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October 21, 2005

To be or not to be (number 1)?

Barry (rustybrick) over at Search Engine Roundtable pointed out an interesting thread taking place on Search Engine Watch Forums. The title of the thread is The importance of your own firm's rankings?

The thread begins with an SEO who has just started his business though he says he has "spent time at one of the larger SEO firms where the entire business model was based on incoming leads from their top search engine keyword rankings" and is now skeptical about the wisdom of relying on that since the company in question lost all their rankings and subsequently their revenue stream.

Is it important, he asks, to rank for SEM companies to rank for SEM keywords?

The prevailing wisdom in the thread seems to be no. Various reasons are cited for this, including:

• Too busy optimizing client sites to focus on own
• Too busy optimizing client sites to want the attention that comes from being top
• Too much hassle from unqualified leads
• Most leads come from referrals and articles not search engines

And so on.

It's an interesting discussion but one-sided so far. I'm really curious about the companies who do rank well. What is their side? Personally, I would expect a good fashion designer to dress well, a good dentist to have sparkling teeth and a good SEO firm to have strong rankings. If you're not using your own recipe, it raises the question--why not?

Posted by Susan Esparza on 10/21/05 at 11:43 AM
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

Money makes the world go round

It's time to report 3rd Quarter earnings and Yahoo and Google have already checked in. As always, it's good to be in search with both companies beating last year's numbers.

Yahoo reported on Tuesday, beating analysts' expectations with a 47% increase over last year and posting a net revenue of $1.33 billion.

Google's earnings nearly doubled from a year ago. They're also up 11% from the 2nd quarter this year, reporting revenues of $381 million.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 10/21/05 at 9:45 AM
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

October 19, 2005

Cheaters Never Prosper

Except at Ask Jeeves it seems. The good folks at Ask Jeeves (and yes, I'm going to be stubborn about holding onto the butler as long as I can) have whipped up some new quick answers and they are both helpful and delicious. The first development aims at bringing gamers the information they so desperately need, like FAQs, walkthroughs and of course, cheats so that their gaming experience may be its most genuine.

But everyone knows that gaming is hard work which is why AJ doesn't stop with just game hacks. No, they go above and beyond to provide tasty recipes at the drop of a query. Have leftover food from Thanksgiving? Try a quick search for [turkey recipes]. The recipes come via a partnership with AllRecipes.com.

Perhaps someone should tell Ask Jeeves that gamers don't cook.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 10/19/05 at 1:38 PM
See more entries in Ask, Branding

October 5, 2005

Save Jeeves!

There is a movement growing to save the butler from his untimely demise. The decision to send Jeeves into leisurely retirement was made last month (strangely, during the midst of an ad campaign aimed at emphasizing the Ask Jeeves brand.)

But many do not want Jeeves to go the way of the dinosaur and one of them has begun a blog. Claiming to be a former employee of the company, the anonymous blogger is issuing a call to arms for all those who would like to see the butler stay around. The author says that he "survived the best of times and the worst of times in the company -- and saw so many layoffs it would make your head spin. But through it all, [he] kept faith in the butler, and that faith was always rewarded."

Arguments for keeping the old chap around range from "well, why not?" to "he's fun" to "Jeeves offers a personal touch."

Me? I just like English butlers and if we can't have Jeeves, can we please have Alfred instead?

Posted by Susan Esparza on 10/ 5/05 at 3:29 PM
See more entries in Ask, Branding, Fun Stuff

Let me check your agenda.

Yahoo has purchased Upcoming.org, a social calendaring site that allows people to manage and post events so that anyone can access the information. Calendars can be syndicated to a personal website or searched on the Upcoming.org homepage. The service is free.

A quick glance at the registered users shows that California and New York are the largest users of the Upcoming service with San Francisco and San Francisco Bay Area as the most voracious users in California. NYC, of course, dominates the New York registrations.

Obviously, this acquisition continues on Yahoo's efforts at expanding local search and making their network of services ever more comprehensive. In addition to just keeping eyes on their ads longer (there are currently no ads on Upcoming.org), it allows them to mine data about what people are interested in.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 10/ 5/05 at 10:38 AM
See more entries in Branding

October 4, 2005

The sound you hear is Microsoft screaming.

Google and Sun are having a press conference at this very moment and rumor has it that they're going to announce a browser-based OpenOffice. The announcement will come via live webcast. The rumor originated over at Slashdot.

Google has been going in all directions recently, challenging all sorts of established players on their own turf. It's a bit worrying to see Google work on everything but their core search product. Not that the question of why Google would want a browser based office on their servers isn't obvious. When they said they want to index and organize the world's information, they clearly meant it in earnest.

Hat-tip to Google Blogoscoped for the links.

Update: Confirmed. Gee, guys, we know that you don't like Microsoft but it's not actually a good idea to taunt them.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 10/ 4/05 at 10:32 AM
See more entries in Branding

I think that's in Act III…

I was lamenting just the other day that all my books needed to come with the Find function so that I didn't waste precious minutes flipping through and scanning the pages to find the passage I was looking for. Google's ambitious Print project is one way that I can see to making that dream of mine a reality but even better is the Yahoo-Internet archive collaboration, the Open Content Alliance.

According to reports from BBC, the Yahoo digital project will be opt-in, not opt out--unlike Google Print--which is bound to make publishers much happier. However, since the OCA plans to display the entire contents of the book--again unlike the snippets that Google's project will allow--it's doubtful that publishers will actually want to opt-in with much of their catalog. The idea that giving information away free can lead to greater returns in the long run eludes publishers just as it is eluding the recording industry.

In the race to be the best digital library, Google has the head start but Yahoo is coming up quickly. Stay tuned next week when we see if I win my bet with myself and hear an announcement from MSN about their project.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 10/ 4/05 at 10:13 AM
See more entries in Branding, Google, Search Engines

Back from beyond.

It's been a busy couple of weeks here and so you all have noticed that the blog took a bit of a break. We were on our yearly retreat two weeks ago and last week was all about catching up. Some of the stories we missed covering were folded into this month's SEOToolSet newsletter and some have merely slipped through the cracks. I'll take a stab at picking the most important ones back up.

Stay tuned, true believers.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 10/ 4/05 at 10:12 AM
See more entries in Google, SEOToolSet, Search Engines