Busby SEO Challenge

Yup! It’s official. Matt Cutts revealed that Google will showcase a new toolbar pageranks on this powerhouse of a search engine in the next couple of days. After the internet community had been shocked and surprised by the recent Dewey Update, Google’s resident “SEO relations officer” publicly announced at his blog that starting the 24th of July 2008, Google will undergo certain internal changes or updates or upgrades that would further secure its dominance in the Search Engine wars against its counterpart Yahoo! and MSN.

Over the several major updates Google underwent, the SEO community had been debating for some time already over the present value of Google Page Ranks. Some would argue that page ranks are still useful in assessing a sites’ value while others would use as an argument the fact that there are sites with low page rank value that rank high on Google SERPs against sites with a pretty high page rank value on a given set of keywords or search phrase. Incidentally, what might have been the reason behind the value or non value of page ranks could be the claim that there is a way to manipulate the page rank of a site making it appear higher than it should be on such a fast pace. This prohibited tactic could be useful especially when you are doing certain link exchange program or by selling “high value” links from your site as a means of profit. Either way, Busby SEO Challenge is not supporting, expressing support, using, practicing, nor adhering to the principles of this prohibited technique of manipulating page ranks.

Most importantly, Busby SEO Challenge believes that to some extent, page ranks still have their value on websites though it should not be the lone criteria or the most important factor in determining the worth of a given website. On a certain level, it is still quite useful for the daily internet activities of webmasters and browsers.

I’m no expert when it comes to programming stuffs like codes and scripts. I’m also no veteran blogger who’s that adept and comfortable with a niche they could call his or her own and who writes on a regular basis targeting a desired audience. I don’t know nor fully understand the specifics of WordPress as a blogware that is why I am joining and participating with this years WordCamp here in the Philippines to learn more and get the most out of using WordPress. Also, I want to become a better blogger and I firmly believe that WordPress would be a vital component of that goal.

WordPress as a blogware platform for my sites/blogs had been nothing but marvelous. That is why I have two (2) personally owned sites/blogs that uses the WordPress blogware as their blogging platforms. What I like most in using WordPress is that I am able to fully integrate my personality on that site or make the site appear how I would want it to appear in relation to the niche and audience I am targeting for that site/blog. If you are a blogger or wants to start a blog for any purpose for that matter, and if you want a blogware platform that would be user-friendly for beginners and experts alike, go with WordPress.

Internet based tools like Search Engines, Web Browsers, Social Networks and Blog platforms, to name a few, should be ardent disciples to the heart and soul on which the Internet as a tool and a concept has been founded. They should be empowering and not limiting. It should further develop as a social medium where an individual could perform professional functions and tasks efficiently, freely express her/himself, to unleash and nurture creativity, and most importantly, to gain knowledge.

Kudos are given to the following sponsors:

• i.PH: the Domain for Individuals
• Free Online Flash Games
• Wazzup Manila Philippines
• Real Estate CRM
• Real Estate Website Designers
• Orange County Real Estate
• Auto Insurance Quotes
• Lane Systems Inc.
• RedMedia
• WordCamp Philippines
• Mindanao Bloggers

For more facts about WordPress you could look here and for more information about the September 6, 2008 WordCamp Philippines you could register here. See you at the camp!

In the age of the internet where most, if not everyone especially young adults, spend considerable amount of time browsing the web and using its services, online gaming has been one segment of the web that has been booming and has been supporting the growth of the online community. Since 2000, I haven’t played any single or multi-player role playing game since Diablo II: Lord of Destruction spare a futile attempt of Titan Quest to live up to the expectations of Diablo’s gameplay and interface.

Diablo, along with its sister StarCraft and its largely acclaimed online gaming gateway Battle.net, paved the way for the success of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. as a developer and publisher of games. It is by this reason why this year of 2008, Blizzard has been pressured by loyal highly anticipating fans for the much awaited sequels for these two ground breaking and high selling computer games. Very fortunate are those who were able to attend the rather impromptu press release of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. last 1st of April 2008 at their new HQ at Irvine California where the team provided a 10 second cinematic trailer of Diablo 3 only to leave those spectators craving for more.

What is left for those who weren’t able to experience the trailer teaser? Well at least Blizzard and Diablo team are able to stimulate our imagination with several daily splash images which, when looked at carefully, resembled runes that came from Blizzard’s top computer games but which also ultimately leading us to concluded that it is the much awaited Diablo sequel with an evil stare.

