Internet Marketing | Facts and Fiction: 04/22/2007

Friday, April 27, 2007

Google's Last Dance! Could Semantic Search Mean The End Of Google?

As a full-time online marketer and webmaster I try to keep my eyes peeled to what is happening with the search engines. These complex creatures control the Internet. They truly are the heart, soul and brains of the web.

Unfortunately, they also control the faith of many struggling webmasters who are clawing their way to the top of SERPs in organic search. Being listed on these first page results for your chosen keyword phrases is the ultimate goal and it is often the determining factor in the success of your site.

Recently, I have noticed some strange movements with my closely watched keywords, especially in Google. Which shouldn't alarm anyone because there are often sudden movements and adjustments as Google tweaks and refines its algorithm, the complex series of formulas it uses to determine which pages and sites get featured.

(Side note: An excellent resource on Google's Algorithm and ranking factors can be found at: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#f41

It's way too early to jump to any conclusions but the big question on everyone's mind: Is Google Moving Towards Semantic Search?

Or more precisely will Google have to move to semantic search if it has any chance of surviving in our 'here today - gone tomorrow' search world. Most of us old folks can easily recall a pre-Google web. Is a post-Google web possible?

That's very hard to swallow but stranger things have happened on the net. But the real question should be: will Google have to embrace semantic search or perish?

Wikipedia defines Semantic Search or Semantic Web as the evolving process of taking all the content on the world wide web and "expressing it not only in natural language, but also in a förm that can be understood, interpreted and used by software agents, thus permitting them to find, share and integrate information more easily."

As can be imagined, finding the formats and framework by which all this data can be processed into meaningful responses directly related to a search enquiry is mind boggling. Technologies such as RDF (Resource Description Framework), data interchange formats (e.g. RDF/XML, Turtle, N3, N-Triples), RDFS (RDF Schema) and OWL (Web Ontology Language) will all probably play a role. Many believe microformats will be very important in this evolving semantic web.

New Semantic Search Engine

We now have our first search engine supposedly based on semantics or meaning: Hakia. Is it the first in a whole new wave of search engines generated and powered by the Semantic Web which is now tagged as Web 3.0? More importantly, can it compete against a more text based search engine such as Google?

Hakia has some great features such as highlighting potential answers to your posted question. For example, ask it a question like: What is the population of Seattle? And you will get an answer. But you will also get a gallery page featuring all the relevant information about Seattle: How to get there? Local Hotels, Restaurant Guides, Local Weather...

Of course, do the same search in Google and you will also find your information along with images and maps of Seattle. However, using Hakia will show you the relevant information faster because it is highlighted and easier to find. And in my opinion having a whole gallery page of information somehow makes your search more relevant and useful.

Can Google Compete?

Is this a better mousetrap? Maybe, maybe not... but it is definitely pointing the way to a better method of searching on the web.

Granted, this type of search engine has a long way to go to match Google's massive resources and obvious dominance in the search market. But even the most devoted Google user like myself must admit Google's method of ranking pages and content on the web is not without some flaws. Take for example the issue of Google Bombing where different webmasters influenced the listing of the keyword 'miserable failure' to point to President Bush.

Google has now solved that problem but Google is basically an elitist system where sites and content are judged by the PR ranking system and its algorithm and filters. One would like to believe it is a democratic system where the best and highest quality content rises to the top. One would like to...

Information is one thing but opinions and the quality of those opinions is something entirely different. Will the new semantic web/search be able to judge quality content and rank it as good as Google presently does?

Problems For Webmasters

Regardless of how the whole Semantic Web scenario plays out, it may have some consequences for webmasters and marketers. At least in the initial stages until you can adjust or optimize your sites to this new 400 pound Gorilla on the block.

One major concern is how will the literal translation or semantic meaning of your site's title and URL determine your placement in a semantically themed search engine? Most webmasters know to place their major keywords in their site's domain name but, if you cover many topics within your site, this is not always possible.

Plus, does a Semantic Web mean everything will probably have to be tagged to the nth degree as we are seeing in blogs, social media and Web 2.0? Thankfully this can be easily done with free software such as WordPress which has tagging already built into its programming.

