The Dynamic Site Optimization Utility

Dynamic webpages simplify content management, streamline website generation and provide personalization features that cannot be replicated with purely static webpages. However, for years, search engine spiders were unable to index dynamic pages reliably. Thankfully, search engine technology has advanced and even complex dynamic URLs are appearing in the SERPs now. Still, in order for a search engine to successfully index your dynamic page, it needs three basic things:

1. The ability to process your URL. Search engine technology is improving daily; however, search engine representatives still recommend restricting dynamic URLs to two parameters or less.
   
2. The ability to access your content. Search engine spiders cannot enter values into forms, so any content that is accessible only through a form on your site is just one more part of the invisible web.
   
3. The ability to return to your page. Session IDs are great for human vistors, but spiders encounter problems if they cache a dynamic URL with a session ID. If that session ID times out, the indexed page will most likely point any search engine referrer to an error page and the search engine spider will be unable to return to your page for further spidering. For that reason, most search engine spiders do not cache dynamic URLs with session IDs.

Dynamic Site Mapping™ fulfills these three basic needs by writing a dynamic site map with permanent, spiderable URLs for every tracked webpage on your website that has been visited by a human, including from content inside forms.

Read full information: - www.seotoolset.com

Why Search Engine Marketing is Your Most Effective Marketing Tool

Now that you have an understanding of paid search and search engine optimization, I need explain why I believe paid search marketing is the most effective method of direct marketing.

The main reason search marketing is such a powerful vehicle is that the quality of traffic is so high. As you can see in the diagram below, a user conducts many steps before landing on your web site. A user decided to do a search, go to the Internet, choose a search engine, type in a key phrase that relates to your products or services, and then out of all of the options available, selected your site. In my opinion, you can not ask for a more qualified visitor!



Another big advantage is that the search engines are able to deliver a substantial amount of traffic. I am consistently seeing this marketing channel provide my clients the largest number of customers at the lowest cost relative to other marketing vehicles.

Part of the reason this is possible is that search marketing provides an incredible amount of control to its advertisers. One can start a search marketing campaign for as little as $50 per month, which provides a low risk method to test this channel.

Additionally, you can easily track all of your advertising placement and make changes to your campaign instantly. This means that if you found out that you were paying too much for a customer on a specific key phrase, you could lower your bid instantly or even stop advertising on this key phrase all together. Similarly, if a search term is performing extremely well, you could either improve your ranking in the search engine for that phrase, start advertising on similar words, or try advertising on that key phrase in additional search engines. Being able to measure everything and make changes instantly allows you to ensure that your budget is spent as efficiently as possible.

Now that you have an understanding of why it is important, I think we are ready to go back to my initial post, which is how to properly choose a search engine marketing firm. This will be discussed in the next post.


Jon Morris has 11 years of experience in the search marketing field. Prior to creating Internet Marketing Initiative, Jon managed the Internet Marketing department for Ketchum Directory Advertising an Omnicom Company from January 2002 to June 2003. To learn more about Jon, visit his website: http://www.internetmi.com.

AdSense policy update

AdSense policy updates bring in new quality guidelines and increase link units.

Google has updated the AdSense policy to require publishers to comply with their existing Page Quality Guidelines. The guidelines are put in place to encourage publishers to create sites with simple navigation and substantial, useful content. That can only be good news for advertisers who don’t want their ads appearing on “made for AdSense” and other bad-quality sites.

The AdSense blog announcement states that the new policy requirement “doesn't mean that you can't use online advertising; it simply means that if you do, you need to be sure that the way you advertise meets with the guidelines, whether it's through AdWords or through any other advertising program.”

There is some good news in the update for advertisers, too. Instead of just one link unit, advertisers will be able to display three. These unobtrusive ads, made up of lists of links, are perfect for awkward or “hard to fit” spaces on websites.

All in all, the changes won't affect quality publishers and the additional ad units can only be good for income generation.

More Information: - www.bizreport.com

An Introduction to Web Services

Web services are becoming more and more popular. If you would like to learn what they are and how you can develop and deploy them, keep reading.

In the first two sections of this article, I'll discuss what web services are and how they work. In the third and fourth sections I'll explain how to develop web services using Apache AXIS and Java.

Let's start learning about web services with the definition for web service as provided by W3C. According to them, a web service is a software application which is identified by a URI, whose interfaces and binding are capable of being defined, described and discovered by XML using XML-based messages via Internet-based protocols.

A web service is usually identified by a URI (Unified Recourse Identifier). A web service has WSDL (Web Service Description Language) definitions. To communicate with web services we need to use SOAP messages, which are XML based messages transported over Internet protocols like HTTP, SMTP, and FTP. Web services can be better described with the following diagram.

Here, the service requester is the client of the web service, and the service provider is the host of the web service. A requester makes SOAP requests to the provider and the provider responses accordingly.

A service registry can be thought of as a database of web services. It has the definitions and URIs for web services. Developers of web services can publish their services to a service registry if they wish. After that someone can query the registry and choose the service from the registry. Since a registry has all the information required to develop a web client, developers can search and find necessary information from a service registry using UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration).

Read More / Source

Search Engine Friendly Web Design Advice

Online marketers understand the importance of getting top search engine rankings in major search engines. Therefore, they spend many time in optimizing website content. However, many of them ignore the fact that web design structure has a role in search engine optimization (SEO). To acquire top search engine ranking, you cannot totally rely on web designers because they could be good at web design but not good at SEO.

This article reveals several important web design elements you must consider during website optimization process.

1. CSS Stylesheet

It is recommended to use CSS stylesheet to format your website layout because it can standardize the appearance of your website. For the sake of convenience, some web designers use internal CSS. It is no good! You should use external CSS stylesheet so that your HTML coding becomes consise, and mainly compose of your website content. It is an essential SEO practice.

2. Content Management Software (CMS)

If you use CMS to manage your website, make sure your CMS provides these features:

a. Allows you to define different templates for different sections/pages. It gives you flexibility in optimizing website content.

b. Allows you to define Title and Meta tags for different web pages. Again, it gives you flexibility in optimizing every web page.

c. Allows you to generate static HTML pages instead of dynamic pages. Search engines are not good at reading dynamic web page. Accoding to Google webmaster guideline, Google may not index dynamic URL with more than 2 parameters within the URL.

If your web pages cannot get indexed, you definitely get no rankings no matter how many SEO effort you make.

3. HTML Code Compliance

As a good web design practice, make sure your HTML coding is compliant to some well recognized HTML standards such as W3C standard. Some search engine optimizers reported that non-compliant web design could cause difficulties for search engines to index and analyze your website. It hinders your website to get top search engine ranking.

