Top 5 Strategies and Tactics that an SEO Company Does

SEO… Know anything about it? Well for one, SEO is considered to be among the newest of the many forms of Internet Marketing. And, it’s also considered to be among the most popular trends in internet marketing. But why is it that SEO still frightens a lot of us? Although SEO is one of the most popular, many of us still considers “It” as among the most complicated strategy for internet marketing.

But you know, despite the techno-R2-D2 dialect things that the dudes from an SEO department throws at you such as SEMs, Page Ranks, Keyword stuffing or density, Algorithms, SERPs, Alt Tags, Anchor Texts, Inbound or Outbound Links… SEO is as simple as it gets. It’s as simple as it’s called - Search Engine Optimization, and all you have to do is to optimize the website for search engines to find it easily. The only thing about it is that it involves a lot of work. But if you look at it on a different point of view, it’s quite enjoyable.

But what does SEO do actually? Search Engine Optimization is getting your content listed in all the top positions in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN for your targeted keywords. When someone does a keyword search in a search engine for your particular subject or niche - you’ll naturally want your site or content to be at the top of the líst. That is what SEO does for your website. Keeping the traffic in and letting it do that for as long as the website stands. Now, isn’t that a good thing?

To let you know what SEO companies do on an SEO campaign, let me give you the top 5 techniques and tactics that the dudes from an SEO Company usually do on their campaigns.

Keyword Research

Knowing your keyword is very important to achieve the highest rank in search engines. SEO Companies usually use software tools such as Wordtracker and Seobook to research for their keywords. These tools give them a rudimentary number of searches. Relevance is also very important in keyword researching. The design of a website must be relevant to its keyword. Another thing that SEO Companies do is doing some deep-linking to these pages on their sites. SEO companies usually find and build backlinks to these interior keyword pages and not just to their home page or domain URL. Picking keywords with medium to low competition is something to consider as well. This way, it’ll be a lot easier to achieve higher rank.

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On-Page SEO

On-page optimization and web design factors play a very major role in SEO campaigns. These are the first things that search engines look for in a website. It’s important for an SEO company to make sure that their website is as SEO friendly as it can. Also, SEO companies make sure that all of their pages are easily reachable from their homepages. This is easily done by a strategy called navigation bars or menus. Navigation bars lead to other webpage in a website. Sitemaps also play significant roles in SEO. SEO companies generate XML sitemaps and upload them to their website. This technique makes the search engines very happy, because this makes it a lot easier for search engines to crawl your website through that.

SEO companies prioritize website’s title and description as well. The title and description should contain some of their selected keywords. Dudes from an SEO Company also make sure that they use them to draw and attract interested visitors to their site and content, and not just the search engine. They also make sure that their title and URL contain keyword relevance for maximum effect. Having some of their major keywords in a domain name also makes this a lot easier for search engines to visit their website.

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Link Building

There are many strategies and tactics developed within the SEO, and Link Building is still the most popular and most effective way of boosting a website’s rank on any search engine. Backlinks from relevant sites are as important as the keywords themselves. An SEO company makes it their top priority to make sure that the ‘anchor text’ is related to their keywords, while making sure that the text and overall quality of the content linking to their site is relevant. These guys make sure that they link out to high quality, high ranked relevant sites in their niche.

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Article Marketing

Article marketing, though not as effective as link building, is still a well-established way of getting some quality backlinks or inbound links. Doing a 500-800-word article with backlinks included within the article itself or on the resource box is still an effective method to receive a lot of traffic. Longer, more informative articles also work for many SEO companies. This is by using intensive network of press releases and distribution in article submission sites like SubmitYourArticle, Isnare, Thephantomwriters, and other major online press release sites. While doing all that, SEO companies still make sure that they’re also talking to users, users whom might become their clients. So these guys make use of their imaginative juices to make their article SEO-friendly and reader-friendly.
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Blogging and Social Media

Search engines are inlove with Blogs. Blogs are the most favorite spot that search engines visit. Newly updated entries, articles, live comments, and chain of communities, these blogs are what’s making SEO more and more fun. SEO companies usually use WordPress blog software for their blogging purposes. Most of these guys use WordPress because it’s extremely effective for SEO purposes. WordPress software is easier to install on a website even if they do not have any knowledge in installing server-side scripts. Other SEO Companies also use Blogger (owned by Google), Bloglines and other free blog hosts to help distribute content. Search engines love these highly SEO friendly blogs with their well structured content and keyword tagging. Social bookmarking is becoming very important on the web. Social media sites such as Friendster, MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter and media news such as Digg, SlashDot, Technorati are now among the targeted media that SEO companies use. SEO campaigns include joining these sites and using them to their advantage. Though very time consuming, SEO companies are still using this strategy because of its great benefits and conversion. But apart from those things I said earlier, planning is still the heart of an SEO campaign. Planning is the foremost important part of an SEO campaign. In our every undertaking, planning is the least element that we would want to forget. Planning and strategizing is very important in every SEO campaign. Understanding what SEO strategy to use is integral. This way, we wouldn’t run into some major problems where we would have to resort to resetting our efforts and start again from scratch. Now, that would be very costly and time consuming. But first, you should take into mind that SEO is not complicated. A lot of work yes, but not complicated. As I had said, with a right point of view, SEO efforts are very enjoyable, especially when it comes to blogging, article writing, link partnership, and social media efforts. When used effectively, SEO can give you the targeted traffíc you’re seeking. Just do what we do and you’re on your way to success.

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Avoiding Spam Email - Defending Your Inbox

Isn't it amazing how many people are concerned about you on the Internet?

You create a new email address and in no time at all, perfect strangers are suddenly very concerned about you having the best credit card, the best home loan, and especially the best "bedroom performance" possible. All of these "kind" people are sending you email every day in order to be sure you are up to date with the latest in electronics, the prettiest of Russian mail-order brides, and the most "exciting" websites you could ever want to visit.

We have all been a victim of it. This thing called "email spam." Unsolicited emails that clog your inbasket and make it very hard for you to find the emails that you actually care about. Congress has finally made some attempt to control spam, but there are still far too many loopholes for the unscrupulous to dive through in order to assault your inbox with junk email.

There are various tools you can use to try to cut down on the amount of spam that reaches you. If your email software allows for it, you can use a spam filter as well as a black list or white list. Unfortunately, each of these tools has their own drawbacks.

