Microsoft will pay you to use their Live Search.  Well… sort of.

Today Microsoft unveiled a new incentive to use their Live Search for your online shopping search needs:  cash back.

The big M will pay you cash back from purchases you make after searching for the products on their search engine.  So… you want a pair of shoes, you search for shoes at Live Search, click through to a product you find in the listings, and make a purchase… then you’ll get cash back.

From the article:

Products found during a search eligible for a rebate are denoted with a gold coin icon with a U.S. dollar sign in the center. The rebate is based on a percentage of the purchase price and is determined by the advertiser.

So it’s the advertiser paying the cash back, not Microsoft.  And looks like the amount you get back will vary from product to product and advertiser to advertiser.

But it’s still an interesting idea.  What Microsoft has done, really, is turn themselves into one huge affiliate network.  They don’t lose any money out of pocket for the rebates, and the system will theoretically bring them more search traffic.  Win win for Gates and Co.

Some other things to be aware of:

Shoppers must set up a Microsoft cashback account, where the rebate money is held. When the amount reaches $5, Microsoft will either mail a check or transfer the money to a PayPal account or bank account.

So, you have to sign up for an account… no biggie, I guess.  Other than that… you just shop online as usual, only using Microsoft as your shopping search portal.  It’s all going to hinge on whether or not people can find what they’re looking for with Live Search.

There may be other engines out there that handle shopping queries better–I really don’t know.  Of course, if none of the products I want to buy are being offered as part of the CashBack program by advertisers, then it won’t do me any good.

Hmmm, I wonder what happens if I search for operating systems like Vista… will Microsoft be a partner advertiser in their own cash back scheme?

Interesting concept here–definitely a move to try and grab some of Google’s traffic.  We’ll keep an eye on it and let you know how it performs.

New reports today suggest that, having walked away from their proposed purchase of Yahoo, Microsoft has turned its affections toward Facebook.

But wait–there are also reports that they’re trying to buy AOL.

Or not. Some reports are suggesting they’re still after Yahoo.

Man, does Bill Gates have some money burning a hole in his pocket or what?

Am I the only one starting to see Microsoft as the high school senior who just got $1000 in graduation money and can’t decide on what unnecessary & useless thing he wants to buy first? I mean, Yahoo, AOL, and Facebook are three very different companies… with three very different customer bases.

But they’re also very large companies.

Maybe Microsoft just wants to make a big splash. Maybe they’re more like the school bully who reigned for years until a new bully (Google) moved to town and starting stealing his press. So the first bully starts beating people up with vigor, left and right, just to make sure no one forgets that he was there first.

I’m not sure why anyone would be interested in buying AOL–I don’t even know what they do anymore.

I half expect to see headlines this afternoon like “Microsoft Submits Bid to Purchase NFL” or “Microsoft in Talks to Buy China.”  Personally, I’d rather see Microsoft take the billions of dollars they’re dying to throw away on some huge merger and instead spend it on, oh, maybe making Vista run faster.

But that’s just me.

We here at Keystone offer our clients SEO services.  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s the process of helping your website communicate your business and your keywords to the search engines. There are a host of companies out there making outlandish promises regarding search engines, and they con a lot of people out of their money. 

From time to time, we get an email or a phone call from one of these companies, and I gamely play along.  I act stupid and ignorant of SEO practices and let them give me their snake-oil salesman routine so that I can better help you–the client–steer clear of such scams. 

Today I got a fun call from eLocal Listings, offering one of the shadiest SEO pitches I’ve ever received.  We’ll just call the guy Bob, because I was so busy trying not to laugh that I forgot his real name.  Bob started out by telling me that his company could help us land tons of new clients through search engine placement.  I’ll just list the errors, omissions, and outright lies I found in what he said, and then explain why he’s wrong: 

1. He didn’t do his research.  The first move Bob made was to not research our site and see that we offer SEO services ourselves.  So he could have saved himself some embarrassment by not trying to lie to someone who knows more about real SEO than he ever will. 

