From the Blogosphere @ Yacht Vacations & Charters

From the Blogosphere

By Treff LaPlante

My company recently started using Google's enterprise mail service. We did this as part of an effort to be more efficient and more competitive. Google has great administrators and programmers who manage the service, as well as spam-detection and firewall features. And the price is ter...

Sep. 3, 2010 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 299

Is XMPP Still A Relevant Messaging Platform For Middleware?

By Manas Sarkar

The recent news on Google stopping further development on their offering Google Wave did create mixed responses. Thousands of fans even registering support for it and critics liked it. However my interest was on the messaging platform that it used. Extensible Messaging and Presence ...

Aug. 27, 2010 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 874

The Google AdWords Broad Match Modifier

By Elad Israeli

couple of months ago, Google added a modifier option for the Broad Match type. This option basically allows you to control which words must appear in exact or synonymous form within the search phrase. For the record, I have always disliked the Broad matching option. Especially since G...

Aug. 5, 2010 03:16 PM EDT Reads: 250

Google Places Local Business Listing Availability By Country

By Melih Oztalay

Google Places Local Business Listing availability by country. A free service offered by Google Places and new countries are added by Google as they are made available through Google Maps.

Jun. 12, 2010 09:00 PM EDT Reads: 855

Correcting the Map Marker for a Local Business Listing on Google Maps

By Melih Oztalay

If you have looked up your business address or company name on Google maps you may want to check if the map marker is in the right location. There are errors on maps occasionally based on oddities that may show your physical address on a map in the wrong location. Aside from claiming y...

Jun. 9, 2010 09:00 PM EDT Reads: 628

Removing Consumer Reviews from Google Places Listing

By Melih Oztalay

While consumers were open to use blogs, forums and other social community tools to post their experiences with a business, product or service, now consumers have the ability to post these reviews directly into a geo-listing. Not only does this allow other consumers to read the reviews ...

Jun. 8, 2010 09:00 PM EDT Reads: 611

Google to Microsoft:”Don’t Let the Door Hit Ya!”

By William McBorrough

Talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water. The Financial Times reported on Monday that Google has begun telling new employees that they are no longer able to request Windows PCs, giving them the choice of Mac or Linux systems. Google has long offered its employees their choi...

Jun. 1, 2010 01:13 PM EDT Reads: 818

Introducing CloudBerry Explorer for Google Storage

By Nadezhda Lukyanova

Note: this post applies to CloudBerry Explorer for Google Storage 1.0 and later.

Google ...

May. 28, 2010 09:59 AM EDT Reads: 602

How to: Create an OpenSearch Provider for SharePoint

By Corey Roth

A while back, Kevin Williams pointed out to me that certain web sites could be searched in Google Chrome using the syntax <ur> query in the address bar. For example,...

May. 17, 2010 06:07 PM EDT Reads: 1,204

Search Engines Still Can't Index Flash Sites with Dynamic Content

By Yakov Fain

There are two types of Web applications: those that care about their discoverability and those that don’t.
If you are developing a Web application in Flash or Flex for, say, financial advisers (FA) of a brokerage house or salesmen of an insurance company, discoverability ...

May. 10, 2010 07:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,810

How Sales Complexity Impacts Your Startup’s Viability

By David Skok

There is no question that success for the entrepreneur starts with a breakthrough (or at the very least great) product or service. Yet too often, entrepreneurs fall into the “field of dreams” mentality (in the words of Terence Mann, AKA James Earl Jones: “build it and they’ll come”). B...

Apr. 29, 2010 12:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,630

The Great SEO Swindle

By David Strom

I have been writing about the Web since it was nearly invented in the early 1990s and one of my continued sources of amusement is the snake oil search engine optimization vendors. Repeat after me: content is king. Everything else is just a shell game. In our rush to better our ranki...

Apr. 28, 2010 03:58 PM EDT Reads: 893

Who Was First to Anticipate New Media's Coming Importance?

By Jeremy Geelan

It is often said that becoming an entrepreneur is the modern-day equivalent of choosing to be a pioneer on the old frontier. Only people with certain strength of fiber decide to found companies. They tend to be forward thinkers by nature, natural born pathfinders. But in age that lo...

Apr. 25, 2010 01:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,814

Bravo, Google!

By Yakov Fain

Let me ask you this, “Can you come up with any innovation for the time interval between the moment you pressed the button Send in your email client and the moment when the send process actually begins”? No? And Microsoft couldn’t, even though MS Outlook is probably st...

