Yesterday Apple posted astonishing 2012 Q1 profits of $13.06 billion. To put that number into some context, it’s the 4th largest corporate quarterly profit of all time. Only three quarterly earnings have surpassed this, and these were all achieved by oil and gas companies. In fact, of the 19 companies in the Wikipedia list of top all-time earnings, this posting from Apple is the only entry that isn’t oil or gas related.

Apple has been surging ahead in the tech industry for some time, but how have they managed to so spectacularly outperform their rivals? One simple answer: the iPhone. The iPhone is now Apple’s key product, and accounts for over 50% of the company’s revenue.

Apple sold 37 million iPhones this quarter, which is a mind-boggling figure. This surpasses last year’s Q1 sales (16 million), and the previous quarterly record for iPhone sales in Q3 2011 (20 million) combined. A large proportion of that has come from enterprise customers, as RIM’s Blackberry handsets lose their hold on business customers.

What does all this mean for Apple competitors? As quick as tech media are to suggest the next big thing in mobile or consumer electronics, the fact is that no other tech firm has come remotely close to that kind of earning power. Facebook may be a behemoth of social media, but its $250million 2011 Q4 earnings look paltry compared to the cash that Apple are bringing in. Google’s recent quarterly earnings posting of $2.71 billion was impressive, but classed as a “disappointment” by shareholders. Despite Android’s impressive growth in mobile, Google does not control the hardware of their mobile product, which means that growth is shared with manufacturers like Samsung, HTC and Motorola.

It appears to be the case that Apple is so far ahead of the competition, that it’s not going to be possible for other companies to catch up financially. Apple’s limited (but highly desirable) product line could be seen as a key to their success, but may leave space for companies to compete in terms of variety and innovation instead of profit.

Micrositez Digital is an award winning digital agency.

android, Apple, facebook, Google, HTC, iPhone, Motorola, Samsung

Apple has announced that their Mac App Store (for direct downloads to iMac and Macbook computers) has amassed 100 million downloads. This is an impressive milestone for the service, which took the wildly successful App format and transferred it to the traditional desktop and laptop computer. While this is an impressive figure, it is dwarfed by the success of their iOS App Store for mobile devices. Over 18 billion apps have been downloaded to Apple iOS devices; iPhones and iPads. Android Market, BlackBerry AppWorld and Symbian’s Ovi Store have enjoyed some success, and made app use synonymous with smartphone use.

While the Mac App store isn’t as much of a runaway success as its mobile predecessor, it is an encouraging sign of the potential of the App platform outside of mobile devices. 100 million downloads is not to be sniffed at, and could be a sign that app infiltration is going beyond the smartphone. Google Chrome and GetJar already integrate apps into browsers, but development could move beyond even that.

Robert Reich, CEO of Openspace thinks in a similar way, and his company have taken the bold step of opening a bricks-and-mortar app store in Boulder, Colorado. Explaining this unusual move, Reich said: “If your iPhone has a problem, you take it to Apple. If your Android tablet has a problem, you take it to [your network or the store of purchase]. But if you have a question about which camera app would be great for taking pictures this weekend on the slopes, where can you turn?” Openspace’s online store already looks very different to mobile OS offerings. They allow developers to supply their apps through openspace and maintain as much control as possible, and categorise their offerings in non-standard categories; everything from “games a 10 year old girl would enjoy” to “zombies”. Users of Openspace can create their own “collections” for other users to enjoy, integrating a social sharing element to apps.

App integration in the real world? Let’s wait and see.

Micrositez offers award winning link building services.

Android Market, App, Apple App Store, BlackBerry AppWorld, Openspace, Ovi Store, Smartphones

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Facebook are preparing for an IPO in spring 2012. The world’s largest social network aims to raise $10billion during the public stock offering, which would value the company at an incredible $100billion. If this expected valuation is correct, the company started by Mark Zuckerberg in a university dormitory will be worth double the valuation of PC giant Hewlett-Packard.

The IPO will raise enough money to keep Facebook evolving and developing for a few years, but analysts are concerned about what outsider influence could do to the company. Mark Zuckerberg is notorious for keeping a tight rein over the company’s direction and any major changes and developments. This is one of the reasons he controls an extra seat on the board of directors. Relinquishing some of that control to outside investors could be a big problem for a company innovative as Facebook.