2. He didn’t test his theories.  Bob had done just enough research to know that Keystone offers Network Administration services (helping clients with their office computer networks) and that we were located in Hendersonville, TN.  So Bob asked me to go to Yahoo and search for “network integration hendersonville, tn” so I could see that we don’t rank well for that keyword phrase.  Problem is… we do.  We’re number one, in fact (because I do my job, and do it fairly well, and also because there simply aren’t a lot of “network integration” companies in the small town of Hendersonville, TN). 

I pointed out to Bob that we were already #1 for that term, and it was the first of many times to come where he was a bit speechless.  “Well, you’ve got that one organically, don’t you?”  Yes, Bob.  Yes we do.  Any other brilliant sales pitch techniques you want to run by me? 

Bob’s solution to this sales roadblock was to say “Well, what if you search for ‘web development hendersonville, tn’?”  I ran that query and as Bob started to point out how we didn’t rank for that, I interrupted him to say that “Well, we’re not number 1, but we’re on that first page… 8th down the list.” 

So Bob clearly didn’t run these queries before calling me.  He was just banking on the fact that he’d be right, and we wouldn’t rank at all.  Eventually he found a phrase we didn’t rank for, and seemed to feel some pride about it.  Good for you, Bob. 

3. He used Yahoo for his examples.  Bob, if you really knew about SEO, you’d know that Google is the dominant player, with over 60% market share, and that Yahoo is a VERY distant second.  It should be noted that I really could care less how well or poorly I rank on Yahoo.  But Bob was basing his entire pitch on a search engine that only has 17% of the search market at best. 

4. He made vague boasts about his services.  Bob said, “We have a special relationship with Google and Yahoo, because of the fine work that we do–in fact, both companies are considering buying us.  Google’s been to our offices and we’ve been to theirs.  Because of this special relationship, we can submit your keywords to them directly instead of going through the normal channels.”  Ugh.  So, I’ll deal with this more in a moment… for now, just know that no SEO has a special arrangement with Google or Yahoo that allows them to circumvent normal SEO practices.  It’s somewhere between a sneaky sales tactic and an outright lie.  Oh, and just because you have been to their offices (which I doubt) doesn’t prove some secret pact with them.  I’ve been to the White House, so does that mean I have a “special relationship” with President Bush?

5. He uses link farms.  Bob said that in addition to submitting my keywords to Google through his special relationship with them, he would also be providing me with a one-page website about our business.  And because they give these one-page sites to all their clients, he can also then promise hundreds of links would be set up to be directed at my site.  Links can, indeed, be helpful for SEO.  But there is a HUGE difference between links that occur naturally and links that are part of giant spammy link networks.  The former is helpful, the latter can get your site banned from search engines altogether. 

6. He lied to me.  Bob said they had Google’s logo on their site, and had it because of their “special relationship.”  He told him which page on their site had the logo, and I saw a little button that says “We follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”  And there’s a small graphic with Google-colored circles in it.  But it wasn’t Google’s “logo.”

Bob went on and on about how hard it is to get Google to let you use their logo, so that MUST mean eLocal is legitimate. 

Whatever, Bob.  That’s not the real Google logo.  Besides, I can right-click and “save as” on any graphic I find online, and then post that graphic on my website… it doesn’t prove anything. 

Bob’s real lie, however, is in that button’s claim that eLocal  Listings “follows Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”  No, Bob, you don’t.  See, I clicked that button, and it took me to this page on Google’s site, listing some of their qualifications on what makes someone a good or bad SEO.  There are three key passages on this page that I want to highlight to you, where Google takes the time to warn you about shady SEO people.  Here’s the first one:

Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.

Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

    “Dear google.com,
    I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for “burn fat at night” diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

Amen, Google.  And Bob here just cold-called me to offer unsolicited SEO services.  Sure, he didn’t email… he used the phone.  But I think I’ll go ahead and put him in the pile with the rest of the diet pill and Viagra solicitations I get.  Here’s another section I want to point out:

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or through the Webmaster Tools and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.

Let me emphasize my favorite part… “Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, (or) allege a ’special relationship’ with Google…”  Bob… buddy.  Pal.  You already told me on three separate occasions during this call that your company has a special relationship with Google.  Then you took me from your site to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines site that explicitly tells me to avoid people that do that.  Are you trying to kill your own sale?

