Search Engine history

The whole internet owes its origins to work done for the US military in the 1960s ( known as Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or, as it was shortened to, the ARPANET) which allowed messages to be sent between individual computers and a giant mainframe in an efficient manner. If you want to know more then go to Wikipedia which has the whole compex and technical story.

The networks based around the ARPANET were government funded and therefore restricted to non-commercial uses such as research; commercial use was strictly frowned upon. For this reason it was mainly used by the military and educational establishments. During the 1980s, the connections expanded to more educational institutions, and even to a growing number of companies for research.

The term "Internet" was first adopted in a report published in 1974. The first ARPANET connection outside the US was established to Norway in 1973, just ahead of the connection to the UK. It would be the late 1980s before Asia became connected.

During the late 1980s, the first Internet service provider (ISP) companies were formed. Again, Wikipedia covers this comprehensively, so if you want the full lowdown head there now!

The first search engine created seems to have been Archie, created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal. The original intention of the name was "archives," but it was then shortened to Archie.

Archie didn't have the capacities of today's search engines, but it did allow you to do wander around the internet (if you knew the name of a file you might be looking for!) In 1992 it contained about 2.6 million files with 150 gigabytes of information. However, Archie didn't index the content of text files. That capability came in 1991 with the development of another search, known as Gopher.

GOOGLE

According to the company itself, 'Google is a play on the word googol, which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, Mathematics and the Imagination by Kasner and James Newman. It refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google's use of the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web.'

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, whilst students at Stanford University began collaboration on a search engine called BackRub in 1996 - named for its ability to analyze the "back links" pointing to a given website. Page was a great one for tinkering with mechanical things and it is said that he once managed to make a working printer out of Lego™ bricks!

By dint of persuasion and begging/borrowing they managed to assemble enough 'modern' computers to add to their network. Very soon, their unique approach earned BackRub cult status around the campus.

Page and Brin continued working to perfect their technology, and buying a terabyte of disks at bargain prices in 1998 built their own computer housings in Page's room, which was to become Google's first data center. And toward the end of the year they "put their studies aside" as the Google website has it, to raise 1 million dollars.

And from those humble beginnings grew the behemoth that is Google!

YAHOO!

Yahoo! started life as a directory of websites, created in 1994 by David Filo and Jerry Yang. Search was not considered so crucial until around 2002 when they seemed to have cottoned on to the way the internet was growing, and started aquiring search companies and related technology.

In the scramble to gain the upper hand, Overture purchased AllTheWeb and AltaVista in 2003. Yahoo! bought Inktomi in 2002 and then Overture in 2003, using the combined expertese to develop their own in-house search engine which appeared in 2004.

MSN

Microsoft seem to have only really got serious about search engine technology when they realised just how fast Google were growing. For several years from 1998 they relied on outsourcing partners such as Overture, Looksmart and Inktomi.

It was only in 2005 that they began their first in-house search engine, and in 2006 launched their MSN Live Search model.

THE OTHERS

Yes, there are lots more search engines out there. Free web submit sites will offer to submit your site to thousands! But when nearly 90% of searches worldwide are conducted over the top three, are the tiddlers really that important?

You also need to bear in mind that there is a lot of interaction and relationships between search engines - giving and taking results.

Meta Search Engines
Most meta search engines such as Hotbox and Dogpile draw their search results from multiple other search engines, then combine and rerank those results. This was a useful feature back when search engines were less clever at indexing the web. As search has improved the need for meta search engines has been reduced.

Add that to the fact that Google and Yahoo feed results or deliver pay to click ads into several smaller search engines and you begin to see that getting top listings on the tiddlers might seem good, but in fact is not going to do your business or website much good. YOU NEED TO BE THERE on Google, MSN and Yahoo!

Debunking the Rules

Rules are made to be broken. That's just being realistic. The more you get people to live according to the rules, the more they would try to bend them. Not actually break the rules, but everybody wants to bend them a little or even try to go around it. Fact is, we seem to hate rules. Rules make our existence boring or less lively. Who would want to always play by the rules anyway?

