The effectiveness of search engine optimization solutions can be realized by creating an outstanding sitemap to your website. This is because a sitemap appear as a roadmap to your website. It allows your visitors to know about each page of your website. Visitors can smoothly navigate and find the desired page without facing hard times. Chances are that we all know that sitemap generator is quite crucial in handling a site audit and project management.

Sitemap Generator and Sitemap

It is quite crucial to know what a sitemap generator is. Sitemap generator is a software setup which works on all pages, categories, menu and tabs to make an attractive website map. In other word, a sitemap generator is a tool which helps you in creating a sitemap for your website.

The sitemap generated basically lists all the pages of your website. In addition, it is also helps in finding all the broken links of a website.

The visual sitemap generator is a quite thrilling concept because it helps the modern website designers to integrate sitemap with website in few steps. It saves time and you do not need to go through all the pages and even know the programming language such as XML or HTML. In addition,these tools also come with search engine optimization plug-ins which offer optimum benefits in terms of website as per search engine rankings.

Generally, a single sitemap can hold up to 50,000 links in your website. In case you have more than 50,000 links then you can opt for DYNO Mapper. This tool will help you to create more sitemap for your website.

In a single sitemap you can find all the posts of your website and also the pages you created. Sitemaps are also crucial because they help in communicating between the architecture of website structure. After you have created your sitemap, you can now submit it to various search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Main Types of Sitemaps

Sitemaps exist in XML or HTML languages. Each of these has their own importance in website optimization. HTML sitemaps are suitable for websites that are small and simple while XML is suitable for complex and huge website structure. If you need to check how often the pages and posts are updated on your website, you can use XML sitemaps. Every time the XML sitemap is updated with most number of posts, the particular post will appear in search engine as it is indexed.

There are two options of creating a sitemap. One is using a tool like the DYNO Mapper which can create the sitemap automatically or manually. It is preferable to create sitemap manually using the XML, that is, if you are having less pages and posts on your website.

Why is Visual Sitemap so Crucial?

Visual sitemap adds attractiveness to the sitemap to your website. It offer visitors that thrilling experience and do not bore them with plain links. Check below the main advantages of visual sitemaps in your website.

• Coordinated and organized functioning of pages, categories and tabs
• Well arranged website architecture structure
• Best surfing experience for the users
• Easier navigation for the website
• Effective and efficient performance of the website in terms of SEO rankings

The modern visual sitemap generators are modified and upgraded based on the latest technology. That is why having smart website generator organizes your website architecture in a simplified user-interface.

Factors to Consider when Choosing a Sitemap Generator tool

After you have grasped a bit of knowledge about sitemaps, site mapping process, visual sitemaps and sitemap generation for different types of websites, you can now have the clarity about your specific requirements. This will ensure that you don’t do mistake while installing the sitemap.

Generally there are many options to choose from but you need to settle on the tool that will meet your specific requirements.

Deep Understanding of website type and objective

Generally sitemaps are installed to make your website rank on the top of the search engine result pages. Besides that, you must have a specific objective for your website to have that particular sitemap. With key objective, you can use the website map generator to meet those objectives. Having a clear understanding of website type helps to land that unique website mapping that will make you be ahead in the this competitive World Wide Web environment.

Choose sitemap generator as per your specific requirements

Just research, review and choose the finest sitemap generator. Make sure that the features offered by the website mapper should synch with your requirements. The footer are of your website is quite crucial because it help visitors navigate every corner of your website without difficulties.

Research information and read reviews about best visual sitemap generator

The secret for finding an apt visual sitemap generator lies in reading reviews, researching more on the sitemap generator tools and consulting experts. There are many website optimization experts with knowledge about the suitable software to update and modify website’s architecture. DYNO Mapper is quite recommended by users. This tool has made its mark in the web world in terms of its key features.

Therefore, the general idea here is to refer to the expert recommendations and the leading preferences taken by the experts in sitemap installation.

In addition, user friendly and easy to interact with the specifications of the tool help the end users to experience advanced sitemap generation for each type of website. It is no secret that DYNO Mapper commands the market and lead the user base because of its interesting value add features associated with it.

