Google's current ranking algorithm update
You have probably noticed that Google is currently updating its ranking algorithm. This seems to be a major update because many webmasters have seen big changes in their rankings.

The PageRank of www.MSN.com dropped to PR2 in this latest update so there really seem to be some big changes in the new algorithm.

Google engineer Matt Cutts more or less declines that this is a big update in his blog:
"These days rather than having a large monolithic update, Google tends to have smaller (and more frequent) individual launches.

My point is that more than ever, we are constantly working to improve our algorithms and scoring. Some changes are hardly noticed at all. Some changes (e.g. user interface improvements) are more visible. Some changes have nothing to do with spam [...] Some changes do try to decrease spam or increase core quality.

And again, these PageRanks and backlinks have already been incorporated into scoring a while back (Google updates PageRank continually and continuously), but some people just love to look at PageRanks.)"

What has changed with this update?
Only Google's engineers know exactly what has been changed with this update. However, it seems that some factors seem to be important in this update:

• Hidden text spam seems to be more penalized. While most search engines consider white text on white background spamming, it seems that Google now also recognizes text that is hidden in invisible CSS layers.
  
  
• Links from automated link exchanges and text link advertising systems seem to count less.
  As with every algorithm update, Google tries to remove the spam from its database with this update.
  

What should you do now?
First of all, don't panic. If your web site rankings have dropped, wait another week to make sure that the index update is over. If your web site is still not listed, take a look at what you might have done wrong.

If you use CSS to hide text on your web pages, consider removing that hidden text from your pages. Google doesn't seem to like that at all. If you use other techniques that might be considered spam, remove them from your pages.

If you have a links page, do not use a link exchange system with a central server but host your link pages on your own web site. Being part of a centralized system makes your web site vulnerable if the centralized system is considered spam. After having removed the spam elements from your pages, do the following:

1. Optimize 
Optimize your web pages for the new Google algorithm. The optimizer uses the current ranking algorithm to find out which web page elements Google wants to see on a web page for your keyword and your web site.

2. Diversify
We've said it before in this newsletter: don't put all eggs in one basket. Although it is very likely that you'll get high rankings on Google if you follow the tips above, you shouldn't focus on Google alone.

Yahoo and MSN can also bring you qualified traffic. These search engines might not be as popular as Google but they are large enough to bring you so many customers that you could even do without Google. The key to a successful online business is to get qualified traffic from all big search engines.

If you have web pages that are optimized for Google and Yahoo and MSN and Ask Jeeves then you won't get hurt so much when one of these search engines drops your rankings.

If your web site rankings on Google have dropped, don't panic and follow the tips above. Chances are good that you'll get your high rankings back.

If you worry about the dropped PageRank of your web site, you shouldn't care too much about it. If a major web site like www.MSN.com gets a PageRank of 2, the green bar shouldn't get too much attention.

What are Google Alerts?
Google Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results -- such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs -- that match your search term. You can use Google Alerts to monitor anything on the Web. For example, people use Google Alerts to:

• find out what is being said about their company or product.
• monitor a developing news story.
• keep up to date on a competitor or industry.
• get the latest news on a celebrity or sports team.
• find out what's being said about themselves.

       Here's how it works:

1. You enter a query that you're interested in.
2. Google Alerts checks regularly to see if there are new results for your query.
3. If there are new results, Google Alerts sends them to you in an email.

For general queries like [ football ], you can get a summary of the new results every day. For     specific topics, like[ cardiovascular atherosclerosis ], you might not get an email every day, but you'll find out when something new and relevant is published.

NEW YORK — Facebook on Wednesday boosted by 25 percent the number of shares for sale at its stock market debut, amid signs of strong investor demand for its initial public offering this week.The move by the Internet giant comes one day after it filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission raising its IPO share price from a range of $28 to $35, to between $34 to $38 per share. Facebook's IPO is likely to take place on Friday.The raised IPO share price, as well as the increase in the number of shares available, reflects confidence in stock for the the Menlo Park, California-based company.

Facebook is already assured of becoming the most valuable US Web company at the time of an IPO, topping Google's $23 billion valuation in 2004.Trading is expected to begin on Friday under the symbol "FB" on the technology-heavy Nasdaq.There was no immediate explanation for the increase in shares, which will come from the current holders of shares in prior private offerings.The net proceeds to the company will remain unchanged at $6.4 billion, the filing with regulators said. But the IPO could net as much as $16 billion for all the sellers at the latest estimate.
Depending on the final value, the IPO would be one of the largest of a US firm on Wall Street, behind the 2008 offering of Visa ($17.8 billion) and possibly above that of General Motors in 2010 ($15.7 billion).
The IPO share price gives Facebook a value of $93-104 billion.
The offering is underwritten by several banks led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.Based on the estimated market value, Facebook would be in the neighborhood of Amazon ($100 billion) and Cisco ($90 billion) and ahead of Hewlett-Packard ($45 billion) and struggling Yahoo! ($19 billion).

Some analysts predicted Facebook's stock price will jump quickly to $44 a share and climb much higher in the long term as Facebook finds ways to leverage its membership of 900 million.