News and Guides » 2007 » December

Goggle is all set to invade the realm of storage now. It may be a ‘Virtual Hard Drive’ from Google. An article recently published in the November 27 issue of the ‘Wall Street Journal’ discussed about strong possibilities of such an innovation by Google.

The ‘Wall Street Journal’ cited few people who are closely connected with the source of this information and are well familiar with the matter. On that basis,WSJ put forward a claim that Google is close to announce an innovative service that would help users store all their word-processing documents, digitized music, video clips, and photographs on its servers.

Introducing New Approach

This service will facilitate everyone to move their digital data and other forms of information on to the Google’s servers. This ‘Internet Cloud’ approach of Google will also provide a specifically dedicated ’search tool box’ in order to facilitate users to reach at their own data. The facility will be extended from multiple computers and all handheld devices with a password. This will be a new approach as the user will be able to access its own data from anywhere. It actually breaks the traditional set up where user can only access through its own machine.

Cloud Concept, the Base

The ‘Cloud Concept’ landed almost five years back along with the concept of Software as a Service (SAAS). SAS was a brainchild of the service provider ‘SalesForce.com‘ and it delivers multiple applications to the customers through internet and ‘Amazon.com‘. The service provider ‘SalesForce.com‘ is offering its dedicated servers and storage services though the internet.

“Cloud computing is going mainstream. The apps people use every day, such as e-mail, photo sharing and word processing, are moving to the Web because it’s easier to share and access your data from anywhere when it’s online in one place.” Said Google’s spokesperson to eWeek though denying confirming the facts given in the ‘Wall Street Journal’.

Google has multiple applications that are internet based and of course free for all users. It is already offering free online storage facility for its Gmail Web Mail Client and Picasa web Album Software. Paid services for online storage is also underway from Google.

Visualizing Challenges Ahead

will certainly face a consternation situation among privacy advocates when it will launch a service of data storage involving the movement of customer’s files onto its servers. Microsoft will definitely pose hurdles and stiff competition as it is also concurrently working on the concept of online file storage services called Live Folders. Another big competitor in this field would be EMC. This traditional storage company, EMC, recently acquired an online storage services provider company Mozy and is growing fast.

The online anywhere access storage concept of Google, assuming that it is coming with all these features as the ‘Wall Street Journal’ reported, would be facing some more relevant challenges and will raise some very pertinent questions regarding its sanctity. It is not going to be a cakewalk for Google.

Security and Privacy Concerns

One of the major challenges is the accessing of user’s data and files irrespective of place, machine, and individuality. Allowing the access just with a password would certainly involve the privacy and security issues. In this time when password theft has become so common, spywares and malwares are continuously hunting for such confidential and personal information of users, the idea of an access through a password seems a bit lightly taken. Considering the intentions and ability along with the strength and user friendly attitude of Google, it seems less likely that Google will not be addressing these issues with utmost care. Despite that, users will want to be doubly sure about the security of their own data on the Google’s servers.

Data Encryption

The idea generates several other related points in one’s mind. How Google will deal with the issue of ‘Encryption of data’. Who will be managing the encryption keys in such a situation? Access to the stored data and file would definitely have certain limiting factors. The ‘cloud’ may also go down at any moment and during that period users will not be able to access their data and file. If this process would be completely online and no other alternative is available for users to access their files offline, it would be an obscure situation and Google certainly have to include all possible remedial measures.

Online Backup

This online data and file storage system of Google would also require an added backup service. It is not wise enough to have distrust on Google guys as this is an almost parallel pre-prequisite.Google has an advantage of learning from the experiences of already functioning services in the market like ‘EMC’.

Geoff Bock, an analyst of repute from the Gilbane Group expressed his views on this possibility, if Google creates an online backup service, it will be thrust into competition with EMC and others who have been practicing storage for years. However, Google lacks the expertise EMC does in information management, such as backup, recovery and archiving.

Desktop Environment

Supplementing the user’s ‘Desktop Environment’ is one more relevant issue that would need Google’s attention. If the provider has any plans to make such supplements more curative and safety measures in addition to the in built affordability, it will definitely require working hard on implementing a file system in the cloud.

Collaborative Web Environment for Sharing Information

Geoff Bock favors an idea of creating a collaborative web environment. He advocates creating Microsoft’s SharePoint in the cloud. This software supplements multiple functions for users. People will certainly find this utility as immensely helpful for working in the cloud on their desktop or handheld devices, collaborative web environment that paves the way for ad-hoc information sharing among work groups, says Geoff Bock of Gilbane Group.

