Xbox To Reveal ?A New Generation? Of Game Console May 21 At ...

Microsoft has just sent out a round of invites to the press to attend a special event at its Redmond, Washington campus on May 21 at 10 AM PT. The event is associated with the hashtag #XboxReveal, and promises to show off a ?new generation? of Xbox, so it?s safe to say we?ll get our first glimpse of Microsoft?s next-generation home gaming console at the event.

This follows earlier reports that indicated we?d see Microsoft launch the Xbox at an event in late May, ahead of a full preview at E3 in June. The event will be live streamed via Xbox.com and Xbox LIVE, and also on TV via Spike TV for viewers in the U.S. and Canada, according to a blog post from Microsoft?s Larry ?Major Nelson? Hyrb. The event will be a first glimpse at Xbox?s next-gen console, and will be followed up by a more extensive look at software at E3 19 days after the initial reveal.

A late-May Xbox event was originally pegged by Windows expert Paul Thurrot (who specified May 21, in fact) and later confirmed by The Verge?s Tom Warren. It?s unclear what exactly will be on the agenda, but Microsoft?s Hyrb previously ribbed Sony for not showing any hardware at its own PlayStation 4 reveal earlier this year, so we?ll probably get eyes on the console itself.

We may also get our first official word on speculation that Microsoft?s next Xbox will require an always-on connection to the Internet to function, and a more detailed explanation of how exactly it will interact with other living room entertainment devices like cable set-top boxes.

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Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...

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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/24/xbox-to-reveal-a-new-generation-of-game-console-may-21-at-microsofts-redmond-campus/

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5 Big Brand PPC Ads with Critiques: What We Like, What We'd ...

What big brands are able to do with their enormous marketing budgets is inspiring ? though sometimes it mostly inspires jealousy. The typical small business can?t sponsor the Olympics or get an ad spot during the Super Bowl. You have to tinker around with more accessible campaigns that cost less but typically have smaller reach as well.

PPC is an example of an incredibly accessible marketing channel ? it?s being exploited by tiny one-man shops and huge multinational corporations alike. But how much better is a big-brand PPC ad than an SMB ad ? if at all? Is it like comparing the latest Pepsi commercial to what your local furniture store puts together?

Let?s look at five big-brand AdWords ads and see what they do well and what they could do better.

(More: Dear eBay, Your Ads Don't Work Because They Suck)

By the way, I fully admit to stealing the format for this post from Oli Gardner at Unbounce, who recently did something similar with big-brand landing pages. Thanks, Oli!

Big-Brand PPC Ad #1: LightingDirect.com

A Google search for ?chandeliers? turned up these three ads in the coveted top-of-page ad spots. Let?s focus on the middle ad from LightingDirect.com (a Build.com network site), comparing it to its close competition.

What I Like:

• Seller Ratings ? Both LightingDirect.com and LampsPlus are making use of the seller ratings extension available in AdWords. This helps them stand out a little more from the top-ranked ad. It?s working to the second ad?s advantage in particular because the company has over twice as many reviews as the third ad.
• Lots of Benefits ? This ad manages to pack four different benefits (free shipping, easy returns, great selection, and friendly service) into a small amount of space. The other two ads only include two benefits in their message.

What I?d Change/Test:

• Punctuation ? Putting punctuation at the end of the first line of descriptive text (a comma or period after ?Easy Returns?) would have made this ad easier to read, since top-ranked ads often find their two description lines expanded into a single long line. They could probably also increase CTR by including an exclamation point.
• Call to Action ? There?s no explicit call to action in this ad. (The first ad makes the same mistake; the third ad has the ?Subscribe to newsletter? button to entice an action.) I might try losing one of those four benefits and turning one of the benefits into a CTA ? for example, ?Claim Your Free Shipping Offer? or ?Check Out Our Great Selection.?

