WebProNews

Internet Use Improves Brainpower

Searching online is better than reading books for increasing the brainpower of middle-aged and older adults, new research indicates.A University of California Los Angles team of scientists found searching on the Internet stimulates parts of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.The findings come from a study of 24 volunteers aged 55 to 76 who were asked to either search online or read while their brains were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Financial Crisis to Fuel Rise in Litigation

Two occupations that for sure won’t be experiencing unemployment troubles during the financial crisis: politician and lawyer. Politicians will be busy pointing fingers and looking clueless while lawyers will be bracing for a boon in litigation stemming from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. A survey of 360 in-house counsel in the UK and US show small businesses and major corporations alike are preparing for a busy lawsuit season expected to affect pretty much every sector.

Google Blocks Services in Some Countries

Google is reportedly blocking use of it's Chrome browser (among other applications like Google Talk and Gmail Notifier)  in some countries with which the United States has economic sanctions and export controls with. "We are unable to permit the download of Google Chrome in Cuba, Syria, North Korea, Iran, and Sudan," says a Google Spokesperson.

YouTube's Search Ads - Will You Buy Them?

Google will announce its third quarter financial results on Thursday, and in the meantime, the company seems to be looking for revenue under every rock... and YouTube may be the biggest rock of all.Searches for all sorts of terms on YouTube are turning up links to one or more "promoted videos" on the right-hand side of results pages.  Each ad consists of one small image and Google Adwords-style text ad.

U.S. Search Marketing Spend Sees Strong Q3 Growth

U.S. search marketing spend showed healthy growth in the third quarter of 2008, up almost 27 percent compared with the third quarter of 2007 according to a new study from SearchIgnite.Spend from existing search marketing advertisers is up year-over-year in Q3 across all engines by 26.9 percent in the U.S., a small increase from the year-over-year growth seen in Q3 2007 over Q3 2006. Quarter-over-quarter spend growth was also strong and consistent with Q2 vs. Q3 2007.

Google and Yahoo! Talk Volume Caps with Justice Department

Google and Yahoo! are in the middle of trying to convince the federal government (namely the Justice Department) that their search advertising deal is not an antitrust issue. This has been going on for months as they've tried to convince the entire world of the same.

GoDaddy Gets Smart and Social

GoDaddy has released as service called SmartSpace, which it claims will make creating web sites  - complete with blogs, chat rooms, email addresses, photo galleries, and video showcases - easy for people that are not the least bit "tech savvy."

Yahoo Improves Content Match Technology

Search Yahoo News for the term [advertising recession], and you'll see about 1,200 results.  But things could be worse, as another arm of the company is seeking to address the problem with some upgrades to its Content Match advertising product.

NBC Redefines Its Local Sites

NBC is launching new local sites in cities across the United States, targeted at "locals only" to help them stay connected with what is going on in their respective cities.

Google Offers Inbound Link Advice

Google’s Maile Ohye concluded Link Week with a tutorial on inbound links. It says basically what SEO experts have been saying for years: content and inbound links are most important, and in that order.