Changes that niggle users – as the newsfeed did when it was first introduced – could be discouraged by stockholders to avoid temporary dips in the stock price. The ad-less Facebook mobile site and free smartphone apps will doubtless be a bone of contention to outside investors, keen to see advertising revenue rise without real thought for the user experience. For Facebook to avoid a future of banner ads, sponsored stories in the newsfeed, and other potential irksome changes, it needs to find a way to balance outside investment with the level of control and identity it currently maintains.

In other tech IPO news, the recent public offering from Groupon has quickly gone from success to mediocrity. Stock is currently trading at $15.24, around half high price that investors paid for stock at the offering earlier this month, and below the initial $20 price Groupon itself set. For the stock to fall so quickly in the space of a few weeks could show that initial excitement about the company has worn off. Groupon’s failure to profit from the momentum around black Friday and cyber Monday has also disappointed investors.

Micrositez is an award winning Digital Marketing Agency.

Advertising, facebook, Groupon, mark zuckerberg, social media, Tech IPO

Visitors to Yahoo! Site Explorer are now greeted with the message below, confirming that the service is no more. Although plans to discontinue YSE had been public knowledge for around five months, search engine marketers have noted its passing with some sadness. As a leading provider of Search Engine Marketing solutions, here at Micrositez we know the value YSE provided.

(screenprint of http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/index.php taken today, 23 November 2011)

The move follows completion of the algorithmic transition to Bing across global markets (excluding Korea), and YSE itself has now been merged into Bing Webmaster Tools. The YSE page recommends that webmasters use Bing’s tools for search traffic monitoring, but there are alternatives out there. While Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster Tools give you a wealth of information about your own site, they aren’t as helpful to companies doing an initial report for a client or checking out competitors.

Free alternatives include SEOMoz’s ‘Open Site Explorer’ (although information is restricted without a paid subscription) and ‘Searchmetrics’. Toolbar plugins like ‘SEOBook’ and ‘SEO for Firefox’ are also helpful. More information, as expected can be found in paid tools, such as ‘Link Research Tools’, ‘Linkdex’ and ‘Who Links To Me’.

SEO resource sites such as Search Engine Watch and SEO Round Table have also expressed their disappointment at the loss of YSE. Writing for Search Engine Watch, Frank Watson expressed hope that Bing would repackage YSE under the Bing brand and relaunch the tool.

Micrositez provides award winning Link Building Services.

Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, search engine marketing, SEO, Yahoo! Site Explorer

The rise in tablet traffic online has been closely watched by analysts and businesses. Companies are optimising their sites for tablets to take advantage of an increasing market, and recently released figures seem to imply they’ve made the right decision.

According to Affiliate Window’s M-Commerce white paper, on mobile commerce in 2011, the average conversion rate for Apple’s iPad in August was 3.82%, compared to 1.9% for desktop devices. This means people are more than twice as likely to purchase goods online from their iPad as from their desktop computer. The value of the purchases made is also greater; the average order value made from an iPad is £69.94. When you compare this to Android (£43.76) and Blackberry (£32.50) it’s clear to see there is real value in optimising for the iPad. The data used for Affiliate Window’s research involved 81.9 million visits to online merchants, and recorded 1.57 million sales. The positive conversion rate does not take into account in-app purchases, which is money spent within an application by a developer or retailer. The figures concentrate on iPad statistics only, but as the dominant force in the tablet market (generating over 88% of tablet traffic) this is the device e-commerce is most interested in for now.

The tablet market is expected to experience massive changes in the coming year. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer and Asus are planning to exit the tablet market, after weak sales of their Android powered devices. There are new entrants to the market in the shape of Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet (both in the USA only for the time being). These new devices, from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, are priced far more competitively than iPad and, instead of current tablets, are marketed as e-readers with a little extra. While not as technologically advanced as the iPad, analysts are expecting huge sales and subsequent traffic from both.

Both Samsung and Nokia have announced their tablet plans for 2012, and both companies are developing tablets optimised for the Windows 8 OS. Windows has failed to make any real entry into the market so far, and will be hoping that teaming up with these smartphone manufacturers will help them enter the tablet market and compete with Apple.

Micrositez is an award winning Digital Marketing Agency.

android, Apple, ipad, online retail, tablets, Windows 8

Eric Schmidt’s letter to the US Senate’s antitrust committee surprised many, thanks to an admission from the Google chairman that there was a “serious threat” to their search dominance. That serious threat is Siri, the voice controlled personal assistant bundled with the iPhone 4S.