4. Use of Graphics

You must optimize the file size of your images. As search engines like to read text, you should consider avoiding the use of graphics near top of your website, whenever it is possible.

5. Multiple-level Navigation Menu

Many websites use Javascript to build multiple-level navigation menu. However, the Javascript code usually leaves in the HTML body, it makes the HTML coding becomes bulky. This is no good in terms of SEO. I recommend seperate Javascrpt from HTML coding by using external Javascript file.

6. Bad Web Design

To make your web design search engine friendly, you must consider avoiding:

a. Use of frame. Search engines have difficulties to index all your frameset. Even though they can index some frame pages, users would only access to part of your webpages only in case they can find your website from search engines, e.g., only see a left-hand side navigation menu with a blank page on the right-hand side.

b. Re-direct techniques. For some reasons, web designers may make some redirect pages or adopt Javascript re-direct techniques and redirect visitors from one page to another content pages. Search engines do not welcome these techniques due to the potential of spamming.

7. Full Flash Site

Web designers may sell you to build a flash website or make a flash intro page as your home page. Their point is that flash makes your website more appealing and it will improve effectiveness of your website. However, it is not always the case.

Visitors want to find information fast. Flash sometimes could make your website very slow and require visitors to install plugins before they can see your website. In terms of SEO, simply speaking, search engines treat flash as a graphic and cannot analyze content inside a flash file. The implication means a flash website is hard to get top search engine ranking. E.g. Luminous Experiential Marketing has a stylish flash website, and search engines only think that they have 1 web page with 1 graphic file because all their hyperlinks and content are embraced in the flash file and search engines cannot read them.

Conclusion:

For small business to succeed online, you must strike a balance between SEO and fancy web design. A too fancy web design, in many cases, cannot give you any business as no one can find your website from search engines and the "entertaining" elements sometimes annoy your visitors.

Source: - www.promotionworld.com

21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

Small businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization. But if you read a variety of small businesses blogs and Web sites, you'll quickly see that there's a lot of uncertainty over what makes up "the basics." Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there's also a lot of misinformation about SEO strategies and tactics.

This article is the second in a two-part SEO checklist specifically for small business owners and webmasters. Last week, I shared 20 "don'ts." Naturally, this week addresses the "Do's"—things to make sure you include whether you're hiring an SEO company or doing it yourself.

Small Business SEO Checklist: The Do's

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn't a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn't about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It's your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.

4. Become a student of SEO. If you're taking the do-it-yourself route, you'll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall's SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock's Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I've read and recommend.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you'll need web analytics software in place so you can track what's working and what's not.

6. Build a great web site. I'm sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, "Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?" Be honest. If it's not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can't index pages that can't be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site's hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don't overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a "space," while underscores are not.

9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you're on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what's important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google's AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn't show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it's Google's AdWords or Yahoo's Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it's worth the investment. It's also the solution if you didn't like the "Be patient" suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It's rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won't help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you'd like; it's close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don't appear on the page.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don't stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it's a particular challenge for online retailers. If you're selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say "click here" do nothing for your search engine visibility.

15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.

16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don't waste journalists' time.

17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there's no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that's not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.

18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you're a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don't spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.

19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.

20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google's webmaster Central and Yahoo's Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they're aware of.

21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.

Just like last week, this list could continue well beyond these 21 "DOs." Your additions are welcome in the comments.

With this checklist and last week's list of "Don'ts," you should be able to develop a good plan of attack for your SEO efforts for your small business.

More Information: - searchengineland.com

9 Tips for Getting Started with Link Building

Putting together a strategy for get links to a site is one of the hardest parts of SEO. Too many people jump right in to trying to get people to link to their site, when they should be taking the time to lay the proper groundwork in place to have a link worthy site. Here are 9 quick tips on how to approach the task:

1. Understand the anatomy of getting a link - Since we shy away from buying links, or pursing link swaps, you are left with the task of getting someone to provide you with a one way link. I.e. getting something from them, and providing nothing in return. Or is that true? Not really. What you end up giving out, is your expertise and knowledge. This can be embedded in articles, tools, or special promotions. People who care about their visitors will link to good content, and this ends up being a fair trade. It also gets you links that are unassailable in the eyes of the search engines, and it's the best way to get links from authoritative web sites.
2. Understand your target audience - Who are your prospective customers? What type of content would they like to see on a site like yours? Since relevant links count most, answering this question is a big key to success.
3. Develop a map of the places where you are going to get links - Blogs, magazines, trade organizations, industry associations, distributors, resellers, colleges and universities, government sites, ...? Be creative in coming up with ideas. A potential target for linking to you is ANY site which is related to your site's content, or that can reasonably publish an article related to your business. For example, if you run a sailing web site for the Massachusetts area, Boston.com is a great target. They could certainly run an article about sailing in the Boston area, and if they cover your site as a resource, you get a great link.
4. Develop a content plan for your site - Now that you know your audience, and where you are going to get links from, come up with a plan for the great content that you are going to put on your site. To succeed, you need to put things of value out there. People will not link to you to help you make money. But they will link to you if your content, or tools, or promotions provide a truly unique value to the visitors to their site.
5. Develop a content syndication plan - Here you can broaden your thinking even further. The concept here is to write high quality articles and give them to other web sites for placement on those sites. You only do this type of work to get very high quality links. But you can get some awesome links this way.
6. Consider social media sites - While these are great sources of huge spikes in traffic, the traffic is not always of the best quality (although this varies from site to site). The big win is in the links you get out of it. A really well structured campaign can bring you lots of links, and in some cases, high quality links, including links from traditional media sites. To do this well, you need to really understand the audience on the social media site you are targeting. You will need to develop content that targets that audience, while keeping it related to the theme of your site.
7. Implement a PR campaign - This is much, much more than simply sending out press releases. You need to have a plan to reach out to traditional media and bloggers as a follow up to your press releases. Unless you have lots of contacts and a great reputation with the media in your space, our recommendation is that you do this with the help of a PR agency, and leverage their contacts.
8. Understand the investment cost - All of this takes resources. In particular, developing content on an ongoing basis, building relationships with related sites, syndicating content, pursuing social media sites, PR campaigns, ... It's a lot of work. Make sure you build into your plan the resources to execute your plan.
9. Be in it for the long haul - Link building is not a start up activity, it's a permanent one. It is an ongoing cost to your business that never goes away.

