Update 3: Mozilla has now released Weave Sync Version 1.0 Beta 2.
Update 2: Mozilla has now announced the release of Weave Sync Version 1.0 Beta 1.
Update: Mozilla has now released Weave Version 0.6.

Original Article: A couple years ago, Mozilla launched Weave, which is a Mozilla Labs project aimed at letting Firefox users sync their personal preferences with Firefox browsers on other computers or on their phones. Now, Mozilla has announced a new version of Weave Sync in Weave 0.5.



What Can You Do with It?

- Get the same results on the Smart Location Bar on each of your Firefox browsers.

- Open any tab that is open in any of your other FF browsers

- Keep the same list of bookmarks throughout multiple FF browsers

- Easily sign in to all of your favorites sites using saved passwords

- It is all secure as Weave Sync encrypts user data before uploading it to Mozilla's servers

The new version includes additional improvements including a major upgrade in performance when uploading and downloading. Sync waits until you're not actively using the browser, and support for bookmark tags and smart folders has been improved.

Support has also been added for changing passwords, and there is better error handling and reporting. Weave Sync now supports Fennec on Windows Mobile and Firefox on x86 OpenSolaris now as well.

More information is available about Weave here, and it can be downloaded here. It requires Firefox 3.5 or higher.

---- by : chris cum -----

Read More......

Dell To Launch Android-Based Smartphone
Dell said today it plans to introduce smartphones based on Google's Android platform in Brazil and China.
The company said it plans to sell its new Mini 3 smartphones through China Mobile, the largest telecommunications firm in the world with more than 500 million customers, and Claro, which has more than 42 million customers in Brazil as part of the America Movil network.

"Our entry into the smart phone category is a logical extension of Dell's consumer product evolution over the past two years," said Ron Garriques, President, Dell Global Consumer Group.

"We are developing smaller and smarter mobile products that enable our customers to take their internet experience out of the home and do the things they want to do whenever and wherever they want."

Details of the phone models will be released when the devices are available in store, which will be late November for China Mobile and around the end of the year for Claro.

The move by Dell will help Google's Android platform become more widely available. Other companies that are backing the Android platform include Motorola, HTC, Verizon, Garmin, LG and Samsung.

--- by ; M. Schoff -----

Read More......

Facebook Highlights Efforts on Disabling Deceptive Ads
Back in July Facebook updated policies for third-party ads on Facebook Platform. The company disabled two entire ad networks and over 100 more apps were suspended or brought into compliance over ad-related violations. Half of those had over a million monthly active users.

Facebook has now disabled two more offer and ad networks, which the company says have repeatedly violated its policies. This has all been part of Facebook's continued action against deceptive ads. The company has addressed its efforts in this area on the company's developer blog.

Nick Gianos"First, deceptive ads are a widespread issue on the Web and one we fight aggressively," says Facebook's Nick Gianos. "This battle is not new and it’s far from over. We faced stimulus scam ads on our own system earlier this year and pushed them off the site with rigorous enforcement. We did the same months later when deceptive ads from third-party ad networks appeared in applications. We’re doing that again now as we see them appear in the form of offers."

"We recognize that monitoring ads isn't the first area of focus for an entrepreneur just getting started with social applications," he says. "That's why ad networks that don’t play by the rules should expect to be our first point of contact in our line of enforcement. Our policies are clear. If you're an ad network and don’t comply with them, you are doing a disservice to your customers, and you should expect your business opportunities on Facebook to cease."

The company emphasizes that it is the responsibility not only of ad networks, but also of developers to make sure content running in third-party apps is appropriate.

---- by; Chris Crum/wpnews -------

Read More......

WebProNews recently covered a study from Chitika, which found that Facebook was the most valuable social media tool for driving repeat readers to content sites. The study was based on 33 million unique users across Chitika's publisher network in September. It compared the number of visitors coming from major traffic sources Digg, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter, to the number of times those visitors came back to the referred site. Visitors that went to a site four or more times in one week were considered loyal users. By a wide margin, Facebook led the pack in providing loyal traffic. 20% of all visitors from Facebook visited the site four or more times per week.
"We've received the most clients from Facebook than any other social media website," a reader commented on the article. "Although we've received slightly more visitors from Digg and Stumbleupon, the viewers have not converted into customers the same way they had through Facebook."

There has certainly been plenty of talk about how Facebook can drive traffic, but clearly there are still a lot of people struggling with just how to go about doing so.

"Why am I not getting this?" another reader asked. "Blogs I've done are boosting my Google, Yahoo, and Bing ratings and getting traffic to my web site, but I'm not getting how Facebok can do this."

Comments like these are not uncommon, and to be fair, this one was made prior to Microsoft's announcement of a deal with Facebook (Google has been rumored to be in talks with Facebook as well).

