Gasta News: LVMH vs Google: Let the Brand Wars Begin.

LVMH ((Louis Vitton, Moet Hennessy) versus Google goes to the very heart of the shift that the internet has forced upon us all. As the European Court considers whether Google should be allowed to let others bid on LVMH's trademarked brand terms, the broader question is whether brands can retain any sense of control in the online world.
Google is now the most powerful 'media owner' on the planet and it must accept the responsibility that comes with such power. But, its model is built on delivering what its users want. So, while we might argue that the decision to allow others to bid on trademarked brand terms was nothing but a bid to maintain paid search revenue growth, it can argue that it merely gives users the choice they deserve.
As chair of the IPA's search group, I'm keen to hear more on why it did it but, if search - whether paid or natural - is the 'navigation' in our customers' online journeys, then brands must also think hard about the 'conversation', that is their users' engagement in the combination of social sites, tools, emails and blogs that - alongside publisher-owned websites and brand destinations - help to shape their perceptions and, ultimately, their decisions.
The online journey that any one person takes to a decision is an incredible set of complex behaviours, founded on conversation and navigation, that the modern planner must fight to understand, embrace and act in accordance with.
That is a much more interesting battle than the one that's to be fought in Brussels since it deals, not just with what brands do about AdWords, but how they behave in everything they do now that their customers - enabled by services just like Google - are entirely in control.

Gasta Views: What is Twitter good for

These days, the most popular question I get asked is "What is Twitter good for?"

It's been asked by clients, colleagues, and friends alike, usually right after someone has taken the five minutes required to sign up for Twitter and start poking around. And it's a perfectly valid question, especially since on its face, Twitter doesn't seem like much. There's not a heck of a lot to it -- a bunch of people posting seemingly random, quick thoughts that sort of disappear into the internet ether.

The common currency in Twitter is followers, which can make the whole thing seem narcissistic and dumb, and therefore easily dismissed.

When I first encountered Twitter, I didn't get it either. Mentally, I filed it under a new category in my social media taxonomy that I decided to call "microblogging" and dismissed it as something for people who were too busy to blog. I relegated it to the role of updating my Facebook status and moved on to more interesting things.

As Twitter grew, though, a new paradigm emerged. (Yes, I hate the word "paradigm" too, but I couldn't find another word for "new way of understanding things.") I started to recognize Twitter's true value when I stopped thinking about it as a microblogging service and started thinking about it as a huge driver of the real-time web.

Twitter is about what is going on that very minute -- what people think about something they just experienced or are about to. It's about everything that happens before Google indexes and organizes information. In fact, it's when I learned to think of the internet landscape in terms of the real-time web versus everything else that I started to really understand Twitter's true impact.

The usual paradigm involves the deployment of content to web pages, followed by a process of organizing the information within that content by Google and others. The process can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on a variety of technical and semantic factors. The real-time web, to which Twitter is a significant contributor, exists within the time period between right now and the time Google organizes information and makes it easily findable.

With all the emphasis that has been placed on new marketing methods that are largely dependent on leveraging groundswells of activity around products, brands, and ideas, marketers need to understand what is going on right now.

By way of example, if I deploy a clever new ad campaign that I hope will enjoy some viral success, I can't afford to wait until Google indexes new content to find out how well I'm doing. I need to look at what's going on right now, in order to gauge what sort of commentary the ads are generating. Seeing a tweet posted an hour ago that says "Saw the new Acme ads. Hilarious stuff..." is more valuable to me than seeing an in-depth blog post from two weeks ago about the true meaning of the Acme ads. The real-time data are more actionable.

So Twitter gives us a peek into what's taking up mindshare, just as things are making an impact on us. That's valuable, especially in a world where enthusiasm for a product or a brand can build or wane in the space of a few hours or days. Google left a wide opening, and Twitter and its real-time web compatriots filled it.

Gasta News:Get Drunk on Google ads this Christmas

NMA Reports
Google lifts prohibition
Google is to allow spirit brands to run search campaigns for the first time as the search engine company looks to drive slowing AdWords click rates.
The search giant will lift restrictions in the New Year, letting spirit brands run branded search campaigns tied in with overall marketing activity. However, advertisers will not be allowed to promote or incentivise actual sales.
Google is understood to want to encourage spirit brands to run search campaigns as part of a wider media buy across its portfolio of channels, including AdSense and YouTube.
Google is set to make a formal announcement in the next few days, and while the actual date of UK restrictions being lifted has not been finalised it is expected to be in the first two weeks of January.
The move is the latest by the company to boost click rates on AdWords, which former Google chief financial officer George Reyes acknowledged had slowed when revealing its Q2 results back in July.
It follows October's lifting of gambling and gaming restrictions on AdWords. Back in May, Google allowed brands to bid on rival trademark terms. The company hoped both these moves would drive up click rates.
Brands and agencies have said they will increase search spend as a result of the latest decision.
Tom Jefferies, digital marketing manager at Bacardi Global Brands, said, "To be allowed to run AdWords advertising on Google.com is a big opportunity for us, so we will be looking to put money behind it."
Charlie McGee, MD of Carat Digital, which buys media for Diageo brands including Gordon's Gin, said: "[Using search] we can amplify all of the on and offline work that's done to promote these brands."
A Google spokesman said: "We're constantly evaluating our ad policies to ensure they are up-to-date and as consistent as possible with local business practises."

