The Seattle-Search.com Blog

In the trend to keep up with a wired clientele, Seattle’s Hotel 1000 is leading the pack, at least on the West coast, according to the LA Times’ Travel editors. It’s more than the 1000’s ability to deliver high-definition movies from the Internet to a giant flat screen in your room.

A variety of the hotel’s services are connected to a single fiber-optic backbone, including the Internet-based TV system, electronic do-not-disturb buttons and room phones that offer free Internet-based calling to anywhere in the U.S. — doing away with the traditional practice of jacking up in-room calling rates in search of profits.The avant garde leadership is not without a few bug fixes. French press coffee makers with six-step instructions could perplex operators, crtiicsd opined and the TV remotes, must be pointed at an infrared sensor instead of the television screen. In spite of the vagries, Hotel 1000 can still fulfill at least one ultimate geek-on-the-road fantasy. A recent guest’s call to complain about a broken remote was met with a peculiar response from the front desk clerk: “I’ll send an engineer right up.”

Making the first acquisition in its 11-year history, MSNBC.com, a joint venture between Microsoft and the NBC Universal division of GE, is diving into citizen journalism and social media by acquiring Newsvine.com, a six-employee startup that has helped pave the way in what is known as “participatory journalism.”

Newsvine CEO Mike Davidson will report to Charlie Tillinghast, president of MSNBC Interactive News and publisher of msnbc.com, but otherwise, Newsvine will continue to operate independently.

Tillinghast said msnbc.com was racing to foster a community among its readers and to exploit the power of unmoderated user commentary and ranking of the news. Ideally, he said in an interview, the site would design and build its own tools, but Newsvine, headquartered in downtown Seattle a few minutes from msnbc.com’s newsroom, “is just a great fit.”

Costco.com is the newest member of the online billion dollar sales club.

For the year Costco Wholesale Corp. grew its e-commerce sales by about 39% to $1.22 billion compared with web sales of $880 million in fiscal 2006.

At the same time total revenue rose by 7% and same store sales by 6%. The company, No. 21 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, reported net income of $1.08 billion on revenue of $64.4 billion for the 2007 fiscal year compared with net income of $1.1 billion on sales of $60.1 billion in the prior year. Amazingly, the Web still accounted for only 2% of total sales.

Rand Fishkin believes in transparency.  He runs his company, SEOmoz, like he does his blog, publicly.

A few months ago he hired SEM consultant Andy Beal to advise on the growth of the business. Rand reported Beal’s findings and recommendations to his audience of SEO enthusiasts and commentators. He also asked this blogging community whether he should accept outside investment in his agency.

Reactions were mixed, but Rand appears to have squarely connected with two VC firms — Ignition Partners and Curious Office.  Today he announced an investment of $1.25 million in his firm.  Rand also disclosed that he has invited Zillow’s Vanessa Fox to join his board of directors.

SEOmoz is now on a mission to add products and services that add value  to search marketing, right here in the Emerald City. As Rand puts it, “We literally have a hundred different ideas for tools, search analytics, tracking, guides, [and] resources.”  Clearly, Rand also wants to get into the training end of the business as well.  Will all of that amount to the earnings multiples that will impress his new VC partners in terms of ROI? Only time will tell.

With this new beginning , Rand also sees a potential ending.  He writes, “…When we decided to accept this money, we took a step in a direction that will probably end with the sale of SEOmoz (as we’re most likely not a target to go public). I think that this is one of the other big fears that members and commenters had - and I can completely empathize. However, I will say this - I’m in this for the long haul, and even though SEOmoz may, in 4-7 years, be part of another company, I’m going to do my damndest to make sure that all the great things about us get preserved.”

Just as one world-class Seettle search conference wraps up, another is queuing up right behind. Hot on the heels of SMX Advanced, the competing Search Engine Strategies circuit will be hosting SES Travel, coming to Seattle July 26 & 27, 2007, Hosted by Elisabeth Osmeloski, editor of Search Engine Watch and adventure traveler, action sports enthusiast and travel search marketing specialist. The major players in the travel search arena will describe their services and opportunities for search marketers.

