Buzzin’ Fly Blog

The BBC website reports that Microsoft have made an offer to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6bn (£22.4bn) in cash and shares.

The offer was 62% over Yahoo’s current closing share price. Yahoo cut its revenue forecasts earlier this week and said it would have to spend an additional $300m this year trying to revive the company.

Yahoo has continued to struggle in the past few years, finding it more and more difficult to compete with Google, which has also been a competitor to Microsoft.

It has been reported that there were 210 million internet users in China by the end of 2007, second only to the United States.

Yahoo News reports that the search engine market in China made ¥946.6 million ($131.3 million) in the fourth quarter and is dominated by the Chinese search engine business, Baidu, Google and Yahoo China with a combined share of nearly 96 percent, with Google only receiving a 25.9% share, followed by Yahoo China with 9.6%.

Here is a list of tips that will help you achieve more from your company blog.

• Make your company blog relevant and useful so it will rank in search engines
• Make use of relevant and popular keywords when adding content to your blog
• Keep the distinction between the writing style of your blog with your company website. Be more approachable and relaxed when writing for the blog.
• Underetake SEO on your blog in the same way as you would your company website
• Optimise your title tag and add additional SEO by including meta description and keyword tagging
• Consider a professional design for your blog
• Make sure your blog and all its content is accessibile and its structure is user-friendly
• Include an ABOUT US page explaining who you are and any mission statement or aims of the blog

A corporate or company blog is an excellent way to increase website traffic. increase potential customers and an exciting way to promote your company news. products and services. Buzzin’ Fly offer a Blog Management service. Please contact us on 01634 322 721 if you would like to know about this service.

According to a recent survey. UK companies are continuing to see personal use of the internet in work time as a threat to productivity and possible litigation; and a staggering two-thirds are monitoring employees online use.

The BBC website states that a survey of European firms by DataMonitor suggests that the internet is “becoming a major source of distraction at work with employees looking at non-work related and offensive content. particularly pornography.”

Of the two-thirds of firms which monitor content. 40% say they do so on a regular basis.

However. the survey of 200 European companies contradicts a survey into UK bosses attitudes from Star Internet that suggested 50% of UK businesses had no idea about their employees internet usage. Furthermore. one in three bosses actively encouraged personal use in order to promote a positive working environment.

3 Steps to Managing Your Own SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Program

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural (sometimes known as organic) search results. The higher your website is ranked by the search engines on search results pages. the more traffic will visit your website. So you see. it is crucial to employ the services of SEO experts. unless you can do this yourself.

For example. if someone searches Google using the term ‘buzzin fly’ we aim to get our website in first position. and then keep it there. This process is not simple & comes with no guarantees.

Step 1:
To start your own SEO Management Program you will need to implement the following:

Keyword Density
Inbound Link Popularity
Site submission
Page ranking
Keyword Analysis
Search Engine Traffic Analysis
Page Indexing
Alternate Text
Meta Tags

Step 2:
The first stage is to get on the top page of the main search engines. This can take up to 3-6 months or more. depending on how popular your keywords are & how strong the competition is.

Step 3:
Once you reach the first page in Google for your main keywords. let alone #1. your competitors may be employing another SEO consultancy to compete with you. Consider SEO as part of an ongoing process. This is just the start!

If you are willing to read. learn & manage your own campaign then this is a good starting point. But you will need to devote plenty of time to it if you are going to outwit your competitiors. If not. contact us now and we will help make your website work for you.

Yahoo! has upgraded the search option for its main search engine domain - www.yahoo.com to include a helpful tool called+ Search Assist. The +Search Assist helps the searcher refine the query by showing a drop down list of related searches and suggestions.

This alone isn’t too much to get excited about. but when you are presented with the search results page. click on the More button on the Also-Try line and you will be given another box (see below) that gives more concepts that are related to the search query.

This helpful search addition is only currently on Yahoo.com. as far as I can make out. But should be appearing on www.Yahoo.co.uk and all other Yahoo search enging domains soon.

