SEO Blog

Victoria BC is known to be a hotbed of search related activities. Several of the original and/or best known search engine marketers live on southern Vancouver Island and Victoria is home to a growing number of search and social media applications such as Enquisite Search Metrics and the Flock social media browser.

Earlier today, Google announced the winners of the annual Anita Borg academic scholarships awarded to outstanding female leaders in technology. University of Victoria Ph.D. student Celina Gibbs was one of four Canadian women to achieve the scholarship.

Google established the scholarship program in 2003 to honour the groundbreaking work of Dr. Anita Borg, an early computer scientist who dedicated herself to increasing the participation of women in technology. 2008 is the first year women in Canadian universities could apply. The award is also now open to female computer science students in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Congratulations Celina.

“Hello, I’m not sure if you’re they guys I need to talk to but I have a problem…”

Somebody has an emergency. Their business is in trouble and they know they need help. Since they are calling us with a big problem this is likely the first point of contact our agency has had with the caller. They almost certainly should have called sooner…

“My website was getting lots of traffic and making sales but in the past couple of weeks, all that has dried up. What should I do?”

Search engine optimization and marketing firms get this type of phone call every day. Somebody has invested a lot of money (relatively speaking, of course) and probably a lot of time into his or her online business and now they have an issue. Most of the time, the caller didn’t know who to speak with about their problem until it hit a critical point. Often, they didn’t even know they had a problem until their disaster struck. When it did, they would have turned to a friend or business associate that then referred them to us. Such is the extended marketing cycle for a well known search marketing shop.

Fire destroyed several businesses sharing an office complex with Metamend Search Marketing early Sunday morning, April 27, 2008. The search engine marketing firm’s main offices were spared most of the fire damage however the building itself was rendered unsafe for occupation. No one was hurt during the incident.

Though Metamend’s offices are currently inaccessible, the company continues operating as normal. Working from home-offices, staff members are responding to telephone or email inquiries, and client engagements are continuing as usual while the administration is securing new office space.

Critical company assets, such as client and corporate data, are housed and stored off-site where it is both secure and accessible to Metamend staff. Metamend’s search engine marketing services will continue without interruption or hindrance. Metamend expects that customers are unlikely to notice any changes in service delivery over the upcoming week.

“Fortunately, because of the nature of our business, our staff and administration is able to work remotely until new office space opens later this week,” said Metamend President, Glenn Convey. Convey continues, “Metamend will execute a disaster management plan for its facilities. With current technology and investment made over the past year, our administration has been able to re-establish operations quickly and efficiently. Fortunately, no one was hurt from the fire and the damage is confined to facilities only.”

It’s noon-ish on Monday and nothing of note has happened on the Microsoft - Yahoo! front this weekend. Observers expected to witness the fireworks of brinkmanship and brimstone as the three-week ultimatum issued by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer expired at midnight-ish Sunday.

Though nothing happened over the weekend, most expect Microsoft to make an announcement early this week. What that announcement will bring is another question. Yahoo!’s Board has mounted a stiff and surprisingly strong resistance to the acquisition attempt, seemingly in a bid to drive Microsoft’s offer higher. Microsoft however, has warned Yahoo! it does not intend to increase its offer.

Some financial analysts are now predicting that Microsoft could just pack up and walk away, leaving Yahoo! spinning and reeling after four months of frantic dodging.

Perhaps this period of Sitzkrieg has been part of Microsoft’s overall strategy all along. Even if it doesn’t acquire Yahoo!, Microsoft has succeeded in weakening Yahoo!’s position and in forcing Yahoo! to alter its business plans well into the future. In short, Microsoft has totally knocked Yahoo! off its game. Even it it walks away, Microsoft has won position against its #2 rival.