Even in catalog printing and design, believe it or not, we also have rules. It's not much of letting your creative juices be stagnant inside you, but more of setting a standard for the others to live by. And believe me, there are a lot of rules catalogers have followed over the years that many of these have become established principles in designing catalogs. So what do we do with them? We just need to "debunk" some, or two, of them so that we may be able to go outside the box and get reassurance that different is definitely the way to get sales.

#1: The upper right corner of a spread should always have the bestseller.

Studies have shown that people's eyes first fall to the right side portion of a place. We usually take notice of things that are located on the right. Notice in every sale, the things that merchandisers want to get sold immediately are usually placed on the right side part of the store.

This principle also holds true for catalog printing. If you want your particular product to get noticed, put it in the upper right corner of your catalog spread.

To debunk it: Put instead in the upper right corner a product in your line that is different and unusual for your clients- something unique and quite catchy. That will definitely grab their attention, enough to make them want to sift through the rest of the pages.

#2: Simple typography; Limited typeface.

Too many fonts, as well as too small a type point just to get all the information in a cramped space can make your print catalog too hard for the eyes of the reader. Just remember that your information should always be readable and legible.

To debunk it: Present in bold and larger fonts the things you want emphasized. If you're having a special sale or you have a special benefit that can only be derived from your product, well, you just have to get bolder than that of the rest of the text.

The bottom line is, rules are there because they have been tried, tested and found to be effective. They wouldn't be thriving for many years if they did not bring the sought-after results. As catalog printing companies, you just have to know when to get conventional and when to go for different and avant-garde.

Backlinking Your Home Internet Business To Online Success

You have done a great amount of work to set up your home internet business site. Like all home internet business marketers, your site offers a useful, fresh information and has a unique look. Now it is an exactly right time to draw a massive amount of targeted traffic, to launch your home internet business web site to several keyword markets.

The best way to do this demanding job, is to build enough backlinks.

1.A Great Content Does Not Guarantee The Traffic.

If the content would be the only promotion strategy, it would simply take too long time, before the mouth to mouth effect would create the traffic through backlinks.

The power of the backlinks comes from two things: they bring instant traffic from other web sites and directories and they will increase the search engine ranking of your home internet business site. This higher page rank brings constant, residual traffic. It works day and night!

2.The Popularity Of Your Home Internet Business Is Measured By The Number Of Backlinks.

For instance Google does not value on page keywords so much than off page backlinks. It sees, that if a site has a lot of backlinks from other sites, they are like votes. The more votes, the more important the site is, especially if the votes come from high page rank sites. Google sees this kind of the site more useful to Google users, which is natural.

3. The Importance Of Backlinking Cannot Be Over Valued.

When a backlink to your home internet business site from a popular and relevant site is built up, Google puts a date to it, and records the actual phrase used in the link. Google then saves this information in order to establish rankings.

4.All Backlinks Are Not Equal.

Google understands that all backlinks to your home internet business site are not equal.Here the quality beats the quantity. A link from a popular, related site has more weight than the link from the blog of your girl friend.

5.What Is The Most Powerful Way To Get Backlinks?

When you know that Google gives higher page rank to your home internet business site, if it has enough high quality backlinks. The question is, how to get these links?

Article marketing is an easy and cost effective way to build backlinks rapidly. As you know, search engines love useful and fresh content, because this helps the search engines to keep their own competitiveness on a high level.

When you write informative articles with the link back to your home internet business site and they are reprintable ones, many respected web sites will copy them and publish on their own sites to regularly offer fresh content to their readers. And every time one more backlink to your site will be created.

When more and more articles are distributed about your home internet business, you will get a regular stream of fresh backlinks over time. The search engine love this and your page rank will go up. That means more automatic quality traffic.

Using Low Cost Internet Marketing Strategies For Greater Profits

You can use many different Internet marketing strategies to advertise your website. And sometimes you don't have to spend a bomb just to get your some decent advertising exposure.

There are always methods to expose your business to the public and make your presence felt without doing overkill with your advertisement expenses.

Make use of internet marketing to boost your online presence and power. Here are some simple strategies that you may employ to boost the visibility of your business crossing beyond your advertising budget. However, these techniques need time and some effort to produce decent results.