If we do get truly semantic search, wouldn't on page factors play an even greater role for ranking? Special care would have to be taken as regards to your keywords and keyword variations. Great care will also have to be taken with page Titles, Meta Tags and your URLS.

I notice I am listed in Hakia for certain keywords but those have the direct phrases in the URLS.

Keen observers will also note that Google is now listing five or six related links in the number one SERPs position for certain keyword phrases. All these links come from the same site but are they more semantically related to the search enquiry than traditional links we have seen in Google? Or are they more in line with the gallery pages we see in Hakia?

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Of course, jumping to any conclusions based on just one or two examples is foolhardy to say the least. Especially where search engines are concerned.

Brave New Internet

No doubt, Semantic Search or a Semantic Web poses some difficult obstacles and challenges as we seek a more human response from all those bits and bytes. For example, will semantic search mean we will have more closely focused sites strictly sticking to the topic of the url or domain name. Will the semantic web be more restricting than liberating?

When it is all said and done, will we really be able to devise a computer/machine/system that will be able to truly interpret the vast stored knowledge and give us the right meaningful answers to our questíons? Will it be able to be programmed so it's human enough to not only understand but also interpret the subtle differences and meanings we have for different words in the whole context of a webpage?

Perhaps the most intriguing question, can someone take the present day 'www index' and then apply microformats or even new technology to this massive data and build a supplemental exclusive extension of the present day web? Turn it into a more semantic 'natural language search' accessible index. If such a gigantic feat was even feasible, you would also have to wonder who could have the resources to make such a creature possible!

As we have seen from Google a dance is not necessarily a dance and a slap is not necessarily a slap. Could an index be more than an index? It may be too early to tell, but Google will probably be better equipped to quickly adjust than anyone to this new Semantic Web whatever shape or förm it takes.

About The Author
The author is a full-time online marketer. For the latest and most effective web marketing tools try: Internet Marketing Software Or for the most powerful marketing software try: Internet Marketing Tools Copyright © 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Viacom’s Vendetta Against Google

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |

Does Viacom have a grudge against Google? That’s the topic I explore in my latest article for Business Week. Here’s an extract…

Viacom’s Vendetta?

The media giant is forging partnerships with everyone but Google, a snub that could eventually take a toll on the search titan

What exactly did Google do to create such a fervent enemy-combatant in the media company Viacom? Ever since we learned of the collapse of discussions over carrying Viacom cable content on YouTube, Viacom has been on an apparent crusade to bring Google to its knees.

After months of negotiations to give Google’s YouTube permission to display video programming from Viacom’s Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon cable channels, the deal collapsed in February. Viacom executives claimed “it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement.” Following that statement, Viacom quickly inked a deal with Joost, effectively handing the up-and-coming rival video service hundreds of hours of licensed programming that Google (GOOG) had coveted for YouTube (see BusinessWeek.com, 2/21/07, “Viacom Juices Joost”).

Since then, Viacom (VIA) has slapped YouTube with a $1 billion lawsuit claiming the video-sharing site had “built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google.” In addition, Viacom announced a partnership to bring its video programming to mobile handsets, via Sprint Nextel (S) and on Apr. 10 announced a multiyear search-engine-advertising deal with Google’s archrival, Yahoo! (YHOO) (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/11/07, “Viacom Spurns Google for Yahoo”).

(read the remainder at Business Week)

Vonage can keep signing up new customers

Federal court grants Internet phone company a second reprieve while patent lawsuit brought by Verizon proceeds.

By Anne Broache
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: April 24, 2007, 11:43 AM PDT

Last modified: April 24, 2007, 2:07 PM PDT

Vonage can keep signing up new customers

update WASHINGTON--Vonage may continue to sign up new customers while appealing a patent infringement loss to Verizon, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

In another reprieve for the struggling Internet phone company, the decision arrived just hours after a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit here spent nearly two hours listening to arguments from both parties. The stay, which arrived without comment from the judges, was part of a brief order that also dictated the schedule for the appeals process.

