Agents of Value

Written by Ric, Image by Ian The word brand originally meant burning, or a burning piece of wood, torch, or sword. Then it changed its meaning to an identifying mark made by a hot iron (1550s), particular make of goods (1827), and the term brand name which we are using now was born in 1922. Now that the world is technology-driven, what brand or company names make the most noise? 9 out of 10 knows Google (well) The ABC News/Washington Post poll released last month details who rules the tech world. Only 1 out of 10 of Americans haven’t formed any opinion about Google. Almost the same is true both for Facebook and Apple (14%). While for Twitter, 31% were unready to express any opinion regarding the site. And more – 82% of the Americans have a favorable opinion of Google, while 74% favors Apple. Facebook (58%) and Twitter follow (34%). Popular to some, unfavorable to some Not all have a positive response to these companies. Nine percent is unfavorable of Google, 13 % for Apple, 28 % for Facebook, and 36 % for Twitter. Google [...]

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Written by Ric, Image by Ian (Note: This is a follow-up on the previous  article entitled Penguin: Another Black and White from Google) Keywords and anchor text are essential in search engine optimization. One of the targets of the Penguin Update are the sites that are overstuffed with keywords and anchor texts. Did it actually hit the target? Micrositemasters.com’s analysis shows that the sites that were affected use money keywords as anchor texts for more than 60 percent incoming links. It seems that the focus on anchor words will become minimal as compared to content relevancy. This trend will make the optimization of keywords and anchor texts irrelevant in the long run. BUT is it really the case? The affected sites According to Searchmetrics, the sites that were greatly affected are mostly database-driven – they aggregate information and use their databases to create a lot of pages. Press portals and aggregators that are usually created by very aggressive SEOs, are also affected. Last, some of them are heavily-templated web sites. Keywords, without content Although fresh and [...]

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When I first heard about Google’s Penguin Update, the first thing that came to my mind were the cute penguins in Madagascar and Happy Feet. But after it was released last April 24, it’s image changed into a super villain – The Penguin – for some. Penguin is worse The update was aimed at webspams, which involves keyword stuffing or cloaking, which is not allowed by Google. The initial response, for some, is of course negative. Lots of sites were affected by the update. It is much worse compared to the reaction and panicky situation right after the implementation of Panda. Dr. Pete, using an internal SEOmoz.org graph, illustrates how Penguin hit the search engine queries. He added, “… the core point is that the impact of Penguin dwarfed either Panda 3.5 or Google’s 4/16 glitch.” The immediate impacts seem bad but as always there should be a balanced view of things. There have been other updates before that also caused initial effects for some but not for all. Why were they penalized? Micrositemasters.com’s analysis [...]

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Having been declared the world’s number one center for voice-based services and number two in non-voice, complex services, the Philippines will host the 3rd International Outsourcing Summit on October 11-12, 2011 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza. Leaders of top global IT-BPO and Global In-house Centers (GICs) and client-side executives will discuss the future of the industry, especially in the face of increased demand in this fast-emerging, new age of offshore outsourcing. Over 60 speakers and panelists and 400 delegates are expected to attend the summit.  The summit will also review the strategic objectives provided in the Philippines’ IT-BPO Road Map 2011-2016. The IT-BPO Road Map 2011-2016 has identified key opportunities and risks for the Philippines. It is known that other emerging locators are working to replicate the Philippines’ success, thereby making the competition fiercer, not only in terms of costs, but more importantly in terms of labor provision, talent management, technology and service innovation, specialization, and the capability of delivering high-value, complex services. Register now!

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