The development team revealed tiny parts of the game like who’s gonna be the adversaries, new maps or worlds if any, and new characters. So far, without spoiling the game’s launch, Diablo and his brothers Baal and Mephisto will sure be at Diablo 3. Players will be choosing from a newly and uniquely designed eight (8) character format to choose from which will be having their corresponding unique set of skills plus certain skills shared across the characters. The game will still take place at various points within the worlds of Hell and the Heavens with its Sanctuary though the developers mentioned that it will be on a much wider perspective in terms of space for there will be portions of these worlds that will be revealed which had not been present from the previous game versions.

However, the most noticeable enhancement on the gameplay that we should all look at is its multiplayer and online gaming interface. Blizzard wants these aspects to utilized to its full extent the technological advantages of Battle.net and Direct X 10.1 when it comes to online and multiplayer gaming without compromising the hero-centric approach advocated by the same game since the Diablo debut.

At the moment, these are the few details shared by the development team at Blizzard HQ. System requirements for Diablo 3 is not yet revealed though the team aims to have the game compatible across multiple OS like Windows and Mac. Many believe that we are just days away before this highly awaited game kicks off so we sure need to stay put for game details at the game’s official website http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/.

Oops! Sorry. Username is no longer available - isn’t this frustrating? It sure is especially when there are already 266 million email users worldwide. That’s why Yahoo! got started in fixing this pressing problem among a growing number of new free email subscribers last 20th of June 2008.

The $80 million dollar purchase of Four11 Corp allowed Yahoo! to further expand the reach of its email enterprise despite being beaten by Google’s Gmail in terms of the number of new accounts established for the last couple of months according to comScore. This shows how crucial it is for each Search Engine to dominate this aspect since Email allows user loyalty by staying further into the Search Engine site which in turn translates to better advertising opportunities.

Yahoo! Mail will be hosting new mail accounts under two new domains which is Ymail.com and Rocketmail.com. The latter had been the result of the Four11 Corp purchase though previous Rocketmail account users weren’t included then to the Yahoo! universe until now. Free email accounts made under the new domains will also have the same features and options as the existing Yahoo! mail accounts which includes unlimited email storage space.

source: http://beta.ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080619/tbs-tec-yahoo-mail-f8250da.html

I consider myself a newbie in SEO and it is by chance that I was able to be aware of an SEO contest like this. I was able to know such a contest by glancing over the site of an SEO mentor / friend. I know there are a lot of SEO’s who joined the contest who are far more knowledgeable and skilled than me when it comes to the Search Engines, Web 2.0, and stuffs, but I want to know how far I am with Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. This is the very first SEO contest I’ll be joining and I’m thrilled just at the fact that I was brave enough to dare join this challenge.

The contest is entitled the Busby SEO Challenge sponsored by Busby Web Solutions. The said company is 100% owned subsidiary of Hire Intelligence International Limited or HII - an I.T. and audio visual rentals and web solutions providers - which is an international and award winning member of the Australian Securities Exchange or ASX.

The Busby SEO Challenge World Cup was announced last 1st of June 2008 and is expected to end 31st of August 2008. Participants are challenged to create and optimize their own websites with the key phrase Busby SEO Challenge. They are expected to rank at the top of Search Engines for the said key phrase until the challenge has been decided upon. There will be three (3) winners who obviously were successful to occupy the first, second, and third spots in the major SERPs for such key phrase.

The Busby SEO Challenge prizes are:

1st Prize: $5,000

2nd Prize: $2,000

3rd Prize: $500

The Busby SEO Challenge contest rules are:

1. Start date is 1st June 2008, 12:00midday, Perth, Western Australia at which point the phrase will be posted on the Busby website.

2. End date of 31st August 2008, 12:00 midday, Perth, Western Australia.

3. Only ethical SEO techniques may be engaged and the judges reserve the right to review the techniques engaged by the winner to ensure they comply.

4. No pornography, no discrimination and no illegal behaviour is permitted.

5. The competition is only open to domain and sub domain names that do not include the key phrase in any form.

6. Only registered entrants are eligible to compete and win the prize. Busby will maintain a list of entrants which can be view on the Entrants List page.

7. Registration is free, open to anyone of any age, gender, race and domicile and can only be made through Registration Process.

8. All entrants pages must have a visible link back to www.busbywebsolutions.com with the following text (including the hyperlink) in Arial 10 font: Participant in the Busby Web Solutions Search Engine Optimisation Challenge.

9. Only one prize per person.

10. Employees, franchisees and licensees of Busby (and each of their family members) are eligible to enter but are not eligible to win any prizes.

For more details about the Busby SEO Challenge, kindly visit this link here.