Try it! I think you’ll like it.

Social networking continue to rule the roost on the Internet as websites such as MySpace. Facebook. YouTube and Stumble Upon attract more than two million visitors every month; and the phenomemnon continues to grow every day.

Social networking has become a powerful way for people to communicate and ’socialise’ but it is also proving a success with providing business opportunities. Musicians and politicians are using sites like MySpace to reach new audiences on a more peer to ppeer basis. But social networking can be a powerful professional ally to business too. Social networking is fast becoming essential rather than an option. and something that can be used alongside a company’s exisitng traditional marketing mix or as part of an online marketing plan than can reach new markets and potential customers.

A recent survey of over 1.000 American’s by advertising agency JWT suggested the Internet has become more important to their everyday lives that 28% spend less time socialising with friends because of it. More surprising was that 20% spend less time having sex because they’re too busy online!

The bold conclusion drawn was that. as a society. we are seeing the rise of ‘digitivity denizens.’ - people who thrive in a technology-enabled universe who see mobile phones as extensions of themselves. their online and offline lives are co-mingled. and they would choose a Wi-Fi connection over television any day.

Furthermore. approximately half of people 35 and older said if they can’t access the Internet when they want to. they feel like something important is missing.

But it’s not all play! According to the study. 22% said new technologies have led to more work. This is very important as far as business are concerned and the growth and importance embracing such new phenomenon as Corpoarate Blogging is concerned. as this report is further evidence that companies need to understand and harness the power of new ways to promote their products and services through online advertising and marketing.

It seems every week now someone will ask. “Are you on Facebook?”

Facebook is becoming one of the most popular social networking tools here in the UK. It is now as common to be asked if you are on Facebook as it is MySpace or You Tube. It is spreading like wild fire. and like all good tools. sites and information. that is on the whole being achieved by word of mouth and referrals - just like a good business or service. Facebook imparticular. has been singled out to receive negative press coverage in the UK as companies and organisations call for a ban from using social networking sites in the workplace. Kent County Council have already placed a ban on all employees; while the TUC have got involved by saying such a ban is stopping workers having a life outside work!

However, businesses could be encouraging the use of social networking as long as it is peppered with new ways to win business. Instead of outright banning employees from using Facebook and the like. they should open their eyes to the possibilities of their employees using these so-called Web 2.0 tools. Once you become a member of Facebook there are 1000’s of Groups you can join. ranging from geographic areas to business specific services or forums - all of which can open doors to new customers!

As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced a $10m fund for the innovative software designers and the US social networking site is to set up its first overseas office in London. businesses of all sizes need to harness the power of this new medium.

Contact Buzzin’ Fly to discuss how your business can benefit from using social networking as part of an ongoing internet marketing campaign.

Microsoft is flexing its muscles & stomping its feet at EU decision.

The biggest IT company in the world. often sneered at by website developers & open source gurus. are not the only IT company to occupy a powerful global market position. though they are #1. Google also has a hold over the business world

The vice president of the software giants. Microsoft. added Apple & IBM to that list in his defence. adding that the sentence of the EU Court “will keep many people busy”.

With the the decision to fine the American software giant the Eurpoean Commission obtains “ample and discretionary power”. Smith explained. saying that there are other groups with dominant positions. such as Google. IBM & Apple. as the EU reprimanded Microsoft for having Windows installed on 95% of computers on the world.

“There are many companies in our sectors with big markets shares” Smith said: “Apple has 70% of the digital music sector. Google controls 70-80% of the online search sector. and in some European countries even 90%. and IBM has something between 99 and 100% of servers in Europe and in the world”.

The IT industry “is characterised by successful companies that have big market shares”. the Microsoft representative concluded. expecting that today’s decision “will have an extraordinary impact” on the sector.

Microsoft’s dominance & powerful market position has been caused by excellent marketing more than perfect software. It is for this reason why all our designs. online marketing and website development is built using industry standard. open source compatible programming.

Terry Lane. Buzzin’ Fly - Website Development & Internet Marketing