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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Yahoo partners with Google - CNN.com
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Yahoo!'s efforts to revive takeover talks with Microsoft Corp. have reached a dead end, prompting the Internet pioneer to hire online search leader Google Inc. to handle some of its advertising sales.
A Yahoo! sign is seen in New York's Times Square on April 22.
The news disclosed Thursday caused Yahoo! shares to plunge 10 percent as investors abandoned hope that Microsoft would renew a nearly five-month quest to buy the Sunnyvale, California-based company.
Although a stock sell-off is never welcome news for any company, Wall Street's disenchantment comes at a particularly bad time for Yahoo! and its board of directors.
Yahoo! is trying to fend off a shareholder mutiny led by activist investor Carl Icahn, who has vowed to replace the company's board because of the way the directors handled the Microsoft negotiations.
But Icahn has been hoping to engineer a sale to Microsoft, so some shareholders may be reluctant to support his attempted coup unless he can demonstrate that his slate of directors has a better turnaround plan than the current board.
Icahn did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.
The fate of Yahoo's board is to be determined at the company's August 1 annual meeting.
Don't Miss
* Icahn seeks to oust Yahoo board
"If you are a Yahoo shareholder, you just have to be scratching your head right now," Standard and Poor's equity analyst Scott Kessler said.
With Microsoft apparently out of the picture, Yahoo! is turning to Google to help its chief executive, Jerry Yang, prove that he made the right decision last month when he turned down Microsoft's takeover bid of $47.5 billion, or $33 per share. Yang asked for $37 per share, prompting Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to withdraw the oral offer.
If the Google partnership passes what's likely to be a rigorous review by U.S. antitrust regulators and lawmakers, Yahoo! intends to use its rival's superior search technology to display ads on its own Web site as well as those of its partners' in the United States and Canada.
Yahoo estimated that the arrangement could boost its revenue by as much as $800 million during the first 12 months of the partnership.
The deal shapes up as a major victory for Mountain View-based Google, which didn't want Yahoo! to fall into Microsoft's clutches.
"I am happy to be helping them to stay independent," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said Thursday.
Yahoo!'s advertising partnership with Google won't start until late September at the earliest because the two companies voluntarily agreed to wait at least 3½ months to allow the government to review a deal involving the two leading players in search advertising.
Google already holds about 75 percent of the $11 billion search advertising market in the United States, with Yahoo! in a distant second at 9 percent, according to the research firm eMarketer Inc.
Microsoft had hoped to use Yahoo! as a weapon in its efforts to slow Google's growth, but they couldn't agree to terms.
"Clearly, it's time to move on," Yang said during a Thursday conference call with analysts.
Before signing the Google deal, Yahoo made a last-ditch effort to persuade Microsoft to revive its last takeover offer of $47.5 billion.
But after withdrawing that bid last month, Ballmer began to focus his efforts on persuading Yahoo! to sell its search operations instead.
Yahoo! concluded that its search engine was too important to sell piecemeal.
Without explaining its logic, Microsoft said it believed that a deal involving Yahoo's search engine would have been more valuable to Yahoo! than if it had bought the entire company at $33 per share. The Redmond, Washington-based software maker said it remains open to buying Yahoo!'s search operations.
Yahoo!'s deal with Google includes an escape hatch should Microsoft or another suitor buy the company. If Yahoo! is sold, Google would receive a termination fee of up to $250 million.
That clause could still raise hope that Icahn might be able to renew the Microsoft talks if he can win control of Yahoo!'s board.
Investors clearly favor a sale of Yahoo in its entirety. Yahoo! shares dropped $2.63, or 10.1 percent, to finish at Thursday at $23.52 and then shed another 7 cents in after-hours trading.
The Google partnership expands upon a two-week trial conducted in April, while Yahoo! was trying to pressure Microsoft into raising its bid. The tests confirmed that Google's technology would generate more revenue for Yahoo! than its own system, which cost more than $2 billion to acquire and improve.
