If you have been trying hard to find easy clues to understand search engine algorithms, you may be left disappointed to learn that search engines may be speedy but they lack preciseness.

Search engines such as Wolfram Alpha have employed the model of delivering answers and not pointing to the direction unlike Google and others that start providing hints as soon as a word is typed in the search box.

From Timesofindia.indiatimes.com:

There are no easy answers. Search engines like Google are based on an algorithm mechanism. This is a complex mathematical formula that crawls through billions of sites on the net and ranks its pages, thereby creating a vast index that is tapped to deliver search results. “Considering that the internet is growing at a frantic pace, and new pages are continuously being added, it’s a challenge to constantly index fresh pages and produce results that are new and pertinent,” admits Dod.

Often, experimentation is the key. Google has experimented with what it terms the Universal search. This blends listings from its news, video, images, local and book search engines to deliver comprehensive results. Vinay Goel, head of products, Google India, says that Universal search is an important first step in exploring the full range of what can be achieved. “Users today are looking at compact and personalized results. Search engines have to understand this and be more intuitive. The future will see radical advances in modes of search. Our goal is to take advantage of these and keep evolving the interface design and user experience.”

Bing, Microsoft’s search portal, launched last year as the “decision engine” has similar aspirations of developing as a search engine that can offer solutions, not just plain vanilla search results. Eventually, say Microsoft sources, the idea is to pull out specific bits of information from different web pages and serve them up as one result. This will be quite different from the way it works now, where an engine lists a choice of many pages, each of which contains the keywords searched for.

Kapil Gupta of Synapse India, a software firm that specializes in SEO, said search engine algorithms have become smarter with integrated artificial intelligence and search domain has surely got more user-oriented than ever and will continue to do so.

The ongoing tussle between the Indian government and maker of BlackBerry phones, Research In Motion (RIM), has adversely affected the sales of BlackBerry communication devices that are considered to be one of the most admired fashion accessories by the Indian corporate executives.

It is worthwhile to note here that some of grey market dealers in Mumbai have already stopped ordering fresh stock of BlackBerry models till RIM sorts out the issue with the government.

From Timesofindia.indiatimes.com:

“After I exhausted my stock, I decided to wait till we get a better idea of what is going to happen with BlackBerry in India,” a grey market dealer in Mumbai’s Fort area said. A few other unofficial dealers promised to source required models, provided a deposit was made for the device. “Our margins are pretty thin on such goods, and I don’t want hassles that might arise at a later date if the government’s decision goes against RIM,” a shopowner explained.

BlackBerry sales have similarly seen a dip in Bangalore. “I sold 35 handsets in July, but this month I haven’t been able to sell more than 15,” said a dealer on Brigade Road. A shopkeeper in Dubai Plaza echoed his words, saying he had sold 60 handsets in July, but only 10 in August. “People want to wait till the August 31 deadline and then decide,” he said. But someone’s loss is always someone else’s gain, and other brands such as Nokia, Samsung and Apple are benefiting from the decline in Blackberry sales.

Currently, there are an estimated 1.1 million BlackBerry users in India.

If you are an online marketer or business owner, you must have already tried the old yet successful marketing idea of luring more customers to your business website, hooking them on the site, and see the profits soaring.

The point is – online businesses can drive more traffic by emphasizing upon better user experiences and this can even help them to retain interest of new site visitors or potential customers. For this, some of the amicable options can include search engines, banner ads, and email marketing.

From Timesofindia.indiatimes.com:

Players like eBay have given a slightly different twist to the kiosk strategy. They are tapping internet cafes around India.

“We have partnered with Reliance Web World in 100 Web Worlds in 16 cities with plans of scaling up this quarter to 140 Web Worlds in 24 cities,” says Rathin Lahiri, CMO, eBay India.

It works almost similar to the kiosks, the only difference being that the consumer goes to an internet cafe instead, where the cafe owner handholds her though the entire process of buying online.

There is no denying the fact that even today, the most widely used window to the internet is still cyber cafes. According to IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) 24% of India’s 50 million-odd internet users still accesses the net via pay-and-surf cyber cafes. So it makes superb business sense to have these cafe owners bring in newbies to your website. The strategy has worked for eBay India at least.

“Reliance Web Worlds were among our top three new user acquisition channels for the year,” says Lahiri.

It is worthwhile to note that a modern-day business just cannot neglect its presence, offline as well as online and offline marketing is what’s helping businesses boost their online sales.

Despite the economic crunch getting the better of firms in the recent past, things are changing and this is very much evident from the fact that as many as 28 American companies in the Fortune 100 list including retail giant Wal-Mart, Time Warner, and Coca-Cola are still hiring.

The Fortune magazine stated that 28 Fortune 100 employers have at least 150 openings as of mid-April and this is at a time when many big companies are announcing mass layoffs.

From Indianexpress.com:

Media group Time Warner has about 480 openings posted online in creative, editorial, marketing, media, finance, accounting, graphics design, animation, new media, ad sales, film/television production division among others. Technology giant Hewlett-Packard has 150 vacancies and is hiring in several areas of its businesses such as information technology, human resources, research and development, marketing, finance and administrative. While, beverage company Coca-Cola is searching for 160 people for a variety of different functions on many levels including finance, bottling, retail operations, production and customer service, delivery and food chemistry.

It is worth noting here that the Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which is presently ranked second in latest list of Fortune 500, has thousands of job openings.

When it comes to promoting products and services of an online business before the targeted customers, there is nothing more rewarding than search engine marketing or SEM as per industry experts. Let us read as to how search engine marketing can help in site promotion.