Firstly, you need a website before you can make use of these low cost Internet marketing strategies. So go get it done either by yourself or hire a web developer. You can display your products and services. This will be used in employing the following Internet marketing techniques.

1. Affiliate Marketing Strategy

This is the process of recruiting a network of smaller websites known as affiliates to drive targeted traffic to a website. You as an advertiser may be providing all promotional materials. You will have to pay a certain percentage of the sales profit to your affiliates.

2. Trade Links Strategy

You should always aim your site to have a good ranking with search engines. You can do it through link building. This could be done through trading links to other businesses that are related with yours.

3. Newsletters Strategy

You can send out newsletters to your subscribers (of course those who signed up willingly) will help establish a good working relationship with your customers or potential customers. Make sure your newsletter issue has to be short, sweet, consistent and written for a general audience.

4. E-mail Marketing Strategy

One of your best cost-effective Internet marketing tools, it stays as a vital advertising method of keeping your customers aware of your products and services. Just make sure no spamming or you will find yourself and your business in hot soup dealing with complaints.

5. Articles Marketing Strategy

If you put quality content in the form of articles in your website along with your products and services, search engines will have to index your website. Getting you website indexed by popular search engines means more traffic for you.

6. Forums Strategy

It's time to do some networking by joining forums that mainly discusses stuff regarding or related to your products and services. Actively posting responses or answers and asking relevant information will build your reputation as that forum's member and boost your company's visibility through your signature files. These signature files are those that go with your every post. Links to your website could be included in this signature.

So with all these low cost internet marketing strategy, one does not have to resort to using those higher end marketing strategies that will cost a bomb and set you back by a couple of hundreds or even worse thousands...

These low cost internet marketing strategies will still achieve your desired results given some due time. So take them to the test and reap the rewards.

Web site Promotion Services - What You Must Know about Website Promotion Services?

One of the four divisions of marketing is the promotion. It contains the subjects of advertising development, publicity, promotion of sales, and personal selling, which is the total package that aims to boost the sales, brand equity creation and the corporate of image it depicts as well as product competition or product launching.

The definition of marketing, in contrast, is a general notion that refers to the development of facilitating the "sale" of both the products and services. Other divisions that comprise the subject of marketing are the pricing, and product managements and distribution.

Website Promotion Services Today

With the Internet revolution of today and as the popularity of what business online is all about, several businessmen are gearing towards the process of online marketing, which is basically the method of acquiring various marketing aims and objectives by the means of Internet. Together with its numerous promotional strategies, included to that is the method of web site promotion services.

In the matter of commerce, web site promotion services is considered as the most proficient promotional process and is the easiest road that points to the direction of international market. In contrast to other standard ways of bringing in the idea of advertising, it is a proven method in bringing the most effective and cost-efficient way, especially for upstart companies and small businesses.

In the year 2005, analysts and experts who have been in the online business industry for years, stated that the idea of online advertising that is spent in the United States clearly increased by up to 20%. They also added that even those growing companies that aim for success spend over $10billion for online advertisement at the beginning of their business. This is so since the number of online consumers is growing year by year due to the Internet's high-speed connection that contributes a lot to the phenomenon.

Getting Website Promotion Services

If you are thinking of advertising through one of the websites that cater to your company's ideas and product offers, acquiring the assistance of several well-noted website promotion service professionals is one of the finest choices that you will ever make to ensure the growth and health of your business and boost your sales in no time. These promotion service providers are specialists in the website industry as well as in the field of online marketing and can devotedly plan, apply and supervise the overall promotional strategies that have been designed for your website.

When it comes to web site promotion services, there are two basic categories that you should know about: paid and free. It actually doesn't indicate that paid advertising is more valuable, as any of those free web site advertising providers can be just as efficient and valuable as paid. What is more important is that it is able to provide more valuable traffic that you need for your website to generate the goals and realize them.

Web site promotion services that should be helpful in your online business are search engine optimization, pay-per-click, link exchanging, submitting on search engines and web directory, marketing affiliation, META tag development, and the process of copywriting. Most companies, though, combine all of these if not most of these offers in a package.