At the time of the statement, it may have been difficult for some people to understand why Schmidt was worried – after all, a mere smartphone application should be no match for a search engine giant – but the more we learn about Siri the more it seems that there really might be something to fear.

There are three crucial components to Siri that make it a potential challenger to Google: smartphone integration, voice control and artificial intelligence.

Having the technology enabled in a smartphone also means that users have access to any information they want on the go, and there is no need to connect to a computer to search. And because Siri is enabled by voice control, a user can search for anything that they need by merely asking. A smartphone user having the ultimate convenience of enabling a search by simply talking could be unlikely to revert to traditional search methods, such as going to Google, Yahoo or Bing on their browser. This could create problems for Google’s financial model, based partly on paid advertisement links. Because Siri is not a visual medium, users no not see any advertisements or pay per click links when they search.

Siri’s biggest strength however is the AI technology integrated into the programme. Siri’s development originated with DARPA – the birthplace of the internet – who contracted a firm called SRI International to work on what they called the CALO Project. CALO stands for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organises, and it was stipulated at the outset that the project was aimed to be an intelligent and friendly personal assistant. Siri is just the first incarnation of this, but is already being praised for adapting to the needs of users and gradually “learning” their preferences.

The announcement of an AI based desktop discovery engine from Siri’s sister company called Trapit will have Google and others watching with interest. The integration of AI into desktop search could well be another threat to Google’s dominance.

Micrositez: Search Engine Marketing.

AI, Google, search engines, Siri, Smartphones, Touchit

Google has announced that changes have been made to search algorithms that could impact 35% of searches. The changes were announced yesterday on Google’s blog, and reflect one of the biggest tweaks they have made recently. By comparison, the recent Panda update was estimated to only affect 12% of search queries. The last major algorithm change in February was designed to distinguish between high and low quality websites, and award less authority to sites it deemed to be “content farms”.

The latest algorithm changes have been made in response to the increase of social media use in delivering the most recent and up to date news and events on the web. The search engine giant hopes to compete with Twitter and Facebook as the go-to page for updates on the latest news and events, and redirect some of that social media traffic back to search. In order to do this, Google recognised that it had to amend the algorithm to freshen up some stale searches. Google also need to maintain market dominance over Bing, who already include more Twitter feeds and Facebook updates in their search results.

Google Fellow Amit Singhal blogged: “Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old.”

In Google’s blog, Amit wrote that changes will affect searches relating to the following:

• Recent events or hot topics – quality content and stories on the latest news and talked about events as they happen.
• Regularly recurring events – relevant updates on annual conferences and events, Olympiad and sporting tournaments.
• Frequent updates – the most up-to-date product queries and reviews (e.g. “best camera” or “ford fiesta review”).

In order to ensure they are not compromised by “freshness spam” (websites re-posting stories to ensure they are the latest word on a topic to boost rankings) the freshness will be determined by the time the page is first crawled. The usual rules of quality and topicality will also apply, so making sure your content is relevant and well-written is key to maintaining rankings.

Micrositez: SEO and Link Building

facebook, Google, link building, search algorithm, SEO, twitter

Micrositez are proud to announce our contract with Achilles heel has been renewed this week. From the team at Micrositez, we would like to extend our thankfulness to the team at Achilles heel, and grateful for the opportunity to have worked with them over the past year.

We look forward to continue and build on our current relationship, and in providing great results we hope to continuing our partnership well into the future.

Achilles heel opened back in 2000, with a passion for running they provide the most comprehensive range of Running shoes around. From Barefoot running shoes, to brand such as Ascis running shoes Achilles heel are nothing short of the best.

Micrositez: Link Building

Achilles Heel, link building, Running Shoes

Once the giant of mobile communications (can you think of anyone who didn’t have a Nokia handset at some point?) Nokia had struggled lately to compete against Apple and Android smartphones. After arguably creating the first smartphone in the nifty N95 handset, their competitors quickly took the reins and created sleek and smart touchscreen devices that left Nokia’s offerings looking primitive and outdated. Nokia knew that they had to take some bold and drastic steps to reclaim market dominance.

