Microsoft - Yahoo Search Engine Deal

Microsoft and Yahoo are playing the game of cat and mouse from a long time. But no results were coming out.

Today the D-Day finally came. They came out as two separate company and joining forces together to fight against Google.

The story which is creating headline of many newspaper is the "Search Engine Deal".

Microsoft and Yahoo! have confirmed an agreement for Yahoo! to use Microsoft's Bing search engine across its sites. The ten-year deal will make Bing the exclusive search platform for Yahoo! sites, and give Microsoft an exclusive licence to Yahoo's own search technology. Yahoo! will take over worldwide sales for both companies' search advertising, boosting their position versus market leader Google. Yahoo! expects the deal to add USD 500 million to annual operating profit and save it USD 200 million in capital spending within two years of full implementation. Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue-sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!'s network of sites, and pay traffic acquisition costs to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!'s sites during the first five years of the deal. Microsoft has also agreed to maintain Yahoo's current revenue per search in each country for 18 months after implementation of the new platform. Pending reguatory approval, the companies expect the deal to close in early 2010.

By the help of this deal, both, yahoo and microsoft will get benefit. They will be sharing the profit among themselves and can strenthen their position in the search engine market.

Currently, Bing's market share is around 9% but after this deal the share will be around 26%. Isn't it the bigger pie in this web search market???


Search engine giant Google Inc said it was "interested" in Microsoft's 10-year search deal with Yahoo announced on Wednesday, adding that competition was usually good for online users.

"There has traditionally been a lot of competition online, and our experience is that competition brings about great things for users," said Google spokesman Adam Kovakovich.

"We're interested to learn more about the deal," he said in an emailed statement.

Google made a search ad deal with Yahoo in June 2008 but scrapped it because of objections from the Justice Department. Google is taking wise and calculated risk in getting along this competitive market. They are closely watching the move of Microsoft and Yahoo.

Advertisers had hotly opposed it, fearing Google and Yahoo's dominance of the market could mean higher prices. Yahoo initially struck the deal with Google as a way to fend off an unsolicited takeover bid from Microsoft.

But now the scenario is changed. Yahoo has played a key role in changing the domain knowledge of search and using it as a tool to fight against the Google by joining hands with microsoft.

Tech Companies "GROWING IN TOUGH TIMES"

Technical companies have already laid the foundation in this part of time. They have proved themselves as the horse of the long race. I am not saying because I am a technocrat but it is been said by their quarter results.

Lot of people expected it to be a simple outcome of sales. But the true story was totally different. It was the mashup of lot of things. It was expected by the market analyst that they will perform well but this much?? One would wonder that in this era of recession, if they are able to outperform many of the companies, then what will be the future?

I would like to discuss about few companies which I think that they need a round of applause.

1. Apple

"Apple"

Wow!! what a term. Have you ever tried to do an image search by the term apple in google? If not, try it. You will find out that how much this company has taken over the software industry. They have changed the meaning of the term apple. They are the leaders in innovation and technology. They know what they are doing and what they should do in the coming years to survive this tough time. I am saying all this good things about apple not because they have come up with most innovative product like iPhone and iPod but its the total company which comes out to be a winner. Take any product of apple starting form Mac desktop, Mac OS, iPhone, iPod and last but not the least, software like iTunes and Safari. Every product can be termed as the masterpiece. It has excelled the expectation of all the people. So they are surely winners in this tough time.

Their quarter results also says the same thing. Apple, the closest thing the tech industry has to a luxury brand, said earnings for the three months that ended June 27 jumped 15 percent to $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per share. Apple's profit was $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per share, in the same period last year. Apple sold more than 5.2 million iPhones in the quarter, more than seven times what it sold in the 2008 quarter, thanks in part to a newly released version of the device. I guess this all things tells the total story.

2. Google

Google has taken the world by storm. They have been in the news almost daily. Everyone will be reading about google coming up with some mashup of web technologies like "WAVE" or suddenly they will announce that they will be releasing the operating system for netbook named "Google Chrome OS". Also suddenly at one fine day, they will move many of their applications out of beta or they will announce about new android SDK and phones.

