Whew this month was a hell of a ride wasn’t it? I think May is enough to get us all hyped up for the next couple of months. We got an answer engine who looks promising, a “bling” search engine on the way, and a new real-time communication & collaboration product from the Big G!

New Competitors on the Rise

Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com)

Last May 16th, Wolram Alpha was released. There was so much hype about it becoming the next Google Competitor. It still has some search errors but definitely a promising “answer-engine”. After its release, we’ve seen a mixture of reactions. Before it’s release everybody seemed to have anticipated it to be the next Google contender but unfortunately Wolfram found a niche of its own (or so I think it has). Matt Asay has an interesting say on Wolfram and its architecture of failure. While Rafe Needleman is quite positive that Wolfram Alpha Does What Google Can’t. What’s your take on this people, let me know your judgment.

Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com/)

Santosh Jayaram, Twitter’s Vice-President, has announced that Twitter Search will soon be able to crawl links posted on the site as well as index the content pages which may result to their own ranking system. So real time search plus ranking system will definitely put Twitter Search on a spot against Google (in some way I think).

Microsoft’s New Bing!!! (http://www.bing.com/)

Windows Live Search initially announced that they will be releasing a new search engine under the brand name, Kumo (which in Japanese means “cloud” or “spider”). Read the rest of this entry »

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So while I was busy lining up topics to cope with the long absence of blog posts and coming up with both offline and online marketing strategies for client sites, I stumbled on a blog post by Tom Gara, Is SEO our Friend? Enemy? Frenemy? Well it really got my attention when he said:

SEO is the bad guy here. It is the reason that you can rarely find what you want on “commercial” google searches.

What you really want when you type “computer stores in Dubai” is to find a great blog post or newspaper article, written by somebody who knows and cares, listing the city’s best computer stores. Sure, someone like CompuMe or Jumbo Electronics could spend more money on getting to the front page, but then, so can anyone, including some random page of googlebait whose entire business model is to get clicks from google searches and surround useless information with ads. “

Google rocks when it comes to factual information (finding a company website or wikipedia entry or whatever), but type in “boutique hotel in Hong Kong” or “cheapest flights from Dubai to London” and you will get page after page of spam – spam that has been well optimised to make it to the front page of google search results.

Of course, I had to leave a comment to somehow defend my profession but I felt like that wasn’t enough. So here’s my take on Tom’s article. Read the rest of this entry »

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While purchasing Gatorade, at our nearest supermarket, to sober up on a Friday morning, I saw this headline on the newspaper stand: “UAE laws translated into English, online soon”

I knew TheNational has its wonderful website and so I found the article online.

That’s great! Isn’t it. The government is setting a firm foundation on transparency and what better way than to do it online. Even better, Mr. Abdulla al Majid, Adviser of Abu Dhabi’s Ministry of Justice has stated: 

“The best feature about this is the search engine which allows you to find even one word amid a sea of legal documents. That changes the face of research for academics, lawyers, judges, businesses and the public. You can imagine the kind of impact this will have on the overall justice system.”

So the government not only knows the importance of online presence but also has embraced the power of search in information. Two thumbs up I have to say. Read the rest of this entry »

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A couple of days ago it’s as if a request out my mind just got granted. Seth Godin, America’s Greatest Marketer (according to American Way Magazine) and author of bestselling marketing books, including Permission Marketing, just wrote a post titled “How to Make Money with SEO“.

Even that alone just got me hyped up. Surprisingly, Rand Fishkin just pimped out a post of his own in addition to Seth’s article – “There’s Way More Than 2 Ways to Make Money with SEO”

I wish I could add some more intelligent factors but these 2 gentlemen just laid out the best principles in milking the Benjamins out of the profession.

Here are some points which struck the home run for me: Read the rest of this entry »

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Before I came into this metropolitan bedazzling city of Dubai, I wanted to have an outlook of the online media in the Middle East particularly of search industry. Yes, there were notable companies and individuals who have demonstrated great skills & knowledge in SEO and SEM. I knew for a fact that the Middle East had a talent pool of experts, the technology with all its resources, and a growing market. 

But I somehow felt there was not much awareness of SEO, SEM, or even Social Media in the region, or was I expecting too much? But Husam Jandal seems to have sustained my observation. Husam is an internet business consultant with WSI Internet Consulting.

In an article in TheNational.Ae – Searching for an online solution, Husam Jandal said:

“In general they [Middle East] are very ignorant about the fact that their potential clients and existing clients are using the internet, while they are not [doing so themselves].

I think we’re still behind when it comes to the business community recognising the importance of being in front of their potential clients.

With more than 90 per cent of all traffic generated on the internet coming from search engines, it is important for the local business community to identify various ways of utilising these internet tools to achieve the desired visibility for their businesses”

I couldn’t agree with him more. Well there are a lot of reasons to consider though in the Middle East market. I won’t dwell on them for now. But let me help in pointing you to the right direction as to why online media, particularly SEO, SEM and even Social Media will be a vital tool for Middle East businesses:

Read the rest of this entry »

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About 3 months ago, while planning for topics in the launch of Click-Dubai.Com, I conducted a survey to get to know the top search engines used within the UAE and Middle East regions.

In today’s settings it would have been wise to have channeled that poll through Twitter but back then I tried my LinkedIn network through their useful Answers section. Fortunately, my connections were generous enough to share their insights.

Oh before we go to the results, one thing I forgot is to set the parameters of the poll like naming only the top 3. But instead I laid down a generic question that prompted the participants to provide as many search engine names they think are popular within the region (I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it did arrive to a certain conclusion nevertheless). Read the rest of this entry »

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“It’s doesn’t take rocket science to know or do SEO! Everybody can do that thing!” claimed a friend of mine while discussing new trends in marketing for business in Dubai, moreover Middle East markets. I was somehow taken aback by his comment but somehow I understood why he felt that way.

As much as I wanted to defend my profession (and those who are well-known evangelist of the field), I know he would not understand because he didn’t believe much in online media and was a blue blooded traditional marketing expert.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Is it the new marketing era? How effective is it in building strategies for online businesses? Is it just a basic marketing approach towards the online media? Is it more of an art rather than a science of procedures?

I have been exposed to SEO back in 2004. From that time, I knew there were pioneers in the industry who have gone through the larger distance in defining and even revolutionizing the search engine industry.

Before I can lay down my own old school definition of what Search Engine Optimization is, let me share with you what the icons of the industry think of this evolving field. Read the rest of this entry »

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