New Push For Net Neutrality Bill in Congress
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
A senior lawmaker said on Wednesday he had introduced legislation designed to prevent broadband Internet providers from unreasonable interference with subscribers’ access to content.
The bill offered by Rep. Edward Markey is the latest to raise concerns about “net neutrality,” an issue that pits open-Internet advocates against some service providers such as Comcast, who say they need to take reasonable steps to manage traffic on their networks.
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Doodle 4 Google: Artsy-Craftsy March Madness
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
Doodle 4 Google: Artsy-Craftsy March Madness “Doodle 4 Google,” a brutal, nationwide UGC competition Google launched today, pits kindergarteners against high school seniors in a Darwinian graphic arts contest to design a Google logo inspired by the question, “What If…?” Attention all professional artists and graphic designers: your kids have a homework assignment for you! The winning student’s (or mom’s/dad’s) doodle will be shown on Google’s homepage (May 22, 2008); U.S. champion “doodler” wins $10,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his/her elementary school, middle school, or high school. (Can winner switch prizes?) (Winner’s strategy: attend Cooper Union art school in NYC. (Read the full post about ‘Doodle 4 Google: Artsy-Craftsy March Madness’…)
Apple Patches Flawed Leopard, Tiger
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
Apple has patched its Mac 10.5 Leopard for the second time in its young life. Meanwhile, its older sibling, Mac OS 10.4 Tiger, will also get its share of fixes.
In total, the vulnerabilities are serious enough that the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has issued a Technical Cyber Security Alert.
“The impacts of these vulnerabilities vary,” US-CERT’s alert states. “Potential consequences include arbitrary code execution, sensitive information disclosure, and denial of service.”
Among the fixes for Tiger is a patch for Service Location Protocol, or SLP (define), which was at risk from stack buffer overflow.
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Comcast Defends BitTorrent Traffic ‘Management’
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
Comcast has told U.S. regulators it uses reasonable measures to manage traffic moving over its broadband service as some of its customers overwhelm the network by using file-sharing applications like BitTorrent.
In an 80-page filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, Comcast gave its most detailed explanation of how it manages Internet traffic on its service, naming BitTorrent as prime culprit, but again denied it blocks content, applications or discriminates among providers.
Comcast, which is the second largest U.S. Internet service provider with more than 13 million subscribers, said the use of network management was essential to avoid congestion and impairment of some applications such as online video sites Joost and Veoh.
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Major Yahoo Investor Urges Microsoft to Raise Offer
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
Yahoo’s second-biggest investor urged Microsoft to raise its $42 billion bid for the Web pioneer and warned Yahoo it has few options left, raising the pressure on them to seal a deal.
In a quarterly letter to investors released on Tuesday, Bill Miller, the star stock-picker at U.S. asset manager Legg Mason estimated fair value for Yahoo to be near $40 per share, versus Microsoft’s original offer of $31 per share.
Microsoft “will need to enhance its offer if it wants to complete a deal,” Miller wrote in a Feb. 10 letter, one day before Yahoo formally rejected Microsoft’s plan for the company.
“It will be hard for [Yahoo] to come up with alternatives that deliver more value than [Microsoft] will ultimately be willing to pay,” Miller wrote. “We think this deal is a strategic imperative for [Microsoft] and that [Yahoo] is in a tough spot if it wishes to remain independent.”
Miller’s comments came as major institutional Yahoo shareholders have been working behind the scenes to get the parties to strike a deal, analysts say. Around 53 of the top 100 big funds in Yahoo hold shares in both companies, according to the most recent shareholder data available from September.
Institutional shareholders hold about 75 percent of Yahoo’s stock, according to Reuters data, versus 10 percent for company insiders, including co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang.
Legg Mason Capital Management, the unit of Legg Mason run by Miller, owns more than 80 million Yahoo shares, or 6 percent of the company, trailing only Capital Research & Management’s 11 percent holding.
Yahoo on Monday turned down Microsoft’s bid, now valued at $41.7 billion, saying it did not properly assess the value of Yahoo’s vast audience, online advertising investments, cash generation and growth prospects of its overseas holdings.
Microsoft responded the same day by saying its offer was “full and fair,” but stopped short of saying it would not raise its price.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft also said it reserved the right “to pursue all necessary steps” without specifying if it plans to take its bid straight to Yahoo shareholders.
Counter offer
Analysts expect Microsoft to raise its bid to at least $35 a share, but some believe it could be persuaded to go as high as $40.
RBC Capital analyst Jordan Rohan said major funds are likely to grow impatient with Yahoo to get a deal done if Microsoft raises its bid a few dollars to the mid-$30s-a-share level and sweetens the cash portion of its existing offer.
“The more vocal funds are almost threatening Yahoo that they better take the next offer,” Rohan said.
