So Barry is in Israel, leaving me in charge. YES! Thankfully, there will be no video this week. ;) I hate video. Now that I'm in charge, what has happened this week? Well, some say it was a slow news week, but today has brought a surprise to us:
Microsoft to Buy Yahoo?
Yahoo's stock was going down yesterday, but not today! Microsoft had bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo in a move that is seemingly shaking the industry. One word: wow.
How Are Your Google AdSense Earnings?
We polled the audience on their January Google AdSense earnings and most people aren't making as much as they used to. Fifty-six percent of respondents (47 voters) report that their earnings have gone down. Twenty-seven percent of respondents (23 voters) report that their earnings have gone up. Seventeen percent (14 voters) say that their earnings have remained the same.
How Much Should SEOs Cost Hourly?
We polled you on your thoughts on how much SEO services should cost. Some people are very expensive. Others, not so much. Forty-seven percent of you said that SEO services should cost $100/hour or less. Here are the other numbers: $150 (15%), $200 (13%), $250 (12%), $300 (4%), $350 (6%), $400 (4%), $500 (6%), $600 or more (7%), and other (3%). What do you think of these findings?
Google Takes Bar Code Print Scanning to the Next Level
At an advertising meetup this past Monday, Google has announced that they are going for TV and print ads and the print ads have a special bar code element to them. According to reports, this is happening in Japan already and is almost mainstream (40% of the time!).
A Mobile Revolution is Coming
Mobile search optimizers, rev up your wheels! Eric Schmidt of Google says that there's a mobile revolution on the horizon. There's a lot of mobile advertising opportunity out there and you should be part of it.
Yahoo's Security Certificate Oops!
Oops! Yahoo accidentally forgot to renew the Yahoo Publisher Network security certificate. It was only "insecure" for a day, but people took notice. Barry says that this is how Yahoo chooses to cut costs. He also says he's kidding.
Yahoo Search January 2008 Update
It appears that the Yahoo January Update is now complete. Results seem stable and nothing is moving around drastically anymore. Cool.
Google Reverses Position 6 Penalty
We've learned this week that the position 6 penalty that we wrote about earlier is being reversed. The confirmation comes from Matt Cutts.
Google Local Wants Ten Results
Wow. So I did a search for a story I wanted to refer to in this paragraph using the site: operator and saw local results! In any event, it's time for Google to acknowledge that there are more than three local results so they've upped the result number to 10. Unfortunately for the company I wanted to research, he's still not there.
Happy 50th Birthday, Lego!
The Lego toy has turned 50 and Google celebrated with a nice logo. Earlier this week, I visited the Google NYC office and there were Legos everywhere. Yum!
Next Week: SphinnCon Israel
Barry is hosting SphinnCon Israel next week and the event is sold out! I won't be there, though, so maybe next time: I hope it's a tremendous success because then I can go to Israel next year! Danny?!