One of the best ways to deal with spam email is to avoid the online behaviors that cause your email address to be picked up by spammers and added to their lists. What follows is a set of rules to help reduce the chances that your inbox will fall prey to a spammer's unwanted attentions:

Rule #1: Never allow your email address to be displayed on a website. This means that if you are active in online forums, or if you maintain your own website, or are involved in any other online activity where you might possibly post your email address, it is best to use a modified email address that a human would understand but a computer program might not. For example, instead of posting "myaddress@gmail.com", you could post "myaddressDeleteThis@gmail.com". A human reader will know to remove the letters "DeleteThis" but a computer program designed to harvest email addresses from web pages would find it much more difficult. However, be warned that spammers are using other tricks these days that make even this technique not as safe as it used to be.

Rule #2: When you receive spam email, NEVER click on the line that says something like "click here to be removed from our list." In some emails, clicking such a line will in fact remove you from their list. Unfortunately, in other emails clicking on that link tells the spammer that your email address is "valid" (because someone clicked on the link). The spammer may or may not take your name off of their list, but what they WILL do is turn around and sell your email address to other spammers. Because they now have verification that the email address is a good one (because you clicked on the link), your email address brings them more money when they sell it.

Rule #3: Set up a "junk email" account and use it when you make one-time purchases or any other time a website that you must use requires an email address. Most internet service providers give you the option of creating multiple email addresses. If yours does not, you can always create a "throw away" email address on Gmail, Yahoo, or any of a number of other free email services. Once you have this account set up, always use this email address when you need to supply an email address to a company or website that you do not expect to visit more than once. This goes doubly true for taking advantage of "free offers" online that first require you to enter your email address. Many of these "free" online offers are getting paid through the selling of your email address!

Rule #4: Avoid becoming part of those large chains of emails that get forwarded to tons of people. You know the kind. Someone gets a funny story, a spiritual thought, or some other interesting bit of news and then forwards it to everyone in their address book. The problem is that every time someone forwards such an email, all of the email addresses belonging to the other people "in the chain" also get transmitted with the message (unless the sender is savvy enough to remove them...which most people are not). All it then takes is for a spammer to get a hold of any ONE of these messages (which is now serving as a traveling email address collector) and suddenly you are on a spammer's list again. If you ever have an email that you wish to send to lots of people in your address book, do them all a favor and do not expose their email address to the spammers as well. Address the email TO YOURSELF, and then include all of the desired recipients on the "bcc" line (the "blind carbon copy" line). Doing so will allow you to send a "mass email" without exposing anyone else's email address (because "bcc" email addresses are not included as part of the message, which is not the case if you "cc" the recipients or put them on the "to" line).

Rule #5: Never give your email address to anyone who does not need it. I cannot count the number of times this has happened to me. You are in a "brick and mortar" store and a clerk casually asks for your email address as if it is required to complete the transaction. If it is a store I know and trust and I actually want to receive emails from them, I might give them my email address. More often, however, I tell them "you do not need that information to completejavascript:void(0) the transaction." This rule leads to a very good rule to follow in all of your life's dealings: NEVER GIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION OUT TO PEOPLE WHO DO NOT NEED IT!

These are just a few behaviors that can help you avoid getting your email address on a spammer's list. The most important thing to remember is that your email address represents money to unscrupulous email spammers. Armed with this information, you will be able to go quite a long while before having to change your email address due to a clogged inbox.

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Top 10 Things People Do to Mess Up Their Computers

Similar to the way people feel about their cars, computers are often a black box which they pretty much know nothing about except how to turn it on and use it. Computers are actually pretty complex but by following a few simple rules you shouldn't have to worry about what's under the hood. The list below is a compilation of common mistakes that people make which can lead to serious computer problems.

10.) Installing Software with Reckless Abandon

Ahh, this one can be tricky. We love to download all kinds of cool little programs to our computers including software for downloading music, games, new wallpapers, etc. While these can be lots of fun and serve a purpose, many of these programs are a vehicle to install malware on your computer. While it's not always the case, over time, you may see some extra pop-ups or your computer may begin to run a bit more slowly. The best thing to do is only download software that you are sure you need and avoid anything from websites that aren't well known sites.

9.) Leaving the Administrator password blank

Its always a bad idea to have a blank administrator password. Without having a password set you make it much easier for hackers and trojan viruses to connect to your computer remotely and take control of it. It's highly recommended to set a password with at least 8 characters which contains numbers and letters as well as some uppercase letters. Also, its generally a best practice to login to your computer (for all of your daily routines) with an account that does not have admin access. This way you can't accidentally install software you weren't intending on or execute a virus you weren't unaware of.

8.) Not Using WEP/WPA Wireless Security

Are you familiar with WEP/WPA? If not, pay close attention to this section. Many people nowadays have switched over to wireless networks and are using either Linksys or Netgear type wireless routers bought from big name electronic stores. One of the great selling points is how easy they are to setup but this out of the box configuration leaves your network wide open for anyone within about a 100-200 foot radius to connect in and surf the Internet on your dime. Not to mention, possibly hacking your computers. Anyways, if you're setting up one of these wireless routers be sure to read the section on WEP, or even better, WPA security. It's really not that complicated to setup and it provides you with another strong layer of security.

7.) Not Shutting Down Properly

Do you always wait for your computer to fully shutdown? Do you actually go to the Start MenuàThen Shutdown? If so, you're better than most. Many people just press the power button on their computer and this can cause some serious problems ranging from hardware issues (primarily the hard drive) to things like OS corruption. Whenever possible its definitely better to click the Start button on the lower left corner and then select Shutdown. By doing this, your computer will gracefully shutdown and will leave much less room for any problems.

6.) Not Defragging Your Hard Drive

Disk Defragmenter - A simple, yet often forgotten tool, which can be accessed by going to Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools. This defrag tool will analyze the volumes on your hard drive and then consolidate fragmented files/folders so that they each occupy a single, contiguous area on the volume. By defragging your drive, your computer will be able to access files and folders more quickly and efficiently. It's always a good idea to do this at least once a month.

5.) Not Installing Windows Security Updates

While many times security updates go unforgotten, these can be the deciding factor on whether or not you get infected with certain viruses/malware or even becoming a victim of someone hacking your computer. It's highly recommended to download and install updates on a monthly basis. If you don't think you'll remember, its probably a good idea to just go into your Control Panel->Automatic Updates and set them to download and install automatically. This way you won't have to worry about it.

4.) Opening Email From People You Don't Know

This one is very important. A good majority of viruses/malware is spread through emails, whether it's an attachment or even just an embedded link within the email, so it's always best to just delete anything you don't recognize. Many Anti-Virus programs will do much of the work for you but if you're not sure who the sender is just treat the email as SPAM.

