Microsoft Search Technology Takes Over Yahoo’s Organic Search in US and Canada
September 2nd, 2010As of Tuesday, August 24, 2010, Yahoo Inc.’s website search requests in the US and Canada are now being processed by Microsoft Corp. Bing Search Engine Technology in providing the search results to users. Microsoft and Yahoo forged an alliance 13 months ago to place a dent or play catch up to Google’s dominance over the search market. At this time, Microsoft is only handling search requests in English but have plans on transitioning the technology to other countries by 2012.
Yahoo has been aggressively communicating with its pay-per-click account holders that testing of the portal that will migrate their current Yahoo Search Marketing Account to a new Microsoft AdCenter Account or associate it with an existing Microsoft AdCenter account. The portal is being tested only on a few accounts. All affected users will be notified when once the transition portal is available for use. A transition checklist has also been provided, on how to prepare your Yahoo Search Marketing account to be in compliance with Bing AdCenter.
Congress Legalized Gambling Over the Internet
July 29th, 2010Webmasters, Web Developers and alike have always been in a tight spot whenever a client presents a project that involves online gaming or the promotion of online gaming. The tight spot is not knowing exactly what the law allows and what it does not. Even though it is not the job of the webmaster to know about the law it is almost always good to be knowledgeable on the subject.
On Wednesday, July 26, 2010, Congress took a step forward in approving the bill that would allow for legalized gambling over the Internet. In accordance to an article written by Steve Tetreault of Stephens Washington Bureau titled “Place Your Bets: Online Gambling Clears Obstacle”, dated July 28, 2010 in the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper, “The legislation was approved by the Financial Services Committee by a 41-22 vote. Onlookers included lobbyists for the gaming industry, Indian tribes, poker interests and companies that operate gaming sites outside the United States.” It was indicated that none of the Nevada lawmakers were not involved on the committee. Representative Shely Berkley, D-Nev. and Dina Titus, D-Nev endorses the bill and concludes that the future of gaming is online and that expansion of online gaming will create more jobs for the state.
At this time, Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines still do not allow any type of advertising that is related to gaming. Since Google is the dominant search engine, below is what they consider prohibitive:
Examples of products that Google AdWords prohibits:
-promotion of gambling, sports betting, or casino games regardless of whether money is exchanged
-gambling-related vouchers or promos such as bonus codes
-gambling-related tutoring and educational materials such as books and e-books
-gambling software
-poker odds calculators
-online Scratch games for money run by a private entity
-tips, odds, handicapping, and sports picks
-pages obviously driving traffic to online gambling sites such as through excessive third-party ads
-non-national or state lotteries
-national or state lottery affiliates or aggregators
There are exceptions, however, to the rules. Here are examples of acceptable products according to Google’s Content Guidelines:
-approved online gambling advertisers
-location-based or “bricks and mortar” gambling
-contests, sweepstakes, and raffles
-sale of physical scratch cards
-online scratch games run by state, national, or Indian reservations
-fantasy sports contests
-financial spread betting
-physical gambling equipment
-national or state lotteries
The most important thing to remember is that it is always the responsibility of the client to make sure that their website content are within the confines of the law – whether it is in the US or other countries.
Good luck!!
Yahoo – Bing Search SEO Editorial Guidelines
July 15th, 2010Yahoo has provided a web site for its advertisers advising them of the changes to take affect during the transition period of Yahoo Search results being managed and operated by Microsoft AdCenter and Bing search program before the end of the year. Per Yahoo’s Transition Center “beginning in early August, a new set of Editorial Guidelines will be in effect for all paid search advertisers using Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft Advertising adCenter. These new guidelines were developed jointly by Yahoo! and Microsoft to provide you with a consistent editorial experience leading up to, and following, your transition to the adCenter platform. Reviewing these guidelines, and making any necessary changes to your account, will help ensure that your ads remain eligible for display. The Editorial Guidelines are available in adCenter for the US and Canada.”
Here’s a link for your convenience:
http://advertising.yahoo.com/transition/en_US/editorial_guidelines
Microsoft Bing & Yahoo Search Alliance – Organic Search Transition
July 15th, 2010In accordance to my Yahoo Account Update that I received via email today, Thursday, July 15, 2010, Yahoo’s organic listing will be powered by the Bing search engine program beginning in the August/September timeframe of this year (2010). Yahoo is advising its advertisers to start preparing for the transition in case of any unforeseen changes that could dramatically affect its advertiser’s business revenue. They suggest that we start comparing organic search results between Bing and Yahoo and start making certain notations on how Bing handles and views our web site using the Bing Webmaster Tools. If organic search results are an important source of referrals to your website, you’ll want to make sure that you’re prepared for this change.