Vonage chairman and interim CEO Jeffrey Citron applauded the decision and said the company would continue working to add to its some 2.2 million subscribers. "We remain focused on growing and strengthening our business and driving toward profitability," he said in a statement. Citron added: "We continue to believe we have not infringed on any of Verizon's technology and remain optimistic that we will ultimately prevail in this litigation."

While the appeal is pending, the Internet phone company also plans to continue paying a 5.5 percent royalty rate on all future sales to an escrow account, and it has posted a $66 million bond required by the lower court.

Verizon deputy general counsel John Thorne said he expected the verdict would be upheld on appeal, which he said the court has decided to hear within two months.

"The expedited schedule will accomplish the same thing that a partial stay of the injunction pending a longer appeal would have accomplished--limiting Vonage's infringement during the appeal," Thorne said in a statement.

The appeals court has instructed the parties to file briefs and has scheduled oral arguments in the case for June 25. That's an unusually quick timetable for a patent appeal, which often can stretch on for at least a year.

The saga dates back to June, when Verizon filed suit, originally accusing its Internet phone rival of infringing on seven patents. A federal jury on March 8 decided that New Jersey-based Vonage had infringed on three of the five Verizon patents that ultimately went to court and ordered it to pay $58 million, plus royalties on future sales.

A few weeks later, U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered that Vonage cease adding new customers while it continued to infringe on the patents. Vonage was able almost immediately to obtain a temporary reprieve from the Federal Circuit, which was scheduled to remain in effect until oral arguments took place.

The patents Vonage was found to have infringed deal with technologies involving connection of voice over Internet Protocol calls to the regular phone network, some features for implementing call-waiting and voice-mail services, and VoIP calls using Wi-Fi handsets. (The jury found Vonage had not infringed two other patents, which involve billing systems designed to detect fraud.)

By bundling the stay with an uncommonly speedy appeals schedule, the judges are likely attempting to balance some skepticism toward the lower court verdict with concerns about letting Vonage carry on business as usual while the decision is reviewed, some analysts and lawyers said.

"No doubt the Federal Circuit similarly concluded that Vonage's appeal raised a sufficient question concerning the correctness of the underlying verdict," said Thomas Duston, an intellectual property partner with the law firm Marshall, Gerstein & Borun in Chicago. "The fact that they appear to have expedited that appeal suggests the possibility that the Federal Circuit was not so convinced by Vonage that it was prepared to permit the injunction to remain suspended for the entire period usually required for a full appeal."

Some legal experts have said Vonage has a good chance of winning on appeal because it is believed the lower court interpreted the patents in an overly broad way that could be refined by an appeals court. Vonage has also said that even if the verdict is upheld, its subscribers will not encounter disruptions because it is developing a technological work-around.

But the viability of such a work-around remains a major question. Vonage has argued in documents filed with the federal appeals court earlier this month that it may not be able to develop a technical work-around to avoid using technology that infringes Verizon's patents.

The accelerated schedule for the appeal could hurt Vonage in that regard, said Clayton Moran, an analyst with the Stanford Group. "The longer the appeals process takes, the better for Vonage, because it gives them more time to develop a work-around if they were to lose," he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Vonage attorney Roger Warin told the appeals court that without a permanent stay to the injunction, "the continuing viability of the company is threatened." He argued that it was unfair to require the halt to accepting new customers on top of the 5.5 percent royalty rate that Vonage has already agreed to pay on future sales as part of the lower court ruling. He said Verizon itself has acknowledged it gets 74 percent of its new customers from companies other than Vonage.

Meanwhile, Verizon attorney Richard Taranto argued that his opponent failed to made a case that the lower court had wrongly interpreted two patents related to routing VoIP calls to the traditional telephone network. He also said Vonage would not face "irreparable harm" if barred from using a third patent related to Wi-Fi Internet phones because "there's no evidence of any significant number of customers that would be covered" by that patent.

Vonage feels the stress
The string of court decisions has already taken a toll on Vonage's operations. Earlier this month, the company announced that then-CEO Mike Snyder would be stepping down and revealed plans to cut spending by $140 million over the next several months.