Gasta Gleaning i-information from Search.

Gasta.com important to some, Small regional search networks with strong on the ground support and investment can reach into the factories, the offices and the families of the communities they function in. Google of course is the 'universal' search. In fact to some, Google is the 'universe' and their latest branding does not try to dispel that myth. but, small tributary search networks are the arteries that serve Google and Livesearch. The IP search information gleaned from Gasta allows advertisers to focus campaigns with laser like targeting, this is a valuable resource to any Global / European company and should be considered when acquisition is discussed.In fact this is information is a vital commodity in the information age, but why buy information of others when you can resource your own?

Gasta Advetising set to grow

Find the online opportunities in your own backyard: Gasta.com

Billions of local ad dollars will be moving online in coming years. Find out which outlets offer the best potential returns.

These days, the advertising community is focusing its attention on how to create ads for online media -- including video, rich media, Flash, etc. -- and the revenue potential associated with these channels. However, a less-often-asked but vitally important question in terms of industry shift, as well as dollars and cents, is this: Where will these ads be placed?

Industry estimates suggest that mobile advertising will reach nearly $10 billion in the next few years, with online video reaching nearly $3 billion. However, advertising at the local market level -- although not as frequently discussed -- has the potential for even bigger numbers and greater growth. What's more, local advertising isn't at odds with mobile and online video, as many assume. Rather, rich media and geotargeted place-based mobile advertising are likely to be big components of that local online ad spend. Within the context of the changing media landscape, local online advertising represents a massive opportunity that is coming into its own -- and bears more attention from the advertising community.

Tip O'Neill once said, "All politics is local." And while that's not quite true of advertising, it does resonate when assessing this new shift into hyper-local marketing and advertising. According to eMarketer, $97 billion of the $157 billion -- more than 60 percent -- of the advertising market in the U.S. is focused on local. The online portion of that has thus far lagged behind the other advertising channels, with only about $2.1 billion -- 2 percent -- of local advertising being online at the end of 2007. However, that number is expected to more than triple over the next four years to more than $7.8 billion. That's a huge movement of dollars shifting toward reaching local audiences online.

But where are these dollars going to end up?

Although traditional local media -- Yellow Pages, newspapers, radio and broadcast television -- all have an online presence, none of them enjoys the dominance on the web that they do in their "home markets." Yet their audiences are moving online at faster and faster rates, resulting in major drop-offs in print subscriptions to newspapers, broadcast TV audiences, terrestrial radio listenership and Yellow Pages customers.

For example, the Kelsey Group recently found the erosion of print Yellow Pages is going to increase from 2-3 percent to more than 10 percent this year. That's a pretty massive decrease year over year. And even the Yellow Pages Marketing Association concedes that although online usage of Yellow Pages is growing, a 10 percent drop in print usage dwarfs the increase in online searches. Newspapers are in a similar boat with their advertising; online ad sales are climbing, but offline usage declines are taking a larger chunk of ad sales away from the industry as a whole.

And yet, projections show online ad sales more than tripling -- and there has to be a place for all that advertising to land, outside of the traditional media's online presences mentioned above.

With Google, Yahoo and online Yellow Pages growing their audiences, there is certainly going to be growth in local business searches. But what about brand advertising and trying to reach people who are migrating away from traditional television, radio and newspaper outlets for their news?

The numbers are a little grim. There are about 1,400 daily newspapers and 7,000 television and radio stations in the U.S., and back-of-the-envelope math shows that they each produce about three to six stories per day, or about 22,000 local stories for the entire U.S. This for an audience of roughly 20,000 individual cities and towns. All these players used to be able to back up their locally produced content with national stories, thereby providing a full news experience for their viewers or readers. But, the internet has changed all that; people get their national news from national sources. Instead of competing with other local newspapers, papers are competing with every news site that has a web page. Given this fragmentation, local news sites are not maintaining their market share.

So what's going to take up the slack?

Well, nature abhors a vacuum. Thus, amateur, user-generated content and commentaries are taking off in local markets. The internet's solution to the dearth of local news coverage is the same as it has been with other problems of scale: let the people build it themselves. Similar to Wikipedia, the Open Directory and Usenet, truly local content is going to be provided by the people who live there.

