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August 31, 2004
Gmail?
What has happened to Gmail? Not much talk about it recently and it is 5 months after the official announcement of the beta tests.
Anyway, the purpose of this is to give away some invitations to Gmail to anyone interested. If you are drop us a line.
Posted by Basileios at 02:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 30, 2004
Google PageRank Update?
It has been some time since the last PageRank update (which was back in June) and this somehow has got me a bit 'worried'. We mentioned in the past that Google is 'playing it low' with the IPO phase, but now that everything is out of the way itr may appear that is the time for them to make radical changes.
Whether this will mean a serious update in the look and feel of Google/Adwords/Adsense or a more serious update in the ranking algorithm remains to be seen. I somehow favor the latter than the former and I think we will see some major changes in the algorithm by the end of the year.
Posted by Basileios at 06:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 27, 2004
Olympics RSS feed ?
This is totally off topic (but hey... its Friday...)
By the way, where is the Ofiicial Athens Olympics RSS feed? I am so annoyed that the official Athens Olympics site did not have RSS feeds for each of the games so that people who are interested would be able to get the information immediately.
Also surprised to hear that Olympic games athletes were actually banned from blogging. Annoying to say the least...
Posted by Basileios at 04:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 25, 2004
A comment on SEO and Athens Olympics
As you may know the Athens Olympics are coming to an end this Sunday. 'Olympic's is one of the most popular search words over the past few weeks and many popular athlete's names score high in the list of searches.
However, I am amazed about how 'easy' it has been to score high in search engines for athens olympics related keywords. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that Greece - the hosting country - is pretty much an infant in e-marketing matters, but still the situation is impressive.
This is a situation that sounds as a missed business opportunity for many businesses (admittedly many of those in the host country). I wonder what the situation in the Beijing Olympics will be like. Certainly a marketing opportunity for SEO there as well...
Posted by Basileios at 05:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 24, 2004
Yahoo! Blog
It is actually 'old news' now but worth mentioning here as well: Yahoo! has entered the world of blogging with their Yahoo! Search Blog. The good news is that it looks a lot better than the Google blog (that has given us zero content so far...)...
Posted by Basileios at 03:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 20, 2004
Google is Googled
An interesting analysis by The Register on the way the Google IPO went.
Posted by Basileios at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 19, 2004
GOOG at $85
The Google share starts trading at $85 lower than the originally expected $108-$135 value. Timing hasn't been good for Google apparently but this is the beginning ofa 'beautiful journey'.
Basil Drolias @ Rugles Website Marketing
Posted by Basileios at 06:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Changethis!
Remember when you wanted to change the world?
Remember when the Internet came into your life to change the way you communicate with your friends and family?
Remember when the Internet changed the way you did business?
Changethis plans to make use of the Internet to propagate ideas and change.
Posted by Basileios at 05:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 18, 2004
Google cuts share range
The Google share range has just been decreased to $85 and $95 per share from the original $108-$135 value....
Posted by Basileios at 09:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Google Playboy Interview
The (in)famous Playboy interview of Page and Brin is out (right in the middle of the IPO bidding) . Enjoy...
Posted by Basileios at 05:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Link Poupularity Building by Rugles
As you may know Link Popularity Building is one of the most important and difficult aspects of search engine optimization. We will be shortly launching a new free service through Rugles that will help websites build their link popularity in the most optimal way (no we are not building a link farm!).
We have mentioned in the past that chasing for sterile links is not ideal in the world of internet marketing. A new approach to this problem will offer quality links through this service that will provide you with both 'raw links' and 'raw traffic'.
The service will be free in its beta/alpha state. If you require any advance information on the service simply drop us a line.
Basileios Drolias @ Rugles Website Marketing
Posted by Basileios at 02:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 17, 2004
Its the kewyord...
Search Engine Optmimization today is not just the process that brings you visitors by fixing the content of your website and your link strategy. One of the most important but often neglected parts of the SEO process is the selection of the keywords in which the SEO work will focus. Finding the optimal keywords that will give you both high rankings AND many visitors in the shortest amount of time is the most crucial part of SEO these days.
Posted by Basileios at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 16, 2004
Google and Athens Olympics 2004
Google celebrates the beginning of the AThens 2004 Olympics with a new Google art:
Posted by Basileios at 12:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 10, 2004
SEO. Shopping for Christmas
I find that many of our customers do not always understand the fact that SEO is a task that requires quite a bit of time before the results start appearing. Competitive keywords require a set of well orchestrated tasks to run in parallel (including copywriting, link strategy, changes in the website etc) in order for the first results to start appearing after a period of 6 months or more.
