SEO Articles

Visit Rank for $ales

Read my bio

email me

Home

My 2 featured articles for the week ending June 9, 2006:

Archived blogs for the week of Jun. 5, 2006

1177 - June 8, 2006 - 7.34 AM EST

Search engine marketers bullish on their industry

Overall, the percentage of search engine marketers with annual revenues of $15 million or more has increased from 25 percent last year to 37 percent this year, according to Jupiter Research.

The new Jupiter report called "US SEM Executive Survey for 2006" reveals that the number of search engine marketers using bid management tools and Web analytics applications has risen from 19 percent in 2005 to 26 percent in 2006.

"The growth in size and diversity of search campaigns will accelerate search engine marketing (SEM) outsourcing," said Sapna Satagopan, Research Associate at JupiterResearch and lead author of the report. "More than fifty percent of large marketers outsource at least one of their search marketing services."

The report also finds that investments and overall spending on search engine marketing grew last year. Almost 24 percent of search marketers spent more than $500,000 on SEM campaigns last year, compared with 12 percent two years ago.

Posted on Businessblog™

1176 - June 7, 2006 - 10.59 AM EST

Do no evil, but it's ok if we do it...

Yesterday, Google has acknowledged that it has compromised certain of its own principles by abiding to censorship demands from the Chinese government.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the company is now battling to make everything work correctly before and IF it will reverse its course at any point in time.

In a meeting with some reporters in Washington, Sergey Brin said its company had agreed to many censorship demands from China only after that country's government blocked its search service.

In a similar way, Yahoo and MSN have agreed to the same demands, which Brin described as "a set of rules that we weren't comfortable with, but without international criticism", he said.

"We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference," Brin said.

Brin also addressed Internet users' expectations of privacy in an era of increased government surveillance, saying Americans misunderstand the limited safeguards of their personal electronic information. "I think it's interesting that the expectations of people with respect to what happens to their data seems to be different than what is actually happening," he said.

Google has battled the U.S. Justice Department in court seeking to limit the amount of information the government can get about users' Internet searches. It also says it has not participated in any programs with the National Security Agency to collect Internet communications without warrants.

Posted on Businessblog™

1175 - June 6, 2006 - 8.12 AM EST

$1 salary for Yahoo's Terry Semel

According to documents made public last week by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Terry Semel will now get a symbolic annual salary of just $1 through to 2008.

Additionally, for the next three years, Semel will also be eligible to receive an annual bonus of up to 1 million Yahoo shares and the option to purchase 6 million more at an exercise price of $31.59 each as a retention incentive.

Semel's new compensation package was approved May 31 by Yahoo's Board of Directors compensation committee. The board said it doesn't anticipate making any further equity grants to Semel in the next three years.

Terry Semel was the highest-paid executive in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 and 2005, according to a survey released last week by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Semel's salary and bonus were $600,000 last year, and total compensation, including restricted stock and the estimated value of options, was $56.8 million, down from $131.2 million the year before, the study found.

Posted on Businessblog™

1174 - June 5, 2006 - 4.42 PM EST

Comparison Shopping Search Engines

Overall, the World Wide Web has made it relatively easy for people to shop online and in certain cases to help them find some of the very best deals when buying a specific product or service. CSSEs (Comparison Shopping Search Engines) gather various amounts of data such as product pricing, features, details and shipment costs from different suppliers and vendors. CSSEs then present that detailed information to prospective buyers.

However, while some may think consumers are getting complete buying surveys from unbiased sources, most times they are being offered snapshots of various products from vendors with a strong interest in promoting their specific products.

Brian Smith, an analyst with market research firm ComparisonEngines.com says that "Comparison shopping can be fun and helpful, but like with any other purchase, along with their use comes the warning label: Buyer Beware".

Such a warning resonates with a fast-growing number of consumers. E-commerce purchases have been growing at a very steady rate. Overall, Internet sales grew by 24 percent last year, according to market research firm eMarketer. That growth has lead to more use of CSSEs.

Jeffrey Grau, a senior analyst at eMarketer says "Once users are comfortable with eCommerce shopping, they then take it to the next level and start to work with comparison shopping engines".

Suppliers and vendors have been trying to make their products more appealing. As the search engines have become more popular, even more retailers are participating in these services. "Retailers had been leery of using these services because they felt that they competed with their own online stores," noted Patti Freeman Evans, a senior analyst with market research firm JupiterResearch.

"That thinking has been changing as large retailers realized that comparison sites can drive significant traffic to their own online stores while sparing consumers the task of jumping from site to site in search of the best deal."

Posted on Businessblog™

Copyright © Serge Thibodeau 2006. All rights reserved.

All views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of Serge Thibodeau only and are not representative of any company listed. All slogans, trademarks, text or logo representation used or referred to on this blog are the property of their respective owners.