3.) No Anti-Virus Installed

In this day and age, there's no excuse for not having an Anti-Virus program installed. There's more viruses and spyware out there than ever before and for the $30-50 investment it's well worth the cost. Some of the good names in Anti-Virus software are Symantec, Mcafee, Panda, and AVG among others. Many computers now come with an AV program preinstalled so its just a matter of purchasing a subscription to download the updates.

2.) Not Keeping Your Anti-Virus Updated with New Virus Defs

Anti-Virus programs need to constantly be updated so they can detect the new viruses as they come out. Without these updates, many viruses will go undetected since the AV software isn't looking out for it. Having an AV program is important. Having an 'updated' AV program is all the difference. If at all possible, setup your AV program to download updates and install them automatically every few days or at most once a week.

1.) Not doing backups

First and foremost, the biggest mistake that people make is not backing up their data. Most people have GB's of important data on their computers and never think twice about the possibility of losing it. That is, until they're hard drive crashes and they lose everything. From that point on, you can be sure they'll be backing things up. Today there are numerous options for backing up data from just a basic external hard drive to online backups over the Internet. For the small cost of setting something like this up you'll be glad you did if you ever run into problems.

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PCMag.com Download: Ad-Aware 2008 Free

">Protect your privacy with the original antispyware software, now also featuring antivirus protection. The new version offers protection against spyware, trojans, viruses, bots, and other forms of malicious programs.

Shop, bank, and make travel arrangements online—while Ad-Aware antispyware keeps you safe from identify thieves, password stealers, keyloggers, spyware, and other forms of cyber crime.

What's new in 2008?

• Protection against over 1.2 million cyber threats
• Enhanced rootkit-removal system
• Faster updates and faster scans
• Reduced load on computer resources
• Lavasoft Threatwork to submit suspicious files
• Compatible with Windows Vista (32- and 64-bit)
Download Lavasoft's updated antispyware program, Ad-Aware 2008 Free, here at PCMag.com before you can get it anywhere else.

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5 Tools for On-page Image Usage Analysis

Image optimization is both vital for “search engine friendliness” and web accessibility. Let’s look at a few top tools that can help you analyze both the aspects of image proper usage:



1. Juicy Studio Image Analyser is a handy online tool that will look at each image on a given page and evaluate the following parameters:

* image width / height;
* alternative text;
* an URL to an image long description.
Note that some of the “errors” found by the tool should not necessarily be corrected (e.g. very seldom an image needs a long description URL), so use it rather for informational purposes than as a call to action.

2.Alt Text Checker (by Durham University) will list an alt text information next to each image found on the page:








3. Page Size Extractor will give you a quick idea of how the page images influence the page size and hence load time by giving:
* total number of on-page images;
* the largest image size;
* the total image size.









4. Web Developer FireFox: Toolbar offers an array of image analyzing tools:

* display alt attributes;
* display image dimensions;
* display image sizes;
* display image paths;
* find broken images;
* outline images missing alt attributes;
* hide images / background images;









5. Firefox Accessibility Extension offers a most useful feature summarizing all page images in the form of a handy table (the feature can found under “Text equivalents” => “List of images“). The table is extremely easy to use as (1) it highlights “the problematic” images and (2) it can be sorted by any of the following parameters:

* Image alt text;
* Image source link;
* Image width;
* Image height;

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Google Settles Score with Book Publishers and Authors

It took Google four years to settle a long-standing copyright lawsuit filed against its Book Search Project by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. Since its inception four years ago, Google stuggled to make a headway with the project, skipping most of the in-copyright books and published materials although not totally abandoning them at all.Under the Google Book Search Project, Google was aiming to scan book publications and make them searchable through Google Book Search, providing full-text access to those whose copyright have already gone to the public domain. For those still under the in-copyright state, Google nonetheless made them available through the Book Search but without full-text access. Although there were some American publishers who supported this project, the number of those who opposed it was so overwhelming that it hampered the success of the Google Book Search Project.

Thankfully, the lawsuit was finally settled. Essentially, what the parties have agreed upon is to allow Google to make in-copyright, out-out-print books available on Google Book Search, for previewing and if the readers would want to, enable them to purchase the book online. Whereas previously, those books which have copyright restrictions can only be previewed partially, the new agreement dictates that they can now be read online. What made this amenable to copyright holders is the promised that they would be compensated everytime their books are read online. In addition, academic, library, corporate and government organization can opt to purchase the books on an institutional subscription basis, to enable members of their organizations to have access to those books.

This agreement may sound interesting, but I just wonder how Google is going to compensate copyright owners whenever their books are read? I can only think of one thing. Google Adsense running side by side copies of books being previewed online. And to quote a Google statement saying “this opens a new revenue opportunity that didn’t exist before”. Exactly what that revenue opportunity is, all directions points towards paid search ads running on Google Book Search preview.

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Why Is Yahoo Gaining Search Share? Three Reasons

According to a Bloomberg article covering comScore numbers (cough cough), Yahoo has gained search share over the last month while Microsoft has dropped a bit. Yahoo now has a 20.2% search market share, up from 19.6%, with Microsoft dropping to 8.5%, down from 8.9%. Google also showed a small dip, dropping one tenth of a percentage point down to 62.9% from 63%.

Why exactly, given Yahoo’s troubles with keeping employees, keeping their stocks up and keeping themselves from being takenover; why would Yahoo search share be increasing?
I believe it is because of multiple reasons where Yahoo still benefits as being an Internet start page and extremely popular content network :
* The State of the Economy : Yahoo Finance and Message Boards are still going strong and given the ups and downs of the Dow over the past few months, it makes sense that more people were using Yahoo Finance and its channels, in turn; searching more.

* The State of the Nation : We’re in the middle of one heated election, not only between Obama and McCain, but also for Congressional seats around the country. Yahoo News and its Political channels are benefiting from the national and global interest in this year’s elections and this could also be increasing the amount of Yahoo Searches.

* The Holiday Shopping Season : Let’s not forget Yahoo Shopping and its popularity as a shopping portal. Although the economy is weak, people still have to buy presents, perhaps this also is leading to an increase in Yahoo Search usage.

It’s easy to forget that search goes beyond the toolbar or the homepage, and lifestyle and life choices do lend an influence in the behavior of the everyday user. The Yahoo Network is connected by three things : email, Messenger and search. Searching for news, products and stock quotes are targeted queries across many channels which can lead to increases in search usage. Content is still Yahoo’s bargaining chip, and if capitalized upon, does not have to be the last chip on the table (although it sure does feel like it right now).

