News Corp put a variety of deals on the table last week, including ones involving Google, private equity funds, and even one scenario involving Microsoft as a search advertising partner.

They are still some crazy rumors flying around regards a Google bid that may be on the table this weekl! This is going to be a very interesting week…

Note: This blog post is an experiment in Google “Slip streaming” in Google Trends.

UK Search

US Search

Hopefully Google can predict the future! SEO Bristol back Obama for President 08.

In essence Open Search will allow web-site owners to provide additional information about their site directly to Yahoo! Search Results. You will be able to add ratings and reviews, images, deep links, and all kinds of other useful data.

This is what it will look like:

Open Search is possible via the use of microformats and this in itself make me very excited about this feature! Yahoo will be releasing the tools to implement ‘Open Search’ over the next couple of weeks.

Google’s Matt Cutts responds with a post about a new Google feature called ‘Subscribed Links‘. Subscribed Links will allow you to display links to your services for your customers, provide news and status information updated in near-real-time, answer questions, calculate useful quantities, and more all in Google’s search results.

These announcements are big news for the search industry. In effect they will change the landscape of search forever!

7 Essential Web Apps for the Productive Web Worker

Here at SEO Bristol I tend to find myself using online web apps more and more. I thought it would be nice to share my favourite’s…

1. http://www.todoist.com

The number one to do list app online. Nothing comes closer. Todoist nicely integrates with twitter and gmail. For a monthly fee of $3 a month you can receive your to-do list schedule sent via sms text message to your phone. Try it; it will change your life.

2. htp://time.onrails.com

Fantastic online time management application which you can use to track your web design and seo projects. Signup is easy takes only 10 seconds, simple and elegant to use with some great features.
Time on rails allows you to export your days, weeks, months work in CSV formats which is great if you’re billing your web design / seo projects by the hour.

3. http://basecamp.com

What can I say about basecamp that hasn’t already been said. It’s awesome! The guys at 37signals produce really great applications. Basecamp allows you to track projects with clients and other web workers.

4. http://skype.com

We love it and hope Google will buy it one day! The best im software for communicating with our co-workers in India. I love Skype so much that I bought the Skype Phone!

5. http://docs.google.com

When researching anything online I like to have Google docs open in my browser tab and copy anything of interest over into a document and save it for future reference. Great for developing blog post ideas, copying useful forum posts and sharing with your work colleagues.

6. http://netvibes.com

Trying to keep track of what’s going on-line is a task in itself. Netvibes comes to the rescue in the shape of the ultimate personal rss / content aggregator. Place all of your rss feeds in their own ‘Topic’ tags. Netvibes and a bowl of clusters is a great way to start the day!

7. http://blinksale.com

Blinksale is a great online invoicing template system. Enables you to invoice your clients via email, design your invoices in CSS and interface which with Basecamp to get your client lists for you efficiently.

Gmail Love

I’ts not in my top 7 list but I use it daily for personal email So I just got to mention it and invite you to watch this Ad by Saatchi & Saatchi Moscow to promote Gmail in Russia.

Feel free to drop a comment and share your favourite web apps / tools!

Welcome to SEO Bristol’s shiny new SEO Blog. Expect regular blog posts on seo techniques, social media marketing, link building, search marketing and seo friendly web design.

Subscribe to our blog feed today so that you can keep track of our new posts. We look forward to conversing with you on the wonders of SEO!

The SEO Bristol Team