The biggest step they’ve taken is to partner with Microsoft. Their new Windows 7.5 Mango OS powers the handsets launched yesterday at the Nokiaworld conference. The colourful Lumia 800 and Lumi 710 hardware will have been hard to miss, as press and bloggers have saturated the web with images and reviews. At a lower price point, and more distinctive in appearance than the iPhone and many Android handsets, the Lumia could prove to be a lure to consumers who hadn’t yet decided whether to take the plunge and invest in a smartphone.

So far, reviewers have praised the solid manufacture and attractive casing, but the real appeal seems to be Mango. The user interface is clean, uncluttered and distinct from others on the market, and inbuilt features such as Nokia Drive are a leap forward in smartphone features. With 25gb of free cloud storage and a powerful processor, gadget geeks could be tempted to make the switch.

Nokia have demonstrated that they’re investing in future growth, demonstrating incredible flexible screen technology in a Kinetic Device at Nokiaworld. The tablet-based prototype is controlled by flexing and bending the casing. While it was made clear the technology won’t be available to consumers for a few years, it’s the kind of investment in future technologies that will keep eyes on Nokia for some time.

Not content with attempting to dominate high-end smartphones, Nokia announced a range of lower spec phones, designed to keep them competitive in developing markets such as India. Nokia’s solid build and reputation for reliability have kept their sales vibrant in this area, and with their new line of Asha handsets they hope to continue this trend.

Speculators who had written off the Finnish mobile giant may well have spoken too soon, and their partnership with Windows could be the magic touch that turns the company around.

Micrositez: Award-winning Link Building services.

Mango, Nokia, Smartphones, Windows

US financial analysts are keeping a very close eye on two tech companies at the moment, and the implications could be very large indeed for the industry. Zynga and Groupon, two very different types of tech startup, are both planning to go public in November. Opening up to stock market investment with an IPO is a risky but necessary move for both as they try to grow in a competitive market.

As far as tech media and analysts are concerned, the safe money is with Zynga. The company started creating applications, social games and widgets in Facebook and MySpace in 2007. Their titles quickly became among the most well-known and used games on Facebook. FarmVille, Texas HoldEm Poker and CityVille became synonymous with the social media experience for many users, and introduced the concept of social gaming to a mainstream audience. Over 14million people play CityVille daily, many of whom will pay cash to purchase in-game items and compete against their friends. Recent additions of tablet and smartphone games have also stirred interest.

The increase in social gaming activity and revenue is pressing all the right buttons with tech investors. An initial fundraising move in July generated over $1billion and the estimated value of the company’s public offering is estimated to be in the region of $15-$20billion. Zynga’s user base and revenue continues to grow daily, and it remains the darling of tech bloggers and investors alike. Not bad for the company who brought you animated chicken coops.

Groupon is proving to be one to watch, but for different reasons. The online coupon service offering “deal of the day” bargains launched in November 2008 in Chicago, and has grown rapidly to now offer services in 44 countries. Their simple business model was based on partnering with local business to offer discounted deals to subscribers. Like Zynga, Groupon also experienced rapid growth and social media buzz, and it was estimated mere months ago that the company could have a value in excess of $25billion.

For Groupon, the story takes a slightly different turn. Concerns about the sustainability of their business model and some worrying news about their balance sheet and accounting practices have caused the estimated value to tumble. Rapidly. What was once heralded as the internet’s next big thing is now being touted by some critics as “the digital equivalent of junk mail”. Whether the public offering can turn around their fortunes remains to be seen.

The upcoming stock market debuts for Zynga and Groupon are eagerly anticipated by investors looking to cash in on the next big contender in tech, and social media bloggers keen to prove that the future of the internet is social gaming.

Micrositez: Social Media Marketing.

Groupon, Social Gaming, social media, Tech investment, Zynga

Not much, is the answer for now?

Google search has now become fully part of an encryption protocol called SSL. The changes will mean, anyone searching, or clicking on an organic website, or ad will have increased protection of their personal information, and or whereabouts when signed into a Google Account.

Here’s what Google had to say;

“As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver. As a result, we’re enhancing our default search experience for signed-in users. Over the next few weeks, many of you will find yourselves redirected to https://www.google.com (note the extra “s”) when you’re signed in to your Google Account. This change encrypts your search queries and Google’s results page.”

The news won’t mean a great deal of change for marketing agencies, who rely on Google adwords for keyword analysis, as the number of people logging into a Google accounts currently, are of a small percentage.

