Urban Vancouver

This is a very special day. For 6 months, I have been holding tickets to see my favorite band: Angels and Airwaves. If don’t know about them, now is a good time to check them out and even attend the concert. You won’t be disappointed. Some compare them to the next U2. Here is the video of their most famous song, The Adventure. I am sure there would still be tickets available.

Here are the details for tonight’s concert:
Angels and Airwaves (with Weezer)
Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
Thursday, Aug 7, 2008 07:00 PM

Additional Information:
This event has been rescheduled from March 6, 2008 to August 7, 2008.
Tickets will be honored for the new date.

For more info about Angels & Airwaves, please visit their official site and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_&_Airwaves

I just got an article this morning from Kelly Sonora that would be very helpful to bloggers, writers and those who writing for the web becomes part of their daily responsibilities. The article is called 50 Must-Have Firefox Extensions for Writers. For anybody who writes a lot, this article is a must and I think you are going to find this interesting.

Listen to Katie Donovan of the SEMPO Institute discuss the history of the Institute, the details of the courses—including topics, authors and frequency of updates—and why the Institute courses are right for you.

http://www.webmasterradio.fm/Search-Engine-Optimization/Webcology/Sphinn-Sphamm.htm

More on SEMPO Institute: SEMPO Institute is THE Source for Search Marketing Training

Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) launched SEMPO Institute to meet the challenges facing businesses as Search Marketing grows from a niche to a critical marketing player.

Search Marketing has gone mainstream. The industry is expected to double between now and 2011. In the United States and Canada the expected spends in organic and paid search will reach $11.6 Billion in that year. Search Marketing is becoming an integral part of every business’ marketing efforts. SEMPO’s 2006 research shows that more than half of the companies in the survey created and/or expanded their Search Marketing budget by shifting funds from other marketing initiatives. As this trend continues to grow, every marketing professional will need to have a basic understanding of Search Marketing just to keep up-to-date with the best marketing practices.

Supported by SEMPO, SEMPO Institute has been able to tap into the knowledge and experience of SEMPO’s members and sponsors to deliver courses which have developed best practices and standards. Our course authors consist of more than 35 industry leaders. Additional experts have peer-reviewed the courses to ensure that all the information is accurate and truly is a best practice.

In the vast majority of news concerning Google and its numerous competitors (aka Google Killers) as to who has the potential to win the search war, only one other search engine deserves some attention. It is called Cuil (pronounced Cool) and was founded by former Googlers. Check it out. According to some experts including Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land, Cuil has the potential to compete, but more so Microsoft than Google and has yet to create a dent in the search market. Here is the article from the NY times called Cuil’s New Search Engine: Cheaper Than Google, but Not Better. Now, please try it out and let me know your thoughts and if you think Cuil has the quality required t motivate Google users to switch.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

SAN FRANCISCO—In her two years at Google, Anna Patterson helped design and build some of the pillars of the company’s search engine, including its large index of Web pages and some of the formulas it uses for ranking search results. Now, along with her husband, Tom Costello, and a few other Google alumni, she is trying to upstage her former employer. On Monday, their company, Cuil, is unveiling a search engine that they promise will be more comprehensive than Google’s and that they hope will give its users more relevant results. The makers of the Cuil search engine say it should provide better results and show them in a more attractive manner.

“I think it will be better,” Mr. Costello said in an interview. “But there is no question that the public has to decide.”

Cuil, pronounced “cool,” is only the latest in a long string of start-up companies that have been founded and financed with the goal of competing with Google, as well as Yahoo and Microsoft. (In June, Google accounted for 61.5 percent of search queries in the United States, while Yahoo held 20.9 percent and Microsoft had 9.2 percent, according to comScore.) Some of the most prominent include Powerset, which Microsoft recently bought, and Wikia, which was founded by Jimmy Wales, one of the creators of Wikipedia. So far, none have managed to make a dent in the search market.

But some analysts say Cuil has potential, in part because of the pedigree of its founders.

“This is the most promising thing I’ve seen in a while,” said Danny Sullivan, who has followed the online search business for more than a decade and is the editor of Search Engine Land. “Whether they are going to threaten Microsoft, much less Google, that’s another story.”

Mr. Costello, a former researcher at Stanford, said that with 120 billion Web pages, Cuil’s search index is larger than any other. The company uses a form of data mining to group Web pages by content, which makes the search engine more efficient, he said. Instead of showing results as short snippets of text and images with links, it displays longer entries and uses more pictures. It also provides tools to help users further refine their queries.

Google would not comment on Cuil and would not disclose the size of its own index. But in an e-mail statement, Google said that it maintained “the largest collection of documents searchable on the Web” and welcomed competition.

