Archive for September, 2006
Local Search Continues To Grow
September 30th, 2006 | 
Author: More data pulled from the latest comScore Search Engine Report shows everyone the secret I learned when I worked at Verizon superpages.com. More people are using local search instead of a telephone book to find goods and services.
63 percent of U.S. Internet users (or approximately 109 million people) performed a local search online in July, a 43-percent increase versus July of 2005.
After all, compare the amount of info you would get if you looked up autos for sale on local.google.com or in the phone book. The phone book would just show some ads with general statements like “We sell the best cars!” local.google.com will provide links to local car dealers web sites where some one can view a map and directions to thier location(s), and perhaps even see some or all of the autos that are actually in stock!
What were they looking for?
59% were searching for a restaurant or other entainment venues
52% were searching for business phone numbers
What did they do after the search?
47% visited a local merchant after searching
41% made contact offline
37% made contact online
How many searches were made in last month alone in America?
More than 849 million local searches conducted in the US in July.
Posted in 
Local Search Led By Google, Yahoo
We shouldn’t be surprised that local search shares by Search Engine mirror the shares of all searches on all Search Engines. Google and Yahoo being almost neck and neck, which is a little different that general search. Still Google and Yahoo are the two most popular Search Engines, both in general search and local search.
Those two Internet players own nearly 60 percent of the local search market, which continues to grow at a strong pace. ComScore networks said 63 percent of US online users, numbering around 109 million people, conducted some type of local search online in July 2006. Their report cited that as a 43 percent increase year over year from July 2005.
Share of Local Searches by Site
July 2006
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Total Internet
Population Total Local Searches:
100%
Google Sites 29.8%
Yahoo! Sites 29.2%
Microsoft Sites 12.3%
Time Warner Network 7.1%
Verizon Communications 6.6%
YellowPages.com 3.9%
Ask Network 2.7%
Local.com 1.9%
InfoSpace Network 1.9%
DexOnline.com 1.4%
All Other 3.2%
Why is local search so important to web site owners? Local search online has started becoming a factor in offline activity. The comScore study said that during the second quarter of 2006, 47 percent of local searchers visited a local merchant as a result of their search behavior, while 41 percent made contact offline. More than one-third (37 percent) made contact online as a result of conducting a local area search.
The Ten Commandments of Web Design
Persoanly I feel like a pirate from “Pirates of the Caribean” when it comes to web design rules. ie; “They’re more like guidelines, actually). Each web site is different, with a different message, goal and auideince. Therefore different approachs , techniques, technologies and guidelines should be used.
But If there were to be 10 commandments of Web Design, the ones written by 33rockers may be the perfect ones.
I don’t want to repreintthe whole article (that would just be rude!) so check out the links above and below. In the mean time here’s highlights to get you interested:
Thou Shalt Respect the Search Engines:
If you want search engine traffic use whole web pages that don’t incorporate frames or large amounts of code unrelated to your content. Also, if you want search traffic, actively cultivate linking relationships with related sites and operate a blog.
Love Thy Surfers and Visitors:
Design for “last year’s” technology so surfers using older computers and slower connections can download your content and use your site quickly and easily. Designing for the “bleeding edge” will only cut into your own profits.
Thou Shalt Not Annoy:
Use only stationary text and graphical layout elements. No Scrolling text, marquees, or large Flash animations of any kind, including those annoying, full-page Flash home pages that say “Skip Intro.” This “eye candy” rarely adds to a site’s main purpose and often causes your visitors to miss something or leave in frustration.
Thou Shalt Not Scroll Sideways:
Design your pages so they never force a visitor to scroll left or right no matter what the resolution settings on their monitor. Sites that read “best viewed at 1024 x 768? really say “look at it my way because I don’t care about your preferences or limitations.”
Anniversery special continues!
We’re still celebrating ten years in business by rolling back our price to what they were the first year Dream Designs by Texx Smith opened shop!
For a limited time, here’s the 10th anniversary Celebration prices:
- 2 Page Brochure site $200
- Premium 5 page web site design – $400
- Premium Plus Flash 5 page web site design – $500
- Premium 12 page web site design – $600
- Premium Plus Flash 12 page web site design – $750
- One years “Bare Bones” web hosting package – $125
I’m sorry but SEO packages aren’t discounted currently because, The directories I have to pay to include your site, the text links I have to purchase, etc, are not rolling back their prices!
More dishonesty from Senators on Net Neutrality
Yet again politicians who have recieved millions in funding from large corporations are try to lie to us and tell us something that is horribly wrong and bad for us is what’s best for us. It’s almost as bad as passing out cigarettes at a grade school. Ok, maybe not that bad, but close. Here’s the story:
“ Ted Stevens thinks we’re stupid. Trying to put this Net Neutrality debate to rest in the Senate, Stevens (R-AK) distributed the results of a “bipartisan” poll indicating that the vast majority of Americans would rather watch more TV than have a neutral Internet.
Neither Stevens nor the pollsters mention that Verizon paid $60,000 for the poll, or that the questions were phrased using classic push-poll tactics.
”
“A rough translation of the questions:
1. Do you like TV?
2. Would you like to watch more TV?
3. Which is better: cheap TV or expensive TV?
4. What if your TV breaks? Would you like someone to fix it?
5. Do you like good TV or bad TV?
6. Put these in order from most important to least important:
a.) helping people stay alive
b.) more TV
c.) healing the blind
d.) slow Internet, less TV, and killing people
Stevens and company interpreted the results to mean that “onerous Net Neutrality regulations” would interfere with the nation’s TV watching and therefore should be put to rest.
”
Read quoted story
College Students oft shrug tradition when choosing school
Annie Allhoff was valedictorian of her high school class, and everyone expected her to apply to Ivy League colleges. Annie, 18, had other ideas.
Annie Allhoff, a freshman at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. used a search engine while she was in high school in Missouri to help choose her college.
“I knew I wanted a small liberal arts school comparable in academics to the Ivy League, but without the name-brand ultracompetitiveness that goes along with Princeton, Harvard and Yale,” she said.
Her mother bought Annie a thick college review book, and Annie visited the counseling center at her high school, in St. Louis. Ultimately, though, an Internet search engine helped Annie narrow her choices.
As the college application process has become increasingly available through the Web, many companies —Princeton Review, the College Board, Kaplan, Thomson Peterson and others — are offering search engines that help students put together a list of colleges to consider. Although some sites purport to calculate a student’s likelihood of winning acceptance, the site Annie used, and similar ones, are like a computer dating service, matching students with potentially compatible colleges.
Annie visited Counselor-O-Matic, offered by Princeton Review. After entering information about the kind of school she was looking for, along with her grades, class rank and SAT scores, the site generated a list that included an institution she had never heard of: Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.
The more Annie researched Pomona, the better a fit she thought it would be. She is now a freshman there.
Read the Full Story at the New York Times