Google has designed a beautifully crafted business strategy to take over their competitors. I guess you know who....

But still, they are riding high on this scenario and getting the most out of it. Their google labs is working 24x7 as they are coming up with lot of products. If you see the small things in google search, you will be amazed to think how it would have been done. Google is indeed one company which will be there for a long time.

Google Inc. made more money than ever in the second quarter, even though its revenue growth slowed like never before. Its second-quarter profit rose 19 percent to $1.48 billion, or $4.66 per share - the highest net income for any three-month period since Google went public in five years ago. Google ended June with 19,786 employees, 378 fewer than at the end of March.

3. Tech pillars of India - TCS, Infosys & Wipro

The software industry has flourished in India exponentially. India was supposed to be an agricultural country but now the whole scenario has changed. More and more focus is given on the software industry which has shown tremendous growth in recent times. They are showing the profit of around 11 % to 20%.

All these companies have shown that they have tremendous potential for getting success and they are trying hard to come out of this tough times. They have made it clear that recession will not affect Indian software industry very easily. They know how this business runs and they are taking it very seriously.

I guess in the near future their strategy will change but it will all be good for India.

So this was all about the technological companies which will be making the future bright for us.

For more information, you can follow me on twitter : http://twitter.com/hardikupadhyay Or can read my blog: http://hardikupadhyay.blogspot.com/

Also you can mail me at : hardik2447@gmail.com

JSK

Green, Green, Come again!! - Super computers are saying

Green Revolution. Its my favourite term. I love the color green. Its so soothing to eyes and its delightful to see mother earth so green with the shade of blue by waters. But this has changed. Its because of the population, deforestation and many other factors. The source of this pollution is infinite but so are the solutions.

People tend to know the source of the problem but they fail to implement the solution. They have a scenario in hand but they will keep on discussing it for hours and hours till they find it almost impossible to implement. So the thing remains as it is.

But now the trend is changing. People are actually thinking about making the planet green by reducing the carbon foot prints. Companies are creating lot of awareness among themselves and it the industry to create a kind of green revolution.

Today I will focus on such industry - Computer Manufacturers.
Computers today are prime mode of communication with other people around the world. It also helps many large corporate to run their business all the time. Now as the time changes, the need of people also increases. They want more and more computing speed at any cost. But it depends on the manufacturers to help them with giving what they want and at what cost for the planet earth.

One of the example which stunned me today was the data which I got from the Internet about the master of computer manufacturing industry - IBM.
IBM has always been the leader in this industry but they shamed their competitors by creating supercomputer.

Now one will be thinking one or two supercomputer anyone can make. But what makes it so special is its totally based on the concept of Green technology. It is specially designed to save power. POWER?? In what sense?

For decades now, the notion of "performance" has been synonymous with "speed" (as measured in FLOPS, short for floating-point operations per second). This particular focus has led to the emergence of supercomputers that consume egregious amounts of electrical power and produce so much heat that extravagant cooling facilities must be constructed to ensure proper operation. In addition, the emphasis on speed as the performance metric has caused other performance metrics to be largely ignored, e.g., reliability, availability, and usability. As a consequence, all of the above has led to an extraordinary increase in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a supercomputer.

It makes much more difficult for the high-end computing community to focus on performance metrics other than speed. Therefore, to raise awareness to other performance metrics of interest, e.g., performance per watt and energy efficiency for improved reliability was taken over by IBM.

IBM created the history by creating 18 supercomputers which were in the top 20 list of GREEN500 list. IBM has shamed its competitors, ranking by far the most environmentally friendly supercomputer maker. Eighteen of the top 20 systems on the Green500 list were made by IBM.

This indeed tells the whole story. IBM is a leader in making the super green, super fast computers and will contribute in Green revolution in the near future. I am sure that other industry will also follow this computer manufacturing giant to make the earth more green.

For more information about me, follow me on twitter:
http://twitter.com/hardikupadhyay

or mail me at hardik2447@gmail.com

JSK

Industry / Sectors - Not Affected by Recession

Recession is one of the most common word which is famous with today's people. Every single person has only one tension in their life. How to fight against the recession?

