Google, in their Webmaster Central Blog , has introduced a nice little feature to the webmaster tools interface recently. The new feature identifies source URL's for various errors that they detect. For instance, when they display a 404 )not found( error for your site with a link to the missing page, now they will also tell you where they found the link to this error. This added feature can save a webmaster a ton of time in some cases.

A few weeks ago I wrote about building your website from the ground up . This article did not dive into great detail on any specific topics, but rather touched on the key points you will want to address. In this article I will place most of the focus on the promotion aspect of this previous article. While at times new websites can experience organic search rankings in a matter of months, for the most part, it can take well over a year before you start to see any progress,

Yahoo has opened up another location, this time with a research center in Grenoble France. This follows shortly after news that Yahoo may also be opening up a location in La Vista Nebraska creating at least 50 news jobs. Layoff notices for more than 1000 employees were also handed out near the start of the year, and Yahoo's shares have just hit a 52 week low - interesting that they are expanding in all this turmoil. Regardless,

In an effort to help out Yahoo with its revenue problems, Yahoo has hired Joanne Bradford, a former Microsoft Corp. Executive. Yahoo announced the recent hire in a press release Tuesday. Bradford was Microsoft's head of their Media Network and resigned back in March after a 7 year stint with the software giant. She then joined Spot Runner Inc as their Executive Vice President of National Advertising Services before being swept up by Yahoo. "My decision to come to Yahoo!

News.com says Google is number 4. For a brief period of time last week Google's market cap slipped from third to fourth position. Apple's market cap reached $158.84 billion and edged out Google which was at $157.84. Wikipedia defines market capitalization as "...a measurement of corporate or economic size equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a public company. As owning stock represents owning the company, including all its assets,

Tuesday, Microsoft announced a new plug-in for Outlook 2007. Information Week reports on this collaborative effort between Microsoft Research and Office Labs. The plug-in targets email overload and "uses various algorithms to automatically identify the importance or urgency of e-mail messages delivered into an Outlook 2007 in-box." It will allow automatic prioritizing of emails, and allow user to pause email delivery.

About three years ago Google took on a 5% stake at AOL for a whopping $1 Billion. Today Google is not so sure that the investment was a good choice. While they are not saying the value they believe the investment is worth, they are certainly not pleased by the past decision. "Based on our review, we believe our investment in AOL may be impaired. After consideration of the duration of the impairment,

Yahoo has their second quarter shareholder conference call Tuesday evening and the numbers are in. For Q2 of 2008 Yahoo's Revenues were $1.79 Billion, representing a 6% increase over 2007 Q2 Results. Their cost of revenues were also up substantially resulting in a gross profit up by only $18 million compared to 2007. Granted that a profit of more than a Billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but $18 million in growth is really peanuts in this multi-billion dollar industry.

I am not sure where I have been for the past two years, but today is the first time I have heard about Windows Live Expo - today is also the day I heard about its scheduled demise. Apparently this classified ad platform was considered to be a major threat for Craigslist, and this month, on July 31, Microsoft will pull the plug and the classified service launched back in February of 2006.

Avid users of Google Earth will now find a new layer added to the unique mapping system. Google News has recently been incorporated allowing users to see regional news related to the specific areas they are viewing. For some time now the ability to find geo-tagged photos within Google Earth has been available, and it only makes sense that geographic news stories would also be made integrated into the service.

Microsoft offered a sneak peak back in February, and as of Tuesday the public beta of WorldWide Telescope has been made available, according to a Press Release issued by Microsoft. The online virtual telescope has been created in response to Google's launch of Google Sky a few years ago, and takes things to the next level with a huge database of high resolution images from various stars, galaxies, and other non-earthly entities.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of How to Optimize for Google I discussed general website optimization, links, and Google webmaster tools. In Part 3 we will look at a number of other considerations which play a role in successful rankings in Google, and also touch on some tactics which are best avoided. Completing Optimization: Other Considerations Redirects If you need to use redirects on your site it is very important to use the correct one. If a page is moving to a new location,

Have you ever wondered exactly when and where viewers watch your YouTube videos? YouTube Insight, a new tool has been created by Google's engineering team in Zurich, to allow users to dive deeper into the statistics behind their posted videos. Guardian.co.uk reported on the new addition Thursday morning. "We know a lot of data about video consumption and we want to give some of that back," Jacobi said. "A lot of bands use the site,

Optimizing for top Google rankings includes a number of factors. In Part 1 of 3 we discussed onsite optimization. In Part 2 we will touch on incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools. LINKS Links are very important in today's Google rankings, but just how many links you need will depend on both the competitiveness of your target phrases, and the quality of the incoming links themselves. Essentially the number one rule of links is to keep it relevant!

In order to help curb the possibility of rioting, the Chinese government has blocked all access to both YouTube and Google News to prevent the viewing of news reports and video footage documenting riots and protests in Tibet . Other web properties blocked include giants Yahoo, CNN, and the BBC. Cnet reported on the blockage over the weekend and many others such as the New York Times have also picked up the story. Google has before been blocked by the Chinese government.

How would you like to change the way your site rankings appear within the search engines? I am not talking about the ranking itself, but rather the listings appearance. This idea may soon become a reality, at least at Yahoo, with the introduction of Yahoo Open Search. As noted in the Yahoo Search Blog Monday: "..instead of a simple title, abstract and URL,

Over the past few days there seems to be a lot of action with Google and Mobile search. As the advancement in mobile technology continues, the major search engines are finding their place in this infant marketplace to seek out as many advertiser dollars as possible. Google Searches Abundant on iPhones On Wednesday, Google reported that it has seen more mobile searches by users using Apple iPhones by 50 times that of any other mobile handset, according to the Financial Times .

The policy at Google may not be changing regarding how they treat Display URL's within AdWords accounts, but they are cracking down on those abusing the system. Effective April 1st of this year the display URL policy will be strictly enforced. While the policy is relatively simple, some advertisers have found ways to abuse the system and in the light of some advertiser complaints, Google has decided to put its foot down in the act of fairness.