Recent Blog Posts on Empowered Internet Solutions 2012-04-14T04:33:26-08:00 empoweredinternet.com/ Empowered Say Web Log 3 times fast! empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/10/23_Say_Web_Log_3_times_fast.asp Web Log  Web Log Web Log Blog....blog...a blog is a Web Log...said fast. "Blogs are the hottest growing medium of communication for businesses and individuals. Based on Technorati research (blog search engine), there are almost 3 million blogs created every month, and bloggers create over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second!" How do I know this? I read it in a blog! When I search for news about the elections half of what I get are blogs.Its your own cyber soapbox to say whats on your mind, in your life, or to let people know what you know, or whats going on in your business or organization. If people are interested they can subscribe to your blog and receive every new update automatically in their news reader such as My Yahoo or IGoogle. You can get feedback  from your customers in the form of comments to your blog entries that are an invaluable way of connecting with and responding to your market. If that ain't enough read this about the benefits for Search Engine Marketing. "Blogs and Search EnginesFor an online marketer, blogs offer a powerful marketing platform. Not only do blogs enable marketers to gain a better understanding of their customers, but the content posted on blogs is much easier to find on search engines as well. Search engines love blogs because they love fresh content. Every time new content is posted on a blog, the blog site pings the search engines. This results in frequent search engine spider visits and hence much higher optimization and ranking.Blogs also have RSS (Real Simple Syndicate) functionality, which means as soon as your article/post is posted on your blog, people signed up to receive your RSS automatically receive information about your post. They come to your blog to read the post or read it in their RSS reader. It all happens in real time on your site. The more you write, the more people will read and comment. Bloggers link to each others blogs while commenting on the post. So, every time a blog has fresh content, whether you wrote a post or readers of the blog commented on your post, search engines get pinged and visit your site.Blogs help in securing quality links from relevant blogs by trackbacks and comments, which in the blogging world is also called socializing the blog. This helps in gaining link popularity and link relevancy, and helps drive relevant traffic very quickly." So blog your way to more profits with Empowered's new integrate Web Blog...thats Blog to you! 2008-10-23T18:46:44-08:00 How to find the right SEO provider empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/07/30_How_to_find_the_right_SEO_provider.asp Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a continuous process which requires a hugeamount of effort and time dedicated in regularly updating and revisinga website.This can be a tedious work, mostespecially for beginners who are up against a very tight competition.However, through reliable companies that offer services for searchengine optimization, even starters can get high ranking and increasetraffic volume to their sites. All it takes is to choose the right SEOcompany to handle your needs and maintain your site.But how do you really know which company will provide the best services to your advantage?Firstoff, determine if the SEO company in question is able to gauge its ownability and giving its own rank as a company. It is best to know if thecompany positions itself as a reliable one, but still make sure to bewary of their proposals. Oftentimes, companies who assure to get yoursite fully optimized in just a span of four weeks are giving falsepromises and unrealistic goals. A dependable SEO company should be ableto help you set realistic goals, familiarize you on how search enginepromotion occurs and how positioning is calculated through algorithm.Moreover,SEO involves a lot of technical jargons. The company must be able toexplain to you what these terms mean in a straightforward andcomprehensible manner.When hunting for a SEO company, ask ifthey can provide you with analysis reports regarding your websitesranking, design, content, etc. They should give you detailed analysisof your website in all aspects relating to elements that may affectindexing of your webpages.Also ask for the SEO tools and methodsthat the company utilizes in keyword analysis and keyword search. Doesthe company use effective tools? If you are not too familiar with suchtools, you can conduct research on the basic tools available foroptimization. Ask about specific strategies that the company plans toemploy for your site to get high ranking.The company shouldalso be able to know the significance of qualified traffic over plaintraffic. One of your objectives is to increase traffic volume to yoursite. However, you do not want to get customers who just come acrossyour site because of unrelated keywords. You