The idea of creating an online data storage services perhaps has a right timing in today’s business and information age. The idea however could prove a sticky one also and Google would require being doubly sure of its success.

We are on the edge of an ending year now. Few more days and we shall bid goodbye 2007 with a happy note. It is time when everyone takes a little time out and looks back on what was accomplished and what was not. Days after days, weeks after weeks, and months after months, it is the time to make lists. You will observe that almost everyone is busy making lists, lists of successes, lists of failures, lists of accomplishments, lists of tasks that could not be completed, lists of progresses made, and lists of all that we can think of.

In business world also, this is the time to check and judge various aspects and make lists. Holiday season is on the cards now. It is time that companies are looking for easy publicity. Journalists are waiting eagerly for the announcements of lists. It is basically time to announce lists and let the world know of what happened during all those previous months.

Realm of the internet is no different either. Search companies are also companies making businesses after all. It is time for the search engine experts to know how search was performed during the whole year. What people wanted this year most, how they performed their searches on the internet, what companies offered to the customers, which companies survived with most business volumes and numerous such questions will be answered this fortnight.

‘Search on the internet’ is on the agenda for this week. Search companies will be putting out their lists containing numerous data and analyses. But the most wanted information would be ‘the top searches of the year 2007′. Microsoft however, will not be bringing out its list of top searches at this time for reasons unknown.

Top Searches at Google

Google, the most popular search platform announced its 2007 End of Year Zeitgeist on December 4, 2007. Zeitgeist of the year 2007 included the most popular and the fastest-rising global search terms that people searched on Google.com. Google went deep in to the ocean of searches, search queries, and various other related aspects in order to capture what people preferred this year. Google has made its hilarious efforts public now and is available at http://www.google.com/zeitgeist

Google’s lists of Top Ten Searches (Global) include (1) iphone; (2) badoo; (3) facebook; (4) dailymotion; (5) webkinz; (6) youtube; (7) ebuddy; (8) second life; (9) hi5; (10) club penguin. Top Ten Fastest Rising Search Terms in the United Sates are (1) iphone; (2 )webkinz; (3) tmz; (4) transformers; (5) youtube; (6) club penguin; (7) MySpace; (8) heroes; (9) facebook; (10) anna nicole smith.

The Fastest Falling (US) Search Terms indicate another interesting trend. There are many more specific search lists that Google has classified for Ringtones, Music, Movies, and few others. You may have a look at these lists.

Marissa Mayer, the Vice President of Google’s search products and user experience noted,”There’s a huge surge in interest in social networking. Three of the top 10 rising terms were for popular social networks (four, if you count YouTube). Social networking sites also showed up in lists of top search terms published by other search companies.

Top searches at Yahoo

Yahoo is another most popular search platform and its search lists of the year indicate varying and interesting trends. The search results analyses here are on different levels in comparison to Google. Instead of the ‘Rising’ and ‘Falling’ trend, Yahoo adopted ‘Categories’ as its basis for search listings.

‘Yahoo’s Top Ten Tech Terms‘ are (1) YouTube; (2) Wikipedia; (3) Facebook; (4) iTunes; (5) iPod; (6) iPhone; (7) Nintendo Wii; (8) Xbox; (9) Sony PlayStation 3; and (10) Guitar Hero.

Similarly, ‘Top Ten News Search Terms on Yahoo‘ are (1)Saddam Hussein ; (2) Iran ; (3) Iraq ; (4) President George W. Bush; (5) Oil and Gas Prices; (6) Barrack Obama; (7) Hillary Rodham Clinton; (8) San Diego Fires; (9) Afghanistan; (10) Virginia Tech.

There are several other categories for ‘Top Ten Searches on Yahoo’ including ‘Top Ten Environmental Searches‘, ‘Top Ten Troubled Stars‘, ‘Top Ten on Yahoo Kids‘, ‘Top Ten on Del.ici.ous‘, ‘Top Ten Send Offs‘, ‘Top Ten Sports News‘, ‘Top Ten Consumer-Call-Backs‘, You can see all those top searches of the year 2007 at ‘http://buzz.yahoo.com/toptrends2007/‘.

