Nielsen numbers released for U.S. searches in October

According to data from The Nielsen Company, Americans conducted more than 10.2 billion searches on the top search engines in October 2009 with the majority (66.1 percent) of them taking place on Google.

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Nielsen numbers released for U.S. searches in October

The Online Business Bureau

The Online Business Bureau claims to be a better alternative, for expense and value, for companies seeking third-party ratings and approval. Currently warring for a better market share against the Better Business Bureau, the OBB claims on its website, “The Better Business Bureau charges companies hundreds of dollars each year to become members. The BBB is a private corporation. The BBB needs to collect dues from its members to pay for their large corporate overhead.”

For a setup fee of $47.94 and a monthly fee of $14.97, applicants to the OBB receive an immediate “green” rating and can put the OBB Trusted Site seal on their website. BBB Accredited Business seal requires maintaining specific standards. Some of these standards include honesty in advertising, transparency, responsiveness, and safeguarding consumer privacy.

While the BBB does charge more in membership fees, its consumer reporting service and strict adherence to standards provides a reliable rating. The OBB on the other hand provides “reactive” ratings. Any new paid-member gets a “green” rating, while nonmember companies they choose to rate receive “yellow” ratings. The Yellow rating simply means the company does not have any complaints filed against them yet. Companies with a “red” rating show the OBB has received complaints about them.

However, neither the BBB nor the OBB guarantee online fraud protection. As they provide ratings decisions only, consumers have to find out for themselves if they are shopping and banking online with reputable companies.

3 Keys to a Successful Web Company Launch

On June 30, 2009, 73.9% of Americans access and use the internet, this percentage amounts to 251.7 million users. Compare those numbers with Asia where over 700 million users are already using the internet, a number that represents only 18.5% of the Asian population and the importance of getting your business online becomes obvious.

The key to a successful web company launch is avoiding getting lost in the quagmire of the internet. This means making use of online visibility, awareness of competition and Search Engine Optimization. Since many potential customers can land on your site through a search engine, SEO in particular plays an important role. Build up visibility through news channels, on blogs, in social media, and through a professional company website. Following are three steps that can help launch any internet startup business.

Step 1

Optimize your website and target higher ranks in search engine listings. Choose your keywords carefully and the website can appear in organic searches without having to spend valuable marketing dollars on paid advertising or building links. A word of warning though, overusing keywords can affect rankings.

Step 2

Build a unified web presence using diverse mediums. A blog, MySpace page (advertise products), Facebook fan page (interact with potential customers) and Twitter account (broadcast sales and new releases) built with the same logo, language and keywords will lead to recognition unique to the company.

Step 3

A formal announcement is essential. Coverage from news media will be valuable but keep in mind that press release writing is an art form. Try not to appear too promotional and do try to ensure that your press release answers the following questions in first paragraph, “Why is this news?” and “How will readers benefit from hearing about this business launch?”

These three steps should help your startup business gain visibility and a good web presence.

Yahoo! Introduces Mobile en Español

Yahoo! announced today the launch of Yahoo! Mobile en Espa

Google VP lays out vision of the "perfect search engine"

Google CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters last month that the company’s goal was to develop “the perfect search engine.” Not only did this seem like an impossibly lofty goal to some reporters, but it also raised questions about what Google would consider to be “perfect.”

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Google VP lays out vision of the "perfect search engine"

Locate flu vaccine with new Google tool

Google has unveiled a new tool for the U.S. that allows people to locate the nearest facilities that provide the seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccine. However, due to the slower than expected H1N1 vaccine production, Google reminds users to call ahead and admits that many of the locations that are shown are currently out of stock of both vaccines.

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Locate flu vaccine with new Google tool

Murdoch says News Corp. may block Google search of stories

In an interview with Sky News, News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch said that his media conglomerate is considering blocking all search engines from accessing content from his media organizations.

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Murdoch says News Corp. may block Google search of stories

Best Marketing Strategies Improve Holiday Sales

As with any offline business, many online retailers rely on the holiday season to boost profits. The following simple online strategies can help your website increase profits and sales. Although these tasks seem simple, many website owners skip this process in the rush for getting ready for the holiday sales period.

- Search Engine Optimization – check if your website is coming up in all major search engines. User key words that describe your online store and use terms that potential customers may use. The best way to find these terms is to review website traffic logs and review key terms and phrases customers are using to find the business.

- Add affiliate programs and networks – add affiliate programs and affiliate networks to existing websites to maximize every bit of profit potential from site visitors.

- Improve cross-selling and up-selling opportunities – Cross selling refers to the technique of showcasing related products when customers view products on an ecommerce site. And up selling refers to the technique of recommending a more upscale product. An appliance seller may show pictures of $75 blenders after customers view $25 blenders, along with the more expensive blender’s special features and enhancements.

- Decorate the website for the holidays – this plays an important role, just as you would decorate your brick and mortar store. Create special graphics, text and icons that will reflect the holiday season.

- Offer free shipping and gift wrapping services – it’s the holidays and many offline stores provide these services. Therefore you should think about offering these services to entice potential customers to make purchases and use your online store, even after the holiday season is over.

What is Click Fraud?

As subscriptions and readership for print media is declining, pay per click advertising opportunities through companies like Google and Yahoo are steadily growing. However, these programs are not without issues; ad click fraud is a serious problem that has prompted Google to take a zero-tolerance stance as the web giant tries to maintain the integrity of its AdSense and AdWords internet advertising programs. What is click fraud? It is the act of clicking advertisements on the internet in order to earn money or with the malicious intension of draining a competitor of its advertising budget. Click fraud has become a major issue for all companies that provide pay per click advertising programs, undermining the integrity of the company that provides the service.

A large portion of fraudulent clicks come as a result of users trying to make money off programs such as Google’s AdSense. The AdSense program allows websites or bloggers to display contextual ads on their web page or blog and each time the ad is clicked, the website owner or blogger receives a certain percentage of the revenue. To counter this issue, Google tracks each and every click with IP address logging, among other methods. Accounts are investigated when abnormal ad clicking patterns emerge over a period of weeks or months, whether it is a suspicious pattern of ad licks from a particular IP address or an unusually high number of clicks on the advertisements displayed on a web page. Another form of click fraud is click exchange. This is when two or more bloggers or website owners agree to click on ads displayed on each other’s websites or blogs so that they can both earn money off the ads that are displayed. Again although these users may think that they outsmarted the ad service, any unusual clicks or activity on the ads are monitored and appropriate action is taken.

Google launches new e-commerce search engine service

Network World today reported that Google has launched a new search engine service specifically for large e-commerce sites. The new Google Commerce Search includes some of the most popular Google search features such as spell checker, query stemming and synonym recognition that are of particular use to e-commerce sites.

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Google launches new e-commerce search engine service

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