get increased bounceratesurfers visit your webpage then leaverather than increased sales.Qualified traffic is your major concern; you want customers who aretruly interested in purchasing products and availing services that yourbusiness offers.Source: Google 2008-07-30T18:58:57-08:00 Marc Resorts finds member management ease with ZeppOS empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/07/09_Marc_Resorts_finds_member_management_ease_wit.asp Marc Resorts is a major player in Hawaiis hospitality industry. Marc owns and manages seven spectacular resorts on four of Hawaiis major islands. A high-quality web presence is crucial not only to Marcs image but its sales as well. In December 2005, Marc Resorts hired Empowered Internet Solutions to provide the tools it needed to effectively manage its website and improve Marcs ability to communicate with its website members. Marcs challenge was three-fold -- a large member base, mass communication via email and the need for an easy-to use website management solution. Marc Resorts.com had more than 5,000 members in Kamaaina groups and Travel Agent groups, and each group needed its own members only section of the website, as well as an area for non-members to apply. To reach out to these members routinely, an eBlast would need to be built every month and sent out to the list. Along with these challenges, the amount of data on the website -- as well as the sites dynamic nature due to changing rates, discounts and specials -- required either an expensive full-time webmaster or a web management tool a team of employees could use. The solution was much simpler than they expected: ZeppOS. The extensive member tools found in ZeppOS blends perfectly with Marcs website needs, and the ease of use allows its team to quickly update content. The Communication Manager sealed the deal by allowing Marc Resorts to send eBlasts and Newsletters to its members with little more than a click of a button. Client: Marc ResortsWebsite: www.marcresorts.com/ Focus: Content ManagementExtra Functionality: Communication Manager, Resort Manager 2008-07-09T15:35:47-08:00 Viral Marketing empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/06/04_Viral_Marketing.asp Viral marketing is a term that is thrown around alot. Most newbies to the viral way thinks that means to create a great product/service and that others will use them just because they are great. This is just not true. Viruses are obviously viral and what about the fear of terrorism. These are definately not good, but they are viral.  Viral marketing is not describing the quality of the product/service, but instead the adoptability.   So how do you translate this into useful information for your website? Remember one thing: always make it easy for your users.  Try utilizing the following tips to get started. Easy to remember domain nameEliminate all "fluff" contentUse the phrases: free and click here for ____Eliminate extra clicks (use words inside your content to link to other pages when referring to them)Feel FREE to comment below with any other helpful ideas. 2008-06-04T15:22:06-08:00 Hawaii Self Storage uses Flash Multimedia properly empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/05/09_Hawaii_Self_Storage_uses_Flash_Multimedia_pro.asp In Hawaiis competitive self-storage business, Hawaii Self Storage wanted to stand out from the pack. Having already invested a great deal in its facilities and quality of service, the company needed a way to showcase its unique services and convince prospective clients that its better than the competition. In March 2006, Hawaii Self Storage hired Empowered Internet Solutions.Empowered quickly focused its design efforts on creating a look and feel that reminded the viewer of Hawaii Self Storages solutions and its quality. To do so, Empowered designed the site to look like a storage unit! The Hawaii Self Storage mascot, Mr. Safety, was positioned throughout the site as a welcoming guide to give it a friendly appearance.Hawaii Self Storage now effectively showcases its solutions, as well as its locations, and offers forms to provide locker sizes and estimates to customers. It also presents information about the companys community involvement and job openings. Hawaii Self Storage uses ZeppOS to keep its content updated and its image fresh. The site is a must see; be sure to check it out! Client: Hawaii Self StorageWebsite: www.hawaiiselfstorage.net/ Focus: Service DesignExtra Functionality: None 2008-05-09T15:38:56-08:00 Mail Management Updates empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/05/07_Web_Management_Updates.asp Aloha!You have probably noticed the new icon in your mail management section of your ZeppOS website. This icon is titled "Create Auto Responder". This is the beginnings of a new feature in Mail Management that will allow you to create your own autoresponse when you are away from your work area. To access mail management, login to your website. Go to "Control Panel" >> Settings >> Mail Setup >> "Click here to launch". 