Shares of Vonage surged nearly 50 percent after the company announced the stay had been granted. The stock closed at $3.72, up 83 cents, or nearly 29 percent.

The ruling may be good news for Vonage and its investors for now, but analysts warned that an uphill battle still lies ahead. The company has already admitted in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing that its legal woes could lead to bankruptcy, and it was losing customers even before the jury revealed its decision in the Verizon case.

Technorati tags: Fast way to get burned, Stupid marketing, dumb decisions, buying guide

"It's a good day for Vonage, but this legal battle with Verizon is not over," said Albert Lin, an analyst with American Technology Research. "Furthermore, natural business competition is intensifying as cable companies are coming on quickly."

Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus who attended Tuesday morning's arguments, said she was left with the impression that the appeals court judges were leaning toward Vonage's side in some aspects of the dispute. But until a final decision emerges, Vonage may find it more difficult to attract new customers who may fret about the service's future.

"Even though legally they can sign up new customers," Arbogast said in a telephone interview, "I think they're still going to be kind of swimming upstream over the next couple of months in terms of marketing and commercial appeal."

Fridays News

Startup Challenges DSL and Cable
Horizon Wi-com will become the first venture-backed WiMAX carrier to test Verizon in the Northeast.
By Cassimir Medford
Though it's a tough goal, Horizon Wi-com wants to break the stranglehold telephone and cable operators have held over broadband consumers in the northeastern United States. So the Alexandria, Virginia-based company is gearing up. It will begin testing a wireless broadband service in a matter of weeks, and the short list of customers includes two northeastern cities. Horizon also plans to roll out its commercial wireless broadband service as early as October. "We are on schedule to be the first to offer WiMAX services in the Northeast," said Ron Olexa, CEO of Horizon Wi-com. "We want to get there first and begin building a customer base before the two big guns show up in town." Horizon is pinning its hopes on beating much larger rivals Sprint Nextel and Clearwire into densely populated and lucrative cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

YouTube Lining Up Summer Ads
Video-sharing site experiments with pre-roll and post-roll spots.
By Tomio Geron
Beware YouTube watchers, ads are coming—as soon as this summer. The video-sharing site that was acquired by Google in November is experimenting with the precise length, form, and placement of those ads, and will begin rolling them out this summer, Suzie Reider, head of advertising for YouTube, told an audience at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco Wednesday. "We're looking at executions like a very quick little intro preceding a video, then the video, then a commercial execution on the backside of the content," Ms. Reider said. The idea is to generate long-promised revenues that Google can share with the more than 1,000 "premium" content creators whose video material is available on YouTube, Ms. Reider said. The ads will also provide marketers and advertisers new opportunities to reach consumers, she said. And they would also help justify YouTube's $1.6-billion price tag.

Microsoft, the Incubator
Licensing chief says culture at software giant has shifted.
By Ken Schachter
Microsoft has abandoned the fortress mentality around its intellectual property and is opening up channels of collaboration, including licensing to startups, the software giant's licensing chief said Wednesday. Speaking at the annual venture conference of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development at North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, Marshall Phelps said that even a $7.5-billion annual research budget fails to deliver all the pieces to Microsoft. "Few, if any, companies can hold all the pieces of R&D in their own hands," he said. "The days of go-it-alone R&D labs are over." This year, Microsoft expects to match the 20 companies it spun off in 2006 through its IP ventures unit. Microsoft generally licenses intellectual property to the new companies, retains an equity stake and pushes them out the door with the help of venture capital.

