competitive

Yahoo and Microsoft combined have an opportunity to be competitive in the search marketplace even though they trail considerably behind Google, according to a new analysis by comScore. In June 2009, Google had 65 percent of the U.S. search market, compared to 28 percent for Yahoo and Microsoft combined. Despite lagging in terms of overall search share, the combined searcher penetration of Yahoo and Microsoft was 73.2 percent, not far behind Google at 84 percent.

Google faced a serious crimp in its business if Utah enacted legislation that would ban the search advertising company from allowing competitors to trigger ads with keywords.

Yank out "The Art of War" or just use common sense; either way, it's plain to see that knowing about your competitors can help your business.  At a session titled "Analyzing the Competition," speakers suggested areas to research and acceptable ways in which you can do so.

Competitive Intelligence — One of the most powerful aspects of search engine marketing is the intelligence you can gain from it, both about your own brands and your competitors. Just how much can you find out about the competition?

I recently read John Reese's PDF announcing the launch of his new Income.com site. In the PDF he talks about how competitive internet marketing will become in the coming 5 years, and stated what are the two main ingredients to large sustainable profit in that type of marketplace. The first is on the concept of optimization:

Lee Odden blogged about Google Categories yesterday. I wasn’t able to duplicate the categories look, but it did get me thinking about the ramifications to online competition if categories in search become commonplace. As well as how categories might influence our SEO strategies as business owners.

It’s really annoying to suddenly remember I have a few domains of 2-3 years of age, that I actually set up links for - but never had any real content on. Reason being: complacency. I bought the domains for an early client, with the aim of setting up a small network for link benefits for them. However, early success meant the domains went undeveloped.

Wise leaders know that they will generate organizational best thinking that is far above what one person can accomplish alone when they draw on the wealth of knowledge that employees, with their differing professional interests, experiences and perspectives, bring to their jobs.