Top Searches at Ask.com

Big searches on another extremely popular search engine Ask.com demonstrates a different set of people’s preferences during the year 2007. ‘MySpace’ was the biggest one of all here. Surprisingly, ‘Bebo’, ‘Orkut’, and ‘Facebook’ find no place in this top ten lists. The list includes terms, (1) MySpace; (2) Dictionary; (3) Google; (4) Themes; (5) Area Codes; (6) Cars; (7) Weather; (8) Games; (9) Song Lyrics; (10) Movies.

Ask.com’s Top Ten Television Searches of 2007 highlight names as (1) Hannah Montana; (2) Family Guy; (3) SpongeBob Square Pants; (4) WWE; (5) American Idol; (6) Big Brother; (7) Gilmore Girls; (8) South Park; (9) Charmed; (10) Grey’s Anatomy.

The Top Ten Searches of Sports Teams places Boston Red Sox on the top of it. On a separate aspect, Jenifer Lopez was at the first place in the list of Top Ten Celebrity Search of Pregnant Stars of 2007. Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton stood at first and second ranks in the Top Ten Search List of Presidential Candidates of 2007 at Ask.com. It is also very interesting to note that the ‘Democrats’ searched more on the internet in comparison to the ‘Republicans’. ‘Fred Thompson’ was the only top Republican who was searched more and the reason is perhaps that he is the most video-genic of all the candidates, says Ask.com. The Omni-favorite Disney television channel series was the top in the Ask.com top television series searches.

Learning Lessons for Bright Future

The search trends of the year 2007 have a different direction to that of the last year’s search preferences. New concepts are evolving and many more new popularity clads would be landing on the surface of the internet in the coming year also. The list certainly will not remain the same when we shall be counting one more year.

Common people, website owners, and the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts, all will find these announcements of the top searches lists of popular search engines very useful for their future preferences and plannings.Many of us who are going to enter in to the world of the internet and are thinking to establish websites of their choices and preferences would find these search preferences as the guiding lines.

We would certainly be witnessing upcoming of many more websites based on the search results and people’s preferences in the coming year of 2008.It is therefore the best time to learn our lessons for a bright future.

Here comes the world’s first ever vertical Search Engine Wiki!

Online training institution, ‘Search Engine College‘, recently launched this vertical Search Engine Wiki specifically dedicated to the ’search engines’ and ’search engine marketing’. This Wiki is based on a core concept of providing a ‘collaborative online library’ of ’search engine marketing (SEM)’ resources.

Kalena and Jerry Jordan, the founders of the Search Engine College, invested handsome ten years digging in to the ocean of web world with search engine optimization tasks, intensive industrial research and practice and could evolve a vertical concept that is extremely innovative and beneficial to common internet users, the expert professionals, and the businesses equally.

“Search Engine Wiki actually began life as a massive collection of bookmarks, tools and site links that we’d gathered over the past 10 years as search engine optimization consultants”, says Kalena Jordan.

Kalena Jordan further narrates the experience, “As I was constantly referencing these within the SEO courses that I teach at Search Engine College and in my Search Engine Advice Column, I realized that the collection would make fantastic starter content for a community-driven wiki. Last year, we discovered that the perfect domain (SearchEngineWiki.com) was available and it seemed like serendipity. We’ve been growing the Wiki ever since”.

Advancing the existing concepts of Wikipedia and some more Wikis, the Search Engine Wiki also has an interactive design base. It is now in its BETA release and anyone can contribute for its enrichment.

“Search Engine College” is an online training institution and it offers a variety of courses in “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)” and “Search Engine Marketing (SEM)” concepts. Search Engine College (SEC) is owned by Jordan Consulting Group and managed by well-known search engine optimization industry expert Kalena Jordan. The college conducts training courses and programs of different durations in conjunction with experienced professionals and teachers specialized in various aspects of search engine marketing (SEM). These courses are well-respected in the industry.

Wiki users can suggest resources and definitions to be added or sign up to become editors and add these resources themselves. Search Engine College students are also encouraged to collaborate and contribute to the Wiki during their training and beyond.

Salient Search Engine Wiki Features

The Search Engine Wiki would be facilitating users with plenty of resources. Several of these resources exist on the website and many more are expected to be added in times to come.

Lists of numerous search engines are an interesting resource base that has been categorized in accordance with the country, type and industry specifically.

There exists a “Glossary” for commonly used and applied terms in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and the Pay per Click (PPC).

The Wiki also contains a library of search engine marketing articles. Many more articles on various other related aspects will be added in near future. This is a unique source of employment resources listings concerning the SEO, PPC, and SEM job vacancies. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the Wiki site has answers to many of the common queries and provides clarifications.