Okay, here’s the last part of Google’s warnings that applies:

Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of “free-for-all” links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don’t affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines — at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.

So, again, you’ve linked me to a Google page that tells me to steer clear of link schemes, after you promised your link scheme would help me rank better.  Which is it, Bob?  Do you want to give me a bunch of spammy links to help my rankings or have me listen to Google (who tells me the opposite)?  I asked Bob directly why he was promising to use links in a way that this Google page said was bad, and do you know what he did?  He changed the subject immediately, and started talking about how they can choose the best 10 keywords for me and submit them to Google.  Deflection is the oldest shady sales trick in the book, people.  “Hey, look over there!”

7. He told me they would pick my keywords.  If I’m paying someone to rank my site better on Google, I at least want to have some input as to what keyword phrases are targeted.  For instance, even if Bob had been able to show that Keystone doesn’t rank well for “network integration hendersonville, tn”, it wouldn’t have bothered me.  “Network integration” is not a very common search phrase.  Maybe “network administration”… definitely “office computer networks” (which we rank #1 for, by the way).  But not “network integration.”  If this is the kind of keyword phrases Bob was going to be able to rank me for, I have to wonder how valuable that service is. 

8. He didn’t follow through.  Before we hung up, I asked him to send me something in writing via email… some overview of their services so I could “sit down with my boss and talk over our options.”  He agreed.  Here we are, 6 hours later and I still haven’t received it.  So either Bob lied and never intended to send it, or he sent it and it was caught by my spam filter.  Either way, it doesn’t reflect well on him. 

The list of errors could go on and on–and I’ve already written a novel here.  The point is, be on the lookout for shady SEO pitches, and run from them. 

For reference, here is the main launchpad page for Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.  It details pretty much all the do’s and don’ts of SEO, and will help you determine if that joker on the phone has any clue what he’s talking about or not.  Or… better yet… just call me when you have a shady SEO offering you unrequested services.  I’ll be happy to tell you what I think–for free.  And if you want to forward me any unsolicited SEO services emails, I am compiling a nice collection of these losers and would love to add yours. 

Remember last year when Google unveiled their new Street View feature on their maps?  At first, the feature only worked for New York and Los Angeles, but Google promised to slowly start adding more and more cities. 

And now they’ve added Nashville, which is pretty sweet.

If you’re totally clueless as to what I’m talking about, let me briefly describe Google Street View.  You probably already know that you can choose to view a Google map in one of three ways:  traditional, satellite, and hybrid (the first two views combined together).  Satellite is, well, satellite photos of the mapped area.  So you can see real pictures of the tops of buildings. 

Well Street View is a revolutionary new way to see Google Maps.  It gives you an image from the angle of the street.  You can rotate 360 degrees and look all around you.  So you could run a Google map of a location you’ve never been before, and then after you get your directions you could choose Street View and get a feel for the neighborhood you’re headed to… find some landmarks to help you make sure you don’t get lost on the way to your destination.

So here’s a shot of the Ryman:

And now one of the Parthenon:

The way Google accomplishes this impressive collection of images is with a special new camera.  They mount the camera on the top of a van or car, and the camera is like a big ball, that actually has 8 or more cameras pointing in all directions.  Then, as they drive down the street, they capture images all around them. 

It’s pretty dang cool.  I spent several more minutes than I should have “touring” Nashville on Google Street View–checking out old houses I’ve lived in, finding landmarks like The Exit In or LP Field.  Hey look… there’s the corner outside the Sommet Center where I always buy my Nashville Predators tickets from a scalper! 

 

Neato. 

Anyway, check it out when you have a chance.  It’s WAY more addictive than you think it will be.

Photoshop has been the gold standard of professional photography software.  Several years back, they expanded their brand’s reach by releasing a scaled down version (for a much cheaper price tag) called Photoshop Elements. 

Now Adobe is gunning for even more by releasing Photoshop Express, a free online version of Photoshop. 

Aimed squarely at the core audience for already-established free photo-editing software like Google’s Picasa, Photoshop Express is a web-based application that uses Flash as a platform. 