[Hat tip to Frank Watson of SEW]

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3 Awesome Wikipedia Tools and How They Can Be Useful

Love it or hate it, Wikipedia is a widely used, vigorously discussed and actively updated reference resource. The “usefulness” of the tools listed below is based on the following features of Wikipedia:

* it is popular;
* it is user generated;
* it is attentively monitored and edited;
* it stores a huge amount of material on various topics;
* it ranks well in Google organic search.

Now let’s see the three Wiki tools, SEOs and bloggers can find very useful:
1. Wikipedia article traffic statistics - the value is pretty obvious: if wiki ranks on top for your main (or one of your) targeted key terms, this tool can help you estimate how much traffic it can generate (note: Google is not the only Wikipadia traffic source of course, but the tool is a good traffic estimator in itself):











2. Similpedia.org is an awesome keyword and association research tool.
Copy-paste a piece of content or an URL and the service will list you related Wikipedia articles:


3. Deletionpedia tracks deleted or highly questionable articles of Wikipedia.

Use it as a hot trend tracker for more ideas and news to discuss at your blog - have a look at its “Pages with 200 or more revisions” category and “L content“, for example - to get multiple ideas for “list”-type link-baiting content.

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PeopleJar - a New Concept of Social Connecting

While social networking is nothing new today: starting from the early age of Myspace people establish and maintain connections online. A new people search service PeopleJar offers a new (somewhat innovative) focus on social connecting versus social networking.The whole site is built with “Search and Be Found” concept in mind: from the robust search feature to networks and profile creation.

Search feature
PeopleJar offers a highly-customizable search platform:

* you can search people by area of expertise or interests and /or location;
* you can use advanced search (specifying age, gender, network membership, etc);
* you can create your own search by adding search parameters into the “search cart” and even saving your search for the system to let you know once new people meeting your requirements join the community;
* you can even customize the matching rate (e.g. with search by location you can set whether you want the “exact match”, broad match or XX miles away).


Networks
With the searching and connecting concepts in mind, PeopleJar networks are not primarily about networking. While they do provide members with some socializing features (e.g. wall discussions), the main focus is again on increasing the members’ chances to be found: the more networks you join, the more attributes you accumulate and the more search combinations you end up ranking for.

There is only one network per niche. A network can be located either by category (e.g. Sports, Services, etc) or by attributes it is associated with (e.g. “green” is associated with “Immigration” and “Environment” networks). Attributes are user-generated and moderated (to keep the service relevant).

Connecting
There are multiple levels of connections:

* you can locate on a local and global level;
* you can connect based on your interests or area(s) of expertise;
* you can connect for recreational, social and professional purposes, etc.

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Google Earth

How to display weather in Google Earth
Using Google Earth and need to check out the current weather for your home town or the forecast for where you're traveling? Curious if rain or snow is on the way?

There's no need to open your web browser and check the weather reports when you can view cloud cover, radars, and forecasts from within Google Earth itself. Here's how:

In the sidebar on the left side of the Google Earth window, you should see a "Layers" section near the bottom. Next to "Weather" check the box to check the entire category of weather-related boxes:

* Clouds
* Radar
* Conditions and Forecasts
* Information

Google Earth will now display weather information, where available. You can even click on the weather icons to display detailed reports from The Weather Channel.

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Anti *Virus* Software Review - Disable Your Computer’s *Parasites*

Rising Antivirus Free Edition

Rising Antivirus Free Edition protects your computers against all types of viruses, Trojans, worms, rootkits, and other malicious programs. The ease of use and Smartupdate technology make it an “install and forget” product and entitles you to focus on your own jobs with your computer. The Rising Antivirus powerful engine has been certified by Virus Bulletin, Checkmark, TUV.

Rising Antivirus Free Edition has many key Features including Proactive defense technology, patented scanning technology for unknown viruses, patented fully automatic SmartUpdate, Virtual Machine unpacking engine, application protection, self protection, hidden process & rootkit detection, program startup control, malicious behavior detection, computer security check, and a file Shredder.


The interface is quite easy to use and it offers different settings for advanced users. One of the downfalls wtih Rising Antivirus Free Edition is that it sometimes comes up with false positves - meaning it will tell you that there is a virus, trojan or worm when there isn’t one. That, for the most part, is better than it not finding anything at all. Another benefit of this antivirus software is that it only uses limited resources so you can continue to surf the internet without it bogging down your computer.

Rising Antivirus Free Edition is a solution with no cost to personal users for the life of the product while still provides the same level of detection and protection capability as Rising Antivirus 2008. Version 20.63 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes. The free version offers the same level of protection as the commercial version but does not include a firewall or the support you get with the paid version. However, it is very comparable to other paid antivirus softwares and is considerably above the other free antivirus softwares.


Avira AntiVir Personal Free Antivirus 8.1.0.331

If you are diligent about treating your computer right, and by that I mean, not opening downloads from people you don’t know, not opening messages that are unknown and so forth, the free version of Avira’s AntiVir is probably all you need to keep your computer free of viruses. Consistently rated in the top five for effectiveness, AntiVir is also low-profile. It spawns only two background services and if there weren’t a system tray applet to access the program, you probably wouldn’t even know it was running. Basically, it is extremely light on your computer. Despite this, it offers just about every basic AV feature you’ll find in the major competition.

AntiVir’s interface is easy on the eye and easy to use for beginners. Unlike some of its competitors which make it difficult to access advanced settings, it also gives you all these with a simple switch to expert mode. Probably AntiVir’s neatest trick is auto-scanning directories as you navigate though them. You can turn it off and on when you need it, so you don’t have to leave it running all the time, but at least you know you have it available to you.

Obviously, you’re not going to get every neat feature with the free version of a pay program. Most notably missing in action is an e-mail scanner, though there is rootkit scanning. Rival free competitors provides usually provide the email scanner but not th erootkit scanning so you already have a leg up. The 20-Euro premium version of AntiVir adds the e-mail scanner as well as faster updates, anti-spyware features, and a browser add-in that helps guard against malicious Web sites and downloads. It also kills the nag screen you see when you download updates.

Although its major free competitor, AVG Anti-Virus Free, may offer one or two more features, Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Free has been consistently rated as better at detecting viruses by AV-Test.org. If you’re good about not opening strange attachments, AntiVir probably a slightly better choice.

PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition 5


PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition protects you against the worst cyber-threats attempting to gain access to your PC and personal details. Going online without protection against the latest fast-spreading viruses, worms and Trojans can result in infections within minutes. That’s why PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition provides protection, with rapid database updates, IntelliGuard real-time file, Internet & e-mail protection and comprehensive system scanning to ensure your system remains safe and virus free. Version 5 features new improved scan engine, smaller memory footprint, and much improved system performance.

PC Tools Antivirus is a perfect solution if you’re looking for online protection at zero cost. It really does just as much as the higher priced programs but without the higher price. It protects you from viruses, worms, and other online threats. It has one of the nicer interfaces and the easiest to use as seen in antivirus programs and it’s really great for beginners who perhaps don’t have as much experience in using antivirus programs. It makes it perfect for users with all levels of experience.

PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition also watches over your email so you’re protected by threats via email. It also lets you customize the scan settings so you get the protection you want and need. Unlike the pay version which is only $29.95 US, you don’t get phone support, 24/7 tech support, or high-speed updates. However, you do get access to the growing community of users who use PC Tools products. This product monitors your computer in real-time so any threat that attempts to invade your machine is going to fail. So, if you’ve been looking for a way to protect your computer from all the threats that are on the Internet, look no further than PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition.

The Shield Deluxe

The Shield Deluxe 2008 combines reactive antivirus and spyware detection methods with the latest proactive technologies to provide your computer with the most effective protection against malicious programs. The product is simple to install and set up, while offering advanced users a range of versatile settings for fine-tuning the program.

The Shield Deluxe 2008 , powered by Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 relies upon integrated methods to scan for viruses: the reactive method (using signature databases) and proactive protection (behavior blocker and heuristic analysis). It is optimized for use on laptops . Users of laptops benefit from an economy mode that conserves battery energy, while users of WiFi (wireless) Internet services can automatically update antivirus databases. The Shield Deluxe 2008 is installed and set up in a matter of minutes, while the context-sensitive help function helps users quickly understand the finer points of the program’s capabilities. Also, the program regularly notifies users of its current protection status and gives recommendations for dealing with virus epidemics and potential threats.

One of the best things about it, is that it monitors the activity of programs and processes that have been launched in the computer’s memory and, at the same time, warns users of any dangerous, suspicious or hidden processes and of unauthorized changes in routine processes. It works to control the status of the system registry and notifies users of any suspicious objects or attempts to create hidden keys in the registry.

The protection for email is excellent. The Shield Deluxe 2008 scans email traffic for viruses according to the protocol via which it is sent on any mail program, while plug-ins and treatment for viruses in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express mail databases are offered. Lastly, All HTTP Internet traffic is scanned for viruses in real-time, ensuring that infected objects are not saved to the computer’s hard disk. All in all, it is an economical antivirus software that really does the job that you need it to do by protecting your computer from various viruses and threats.

F-Prot Review

F-Prot for Windows is an easy to install and use antivirus program that has a great interface. Although the interface would be more user-friendly if the options were available from the taskbar instead of from the Start Menu or desktop, it still has many of the features that beginner users would enjoy and find easy to use. All of the options are straightforward and practical. Some of these options include right-click, on-demand, on-access and scheduled scanning.

F-Prot claims their scan engine uses very low system resources and therefore runs under Windows 2000, XP or Vista, which means less time sitting and waiting and more time internet surfing. The RealTime Protector scans all files your system accesses for viruses. The built-in Scheduler automates tasks like updating the virus definition files and scanning which is extremely convenient. The program is simple to configure, but still gives you plenty of options. The on-demand Scanner is used to manually scan your files, folders and drives. You can also scan a file, folder, or drive from within Windows Explorer by right-clicking and selecting “Scan”.

In general F-Prot has advanced heuristics-based detection that can defend well against new and unknown threats. It has a fully automated virus signature file updates and software upgrades which make it efficient, and the email protection is in real-time which protects against attachments. And with advanced detection against malicious programs, you can’t beat the overall software. Although the Help and Support is not as good as it could be according to some users, there is an online database that contains answers to frequently asked questions for your convenience and with the low price, you can’t go wrong with this antivirus program.

Norton Internet Security 2009

Symantec’s antivirus products have historically always provided excellent detection and removal of malware. On the downside, that protection came at the price of often crippling system performance. Norton Internet Security 2009 has met that challenge head-on, finally providing a fully capable security product without the enormous overhead. Indeed, performance tweaks are the hallmark of Norton Internet Security 2009, which features ‘pulse updates’ to deliver more frequent and thus smaller signature updates, whitelisting to streamline scan times, and a lighter, sleeker footprint that installs in mere minutes.

Norton Internet Security 2009 features multiple sensors that monitor the activity levels of various components to make smarter decisions about what actions it should take - and when. For example, gamers will appreciate sensors that detect full screen mode in conjunction with gaming - suppressing non-essential alerts while still offering full protection in the background. Mobile users won’t have to worry about laptop batteries draining because they forgot to disable a scheduled scan. Norton 2009 detects when a battery-powered laptop is idle and delays the scan accordingly.

Norton Insight makes note of trustworthy applications found on the drives and adds those applications to a whitelist so they aren’t unnecessarily scanned in the future. This type of integrity checking got its start with behavior-based scanners and is well suited for streamlining the performance of signature-based scanners as well. The first time you scan it may take an hour or more while it checks out all the files, but subsequent scans should finish in well under that .

In addition to the standard signature detection, Norton Internet Security 2009 includes SONAR. Browser protection is also built-in, detecting attempts to exploit known vulnerabilities. The rules-based protection isn’t as proactive as it could be and the browser protection is a bit signature-based in practice, but both features still add considerable protective value to the product. Don’t be swayed by Norton’s past performance - this latest version is definitely worth a try.

G DATA Antivirus 2008

G DATA Antivirus 2008, formerly AntiVirusKit, is a simple and effective antivirus solution. It doesn’t include many perks, but does include the basics as well as a couple extras that have come to be expected in the antivirus software market. Overall, it is an easy-to-use product that will keep your computer protected. The main configuration and information page has most of the functions that you will need. If there is an option on that page that you can’t find, there is an Options page that includes some more advanced configuration options for each section of the program.

The best part of G DATA Antivirus 2008 is that there isn’t much user intervention needed. The default configuration is sufficient for most home users and if you set the scans to a time when you are not using your computer there is little chance you will even notice the program running at all. While slow, the antivirus engine within G DATA is very thorough. It is also nice that it doesn’t eat up many resources while scanning. Updates for G DATA Antivirus are downloaded every hour by default.