Apr. 14, 2010 11:40 PM EDT Reads: 4,969

OffiSync 2.0 Ships Today

By Michael Cohn

Cloud Sherpas is eager to announce the next major release of OffiSync! A longtime Cloud Sherpas partner, OffiSync 2.0 boasts a one-of-a-kind Microsoft Office to Google Apps extension tool that enhances Office with the cloud collaboration capacities of Google Apps. We proudly affirm ...

Apr. 13, 2010 06:18 PM EDT Reads: 1,242

Build Your Brand Online with a Video Profile

By William Arruda

With more than 29 million online video clips on the Internet, video is quickly becoming the must-have app for personal branding differentiation. Whether you are in a job search mode or looking to promote your small business, videos have preferred Google-juice status for search engine o...

Apr. 13, 2010 10:30 AM EDT Reads: 2,161

A Startup SEO Lesson

By Mike Sweeney

The name of this blog is Marketing Trenches. We chose that name because we like to give readers real stories, based on real situations, with real clients. From the trenches, if you will. We’re currently working with a startup software company on various facets of their official launch...

Apr. 6, 2010 10:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,084

The Danger of Having a Hammer

By Mike Sweeney

In what has to be a nearly unbelievable set of coincidences, 3 times in the last week I’ve met with a prospective client shortly after they’ve met with a shop that specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). First, let me say that I like SEO, I’m not picking on SEO, and I think t...

Apr. 1, 2010 05:26 PM EDT Reads: 925

Another Google Vulnerability Fixed

By Hovhannes Avoyan

Google has fixed a glitch in a program designed to link Gmail accounts and Microsoft Outlook. Due to a server error, Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, which allows users to view Gmail messages and use certain Apps on their Outlook pages, did not work properly. When it works, t...

Mar. 31, 2010 08:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,248

Google vs. China, Our First Cyber War

By David Strom

Last week we witnessed the first Cyber War, but it didn’t go down quite as many of us expected. Instead of a group of anonymous hackers trying to take over thousands of infected PCs or trying to cut off access to critical infrastructure, we saw Google declare the first salvo in its war...

Mar. 29, 2010 02:49 PM EDT Reads: 2,834

Jon Orwant of Google Books

By David Weinberger

Jon Orwant is an Engineering Manager at Google, with Google Books under him. He used to be CTO at O’Reilly, and was educated at MIT Media Lab. He’s giving a talk to Harvard’s librarians about his perspective on how libraries might change, a topic he says puts him out on a limb. He say...

Mar. 29, 2010 01:06 PM EDT Reads: 965

One-Fifth of the Take Ain’t a Bad Deal

By Hovhannes Avoyan

So here we have a company that’s already a cloud giant, with its GoogleApps (Gmail, Docs, etc.), which is now paving the way for its future fortune as a host for third-party cloud app developers. If I didn’t have all my money tied up in the corner grocery store, I’d buy a few shares of...

Mar. 18, 2010 04:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,035

The Latest Battle of the Titans: Apple vs Google

By Jnan Dash

Over the weekend, this New York Times article described in detail the battle between Apple and Google in the mobile phone market. It makes a good narrative, like reading an interesting saga of a “friend turning foe”. As the first iPhone came out back in 2005, there was Eric Schmidt ...

Mar. 17, 2010 05:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,297

GMA Coverage of Pacquiao-Clottey Fight a Disgrace

By Roger Strukhoff

Estimates of poverty in the Philippines vary, but it's realistic to say that 40% of the country's 92 million people fall below a poverty line no matter where it's drawn. Another 20% or so struggle to have more than one meal a day. About 25 million fall into an emerging "middle class," ...

Mar. 14, 2010 05:23 AM EDT Reads: 3,617

Microsoft’s Bing Gains From Google’s China Woes

By Dilip Tinnelvelly

Google search gets pushed out of Motorola’s Chinese phones. Will Bing be taken more seriously after this? Even as Google is in talks with the Chinese government that will decide its fate in the country, Motorola has decided not to take any chances and go with Microsoft’s B...

Mar. 13, 2010 02:30 AM EST Reads: 1,253

Do You Mean We Import Chalk?

By John Savageau

Something as simple as chalk, a tool used by nearly everybody n the country, was not being produced in the domestic business sector. Dr. Bukenya changed that. The chalk problem was quickly rectified, and a new program of “can we make it in Uganda” started. The basic idea is if the p...

Mar. 10, 2010 11:27 AM EST Reads: 1,146

Is Google the Next Evil Empire?

By David Strom

The news last week that Italian authorities have convicted three Google executives with criminal privacy violations got my attention for two reasons. One, the charges are based on a video that shows an autistic boy being bullied, a video that Google did not create or post. It was filme...

