High Accessibility Is Effective Search Engine Optimization

" Many web designers view search-engine optimization (SEO) as a dirty trick, and with good reason: search engine optimizers often pollute search engine results with spam, making it harder to find relevant information when searching. But in fact, there is more than one type of search-engine optimization. In common usage, black-hat SEO seeks to achieve high rankings in search engines by any means possible, whereas white-hat SEO seeks to code web pages in a way that is friendly to search engines ..."

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/accessibilityseo

Reality Check for Web Design

" The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, recognized that universal access is a critical element of good design.

The Web's landscape has altered dramatically since its inception, when many websites completely ignored users with disabilities.

"Most project managers assumed that blind people could not use the Web anyway, so therefore they also could not use the specific website that was being developed," said Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen.

"We have now eradicated this misunderstanding, and most Internet managers do know that they have to care about users with disabilities."

Despite progress, websites today are still three times harder for users with disabilities to use than for other users.

"In most projects, accessibility has fairly low priority because project managers underestimate the number of people who are impacted by design problems," Nielsen said. "They think that they are just losing a handful of customers, whereas in fact they may be turning away millions of customers, especially among senior citizens, who constitute a big and rich group that's getting more and more active online."

Now, a new software product allows developers to check pages for compliance with usability guidelines as they code ... "

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,55190,00.html

The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet

" Do you prefer to search for information online with Google or Yahoo? What about bargain shopping -- do you go to Amazon or eBay? Many of us make these kinds of decisions several times a day, based on who knows what -- maybe you don't like bidding, or maybe Google's clean white search page suits you better than Yahoo's colorful clutter.

But the nation's largest telephone companies have a new business plan, and if it comes to pass you may one day discover that Yahoo suddenly responds much faster to your inquiries, overriding your affinity for Google. Or that Amazon's Web site seems sluggish compared with eBay's ... "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100094.html

What's Your Link Reputation?

" It takes a long time for popular opinion to adjust to a new reality. In the world of search engine optimization, Google's Pagerank calculation has assumed mythical qualities, but popular understanding lags behind what Google is really doing now. The search engine has changed how it calculates rankings. Whether you're a developer/writer/SEO/Webmaster or marketer, an understanding of topic-sensitive Pagerank is essential to ensure your Web pages are considered relevant. If you're looking for a good boost from links from other Web sites, you'd better understand the concept of "link reputation. "

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/whats-your-link-reputation

Imagining the Google Future

Top experts help us plot four scenarios that show where the company's geniuses may be leading it -- and, perhaps, all of us.

" SAN FRANCISCO (BUSINESS 2.0 MAGAZINE) - We all know that the company Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded a mere eight years ago is one of the new century's most cunning enterprises. If there were any lingering doubts, 2005 erased them. Google's sales jumped an estimated 50 percent to $6 billion, its profits tripled to a projected $1.6 billion, and Wall Street answered with an unprecedented vote of confidence: a $120 billion market cap, a share price soaring above $400, and a price/earnings ratio close to 70.

That's a huge bet on future growth that seems unthinkable during the postbubble period. But in Google (Research)'s case, the exuberance is rational. That's because Brin, Page, and CEO Eric Schmidt cornered online advertising: They've made it precision-targeted and dirt cheap. U.S. companies still devote more ad dollars to the Yellow Pages than to the Internet (which accounts for less than 5 percent of overall ad spending). Yet Americans now spend more than 30 percent of their media-consuming time surfing the Web. When the ad dollars catch up to the trend, a mountain of cash awaits, and Google is positioned like no one else to scoop it up ..."

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/24/technology/dumbest_googleintro/index.htm

Terrific Real Estate Search Tools

" The combination of online maps, satellite and aerial imagery and real estate have spawned some fascinating and useful search sites, allowing you to visit virtual properties all around the world ... "

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3579191

Marketing in the Search Tail: Is the Pain Worth the Gain?

" Popular search terms tend to dominate the headlines, but there are literally millions of unique searches conducted every day, and savvy search marketers are taking advantage of the opportunities in the "search tail."

In fact, Google estimates that nearly 50 percent of all searches are one-of-a-kind. That's more than 100 million unique searches per day on Google alone.

These people aren't entering words like "travel" or "books." These are searchers who know what they want. These folks are searching for things like "virgin island bare boat charter company" or "Grohe plumbing supplies Aspen Colorado" It's hard to imagine all the variations people might enter into a search engine, and it's this incredible diversity that offers a significant opportunity for marketers.

You'll often hear this phenomenon described as the "search tail." If you're not sure what people are referring to, try visualizing a graph. Plot all search queries along the horizontal axis and plot the frequency of each query along the vertical axis. Place the most popular searches at the far left, followed by the somewhat popular searches, followed by less frequent searches, and finally the one-of-a-kind searches on the far right ..."

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3579396

Microsoft Tricks Hacker Into Jail

" Nobody was ever arrested for leaking the secret source code for parts of the Windows operating system in 2004, but a hacker who sold a copy online afterward was sentenced to two years in federal prison Friday.

William "IllWill" Genovese, 29, will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term, during which he'll be subject to electronic monitoring through special software installed on his computer, under the terms handed down by federal Judge William Pauley in New York. He remains free on bail, and is scheduled to report to prison March 14.

Genovese ran a popular hacking-oriented community website called IllMob.org in February 2004 when two 200-MB files containing incomplete portions of the source code for the Windows 2000 and Windows NT operating systems hit the internet, flooding dodgy websites and peer-to-peer networks like some hard-core geek version of the Paris Hilton video ..."

Like many others, Genovese downloaded a copy. Unlike others, he posted a note to his website offering it for sale.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70106-0.html?tw=wn_index_3

The New Boom

" Be careful what you wish for, all of you with the "Please, God, just one more bubble!" bumper stickers. It's getting wild again in Silicon Valley. In recent months, the breathtaking ascent of Google has lit a fire under its competitors, which include practically everyone in the online world. The result is all too familiar: seven-figure recruiting packages, snarled traffic on Highway 101, and a general sense that the boom is back.

A boom perhaps, but not (phew!) a bubble. There's a difference. Bubbles are inflated with hot air and speculation. They end with a wet pop, leaving behind messy splatters. Booms, on the other hand, tend to have strong foundations and gentle conclusions. Bubbles can be good: They spark a huge amount of investment that can make things easier for the next generation, even as they bankrupt the current one. But booms - with their more rational allocation of capital - are better. The problem is that exuberance can make it hard to tell one from the other.

Six years ago, people were likewise making the case that the dotcom frenzy was more boom than bubble, built as it was on the legitimate ground of the Internet revolution. And until late 1999 or so, maybe that was true. Then the Wall Street speculators gained the upper hand, and growth became malignant.

It's hard to know what "normal" prosperity looks like in Silicon Valley. This is, after all, the land of boom and bust - it's been alternating between greed and grief ever since the gold rush. But if there is such a thing as a healthy boom, we're living it now. Google may be trading above $400, but the Nasdaq as a whole has hardly budged in five years. Companies are once again minting millionaires, but venture capitalists are investing less than a fifth of what they were at the 2000 peak. About 50 technology companies went public last year, but more than 300 went public in 1999 ..."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/boom.html