In looking at sites like MetroBlogs, Gothamist publications, Outside.in, NowPublic, Baristanet and Topix (the site that I run), it becomes apparent that a massive amount of attention and investment has been paid to giving people a platform for engagement with the places they live. And while social networks (based on who you know) like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace have generated a lot of usage, and even more buzz, none of them has really provided a locally contextual venue. You are unlikely to meet the neighbors who live two blocks away via Facebook or LinkedIn. However, when that same family starts blogging about your neighborhood or commenting on something another neighbor wrote, it's a compelling discussion -- one that you're likely to read and possibly even join.

Given the aforementioned advertising growth and the decline of the traditional places for it to go, user-generated content is where the action is going to be. The local online outlets that make the most sense for a given campaign will vary greatly depending on where you live and who you're trying to reach with your advertising. But the potential audience size available through these channels is impressive. Speaking for Topix, we've seen comment rates go from around 30,000 comments a day in the middle of 2007 to more than 140,000 comments a day -- or more than 3.5 million comments a month -- across more than 20,000 cities and towns within the U.S.

Media consumption and local audiences' preferences are shifting. Advertising is going to shift as well. So along with that cool viral video and mobile campaign, consider how you can make the most of region-specific opportunities as the $97 billion gorilla of locally targeted ad dollars spent in the U.S. starts to move online.

Chris Tolles is CEO of Topix

Gasta SEO: ThinkMetrics Articles

Learn where most companies misstep when it comes to this crucial component of their online marketing strategies.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of tuning the content and coding of a website in order to maximize its listings in search engines. SEO should be part of every well-rounded online marketing program. Pay-per-click advertising is all very well, but it means you have to pay for every visitor. SEO is about getting free traffic from the search engines. Over the course of two years or more, nothing has a better return on investment than SEO. Thus, if you plan on having a website that runs for more than two years, search engine optimization should be a key part of your online marketing strategy.

I started doing search engine optimization in 1996 when Web Position (the world’s first SEO tool) was in beta. I remember receiving an e-mail from the company that pointed out that its tool would make it possible to sell SEO services to clients. At the time, nobody was doing search engine optimization, but it was instantly obvious to me that such a service would be essential if people wanted to be found on the web. I have now been doing search engine optimization for 12 years -- and in some areas I "own" Google.

The most common mistake that organizations make with regard to SEO is bringing their SEO consultants into the process too late. Many companies fail to give SEO its due consideration during a website's design phase. In fact, many companies don't give it any thought at all until after a site's design has been finalized. However, it is during the planning and design processes that SEO considerations are most important and will provide the greatest advantage.

Coding for success
The coding of a site affects search engine optimization in many ways. In fact, coding has a greater impact on a site's listings in the search engines than the site's content. Many sites -- including those of some top brands -- simply cannot be read by search engines at all. If you want to see for yourself, install the Google taskbar in your browser and start looking at the page ranks that appear when you visit various sites. Page rank is Google's assessment of the global importance of a site. It will not take you long to find major sites that have no page rank. Unless the site is very new, a lack of page rank means Google cannot read it.

The technology used to build a site has a direct bearing on search engine optimization. For example, most search engines will not read a page if a URL contains a question mark. A question mark indicates that the content is the result of some dynamic process, such as a content management system or PHP. In other words, it tells a search engine that the content is being generated automatically.

When a search engine perceives that content is automatically generated, it has no way of knowing if the content is generated every hour or only once a year. There is typically a delay of six to eight weeks between the time that a site is read by a search engine and the time at which it appears in the listings. Thus, the search engine has no way of knowing whether what it has just read will still be there when it sends a user to the page in a month or two. In short, any page with a question mark in its URL is potentially untrustworthy. It was precisely for this reason that the mod rewrite module was produced for Apache. (Microsoft has a similar module for IIS.) Mod_ rewrite enables you to lay static URLs over dynamic ones. Adding mod_ rewrite to a system before you start coding it is a small job. Adding it to a large dynamic shopping site after it is running is a major headache, and may simply be impossible.

If you read Larry Page's and Sergey Brin's Stanford University dissertation, describing the algorithms they wanted to use in a search engine, you will find that a great deal of space is devoted to the analysis of the importance of pages according to their position inside the navigation structure of a website. Therefore, how you arrange the pages and how they link to each other has a direct bearing on the search engine optimization of those pages. I have used this information to look at potential site designs and, in some cases, have found that the core content would actually rank as less important than the site's privacy policy, simply because of the way links were built to the respective sections.

There are many ways of coding the same page, and not all ways are equal to a search engine. Dynamic menus are a case in point. At present, search engines cannot run JavaScript or Flash. The only hyperlinks that they can follow are standard HTML tags. You want search engines to follow your links because that is how they find the pages inside your site. It is therefore important that you create navigation structures that they can follow. Some dynamic menus can be followed by search engines and some cannot. It depends on how they are coded. Generally speaking, menus that are dynamic because of changes to CSS properties are fine. However, those in which the target page is called via programming are not. Once again, it is best to lay considerations like this down during the design brief because changing every link in the site later is expensive.