Big-Brand PPC Ad #2: Audi

Unsurprisingly, Audi owns the top spot for a search on ?Audi.? (And yes, we think even small businesses should bid on branded terms.) So what are they doing with the prime real estate?

What I Like:

• Sitelinks ? Sitelinks are an easy win: They make your ad bigger and give users many more places to click. In fact they increase CTR even when users aren't clicking the sitelines themselves, meaning you get a lift on the main headline link too.
• Verbs ? Audi isn?t missing a call to action like LightingDirect was ? in fact, the main description line as well as every single sitelink includes a verb, enticing the searcher to take action.
• Social Extensions ? Audi has an insane number of followers on Google+, so they?re right to show that number off. (According to Google: ?On average, search ads with annotations have a 5-10% uplift in click through rate and the AdWords Social Extension helps you show more of them.?)

What I?d Change/Test:

• Headline ? Since this is the top result on a brand search, it probably has a super-duper high CTR, but nonetheless, I think the headline could be doing more work. All it really tells us is that this is the official site. Compare to this BMW ad that also tells us we can use the official site to build our own car.

Big-Brand PPC Ad #3: Olay

I know some of you dudes out there are thinking ?What the %^&$ is BB cream?? Basically, it?s like gussied up tinted moisturizer ? which is like a sheer foundation ? never mind. The point is, it?s makeup, and you can buy it. Let?s take a look at the Olay ad and the other competition in the yellow box.

What I Like:

• Use of Symbols ? Did you know that using symbols, like the registered trademark symbol, can boost your ad performance? Test this now! They?re also using that powerful exclamation point.
• Offers ? I like the specific offers in the sitelinks, especially ?Get a Free Skin Consultation,? which sounds like a great lead builder.

What I?d Change/Test:

• Shorter Headline ? The headline is too long so it gets truncated. Instantly what? We don?t know.
• Longer Description ? On the other hand, the description line is throwing away its extra characters, space that could have been used for a call to action (Maybelline?s CTA in the third ad is awesome) or to repeat the keyword (?BB Cream?) in the text again. Remember, when the search query appears in your ad, it appears in bold face, so your ad stands out more.

Big-Brand PPC Ad #4: ULINE

ULINE is one of the top PPC spenders in the business and industrial category, spending over $35 million a year on AdWords advertising. Are they making the most of that big PPC budget?

What I Like:

???? <crickets> ????

I don?t like much about this ad. Let?s get to what I don?t like.

What I?d Change/Test:

• Better Keyword Matching ? It looks like they?re broad-matching on ?labels,? but they?re not using dynamic keyword insertion (DKI), so the word ?printing? doesn?t actually appear in the ad ? not a great intent match. The ad is all about designing and customizing labels, not printing them. They should be keeping a better watch over their search query report and building out more targeted ad groups.
• More Benefits ? The only benefit here is ?Over 27,500 Products? ? which, some might argue, is actually a shortcoming. Who wants to search through nearly 30,000 products? Paradox of choice, anyone? Sounds like a waste of time. Compare this to the other two ads, which offer lots of information on price and specific details about label sizes and other information that would help the searcher make a decision.
• Ad Extensions ? ULINE?s ad doesn?t make use of any extensions at all. Can we get a sitelink up in this piece?

Since ULINE?s ad is relatively weak compared to the #2 and #3 ads, they?re probably bidding higher and paying a lot more than their competitors per click.

Big-Brand PPC Ad #5: SelectQuote

Here?s an ad that follows a lot of the best practices we?ve already mentioned ? clear call to action, using the search query in the text, sitelinks, etc. What are they doing that?s new?

What I Like:

• The Local Connection ? SelectQuote has localized their ad to recognize my location. I?m in Colorado, so I might want to deal with a local agent.
• Communication Extension ? Including a phone number means that your ad could lead to conversions even if they don?t click the ad. (That means it?s free, yay!)

