Kolkata Bloggers Meet 2009

Kolkata Blogger Meet is scheduled to be held on the 8th of August, 2009. The very fact that this is the first of its type to be held in Kolkata excites me. I expect to meet lot of my friends here who have established themselves as great seo guys.

I do hope that this comes out to be one of the many initiatives that we plan for the future.

All the best to the Coordinators. Will update my blog and Twitter with the conversations.

Read More

Is Youtube worth its brand ?

Is Google Earning or Losing Money with YouTube?

Analysts, reporters and other spectators keep on brining up the issue of how much money Google is actually losing on YouTube? Or whether they can afford it or not? But it seems that the lingering question that mostly affects the Internet marketers is that – what will happen if Google actually admits that they cannot afford it? If you are using YouTube as a marketing platform then should you be worried? Well, to think about it, no one actually knows how much YouTube costs Google or the exact amount of the revenue that it brings in.

Considering the overall cost, which includes the cost of storage, servers and bandwidth for streaming huge amount of video files over the Web, it is likely that YouTube costs Google more than they had expected when it started off. On the other hand, in case of the popularity of YouTube among worldwide video watchers has exactly been what Google had expected. But, Google has overlooked the fact that YouTube would also appeal to the advertisers, whose money equivalents the costs. Advertisers generally have been keener on getting their ads side-by-side with a service showing Hollywood videos rather than getting it placed on the sides of amateur contents.

Despite the fact that they have not yet found out the right formula, Google, however continues to squeeze in its offering. But the question is how long Google will be able to support this loss? Will they continue to bear the cost until they find the right formula? Google, as most people believe can afford to lose this amount of money for a while. But what nobody knows is that whether the company is ready to do it or not.

YouTube apparently seemed to be a huge advertising success – at least that’s what most people, including Google expected, as videos are probably the most popular form of media. On top of that YouTube offers to host videos for absolutely free. So, the question is what could probably resist the advertisers from getting tempted? Whatever the reason maybe, it seems that advertisers have indeed made YouTube a huge disappointment for Google.

On the contrast listing off other free content plays like Gmail, Google Docs and the upcoming Google Wave has never occurred in anybodies mind so far. Actually they were never expected to disappoint Google.

If Google remains a bit more patient and change its attitude about YouTube, then in the long-run the company can emerge as the leader in video and eventually figure out a way to utilize YouTube as the ideal advertising platform and also find out a way to make money out of it.

So, if you use YouTube for marketing purpose, don’t worry! Keep yourself focused and continue to do so. For backup, you can always post your videos to Vimeo and other sites – just incase.

Shoot your queries to SEO Kolkata

Read More

All New Yahoo Homepage

Yahoo doing more research to attract visitors

After months of speculations and wait, finally the new and improved Yahoo Homepage for the web users was launched two days ago. It is something that web users have been waiting for quite a long time now. However, Yahoo announced that for the time being, the site will have both the old and new homepage and will probably be featuring an opt-in choice for interested users.
The new homepage is by far much neater and less cluttered as it consists of lesser buttons and modules. Not only that, even the search option on the page seems to be more prominent. Search, in the new design has been integrated into the other parts of the page making it more visible.

Unlike the older homepage, the left column of Yahoo properties, which was a static list, now, has been modified into a customizable menu that transforms into an RSS reader or a dashboard. In the new design, users will also be benefited with the option of adding or removing applications to and from their Yahoo homepages according to their preferences. Even when Yahoo has created a wide variety of widgets to be launched, users are allowed to add any third-party site that has RSS feed capabilities. This has open up a whole new horizon for third-party developers, as they can now add their own created applications to the gallery.

Yahoo executive, Tapan Bhat stated that the company will recommend widgets to the users on the basis of their individual browsing and click-stream behavior. Adding and removing applications from the homepage is not only simple but can be done with just one single click. For example, when a user takes the mouse over the “My Favorites” application, a new window will open, which will not only allow him to see the site but will allow him to view the content as well.

On the right hand side of the window, a new and relevant (contextually) ad unit is placed, which can be used to target the content of the page itself. Yahoo, while explaining this feature gave the example of a movie opening targeting users who look up for movie show times from one of Yahoo’s native movies application.

The new sliding fun-to-serious scale is one of the many amazing and useful features that have been added to the new homepage. This feature will help users to adjust the news they view on their personalized Yahoo homepage. Yahoo further plans to start off with a new look and feel for search results that will inform users about the latest happenings on the homepage itself.
However, U.S web users will be first ones to experience the new Yahoo homepage, as it is about to be released first across U.S and then in UK, India, France and other countries respectively.

Please ask your question to SEO Kolkata

Read More