Here’s the statement Google made when they did it:

We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.

However, if this is Google’s position, then why bother updating their toolbar PageRank values? Doing so is only going to create a stir in the webmaster community & cause confusion as to it’s relevance. Surely it would’ve been much mbetter to remove it from both webmaster tools and the Google toolbar at the same time.

It’s also important to remember that the toolbar Page Rank values can be a couple of month’s old, so they’re out of date even after the update & therefore not really relevant to your current ranking position. The recent PageRank update has left many webmasters confused with most reporting major decreases in their website’s ranking in the search results. But if Google’s statement is to be believed, should you really be concerned about it?

If you have a search engine friendly site, the most important issue for your Google search engine rankings are quality inbound links!

Use one of our link building or Google Ranking Boost packages to get guaranteed links for your site

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The board of Icann voted at its annual meeting in Seoul to allow domain names in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts.

More than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the internet speak languages with non-Latin scripts.

It is being described as the biggest change to the way the internet works since it was created 40 years ago.

The first Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) could be in use next year.

Plans for IDNs were first approved at a meeting in June 2008, but testing of the system has been going on for two years.

Technical upheaval

The move paves the way for the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) to be changed so it can recognise and translate non-Latin characters.

The DNS acts like a phonebook, turning easily understood domain names into strings of computer-readable numbers, known as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) said the “fantastically complicated technical feature” allowing IDNs would represent the “biggest change” to the coding that underlies the internet since it was invented four decades ago.

BBC technology correspondent Mark Gregory says in the early days of the internet, language posed no problem, as most web-surfers spoke English and those that did not usually wrote in languages based on the Latin alphabet.

But this is no longer true, adds our correspondent.

Icann said it would accept the first applications for IDNs by 16 November, with the first up and running by “mid-2010″.

It is likely the majority of early non-Latin net addresses to be approved will be in Chinese and Arabic script, followed by Russian.

Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language.

However, these were not internationally approved and do not work on all computers.

Autonomy

Our correspondent says the point of the Icann vote was to create a universal internet address code that will work in any language and every place so all the world’s computers can connect with each other.

“Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based,” said Icann president and CEO Rod Beckstrom earlier this week.

“So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world’s internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread.”

Icann, set up by the US government, was founded in 1998 to oversee the development of the net.

Last month, after years of criticism, the US government eased its control over the non-profit body.

It signed a new agreement that gave Icann autonomy for the first time. The agreement came into effect on 1 October and puts it under the scrutiny of the global “internet community”.

This article was published on the BBC website

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This new feature comes with everything you’d expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting. But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone’s internet connection, said Google engineers.

“When you use Google Maps Navigation, your phone automatically gets the most up-to-date maps and business listings from Google Maps — you never need to buy map upgrades or update your device,” said Keith Ito, software engineer at Google.

The software comes with a variety of views, such as Traffic View, where Google grabs traffic data over the internet, Satellite View and an amazing Street View feature that you activate by double-tapping your phone’s screen. The software also comes with a nifty “search by voice” function.

At the moment it’s only available in the US as a beta, but I can’t wait for it to come out over here, now I have my HTC Hero. What’s going to happen to the sat nav market (or even the iPhone, when the TomTom application for it costs around £60)?

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We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit. We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search re-targeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI.

Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

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I then came across StudioPress ® Premium WordPress Themes which are professionally designed premium WordPress themes and look absolutely superb, but are also optimised for search engines by Joost de Valk, an SEO Specialist whom I’ve mentioned previously on my blog. He has also released 20+ WordPress plugins with close to 1 million downloads in total & lots of nice WordPress tutorials on his blog yoast.com.

The fact that the StudioPress themes are already Search Engine optimised, means half the job is done for you! With installation of the recommended plugins, provided your content is up to scratch, the site will work really well, as well as looking fantastic.

I’m so pleased with how Cheap Event Tickets has turned out & how easy the theme is to use, that I’m going to upgrade to the Pro Plus All-Theme Package, which allows me to use ALL of the themes, on as many sites as I want and also gives me access to any future themes that are released! I’m planning to use the themes to redesign Love Your Pets, to possibly re-develop the My Travel Extras blog & to finally get Web Travel Offers off the ground!! However, I could also use these themes to build sites for clients, so they’re real value for money too!

Some of the benefits of using the StudioPress ® Premium WordPress Themes are:

Search Engine Optimized

Google loves WordPress and most blogs do well in the search engines, but our Themes have been fully SEO’d by one of the leading SEO specialists, Joost de Valk. Our Themes will help your blog rank higher in the search engines and by following our Tutorials and recommendations you can achieve even greater search engine placement results.