People think about the measures which has to be taken in order to fight against the growing terror named terrorism. They have to take some steps. But how?? Will it continue for all the time or there will be something, some kind of miracle which will save them from this current conflict of minds?

Also there is one more dilemma which people are facing. Most of the people are scared to change the job thinking that they will not get any kind of benefits from the change. Also they are skeptical that the change of job will be useful to them or not. It may not turn out to be a nightmare if they change from the existing job to a new job and that particular industry faces far more serious issues. So what should be done? I will try to help you finding some answers to your intriguing questions. Hopefully it will help you to find some answers.

The following are the top 6 sectors which I think are least affected by recession:

1. Health Care: I would say that health care is one of the key sectors that have largely remained unaffected because it is a necessity. People will go to the doctor when they are ill. But currently they are facing some serious issues in finding some answers. The US health care is facing lot of issues today. But the solution lie in changing the functional methodology of the whole system. But still there is lot of scope for improvement in the health care sector of any company and I believe that it will come out to be a successful industry in the future.
2. Pharmaceutical: There is a truthful saying "Health Is Wealth". Humans are getting lesser immune now a days. They are getting sick again and again. So due to this, they will go to doctor as they already have insurance. Wouldn't people still go to various doctor's or other pharmacies to get their prescriptions and medicine they're in need of? If your answer is "YES" for this, then I need not to explain anything furthermore. Pharmaceutical industry is growing at a fast pace with lot of drugs still to come. So I firmly believe that they have a shiny future and will survive this recession tide.
3. Education: After the storm of recession, most of the people lost their job. They had their savings but what was the use. They needed to do something. The only option left for them was to go for higher studies. People prefer spending more on education to counter job
   crunch in times of economic meltdown. This results in extra spending which will act like returns for them. Every year lot of students pay a hefty price to get better education. Management and Science are at the centre of the core. So even if the recession is at peak, people will prefer to get higher education and spend money there. So the monetary flow in this industry will keep on going in this tough times.
4. Power Sector:It's a basic infrastructure requirement and there is
   still a long way to go in achieving self sufficiency in this sector. Power sector has been changing its trends in recent times. They have faced lot of issues and also growing demands. There is also the change in source of power generation. So there will always be demand for more energy, hence there will be demand for jobs in this sector. But they have to play a safe game.
5. Telecommunication: Telecom sector has also shown a recession proof
   character as a mobile phone today has evolved into more of a necessity
   , just like food, shelter, clothing, health care, etc. People are spending more and more on mobile and its utilities. They are using various services and people are also ready to give more money for getting better next-gen network for their usage. Today telecom industry is investing more and more on infrastructure. Government initiatives are also backing up the process. They are helping the users to regulate the scenario. There is wide scope for employment and profit from this sector. In fact, this sector is supposed to be a saviour in the times of recession and will help the industry to revive from this current position.
6. FMCG: Daily utility items and will move at the counter irrespective. People don't care about the increasing food price or goods. People will prefer to cut their cost in spending more on electronics goods and other electronic entertainment items but the daily items will be on the top of their list. This things boils down to a simple rule. The industry of FMCG will continue to excel. But the pace may be slow comparatively. The reduction in exports may be a factor for slow growth but it will not be affected much by the attack of recession.

I guess my insight on the current industry scenario was helpful to you all. If you want any kind of help, then do mail me.

You are also free to follow me on twitter.

www.twitter.com/hardikupadhyay

My email id is hardik2447@gmail.com

JSK

Mobile Market in India - Latest March 2009

Hi Friends,
Today I am going to give some data about the current mobile market subscriber base in the Indian Market. I have read from the few sources like financial express and economic times and came up with the following data. It may be helpful to many people who are dealing with the mobile industry.

Telecommunication Scenario in India:

As everyone knows, if they are not knowing, i will tell you one fact. There is a regulation in Indian market that any company cannot come to India unless they have a tie up with the Indian company.
So many of the foreign companies are coming to India by tying up with the existing mobile companies in India. Latest news is about Japanese company DoCoMo tying up with TATA communications and launching the service named TATA DOCOMO. It is supposed to be a hit which is estimated by many market researchers.

