The model of using keywords to promote web sites is not as effective as it used to be. Most people will agree that Google has become the dominant search engine on the Internet. However what does Google think about keywords?

In September 2009, Matt Cutts with the Google Search Quality Team posted an article on the Google Webmaster Central Blog entitled Google Doesn't Use Keywords Meta Tag in Web Ranking. So if Google doesn't use keywords, then what do they use? According to the article Google doesn't completely disregard all the meta tag data, however their web search engine primarily focuses on things, such as "links pointing to a web page."

Now how can you generate more links pointing to your web site from other sites. Two suggestions would be to utilize blogs and social media. Through these two mediums, links to your organization's web site can be generated. This can serve several purposes.

Some people have taken on the concept of striving to be an online content expert, also known as a thought leader, for their specific field of expertise by posting regular articles on their blog and spreading the publicity of those articles through social media networks (such as Twitter and Facebook). For more information about one way to do this, read my post about the Open Graph Protocol.

The team at Facebook has created the Open Graph Protocol. Once implemented on a web page it becomes a rich object in a social graph. This can then be used, for example, to turn any web page into a Facebook fan page.

So what does this all mean? Facebook is providing another means of generating publicity for web pages. If a loyal patron to your organization visits your web site and clicks a Facebook "like" button (see my article about the Facebook Like Button for more details), the Open Graph Protocol will interact with the Facebook Like Button and will treat your web page as a Facebook Fan Page. This provides the opportunity to use your loyal patrons to help generate publicity through viral marketing. When that patron clicks the "Like" button it will then be displayed to all their friends that they like your organization's web site. This in turn can lead to their friends visiting your web site to explore the products and/or services your organization offers.

For more information about how the Open Graph Protocol can be implemented on your web site please contact us.

Cyber View has completed transitioning our site to the Rackspace Cloud. We are excited about the new opportunities this will present.

Also, the new version 5 release of CyberStudio (scheduled for late July / early August) will be on the Rackspace Cloud servers as well.

To compare 2009 January to July with 2010 January to July, our hosting expenses are down 37%.

To compare a full year of expenses in 2009 to a predicted 2011, the forecast for our hosting expense should be down approx. 70%.

Thank you Rackspace for being a great web hosting partner.

One of our clients asked us how the Facebook "like" button worked, so we figured we would create a blog post about it.

Facebook has provided a way for their users to share with their friends various things that they "like" including web sites on the Internet. A web site simply adds the Facebook "like" button to the pages of their web site. If a visitor to the site clicks the button, Facebook will be initiated to ask them for their Facebook user account. Then on the visitor's Facebook account, it will indicate on their list of activities (called their "Wall / News Feed") within Facebook that the person "likes" the web site. The friends of that visitor will then be able to see the individual's activity list and the description will provide a link from Facebook to the web site.

Or in other words, it's a way to get people to tell their friends about things they like and provide their friends a way to go find out more information about it. In the end, the visitors to your web site help to advertise for your company/organization.

We use the Facebook "Like" button on our blog - see directly below, under the section "Like It. Tweet It. Buzz It. Digg It."

For more details visit: http://developers.facebook.com/plugins

A company launched back in December 2009, named Square Inc. (www.squareup.com), has figured out a means to let business owners accept credit card payments through their tablet devices (such as an Apple iPad) and smartphone devices (such as Apple iPhones, Android phones, and others). A small device they developed plugs into the headphone jack. Then with the Square software you can accept payments securely. The customer can even provide their signature by signing their name on the device with their finger, plus have a copy of the receipt e-mailed to them. The software further lets the customer specify a tip account, if appropriate. The transaction rates are very competitive and there are currently no set-up fees. This is a really neat device and a very impressive innovation.

We are celebrating Earth Day by going green - both literally and figuratively. As you can see we've changed the blue in our logo to green.

Last year, for Earth Day 2009, we launched a resources page on our site for how small businesses could "go green" in the digital environment (http://www.cyberviewsites.com/green/). On the resources page, you will find tips ranging from reducing travel through virtual meetings to reducing power usage with your computers.

Also, in 2009 we made a pledge to reduce printing documents only when absolutely necessary. Rather than printing a document we now create PDF files of documents and keep and archive. This has proven to reduce printing expenses (both paper and ink). Furthermore, we implemented a method to keep a digital recovery back-up of our documents.

Also, we have a blog post from our SmallBiz SaaS network: http://www.cyberviewsites.com/blog/posts/?pid=28

Connect with us on Twitter, either @cyberview or @smallbizsaas to tell us what you are doing for Earth Day and to "go green" with your business.