G DATA Antivirus doesn’t come with a whole slew of extra features. It does include a two part antivirus scanner that is rated very high and also includes an email scanner and a heuristic scanner. Installing G DATA Antivirus is as simple as following the prompts and letting it run. After you are finished with the installation, there is a significant update to the software that needs to be downloaded.

Support for G DATA Antivirus 2008 is a little bit small to say the least. All that is included at this point is an incomplete FAQs section and a support request form on their website. But, in the overall scheme of things, G DATA Antivirus is a simple and effective antivirus product.


Panda Antivirus 2008

The new Panda Antivirus 2008 is one of the easiest-to-use and most intuitive protection software for your computer. Just install it and forget about viruses, spyware, rootkits, hackers, online fraud and identity theft. You can chat, share photos and videos, bank and buy online, read your favorite blogs or simply surf with complete peace of mind. Along with the new Collective Intelligence technology, the solution is now much faster than previous versions. Coupled with a new truly automatic update system, Panda Antivirus 2008 takes advantage of your Internet connection to transparently update the virus signature files incrementally. It is one of the first truly “install-and-forget” antiviruses for the home user.

Panda Antivirus is adequate at what it claims to do: detect, block, and remove viruses and virus attempts from your PC. However, it is lacking in speed, resource use, and independent testing. Upon install, Panda will scan your system thoroughly and then remove any viruses or malware it finds. This is great, except the software doesn’t tell you what it removed, nor did it give us the option to choose to remove the infected files. For most people, this “set it and forget it” feature will be adequate, but some might prefer more control over what files Panda removes. After all, the software may accidentally remove a file that we needed by accident. When it comes to Panda Antivirus 2008 is great for rootkits as well that can be used to hide threats and prevent them from being detected, as its reinforced protection system can detect threats that use this stealth technique.

There are the standard features that include antispyware, antiPhising, and protection against dangerous websites, the antiRootkit and free automatic daily updates. It can block hackers and intruders, even through Wi-Fi connections. Although not as advanced as some would like, Panda Antivirus 2008 is absolutely fine in keeping your computer safe.

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Obama is Winning the Internet War

Election Day in the U.S. is fast approaching and it's anyone's guess who will win. However, is this really true? Based on five key indicators on the Internet, maybe we already know who will next be sitting in the Oval Office.

1. Site Traffic Winner: Obama
Barack Obama's site receives 5.5 million unique visitors, while John McCain's site receives 3.1 million, according to Compete data. While McCain has gained slightly in recent months, he hasn't made up much ground on Obama's 44 percent lead in this key metric. Alexa, another tracking tool, shows the same trend.

Business Nugget: Businesses should constantly monitor tools like Compete, Alexa, Hitwise, Nielsen, comScore, and the like to benchmark where they stand in relation to competition. Many of these tools have free and premium offerings.


2. Social Media Winner: Obama

McCain has garnered the support of 572,009 "fans" on Facebook, which is among the highest on the site. However, it pales in comparison to Obama's 2,071,473 fans. Obama's lead is even larger than this indicates because these numbers don't add in separate fan pages for Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, Students for Obama, Women for Obama, etc.

It's interesting that there aren't too many ancillary support pages like these for McCain. For example, Michelle Obama has 127,000 fans, while Cindy McCain has 758 fans. It's also intriguing that searches for Sarah Palin funnel to the McCain-Palin page, whereas Biden has his own distinct fan page. Unfortunately for the McCain ticket, their largest ancillary group is the rogue "I Have More Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin," with 220,000 participants.

The "friend" divide is just as prevalent on MySpace with Obama having 697,535 friends to McCain's 169,326. McCain gets some help from Palin on MySpace where she has 81,988 friends on her profile to Biden's 27,652.

Business Nugget: As has been pointed out in this column for quite some time now, Facebook is dominating MySpace (in this instance by volume of fans/friends). Also of interest for businesses are the different strategies that must be decided upon in social media. If I'm Coke, do I funnel everyone to one fan page (i.e., McCain) or do I send those interested in the various brands (Diet Coke, Coke Classic) to unique fan pages (i.e., Obama).



3. Paid Search Winner: McCain

Republicans have been savvier on paid search throughout the election year. The most glaring example of this is if you type in the keyword "Presidential Election." Two listings come up for McCain in the sponsored listings, whereas Obama has zero.

The same holds true for the search term "vote." Shockingly, though, both parties fail to have a listing for the key phrase "register to vote."

Business Nugget: Paid search is mission critical to most businesses these days. However, many fail to do one basic thing: constantly manually check major key term results. With all the sophistication in paid search, businesses often get mired down in the details and miss major problems on the most important search terms.

4. Organic Search Winner: Tie

Of the five Internet items we selected to view, this one is the most intriguing. Let's use Google Insights to see what the public was searching on more: "McCain" or "Obama."

Over the last year for every search on "McCain," there have been 2.2 searches for "Obama." This ratio remains relatively constant if you only look at the last 90 and 30 days of data as well.

However, when you throw Palin into the mix, Palin searches way outperform McCain searches, and actually even outperform those of Obama. Hence, when you combine Palin and McCain, there are actually more searches than if you combine Obama and Biden.

This holds relatively true as you look at the battleground states of Ohio and Florida. In Florida on an indexed scale over the last 30 days, the searches broke down as follows: Palin (73), Obama (61), McCain (38), Biden (10). Part of that could be from people searching for videos of Tina Fey spoofing Palin on "Saturday Night Live." The national intrigue in Palin is something we've never seen and is difficult to account for.

Compete data shows that two of the top five search terms driving traffic to McCain's site include "Palin," whereas "Biden" doesn't show up in the top five search terms driving traffic to Obama's site.



Because of Palin's recent effect, call this one a tie instead of an Obama win, even though "Obama" has more than twice the amount of searches than "McCain."

Business Nugget: Smart corporations use Google Insights to help predict where their business may be going and what their users are interested it. Super smart corporations go one step further and drill down into geographic nuances.

5. YouTube Winner: Obama

The Barack Obama YouTube channel has 100,000 subscribers and the videos have been viewed 17.1 million times. The John McCain YouTube channel has 24,000 subscribers and has been viewed 11.1 million times. These numbers speak for themselves.

Business Nugget: Every business should have a dedicated brand channel on YouTube. Marketing departments should also keep an eye on what corporate and competitive videos are out there. YouTube Insights shows the number of views a video has on sites outside of YouTube (embedded) and identifies what parts of the video people don't find interesting. Also, we decided to call-out YouTube as it's own item, but it could have been rolled into social media.

