For some strange reason though, Thunderbird- my default email client, warned that the message might be a SCAM .

Needless to say that I was completely shocked, because I have never known Google to send SCAM messages. As a matter of fact Google, just like many other leading web companies, frowns on SCAM.

But you see, I have come to develop a lot of confidence in Thunderbird, ever since it saved me from making a terrible mistake some years ago.

Now, the body of the message read;

We detected irregular activity on your Google AdWords Account.

Please use the link below to verify your account immediately:

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=adwords

Sincerley, Google AdWords

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At this point, I was totally confused.  This was the first time I had ever received anything like this from Google. I then decided to investigate the matter, albeit cautiously, so I proceeded to click on the link..

What happened next left me completely and utterly stupefied- clicking on the link took me to the following  URL, and what I saw there shocked the life out of me.

http://www.google-lg.com/accounts/?ServiceLogin?service=adwords&cd=null&hl=EN&ltmpl=adwords&passive=false&ifr=false&alwf=true
&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fadwords.google.com%2Fselect%2Fgaiaauth%3Fapt%
3DNone%26ugl%3Dtrue

The landing page for that URL was so similar to the actual Google page, that it was almost impossible to notice any  discrepancy at first.

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At this point, as you can imagine, I didn’t know what to think anymore.

Had it not been for the fact that trusty old Thunderbird warned me about the impending doom, I just might have fallen for this SCAM hook, line and sinker.

A closer look at the URL in the address bar revealed all I needed to know about this fraudulent move. Let’s do a very simple comparison;

First of all, the original Google Adwords login URL;

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Next, the pseudo Google Adwords URL;

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1. The first thing you’ll notice is that the domain name “google-lg.com” as seen above is completely different from the “google.com” domain we have all come to be so acquainted with
2. Secondly, the original Google Adwords login page at http://adwords.google.com/ is built over the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)- basically a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with the SSL/TLS protocol to provide encryption over a secure login interface

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In a bid to try to determine the source of this SCAM, and be absolutely certain of my assertions; I  went on to do a whois lookup on the pseudo domain. The results only went to allay my fears;

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Surprise (not so) Surprise! The domain name was actually created this morning

Have you fallen for a similar scam in the past, or maybe you received the same email I did. Share your thoughts below.

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Needless to say that Barack Obama visit to Ghana sparked an unprecedented frenzy in the country.  The air tight security which characterized Friday night and Saturday in the capital- Accra and (arguably) Ghana’s most famous city- Capecoast was a sight to behold, as commercial activity in both cities literally came to a halt as a result of severe road blocks.

The excitement was however not limited to the ground alone. According to the Google Africa Blog, searches for “Obama” increased by 150% in Ghana over the week preceeding the historic visit. By the “D-day”, the figures were up by 350%

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The Tour

In a post by Estelle Akofio-Sowah, country manager for Ghana, on friday July 12- Google announced that they had teamed up with the Ghana Ministry of Toursim to create a “special site” for President Obama’s visit. The Obama visits Ghana website shows “places that President Obama and the First Lady will visit during their trip to Ghana”.

Using Google’s geo products, the site includes a pictorial tour in Google Earth of key landmarks along the historical slave route in Ghana, such as Gwollu in North West Ghana, where people created a refuge from the infamous slave raids. The tour also visits Salaga Market, a major slave market where wells and cemeteries have now been turned into shrines, and the Slave River at Assin Manso, where the slaves had their last bath prior to leaving Africa’s shores. The tour ends at Cape Coast Castle in the Central Region, now a UNESCO World Heritage monument, with the final Doorway of No Return.

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The maps also showed details of Obama’s schedule in the country;
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The Message

The climax of President Obama’s visit (at least to me) was his address to the Parliament of Ghana. The import of the president’s message, amongst other things, being the fact that “Africa’s future is up to Africans“. It would be completely ludicrous to think otherwise.

Growth and democracy is one thing, but until that growth is directly linked to the development of the communities whose welfare the “democratic” process is meant to serve, it remains an excercise in futility.

These steps are about more than growth numbers on a balance sheet. They’re about whether a young person with an education can get a job that supports a family; a farmer can transfer their goods to market; an entrepreneur with a good idea can start a business. It’s about the dignity of work; it’s about the opportunity that must exist for Africans in the 21st century.

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As with all other thing that hugely affects our lives, there have been diverse views on Bing, especially amongst the tech/search savvy crowd, and webmasters in general. Sounds like your regular revolution doesn’t it?

Microsoft’s Bing release has however proved to be more than the average revolution, drawing widespread discourse from literally every corner of the globe, with many scrutinizing Bing, and offering (mostly negative) comments about the Search Engine, almost always in comparison to Google.

Only two days after the official release announcement, Bing had already come under intense fire from “search experts”, with many doubting its ability to compete with, much less “steal” market share from Google- often citing the quality of the Search Engine’s results and speed as the two major reasons.

Two weeks down the road, Bing surprised many including the experts, recording an 11.4% rise in searcher penetration. Bing had already attained a 16.7% searcher penetration and a 12.1% share of search results pages among all US workday searches, according to stats from comscore.com.

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Microsoft Sites’ average daily penetration among U.S. searchers reached 16.7 percent during the work week of June 8-12, up 3 percentage points from the May 25-29 work week prior to Bing’s introduction

These results have however not changed the minds of some who still insist the only way Bing can cause a major upset is if it provides much better search results than Google, the basis of the argument being ;

.. the same or “good enough” probably isn’t enough for Bing to convince too many people to switch from using Google

I for one disagree, and I made it clear in an earlier post on this site that I thought Bing would effectively “terminate” Google’s search dominance, and it definitely wasn’t because of the quality of search results (where Google surpasses Bing I must add).  A comment on that post literally really summarizes my entire view of the competition;

…. Bottom line: more comprehensive results does not mean more usage, at least for me.

Let’s face it, the search results generated by both Google and Bing aren’t that far apart, as such several other factors will be key in the determining the future of the competition between them.

Whilst many experts have focused on search results in trying to determine Bing’s fate, most have ignored a very important factor in market development- BUZZ. It’s quite simple really- the more people talk about a product, the more attention is drawn to that product, and more (and more) people are forced to check it out, if for nothing else to see what all the fuss is about.

Microsoft obviously hasn’t forgotten though- and they have clearly shown that with a series of marketing campaigns which have included a “live Bingathon and fast-forwarding commercials on The Daily Show“- Bing has literally been in everyone’s faces, attracting a huge number of “trial searchers”, which according to compete.com “haven’t produced significant enough volume to impact the established market share of the top engines, which account for more than 12 billion queries”.

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The Buzz and the Competition

Instead of trying to take on Google where they are obviously stronger, Microsoft have rather focused on making Bing more robust- offering users a richer experience- thus making the search engine Exciting »» Interactive »» Engaging !!

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The Strategy

Microsoft has put in a lot of effort in ensuring that they present Bing as a “Decision Engine”- which organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions. As shown below, Bing displays search results, not by order of popularity, but rather organizes them into categories such as best matches, similar results, and related searches.
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Bing essentially appeals to the senses of searchers by providing features which aid the searcher in making a decision, paying particular attention to the areas of key interest to most people- Travel, Health, and Shopping.

Shopping

No doubt one of Bing’s strong points- searching for a product on Bing generates price comparisons, images, and actual user reviews, sorted and grouped to display popular features, and even cash back for that particular product from “hundreds of online retailers”.

Health

Bing does really well with regards to this touchy subject. Bing’s health results pull together information from “top medical sources health sources from all over the world” to provide concise, and accurate results. A search for Malaria for instance, generates the following useful information alongside the actual search results;

• Articles
• Treatment
• Medication
• Causes
• Pregnancy
• Test
• Images

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Travel

Apart from the useful content displayed on the Bing home page, Bing also features a special travel page which searches travel sites to find the best ticket options, offers tools to refine search results, and an impressive price predictor tool which tells you when fares will be cheapest.

Local Search

Bing provides tools that make it easier and quicker to find relevant local content, such as user reviews from local content sites, hours of operation for local businesses, one-click directions, maps and traffic reports. Each local listing in Bing provides a snapshot of information to help you make decisions, along with tools that help you refine local search results based on a number of factors, including rating, distance, type of cuisine, price, etc.

