Mediaworks founder Brett Jacobson (left) with Dan Hoggan.

Team Valley based Mediaworks has been chosen to implement a 12-month search engine optimisation strategy for the office supply giant Viking Direct.

Viking is one of the UK’s largest office equipment providers supplying thousands of offices throughout the country with equipment ranging from stamps and coffee to seats and desks.

Brett Jacobson, managing director of Mediaworks, said it was great to have another big name to add their client list.

“Viking is in a highly competitive market and we know that we can assist them to have the upper edge on their competitors, and ultimately boost its revenue”, he said.

“It just goes to prove that there is online marketing talent outside of the capital, and by winning such a lucrative contract I think that we have 100% proved it.”

Mediaworks use intelligently applied SEO tactics to boost a company’s visibility online for key, targeted phrases.

The company was established in 2007 by a Northumbria University graduate Brett Jacobson, and boasts an impressive client list including SCS Sofas, law firm Eversheds and Traidcraft.

Mediaworks is confident that it can aid Viking to become highly competitive online and boost its visibility nationally, and early figures are proving this true.

About four years ago in a Newcastle city centre pub a 21-year-old graduate fresh out of university met a local entrepreneur by chance.

That graduate was called Brett Jacobson, who today runs Mediaworks, a successful search engine company with over 30 employees. And the growth just doesn’t seem to stop.

Mediaworks’ strategic and analytical SEO has recently earned them several big global account wins such as Viking Direct, Regus and Alfred Dunhill.

“At the moment we are at advanced stages with several similar global businesses so in the next six months we will boast a portfolio of which any agency would be envious.”

“The growth potential within these accounts is phenomenal if we can deliver on our initial goals and immediate aims set out within the projects, which include a mixture of SEO, CRO and PPC services on an international level, then who knows where we could be.”

The secret of success?

Brett’s number one piece of advice to young managing directors is not to be afraid to ask questions.

“I learn something new every day through opening myself up to learn from those around me. It’s absolutely critical for both your personal and businesses development.”

“Another important piece of advice is to surround yourself with people who are better than you.”

“You can’t be the best at everything! You must learn to accept that if your company is to progress that every idea doesn’t have to be yours and that the biggest barrier to growth is usually yourself.”

“Your staff can be your biggest strength or weakness. Therefore recruit the best people you can find.”

Purer insight into Google’s algorithm

To stay on top in the ever-changing SEO landscape, Mediaworks have their entire team constantly monitoring the search landscape.

In addition, they have developed a tool which enables them to form a graphical view of their clients’ (and their competitors’) link profiles.

“By normalising this data we are gaining a purer insight into how Google’s latest’s algorithm is operating from a link strength perspective and how its relevancy factors are changing”, Brett said.

“Its pretty interesting stuff and is allowing us to give our clients both a competitive advantage and insight into their competitors strategy. ”

Proud to be in the North East

The North East corner of England might not be the most obvious choice when you’re setting up a business with plans to establish an international client-base.

For Mediaworks, the decision has proved a successful one. In fact, the Team Valley-based company has over 120 happy customers based all over the UK, Europe and the USA.

“Being based in the North East hasn’t hampered our growth or our ability to service clients at all, in fact its proving to be a useful sales USP and allows us to differentiate ourselves from the masses of southern agencies we regularly compete for new business with.”

“The facilities are first class in the region and Mediaworks are proud to be based here which is something that will never change.”

James Kingett (left) from the Centre for eBusiness with Bernie Callaghan from Sunderland Software City.

A new free search engine putting the North East digital industry in a single shop window has launched.

‘Supplier Search’ aims to match up local businesses with each other, providing an opportunity to find the right partners as well as new customers.

The search engine has been developed in partnership between the Centre for eBusiness and Sunderland Software City.

Local businesses are invited to sign up by entering their details through an online questionnaire. They have a three-month head start before businesses are invited to start using the tool.

Showcase your business

According to Pascal Fintoni, Chief Executive of the Centre for eBusiness, the new search is a great way to showcase the North East’s growing digital community to companies looking to invest in software and digital solutions.

“It promises to be a priceless way for bringing new business to the door of local ICT suppliers and I’d encourage all local digital firms to take five minutes to enter their details”, he said.

Bernie Callaghan, CEO of Sunderland Software City, said Supplier Search is ideal for companies in search for a software solution to immediately identify a local company with suitable knowledge and experience.

“Both the Centre for eBusiness and Sunderland Software City have often acted as an impartial link between suppliers and consumers, and we hope that Supplier Search will allow us to build on this work”, he said.

ICT companies of all sizes welcome!

Supplier Search is targeted at companies of all sizes who supply ICT solutions and who are looking to do business with organisations in the North East.