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The Importance of Article Marketing in SEO

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eBay Testing New Design of PayPal Home Page

eBay has redesigned the PayPal home page and announced it is looking for users to test it. Some of the changes PayPal is testing on the home page include different designs for personal and business users and better overviews of the products and services offered by PayPal. The newly designed home page also includes new navigation and the ability to search the entire PayPal site for information.
PayPal is inviting users to beta test the newly designed site and give it feedback. A link at the top of the site lets users toggle between the two versions. After logging in to the new version, visitors will notice redesigned tabs that display throughout the site, but it isn't until users visit the home page that they see the major design and content changes, including the new search box.
The new site refresh has analytics behind it to provide more data. Spokesperson Amanda Pires said that while this is not the purpose of the site refresh, "some of the analytics enabled by the new site will allow PayPal to evaluate what is of most interest to customers. This will allow us to better tailor content on the site and be more responsive to customers."
While the new design is not related to security, a PayPal executive said the company wanted to make people aware of the changes in such a way that they would not automatically assume they were on a spoof site when they saw the new design. Pires said PayPal initiatives such as the security key, safe browsers, and education are the company's best defense against spoof. (PayPal officially rolled out the security key earlier this month during the eBay Live conference http://tinyurl.com/ywbqhj.)

The SIP Center Offers Resources for New and Seasoned Session Initiation Protocol Developers

The capabilities and applications enabled by Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)—while nothing new to SIP developers, Internet Service Providers and the like—may not be so obvious to mainstream developers who do not yet use it in everyday coding. So, here's a crash course in SIP for those of you who want to become SIP developers. You seasoned SIP developers may learn a thing or two as well, and find some valuable SIP resources you may not know about.

For inquiring minds that don't already know, SIP is an application-layer control or signaling protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions—including Internet-based phone calls, multimedia distribution, and multimedia conferences—on an IP network. SIP often is used as a signaling protocol for Voice over IP (VoIP). Other applications include voice-enriched e-commerce, Web page click-to-dial, Instant Messaging with buddy lists, and IP Centrex services.

SIP signaling, is based on the request-response paradigm. Stateful SIP servers, like Ubiquity's SIP Application Server (SIP A/S), have the ability to split an incoming call so several extensions can ring at once. Also, SIP returns different media types within a single session. For example, a single communication session can allow a customer to call a travel agent, view video clips of vacation destinations, book online and order currency.
With Internet, mobile, and the more traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) coming together over an IP network, SIP plays a key role in establishing sessions that enable cutting-edge applications.
Resources at HandA primary resource for all things SIP can be found at The SIP Center, an extensive online resource dedicated to SIP developers. The SIP Center is an independent community resource founded by Ubiquity Software and supported by the industry's leading players as sponsors. You will find the tools, resources, and information you need to help you create commercial, SIP-based services and applications for the global telecommunications market.
The SIP Center details SIP resources available to you as a developer, including information you may need for developing SIP apps for mobile, desktop call management, e-commerce, gaming and instant messaging environments.
SIP-related ProtocolsThe SIP Center provides information about the various protocols related to SIP, as we previously mentioned. Under a section called Programming SIP, you can learn all about Call Processing Language (CPL), SIP Common Gateway Interface (CGI), SIP Servlets, and Java APIs for Integrated Networks (JAIN), including JAIN SIP, SIP Lite, and SIP Servlet. You will also find information about developing mobile applications with SIP, and learn about the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for producing globally-applicable technical specifications and technical reports for a third generation mobile system. You can also find out the latest information about using SIP with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
Get in-depth details about the various initiatives and protocols on the SIP Center protocols and initiatives page.
Developer and Testing ToolsThe SIP Center provides a plethora of resources and tools for SIP developers, such as:
Blogs
Codecs
Commercial SIP products and service providers
Developers programs and community sites
Free SIP and ENUM services
JAVA, JAIN, JSLEE, JSIP
RTP Applications, code and bits and pieces
Robustness testing
SIP and DNS information
SIP Center links pages
SIP client software
User Agents, Source Code and User Agent downloads
SIP drafts and RFCs
SIP parsers and stacks
SIP servers, proxys and gateways
Testing tools, like the SIP Test Messenger tool

Read More & More Information

More Inforamtion

Top PHP Frameworks

Zend Framework

The Zend Framework is still pretty new, and very beta, so there's still a few things to come (like a user authentication module), but it does already have quite a lot. Although it doesn't have a lot of checks in the chart, the Zend Framework does include other modules, to handle PDF files, RSS feeds, Web Services (Amazon, Flickr, Yahoo), and more. The Zend Framework also includes several different database objects, making it extremely simple to query your database, without having to write any SQL yourself.

At the moment the Zend Framework doesn't come with a full-blown ORM, but the framework developers are still debating whether to add an ORM layer or not. This might be something we see in the future, and you can always write your own ORM implementation, and have it added to the framework, as it accepts user contributions.

The Zend Framework is looking quite promising, and is definitely working to fix the common PHP problems. The stable version will probably have a lot more checks in the comparison chart!

CakePHP

CakePHP is mostly an advanced MVC framework, with a few extra modules added on top. It can handle most of the database stuff for you, and it includes support for Ajax and data validation. It also has a unique user authentication module called 'Access Lists', which can be used to give different users access to different parts of your CakePHP website.

This framework seems quite thorough and ready for use, although the CakePHP website is extremely confusing. There doesn't seem to be a stable version yet, which is a bit surprising since it's been in development for months now, but I guess it's probably possible to use the beta version on a production website as well.

Symfony Project

As you can see from the chart the Symfony Project seems like a very extensive framework, and it even includes a full-blown ORM, called Propel, which is another open source project and probably one of the best ORM solutions for PHP. Symfony also includes Creole for the database abstraction layer and Mojavi for the Model-View-Controller model layer. Because it simply re-uses these other projects, instead of re-writing them, this framework probably has the most extensive functionality, and this is clearly shown in the chart.

The only two downsides to this framework is that fact that it can't be run on PHP4, but this is pretty logical considering it needs much of PHP5's new features, and that it's so complicated. Most of the tasks, like paging, are much more complicated in Symfony than in other frameworks, and simplicity definitely doesn't describe this framework.

Seagull Framework

The Seagull framework seems like a pretty good framework, and it comes with quite a lot of features. Another positive thing is that it runs on PHP4 as well, which is a really good thing in my book, as I still use PHP4 and most web hosts don't support PHP5 yet.

Unfortunately Seagull doesn't come with any Ajax support, which is a bit of a shame, but a simple Google search returns a tutorial on adding Ajax support yourself, and it's likely it will be added in the future.

Source

Microsoft Surface - The Possibilities

Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap...

Candidates@Google: John McCain

Building Large Systems at Google

Google Gears - lets developers take web applications offline!!!

One of the biggest knocks against Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, ThinkFree Office, and other online applications is that you need a fast and reliable Internet connection to use them. No Web access, no data.

Google hopes to eliminate this limitation with Google Gears, a free open-source browser extension that developers can use to create offline versions of their Web applications. The company hopes Gears will lead to the development of a single industry standard for writing offline apps.