Additionally, Bing Maps lets you easily find, discover and share location information, providing useful tools such as maps and directions and view high-resolution aerial imagery.

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Google Running Scared?

It is quite clear what Microsoft intended to achieve with Bing, and they may well have succeeded. From all indications, Bing’s unexpectedly rapid growth has Google “threatened”.

Last week, the New York post reported that co-founder Sergey Brin is so rattled by the launch of Microsoft’s rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his Web service.

Brin, according to sources inside the tech behemoth, is himself leading the team of search-engine specialists in an effort to determine how Bing’s crucial search algorithm differs from that used by the company he founded in 1998 with Stanford University classmate Larry Page.

New search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but Bing seems to be of particular interest to Sergey,” said one insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity

The move by Brin is unusual, as it is rare these days for the Google founders to have such hands-on involvement in day-to-day operations at the company

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What Really Matters?

Maybe comprehensive search results really don’t translate into usage after all. Microsoft’s strategy has been pretty simple-

1. Create a feature-rich product that makes search a bit more exciting by offering greater usability and interaction.
2. Spend a fortune marketing that product, with the aim of getting people to check it out and experience those rich features
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I guess it’s fair to say the strategy has worked. Bing has since had everyone “lining up” to check it out, including the skeptics, many of whom believed “this Bing thing would be a giant failure”. To be quite honest, after experiencing the features on offer at Bing, you could easily forget about some of the noticeable flaws on the Search Engine.

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Everyone seems to be catching the “Bing fever”. I recently stumbled on this site which allows you compare search results from both Google and Bing in real-time. It features two separate frames which display the Google and Bing search pages side by side as shown below;

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There have already been thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of posts discussing the pros and cons of “Microsoft’s new baby”. So far the pros seem to out-weigh the cons.

As for me, I am loving it already, and it’s not just for the value added features (which are quite impressive I must add), but what it ultimately brings to the world of search, especially in relation to Google. I have never hidden my distaste for Google’s Search dominance, and I definitely am not about to start now.

Don’t get me wrong, most of my website’s traffic comes from Google, but I have never been a fan of “monopoly”- which is what Search was slowly becoming before the release of Bing- a release which threatens this dominance outright.

As a matter of fact, there have been suggestions that “perhaps Google’s Search dominance may well be over”, and these speculations might not be far-fetched after all.

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Not everyone agrees though

Google’s Matt Cutts recently took Bing on over the quality of their search results, in this Tweeting session. I’m gonna be borrowing a bit. Hope you don’t mind Chris;

Matt Cutts: Congrats to @bing on the launch! Sad to see this not-so-relevant result at #4 for [matt cutts] though: http://bit.ly/4a8Q1Y

Bing: @mattcutts anytime you want to give feedback to @bing, we’re here. I’m sitting with the devs at present. ^betsy

Bing: @mattcutts I know you are disappointed in ego search stuff tonight w/ @bing, but try ‘mtv movie awards 2009′ and see what you get. ^ba

Matt Cutts: Ouch. The #5 Bing result for [matt cutts] is spammy too: http://bit.ly/B2r5F It’s a YouTube->WordPress autogenerated blog.

Matt Cutts: @bing okay. First web result was from 2008 instead of 2009, even with 2009 in query: http://bit.ly/SToK1 . Google nails it.

Matt Cutts: @bing but doesn’t it bother you that [mtv movie awards] on Google gives great news results and 2009 url, but w/Bing I only see 2008, 2007, ?

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You can imagine what my “initial” impressions were now, can’t you? Yeah yeah yeah, Matt Cutts is simply trying to make Google look good, after all, as Chris rightly said: “He is practically the posterboy for Google, at least among the search and tech savvy crowd”, but after talking to some other people to get their opinions on this, I got a couple in the affirmative of Matt’s assertions. Here’s just one;

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Admittedly, after playing around with the tool above, I had to succumb to my pal’s views on Bing. That, for now (I think) is Google’s most powerful asset- something Bing would seriously have to work on if they want to “offer users a more refined search experience capable of satisfying queries more quickly than any rival search engine”, and have any chance of achieving this “hostile take-over”.