This becomes more important if you plan on having a content management system (CMS). If software is going to be writing your copy, or code, you need to ensure that what it produces is as search engine-friendly as possible. Many content management systems generate horrific code from a search engine point of view. Once again, changing a CMS after it has been deployed is a major nightmare -- and often impossible.

Early communication for optimal results
You often won't hear complaints from SEO consultants unless search engine activity is absolutely impossible (and sometimes not even then). SEOs are used to dealing with (from their perspective) sub-standard sites, sites that are barely readable by search engines, and sites that contain many problematic elements. SEOs have learned to accept such sites, and they often have no choice but to do the best they can with the garbage they are given by customers. Many SEOs have learned that pointing out problems may result in a client's deciding to go to a yes-man who will not make waves and is happy to take the client's money for a year or two while achieving nothing.

If you want to get the most out of search engine optimization, your SEO consultant should be the first person you talk to when developing a site -- before you even write a brief and start searching for potential designers. The sites that have had the most success when I've worked with them are the ones that asked me to modify their briefs to cover the requirements of SEO. The last time I did this, three of the five design agencies that had been asked to bid withdrew because they could not meet the standards required to make a search engine-friendly site. Throughout the design and construction process, I worked closely with the coders. Most new sites don't get listed by Google at all for months. Our site was No. 1 in Google within two weeks of launch.

Bring SEO experts into the discussions of what will be built at the earliest possible moment. Don't let the design agency or your own designers get their feet under the table until you have spoken to the SEO expert.

There are many elements that need to be considered during the SEO process, and these discussions often result in the SEO expert becoming the most unpopular person at the table. Such conversations often degrade into a litany of "no, you can't do that because the search engines don't like it," followed by "no, you can't do that because the search engines don't like it." Companies have to watch their favorite design features drop like flies. Sometimes designers have even gone so far as to accuse me of trying to cripple their designs. But ultimately, it is not the fault of the SEOs; they are just the messengers. They are simply telling you the way things are. When it comes down to it, if you want your site to get listed in the search engines, you have to give the search engines what they want.

Remember: Search engines do not have to list every site on the Web. In fact, despite what they may claim, they don't even try. All a search engine has to do is provide people with a list of 10 reasonably valid results from which to choose. The lesson: You need the search engines. They don't need you. Therefore, it is incumbent upon you to understand what they require and give it to them.

Bringing an SEO in after a site is finished is like deciding to do the electrical wiring on a house after you have moved in. By bringing an SEO into the site design process, you can save time and money later. In addition, your site is likely to achieve listings that it could never achieve if SEO were undertaken after the site was already finished.

Design a site for the search engines, and the viewers will follow. Design a site the search engines can't read, and nobody will ever know it exists.

Brandt Dainow is an independent web analytics consultant and the CEO of ThinkMetrics.

Gasta ® Trademark process completes

Gasta ® international trademark application complete. Murgatroyd and Partners international Law Firm has completed the successful application of the word ‘Gasta’

As the world trademark of Applied Multimedia Innovations. Gasta ® will now be appearing as the legal protection of all Gasta owned domains and websites.

Francis Higgins CEO of AMI says “that he is delighted that this long process is now complete and that Gasta ® is now protected from cyber squatters and trade infringements” AMI has a number of proposals for Gasta music and licensing rights for the new trademark including a fashion label and branding company.

Gasta Seo: Reputation Management

If your website or products suffer from bad reviews or negative feedback, Sometimes disguised as “constructive criticism” do not sit and hope that it will go away; this is a set of circumstances that you can and must change and influence. Everyone would much rather receive a pat on the back, but how do you stop this negativity from getting in the way of your clients? It’s called reputation management, sometimes clients marketing can conflict with the reputation of an area or a ‘ghettoisation’ as happened with West Belfast during the prolonged troubles, However when local communities started to respond to this negative portrayal in a positive way by starting community festivals instead of traditional ‘bonfires’ and demonstrating and discussing all the positive aspects of the West Belfast community such as low crime, lively social networks, strong community support groups, and neighbourliness. What happened was a complete turnaround of the perception of West Belfast as a ‘ghetto’ into one of a vibrant community that has become a Mecca for conflict resolution.
Gasta SEO Services explains that reputation management and SEO go hand-in-hand because it’s all about getting the positive results above the negative ones. They also suggest participating in and leveraging social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and building up the positive picture of your website to downgrade and diminish the negative comments and to help gain positive momentum.