Yahoo shares are now trading at a 2 percent premium to Microsoft’s cash-and-stock deal, indicating investors expect Microsoft to raise its bid.
Legg Mason’s Miller noted Yahoo shares had been trading at a four-year low prior to Microsoft’s offer and the stock was trading above Microsoft’s bid price for all of 2004.
Yahoo shares fell 30 cents, or 1 percent, to $29.57 on the NASDAQ on Tuesday. Microsoft shares rose 13 cents to $28.34.
Yahoo continues to lose Web search market share to Google. Last month, it disappointed Wall Street with its 2008 revenue outlook as it promised to cut jobs and invest more in online advertising work.
According to employees at the Sunnyvale, California-based company, Yahoo began carrying out those lay-offs of up to 1,000 employees on Tuesday. A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment.
Several Wall Street analysts said the chances of alternate bidders for Yahoo emerging have grown remote because any deal would have to be structured in such a way that it can compete with a roughly 60 percent premium implied by Microsoft’s bid.
Citigroup issued a research note on Tuesday saying the likelihood that Microsoft will offer a higher bid to clinch a deal with Yahoo is rising. It now puts the probability that this will occur at 55 percent.
The second-most-probable scenario with a 30 percent chance, according to Citigroup, is that Yahoo remains independent and outsources its search to Google.
Speculation has swirled in recent days that Yahoo is considering potential deals that could involve pairing off with either Time Warner’s AOL or News Corp.’s MySpace, if their media companies were prepared to spin these businesses off.
Media investor blog Silicon Alley Reporter quoted unnamed sources on Tuesday saying that News Corp. and Yahoo are still discussing a possible transaction, but provided no details.
But when News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch was asked last week by a reporter whether he was considering a Yahoo deal, he replied: “I think that day has passed, but you never know.”
UK search marketing survey goes live
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
UK search marketing survey goes live Online publisher E-consultancy in conjunction with search agency Neutralize (*\*) are conducting follow up research to last year’s widely read 2007 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, which contained a comprehensive analysis of the UK Search environment. This year’s research will cover online marketing budgets and the effectiveness of search marketing, as well as looking at the use of social media. Those taking part in this year’s survey will receive a free copy of the ensuing 2008 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report. Lotte Mahon, marketing manager at Neutralize (*\*), said in a press release issued this morning, “We are really looking forward to working with E-consultancy on the 2008 report. (Read the full post about ‘UK search marketing survey goes live’…)
SEW Experts: The Search Monopoly Transforms
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
SEW Experts: The Search Monopoly Transforms
Google, Yahoo, and MSN have been going at it like cats and dogs in the press. Much of the hype surrounding the three tech powerhouses coming together in the United States centers around a monopoly discussion. In today’s Searching for Meaning column, “The Search Monopoly Transforms,” Kevin Ryan looks at the changing search landscape.
Landing Page Optimization Defined for SEM
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
Landing page optimization is the art and science of tuning your site pages to increase conversions. For example, if you currently convert 1 percent of your site visitors into customers and you tune your Web site so 1.5 percent of your visitors convert, you’ve increased the size of your business by 50 percent.
Search marketers need to be concerned about landing page optimization because it can multiply the impact of your search marketing campaigns. For example, if you can increase the value per visitor to a site, you should be in a position to increase your bids in PPC (define) campaigns. That increases the business you do from these campaigns.
Not all search marketers need to have this expertise.
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Raids May Signal Trouble for Intel’s EU Case
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
Investigators for the European Union antitrust office on Tuesday conducted a series of surprise raids at Intel offices in Germany and at the offices of three European computer retailers as part of its ongoing investigation into the chipmaker’s business practices.
EU officials visited Intel’s offices in Munich as well as the offices of Media Markt, a German retailer, DSG International Plc in England and PPR SA in France.
The world’s biggest chipmaker is currently facing formal EU charges for allegedly offering below-cost customer rebates and pricing that the EU claims undercut rival AMD and discouraged manufacturers from building PCs with its chips.
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Yahoo Layoffs Top 1,000 Employees in U.S.
Autor admin | 13.02.2008 | Category SEO
Yahoo Layoffs Top 1,000 Employees in U.S. Yahoo layoffs may top 1,000 employees before the U.S. mass layoff ends. When 50 or more new claims for unemployment benefits are received from one company in a month, government statisticians designate it a mass layoff. If the layoff lasts more than 31 days, it’s called an extended mass layoff. This one? Massive. Techmeme has excellent coverage of individuals who’ve made their job loss public or blogged about their experience. No stigma. No badge of shame. Signs of the subprime times we live in. (Read the full post about ‘Yahoo Layoffs Top 1,000 Employees in U.S.’…)