If that’s true for you, new respected client, then you’ll want to make sure to appear in the default Google search for Canadian users: Google Canada.

You know of the benefits of being recognized as a Canadian site by Google. And you know that you can achieve that by getting a .CA domain name and/or hosting your site on a Canadian IP.

Well, that was easy, wasn’t it? You’re now targeting the #12 Internet use country.

But it gets better. With the right steps you can gain access to a market seldom targeted by e-commerce and SEO: French speaking Canadians. People who, like you and I, feel most comfortable spending their money on sites they can understand with ease.

All hail Allan Dick.

And that, by the way, is said with a whole lot of respect.

Allan is the GM for Vintage Tub & Bath and believe me, the man knows tubs and baths, but more importantly, he knows a plug when he sees one.

He is both a speaker and a moderator for the various and sundry SES conferences and can frequently be seen and heard at other industry functions, panels, seminars, tradeshows, etc.

The hallmark of Web 2.0 is supposed to be user generated content, wherein users contribute their own text, pictures and video content.

But according to Bill Tancer of Hitwise and the Red Herring article, Web 2.0: More Voyeurs than Creators.

According to Tancer, only .16% of visits to Google’s YouTube are by users with the goal of uploading material. .16%. One has to wonder, as well, how much of that is truly original material.

Tancer further details that the numbers for Flickr are similar, with .2% of visitors destined to the site are there with the intention of uploading photos.

Last year, Matt Cutts reported Google supports the NOODP tag.

It’s a simple but convenient little tag the prevents Google from importing your directory listing as the decription used in organic results.

Now comes word that Yahoo! has introduced the NOYDIR tag. Functioning much like the NOODP tag, it excludes titles and abstracts from the Yahoo! Directory.

The goal is to allow webmasters the flexibility to have the content titled and described as they want it, not as an editor prescribes it.

Google Adwords is in the process of introducing a new bidding option. The bidding option will be called “Preferred Cost Bidding” and will act in pretty much the same way that “Position Preference” does except with bids.

Basically, instead of setting only a final “Maximum” bid you can set a “Preferred” bid and let Google auto-optimize for you. The system will try various positions and try to deliver an average CPC (or CPM) as your preferred bid. Both of these bid options (Max & Preferred Bids) should help SEM managers to fine-tune their accounts even more.

Facebook was originally envisioned as a social network for students and yesterday saw them return to their roots in a way no one could have imagined possible.

According to the Reuters AlertNet article Facebook becomes bulletin board for Virginia Tech:

Some 236 groups related to Virginia Tech have been set up on Facebook, a sign that Internet social networks are beginning to replace e-mail and cell phones as the preferred method for spreading information quickly among younger generations.

and some of the students have posted a black ribbon with the school logo over it on their own profile pictures.

Ms. Dewey is a frontend to Microsoft Live Search (and is produced by Microsoft).

It contains over 600 actions which were filmed over a 3 day period.

Some actions are chosen at random, some are based on specific words; a little bit of an Easter Egg principle.

We, the female staff, caught the SEP guys doing extensive research (…) on how to get Ms. Dewey to say what. While they’re now back to *serious* work, here’s there list.

1. Make Ms. Dewey think you’re a sensitive guy
   Easter egg: dance
2. Make Ms. Dewey dance like a robot
   Easter egg: robot dance

How about…

• adding a third of the young, upward and mobile Internet users — those aged 24-34 and with a spending power of several billions of dollars?
• adding up to an estimated 32 million Internet users for whom the Internet is a much needed life line?

You can do that…

• and make SEO virtually built into you site
• and dramatically lower your cost for all future web improvements.

No sales copy - here’s the answer

Now I’m not selling anything here so there’s no need for long, drawn-out sales copy and a “30 days money back” graphic. I’m not going to keep you on hold for the next 200 words or so but will give you the technique and the answer right away:

Ka-Ching!

Of course Doubleclick has to be happy with the recent news that it’s sale brought in 50% more than anticipated by The Street.

Microsoft, not so much. Having been shut out of the the game, it’s now urging regulators to look at the impending Google/Doubleclick deal, according to The New York Times. And AT&T has joined them in the cry.

But it’s not just Doubleclick and Google that are benefiting.

Aquantiive, 24/7 Real Media and Valueclick have also witnessed upticks today, and not insignificant ones.

Well, day four of the New York Search Engine Strategies conference has passed, and it was another full schedule. Three panels yesterday (Linking Strategies, Link Baiting and Viral Search Success, and CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 & Search Engines) then the 8 hour drive back to Toronto (someone forgot to renew his passport).

One of the interesting tidbits I was reminded of today (in the Bookmarking session) and had meant to blog about earlier was the fact that Google had “quiet launched” Google Bookmarks late last year. Such a launch would not normally be cause for excitement, but I think the implications merit some discussion, as they are certainly likely to impact Google’s search results. Accordingly, this blog posting is not to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Google BookMarks versus Del.icio.us, but rather how Google is likely to use this bookmark information.