The first program created with the Gears API is the Google Reader feed-reading application, which is available today. The company is counting on application developers to extend and enhance the Gears environment, which is why Google decided to release it "in its early stages," according to the company.

The Gears API will be available for all Web development environments, including Adobe's Apollo product, which also allows Web apps to run on the desktop. Adobe chief software architect Kevin Lynch says his company is happy to be working with Google to create "a standard cross-platform, cross-browser local storage capability."

Gears' Javascript APIs allow you to store data, and cache and multithread online applications to your desktop. It supports the most complex Web services, according to the company. The development environment works with all major browsers written for Windows, Linux, and the Mac OS.

source

Whats Ajax?

A Primer on the Ajax Phenomenon

With all the hype about "Ajax web applications", you could be forgiven for assuming Ajax is some radical new plugin, akin to Macromedia Flash. And you would therefore be under the impression that Ajax is out of bounds until you upgrade your "so last month" browser, or at least download the coveted "Ajax plugin".

Good news: You can run Ajax right now. At least, assuming you have a web browser from the past few years - IE, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. Have you seen Google Maps or perhaps GMail? They're both Ajax applications. So are Zuggest and the AjaxPatterns Wiki Demo .

What do they all have in common? All these applications take a great leap forth towards the richness of standard desktop applications. No longer are you forced to wait five seconds for the page to reload every time you click on something. Ajax applications change in real time. They can let you drag boxes around, they can refresh themselves with new information, they can completely re-arrange the page without clearing it. And there's no special plugin required. Ajax is just a style of design, one that milks all the features of modern browsers to produce something that feels less web and more desktop.

Applications can act more like and be developed more like the days of Visual Basic, Delphi, PowerBuilder, C++ with GUI frameworks, etc. Thus, it is 90's GUI features but with a web browser: it strives to meld the best of web and the best of desktop GUI's. Web browser standards were originally designed for e-brochures only. Business forms and other needs were hacked into this e-brochure framework over time and it is clear that this after-thought retrofitting for different purposes has been ugly. Ajax attempts to remedy this.

Some of the characteristics of Ajax applications include:

* Continuous Feel: Traditional web applications force you to submit a form, wait a few seconds, watch the page redraw, and then add some more info. Forgot to enter the area code in a phone number? Start all over again. Sometimes, you feel like you're in the middle of a traffic jam: go 20 metres, stop a minute, go 20 metres, stop a minute ... How many E-Commerce sales have been lost because the user encountered one too many error message and gave up the battle? Ajax offers a smooth ride all the way. There's no page reloads here - you're just doing stuff and the browser is responding. The server is only telling the screen what changed rather than having it redraw the whole screen from scratch.

* Real-Time Updates: As part of the continous feel, Ajax applications can update the page in real-time. Currently, news services on the web redraw the entire page at intervals, e.g. once every 15 minutes. In contrast, it's feasible for a browser running an Ajax application to poll the server every few seconds, so it's capable of updating any information directly on the parts of the page that need changing. The rest of the page is unaffected.

* Graphical Interaction: Flashy backdrops are abundant on the web, but the basic mode of interaction has nevertheless mimicked the 1970s-style form-based data entry systems. Ajax represents a transition into the world of GUI controls visible on present-day desktops. Thus, you will encounter animations such as fading text to tell you something's just been saved, you will be able to drag items around, you will see some static text suddenly turn into an edit field as you hover over it.

* Language Neutrality - Ajax strives to be equally usable with all the popular languages rather than be tied to one language. Past GUI attempts such as VB, Tk, and Swing tended to be married to one specific programming language. Ajax has learned from the past and rejects this notion. To help facilitate this, XML is often used as a declarative interface language.

To prevent any confusion, these things are not characteristic of Ajax:

* Non-Proprietary: "Ajax" is perhaps one of the most common brand names in history, but in context of web design, "Ajax" is neither the name of a company nor a product. It's not even the name of a standard or committee. It's a label for a design approach involving several related technologies.

* Plugin-Based: Ajax applications do not require users to install browser plugins, or desktop software for that matter.

* Browser Specific: As long as the user is working with a relatively recent, mainstream, browser (say 2001+), the application should work roughly the same way. Browser-specific applications somewhat defeat the purpose of Ajax.

Source

Careers with IT outsourcing company | Web Designer | Offshore Software Development India

Company Name: Offshore Software Development India

http://www.offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com

Position Title		: Web Designer
Reference No		: RF-WD-07060122
Job Location (City)		: Ahmedabad
Job Type		: Full Time
Work Experience		: 2 to 4 years
Position Level		: Senior Designer
Email		: careers@Offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com
Posting Date		: 01-June-2007

» Job Description, Responsibilities and Requirement :

• Competitive salary and benefits and opportunities for advancement
• Exciting work environment surrounded by ongoing challenges and a fast paced-environment
• International visibility and experience
• In this new position, you will be the pioneer for the ongoing development of your role
• Opportunities to be creative in this autonomous position
• Sound knowledge in graphics Web Development and multimedia software programs [Especially Adobe Photoshop]
• Preferred to work on Table less Designs using Web 2.0 + CSS, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Macromedia Flash MX, Corel Draw, XHTML, _JavaScript, CSS
• Experience in logo design and illustrations, Familiar with web design and web technologies
• Candidate must take initiative and have strong problem solving skills

Apply this JOb: - www.offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com

Use Google AdWords to Plan Your SEO Keyword Strategy

When you have a website and are looking to market it, which keywords should you target for your SEO campaign? How can you tell which keywords convert? In a Search Engine Watch Forums thread, a member is advised to use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Google AdWords is a very useful tool for SEO. You can use it to test which keywords convert best for your site. Once you determine the best converting keywords, then you can invest the time and money into your long term search engine optimization strategy. Why use AdWords? Simply because you can see results immediately, while SEO can take months before seeing any results.

Also, say you've chosen your keywords, but you notice that some of your search terms are more competitive than others. Searching for some terms yield 300 results, while others yield 30,000 results, all the way to 30 million results. Where do you draw the line for a viable marketing campaign?

In the same Search Engine Watch Forums thread, moderator Marcia says that the answer really depends on the term and if those terms are already being targeted:

Read more / Source

B2B Search Marketing: Is SEO Or PPC Most Effective?

When it comes to B2B search marketing, what's the best strategy—Organic search engine optimization or pay-per-click search advertising? In large part, it depends on what you're selling, your budget, your company's investment philosophy, and searchers' actual behavior.

Packaged goods versus the complex sale

There tend to be two types of B2B purchases. Those easily defined in terms of the product and corresponding price, and those that require specification of some sort. The latter tend to be less standardized, and pricing can be very dependent on numerous factors, including the nature of the buyer (e.g., creditworthiness, purchase volume).

