Facebook knocked Google off the top spot last week to become the most visited site in the US in the last 7 days

Research company Hitwise has revealed that Facebook overtook Google and picked up the accolade of most visited website of the week in the US.

This is the first time Facebook have achieved this feat. According to the research from Hitwise, the week ending March 13^th saw Facebook account for 7.07% of the visits during that week in comparison to Google’s 7.03% share.

Facebook, which is now the world’s biggest social networking site, also had other good news to share. Figures revealed recently showed that the amount of visits to Facebook has tripled over the past 12 months, whereas Google has seen a 9% increase.

Since its formation back in 2004, Facebook has enjoyed healthy growth. However the recent surge in visits is likely to be down to some canny moves on behalf of the bosses at Facebook. Now it’s easier than ever for users to access their account, and with the development of mobile phone technology which allows members to use Facebook on the move, the social networking site is reaping the benefits.

Not ones to take defeat lying down, Google have swung into action and have also developed a social networking arm to work in conjunction with their Gmail service. The feature was launched last month and it allows users to upload photos, share comments, and access YouTube videos.

Facebook win court battle against the man nicknamed "The Spam King"

Facebook have been awarded £430 million in damages after winning their case against Sanford Wallace who is nicknamed, the Spam King.

The case centred on an allegation made by Facebook which claimed that Mr Wallace had been sending huge numbers of unsolicited emails from Facebook user’s accounts after gaining access to the accounts without permission. The emails which were sent would invite the recipient to click onto another site, Wallace was paid for every hit that site received.

The court in California heard that Facebook estimated that Wallace had committed at least 14 million violations which come under the offence of spamming.

District judge Jeremy Fogell said in his ruling that Wallace had shown “blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook users.” A spokesperson later added that he could face a possible jail sentence for his crime as well.

Wallace, along with his partner Walter Rines, was successfully sued by MySpace back in 2008 after they were found to have bombarded their members with spam.

Although Facebook say they don’t expect to recover the full amount of damages, they hope that the verdict will go some way to acting as a deterrent to any would-be spammers who are considering targeting Facebook.

The natural results are the ones which have ranked highly because their sites are seen by the search engine to be the most useful, while the sponsored results have paid to be at the top. The studies of user habits would suggest that people realise that sponsored results have paid for their position but do the results transfer to real life?

Do you really choose the natural results which a search engine presents or do you go with the first site you see? Or maybe you try to choose the natural results but sometimes you just see a listing in the sponsored links which seems more relevant to what you were looking for, because let’s face it, there are times when Google can let you down too.

BING is designed to take over from Microsoft’s current search engine Live Search, and its already being tipped as a dangerous contender for the mighty Google. Early reviews of the site have been extremely encouraging. Bing differs from other search engines in as much it aims to give you less choice as opposed to more. It offers a more targeted results list, with the option of displaying further results. Instead of bombarding the user with a blanket response to questions BING provides a narrower but more select response to questions.

Another key feature of Bing is that instead of directing the user to an external site to view, for example, videos, listen to music, read articles, or shop online, it allows you to do all this without ever leaving Bing. It also offers an exclusive video search service as part of the package. In theory this should lead to greater ease of use and accessibility.

Whether or not Bing can rival the other major search engines such as Google and Yahoo remains to be seen. What is certain however is that the search engine as we know it is evolving, and that can only be good news for internet users the world over.

Now the yes doesn’t come so easily does it? No, I don’t use Google for everything either, not for every single thing because sometimes I feel like I would be better results if I looked somewhere else, in a different way. Depending on the product or service I’m looking for, before turning to Google, I’ll look in the Yellow Pages, or the local directory under the industry I am looking for.

Doing this kind of search I feel as though I get better results because rather than typing ‘graphic designer’ into Google and coming up with results for companies in Australia, companies which are either too big or too small for what I need, or just results which happen to have ‘graphic designer’ as the keywords, in the Yellow Pages I can judge the size of the companies by the size of the ads, and choose one in my area.

So does my search technique have a fatal flaw or do other people have this problem?

Websites organise link exchanges and pay per click advertising so do we just assume that search engine optimisation is no secret anymore? Well it is no secret that it exists and that, when done properly, it works. But like anything that is the true secret – how to make it work, and work better than everyone else.

Like with anything – any marketing campaign, any advertising – there are people who are average at it and there are people who are the best. And you know this is true otherwise we would buy every soft drink we say an ad for and go on every holiday we saw on a travel show but we don’t.

SEO is just the same, the secret is to do it well, do it so it is targeted and do it better than everyone else.

In fact Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an entire, very important and ever growing industry which your business, and your new website, needs to become a part of. The premise of SEO is to increase the traffic to your website by using the most appropriate keywords to describe the content of your site and your business, and match it to what a potential customer has typed into their search engine of choice.

Search Engine Optimisation will require you to add META tags to describe the content of your site, and make submissions to all of the major search engines, asking them to include your site in their search results. But with the end goal being to rank high on the first page of search results in your keyword categories, you site and your keyword focus simply needs to rank you above the competitors in your industry with sites structured better than your own.

Therefore the first step in SEO is not submit your site to search engines, but instead you should focus on creating a relevant and informative website and then submit this complete and polished site to the search engines which will then snap it up. In business, and in life, you have probably learned that it is always best to learn from others’ mistakes where you can.

Well in learning from your competitors’ mistakes, you can also identify what they are doing which is working well for them too. Look at the content, the design and the keywords which are being targeted on the sites which are ranking at the top of the searches you want to dominate. This can also form part of your market research as you will find the marketing tools and techniques which have worked to target the same type of customers you are trying to appeal to too.

Leasing an asset is like renting it over a period in return for fixed rental payments. Many UK businesses take advantage of leasing.

Renting or leasing assets can be tax efficient – this can reduce your overall tax bill, as the cost is deductible as a business expense. This is a factor in determining whether you should rent or lease an asset, rather than buy.

Here are some other points to consider when leasing:

• You do not bear the risk that, when you have finished with the asset, its value has decreased below the amount you paid for it.
• The asset can often be replaced by a newer one, by upgrading at little or no extra cost.
• You do not have to find a large cash deposit.

Visit this page for more information about website leasing.

Well yes, by their nature you can trust them. The very fact that they exist and that you have found them means you can trust them because if they were crap, you wouldn’t have found them because the search engine wouldn’t have directed you to them because the search engine is there to protect you from crap.

During the late 1990s search engines were severely manipulated by crap which people thought would help their sites rank better. Well the search engines have learnt their lessons from those ‘dark ages’ and makes a point to ignore crap, ensuring that the sites, the SEO articles and the information which ranks where you can find it, is useful, correct and pertinent to your search.