Wiki Redux
Following a failed experiment, newspapers are stepping back into wikis.
By Alexandra Berzon
Mention wikis around a newspaper person, and you might hear a mouthful about an incident that happened in 2005. The Los Angeles Times had decided to do what newspapers have been criticized for not doing enough: experimenting with technology. Using open-source wiki software, then-editorial page editor Michael Kinsley opened up an Iraq war editorial to anyone who wanted to edit it. The story quickly degenerated into an obscenity-laced fest. The already-cautious industry took note, and wiki experiments were shelved in favor of somewhat less controversial community-building features, such as social networking, blogging, and, most recently, user-generated video. But now, newspaper wikis could be on the rebound, starting with a foray by the San Diego Union-Tribune. That development is being pushed by wiki platform startups offering tools that require community editors to register and allow for management oversight.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Microsoft admits Vista failure

Actions speak louder than PR

By Charlie Demerjian in Beijing : Saturday 21 April 2007, 12:20

WITH TWO OVERLAPPING events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows Me Two (Me II), is a joke that no one wants.

It did two unprecedented things this week that frankly stunned us.

Dell announced that it would be offering XP again on home PCs. The second that Vista came out, Microsoft makes it very hard for you to sell anything other than Me II. It can't do this on the business side because it would be laughed out the door, but for the walking sheep class, well, you take what you are shovelled.

This is classic abusive monopoly behaviour, Microsoft wrote the modern book on it. It pulled all the major OEMs in by twisting their arms with the usual methods, and they again all fell into line. Never before has anyone backpedalled on this, to do so would earn you the wrath of Microsoft.

But Dell just did. This means that Me II sales are at least as bad as we think, the software and driver situation is just as miserable, and Dell had no choice but to buck the trend. If anyone thinks this is an act of atonement for foisting such a steaming pile on us, think again, it doesn't care about the consumer.

What happened is, the OEMs revolted in the background and forced Microsoft's hand. This is a big neon sign above Me II saying 'FAILURE'. Blink blink blink. OK, Me II won't fail, Microsoft has OEMs whipped and threatened into a corner, it will sell, but you can almost hear the defectors marching toward Linux. This is a watershed.

The other equally monumental Me II failure? Gates in China launching a $3 version of bundled XP. Why is this not altruism? Well, it goes back to piracy and how it helped enforce the MS monopoly. If you can easily pirate Windows, Linux has no price advantage, they both cost zero.

With Me II, Microsoft made it very hard to pirate. It is do-able, you can use the BIOS hack and probably a host of others, but the point is, it raised the bar enough so lots of people have to buy it. Want to bet that in a country with $100 average monthly salary, people aren't going to shell out $299 for Me II Broken Edition?

What did MS do? It dropped the price about 100x or so. I can't say this is unprecedented, when it made Office 2003 hard to pirate it had to backpedal with the student edition for about $150. This time though, things are much more desperate.

If you fit Microsoft's somewhat convoluted definition of poor, it still wants to lock you in, you might get rich enough to afford the full-priced stuff someday. It is at a dangerous crossroads, if its software bumps up the price of a computer by 100 per cent, people might look to alternatives.

That means no Me II DRM infection lock in, no mass migration to the newer Office obfuscated and patented file formats, and worse yet, people might utter the W word. Yes, you guessed it, 'why'. People might ask why it is sticking with the MS lock in, and at that point, it is in deep trouble.

So, it did the unthinkable, and dropped the price. I won't bother to hunt down all the exec quotes saying how people can't afford clean water would be overjoyed to sell kidneys to upgrade to the new version of Office, but they are out there. This was a sacred cow, and it is now hamburger backed up against the wall.

These two actions by Microsoft are proof of what I suggested three years ago. Microsoft has lost its ability to twist arms, and now it is going to die. It can't compete on level ground, so is left with backpedalling and discounts of almost 100 times.

What we are seeing is an unprecedented shift of power. It is also an unprecedented admission of failure. And the funniest part about the moves made? They are the wrong things to do. Microsoft is in deep trouble. µ

Kill Spam DAILY

Link to Kill Spam DAILY

Click here to access our broken Web site, press one to be ignored

Is customer service getting worse? It sure seems that way. Global 2000 companies have spent billions on customer relationship management software, customer support websites, and call centers over the last ten years. Yet it often it feels as though major companies are using technology to purposely piss-off customers.

How far away are we from dialing 911 and hearing, “For faster service when reporting an emergency please visit our Web site. If you must talk to an agent, press one if someone is trying to kill you, press two if your house is on fire…etc.”