In an introduction session with media, Yahoo’s executive showed a demo of the app. In order to communicate with your friends and family on Livetext, you will need to be “friends” with them. You can start the session and start sending faces, expressions with your texts written on them. There are a lot of emojis, colors, expressions, edits available natively in the app.

The only novel feature of Livetext is that, unlike other video messaging apps, it has no sound. This decreases stress and increases the usability of the app, as most of the people want to communicate along with doing their routine tasks. Using Livetext, you can start a session and share your environment, make expressions, do texting without saying anything. This becomes nifty when you are in office or a classroom.

Download Livetext for iPhone

This is a daring step by Yahoo. Facebook, Twitter and Google have been trying since long to devise a mechanism to get rid of passwords. Passwords are fairly hackable because of their weak nature. A majority of users don’t spend time making their password. A user prefers a same password for all servers or user a chunk of a word in different password. This compromises the security and we have seen hundreds of hacking attempts in the recent past that went successful.

But Yahoo’s latest on-demand password free service has one potential flaw which could collapse your digital identity. All your security depends upon your smartphone. If an intruder succeeds in getting hands on your smartphone, your Yahoo account could be easily breached.

In a statement, Yahoo said that its on-demand password service is the first step towards enhancing mobile security.

Yahoo’s new service will show you the password in the SMS form even if the phone is locked. This could create massive problems if the phone is placed on a public location. Yahoo could devise a two factor authentication, temporary password or secret questions mechanism to beef up its new system’s strength.

Yahoo said that it is also working on end-to-end encryption algorithm for its email service which will be launched soon.

]]> https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/03/16/yahoo-launches-password-free-email-login-and-encrypted-email-features/feed/ 0 https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/02/12/samsung-smart-tv-inserting-random-ads-without-user-permission/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=samsung-smart-tv-inserting-random-ads-without-user-permission https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/02/12/samsung-smart-tv-inserting-random-ads-without-user-permission/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2015 20:49:22 +0000 http://preview.socialmediaseo.net/?p=31933 Samsung’s latest Smart TV has suffered a PR disaster. A number of users have complained that during watching locally stored content on Samsung smart TV, pop up ads from nowhere surface on the screen and start playing, without the intent or permission of the user. The first report came on Reddit where a user said that a muted Pepsi ad came on the screen while he was watching TV shows on his Samsung Smart TV. After this, hundreds of users lodged complaints through Plex and Australian service Foxtel.

Plex was quick to issue a statement that this ads programming error has nothing to do with it. Later on, several experts blamed Foxtel programming service for these random ads but a statement from Samsung cleared the confusions. Samsung said that it was an error on its part due to a software update that ‘was not intended’ for the Australian customers. Also, it’s important to note that no other Smart TVs are facing this problem and it is now almost confirmed that Samsung Smart TVs are the real cause of this faulty programming.

Earlier this month, Samsung suffered a marketing disaster when it said that Samsung Smart TVs could ‘listen to audience conversations’. What can be more devastating than this label, keeping in view the privacy concerns users around the world have regarding technology devices and software.

However, there’s a temporary fix to this issue. Samsung Smart TV users can turn off these random ads by going in the Samsung TV hub settings and selecting ‘disagree with the Yahoo Privacy Notice’.

Samsung faced a similar humiliation back in January when several smart TV users reported random ads from Yahoo. Samsung has said that it is working with Yahoo on an opt-in ads program and the bugs are caused during the development of this new feature.

Twitter has currently 284 million users. Recently, a senior Twitter executive freaked out in an interview when he was told that Instagram users have crossed Twitter users. Also, there are many reports that surfaced claiming that a huge chunk of Twitter users are not active; meaning that either they didn’t come after the first tweet or they just made their account on Twitter. Twitter is also used by thousands of small businesses, which are using bots to increase their traffic from social media.

A similar deal was stuck between Google and Twitter back in 2009 but couldn’t last longer due to multiple issues. The problem was a disagreement on how Google will access and show Twitter data. Meanwhile, Google launched its own social media platform and tried to push back Twitter and other rivals in traffic. It is also important to note that after 2009, Twitter didn’t report any increase in traffic; an indicator that real time tweets might not work perfectly for the social media giant.

