You almost have to feel sorry for Microsoft. First Zune, their late entry to the iPod/MP3 market, rolls out to little fanfair and slow sales.

Now Vista arrives. And lands with a "thud."

Across the nation, midnight launch events were planned at stores like CompUSA.  In New York City, it had been nearly an all day affair, culminating in an official launch party at the Nokia Theater in Times Square.

But across the nation, when the stores threw open their doors, things were kind of quiet. At a CompUSA in New York City, about 60 people lined up for the launch. Unfortunately, many of them turned out for other specials the store was offering.

That's not to say the launch was a complete failure. And the reality is, Vista will become the new standard operating system in PCs over the next few years.

But Microsoft could really use some good PR right now. They constantly seem to be playing catch up on the innovative side of technology, Zune being a prime example. As well as there recent upgrade of Internet Explorer.

I upgraded to the new IE shortly after it was launched. And almost immediately reversed course and went back the older version. Although I must admit, the guys in development and other tech types here at Zunch (at least those who aren't Firefox devotees), like the newer version.

Guess I'm just a caveman copywriter.

I'm not sure what's up next for Microsoft in product launches, but it will be interesting to see if they can actually get the public excited about  their next offering.

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There is a wealth of health related information available to people online today. Research, facilities, tools and methods have all evolved, and the medical industry is as progressive and high tech as any field out there. Somewhere in the focus of information, it seems much of the industry has a lack of focus on the presentation of the information.

The presentation of the information is essentially the “bedside manner” of the document/ page. There are ways to deliver that information so that is it easier to understand, helpful to the user and sensitive to what may be personally traumatic or even devastating circumstances.

The big challenge is putting the user first. If you can first understand their state of mind, you can better deliver a message that communicates what they need. It is important to consider not just the situation, but how it would be as the patient or their mother, husband or son. Visually, you may want to convey a blend of emotive aspects, such as calmness, caring, authority, trustworthy, clean, focused, and helpful. It is also important to remember that anything that can help them is most important. At a confusing and shaken time in their lives, it is important to make it easy to find directions, phone numbers, documents they’ll need to download, and even tips for caregivers and support.

This thought process translates into every detail. The use of clean, calming colors is the foundation for the environment. Blended with the right photos with sensitive, understanding, yet strong faces can create a warmth and connection. Clear, simple type and consistent navigation structures and a solid hierarchy of highlights on the main page and throughout help users find things with ease. All of these aspects come together for a healthcare site for users who may be in the most need of all.

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DMOZ, long considered the leading directory on the Internet and an absolute must for listing your Website, had literally stopped accepting new submissions for the past three months.

The problem?

The site is run by volunteers and they had become overwhelmed by a backlog of listing requests. The situation had gotten so bad, some pundits were predicting that DMOZ was dead and no longer relevant.

DMOZ is a source site for all the top search engines, and getting listed there enhances your listing visibility on the search engines. So if you're not already listed on DMOZ, sign up today at www.dmoz.com.

A few tips for your listing--

• Make sure you choose the correct listing category for site
• Avoid offering any spam-like information
• Be patient, there still is a substantial time lag between submitting your site and getting listed
• Don't re-submit your site multiple times; DMOZ editors might interpret your attempts to do so as being spam

 

The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) has opened its doors again for submissions to its directory.

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Search share results for December 2006 are in and Google just keeps on expanding its share of the search engine universe. Google had a whopping 47.7% share of all searches on the Internet, meaning that out of 6.7 billion searches performed in the month of December, 3.2 billion were conducted on Google.

That 47% share represented a 0.4% increase over November 2006.

Yahoo! managed to slightly increase its share of searches from November to December, finishing in second with 1.9 billion searches, roughly 28% of all searches.

Microsoft held onto third place, but continued a trend in losing ground to Google and Yahoo!, falling 0.5% with 713 million searches and a 10.6% share of the search engine market.

So what does this mean for the hundreds of other search engines competing against Google?

Most will have to continue to try to find a niche for their serivces, offering services that Google doesn't or specifically targeting a market segment and its needs.

Microsoft may be in the most untenable position. It wants to be a dominant player in search, but is losing ground rather than gaining. There was an overall 30% rise in searches compared to December 2005, and Microsoft didn't get a lift out of that increase. Instead, it slipped further behind Google and Yahoo.

Naturally, Microsoft isn't backing off. They appear to be pinning their hopes for gains in market share to a new analytics platform currently called "Gatineau."  But Gatineau won't start beta testing until later this year, which probably means a launch date is a year away.

That's another year of potential further gains for Google.

 

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  You Tube for $10,000?

 The calls usually go something like this--

 “Hello Sir, This is Peter from Direct Stench Media. I want to create a site similar to YouTube.com. I plan to make money by allowing people to sign up for free accounts and selling advertisements.”

 Lately it seems I get a phone call like this every day. Youtube or Craiglist for $10,000.00 (or less)? If it was possible we wouldn’t have a development team in our office today.

 Every time there is a website sold for an insane amount of money there are millions of speculators trying to “reverse engineer” this technology. After someone else spends years and countless hours painfully developing, testing, and marketing a site, Peter thinks he can easily “reverse engineer” his ownYoutube.com (did I mention he wants it done by the time the NCAA basketball tournament begins in March?).

 After several conversations with Peter he decided that he wasn’t ready to develop his version of Youtube. Instead he’s working on a site for the Beijing Olympics.

 Good Luck, Peter.

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•  Right: I hope we can go.
•  Wrong: Hopefully, we can go.
•  Wrong: Hopefully, the report will address the issue.
•  Right: She eyed the interview list hopefully.

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Zunchers have a new resolution for 2007—continue to establish and build upon the success of Zunch China.

And that’s not just because of Terrence Ou, Zunch’s resident “Man from China,” although he certainly has allowed Zunch to go where few others have gone before.

No, Zunchers are excited about China because of its amazing growth and the opportunities there for e-commerce development.

Terrence recently spent 50 days visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taipei. The highlight of the trip presented Terrence with the opportunity to meet with Zunch’s largest client in China – Yaphon.com, one of China’s fastest growing B2B online import-export marketplaces.

Yaphon CEO Michael Zheng, a business leader at the forefront of online marketing, believes China is full of potential for Yaphon’s business because of the ever increasing number of  companies selling products globally. And Mr. Zheng sees Zunch’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) capabilities to be his company’s best solution for their online marketing efforts, all within a controllable and affordable budget.

 Ask Terrence about his trip and he can’t begin to add up the hours he spent speaking to representatives of numerous internationally-known companies in both mainland China and Taiwan. Terrence, the author of a forthcoming book on search engine marketing and strategy to be published in Chinese, gave a number of speeches at these companies, and was frequently swamped with questions afterward in Q&A sessions.

 These sessions were so successful that Terrence’s publisher, Broadview, plans to invite Terrence and Zunch CEO John Sanchez to chair a series of seminars and conferences on search marketing in China later this year. We’ll keep you posted on the exact dates.

 As Terrence has noted, “The Sun rises in the East, and China presents a new horizon for Zunch Worldwide.”

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