Do Seo’s sleep, answer no…well they rarely rest so I’m thinking just before 10pm about Microsoft buying Danger and Google talking about Android and everyone waiting with baited breath with the imminent release of the new Google phone.

It’s almost like the search engines are competing to get ahead of the mobile evolution.. is it not the case that Microsoft are just buying old technology?

I nearly bought a SideKick a while ago but thought it more resembled a brick in a pocket, plus there was only TMobile flogging them at the time.

First off thanks to Search Engine Serious for the hat tip I didn’t like it when Google bought a Seo Company, but this is Odd microsoft have put 2 packages together 1 - $5,500.00 and 2 - $8,600.00, ok at present you have to be an ISV, But with the statements like

Did you know your search engine
rankings can be negatively affected by:
• Having more than one company Web site.
• Making content available in multiple places.
• Using flash content.
• Having the name of your product shown only with images or a logo, rather than text.

seems a little weak, and Build an effective link strategy, growing your popularity, traffic, and organic rankings… hmmm link strategy

so what do you get for you dollar
Introduction
Learn all about the ISV SEO Service through this general explanation of SEO and its benefits to your company’s
marketing strategy.

Site Design, Aesthetics, and Usability
Once customers find your Web site, keep them there with a compelling user experience. We provide a critical analysis
of your Web design, layout, and usability from an end-user’s perspective. Includes link validation, file sizes and page
load times, cross-browser compatibility, ease of navigation, and form submission.

Search Engine Friendliness (SEF)
Examination of SEF factors, such as page titles, META and ALT tags, headers, keyword usage and density, indexable
page copy, and search engine saturation, can help your Web pages best comply with an engine’s ranking criteria.

Web Site Architecture
A comprehensive assessment of your Web site architecture includes W3C standards compliance, robots.txt file check,
URL structure analysis, domain canonicalization, 301 redirection, site maps, custom 404 error page check, IP address,
and hosting concerns.

Link Popularity
A link strategy is a great way to grow your link popularity, traffic, and organic rankings. You’ll receive a report on the
quantity of inbound links to the Web site and suggestions for improvement.

Keyword Research Top 10 or Top 50 (depending on package)
The right search term could determine how easily customers find your business. You’ll receive a list of relevant
keywords and phrases, including search frequencies to target for optimization.

Keyword Rankings
This ranking report of targeted phrases identifies keywords that can help drive traffic to your site.

Competitor Analysis Package 2 only
Find out how your Web site compares against three competitors in terms of rankings and SEO strategy.

Web Site Analytics Package 2 only
By implementing a strategy for monitoring and analyzing Web site traffic, you can target your marketing efforts on
high-quality leads.

Recommendation Top 5 or Top 10 (depending on package)
Our summary of your most critical issues—and recommendations for their resolution—can help you improve your
Web presence.

Consultation Time 1 - 3 hours depending on packge
Expert SEO consultants are available to provide guidance during the implementation of recommendations.

SEOmoz Online Premium Subscription Offer
Receive a free three-month subscription with the purchase of an annual membership. When you sign up, you’ll also
receive exclusive access to SEO articles, Web tools, and insider tips and tricks not available to the general public.

seriously this looks like a traffic power pitch .. sorry guys

DaveN

Do we think the Big M will end up purchasing Yahoo….It’s put the offer in (£22.4bn) Should give the online services that Microsoft offer a boost.

We have great respect for Yahoo, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market,” Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said.

So will Microsoft Buy Yahoo ?

Or may Google step in, what do you think ? ( wouldn’t be the first time, remember AOL lol)

One coolest little toys in Vista is the snipping tool :

You can Free Form snip, Rectangular snip, Window snip or Full screen snip and then just email it or save it. this alone as saved me so much time from alt - PrintScreen then open Fireworks Ctrl+V then export it.

so much so It lives right here on all my systems :

To find the snip tool click the Windows Jewel ;) open accessories and drag it to the quick launchbar !

DaveN

Btw I stole Mel Carson’s thunder on this after we realised that we both use it

Now that the Federal Trade Commission have cleared the merger with DoubleClick, I wonder what the impact will be on online advertising in general ? Microsoft were quick to purchase aQuantive.

With guidelines issued from the F.T.C  stating that web sites should be more open about personal information delivered in targeted advertising and opt-out options improved will the big players take any notice?

Dan Horton

Microsoft has bought Multimap to help grow its UK web business.

Multimap is one of the UK’s top 10 visited websites, receiving away above 10 million users each month.

Microsoft hopes that the acquisition “will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business”.

Sharon Baylay, general manager of the Online Services Group at Microsoft, said that the deal with Multimap presented “a huge opportunity to expand our platform business beyond the UK and globally”.

Multimap has a presence in 48 countries. more here

DaveN

The initiatives from the Microsoft camp have been flooding in well before the Christmas rush. Web Analytics product Project Gatineau will likely get more focus initially in the US market then on an international level too.

Over the last few months Microsoft have been busy indeed with the adLab team in particular moving into the European market.

With adCenter there really have been some rocking changes with their biggest recent release consisting of a huge range of editorial features, default text capability built into their dynamic text insertion parameters.

Time to chomp over the champs….

Lets take a look at what Microsoft have added to adCenter since adchamps:

Campaign management has been made much easier with the welcome addition of the new feature set. This makes editorial a breeze and comes with daily budget options with the ability to do campaign imports from Adwords Editor, chuck in some default dynamic text and you will be flying.

Reporting changes within the adCentre give you the options to access recent reports and templates right from the reporting tab, why not drag and drop to re-order columns in the custom report? The feature set is extensive and with totals and averages now shown Microsoft have clearly put some thought into the adCenter line up.

Editorial updates give immediate feedback on keywords and ad, meaning when the ad is saved adCenter will verify that all required fields have been filled in, length limits have not been exceeded and the display and destination URLs are all formatted correctly.

Personally, I like the ability to view disapproved ads and keyword associations non of this fumbling about that other systems might have ;)

The revisions from the big M have indeed been fast and furious. A welcome addition to anyone managing lots of campaigns is the bulk management tool….

It even lets you bulk submit adgroups in draft

As Microsoft live services come out of Beta giving you web and desktop apps. Perhaps it’s time for us to tip our hats to the mighty big M.

Ok, the @live email folk are grumbling,  but from a business point of view what software do you use  ? Let me guess you were forced down the Microsoft route years ago? You just had to stay though didn’t you ;)

With the focus once again on social networks and actively sharing information Microsoft is a smart cookie indeed. Something is in my eye sorry, must be a Popfly-

Fancy changing your domain controller? Is your client Microsoft Vista. Dave’s is… In Xp it took like 10 minutes to do…

With Vista it may take a little while longer…Dave where have you gone..You there…Are you online….?

Dan Horton SEO

Microsoft are certainly putting their ‘feelers’ out in the educational marketplace.  They are developing technology to help lots of students to use one computer - it’s aimed at filling the technology void in areas where resources are somewhat limited.

I’m wondering where the profit lies in developing such technology ?