SimplyHired Job Search Engine Is Simply Fascinating

" A couple of days ago I met with SimplyHired. Beyond some interesting things that they were telling me about their roadmap, I was fascinated by the vertical vs. horizontal search discussion we had.

My personal belief is that the more verticals there are the more people will default to general search engines because theyre overwhelmed and confused. However, theres lots and lots of interesting things going on in vertical search or verticals where search is the primary navigation tool.

SimplyHired is a metasearch engine for jobs (job search is inherently local), but on top of search results the company is building lots and lots of added value. In other words, aggregating the listings from multiple providers (including the big three) is just the beginning ... "

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2870

Phone start-up takes on Google

" AN Adelaide software startup is spoiling for a brawl with Google as it prepares for the launch of a technology that allows internet users to click on any phone number to set up an instant call.

PepTalk International has patented on-the-fly conversion of phone numbers into telephone calls, allowing it to sell the service to companies that want to receive instant feedback from customers.
The patent sets it up in competition with Google, which is offering click to call on Google Ads ... "

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,17986353%5E15320%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

Retailers See Online Search Pay Off

" Though recent studies show consumers generally prefer not to click on sponsored links, favoring instead the "organic" or unsponsored lists, the majority of retailers surveyed by Shop.org said paid searches successfully drove holiday sales ... "

http://www.crm-daily.com/news/Retailers-See-Online-Search-Pay-Off/story.xhtml?story_id=1320091D20LC

Search Sites Better At Getting Shoppers To Buy

" PALO ALTO, Calif. (Dow Jones)-Online search engines such as Google Inc. (GOOG)s ( GOOG) Internet site are better at turning shoppers into buyers than other sites displaying advertising and marketing efforts on the Internet, a new study shows.

The study, by researchers at WebSideStory Inc. (WSSI), found that search sites produce more than twice the conversion rate of many other Internet marketing efforts. The study defines conversion rate as the percentage of visitors to a site who view an ad or clicking on a search result and purchase a product or service.

WebSideStory (WSSI) says the study is the first it has conducted comparing conversion rates on the Internet. It plans to release the study, which relied on data collected during the final three months of 2005, on Monday ... "

http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&news_id=dji-00025820060130&feed=dji&date=20060130&cat=INDUSTRY

Turnkey Search Engine Marketing with ValueTraffic and MyEzClicks

" In times past, your choices as to how to promote and drive traffic to your web site were pretty limited: you could buy 468 x 60 banner ads (no rich media allowed) on a niche site, or have the ads triggered by a keyword on search engines. Webmasters discovered quickly that another great route to high quality traffic was to optimize their sites for the search engines and achieve page one ranking for popular search phrases related to their businesses ... "

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/valuetraffic-myezclicks

Web Presentation Patterns

" Patterns structure our lives, whether we think about them or not. A regular bedtime and morning alarm and lunch time makes your life easier by removing some of the guesswork.

Patterns play a part in Web application development, too. Design patterns are standard solutions to common problems in software design. Various patterns have been well documented and allow us to learn and apply a proven methodology for development. It establishes a design vocabulary that can be shared between developers a programming shorthand, as it were ... "

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/web_presentation_patterns/

Seven Accessibility Mistakes

" There are several reasons inaccessible Web products get published. One we discussed in my last article is that some clients just dont care about accessibility. Their reasons make a lot of sense if you put yourself in their shoes. Another reason is developer mistakes. Making mistakes is natural, and suffering the consequences and learning from them is what makes us better developers and better people.

Here are some of the major mistakes I encountered during my years as a professional Web developer. If we keep an eye open for them in the future, we are a lot more likely to create accessible, beautiful Web products without much hassle and make both clients and visitors happy ... "

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/seven_accessibility_mistakes_part_1/

Semi-Competitive Design Competition

" Semi-Competitive is a design, film & fashion competition brought to you by Design is Kinky and Adobe. Closely aligned with the Semi-Permanent events, the competition consists of three categories; Graphic, Motion/Film and Fashion. Each category not only has the chance of winning a large prize but winners will also gain world wide exposure of their work at the Semi-Permanent events ... "

http://www.semipermanent.com/sc/

Tech firms decline human rights briefing

"Critics have been blasting American companies for helping Chinas communist government enforce censorship and silence dissent in return for access to a potentially lucrative market.

All four of the companies invited by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Microsoft Corp Cisco Systems Inc Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. won't attend Wednesdays session, said Lynne Weil, a congressional spokeswoman ... "

http://cyborgdemocracy.net/2006/02/tech-firms-decline-human-rights.html

Survey: Advertisers Say Search Ads On Google Better Than Yahoo, MSN

" MARKETERS BELIEVE THAT SEARCH ADS on Google will yield better results than search ads on Yahoo, MSN, or other engines, according to a new study released Tuesday by research company Outsell.

"Yahoo and MSN face extended minority status in the ratings of advertisers if they don't change the perception that ads on Google are more effective," stated the report, which Outsell distributed in New York on Tuesday, at the annual meeting of the Software & Information Industry Association.

For the study, Outsell fielded a survey to 1,200 advertisers in November. About 71 percent of respondents said that search ads on Google were effective, compared to 62 percent who considered search ads on Yahoo effective and 49 percent who thought MSN search ads were effective.

But when Outsell looked more closely at the results, it found that the most enthusiastic Google fans also had the smallest marketing budgets. The average marketing budget of respondents who rated Google "extremely" effective totaled $3.7 million. But average budgets for those who considered Yahoo and MSN extremely effective came to $4.6 million ... "

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=39297

Collaborators at Google and beyond

" Here's a revelation: The boy billionaires running Google put pragmatism ahead of principle to avoid a dustup with the government in China.

I know you're shocked shocked! to hear that the world's most famous search engine company would actually kowtow to a repressive regime over the sticky wicket that is Web censorship. But give cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin credit for hard boiled realism. They know that free speech doesn't pay the bills ... "

http://news.com.com/Collaborators+at+Google--and+beyond/2010-1071_3-6032373.html?tag=nefd.pop