ChaCha.com Secures $6 Million in Private Funding

Remember ChaCha.com? They created a lot of buzz in September of last year when they officially announced their human-powered search engine. They just received 6 million dollars in private finding from the likes of Jeff Bezos, Rod Canion, Jack Gill and others.

Securing Your Brand on Social Networking Sites

With all the social networking sites popping up everywhere, the idea of branding comes to mind. Sure there is the thought of how web sites can draw traffic from social networking sites, even sell product or services but in addition to that, what about protecting your brand before someone else beats you to it? This is especially important with respect to user names and unique URLs.

Disney Joins Social Media Fray

Is this a sign of trends to come? Large companies setting up MySpace types of sites? Disney has now jumped on the social media bandwagon and will launch a new site next week focused on social networking for kids. The site will be similar to MySpace.com but will have parental controls and feature chat and video clips. WebProNews goes on to say that analysts are skeptical about the success of the site despite the strong brand behind it.

What To Look For in a SEO Friendly E-Commerce Application

No matter how the e-commerce site is powered, there are specific features that we look for in order to know if we will have full liberty to optimize the site so that it has the best opportunity to position well in the organic search results. Some applications already have SEO friendly features built in but many do not.

New Year’s Retro Resolutions

I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions as I tend to be the type of person that really doesn’t differentiate one day from the next. Of course there are the really important ones that are special – my wedding anniversary, birthdays of family and friends, tax due dates and of course trash days. Other than these, every day is pretty much the same for me. Therefore why put together a list of resolutions that I may or may not keep? I find myself doing that naturally throughout the year anyway.

WebGuerrilla Exposes the Half Truths of Frogs

Greg Boser (aka WebGuerrilla) doesn’t post often on his blog but when he does, boy does he have something to say. This latest post which refutes the half truths being spread first by Did-it.com’s president, David Pasternack and followed by executive chairman, Kevin Lee, is no exception. Both David and Kevin’s articles attempt to paint a picture that SEO is a dying art while the future is all PPC. Greg exposes their hypocrisy in a most excellent post. I’ll provide a few excerpts below but definitely take some time to read it in its entirety.

All I Want For Christmas Is… – A Search Marketer’s Wish List

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” – uh oh you caught me singing Christmas melodies. It is that time of the year again – faith for some, the gathering of family as well and of course, gift giving. And with gift giving, there is gift getting (receiving). Have you made your wish list yet? I have, at least from a search marketing perspective. Allow me to share what I would like for Christmas this year.

The Unsure Future of DMOZ (Open Directory Project)

It has been widely speculated as of late that the future of DMOZ, also known as The Open Directory or ODP for short, is unsure. Not only has it become increasingly impossible to get a web site listed in DMOZ, the submission form has been broken since October. The reason behind this is that the machine holding DMOZ in AOL ops crashed and they have yet to fix it. Rich Skrenta, DMOZ-founder, gives us some insight into what is going on.

Blogger Tag Game, Tag You’re It! – 5 Unknown Facts About Me

I got tagged so I guess I’m it. I’m referring to a blog tagging game originally started by Jeff Pulver, and archived for the SEO/SEM world at The Blog Tag Tree. The game requires that bloggers share five things about themselves that relatively few people know. Li Evans tagged me so I guess I’ll play. Here are five things that you may or may not know about me.

New Social Networking Site – TickMe

David Naylor (aka DaveN) and his team of programmer have release a new social networking site called TickMe. He describes it as “a bit like Myspace/Faceparty but with more privacy and a dating slant.” How is TickMe different from other social networking sites? David describes it as, “the answer to your greatest social problem – finding out if someone likes you without risk of rejection. Tick someone you know or a random hottie and no-one finds out unless they Tick you back!”