Archive for April, 2010

Google may be looking into buying a flight search engine, reports Bloomberg.

Google is currently in talks with the Massachusetts-based software company ITA. The transaction could cost Google upwards of $1 billion. Bloomberg’s source noted that, though they are currently discussing plans for a buyout, the negotiations have not been finalized yet.

ITA is a developer of flight software that helps users make online travel arrangements. Its software is currently used by Orbitz, Microsoft, and several other airlines.

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information, and ITA does that for travel,” Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at Forrester Research in San Francisco, told Bloomberg.

The takeover could have serious ramifications for travel search engine optimization(SEO). The digital marketing firm Efficient Frontier found that Bing was making serious gains in the travel sector – in 2009, Bing increased its travel sector market share by 160 percent. Microsoft currently uses ITA for Bing’s travel search engine. The travel sector generated $88.4 billion last year, according to Bloomberg.

Land Rover announced the released of the special edition Range Rover Sport LE. TheRange Rover Sport LE is going to be available only in 250 vehicles and will be equipped with a 4.2 liter Supercharged V8 engine and Land Rover’s permanent four wheel drive system coupled with Land Rover’s proven Terrain Response system.

Land Rover Press Release:

LAND ROVER OFFERS A SPECIAL VERSION OF ITS HIGHLY POPULAR RANGE ROVER SPORT

Following the huge success of the Range Rover Sport in the U.S. market, Land Rover North America is delighted to announce that a special version known as the LE will go on sale immediately.

The Range Rover Sport LE will be a very exclusive model with only 250 available in North America from August. This special version is equipped with flush-fitting front and rear bumpers, an extended rear roof spoiler, body-colored lower side panels, a new rear exhaust treatment, tread strips and 20-inch Stormer wheels which add to the vehicle’s visual appeal.

Inside the Range Rover Sport LE, there is a Luxury Interior Package that includes a cold climate option, adaptive front lighting, premium leather seats, hand-polished oak wooden trim and a center console cooler box. Carpet mats are also included. Furthermore, an audio visual entertainment system for rear seat passengers and adaptive cruise control are also included.

“Land Rover is delighted to offer a limited edition Range Rover Sport for those customers who want something a little different,” said Finbar McFall, Vice President of Marketing, Land Rover North America. “With many exclusive features and options, the Range Rover Sport LE will appeal to those consumers who want a level of personalization that reflects their taste and style.”

With the legendary on- and off-road prowess of the 2008 Range Rover Sport, the LE features a 4.2-liter Supercharged V8 engine. The permanent four wheel drive system is coupled with Land Rover’s proven Terrain Response™ system to provide the go-anywhere capability associated with the current Land Rover range.

The Range Rover Sport Supercharged equipped with the Limited Edition Package is priced at $81,450.

Apple may drop Google as its primary search engine, if the latest software update for the iPhone is any indication.

Last Thursday, Apple unveiled a new software update for the iPhone, iPhone 4.0 OS. One change that SearchEngineLand.com reported was that the Google search button in the iPhone mobile web browser was replaced by a generic search button. The search still goes through Google, but SearchEngineLand.com speculates that this could mean that Apple is looking to break away from Google in the update’s final release, which could have huge ramifications for search engine optimization (SEO).

Google and Apple have been on less-than-friendly terms ever since Google entered the smartphone market with the Android. By using Google as their default mobile search engine, Apple has allowed Google access to iPhone users’ search statistics and preferences, which could potentially be used to further the development of the Android.

Dropping Google for another search engine wouldn’t necessarily help Apple, though. Bing and Yahoo, the two leading search engine competitors of Google, are both tied to Microsoft, which also has a competing smartphone. Analysts have predicted that Apple will create its own search engine so it doesn’t have to rely on competitors, but that could take a few years to develop.

Many of the people behind the mobile and desktop clients more people use to access Twitter than Twitter.com itself are very angry with Twitter management right now.

They are so angry, in fact, that some of them are trying to figure out a way to do their business without Twitter itself.

They are upset because last week, Twitter’s top investor Fred Wilson called many of their applications product “hole-fillers” that make things for Twitter that Twitter would be better off making for itself.

Then, Twitter announced an “official” BlackBerry app. Then it acquired Atebits, the maker of Twitter app for the iPhone, Tweetie.

These developers and investors feel like Twitter is as popular as it is today thanks to their work, and that instead of supporting them, Twitter now plans to use its popularity to crush them. They are angry because they are alarmed.

And we’ve heard a growing group of them plan to do something about it.

Two sources deeply involved in the Twitter app world tell us that before Twitter holds its first ever developers conference this week, many developers attend secret meetings where they will discuss an “an open alternative” to Twitter.

“Discussion is not whether to launch an open federated standard,” says one source, “but when.”

This source tells us these meetings have a code name: Project Shark. “Angry sharks eat big fat #fail whales,” he explains.

Another source confirmed plans for these meetings, and told us their purpose is to…

• Get a little more coordinated as the opposition.
• Talk about things they want from Twitter — mostly more transparency and better access to the API.
• To talk about an open alternative.

An analyst with investment firm Piper Jaffray says that there is a 70 percent chance that Apple will release its own search engine to compete with Google and Bing within the next five years, making for further complications in the future search engine optimization (SEO) market.

According to eWeek’s Clint Boulton, “as the search provider for the iPhone, Google also sees what iPhone users are searching for, which can help it tailor software and services for its own mobile smartphones. This competitive advantage has not gone unnoticed by Apple.”

While the mobile market could well be the primary catalyst behind Apple’s rumored move, its primary difficulty will be a programming one, writes TechTremor. Creating a search engine is a massively difficult endeavor, but the company’s extensive resources and increasingly strong urge to compete with Google could push it into just such an attempt.

While the world of search engine optimization (SEO) could be seeing a new competitor emerge, SEO professionals are already bracing for the disappearance of an old one… My prediction is that Yahoo will soon be taken over by Bing.

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Microsoft has announced several new features in its Bing Maps service, including Foursquare Everywhere and a significant addition to its imagery data.

The Foursquare update, according to Matt McGee of Search Engine Land, will add “Foursquare data into Bing Maps to show checkins, tips, badges, mayorships, and so forth from Foursquare’s API. Bing says this is rolling out in stages, so some users may not see it yet in the applications gallery.”

Additionally, McGee writes, Microsoft has added 2.4 million square miles of image data into Bing, and given the option of taking the Bing Maps World Tour, which takes users through all of the new image data added to the maps service since its inception in August 2009.

The improved integration of Foursquare into Bing Maps, experts say, may be the most important of the additions. As localization functionality continues to become more and more important – thanks to the growth in internet-enabled smart phone use – such features will be crucial to future search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

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