Hollywood, Florida-based search engine optimization firm Eckweb Designs, Inc (www.eckweb.com) announced on September 23 that it provides affordable search engine optimization services specifically for small and home-based business websites. An entire year's SEO cost for a 20-page website will now cost only $1500, which includes identifying what keywords are being used for clients' product or service, optimizing each of those 20 pages to make them search engine friendly and to integrate the property keyword phrases, and manual submission of a website into the major search engines and directories as well as industry specific search engines, geography specific search engines, etc.
An announcement, which appeared on Google's blog (www.google.com/googleblog/2004/09/northern-exposure.html) on September 21, reveals that the search engine giant has expanded its local search capabilities to include the Canadian provinces. The introduction of Google's Local Search Canada (http://local.google.ca) brings all of the capabilities of personalized local searching to the northern country.
San Francisco, California-based search engine leader LookSmart (www.looksmart.com), which provides consumers with relevant search results through a distribution network that includes Lycos, InfoSpace, Excite, MetaCrawler, Webcrawler and many more, announced on September 22 the release of Net Nanny 5.1, an updated version of its Internet filtering software and the first version to include family-safe Web search. Net Nanny 5.1 has a retail price of $39.95 for new buyers of Net Nanny and is a free upgrade for all Net Nanny 5.0 users, available at www.netnanny.com.
The most influential website in the iGaming Industry, Gambling.com (www.Gambling.com), has repositioned itself, after seven years of success, to become a gambling only search engine, filling a massive gap in the market since Yahoo and Google left the space. Capitalizing on Yahoo and Google’s policy to withdraw from this market, the new Gambling.com represents a total relaunch of the site with an initial sole proposition of Pay Per Click search in a clean, easy to use, Google style interface.
Macromedia (www.macromedia.com) announced on September 20 that FLASH files (.SWF) can now be read and indexed by search engine spiders. Until now the spiders could not extract data from .SWF files. The development of the FLASH SDK (www.macromedia.com/software/flash/download/search_engine/) will have a large impact on the design world. A few years ago, when FLASH emerged as a cutting edge design technique, literally millions of websites were designed using that rich, multimedia environment. And while many sites designed using FLASH are highly creative and aesthetically pleasing, traditionally they have not ranked well on search engines.
SideStep, Inc. (www.sidestep.com), a travel search engine, announced on September 21 that more than seven million consumers have downloaded the SideStep toolbar. According to a recent survey, 59% of SideStep's users have an annual household income greater than $75 000 per year, 72% have college/graduate-level education, 56% are business professionals/managers, 97.3% have purchased airline tickets, 81.4% have booked hotels, and 68.6% have rented cars online.
Hoping to emerge from the shadow of its more popular rivals Google and Yahoo, Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com) is adding new tools that allow visitors to save and organize links to Web pages they find through the company's online search engine. The free features are scheduled to be unveiled on September 21.
The Emeryville, California-based company, which has improved its search technology and has become increasingly profitable, believes it has been steadily gaining on its better-known rivals and hopes to take another significant leap with its MyJeeves offerings.
icrossing (www.icrossing.com), a leading search engine marketing firm that serves its clients with Natural Search Optimization, Paid Search Management, Search Analytics and Search Intelligence, announced on September 20 that Astaro (www.astaro.com), an international security software firm whose software has won numerous awards and is in use on over 20 000 networks in 60 countries, has selected them to be their Search Engine Marketing partner.
IndianaHealthCareers.com (www.IndianaHealthCareers.com), an online job board dedicated to connecting employers, professionals and educators in Indiana’s health industry, and Indianapolis, Indiana-based e-Practical Solutions, Inc. (www.e-psinc.com), which educates companies about appropriate SEO, Web Searchability and other Internet marketing and communication services, announced on September 19 that they have entered into a marketing partnership.
A new search engine image was presented by Amazon.com on September 15 when www.a9.com officially launched. A9 can store personal search histories and allows users to access these from any computer, simply by logging in with their email address. Images can be displayed alongside users’ search details. Users can make notes in a special diary and receive suggestions on sites that may be of interest to them, based on the sites they normally look at.
