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WOW…9 years. I personally have my issues with Google, well only one (that issue will be my next blog post), but I have to say Happy Birthday to the largest online company/search engine in the world. Google is it…for now.

Google grew at an incredible pace to be one of the, if not THE most important online company of our time.

Google made A LOT of people A LOT of money. If you caught the early wave of SEO and paid search which probably began in the early to mid 90’s and were successful…then you were REALLY successful.

Google turned a search engine into an incredible online vehicle for businesses and consumers with its search technology and online applications.

Google opened its doors as a public company in 2004 with an IPO of $85 (I believe) and now its stock is valued at over $500.00 a share! The future is looking promising as no search engine has come close to building the empire Google is today. Yahoo is a strong company…Google is the empire. This image is right before Google went public (some figures of the largest players online:)

Wonder what those figures look like now hu? Happy Birthday Google.

Microsoft must really hate Google. This has become an online rivalry…almost officially. Even though Google is ahead of the market in search and many other aspects of the world online (by far the worlds largest online company), well Microsoft is well…Microsoft…Windows…Bill Gates…

If Google can design and plan a platform to come installed in PC sold worldwide…I’d say that would be the end of an empire for Microsoft. Apple was almost considered dead until Steve Jobbs, revived the company with its brilliant technology gadgets (iPod, iPhone, iMac). What if Google made a computer with its own brand? Would you buy it?

Google has already made online applications which could fit into a program to be designed like Microsoft Office and no doubt has the technology to make software to create a great platform like Windows or Mac.

The rivalry really stands online. Even though Google really competes hand in hand against Yahoo (and I say compete cause these are the 3 major engines even though Google is ahead by far), the controversial and more competitive acquisitions, etc come from Google vs. Microsoft.

For example, a few months back, the Doubleclick/Performics acquisition became a public affair between both companies. Google had won the bid over Microsoft to take over the company even though I’m not sure if they both bid the same price to take over the company. FTC is still investigating the purchase made by Google. Microsoft since then, has acquired aQuantitive, reported to have been purchased at $6 Billion.

The latest battle has come at hand. FACEBOOK. Onlines largest social network (after Myspace but about to take the lead in the next few months I believe) is being sought after by Microsoft in buying stake in the company. Guess who wants in? Yep…Google wants in to according to an article piece in MarketingVox. This is nothing official but wouldn’t surprise me. The deal as of now holds exclusive to Microsoft which I believe, would take the social giant to the next level. Murdock, hold on…it may be a bumpy ride.

The latest acquisition from Microsoft has been Parlano, a leading application for enterprise group chat. Microsoft expects to add Parlano’s group chat functionality as a new feature of Microsoft® Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator, Microsoft’s server and client software for presence, instant messaging, conferencing and VoIP. This is something Google hasn’t really put emphasis on…chat. VoIP is a growing industry, with Vonage and Skype really taking the market. Good move by Microsoft.

But wait…Don’t count Google out. In fact, around the same time or a bit before, Google acquired Grand Central, internet service that uses VoIP to link a customer's phone numbers together. Currently the service is in private beta and is accessible by invitation only; invitations can be obtained from existing members.

What will each do or acquire next……?

It’s funny how over the years the world on search marketing not only expanded worldwide but also had a lot of narrowed local marketing growth. Geo-targeting in the engines changed the scope of local businesses to promote their website online.

Jim Parent from Search Engine Watch wrote a post (I got it in an email) of 8 different ways to improve your local search. There were some very interesting ones that you can really do to improve your results.

>>Include your business address twice on the page
In addition to placing your business address prominently on the page, also include it in the footer. Abbreviate the business state in one of the addresses, and spell it out in the second. Abbreviated states are sometimes misinterpreted by the crawlers. For example, MD represents both a state and a doctor. “

>>Get your business rated
Ask your satisfied customers to write reviews and rate your business at Google, Yahoo, and MSN. If possible, ask them to use the same keywords that you use in the business description and on your web site as part of their review. Don't add too many reviews over a short period of time, and make sure that the reviews are unique.

>>Solicit local links
Find the web directories that are local to your area, and ask them to link to your web site. Contact your local chambers of commerce and ask them to link to your business from their web site.

>>Check out your competition
Do a local search for your business keywords (i.e. Porsche, San Francisco, CA) and see who your competition is. Find out who is linking to your competitors and investigate whether you can get the same sites to link to your business. The links can be determined by going to Yahoo and typing "linkdomain:" and then your competitor's web site (i.e. linkdomain:www.yourcompetitorssite.com). Click on "inlinks" in the results page.
Check inlinks for your site as well, and see who is linking to you. Make sure that the information on those sites is correct, and contact them if it isn't.

