Google is gaining ground in search results queries in USA, survey revealed

Google is gaining more gound in USA in report append below. With this surge, it is normal that many site owners will spend more time to optimize their site for Google. Even with dwindling market share, Yahoo still provide a good share of traffic to my sites. At this point in time, any SEO effort will still have to cover all the top three, namely Google, Yahoo and MSN. Others, to me is no longer significant.

Read more on report on Google gaining strength:-

Web search leader Google’s market share inched up to 64 percent of all queries among U.S. Internet searchers in March, gaining further ground against Yahoo and Microsoft, a survey released on Wednesday by Hitwise found.

The number of search queries on Google rose to 64.1 percent in March, compared with 63.9 percent in February and 58.3 percent a year ago, according to Hitwise, which bases its report on the surfing habits of 10 million U.S. Web users.

A more conservative survey by online measurement firm comScore Networks from February also showed how Google’s U.S. market share grew to 48.1 percent in February from a 47.5 percent share in January. On a global basis, comScore estimates Google held a 65.7 percent share of the Web search market.

Hitwise said Yahoo search queries slipped to about 21.3 percent from close to 21.5 percent in February and 22.3 percent in March 2006, while MSN Search dipped to 9.2 percent from 9.3 percent in February and 13.1 percent a year ago.

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Setting up an Online E-Commerce Store using ShopSite

While there have been many successful ventures of online store that sell products purely via their web sites, many businesses are also beginning to setup online stores to compliment their brick and mortar business. Setup an online store and sell online has the following advantages:-

  • The online store will serve as your showroom that opens 24 hours a day.
    Even if the visitors to your site do not buy online, it serve well as an
    online catalogue for them to browse.
  • If your site enjoy good position and ranking in popular search engines,
    your sites will surely receive tons of quality hits that can be converted to
    sales if the products that you are selling are attractive and competitive.
  • You will be able to sell products online even when you are sleeping.
  • The online store has indefinite shelf space and you will be able to sell
    as many products as you wish.
  • The online store is convenience to shopper. They can shop online 24 hours
    a day with having to spend time traveling out of  their home.
  • The shopper will also be able to browse  and compare prices more
    easily.

One of the E-Commerce Software that I find it easy and useful to build online store is ShopSite that allow you to build an online store and full function shopping cart system. It adopt a very simple concept of your building pages and it is easy to learn and it go through some simple steps that are described below:-

  • Upload your product images to ShopSite. Your images can be of any filename
    and you will be able to assign a name that is easy to remember to every
    image that you upload. For example, your image file name may be 13925.jpg
    and once uploaded, you can assign a friendly name such as "cameramodelxyz"
    to it. In that way, you will have no problem tracing the images that you
    have uploaded. For easy management, you can also upload those images in
    separate folders.
     
  • Once images has been uploaded., the next step is to add your products to
    ShopSite. For each and every products that you have added, you will be able
    to specify the image to use for each of them. ShopSite Pro 8.2 onwards will
    help you to create thumbnail automatically. For each and every
    products,  there is checkbox allow you to select whether you wish to
    have a more information page that will show larger images and more details.
     
  • One products has been added, you can then commence to add your product
    pages. When adding a page, you will be able to select the products that you
    want to appear on that pages. You will also be able to specify the
    navigational links to appear on the same page and add the necessary contents
    as well. The addition of links will allow you to link all those product
    pages together so that shopper will be able to browse easily.
     
  • Once product pages has been added, you can then proceed to add content
    pages such as FAQ, Terms and Conditions, Contact Information,….., all
    following the simple step of Adding Pages. In that process, you will be able
    to add contents as well as links that you want to appear on those pages.
     
  • The final thing to do is to activate your payment gateway setting.
    ShopSite support WorldPay , PayPal and many other methods. Just key in the
    account information and enable the payment system that you wish to use
    accordingly.
     
  • ShopSite support all type of curreny and in the event that the currency
    that you wish to use is not in the list, just upload a txt file on currency
    on ShopSite folder on your server and add that currency in the file
    accordingly.
     
  • For the look and feel of the site, you will be able to select from a wide
    selection of theme to use. There is also a place where you can customize the
    header and footer of the site.
     
  • Once the above are all done, just click the Publish Button to have Shopsite build all your pages in HTML
     
  • That is about all and you can start selling online 🙂

One of the plus points of ShopSite is all the site pages will be built as HTML pages which is search engine friendly. In addition, for each and every pages that you add to ShopSite, you can specify the Page Title, Meta Description and Meta Keywords. Put in some effort to optimize your site for search engine by choosing the right keywords will surely serve to improve your site ranking among major search engines.

To use ShopSite either purchase the full license from ShopSite Main Site or purchase a Server Hosting Plan with ShopSite pre-installed for you.