Twitter has also signed a deal with Yahoo and Flipboard regarding social media ads. Twitter is being lashed out by investors on its slow user growth and mismanagement of affairs at the highest levels in the company. A few renowned investors also demanded resignation from Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo.

Twitter is set to report its fourth quarter earnings very soon.

San Francisco Chronicle is one of the oldest Newspapers of USA, working now for 148 years. It has devised a revolutionary plan to combat the decline in its circulation that was initiated during 2009-2012 by introducing digital elements into reporting.

The first woman managing editor, Audrey Cooper is pushing the reporters into a digital incubator. It is a kind of training centre consisting of beautiful office in off-site location. It is also referred to as digital media booting camp. The training period will be of two months.

The managing director explained that this step will allow the reporters to focus on issues outside the newsroom. They will be able to track the news on digital media. This step will enable the reporters to see whether their news has reached their intended target audience or not. They will be able to track the clicks made on their site from social media forums like Pinterest, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

The newspaper located in the posh area of San Francisco amidst the district of SOMA, is suffering from severe decline in its circulation during the time period between 2009 and 2012. The owner of the newspaper is Hearst Corporation. The paper has estimated circulation that barely reaches 300,000 readers currently.

During the times of worst recession, San Francisco Chronicle was reported to be losing $50 million every year. This loss is somewhat alleviated by Yahoo that is leasing some amount of space in Chronicle building. The Hearst Corporation is arguing that the company is making sufficient ground in profits now.

The website of the Chronicle is gaining popularity among the people, but its pace is not enough to overshadow the decline in its circulation. Cooper is intending to rename its section containing business news to gain more attraction of public. She has the point of view that incubator training will allow the reporters to think in digital terms for news. Reporters will use analytics dashboard to monitor their stories read by others.

Cooper has emphasized that the training of reporters is not enable them to have more capabilities in digital age. They won’t lose their job if they don’t make up for the standard required for journalism. Cooper said that they are trying to retrain the reporters instead of unnecessarily threatening them for losing their job. She was quite sure that plan will bring fruits.

Cooper realizes that the failure would mean that the newspaper will lose its market entirely. They cannot afford to have any failure now.

Beauty queen and U.S. Army Soldier Theresa Vail wouldn’t be a good choice for Army advertisements according to the Army’s targeted audience.  Yahoo finance said the U.S. Army is looking for “average looking woman” in its advertisements in order to get more ladies into combat boots.

According to internal emails obtained by Kate Brennan at Politico,  Col. Lynette Arnhart, made these recommendations on implementing a marketing plan that featured average looking woman:

In general, ugly women are perceived as competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead.  There is a general tendency to select nice looking women when we select a photo to go with an article (where the article does not reference a specific person). It might behoove us to select more average looking women for our comms strategy. For example, the attached  article  shows a pretty woman, wearing make-up while on deployed duty. Such photos undermine the rest of the message (and may even make people ask if breaking a nail is considered hazardous duty)

But there’s one area where Google is actually trailing behind both Yahoo and Bing, and that is search quality.  In other words, how much traffic is sent to a website when a search query is made.

According to IBTimes.com, Experian Hitwise states that for July, Bing and Yahoo were actually better than Google when it comes “success rates”, or the percentage of searches that “resulted in a visit to a Website”. People using Google ended up on a website 67.56 percent of the time, while Bing scored over 80 percent and Yahoo topped them all at 81.36 percent.

It’s important to note that Yahoo.com recently (about 1 year ago), inked a deal with Microsoft to allow Bing to power the Yahoo search engine.  So Yahoo.com no longer is, in and of themselves, in the search engine business.  So the marketing, promotion, and quality of the search results that are growing for Bing.com are also having an impact on the Yahoo search engine.

At the end of the day however, and at least for the time being, the money is where the masses are and that’s on Google.com.  Until Microsoft can build a stronger marketshare in the search space, Google will continue to dominate the landscape.

It never ceases to amaze me at goes viral on the web.  I mean, when a star like Olivia Wilde doesn’t wear makeup, the news elevates to the front page of Yahoo.com.  You’d think that the people of this world would find other snippets of news more engaging, but nope… Olivia Wilde shows up somewhere without makeup on and bam!!!! straight to the front page of Yahoo.com it goes.