>>Create separate web pages for different cities/regions
If your business serves multiple cities or regions, consider creating separate web pages for the different locals. To avoid duplicate content issues, be sure to have unique, relevant content on each of the local specific pages. Be sure to include the county in addition to the city in describing your business. Also adding directional descriptors such as central, western, southern, etc. is helpful.”

Here is a tip and a big one of that for organic local search results…ready…REGISTER A DOMAIN WITH YOUR CITY OR STATE AND KEYWORD. The more niche, even though you may not get volume in traffic, you will rank well.

Not only is this a lesson, but a great theft video caught on surveillance camera at the Rakontur Studios here in Miami, Florida courtesy of my good friend Evan Rosenfeld. These bandits were trying to steal the new movies that is in production and almost ready (I think) Cocaine Cowboys 2. If you haven’t seen Cocaine Cowboys 1…what are you waiting for? It is the best drug trafficking documentary you will ever see, that I promise you.

In an attepmt to steal the film, the thiefs failed. They walked away with about $23,000.00 in equipment.

Rakontur was able to identify the thief and should be arrested sometime today. Information on her is available through the Rakontur blog and will contain updates as well!

About Cocaine Cowboys: Independent film picked up by Magnolia Distro (Mark Cubans Company) and had nothing short of great success. The film takes you through the cocaine explosion of the 80’s from Colombia to Miami…where it became the largest port of drug trafficking in the world.

About a month ago I was home and felt a pain like I never have before. I thought it was a real bad stomach ache but the pain was so unusual to me that it scared me a bit…I felt I couldn’t breath from the pain after a while.

It went on for 15 minutes and stopped. Came back…and stopped. I was taken to the hospital 3 days later. They found blood in the urine and the doc was sure it I had a kidney stone.

I went to the specialist (urologist) to find out what we I can do to get this thing out of my body. He told me the only thing I can really do is drink lots of fluids and wait OR said surgery would be the other best option. SURGERY? That quick you diagnose the problem so intense that you suggest surgery?

There have been many articles in the past month actually that I recall reading about the the web being used more for medical and health reasons than almost any other form of research, etc. Why? Our health is the most important aspect of our lives. Websites such as WebMD have tremendous amounts of content on all types of diseases and the traffic they drive is incredible, and well deserved.

The internet was my #1 friend during this whole process (besides friends and family) who also used the internet to help me find out about diet changes, etc. The doc might as well have told me, “go and google kidney stones” and that would have been more satisfying. Paying hundreds of dollars for someone to tell you nothing can really tick you off…especially when the best source of information is free online. From the misfortune of having this kidney stone, also came a new born business idea that is related to it that I may roll out. If I do…I'll post it.

NOW…don’t be fooled by all content online. There are many trying to scare you with crazy stories exaggerating experiences but you learn to distinguish good content from bad content…especially if you’re a regular surfer, by the way a site looks, etc.

For anyone going through any health issues, all the info you need is here…free…and always…always…stay positive.

Reading through some good articles, one just came out today on MarketingVox, "Nine of 10 Women Online Seek Health Info via Web." It has some really good statistics:

-23.5 percent of respondents say they have clicked on a prescription or OTC drug/remedy ad
-78.1 percent of respondents use the internet to gather health information.
-90.1 percent of women age 25-34 search for health information online.
-45.2 percent of respondents say the internet is the primary source of health information
-Women more than men use the internet as their primary household health resource: 49.9 percent vs. 40.3 percent.

This…yes is a post about Blog Rush. If you’re a blog reader, specially in this industry, than you’ve heard of Blog Rush by now…especially if you’re a blogger yourself. I know most have already blogged about this and it’s new nothing new, but lets face it…it’s exciting.

What happens from the launch we don’t know, but I’m sure most of us bloggers are eager to see what kind of traffic this can deliver once it’s in full swing. I personally think it’s a great tool not only for bloggers, but readers as well. A blog reader is always interested in similar or related stories…even for us bloggers it’s cool to find cool stories feeding from our blogs.

What a great widget and idea. I really love it. Very wise of them to take you to the story the reader clicks on through pop-up windows and having the user never exiting your page.

This new widget can mean to things…Traffic and Monetization. No one can report on the impact of traffic yet since it’s pretty much the new buzz and hasn’t been around long enough. Traffic=Money. That has always been the case so hopefully these new visitors could turn into ad clicks.