Archives for the 'News' CategoryStumbleupon Exchanges No More!I know, I have been discussing this to death recently. However this is just a quick update. It looks like at least for now, Digital Point forums no longer allows stumbleupon exchanges. That is quite sad, it really is. I did not hear about this until yesterday but it happened a few days ago. I haven’t done a stumbleupon exchange since my last post about stumbleupon. However, I will move on. It just means I will have to try that much harder to win the hearts and minds of my viewers. The Google Algorithms have Struck Again!
Not only that, but a lot of their current functions (like link:www.domain.com) are on the fritz. What do you Mean? Most of the page rank checkers available to you now are probably on the verge of eating themselves; iwebtool has been acting up for about 4-5 days now as well as many others have suddenly not been able to check for updates anymore as it is forbidden (SEOlogs). There are some which seem to be somewhat working, however it looks like certain data centers are hastily trying to update. A Working Page Rank Checker?!: Thinkblogger has a pagerank checker which seems to be updated and… working?! At least for me. It has been consistent and not spitting out random numbers. Check it out (Thinkbloggers Page Rank Checker) and see if anything has updated for you? Also, if you wish to check a site on multiple data center’s, I’d recommend: SEOCentro. Their’s seems to be somewhat stable, as well. Why so Early?! Last few times, The almighty Google has been spitting out page rank updates about a month quicker than normal. Who knows why they are trying to speed up the process; maybe it is because they wanted to change their algorithms anyway, so they figured now would be a better time as any? link:www.domain.com The link query in Google does not seem to be consistent or even working well right now; it seems to be reporting various numbers at various times. So perhaps it was not the best time to update PR, if that is what they are ‘truly’ doing. Thinkblogger’s back links can Last bit of Words: It is not for certain, however with a certain degree I can say it looks like they are changing their PR. They changed a few of my sites (the changes are not yet active on the toolbar). Back Links have also been somewhat of a vivid topic recently as well, the majority of people claim that their back links fluctuated horribly within the last 4 days, so who knows how accurate this page rank update will be. Final Statement: Watch this just be some kind of weird system hiccup due to the whole link: not working anymore. It just seems weird that something that should only happen 4x yearly happened 1 month after the previous one. It DOES seem a little weird, but maybe the previous one was not supposed to happen (that one was early too). This would have been around the predicted time where the *real* page rank update was supposed to occur. Microsoft Bids Billions on YahooIt was bound to happen: In all of the “Borg”-ness, Microsoft has announced a very bold move to counteract its competitions rising power. Microsoft has put an offer on the table and it has bid on Yahoo; guess for what amount? $44.6 Billion Dollars! Though of course, this is a rather subtle-to-desperate attempt to reclaim their spot on the top while trying to compete with Google. In the past, both Microsoft and Yahoo have struggled to compete with Google’s overpowering marketing tactics and “buzz”. Yahoo has agreed to look over the bid carefully in due time and that it will be discussed on this Friday’s board meeting with Yahoo head’s. What does this mean? Microsoft stated that this sudden merger would be efficient and save them both approximately $1 billion annually, not to mention teaming up to compete promptly against their competition: Google. Both of these companies have struggled with fighting for the top spot against Google, and with their combined software knowledge and marketing power, they could pose a neat little threat. Will it Impact Me? Eh… Probably not. I mean, sure, Microsoft/Yahoo together could be potentially dangerous, but I do not think I could ever abandon Google, despite its almost omniscient dominance as a search engine and advertising network. Perhaps, if Yahoo would get off their butt and expand their advertising program a bit more for its neighbors upstairs (Canada), I would switch my mood *coughs*, but I will not hold my breath. With Google’s current state of dominance and frame set its engraved into both casual viewers and webmasters, I do not think that a merger would be ‘completely’ devastating, though it would help. Questions to You, The Readers: Do you think that if Microsoft/Yahoo would merge, that you would stop using Google? Do you think it could impact the market? The full story was covered in the NYtimes today by Miguel Helft. Some information I left out as it deals more so with stock. Apple? Macbook Air? Nasdaq?What is a Macbook? (sarcasm) I am sure that the majority of us have heard it, but if not then here it is. About mid January, 2008, Apple introduced to the world a new Macbook known as Macbook Air. It is the thinnest laptop ever built with its thickest point being only 0.76 inches. The laptop itself weighs only about 3.0 lbs (and mind you, MY laptop weighs about 9. Its the biggest clunker ever - try walking around with that strapped in a shoulder bag - it is not fun). 
So what does this mean?
We marveled at it. We wanted to pet it. It’s released and Apple has done yet another thing which should have pushed them ahead of the game even more; however, this is not the case. Since the macbook air release, Apple’s stocks have started to fall. This week was Apple’s worst weekly loss since 2005. I will help by buying myself one of these in the future, if not Macbook Pro. Apple predicts the profit for this quarter will steady out and rise to a suitable level once they start selling these new toys of theirs. I hope so too. Financing: According to Yahoo Financing, Apple opened at 139 today and is currently (at this very moment) at 131.87. The stocks are continuing to drop but they will definitely bounce back from this. So for all of you stock buffs, these numbers will start rising soon sometime within the next week or so. | |
It looks like Google is at it again. Their last Page Rank update was somewhere between Jan 10th and 12th, which was rather early for them; now it looks like they are starting to update things yet again.