If you're trying to sell search within your organization, and if you're selling what amount to B2B packaged goods, pay-per-click search marketing can be the path of least resistance. Typically, B2B "packaged goods" can be easily compared to one another in terms of features and benefits. Accordingly, there is less purchase research, and the buying cycle is much shorter. In today's ROI-driven world, corporate management tends to be much more tolerant of PPC expenditures when revenue can be quickly and easily tied to it. The results are quick, and the investment is typically low.

On the other hand, if you're trying to sell the idea of search marketing and your company's products have long lead times and require substantial purchase research and specification, you may find management more accepting of making a much larger investment in SEO. Corporate management tends to view this type of investment as long-term brand building. Surprisingly, you'll often find it much easier to sell the idea of spending even tens of thousands of dollars for SEO than spending even a few hundred to even try PPC.

Level of risk associated with the purchase

It's been our experience in working with B2B clients for more than twenty years that risk plays a huge role in the purchase decision process. The larger the potential purchase and the more the wrong purchase decision can potentially negatively affect the business, the more stringent the research and analysis of the purchase alternatives. And that research and analysis includes not only the product or service being sought, but also the company behind it.

Accordingly, potential B2B buyers with much at stake look for industry leaders with proven track records, strong reputations, and focused expertise. These factors can often outweigh the best features and benefits. Keep in mind those who influence large purchases aren't just making a decision that can affect the company, they're making a decision that can affect their career. Years ago the adage was, "nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM." That mentality is still at work today.

So what does this have to do with SEO versus PPC? More and more, searchers are becoming very savvy with respect to the anatomy of the search engine results page. They know that there are two types of results: natural results and the ads. They know that if they're doing purchase research or just looking for information, the organic results will often yield the most diverse and promising results. They tend to view the sponsored links as "people trying to sell me something." (This distinction isn't necessarily bad; it all depends on what the searcher is trying to accomplish.)

Searchers know that anyone can buy an ad with a high ranking, but it's much harder to achieve ubiquitous high-ranking organic results for a wide variety of appropriate search terms. Sure, there are spammers in the high-ranking organic results, but the search engines are getting better and better at giving searchers highly relevant results. Accordingly, searchers ascribe some level of authority to high-ranking organic results.

A one-page article in a trade magazine has been shown to be several times more effective than a one-page ad. That's because the mere coverage of the editorial story is inferred to be, to some extent, an endorsement by the magazine. At least the subject matter of the article has been vetted and reviewed by a disinterested third party-and this gives the editorial story more credibility than a similar size ad. So too with the organic search results. To some extent, searchers put faith in the search engines (at least until click-through) to find the most appropriate search results. Therefore, at least initially, searchers also ascribe more authority to high-ranking organic results.

The higher the level of risk associated with the purchase of your product, the more you'll want to focus on achieving strong organic search results. Ubiquitous high-ranking results can create the perception of industry leadership, regardless of your actual standing. And perceptions of leadership can get you included in the buyer's consideration set.

Where B2B searchers click

Regardless of what your search marketing investment is, to spend it wisely, it's important to remember exactly where B2B searchers tend to look and what they tend to click on.

While there isn't a lot of research regarding B2B search engine marketing, the most recent B2B study by Enquiro showed that nearly 75 percent of B2B searchers clicked on an organic search result first. In terms of paid ads, 12 percent clicked on top-sponsored links first, about 7 percent clicked on side-sponsored links first.
There are a couple of lessons in the research. First, if you want click-through from PPC, spend the money to rank well. Boosting your budget slightly can yield significantly higher returns. Make sure you show up in the top-sponsored links or at the top of the side-sponsored links. Second, if you're willing to make the longer-term investment in SEO, the payback, in terms of click-through, is likely there.

Read More / Source

Google Goes Ctrl - Alt - Delete

Three major events took place on, at, or around Google last week any one of which could radically change the company and its relationships with its users, advertisers, and ad delivery partners. Two of the events will have long lasting effects Google’s look and operation while the other has a direct effect on the public’s perception of Google as a trustworthy company.

Chronologically, the events started last Monday with the introduction of the new-look and feel of Google Universal. The same day, Google began the process of cleaning up its paid advertising program AdWords by terminating thousands of poorly performing “Made For AdSense” sites, a process that seemed to pick up speed as the week progressed. The week closed with the premature leak of information from the Fair Isaac Corporation’s ongoing study of billable click-fraud rates.

The last event, the leak of preliminary information from Fair Isaac, is likely the best place to begin an explanation because it (the tone of the report) is arguably the primary causal reason for the other two. It is as if Google suddenly understands the depth of the public relations problems it is going to be facing going into the second half of 2007 and is making very public moves to deal with the root causes of those problems.

Google's Greatest Problem

Early last Friday morning a press release left the offices of the Fair Isaac Corporation. The press release stated that Fair Isaac had been conducting a study on billable click fraud rates at Google and had found 10 – 15 % of all billed clicks to a small sampling of accounts had stemmed from invalid activity. Naturally both the tech and mainstream media made an enormous issue of the news with virtually every important business or tech section mentioning the story.

By Saturday, the dust had settled and writers began taking a second, less euphoric look at the story. As Kevin Newcomb in Search Engine Watch wrote,

“Media reports (including Search Engine Watch's) saying Fair Isaac Corp. (FIC) reported industry-wide click fraud at 10 to 15 percent are not accurate. FIC decided to put out a press release and speak at its user conference about data that was extremely preliminary, based on a small sample size, and not statistically significant.”

What happened and why was it an important event?

The significance of the media’s reaction to the Fair Isaac report is the media’s reaction itself. Within minutes of the release being issued, stories began appearing in Associated Press, Information Week, the Wall St. Journal and in other major publications. Though Kevin is correct in chastising himself and his colleagues (including me) for jumping the gun on the story, that so many of us feel there is a story about click fraud is in itself the story.

Readers have to understand how difficult it is for reporters to write about click fraud as there is very little corroborating evidence outside the information we ferret out of advertisers who complain to us about their experiences. Google and Yahoo are not known to be forthcoming with information surrounding their pay-per-click programs. Journalists rely on third-parties such as Click Forensics, ClickFacts other analytic companies (in this case, Fair Isaac) to supply us with information which in turn we supply to you the readers.

The numbers that came out of the Fair Isaac press release generally jive with those of Click Forensics and the index maintained by the Click Fraud Network which estimated a 14.8% click fraud rate at the end of the first quarter of 2007. Hundreds of other writers simultaneously experienced the same low-watt light-bulb moment I did hoping that Fair Isaac had provided a solid set of numbers to speculate from.