Utilize Traffic Exchanges Using Splash Pages

When advertising in traffic exchanges, you have to remember that most surfers won't be interested in your site. All they want is that traffic credit they will get by waiting a short amount of time (15 to 30 seconds usually). You can, however, try and get them out of that "clicking zombie" state by using splash pages.

A splash page is used to capture the surfer's attention before they move on to the next site. Here are some guidelines to creating an effective splash page for traffic exchanges:

1) Write an attention-grabbing headline. It should clearly define what your site/product you want people to see is about. I advice against using cliché headlines like "Discover How You Can Fire Your Boss in 7 Days With This Guaranteed Money Making System™" - most people know already that it's usually an ad for yet another useless e-book. It's better to keep it short and simple.


2) Keep it short. Tell them what makes you different. A bulleted list might work well to outline the most important information that surfers will find interesting. If they will want to find more, they will have to take action.


3) Keep graphics to the minimum. A lot of traffic exchange users actually surf with graphics off - if they see nothing where a big image should be (a chart with text, for example), they will leave. Not to mention that a splash page must load quickly (remember, you only have 15 to 30 seconds - site load time included). If you absolutely have to add a big image, don't forget to write alternate text for it.


4) Keep it silent. Sure, an auto-playing video telling how awesome this product is, will get surfers' attention, but it almost always triggers a negative reaction. Traffic exchange users hate sites with sound! If you absolutely have to add a video or a record to your splash page, let the visitors decide whether they want to hear it or not. Consider the loading time as well. It won't be affected if video will be streamed only when visitor clicks the "play" button.


5) Add a "call to action". That's what visitors do after they read through your splash page: join your mailing list, visit your main site, join the program you promote through your affiliate link, and so on.


6) Track your splash page performance. Create several copies of the splash pages, with different headlines, colors and promotional text. Find out which combination generates most clicks on your links and concentrate on promoting that particular page.

Remember that there is no "best way" to design a splash page. Your best bet is creating something original and different from those advertisements we see every day.

When Is An Internet Award Nothing More Than a Link Exchange?

While I was surfing the Internet, I stopped by a woman's website who lives in Australia. Here, I went to one of her pages, which was loaded with awards of all kinds! I was impressed! I then looked around her website, to see what made this site an award-winning website. I couldn't see how this website could win one award, much less the dozen or so awards that were posted. So, I was perplexed as to how this could happen.

In the early days, I surfed around, showing my ignorance everywhere I went. One day, I came across another website which specialized in dogs and dog issues, etc. I went to the Fido page, and I was impressed by all the awards I saw on this page...about a dozen or so! Boy, Fido was sure bringing in the bacon...or so I thought!

On the site, there was a place to apply for an award, so I did, and I don't even have a dog! I wanted to see what would happen. A few days later, I received my "dog award," in my email box, which was nicely done. WOW! I was on Cloud 9! My very own "dog award!" This person gave me a "dog award," just at the snap of a finger...I didn't earn this thing! I decided to do a little investigation, so I got into a little chat with the website owner. He told me that he was a member of a "dog ring," and they do this all the time, that is, give each other awards, disguised as link exchanges! Being "wet behind the ears," I had never heard of such a thing! I was appalled at what I learned, because this practice is nothing short of deceit...deceiving the public!

* Deceit - (definition) the act of deceiving and distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading;

Could the other woman in Australia have done the same thing, that is, be a member of some sort of ring, and do the same thing by exchanging awards (links)? Look, "Mr. Goody-two-shoes," you are now learning the business of the Internet! (don't be so naive, Jer...blush-blush!)

It was interesting to find this out, as I was always brought up to believe that if a person won an award, or got recognized for something, it would be for their hard work; longevity; their skills and/or talents, and that the person would EARN the award!

As time went on, I found out that this practice of exchanging awards (links) does, in fact, exist and when a person does this, I think it waters-down the true meaning of the award itself, and renders the award value-less, etc. Over the last several years, I've turned down about half a dozen of these so-called awards, and I'd rather not have one of these "awards" on my site. My visitor's are very important to me, and I don't deal in lies and deceit!

