The word is Microsoft is developing an online classified ad system code-named Fremont.

Features:

1. MSN IM alerts for buying/selling items
2. Buddy list only selling, or limiting by domain in email addresses
3. Geography based searching via ZIP
4. Free service

In the news:

Microsoft joins classified ad race

So, is Google planning on using Google Base as an online classified ad system as well? If it is true that Google is working on an online payment system and combines it with Google Base for ads, it would definitely be interesting and would generate much attention.

Supposedly Fremont would be a free service because the business model involves ad revenue. Lets just hope that they do not use image/flash banner ads like they do on the MSN home page. One thing I have always liked about Google is there are no ads on the home page and text only ads on their search results pages. Keep it clean!

What about Ebay? They bought Craigslist and they already have the online payment system PayPal. I doubt they will sit idle while this war is brewing, but I am afraid they will get stomped by one of the 800 pound gorillas being the smaller monkey they are. Eeeep!

I heard from a friend that Google Jet was in town at RDU last week. Shows how much I keep up with local news, just finding out about it a week later eh? Anyway, after looking around to see why Google was in town, I found this story: Google looks for local offices

While looking for other information about Google being in town, I ran into this interesting article: Google-Mart - Sam Walton taught Google More About How to Dominate the Internet than Microsoft ever did. 

"And unless Google comes up with an ecosystem to allow their survival, that means all the other web services companies will be marginalized. There will be startups and little guys, but no medium-sized companies. ISPs, which we've thought of as a threatened species, won't be touched, but then their profit margins are so low they aren't worth touching. After all, Wal-Mart doesn't try to own the roads its goods are carried over. And the final result is that Web 2.0 IS Google.

Microsoft can't compete. Yahoo probably can't compete. Sun and IBM are like remora, along for the ride. And what does it all cost, maybe $1 billion? That's less than Microsoft spends on legal settlements each year.

Game over." - Robert Cringely

A very fascinating prediction and with Google having billions in cash it is definitley do-able.

Is Google planning on starting a marketing office here in Raleigh, or maybe just recruiting local engineering talent with so many being in RTP? Or is it something more "evil" like buying up dark fiber that may have been laying around after alot of the dot bubble failures. Hell, there may not even be any dark fiber in Raleigh as I am sure TWC owns most it. I guess only time will tell, but I am betting Google's plan for Raleigh is simply a place to recruit top engineering talent in RTP. I guess we will see...

I have decided to create a blog just for DotNetNuke. I will still post new stuff I find, hear, or encounter concerning general technology and development here, but will post all things related to the DNN community on the Venexus DotNetNuke Blog.

I feel that DNN has much potential in the open-source community. Being that I work with it everyday, I decided to create my own blog just to keep up with it and really expand categories that would not be appropriate here. So, stay tuned...

I have several sites running off a single DotNetNuke installation and I wanted to add the Google Analytics Javascript to several of the sites. I had a few options: 

1. I could change default.aspx to include the JavaScript code in the HTML head
2. I could incorporate the Urchin Javascript in a DNN Skin
3. I could go I could go into each pages Page Settings>Advanced Settings>Page Header Tags and drop the JavaScript into the textbox
4. Just run a SQL statement

Option 1 does not work because all installations would have the same JavaScript and I could not be site specific with the Google Analytics Site ID. Option 2 is probably the best option but I am lazy and did not want to update each skin and upload them each to the site. Option 3 is just ridiculous for a few of our larger sites and would take forever...so, I picked Option 4, the quick sql statement:

UPDATE Tabs SET PageHeadText = '<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
           </script>
           <script type="text/javascript">
                _uacct = "UA-xxxxxx-x";
                urchinTracker();
           </script>'
 WHERE (PortalID = 0)

Before you use this sql update statement against your DNN database, make sure you update your Google Analytics ID, "UA-xxxxxx-x", and PortalID #.

This will automatically change all pages for that portal to include the Google Urchin JavaScript. If you do not want certain pages such as the Admin pages to include this JavaScript, simply filter out any by ParentID's 

Example:

UPDATE Tabs SET PageHeadText = '<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
           </script>
           <script type="text/javascript">
                _uacct = "UA-xxxxxx-x";
                urchinTracker();
           </script>'
 WHERE (PortalID = 0) AND ParentID <> '38'

You could easily use this same script to add other HTML head code. Hope that helps!

Sometimes the menu on a website will alter search engine results because the links in the menu change the importance of the overall page, especially if the links appear before the content of the page. So, optimizing for search engines should include trying to get the actual content of the page higher up in the HTML. Doing so might affect the overall look and feel of the page, but there are ways to get around it. I think most people are accustomed to left navigation menus and expect them to be available, so by using a simple table trick, you can move the menu of a page below the content, giving the content more importance over the menu links for better ranking.

	Main Content Goes here. Even though it appears to be right of the menu when viewed, in the source this content comes before the menu...
This is a menu

Basic HTML Example: Table-Trick.html (.52 KB)

This can easily be used in DotNetNuke skins to move items like SolPartMenu or modules in the "LeftPane" below the "Content Pane".

DNN Table Trick Example:

dnn-skin-example.html (.49 KB)

One of the best web log analysis applications is Urchin Web Analytics which was bought by Google. I had checked on the Urchin website about a month ago and saw where they were still charging $199 per month plus extra for high traffic. Now the website points to Google Analytics and it is free. All required is to register for an account and to add a JavaScript to your HTML Head. Logging into your Google account will provide detailed reports.

More importantly:

"If you have an AdWords account, you can use Google Analytics directly from the AdWords interface. Google Analytics is the only product that can automatically provide AdWords ROI metrics, without you having to import cost data or add tracking information to keywords."

You can signup here: Google Analytics