Widget-Ready

If you are looking for ease-of-use, WordPress widgets are the way to go. Without having to know how to code, you can simply drag-n-drop to create the look you desire for your blog.

Theme Options Page

Our WordPress themes use a theme options page that allows you to easily customize the way your blog looks. Simply select from drop-down choices what categories you want to display or the number of posts to show and even what size you want your thumbnail images. You can also simply toggle between using a custom image or dynamic text for your header logo area.

Auto-sized Thumbnail Management

There are thousands of blogs and if you want yours to stand out, you must draw attention to your blog and articles. Nothing creates interest better than using images to draw attention where you want it, but image management can be a hassle. Not so in our Themes as we have integrated the use of the TimThumb PHP scrpit that dynamically resizes your images.

Ready for Advertising

Most of our themes are ready for advertising. All you need to do is insert your advertising code, like Google Adsense, Azoogle Ads, Clicksor, or any others, into the advertising widgets and start collecting your advertising revenue.

Comment Functionality

One method of holding your website visitor’s attention is through discussion of your articles. WordPress achieves this through the use of Comments and our themes use the latest features of WordPress including threaded comments and Gravatar integration.

Developed for Localization

A new feature for StudioPress themes is that they are being developed for localization. This means that you can now translate these themes into your own native language! Currently the Agent, Church, Education, Lifestyle and Streamline themes have this feature, but we will be updating all themes to include this as quickly as we can.

PSD Files Included

Another way to attract visitors to your blog is through the use of great-looking graphics, which the StudioPress themes have. Many members have a design-look in mind and to make it easier to change the graphics we provide the Photoshop Document (PSD) files of the graphic files we use.

Lifetime Support

Need help fixing a problem or making a minor modification to your theme? Let’s face it; technology doesn’t always work as smoothly as we all want. So, if you need help, our support is world-class and our team consists of over 20 moderators from all over the world, who provide solutions and help to our 12,000+ members, many of which help other members.

WordPress & Theme Tutorials

Whether you are looking to get up to speed with your WordPress knowledge or ready to get your brand new StudioPress theme working, our tutorials will teach you what you need to know.

Approved Designers

Maybe you are a busy businessperson or don’t want to spend the time creating your website blog. We provide a list of talented, freelance WordPress designers/customizers that you can hire to provide you with the look you want. Many of the blogs in our Showcase were created by these creative people.

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September is apparently peak booking time for theatre tickets in the UK, so I decided to go for a big push on some of the most popular & well known London shows.

I’ve set up targeted ad groups – for these shows, containing well researched long tail keywords (which all have a decent KEI) and have carefully worded the ads, drawing on existing ads by well established companies in this sector. Most of the ads are displaying ticket prices, so the “clicker” knows what to expect & won’t click just to see what the price is.

Most of the ads are displaying in position 1 on Yahoo (these bids are around £1, on Google you are looking at around £3 for these keywords!!!) & the click through rates are currently between 3.5% & 14%, which I believe is not bad.

So, following all the rules & strategies I’ve read over the last couple of years for successful PPC advertising & marketing, how are the ads doing?

Well, I’ve had ONE SALE, from 44 clicks! Admittedly it was a decent sale & my commission will be £12 from it, but it has cost me £25 to get it!!!! On Google, I’d have paid triple that, without any guarantee of more sales. The companies that advertise theatre tickets on Google presumably make more money per sale than I do, but I still don’t see how they can make a profit when they’re paying such huge amounts for clicks!

It doesn’t seem possible to make a profit from affiliate marketing using Google (or even Yahoo), unless you’re using such obscure terms, that you then really should be able to obtain natural search engine positions for if they’re THAT obscure.

So, once again I’ll be grateful to break even on PPC & would love to know if any other affiliate marketers makes a profit from Google Adwords/Yahoo Search Marketing?!

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A new version has just been released by Axandra – IBP 11.5, with a much improved keyword tool.

Finding the best keywords for search engine optimization is crucial if you want to succeed with your website. For this reason, they have completely revamped the keyword tool in the new IBP version.

The new keyword tool in IBP helps you to find good keywords as quickly as possible:

Just enter a keyword and IBP will quickly return the following information:

• keyword suggestions for the entered keyword
• the estimated number of monthly searches for the keywords on Google
• the number of search results for the keywords on Google
• the KEI (keyword effectiveness index) for these keywords

A unique keyword database + support of the official Google keyword tool!

