SEOly Blog

Yahoo Inc. is set to reject Microsoft’s $44.6 billion dollar offer ($31 per share) because they believe that this bid was an under value of the companies true net worth. Yahoo thinks that Microsoft is trying to take advantage of them, while they are weak, and steal the company for a low price. It is still possible for Microsoft to obtain Yahoo through other means. Microsoft can always return to Yahoo with another bid for the company; analysts have estimated that Microsoft may pay as much as $35 per share. However, sources say that Yahoo is unlikely to accept any offers under $40 per share. Additionally, Microsoft could take this deal straight to the stockholders. Things are sure to change in the upcoming days, but the question we are all wondering about is: what will Microsoft’s response be to Yahoo’s decline?

Posted in MSN, Search Engines, Yahoo

StumbleUpon is a website that connects users to websites that they have selected in their interests.  Websites are ranked by allowing users to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down rating; reviews and tags can also be added to a website’s profile is the user desires.  StumbleUpon basically links users to content that should interest them by evaluating these ratings and distributing hits with respect to how a website was ranked by StumbleUpon’s user base.  Whenever a user clicks on the “Stumble!” button within the tool bar, a website relating to their interests is loaded.  StumbleUpon promotes itself as a website that links users to topics that are listed within their interests and preferences, instead of as a search engine which may require a visitor to be required to search through pages prior to finding a useful result.  Basically StumbleUpon is a database of websites, rankings, and people that connects all of them in a unique way, so that the new searching can instead be stumbling.

Posted in Promotion
Tags: traffic

If Microsoft’s purchase of Yahoo does go through, which seems to be a likely possibility at the time being, how will the search engine industry change?  I believe that the MSN  and Yahoo’s combination will have a greater chance to steal market share from Google.  A sharing of technology after the potential merger could mean better algorithms, which would result in overall better results to compete with Google.  However, at the heart of this issue lies Google’s strong hold on the search engine market.  Google’s name is known everywhere and their reputation is well respected.  I feel that Google’s search engine simply produces better results in the majority of situation due to better algorithms, which simply out power their competition: Yahoo, MSN, etc.  If the Microsoft’s merger with Yahoo does happen, will these two David’s be able to encroach further into the search engine industry that Goliath Google has under control?  The merger opens the possibility for growth, but in the end I think that Google will still dominate the search engine industry unless they really drop the ball many, many times.

Posted in Google, MSN, Search Engines, Yahoo

If you searched the term dangerous cult on Google, the first result that you will see is a Scientology website.

The question is: Can this really be categorized as Google Bombing, getting a large amount of websites to link to a specific website with certain keywords, so that the linked website appears ranked first when the keyword or keywords are searched? The website does in fact have the word dangerous on it; however, the word cult only appears in links pointing at this website. This situation is remarkable similar to the Google Bombing of George Bush with the keywords failure or miserable failure. Ultimately, we can say that this Scientology website was Google Bombed. Although, recall that Google eventually did alter their algorithm to end this Google Bombing for George Bush – likely the end effect was pages including the keywords ranked higher than pages only linked without the keywords contained. So, how long with this Scientology Google Bombing last for?

Posted in Google, Search Engines
Tags: google bomb, scientology, search

After a bit of searching around, I finally found a web host that specifically catered to proxy based websites. They are a relatively small web host, but that is due to the fact that they only accept proxy websites. Additionally, they only host php proxies because cgi proxy are simply just too intensive on servers. Cloak Host is an excellent web host that lets little proxy websites get into the larger market. Not many people can start off a proxy website or websites by simply paying for a dedicated server, so Cloak Host hosts only for small and middle sized proxy websites. There are a few other similar proxy web hosts as plausible options, but Cloak Host provided me with the best amount of bandwidth for my money. If you are considering attempting to run a proxy website on another web host (one that isn’t specifically for proxies), then you really ought to ask this host prior to signing up, if they will drop you because of your cpu use as proxies are quite resource intensive in this area.  Make sure that you: research a variety of web hosts, ask questions, get the answers that you need, read the TOS (Terms of Service), and then sign up for a web host that meets your needs.

Posted in Hosting