These five Internet items are interesting to look at in an election context since the same methods of research and strategy can and should be used to build your company's brand.

Overall Internet Winner: Obama. But will it be enough to win the election?

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Setting up BLF functions on a Linksys SPA-942

With the lastest firmware (v6.1.3), the Linksys SPA-942 can now suppoprt BLF on Asterisk systems. Implementing it is actually quite simple as we will see in this article. If you aren’t familair with BLF, this is called Busy Lamp Field and is used to show the status of another extension and to act as a speeddial key to that extension. While this is very handy with the Linksys SPA-962 combined with the SPA-932 sidecar, its usefullness is somewhat diminshed on the SPA-942 since you only have four line keys and each BLF configuration will use up a line key. This is still quite handy for an assistant to be able to take calls for an executive and know when it is ok to transfer calls. There are plenty of other situation where this is useful and if you find yourself needing this functionality, then it is a real nice feature to have available.


Setting up BLF
From a web browser, go to the IP address of the phone you want to configureand click on the Info tab, if the Software Version is not 6.1.3(a) or higher, you will need to go to the Linksys website and download the firmware for the phone. The update is an executable application under Windows, you enter the IP address of the phone and it will update the firmware for you. If you do not have a Windows-based system, then you will need to put the firmware on a TFTP server and program the phone to go and find the firmware.

Once the phone is on the current version, click on the Admin link on the top of the page, and then click on the Advanced link at the top of the page. Next, click on the Phone tab.

Let’s say we want to setup this phone’s line 4 key to monitor extension 200, we would then go through the following steps:

In the Line Key 4 section, set the options as follows:

Extension: Disabled
Short Name: 200 (or to any text you want)
Share Call Appearance: Shared
Extended Function: fnc=blf+sd;sub=200@$PROXY;ext=200@$PROXY

In the Extended Function field, note that the extension we are monitoring is listed in two areas.

In the next section (Line Key Extended Function section) you need to change the Server Type to Asterisk.

Finally, go to the bottom of the page and click on the Submit All Changes button. The phone will reboot and the display will now show a different icon for the fourth line. If you press the line four key, it will dial the extension you setup. If the extension you are monitoring is on a call, the line key will turn red. That’sd all there is to it.

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Common Problems with 404 Error Pages

SEO covers many aspects of a Web site, and recommendations can usually be grouped into one of three buckets: technical, content, or linking. It may surprise you to learn that the way a Web site handles 404 error pages can affect search engine rankings. Although some would argue how much negative weighting is placed on sites with inconsistent or custom 404 error pages.

In recent weeks, I've seen several mishandled 404s, but one theme seems to return "200 OK" codes to search engine crawlers for 404 pages. The sites doing this are pretty significant sites we've looked to engage from an SEO perspective.

In a couple cases through our monitoring of Webmaster Tools, we've even discovered client sites with this issue. The last thing you need in the Google index is an error page. But even worse are multiple URLs that were mistyped being returned as "OK."

In a couple cases through our monitoring of Webmaster Tools, we've even discovered client sites with this issue. The last thing you need in the Google index is an error page. But even worse are multiple URLs that were mistyped being returned as "OK."

Another interesting trend I've seen is dynamically generated 301 or 302 redirects that send users to either the home page or a custom error page when someone mistypes the URL from a domain into the browser. For example, if I typed www.searchenginewatch.com/doesnotexist, I'm led to a nice custom 404 error page that offers users a number of choices to find the right page. The key is to understand exactly what kind of response code it returned to the server.

In order to check response codes, I like to use the SEOconsultants.com tool. If I place the mistyped URL above into the box at this page, I get a detailed list of how the page is seen from a crawler's perspective. The call to the server generates a 301 redirect to the custom 404 page described above, but most important, it returns a "Server Response" of 404 not found.

Because the user is led to a page with more information, they will likely be happy and continue to navigate in order to find what they want. The key is that by the server response code being a 404, the URL won't be indexed in the search engines and will simply "disappear."

Now if the response code was "200 OK," which is a mistake developers sometimes make, a new URL could be indexed (/doesnotexist) with possible duplicate content. The home page is often used to redirect people in the event of a dead or non-existent page.

From a user experience standpoint, it's arguable if that's the right choice or if the user should be sent to an error page. I'm sure you can find many people on both sides of that fence. From an SEO perspective, you can end up with duplicate versions of your home page in the search engine indexes, but with bogus URLs.

Tips on 404 Best Practices

Mark Jackson gave us a nice round up of various problems with hosting issues earlier this month.

I also asked Craig Geis, our SEO technical lead who also maintains the SEO Tech Blog, to provide some insights on how improperly handled 404s can be negative from an SEO perspective. He has looked deeply into this issue, and provides some general best practices to follow when deciding how to handle pages that can't be found.

These aren't the only ways to deal with this problem. However, from an SEO perspective it would be wise for developers/designers of many large Web sites to heed Geis's advice:

Without a custom 404 error page, the visitor -- human or robot -- is left with only two courses of action: to abandon their search or click the back button. Search engines can reduce rankings due to server errors and broken pages. Simple errors such as "404 page not found" in large quantities can make the search engines believe that a site isn't complete or is under construction and, as a result, they may determine that the site isn't worthy of strong search engine rankings.

When a nonexistent page is requested from the server, the server should respond with a special "HTTP Status" header value of "404 Not Found," which may also be followed by custom error-page body content. Incorrectly configured Web-servers that respond with a status header value of "200" (or any other erroneous value) are exposed to significant risk with respect to search engines' "duplicate content penalties." This is because the identical content (in this case, the error page content) would be available under a potentially infinite number of URLs.

Custom 404 pages serve several important purposes. First, they return the correct code to the users and to search engine spiders, informing the visitors that the page they were seeking wasn't found. Second, custom 404 pages present visitors with options about what to do next. Without a custom 404 error page, the visitor -- human or robot -- is left with only two courses of action: to abandon their search or click the back button. Neither of these are a satisfactory response to an error.

Geis provides specific recommendations to several clients on this issue. So, if you have this problem with your sites, don't feel like you're alone. Take care of it because it could potentially be damaging in the long term from a user experience and SEO perspective.

Frank Watson Fires Back

Having just spent the last few days in Munich at SEOktoberfest, I've learned some serious black hat methodology -- and ways that you can screw with your competitors. Your site's responses to mistyped pages or to pages that no longer exist should have direction.

