Yahoo Inc., to Reject Microsoft Offer, May Find Few Options (Update 2) according to Bloomberg.
http://www.bloomberg.com

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — Yahoo! Inc., the Internet company that has failed to crack Google Inc.’s dominance of Web search, plans to reject a $44.6 billion takeover bid from Microsoft Corp.,…

“Together, Microsoft and Yahoo would control more than a quarter of the market for animated ads and colorful display banners at the top of Web pages. Google hasn’t made much progress there, giving the combined company a way to challenge Google and start going after emerging markets such as mobile-phone ads.” states Ari Levy and Zachary R. Mider.

The continuing battle for domination in the search engines continues as that is business. The take away is do not be afraid of competition. Competition is good for marketing and creative products come out of the competition. I had a strategy call with a business owner who was very concerned similar businesses were coming into the neighborhood.

As a business owner your competition is not your enemy. As my friend and mentor Joe Polish’s company slogan states “Eat Your Competition Alive.” Stop fearing competition; observe your competition and then get proper marketing advice to position your business as the logical choice to do business with in the area. Joe Polish is a genius. For more information:
 www.joepolish.com (more…)

Google frustrates SEO experts as google is constantly changing the rules of the game. However, what remains extremely valuable is the wealth of market research that is done for the small business owner. Make Google your friend and not your enemy. When was the last time you spent time researching Google for your business?

Are you familiar with all the features Google offers for free? You must install the Google tool bar and Google has added a number of extra buttons that are excellent, handy research tools that you can access with the click of a mouse.
The Google tool bar is easy to install in your browser; For Firefox it can be found at http://google.com/firefox

If you have your own blog and you are not spying on your competition or worse yet don’t even know who your competition is as my friend, Alex Mandossian, top internet marketing guru stated, “Shame on you”.

At the very basic level, study Google: Images, News, Groups, Books, Finance, Blogs and if you want to get more sophisticated do an advanced search. Before you spend more money on SEO experts, make Google your friend.