Microsoft Virtual Earth launched this week...very similar application to Google Earth but with a few added features...

Pretty cool application...a lot of the same basic features as Google Earth...what and where search fields, ability to scroll on the map, lables with address/landmark information, aerial images or road map images...all very useful stuff!

The only minor issue that I have with Virtual Earth (and Google Earth for that matter) is the aerial images are outdated. I searched my home address and the aerial image only shows my sub-division which tells me that the image is over 5 years old.

Still...both are very cool tools and it just shows how far technology has come with mapping software.

It looks like we will be seeing a lot more of Virtual Earth in the future...Microsoft is going to open the source code to developers in order to integrate the application into Web site / Web pages.

E-Commerce Solution, Other Wares to Be Shown in San Jose

Zunch Communications, Inc. is once again a premier sponsor of JupiterMedia's Search Engine Strategies conference being held in San Jose, California August 8-11. Zunch has sponsored similar JupiterMedia events in New York City and Chicago. According to JupiterMedia, “Search Engine Strategies is the premier conference series that keeps you informed about search engine marketing and optimization issues. Because this industry keeps reinventing itself at an amazing pace, we assure you that the content will be cutting-edge.”

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) July 19, 2005 -- Zunch Communications, Inc. is once again a premier sponsor of JupiterMedia's Search Engine Strategies conference being held in San Jose, California August 8-11. Zunch has sponsored similar JupiterMedia events in New York City and Chicago. According to JupiterMedia, “Search Engine Strategies is the premier conference series that keeps you informed about search engine marketing and optimization issues. Because this industry keeps reinventing itself at an amazing pace, we assure you that the content will be cutting-edge.”

John Sanchez, Chairman and CEO of Zunch and also the Vice-President of the Search Engine Marketers Professional Organization (SEMPO), says that the Search Engine Strategies conferences have been excellent showcases for the growing line of Zunch services and products. “We've got some incredible new tools that we like to demo at these shows, and the value to us as premier sponsors is immeasurable,” said Sanchez, “The opportunities to meet with others in the industry, while always enjoyable and informative, is second to meeting with companies that have real interactive issues that we hope to help them solve.”

The conference features workshops, lectures and roundtable discussions aimed at educating the business community as a whole and the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) community in particular. Conference attendees visit exhibitor booths before and after sessions and during breaks. Manning the Zunch booth (#501) and demonstrating Zunch products will be Giovanni Gallucci, Zunch's President and COO.

“Gio is a real trooper,” offers Sanchez, “He's usually the first guy on the floor and the last one to leave. He's really the best one to demo our search engine friendly e-commerce solution, zWebCommurce. Since he helped design and build it, he’s very effective at communicating its unique features. At the risk of wearing him out, I'm inviting everyone to stop by booth #501 in San Jose to ask Gio to show you how zWebCommurce works.”

Gallucci says it is the constant problem-solving and unique challenges that make this industry exciting, “As JupiterMedia says, the industry is indeed changing and reinventing itself, and we believe that Zunch is right at the edge of those reinventions, helping pave the way. I really do get a kick out of helping our clients tackle their unique interactive problems and ultimately, grow their businesses,” said Gallucci.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Zunch Communications, Inc. (http://www.zunch.com) is a search engine optimization, website design and Microsoft Certified application development company dedicated to achieving measurable results for its clients. Top-ranked worldwide in search engine optimization; Zunch Communications is a member of DFWIMA, SEO Consultants, seopros, DFWSEM, topseos and a Circle Member of SEMPO. Zunch also maintains offices in New York City, Orlando and Mumbai.

I was reminded of the benefits of both types of marketing earlier this month while composing a monthly summary report for a client. My jaw dropped as I viewed the analytics report that showed a significant decrease in organic traffic from Google, AOL and Ask Jeeves. This was after 6 straight months of solid increases, with no hints of looking back. I then suspected, and after talking with Laura, confirmed that this client had begun a PPC campaign (managed with expertise by Zunch, of course).