Shopsite pro
ShopSite Main Menu

Shopsite pro

ShopSite Payment System Setup

Shopsite pro

Upload and Management of Products’ Images

Shopsite pro

Adding Products to ShopSite

Shopsite pro

Addition and Management of Pages

Shopsite pro

Theme and Color Layout Selection

Shopsite pro

Management of Header and Footer

It is important to renew your domain name, even if you do not intend to host web and email anymore

Yes it is important to renew your domain name even if you do not intend to continue to host your web and email any longer. Web site that has gone live for years likely to be spidered by search engines and may enjoy some listing on major search engines. More often than not, expired domain will be picked up and have it pointed to pages with ADs or others.

A friend of mine has registered a .com domain and host his web site for many years before deciding to stop hosting his site two years ago, not sure for what reason and did not renew his domain. Over those years, he has distributed a great number of business cards to his bussiness friends and asoociates bearing his company’s web address. On one fine day, one of his business associates called and asked him a question that really shocked him : “When did you change your company business from being a renovation specialist to a company offering XXX services ?”. Yes, someone has picked up his domain and have it pointed to a XXX site.

It is pretty cheap to maintain a domain name these days and so do remember to renew your domains :-).

Yahoo Mail to offer unlimited storage

Glad to know that Yahoo is going to offer unlimited storage for its email services. With Yahoo the first to take this giant step, I do hope that Google will counter with the same offer. The 2.8GB space offer by Gmail these days is no longer sufficient. Having said that, the Gmail interface is still by far the best interface that is quick to load and fast when it come to message search.

Yahoo will begin offering unlimited storage for its free Web-based e-mail in May, the company announced late Tuesday. The move makes Yahoo the first of the major free e-mail providers to offer unlimited storage, but it likely will not be the last.

Yahoo currently offers 1 gigabyte for its free mail service and 2GB for its premium fee-based service. Google’s free Gmail service offers more than 2.5GB of storage, and Windows Live Hotmail offers 2GB for free.

“We are watching the trend lines of how people are using e-mail…and they are sending more photos and videos and rich media,” said John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail.

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412 Precondition Failed – WordPress

Recently, this blog has encountered 412 Precondition Failed error that made it not possible for some users to access the site as some visitors are considered as spammer. After several check, the issue was solved by disable Bad Behavior plug-in. After the removal of the plug-in, the blog pages also served much faster.

Precondition Failed

We’re sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for / on this server.

We have established rules for access to this server, and any person or robot that violates these rules will be unable to access this site.
To resolve this problem, please try the following steps:

1) Ensure that your computer is free of viruses, Trojan horses, spyware or any other sort of malicious software.
2) If you are using any sort of personal firewall or browser privacy software, check to ensure that its settings do not cause your web browser to inadvertently violate any of the rules listed below.
3) Disable any download accelerators you may be using. They don’t speed up your downloads anyway; in most cases, they actually run slower!
4) If all else fails, try using a different Web browser, such as Firefox.

More Information

For your reference, the conditions for access to this server are:

Robots:
MUST read and obey robots.txt.
MUST identify themselves properly; for example MUST NOT identify as Mozilla.
MUST NOT pretend to be a human.

Humans:
MUST NOT pretend to be a robot.
MUST NOT use a computer infected with viruses, Trojan horses or other malicious software.

Both:
MUST NOT harvest email addresses.
MUST NOT attempt to send spam.
MUST NOT attempt to compromise server security.
MUST NOT use excessive amounts of bandwidth or other server resources.

The precondition on the request for the URL / evaluated to false.

Auction ADs

Signed up at the Auction ADs recently after receiving an invitation and have since planted the code in two of my sites and have registered more than 10 thousand impressions and more than one hundred clicks but still with zero revenue.

Most Auction ADs are linked to item listed in Ebay main site ebay.com and since bulk of my site visitors are from Malaysia and with only 25% currently from USA, I think Auction ADs is not likely to generate much revenue for my sites and other local sites. Nevertheless, I will continue to run those ADs and see how Auction ADs will perform in the next several weeks. The result will help me to decide whether to implement Auction ADs

Do post and share your views on Auction ADs here.

Property Net Online

Property Online was launched recently and it is a portal designed for Realtors and Real Estate Agents to post their real estate and property for sale. Registration for Realtors are free. In the future, Property Online will grow to be a one stop online site for property buyers and investors to look for the properties that they want.

propertynet2007.jpg

Property buyers and investors can also sign up for Property Alerts at Property Online

GAIM

I have downloaded GAIM from http://gaim.sourceforge.net/ and tried it for several days and found it to be stable. Like Trillion, GAIM offer tabbed windows so that we can switch window to window much more easily. GAIM support popular IM services such as Yahoo, MSN and others. Gtalk unfortunately is still not included.

GAIM is portable and I run it from my USB thumb drive.

What Is Gaim?

Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks.

Gaim users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time.

Gaim supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, and typing notification. It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features. A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle; and plugins, consisting of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify on away, spell checking, tabbed conversations, and more.

Gaim runs on a number of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Qtopia (Sharp Zaurus and iPaq).