Unfortunately, as Kevin wrote, it was simply speculation but, the event did point out a gaping hole in Google’s corporate awning. The press is clearly prepared to expect a 10 – 15% click fraud rate, as evidenced by the breakneck speed the story made from wire to writing to print. Perhaps that is the biggest reason for the second important event from last week.

Google to Close Low-Yield MFA Accounts

Google is sending closure notices to owners of low conversion “Made For AdSense” (MFA) sites. On Friday afternoon, reports that Google issued polite emails informing several owners of MFA type sites that their AdSense accounts are going to be terminated on June 1 began surfacing at WebmasterWorld.

Google is targeting a large group of people who use the AdSense system to scam money from advertisers. Some reports have suggested Google is going after the paid-search arbitrage community though others point out that though many (if not most) arbitragers are going to be affected they themselves were not the actual issue Google is dealing with.

Google is moving to close what are called “MFA” sites. Examples of MFA sites include parked domains, misspellings and faux-search engines, all of which tend to have AdSense advertising on them. When users go to or are somehow driven to those sites, those who click on the ads make the site owner (and Google) a little money. Though clicks on these sites might only be worth 5 – 10 cents, the Internet allows MFA site owners to run businesses based on huge volumes of purchased and misdirected visitors. On average, MFA site owners make a few hundred per month on their sites though in some cases, site owners can be making tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Obviously, this use of the AdWords and AdSense programs were far healthier for the MFA site owners (and Google’s bottom line), than they were for advertisers or Internet users. For most, the halcyon days of MFA are over and those webmasters will have to adapt to the new rules surrounding ad distribution through the AdSence program.

As for Google, if cleaning up the system makes advertisers more comfortable over the long-run, it makes far more sense for Google to forgo what is to them a relatively minor revenue source in order to create a more stable advertising environment. Assuming Google successfully removes MFA sites from its system, it will have moved a long way towards cleaning up a highly lucrative arena for click fraud.

Google Universal

The third and perhaps most interesting thing Google did last week was the introduction of the Google Universal results. In a nutshell, Google Universal is about tying many of the multiple search indexes Google maintains into one coherent set of results.

Google literally has over a dozen types of search result available, depending on the type of search each user conducts. Google Universal is their first major attempt to bind all search types into an overarching set of results.

A good contemporary example might be the recent recall of pet foods across North America . This is a topic of extreme interest to pet owners, one that has received a high level of attention from news, governmental and consumer organizations. A search conducted for “pet food recall” might bring up results from general search, news, YouTube videos, radio reports, shopping search results, etc… Under Google’s old system, a user would have to perform specialty searches to find information kept outside of Google’s general search results. Google Universal should change that by bringing other file formats into what the user will perceive as the general search results.

Google Universal is probably the biggest change made to Google results since the introduction of paid advertising five years ago. The move was made by Google to present a wider array of file types to users. It is a logical change that will have sweeping effects throughout the search marketing industry. SiteProNews will carry fuller coverage of Google Universal later this week.

Last week was one of the most significant and startling weeks in Google’s history. From an outsider’s perspective, it appears Google is taking serious action to improve its services on several fronts. Its greatest weakness is the specter of click fraud, as evidenced by the speed at which the media bit the hook dangled by the Fair Isaac press release. It is prepared to forgo revenues in order to clean up its system and is working to integrate richer media into its general search results. Any one of the three stories could have provided months worth of material for writers in the search marketing space. Together, they provide a clearer indication of Google’s greatest fears and best intentions. This is likely to be another interesting week watching Google.

Read More / Source

Generate PDFs with PHP

In order to use PHP's PDF manipulation capabilities, you need to have the PDFLib library installed on your system. If you're working on Linux, you can download a copy from http://www.pdflib.com/pdflib/index.html and compile it for your box. If you're running Windows, your job is even simpler - a pre-built PDF library is bundled with your distribution, and all you need to do is activate it by uncommenting the appropriate lines in your PHP configuration file.

Additionally, you'll need a copy of the (free!) Adobe Acrobat PDF reader, so that you can view the documents created via the PDFLib library. You can download a copy of this reader from http://www.adobe.com/

Once you've got everything in place, it's time to create a simple PDF file. Here goes:

// create handle for new PDF document
$pdf = pdf_new();

// open a file
pdf_open_file($pdf, "philosophy.pdf");

// start a new page (A4)
pdf_begin_page($pdf, 595, 842);

// get and use a font object
$arial = pdf_findfont($pdf, "Arial", "host", 1); pdf_setfont($pdf, $arial, 10);

// print text
pdf_show_xy($pdf, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,", 50, 750); pdf_show_xy($pdf, "than are dreamt of in your philosophy", 50, 730);

// end page
pdf_end_page($pdf);

// close and save file
pdf_close($pdf);
?>

Save this file, and then browse to it through your Web browser. PHP will execute the script, and a new PDF file will be created and stored in the location specified at the top of the script. Here's what you'll see when you open the file:

1225_1 (click to view image)

Anatomy Lesson

Let's take a closer look at the code used in the example above.

Creating a PDF file in PHP involves four basic steps: creating a handle for the document; registering fonts and colours for the document; writing or drawing to the handle with various pre-defined functions; and saving the final document.

Let's take the first step - creating a handle for the PDF document.

// create handle for new PDF document
$pdf = pdf_new();

This is accomplished via the pdf_new() function, which returns a handle to the document. This handle is then used in all subsequent operations involving the PDF document.

Next up, you need to give the PDF file a name - this is accomplished via the pdf_open_file() function, which requires the handle returned in the previous operation, together with a user-defined file name.

// open a file
pdf_open_file($pdf, "philosophy.pdf");

Once a document has been created, you can insert new pages in it with the
pdf_begin_page() function,

// start a new page (A4)
pdf_begin_page($pdf, 595, 842);

and end pages with the - you guessed it! - pdf_end_page() function.

// end page
pdf_end_page($pdf);

Note that the pdf_begin_page() function requires two additional parameters, which represent the width and height of the page to be created in points (a point is 1/72 of an inch). In case math isn't your strong suit, the PHP manual provides width and height measurements for most standard page sizes, including A4, the one used in the example above.

In between the calls to pdf_begin_page() and pdf_end_page() comes the code that actually writes something to the PDF document, be it text, images or geometric shapes. In this case, all I'm doing is writing a line of text to the document - so all I need to do is pick a font, and then use that font to write the text string I need to the document.

Selecting and registering a font is accomplished via the pdf_findfont() and pdf_setfont() functions. The pdf_findfont() function prepares a font for use within the document, and requires the name of the font, the encoding to be used, and a Boolean value indicating whether or not the font should be embedded in the PDF file; it returns a font object, which may be used via a call to pdf_setfont().

