times that of any other mobile handset, according to the Financial Times. This shows that the increasing use of mobile search will prove to be a significant source of revenue for Google and others involved in mobile search into the future, but the statistic had Google second guessing."'We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,' Vic Gundotra, head of Google's mobile operations told the Financial Times at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona."Gundotra went on to note that the number of mobile searches could outnumber that of fixed internet searches "within th ...
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Google to Crack Down on AdWords Display URLs
2008-02-16 00:01:00
The policy at Google may not be changing regarding how they treat Display URL's within AdWords accounts, but they are cracking down on those abusing the system. Effective April 1st of this year the display URL policy will be strictly enforced.While the policy is relatively simple, some advertisers have found ways to abuse the system and in the light of some advertiser complaints, Google has decided to put its foot down in the act of fairness.Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Land has written on this in more detail and has given a few examples of acceptable and unacceptable Display URL's, but in short, if your Display URL's coincide with your landing page, you should have nothing to worry about.
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Yahoo's Road to War - The Bumps and Scrapes in Sequence
2008-02-15 06:52:00
Over the past week I have been keeping the StepForth SEO Blog updated on the events focused on Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Yahoo and the fall out since. This is becoming quite a debacle so I thought a little chronological update on how all this went down might be useful.From 2006 to Now2006: Rumors abounded that Yahoo and Microsoft were in talks about working together and that an acquisition was possible. However, nothing substantial was revealed at the time but we later learned that Yahoo refused to work with Microsoft.May 4th, 2007: The rumor mill was working overtime that Microsoft was quietly trying to acquire Yahoo for $50 billion. I was elated :-)Jan 22, 2008: The New York Times reports that Yahoo is expected to layoff hundreds of staff in order to boost profitability and share prices. The quarterly earnings report is eagerly anticipated on Jan 29th.Jan 29, 2008: Yahoo's quarterly earnings fall short of shareholders expectations.Jan 29, 2008: The New York Times relays ne ...
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Today's Social Media Linkforth
2008-02-12 00:48:00
Things I found interesting while on the web today.....Jeff Quipp's article on passive and aggressive approaches to attaining friend's within social media.Andrew Goodman shows us the makeup of a good web site in relation to how the Google's "adsbot" views it. Want to know why Social Media is so important to advertisers? It is because Social Networks have the information that allows "behavioral targeting" of us as the consumer. Being able to target the individual creates a "trusted environment for reaching high-value, frequent purchasers."CBS and Facebook have created the NCAA Basketball Championship March Madness brackets application. Not only are they providing this service but they have free, live, online coverage of the whole tournament.Ever wanted to know what it's like to work at Google? Here's your inside guide.
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Time for a Hostile Takeover of Yahoo
2008-02-12 00:12:00
Microsoft released the following official statement today in response to Yahoo's denial of the $44 bn dollar offer and I highlighted Microsoft's fully-expected overture towards a hostile takeover: It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties. We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market. A Microsoft-Yahoo! combination will create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. Furthermore, the combination will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a ...
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Yahoo Spurns Microsoft Offer BUT Will it Stick?
2008-02-11 23:27:00
Over the weekend Bloomberg reports that Yahoo's board decided to reject Microsoft's offer of $44 bn because they felt their stock was substantially undervalued but they hinted they could be drawn back to the table with a more alluring offer."The board spent a week reviewing the $31-per-share offer before deciding it was too low. The statement didn't give a counter-proposal for the price. Yahoo wants at least $40, the Wall Street Journal reported this weekend." (source Bloomberg exclusive)Yahoo appears to be trying to save face since the offer Microsoft provided was given during a slump in their stock. It all smelled like a quasi-hostile takeover... after all, Yahoo shareholder's could not have been too happy with the web giant's declining value. That said, Yahoo CEO and Founder Jerry Yang is very protective of his baby and if he is going to sell out I am sure it will have to be for a price that he knows he can't say no to.Unfortunately Jerry Yang may not have a choice. According to a ...
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