It’s also worth noting, that this won’t affect paid ads campaigns, which already pay for their data.

However, ranking reports, onsite search, and landing pages will become more relied on by marketers and businesses, collating similar data as part of their SEO campaign.  

This will not affect current search activity on Microsoft, or Bing as they have yet to adopt the SSL system.

Micrositez: PPC Management, and SEO Company.

Google adwords, Google search, pay per click, search engine optimisation

It’s been a big week for Yahoo. Media, investors and tech bloggers are keeping a close eye on what’s happening to at the internet corporation, while at the same time struggling to remember the last time it was this relevant.

Since former CEO Carol Bartz was ousted in September, the company has moved quickly, trying to establish a clear direction and satisfy investors. The former search engine behemoth had floundered in recent years, and has become a shadow of its former self. Despite 2010 revenue exceeding $6billion (most of which stemmed from search engine marketing), Yahoo is not the company that it was. Google’s place as king of search is firmly established for now, and their revenue of over $29billion in 2010 proves their dominance over search rivals.

This week, Yahoo announced that they are withdrawing their interest in video streaming service Hulu. This could be a move to streamline their operations, or a reaction to their falling share price and reluctance to get involved in further acquisitions. The lowered share price has also prompted a hostile takeover bid from Microsoft. Those familiar with Yahoo’s history will be aware that this is not the first such instance of Microsoft attempting a buyout. And it’s certainly not the first time Yahoo has resisted.

Microsoft clearly sees a future for Yahoo, and founder and former CEO Jerry Yang seems to as well. Silicon Valley is buzzing with rumours that he has sought private equity finance to fund a bid for 40% of Yahoo, to take it off the stock market completely and return it to private control. Yang has been a familiar face at Yahoo’s First Avenue headquarters of late, and his renewed interest in the firm could be the key to a real comeback.

Micrositez: Search Engine Marketing

Google, microsoft, Private Equity, search engine marketing, Yahoo

When the first Panda update was launched, its aim was apparently to reduce the rankings for low quality website. Although Google claimed only 11.8% of US queries were affected, there were losses of up to 80% in organic traffic reported.

The second Panda update hit the UK quite severely with rankings dropping all over the place. That was in April and, just as the top UK SEO firms were getting to grips with it, Google launched the 2.4 update in May

As is synoptic with Google, it was and still is (and probably will be in future with algorithmic changes) all very cloak and dagger regarding the Panda updates. We are offered very little information on these algorithmic changes which to many, just seems like Google flexing its corporate muscle to shake things up. At Micrositez, we noted, that making your traffic more diverse, fixing usability issues, and writing high-quality content (which is what Google says the Panda update aims to reward), helped revive a lot of rankings. We have always believed “content is king” and all you have to do is look at the search results for most things to prove this. Wikipedia for example is either first or thereabouts in most queries – and how content rich is Wikipedia?

Search Engine Watch reported “Top Google Result Gets 36.4% of Clicks”, and Optify’s data showed that, on average, a site sitting in fourth position gets nearly 8 percent of clicks. Once you fall off Page 1, you’re looking at an average of 2.6 percent click-through rate at the top of Page 2, but any results beyond that quickly fall into irrelevance.

Google has rolled out more than a dozen additional tweaks since Panda was first rolled out. They left only one month between the Panda update last time, and now the whole SEO and Digital Marketing arena waits with bated breath for the introduction of the next Panda update.

Google, Google Analytics, SEO

Micrositez is proud to announce new partnership with Endtime ministries. Our dedicated team will be working with the ministry to build, and create links on their behalf that will provide for them a greater online presence, across all major search engines.

End Time Ministries is a Christian outreach organisation dedicated to spreading the truth through various outreach projects it supports, including Endtime magazine, and daily radio broadcast.

The ministry focus is much like its name, driven out of a concentrated study of the book of Revelations which most of its views centres from. Subjects such as, Armageddon, Apocalypse, Antichrist, and New World Order are just some of the areas covered on their website.

Micrositez: Link Building Services

antichrist, apocalypse, armageddon, new world order

Micrositez extends a warm welcome to Tshirt Town, who will be working closely with our award winning link building team, creating some online presence for the funny tshirts UK Company. Link Building services are a valuable asset to any business looking to climb up on search engine rankings.

Whether you’re based in Nottingham, or not Tshirt Town provide a range of tailor made t-shirts, including a range of mens funny tshirts amongst many more.

