Written by David Utter for WebProNews

Microsoft asked Keynote Systems not to make a survey of search engine users available to the public.

The numbers didn’t look good for the home team in Redmond, the Wall Street Journal reported, and that may have led Microsoft to request the suppression of a search engine study. In the study, MSN Search fell to 5th from 3rd among 2,000 users surveyed in the second quarter of 2005.

Relevance drove the drop, as 27 percent of users found their general search results lacking. 37 percent working with specific geographical locations, ie local search, didn’t find the relevance they wanted, WSJ cites the Keynote survey as reporting.

What good is a search engine if the results it provides aren’t relevant to the query being performed? The answer? Not much. The largest search index in the world doesn’t amount to much if you don’t have an algorithm that can successfully provide results related to the question being posed.
Because relevance is such an important characteristic, many who study the industry conduct tests to find out which engine is the most relevant and surveys to discover what people consider relevant when it comes to search results.

Don’t Put all Your Promotion Eggs in One Basket by Gary McHugh

One of the most frequent questïons I get asked by my clients is “What is the best way to promote my site?” If a brand new webmaster asks me that question, then I will take as much time as I can possibly muster to answer their request, before they learn about and put on the SEO and ranking blinkers so many webmasters wear with pride.
Allow me to state the obvious, the success of any website is in direct proportion to the amount of visitors it receives. If success is about visitors, then why on earth would any intelligent business person devote 95% of their promotion time and budget to a single method of advertising their site?

Google’s never ending search for providing a quality end user experience has culminated into a bullet with patent number WO 2005/029368 imprinted across the side. Unfortunately for smaller news services, the bullet may strike the heart of aspiring upstarts—a casualty of Google’s friendly fire.

Of course, it will all depend on how heavily certain things are weighed in the news algorithm technology Google has just sealed in the patent offices of the US and other countries. News giants like CNN and the New York Times will barely notice the decrease of air pressure in the blogosphere, and probably won’t mourn the impending loss of younger cousins vying for their thrones.

The 3 Essential Components of a Search Engine Optimization Campaign
By Matt Hockin InteractiveMarketingInc.com

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 Million searches. In a recent Forrester Research report 81% of consumers on the Internet find products and services by using the Search Engines. Search Engine Optimization allows you to achieve top search engine placement and a tap into a new source of qualified visitors who are actively searching for products and services on the Internet.
Unfortunately, only 7% of all websites are visible on the search engines according to a recent StatMarket.com study. The reason for this phenomenon is that most web sites are not properly optimized and promoted to achieve high search engine rankings.

PayPal Alternatives: Do You Have a Backup Plan?
By Merle http://mcebook.mcpromotions.com

Many people think that in order to do business online you need to have an expensive merchant account to have the ability to take payments by credït card from your customers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Merchant accounts can be hard to get and the monthly fees can really add up.
So what’s an honest Internet Entrepreneur to do?

Google Does RSS or How You Can Benefit From Google’s New Sitemaps by Titus Hoskins

Has Google finally embraced RSS with their new XML powered Sitemaps program? Well, sort of, but it seems more like a hug than a strong impassioned embrace!
It does use XML technology which allows for the crawling and updating of your site’s web pages. You can even include your entire web site (all urls) with this indexing program. For anyone targeting the search engines, especially Google, this program (still in beta) is a Must Have.
If you require timely updating of your most popular pages Google’s new Sitemaps may prove indispensable. It’s a little premature to assess the importance or impact of Google’s new program but anyone wanting to give their site a competitive edge should be gearing up.

Isn’t it interesting the places Lady Drama chooses to drop her robe, spinning everybody into gawking with covered mouths and gossip to spread? The whispers immediately crescendoed into a web-rattling holler across the servers-Financial Times was busted for hidden links.

And so, all the elements of drama present themselves in exquisite giddiness, those words that excite the most stoic browser of book covers-Deceit, Betrayal, Greed, Hypocrisy, Corruption. The dirt, man, the dirt. We’re on the edge of our seats to see if Google serves the search warrant to a major Internet player, or will power triumph over justice?

Cosmetic Changes at Google Precede Larger Overhaul
By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor, StepForth Placement Inc. (c) 2005

Google is undergoing some of the most sweeping changes in its short, seven year history. As of next week, Google will have finished sorting what might be its largest algorithm shift ever as the final points of the 3.5 part Bourbon Update were installed last Monday. This update has been staggered into three and a half sections in order to avoid a massive amount of dislocation in established rankings as was seen in previous major updates. While changes stemming from the Bourbon Update have not actually manifested into a full reordering of Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), many individual webmasters have reported fairly significant losses or gains in ranking over the past few days.

If you’re reading this then chances are that you’re not an Internet purist. You don’t build websites for artistic reasons, spilling your guts about what is philosophically, transcendentally, or intrinsically eminent to your soul and being. You build sites to make money, pure and simple.
You utilize the famed “information super highway” by setting up shop by its off ramps, hoping somebody stops in. You are told that traffic brought in from the search engines is key to online success, and you’re determined to have a bus stop right outside your shop.