In May 2007, I won and turned down another award, which claimed to be "one of the most prestigious award on the Internet." This "award" came with strings attached, and an attitude by the givers, and when it came in by email, I deleted it! So, much for the "most prestigious award on the Internet!" And now, that I'm more intelligent and Internet savvy, about what's going on (yeah, right!), I can make better decisions.

In the same breath, I will say, that there are MANY excellent awards out there on the Internet, which are given in good faith by caring individuals, organizations, and businesses...for the right reasons...and they should be applauded! When accepting an award, I think individuals have to use the concept or principle of "buyer-beware!" I'd rather not have an "award" on my website, if I knew it was nothing more than a link exchange with strings attached, etc.

After years of hard work, I truly believe that my website is one of the best on the Internet in the "beginning category!" That's not arrogance talking...that's confidence talking! It's not going to be an award on my website, that's going to make it successful...it's going to be all the long hours; the imagination; creative abilities; innovative ideas...and most importantly, it will be the PEOPLE around the world, that will judge my website and give it a thumbs up...or thumbs down! Having an "award" on my website, disguised as a link exchange, is not going to make my site successful...as a matter of fact, I think it will do more damage, that good! So, if somebody come to my website, with an "award" disguised as a link exchange, with strings attached...they can just keep on going! (can I interest you in some snake-oil, Jer, disguised as an award?)

Promo Black Box - What is it and How Can it Help Me?

This is a suite of proprietary software and hosted applications designed to assist small and medium sized businesses in enhancing their online presence and visibility. I will outline what I think are prominent aspects to this product and why it's similar to other other products currently available.

This package includes a number of business productivity software and hosted applications a business can use to enhance various aspects of their Internet marketing strategy. Some of the applications are innovative and some are simply a remake of standard Internet marketing utilities.

Of particular interest to me is one of the innovative applications named Search Chameleon. This application builds on the concept of relevancy with search terms entered in a search engine being relevant to the text in a landing page; resulting from a prospect clicking on a free search listing or sponsored advertisement.

This application is intended to assist in completing a triangle of relevancy of search terms with:

the text entered in search engine,

the text in the free listing or the sponsored advertisement and subsequently,

the text on the landing page.

This was based on the idea that a visitor will be more willing to spend some time on a landing page that's relevant to the exact search term they entered in a search engine. The advantage to this is it can alleviate the requirement of having dozens of customized landing pages specific to certain keywords, because the page text will adjust in real time according to the search term a visitor uses in the search engines.

The bad side is some people may consider this as a Black Hat technique because the utility basically uses embedded scripts to change your landing page text to include the search terms you entered in a search engine. But the owners are confident in that Promo Black Box was co-designed by a top Internet marketing company with distinguished awards from both Google and Yahoo.

Another innovative application is a survey lead generation application which can be used on a database of email prospects. It basically allows you to customize a series of questions which will ultimately introduce your product or service once the individual has successfully answered all the questions.

This can be a powerful marketing tool because it allows a business to attract clients for a specific offer rather than generating generic leads, such people who are interested in making money online, or opportunity seekers.

A summary of the other applications contained in this package includes:

• An auto responder.
• Four fully narrated training CDs that teach you how to set up and run your Google pay-per-click campaign.
• An article submitter utility.
• Database of business tips designed to create content for eZines or tips for client or prospect databases.
• 20 additional business productivity software downloads on various Internet marketing techniques.
• 2 hours of training per week in an Webinar chat room.

As previously mentioned, the drawback is some of the software in Promo Black Box are a remake of existing Internet utilities. Applications such as the autoresponder, Google training CDs and the article submitter are already prevalent on the Internet. But, as indicated in my overview, the innovative proprietary applications are what distinguishes this as a unique product.

In my opinion, the totality of the products included in Promo Black Box, along with the online training and support, can be an asset for companies unfamiliar with Internet marketing techniques. A business would have to weigh the long term advantages of learning the marketing techniques and using the products against the overall cost of investing in an Internet marketing service.