Gaim integrates well with GNOME 2 and KDE 3.1’s system tray, as well as Windows’s own system tray. This allows you to work with Gaim without requiring the buddy list window to be up at all times.

FileZilla – a reliable FTP Client

In the course of my work as well as leisure, I have used and try many FTP client softwares. Recently, I came to know that FileZilla, an open source FTP client and downloaded from http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/.

Once installed, I came to know that File Zilla is just the software that I have downloaded from www.ftp995.com except that FileZilla come without the disturbing ADs :-).

FileZilla may not have many features as CuteFTP Pro but it simply able to do the job beautifully. Uploading big web and files often end with success and little failure. Its ability to auto reconnect for a number of times which can be determined and set by you will ensure all files are uploaded.

ReviewMe

The following is a sponsored post

ReviewMe which was launched recently for companies or web site to promote their products and services via the blogger network. Once signed up ReviewMe, companies will be able to select from ReviewMe’s marketplace web authors that review your product or service on their Web site sending your site traffic, viral buzz, and invaluable feedback on paying just a one time fee. Since it is a review, it is more like to be read by web readers when compared to a web advertisement which many may ignore.

If you own a web site, signing up for such review will bring additional traffic, provide valuable back link that will improve your site ranking. Minimum payment for such review is USD 40.00 and the fee will be higher for blog site that has higher ranking and greater traffic. For example, for a blog with PR 6 and Alexa Ranking of about 28,000, you will have to pay around USD 250 for such review. However, paying for such review does not mean that you can ask for positive review. Surely, it is a good way to get others to offer you some valuable feedback quickly.

So why wait further, Sign Up today and begin to promote your products and services via blogger’s network.

Purchasing Legal Documents Online in Malaysia

The Law Docs in the one of the web sites gone online recently that allow Malaysian to purchase Legal Document at a very afforable rate. Some of the legal documents is as low as RM 30.00 and buyers can purchase by using credit card for immediate download of the documents after the successful transaction.

Whether you are a practicing Lawyer, In-House Counsel, Legal Advisor, CFO, Accountant, Company Secretary, HR Manager, Contracts Manager, Entrepreneur, run a SMI or manage a Corporation, TheLawDocs meets all your legal documentation requirements and more!

TheLawDocs is more than forms and precedents. You will find in addition to our comprehensive range of forms and precedents, our checklists, papers, business guides and information would allow you to undertake any matter, deal or enter into any negotiations with absolute confidence! Our documents are specifically crafted, designed and updated periodically to meet the expectations of the most critical and discerning legal mind.

So if you are thinking of getting a copy of Tenancy Agreement, Non Disclosure Agreement or Sale and Purchase Agreement, just proceed to The Law Docs today and enjoy all the saving by going online.

Online Recruitment Sites fighting for market share via Taxi Ads

These days when you drive along streets in Kuala Lumpur you bound to see plenty of AD shown at the back of many taxis and most of these ADs are for Online Job Recruitment site. Popular online recruitment sites fighting these AD war are Jobs Street, Jobs and More and Jobs DB. New entry to the scene is Jen Jobs. Jen Jobs offer free posting for Year 2006. Jobs2U.com.my however offer free job posting forever.

Online recruitment site seem to be very lucrative and you may see more entries in the future. That is understandable as Jobs Street made solid profit in year 2005.

JobStreet 2005 net profit rises 76% to RM16.4 million
27/02/2006 10:20:00

JobStreet, a online recruitment company in the region, listed on the Mesdaq market of Bursa Malaysia, today announces that it has posted a higher net profit of RM16.4 million for the financial year ended December 31, 2005 compared with RM9.3 million the previous year. This represents year-on-year growth of 76%.

The net profit of RM16.4 million was achieved on the back of revenue amounting to RM55.0 million for the year ended 31 December 2005, representing year-on-year growth of 57.4% compared to RM34.9 million in the corresponding period in 2004.

For the fourth quarter, the JobStreet Group’s revenue rose to RM14.3 million, recording a growth of 50.2% compared to RM9.5 million in the corresponding period in 2004. In terms of profitability, the Group’s profit after taxation and minority interests also increased to RM4.4 million, chalking an 80% increase as compared to the RM2.5 million reported in the corresponding quarter of 2004.

Mark Chang, CEO of JobStreet Corporation Berhad, says: “We are happy with the Group’s performance as JobStreet has continued to deliver solid growth and profits in the year after our IPO. This is a reflection of customers’ confidence in online recruitment services as more and more employers and jobseekers are using us. Our growth in revenue and profits were attributed to an expansion in customer base with more and more companies finding out how easy, fast and cost-effective online recruitment is.”

JobStreet operates the JobStreet.com online recruitment websites presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, India, Indonesia and Philippines. The Group currently services over 20,000 corporate customers and over 3 million jobseekers.

http://www.onrec.com/content2/news.asp?ID=10718