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Marketing Strategy or Last Ditch Survival Attempt

Google’s recent actions seem to suggest that perhaps even they feel threatened by the “new kid on the block”. Can’t help wondering if this was a perfectly executed marketing strategy aimed at keeping them ahead of the game, or just a last ditch attempt to stuff the wind out of Bing’s sails.

With recent unfolding of events,  I am tempted to incline my thoughts toward the latter. Matt Cutts’ “show-down” with Bing’s Betsy surely hasn’t done much to reduce my supsicion.

Danny Sullivan, however insists Google will stay strong Despite Bing and Yahoo. According to him,

Just because a product — toothpaste, laundry detergent, whatever — calls itself  “new and improved” does not mean consumers will abandon a brand that they already use and like. Microsoft’s new search engine Bing faces this same challenge in taking on Google. Google’s not broken; people like it, and there’s no compelling reason for them to switch to Bing, much less the more established Yahoo.

I beg to differ. Danny is a well known and hugely respected authority on all things search, and much as I hate to disagree with him, I just have to.

Also, if this article is anything to go by, Google’s dominance might indeed be coming to an end. According to this, “One News Page talked to more than 1,000 people, and 55 percent of them supposedly said that they could see themselves replacing Google with Bing as their main search engine”.

90% said they could be using the expression ‘to Bing it’ as a metaphor for conducting an internet search.

People have often registered their displeasure at Google in the past, the most memorable for me being shortly after their latest Page Rank update, which saw many sites (including ours) lose PR.

The fact of the matter in my opinion is that webmasters are just sick and tired of literally having the fates of their sites in the hands of the “almighty” Google.

Truth be told, no one likes to be controlled by the “whims and caprices” of another, a situation brought about by Google’s dominance over the years. Perhaps all that’s about to change? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Okay. I’ve said my bit, now let’s hear what you have to say.

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If a site takes so long to load that Googlebot can’t get a copy of it, then that would have an effect on your site, because your site is essentially timing out.

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Matt’s comments towards the latter part of this video however express an opinion which  I personally share- Whilst focusing on your site’s rankings, it is extremely easy to forget the main reason why you put it up in the first place- The User!

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User Experience

Your site’s visitors should be your topmost priority. I mean, where’s the sense in ranking 1st for all your target Keywords, if a visitor comes to your site, only for them to leave the next second, wishing they never did?

Matt was precise with his latter comments, and I totally agree. I mean,  Google will always be there, but your visitors….. well, you would have to decide whether or not they will.

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Most people tend to focus more on Link Building. Of course you can’t blame them- as it is a well known fact that Google’s ranking algorithm (Page Rank or PR as it is now widely known as) places a lot of value on the number of inbound links to a site.

The down side to this however is that in the pursuit of PR glory, SEO’s often neglect some other vital and equally important aspects of Search Marketing.

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What am I talking about?

Content, Content, Content!!!

This just CANNOT be overemphasized, and has been debated over and over again by many pundits, some playing down the significance of content vis-à-vis links and PR, but the truth remains that “Content Is Still King”.

“Some webmasters are strong proponents of non-content SEO strategies. These technical experts rely very heavily on meta-title and other HTML or code-based SEO strategies for sites that are less content oriented.”

“Purists on both sides of the argument will say their approach is far superior to the other.”

I don’t belong to either. I am an advocate for both, as I have even
seen a PR 3 site outrank a PR 6 site for relative keywords.

Don’t worry, this isn’t just another “Content Is King” article (so you can wipe that smirk off your face now). Urr Umm!! Where was I? Ah yes! Content;

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So what is it that makes content so special?

What most people often seem to forget is that “Search Engines” as their name implies, were originally designed to help people find what they are searching for on a world wide web containing large volumes of information.

Naturally, any, and indeed all kinds of services are actually meant to solve a problem

Google, Yahoo, AOL, Ask, and the rest exist for the sole purpose of solving the problem of narrowing what would have otherwise been a daunting task of searching through the millions, billions, and possibly trillions of pages which exist on the web.