There’s the obvious, that Google dominates the search landscape.

But there’s another interesting take a way by looking at the chart below, and that is, why in the world has search growth seemed to stall?

And I mean, stall completely.

None of the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, or Bing – have seen any substantial growth in search share. And I find it interesting mostly because search has always been the predominant activity online.

And even though social networking is exploding, like Facebook, people are still wanting to search for things.  Google Adwords, after all, continues to see double digit gains in growth year over year.

Yet search as a whole seems to have stalled.

Perhaps this is an opportunity waiting to happen for someone.

Perhaps now is the time to introduce niche search engines, search engines that are designed for specific verticals like sports, news, entertainment, etc…

Just a thought!

Here’s the chart showing the growth of Google, Yahoo, and Bing over the past 12 months:

Despite the bad rep of the late 90’s and the Internet bubble crash, there are still Internet companies that are thriving on the web.

None more impressive than the social networking giant Facebook.

A new study by the New York securities firm NYPPEX is putting Facebook at the value of $41.2 billion.

The value the NYPPEX is placing on Facebook is what they call “enterprise value”.

The $41.2 billion value on Facebook far exceeds the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn and Groupon, and corporate giants like CBS, Yahoo, and Ebay.

What we haven’t seen yet, and no solid announcement date, is an IPO from Facebook.

Regardless, for a company started in a college dorm room only six year ago, the growth of Facebook – both in users and market valuation – is nothing less than impressive.

via MercuryNews

Yahoo shares started to tumble yesterday amidst rumors that the tech company would be making significant layoffs starting in December. Some initial rumors were that Yahoo would be laying off 20% of its staff. However, that number was rebutted with a correction to around 10%.

Regardless of the where the exact number comes in at, Yahoo shares (NASDAQ:YHOO) started to take a dive yesterday as the news hit the wires. Yahoo shares are closed yesterday at -0.25 (-1.49%) at 16.55.

With Google dominating the search landscape, and Facebook seemingly dominating the content landscape, Yahoo has a real problem on their hands. If everyone is search on Google and consuming content on Facebook, there where exactly does Yahoo fit in?

Perhaps Yahoo needs to find ways to leverage the Facebook API and integrate more directly with Facebook.

Thoughts?

Perhaps it was because Yahoo is now the second most visited website for videos, or maybe because of some new Facebook integration – whatever it may be, Yahoo’s homepage and the Yahoo.com mail servers all went down today for around 5:20 PM EST. The outage lasted approximately 40 minutes.

Yahoo’s homepage displayed the plain text message “Server Hangup” in web browsers all over the world.

Yahoo spokesperson Kryssa Guntrum stated via e-mail, “For a brief period this afternoon, Yahoo.com was inaccessible to some users. We have identified the issue and are working to correct it immediately. We know that this may have caused some inconvenience and we apologize to our users who might have been affected.”

The following was a tweet from the official Yahoo Twitter profile:

via e-Week

Depending on what month you check will depend on who holds the #2 and #3 video sites on the web. Back on September 30th, I wrote about how Facebook was the #2 video site in the United States. Now today, ComScore once again comes out with their video platform report but now Yahoo takes the #2 position, bumping Facebook down to #3.

Still, regardless of what happens in the #2 and #3 slots, one thing is for sure, Google holds a commanding lead in the #1 position by a wide margin.

via WebProNews

Bing has surpassed Yahoo as the #2 search engine. Of course, Google has a commanding lead in the #1 spot, but still… a big deal for Bing.

Nielsen says that Google’s August share is 65% (and growth is flat) but that Bing and Yahoo have now switched places:

Although Google saw little change in its month-over-month search volume, it still dominates the search market, accounting for 65% of all U.S. searches. Yahoo! followed Google and MSN/Windows Live/Bing Search with a 13.1% share of U.S. searches, falling from a 14.6% share in July 2010 to 13.1% (a 1.2% delta decrease or an 8% relative decrease).