Nevertheless, Yahoo! still intends to use its own search engine to distribute some ads and process all search requests. Working with Google will give Yahoo "the best of both worlds," Yahoo! President Sue Decker said in Thursday's conference call.
But Microsoft and a variety of consumer interest groups have signaled that they will turn up the political heat in an attempt to prevent Google from working with Yahoo.
The outcry already has drawn the attention of U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, who chairs an antitrust committee.
"The consequences for advertisers and consumers could be far-reaching and warrant careful review, and we plan to investigate the competitive and privacy implications of this deal further," said Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat.
Google and Yahoo! have hope they can overcome the antitrust concerns by convincing lawmakers and regulators that their deal is similar to business arrangements between rivals in other industries.
Brin and his co-founder, Larry Page, both think the partnership could even help foster more competition by providing Yahoo with more money to improve its own search technology.
"Having more money is a good thing," Page said.
If it isn't blocked, Yahoo!'s advertising partnership could last for the next decade.
Although a Google deal could help boost Yahoo!'s short-term profits, some analysts think Yahoo could be hurting itself by ceding any ground to an already powerful rival.
But Yang was under intense pressure to do something bold after Yahoo repeatedly spurned Microsoft attempts to buy the company or arrange some kind of joint venture to challenge Google.
The talks date to 2006 and included a 2007 merger proposal that Yahoo rejected, according to a January 31 letter that Ballmer sent to Yahoo to announce his initial bid of $44.6 billion, or $31 per share.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Microsoft adCenter DesktopBeta Connect Site!
Microsoft adCenter Desktop. Use adCenter Desktop to:
. Quickly navigate through multiple accounts.
. Bulk edit multiple items at once-within or across groups of items.
. Scan campaigns for editorial issues before uploading to adCenter.
. Receive alerts about performance changes.
. Copy and paste keywords, negative keywords, match types, and bid amounts from adCenter Add-in (Beta) for Excel 2007.
. Expand keywords and optimize bids with built-in keyword intelligence tools.
. Upload changes to the adCenter user interface instantly, with one click.
System requirements
Microsoft adCenter Desktop requires the following system configuration:
Component
Minimum requirement
Operating system
PC running a 32-bit version of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista
Administrator permissions required
Microsoft adCenter Desktop does not run on 64-bit versions of Windows
Microsoft adCenter Desktop installs Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package
Processor
32-bit processor required; 64-bit processors are supported
Memory
1 GB of RAM
Hard-disk space
250 MB of available hard-disk space
Web broswer Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later
Internet connection
Dial-up or broadband Internet access required during installation and for subsequent exchanges of data with Microsoft adCenter online
Microsoft adCenter account
Microsoft adCenter user name and password required during installation and for subsequent exchanges of data with Microsoft adCenter online
Friday, June 6, 2008
Memory4less.com Offers Solid state Drives
Solid state isn’t the only thing looming on the horizon in the enterprise storage drive space. Drive makers say small-factor (2.5-inch) SAS is poised to encroach on 3.5-inch Fibre Channel’s turf in storage arrays.
Seagate is eyeing enterprise storage arrays with drives such as the Savvio 10k.3 that it launched this week. At 300GB, the self-encrypting drive offers more than twice the capacity of Seagate’s previous SAS drives. It also supports the SAS 2 interface. SAS 2 includes 6 Gbit/s speed and other enterprise features likely to show up in storage systems by next year.
“300-gig drives will be more attractive to storage vendors, and they’re starting to find the small form factor drives more compelling,” said Henry Fabian, executive director of marketing for Seagate’s enterprise business. “You’ll start to see the small form factor ship in the second half of the year in storage arrays because of higher capacity and lower power requirements.”
Joel Hagberg, VP of business development for Seagate rival Fujitsu Computer Products of America, also sees small form factor SAS coming on strong in enterprise storage. “The storage vendors all recognize there is a shift coming as we get to 300 gigs or 600 gigs in the next couple of years in the 2.5-inch package,” he said. “We’re cutting power in half and the green initiative in storage is increasing.”