To effectively do this, these Search Engines maintain huge, categorized databases of World Wide Websites, classified according to the information contained in the pages which make up each of these sites. The job of the site owner, then becomes the (not so) simple and straightfoward task of;

providing as much information as possible about their sites to the Search Engines

This normally begins with optimizing the meta (title, keyword, and description) tags of each web page, all the way through to submitting the site’s pages to the Search Engines for indexing. Then comes the undending process of searching for quality inbound links to build the highly coveted PR, which most webmasters embark on- completey forgetting about their site’s content.

Needless to say this is a completely bad move, as Search Engines, like humans, are highly attracted to “Fresh Content”

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So How do you keep you site content “Fresh”?

The general idea is to keep the Search Engines updated with changes made to your website as much as possible. Most Search Engines allow you submit your site’s content for free, though it sometimes takes forever to have them indexed.

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Your Secret Weapon

Your Site Map, like a physical map, provides information about your website’s content. According to Wikipedia;

“A site map (or sitemap) is a representation of the architecture of a web site. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on a web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site”.

There are mainly two kinds of SiteMaps, an XHTML Site Map meant for human visitors, and an XML Site Map for Search Engine robots. Most Search Engines, like Google for instance allow you submit an XML Site Map for your website.

Your Site Map, however, isn’t just a tool for providing information about your site, but is also a “Secret Weapon” for keeping your site’s content fresh.

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How So?

A standard XML Site Map has the following format;

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
   <url>
      <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
      <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>
      <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
      <priority>0.8</priority>
   </url>
</urlset>

The <urlset> tag encapsulates the file and references the current protocol standard.

The <url>is the parent tag for each URL entry. The remaining tags are children of this tag.

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The other tags basically provide additional information about each individual <url> entry.

The <loc> tag represents the URL of the page. This URL must begin with the protocol (such as http) and end with a trailing slash, if your web server requires it. This value must be less than 2,048 characters.

The <lastmod> represents the date of last modification of the file. This date should be in W3C Datetime format. This format allows you to omit the time portion, if desired, and use YYYY-MM-DD.

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Using a SiteMap, updating the information Google (for instance) has about your website is completely seamless. You simply change the value of the <lastmod> tag whenever a particular page has been modified, and resubmit your SiteMap with Google’s Webmaster Tools. This tells Googlebot that the page was modified on
<lastmod>this date</lastmod>

You would notice that content submitted in this manner are re-indexed
much faster than the regular manual submissions.

This techinque is particularly useful for Site’s such as blogs whose content are updated regularly, as well as sites which broadcast RSS feeds. Google’s Webmaster Tools provides additional options, such as submitting an RSS SiteMap for your Website.

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The official release of Google’s all new Search Wiki marks the end of Page Ranking as we know it. Basically, Search wiki allows users personalize their search results, meaning- users now have a way to; “customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results“.

The effect of this on SEO need not even be mentioned. Search Wiki has introduced a new dimension to Search Engine Marketing, which essentially downplays the importance of SEO’s- with regard to SERP, as Search Engine Marketing has more or less shifted from just getting good rankings with SE’s, to brand marketing as a whole.

As Google’s Matt Cutts puts it,

SEOs are starting to embrace the fact that they are marketers. It’s a broader spectrum. You have to think about how you build buzz, how do you get loyal customers, how do you optimize your ROI. All those different things and that can include how do I make good videos, do I have a book, things like that.

So is page ranking officially “Dead”? Maybe not quite …….  according to Cutts;

I’m not sure I would say ranking is dead but it’s not as important as it used to be. The fact is the smart SEOs are not just necessarily looking at the rankings. They are looking at conversion, they are looking at their server log. It’s great if you’re ranking for a phrase but unless that leads to sales that doesn’t help you very much.

According to the Google Blog, the changes you make only affect your own searches. But SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can also see how the community has collectively edited the search result.

Quoting Cedric Dupont, Product Manager, and Corin Anderson, Software Engineer,

This new feature is an example of how search is becoming increasingly dynamic, giving people tools that make search even more useful to them in their daily lives. We have been testing bits and pieces of SearchWiki for some time through live experiments, and we incorporated much of our learnings into this release. We are constantly striving to improve our users’ search experience, and this is yet another step along the way.

Well folks, that’s just a brief picture of the new face of SEO in 2009. There are also other things worth mentioning though, such as googlebot’s new ability to index flash and video content.