Search engine marketing or SEM is highly effective yet inexpensive when it comes to improving the visibility of an online business on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and AOL. Since search engines are the topmost referrer for new visitors, it is important for every online business to emphasize upon SEM that is aimed at attracting search engine spiders and eventually customers. It is important to note that SEM constitutes of tools such as search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising for promoting the prospects of a business.

The concept of SEM revolves around two concepts:

1)      Organically placing a website on search engines and top search results

2)      Allowing a website to buy its way to the top beating competition

Successful implementation of these concepts is possible with adjustments of site elements such as sitemap, descriptions, Meta Tag, and page titles so that search engine spiders can easily access and index of the site pages and thereby awarding deserving search engine rankings. Once these tasks have been undertaken, it is time to create quality, relevant, and unique content (site page content, articles, blogs, press releases, product descriptions, and newsletters etc.) that can be syndicated for generating back links and web traffic in order to attract visitors (potential customers) to the site.

We hope that this information on search engine marketing for site promotion was useful to you for putting your business on the next level.

Stefan Stern, columnist for the Financial Times, has left the paper to join Edelman, the PR Company, as director of strategy.

Stern is the winner of the 2010 Towers Watson award for excellence in HR journalism, and has won awards for his writing contributions from the Work Foundation and the Management Consultancies Association.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Financial Times columnist Stefan Stern has left the paper to join public relations company Edelman as director of strategy.

The award-winning journalist has been writing about business, finance and management for 17 years. His weekly column on management appeared each Tuesday in the paper’s Business Life section.

Stern is the winner of the 2010 Towers Watson award for excellence in HR journalism, and has previously won awards from the Work Foundation and the Management Consultancies Association.

Stern told industry title PR Week: “Edelman is an intellectually ambitious and brave organisation.”

Stern, the award-winning journalist, has been writing about business, finance and management for seventeen years, and is a former features editor at Management Today magazine.

Most of the small business entrepreneurs, in today’s competitive business environment, consider that their business’s sweat equity is equal if not exceeds actual dollars and cents. This is primarily because there has not been a succession plan based upon an objective business valuation.

In order to enhance worth of the business, entrepreneurs are required to emphasize upon the present income of the company, past earnings or the future outlook of the company, along with attracting numerous potential buyers.

From Post-trib.com:

Why is it so important to understand business valuation?

“Most people do not understand the true value of the business. From my experience, people think the business is worth the net income any given year. They fail to take into consideration the goodwill aspect of the business, past earnings, and projected future earnings. Also, the process of valuing a business involves comparing the subject company to its industry peers by utilizing various databases.”

What part does business valuation play within succession planning?

“The business valuation can be used as a benchmark for succession planning. The projections made within the valuation can be used as a trigger mechanism for recruiting the most qualified employees and for helping train current employees for advancement into more responsible positions. The valuation can be used to set goals based on projections of future earnings.”

What is the most consistent misunderstanding that business owners have respective to the value of their business?

“Most business owners do not take goodwill into account when valuing their businesses. They tend to focus on the tangible hard assets instead of some of the intangibles such as goodwill. They also focus on the current income of the company, not taking into consideration past earnings or the future outlook of the company.”

Interpreting wrong, overvalued or undervalued, value of the business is never a good choice and this is the reason why it is best to hire the best of the best so that business worth is accurately analyzed and critical decision-making gets easily facilitated.

Global Marketing Partners, the leading channel marketing and distribution enabler in the United States, today announced its E3 contest.

This contest is all about a search for the “”most innovative video game or video game accessory” at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

From marketwatch.com:

The winner of the Global E3 Innovative Game Contest (IGC) will receive guaranteed distribution at a top-tier channel distribution company. Global has partnerships with Ingram, Navarre, Tech Data and other leading worldwide distributors in the videogame industry. The company currently represents more than 100 manufacturers in the technology channel.

The winner of the IGC program will receive guaranteed distribution for its product (which alone is valued at $12,000), as well as an additional $11,000 in a targeted channel marketing campaign to support its launch through the channel. Contest is open to all E3 exhibitors and attendees with an innovative gaming product. Submissions are free, but must be entered no later than June 3, 2010. The top 10 finalists will be announced in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 15, at the exclusive E3 Startup Debut Event (http://www.startupdebut.com) at BottleRock, 1050 South Flower Street, from 6:00 – 9:00 pm. The final winner will be announced on Thursday, June 17. To enter Global Marketing Partners‘ 2010 E3 Innovative Technology Contest, please fill out the form at http://www.globalwrx.com/BIA_Signup.shtml.

The 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, June 15-17.

Apple, America’s largest music retailer is reportedly under scrutiny over its marketing tactics for its iTunes music store from the Justice Department.

Apple is the biggest name in the world of music sales in the United States and responsible for approximately 70 percent of online music sold in the country.

From Kyw1060.com:

America’s largest music retailer is reportedly under scrutiny from the Justice Department over its marketing tactics for its iTunes music store.

Apple is the biggest player in American music sales, responsible for about 70 percent of online music sold in this country. It’s how it got there that has federal investigators asking questions of its competitors.

The New York Times and CNet, which is owned by CBS, are reporting that antitrust investigators are asking questions about Apple’s alleged refusal to let rival Amazon.com offer exclusive access to some tracks a day before their wide release. A report from Billboard Magazine earlier this spring suggested the Apple would respond by not promoting those tracks on iTunes.

Investigations by the Justice Department are said to be in their early phases.

If you want to access marketing quotes for potential world leaders then this compilation of timeless quotations from some of the world’s most eminent personalities will be more than just useful for you. Read on to find more!

“O, Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life. Amen” – Saint Augustine

Do not be desirous of having things done quickly. Do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished. – Confucius

Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable. – Walt Disney

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish. – W. H. Auden