Here are some of their emailed suggestions:
- Compare your organic search rankings on Yahoo! Search and Bing for the keywords that drive your business, to help determine any potential impact to your traffic and sales
- Decide if you’d like to modify your paid search campaigns to compensate for any changes in organic referrals that you anticipate
- Review the strong Bing webmaster tools and optimize your website for the Bing crawler, as Bing results will be displayed for approximately 30%* of overall search query market share after this change
*comScore qSearch May 2010
PAYWare iPhone Payment Processing is Here!
June 28th, 2010
Apple iPhone Processing is Here
We are excited to announce that we now have iPhone processing. We have negotiated some of the lowest rates and fees for this service and that means more savings for you. We are also offering the swiper attachment for a small cost.
A new way to process payments – via iPhone! The Apple iPhone now provides small businesses with simple and secure card processing capabilities on the popular smart phone platform. PAYware Mobile includes a PA-DSS-approved payment app and a sleek and durable card reader that slips over the iPhone to accommodate card swipes and allows merchants to avoid “card-not-present” fees. The combined hardware and software provides strong card-payment security for the iPhone, including VeriFone’s VeriShield Protect encryption solution as a standard feature. Here’s some pricing information for your consideration:
Month to month service agreement
• PAYware Mobile reader: $125.00
• Merchant Boarding Fee: Free
• Monthly Maintenance/Gateway: $25.00
• Per Transaction Fee: $0.30
• Please be aware that these card swipers CAN NOT work with the new iPhone 4. Just iPhone 3G and 3GS. There are currently no products on the market that can process cards on the new iPhone 4.
*$15.00 merchant training fee required for all new iPhone merchants.
**Monthly minimum and annual fee required for placement.
***Monthly gateway fee and transaction fee are as listed.
SBA7(a) Loan Programs Helps Small Businesses in the Las Vegas, Nevada area
June 28th, 2010The SBA 7(a) Loan Program is generally easier to get than conventional loans. To help spurt lending among banks, the federal government has increased its loan guarantee and set aside fees for borrowers. According to an article by John G. Edwards of the Las Vegas Review Journal, OPENING DOORS POLICY – Government Programs giving businesses way out of recession doldrums” dated Sunday, June 13, 2010, that the federal, state and local government agencies are helping small business owners get loans, learn better management techniques, obtain government contracts, expand into export markets and cut costs. It was also indicated that virtually the only loans available for small commercial businesses come with guarantees from the Small Business Administration.
For details on SBA Loans, contact John Scott, district director for the SBA in Nevada. Mr. Scott figures that the agency’s programs and federal stimulus law enhancements in the programs have softened the economic crash for small businesses in the Silver State. With an attractive interests rate of around 6.5% and the banks waiving the fee for the loan guarantee, its hard to pass it up, if you can afford to borrow.
There are other government agencies that help small businesses: the Nevada Industry Excellence, the industry outreach program of the Nevada System of Higher Education, shows manufacturers how to become more efficient via seminars; the Nevada Small Business Development Center, affiliated with the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas which helps in locating a retail site, marketing programs, and procurement; and The Nevada Commission on Economic Development which runs two programs – Global Business Development and the Procurement Outreach Program.
The Small Business Administration web site also has valuable information that is specific to your local area. From my perspective, every size business small or large should tap into this abundant pool of resources that the Small Business Administration has to offer. The above is just the beginning!
Basic Requirements for an Ecommerce Web Site
April 15th, 2010Are you lost and confused about ecommerce web sites? What do you need to know? Where does one begin? Let www.WEBSITECENTER.com enlighten you with our quick list of important notes below:
DOMAIN NAME
Purchase a domain name that corresponds with your company name. You might also need to register a domain name that is closely related to your product type. For example: You sell washing machines that are discontinued. Your company name is Bobs Appliances. So the domain name that you might consider registering would be BobsAppliances.com AND discountwashingmachines.com or discount-washing-machines.com, .net, .org, etc.
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The Four Facets of Web Design
April 15th, 2010The four primary aspects of web site design are CONTENT, TECHNOLOGY, GRAPHICS and simple PRACTICALITY. The primary purpose of content is to inform, motivate or persuade users. Use of current and standardized technology is to implement functionality i.e. online payment or member login feature.
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The 123 of Internet Marketing
April 15th, 2010Since the Internet has many use and various form of medium and protocols, when I refer to Internet Marketing (as in the blog title) for the sake of this blog, it is in reference to Search Engine Optimization – which uses the Internet protocol of http (hyper text transfer protocol) – commonly referred to as the World Wide Web. Another popular Internet protocol used in Internet Marketing is the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) – for blasting out emails. We’re not going to get into the subject of email blasting in this article. Come back later for that…
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