DNN SEO

Google Aquires DoubleClick But Not The Data?

seo@venexus.com — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:36:00 GMT

On April 13, it was announced the Google was aquiring DoublickClick for a staggering 3.1 billion dollars. This came as quite a surprise to me, remembering all of the uproar in late 1999 and early 2000 about DoubleClick and cookie privacy, originally stemming from the June 1999 announcement of merger between Abacus Direct and DoubleClick. It even led to state and federal governement probes, including by the Federal Trade Commission for DoubleClicks practice of data collection of consumer records for "profiling". All because of a little cookie!

Some may not remember all of that, but I do, and that was the first thing I thought of when I heard about the aquisition. They have many huge clients and mountains of data on consumers who frequent their client websites. Can you imagine all of the data that DoubleClick has been collecting since 1996?

In the Google to Aquire DoubleClick press release, it states:

"The combination of Google and DoubleClick will offer superior tools for targeting, serving and analyzing online ads of all types, significantly benefiting customers and consumers:

For users, the combined company will deliver an improved experience on the web, by increasing the relevancy and the quality of the ads they see. "

How do you provide relevancy for specific markets? In the old days it was just the keywords associated with a market, but with new movements in localization AND profiling of users, you can deliver better search results and "relevancy" by analyzing groups of users in a more defined geographical and demographical fashion. This is "targeting" aka "profiling", which leads to "increasing the relevancy and the quality of the ads they see".

Yesterday there was a new press release concerning the "data ownership":

DOUBLECLICK STATEMENT REGARDING DATA OWNERSHIP

New York, 4/20/2007 - DoubleClick Inc., the premier provider of digital marketing and technology services, issued the following statement regarding data ownership.

Since the announcement of Google’s intention to acquire DoubleClick, several media reports have incorrectly suggested that data collected by the company’s online display advertising technology could be used by Google, or combined with information owned by Google.

This is simply not the case.

Information collected by DoubleClick DART® ad serving technology belongs to DoubleClick’s clients and not to DoubleClick. Any and all information collected by DoubleClick is, and will remain, the property of the company’s clients. Ownership rights, like the other terms of DoubleClick's client contracts, will be unaffected by any acquisition.

Further, Google would not be able to match its search data to the data collected by DoubleClick, as DoubleClick does not have the right to use its clients' data for such purposes.

By contract, DoubleClick has only the limited rights to use data for its aggregate reporting and to disclose data, if so required, to government authorities.

About DoubleClick Inc.
DoubleClick is a provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world's top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick's expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium.

From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. Headquartered in New York, and with 17 offices and development hubs and 15 data centers worldwide, the company employs more than 1200 people and delivers billions of digital communications every day. Learn more at www.doubleclick.com

DoubleClick press contacts:
Elizabeth Crosta, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, 415-596-9585, Elizabeth.crosta@ogilvypr.com

All this tells us is the data collected is property of the DoubleClick's clients. However, "Google would not be able to match its search data to the data collected by DoubleClick, as DoubleClick does not have the right to use its clients' data for such purposes"...yet. It then states "client contracts, will be unaffected by any acquisition", but when will those contracts expire and need updating to reflect Google's ownership and use of the data? How many will volunteer this data? The simple fact is that this aquisition is FOR THE DATA, regardless of any immediate claims that it is not.

Is this a bad thing? In my opinion, No, unless you are one of those privacy nuts. Personally, if a search engine can provide me the most relevant search results and ads for what I am looking for, I will use it regardless if it is Google or one of the other beast. If it needs to filter those results based on my searching habits, by all means do so. If localizing and profiling me by demographics makes the results and ads more relevant, it is all the better.

The only thing I would be nervous about is if somehow Goggle aquired ChoicePoint, an Equifax company. If this ever happens, it would be proof that Google IS evil.

"Ye who dies with the most data wins." - Xfernal

Top 20 U.S. University Sites Trusted by Google

seo@venexus.com — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:43:00 GMT

Alexander Fedrov has posted the top 20 U.S. universities, that have the highest Google “Conditional Trustrank”.

