The Top 10 SEOs in the World
Danny Sullivan, Stephan Spencer and a guy named Mr. Anus made the list. Check to see if your favorite SEO is in this top-10 roll call. (SEO Book)
The Browser Five Years From Now
What will the Web browser look like in five years? Will we even see a browser in five years, or will it be such a part of the OS that we won’t even notice it? These and other questions are answered by a guy from Opera. (O’Reilly Radar)
Does Everybody Need SEO?
The quick and dirty answer is no. The longer answer is a bit more nuanced, of course. Local or tiny niche sites are less likely to see competitive SERPs or significant search volume to pursue. “To be more specific, the exact types of business that can almost completely ignore SEO without much loss are “one keyword locals.”” (Search Engine Journal)
8 Habits of Effective Bloggers
Be prolific, concise, analytical, persistent, and more. What do readers think is the most important trait? Read the comments to find out. (Copyblogger)
2009: More than Half of All Malware Ever
Malware had a banner year in 2009: 51 percent of all the viruses, trojans and other types of malicious software – ever- was seen in 2009 alone, according to Symantec. If you’ve avoided becoming part of the effected masses, count yourself very fortunate. (CrunchGear)
Teens Heart Cell Phones
We all know that the youngsters love texting, but check out the latest stats from the Pew Internet and American Life Project to see just how much they love texting, along with other cell phone-based activities. (peHUB)
Privacy Officials: Unite! (Against Google)
A group of 10 privacy officials from around the globe joined forces to send Google CEO Eric Schmidt a letter about their ill-advised privacy practices, particularly concerning Google Buzz. In a press conference, the group also called out Facebook. (CNET)
Tips on Pitching to VCs
Here’s on VC’s take on what makes for a good pitch and what doesn’t. Included is a list of what each of your 10-15 PowerPoint slides should include. Of course, be prepared to go “off deck” and avoid clinging to the order of your presentation. (CNET)
Optimizing Your Site for the iPad
Mobile does not equal the iPad, no Flash support and expect glitches – these are three of the six tips for optimizing your website for the iPad. And if you can’t do it yourself, there are plenty of people out there who can do it for you. (Search Engine Journal)
Digital Textbooks: $1.1 Billion by 2014
The “tipping point” for the digital textbook market for higher education will happen in 2014, if not earlier, according to this research. This will be when “digital textbooks will begin disrupting the market once their sales surpass 13% of print textbooks sold.” (WebProNews)
Facebook: Community Pages, Linked Fandom
Just ahead of its third f8 developer conference, Facebook unveiled “Community Pages,” which appear to be a big stepping stone to a Wikipedia-type resource of user-enhanced information. Also, users will be asked to become a fan of their interests by linking their profiles to Facebook Pages. (CNET, TechCrunch)
Android’s Avis Complex
Why is Android’s collection of apps growing so much faster than Apple’s? It has something to do with the fact that their No. 2 behind Apple. (NYTimes.com)
AOL Unveils Ad Desk
On Monday, AOL introduced Ad Desk, its new display ad platform. It enables advertisers to manage their own campaigns directly and is in its beta stage. (MediaPost)
VCs Pull Back Spending
According to a recent report, venture capitalists invested $4.7 billion in 681 companies in the first quarter of 2010. The dollars were down 9 percent and the number of deals was down 18 percent compared to the previous quarter. Clean tech companies did quite well, as did medical tech companies. (NYTimes.com)
Mobile Coupons are Bigger, More Telling
Spending on U.S. coupons in the U.S. is expected to reach $6.53 billion in 2014, up from $90 million in 2009. In 2010, this figure will reach $370 million. Mobile coupons are also appear to know quite a lot about those who use them, including the search terms that led them to the deals. (ClickZ, NYTimes.com)
Biggest Startup Mistakes (Video)
Here’s a short video from a lecture last month at Stanford. Making sure that your product is “mundane” appears to actually be a key for success. (VentureBeat)
Android Ad Impressions Boom in March
Mobile ad impressions rose 72 percent for Android. Google’s mobile OS (6 percent of the market) still ranks third overall, behind iPhone OS (70 percent) and RIM (14 percent). (TechCrunch)
Search Marketers Should at Least Pretend to Care
Search marketers need to adjust their attitude and start putting connections with customers above optimization. “Consumers have more confidence in those who have failed and fixed it, instead of ignoring it.” (MediaPost)
