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My 2 featured articles for the week ending Oct. 7, 2005:

Archived blogs for the week of October 3, 2005

1009 - October 7, 2005 - 5.29 PM EST

Small companies depend more on their websites

According to a new study done by Interland, not only are small and medium-sized businesses going online, they are increasingly depending on it for sales and marketing, and they are finding its a good source of profits.

The Summer 2005 Small and Medium-sized Business Barometer, a nationwide survey of 780 leaders of small US businesses from Interland, found that 96% of them had Internet access, and most had broadband connections.

Of the 72% of respondents with a business Web site, more than half are using or interested in using e-mail marketing (60%) and search engine optimization (54%).

Additionally, 78% report their business is healthier — has a competitive advantage or stronger economic footing — because they have a Web site, and 76% say their Web site generates leads for their business.

The strongest indicator of how businesses have taken to the Internet, however, is the fact that they are making money online.

Of the 32% of the respondents who sell products or services online, 82% reported receiving monthly revenue from their Web sites.

"These results demonstrate that business leaders understand the importance of the Internet, Web sites and online marketing tools and are acting on that knowledge," said Jeffrey Stibel, CEO of Interland.

"Since first introducing the Interland Small and Medium-sized Business Barometer in 2003, we have seen significant growth of businesses using online tools and offerings to attract, service and satisfy customers."

Posted on Businessblog™

1008 - October 6, 2005 - 7.22 AM EST

Google continues it's hiring spree

Google has appointed Shirley M. Tilghman, Princeton University’s President, to join it's Board of Directors. Dr. Tilghman is a world-renowned scholar, an exceptional teacher, and is respected worldwide for her pioneering research and advocacy of women in science.

“It’s an honor to welcome a woman of Dr. Tilghman’s reputation to our board,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and chief executive officer of Google.

“Google is a company born out of university research, so we look forward to tapping into her extraordinary talents as an accomplished academic, and as a champion of discovery.”

Dr. Tilghman made her mark during postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health, where she participated in cloning the first mammalian gene.

She continued to make scientific breakthroughs in the field of mammalian genetics as a member of the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and an adjunct associate professor of human genetics and biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Posted on Businessblog™

1007 - October 6, 2005 - 7.10 AM EST

Will Google succeed with it's Wi-Fi project?

Wireless Industry News posted an interesting story today (through C-Net News) hinting that Google could be facing problems with it's Wi-Fi project in San Francisco. That city's Mayor Gavin Newsom said Monday that Google could be facing some major hurdles in providing the first U.S. city with either free or low-cost wireless access to the Internet.

Any such deal faces potential lawsuits or litigation, combined with some angry market participants.

Among other dissenters, phone giants SBC Communications and Verizon Communications and cable companies such as Comcast have publicly and privately criticized the city's project, calling it "foolhardy" given that low-cost access to the Internet is already widely available to the public in San Francisco, Newsom said during a press conference at City Hall.

"Either they're right, or we're onto something," Newsom said, adding a strong note of confidence in his plan to tear down the digital divide between poor and wealthy people's access to broadband.

Cities take on big Wi-Fi projects--and face challenges to their plans."This is inevitable; it's long overdue; and the public has a fundamental right to have access to information," Newsom said.

In August, Newsom's office sent out a request for a proposal and comments to the private sector for building a Wi-Fi network that would give "every corner" of San Francisco wireless access to the Internet, Newsom said.

Posted on Businessblog™

1006 - October 5, 2005 - 9.07 PM EST

Upcoming.org acquired by Yahoo

Without too much noise or fanfare, Yahoo has acquired Upcoming.org, an Internet event planning Web site that the company hopes will fill its search properties with more local content.

Yahoo confirmed it's acquisition late Tuesday without offering any financial terms of the deal.

With more offices and homes having broadband Internet access, this makes it a lot faster to load Web sites. Users are then increasingly turning to the Web before traditional media such as the Yellow Pages for looking up businesses or to find a person.