It also gives digital suppliers the opportunity to publish testimonials from previous clients, showcasing their most successful projects.

To sign up, visit www.sunderlandsoftwarecity.com/matrix

The innovative multimedia search engine Qwiki has been launched to public alpha testing stage.

In Qwiki, users type in a search term like they normally would, but instead of a list of relevant resources they are presented in a multimedia package.

Combining photos and video together with an overlaying narrative audio Qwiki outlines the key bits of information about the chosen search topic.

The relevance of the content is judged by the computer and brought together from sources such as Wikipedia, Google, YouTube and Fotopedia.

“Think of asking your favourite teacher about Leonardo Da Vinci, or your most well-travelled friend about Buenos Aires: this is the experience Qwiki will eventually deliver, on demand,” the company wrote on their website

According to its founders, Qwiki is not a search but “a new media format and a groundbreaking method of consuming information”.

Qwiki, which had its first public demo at TechCrunch Disrupt on 27 September 2010, has some influential backing and experience on its side. The latest $8m funding round was led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and YouTube founder Jawed Karim.

In addition, its co-founder Louis Monier is the founder of one of the original search engines on the web – AltaVista.

Qwiki has currently about 3 million reference terms and the team is calling out for content submissions and improvement suggestions.

Future plans for the service are ambitious.

“Soon you’ll be able to watch Qwikis on your Facebook friends, local restaurants – and we hope, eventually any topic in the world. In fact, any publisher or person will soon be able to create Qwikis”, a blog post on Qwiki site promises.

The service will also be soon rolling out a platform which allows any web publisher to turn their content into Qwikis.

The first reactions since the public launch have been mixed. Critics are not impressed by flashy multimedia with a voiceover and fail to see any feasible use for the tool.

Supporters however, see Qwiki as a leap towards a science fiction type of intelligent information gathering by computers.

Try it out and make up your own mind:
http://www.qwiki.com/

It’s been a busy week for Google. The most recent news confirmed the rumoured $6m deal with a fast-growing voucher website Groupon is off, but the search giant has kept itself busy with other plans and acquisitions.

Earlier this week, Google caused a few grey hairs for the executives at Amazon by announcing the launch of its own eReader platform ‘Editions’.

According to The Telegraph’s consumer technology editor Matt Warman, Google Editions is a natural move from making books easily discoverable with Google Book Search, to providing a platform of buying them.

Acquisitions

In addition, Google is exploring artificial speech with its latest acquisition of Phonetic Arts, a UK company working on making computer speech more human.

Currently being used in video games, Google is hoping to use the technology in some of its products such as Google Translate, reading translations out loud, and Google Maps, providing turn-by-turn navigation in the mobile version.

New features

In an attempt to make YouTube videos more appealing to the masses Google has unveiled personalised YouTube channels.

The new feature allows users to create a video stream based on chosen keywords and their viewing history. Similar to cloud-based music streaming services such as Pandora, the idea is that the channel will become better the more you use it.

Legal trouble

Last week, Google also hit the news in less flattering circumstances.

The European Commission has decided to launch an investigation into allegations of the search giant abusing its dominance in the search market.

Three small search companies, including British price comparison site Foundem, have filed complaints earlier this year that Google has deliberately dropped their rankings in the search results.

Google has denied all the allegations but has said in a statement that there’s always “room for improvement” and they’re “willing to work with the Commission to address any concerns”.

One example of what computers can do with data they understand is an ‘answer engine’ called Wolfram Alpha.

What’s special about Wolfram Alpha is that it solves factual queries directly instead of offering a page with potential sources for the answer as normal search engines do.

Wolfram Alpha computes the answer from structured data and provides answers and relevant visualisations from a core knowledge base of curated, structured data.

The service is based on Wolfram Research’s earlier product, Mathematica, a programming package that includes computer algebra, symbolic and numerical computation and statistic capabilities as some of its features.

The legacy of Mathematica means that Wolfram Alpha is especially good at answering mathematical questions and will usually include a human-readable solution in the answer.

At the time of its launch in 2009, The Independent hailed Wolfram Alpha as ‘the biggest internet revolution for a generation’.

“The first step towards what many consider to be the internet’s Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does”, technology reporter Andrew Johnson wrote at the time.

Wolfram Alpha was voted the greatest computer innovation of 2009 by Popular Science.

Feature article

What does the future hold for the 20-year-old Web?

After making it through its teenage years, the World Wide Web is getting ready for the huge task of organising all of its information. Read more…

This role will be varied on a day to day basis and will require a bright, enthusiastic and creative candidate who can multi-task effectively. This is an ideal opportunity to join an innovative, dynamic and rapidly growing company which can offer excellent career growth prospects to the right person.

