Search Engine Optimization News Blog

This is the first time in Mozilla’s history to work with a Chinese company to help the Chinese company have seamless internet video interface for its website users. Youku is one of the top internet video websites in China. Now this company is the only online video provider for the Chinese edition of Mozilla. Among all the other browser, Mozilla’s market share for the worldwide market is not less than 20%. Now the China edition of Mozilla FireFox is set to increase the market share for FireFox. Mozilla considers its efforts to be a timely one when it is looking towards further expansions in this region. Chinese market is relatively untapped market and it is rather surprising that one of the markets with world’s largest population is to go untapped.
Users in China can now enjoy this new feature that has been developed by Live Margins for the China Edition of FireFox. They can now find all the relevant video clips in their browsers sidebar. All that they have to do is to highlight and drag the the text found in web pages. Live Margins will return the video results through Youku. Users can add all Youku videos to their playlist wither for later use or for bookmarking purposes. Users can continue to browse while the side bar will have their videos in the sidebar area. This will enrich the entire online surfing experience. As per one of the statements of Victor Koo, the founder and CEO of Youku, ““Youku is delighted with the opportunity to work directly with an international partner of the caliber of Mozilla, and we believe that together we can help deliver an even better video experience for Firefox users.”

The China edition of Firefox is built keeping in mind the huge online traffic that cannot be really compared with the online traffic from the other parts of the world. Chinese online community is seemingly has a different approach to the way they use the internet including their behavior online, their preferences and their needs.  The China edition of Firefox has taken great trouble to please the largest online community of the world. The browser has frequently used functionalities and desktop functions incorporated into the browser. Moreover, it has been noted that the Chinese online community prefers to use online portals over search engines. They prefer portals where they can find all they need in one place. Live Margin inspired design provides the internet users in China extra browsing space that will allow them to find the information they need in the shortest time possible. Multitasking, effectiveness and efficiency are the hallmarks of the China edition of Mozilla.

Through the partnership with Youku the China edition of Mozilla is empowered with quicker delivery of internet video content to the Chinese users. This will enhance the overall user experience in using Mozilla.

Dallas Entrepreneur to Blame

Self made Texas billionaire Mark Cuban was charged last week on counts of insider trading. Cuban has successfully invested in everything from computer software, consumer electronics, television, Internet services, and an art house movie theater chain, as well owning the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.

A little over four years ago, Cuban invested in a small Canadian search engine known as Mamma.com. As their biggest investor, he apparently kept close tabs on the company and discovered that it was preparing to go public, which would have devalued his own stock (acquired at deep discount).

Cuban, apparently only hours of learning about the proposed stock offering, dumped his 600,000 shares (totaling a 6.3% interest in the company) to avoid a potential $750,000 loss. This allegation has been pending for over two years, as the investigation has dragged on.

The SEC complaint accuses Cuban of insider trading, or using knowledge improperly to manipulate the stock market for personal gain. Two days after the shares were sold, the public entity, or PIPE financing was announced and the market share of Mamma.com plummeted more than 9%.

Cuban said of the company back in 2004, “I invested in mamma.com for the same reason I invested in Netidentity.com back when it was known as mailbank.com. I love businesses with low overhead, that don’t need to be technology leaders to succeed, that generate cash that they can put in the bank, and at some point, hopefully payout to shareholders. I think mamma.com has that potential. It’s not Google or Yahoo, nor will it be a top 5 search engine anytime soon. But it is a good metasearch tool that I use and have used. Google and Yahoo have become carbon copies of each other, and for me, other than usenet and news searches, it’s too big. I like the way Mamma.com organizes websearches, and I use it for picture searches.”

Later after he sold his stock, he mentioned in his blog, ” “I don’t want to own stock in companies that use this method of financing (the PIPE) … Because I don’t like the idea of selling … stock for less than the market price.”

More recently, the Texas tycoon stated, “”The government’s claims are false and they will be proven to be so.”

Cuban charges the Commission “chose to bring this case based upon its enforcement staff’s win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff’s process was result-oriented, facts be damned.”

Cuban’s attorney, Ralph Ferrara says the issue “has no merit and is a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” and that Cuban will “demonstrate that the Commission’s claims are infected by the misconduct of the staff of its Enforcement Division.”

Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang steps down from his post. He is the co-founder of Yahoo Inc. Yahoo was one the most popular search engines it was one of the oldest contenders of the online search market. Lately, things were not going that right for Yahoo after its failure to tie up with Microsoft. Earlier this year, Microsoft offered $47.5 billion for Yahoo. At that time, Yahoo refused saying that Microsoft has underestimated Yahoo’s potential. Google almost signed up a deal with Yahoo in the area of internet search. Yahoo was hoping that things would change for the better. However, Yahoo – Google deal did not materialize after a long struggle. Yahoo- Google deal elicited a lot of opposition from different quarters fearing that such a deal would monopolize the search advertising. Google finally walked away from the deal. After Google’s walk away, Yahoo tried to renew its talks with Microsoft on the possibility of Microsoft buying Yahoo. It was Microsoft chance to hit back and it said that Microsoft is not interested in buying Yahoo anymore.