Cell Phone Company Can’t Setup New Account

When I left my last employer I had a simple request of Cingular Wireless (now AT&T)–transfer my work cell number to my personal account and sell me a new Blackberry (on top of the personal cell phone I already had from them). It took two and a half hours in the store. Subsequently, when my first bill came, it was very wrong. It took two hours on their Web site and over the phone to resolve the billing problem. Then, the evil spirits on their servers would randomly disconnect my wireless email service.

Fixing this problem was not possible on their support Web site. It took another four phone calls and about another two hours to resolve. All told it took a six-hour effort to give more money to Cingular. Makes you wonder how hard it is to get Verizon on the phone?

Rotten Apple

When I bought my new MacBook (which I love) at the Apple store I paid extra for the “ProCare” service (which Apple promotes as “ticket to priority repairs and available same-day service”) so that when I had problems I’d get help. Nope. After a problem with iTunes and my iPod (which I also love), I went into an Apple store in Silicon Valley and was told it would be a seven-hour wait. When I told the clerk the wait was unacceptable, he explained that when you are sick and need to see your doctor, you have to wait and that Apple’s “genius bar” was the same idea. So I split and called Apple support. They were great and fixed the iTunes problem quickly.

After that, I went online to book an appointment with a “genius” at the Apple store for the next day. I got there at the scheduled time. I still had to wait twenty minutes. The genius spent about ten minutes playing with my iPod only to tell me it was dead. The two-year-old’s hard drive was toast. So I asked what they could do. He said the best they could offer was 10 percent discount on a new one. The Apple genius failed the IQ test.

Car Company Makes It Hard to Service Cars

Want to by a new Toyota Highlander Hybrid or Prius to save money on gas and lessen the damage cars do to the environment? I have purchased both products. They are great and marvels of modern technology. Good luck getting them serviced at Steven’s Creek Toyota in Silicon Valley. It takes three hours to do an oil change, if they can fit you in, and oh and by the way, for the basic service “We don’t provide loaners.” You will enjoy reading their complementary March 1998 edition of People Magazine to pass the time.

Stock Broker Can’t Execute Trades

Done any trading on eTrade lately? After I was unable to execute a series of trades on their Web site I called them. Wait time at their call center was half an hour. Then I got transferred to a “specialist” (more wait time). They then told me they were having a problem with their trading systems and would need to call me back. They didn’t. I had to call them back (more wait time, more getting transferred) to finally get the trades done. Oh well, who really cares about their money and investments.

Two Brands That Lie

Last summer I needed some new blinds. Found a place called “3 Day Blinds”. I went in and ordered a bunch of blinds. Guess how long they told me it would be before I got them installed? Seven to ten working days! I asked why the company was called 3 Day Blinds, if it takes them seven working days. The clerk looked at me like I was insane. She told me that if I had ordered more standard stuff, and if they had it in stock, and if they could get a guy to come out to my place, I might be able to get blinds in three days. I asked her how often they were able to deliver binds in three days. She said not often. There is a health club chain called “24 Hour Fitness.” Many of their locations are not open twenty-four hours.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

PS2 Outsells PS3, for Now

Older Sony console continues to best newer offering.
By Ryan Olson

Another month has gone by. And sales of Sony's seven-year-old Playstation have again trounced those of its newest model that's less than seven months old. So, it's not clear when video game giant Sony will see its expensive new PlayStation 3 take the crown from the aging, inexpensive PlayStation 2. Granted, the PS2 is a tough act to follow. The system has sold well over 100 million units worldwide since its 2000 debut, more than twice the combined numbers put up by its competitors. But the PS3 is the future of Sony's game division. And recent months seem to indicate the company is competing with Microsoft, Nintendo, and ironically itself for ownership of the video game industry. Last week NPD Group released sales numbers for the month of March that told the story. Nintendo's DS portable system again led the way. The PS2 came in second, followed by the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation Portable, and finally the PS3 (see U.S. Game Sales, March 2007).