IBP’s keyword tool uses the unique keyword database of KeywordIndex.com. KeywordIndex offers you a unique database that cannot be accessed through any other keyword tool on the Internet. KeywordIndex.com provides you with 38 million unique English keywords, and 20 million unique German keywords.

The quality of the KeywordIndex database enables you to find keywords that are really used on the Internet.

Find keywords in 13 different languages

IBP’s new keyword tool will also help you if you’re looking for keywords in other languages. In addition to the keyword database of KeywordIndex.com, IBP’s keyword tool can also access keyword suggestions of Google, Amazon and YouTube. You can even access the Google AdWords keyword suggestion tool without entering a captcha.

You can use IBP’s keyword tool to find keywords in thirteen languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Polish, Finnish, Swedish and Turkish.

The new IBP version also creates targeted keyword lists for Google AdWords, long tail keywords and much more. It even shows you the Google AdWords adgroup score while collecting your keywords to make it as easy as possible to get a high Google AdWords QualityScore.

Top 10 rankings or your money back

Fact: If you want to get high rankings on Google and other major search engines then you need optimized web page content and high quality inbound links. IBP helps you get both. Download the latest version For FREE now!

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This means setting up two separate websites for the ticket sales & travel offers, which until now have been running on My Travel Extras & “diluting” the Travel Extras content considerably!

Unfortunately, the initial excitement of setting up these two new sites has been tempered somewhat, by the discovery that 95% of the travel companies (the majority of which are on Affiliate Future) don’t seem to have product feeds, whilst I have been rejected by Ticketmaster which is obviously a major blow (although I have appealed through buy.at)! It’s just frustrating that I can’t be sure about the travel & ticket sites, because I want to rework My Travel Extras………..it’s a chicken & egg scenario!!!

The moral of this seems to be; ensure that the merchants offer datafeeds BEFORE deciding on the theme of any new site! However, should either of these two sites have to bite the dust, I shall use my spare datafeedr capacity to build something else – I still haven’t done anything with cheapsmallbusinessbroadband.co.uk or cheapalicantecarhire.co.uk!!!!

Also have to build the datafeedr travel accessories store for My Travel Extras AND the scifigoodies site, so still plenty to do in the meantime!!!

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Although I offered cheap web hosting through the main web design site, Heart allows you to offer web hosting services through their online payments system, Hostpay.

However, every other time I’ve looked at setting it up, it just seemed to be too complicated, or not working properly…………this time though, I decided I HAD to get it working & spent the last 2 days pulling it apart & putting the pieces back together.

Suddenly, it all seemed to click into place (as these things often do) and my web hosting site is finally working!!

I’m offering basic web hosting from £1.49 per month, although the two main packages (Starter & SOHO) cost £2.49 & £4.49 per month respectively. However, I think these prices are still damn good value.

The reason I was so keen to get it up & running was so that I could offer web hosting without having to be as hands on. The Hostpay system allows people to register domain names & set up their hosting without any intervention from me, just like one of the mainstream companies & offering all the same extras & features that Heart Internet offer themselves.

Hopefully the low costs will attract plenty of customers!

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Microsoft’s Bing search engine will power the Yahoo website and Yahoo will in turn become the advertising sales team for Microsoft’s online offering.

Yahoo has been struggling to make profits in recent years, but last year it rebuffed several takeover bids from Microsoft in an attempt to go it alone.

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer said the 10-year deal would provide Microsoft’s Bing search engine with the necessary scale to compete.

“Through this agreement with Yahoo, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said Mr Ballmer.

“Microsoft and Yahoo know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search,” he added.

In return for ceding control of its search engine, Yahoo will get to keep 88% of the revenue from all search ad sales on its site for the first five years of the deal, and have the right to sell adverts on some Microsoft sites.

‘New era’

Yahoo said the deal would benefit Yahoo’s users and advertisers.

“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of internet innovation and development,” said Ms Bartz.

“Only a Yahoo outsider like Ms Bartz could do such a deal,” said Tim Weber, business editor of the BBC News website.

“She has no sentimental attachment to what was once the core of Yahoo, its search business. Microsoft was helped by the fact that at long last it managed to develop a search engine – Bing – that is a credible alternative to search giant Google.”

Technology analyst Rob Enderle said: “This move makes up for a lot of the stupid mistakes made by the preceding [Yahoo] administration”.

The tie-up will give Microsoft and Yahoo a combined market share in the US search ad market of about 30% with Google still the dominant force with a share of about 65%. In the UK, the Google share is even higher (around 85%).

The deal ends years of back-and-forth negotiations between the two companies.

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