As for Fibre Channel, the drive makers agree you won’t see hard drives going above the current 4-Gbit/s bandwidth level.
“Four-gig is the end of the road for Fibre Channel on the device level,” Hagberg said. “All the external storage vendors are looking to migrate to SAS.”
By the way, Hagberg says Fujitsu isn’t buying into the solid state hype for enterprise storage yet. He considers solid state to be a few years away from taking off in storage arrays.
“There’s a lot of industry buzz on solid state, and I have to chuckle,” he said. “I meet with engineers of all storage vendors and talk about the hype versus reality on solid state drives. Every notebook vendor released solid state in the last year. Are any of those vendors happy with those products? The answer is no. The specs of solid state performance look tremendous on paper, but a lot less is delivered in operation.”
Thursday, June 5, 2008
DellPartsSearch.com offers a wide range of world-class Accessories of Dell
The first Dell laptop made its debut in 1991 and by 1993, it became one of the top five computer companies in the world. By 1995, those$8.50 shares were worth $100. The progress of the business was rapid and in1997, Dell had shipped its ten millionth system.Reasons to shop from DellPartsSearch.com that they offers a wide range of world-class Accessories of Dell including Keyboards, CD-RW/DVD Drives, Laptop Batteries, Laptop Hard Drives, Notebook Auto/Air Adapters, AC Adapters, and more.
read more | digg story
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Microsoft WorldWide Telescope
Experience WWT
Want to see the same images that scientists at NASA use for their research or perform your own research with those images? Or do you want to see the Earth from the same perspective that astronauts see as they descend to Earth? How about taking a 5 minute break and viewing a panorama of a different city? Install WWT and start your explorations.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Google may end up as winner if Microsoft buys Yahoo!
One of the biggest players behind Microsoft's drive to buy Yahoo has never been at the bargaining table - Google. That company's dominance in search advertising prompted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to go shopping and seek a tie-up with Yahoo so he could bolster his efforts against what has turned out to be one of Microsoft's toughest competitors. If the deal happens, Google could face a stronger challenge in the $41 billion online advertising market. But a protracted antitrust review by U.S. and European officials, or difficult corporate integration, could actually help the Mountain View search giant. And if the deal does not occur? Google still wins. Most analysts believe the Mountain View juggernaut will continue gaining market share. More than half of Web advertising revenue comes from online queries. In March, Google garnered 59.8 percent of the U.S. search market, while Yahoo had 21.3 percent and Microsoft, 9.4 percent, according to ComScore. Microsoft, which has sputtered online, decided that hooking up with Yahoo of Sunnyvale in a $44.6 billion deal is the best way to gain traction against its rival. But don't expect quick results. "The Yahoo structure, as far as I'm concerned, does not work as effectively as Google's does," said George Kepnick, co-founder of DottedOnline, a search marketing firm. "It's the same thing with Microsoft. So merging two platforms that don't work too well on their own isn't going to create a Google killer." In other aspects, though, the companies if they combined could pose new problems for Google. Ballmer has noted that Yahoo and Microsoft have duplicate services. It's expensive to run services like e-mail, instant messaging and search. A joint effort would free up more resources for a fight with Google. "You have more engineers," said Karsten Weide, an analyst with market research firm IDC. "That makes the combined entity more competitive than each one currently is." While a retooled competitor may not ever be able to catch Google in search ads, it could be in a strong position to dominate in emerging advertising areas, such as video. Google, which acquired online video sensation YouTube, hasn't been able to exploit its popularity for advertising revenue. "Brand advertisers shun it because they don't think it's safe," Weide said. "Very significant amounts of money will be moved out of broadcast television onto the Internet, hundreds of millions of dollars, over the next few years. Right now, nobody is in a position