In terms of a year-over-year comparison, Google has seen little change in its share of search while Yahoo! has seen a small but steady decline, going from a 16% share to 13.1% (a delta drop of 2.9% or a relative drop of 18%).  MSN/Windows Live/Bing’s share has grown from 10.7% in August 2009 to 13.9% (a delta increase of 3.2% or a relative increase of 30%).

via SearchEngineLand

Reggie Bush has been the first in a whole lot of records during his college football season as USC. But this time, the first place ranking might be something Reggie Bush would rather avoid. For the first time in it’s 75 year history, Reggie Bush will be stripped of his Heisman Trophy that he won back in 2005. The Heisman Trophy is expected to be stripped from Reggie Bush by the end of September 2010. Reggie Bush has been accused of receiving gifts and other benefits during his 2005 season at USC. This is in direct violation of the NCAA policies with college athletes.

via YahooSports

Hold onto your mouse, and make sure your keyboard is stable!

Yahoo announced today that it will use Google technology to power its Yahoo Japan search engine and ad delivery system.

This was attempted before in the US until the government squashed Yahoo’s efforts because of fears over a search monopoly.

But regulators in Japan do not share the same fear factor.

According to HuffPost, the decision by Yahoo Japan, which is largely independent from its California namesake, will mean that the bulk of Internet searches done in Japan will use Google’s search engine, though both companies said enough independence would be maintained to keep the market competitive.

Yahoo is making every effort to find a way to recover in the hyper competitive search market.

I guess Yahoo’s perspective is, if you can’t beat em’, then join em’!

Actually, this is probably a smart move by Yahoo because of their new commitment to focusing on high quality news and content delivery – which Yahoo excels at doing.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares are up +3.51 (0.72%) at 491.81 on the news of the Yahoo Japan deal.

LOS ANGELES – Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was in critical condition Friday after undergoing hip replacement surgery earlier in the week, her husband said.

Gabor, 93, had injuries to the right side of her body, including a broken hip, after she fell out of bed last weekend trying to get into a wheelchair at her Bel-Air home, said Prince Frederic von Anhalt, Gabor’s husband.

Gabor initially appeared to be recovering after the hip surgery Monday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, her publicist John Blanchette said.

Blanchette said von Anhalt told him Friday that “doctors were working very hard to stabilize her.”

“Right now she’s not communicative,” Blanchette said. “Only time will tell.”

He said doctors had taken Gabor off morphine and were putting her on another painkiller with the hope that would help the situation.

Blanchette said earlier Friday the actress might have suffered a stroke during surgery, but von Anhalt said doctors have not confirmed there was a stroke.

“It’s just speculation,” von Anhalt said. “We have to wait a few more days to see what is going on.”

Von Anhalt said his wife was conscious.

“She looks at us but doesn’t know what is going on,” he said.

Gabor’s daughter Constance Francesca Hilton said her mother was talking during a visit on Friday.

Gabor is “adjusting to the medications and healing process. There are no surprises,” Hilton said in a statement.

The statement said Gabor was in guarded condition, but Hilton could not be reached for further clarification.

Gabor, a Hungarian-born sexpot of the 1950s and 1960s, has to use a wheelchair after being partially paralyzed in a 2002 car accident. The wheelchair’s brake wasn’t on and it moved away, causing the fall last weekend, Blanchette said.

Gabor appeared in films ranging from “Moulin Rouge” in 1952 to “Queen of Outer Space” in 1958. She also appeared on TV specials and game shows, and as a guest on several television series, often playing herself.

[source: Yahoo News]

The stage is set for UFC 116 in Las Vegas. The featured fight for UFC 116 is the heavyweight championship belt between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. These two heavyweights are ready, in shape, and determined to quickly eliminate the other guy.

So Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin are on the main fight card.

Here’s the other fights and the UFC 116 fight card:

Main card

You can watch UFC 116 via Pay Per View on TV tonight.

However, you can watch UFC 116 live online via Yahoo Sports.

The world is getting ready for UFC 116 tonight!

The featured fight is the heavyweight championship match between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. These two fights are heavy, fast, powerful, and ready to lay claim to the undisputed heavyweight UFC championship.

Of course you can watch the UFC 116 bouts on Pay Per View tv.

But the majority people on the web are wondering where in the world they can watch the fights online!

That’s where Yahoo Sports comes in.

You can now watch the UFC 116 fights via pay per view on Yahoo Sports MMA.

