Blogger, Google’s proprietary publishing platform, saw the release of a new Custom Search Box gadget. This gadget, originally released in Beta form (then called Blogger In Draft), allows for a broader area of focus within a particular search. It accomplishes this by including in searches readers search posts, linked web pages, blog roll blogs, and shared link list pages. AJAX Search API’s allow for the new search gadget to aesthetically blend into any blog and, in addition, will update the custom linked search engine whenever your blog, blog list, or link lists are updated. This will allow for more inclusive yet focused searching.

Posted by Lewis Van Tassel
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Lewis Van Tassel is a Education Manager for Omnistar Affiliate Software and
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The massive online giant Google, in a continuing effort to drive technological innovation, will begin accepting entries in the second round of its Android Developer Challenge. The Android Platform, originally designed by a company with the same name in Palo Alto, CA and purchased by Google in 2005, is a Linux based operating system (OS) designed for use in mobile phones, PDA’s and other mobile devices. Google hopes to strike gold in the form of new applications for use on this platform, and those who submit the best of the best will find themselves on the receiving end of some hefty cash grants totaling nearly two million dollars.

In the spirit of entrepreneurial fair play, Google has decided to open this second challenge to the general public. Google is seeking fun and exciting applications that both make people smile, and are designed by people like you. Beginning in August of this year (final date to be announced), the first round of judging will commence. Individuals running the Android Platform on their mobile device will be able to vote for their favorite applications, of which the top 20 from each category will be selected to move on to the second and final round of judging. The general public will rank these applications from most to least favorite. The community vote will account for 45% of the final vote, with the remaining 55% going to a team of Google selected judges. For more specific information on eligibility and other criteria, please click here.

Posted by Lewis Van Tassel
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Lewis Van Tassel is a Education Manager for Omnistar Affiliate Software and
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Over the course of the next year, ICANN, the board responsible for determining how the internet grows, is going to be introducing a broad variety of new domain name extensions, giving access to new top level domains beyond the common .com, .net, .org, etc. While previous expansions have occured, the new changes are guaranteed to offer an exceedingly large number of domains that previously were not on the market. While at first this seems like a gift to domain name squatters, looking to make money off big companies that want to protect their brand name. This isn’t guaranteed however, and with the sheer number of domains becoming available, it seems almost impossible that there will be any future in domain name squatting.

Domain squatting has become a serious problem, it reared its head recently when President Bush’s library had to re-purchase its domain after failing to renew it. The legal issues at hand are complicated, because while part of the issue is certainly related to intellectual property and trademark protection, thats only half the problem. Companies are not diligent about renewing their domains, and if one expires, it really is their own fault. Either way, the fear, as it relates to these new domains, is that companies will now have to secure dozens, even hundreds of domains in order to protect themselves from sites that use their name and a different extension. This is based on the current model for web traffic, one which is already almost gone. The fact is, while people still type in some domains, search engines are a dominant force in traffic. Because Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! have a vested interest in taking you to legitimate sites, they will be sure to deliver the correct results, rather than squatted sites.

Of course, some large companies will take the initiative to prevent this, but if you are a smaller site, you will have to think of your domain as less important than your name. Indeed, the ability to create new domains actually allows for more companies to choose a site name that is close to their company name. This expansion might actually be good for intellectual property because sites won’t have to invest a great deal of effort in finding a domain they like, they’ll be able to use one of the many new extensions made available to them by the ICANN decision.

This really is the only acceptable path forward for the internet, as the number of available domains has shrunk and the internet has simply grown too large for straight domain browsing to be the dominant source of traffic. In the long run, with the number of sites growing at the rate it has, there will be no reason to worry about a site on a parallel domain, as their traffic will come in from their keywords, not yours, and will therefore be based on that sites individual search engine performance. This decision is good news for everyone and should help provide room for growth and innovation going forward.

Posted by Ian Logsdon.
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Advertising is essential to building an effective and profitable website. If you aren’t selling something, you’ll need to have ads, its one of the few ways to monetize a site. Developing your website’s advertising is a complicated process, because there are a number of ways to advertise on your site, from affiliate programs to Google and Microsoft’s advertising. Choosing and configuring your advertising are both difficult choices, but this article is more about how you can integrate ads into your site without causing distraction. It will take some revisions to get your advertising down pat, so don’t be worried if it takes some practice before your advertising starts to pay off.

The first choice you should make is the amount of advertising you would like to use. It is important to maintain a large amount of content per ad, as your customers are unlikely to want to read through a large amount of advertising. How much is, of course, dependant on how you advertise. For text ads, you can use ads both on the sidebar of your site, the bottom of your site, and within the content of your article. If you use ads both on the side and bottom, you can use a minimal amount within the text of your page itself. As a rule, try to stick to about 20% of a page’s content being ads, this prevents your readers from being overwhelmed.

Using affiliate programs allows you to forward users to purchases they might want to make. Often these come with some sort of syndicated ad, and give you the opportunity to write a review. This means you can have both content and ad revenue generated by such a page. This strategy is also useful for combining different advertising strategies on your site. You can use text ads as well as an affiliate ad on a specific page.

Varying the ads you offer is also important, because if your site is full of identical advertising you will not benefit by spreading advertising around. By using multiple dfferent ads, even through the same service, you will be much more likely to build a more effective advertising system. Along with this, you must make the choice between text based and image based advertising. This decision really has to do with where the ads will be placed. In line advertising is more effective if the ad is text based, but sidebar and footer ads are often better when they are a graphic. Of course, a clever webmaster will find a way to use both on their site. It is not adviseable, however, to use flash based ads that will distract from your sites content.

Finding the right location for your ads is essential, so try different strategies for advertising. Pop-up ads should be avoided, because the spread of pop-up blockers, and the fact that many visitors are offended by pop-up ads. As you try out different ads and services, keep track of what approaches make you money and what works most effectively. As your advertising develops, you will have the capacity to build an excellent revenue system.

Posted by Ian Logsdon.
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