Gasta SEO : Matt Cutts 5 SEO Tips

Matt Cutts top 5 seo Tips

1. Spotlight your search term on the page. If you want to be found for your keyword, make sure that term is on the page you want to rank. The term should be at the top as well as peppered throughout your copy.
2. Fill in your "tags." The two most important tags are Title and Description b/c that's what is displayed on the search results.
3. Get other sites to "link" back to you. This is one of the most important of the 100 factors Google considers when ranking sites
4. Create a blog and post often. This can help you get links.
5. Register for free tools. Cutts recommends using the tools at google.com/webmaster, as well as creating a text-based sitemap www.xml-sitemaps.com, and adding your business to Google's Local Business center (google.com/local/add)

Gasta welcomes Byron Review Action Plan

The UK government has unveiled its action plan to protect children from the internet and video games.

The Byron Review Action Plan includes the appointment of an executive board for the UK Council for Child Internet Safety.

The board will be chaired by the Department for Children, Schools and Families as well as Home Office Ministers and industry representatives.

Awareness of e-safety will also be raised as part of the government's £9m investment in child safety communications.

The action plan was published by children's minister Kevin Brennan, Home Office minister Vernon Coaker and culture minister Margaret Hodge.

The plan is based on recommendations given in the TV psychologist's report that was released earlier this year.

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said of the move, "I am determined to do all I can to help ensure that there is an internet environment that is safe for children to use."

Gasta Strategy on Brands

To get the greatest value out of your social networking strategy, you need to communicate consistently across every platform used. An online communities expert explains how.

Online social environments have multiplied at an exponential rate over the past few years. In fact, many of us have at least two or three identities online in various social networks (I have at least 15). At the recent iMedia Breakthrough Summit, 32 percent of the audience admitted to having . As a result of the social networking gold rush, I am often asked how to best leverage the ever-expanding social web to market to consumers in an effective manner. My goal in this article is to help marketers formulate strategies for engaging consumers in a meaningful dialogue across various social channels.

The distributed web for brand emphasis
Since the onset of the web as a viable marketing solution, brand marketers have been creating what is commonly known as the microsite. Despite the fact that that we label these online brand shrines as "micro," many treat the microsite as the centerpiece of their strategy (perhaps we should have been calling this interactive marketing vehicle a macrosite). While I believe that online brand initiatives ultimately benefit from having all roads lead to one place, we simply cannot always expect consumers to leave their current environments in order to become immersed in centralized brand experiences. After all, consensual brand presence in a consumer's social environment is a much more powerful statement than a consumer's presence in a closed branded environment.

You may be asking yourself, if we are no longer to place emphasis on the microsite as a central component to marketing initiatives, where should this emphasis go?

The answer to this question is rooted in the concept that many are referring to as the distributed web. I define distributed web strategy (as it pertains to marketing) in the following way: consistent brand presence across various social channels. Distributed web strategy is based on the notion that the sum of all syndicated content and messaging is greater than any single brand presence.

Last November, Forrester Research Senior Analyst Jeremiah Owyang penned an analysis of Open Social and how its impact should be explained to executives. In this incredibly prescient post Owyang writes, "Web marketing no longer is limited to your corporate site. Let go of the concept of 'driving traffic to your website' as a sole measurement of success. The web, its message and your battles are now fought on the open and distributed web."

Nearly seven months later brands are still ignoring the impact of the distributed web. I understand why marketers would be reluctant to put their brands into a sea of uncertainty; however, we have reached a point where brands can no longer solely compete on their home turf. It is time to let go!

Adam Broitman

Nod to Imedia Connection

Gasta.com launches 150 new web Domians

Gasta has today launched 25 of the 150 new web domains to carry its expanding search networks to 172 search engines. The list includes much sought after domain names in Ireland such as http://www.westbelfast.com , http://www.lisburncity.net and http://www.dublincitylive.com

The Domains are for various regions throughout the UK and Europe expanding the gasta search network to 172 search engines across europe. The next set of domains are scheduled to be launched later this week all concentrate on the UK and European Property market, and include http://www.propertydublin.com http://www.propertyedinburg.com and http://www.dublinproperies.com

www.andersonstown.com
www.cathedralquarter.com
www.eastbelfast.net
www.ardglass.com
www.ballsbridge.net
www.glencolin.com
www.maloneroad.com
www.southbelfast.com
www.dublin4.net
www.dublincitylive.com
www.dublincityonline.com
www.jordanstown.com
www.westdublin.com
www.lisburncity.net
www.lisburnroad.com
www.southarmagh.com
www.stranmillis.com
www.westbelfast.com
www.westbelfast.net
www.westbelfast.org
www.westbelfastonline.com
www.derrycity.net
www.doire.com
www.glengormley.net
www.haroldscross.com
www.leopardstown.net

Gasta.com to offer white label Hosted Search Engine Solution

Gasta.com is gearing up to offer geographical regions, companies, cities, and industrial sectors the opportunity to launch their own geo-targeted and white label branded hosted search solution. You can launch the branded search engine in a matter of hours and select from a variety of advertising and content partner solutions such as Google adsense, pay per click, you tube,blinx, Mirago, Ikojo, Yahoo mobile, Msn Live, and virtually any other content partner you sign up for. The fine details are not fully finalized as yet but this is a thrilling development.