Monday, April 23, 2007

Free Keyword Tools

1. Good Keywords v2.01 (595 KB) finds the best keywords for your web pages. Features include Keyword Suggestions, Phrase Builder, Keyword Organizer, Misspelled Words, and Site and Link Popularity Finder. For Windows 95/ 98/ 2000/ NT/ XP.

2. Golden Phrases 1.0.3 (391 KB) is a analyzing utility that scans specified log files to retrieve all search phrases used by your visitors to find your website through search engines. It gathers search phrase statistics and determines the position of your site on search engines for every phrase. Its unique "Perspectivity rating" technology also allows you to find which keyphrases were not used. For Windows Windows 95/ 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003.

3. PPC Keyword Generator (1.1 MB) is a powerful keyphrase permutator/generator. Generate 100s of keyphrases in seconds, remove duplicate keyphrases automatically, define per-keyphrase custom CPC/URLs and import/export. For Windows 98 and above.

4. Hixus Keyword Inventor 1.0 (679 KB) is a SEO and keyword popularity analysis front-end for the the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool. Speeds up the process of finding popular keywords. For Windows 98/ ME/ NT4.x/ XP/ 2000.

5. e3KWDCheck 2.5b (920 KB) is a lightweight and fast SEO tool for analyzing keyword density within text documents. It can also retrieve and analyze online web documents using the built-in address bar. For Windows 95/ 98/ 2000/ NT/ ME/ XP.

6. Get Keywords 1.0 (289 KB) is a small program that finds keywords in files and then creates an optimized web page using selected keywords. Features include automatic words search, add/remove keywords options, web page creation and preview, etc. For Windows 98 and above.

7. Keyword Digger 1.0 (50 KB) is a simple tool designed to search Overture for all keywords people entered during the previous month. Provides the number of times a keyword was searched and up to 100 different variations for that term. For Windows 9x/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP.

8. AnalogX Keyword Extractor v1.03 (214 KB) extracts keywords from a webpage, and then sorts and indexes them based on their usage and position. Once indexed, you can adjust search-engine specific weighting factors and keyword criteria to get the best possible view of how a search engine sees your site. An older program but still useful. For Windows 95/ 98/ 2000/ NT/ XP.

SiteMap Generators

1. eXactMapper Lite 1.2 (1.1 MB) automates the process of creating professional site maps. It offers three different customizable html/dhtml site map styles, including a UL líst, static tree and an index page. For Windows 95/ 98/ ME/ NT/ 2000.

2. SiteMapBuilder.NET 1.5 (1.4 MB) allows you to create a Google XML SiteMap or text based sitemap. It also checks for URL errors. For Windows XP/ 2000/ 2003. Also requires .NET Framework.

3. Sitemap Creator (783 KB) is a sitemap creator that exports a directory structure to an html file. Does not read websites online. For all Windows versions.

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4. Sitemap 4 traffíc (360 KB) can build a Google or html sitemap. It also checks for broken links and backs up website files. For Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista. Requires .Net Framework 1.1 or higher and Internet Explorer 6+. Nice program but might have some bugs.

Ranking Tools

1. Rank Tracker 1.4.2 (5.0 MB) is a useful tool for checking the keyword rank of websites, using search engine results from Google, Yahoo and MSN. You can create multiple projects with unlimited keywords and track changes and progress over time. Supports Google and Yahoo API login, if needed. For Windows 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ Mac/ Linux. Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 1.4.

2. WebCEO 6.5 (22 MB) is a comprehensive SEO program that provides much more than search engine rankings. This is the freeware edition. Requires a learning curve but is worth the effort. For Windows NT4/ 2000/ XP.

3. PaRaMeter 1.2 (1.0 MB) is a bulk Google PageRank™ checking and monitoring tool. Easily find the page rank of many pages with one clíck. For Windows 9X/ 2000/ XP.

