You’ve probably read a lot the last few weeks on how keen Microsoft tried to get Yahoo but lost. 

Why is Microsoft so keen to catch up in Search?  Because search is the key to online advertising dollars.  You can put ads in the mail, you can put ads in blogs, but it is mostly when people are searching something, and you give them ads relevants to the things that they are searching, that they are more likely to be responsive to the ads. 

Why is this important?  Because that is contextual advertising, and also responsive advertising. Contextual advertising is the reason why people feel that online ads are better – it actually tries to use some kind of algorithm and intelligence to sense what is the webpage you are reading, and try to put the relevant ads that is associated with it.

For instance, you are reading a blog of a person who talks about his weekend in Boracay.  The blog will sense the blog is about travel, and it may advertise to you in the corner beach resorts, hotels, air travel plans etc.  So comparably speaking, the advertisements will be more relevant.

However, just because you are reading a travel blog, or an email about a travel to Boracay does not necessarily mean that you really are looking for cheap air tickets or beach resorts.  Based on my experience, advertisements of this sort get a click through of even less than 0.1%.  That means you can put the ads there over a thousand times, and not once will it be clicked.

However, if you are doing a search for cheap air tickets, then lo and behold!  This is the nirvana of marketers. You actually type on the search engine looking for cheap air tickets…. If I put in an ad for these tickets, you would not only have a higher chance of noticing but actually a much higher chance of you clicking on the ad, and actually buying the ticket!

Thus, the holy grail of getting more online advertisements, which incidentally is slated to increase still very strongly is to be the de facto search engine.

What’s at stake.  This year, online ads are said to total 40 billion dollars and Microsoft only has about $2 billion on it, while Google may already have at least 4 times as much.  It is estimated that Google now earns more from online ads than Microsoft earns from selling Windows!  What’s more, in 2010, or less than 2 years away, online ads are slated to double to 80 billion dollars!  Go figure!

the eNGy Business Cartoon series is a daily toon about the hilarious experiences in the office and deals with business and technology. The second book is now added to the first book for free download.

Pls. read carefully on book2 as you may need to register in order to get the FULL e-book.

You can download for free for a limited time:
eNGy Business Cartoons Ebook 1 (Feb 25 - April 23,2008)
enGy Business cartoons Ebook 2 ( April 24 - June 20, 2008)

Read and enjoy!

There has been stories that people were either have their bags, or properties confiscated if upon entry to some US or Europe countries, they were found to be bringing or using counterfeit goods. I have also had friends who were outright denied entries even if they have a valid visa… I guess that’s one way to fight.

I have also heard that certain businessmen who were convicted of being in the counterfeit trade have had their visas revoked outright.

Counterfeit, pirated goods costing U.S. billions - Yahoo! News

Intellectual property theft robs the U.S. economy of at least $200 billion and 750,000 jobs every year, according to Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that is probing the issue.

Central Banks, and businessmen worldwide are starting to have this problem… This is not usual, and therefore our arsenal of weapons to solve this still is not quite as defined…

Economy struggles with rising prices, slow growth - Yahoo! News

Wholesale prices barreled ahead while housing and industrial activity faltered — a blend of high-costs and slow growth that ensures the Federal Reserve’s most likely move on interest rates next week will be no move whatsoever.

I have been using Scribefire to post to my blog for quick notes, but however, have found it necessary to login to Wordpress itself for some advanced configuration.

The latest version has been substantially improved and mostly I can now do whatever I want to do right off from the offline editor.

- post the article as draft
- post it with a modified time and date stamp
- add category tags
- post videos from YouTube
- post it as a page instead of as a post
- ping blogs, or have it bookmarked at del.icio.us, or some of the wellknown social bookmarks.

Cool

Couple of things people are using ( details are in the Link).

- some people took advantage of no limits on charitable contributions between August 27, 2005 to jan 1, 2006.
- Taxpayers may eliminate upto 100% of their alternative minimum tax by using credits for any foreign taxes paid.

ABC News: They Earn $200,000 and Pay No Taxes

New IRS statistics show 7,389 federal tax returns with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income reported no federal income taxes in 2005. That’s a 161% jump from the 2,833 comparable returns filed in 2004.

• my bizdriven blog- My Twits: snipr.com/2jaq2
• my bizdriven blog- Chinas prodigous increase in electric usage snipr.com/2jg7f
• eNGy business toon- Did I really want to Know, or i’m just too Lazy to Move? tinyurl.com/6s2shr
• When trouble arises, there is always one individual who perceives a solution. Very often, that individual is crazy. " — Dave Barry
• adobe 2nd quarter earnings jump 41 percent — i think the death of desktop software is exaggerated -tinyurl.com/5dsz93
• +geek: somebody whose reasoning/decision making is always first and foremost based on passions rather financial reward/social acceptance
• +nerd:person who passionately pursues intellectual or esoteric knowledge or pastimes rather than engaging in social life
• my bizdriven blog- USA’s Fastest Growing Fixed Line Company snipr.com/2jljv
• my bizdriven blog- The World’s biggest Mall is also the World’s Emptiest snipr.com/2jqb2
• I may not be smart enough to do everything, but I am dumb enough to try anything. " — Beastboy of Teen Titans
• Oh goodness! - Newborn girl thrown of out condo dies -tinyurl.com/4fpa7f
• cisco says traffic on the world’s network to jump 46% from 2007 to 2012 - tinyurl.com/5cy35z
• I’ve just noted that in Wordpress 2.5, instead of featuring incoming links from technorati, it features google blog search inlinks…why?

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