1. uic.edu trust [673]
2. uiowa.edu trust [580]
3. byu.edu trust [564]
4. mit.edu trust [457]
5. loyno.edu trust [428]
6. umn.edu trust [383]
7. uoregon.edu trust [345]
8. ua.edu trust [340]
9. stanford.edu trust [312]
10. ucdavis.edu trust [312]
11. cwru.edu trust [269]
12. vjc.edu trust [263]
13. dongguk.edu trust [245]
14. case.edu trust [239]
15. harvard.edu trust [223]
16. cie.edu trust [210]
17. ucne.edu trust [199]
18. sdsu.edu trust [199]
19. cmu.edu trust [197]
20. sage.edu trust [184]

DNN Search Module Help

seo@venexus.com — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:00:00 GMT

We always seems to have people asking us how to configure or setup the DNN Search core module. Here are some resources that may help:

Introduction To Search Admin
Introduction to the Search Admin page. more...

Set Maximum Word Length
Set the default maximum word length for searches across all sites. more...

Set Minimum Word Length
Set the default minimum word length across all sites. This function is available to Host administrators only. more...

Set Searches To Include Common Words
Set searches to include common words. more...

Set Searches To Include Numbers
Set all searches to include numbers. more...

Re-Index The Searching Content
Re-Index the search content for maximum efficiency. more...

Increase Search Effectiveness
Increases the effectiveness of searches. more...

Add Search Summary To A Module
Add a search summary to a module to help Search Engines index the content of the page. more...

How DNN Search Module Works
A lot of information about the core module. more....

Commercial Search Engine Module
Last but not least, an alternative to DNN Search module. This module is faster and provides better search results than the core module or the one built on the DotLucene Engine.

10 Questions with Answers from 5 Link Development Experts

seo@venexus.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 05:53:00 GMT

I found a great article on link development that has 5 experts from the industry giving their opions and theories on 10 questions:

What are the factors you would take into
account before buying a link from a directly contacted site (not a link
broker or seller)?
In sectors where links are particularly tough to come by (retail, B2B in boring industries, etc.), what are content tactics you’ve taken to appeal to relevant sites in those industries (specific examples would rock)?
What is the current climate with paid links, and how can I navigate the paid links landscape so that I come out smelling like a rose on the other side?
Automating the link acquisition process: How far do you recommend going with it? What are the benefits and pitfalls of automation?
Name 5 specific techniques (queries, tools, process, or starting points) you would use to get links for a statewide real estate agent.
What are the top 3 over-rated and under-rated criteria
for determining how valuable an individual link will potentially be to
your site’s search engine rankings?
If you were in control of the search engine algorithm at Google, what are the top three changes you would make specific to how Google values/counts links?
What’s the most common mistake you see people making in their link building activities?
How do you think that nofollow links and redirected links are treated by the various search engines and do you see any value in obtaining these types of links?
So many people complain about competitors who are ranking solely on reciprocal links. Do you believe reciprocal links still works as a complete strategy or do you believe age, trust and grandfathering (for lack of a better word) are taken into account? How important do you feel age is to a link?

Each of the 5 experts were asked these questions without hearing the answers from the other 4 guys, so it is very interesting reading the differences and similarties of the answers provided.

Five Link Development Experts: A Group Interview

Welcome to DNN SEO!

seo@venexus.com — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 03:19:00 GMT

DNN SEO was created to fill the void in the search engine optimization market for the DotNetNuke content management system. As supporters of the DNN community, DNN SEO will provide the latest search engine, search engine optimization tip, tricks, and observations. We believe it is important for the DNN community to ensure it's longevity by making the web application framework as search engine friendly as possible.

DNN has made great efforts in supporting this movement by adding search engine friendly URLs, URL rewrite abilities within host settings, and xhtml compliant core output code. While this is great, we must continue this effort as administrators and webmaster within our own sites.

As users of DNN, we should ensure our sites utilize these abilities, as well as modify our sites for optimal aggregation and indexing by search engines. By keeping watch of the latest trends in search engine technology, and helping direct the DNN community for best practices in "white hat" seo techniques, we can help the DNN movement.

Simply put, a successful website depends on the search engines for traffic, and by ensuring our DNN wwebsites are search engine friendly, we promote DotNetNuke. With more users of DNN, the better we can make DNN as a platform for the web.

So...welcome to DNN SEO!