Archives : 2011 : June

Save 20% off your SES Pass for SES San Francisco 2011

SES San Francisco 2011 happens August 15 to 19 at Moscone Center (West). Use SES San Francisco priority code 20PIX and save 20% with SES Pass. Gain access to over 20 basic and in-depth sessions on Search, Analytics, Social Media, and Video Marketing.

Also Learn:

• What effect new search technologies will have on your business
• How best to leverage these new tools to produce more conversions
• Where search marketing is headed

Be sure to enter the SES San Francisco priority code 20PIX when registering.

Private Cocktail Party with Mark Knowles and SES Speakers

Join Mark Knowles, president of Pixelsilk, and two SES speakers for a private cocktail party on August 17 at 7.15 p.m. More details on the SES San Francisco party to follow. RSVP before July 30, 2011 at search@smartz.com. Private party is for confirmed conference participants who have signed up using SES San Francisco priority code 20PIX only.

Don’t forget to visit Pixelsilk at booth #608 on August 16.

The Google +1 Button – Why Should a Business Owner Care?

Search is going social. We’ve tasted this through Bing and Google’s recent social search activity, but Google has now taken the lead with a new advancement—the +1 button.

You’ll definitely want to keep the new +1 button on your radar, and get familiar with what it does. It will slowly gain attention and begin to influence search rankings.

The button appears just to the right of the link text on Google. If someone likes a particular site, they press the button. If others have +1’d the site also, you’ll see how many have just under the URL, as shown below.

How does this affect rankings

If Google thinks you and your competitor’s sites offer relevant information to a particular search term, both will appear in search results. However, if your competitor has 136 +1s from visitors while you have eleven, your competitor could potentially outrank you.

Although SEO practices and up-to-date content are still the best way to get high rankings, the new Google +1 button is going to become more important. As people use it—and start relying on it more—it will become more beneficial to your website.

What you can do now

Install the button. If your business website has a Facebook like button and a Twitter follow button, it might be a good time to add a Google +1 button alongside other buttons. You’ll want to advertise it; get some friends to +1 your website, and maybe mention it on your social media outlets.

You can choose to use the +1 button first without any count through the advanced options link.  Then switch to the version that does show a count when you have gained some worthy numbers. Don’t be surprised when this button starts gaining speed.

Resurgence of Print with QR Codes

Just when we thought print advertising was dying, it’s taking off again thanks to QR Codes. Embedding Quick Response (QR) Codes in a variety of printed materials and advertising vehicles is helping businesses engage with their customers in fresh ways.  A simple scan of the barcode by a smart phone—or other like device—directs customers to a promotional mobile web page where they can receive tickets to an upcoming concert, get 20% discount from their favorite retailer, or share trailer of a great movie they just saw with friends on Facebook.

The customer benefits are obvious—access to great deals and information with a simple scan of a barcode. What about the benefits to a business? They are even better.

The cost of rolling out a marketing campaign and not knowing whether it reached your audience is one reason print has suffered in recent years. It’s costly to print ten thousand brochures and when details change more expense is needed for reprinting. Now businesses can use one QR Code for multiple marketing activities and incur only a one-time expense. Because all that needs changing is the mobile web page that the link leads to—not the campaign material. Another huge advantage of QR Codes is businesses receive response instantly whether their campaign is working.

Where to Get QR Code

Multiple websites exist that offer free QR Codes, but most redirect connection through their website. Here’s a list of QR code generators to start with to determine who is best for your business. Good luck.

• http://www.qurify.com/en/
• http://quikqr.com/
• http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
• http://www.snapmaze.com/
• http://www.qreasy.com/
• http://onlineqrlab.com/



Happy World IPv6 Day. So, what is IPv6?

Today is June 8th—World IPv6 Day. Everyone at Smart Solutions would like you wish you Happy World IPv6 Day.

So what is IPv6?

The Internet operates by routing small packets of data independently across networks as specified by an international communications protocol known as the Internet Protocol (IP). Each packet of data contains two numeric addresses that are the packet’s origin and destination devices.

Since 1981, Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) was the publicly used version of the IP, and it is currently the foundation for most Internet communications. The growth of the Internet has mandated a need for more addresses than what IPv4 can provide. Its successor—Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) allows for vastly more addresses.

IPv6 allows the ability to build larger and more efficient networks and support greater international interoperability. Businesses can implement better just-in-time processes, increase mobility features and location-based services, leading to greater economies of scale. Examples include access to information in real time and increased remote business capabilities.

IPv6 versus IPv4

	Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)	Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)
Address Size	32-bit number	128-bit number
Address Format	Dotted Decimal Notation: 192.149.252.76	Hexadecimal Notation: 3FFE:F200:0234:AB00: 0123:4567:8901:ABCD

Table courtesy of American Registry for Internet Numbers

IPv4 currently supports a maximum of about 4.3 billion (4,294,967,296) unique IP address. IPv6 supports 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses. Try reading that number.

With the enormous growth for the need for new IP addresses, switching to IPv6 is the answer. IPv6 should meet the world’s IP addressing needs well into the future.

Benefits of IPv6

IPv6 implements additional features not present in IPv4.

IPv6 was designed with scalability and extensibility in mind. This allows many different kinds of devices besides personal computers, like mobile phones, notebooks and wireless handheld devices, to engage in using the Internet.

IPv6 simplifies aspects of address assignment, network renumbering and router announcements when changing Internet connectivity providers. Network security is also integrated into the design of the IPv6 architecture, and the IPv6 specification mandates support for IPsec as a fundamental interoperability requirement.

How about a fun IPv6 test?