A combined Yahoo and Microsoft could also become leaders in behavioral targeting advertising - technology that enables advertisers to offer up ads more relevant to Internet users based on their online actions, such as Web sites visited. Last year, Yahoo acquired digital marketing company BlueLithium, which specializes in this software. Both Yahoo and Microsoft have leading mobile technology. Google's Android project, a new operating system for cell phones, is only at the prototype stage. Yahoo's Go software, on the other hand, already runs on hundreds of mobile devices. And Microsoft last year acquired TellMe, whose voice-recognition technology enables people to get directions through their phones by speaking the address. "If you look at all the assets Yahoo and Microsoft have for future markets, they are very strong," Weide said. Google, though, could gain an advantage if its chief competitors get tied up with regulatory red tape. "In the fast-paced Internet industry, that kind of delay is an anathema," said David Garrity of Dinosaur Research. "It would leave the two organizations as sitting ducks. And it would be excellent for Google." Even a swift completion of the deal wouldn't guarantee success. "The real question is, how well does Microsoft execute the integration and whether, in the process, Microsoft manhandles the Yahoo enterprise such that by the time the process is finished all the vital elements have decided to depart?" he said.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
10 funny flirting facts
So you’ve mastered the eye-contact game and can beckon a cute prospect with a few coy glances… but do you really know all there is to know about the fine art of come-hither? Just to make sure you’re up to speed, we culled some very surprising info that you can use to your advantage. Read on for some juicy tidbits that may up your cute quotient in no time.
1. Flirting is good for you. Studies show that people who flirt have higher white blood-cell counts, which boost their immunity and keep them healthy.
2. Think it ends at a little eye batting? Hardly—all told, scientists say there are 52 “flirting signals” used by humans. Of these, the hair flip is the most common.
3. In some places, flirting is illegal. In Little Rock, AR, an antiquated law is still on the books warning that engaging in playful banter may result in a 30-day jail term. In New York City, another outdated law mandates that men may be fined $25 for gazing lasciviously at a female; a second conviction stipulates the offender wear a pair of blinders whenever he goes out for a walk.
4. Why wait for Happy Hour? Lots of people get their flirt on during their morning commute. A full 62 percent of drivers have flirted with someone in a different vehicle while on the go, and 31 percent of those flirtations, it turns out, resulted in a date.
5. Flirting need not occur face to face. According to Pew Research, 40 percent of people who look for love online say they can easily flirt with someone via email or IM.
6. In the Victorian era, fans were the ultimate playful prop that could communicate all sorts of messages. A fan placed near the heart meant, You have won my love. A half-opened fan pressed to the lips suggested, You may kiss me. Hiding the eyes behind an open fan meant, I love you, while opening and closing the fan several times warned, You are cruel. Given how much a fan could come in handy, it’s a shame they ever invented air conditioning.
7. These days, cell phones do the flirting. In one survey, half of all mobile phone users have texted suggestive messages to keep things interesting while away from their amour.
8. Watch out, you can overdo it. According to the Social Issues Research Centre, the most common mistake people make when flirting is maintaining too much eye contact.
9. Sometimes, flirty gestures aren’t what they seem. Research has shown that men tend to routinely mistake friendly behavior for flirting.
10. Flirting is universal. A woman living in New York City and one in rural Cambodia may not have much in common, but when it comes to attracting a little attention, they both employ the very same move: smiling, arching their eyebrows, then averting their gaze and giggling. Animals flirt, too: Birds, reptiles, and even fish have their own way of strutting their stuff. Moral of the story: If the simple sea bass can act cute to enhance a romantic agenda, you can, too—so give it a go!
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Article courtesy of Happen magazine, www.happenmag.com.