You create an account and upload your photos.  From there, you have some basic editing tools at your fingertips such as cropping, color adjustment, red-eye reduction, and much more. 

You can also then create a gallery and export your edited pictures to that gallery for all the world to see.  In this way, Express is a lot like Flickr or PhotoBucket or any other photo-sharing website. 

It’s a crowded marketplace, so Adobe has their work cut out for them.  After all, any Windows user can already perform most of the same kinds of basic picture edits using Microsoft Office Picture Manager, which comes with the Microsoft Office suite of programs. 

But Adobe has their brand name going for them.  Everyone knows of Photoshop.  And now, what was once an expensive and complicated software for the elite has a new younger brother that is trim and simple and, best of all, free. 

So I tested it out for you.  I created my account, and uploaded a few photos.  The main photo on this post is one of the results of my edits.  I tried to use as many Photoshop Express features as I could on that picture, but if I’m honest… a lot of them weren’t terribly useful.  The main feature to rave about is the “color pop” control.  You can see that I’ve made everything in the photo black and white except for the jellyfish.  That’s a nice touch, I think, and not something I can do easily with some of the other basic photo-editing suites. 

I did feel like the Flash interface really slowed things down for me.  There’s a lot of wasted time spent waiting around for sections of the site to load, and that was aggravating.  Maybe I just have a slow connection today… but I doubt it.  Flash elements are notorious for slowing down a site’s performance. 

Overall, though… for something that’s free, you can’t beat it.  And since the project is still in beta (testing mode), you can be sure that customer feedback will help fine-tune things quite a bit.  So the end product will likely be even better. 

Check it out yourself here. 

Oh, and here’s the original photo for my example above… almost a shame I chose this picture, because the original is pretty darn good to begin with. 

Yahoo doesn’t really want to be owned by Microsoft.  And who can blame them?  I know I don’t want to be owned by Microsoft.  A Microsoft takeover of Yahoo will almost certainly mean a loss of a lot of jobs, as divisions get merged and rolled together.  And Yahoo has always seen Microsoft as competition, so there’s some underlying dislike there already. 

Yahoo’s CEO sent a memo out to his troops, detailing the current status.  He says:

“Our board is thoughtfully evaluating a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape.”

Translation:  “We’re desperately trying to find some non-Microsoft company to buy us out instead, but time is running out.” Rumors swirl that Yahoo put out feelers to the likes of Google, NewsCorp, AOL, and even Comcast… to gauge possible interest in one of those behemoths taking them over instead of Microsoft.  It’s like in school, when I was a big nerd, and allowing myself to be bullied by one guy meant that all the other bullies would leave me alone.  The lesser of two evils, if you will. 

Yahoo just doesn’t have many options.  They’re already cutting jobs and losing profits.  I’m no economics professor (at least, not anymore I’m not), but Microsoft timed their offer rather perfectly.  From the article:

If Yahoo rejects Microsoft, most analysts believe the company will have to line up another acquisition offer or make radical changes to satisfy disillusioned shareholders.  But most analysts doubt any other potential suitor will have the financial muscle — or desire — to try to outbid Microsoft, which has $21 billion in cash and a market value of nearly $265 billion.

If Yahoo spurns Microsoft’s advances, and doesn’t find another company to buy them, they will now likely face a lot of angry stockholders who might wonder why.  As this article states:

If it spurns Microsoft’s offer, Yahoo’s board of directors will be under pressure to give stockholders a soothing cash payout or even borrow money to buy back shares and turn the firm private.

So, Yahoo is backed into a corner.  They have to do something.  And so far, none of the other bullies have stepped up to plop down the billions.  One thought I read a lot about is that Yahoo–whose search used to be powered by Google as recently as 2004–might turn over it’s search operations to Google again, cutting enough costs in the process to allow them to stay independent.  But Yahoo worked hard enough for years to develop their own search division–to compete with Google–that just reverting to the past would seem like a giant step back. 

