I just finished writing a post for Search Engine Guide on Yahoo's latest idea that I think is positively brilliant. Here is the lead in if you would like to go there and read it in its entirety: "At Yahoo Anecdotal today Yahoo announced they had recently opened the Yahoo Accessibility Lab; a place where only Yahoo employees )for now( can experience the world of the Internet as a disabled web surfer would.

Marketing Sherpa is a company I have nothing but respect for due to their years of offering outstanding marketing handbooks and case studies. Recently they updated one guide that just plain begged to be advertised - because it has the information that can increase your online conversions as much as 55% . The best part is this isn't any fluff ... everything they say is backed up with hard proof based on case studies and test after test.

www. flick r .com This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called SES San Jose 2008 . Make your own badge here . Last week's Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose was awesome! The content was exceptional - a cut above previous conferences - and the parties were a blast. To drive all of this home I invite you to check out the photos from the conference that I posted a few minutes ago.

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've had people ask me why I dislike using Internet Explorer so much. I suppose part of the reason for my distaste is the behaviour Microsoft has displayed in the past and present. Forcing the use of their software has never sat well with me, particularly when the software in question is always so full of holes. Internet Explorer is infamous for bugs, ranging from major security flaws to simple annoyances and everything in between.

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.

Earlier in the week I was going through a Client's AdWords account and saw a reference to PPA pricing. This reminded me of Google's seemingly vanished venture. Back in March of last year, Google AdWords announced the launch of a US only Beta for a new AdSense Network pricing model Called PPA or Pay Per Action. Ostensibly, this would allow ads to be displayed on participating AdSense publishers sites,

New details have surfaced of Microsoft's most recent dealings with Yahoo and another offer from Microsoft that was again swatted down by Yahoo . BoomTown's Kara Swisher talks of Microsoft's most recent bid that was designed to stifle the Google and Yahoo partnership before it was signed; a very tempting bid at that. Swisher also points out a very insightful article by Harry Blodget on " Why Yahoo Passed on Microsoft's New Search Deal )New Details!( ".

Today I happened across an interesting speech on YouTube from the always engaging CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt. The speech was made on June 9th, 2008 at the exclusive Economic Club of Washington, D.C. and it is available below for those who wish to watch it. If you don't have the time I compiled a rough list of statistics, thoughts and quotes from Mr. Schmidt that I related below. Incidentally,

Google celebrates many holidays with pizazz by presenting a themed logo. On Memorial Day Google has not opted to provide a themed logo as long as I can remember, yet as Search Engine Journal depicted today many of the other search engines do a decent job of theming their logos. So what is it with Google? Obviously no one in their right mind would have any problem with honoring active members, veterans and resting military personnel.

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.

Last night I uploaded a new article to Search Engine Guide on 4Q which is an excellent free survey tool you can easily add to your website in order to improve the website and your marketing intelligence. The scivy on 4Q can be found in my exclusive Search Engine Guide article: Free Survey Tool Fuels Marketing Insight . by Ross Dunn, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

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,

In the past I have written articles about the growing importance of creating a mobile website . I am currently in the process of creating yet another article with an update on the basic methods of creating a mobile website based on StepForth's own work so that hopefully more people will take the time to do so. During my writing I came up with some burning questions: Once I have a website how do I ensure mobile users find it?

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!

I am in disbelief. Less than 40 minutes ago the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that Google can now fill out web forms and spider the resulting content. Previously this was not only not done by search engines but it was well known that such content would be useless since it wouldn't 'necessarily' be formatted for the eyes of searchers. Apparently Google is now throwing this concept to the wind.