Facebook is Most Visited Site at Work
Nearly 7 percent of business Internet traffic heads to Facebook, while Google sites attract about 3.4 percent. Online video viewing consumes a good deal of business bandwidth, too, as YouTube gobbles up 10 percent of corporate bandwidth, followed by Facebook with 4.5 percent. (Search Engine Journal)
Facebook Will Target Ads Based on What You Share
The social networking behemoth is planning on unveiling a new system that will base targeted ads on what links you share with your friends. Privacy issues, here we come (again)! (FT.com)
Lack of Transparency Hinders Display Ads
Display ads continue to grow slower than paid search ads partly because marketers are worried about the increasing lack of transparency among ad networks and third-party aggregators, according to a new report. This has led to U.S. companies withholding about $2 billion each year in online display ad spending. (MediaPost)
iPad Already Being Used Almost as Much as BlackBerry, Android
According to recent data, the iPad OS had 0.03 percent of the market in March, and while that may not seem too significant, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and Google’s Android both had usage shares of 0.04 percent, respectively. (InfoWorld)
Spam Grows in Size
Though spam volume declined 12 percent quarter-over-quarter in the first three months of 2010, it was still 6 percent higher than the same period in 2009. Also, the size of individual spam messages rose 30 percent near the end of March, reflecting the resurgence of image spam. And, as always, spammers showed a knack for taking advantage of popular topics, including the Haiti earthquake. (Official Google Enterprise Blog)
5 Tips for Reducing Social Media Distractions
Yes, social media is important to take part in, but it’s also a stream that’s very easy to drown in. Keeping two lists, scheduling “power hours” and being less insecure are three of the five ways you can avoid being overwhelmed by the beast that is social media and actually be productive. (Mashable)
Maximizing CPC
It’s a mistake to blindly aim for the lowest CPC possible, because a CPC of $0 equals a CPA of $0. But it’s still important to minimize CPC to maximize CPA. Maybe one day you can boast that “My CPCs keep going up!” (The Search Agents)
Google Had a Good Quarter
Revenue grew 23 percent to $6.77 billion for Google in the first quarter, while net income rose 38 percent to $1.96 billion. The company noted that it had a “strong M&A pipeline,” large advertisers made a big comeback and “a ton of innovation” would be coming from netbooks with Chrome OS. (CNET, paidContent.org)
Mobile Gaming Down but Not Out
Though the number of mobile subscribers who have played games at least once during the month in February dropped 13 percent from the same month last year, the shift from feature to smart phones and the resulting shift to higher-quality gaming leaves plenty of room for optimism, according to comScore. Arcade puzzle was the top genre of games played on mobile devices, followed by Card and Word or Number. (comScore)
Twitter Buzz About Promoted Tweets
Early responses seem promising for Twitter’s brand new Promoted Tweets. According to one survey, 42 percent of tweets about Promoted Tweets convey concern about these ads being no better than spam, while 31 percent want to see more before making a judgment, and 27 percent think it’s a sensible business model. (Mashable)
How to Get to the Top of Google Maps Results
For starters, claim your Google Local Listing. Then, focus on local terms, local directory listings and citations, among other things. (SEO Scoop)
Twitter’s Problem: Facebook
Facebook and Twitter are intertwined and are directly competing for “The People Web.” According to Om Malik, “Zuck’s Army is on the move. Twitter is still assembling its troops.” (GigaOM)
How Much is a Facebook Fan Worth?
About $3.60, according to this social media management company. Take a look at the valuation formula and see if it makes sense. “The potential value that brands and companies can get from Facebook Fans is huge, especially if you consider the potential of matching location data with some of these tools.” (Mashable)
Twitter in Numbers
Here’s a look at some interesting stats about Twitter, gleaned from Chirp. A few highlights: 105.8 million registered users, 55 million new tweets per day, 3 billion API requests per day and 600 million search queries per day. (O’Reilly Radar)
Twitter’s Own Link Shortener
The effect on bit.ly isn’t quite certain yet, but it seems that clouds are ahead. (TechCrunch)
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