Category: Digital

Firefox 2.0 launched a couple of days ago. Please tell me you are using this browser! It has so many features compared to Internet Explorer it blows me away. I've been a dedicated Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox user since the 90's, and with good reason: for the power user, this browser is unrivaled.

2.0 is more a marketing release than one including major new features. One feature I like though -- a keyboard shortcut for undoing closed tabs:

Ctrl-Shift-T (Windows) or Cmd-Shift-T (Mac)

Enjoy. Download here

The Yahoo Search Blog announced they have finally added support for the NOODP META tag. This allows you to override the SERPS behavior which would normally key off of Open Directory Project (ODP) (DMOZ) listings, or in this case, Yahoo's directory listing. Read more
You can use this in two ways:

META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP" (prevents MSN, Google and Yahoo from using ODP directory)

or

META NAME="Slurp" CONTENT="NOODP (prevents Yahoo only from using ODP directory)

They've unofficially done this for a while, it seems, but now it is official:

We've modified our webmaster guidelines. Previously, these stated:Don't use "&id=" as a parameter in your URLs, as we don't include these pages in our index.

However, we've recently removed that technical guideline, and now index URLs that contain that parameter.

Read more at Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Need to email someone a 300 Meg. file? MediaFire is a file hosting service allowing unlimited file sizes and uploads, as well as unlimited downloads of files. Ad supported, free, and very slick! Check it out at MediaFire.com.

Want to build your own Google-powered specialized search engine for your web site or blog? Google's new Custom Search Engine service allows you to set up your own unique search engine that searches on certain sites you specify, and allows you to completely customize the look and feel. Some of the features:

• Make money (get a share off the ad clicks)
• Multi-label sites
• Up to 5000 annotations per search engine
• Collaborate with friends to tag sites (I’ve made my search engines public so anyone can add their annotations)
• Associate weights to results and have control over the rankings (refer to the XML)
• Completely brand the engine and customize the look and feel
• Display refinements on the search results page
• Upload XML/OPML files filled with links
• Upload XML to configure the search engine labels/contexts
• Nest label hierarchies on the refinements onebox
• Make the search Ajax powered
• Combine results with another person’s search results Source

Learn more about this new technology here: http://google.com/coop/cse/examples/

Businesses wanting web marketing services usually must pay a premium to agencies to get SEO and PPC assistance.  DiscountClick fills in the gap between do-it-yourself campaigns and high-dollar agencies.  Their affordable Search Engine Promotion Services costs as low as $50 per month. They provide:

... dedicated SEO Consulting, Natural Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Management, Keyword Analysis, Link Building Services, Non Reciprocal Link programs, Code Optimization, Affordable, Content Writing, Monitoring and Reporting, Search Engine Marketing. Our online marketing services for search engines also provides a suite of online seo tools for optimizing and tracking your web site and report on your results. Source

A must for any professional seo consultant or interactive agency serious about cost effective marketing for search engine optimization. Read more at http://www.discountclick.com.

Advantage Processors provides a service offering the best for Credit Card Processing and Merchant Account services. Part of their low model is segmenting between low-cost online internet credit card processing merchant accounts for both Low Risk and High Risk merchants.

Our solutions provides merchants with their own merchant account, online processing of credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover), shopping cart links, virtual terminal, and site enablement. Source

Both online and offline traditional retail stores, bars, restaurants, and any type of industry where credit card transactions are vital to success, should take a look at this service.

Learn more at AdvantageProcessors.com

Shoptracker is a central management point for products and shopping feeds. This tool can update prices; manage products; change product categories; and create product feeds for comparison shopping engines.

SearchMarketingTools delivers an advanced shopping management service that goes beyond simple feed creation. In addition to creating and submitting shopping feeds, SMT has created a complete solution for the needs of shopping campaign managers. Our service will increase profits, identify advertising waste, and enhance the productivity of your online marketing department. Source

Since Bizrate and Nextag allow product level bidding, ShopTracker can identify under and over performing products and automatically decrease/increase bids on individual products. ShopTracker also displays competitor product pricing, allowing you to optimize product prices to gain top ranking positions or to close under pricing gaps.

Learn more about this tool at http://searchmarketingtools.com.

Servers are cheap, but used servers are even cheaper. Vibrant Technologies buys, sells, leases, and repairs new and used servers and other storage and networking hardware at a 20-80% discount off manufacturer's list price. They will also buy your used hardware.

Their web site says:

All refurbished equipment is fully tested, configured and packaged to the manufacturer's standards. Leasing and short-term rentals are available. We are also interested in your trade-in and excess equipment. We'll give you top dollar for your hardware assets. Source

Their midrange server products include HP, IBM and Sun. They also provide networking and storage equipment from Kingston, Seagate, Quantum, Dataram, Clarion, Exabyte, ATL, and Phillips. Learn more at www.Vibrant.com.

Google has launched an unbranded site -- SearchMash.com -- to test experimental search features that could one day show up in google.com.

A Google spokeswoman said in an email that the site was launched recently to test possible features for the regular search engine. There's no guarantee, however, any of the features would be used. Source

I can imagine it is helpful to keep an eye on search results in this new, test search engine. If you see your ranking plummeting in SearchMash.com, you could do some research and potentially prevent SE ranking from plummeting on google.com before it happens.