CTO of Gasta search networks, Stuart Manning said " This is were the SME sector can build their own search brand, we will provide them with the platform and they can take in content from whatever source to build and develop revenue streams, there is no search boxes involved, everything is white label to meet the needs of the sites owners, and they controll the content, this is another innovation in the fast paced web 2.0 search development sector from Gasta.com"

Gasta will also build in the contextual advertising platforms of SearchMatch and InstantAds so site owners and operators can sell their own advertising inventory to their own clients and customers., track statistics and offer reports. More To follow.

Google Index of Gasta Search Network By popularity

Google index of gasta search network shows how effectively Gasta has maximised its global reach. Surprisingly on Google rankings Gasta Ireland lags behind some of the newer domains, while Gasta China, and Gasta India outperform even the UK Engine.

Google Index of Gasta Search Network By popularity

14,300 Gasta China

4,590 Gasta International

2,990 Gasta Japan

1,330 Gasta Europe

1,420 Gotagshare

1,420 Gotagspot

1,220 Gasta India

736 Gasta UK

397 Europasearch

395 Gasta Austria

363 Gasta TV

275 Gasta France

272 Baroneracing

263 Surfni

241 Gasta Germany

171 Gasta USA

232 Gasta Money

156 Gasta Spain

112 Gasta Ireland

101 Gasta Travel

19 Gasta South Africa

Yahoo Index of Gasta Search Network By popularity

(4,330) | Inlinks (426) Gasta International

1,764) | Inlinks (258) Gasta UK

1,458) | Inlinks (116) Gasta Ireland

(868) | Inlinks (51) Gasta USA

(806) | Inlinks Baroneracing

(530) | Inlinks (55) Gasta Europe

(410) | Inlinks (51) Gasta Austria

(359) | Inlinks (50) Gasta India

(312) | Inlinks (51) Gasta China

(261) | Inlinks (49) Gasta France

(247) | Inlinks (51) Europasearch

(243) | Inlinks (52) Surfni

(240) | Inlinks (51) Gasta Japan

(225) | Inlinks (49) Gasta Spain

(208) | Inlinks (49) Gasta Travel

(207) | Inlinks (51) Gasta TV

(110) | Inlinks (48) Gasta Germany

(101) | Inlinks (49) Gasta Money

(5) | Inlinks (45) Gasta South Africa

3) | Inlinks (41) Gotagshare

(5) | Inlinks (45) Gotagspot

(2) | Inlinks (9) Gasta Italy

Gasta SEM Basics

Some consider SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) synonymous, interchangeable terms. This is not the case. In fact, SEO is a subset of SEM. Although most SEM's perform traditional SEO services (organic site optimization), SEM is generally part of a broader gamut of internet marketing.

The marketing side of SEM involves advertising and target marketing in order to draw traffic to websites. This includes, but does not only pertain to:

Pay-for-inclusion - the SEM firm manually submits your site to applicable search engines and directories. Submission fees are required for submissions to search engines and directories. Many SEM companies guarantee your site will be indexed by the search engines within a short period of time.

Trusted Feeds - when there is no page to crawl, or a site is working off of dynamic pages drawn from a database, they are impossible for spiders to see and index. Trusted feeds send out this dynamic content via XML format so that it can be indexed by the search engines.

ROI tracking - the SEM firm tracks statistics gathered from marketing channels to show ROI trends.

Email Marketing - the SEM company sends out email adverts typically targeting customers related to the SEM's client.

Traditional Ads - Ads are displayed on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Ads are based on keywords entered in the search and fees are triggered by impressions (you pay for the ad even if it's not clicked through).

PPC- generally these are text based ads, where the copy is written by the advertiser. The advertiser places a bid amount, choosing the fee they are willing to pay when the ad is clicked through.Typically, the higher the bid, the better ranked the ad will be in the SERP.

SEM has its advantages in that your site can obtain instant traffic increases if the campaign strategy is successful. But relying solely on the marketing side SEM has its disadvantages. It can be expensive as costs will accumulate from ads and PPC. Furthermore, these marketing tactics do not necessarily guarantee stickiness of your site. Search engine marketing may drive initial traffic to your web pages, but this traffic increase will be short term if your pages are poorly laid out and contain weak or irrelevant content. Websites need to be well written, from both a programming and aesthetic perspective.

The intricacies of search engine marketing combined with search engine optimization can also be an overwhelming task for any firm. While a large SEM company may be able to handle the workload of both the marketing and SEO side of the business, specialization will most likely provide better results.