2008-05-07T16:27:18-08:00 Social networking site gets a new twist with DNA empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/05/07_Viral_Socail_Networking_Site_gets_a_new_twist.asp As web 2.0 grows, so does the technology that can be bound to it. Family tree sites such as Ancestry.com provide a way to build your family tree but do not provide a way to link us to the rest of the world. James Lee Sorenson plans to solve that problem. Sorenson has started a social networking website called genetree.com not based on friends, but family -- distant family. In fact, your network can reach as far as 12 generations with plans of expanding up to 20 generations as the social networking site grows.Sorenson: "In fact, if you were able to have a database, as far back as say 20 generations, you'd find just about anyone in a room, at any time, would have a common connection. Imagine yourself in a meeting of the United Nations and looking across from you, you realize you are related to that individual and how you are related. What a powerful influence that might be."Genetree.com provides a DNA kit which allows you to mail in your DNA sample which will link you to your distant past. Also, on genetree.com, you can create your own family tree which will also be linked to your genetree through your DNA test. Watch the demo video. 2008-05-07T16:12:32-08:00 The Science of Web Design empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/05/02_The_Science_of_Web_Design.asp Web Design is not my personal forte, while I appreciate and can critique design, I don't have the "eye" (natural talent) to create it. While I don't believe there is a true substitute for natural design talent their is a growing sector of the design industry that is turning it into a science. This means it can be taught and studied. You and I can create a brilliant design thanks to a few tutorials. Keep in mind though, you will most likely need a working knowledge of Photoshop (and have a copy: $999 - for full CS3 version). You should also know once the design is complete you will need to put it on the web... this is called cutting, to do that you will need a strong knowledge of CSS and HTML. That can be expensive and time consuming already, so if you don't have the time, call the professionals! :) Either way, you should have a look at a tutorial to have a deeper understanding of what is involved. The one below is a great starting point.  psdtuts.com/interface-tutorials/create-a-sleek-high-end-web-design-from-scratch/  2008-05-02T10:24:13-08:00 Choosing appropriate monitor resolution for your website empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/17_Choosing_appropriate_monitor_resolution_for_y.asp The question has been what screen resolution should you design for? When is it time to upgrade to a larger width? Since as far back as 2001 the design community has questioned when the move should be made as the trend in monitor resolution has continued to increase. Seven years ago several studies showed that monitors with 800x600 pixels comprised over 50 percent. Based on statistics of websites in The Zeppo Network and confirmed by other recent industry studies visitors using 800x600 monitor resolution barely average 10 percent; year to date on EmpoweredInternet.com and other sites in the technology sector (See Figure B) this demographic comprises only 2 percent!  Further statistics from within The Zeppo Network show that non-profit websites have the highest amount of visitors still using 800x600 monitor resolution at 12 percent.  Based on reading the Web Analytics of your website you will be able to make an informed decision on what appropriate minimum size you should design your site to. *Figures below group Monitor Screen Resolution Widths into the ranges shown. Figure A: Average Resolutions of Non-Profit Organizations Figure B: Average Resolutions in Technology Sector  Figure C: Average Resolutions of Community Portal  2008-04-17T22:46:32-08:00 Good uses for Image-recognition software empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/17_Good_uses_for_Image-recognition_software.asp Image recognition software that was once used for cracking CAPTCHA codes is now being used for catching criminals and finding children. Google is now working with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to automate a way of trolling through graphic video and images of exploited and abused children. Google's video section contains a large array of videos from the Internet. These videos are scanned by Google's new video frame fingerprinting technology for copyrighted or graphic material. For more than a year Google has been working with analysts in the Child Victim Identification Program to automate the review of 13 million images and video that the analysts once had to review manually. More info here: tinyurl.com/63n64m/ 2008-04-17T12:49:38-08:00 A higher price could be the smaller investment empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/07_A_higher_price_could_be_the_smaller_investmen.asp We all experienced or have heard about this. We need a service and become a proposal from a legitimate vendor and we find it is too much or it just does not fit in our budget. Now we are looking for the same service but for a cheaper price and fortunately there is this nice guy who is telling us he will take care. He is offering the service we need "on the side" and he offers us a good price. Like "just pay me a 1000 dollar for now and we will see more later", we are glad. That sounds like a good deal when our proposal for a let's say  a professional web site was $5000. Ok, we pay and our friend get started and after a week he has done certain things and he comes back inquiring more money for the " next steps". we are ok with that since we have only paid a 1000 dollars so far. After a week our friend has finished some more steps and is inquiring money again, this time $2000 and so on. To make a long story short after you pass 6000 dollars we ask ourselves the first time if the vendor with the "professional proposal wouldn't have been the better deal, given that not to much is done in our new website. But now it's to late and our friend gets really greedy and is telling us that the project is much bigger then he assumed and he only can finish the website for another $3000. Now we are trapped. In the real case of one of my friends, he had paid 8500 dollars before pulling the emergency break and ended up going back to the serious vendor paying the price in the proposal additional to the money already spent and off course since the nice guy did this job "on the side" he is gone and there is no money to recover. After spending all this money and having a lot of frustration he found out that the higher price could be the smaller investment overall.    2008-04-07T17:33:38-08:00 Windows 7 - Sneak Peak empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/04_Windows_7_-_Sneak_Peak.asp The buzz is just beginning. The rumors are already spreading. Microsoft is planning to get it's groove back with Windows 7, formorely codenamed Blackcomb/Vienna. This new operating system is scheduled to be released in 2010 and will hopefully not be continually pushed back like the Longhorn/Vista fiasco. Bill Gates and hinted at the failure of Vista and Microsoft has continued it's support of XP. Don't expect Microsoft to make the same mistake twice, although they don't have the powerful brand allegiance of Apple, they have more money and have been fending off competitors for more than 2 decades now. My guess is that Windows 7 will be a dramatic improvement in desktop interface and usability. Another thing to note is that the web has made a dramatic impact on everything, I would expect Microsoft to further exploit this and further integrate their current web tools with this operating system. It also appears that a Windows Server 7 is also planned. Well, for now, stay tuned. It looks like the Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs battle will only heat up. Maybe Linus will get involved soon. Conceptual VideoDon't watch too many YouTube videos on 7, most of them are fake or purely conceptual... just be patient... :) Checkout some early screen shots here:youtube.com/watch?v=dSD20aLhecI Wikipedia:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7 2008-04-04T13:19:27-08:00 ZeppOS CSS Navigation Tips empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/02_ZeppOS_CSS_Navigation_Tips.asp For the past few months I've been bugging Rob about tweaking the navigation system in order to allow more flexibility and to use list based navigation rather than table based layouts. I have to give a big thanks to Rob for listening and being really proactive about making the myriad of changes and requests I've sent in.So, we've got the [?NAV:Mxxx?] navigation now, which allows for loads of flexibility in regards to layout, hierarchy, and even cross-platform dropdown navigation (with the help of some Javascript). Over the next few weeks I'll be posting tips for creating navigation using CSS within the ZeppOS platform. Stay tuned! 2008-04-02T19:47:48-08:00 Empowered with a Capitol "E" empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/03/06_Empowered_with_a_Capitol_E.asp I spent yesterday at the Hawaii State Capitol as part of Science and Technology Day. About 40 companies in the field of Science and Technology were set up in around the inner lanai of the Capitol building. Legislators, there staff, and other interested parties circled tables to find out what was happening in the Innovation space of Hawaii. Why was I there? Because as a Webolutionary representing Empowered Internet I was showing ZeppOS, an innovative technology that has been practically applied to over 500 companies and organizations. Hawaii has an old standing but hopefully fading sense of inferiority compared to the 'mainland' US. This comes from our agricultural 'plantation' roots as well as being a Kingdom overthrown. But in truth many profound innovations have come from within Hawaii as well as from Hawaii's sons and daughters. Norm Abramson working at the University of Hawaii helped develop the basis for ethernet. The Wikipedia states 'ALOHAnet, also known as ALOHA, was a pioneering computer networking system developed at the University of Hawaii. It was first deployed in 1970, and while the network itself is no longer used, one of the core concepts in the network is the basis for the widely used Ethernet.' Steve Case born and raised in Hawaii pioneered mass internet use with AOL. As I wrote to each legislator prior to the Capitol event, "Now Empowered Internet Solutions is leading a Webolution by empowering business owners, non-profit associations and individuals to take control of their own websites. The technology underlying this paradigm shift of websites without webmasters is called the ZeppOS, the Windows of the Web. ZeppOS is an innovative software conceived of and developed right here in Hawaii by Rob Bertholf. The Zeppo Network has obtained US patents for the software and is poised to change the way the web is used by making it as easy to edit, change and update a website as to write an email or a word document. We encourage you to meet us and see a home grown innovation that Hawaii can be proud of just as Hawaii contributed to the birth of the Internetwe are contributing to the evolution the Internet by empowering anyone to use this powerful tool for information, communication and commerce.We thank-you for your continued interest and support of science and technology research as well as the commercialization of innovations into new and productive industries in Hawaii and throughout the world." It is important for Hawaii to have confidence in support of its own innovations in the context of a global economy. That support can come in eliminating legal roadblocks to innovations, anti-business tax regulations as well as supporting investment through tax incentives, and proactively working to establish new companies as permanent residents of Hawaii. Empowered is such an innovative company. I hope that we exposed some of the residents of our Capitol building to the innovative energy of Empowered with a capitol E. 2008-03-06T18:29:30-08:00 Who You Gonna Call empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/03/03_Who_You_Gonna_Call.asp The other day the new manager of a Hawaii Venture Capital company gave me a call.  It seems he had just received a $2500 bill from their existing WebMaster for the redesign of the home page and few other inserts of some news stories. He knew that their company would be changing the navigation menus and updating alot of content in the near future and so he thought to himself  "I know just who to call" About a month ago I had given a presentation to the law firm where he previously worked and so he knew that by Empowering his new companies website that would immediately eliminate costly bills like this and be able to execute the updates in house. So when you get your next bill from your web master and turn various shades of red...don't get mad...get empowered.  Who you gonna call?   2008-03-03T09:34:17-08:00 Do You Want a Webolution empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/28_Do_You_Want_a_Webolution.asp I have been around the Web since its inception. My first exposure to it was from my first programmer with my educational software company Rising Wave in the 90's. Kevin Hughes, then a college student at Honolulu Community College, and now the World Wide Web Hall of Fame, showed me some weird looking code call HTML. I said to myself "Who would want to touch that?" and went back to developing interactive multimedia (the big thing of the day). For the first 10 years of the Web pretty much the only people who would 'touch that', HTML and its fancy new brethren PHP, ASP, CFM etc were programmers who took on the humble name of WEB MASTERS. Hey who I am to say anything about them, I was one for 7 years. Starting with my own site selling Blackbelt language learning online and then designing, developing and managing sites for others I used the standard web tool called Dreamweaver along with handcoding as needed. A million WEB MASTERS bloomed and proliferated over those years and every website owner needed one every time they wanted to make significant or even simple changes to their site.  Then a few years ago I met a young company that was out to change all of that. They wanted to Empower people to control their own domains (websites). Today I am leading the charge to Empower every business who is willing to take control of what is theirs and drive their business to the next level on the web. To me what I see is a complete paradigm shift from WEB MASTERS and the inevitable Web Slaves (the website owners), to empowered websites without webmasters. So revolutionary is this concept that most of the time I spend consulting with business owners is showing how it is not only possible but that yes they can do it.  In the course of any consultation there is a moment when they get it. Yes, it is like a light goes on. From that moment they are ready to be empowered. What do we call this phenomena of freeing yourself from the chains of the past, to the dependency, financially, timewise, and even emotionally to a web master? We call it a WEBOLUTION and I encourage every enslaved website owner or future web owner to join it and GET EMPOWERED! 2008-02-28T15:38:31-08:00 A Click Tale empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/28_A_Click_Tale.asp Understanding the traffic on your site is probably the greatest goldmine you have for your business.  It's full of all sorts of rich information, that if you know how to harness and utilize, can generate tremendous growth and productivity off of your site.Knowing all sorts of things like where users are coming from, what pages they visited, and how long they spent on your site can give you valuable information.   I'll give a great example from a webmaster friend who understands the importance of this.  Looking at his clients traffic numbers and statistics every day, he noticed an individual from London had come onto the site two days in a row and browsed multiple properties.  He told the realtors in the office to keep their eyes open for a call from London.  Sure enough, 4 days later, he called and they were ready for him.  The knew what properties he had browsed and were fully knowledgeable about what he was wanting.  They were able to provide great service.  There are a lot of ways to utilize traffic data.  It's important to know what your bounce ratio is - that is the percentage of users who have left the site in less than 10 seconds.  This will vary from industry to industry but you should aim to keep it as low as possible.  Another factor is how much time users have spent on the site.  There is a direct correlation between how much time they spend on the site to how productive your results are from the website.  There are a number of variables.  And someone who knows Web Analytics can always help review your numbers and give an analysis of your site and what you can do to improve it.  One of the tools we've recently discovered and enjoyed is ClickTale.  There are a variety of ways to track users as they visit your site.  The interactivity of the tracking tool is truly amazing.  We liked it so much, we've integrated it into the ZeppOS platform.  There are fees for using ClickTale, and we can guide you on implementing it and monitoring your traffic.  We're all about taking it to the next level.  And if you are, then you need to consider Web Analytics and specifically, ClickTale as a supplement to Google Analytics.  Feel free to contact us for more information. 2008-02-28T12:04:47-08:00 Keyword Protection empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/27_Keyword_Protection.asp Earlier this month, there was an intriguing legal case between 1-800Contacts and a competitor, Lensworld.  The fight started when Lensworld bought keyword targets ads (such as Google Adsense and the ads that show on the right side of a search result) for 1-800Contacts, 1800Contacts and 1 800 Contacts.  It's a common practise, but 1-800Contacts filed a trademark infringement lawsuit.  It's not the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last.  The problem is, the ad networks are set up to allow you to do that.  You can purchase any keyword you want, even a trademark name.  The opinion is wide and far on whether or not its ethical.  Some contend that if you own a trademark and have spent the thousands of dollars to establish that name and brand, no one else should be able to benefit from it.  Valid point!  I don't want my competitors showing up when someone searches for Empowered or Aloha Media Group.  Their looking for me.  But it's a common practise.  Searching for brand names in google will easily show, a lot of people don't have ethical questions about purchasing ads for a keyword that is a trademark.  And what about the search engines and portals?  Where is Google on all this?  Silent for the most part.  They have built the infrastructure and have not put any restraint in for straining out trademarked keywords.  And can you imagine the technological/legal hurdles to accomplish that?  It's very thought provoking, and sure makes for great blog material.  If you have an opinion about this.  Post it now, we'd love to hear.  2008-02-27T12:40:10-08:00 Yahoo says 'Microsoft....get out of MySpace!' empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/15_Yahoo_says_Microsoft....get_out_of_MySpace.asp The Yahoo soap opera is getting very interesting from the news reports today.  The deal is from News Corp's Fox  Interactive Media and it's a very interesting merger.  They have valued the merger at an estimated $50 billion, a little bit more than the Microsoft offer.  Most of us have little knowledge of who Fox Interactive is and why on earth this deal would be taking place.  But with one domain name, you'll get a better idea:  www.myspace.com.  Yes, they own the infamous and top traffic site of My Space.  The major benefit of this potential merger is an advertising powerhouse that would have an astounding 35% market share of online advertising.  This is also a great way to stave off Microsoft.  And that is important to Yahoo, as they recently communicated in letter to their shareholders.  They implemented a new strategy last year (which has seemed like a great move in my interactions with Yahoo), and they fear the Microsoft bid would destroy their positive direction.  Personally, I'm much in favor of the Fox Interactive merger.  I think it allows Yahoo to continue their direction to do something different by continuing their diversity with more online advertising.  Many people in the media field are agreeing.  I think it is a brilliant step by Jerry Yang to not only avoid the Microsoft dilemna all together, but also to continue taking his company in the right direction.  2008-02-15T10:47:37-08:00 Ideas Away From Your Desk empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/12_Ideas_Away_From_Your_Desk.asp Have you ever had ideas (for edits to your Empowered website, ideas for your next book, answers to the mysteries of human existence, etc.) when you didn't have a computer handy or even a pen?If you have your phone handy, you can save that thought easily. Just use Jott.First, set up a free account at www.jott.com. Once you are registered, you use the toll free number provided to Jott yourself the idea. You speak your idea to Jott for up to 20 seconds, and it converts and e-mails you the text (or texts you the text!). Of course it's also available to you in text in your login on Jott.com. By the way, those last three sentences you just read were pasted in from my Jott, and some of the content on our Empowered site was pasted in from Jott.Jott is useful for a lot of other things, of course. You can Jott your co-worker or team too. WordPress, Blogger, TypePad or LiveJournal? Jott straight to your blog! You can Jott to Twitter, or even use Jott to add a reminder to your Google calendar. What's next? ZeppOS developers? Jotting directly to your Empowered site? 2008-02-12T00:05:45-08:00 Yahoo! Says No Thanks empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/11_Yahoo_Says_No_Thanks.asp In the internet soap opera of 'Daze of Our Lives', we have a not so un-expected twist.  Yahoo! rejects Microsofts offer, politely of course.  So where does this leave things?  Well its far from over.  Microsoft could forge ahead without permission and start buying up shares regardless.  There's a lot of speculation, but we'll just have to wait for official reaction from Microsoft.  2008-02-11T11:16:58-08:00 Who owns WEB 2.0 empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/08_Who_owns_WEB_2.0.asp Web 2.0 is the next generation of web development. Here is a list of current web 2.0 tools and who owns them. For instance, Google owns YouTubeYahoo owns Flickr, Del.Icio.usAOL owns Nullsoft, Mapquest www.mydigimedia.com/tipsheets/WhoOwns2708.pdf 2008-02-08T12:41:27-08:00 Internet Outage across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/01/31_Internet_Outage_across_Africa_the_Middle_East.asp Today the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa were experiencing wide-spread Internet downtime. Apparently a ship's anchor may have broke two main cables somewhere in the Mediteranean. The effects have been fairly devastating for businesses, phone networks and tv networks. Places such as Dubai are hit the worst. This could take almost a week to fix but is really shedding light on the regions dependence on the Internet.  Read more here: CNN.COM So what would you do? How would your day-to-day be effected? Could you even work? Are you prepared?    2008-02-07T09:56:58-08:00 Creating Drop Down Menus in ZeppOS is a breeze! empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/04_Creating_Drop_Down_Menus_in_ZeppOS_is_a_breez.asp Ok, I have to say I was a bit skeptical when Rob said it could be so easy to change out (or add) a fully customizable drop down menu to my clients ZeppOS website. But I'm a believer now. Rob walked me through the drop down menu conversion process on one of my websites today. I was really impressed with amount of customization Open Cube allows and even more impressed with the way the Open Cube code gets dropped in to the ZeppOS design interface with just a few clicks. Rob has made the process simple and painless, which is especially nice for the programming-challenged folk like me. I prefer the new menus because they are easy to configure, and there are a ton of attractive menu samples to choose from as your starting point. Within a few minutes you can customize your colors to match your site design and copy and paste your code into ZeppOS and youre done! Im also stoked to know that the code needed for these drop down menus is SEO friendly and works well in IE and Firefox browsers. In short, heres how to do it:Log in to ZeppOS, go to the Control Panel, then Design and Manage Menus. Click on the Launch Editor link.a. Select a Menu Template (found on the left)b. Click on "Customize Menu" (lower right)c. Configure Menu as desiredIf you are familiar with the Open Cube interface, make your changes using the various options listed in the left hand column. If all those options are a bit intimidating, choose the Quick Color Editor icon in the top row of icons, about half way across. This is an easy way to visually change the colors of the sample menu to the colors you want to match your design. Just copy and paste the RGB values in place of the existing colors.d. Custom PublishChoose File, Custom Publishe. Set both "CSS Stylesheet" and "Menu Code/Add Ons" to "External" and click Nextf. Copy and Paste the CSS into the CSS box back in the ZeppOS Control Panelg. Copy and Paste the Javascript into the Javascript box back in ZeppOS Control Panelh. Press Update.i. Lastly, go to your skin(s) and replace your previous menu with [?NAV:M111D?]Voila! 2008-02-04T23:52:43-08:00 Google admits indexing error empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/03_Google_admits_indexing_error.asp With the recent changes that Google made at the end of the year, many clients benefited, especially those on ZeppOS. However, in an odd turn, a number of companies that have been in the top few results for years were relegated to number 6 position with no explanation.There were many ideas as to why and a lot of speculation (the SEO industry tends to conspiracty theory rather easily about these things). And for good reason, dropping to below the top five could mean sudden death in the SEO game.Though it seemed unlikely that Google would invoke a four or five-place penalty, the number of webmasters reporting the problem gave more weight to the growing urban myth.Search Engine Roundtable reports that Matt Cutts confirmed a glitch with Google, and that they are in the process of resetting everything back to normal. You can take relief if you were one of those clients.Explanations weren't really offered. I guess even Google is able to make a mistake. 2008-02-03T21:36:30-08:00 Under the Sea... empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/01_Under_the_Sea....asp A few years ago while touring a data center I came across a great map of the internet's undersea world. And today, while purusing www.Digg.com, I just happened to come across another map that showed the same thing. This map was just updated to show the recent outage as well. It was very interesting to learn that the majority of the global networks are the result of old under-sea land lines instead of newer satellite technology. Thomas Friedman also talks about this phenomenon in his book "The World is Flat", in the early 90's there was alot of money to be made by laying and controlling the ocean fiber lines, however the majority of those companies went bankrupt and got bought out. Small Version - click here for full size 2008-02-01T19:36:45-08:00 Microsoft makes historic bid to buy Yahoo! empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/01_Microsoft_makes_historic_bid_to_buy_Yahoo.asp Fresh off the press, it has been verified that Microsoft has made a $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo. The specifics still linger, and time will only tell what becomes of this. The story is that Microsoft offered Jerry Yang at Yahoo quietly and he said no. Then, Microsoft harnessed the power of the press and went public with it. It could all be drama with Yahoo declining, but then it could be a very different story. What does it mean to the rest of us who can't even fathom what $44 billion is like? Well its about more than search. It's probably more about combining resources for online paid advertising and other tools Yahoo has leverage of. Neither of them can really compete at this time with Google on organic search. Although, I will note that Yahoo has made some very positive and dramatic changes in 4th quarter of last year. The problem Yahoo has is getting people to go back to Yahoo. Once clients move away from a service or product, its much harder to get them back than it is to get new ones. Yahoo was once the giant we all used to some degree, and now few of us do. It's a valuable lesson for all of us about paying attention to our clients and users, and the price we can pay when we don't!What does Microsoft stand to gain in this deal besides a little more of organic search marketshare and online paid advertising?15.6% combined share of Internet visits (twice Google's)28% of search (depending on who you ask)Yahoo adds 35% of the Maps/Local sector (slightly competitive with Google)10% of online shopping directories87% of portal front pages83% of web-based email services (still light years ahead of Gmails numbers)12% of online news and media39% of business information contentFlickr would give Microsoft 12% of the photo marketSo there is benefit in this for sure for Microsoft. I'm not sure what this means for us but more consolidation in a field very dominated by very large companies. That may not be a bad thing since Google has grown out of control. Time will only tell. But, the problems inherent with search aren't likely to be fixed anytime soon by Yahoo, Microsoft or Google. What we need is more standardized platforming and more intuitive search tools. What we would hope for is more R&D on or
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