Pro-SEO

Yahoo has reached a deal to start running advertisements in Adobe's popular PDF document-reading format.

The service will allow publishers to make money by including adverts linked to the content of a PDF document in a panel at the side of the page.

It is Yahoo's latest way of expanding the places it can advertise online following deals with the auction site Ebay and the cable TV group Comcast.

The advertisements will not appear if the PDF document is printed.

It is the first time that Adobe has allowed dynamic adverts into its PDF (Portable Document Format) files.

Dynamic adverts can be changed for particular audiences or rotated to make sure that a particular user never sees the same advertisement twice.

Labels: Advertising, yahoo

If you spend any time around digg it soon becomes apparent that the community stance is "M$ sux0rz, Apple is teh l33t".

So after another one of my blogs got to the front page of digg i thought i would have a look at my visitor stats to see what operating systems are used by diggers, Surely it should be majority macs, Second Linux and only a few people using windows, Right? Well it should be if you go by what diggers say. But as it turns out most of them are frauds who either a) pretend to hate the operating system they use or b) pretend to be rich enough and cool enough to use macs.

Windows: 75%
Macs: 19%
Linux: 5%
Unknown: 1%

I don't mind people hating an operating system, But if you are going to hate it, Don't use it.

Labels: digg, operating systems, pic

When GMail began rolling out a new Gmail code architecture a few weeks ago, They also launched some new features to help improve the speed and convenience of managing email.

5. "Archive and next" shortcut
Gmail added a bunch of new shortcuts, but one that I've found to be a true time-saver is what I call the "archive and next" shortcut. When I have a lot of mail, it can be really annoying to have to open a message, click "Back to Inbox" and then select the next email I want to read. So once you enable shortcuts in Settings, you can simply press the left bracket key "[" while viewing a message to archive it, and then immediately open the next oldest one.


4. Share mail searches with friends
How many times do your friends tell you, "I can't find that email you sent me." Now you can prove that you did indeed send that message, despite the accusations. All you have to do is search for the message using your expert mail searching skills, and when you find it listed in the results, just copy and paste the URL and email it to your friend. When he or she goes to that link while in Gmail, your friend's Gmail will run the same search you ran and will be able to locate that "lost" email instantly.

3. Browser navigation and history
Your web browser is now a great way to navigate Gmail. Instead of having to find the right links on the page to move from inbox to messages to other Gmail views, you can use the browser navigation buttons (back and forward) to jump back and forth between emails. You can also open your browser history and click on specific emails that you've read to go right back to them. This allows you to quickly access certain emails without having to re-read your inbox.


2. Bookmark emails
I frequently need to save a single email for a period of time, such as a message that includes an important phone number. But I don't want to create a separate label for one message, and I also don't want to archive all the email that comes in after that message just to keep that thread near the top of my inbox--and hopefully the top of my mind. This problem is now easily solved by a new ability to bookmark specific emails. All emails now have dedicated URLs, so just by adding a browser bookmark while viewing a message, you can return to it whenever you want, just like a regular web page--although you will still have to log in to Gmail if you've signed out.

1. "Filter messages like this"
I find filters to be one of the most useful features in Gmail, but sometimes it can be hard to set them up quickly. So GMail added a new capability that makes a filter based on the message you are reading, so you can keep track of future similar emails. By clicking on the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner of every email (the upside-down triangle), you can now see the option to "Filter messages like this." Not only can you easily create a filter based on the sender, but this is especially handy if you are trying to filter emails sent to mailing lists.

Labels: GMail, google

Google is gearing up to make a serious bid for the wireless spectrum, a chunk of the airwaves that can be used to provide mobile phone and Internet services, in an FCC auction in January. Google is prepared to bid on its own without any partners. It is working out a plan to finance it's bid, which could run $4.6 billion or higher, that would rely on its own cash and possibly some borrowed money.

Google is already running a test version of an advanced wireless network at its Mountain View headquarters, gaining operating experience that could come in handy if it wins the spectrum and decides to run a full-scale national mobile carrier.

The behind-the-scenes moves illustrate just how serious the Internet giant is about trying to reshape the wireless world. It's push could potentially expand the availability and decrease the cost of high-speed mobile Internet access to consumers and broaden the wireless applications they can use.

Google's wireless projects could take it far from its core expertise of search and online advertising and in to the unfamiliar world of communications. Google have always said that their company is all about organising information, But are they now also about delivering the information they organise?