Mar. 3, 2010 01:15 PM EST Reads: 2,462

Free Webinars Promote Advantages of Local Business Listings

By Melih Oztalay

The webinars are being hosted by SmartFinds Internet Marketing, with two upcoming sessions scheduled for Wednesday, February 24th at 10:00 a.m. EST and Thursday, February 25th at 2:00 p.m. EST. These free webinars will help introduce the benefits of Local Business Listings to local bus...

Mar. 1, 2010 07:00 PM EST Reads: 1,247

The Impact of Google Local Business Listing and Mobile Coupons

By Melih Oztalay

Local business listings have become a significant local marketing tool that is showing the demise of the traditional yellow pages and equally the traditional coupons. The famous Stars Wars quote comes to mind “This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of Kenobi, and will ...

Mar. 1, 2010 06:45 PM EST Reads: 1,745

A Close Look at Google Privacy Policy

By Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu

When you first enter Google Buzz, to make the startup experience easier, we may automatically select people for you to follow based on the people you email and chat with most. Similarly, we may also suggest to others that they automatically follow you. You can review and edit the list ...

Feb. 14, 2010 11:00 PM EST Reads: 1,500

Google Buzz’s Privacy Tweaks

By Moe Tamani

PC World – Google Buzz got off to a rocky start this week with complaints over exposed Gmail contacts and other privacy issues, and Google has scrambled to fix them. In a blog post, Gmail and Google Buzz Product Manager Todd Jackson outline some changes that will make it easier for ...

Feb. 13, 2010 11:15 PM EST Reads: 1,431

Will Google Buzz Change the Social Media Game?

By Moe Tamani

Google held a press event to announce the most "buzzed" topic of the week - Google Buzz. This is Google’s new product, which is being compared to social networks like Twitter and Facebook. It is integrated with Gmail and other Google products, and appears to be one of the missing links...

Feb. 13, 2010 02:00 PM EST Reads: 2,119

SherpaTools Beta Now Open to All Google Apps Premier Domains

By Michael Cohn

Cloud Sherpas is pleased to welcome the Google Apps community into the SherpaTools for Google Apps beta program. There's no longer a need to sign up and wait for an invitation - if you have a Google Apps administrator account, you can log in right now! To start, visit this help page on...

Feb. 10, 2010 06:10 AM EST Reads: 1,108

Get Your Business Ranked At Google Without A Website

By Melih Oztalay

The search engine Local Business Listing is how you can use the Internet to generate sales. This is a service that is a part of Google Local Business Listing via Google Maps, Yahoo Local Listing and Bing Local Listing. Local business listing website ranking is now possible for any siz...

Feb. 7, 2010 11:30 PM EST Reads: 1,621

Local Business Listing Hijackings

By Melih Oztalay

Local business listing hijackings are a real thing. If you do a search on local business listing hijacking you will find information related to situations in which a competitor hijacked another businesses local listing to their benefit. If you do a search on "local business listing hi...

Feb. 7, 2010 10:45 PM EST Reads: 1,453

Google-China Tiff: A Clash of Cyber Civilizations?

By Dana Gardner

This ongoing tiff between Google and the Internet control authorities in China’s Communist Party-dominated government have uncorked a Pandora’s Box of security, free speech and corporate espionage issues. There are human rights issues and free speech issues, questions on China’s actual...

Feb. 3, 2010 02:00 PM EST Reads: 1,917

Google Apps Keep Adding Cool Features

By Bob Gourley

While the entire tech world seemed focused on Apple during the iPad rollout, Google just kept serving in silence, keeping the innovation engines running without distraction. I sure enjoyed the iPad rollout. Although I was a little underwhelmed, I enjoyed watching the presentation and...

Jan. 29, 2010 10:45 AM EST Reads: 2,526

Time For Cloud-Based Online Google Bank?

By Dana Gardner

I have had it with credit cards, banks, mutual fund companies, PayPal, debit cards, MasterCard and Visa. As far as I'm concerned they are all fired. They do a lousy job, have suspect security, charge too much, stiff you with hidden fees and raise their rates whenever they want. Why pay...

Jan. 14, 2010 03:00 PM EST Reads: 1,709

Google’s Achilles' Heel: The China Example

By Wilson Kerr

Wikipedia defines an Achilles' Heel as, “A deadly weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfa...

Jan. 14, 2010 05:00 AM EST Reads: 1,526

Did Yelp Catch The First Anti- Google Wave?

By Wilson Kerr

Yelp’s window stickers tell a tale of building local merchant trust and a lot of grunt work by “boots on the ground”. By this I mean the literal and figurative wearing out of shoe leather for the purpose of winning over single-door business owners one by one. Explaining the power of Lo...

Jan. 13, 2010 11:15 PM EST Reads: 2,575