Google

While we’ve remarked before that Google is blind, it turns out that the search behemoth is not satisfied with this handicap and foresees a future where the engine is able to algorithmically ascertain an images identity based on similar images in its database. Freaky, huh?

Search Engine Journal covered the story, which links up to a TechCrunch article with both more information on the research as well as the originating PDF.

While there are a few jabs at how “SEOs” will need to begin optimizing graphically optimizing images, the further implications are really much more sophisticated than what we expect from traditional search. After all, it’s only a few leaps from being able to algorithmically understand images to being able to do the same for videos, and tapping into the vast resources of images on the web that are currently NOT optimized for search opens up some really interesting doors.

Does it mean anything to you now? Not really. Just prepare to be embarrassed when your alt text bears no resemblance to the image it portrays… and Google gets smart enough to catch you!

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all announced this morning that they’re supporting an addition to the Sitemaps protocol that makes it easier for site owners with multiple subdomains to manage sitemap files.

In the past, you were forced to maintain an XML sitemap in the same domain as the domain which it referred to. i.e. www.hallme.com would have a sitemap for this domain, and blog.hallme.com would also need its own sitemap hosted on its own domain. There was no way to specify that we wanted blog.hallme.com to have a sitemap hosted on www.hallme.com, nor could we for www.hallblog.com.

For most site owners, this isn’t much of an issue, but if your business consists of multiple web properties, or many subdomains, the management of the sitemaps protocol could be quite a chore! (Imagine a scalable CMS such as wordpress.com).

The update makes life a lot easier for webmasters in these situations. Now, you can host all of your sitemaps for multiple domains at a single domain, and then use your robots.txt file to point search engines to the location of the correct sitemap.

So let’s say we want www.masterdomain.com to have the sitemap for subdomain.masterdomain.com. All you need to do is add the following line to the robots.txt file on subdomain.masterdomain.com:

Sitemap: http://www.masterdomain.com/sitemaps/subdomain.masterdomain.xml

On the same token, www.masterdomainblog.com could have this line added to the robots.txt:

Sitemap: http://www.masterdomain.com/sitemaps/masterdomainblog.xml

For the average small business, this is an interesting, if useless feature, but for businesses spanning multiple web properties, with subdomains, or for businesses like ourselves who manage sitemaps for hundreds of clients, the new update is welcome news indeed!

Search Engine Land featured a great article this week “Building a Company with Social Media” discussing the ways Senior Level Executives, Marketing, Public Relations, and HR Personnel can use social media to meet their professional objectives. Here’s a quick recap:

Senior Level - Top executives tend to be thought leaders. Utilizing a blog to promote those thoughts can be a very powerful tool in several respects. Not only does a blog run by a top exec bring insider knowledge to the common folk, but it also brings a human element to a company. Randy Baseler, VP of Marketing at Boeing Airline has a public blog where he writes about everything from Aviation news, safety to his european vacation.

Marketing - Marketing executives are hired to get the word out. In the last 10 years, marketing has seen a huge shift from print publications to online marketing. Through the use of social new sharing sites such as Digg, Reddit, and Propeller, marketers are able to get new content out to the public immediately and have it devoured by the tens of thousands of news seekers using these social news sharing sites.

Public Relations - Online Reputation management is a means of monitoring what customers, past clients and prospective clients are saying about a company or brand online. With the  help of online search tools like Google Blog Search and Technorati, PR execs are able to search for online references, good and bad about their product and be proactive about the negative comments

HR -  Human Resources professionals using social media sites, like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, are able to tap into their extended network of friends, co-workers and business associates to find qualified job candidates. The best part about this type of contact, it comes with a built in referral from someone you know and trust.

Whether you are a small business or belong to a large corporation, using social media to expand your business, your brand, and your authority is a cost effective way to make a mark for yourself.

As the end of 2007 approaches it seems like a perfect time to recap our most popular and commented blog posts:
7. More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Linking

How much are certain links worth? Are directories valid? Should you pay for links? How do you measure your linking success?

6. Microsoft Jumps in the Ad Company Buyer’s Club

Now Microsoft jumps to prove they’re not out of the online advertising game with a whopping $6 billion purchase of aQuantive in a move to expand their breadth of paid opportunities on web sites, Internet television, video on demand, and other places online.

5. The Human Element of Search

Take a look at your homepage. What does it say? Does it give you a clear sense of personality… say, clean-cut professional, serious business or funky casual?

4. What Happened to my Google Page Rank - SEO Audio

Were you one of the thousands of web site owners crying foul this week? Or maybe you hardly know what a PageRank is, but want to know the kind of thing that gets bloggers from coast-to-coast, time zone to time zone gossiping and ganging up on Google

3. Blogging your way to The Top of the Search Engines in Minutes

Although Google’s search ranking methods are usually shrouded in mystery, we can assume from these two examples, that Google may be using its Blog Search feature in collaboration with its general search to retrieve the most up-to-date information on any given topic.

2. Is Your Website Ready for Cyber-Monday?

With online holiday sales expected to hit 39 Billion dollars, it is essential to make sure your e-commerce site is in tip top shape.

1. Thinking about Buying or Selling Paid Links? Think Again…

Webmasters have been aggravated for weeks because of Google’s more aggressive policy, with most of the drops in PageRank a few weeks ago blamed on a penalty to sites perceived as buying or selling paid links.