Search Engine Optimization News Blog

People want to work for Google – why?

Universum just released their report which showed that globally, Google is the “most attractive employer”, being ranked number one in the top 50 global businesses and engineering companies categories.  Microsoft wasclose behind, with a second place in engineering and third in business. Apparently being a geek is now the in thing!

So what makes Google so great to work for? Fortune thinks it might be the ‘belly benefits (many new employees are known to put on the ‘Google 15′ shortly after hiring)

At Google it always comes back to the food. Google runs 11 free gourmet cafeterias at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, and offers all its employees free gourmet meals.

In addition to its cafés, Google has snack rooms which contain various cereals, candy, nuts, yogurt, carrots, fresh fruit and other snacks, and dozens of different drinks including soda and make-your-own cappuccino. Says co-founder Sergey Brin: “The cafés have always been pretty healthy, but the snacks are not, and the efforts to fix that have been remarkably challenging.” Though company lore has it that Brin and co-founder Larry Page believe no worker should be more than 150 feet from a food source, clearly not all food is equal. “A lot of people like their M&Ms. But the easy access is actually what’s bad for them,” he says.

Of course, when it comes to America’s new Best Company to Work For, the food is, well, just the appetizer.

Seriously, though, the entire company is still run by the founders, who believe that making it a great palce to work is what makes the company great.

The study surveyed 120,000 students at “top academic institutions”, asking what their ideal company to work for was. Students were included from  the US, Japan, China, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain, Canada and India.

Search Engine Strategies (SES) this time is offering a dual offer helping marketers to save at least $1495. According to this, marketers would be able to attend both the Search Engine Marketing (SEM) training courses that would be held at New York on Thursday, the 5th of November 2009 and also, they would get a Platinum Pass to SES New York that would be held on 23rd to 25th of March 2010. With this pass, marketers would be able to attend the conference sessions, the exhibit hall and also the keynote address.
The SEM training would be held at Downtown Conference Center, 157 William Street and would include workshops on Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC). The program includes one full day session that would be conducted in two parts and two half day sessions. The morning session on the full day workshop would be held between 8:00 am to 12:00 pm and the afternoon session would commence at 1:00 pm and continue until 5:00 pm. These programs would be a great opportunity for the marketers to have discussions with experts in SEO and SEM in a small classroom scenario. The program is geared to educate consultants, marketing professionals, website owners and website designers.
Speaking about why this wonderful package has been offered, the Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group, including Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Watch and ClickZ.com Mr. Matt McGowan has said, “In today’s economy, companies are looking for ways to educate their staff and stay within their shrinking budgets. Given the importance of staying abreast of the latest SEM and SEO trends, we wanted to do our part to continue the learning momentum by offering this cost-effective package. The New York training provides a very hands-on experience and, considering its size and reputation, SES New York provides quite expansive exposure to people, products and services in the entire industry.”
Whatever the reason and intention might be, it is definitely for a good cause and it is going to greatly benefit the marketers who attend these programs. Marketers who are interested in attending the SES program would be able to register online by visiting their official website www.searchenginestrategies.com/training/newyork. The agenda and schedule for the program is also neatly produced their website that can be referred by interested marketers. All the sessions held by experts in SEO and SEM would certainly prove to be a great source of information for the marketers. This knowledge transfer, as always, is going to help them in a great way in implementing the strategies in their businesses. As it has been always in this case, the SEM program organized this time as well is sure to grow up another set of SEO marketers.

After 27th of October, when it is now known that Yahoo and Microsoft have not yet signed the deal, Yahoo has now admitted that it is purposefully delaying the deal with Microsoft because they have come to know about various things that were not disclosed earlier by Microsoft. Earlier, in July, Microsoft and Yahoo had agreed for a deal in which Yahoo Search would be driven by Microsoft’s new search engine Bing. In return, Yahoo agreed to flog search and take care of web advertising for both its own company and for Bing as well.
Based on this prospective discussion, both the companies said that they would have the deal finalized and agree on the final terms by 27th of October. However, according to a filing that has been submitted by Yahoo with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the deal has not yet been signed and there seems to be some serious commotion. In the filing that has been submitted by Yahoo, they have said, “Given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalised”. Resources have revealed that both the companies (Yahoo and Microsoft) are carefully working out the final terms of the agreement and in order to buy some time they have postponed the final dates. However, the postponed dates have not been revealed but they have just said that they would execute the agreements as early as possible. As the answer that has been given by the companies as not very convincing, it is not sure on how the deal would take place.
Resources, by their views, have said that the reason for the delay might have probably arisen from the terms of the agreement that talks about the 10 years commitment between both the companies. In this deal, after Yahoo and Microsoft receive the regulatory approval for the deal in the U.S, they might also have to get the approval from European regulators as well. However, it is not sure on how long it would take European regulators to start working on this deal as it very much depends on how soon they approve the proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle. All these complexities make sure that the deal between Yahoo and Microsoft is going to take a longer time and not in the next few months.
Yahoo, in its statement about the delay has specified as follows, “Given the complex nature of this transaction there remain some issues that need some additional clarity and definitive details. Both companies are optimistic that we will be able to close this deal by early 2010.” However, Microsoft has denied to immediately responding to any of the questions that were raised. Though Yahoo has specified about the optimistic approach of both the companies, it does not seem like there is really any pleasant situation over there.

Delays in the Microsoft / Yahoo agreement make people nervous, remembering the crash and burn of ‘Google-Hoo’ last year. Now the two companies have filed a form 8-K with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. This allows them to extend the time frane required tocomplete the details of their search deal:

On October 28, 2009, Yahoo! Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Yahoo!”), and Microsoft Corporation, a Washington corporation (“Microsoft”), mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute a Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and a License Agreement (the “Definitive Agreements”) reflecting and supplementing the provisions of such agreements as set forth in annexes to their binding letter agreement dated July 29, 2009 (the “Letter Agreement”). The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute Definitive Agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized. The parties are working diligently on finalizing the agreements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible. The Letter Agreement was the subject of a Current Report on Form 8-K filed by Yahoo! on August 4, 2009.

The information in this report shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Yahoo! under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

Will Ying implode like its predecessor, or is this just a normal hitch in a very complicated agreement?

Google has taken the leap of connecting Android and Google  Maps to come up with a great directions tool.

Google demonstrated their new vision for Mobile Maps for the press on Oct 27th at the Google office in Mountain View. The demo, which revealed a new navigational dimension to  Mobile Maps, was performed with Verizon’s new Android 2.0 Motorola ‘Droid’ phone.

Google announced that the turn-by-turn navigation feature for Mobile Maps currently will only work on Android 2.0 smartphones; when queries arose as to whether or when other devices such as the G1, MyTouch3G and other non-Android 2.0 phones will be able to upgrade,  Vic Gundotra (Vice President of Engineering, Google)  said that will be up to the individual Android carriers. According to a separate report, additional types of smartphones should also be able to upgrade and access this  feature from Google.

Gundotra preceded the demonstration by providing background information about Google Mobile Maps; subsequent to its launch in 2005, there have been billions of downloads. Gundotra said that the new feature was added as the navigational function most commonly requested by the nearly fifty million ‘active’ users globally.

This feature, with its potential for  combination with other Google functions (search assets, voice interface and other Maps features) threatens the current kings of GPS navigation – subscription based companies such as Gorman will find it difficult to compete with the free, readily available app.

Users can access the function easily and may search manually or by voice in English on Google Navigation – this is simple given the  Quick Search Box provided on the home screen of Android devices. Users can also carry out regular searches via mobile search, then request turn-by-turn directions to their destination through Google Navigation.