Internet Marketing Course BLOG

IHT Technology
Original Article By Saul Hansell
The New York Times

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): The long-awaited arrival of MSN’s inhouse self-serve pay-per-click ad program (“adCenter”) is upon us, according to a story in the New York Times via the International Herald Tribune. MSN’s twist is the inclusion of demographic ad serving selection criteria (gender, age, location) based on (presumably) sign-up info provided by MSN members. Privacy advocates will be on high alert (as will PPC advertisers!) as this new service rolls out in the US sometime in October.

“Microsoft will unveil on Monday its own system for selling Web advertising as it struggles to compete with Google and Yahoo in the expanding Web search business. The system, to be used by MSN, is meant to improve on those of Microsoft’s rivals by allowing marketers to aim ads on Web search pages to users based on their sex, age or location.

The move is part of Microsoft’s broad response to the threat from Google, which is using its powerful advertising sales network to support an expanding range of free software products and Internet services. Last week, Microsoft announced a broad reorganization that placed MSN in the same group as its Windows operating system, indicating that it saw software delivered over the Internet – and possibly paid for through advertising – as central to its future.”

Read the entire article at:
Microsoft to Start own System for Selling Ads on Internet Searches

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Here’s what Google has to say about their newest blog-related feature (from the Google Blog Search FAQ).

“Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves. Whether you’re looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice.

Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger; our blog index is continually updated, so you’ll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results; and you can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and other languages as well.”

Google Blog Search URL

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing

By Chris Sherman, Associate Editor
SearchEngineWatch

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Heads up to ALL Web Marketers! Here’s a painless way to learn what you need to know about RSS feeds and how you can use them to your benefit. RSS feeds are already important and becoming more so. Here’s one example – I have UN-subscribed to a number of daily/weekly email newsletters after adding their RSS Feeds to my MyYahoo! Web Page (this page can be used as an RSS feed aggregator/reader). How many others are also doing the exact same thing?! Lots, so be prepared!

“This week, SearchDay takes a close look at RSS, a web publishing format that’s transforming information delivery for both publishers and users.

RSS has been around for some time now, and savvy users have come to rely on their RSS “feeds” as a fundamental channel for keeping up with current events and discovering new information. But RSS is still somewhat confusing for many people, and with good reason—it’s an emerging technology that’s still going through massive growing pains, even as it changes the way we consume information.”

Read the rest of Part 1 at:
What is RSS, and Why Should You Care?

Read Part 2 at:
RSS Search Engines

Read Part 3 at:
Choosing an RSS Reader

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing