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del.icio.us: Popular Internet Search Tool

by Nicole.

Despite the fact del.icio.us has been around for quite a while I really didn’t fully understand its popularity. I saw del.icio.us as a facebook/myspace for bookmarks. This all changed when I started blogging.

I’ve always been a news hound and pour through tons of articles from a variety of sources covering dozens of subjects. After taking a closer look, I quickly found out that del.icio.us makes it easy to store them all in one place and, if tagged properly, access them from any computer in an organized and timely fashion as I needed them.

From print to online…Content will always be King!

by Nicole.

“Content is King” and “It’s not about clicks, it’s about conversions!” Sound familiar? It’s part of the daily SEO professionals vocabulary. Would it surprise you if I said that the Yellow Pages industry has been using these terms for years?

It shouldn’t. In its quest for better measures of accountability, the original search engine has been turning to new metrics such as Engagement and ROI to prove its value, for some time. The three most significant indicators of Yellow Pages value – references, calls to advertisers and influence - % of buyers influenced by Yellow Pages ads - have produced outstanding data for YP Sales Professionals to discuss with their clients.

Is less more?

by The Guy.

In what may well be a sign of things to come, it appears Google has removed 30% of organic listings on local market searches in some markets.

Note that in the above images, local maps appear, however, where there was once 10 organic listings there are now 7.

Do maps qualify as organic results?

Could Google increase the page to put the 10 listings back? That would mean they have to reassess the paid landscape on the side and that’s unlikely.

These results are not typical of Google.com, but are pervasive in alternate Googles.

Search In Canada

by The Guy.

There is an absolutely fascinating article on TheStreet.com (also interesting because the URL string tracks the source): eBay Snub Suggests Google’s Big Troubles.

It’s not so much interesting because it espouses everything I’ve said for the past couple months, not the least of which include the whole ebay thing and the fact that the loss or removel of paid advertising does not necessarily impact traffic IF (BIG IF) you have the organic results in place. (BTW ebay does, both in organic listings and in product listings.)

Do users really care?

by The Guy.

Do users really care that Terry Semel has left the building? Do they care that Jerry Yang and Susan Decker are the next net generation?

Do users really care that ebay has publicly stated that they won’t rely on Google Adwords with quite as much dependence having finished their ten day “test” and realized it’s a risk they can afford to take?

I doubt it.

There’s an interesting article today in Business Week regarding vertical or niche search.

And in watching everything that’s gone on recently regarding Yahoo, MSN, ebay and Google, my first thought was that Google was bullet-proof and had pretty much sewn the game up.

Google - Great Company

by The Guy.

This was previously posted but we had a blog burp so we’re reposting it now. Cheers.

Earlier this week we had the pleasure of being the pleasure of being taken out to dinner by some Google folks up from Mountain View.

There were few surprises, but we all wound up with one unanimous and pleasantly surprisingly opinion: these were very pleasant, amicable folk.

Perhaps it’s our genteel, Canadian way, but we were, frankly, expecting alpha geeks with IQs off the charts and frankly little in common and less to talk about. Not so.

Link Building: The Content Itself

by Sasha.

Since we know why people link we can now move on to finding something that is worthy of being linked to: the actual content.

No matter what your speciality at this point you will think one of two things:

1. “Everything has been done already”
2. “That’s just plain common sense: everybody knows that”

Everything Has Been Done

True. Ever since Edgar Allan Poe wrote Phantom of the Rue Morgue the detective story has been done, written, covered. Over with.

Or is it? Don’t the detective stories by Agatha Christie stand by themselves? Was there really no more place for Georges Simenon’s Maigret?

Link Building: Why People Link

by Sasha.

If there’s one thing we cannot get enough of in SEO it is links. We need to have them, need to get them, need to keep them. It was link exchange first, directory building later on and right now the drum beats “social media”. Social media is it.

And that’s true, more or less. Social media is the equivalent of real-world store’s word of mouth. Thing is, you can’t have word of mouth without something to talk about. Word of mouth, social media, is the vehicle, the means; it’s not the ultimate end goal.

Eyeka: plateforme multimedia (mobile)

by TheWis.

(english version) Eyeka est une entreprise toute jeune ( d衵t avril 2007) lance par l’entrepreneur Gille Babinet. Ce dernier a crꧠMusiWave, une plateforme mobile de livraison de musique vendue par OpenWave.

La mobilit矤emeure l’outil du futur pour Gille et c’est dans cette optique qu’il a crꧠEyeka. Le but de Eyeka est de prendre des photos et vid讳 et donner �on cr蠴eur une plateforme et une chance de vendre et distribuer ce contenu (覡lement) aux t譩phones cellulaires (ou mobiles, si vous pr觩rez).

Le site que vous voyez lorsque vous visitez Eyeka n’est en fait qu’une partie de son infrastructure. C’est la partie o�s cr褲 votre profil d’utilisateur, t譩verser votre contenu, et le changer cela est n袥ssaire. Les autres composantes vous permettent consiste en mobilit矡ccessible via WAP et le client JAVA.

Le site est assez joli et est accessible en fran栩s et en anglais. Les liens de la langue d’utilisation sont uniques mais ne servent qu’�hanger d’une langue �’autre sur le site. De cette mani籥, les liens de n’importe quelle partie du site nous am筥nt toujours au m鬥 endroit, i.e., �a partie correspondante dans l’autre langue. Parfait pour l’utilisateur, qui sera plus facilement servi dans sa propre langue (ou la langue de son choix) et une d袩sion SEO solide avec tous les liens pointant dans la m鬥 direction (URL).

La pr貥ntation Flash du site Eyeka est aussi tr籠bien faite.

La qualit知st un facteur important chez Eyeka et demeure 諥v裮 Il y a deux 谵ipes attach褳 au contr󫣠de la qualit笠Une 谵ipe s’occupe principalement des pourriels. Les contenus ill覡ux ou violant les termes d’utilisation de service sont 諩min豮 Les contrevenants r訴象nt cette erreur sont bannis.

Une autre 谵ipe s’occupe plus sp袩fiquement du contr󫣠de la qualit矤u contenu. Ils combinent ce contenu en canaux. Ces canaux ou contenu individuels, sont syndiqu豠�es partenaires en m裩as traditionnels et nouveaux. Eyeka, comme ils le disent eux-m鬥s, se targuent d’obtenir un revenu au prix du march矰our le contenu distribu笠

Finalement, la page de l’utilisateur peut aussi 鳲e utilis裠par l’utilisateur lui-m鬥 pour participer aux requ鳥s de syndication.

Tout �ait conforme la vague Web 2.0, tout contenu peut 鳲e r赩s窠not知t comment笠

Le point faible de Eyeka est que �oins de se creuser la t鳥 et d’essayer de comprendre, il n’est pas clair au d诡rt ce qu’est la mission de ce site. En cons谵ence, il n’est pas toujours 赩dent pour tous ce qu’est la diff豥nce entre ce site et YouTube ou bien Flickr.

Quand on pense SEM, Eyeka peut 鳲e le bon choix pour les sites classieux, traditionnels, 袬ectiques.

Wasn’t That A (Non)Party?

by The Guy.

I’ve been watching with great curiousity the, ummm, tension between Google and ebay with great interest.

Who hasn’t?

To wit: Ebay holds annual ebay live convention, Google announces competing party with the unstated goal of having ebay/Paypal users force inclusion of Google Checkout.

Ebay gets, oh, what’s the word? PISSED Mildly annoyed. Ebay cancels all paid advertising on Google. How much? In excess of $100 Million annually or about 1% of Google income. Um, ouch.

But here’s where it gets interesting.