Also there are few ways where they can expand their business with their new technology and other features. Let's see what happens in the near future.
Below are the current features in the mobile market of India.

Overall ARPU GSM services in India:

March Quarter: INR 205 (down 6.82 %)

December Quarter: INR 220

Postpaid ARPU : ARPU for postpaid service fell 2.8 percent to INR 543
from INR 559,

Prepaid ARPU: Declined 6 percent to INR 181 from INR 192.

For CDMA services:
The blended ARPU per month went down to INR 99 from INR 111.

The postpaid ARPU for CDMA services was five times that of prepaid
ARPU, which Trai attributed to the declining importance of processing
fees on recharge vouchers purchased by prepaid subscribers.

Mobile Internet access: 117.82 million over their phones in March

Subscriber Base:

­India's total subscriber base of wireline and wireless services
reaches 429.72 million for quarter ending March 2009 as against 384.79
million for quarter ending December 2008, thus registering an increase
of 11.68% during the quarter

Total Mobile subscriber base - Wireless Subscriber Base: The
subscriber base for wireless services has increased from 346.89
million for quarter ending December 2008 to 391.76 million for quarter
ending March 2009 increased by 44.7 million in the quarter.

GSM subscribe Base:
The GSM-based subscriber base now stands at 315.7 million, an increase
of 2.9 percent over the 306.8 million in the previous month.

Airtel: Bharti Airtel retained its top position with 2.8 million new
subscribers added in June, making it the first operator to cross the
100-million subscriber base mark

Rural Wireless Subscriber Base:
Increased from 93.15 million for quarter ending December 2008 to
109.71 million for quarter ending March 2009, registering a growth of
17.77%.

Total Revenue: Total revenues for the telecom services sector in the
three months to March reached INR 404.45 billion, up 2.63 percent from
the previous quarter.

I hope that the above statistics were helpful to you. Keep reading my blog for further information.

JSK

How To make GOOGLE crawl your website easily :)

How to reach the top position in search engine results? How can I get my name in the top position of Google or Bing results?

All these questions are answered in this particular blog. I will give you a faint idea from which I got this information.

The purpose of the SEO (Search Engine optimization). The SERP (Search Engine Result Page) should be your ultimate goal. All engines select pages depending on the keywords they contain, but the criteria of position in the SERP differ.

Google updates the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) as per the new algorithm. The changing trend of the technology makes them redesign the whole system so that the web crawlers (spiders) are more effective.

Principles of positioning common to search engines
What matters above all is the content.
1. The first page (index page) should contain some text. It will be easy for the google spider to crawl your website and index it. Our pages, and especially the home page, must have text, with four or five paragraphs at least. If the home page text contains the relevant text which user will give a query, it will be appearing on the top of google results.
2. The content of your site must be unique. It should be framed in such a way that the user is able to read it and should return to your website again and again. Google detects similar texts and penalizes duplicate content.
3. Unique name and topic should be given to your website. Your site must have a specific topic. This helps engines to find the answer to a query. I know this is bit tough but you can give a try. You will be able to write at least a specific topic. It will be helpful for you and for the people who are searching for the content.
4. You need to change the article regularly. Lord Krishna says "Change is life. Life will become useless if you are not able to change it". A frequently changing content with new articles, causes more frequent visits from robots and a premium for the position.


The keywords found in the text determine the choice of the page in response to a query.
1. Try to think of all the keywords that are relevant to the subject of the article. They must appear in the text. If the text contain the keyword again and again, it will help more efficient. But make sure that your article should not become boring and redundant. Keep that in mind that the golden rule of making your site to the top is the inbound links, and it will be only possible if there are more page views for your website. This will be helpful only when the content is relevant.

