This Issue's Focus:
1. Another Search Engine On The Brinks?
2. Microsoft XP Changes the Rules
3. SPIDERtel Online Search Engine Resources
4. What’s Your Resolution?
5. And More Marketing Resources Online
6. Yahoo Opens Up Used Doors For Companies
7. Free Web Marketing Articles
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1. Another Search Engine On The Brinks?
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Excite.com, whose parent company Excite@Home is liquidating assets to salvage its dire financial position, is reportedly looking for a new home as well. Excite, which currently maintains its own database of listings, along with top listings from the paid placement engine, FindWhat, is looking to be bought and separated from its parent.
In lieu of such a deal, Excite may abandon its own database and become another search engine shell. We have already seen this happen to both Go.com and NBCi.com, as the costs of maintaining their own search listings and portal services could no longer be justified. In this event, Excite will likely display all the listings from FindWhat and other engines where they will be compensated with advertising revenues.
Once again, it pays for web marketers to not play favorites with any one search engine. Understanding that the sources for search engine listings change monthly with at least one of the major search engines is critical to long term success in getting your listing found.
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2. Microsoft XP Changes the Rules
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It’s that time again. Every two years, the benign non-monopoly software king comes out with a new Operating System and Office Suite that is supposed to change our lives. The changes have rarely lived up to the press, but this time, it’s definitely newsworthy. Two of the many major changes are especially worth mentioning:
First, Microsoft unveils Passport, the gateway to a new suite of subscription based services which will help transform Microsoft from a software manufacturer into a service provider. Passport desires to collect your personal information and make it available to similar service providers around the world. In theory, the data you submit is secure and private. However, the arrangements with the partner providers are sure to change over time, opening up the possibility for use of the data in ways that were not originally forecast.
Another change is sure to add to the costs and frustration of all businesses and consumers. That is: the new software comes with a tight limitation on how many times the software can be installed on a single computer. All software must be registered with Microsoft after a number of uses, making it virtually impossible to load on more than one computer. So, it will not be possible to have a copy of software on both your desktop and, for example, your laptop. You would have to buy two copies of software to make this happen. Worse yet, if for some reason, you have to reinstall software due to say hardware changes, you may find that it will be blocked after the third installation.
I will personally delay our company’s transition to this next generation of software until the benefits clearly outweigh the disadvantages.
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3. SPIDERtel Online Search Engine Resources
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We’ve posted some free helpful resources on our web site to assist in your search engine optimization efforts. The challenge of gaining exposure for your web site in the search engines is both eased and complicated by payment programs offered by several companies, some of which are quite economical. Staying current with the new and changing opportunities is essential to reaching your target market.
The new resources can be found on our web site at http://www.spidertel.com/services/search-engines. You’ll find a concise breakdown of the major search engines, which databases they are fed from, current payment programs and tips for perfecting your directory submissions.
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4. What’s Your Resolution?
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For those of us with big monitors and clear eye site, the resolution that we use on our monitor (the number of pixels we see on our screen) is usually 800 x 600 or larger. In fact over fifty percent of all monitors are set to a 800 x 600 screen resolution, with another 40% at resolutions much higher. Just 10% of all monitors are set to the smallest resolution of 640 x 480.
So, what does this mean, and why is it important to web marketers?
The resolution of the screen defines how much of your web page can be seen at a time. If your web page is wider than the screen resolution width, you will force a viewer to scroll from left to right, a feature that will likely encourage visitors to promptly leave your web site. With 90% of the viewers seeing at least an 800 pixel wide screen, is it time to design web pages that are 800 pixels wide, and abandon the more constrictive 640 wide format?
Possibly. However, we must also consider another point. The screen resolution simply defines the maximum limits of the width of the visible page. The actual viewing limit of a web site is dependent on the size of the browser window. As we all know, our browser windows can be adjusted to just about any size we want. Consequently, many browsers opened in an 800 wide pixel window will show far less than 800 pixels.
The percentage of viewers who benefit from web pages designed under an 800 pixel width is impossible to know. For our own development, we assume that at least 30 percent of our viewers fall into the less than 800 pixel category and, therefore, we continue to design with this constraint in mind.
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5. And More Marketing Resources Online
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In addition to the search engine optimization resources (described above), we’ve also added a new Affiliate Marketing / Shopping summary resource to our web site. It can be found at http://www.spidertel.com/services/marketing. We’ve posted a short but growing page containing selected information for small and medium sized businesses on what web sites are offering effective shopping cart, affiliate and other promotion services, including current pricing.
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6. Yahoo Opens Up Used Doors For Companies
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Yahoo is in the process of modifying its shopping portal to include an area for the sale of used and overstocked products. This new area is called Yahoo! Warehouse and will allow companies to add postings for used equipment and excess inventory. As with its current store structure, Yahoo will make a percentage off the sale of any item.
Given Yahoo’s exposure and reach, this new feature could make a great deal of (economic) sense for companies with hard to sell durable goods. We will update our web site with cost information as soon as it becomes available.
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7. Free Web Marketing Articles
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We have published several articles on Web Site Marketing, available on our web site at
http://www.spidertel.com/tools/articles. We have devoted an entire section of articles to a year-long series on effective Internet marketing. These SPIDERtel articles are being published in a business magazine throughout 2001 and each month we will post our latest installment on our web site. Be sure to check back next month.