More and more people, especially the younger generation, are also looking at the Internet to find out more about their own communities.

Los Angeles-based Upcoming acts as a social calendar that depends on its users to post free listings about a wide range of upcoming events, from local rock concerts to picnics in the park.

The site, founded by Andy Baio, provides tools that enable users to share observations about the events and identify common areas of interests.

Yahoo plans to keep Upcoming's current Web site separate, but eventually will incorporate much of the content into its own site to bolster its local search capabilities, said Paul Levine, Yahoo's general manager of local search.

Posted on Businessblog™

1005 - October 5, 2005 - 11.23 AM EST

Good SEO, compared to expensive PPC

After building a great resource, real success with organic search is possible, if you concentrate on proven SEO techniques. Why pay good money on PPC when you can get high-quality organic traffic from the search engines?

BodyBuilding.com expects it's Internet sales to attain $48 million this year, compared with sales of $32 million last year.

On a typical day, BodyBuilding.com attracts about 160,000 unique visitors to its site, says CEO Ryan DeLuca. What’s driving traffic–and sales–is an online library of nearly 10,000 articles on health, nutrition, weight training, bodybuilding and other topics.

“So far we haven’t done any paid search,” says DeLuca. “We have almost 400 writers, many of whom are experts on their topic, contributing content to the site. We have almost 16,000 pages in the library and adding more all the time. We get good word-of-mouth advertising.”

Posted on Businessblog™

1004 - October 4, 2005 - 9.51 AM EST

Google to provide Internet access to SF

Google wants to supply the city of San Francisco with free Wi-Fi Internet access and is prepared to begin work on the network within a few weeks.

Google submitted its proposal Friday, the last day for San Francisco's Requests for Information from companies and nonprofits regarding unwiring the city to provide free or low-cost Wi-Fi Internet access to its residents by late August 2006.

Google said it has no plans to expand free Wi-Fi beyond the Bay Area and explained that the project could serve as a test-ground for new location-based applications and services that enable people to find information when and where they need it.

The company said developing these and other services on the San Francisco network ultimately would benefit end users and Google business partners.

On Sept. 20, several pages on the Internet search company's site indicated Google was set to launch its own wireless Internet service via Google Secure Access, a downloadable client application in beta-test status. The free software allows a secure, encrypted Internet connection to Google's virtual private network.

Posted on Businessblog™

1003 - October 3, 2005 - 2.24 PM EST

Yahoo's news Open Content Alliance (OCA)

Yahoo joins forces with The Internet Archive, Adobe Systems, the European Archive, HP Labs, the National Archives of the UK, O’Reilly Media, Prelinger Archives, the University of California and the University of Toronto and launches The Open Content Alliance (OCA).

Yahoo's Open Content Alliance is a global consortium focused on providing open access to content while respecting the rights of copyright holders.

The Open Content Alliance will provide a wide range of material including cultural, historical and technological digitized print and multimedia content from libraries, archives and publishers.

Content will be hosted in a single, permanent repository and complete works will be searchable and downloadable for free by anyone.

Governed by its contributors, the Open Content Alliance is designed to be a growing association that agrees to a set of openness principles.

Initial content will be provided to the Open Content Alliance by founding members including the University of California, the University of Toronto, the National Archives (UK), O’Reilly Media, Inc., and the European Archive.

Adobe Systems Inc., HP Labs, and Yahoo Inc., also founding members, will make technical and in certain cases financial contributions to allow content to be contributed, placed online and accessed by anyone.

The Open Content Alliance will include content ranging from historical works of fiction to children’s books to highly specialized engineering whitepapers.

In addition to hosting content and playing an administrative role, the Internet Archive will provide the Open Content Alliance with material from its collections and it will also digitize content from contributors.

Posted on Businessblog™

Copyright © Serge Thibodeau 2005. All rights reserved.

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