But not all traffic has to come from search, although Facebook exposure can certainly contribute to that as well, if nothing else, than simply through promotion leading to links.

When a Facebook user frequently checks for status updates, he/she is likely to see new posts made from Facebook Pages he/she is subscribed to. This means creating a Facebook page can have a great effect on page owners. Making readers aware of the page is key as well. Luckily Facebook has a widget called the Fan box, that you can put on your site, which can lead new visitors directly to your Facebook page.

Facebook has also just updated another important widget - the share button. Now it will provide a live count of shares, as well as analytical information. You can find out how people are sharing and engaging with your content, and gain further insight into how your stuff is doing with the Facebook community (and adjust your strategy accordingly).

Traffic is a common goal, but it is not the only one. Going back to the topic at the beginning of this article, brand loyalty is a big one.

A representative for Stuzo Group, one of Facebook's exclusive development partners, shared some interesting case studies with us, looking at how they created branded applications and fan pages for brands like Doritos, Budweiser, Smashbox, and Purina.

"When Stuzo works with these brands, the goals that they have most often in creating these promotions is to increase brand loyalty and recognition, boost traffic to their website, and drive sales," the representative said. "These goals all go hand in hand, and explain why Chitika's study was so valuable; hits to a website are great, but they don't mean much unless they contribute to brand loyalty and positive recognition of the brand." (emphasis added)

A common theme among the case studies provided by Stuzo is that they all present clear objectives for what they want to accomplish with Facebook. For example, Budweiser's were:

1. Create brand awareness through a strong fan base and social channel opt-ins

2. Incentivize users to engage with the brand on a regular basis

3. Convert new customers and drive increase in sales

Budweiser went the route of contests and competitions (which are viral by nature). According to the case study, this has resulted in:

- Hundreds of thousands of Unique Pageviews

- Sustained high level of brand engagement by all measurements

- Significant, continued growth in Budweiser’s Social CRM and social channel opt-ins

Budweiser is just one example of a big brand finding success through social media, and through the use of Facebook in particular. As I recently discussed, you can find new and interesting ways to integrate social media into your own plans by looking at some of the brands you use yourself and how they employ different tools. This helps you to put yourself in the customer's shoes and determine the things that work and the things that don't.


--- by ; Chris Cum - WPNews ----

Read More......

When it comes to SEO, increasing your inbound links is one of the most effective ways to improve your ranking. If you’ve recently launched a new website, or are looking for some advice to get started – here are 5 simple (but effective) link building methods.

1. Internal Linking
One of the easiest methods simply involves linking to relevant pages from other pages on your website. By using content based links, you can control the anchor text of each link to ensure you get the maximum SEO benefit.

2. Directory Submission
Submitting your website to free online directories doesn’t take much time and can be a very effective way to increase your inbound links. Many directories also allow you to write your own title and description which is another chance to include relevant anchor text.

3. Social Media Links
Bookmarking your website across some popular social media sites is another way to ensure you receive a keyword based incoming link. To get you started, here’s a list of some of the more popular sites:

* www.delicious.com
* www.folkd.com
* www.diigo.com
* www.reddit.com
* www.weblinkr.com

4. Article Distribution
Writing informative articles and distributing them online is another powerful link building tactic. Write original articles, keep them to around 500 words and submit them to popular sites like www.ezinearticles.com and www.articlebase.com.

5. Start Writing a Blog
Setup a blog using Wordpress or Blogger and get into the habit if writing one new post per week. Make sure to link to your website using targeted anchor text where possible. Aside from the direct linking benefit, your blog posts might also get syndicated on other sites which will create another incoming link.

If you want to build more incoming links but don’t have the time, you can also consider our new link building service which can help to improve your ranking. To get started, visit our link building page here.

--- by; Matthew Elshaw -----

tags ; home business home business articles search engines strategy finance news pay per click ppc multilevel marketing ptc earnings

Read More......

Yahoo is discontinuing its paid inclusion service, Search Submit. This was revealed at the iProspect/Range Online Media Client Summit on a panel moderated by Danny Sullivan. Sullivan's Search Engine Land received the following statement from Yahoo:

We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit.

We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search retargeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI.

Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

Yahoo told WebProNews at the recent Search Marketing Expo that the company is giving its advertisers more control. In the following interview, Yahoo Director of Product Management David Miller told us that the forthcoming Yahoo/Microsoft deal will open up more innovation for advertisers. He also talks about some things Yahoo currently has going on and will in the near future with regards to giving advertisers greater control.

Miller said that early next year, Yahoo will be launching "network distribution," and advertisers will have the ability to separately bid on campaigns for Yahoo, the partner network, or both. He also discussed a tool (which is currently in beta) that lets advertisers control their accounts while offline.

