Web tool 'as important as Google' : BBC NEWS

A web tool that 'could be as important as Google', according to some experts, has been shown off to the public.


Wolfram Alpha is the brainchild of British-born physicist Stephen Wolfram.

The free program aims to answer questions directly, rather than display web pages in response to a query like a search engine.

The "computational knowledge engine", as the technology is known, will be available to the public from the middle of May this year.

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Study reveals impact of SEO from leading brands on flight searches : Travolution

UK-based research from Greenlight Search into the most visible sites in Google natural search has revealed a clean sweep for cheapflights.co.uk in the flights category.


The study found that a selection of 3,200 generic and destination-specific key terms generated 5.5 million searches in March. The rankings are based on a site’s presence on the first page of Google for the term.

Cheapflights achieved 100% visibility across all categories of key-terms – generic, domestic, short- and long-haul terms. Skyscanner.net and travelsupermarket.com achieved 80%+ visibility and comprise the top three.

Lastminute.com was the most visible online agent at 59%. Dealchecker.co.uk is the only other site to be visible on more than half the 5.5m searches.

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Search market report finds growing focus on social media | Blog | Econsultancy

Econsultancy's third annual UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report was released last week; it profiles the UK search marketing environment, and covers paid search, SEO and social media.


One of the trends uncovered by the report, produced in association with Guava, is that social media is becoming a bigger part of the marketing mix, with 91% of search agencies already offering, or else planning to offer, advice and services to clients on how to make the most of social media.

The rapid growth of Twitter is reflected in the attention paid to it in companies' marketing strategies; this year 49% said they were including the site in their social media marketing, compared with just 3% last year.

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Travel companies 'need to improve search engine marketing' : Clickthrough Marketing

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Travel companies may be missing out on valuable business by failing to make the most of search engine optimisation (SEO) and internet marketing, it has been suggested.


Travolution's Kevin May reports that at the recent Travolution Summit, Graham Cooke, ecommerce project manager at Google, outlined the importance of effective SEO for travel firms.

Research from Google shows that when looking to make travel arrangements, consumers spend 29 days researching - making 12 travel searches over 22 travel sites.

This means companies that use SEO to boost their search engine rankings may be in a better position to attract customers than those who do not.

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Over half of companies to increase search budgets for measurable ROI : New Media Age

More than half of companies (55%) intend to increase natural search budgets and just under half (45%) will up paid search investment this year as they look for measurable ROI in difficult economic times.


The annual UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, which surveyed 800 client companies, agencies and search consultants, found large numbers were continuing to increase spend on search, where ROI is more measurable.

Some 48% reported better returns on natural search (optimisation) campaigns and 43% claim greater ROI on paid search (pay-per-click). However, 15% reported decreasing effectiveness for paid search compared to just 6% for natural."

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Google patches "severe" Chrome bug : PC Pro

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Google has patched a bug in its Chrome browser that allowed attackers to perform cross-site scripting attacks.

The flaw was discovered earlier this month by an IBM security researcher and was patched last night, with the release of Chrome version 1.0.154.59.


"An error in handling URLs with a chromehtml: protocol could allow an attacker to run scripts of his choosing on any page or enumerate files on the local disk under certain conditions," Chrome program manager Mark Larson explains.

"If a user has Google Chrome installed, visiting an attacker-controlled web page in Internet Explorer could have caused Google Chrome to launch, open multiple tabs, and load scripts that run after navigating to a URL of the attacker's choice. Such an attack only works if Chrome is not already running."

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