Click Here To Watch UFC 116 Online via Yahoo Sports

Watch UFC 116 Live Online, Yahoo Pay Per View Lesnar vs Carwin

The stage is set for UFC 116 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in MMA (mixed martial arts) is on the line between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin.

Watch UFC 116 live online at Yahoo Sports

One of the great new online sponsors for the UFC events is Yahoo Sports.

Tomorrow night, you can actually purchase a pay per view ticket and watch the entire UFC 116 event live online – right from your computer.

Click Here To Watch UFC 116 Live Online

The link above will allow anyone online to watch UFC 116 in its entirety, to include the feature fight between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin.

The pay per view on Yahoo Sports channel is an amazing new way for UFC fans to experience all of their favorite UFC fight events from the comfort of their computers. The search for live online streams of UFC events is huge, and I think that Yahoo Sports, in conjunction with UFC, have seen the opportunity. So with the Yahoo Sports pay per view channel, you can now bring the fights directly to your computer.

Watch the UFC® 116 PPV on Yahoo! Sports

• Live video on fight night streamed to your computer
• High quality video streaming at 300k, 700k, and 1200k
• $44.95 gets you the live event plus 24 hours of unlimited archive viewing

Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin – UFC 116 Preview (Video)

On July 3rd, you will have the opportunity to experience what is perhaps the most thrilling, exhilirating, and quite frankly the scariest UFC fight in the history of MMA.

Brock Lesnar will fight Shane Carwin for the undisputed heavy weight champion of the world. These men are both huge, fast, explosive, and aggressive – and they are both hungry to devour the other guy in the octagon.

UFC 116 will take place on July 3rd – you will be able to watch UFC 116 on Pay Per View TV and / or more than likely on Yahoo’s UFC live streaming pay per view website.

Shane Carwin did something that really upset Brock Lesnar when he accepted the heavy weight belt as the intermediate heavy weight champion. Brock Lesnar was both embarassed and shocked at the speech that Shane Carwin gave because he was portraying himself as the true, undisputed heavy weight champion.

This one act was enough to get the blood pressure flowing for Brock, and it was more than enough to secure a massive battle in the octagon for UFC 116.

Here’s the preview video for UFC 116:

I never realized this before, and I’m sure someone is going to completely blow me up in the comments, but I found a page on Yahoo Sports that allows you to purchase pay per view UFC fights.

So Yahoo Sports has a UFC PPV (Pay Per View) page – and like I said, you can purchase UFC fights online and watch the fights live right from your computer.

UFC 115 – Liddell vs Franklin

I’m not 100% sure if the fight is over by now or not (it’s 12:24 EST), but if you visit the UFC Yahoo PPV page you’ll see where you could’ve purchase the Pay Per View package for the UFC 115 fight night.

Visit Yahoo’s PPV UFC Fight Page Here

The price for the UFC 115 live stream from Yahoo is $44.95 which gets you the live fight viewing, plus 24 hours of archive viewing of the fights.

This is a pretty good deal if you are wanting to watch the UFC 115 – Liddell vs Franklin fight from your computer.

And I think that UFC, and Yahoo Sports, are both making a great decision in expanding the Pay Per View option to the web. When UFC fights are scheduled, the Internet lights up with interest and literally millions of people searching for the fight itself – especially the live stream.

1.  Consider your Keywords: headhunters, prospective new hires, business parters, and future clients use the search function on LinkedIn to find the right people to connect with.  Consider your social media audience on LinkedIn on how these people will search to find you.  What keywords will they use? What keywords do you want to show up when someone hits search? Figure out your keywords and make sure they’re in your profile.  Some key places to have these keywords are in your profile heading, summary, skills, and if possible in one of you job titles.  LinkedIn search (link to my profile) tends to grab from the profiles that have a lot of connections point toward them and profiles that include the keywords searched in critical profile areas like the ones discussed.

2.  Participate in Group Discussions:  One way to get noticed as well as show up in relevant searches on LinkedIn is to be an active participator in your industry’s relevant groups.  While not every person on the site will spend a lot of time in on the LinkedIn discussions, those that do are looking for something specific pertaining to the discussion topic.  Find and post on topics relevant to your business and add to the conversation like you would adding to a blog post.  If the comment adds value and is well written you are certain to receive more visits to your profile from relevant people to your profile and perhaps potential customers or new job offers.