The situation today is also difficult time-wise even for less competitive keywords as new sites fall victims to the delays of the sandbox effect of Google.
As a result if you plan to get high ranks for the busy Christmas season then you are probably just about too late... But, dont despair. Investing in proper SEO work is not just for Christmas. Proper SEO is something that will be combined with the other of your business process in order to establish a solid base for your future growth.
Harry @ Rugles Website Marketing
Posted by Basileios at 04:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 09, 2004
Well, isnt it strange that
Well, isnt it strange that Google is using Yahoo! maps when you do a search with a zip code.
What happened to the Google maps integration?
Posted by Basileios at 09:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 06, 2004
Friday Fun: Web Addiction
Well, and to think that I spent 18 months as a green beret in the Greek Army.... If only I knew of that...
Posted by Basileios at 01:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 05, 2004
Google Illegal Share Issuing
Cnet reports on a possibility that Google could have issued millions of shares to employees illegaly over the past three years.
Google, allegedly, offered to purchase more than 23 million shares sold to 1105 employees and 5.6 million stock options held by 301 people. According to CNet:
"These option grants and stock issuances may have violated the Securities Act of 1933 and the state securities laws" of 18 states, including Arkansas, California and Colorado, as well as the District of Columbia, according to the filing.
On another matter, rumours have been circulating today that the IPO date of Google will take place next week and a possible date is the 10th of August.
Harry @ Rugles Website Marketing
Posted by Basileios at 06:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 04, 2004
How to be Creative
Gapingvoid.com has a remarkable thread of 'instructions on How to be Creative. These Include:
1. Ignore everybody.
2. Creativity is its own reward.
3. Put the hours in.
4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
5. You are responsible for your own experience.
6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
7. Keep your day job.
8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
14. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.
Quite a few of those apply to business strategy planning as well so I think those over a few times and from different perspectives. Each one is a bit like a Mantra.
Basil Drolias @ Rugles Website Marketing
Posted by Basileios at 06:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 03, 2004
On SEO Software
I was asked recently by a customer on how useful are SEO software (like the (in)famous WebPosition Gold) on achieving high search engine rankings in Google and the major search engines.
There is a lot of controversy on this as many poeple 'swear' in the name of software like that since they have definitely helped them in both acieving high ranking and learning some SEO basics, but there are also quite a lot of people - mostly professionsls - that think these tools are complete rubbish.
The truth - as always - is somewhere in the middle. These tools can be very helpful for a novice user that simply wants to do some basic SEO for non competitive keywords but they are totally useless if one wants to achieve high rankings in competitive keywords. The tools do not actually offer much help on the keyword front since this may be the most important poiunt of the business sucess in your SEO.
I have to say that some of them are very good for reporting and analysis of search engine rankings so if this what interests you then you may want to try out Axandra's Interenet Business Promoter since in my books it appears to be onde of the best (by the way we are in no way affiliated with them...)
Harry @ Rugles Website Marketing
Posted by Basileios at 03:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 02, 2004
The Trouble with Mail
I have a personal email account. It has its own domain name. It has its unique alias which is used only by people who I chose as worthy enough to be my friends. That email address is not listed anywhere on the web, nor entered into fora or websites.
However, today I received the first spam mail in that email account (and no thank you guys, I dont think I need Viagra at this stage in my life...). You can bet I am not happy with this. You can bet I am feeling weaker than ever and my trust in email has definitely collapsed as well.
It is so unfortunate that such an easy and pretty much straightforward system of communication has been destroyed by spam, and the lack of adequate control of the service. Email has been one of the seeds that are responsible for the internet growth in the mid 90ies - remember the days when we had to ask 'do you have email?' - but sadly I think we must put an end to it the way it exists at this stage.
RSS to the rescue then? It looks like RSS is a way that can integrate a whole set of different functionalities under the same cover, and communicating with friends is certainly something that can be covered by it. It is really no accident why Wikis are becoming popular as collaboration tools, eliminating the need to use email - and more.
Do you remember the Beatles' cover of Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in which the 'old' Beatles are standing in front of the open grave of their past while the new Beatles rejoice as members of the band behind them? It is time for email to join the cover in the same fashion.
Basil Drolias @ Rugles Website Marketing
Posted by Basileios at 02:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack