A moderator at WebMasterWorld, Ian Turner, has been missing since the end of the WebMasterWorld Conference held last week in New Orleans. He was reported missing over 48-hours after failing to meet a flight to the UK in Atalanta.
Anyone with information on Ian Turner or who spoke with him on Saturday or Sunday are asked to contact WebMasterWorld founder Brett Tabke (contact info below)
Brett Tabkebtabke(at)webmasterworld.com 512-231-8107 (9a-3p cst mon-fri gmt-6)Fax 512-231-1653
(co-written by Bill Stroll, Sales and Marketing Manager)
Christmas is coming. Six months from today, retailers and E-Tailers relying on a strong holiday season will be assessing the bounties of the season. The winter holiday season is the most important segment of the year for North American retail businesses, often accounting for more than half of annual revenues. For many businesses, the period between October and mid-January makes or breaks the bottom line. Read more…
Over at the Search Engine Watch forums, a search engine marketer who goes by the nickname “Nuthin” put up a post about a problem he is having with Google AdWords.
Nuthin is working for a new but unnamed web directory. He used the word TARGET in the copy of a purchased ad, part of which read, “Reach your target audience today”. This all makes sense so far right? Read more…
Many search industry observers see click fraud as the number one threat to the growth of the Internet economy. An even greater threat has emerged one that not only places the entire infrastructure of the Internet at risk, it also threatens non-Net users. Read more…
Jack Kilby, the man whose invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 led to the power of today’s microchip, died Monday at age 81. Shortly after being hired at Texas Instruments, Kilby designed a wafer thin crystal platform (the chip), which served to connect components such as transistors, capacitors, and resistors that were previously connected by wire into a single processing unit. This allowed for greater processing speeds and, most importantly, mass production of microchips. Read more…
This week, Google leaked information about another very smart thing they’ve done. Google is about to introduce an online payment system to help facilitate e-commerce. While search engine observers speculated that Google was going head to head with Pay Pal, CEO Eric Schmitt was quick to dispel rumours that they were gunning for Pay Pal. In an interview with Reuters, Schmitt said that Google was not going to offer a “person-to-person stored-value payments system” like PayPal’s, where money is briefly stored in trust during the transfer. Read more…
The summer of 2005 is going to be an interesting one. The world of search will be fundamentally different by Labour Day. From the recent changes at Google (the effects of which will be shown over time in the core algorithm), to the introduction of several unique types of search engines, dozens of fresh ideas and innovations are finding their way onto our monitors each day. The landscape of the search environment is going to alter its appearance before the leaves change colour in mid-autumn. These changes should serve to solidify the market for a number of new niches in the search-marketing sector. Read more…
Earlier today, Montreal based meta-search engine Mamma.Com announced the beta release of Mamma Health Services, the first of a line of “deep web” vertical search tools planned to be introduced over the next twelve months. Read more…
Why do our friends change so much when they grow up? Remember when we were kids and didn’t have to think about dealing with utility bills, mortgage instalments, taxes, rent, student loans, groceries and car payments? After passing through the awkward stage of adolescence, most of us find ourselves resigned to compromising our values in one way or another in order to get a bigger piece of whatever pie we are chasing. It happens so subtly that most of us don’t even notice that we have made such compromises or that they have changed our lives. It just happens that way. Through talent, dedication, luck, and the fortunate conflux of all three at the same time, some find great wealth, influence and power when they grow up. Google officially became an adult late last summer after surviving the techno coming of age ritual known as the IPO. Now that they are all grown up, Google appears to be willing to make compromises on their beloved core mission: to make money without being evil. Read more…
The Rubicon has been crossed. Even for traditionalists, there is no going back. The Internet has finally become the world’s primary marketing tool, fundamentally altering corporate ad planning and spending. Momentum had been building around the online marketing sector for over three years but 2005 appears to be the year that mainstream marketers notice their universe has changed. Read more…