Webmasters will find the lists of popular search engines as well as the search engine marketing tools and various times saving software’s extremely useful for their help. The lists will be updated constantly.

Latest info about the upcoming search industry conferences and several other events would be of immense help to all the professionals and companies who are looking forward to imbibe current advancements in this sector.

There exists a dedicated section on this Search Engine Wiki that contains introductions to all the well known search industry personalities. Search Engine Wiki has a plan to have a large variety of other resources relating to the exciting and fast-paced world of search engine marketing.

Identify Yourself and Derive Numerous Advantages

You may be a webmaster or a small business owner having a desire to learn various innovative marketing strategies and approaches in order to market your own web site with the help of search engines. You could be a Search Engine Optimizer (SEO) or Search Engine Marketer (SEM) and willing to enhance your industry skills and derive more profits. People may be identifying you as marketing executive who has been entrusted with the task of promoting a company or client’s web site with higher search engine rankings. In case you are a web site owner then you might be interested in making a little more extra cash by promoting a product or any services with the help of search engine friendly techniques. You may be developing your business as a website designer or you may be running an advertising agency and you must be looking for various beneficial search engine services that you would like to offer to your clients. You may be simply an expert associated with multifarious functions related to the internet technology or just a novice or an amateur internet lover expressing yourself and looking for more popularity.

This latest innovation called Search Engine Wiki is for everyone’s advantage.

Welcome Search Engine Wiki !

Dot TK, the internet registry for .tk domain names has reopened with a domain name landrush sunrise period. Numerous companies, businesses, and corporations including several of the Fortune500 companies were facilitated with the .tk domain registration corresponding to their registered trademarks during past five weeks.

Landrush denotes the end of the sunrise period. During this period all individuals and organizations are allowed to register any domain name without producing any evidence of the trademarks ownership. The sunrise period began on October26, 2007 when the Government of Tokelau opened the registry of ,tk domains.

“The Sunrise Period was a success. Many corporations took the opportunity to register their trademarks within the .TK domain zone. Starting today everyone can register any domain they want, just like any other global Internet domain name registry. If any trademark disputes arise, we will guide the registrant and the trademark owner to our WIPO-based domain name dispute policy, which is enforced on all paid domain name registrations, said Joost Zuurbier, CEO of Dot TK.

Matt Kelly, the business Development manager at Dot TK was happy to observe that the Dot TK brand is gaining significance and attention from many large players in the domain name registry industry. He further remarked, “Thanks to increased interest from not only ICANN accredited registrars, but also from Internet service providers we continue to increase our market share. Our rewarding Partner Program allows registrars and ISPs alike to share in our success”.

‘Dot TK‘ has been able to add more than 1.6 million registered domain names since its inception in the year 2005.There is an addition of more than 8,000 domains names everyday on an average. With such huge incoming business the

Dot TK has now become one of the largest domain name registries in the world. Dot TK is in fact a joint-venture of the Government of Tokelau, a country in the South pacific, it’s another communication company named Teletok and a privately owned company BV Dot TK.

The Government of Tokelau believes that the Dot TK Registry and domain names will have a big social impact on the lives of the people in Tokelau. The prime objective of the Dot TK Registry is to enhance the awareness of Tokelau in the world, establishing relationships with larger corporations and brand names who can provide communication, education and medical expertise to the region and contribute with finances the island of Tokelau with royalty fees paid over domain names sold. Government of Tokelau hopes to grow towards a more financially independent situation this way.

The mission statement of the Dot TK Registry clearly states that it intends to create a network of individuals, and companies that have an existing Internet presence and have these users register a Dot TK domain name to provide a free, short, easy and secure alternative name for their Internet identity.

A new innovative development is knocking the doors of internet world for past few months now. Various businesses and companies are now taking up creating Business Blogs. Many of the professionals and executives have been inspired and promoted to write business blogs or corporate blogs for specific businesses and companies.The business community across the globe including many of the Fortune 500 companies are now feeling the warmth of these business blogs.

The term ‘blog‘ is no new to the common people now. Many professionals from varied sectors including journalism, technology, and health adopted the blog-mode to express themselves in more creative and innovative way. We also observe that the teenagers have flooded the blog world with their presence.

The business world simultaneously explored and discovered plenty of advantages of the blogging in order to boost their business activities in many ways. Business blogs are extremely good, flexible, reliable, and almost inexpensive tools for promoting any idea, product, and service.

Business Website: A Pre-Requisite

One of the pre-requisites for having a business blog is having a fully customized business website first. Such business website must be properly optimized by someone who is an expert Search Engine Optimization professional having an extended vision and experience. These expert SEO professionals must also have a deep understanding of the search engines and the specific business environment and needs.

Business Blogs never intend to replace the full fledged website of any company. It is basically an added feature to the business website that keeps all the updating and latest news with all other future visions and conceptualizations of the company.

Business Blogs and Search Engines: New Friendship

Business Blogs are the new friends of search engines. Majority of the search directories and popular search engines including Yahoo!, Google, Alta-Vista, MSN, Alexa, AOL, and several others crave for fresh, latest, new information. Blogs are the best resources for such requirements as they are continuously updated with new posts. Frequency of these posts varies from once a week to even many posts a day.

Business Blogs normally contain numerous links in addition to the fresh content. These links are also a preferred source for the search engine indexing. Links and the content on the blogs propagates everywhere on the web. There are many targeted news and other websites that require listings of such blogs and their blog posts.

Search engines have enabled their search spiders with many more algorithms targeting blog searches. Most of the search engine spiders now are taking traverses throughout the blog world for several times a day in order to pick daily and updated fresh content. This situation clarifies one more aspect projecting a bright future for business blogs. The more fresh and updated content these search engine would require, the more will be visits by search spiders on business blogs. It is not tough for anyone to understand the basics of this simple equation. A well managed and updated business blog having all relevant information and powered data would result in to a high search engine ranking for sure. Considering this importance of the business blogs, no one would perhaps wonder if these business blogs are a passing fad.

Google is undoubtedly an omnipresent and one of the most preferred search tools across the globe. The company was smart enough to foresee and develop a vision about future of the blogging technique. We all witnessed incoming of the Blogger by Google in the beginning of the year 2003.It was a pioneering effort introducing the classic blogging software by Google. A public statement in the New York Times read, “They do not even know how they are going to use the company, but they will certainly have some potential use for it”.

Business Blog: The Rationale

There could be many reasons to start a business blog. Aims and objectives would definitely differ from business to business. Many of the internet experts still believe that blogging is no fad and it will last for a longer period and the future will see many more new versions and innovative inclusions therein. Businesses aspiring for a higher ranking for their business websites in search engines like Google will have an added advantage with a business blog concurrently. It is remarkable tool for such an achievement.

Many of the businesses do have their dedicated business websites but are not getting the results they hoped for. The Return on Investment (ROI) from tools like the banners and various other ecommerce techniques including email marketing may not be satisfactory for such businesses. Business Blogs would be of immense help in dealing and coping with such downfalls. Above all, the most important feature of a business blog is its timeliness. In business, relevancy of the information and its right timings are two important factors that often decide the profitability of a business. A business blog serves both these purposes well. All current and relevant information at the perfect time can easily be placed on these blogs. Search engines would have their feeds at the right time and thus the potential customers would receive the pertinent information at the right time in their hands.

Business Blogging: Intelligent Selection of Tools

The internet is riding on a new wave of rushing business blogging software and many more applications are specifically facilitating business blogging with more ease. All these tools are available to give a thrust to the business and propel the business website towards the top search engine rankings. Numerous other developments and researches are on their way and would definitely come up with innovative concepts adding more profitability to the business blogging.

Selecting the most appropriate software and other supportive tools would need a careful study, analysis, and evaluation of all the products available in the market. An intelligent selection with due diligence becomes always easy with the help of SEO professionals.

Business Blogging: Parallel Benefits

Business blogs extend numerous parallel benefits to the businesses and their websites. It is one of the smarter ways to achieve higher search engine rankings without any paid submissions. One a higher ranking in a couple of major search engines is achieved the probability of obtaining higher rankings in other search engines is automatically enhanced. Advantages of programs like Pay per Click (PPC) are definitely worth appreciating but the business blogs provide an opportunity of free marketing with an infinite Return on Investments (ROI). Sharing the concurrent information with all the customers create an extended visibility of the business websites. It takes just a week or so for Google to show up the fresh content. A business blog facilitates other business bloggers to point numerous prospects towards the business website and the business blog and it costs nothing.

Business blogs are not like a magical stick that would solve all the business related issues in a moment. Companies should not take the concept singularly. An ideal winning combination would be the addition of business blogs with the business websites as a parallel activity instead. Addition of a well conceptualized business blog is a nice tool to establish effective and timely communication with the existing and prospective customers along with achieving the higher search engine rankings.