--- by; Chris crum ----

Read More......

SEO is a race. And in any race learning from your competitors makes you a better runner. Even when you're running first it's sometimes good to look back and check the runner-ups. And if you're not the yellow jersey guy, you absolutely should examine the leaders: their gear, their training, their strategy. In SEO the most interesting thing about your competition are their links.

Whether you like it or not SEO is still pretty much about links. Good link profile can make up for almost any lack of optimized content and other onpage flaws. Love or hate, the best thing you can do about it is embrace the fact and run with it.

So let's go through some tricks that will enable you to look deeper into your competition's link profile granting you access to the restricted areas: their locker room, dirty laundry and even the briefing hall where they plan their link building strategies.

Let's talk competitive link research

Finding out where your competitors' links come from is not all that hard. You just go to Yahoo! or Google and type in link:www.your-competitor.com to get a list of inbound links to the site.

Yahoo's much better in that respect as it tends to give more extensive and accurate data. The problem here is that there's a limit of 1,000 links per website which is often not enough as the fattest link sources get left behind the limit fence. Here're some tips to break through to the other side.

Note: If you're lazy like me skip to the end of the article where I'll share a tool that does it all much quicker.

Trick 1: Search for links to particular web pages of a competing site

Alongside with link:www.your-competitor.com search for link:www.your-competitor.com/products.html or link:www.your-competitor.com/services.html and so on.

Trick 2: Exclude internal links

You may examine the internal linking structure of your competition if you want to gain some insight on their navigation and marketing steps. But as we want to find more external links, let's exclude the internal ones.

You can do this by adding -site:site.com operator to your search query. Type in link:http://www.your-competitor.com -site:your-competitor.com or linkdomain:www.your-competitor.com -site:your-competitor.com"
and you'll get a list of external backlinks only.

There's a dropdown option in Yahoo! site explorer that does the same

Trick 3: Exclude links coming from certain domains

The -site: modifier lets you exclude links coming from specific sites. So, whenever you see a large chunk of links coming from same domain add -site:thisdomain.com modifier to your query and the links from this site will get replaced with new ones.

You can add -site: multiple times in one query so that you have something like this:

Trick 4: Check links coming from certain TLDs

This is a little known trick. The site: modifier actually lets you get a list of links coming from domains with certain TLDs: .com, .org, .edu, .co.uk and so on. Just type in link:http://www.your-competitor.com site:.gov or linkdomain:www.your-competitor.com site:.gov and you'll get a list of .gov sites linking to your rival.

Note: Do this in Yahoo! regular search, not site explorer

Trick 5: Exclude links coming from certain TLDs

This is an even lesser known trick. You can exclude certain tlds from the results with the -site:.tld modifier. Usually the biggest chunk of links comes from .com's so add a -site.com modifier and you'll get lots of new link data.

Trick 6: Use different combinations of the first 5 tricks

Try link:http://www.your-competitor.com/page.html
-site:your-competitor.com -site:.com

Or link:http://www.your-competitor.com site:.org -site:wikipedia.org

Give it a thought and I'm sure you'll come up with lots of your own. Feel free to share your findings in the comments

Trick 7: Use the above 6 tricks in different search engines

Don't limit your searches to Yahoo! and Google, go to AltaVista, Alexa, (Bing doesn't give you link data, so forget about it) but then there're Exalead, Excite and tons of regional search engines. Search them, remove the duplicates and you'll have a goooooooooooooooogol of competitor's links to study.

Note: Some search engines have a different set of operator so you'll need to type domain: instead of link:.

Getting it all done fast

This sure seems like a lot of work and it is. Moreover, getting the links list is only the beginning and the easy part of competitive link research. Once you get the list you need to analyze each link, weed out poor quality sites and only leave the ones you can get a link from. Now THAT's a lot of work.

I'm too lazy to do this all by hand, besides I value my time too much to waste it on such kind of work. That's why I use SEO SpyGlass an advanced link analysis tool that employs all the tricks described in this article (plus some more advanced ones I don't even know) to get up to 25,000 links per domain, which is much, much more than any other tool can get.

SEO SpyGlass also finds all the data I need to analyze the links:

> Google PR of the domain and linking page
> The URL and title of the linking page
> The anchor text and description
> Whether the link is still on the page (sometimes the link gets removed but search engines will think it's there till they reindex the page).
> Whether the link is no-follow or dofollow
> How many other links are on the page

> How much link value the link passes
> And some other data like TLDs, domain age, country, etc.

If you want to do competitive link research seriously I'd strongly recommend trying SEO SpyGlass out. And of course you can always use my tricks whenever you want to run a quick background check on that new guy on your block.

Get more link building advice and SEO software to help you implement it.

--- by Richard Gilmore / Site-Reference -----

Read More......