Google, you may know, is vehemently against this merger.  Cue the chorus of “Duh” from the peanut gallery.  A Microsoft/Yahoo merger means a huge new competitor for Google’s dominance in search, and Google knows it.  MicroHoo (or YahooSoft) would also be a company bolstered in the area of online advertising–another market Google has a bit of dominance in.  I’m not sure Google’s argument that this merger hinders an open, competitive web holds any water (especially when compared with the numerous acquisitions and mergers Google themselves are guilty of. 

We’ll keep you posted.  Just know that one way or another, Yahoo as we know it is going to change.  My money’s on the merger going through.  And while Yahoo and Google may not prefer that, I do think the end result to us users is a good one.  A significant competitor in search can only mean better search service for all us computer users out here in the real world. 

Microsoft has a crush.  On Yahoo.  And their in the courting phase, so Microsoft is sending flowers and candies and standing outside Yahoo’s window holding a boom-box that plays Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.” 

In case you’re not following me:  Microsoft has made a takeover offer to purchase Yahoo for $44.6 Billion. 

Wowzers.  That’s a lot of cash.  More than I’ve got lying around.  This dwarfs Google’s purchase of YouTube for $1.6 Billion.  (Also, how weird is it to read a story about a possible Yahoo takeover on a Yahoo News page?)  Will the new company be called MicroHoo or YahooSoft?  You make the call.  But the thought of a possible Microsoft Yahoo merger sort of blows my mind.

Who knows if Yahoo is going to take the offer.  They did just have to lay off about 1,000 employees, so I’m sure they’ll consider it.  This article has a copy of the letter Microsoft sent to Yahoo’s board of directors.  Here’s an excerpt:

“We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to create significant value for Yahoo!’s shareholders and employees, and the combined company will be better positioned to provide an enhanced value proposition to users and advertisers. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favorable reply.”

Well that sounds like one of the sweetest, most romantic suggestions I’ve ever heard.   

And think about the kind of super competitor to Google that would be created by a Microsoft/Yahoo merger–I’m talking in terms of search here.  Their collective marketshare, customer base, and expertise would combine to form the first serious challenge to Google’s dominance in years.  It would allow them to innovate instead of just always following Google’s lead.  So for that reason, I’m all for it.  Competition is good for the marketplace; it makes companies work harder and perform better. 

Stay tuned for more information on this possible purchase.  Like papparazzi on the Hollywood streets we’ll be following this potential coupling of two of the big three web/search giants.  Microsoft has gotten down on bended knee and is now nervously awaiting the blushing Yahoo’s answer.  Will it be “Yes” or “No?”  Are Microsoft and Yahoo getting married?  Oh–and will it be MicroHoo or YahooSoft?  Because that’s almost as important as whether or not the merger goes through.  Almost. 

This post is not for the seasoned Googler.  If you are an SEO or a web designer, if you use Google on a daily basis, or–heck–if you’re under the age of 25… chances are that you already know most of what I’m going to talk about here.  But we have a lot of clients that are still novices in the world of the web.  So this post is for them.  

So….”Why can’t I ever find what I’m looking for on Google?”  I get that question a lot.  More than you know.  And it used to puzzle me to no end, because I am able to very consistently find what I’m looking for on Google. 

I used to think that maybe the people who say they can’t were just searching for different things than I am.  But I guess I spend more time working with search engines than the average person, and that might be giving me an unfair advantage.  Perhaps the biggest reason you might not be able to find what you want is that you’re doing it wrong. 

Sorry, let me back up.  Google’s search algorithm is the most sophisticated of all the engines.  It’s very, very smart.  But we still need to help it along now and then by better describing what we’re searching for. 

1. Drill Down

Let’s talk first about how many words you’re including in your search.  As we discussed in this previous post, one-word searches are a thing of the past.  If you’re only using one word in your Google query, then chances are you’re going to struggle mightily to find what you need.  Here’s a good rule of thumb:  The more information you give Google on what you need, the better the odds are that they’ll return a result that helps you. 

If what you’re really searching for is a how-to guide on setting up your surround sound home theater system, you wouldn’t want to search for just the word “sound”.  Go ahead and try it… I’ll wait.  See, what you get for that search on Google isn’t helpful for your true need.  You get some definitions of “sound,” some official sites for radio stations or company’s with “sound” in their name, some free sound effects sites, and more stuff that won’t actually help you install that new killer sound system in your living room. 