Seattle-based Nordstrom, Inc., a leading fashion specialty retailer, is now offering RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed capabilities vis-a-vis Nordstrom.com. The new feature allows Nordstrom customers to sign up and receive the latest product information on their favorite brands.

“We’re excited to offer RSS feeds to our customers. Fashion is constantly evolving, and by giving our customers the opportunity to see what’s new on our site in real time, we’re giving them even more of an opportunity to stay current,” said Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Direct. “We see this tool as a way to offer customers a more efficient way to shop for the products they’re looking for.”

RSS is an easy way to deliver information about recently posted content. By plugging a link into an RSS reader, customers can retrieve the newest content offerings for their favorite Web sites while saving the time it takes to actually visit each site. RSS can be delivered to search engines, specialized RSS directories and special content aggregation sites.

At Nordstrom.com, customers are able to subscribe to personalized feeds on a product search page or to select “favorite feeds” such as Sale Arrivals, Women’s Dresses or the Men’s Jeans Guide. By simply clicking on the orange RSS feed button that appears on the store’s search pages, customers are led through the simple process of signing up to receive feeds, which begin immediately.

Typically offered by news and financial sites, RSS feeds on product news and search preferences are fairly new in the fashion industry.

In 2006, Nordstrom launched the Designer section of its Web site and redesigned its product pages for easy customer navigation. Beginning in October 2007 customers will be able to assemble complete outfits online and take all the pieces directly to the checkout.

PublicRoutes.com, a directions-based Web resource, has announced the launch of a complete navigational service for public transportation throughout the entire Seattle area including: King, Pierce and Kitsap counties.

PublicRoutes.com is a handy resource for people who need to get around to meetings, arrange directions for friends, find cool attractions around town, or simply get to and from their favorite coffee shop safely.

Touting recently added features and state-of-the-art, patent pending technology, the website provides users with point-to-point directions for all modes of transportation - from rail to ferry to driving and walking directions.

“From grunge rockers to coffee brewing pioneers, Seattle is a renaissance city that thrives upon its cultural diversity and operates as a central hub in the Pacific Northwest,” said Marc Sellouk, CEO of PublicRoutes.com. “By using PublicRoutes.com a person will save the time and hassle associated with an unfamiliar commute and will be able to find exactly where they’re going without getting caught in the rain.”

Merging multiple city resources, PublicRoutes.com also allows users to obtain information and door-to-door directions to the city’s top points of interest including restaurants, tourist attractions like the Space Needle, sporting arenas and nightlife venues. In addition, the website offers a one-stop resource to search for, compare and book hotels, flights and vacation packages for those visiting Seattle as well as other travel add-ons including car services and tickets to events.

PublicRoutes.com plans to expand to serve more cities within the U.S. and internationally. For more information and to access the new PublicRoutes.com navigation resource, please visit www.publicroutes.com.

Marchex, along with subsidiary IndustryBrains, today announced that since January 1st of this year, it has signed contextual ad agreements with seven publishers across a range of verticals including Business & Finance, Information Technology, and Home & Living. The Marchex deals will include publishers InvestorVillage.com, Homes and Land, CIO Index.com, and WorldGolf.com among others.

With the agreements in place, Marchex will provide ad solutions to certain sections of the publishers’ websites, and to the websites’ targeted newsletters and blogs. Advertisers, in turn, will be able to place their product/service listings directly on premium and specific websites, and/or sections of pages within a website.

Marchex already has relationships with more than 100 vertically-focused online publishers, and the seven new publishers add to the brand-name roster. BusinessWeek Online, The Motley Fool, and the Ziff Davis’s online properties are only a few of the notable publishing brands Marchex currently deals with.

In a press statement, IndustryBrains CEO Eric Matlick said, “As the company that created the site-specific approach to contextual advertising more than five years ago, we are very pleased to build upon our leadership position by adding seven high quality online publishers to our platform since the beginning of the year. As 2007 progresses, we look forward to further increasing our market share while helping all of our new partners more fully realize the value of their online brands, and providing advertisers with direct access to many additional highly targeted audiences.”