SEO is a more technical process than SEM and involves a deeper understanding of search engine algorithms. An SEO firm also sets out to optimize your site for peak performance organically, so that it is seen and listed in the search engines on an ongoing basis. The organic search engine optimization process of SEO is one of the main factors that separates SEO from SEM. Organic search engine optimization provides free search engine positioning, instead of pay for results.

An SEO company tends to have more understanding of website design, programming, and how search engines work. SEO company staff is typically made up of programmers and website designers.

If you were to separate the marketing side of SEM from SEO and compare the two, SEO maintains a better overall ROI than SEM. Sixty percent of top search engine listings are devoted to organic listings. In most cases, a good SEO service is all your site needs to drive traffic to it.

Search Engine Optimization is by no means a simple practice. It is made up of a number of complicated in-depth processes and requires an ample amount of time to comprehend its core facets. Moreover, because SEO is an ever changing industry, keeping up with the latest SEO trends can be difficult. For these reasons we have compiled a list of some of the most important SEO practices to be aware of. This is by no means complete, but should serve as a general guideline.

Change is necessary
One of the misconceptions about SEO is that it will automatically improve a site's ranking within the search engines without necessitating changes to that site. Unfortunately this is not the case. An SEO firm that claims it can mysteriously make a site perform better in the search engines without modifications is not practicing ethical standards.

In order to index websites, search engines send out spiders, or bots, to visit a site's pages. The spider learns what the site is about by 'reading' the site's content, so it can place the site into the appropriate context. Spiders analyze the main body content, as well as content located within the Meta tags. One of the perks to this process is that the more relevant the site's content, the better the rating it receives. Therefore, sites laden with pertinent, text rich content are favored above sites that do not incorporate such strategies.

At the basic level, a true SEO service needs to analyze then apply changes to a site's content, optimizing Meta data and the main body with relevant keywords and phrases popular within that site's vertical. For this reason, site's built predominantly with Flash are simply not as effective in the search engines, because the spiders have nothing to read. If you have a Flash entry page, make sure there is an HTML version available as well.

Contact your SEO service before you update
It's very important to communicate with your SEO service before implementing changes to your website, unless you are 100 percent certain you know what you're doing. Even the slightest alterations can affect your site's rankings in the search engines; when spiders revisit your web property and discover things have changed, it can be for the better or for the worse.

There are numerous instances where clients accidentally overwrite previously optimized work without realizing it. This is a simple mistake, but it can be a costly one. For instance, you may accidentally replace optimized elements in the Meta tags or body content by using older or newer templates that are not optimized properly.

Site redesign is an even more crucial matter. Redesigning your website can be a scary undertaking since it will no doubt affect your site's position within the search engines. Even if you're comfortable making small changes to your website, contact with your SEO practitioner before you implement the new site is imperative because you are typically overhauling the whole thing. Your SEO will be able to offer vital information and the technical assistance required to make this complex process a success.

Gasta.TV up for aquisition?

Gasta.TV up for aquisition? You might think so after reading this from Greg Sandoval

The plight of the music industry has played out like a 1970s disaster film, the kind where the principal characters declare that nothing on earth could threaten their state-of-the-art luxury liner or superstructure.

Crash! Cut to people gasping for air or scrambling for a seat on the lifeboat. That's where the record labels are now; scrounging for technologies and business models that can keep them afloat.

To their credit, the four largest music labels have experimented with a range of ideas. They have finally opened up to the idea of selling MP3s--compressed audio files of songs that can be downloaded from an online source and then stored and played back on a digital music player. They also are dabbling in ad-supported music and have talked about launching a jointly owned subscription service.

Meanwhile, piracy continues to flourish. CD sales continue to tumble. Some top artists, including Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, began distributing their own music last year, Paul McCartney quit EMI, and Madonna jumped to a concert promotion firm, Live Nation, and an alternative business model.

Half of all music sold in the U.S. is expected to be digital in 2011 and sales of downloaded music will surpass CD sales in 2012, according to a recent Forrester Research report titled "The End of the Music Industry as We Know It." Digital music sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23 percent over the next five years, reaching $4.8 billion in revenue by 2012, Forrester says. However, digital music sales will fail to make up for an ongoing decline in CD sales, which, by 2012, will be reduced to $3.8 billion, according to the report.

So the music industry has its work cut out for it. This is how we see the next year shaping up in the digital music scene.

Gasta News: EU to make net safer for Children

The European Commission is spending 55m euros (£42m) on making the net a safer place for children.

The money will be spent over four years on educational efforts and ways to protect children from inappropriate content and cyber bullying.

It will also research the ways that children use the net on computers and other devices such as mobile phones.

The broad-based project will build on the Safer Internet Programme the EU began in 2000.