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
International Consumer Electronics Show 2008 (CES) in LV
This is the good way to the business, its really good for the end-user consumer and the business consumer alike to attend the show at the same time.Attendees and media flood into the Central Hall at the 2008 International CES excited to see the latest and greatest in consumer electronics technology.Attendees and media gather around the Panasonic exhibit booth to see the world's largest advanced HD 150" plasma display.http://www.cesweb.org/press/images/rd_photos_floor.asp?option=show_floor
read more | digg story
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
SanDisk Vaulter Disk - TFOT
CompactFlash card lets you quickly capture, view, upload and transfer large image files. It is ideal for demanding photo shoots under severe weather conditions heat, cold, wind, rain, snow, etc. and is built to perform in the most extreme environments and temperatures. It has a minimum data transfer rate of 20MB per second.Specification for Extreme III Compact Flash Cards Capacity Manufacturer PartNumber Price 4GB SanDisk Corp. SDCFX3-4096-901 $30.94 2GB SanDisk Corp. SDCFX3-2048 $45.52 1GB SanDisk Corp. SDCFX3-1024 $122.84 Check Prices at: http://www.memory4less.com/search?q=SanDisk%20Flash%20Drive&cat=flash-memory-cards
read more | digg story
Friday, November 16, 2007
Google Owns A Search Engine Optimization Company
A Slippery Slope: Google Owns
a Search Engine Optimization Company
================================
If you own or work with a search engine optimization company, or even if you're just hoping to better your search engine placement, then you are probably aware of the recent acquisition frenzy that took hold among the major search engines. Google paid $3.1 billion for DoubleClick, Microsoft paid $6 billion for Aquantive, and Yahoo paid $680 million for the 80 percent of Right Media that it did not already own and another $300 million for BlueLithium. The companies purchased are all intended to help widen the advertising range of each of the engines in question, and to take advantage of increasingly sophisticated behavioral-based ad-serving technologies that the acquired companies owned.
This is a listing of Google's corporate acquisitions, including acquisitions of both companies and individual products.
| Acquisition Date | Company/Product | Business Area | Value (USD) | References | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | ||||||
| September 20, 2001 | Deja's Usenet archive | Google Groups. | undisclosed | [1] | ||
| September 20, 2001 | Outride, Inc. | Spin-off from Xerox PARC. | undisclosed | [2] | ||
| 2003 | ||||||
| February, 2003 | Pyra Labs | Blogger. | undisclosed | [3] | ||
| April, 2003 | Neotonic Software | CRM technology. | undisclosed | [4] | ||
| April, 2003 | Applied Semantics | Advertising technology. | $102 million | [5] | ||
| September 30, 2003 | Kaltix | Search engine technology. | undisclosed | [6] | ||
| October, 2003 | Sprinks | Paid listings unit of Primedia. | undisclosed | [7] | ||
| October, 2003 | Genius Labs | Blogging | undisclosed | [8] | ||
| 2004 | ||||||
| May 10, 2004 | Ignite Logic | Website creation technology. | undisclosed | [9] | ||
| June 23, 2004 | Baidu (2.6% stake) | Chinese language search engine. All shares were sold in June, 2006 | $5 million | [10][11] | ||
| July 13, 2004 | Picasa | Photo management software. | undisclosed | [12] | ||
| October 27, 2004 | Keyhole, Inc. | Mapping software; used in Google Earth. | undisclosed | [13] | ||
| Sept.-Dec., 2004 | Where2 | Mapping software; used in Google Maps. | undisclosed | [14] | ||
| Sept.-Dec., 2004 | ZipDash | Used in Google Ride Finder. | undisclosed | [14] | ||
| 2005 | ||||||
| ca. 2005 | 2Web Technologies | Web-based spreadsheet. | undisclosed | [15] | ||
| ca. 2005 | Phatbits | Widgets engine. | undisclosed | [16] | ||
| March 28, 2005 | Urchin Software Corporation | Web analysis. | undisclosed | [17] | ||
| May 12, 2005 | Dodgeball | Social networking. | undisclosed | [18] | ||
| July, 2005 | Reqwireless | Web browser and Mobile email. | undisclosed | [19] | ||