Along side this long series of deals and no-deal episodes, Yahoo’s share value continued to drop and it has come down to one-third of the price that Microsoft offered to pay Yahoo. Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Chang and its cofounder had to step down hoping that new thinking will make things work for Yahoo. All those who have invested in Yahoo’s shares have been eagerly waiting for the increase in the share value. They hoped that the deal with Microsoft would increase the Yahoo’s share values and the same happened with the Yahoo-Google deal. Unfortunately, in both instances Yahoo left its investors in disappointment. Now that the there is no immediate or quick remedy to rectify the mistakes of the past, Yahoo’s market value seems to drop drastically. It has to strive 10 times harder to get things back to normal. As of now, no one has been named as replacement for Jerry Yang. The current CEO will not step down until a suitable replacement has been found. The interview process has already begun to find a suitable replacement. The interview panel is led by Roy Bostock, the chairperson. The Chairman and the company feel that it is time for the transition that will take the company to the next level.

Though the co-founder is stepping down from his role as CEO, he will still be affiliated to Yahoo. He will hold a titular role that he had before he took his office as CEO in 2007. He is also expected to be part of the Board of Directors. Besides its own success, Yahoo is answerable to its investors. So the best way to go about is to bring in a suitable person for this chair. According to Yang’s words, “I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”
The entire online community and the investors are waiting for the new CEO to work wonders with Yahoo.

Apple, a long time Google partner, may be working on their own search advertising format and / or search engine technology platform.

Currently, Apple uses Google Search on its iPhone, iPods. Apple owns the fairly popular Safari browser as well. Which is Mac compatible and holds a respectable 6.5% share of the browser market.

Google’s Eric Schmidt has been on Apple’s board of directors, and Google has always enjoyed a good relationship with the smaller powerhouse. However, with the release of the Google Android, Google may have crossed a line by putting themselves in direct competition with Apple iPhone.

This could mean a huge shift in the global market. If Google and Apple end up on the outs, the way is clear for a Google inspired Apple search engine, or even a more startling change

Some believe the time is ripe for Apple to leap into the foreground by acquiring Yahoo. As stock shares plummet and Microsoft shows no sign of recurring interest, and Yahoo investors are climbing the walls. Would Yahoo Music and Apple iTunes be a good mix? Many think so.

Yahoo One Search, a local search tool with voice recognition and integrated local, movie and other advertising results is ready for integration with the iPhone. Yahoo Search is local friendly, Yahoo Local is prominent in social networking, and Yahoo Search Marketing can serve up local ads.

SearchMonkey could be smoothly inserted into the iPhone app store; there are a myriad of social applications including a Flickr tool for the iPhone or even Delicious bookmarking and voting of sites and songs. The possibilities are endless - but can Apple afford yahoo? Perhaps; the price just got cut in half, after all.

Whether Yahoo would even consider it is the question - Yang has backed himself into a corner on this one and his next move is anyone’s guess. Icahn hasn’t said a word, but that only leads some to believe he has a plot afoot - what it might be is unknown. He didn’t secure a seat ion the board to watch the ship sink.

According to one of the latest reports of CNNMoney.com, there is a dramatic change in people’s holiday shopping trends. This year all the stores anticipated lesser holiday sales because of the credit crunch and financial recession. Adding to the financial stress there is another factor that seems to affect the sales in the US stores. More people are opting to do their holiday shopping using online stores as opposed to visiting the regular stores. Online spending has increased dramatically when compared to last year. One of the directors of TNS Retail forward, Mary Brett Whitfield notes that, “Despite slowing retail sales in many channels this holiday season, online shopping is likely to be one of the few bright spots.”

Number of people who plan to do their holiday shopping for $500 and above in the regular stores is more likely to fall from 21% to 16%. This is a very steep fall within a year. On the other hand, those who plan to spend over $500 online is expected to increase from 4% to 5%. This shows that there is an overall reduction in holiday spending and in the reduced scale of shopping, there is an increase in the online spending.

Looking at the figures for those who have lesser budget for shopping, say from $100 to $499, there is a marked difference in the figures from the previous year’s figures. It has increased from 1% to 4%. This section of people are more likely to spend less in their stores. This might prompt more businesses to go online to tap on the increasing online traffic for holiday shopping. This implies that we can expect increased online competition. If there is going to be a sector that is going to flourish, it is ITES sector and in particular, the SEO and SEM services.

Already to help their customers fight competition, SEM companies are using alternative SEO strategies and one of the most popular and effective form of strategy that has been widely adapted in 2008 is social media marketing.

Online stores too try to woo more customers through special offers and deals for the holiday season. You can find great deals, incentives and discounts when you shop online. Moreover, the possibility of comparison shopping to is attracting more users online, especially when everyone is cutback on the expenses as much as possible. As per one of the surveys among those surveyed one of the factors that people said that will motivate them to go or online shopping besides others is free shipping. Almost 97% women and 87% men indicated that the most attractive incentive would be free shipping. Some of the most popular items on the holiday shopping list include clothing, movies, books and toys. Some of the stores that are enjoying increased sales traffic include, Ebay, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart Stores, Best Buy, etc. On the other hand, retailers hit all time low last month in their sales levels.