Military allows Twitter, other social media

by Phil Stewart

The Pentagon announced on Friday it has authorized the use Twitter, Facebook and other so-called "Web 2.0" sites across the U.S. military, saying the benefits of social media outweighed security concerns.

The decision, which comes at a time of growing concern over cyber-security, applies only to the military's non-classified network.

But it could mean big changes for large portions of the armed forces, including the Marines, which had selectively banned social media on work computers.

The Department of Defense also had bans in place since 2007 on accessing certain bandwidth-gobbling Web sites like YouTube on its network.

"The purpose of the policy is to recognize that we need to take advantage of these Internet-based capabilities. These Web 2.0 tools need to be part of what we use," David Wennergren, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, told Reuters.

"And what we had were inconsistent approaches. Some websites were blocked and some commands were blocking things."

Social media are increasingly important for the U.S. military. Admiral Mike Mullen, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the top U.S. military officer, has a Twitter feed with more than 16,000 followers.

U.S. Southern Command offered operational updates via Twitter on relief activities in Haiti.

REACHING OUT TO YOUNG SOLDIERS

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, 66, has said that he wants to use social networking to help the Pentagon interact with U.S. military members, many of whom are in their early 20s.

But opponents have cited the risks of information leaks, of opening gateways to hackers, along with a potential overload of precious bandwidth on the Defense Department's network.

The new policy says commanders will still need to defend against cyber-attacks and block access to online pornography, gambling and sites promoting "hate-crime related activities."

It also allows commanders to temporarily limit Internet access if the bandwidth is overwhelmed, a key caveat for U.S. forces fighting the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, or stationed in remote, rugged places around the globe.

Wennergren said commanders still had authority to limit access to safeguard missions, perhaps banning use of social media ahead of a major offensive. The Defense Department will also be monitoring use of its network.

"There are two imperatives. One is the ability to share information. The other is about security -- we need to be good at both," he said.

Training people so they know what can and cannot be disclosed on the Internet is a more effective policy than simply banning use of social media on work computers, he said.

"You can't just have the policy be that you're going to block access to MySpace. Because there are 10,000 ways people could still compromise a mission -- by making a phone call, or sending an email," Wennergren said.

"So part of this is about having a trained workforce that is savvy in how you operate in the information age."

Microhoo: search will be a two-horse race by year end news

by Adam Bunn

According to Adam Bunn, SEO head of the UK's leading independent search marketing agency, Greenlight, says Microsoft has a good chance of increasing Bing's market share over the year, making ''Microhoo'' worth paying much more attention to from an SEO perspective

Microsoft's plans to buy Yahoo's internet search and search advertising businesses have been cleared by both European and US regulators (See: EU, US clear Microsoft, Yahoo! deal)

This will mean Bing powers the natural search results for Yahoo!, while Yahoo! handles advertising for Bing. This was among the 10 predictions for paid and natural search we made earlier.

Microsoft has a good chance of increasing Bing's market share over the year, making ''Microhoo'' worth paying much more attention to from an SEO perspective.

However, SEO functionality-wise, Microsoft has so far shown little inclination to offer the kind of information that Site Explorer does, not good news for the majority of SEO's, who rely on Site Explorer for backlink analysis and competitive link intelligence. Bunn explains.

Microsoft and Yahoo! finalised their tie-up in early December, shortly after the competition regulators in Canada and Australia approved the deal. Its approval by the US department of justice and the ECC, paves the way to integration before the year is out.

That will mean that Bing powers the natural search results for Yahoo!, while Yahoo! handles advertising for Bing, leaving the search landscape a two-horsed race - well, in so far as a market where one player has 80 per cent plus market share can be called a ''race''.

That said, having pledged 5 per cent to 10 per cent of their operating profits ($22.5 billion in 2008) to promoting Bing over the next five years, Microsoft has a good chance of increasing Bing's market share over the next year (much as they have in the US).

Yahoo's strategy looks increasingly to be about abandoning search and focusing on becoming a content portal.

This has echoes of Altavista's decline in the late 90's when in the face of declining search results quality they switched tac and became a content portal, before fading into obscurity shortly after.

Only time will tell if Yahoo! can avoid this fate – although it has fingers in enough pies to make it considerably more resistant to decline, including popular social networks, Flickr, Yahoo! Answers and Delicious, one of the most popular webmail services and one of the most popular home pages and news sources.

SEO functionality-wise, Microsoft has so far shown little inclination to offer the kind of information that Site Explorer does; Bing supports neither the link: nor linkdomain: advanced operators that, along with the site: operator, are the foundation for Site Explorer's functionality.

Given that Bing will be powering Yahoo! search results by the end of the year there is every reason to suppose Site Explorer will be retired.

This is dire news indeed for the majority of SEO's, who rely on Site Explorer for backlink analysis and competitive link intelligence due to its comprehensive reporting (in contrast Google displays just a small sample of known backlinks via the link: operator) but good news for the providers of proprietary software and link reporting services, as many people will be forced to turn to them to acquire link data.

SEO Company Web Wise Media Combines Natural Search and PPC for New Clients

by Web Wise Media

In an interview conducted today with management officials at Web Wise Media in Los Angeles, they revealed their unprecedented strategy of combining natural search engine optimization with paid search techniques such as PPC, two techniques previously seen as competitive and not compatible. The mix appears to be working as Webwise Media has maintained a position consistently at the top of search engine Page One for all Los Angeles SEO keywords and keyword phrases.

"There are a number of companies out there that promote one philosophy and bash the other," said a company spokesperson when asked about SEO versus SEM. "That's absolutely ridiculous. At Webwise Media we use a combination of both techniques, particularly with new clients. The climb to the top of search engine Page One is a long one that will take time. You need traffic while you're waiting for it to happen."

PPC campaigns like Google Adwords still command a significant share of the overall dollars spent on internet marketing each year, but this year that percentage was much lower after the loss of major retail dollars that had previously been spent on PPC. This has also resulted in openings at the top of certain search pages that were once monopolized by retail giants. Small and medium sized businesses can now move much more quickly through the rankings than they were able to in the past, giving everyone an equal shot on an even playing field.

"Retail businesses actually showed us the way over the past ten years," said our spokesperson. "Their strategy of using pay-per-click combined with posting their link in every directory imaginable is similar to what we do for our clients, though our link building is far more targeted than that. An affordable well-managed PPC campaign can bring steady traffic while the link building process slowly brings those natural search numbers up. As we see it, it's covering all bases. We can use SEM techniques like PPC to get the ball rolling and then slowly replace that traffic with some real organic traffic that will be sustainable over a long period of time."