3.  Answer Questions: The question/answer function on LinkedIn is a great way to build credibility in your area.  Similar to Yahoo Answers, the LinkedIn Answers allows users to post questions and experts to post answers.  This can be especially beneficial to service or consulting businesses to build credibility and prospective customer awareness and gain referrals.

In essence, there are multiple ways to optimize your presence on LinkedIn.  These first three are a great start to get you going in the right direction. For more tips and how to’s on social media optimization visit The Social Capitalist.

So AT&T may not cripple the phone like they did with the Motorola Backflip and take a lot of the Google Mobile Apps out. This will in turn give customers a better experience of the Android operating system. So tell me what do you think of the Samsung i897? And how do you feel about AT&T crippling their Android handsets?

Source: Androidguys

Josh Uhlemeyer
Former Author of Mobile News Now
Twitter: Twitter.com/joshuhl
Facebook: Josh Uhlemeyer

Many companies spend a week or two running a Memorial Campaign to specifically get people thinking about Memorial Day.  Loew’s for instance banks on the fact BBQ’s and outdoor activities are a signature Memorial Day pastime by offering discounts on grills and outdoor furniture the week or two leading up to the event.  Home Depot and Sears take similar promotional approaches driving people into their store or searching around online to look at Grills and other summer entertaining necessities.

When it comes to interactive marketing, however, Macy’s Memorial Day Campaign is one worth mentioning to online marketers alike. Yahoo and Pointroll have collaborated on an interactive marketing campaign to target female Yahool mail users with their active ads.  The campaign offered a balanced combination of behavioral, demographic, and geographic data thanks to Yahoo in combination with the local benefits of pricing data that PointRoll cound bring to the table.

Pointroll has worked with Yahoo on a number of campaigns over the years but it will be the first time they collaborated on behalf of Macy’s.  Female Yahoo Mail users ages 25 – 54 with an interest in online shopping and home decor can definitely expect to see an interactive ad display when scanning their inboxes in the days leading up to Memorial Day.  Whether or not the ads will be effective and pay off for Macy’s, we’ll only know once the weekend is over.  Nevertheless, Yahoo demographic data speaks for itself and PointRoll boasts steller stats that six out of every 100 PointRoll ads viewed is interacted with.

For more information on internet marketing, including social media marketing and social media optimization, consult The Social Capitalist blog at Social-Capitalist.com

From Yahoo Sports:

As she exited her car after her first Indianapolis 500 pole day qualifying attempt on Saturday,Danica Patrick was frustrated.

Very frustrated.

So frustrated that she threw her crew under the bus. “This is the worst car I’ve ever had,” she said, according to USA Today’s Nate Ryan on Twitter. “There’s no stability or grip. It’s just scary, really scary … It’s awful, really awful. I think I’m still shaking.” And when her commentswere played over the track PA, she was booed.

From LATimesBlogs.com:

Danica Patrick, IndyCar’s most popular and visible driver, had to fight back tears and was shaking after qualifying 23rd for the Indy 500 with her only run Saturday.

She has been having problems controlling her GoDaddy.com car at the famed racetrack during practice this week. When the public-address system broadcast her criticism of the car’s setup, fans voiced their displeasure.

“I say one confident thing out there, that it’s not me, and everybody boos me,” she said. “I don’t know, maybe they were booing me before, but some of them were probably cheering for me before. I’m not a different driver than I was five years ago.”

From Motorsports.Fanhouse.com:

“Shoot! I say one confident thing out there that it’s not me, and everybody boos me,” Patrick said after being asked about the confidence in her race car. “I’m blown away. These people, I mean, I don’t know, maybe they all booed me before. I would think that some of them have probably cheered for me before, and I’m not a different driver than I was five years ago.”

To back that up, Patrick remembered back to a frightening moment she had in the first corner of her first-ever qualifying lap at IMS in 2005.

“I don’t know if those people were here five years ago, but I got loose in (turn) one and caught it and kept my foot down,” said Patrick, who finished third last year. “I can drive a loose car, but this is beyond.”