4. M6.net PageRank Checker (515 KB) is another simple, bulk Google PageRank™ checker. For Windows 98/ ME/ NT/ XP/ 2000.

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We discuss all the latest rumors relating to price, ship date, and more.
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* Slideshow: Most Annoying Tech Products
You have spoken and these were the products that bugged you the most.
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* Fast: First Benchmarks of Intel's Penryn Processor
Supervised preview of early Penryn systems shows huge gains in video processing and encoding speed, decent boost to multithreaded gaming.
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* Net Radio: 'New Song Royalties Will Kill Us'
A new coalition of Internet radio stations will take its case to Congress and the courts to stop a new royalty fee hike. Mark Sullivan, PC World
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Very Interesting Fine Art

4/21/2007

Tootsie Pop No.4

click here to bid

Posted by Duane at 3:37 PM

4/15/2007

Baseball No.2

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Posted by Duane at 6:49 PM

4/09/2007

First Bouquet of Spring

click here to bid

Posted by Duane at 4:55 PM

Technorati tags: fine art, art, painting a day, oil color, postcard art, postcard paintings, Duane Keiser, art in virginia, realist-art, art-realist, youtube, art demonstrations

Sunday, April 22, 2007

News

Airvana Files for IPO
Mobile broadband startup hopes to raise $75 million.
By Scott Martin
Mobile broadband technology startup Airvana on Thursday filed to raise as much as $75 million in a proposed initial public offering. The maker of hardware and software for high-speed networks is backed by Qualcomm, Matrix Partners, Commvest, and Sycamore Networks Chairman Gururaj Deshpande. Airvana could give investors something to crow about: profitability. The company reported net income of $74 million on revenue of $170 million last year, according to documents filed with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. Spectral Advantage analyst Joe Nordgaard said the company's technology has a leg up on competitors at helping customers—they have already signed up Nextel-Sprint and Verizon—deliver Internet telephony, push-to-talk, and high-speed data services. "I believe there are a number of companies that need their products—there's an opportunity to do plug-and-play products," he said.

MySpace Adds News Service
Online news arrives, social networking style.
By Leah Messinger
MySpace announced today the launch of MySpace News, a service that aggregates content from newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other web sites. "We looked at the explosion of micro-content on the web, and we wanted to derive meaning from all of that," said Brian Norgard, cofounder of Newroo. MySpace's parent company Fox Interactive Media acquired Newroo last year. Many industry experts said at the time that they believed the acquisition would lead to a feature such as MySpace News. On the site, news pages are divided into 25 main themes, such as sports and entertainment. Then they're further organized into 300 subcategories both big and small, such as USC football. The aggregation process is based on a search algorithm, but users rate individual stories to determine their rank on a page. "We're putting it to the community to be the editorial engine driving our news service," said MySpace cofounder and president Tom Anderson in a press release.

Is Vonage VC's VoIP Hangup?
In the wake of Vonage's bankruptcy admission, investors say VoIP still in play.
By Cassimir Medford
VoIP is still a valid investment opportunity, VCs say, though there's a twist. The shift in strategy came after an admission by VoIP leader Vonage Holdings on Tuesday that it's teetering on the edge of bankruptcy as a result of a devastating patent litigation loss against Verizon. Vonage's meltdown marks the end of the landline VoIP services as an investment opportunity. But investors who plowed over $2 billion into landline VoIP service are now targeting VoIP equipment suppliers and mobile VoIP service providers. Two VCs with Boston-area firms, Justin Perreault, a partner with Commonwealth Capital Ventures, and Ahmet Ozalp, a partner with Atlas Venture, say there is still a lot of investment life left in the VoIP market. "There are still opportunities for VCs in VoIP, but perhaps not in consumer services like Vonage," said Mr. Perreault.

Oracle Picks Up AppForge
Database giant grabs mobile software developer.
By Scott Martin
Database software behemoth Oracle has swallowed up mobile application developer AppForge. Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle confirmed the acquisition on Wednesday. The agreement has not been formally announced, but the web site of AppForge redirects to Oracle.com. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. "Oracle has acquired the intellectual property assets of AppForge, a company formerly based in Atlanta with a mobile application development and mobile applications platform," an Oracle representative said in a statement sent by email. Oracle declined to comment further. Atlanta-based AppForge closed its doors March 13 and was being picked over by creditors, according to a Wikipedia entry. A later entry said the company was in the process of being sold.