Mr. Sullivan said he was unimpressed by Cuil’s claim that its index includes more Web pages, noting that could mean users are “overwhelmed by a whole bunch of junk.” But he said that Cuil’s new approach to ranking pages and presenting results could prove to be a hit with some users.

“If it turns out that they have good relevancy, I could see that the word of mouth” would bring Cuil some popularity, he said.

Ms. Patterson left Google in 2006 to found Cuil. The new company has other prominent ex-Google employees, including Russell Power, who worked with Ms. Patterson on the large Google index, and Louis Monier, a former chief technology officer at AltaVista, a pioneering search engine. Cuil, which has about 30 employees and is in Menlo Park, Calif., has raised $33 million from venture investors.

Since the introduction of the Yellow Pages new positioning within the search engines community with their new slogan: The Find Engine, I could not stop but to rant about the company. As if hearing them on the radio was not hurtful enough, that did not help last month when I saw them at Search Engine Strategies in Toronto where they were desperately trying to give their Yellow pages directory a new life by mingling with the search marketing community. I did find a new usage recently to the Yellow pages directory and I was delighted with it. Check it out:

This picture was taken over the last few days while Sonia and I were camping near Harrison Hot Springs, a great camping spot. Email me for indication. 

Thanks go to Sonia who thought it would be a good idea to unclog our closet with these massive books that we don’t use anymore. They not longer clog our entrance closet and I am warmth with pleasure. 

Beginning tomorrow (July 17), GoDaddy will offer .me domains in open registration. The registrar and hosting provider hopes that people will sign up for two reasons: 1. to have their own name as their domain and 2. to have more control over their email address.

“‘I want my name as a domain name’ is something I hear often from Internet users,” said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “DotME not only gives everyone a chance to register their own name, but provides the perfect domain for expressing themselves.”

Next Monday, July 21 at 12pm EST, Encirca will sell .pro domains (pdf) as part of the relaunch of the extension. Only licensed professionals can register .pro domains.

“We enthusiastically support the re-launch of dot-pro,” says Thomas Barrett, President of EnCirca, the leading dot-pro registrar. “These long overdue changes will open the door for businesses representing over 1,100 licensed professions, from every country in the world, to establish their Internet brand identity with the .pro domain name.”

Previously, the .pro domain was only available for four types of professionals in four countries, but now the domain is available to many more professions in hundreds of countries. Examples of eligible licensed professionals include:

* Lawyers
* Accountants
* Engineers
* Architects
* Surveyors
* Doctors
* Dentists
* Chiropractors
* Nurses
* Opticians
* Optometrists
* Podiatrists
* Psychologists
* Therapists
* Social Workers
* Veterinarians
* Plumbers
* Inspectors
* Building Contractors
* Electricians
* Investment Advisors
* Real Estate Brokers
* Insurance Brokers
* Educators
* Patent and Trademark Examiners
* Court Reporters
* Police and Fire Safety Officers
* any other profession where an official credential is required for a business or individual to offer services

Before you make those all important domain purchases, be sure to brief yourself on the impact of domain names on SEO:
How to Choose the Best Domains for Search Engine Visibility
What’s in a (Domain) Name? Take 2
Is The Company Worth As Much As The Domain Name?

On September 11-12, 2008 Alexandre Brabant, Co-Chair Of SEMPO Canada Search Marketing Association, will be attending the Internet Marketing Conference in Vancouver (BC) Canada. For this occasion, SEMPO Canada will have a booth (TBD) and you will be able to drop by and ask any question about Search Marketing. Everything you need to know about Starting your own Search Marketing campaign from people who eat, sleep and breathe Search Marketing. Many members from the local Search Marketing Community will also be present. The Internet Marketing Conference Vancouver will be held at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Vancouver (BC) Canada.

Here is more about The Internet Marketing Conference Experience:
Speakers and participants from Europe, the United States, Canada, and Asia are traveling to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to take part in Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) on September 11-12, 2008. To this occasion, all aspects of doing business online will be covered: web analytics, strategy, content, search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), e-mail marketing, social media, on-site behavioral targeting, multivariate testing, and much more will be covered.

Learn how to acquire and retain customers by optimizing your marketing:
The program will mix presentations with discussion panels and networking opportunities. Meet with those who have dared, pioneered, and succeeded. Learn from mistakes by others. Whether you’re an advertiser, a marketer, or a business analyst, our goal is to provide you with valuable and actionable knowledge. Newbies and seasoned Internet marketers alike will find something they can take back to the office. IMC is produced by experts, for experts, and for all of you who’d like to become experts. Over the past nine years, it has been held in eight North American and European cities. Welcome to the fourteenth IMC!