Yahoo usually provides a nice user experience and they are getting much better with their results as of late. The laggard tends to be Microsoft, maybe that’s why they were trying to purchase Yahoo. It would be much easier for them to throw a big wad of cash at the problem then it would for them to build from the ground up.

The solution that I think would work for Microsoft is to get some search people that know the industry, pay them well and pick their brains. Guys like John Andrews joke about going to work for Google but I honestly think that a company like Microsoft would benefit greatly from a relationship like this. Microsoft could without a doubt afford to do something like this. The question is, are they serious about their search engine? They are behind but with the right help they could make a quick impact on the search engine wars.

So if you’re looking for an internet marketing consultant in the Dallas area you’re in luck. Neil has spent some time (told me about it a while back) on launching this blog and his business so you know it’s getting done the right way. You can also follow Neil on twitter for those of you that are into twitting or whatever it’s called now.

Alright folks that’s about it for now, did I mention I love Texas? I forgot to mention that one important fact. Everything is bigger in Texas, right. Ok, I’m done, nope maybe not, just a couple more words and this post will be finished. Have a great weekend everyone.

Now on to the important stuff that everyone really wants to know. Who won the contest? Drum roll please…..The first place winner is Jon Lee who actually just got his entry in before the end of the month, congratulations Jon and good luck on beating out your Jon Lee Google twin. Second place goes to Kiwi Pulse who I see on Blog Catalog from time to time. Congrats you two, some unexpected goodies are coming your way.

For those of you that submitted thank you for making the contest a success. It was truly a great feeling after we surpassed our goals. It makes this month that much easier, well not really, but thank you. We have some more stuff up our sleeves so stay tuned to your local internet business blog for more details and up to date plans on internet business domination.

Just wanted to give everyone a contest update. The prizes will be given out soon. If you haven’t already entered don’t waste any more time. Enter now.

As part of our site launch and February promotion, Business+Directory has decided to offer free reviews for the entire month of February. (We must be crazy!) To enter this contest all you have to do is give away links at our directory, something everyone already wants. You get to give away stuff to win stuff.

Please follow these 3 easy rules in order to qualify for the Prizes.

1. Link to this contest page so that others will know how to join.
2. Link to Business+Directory telling your readers about the February promotion.
3. Original post must come from your blog so that we know who to send the money to. Post should be at least 250 words using your own unique writing style, please don’t cut and paste from this post.

One person will be chosen for the Grand Prize of $500 Cash (via PayPal) via randomizer software. You can advertise your blog, buy that new Ipod you’ve been wanting or buy yourself a new set of tires. The runner up will take home a brand new BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT OC 512MB PCIe with ThermoIntelligence Graphics Card (shipped via USPS), chosen via randomizer. This card allows you to connect two LCD displays for all you multi-tasking users out there and comes with a HDTV adapter and HDCP capability for high definition video.

This contest will last the entire month of February. Submissions will be calculated after the contest ends and prizes will be awarded during the month March.

Update: Contest requirements have already been exceeded. Prizes will be paid out the beginning of March!

Disclaimer: Review times for the Directory will be extended during the month of February. Contest must receive fifty entries or more for prizes to be paid out, so tell your friends. You must have a PayPal account to receive payment, free to set up.

Well this little image tells you exactly where Google is at. It’s the first look at Google’s new Adsense test layout. It seems as if Google’s Adsense conversions might be affecting their pocket book more than they had anticipated (someone should get fired). Google is now testing Adsense boxes in which the user can click through on every single piece of text in the ad. A lot different than the current Adsense model which lets the user click on either the title or the URL of the ad. My guess is if this doesn’t work they will quickly move back to making the entire ad click-through. As I stroll over to Engadget I notice that they have done just that, what a coincidence. I do notice that landing pages fed with Google Adsense have not changed as of yet.

Maybe this is a special publisher deal, although not likely. This is probably just a few tests for Google Adsense to see what’s next. They have some tough choices to make and their stock price depends on it. The choice for Google has come down to one of relevancy or money. I think they are on the right track, but who am I to judge?

The markets overseas seemed to have gone into panic mode with many markets over the world taking a hit on the possibility that the U.S. markets will do the same. Do we need to face the truth and admit that we are in a global economy? The world is connected through our economies and more than ever today thanks to the internet.

While the world seems to be in a stage of panic over the state of business throughout the world we should we should step back and take a look at the positives in business and especially internet business. According to the Philadelphia BizJournal, internet business and the venture capital sector is looking pretty good.

So what will happen in the morning? That’s the question on everyone’s mind at the moment. You can be sure that our business interests and everyone else’s around the world are at stake. Will there be a big hit on the stock markets? Will people start to frantically pull their money out of the markets or will it be just another day at the office. It will be interesting to see.

This is very exciting news for us since the project has been going on behind the scenes for quite some time now. We have been working very hard to create a community resource that will be of high value to the business to business community. On top of this we have a few other projects going on behind the scenes that will be keeping us on our toes. It will be a very exciting new year for business indeed.

Because business on the internet is growing at such a rapid pace there is a new market that many businesses are not yet aware of. With internet ad budgets going up faster and faster each year, most have realized the value the internet can bring to their business. The truth is businesses of all kinds are finding their ways onto the internet for the first time, realizing the potential market they had been missing out on. There are new and exciting businesses being developed daily that provide value to businesses all over the internet. We look forward to covering these business launches and providing our readers with valuable business related news and discussion.

While I was there I noticed that they have started to nofollow all blog links. Before it was the feeds that they nofollowed, which is understandable, in my opinion. Then they moved to redirects on the feeds. Now your blog URL is completely nofollowed. WTF? I thought this network was built by bloggers for bloggers? Maybe it’s just me but are you that page rank greedy that you have to nofollow all the blogs in your network, trying to reroute the PR? Of course I’m just speculating here, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.

As my way of saying thanks to Blog Catalog I will now take down their widget from my front page so that I don’t mistakenly pass any PR to anyone I don’t trust. I instead will just have it posted on my Blog Catalog page which was an earlier post on how I dropped Blog Rush for Blog Catalog. What to do now?

I have put too much time and effort to give away a front page link to a spammer for the short time that it goes unnoticed. On top of this it makes my blog (that happens to be business related) pretty irrelevant if I have a link to a crap site (not business related) from my front page. I don’t have enough time to sit here and monitor every spam comment that I get and I expect most of you feel the same. It’s too time consuming, so thanks internet spammers for ruining the fun.

So, apologies go out to those that actually provided valuable comments. I may decide to link to those in future posts instead of using the front page links. Anyhow, that’s my rant for the day, goodbye to the top commentators plugin.

Oh, if any of you have not read the post on blog rss promotion you should definitely jump over and do so. It’s a very valuable post that provides many free resources. Until next time.