Was YouTube Search Bad By Design?
We considered the effectiveness of YouTube’s video search, and how it might be fixed. Now that Viacom has sued Google and demanded damages of upwards of $1 billion for copyright infringement, we have to wonder if YouTube’s native search was impaired, rather than ineffective.
Viacom Sues Google, YouTube
Since negotiations fell apart between YouTube and Viacom, analysts have been speculating about whether or not the media conglomerate would take legal action against the popular video-sharing site. Specifically in light of the fact that Viacom video clips continue to appear in YouTube’s library on a regular basis.
Video SEO Wiki Launched
Due to popular demand, blinkx.com founder and CTO Suranga Chandratillake is launching a video search engine optimization wiki along with VSEO guidelines for advertisers and content producers looking to break away from traditional text-based SEO.
$250m/year Yahoo, AT&T Deal Burst: Yahoo Threatened
According to a story on Wall Street Journal, the deal between Yahoo! and AT&T worth $250mn/year is at stake. Clearly, Yahoo! is not in a shape to accept such a major loss of revenue and might dip below red. In fact, the company has already suffered 5% of its market capitalization due to the reports of “renegotiations.”
USPS Touts Online Convenience
The U.S. Postal Service is promoting its "USPS.com Week" to let consumers know of the many options they have for doing business online and that they can "skip the trip" to the Post Office. The Postal Service’s Web site offers almost three- dozen services that are available online.
Google Phone Edges Closer to Reality
Rumors have been mounting over the past two months surrounding the existence of the fabled Google phone, a device that the mobile community has anticipated with baited breath for some time now. As more details come to light concerning the alleged Google phone, one wonders if Apple views the device as a legitimate competitor to the iPhone.
Do Pre-made Stores or Merchant Sites Have Any Value?
Question: I recently purchased a website at mydomain.somecompany.com as a store to sell somecompany.com’s products and was wondering if the site had any value, and how I could do SEO on the site if I couldn’t change the content?
Answer: Many companies sell the right to resell their products online, but most of them that require you to use their domain or subdomain for your stores are probably selling junk. Truth be told, I have got similar questions from other people who told me that customer support at some of these firms charged for site customization, and even started off many question sequences with how much room is left on your credit card.
Topix Worries About Domain Change
After paying $1 million to purchase the rights to the Topix.com domain, Topix.net CEO Rich Skrenta now has to deal with a couple of daily realities in the search world: changing domains could cause a dropoff in search engine-driven traffic, and Google isn’t exactly Nordstrom or L.L. Bean when it comes to customer service.
Paid Blog Posts and Misleading Content
The LA Times reports that thousands of bloggers are writing sponsored posts touting such diverse topics as diamonds, digital cameras and drug clinics. The bloggers are spurred by new marketing middlemen such as PayPerPost that connect advertisers with mom-and-pop webmasters. Thanks to Daily Dog for this item.
Why should there be concern about this practice?
Cisco Bets on Social Media for Marketing Strategy
In addition to their acquisiton of Five Across, which makes social-networking and forum software to help companies improve their internet marketing strategy and their communications with customers, Cisco sealed a deal this week to purchase software assets from, and acquire employees of, social-networking site operator Utah Street Networks.