| July 7, 2005 | Current Communications Group | Broadband internet. | $100 million (partial investment) | [20] | ||
| August 17, 2005 | Android | Software for Handheld devices. | undisclosed | [21] | ||
| November, 2005 | Skia | Graphics software. | undisclosed | [22] | ||
| November 17, 2005 | Akwan Information Technologies | Latin American internet operations. | undisclosed | [23] | ||
| December 20, 2005 | AOL (5% stake) | Internet. | $1 billion | [24] | ||
| 2006 | ||||||
| January 17, 2006 | dMarc Broadcasting | Radio advertising software and platform. | $102 million | [25] | ||
| February 14, 2006 | Measure Map | Blog analysis. | undisclosed | [26] | ||
| March 9, 2006 | Upstartle | Writely, online word processing. | undisclosed | [27] | ||
| March 14, 2006 | @Last Software | SketchUp, 3-D modeling. | undisclosed | [28] | ||
| April 9, 2006 | Orion | Advanced search method. | undisclosed | [29] | ||
| August 15, 2006 | Neven Vision | Computer vision | undisclosed | [30] | ||
| October 31, 2006 | JotSpot | Website applications | undisclosed | [31] | ||
| November, 2006 | YouTube | Video sharing | $1.65 billion | [32] | ||
| December, 2006 | Endoxon | Mapping solutions | $28 million | [33] | ||
| 2007 | ||||||
| January, 2007 | Xunlei (partial acquisition) | Network, file-sharing. | undisclosed | [34] | ||
| February, 2007 | Adscape | Video game advertising | $23 million | [35] | ||
| March, 2007 | Trendalyzer | Software | undisclosed | [36] | ||
| April, 2007 | Tonic Systems | Presentation software | undisclosed | [37] | ||
| April, 2007 | Marratech video conferencing software | Video conferencing | undisclosed | [38] | ||
| May 11, 2007 | GreenBorder Technologies | Desktop enterprise security | undisclosed | [39] | ||
| June 1, 2007 | Panoramio | Geospatial Photo-sharing Service | undisclosed | [39] | ||
| June 3, 2007 | FeedBurner | Online RSS Feeds | $100 million | [40] | ||
| June 5, 2007 | PeakStream | Parallel Processing | undisclosed | [41] | ||
| June, 2007 | Zenter | Presentations Software | undisclosed | [42] | ||
| July 2, 2007 | GrandCentral | VOIP Phone Aggregation | $45 million | [43] | ||
| July, 2007 | ImageAmerica | High resolution aerial cameras | undisclosed | [44] | ||
| July 9, 2007 | Postini | Communications Security | $625 million | [45] | ||
| September, 2007 | Zingku | Mobile social network and communication platform | undisclosed | [46] | ||
| October, 2007 | Jaiku | An activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones | undisclosed | [47] | ||
Pending acquisitions
==========================Pending acquisition means that the purchase was confirmed, but not executed yet. The execution can take from several days to several months depending on the size and position of the two involved companies and on the impact of the acquisition on the market place. Even if both companies agree on the deal this does not mean that it will actually happen. In some cases regulatory approvals by 3rd parties are required (e.g. government). The deal goes bust if the required approvals cannot be obtained.
| Acquisition Date | Company/Product | Business Area | Value (USD) | References | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | ||||||
| April 13, 2007 | DoubleClick | Online Advertising | $3.1 billion | [48] | ||
Friday, October 26, 2007
All You Need To Know About RSS
Exclusive: All That You Need To Know About RSS
========================================
You probably have seen this three-letter acronym called RSS in the course of your internet surfing. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; syndicating means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website.
An RSS is a means of publicizing updates about websites. It may or may not include a summary and photos of the latest posting. But those that provide summaries (thus Rich Site Summary) allow users to skim through the article so that they can decide later on if they want to access the website source. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the update originating from the website. It is also usually the link to the website source.
What are the benefits of RSS? RSS has benefits for both readers (users) and web publishers. 1. It gives you the latest updates.
Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updated site you learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.
2. It saves on surfing time.
Since a RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user's time by helping s/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.
3. It gives the power of subscription to the user.
Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.
4. It lessens the clutter in your inbox.
Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.
5. It is sp@m free.
Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates, thus your privacy is kept safe from sp@m mails.
6. Unsubscribing is hassle-free.
Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questíons on why s/he is unsubscribing and then the user is asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.
7. It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool.
Users who subscribe or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending sp@m mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.
What are the drawbacks of RSS? The disadvantages of RSS use are brought about by its being a new technology and some user-preference concerns.
1. Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.
2. Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds. For conciseness and ease of publication, RSS feeds do not display the photos from the original site in announcing the update except for some web-based aggregators.
3. The identity of the source website can be confusing. Since RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the website, it can sometimes get confusing on what feed a user is actually reading.
4. Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they would not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.
5. RSS feeds create higher traffíc and demands on a server. Most readers still prefer the whole update over a brief summary of the entry, thus they still access the site.
6. Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.
There are two things needed: an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. The RSS feed comes from an RSS-supported website. There are also websites that provide a líst of RSS feeds of different websites. An RSS aggregator is used to read the RSS feed from the source website. It scans and collects data on the latest RSS feeds from the worldwide web.
An aggregator comes in two forms: a downloadable program also known as desktop aggregator and an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators may require payment before they can be acquired, while internet-based aggregators are usually free of charge. All you need to do is to register an account then you are ready to use their services. Both versions allow you to customize or choose which RSS feeds to enter. Paid aggregators are usually chosen by more experienced users and they usually allow more freedom in customizing feeds.
1. Choose an RSS aggregator to use. For beginners, web-based aggregators are recommended since they are usually user-friendly.
Editor's Note: A good directory of both web-based and desktop aggregators for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms can be found at NewsOnFeeds.com .
2. Scan the homepage of your target website for the RSS or XML button. It contains the RSS code you need to enter in the aggregator. Copy this code. Syndic8 provides a directory of websites that support RSS.
3. Paste the code (which contains the URL of the website) in your aggregator. There is a space provided for pasting the code.
After you have done these three easy steps, you can start reading the RSS feeds coming from the website. New postings appear as they are published real time at the source website.
RSS and Internet Marketing
The original idea of RSS came from Netscape, where their intention was to provide a means for users to customize their personal homepage to contain links to websites that interest them, similar to bookmarking websites.
The application of RSS to internet marketing was an unforeseen development to RSS technology developers. Since users are given the freedom to add RSS feeds to their aggregators, those who are interested in particular products and services available on the internet can now be notified real time. Marketing becomes more specific to interested people and not a hit-and-miss operation.
Medium to big-scale companies who intend to use RSS for marketing their products and services should consider linking up with email account providers, (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google mail); networking websites (e.g. Friendster, Multiply, My Space, Hi5); and newspaper and television network websites (e.g. New York Times, CNN). Smaller businesses can also look at networking websites as well as personal blog websites (e.g. Blogspot) and websites of clubs and organizations that would probably make use of their products or services e.g. - a fishing supplies store could look for the website of their local fishing club for possible RSS marketing.
Clearly, RSS is an innovation in information management on the worldwide web as well as online marketing. We can expect better RSS technology in the not-so-distant future as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Google Webmaster Tools - What Googlebot sees
Google Webmaster Tools - What Googlebot sees
New look to Webmaster Tools:
New look and feel to it as well.Here's a couple of items I just noticed tonight
What googlebot sees
These statistics show you how the googlebot sees your site
Subscriber stats
If your site publishes feeds of its content, this page will display the number of users who have subscribed to these feeds using google products such as igoogle, google Reader, or Orkut.
With all the stirrings in the SERPs it is now obvious that there is something stirring at the plex.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Sun Industry Solutions
http://www.memory4less.com/sun-cpu-processors
read more | digg story