Their online service caters for a wide variety of people, and organisations with funny tshirts of all kinds. From cool, and trendy well-known brands, to funny tshirts for men and funny tshirts for woman; they have it all. In all colours, style and sizes tshirt town they provide for every occasion.

Micrositez: Voted the UK’s Number 1 Link Building Company by Top SEOs

funny tshirts, funny tshirts for men, funny tshirts for woman, funny tshirts uk

Micrositez are pleased to extend a warm welcome to The Pot Company. Our team will be working alongside the our newest partners to provide a quality service building links to an award winning standard.

ThePot Company offer a range of design and supply services of planters for use inside the home, or out in the garden. From feature pots, to a selection of elegant designs, they have every kind of style, size, colour and material of plant pot too choose from, even handcrafted ones.

Currently market leader in the supply of plant pots for the home, and various commercial industries.Link Building is a great way to establish your business online, and we are excited to be on this journey with the guys from The Pot Company.

Micrositez: Link Building

link building, plant pots, planters, pots

Our team at Micrositez are delighted to announce new partnership with Jacada Travel, who provides ‘Inspired holidays to Latin America’. Voted UK’s Number 1 Link Building Service by TopSEOs, Micrositez will be hand building links for the travel company, who specialise in tailor made holidays.

Jacada Travel, based in London has a host of expert knowledge when it comes to bespoke trips to South America. They offer luxury holidays, and elite touring trips for those want a stress free, memorable experience, which includes exclusive trips to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru.

Offering the finest quality of luxury holidays, Jacada Travel leave nothing to the imagination, so whether soaking up the sun in the Peruvian Amazon with our Peru Holidays is your thing. Or, perhaps a Chile tour is more up your street? They even offer Galapagos Tours, which is the group of islands close to the equator and just off Ecuador.

Once again we extend a warm Micrositez welcome.

Micrositez: Link Building

link building, luxury holidays, travel industry

The Micrositez team would like to take the opportunity to announce today, and welcome Glove Fit Covers Ltd for choosing our link building services.

The company supply Car seat covers and accessories for all kinds of cars makes and models. Their product ranges from car seat covers, to car boot liners, to universal seat covers. They even provide a customised option for car mats and seat covers that allow you to tailor to your needs.

We look forward to working with Glove Fit Covers, as we achieve their Link building goals and help boost their online presence. Like most things in life, Link building is a journey worth embarking on. Apart from giving your website the fuel it needs to climb higher up the rankings, effective link building can put you in front of your consumers, and competitors.

Micrositez: Link Building Services

car boot liners, car seat covers, link building, Micrositez, seat covers

Micrositez are extremely pleased to be joining with BIP Solutions, this spring; as we work to enhance their flagship business intelligence service, Tracker, with our award winning link building services.

First established in 1984, the company provides information on tenders, archive services, market intelligence amongst a host of other product and services, to businesses within the public and private sector.

BIP operate worldwide acting as a bridge between buyers and suppliers aiming to increase capacity, business efficiency and value for money to both buyers and suppliers.

Their tender management services have created great connections for them over the years, where they daily sift through thousands of contract sources to deliver the latest information on government tenders, OJEU tenders and more.

We are delighted to be working these guys, and extended this warm welcome to all at BIP Solutions.

Micrositez: Link Building

BIP solutions, link building, tender managment

YouTube’s original founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen have saved shared online bookmarking company Delicious from another threat of closure.

Delicious, labelled pioneer of the idea to take something users used to do privately and making it public has previously been bought over by Yahoo back in 2005, for a generous $30 million.

Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, who sold YouTube to Google back in 2006 for a whopping $1.65 million, have swooped in to save the day after rumours, back in December, suggesting Yahoo were about to bring it to a close.

The takeover is said to bring big plans for the information discovery service, and its new owners say they intend to make it the best service available. Competing with the industry stars such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and the growing popular StumbleUpon will be no easy task.

In a recent press release Chad Hurley had this to say, “we see a tremendous opportunity to simplify the way users save and share content they discover anywhere on the web,”

Still, its owners are not lacking in knowledge, with both former employees of Paypal and founders of YouTube have gained plenty of experience under their belt, when it comes to setting up websites.

Micrositez: Link Building

Delicious, social bookmarking, Yahoo, YouTube founders