Based on our recommendations, the PPC campaign included very specific, branding keywords which were ranking #1 in the organic listings already (ex. "company name store"). As expected, some visitors clicked on the paid result who would have otherwise clicked on the natual result. So now we have a huge, inter-departmental feud because the PPC team stole traffic from the SEO team, right? Not quite. You see, overall traffic for those keywords were up across the board. And the low cost made it a no-brainer to bid on, even if some visitors would find the site organically anyways. The extra sales far outweigh the pennies it took to acquire them.

In the end, this client ends up on top because of their willingness to use as much real estate as possible in the SERPs.

To compliment Google Maps and "Google Earth" ...Google launches "Google Moon"

In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, we’ve added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor. Happy lunar surfing. More about Google Moon

* Zoom in to find the lunar secret!

So it's been a little over a month now since Google launched "Google Sitemaps" - the program that allows webmasters, site owners, and SEO professionals to submit an XML feed of their Web pages to Google in order to expedite the crawl-and-index process.

From talking with Tyson and Dan as well as reading SEO blogs and other SEO related newsletters, there isn't a whole lot to be said about the program. In fact, Tyson mentioned that he submitted a feed for his blog three weeks ago and Google is still showing some of the pages in their 'supplemental' results.

Do I believe that Google Sitemaps has inherent value? My answer is yes...IF you have a large dynamic site with hard to reach pages AND updates often. i.e. Target.com, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart.com, etc. If you are faced with this dilemma...give Google Sitemaps a shot...it's free...for now : )

Now, if you have submitted a feed to Google and are looking for this program to boost your rankings...forget about it! This program simply helps Google index pages of your site more efficiently. Improving your rankings in Google and the other search engines takes a lot more than an XML feed. If that's what you are looking for...let Zunch help you with search engine optimization.

I see it all the time… especially with retail sites. Landing pages that may be optimized for the keyword, but are not thought through as entry pages to the site. That is, the product is there, with an engaging, keyword-rich description. The price is there, and a button to click to buy the product. But the page is missing the incentives that are advertised on the index page.

Incentives – whether free shipping, or a sale, or a free gift with purchase – often make the difference between a conversion and a bounce. When I was at Yahoo!, they presented us a study that showed free shipping as the number one reason why a customer would choose one online retailer over another. But it’s not enough to put the offer in the PPC copy.

Some sites bury their incentives, mentioning free shipping only on the shipping info page. Or mentioning a sale only on a category page. But most of our clients do better than that… even if it’s only at our recommendation… and make special offers a bold presence on their index page. This does no good, however, when the potential customer is entering on a product page.

If you have an incentive – make sure it’s visible on every page of the site. Look at every possible landing page as the entryway to your site, and remember most people will not go any further than that page. Keep those incentives in front of your visitors, no matter where they go on your site. Catch ‘em, convert ‘em and keep ‘em – even if they walk in through a side door.

According to InsideGoogle, Google is set to release its Toolbar for the Firefox browser. While I know this will warm the heart of a few of my Toolbar-lovin' colleagues, I really question the motives of this move for the following reasons:

First, aren't toolbars a thing of the past already? Firefox already has an integrated search bar and popup blocking. IE7 is bound to have the same. The Google Toolbar wouldn't bring an enhanced browser experience to Firefox.

Oh yeah...that little green bar. But do people really care about PageRank as much now as they used to (please say no)? Besides, there are several extensions available for Firefox that display PageRank already. Was there a huge outcry for Google to deliver a Toolbar for Firefox?

We all know that Firefox is a growing phenomenon. Latest statistics show the browser almost to the 10% mark in saturation, and increasing every month. Could it be that Google wants the click-thru data from FireFox users just as it is "possibly" using Toolbar data now from IE users?

OK...we want to believe that several SEO/SEM writers are visiting ZEN-SEM as a source of inspiration / information. Reason for our belief - there have been several articles written in the past month on "How to Not Work With an SEO/SEM Firm", "Why You Don't Rank on Search Engines", and "More Ways to Not Work With an SEO/SEM Firm" - all of these were written after I blogged on, "What Makes a Good SEO Client?".

Are we complaining? Absolutely not!  Zunch welcomes all of our SEO/SEM brothers and sisters and encourage you to visit ZEN-SEM anytime you like. Hey...if any of you are ever in Dallas...feel free to stop by Zunch corporate headquarters for a game of foozball, dartz, or XBox.