$arial = pdf_findfont($pdf, "Arial", "host", 1); pdf_setfont($pdf, $arial, 10);

Once the font has been set, the pdf_show_xy() function can be used to write a text string to a particular position on the page.

// print text
pdf_show_xy($pdf, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,", 50, 750); pdf_show_xy($pdf, "than are dreamt of in your philosophy", 50, 730);

As you can see, this function requires a handle to the PDF document, a reference to the font object to be used, the text string to be written (obviously!), and the X and Y coordinates of the position at which to begin writing the text. These coordinates are specified with respect to the origin (0,0), which is located at the bottom left corner of the document.

Once the text has been written, the page is closed via a call to pdf_end_page(). You can then add one or more extra pages, or - as I've done here - simply close the document via pdf_close(). This will save the document contents to the file specified in the initial call to pdf_open_file(), and destroy the document handle created.

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Industrial Search Engines and Directories

Promoting industrial products has never been one of the more exciting activities in the marketing or advertising world. Characterized by technical journals, trade magazines, industry trade shows, and listings in directories like the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers, industrial promotion is rarely an expertise of many advertising agencies. Since most industrial marketers also have very limited budgets and are typically more interested in generating leads than building brand name recognition, it necessarily follows that industrial promotion is different than many other forms of promotion.

For many of our clients, this meant that industry trade magazines and the Thomas Register were historically the major beneficiaries of their advertising budgets. In fact, for years, a number of our clients poured tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year into these magazines and directories.

Of course, search engines changed all of this. In what has to be one of the biggest fundamental changes in the history of industrial advertising, search engines started to phase out print directories as the most common resource for engineers, purchasing managers, and other industrial buyers looking to find suppliers. Recent studies by the Thomas Register and their newest leading competitor GlobalSpec confirm this.

So how does an industrial marketing professional take advantage of these dramatic changes within the market? For the most part, the principles of search engine marketing that apply to most websites also apply to industrial websites. Industrial marketers just have to be careful about how they interpret what they read in regards to online marketing as the vast majority of reports and studies in the search marketing industry are related to the B2C ecommerce segment of the market.

1. Organic Optimization
   Typically, optimizing your web site to rank in the organic (free) listings in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN will offer your company the greatest ROI on its advertising dollar. Of course, competition for "first page listings" is increasing every day and the time, knowledge and costs required to earn them has become more challenging.

   Essentially, optimizing your site requires good keyword rich content, a site structure that can be spidered by the search engines, and links from other respected sites, especially sites dealing with similar topics to yours. In many ways, a search engine friendly site is simply a well organized site with lots of good content that other sites want to link to.

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
   After organic optimization, another area that can have a great ROI for industrial marketers is PPC advertising. There is a reason that Google has been one of the best performing companies in the world over the past few years... their advertising model works. For nearly all of our industrial clients, PPC advertising returns a lower cost per lead than any other form of promotion employed aside from organic optimization.

   The key to utilizing PPC effectively is to generate a very detailed list of keywords to buy. For example, if you make plastic rods, make sure you also buy phrases like polyethylene rods, LDPE Rods, PVC Rods, polypropylene rods, and any other descriptive phrases that apply. Similarly, if you make packaging equipment, remember that people may also search for packaging machine(s), machinery, and specific equipment names like "form, fill, & seal machines."

   Some advertisers have been hesitant to use PPC because of concerns over click fraud. However, there are simple ways to protect your campaign against this activity. Plus, the availability of powerful analytics programs that can quickly identify issues further help minimize click fraud and ensure that your ROI is maximized.

   The three main PPC advertising programs are Google AdWords, Yahoo Search, and MSN adCenter. You may wish to experiment with other programs, but these three routinely drive the largest amount of qualified traffic to the sites we manage.

3. Online Advertising and Public Relations
   Advertising and PR on the web can serve some unique purposes for industrial marketers. First, while search engine marketing provides an excellent ROI, it is really designed to target people actively engaged in a search for your products or services. If you want to get your message out to a much broader audience, advertising on authority and media sites, sponsoring forums and blogs, and sending press releases out to relevant publications and websites can also be very effective.

Unfortunately, today the opportunities can be overwhelming. There are dozens of online industrial directories, industry specific web portals, online trade magazines, and countless forums and blogs. In fact, there are so many now that figuring out where to advertise can be very complex. This is especially true when one tries to measure the success of this activity while considering lead generation, brand development, and even how the ad or press release has affected its site's link popularity (a major factor in its ability to earn high organic rankings).

In the remainder of this article, I will review the major industrial search engines and directories to provide some of my personal experiences and opinions on how you can integrate them into your campaign. Admittedly, this review will not cover every directory as many new ones have evolved in the last two years and we simply don't have experience with them all.

Prior to advertising in any of these directories, I always recommend building or modifying your own website to make sure that it is optimized, search engine friendly and effectively converts visitors into leads or sales. As stated above, I would also recommend bidding on a targeted list of keyword phrases in Google AdWords, Yahoo Search, and MSN adCenter as these PPC programs typically generate more leads/sales at a much lower cost than advertising for our clients. Finally, make sure you put some web analytics in place to track all of your activity so you can see where you are getting your best ROI. Google Analytics is free and meets the needs of the vast majority of industrial marketers with whom we work.

Armed with a site that performs and plenty of data from your keyword research and PPC advertising programs, you can now turn your attention to advertising. Buying listings in these directories can generate qualified leads, provide contact names and numbers, increase brand recognition, and even benefit your organic optimization efforts.

Listed below are some of the major industrial search engines and directories that we have analyzed, tested, and/or currently use. It is important to note that our review comes from our perspective as SEO Consultants.

Industrial directories and search engines create a difficult situation for industrial marketers who want to run their own search engine marketing campaigns. On the one hand, we can buy listings in these directories to generate more exposure, more leads, and more incoming links to our client's site. On the other hand, some of the money we pay these publishers to be included in their directories and search engines goes to fund their own SEO and PPC efforts. Considering that for many search phrases, our clients' main competition in Google, Yahoo, and MSN for first page positioning is these directories, the problem is obvious. If a company is running its own SEO and PPC campaigns, then these directories exist as both competitors and potential partners.

More Information click here

What's new in PHP V5.2, Part 5: Tracking file upload progress

PHP V5.2 added hooks for developers to take advantage of tracking file upload progress in real time. This article, Part 5 of a five-part "What's new in PHP V5.2" series, shows how to monitor file uploads and write code accordingly, with the creation of a PHP progress bar.