Creating sole response pages may be fair, but you really should be more exact in the direction. A 404 should be a redirect to appropriate content, or an "I Give Up" page.

The major corporations are a different story. They screw up the pages, but have things in place to deal with mistakes -- not right out of the gate, but close enough to mark when things need to be changed. It is realistically also true that most places do little to recognize what's going on.

SEOktoberfest was an awesome event. If you missed it, start making comments on the forum so others can be alerted to a topic. Rock on Aussies!

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Untangling Web Information

The Semantic Web organizer Twine offers bookmarking with built-in AI.

The next big stage in the evolution of the Internet, according to many experts and luminaries, will be the advent of the Semantic Web--that is, technologies that let computers process the meaning of Web pages instead of simply downloading or serving them up blindly. Microsoft's acquisition of the semantic search engine Powerset earlier this year shows faith in this vision. But thus far, little Semantic Web technology has been available to the general public. That's why many eyes will be on Twine, a Web organizer based on semantic technology that launches publicly today.


Developed by Radar Networks, based in San Francisco, Twine is part bookmarking tool, part social network, and part recommendation engine, helping users collect, manage, and share online information related to any area of interest. For the novice, it can be tricky figuring out exactly where to start. But for experienced users, Twine can be a powerful way to research a subject collaboratively or find people with common interests, with the usual features of a bookmarking site augmented by Twine's underlying semantic technology.

After creating an account, a user adds a Twine bookmarklet to her browser's bookmarks, then adds items to her Twine page by clicking the bookmarklet as she surfs the Web. Bookmarks, too, can easily be imported from a browser or from another Web bookmarking service.

Twine uses artificial intelligence--machine learning and natural language processing--to parse the contents of Web pages and extract key concepts, such as people, places, and organizations, from the pages that a user saves. The site then uses these concepts to link information and users. For example, creating a twine--a bundle of bookmarks related to a particular topic--devoted to a specialized technique in computer game design quickly led to the discovery of twines (created by other users) devoted to other areas of game design and to twines devoted to a popular game that uses the technique. It also led to other users interested in the subject. Twine is also meant to automatically generate tags, descriptions, and summaries of bookmarked Web pages. In the preview, or beta, version, this feature didn't always work properly, but Nova Spivack, CEO of Radar Networks, says that the functionality has been improved ahead of the public launch. Twines offer a hub for collecting, sharing, and discussing information. For example, users have created twines devoted to twentieth-century music, science and technology, philosophy, and cool things found around the Web.

On the surface, Twine looks a lot like many other social-networking applications: users make connections, share, and discuss information, and the artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing built into the website is not immediately obvious. "The Semantic Web is a technology that's useful. It's a means to an end, not an end in itself," says Spivack. "What we're doing with this release and going forward is, we're talking about what you can use Twine for, and the fact that it's powered by the Semantic Web is a detail for geeks."

But Jim Hendler, a professor of computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a member of Twine's advisory board, says that Semantic Web technologies can set Twine apart from other social-networking sites. This could be true, so long as users learn to take advantage of those technologies by paying attention to recommendations and following the threads that Twine offers them. Users could easily miss this, however, by simply throwing bookmarks into Twine without getting involved in public twines or connecting to other users.

It would be nice to be able to use Twine for a few more specialized purposes. For example, it seems ideal for finding events related to areas of interest--indie rock bands playing in Boston, for example. But the current interface deals awkwardly with dates. A Twine calendar, which categorizes events intelligently, would be a logical extension of the service. Spivack says that such a feature, as well as further developments, are on the way. As these arrive, and as the company adds more ways to classify data, the real value of the Semantic Web could well start to surface.

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Searching for the Mobile Web

Industry leaders hope that new technologies will make mobile search more usable.
Search technology has transformed the way that people use the Internet and has made piles of money for giants like Google. This week at Mobile Internet World 2008, in Boston, industry leaders gathered to talk about emerging technologies that might at last bring useful Internet search to mobile devices too.


In many developed countries, official figures show that there are more phones than people. But even as companies rush to take advantage of these increasingly powerful and ubiquitous devices, experts acknowledge that using the Internet on mobile devices remains forbiddingly difficult on many handsets. The untapped potential of mobile search, in particular, was a major theme at the Boston event.

Some say that the problem is the mobile interface. "I think the numbers really show that if you do give a better experience, you'll see that come through on the usage side," says Hadley Harris, director of business development and finance at Vlingo, a startup based in Cambridge, MA, that offers voice-recognition software for cell phones. Harris notes that the superior Web browser on the iPhone has already had such an impact: on average, iPhone users perform 50 times more Web searches than do people using any other smart-phone device.

To get more people to search with their phone, DeWayne Nelon, CEO of Avot Media, a startup based in Sunnyvale, CA, that offers mobile video technology, says that it is important to appreciate how people use these devices. "We tend, as an industry, to treat the mobile device as a small laptop, and it's not a small laptop," Nelon says. Whereas people sitting in front of a desktop or laptop computer will often spend long periods browsing the Internet, he notes that people armed with a mobile device will most likely be looking for a quick answer to a specific question. Above all else, he says, mobile search should be fast and simple to use.

Inputting a search query can be time consuming using a cell-phone keyboard, Nelon says, so speech recognition should be explored as a way to search the Web. Other phone features could aid with searching, he says. For example, cell-phone cameras could perhaps make image-based search effective. But Nelon adds that the mobile platform also offers new possibilities. For instance, he says that mobile search should take advantage of the navigation capabilities that are now built into many mobile devices.

Harris believes that Semantic Web technologies (which allow machines to process the meaning of information on the Web) could also streamline mobile search in the future. "As the Semantic Web builds up, [the software will] answer specific questions and pay attention to what the user is trying to do on the device," he says.

But making cell phones smarter and more intuitive will require more processing power. Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of the ultra-mobility group at Intel, demonstrated the company's latest low-power cell-phone chip--the Atom--at the conference. During a demonstration, Gunnar Evermann of speech-recognition company Nuance showed the company's software running on a mobile device. He used composed and sent an e-mail employing only his voice.

Although many startups are working on improving interfaces and mobile services for search, experts warn that it could be hard to dislodge the giants. "People are looking for known brands on mobile devices," says Christian Seider of IBM's Institute for Business Value in the Electronics Industry. He thinks that many users will want to access the same Internet services that they get through their PC, so it could be hard--particularly for young companies--to find ways to make money off their technology.

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