2. Search engines do not yet recognize synonyms, metaphors. Think to all the synonyms to keywords you are positioning, and use them in the text. This means that if you are trying to say something about "ANGER", you can write similar words like "acrimony, animosity, annoyance, antagonism, enmity, fury, gall, hatred, impatience, irritation, rage, temper, violence ". It has multiple benefits, it will not create the website or blog boring and at the same time it will not lose the meaning or theme of the article.
3. They also must appear in the (Title) tag and in the titles and subtitles headline 1, headline2, etc. It is not as simple as I am saying but you can manage and design pages as per your requirement and can use it to fit some keywords in it.
4. However keywords should always be integrated into phrases readable by Net surfers, this should never be lists, even in the title and meta description (you can omit the meta keywords). I know I am doing the mistake of writing the keywords in different points ,but its good for you. At last the main rule is "Get more readers so you will get more inbound links."
5. Keywords must also be placed in filenames. These must be summaries of the articles. It plays very important role in traditional English also. So the same thing applies for everyone.

Apart from the selection and integration of keywords, some additional details may improve your position:
1. Loading speed of the page. Try to design the page before. It will show how much time its taking to load the page. Try to avoid more usage of different coding languages like Javascript, ajax technology, flash, etc. It will make the page more complex and so the google bots will not able to crawl your website. Robots when indexing are allowed a limited time for each page, that is one of the billions they visit each day.
2. The words placed at the beginning of the article have more weight for the same reason.
3. The emphasis. Besides the titles, bold tags give more importance to words and robots use that.
4. They can index images with an alt attribute in the img tag.
5. Check regularly external links. Broken links penalize a site.

Backlinks are of course an essential factor of positioning.
1. Insert only relevant links in your articles. The links that you put on other pages and other sites are taken into account to score the page.
2. Try to get backlinks, but only relevant links. Avoid therefore directories that are not manually edited by the webmaster. Only a few deserve registration, and never when they require a backlink.
3. The weight of a link in a page is the PageRank of the page divided by the number of links. The ideal is to have a unique link on its site from a page on another site.
4. Never rename a file. You lose the backlinks and the traffic they bring, and you will return to a PageRank of 0!

I guess this all things are enough to help you a bit in making your webiste result come to the top. It will also help you to get more advertisements. It wil be helpful to you in one or the other way.

And I am sure there is not harm in giving a try.

Web 2.0 Basics

WEB 2.0 !!!!!!

The term which was a millionth word to enter the english dictionary. But I wonder what makes it more important. Is it the usability of the word or the internet usage or it is the main tool to gain the access of the wisdom of crowds. I say that it is the other one. But who cares actually. At least not the people who are actually using these kind of technology.

According to the gartner research, more than 63% of people who are using web 2.0 technologies or websites actually does not know the theme behind it. In fact it says that they are not at all aware of the term web 2.0. They are just using as it gives them benefits!!! Keep them in touch with their friends and relatives. Help them to find new friends. So the bottom line of this is that the people does not care about the technology, but they care about the usability.

So you can boil down this technology in this sense. For people, its the usability and for the developers its the mere term which will connect the people and give them power to use the technology.

Now comes the real part. What is this WEB 2.0 ?? Am I a part of it? What benefits I am getting from using it??

All these questions lead to only one solution. Web 2.0 is now integral part of internet. Any user who is using internet will be using this by some means.

If you are using any news websites like BBC, CNN, etc have you ever noticed the change? The page contains gadgets for every news. The gadgets can be moved and can be added or deleted. All this is not static html. But its dynamic enough to identify your needs and you can adjust it accordingly.

Isn't it a kind of new thing. I used to imagine in the past that what will be the next thing of website design? I got the answer. We have flash, ajax, python, rails, etc. All things comprise the technology part of the web design. I would also like to include the architecture of the next generation web2.0 technologies.

The web 2.0 is basically a concep which was developed by people which will create a new kind of dynamics of website. It uses following things:

• Wisdom of crowds


• Customer Usability


• Interactive features


• Information from various sources


• Expert opinion


• More information in one page

All this things will be creating the kind of conceptual cloud around the technology which is related to internet.

I guess this will comprise of the term WEB 2.0

If you have any doubt regarding this technological concept, you are free to mail me or follow me on twitter.

JSK