Labels: google, wireless

Google AdSense has made a change to the way content text ads are displayed in an attempt to decrease accidental clicks and therefor improving advertiser campaign value and keeping people on publishers sites until the users wants to click an advert.

The change is a small one and would probably go unnoticed by most people.
Where a visitor could previously click on any element of the AdSense ad to be taken to the advertisers page now they have to click on either the title text or the URL. Clicking the descriptive text will do nothing.If you are worried that you may see a reduction in clicks because of this, Don't be. While CTR may be reduced eventually we should see an increase in what each click pays.

Labels: adsense, Advertising

Quite controversially Google have never seen fit to honor veterans day, Until now. it took 10 years and a lot of criticism from veteran groups but there is finally a Google logo with army helmets commemorating veterans day.

Those logging on to the Google.com homepage today will be greeted with the abovr altered logo remembering the lives lost.

Labels: google Logo

When Yahoo! serve the ads that are displayed on the search results they use something called the "quality index" to determine what adverts will be shown. The lower your quality index score the less chance there is of your advert being displayed.

An ad’s quality index is a relative measure of how relevant it is to users. In determining your quality index, The system takes into account your ad’s click-through rate compared to its average position in search results, as well as to that of other ads displayed at the same time, other keywords in your ad group, and other relevance factors.

So what can you do to improve your yahoo! quality index, Improve your adverts performance and increase sales?

Use relevant keywords — Make sure the keywords in your ad group are highly relevant to the ads in the same ad group.

Include your keyword in your ad text — You can use the Insert Keyword feature to help you do this automatically.

Take advantage of excluded keywords — Use this feature to block certain searches that you think may not be relevant. By doing this you will save money as well as increase CTR.

Use ad testing — You may have noticed that when you create an ad in an Ad Group, you are prompted to create another one. You should do this in all of your ad groups, because when you create more than one ad, the system will test the ads automatically. Ads that perform better then begin to appear more frequently in search results.

Gather intelligence — Almost all’s fair in love and advertising, so you shouldn’t feel shy about spying on your competitors. And by spying, we mean searching for their products or services so you can look at their ads.

Offer specials — Consider including special offers in your ad copy. Limited-time offers, free shipping, two-for-ones, free gifts, contests and so forth can be very effective. Remember, it’s not just about your ad, it’s also about the value that users think you can deliver.

Labels: Advertising, yahoo

If there is one thing digg doesn't do to often is bring in new features, And on the rare occasions they do bring in new features they are greeted with jeers of "this is shit, STOP IT!" by the digg faithful.

Having used digg for a while now i have seen a few areas where it could be improved and noticed a few features it could do with. So i thought i would compile a list.

• Remove shouts - Digg may as well have introduced a fully functioning spamorama feature because that is all shouts are used for. If other diggers are anything like me they turned it off 5 minutes after it launched as a result of the 243 articles about student loans and forex (whatever that is) they had "shouted" at them. People don't like being shouted at.
• Private messages - For a "social site" digg certainly seems reluctant to have private messages. I know digg like to be new and innovative, but sometimes a system is popular because it works, Private messaging is one of those systems.
• Picture section - Seriously, How long does this take?
• Popups? - If you have to litter every inch of spare space with adverts that more often than not lock my browser up at least have the decency to not inflict popup adverts on us. What is this? 1995?
• Email alerts - I'd like to see a system similar to Google alerts where you get emailed or sent a message on digg when an article is submitted that contains a keyword that you specified.
• Don't force me to be someones friend - What is this? North Korea? If someone wants to add me as a friend i should have the ability to tell them to fuck the fuck off, or at least click a "decline friendship" button.
• tags - When i digg a story allow me to add tags. This would make it easier for me to find it later now you have removed the profile search, Why did you do that again?.
• Show digg count for comments in profile - Digg added a feature that displays your latest comments in your profile. Good start. Now display the digg count for that comment next to it.
• Speed it up - I have a fairly fast connection (10mbps) but lately digg is making me more likely to reminisce about my dial-up days than it is to get me interested in an article. What's going on? Why is digg so slow?

According to Matt Cutts the above image is a screenshot of a "tool used by members of our AdWords sales team to help prioritize new customer acquisition."

It's hard to know what the abbreviations are or exactly what the tool is specifically used for, I would guess "PV" is page views, though i don't know if this is the traffic google sends or stats gathered in other ways.

Labels: adwords, google, pic

MySpace will announce on Monday plans to introduce a new advertising platform, “SelfServe by MySpace” to people who want to advertise across the MySpace network to MySpace users.