Duties are varied and will include carrying out intense Link building activities for a number of clients simultaneously as part of a team. A full induction and training program will be given but basic knowledge in Link building and an understanding of the underlying principles of SEO are a prerequisite.

Candidates who carry out the duties satisfactorily will have the opportunity to gain additional skills in SEO, PPC and CRO, if they wish, to diversify their search marketing knowledge. Link building is a dynamic and constantly evolving environment which requires flexibility, an inquisitive mind and a willingness to learn as you go.

Role & Responsibilities:

• Identifying potential link opportunities and partners using SEO principles and analytical skills 
• Investigating online competitors and thinking creatively about how our clients can do better than them
• Contacting link partners using email and telephone
• Negotiating partnerships with site owners, webmasters and bloggers
• Meeting clients to develop good working relationship
• Research and creation of unique content on behalf of clients
• Providing reporting and occasional presentations to the team, wider company and clients on progress
• Support sales team with detailed research reports on prospective client websites

Knowledge of Internet and web development technologies: HTML, XHTML,CSS and PHP would also be desirable for this role. Naturally you will have knowledge of the Search Engine Marketing industry, as well as passion and drive to excel in this fast paced environment.

The above list of job duties is not exclusive or exhaustive and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks as may reasonably be expected within the scope of the role.

How to apply

If you want to become involved in one of the fastest growing industries on the planet and work for one of the leading UK search marketing agencies then please apply now via email with your CV and covering letter to info@mediaworks.co.uk. NO AGENCIES.

Posted via Jobs in Digital

Google has exclusively claimed the meaning of the phrase “to search on the internet”. Who needs to be good at searching for information anymore when you can simply “google it”?

We put this question to Helen Blanchett – a trainer in web skills specialising in how to effectively find and evaluate information on the web. She has worked closely with search engines since the early days – long before Google existed.

“I can’t really criticise Google”, Helen said. “I do like it. Especially its simple interface and the fact that it does deliver results.

“But there is a danger that because it’s so popular it will eventually erode people’s ability to search information effectively.”

But there’s no need to be good at searching – Google does it for you. Right?

“There has definitely been a shift in what skills are essential. It’s not so much about being a skilled searcher anymore, what’s more important is the ability to critically evaluate information”, Helen said.

“Sometimes people even mistake Google for a source itself. As an answer to the question ‘where did you find this information’, you might get ’from Google’.”

“People also don’t miss what they don’t know. They get by not necessarily knowing that there might be better information out there”, Helen noted.

Feature article

Last Monday, Google celebrated its 12th birthday. We looked at what the internet was like before Larry and Sergey registered Google.com in 1997. Read more…

The internet before Google

A French internet user sued the company after his identity had been linked with words including “rapist”, “rape” and “satanist” in automatic searches.

The Superior Court of Paris found the search giant guilty of “public slandering of a private individual” in what is believed to be a landmark decision.

The claimant has recently been convicted of a sex offence which saw him sentenced to a three-year jail term for “corruption of a minor”. After launching an appeal against the conviction he discovered the internet searches linking him to the condemning keywords. The court’s decision stated that, under the French law, a person is considered innocent until all of his appeals have been exhausted.

Google has said it will appeal the decision.

A spokeswoman of the company said: “These searches are algorithmically determined based on a number of purely objective factors including (the) popularity of search terms.
“Google does not suggest these terms. All of the queries shown in Autocomplete have been typed previously by other Google users.”

Source: The Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8027967/Google-convicted-of-defaming-French-user-by-linking-his-name-to-rape-in-searches.html

Stanford University student Feross Aboukhadijeh made a bet with his roommate that he could build a real-time YouTube search in less than an hour.

It eventually took him three hours to finish, so the bet was lost, but the impressive stunt caught the eye of YouTube chief executive Chad Hurley on Twitter.

“Hey @FreeTheFeross! Loving YouTube Instant… http://feross.net/instant/ Want a job? ”, Hurley tweeted less than 24 hours after the of the 19-year old had launched his search.

Feross replied: “Hey @Chad-Hurley. Glad you liked YouTube Instant! Is that a for-real job offer? ”

As did Hurley: “@FreeTheFeross Are you ready to leave school? I’ll send you a DM (direct message).”

At the moment, Feross is working as an intern at Facebook where he’s said to be developing a “top secret” application which will soon be rolled out to users.

Feross said he didn’t struggle too much in recreating Instant for videos.

“I’ve built a lot of websites in the past, but none as quickly as I built YouTube Instant,” he said.

Try YouTube Instant here: http://ytinstant.com/

Source: Stuff.co.nz