Web 2.0 is the hottest buzzword on the Internet, with investors lining up to put money into any bucket labeled by it. There are many descriptive terms for the millions of Web sites and applications they house. With Web 2.0, we describe a category of Web sites that provide a voice to the millions of users of the Internet. Distinctive in that they all provide a venue for users to meet and share opinions and data relating to common interests, these sites generate enormous amounts of content rapidly.

Each of the users provides some kind of content -- reviews of coffee shops, routes to work, etc. YouTube is a great example of this, providing a place for people to upload videos and have other users watch them and provide feedback. YouTube is the current darling of the Web 2.0 observers, noting that YouTube's popularity grew faster than any site on the Internet to date. This popularity can be attributed to a great deal of varied content, along with the ability for users to lend their voices to the content in the form of comments. And not just comments -- users can even upload video comments in response to video.

Text fields, ahoy

Many Web sites that accept files sport the dreaded Browse button next to a text field urging users to upload each file one at a time. This can take a long time, especially in the case of video, or even photos or other items that come in a groups of smaller files. Since each file requires its own upload, it can be quite a chore. Given that uploading huge files can be tedious for impatient users, it is important to provide them positive feedback to keep them from giving up and going away.

Fortunately, PHP V5.2's new hooks into the file upload process allow us to show users in real time what is happening with their uploads. In this article, we will create a progress bar using PHP V5.2 for our users (see Download for source code).

Hook, line, and sinker

The new "hooks" in PHP V5.2 are actually data points that are available during the file transfer process if you have the right libraries installed and configured. They use a feature called the Alternative PHP Cache. When a PHP script receives an uploaded file, the interpreter will automatically check the $_POST array for a hidden field named APC_UPLOAD_PROGRESS, which becomes a cached variable, storing information about the upload so your scripts can access it. With this information cached and at your fingertips, you can give your users visual feedback to improve their user experience.

We will cover the implementation of the APC code in your HTML form, as well as identifying it in your PHP and how to access the cached information. There are many ways to represent this data — from Ajax to FLEX — but what we will focus on is how to prepare access to the data these front-end technologies will need.

Setting up

APC is not enabled by default in PHP V5.2. Since the new hooks are a part of APC, we need to make sure to install the extension and make it available to the PHP interpreter. This is accomplished by downloading the php_apc extension files. In our case, we are using an installation of WAMP, a freely available packaged PHP for Windows®, which includes Apache and MySQL. It offers a nice user interface and is easy to manage with menus that support configuration options.

To set up APC on WAMP:

1. See Resources to download the libraries and WAMP.
2. Install WAMP.
3. Put the php_apc.dll file in the extensions folder for PHP. This is /php/ext by default.
4. Use the system tray WAMP menu to select PHP settings>PHP Extensions>Add Extension.
5. In the command-line interface that pops up, type php_apc.dll and press Enter.
6. Using a text editor, open /php/php.ini and add the line apc.rfc1867 = on (it doesn't matter where). If you're trying to test locally and plan to upload large files so you can actually see progress, you'll also want to add the following directives: apc.max_file_size = 200M, upload_max_filesize = 200M, and post_max_size = 200M. Don't do this on a live production server, though, or you're likely to use up bandwidth and disk space allotments, not to mention slowing everyone else down to a crawl.
7. Restart PHP.

APC should now be set up and initialized. The RFC1867 features of APC — the features that enable you to track file uploads — should now be enabled as an option, and you should be ready to look into our file uploads to enable real-time status.

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What is PHP:DataGrid?

PHP:DataGrid is the answer to the above problem. It's basically a PHP component, that's very similar to the ASP.NET DataGrid control. PHP:DataGrid will take care of all the boring tasks leaving you the easy and interesting parts. Very little PHP code is actually necessary for PHP:DataGrid, and you can change its looks and layout using simple HTML tags.

The only downside of PHP:DataGrid is that it's not free. You have to purchase it from TPG PHP Scripts, but it's $24.99 for a Developer license, which grants you permission to use it in all your personal projects, and I certainly believe that the advantages far outweigh the cost. Even only the time saved by PHP:DataGrid is already worth the cost for me. (editor's note: use coupon code phpit for a 10% discount!).

Let's have an actual look at PHP:DataGrid. If you don't want to purchase the component yourself, then you can always have a look at the demo's only.

The Basics

To create a new datagrid, we must use the php:datagrid tag. This tells the PHP:DataGrid component that a datagrid must be shown. The only thing that we must set is the name of the datagrid. This is a required attribute, and cannot be left out. A simple datagrid looks like this:

That's the only thing necessary to display a datagrid. But we're forgetting one thing - we haven't binded any data to the datagrid yet. If you forget to do this, nothing will be displayed, except for an error.

Binding Data

Binding data to a datagrid is really easy, and requires only one line of real PHP code. The PHP:DataGrid component automatically creates a variables called $_DATAGRID (not a superglobal, unfortunately). To bind data, you have to call the bind() method on the $_DATAGRID variable, like so:

$_DATAGRID->bind('test', $data);

That's all! The test datagrid will now be shown, with the data contained in the $data variable. The $data variable must be an array that was retrieved using mysql_fetch_array() and a loop (see the datagrid example below if you're unsure about this) or similar format. In any case, it should look like this:

Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[title] => Item 1
[category] => 4
)

[1] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[title] => Item 2
[category] => 7
)

[2] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[title] => Item 3
[category] => 3
)
)

The above is a valid $data array. It won't accept any other format, and an error will be shown if you do bind a different format.

An Example

The below code is a working example of a simple datagrid. It retrieves the 10 latest tutorials from the PHPit.net database, and shows it in a datagrid.

// Include PHP:DataGrid
include ('/path/to/phpdatagrid.php');

// Connect to database
$link = mysql_connect ('localhost', 'sa', '[db-pass]');

// Select database
mysql_select_db('phpit', $link);

// Do query and Get data
$result = mysql_query ("SELECT title, description, author, datetimestamp, filename FROM tutorial ORDER BY datetimestamp DESC LIMIT 0, 10");
$data = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
array_push ($data, $row);
}

// Bind data (THIS IS IMPORTANT)
$_DATAGRID->bind ('test', $data);

[ View live demo ]

As you can see little code is used for the datagrid. Most of the code is actually spent on connecting to the MySQL database, and getting the data. If you use any kind of database class, this will be significantly easier.

If you have a look at the datagrid, you will notice that it looks ugly, and pretty bad. That's because we haven't added any styling at all. But that will have to wait until Part 2 of our DataGrid series.

Summary

In this part of our DataGrid series, we've looked at the basics of the PHP:DataGrid component: what it is, and how to put it on our website. But it doesn't look pretty yet, and in the next parts we'll be looking at creating a pretty datagrid, and talk about more of its functions (e.g. templates, inline editing, sorting and more!).

Source