Action plan

"As more and more European children and adolescents use online technologies at home or at school, they, their parents and their teachers need to be informed about the opportunities and risks they face," said Jose Barroso, EC president in a statement.

Gasta News On Venture Funds Europe

Gasta News On Venture Funds Europe

http://www.tornado-insider.com

Similar to previous years, European venture capital activity has started off with a bang this year. Already over 170 technology investments have been recorded, raising approximately €920 million. And there is more to come, judging by a series of successful fundraisings by Europe’s investors. This past week alone, 4 successful closings of new funds were announced.

German early-stage venture capitalist Target Partners announced the first closing of its new fund, Target Partners Fund II, at €61.5 million. The firm received commitments from private individuals, family offices and institutional investors, including Morgan Stanley, LGT Capital Partners, Bayerische Beamten Lebensversicherung, RWB RenditeWertBeteiligungen and CS Strategic Partners. The new fund has a target size of €120 million. It will mainly invest in start-up and early-stage companies from the German speaking countries, with sectors including IT, communications, Internet, media and clean-tech.

UK venture capital firm TLcom Capital also held a first closing of its second fund, TLcom II. Funding commitments were in excess of €50 million. The target size of the fund is €150 million. The new fund will focus primarily on revenue-stage technology companies across Europe. Returning investors, European Investment Fund and Access Capital Partners, have been joined by Italy-based Finlombarda Gestioni SGR - the investment arm of the development agency of Lombardy - and a group of limited partners associated with IDeA Alternative Investments. IDeA AI is an investment initiative recently launched by private equity group Investitori Associati, Wise and DeAgostini. TLcom II expects to invest in 12 to 15 companies over the next few years. A second closing is planned later in the year as the fund is now also talking to other institutional investors.

Meanwhile, Finnish venture capitalist Inventure completed the first closing of Inventure Fund Ky. The fund focuses on early-stage high-tech investments in the Nordic countries, primarily Finland. Investors investing in Inventure are European Investment Fund and Finnish Industry Investment, in addition to several undisclosed institutions and private investors. The current closing is completed at €35 million and has a final target of €50 million. Inventure aims to invest in 15 high-growth companies with significant value creation and return potential. The firm targets innovation clusters such as software, electronics, semiconductors as well as industrial production and material technologies.

Concluding, 360° Capital Partners announced its final closing with more than €100 million under management. The European Investment Fund, AGF of Allianz Group, Banca Sella Group and Natixis are the main new investors in the venture capital fund. It will invest in European companies, mainly in France and Italy. The new shareholders are joining CDC Enterprises, Credit Suisse – Alpha Associates, Partners Group, Gruppo Banca Intesa San Paolo, Wilshire Associates, Paul Capital and Coller Capital, who had already committed in the first closing which took place last year. 360° Capital Partners invests between €2 and €5 million in first or second rounds of financing of high-growth innovative companies operating in segments including ICT, Web 2.0, diagnostics/medical devices, and clean tech. 5% of the fund is dedicated to seed-stage companies.

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Gasta Blended Search

COOPER on Search New Media NMA Daily Alert 21/02/2008 05:05

... The prevailing wisdom is that brands should produce multimedia content in order to provide compelling user experiences online. But will it soon be the case that they have to do so to remain visible in search results?

Engines, as with Google’s Universal Search and Ask’s 3D, are increasingly displaying multimedia results in their natural listings. Is this putting more pressure on brands to develop extra content like blogs and videos?

This was one of the subjects brought up regularly during conversations at Search Engine Strategies (SES) London this week - what pressures are being put on advertisers and SEO specialists to make sure they remain above the fold?

I’ve always liked the concept of blended search, as its being increasingly termed, but the conversation has moved from understanding what it is to how to make the most out of every bit of content - video, audio, images - a brand has.

There’s now a feeling that blended search is posing tough questions for some brands, a point raised in today’s NMA Podcast.

If you’re promoting a Hollywood blockbuster, naturally you’ll have videos, images and great online content, with a budget the size of a mountain. But is it the same for, say, B&Q?

Is this creating a division between those advertisers that have the resources and those that don’t? Does every advertiser need to have a blog, a video, multiple images, in order to remain visible?

I think once Universal Search results become more common, a lot of brands will suddenly realise SEO just got that little bit harder.

Gasta Tech News: Mobile TV

Mobile TV is not that far away, Gasta.com has been looking at the leading companies that are ready to offer the middlepath software to enable mobile devices to become Mini television recievers.

Mobile TV services are based on two different technologies: the incumbent 3G-based services and the now emerging DVB-H-based services. Axel Technologies' solutions enable mobile TV services based on both technologies. The company's flagship product, Salmonstream Mobile, enables the implementation of full digital mobile TV service based on DVB-H. In addition to comprehensive middleware products, the company develops user interface software that supports several digital television standards.