SelfServe by MySpace will allow users to directly create and analyze the performance of adverts purchased throughout the MySpace network, in a similar way to Google Adwords. MySpace will be the first of the big social networking sites to announce an advertising product such as this, with Facebook said to be announcing a similar service Tuesday.

MySpace will also announce the completion of the first phase of another new advertising platform, “HyperTargeting by MySpace” which allows marketers to buy advertising targeted to specific interest-based segments of the MySpace audience. The service first launched in July and has around 50 advertisers using the service including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Ford and Taco Bell.

Labels: Advertising, MySpace

It seems over the last couple of days WidgetBucks has been having some problems with the way it collects data about clicks, Impressions and earnings. When i say "problem" i mean it hasn't been doing it at all.

Since yesterday i have been greeted with a completely blank stats page which usually shows 10,000+ impressions and 10's of clicks.

WidgetBucks are new so it's understandable that they are going to have some problems, But they have to realize that if people are investing in them by using their widget they need to do more than say "Impressions/Clicks reporting currently delayed". I can see it's delayed, What i really want to know is are my stats are still being monitored and are my clicks still being recorded.

This problem has come at a worrying time as a lot of people lately have seen a reduction in their earnings at widgetbucks. I myself yesterday went to review my total earnings and see that it ha reduced by around 50% compared to what it was a few days ago. this isn't a reduction in PPC, it's a pruning of earnings after you have received the clicks and been told what your earnings are.

A more suspicious person might claim that widgetbucks are doing this to try and keep people under the $50 mark and to delay payments.

I am currently using WidgetBucks on all of my blogs besides this one but i am seriously considering removing it until this problem is either resolved or fully explained.

Labels: PPC, WidgetBucks

Google have acquired the G.cn domain name to use for their operations in China for an undisclosed fee. The domain redirects to Google.cn

Branding is important for Google so in a country where English is not the national language and the native language doesn't use English characters the short (one of the shortest domain names ever) will make it a lot easier for new users and mobile users to type and remember.

Google would probably also like to own g.com too, But that is currently owned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and points nowhere.

i currently don't know who used to own G.cn or what type of site used to be hosted on it, if any, But i will try to find out.

Labels: China, google

AdSense have launched a handy new feature in your AdSense account control panel, The AdSense Resource Tab.

The AdSense Resource tab is a page containing useful links, tools, guides and tutorials all in one place. including the Help Center, Program Policies, and Help Forum. If you're looking to improve the performance of your ads, you can now easily navigate to the AdSense Optimization Tips page or to publisher tools like Analytics.

Need help with implementing your ad code or viewing your ads? Try the Demos & Guides or Troubleshooting Wizards, all available under the Resources tab in your AdSense account.

It even contains a link to the Inside AdSense Blog so you can keep up to date with the AdSense news.

Labels: adsense

Big noise was being made this week over the release of Google's OpenSocial, A set of API's that allow developers to create applications that once written will work on any social site which allows OpenSocial API's.

A lot of social sites wanted to be earlier adopters of OpenSocial through fear of being left behind, Though a fear of using something flawed should have been more of a concern.

Within 45 minutes of the RockYou OpenSocial application being released it was hacked on plaxo where the hacker added a number of emoticons to Plaxo VP Marketing John McCrea’s profile.

We have temporarily taken down this app, due to some bugs discovered today. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are at the early phase of this, so expect some ups and downs...Your patience appreciated.

While this "bug" is fairly harmless and only allowed someone to post emoticons to your page it may be a sign of things to come. If this is what an "amateur" can do in 45 minutes what are pros going to be able to do in 4-5 days?

Labels: Exploit, google, OpenSocial

If you are a user of digg you will no doubt be aware of the changes that happened recently. most importantly the introduction of "shouts".

Shouts are a way for you to talk to friends and to share stories. Good idea, Right? well it would be except for one simple flaw. The Internet and social media sites are infested with that lowly animal we call "the spammer". So as soon as the spammer finds out that he can send an article he just wrote about student loans to loads of people on digg with one click of the button, He will do it, Numerous times, Every day.

I know what you are thinking. Why not just deny friend requests from people you don't know! Great idea, Except digg didn't quite think it through and their friend system doesn't require you to accept a friendship, It just allows everybody to add you to their list and send you this garbage through shouts.

So the moral of this story is; "when you build something build it with spammers in mind".

Labels: digg, spam