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| Top Web News |
Google
Pumps Up Your Conversions
The Google Analytics website highlights a few ways to ensure you have optimized,
assessed, and targeted what you can for your sites.
Congdon
Umbooms Herself, Maybe
RocketBoom star video blogger Amanda Congdon shocked not only her fans, but apparently
her partner as well, when she announced this morning that she had been "unboomed."
Though the details are unclear, Congdon has left the building - Star Jones style.
Wall
Develops Firefox SEO Extension
Search engine optimization hall-of-famer Aaron Wall has developed an intensive
SEO extension for Mozilla's Firefox browser. The tool pulls data from a number
of sources to offer search engine marketers "a more holistic view of the
competitive landscape."
India
Sees Big Growth From Small Net Players
Indian small and medium businesses (SMBs) are set to dump a ton of cash into upgrading
their Internet infrastructure this year, according to a study by New York-based
AMI-Partners.
Google’s
Homegrown Goods
Home-made products tend to vary in quality. Baked goods, for example, are usually
far better coming out of an oven than a cardboard box. More complicated projects
- such as kit cars, which are notoriously temperamental and unreliable - tend
to underachieve in comparison to off-the-shelf versions.
Google
Threatens Telcos With Antitrust Action
If the prospect of a two-tiered Internet system proves to enhance the quality
of service of certain traffic for a fee, Google plans to hammer those abusers
with antitrust actions.
Telcos
Slash Prices In Response to VoIP
The popularity of voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) telephony services is pushing
the telecommunications industry to cut prices as customers jump ship for cheaper
voice services.
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07.06.06
Microsoft, Massachusetts Fight May End
 By
David A. Utter
Although Microsoft has long espoused its Office Open XML format as a suitable
alternative to the OpenDocument Format supported by many other tech firms, the
company has committed to bridging the two technologies.
This could be the final bell in the bout between Microsoft and the state of Massachusetts
over file formats.
Microsoft announced the initiation of the Open XML Translator project, where they
and partners will create tools to enable users of the Office productivity suite
to do something Microsoft had resisted for some time: save files in OpenDocument
Format (ODF) filetypes.
The announcement has to be cast within the context of Microsoft's ongoing battles with the state of Massachusetts over document formats. The State had called for replacing proprietary file formats with open ones to ensure electronic document preservation.
Microsoft stated it would not enable ODF compatibility for Office. The prospect of Massachusetts tossing out thousands of copies of Office in favor of an ODF-compatible product posed a considerable financial issue for Microsoft.
In May 2006, Massachusetts issued a request for information for an OpenDocument Format Plug-in for Microsoft Office Suite. That may have led to Microsoft's formal support of developing one.
Microsoft did take a jab at ODF in its statement announcing the Translator project. They present Open XML as a more comprehensive solution to file formatting issues, while claiming "ODF focuses on more limited requirements."
When developed, the Translator tools will be freely available under open source
licenses. A prototype
of the Translator plug-in for Word 2007 has been made available under a BSD
license.
Yahoo Suggests Your Site Success
By David A. Utter
Yahoo has become more active in offering useful information to sites inside and
outside of its Publisher Network by posting suggestions on ways to get noticed.
The two-part posts that Yahoo posted recently on its Publisher Network blog provide hints on finding more traffic for a website. In part one of "Getting on Top of Things," the YPN Blog suggested the first step sites need to take should be to submit it to Yahoo.
"You can also submit mobile sites, RSS feeds and multimedia RSS feeds," wrote blog editor Michael Mattis.
He also recounted the announcement for the Yahoo Publisher Services hub. Yahoo collected its multitude of free and paid options for traffic building services. While they can benefit Publisher Network members, the services are not limited to them.
We've mentioned Yahoo's useful Site Explorer in previous articles. "You can view the most popular pages from any site, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to that site or any page you choose," Mattis wrote of the service.
The second part of Yahoo's "Getting on top of Things" provides some insight into the advanced options site publishers can utilize from Yahoo. Their Search Submit Express provides crawling every 48 hours in exchange for an annual fee and a tiered cost-per-click price.
That provides not only Yahoo's search index with the most up-to-date information about a site, but AllTheWeb and AltaVista as well.
Mattis also lists the option Yahoo probably wants site publishers to respond to the most: Sponsored Search. A listing here can place a site in a more visible position based on the keywords or phrases sought by users of the Yahoo search engine.
Search marketing offers a number of challenges for businesses new to the field. Yahoo has information available to help them choose the best match among Yahoo's paid search services, like local advertising, for their firms.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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