So we need to drill down.  How about typing “surround sound system?”  This query is more specific, so Google returns results that are a bit more pertinent… but still not helpful for what you ultimately need.  You get sites that want to sell you a “surround sound system,” you get sites that explain how surround sound works, you get some buying guides, and one site that claims to tell you “how to buy and set up” a surround sound system. 

Good.  We’re getting closer. 

But we don’t want to buy one–we already bought the thing.  We don’t need to know how surround sound works (the science behind it)… we just want to hear it. 

So let’s just tell Google what we want to do, in as specific a way as possible.  Type “how to set up surround sound home theater system.”  Viola!  Like magic Google returns 10 listings on the first page of results that offer assistance in setting up a home theater system.  Awesome.  Great job, Google! 

But you see how we had to help them get there, right?  We were too vague at first.  So the first rule of finding what you want on Google is to be as specific as possible. 

Helpful Tip:  Another great way to drill down is to type a location name, particularly if you’re searching for a local service such as a CPA, mechanic, or dentist.  Typing “dentist” won’t help you find one nearby, but typing “dentist Nashville” will–assuming you live in Nashville, obviously.  So use place-names.  They are terribly helpful for getting accurate results.

2. Operators

Google’s search engine can take special commands.  Operators are commands in your query that tell Google to only return a certain kind of result.  A lot of them you probably know already. 

• For instance, the “+” character.  This operator forces words to be coupled together in a query.  So if you’re searching for chocolate animals, and you put the “+” character between the two words, your results will consist only of sites that have both those words on the page. 
• You can also use the “+” sign to have Google calculate basic arithmetic for you.  Typing 3654 + 7557 yields the actual sum of 11211–click here to see it yourself. Replace the plus sign with an “x” and you’ll get the total of those two numbers multiplied together–it’s 27,613,278 if you’re too lazy to click the link. 
• The minus character (”-”) eliminates certain words from results.  So if you want to know about bass–the fish–and want to filter out any results related to the musical version of the word “bass”, you could type “bass -music” into Google and get a list of results for pages containing the word “bass” but not the word “music.” 
• How about quotes?  Do you use quotes when you search?  You should, particularly if you want to find a site that has the exact phrase you type verbatim.  A great example of this is finding the name for a song you know only a partial lyric for.  I do this all the time.  Maybe you remember those commercials a few months back for the Apple Video iPod Nano, where the singer in the video sang, “1, 2, 3, 4, tell me that you love me more?”  So type in “1, 2, 3, 4, tell me that you love me more” into Google and guess what?  Every result is related to that song, the singer, or the commercial.  I was able to find out right away what the song was called (it’s called “1 2 3 4″) and who sang it (a new artist named Feist) in a matter of seconds.  And lots of people did this, by the way.  That song was the number one iTunes download in a matter of a week or so after the commercial started airing. 
• Use the “or” operator to cover multiple versions of the same word or phrase.  This is especially helpful when a word has more than one spelling (like “donut” or “doughnut”) or when someone or something has multiple names (like “Puff Daddy” or “P Diddy“). 

3. Advanced Operators

Google will give you all kinds of information if you just know how to ask for it. 