Last Spring the Purdue University President's Council (http://www.garofaloglobal.com/pctalentbank/) approached us and asked us to work on a project to help them strengthen the connection with Purdue alumni. The goal was to provide alumni with opportunities to give back to the University through methods besides financial, such as sharing their skills and expertise.

The idea for the President's Council Talent Bank was born. The concept was to provide Purdue faculty, staff, and students a method to "cast" alumni for volunteering roles needed. For example a professor teaching a senior design course could post an opportunity for alumni to volunteer to mentor students on their senior design projects. Another example would be a president of a student organization looking for an alum to be a keynote speaker at an organization dinner/banquet. The "opportunities" are endless through the variety of roles alumni can be cast.

Cyber View's content management system, CyberStudio, is running at the core of the Talent Bank to manage user accounts as well as the opportunities posted. Social media such as Twitter and Adobe Wave were utilized as a means to inform members when new volunteer opportunities have been posted and approved.Cyber View is proud to have worked on this project to help Boilermakers young and wise be able to connect through this on-line system.

The Associated Press published an article on April 6th 2010 entitled "FCC loses key ruling on Internet 'neutrality'" regarding a recent ruling by a federal court on whether or not the FCC can require Internet service providers to provide "equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks."

This is an interesting ruling since it now allows internet service providers to control the traffic usage across their networks and discriminate against specific web sites and content providers. Overall this ruling has put into question the FCC's ability to regulate broadband Internet.

For web designers / developers as well as content providers, this can have a tremendous impact in the coming months and years. Content that we create for our clients, such as building a web site for a local small business, could receive a lower priority going across an internet service provider's network, such as Comcast, AT&T or Verizon Communications. The end-result, in a worst case scenario, could be potential of visitors to web sites becoming frustrated because of the web site's speed. However the issue may not lie in the web site itself being slow, but rather how the visitor's internet service provider is delivering the web site over their network to the visitor.

On the other hand, "broadband providers such as Comcast, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. argue that after spending billions of dollars on their networks, they should be able to sell premium services and manage their systems to prevent certain applications from hogging capacity." Well, you decide.

Here is a link to the full article: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEC_INTERNET_RULES?SITE=MOJOP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Just found a site created by BigSpaceship as a tribute and a collaboration of the dieing art form of web "preloaders," called PrettyLoaded (http://www.prettyloaded.com/). Back in the day of slower Internet connection speeds, preloaders were needed to keep a web visitor occupied will a multimedia application would load. Several were very boring, some were even downright confusing - not really sure how much was left to load - but we all were eager for the loader to reach 100% to then venture on to do what we desired with our visit to the site in the first place. PrettyLoaded is a collection of entertaining (and informative) preloaders that have been used over the years.

Adobe has announced their global online launch event for Adobe Creative Suite 5 to be on April 12th. Be among the first to see the "game-changing" features coming with CS5. The even will last approximately 30 minutes.


Register now at: http://cs5launch.adobe.com

Follow Adobe Creative Suite on Facebook and Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/creativesuite/
http://www.twitter.com/creativesuite/

Cyber View is proud to be an Adobe Solution Partner and a member of the Adobe Partner Connection.

With the continual growth of "social media networks" such as Twitter and Facebook, new mediums of interacting with your customers are now available to business owners of all sizes. However many businesses are attempting to use the "old school" mentality of pushing out information to their customers using this new medium of social media networks. In this case they are missing the boat, to use a metaphor.

The real power with social media is the ability to engage your customers in a two-way conversation. You are able to receive feedback from your customers in real-time. All you have to do is monitor it. Now this doesn't mean that you have to be at your computer 24/7, but you do need to be listening. Tools have been developed, such as CoTweet (recently acquired by ExactTarget), which aid in monitoring the two-way conversations you are having with your customers. Through these conversations it is even possible to engage your most loyal customers as well as your most disgruntled customers.

First of all, what is FourSquare? Well its an on-line social media game that allows individuals to "check-in" to locations they visit using a mobile device (typically needing a data plan with web capabilities). This also provides the ability to keep your closest friends notified of where you are so, for example, you can meet up at a nearby coffee shop. In some ways, it also encourages individuals to get out an explore their communities to gain "badges" - which are awards for being a more active player in FourSquare.

So what does this mean for businesses? The individual who "checks-in" at a location the most frequent will become the FourSquare "Mayor" of that location. Businesses can register with FourSquare and offer discounts to whomever is the current mayor of their business.

For assistance of how to get your business connected with FourSquare and how to market this brand loyalty to your customers, contact us. This technology is quickly becoming a new popular means to interact through the Internet with your most loyal customers.

For more, read the NY Times article: "Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses"