SEO experts: Now Google's a phone company, too

Google moving into mobile market

Lost in the widespread hoopla over Google's acquisition of mobile phone advertising firm AdMob was the company's concurrent purchase of VoIP provider Gizmo5, which Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling says will make Google Voice a stand-alone service.

Sterling writes that this could put the search giant into direct competition with VoIP market leader Skype, which boasts a worldwide user base of 480 million people. Search engine optimization (SEO) professionals must monitor Google's move into the VoIP market closely, to ascertain what sort of SEO opportunities present themselves once Google Voice goes public.

Google already offers a Goog-411 service, effectively extending parts of its search functionality onto the mobile platform. This, coupled with the increasingly rapid adoption of Google's Android cell phone OS, could give the company a solid bridgehead into the mobile market, creating new fields of opportunity for search engine optimization (SEO).

In another article about Google Voice, Sterling notes that consumer privacy advocates are troubled by the further expansion of Google's data indexing, saying that the extent of the data collection raises questions about the security of personal information.

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Bing Partners with Wolfram Alpha

Microsoft is expanding the capabilities of its Bing search engine by tapping into the computations, algorithmic, and data capabilities of the Wolfram Alpha computing engine, using the service as a way to deliver more-relevant information to search uses right from the get-go, rather than merely referring them to a list of sites. Wolfram Alpha—launched back in May by Stephen Wolfram and the folks who make Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha aims to not just find information, but make it “computable” to users—that is, Wolfram Alpha not only lets users find information, but do useful things with it. Bing plans to leverage Wolfram Alpha’s capabilities to enhance Bing’s search results: the collaboration will start with bringing nutritional information and tools into Bing’s search results, along with some genuine “math” to make those last-minute homework sessions a little more tolerable.

“This notion of creating and presenting computational knowledge in search results is one of the more exciting things going on in search (and beyond) today, and the team at Bing is incredibly fired up to bring some of this amazing work to our customers,” Microsoft wrote in its Bing blog. “You will begin to see the benefits of this unique partnership over the next several days as we roll it out in the U.S.”

Wolfram Alpha already hosts a deep cache of tools and collated information, but Microsoft plans to initially start its integration of Wolfram Alpha tools with genuine hard math and something that appeals more directly to everyday consumers: diet and health information. Using Wolfram Alpha, Bing will be able to bring detailed nutritional facts and health information. For instance, users will be able to bring up nutritional information on various types of food and calculate their Body Mass Index—Microsoft plans to roll out more features as the collaboration progresses.

No financial terms of the partnership have been disclosed.

The move emphasizes Microsoft’s efforts to differentiate Bing from traditional search engines, providing usable information and results right in the results page instead of referring users to other sites. However, Google and other search providers are not resting on their laurels either: the next frontier of Internet search is not really letting users find a site with the information they’d like, but presenting that information without forcing the user to go to that site at all.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/bing-partners-with-wolfram-alpha/?news=123

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Consortium Named for Tests to Replace TOEFL

The Korean education authority has selected a consortium that will be the organizer of the new government-run English proficiency tests.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Wednesday a group consisting of the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) and four universities will administer the first-grade-level exam of the state tests.

The new test is expected to compete with TOEFL, with hopes that it will eventually take over from the American-developed system.The ministry plans to run three levels of state-certified English tests from 2012 after conducting several pilot tests through 2011. Grade one tests will be developed for adults seeking to go to graduate school or gain employment, while grades two and three will be used for students attending elementary to high schools.

The KCCI, a key business lobby group, will cooperate with Seoul National University, the organizer of TEPS tests; Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, developer of the FLEX tests; Sookmyung Women's University, organizer of the MATE tests; and Korea University.

Three consortiums applied for the contract to develop and organize the grade one test.

Both the government and the successful consortium will provide 800 million won, meaning 1.6 billion won will be available for the development of the Internet-based test, said Keum Yong-han, a ministry official responsible for test development. The Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation has been developing the grade two and three exams.

The ministry hopes that Korean universities and corporate entities will eventually adopt the tests. Currently, the U.S.-based nonprofit organization, ETS, dominates Korea's English test market through TOEFL.

Currently, the National Tax Service is reviewing whether or not to conduct an investigation into ETS over the untaxed income - amounting to billions of won - it collects in annual fees earned from Korean test takers. Ahn Byong-man, minister of education, science and technology, said that he intended to push colleges and universities to adopt the state tests.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr

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Bagaimana memulai blog sukses ??

Saya saat ini budaya menulis sudah menjadi semakin berkembang dengan adanya dukungan dukungan blogspot dan wordpress atau sejenisnya. Budaya menulis yang dulu sudah menjadi kuno dan klasik. Dulu kita menulis benar-benar harus sebuah pasar yang kompetitif untuk bisa menjadi sebuah tulisan yang dibaca, namun saat ini dengan "budaya menulis massal" melalui blog membuat peluang tulisan kita untuk dibaca semakin besar, hanya saja mesti berfikir lanjutannya adalah bagaimana blog saya atau anda dibaca oleh orang, singkat kata dikatakan bahwa blog kita mempunyai jumlah pengunjung yang cukup memuaskan. kecuali anda cukup idealis dan berkata "saya cuma ingin menulis saja kok", hmm ya itu terserah pada masing-masing personal

Setelah itu barulah berfikir untuk menjadikannya sebagai "kebun uang" :)
untuk memulai menulis di blog ya tentunya harus punya blog..hehe...benerkan?!
yang cukup terkenal adalah blogspot, gratis dan simpel penggunaannya, dan hingga sekarang tangguhnya wordpress belum mampu mengalahkan rating blogspot di dunia maya..percaya ga?? :)
Sekarang saya mau berbagi sedikit cara-cara saya dalam memulai sebuah blog, semacam langkah-langkah utama untuk sebuah blog yang baik dan bisa sukses mendatangkan pengunjung(kecuali kalo hanya sekedar untuk membuat dummy blog), tentunya berdasarkan pengalaman saya dan baca-baca sana sini.
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