• Want to see how many websites link to yours?  Type “link:yourwebsitedomain.com” (obviously, you’ll want to replace “yourwebsitedomain” with your actual website domain).  Here, let’s try it with our official company website.  Typing “link:www.kbsweb.com” in the Google search box returns only sites that link to ours.  Looks like there are 502 websites linking to ours.  Hey–that’s more than I would have guessed. Want to see something neat?  Try the link command with Google’s website, typing “link:www.google.com” and see what you get.  Yup.  Over 3 million pages that link to Google’s home page.  Boy have we got some catching up to do, eh?
• What if you want to search only on one specific website.  For instance, Yahoo.  You can use the “site:” operator to restrict the Google results to a specific root URL.  So typing “sports site:www.yahoo.com” will only return results that are Yahoo pages that deal with sports. 
• Use Google as a dictionary, and find definitions for new words in a snap.  Maybe you need to know the definition of “hypothyroidism.”  If so, type “define: hypothyroidism” into Google and you’ll get a list of multiple definitions. 
• The “related” operator is handy for finding sites that are similar to one you already know.  So, you know Google is a search engine.  Say you want to find some more search engines, maybe some you’ve never heard of.  Just type “related:www.google.com” and you’ll get a whole list.  So nice of Google to provide a list of their competitors, don’t you think?
• Do you trade in the stock market?  The “stocks:” operator will treat everything that follows it as stock ticker symbols.  So typing “stock:yhoo” yields all sorts of information about Yahoo’s stock. 
• Find movie reviews and show-times with the “movie:” operator.  Type “movie:cloverfield” as an example, or just click here. 
• How about weather?  Yup.  Just type the word “weather” and add a city name or a zip code to see the latest forecast. 
• You can use Google for currency conversions.  Want to know how many U.S. Dollars you can get for your 500 Euros?  You can.  Just type “500 Euros to Dollars” into the search box and you’ll have your answer.  ($739.80 if you don’t feel like clicking). 

There are tons of operators other than the ones I mention here.  In fact, here’s a very handy site that has a huge list of all the various ways you can search for information on Google.  Or you can go to Google’s own official help center.

I hope this article helps you feel empowered to be a better Googler.  I hope that these tips will help you get more accurate results so that you never again have to say “Why can’t I ever find what I’m looking for on Google?”  Perhaps instead you’ll be saying, “Why am I so awesome at finding whatever I need on Google?”  I know I ask myself that question every morning when I look in the mirror.  Now, you can be just as awesome. 

So go.  Spread the news.  Google is a powerful tool, standing by night and day to assist in connecting you with the very information you need.  Sometimes we just need to provide better information up front to help it along.  Your training is complete, grasshopper. 

What do you think of when you hear the words “Wal-Mart?”  Discount retailer?  Grocery store?  Evil corporate giant? 

How about “Search Engine Specialists?”  Yeah, me neither.  But that’s not stopping them from trying to sell you SEO services.  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  It’s the process of rewriting your website’s code and content to better communicate with the search engines–the end result being that you rank better on search engines like Google for your targeted keyword phrases. 

We know a bit about SEO–and by “a bit” I mean “a great deal”–and we’ve helped many clients acheive higher rankings for their website.  It’s not rocket science, but it’s a time-consuming, detailed process that can take plenty of time.  The industry average for cost on a typical SEO project is well over $1000.

Wal-Mart is selling “Online Marketing” services for as low as $30/month. Think about that. 

Honestly, I shouldn’t have expected anything different from them.  I have bought jeans from Wal-Mart just because they can offer me jeans at a rock-bottom price (usually under $15).  They’ve built their business on rock-bottom prices.  Usually they can do so because they are buying in bulk and they’re buying cheap products that are (often) made in China. 

But is SEO work the same as buying a pair of jeans? Wal-Mart is fine for buying my Cheetos, my Wranglers, and my deodorant.  But I like a little expertise and value from my marketing expenses, thank you very much.

Let’s look at their website for more detail.  It says that, for your $30/month, you get the following:

-Profile creation tool with unlimited updates  
-Profile distribution to major search engines and online Yellow Page directories like YPGuides.
-Hand submission of your website URL to the major search engines and directories

Now allow me, for a moment, to take these one by one.  First of all, what is a “profile?”  I have no idea.  It is a Wal-Mart creation.  I’m assuming they will build a profile of your company in their own database and allow you to update it.  But it’s not a common SEO term.  It’s fluff.

The second item they give you for your thirty bucks is…drumroll please….submission of your business profile to a bunch of yellow pages directories.  Ugh.  Look, you can follow your heart here, but I don’t think yellow pages websites are much of a value.  People who trust the yellow pages brand name are just using the book.  People who have embraced the web as an information-finder are savvy enough to be using Google and Yahoo, and they’re not just going to the yellow pages site out of some sort of brand loyalty.  So, ultimately, I don’t think having your “profile” (whatever that is) submitted to the yellow pages sites is worth your time or money.