The problem as I see it, human nature has not progressed as much as technology.  We still have virus writers, con-artists, scammers, identity thieves, child molesters, ad. naseum walking amongst us, hiding in the digital shadows waiting to rip you off or worse.  While I don’t advocate cutting connections or communications, I do recommend taking steps to lose any false sense of security you may have developed regarding your personal information due to the anonymity of the internet.

ConsumerReports.org has a great article posted on Yahoo Finance, 7 Things to Stop Doing Now on Facebook , for more information.

Remember Yoda’s wise words:  “Yes, a Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan’s apprentice.”

According to ZDNet writer Joel Evans, the Droid Eris mobile phone received an update to the Android 2.1 version of the Android OS. Here are some features that he mentioned for the new Android 2.1 update:

• New Leap thumbnail view, which lets you pinch to jump between panels on your home screen (I hit that one by accident already)
• Additional calendar views and easier access to contacts
• Google Maps with Navigation (free, traffic-enhanced, turn-by-turn navigation) – I’ll be putting that one to the test tomorrow
• Android Market, now including more applications since I’m running 2.1
• Ability to log onto multiple Google accounts at once
• Support for 19 Microsoft Exchange Server policies
• Desk Clock that dims your screen and displays the current time while charging–that’s worth the update all by itself! ;-)
• Location-based cinematic full screen weather–um … ok, I guess that’s cool?

• Free Yahoo Mail support
• Longer battery life–I know many users who will be very happy with that one
• Improved YouTube playback–believe it or not, that’s cool, since I do a fair amount of YouTubing on my iPhone at night
• Better Bluetooth support, including contact transfer
• Automatic settings for POP3 Verizon.net email accounts–yeah, great
• Added support for stand alone Wi-Fi when device is in airplane mode–I stumbled on that one on my iPhone the other day, too
• Improved handset audio when disconnecting a wired headset–I’m wondering how it supports switching back and forth between a bluetooth headset, more than disconnecting a wired one–does anyone use a wired one these days?
• Faster power up–always a nice addition
• Improved swipe unlock functionality–what’s improved? Now it works better?
• Added support for Office 2007 documents–I can see value there

If you’re a Droid Eris user, this is great news. If you’re not a Droid Eris user, you can pick one up for $79.99 (with a 2yr contract and a $100 discount), but you run the risk of buying a phone that is rumored to be discontinued in the next month or so.

[source:  ZDNet.com]

News is breaking that Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) has acquired the user generated content site Associated Content.

Yahoo is saying that this acquisition will benefit them by expanding their source of high quality, original news and content.

First let me say that Wall Street was not impressed with the acquisition.

Yahoo shares closed down -0.24 (-1.48%), closing at 16.03:

Next, please let me respectively disagree with Yahoo’s perspective of Associated Content being a high quality content provider.

Isn’t it Associated Content that pollutes the top search results with garbage content that is written solely for the purpose of search engine exposure in Google? Tactics such as keyword stuffed articles and titles run rampant at Associated Content.

My impression of Yahoo has always been one of high quality and authoritative content. I’m really quite perplexed by this acquisition.

Perhaps Yahoo plans on a serious overhaul of the Associated Content structure by adding their own editors to oversee the content production and quality. This almost has to be the case because I can’t imagine Yahoo tolerating a lot of Associated Content in it’s original form.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo didn’t disclose terms of the deal, expected to close in the third quarter, but a report in Advertising Age said the company paid slightly more than $100 million for Associated Content. A Yahoo spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Associated has about 380,000 contributors who write their own articles, reviews, guides, interviews or opinion pieces and are paid by how often their work is viewed. The acquisition adds more original content to Yahoo, something the company has been aiming to do.

“Combining our world-class editorial team with Associated Content’s makes this a game-changer,” Bartz said in a press release. “Together we’ll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network.”

Although Associated Content does have editors that monitor and review content, for some reason it seems to be an acceptable practice to write content specifically for search engines. Stuffing titles and article bodies with keywords seems to be a pretty low quality content strategy.

What do you think?

So what do you think about Yahoo acquiring Associated Content?

Do you have the same impression of Associated Content that I have, that Associated Content writes specifically for search engines?