LinkedIn Gains A Google Veteran
While it certainly is not an exodus there have been some high profile Google executives leaving the Mountain View nest for other opportunities.
Yahoo Spits Out Poison Pill
As part of its plan to make an acquisition extremely unpalatable to Microsoft, Yahoo adopted a poison pill severance plan six months ago. Now, for the sake of satisfying some shareholders who sued it, Yahoo has made it slightly easier for a new owner to fire employees.
Blogs Are For More Than Just SEO
There are many benefits to publishing a business blog and improved search engine visibility is one of the most popular. It’s pretty common advice to hear: start a blog and the fresh content will attract links, improving your search results. Such tactical advice can be very effective.
Text Messaging Right From Gmail
Gmail has introduced a new Labs feature that allows users to send SMS text messaages to their contacts directly from Gmail. This will help stay in touch with people you have been chatting with in Gmail if they are away from their computer. To utilize this feature: 1. Click on Settings 2. Got to the Labs tab 3. Scroll down until you see "Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat" 4. Select Enable 5. Save Changes
Online Consumers Spending About The Same This Year
Yes, online visits to retail sites have been up. Yes, retailers are seeing increases in transactions and visitors. What they’re not seeing, though, is more money spent per transaction, which could make things roughly square with last year. Though there were 2 million more shoppers whipping about online on Cyber Monday, a 22 percent increase over last year and a full 34 percent of the shopping population did their shopping online, Cyber Monday revenue went up a paltry one percent.
Search Advertising For Beginners
In the session "Search Advertising 101" the speakers offered advice to those who are new to the search advertising industry.(Coverage of SES Chicago continues at Murdok Videos. Keep an eye on Murdok for more notes and videos from the event this week.)
Microsoft’s adCenter Desktop To Exit Beta
Microsoft’s adCenter Desktop, currently in beta testing, is about to go public, said Jeremy Lamothe, Search Account Manager for Microsoft Advertiser and Publisher Solutions at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago. (Coverage of SES Chicago continues at Murdok Videos. Keep an eye on Murdok for more notes and videos from the event this week.)
Yahoo Investor Wants Search Business Sold To Microsoft
Ivory Investment Management can’t order anyone to do anything. Since it’s only in control of 1.5 percent of Yahoo’s stock, Ivory may not even be able to make suggestions using a loud voice. Still, the investment firm is adding to all the previous Yahoo-Microsoft mess by recommending a sale of Yahoo’s search business.
Online Holiday Spending Up 7 Percent
Online holiday spending continues to be the one bright spot in the woeful economy, according to a new report from comScore.For the holiday season through December 7, $15.63 billion has been spent online, about the same level compared to the same period last year. During the first week since Cyber Monday (December 1-December 7), sales totaled $4.45 billion, up 7 percent over a year ago.
Google Pushing Charity Through iGoogle Themes
Keeping within the Holiday spirit, Google is doing something a little more significant than helping track the path of Santa Claus. They’re offering a number of iGoogle themes for causes in an effort to spread awareness and raise donations. They’re clearly taking it seriously because there is a link to them right from the front page of the search engine, and usually there is not a whole lot of change going on there aside from the occasional doodle.