Lastly, they’re promising to “hand-submit” your site to the major search engines.  Wow.  Okay, so hand-submitting a site to Google or Yahoo used to be a common SEO step.  But the engines have evolved to a point where it’s no longer necessary.  If you launch a site, the engines will find it.  You simply don’t need to hand-submit.  Even if you did need to (or want to), once you’re included in the index of a search engine there really isn’t any reason to submit again.  So Wal-Mart is going to sell you a monthly service that no longer needs to be done, and when it did need to be done it was only a one-time thing. 

Save your money.  I know $30 a month sounds like a deal, but try to resist.  I mean, I’ll sell you some bottled  air for $30–one new bottle of air each month for one low monthly price.  You’d get about the same value as you would with Wal-Mart’s SEO services. 

SEO is a time-consuming thing.  It’s an ongoing thing.  It’s not a quick-fix.  And it’s WAY more than just creating a mysterious profile, sending that profile to spammy yellow pages sites, and performing the archaic and unnecessary task of hand-submitting a site to the engines.  SEO is done on the page…on your actual site. You can’t just submit your site to some yellow pages and expect to rank on the first page for anything you want.  There’s a reason your site doesn’t rank number 1…and that’s because someone else who paid more than $30/month got an experienced SEO Specialist to move ahead of you and into that spot. 

I don’t know what’s more ridiculous… that Wal-Mart is selling SEO services, or that many people will buy this worthless service because it’s cheap and it’s from Wal-Mart.  If you want  your website marketing to come from the company that specializes in cheap prices and long lines, then by all means…go right ahead.  Just know that you’re reading the blog of a company that can offer professional SEO services–services that will actually make a dent in your search rankings… services that we will fully explain and lay out in advance.  It will cost you more than $30 a month, but you’ll get a lot more value. 

Here’s a brand new reason to care about the welfare of Britney Spears:  She’s good for the economy.  Really good.  Like… $120 Million-a-year good. 

Yeah, you read that right.  According to this article, it is estimated that Britney Spears adds between $110-$120 Million to the U.S. economy per year….and that’s when she’s not out on a concert tour. 

Clearly Britney is popular–she’s the most-searched phrase on the Internet for 2007 (and 5 of the 6 previous years as well).  And everyone groans when I mention that… as though they feel someone or something else deserves our national attention.  And I’m sure there’s some truth in that.  But you can’t say she’s not pulling her weight in terms of the economy. 

Here’s a longer article that goes into detail on why she’s worth so much to us in terms of dollars.  See, Britney’s mere existence creates jobs and puts food on the tables of many. 

There are the papparazi photographers who take her picture (and follow her around all day).  Then you consider the magazines that print those photos, and the subscriptions and sales dollars they bring in.  Don’t forget that she’s also a singer, whose albums have made a ton of money for her label, her PR people, and her managers.  She’s been in movies and music videos, has her own perfume, and even starred in her own reality show.  When you break it all down, you can easily see how they arrived at the $120 Million figure.  And if she were on a concert tour, then that number would climb even further, with tour employees, merchandise sales, venue revenue, and so on. 

But the lion’s share of the money she adds to the economy is related to the magazine/tabloid industry.  From the article:

Spears is just one of many stars driving the growing multibillion dollar celebrity news industry. But the Spears story in particular, with a new twist nearly every week, has become a very profitable sub-sector unto itself.

“Britney is the most bankable celebrity out there right now, and she has been for the past year,” said Francois Navarre, founder of the paparazzi agency X17.

And the people who buy those magazines and read them online are the same people who search for her enough online each year to make her the most-searched phrase.   As depressing as it may be, there’s no denying the demand for Britney-related information.

So now I come to the issue of having a vested interest in her well-being.  If anything bad were to happen to her that would cause her popularity to wane…it would be bad for the economy.  And the economy can’t take too many more hits right now, if you know what I mean. 

So maybe instead of groaning when we see her on the cover of another magazine or wishing she would go away…perhaps we should count our blessings.  She may be a train wreck… but she’s a profitable one, at least as far as the U.S. economy is concerned.  I don’t know how much you add to the national bottom line, but I bet it’s not as much as Britney.