What I?d Change/Test:

• Numbers ? The top-ranked Metlife ad gets specific with numbers: ?Pay as little as $1/day for up to $500,000 coverage.? If I were SelectQuote?s PPC manager I?d test out concrete dollar amounts in my text too.
• Appeal to Emotions ? People looking for life insurance might be driven by some strong emotions ? fear, compassion, concern for one?s loved ones, etc. An ad that speaks to those emotions could really do well here. I?d test something like ?Take Care of Your Family. Get a Free Quote Today.?

Do you steal from the big boys when it comes to writing ad text? Or do the little guys do it better?

Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/04/24/big-brand-ppc-ads

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Mysterious hot spots observed in cool red supergiant

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Astronomers have released a new image of the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse -- one of the nearest red supergiants to Earth -- revealing the detailed structure of the matter being thrown off the star.

The new image, taken by the e-MERLIN radio telescope array operated from the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, also shows regions of surprisingly hot gas in the star's outer atmosphere and a cooler arc of gas weighing almost as much as the Earth.

Betelgeuse is easily visible to the unaided eye as the bright, red star on the shoulder of Orion the Hunter. The star itself is huge -- 1,000 times larger than our Sun -- but at a distance of about 650 light years it still appears as a tiny dot in the sky, so special techniques combining telescopes in arrays are required to see details of the star and the region around it.

The new e-MERLIN image of Betelgeuse -- published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, shows its atmosphere extends out to five times the size of the visual surface of the star. It reveals two hot spots within the outer atmosphere and a faint arc of cool gas even farther out beyond the radio surface of the star.

The hot spots are separated by roughly half the visual diameter of the star and have a temperature of about 4,000-5,000 Kelvin, much higher than the average temperature of the radio surface of the star (about 1,200 Kelvin) and even higher than the visual surface (3,600 Kelvin). The arc of cool gas lies almost 7.4 billion kilometres away from the star -- about the same distance as the farthest Pluto gets from the Sun. It is estimated to have a mass almost two thirds that of the Earth and a temperature of about 150 Kelvin.

Lead author Dr Anita Richards, from The University of Manchester, said that it was not yet clear why the hot spots are so hot. She said: "One possibility is that shock waves, caused either by the star pulsating or by convection in its outer layers, are compressing and heating the gas. Another is that the outer atmosphere is patchy and we are seeing through to hotter regions within. The arc of cool gas is thought to be the result of a period of increased mass loss from the star at some point in the last century but its relationship to structures like the hot spots, which lie much closer in, within the star's outer atmosphere, is unknown."

The mechanism by which supergiant stars like Betelgeuse lose matter into space is not well understood despite its key role in the lifecycle of matter, enriching the interstellar material from which future stars and planets will form. Detailed high-resolution studies of the regions around massive stars like the ones presented here are essential to improving our understanding.

Dr Richards, who is based in Manchester's School of Physics and Astronomy, added: "Betelgeuse produces a wind equivalent to losing the mass of the Earth every three years, enriched with the chemicals that will go into the next generation of star and planet formation. The full detail of how these cool, evolved stars launch their winds is one of the remaining big questions in stellar astronomy.

"This is the first direct image showing hot spots so far from the centre of the star. We are continuing radio and microwave observations to help decide which mechanisms are most important in driving the stellar wind and producing these hot spots. This won't just tell us how the elements that form the building blocks of life are being returned to space, it will also help determine how long it is before Betelgeuse explodes as a supernova."

Future observations planned with e-MERLIN and other arrays, including ALMA and VLA, will test whether the hotspots vary in concert due to pulsation, or show more complex variability due to convection. If it is possible to measure a rotation speed this will identify in which layer of the star they originate.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Manchester University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Anita Richards et al. e-MERLIN resolves Betelgeuse at wavelength 5 cm: hotspots at 5R. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2013

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/fD3_AjYgtT4/130424222432.htm

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How to Take Advantage of Article Directories for Internet Marketing ...

Businesses have been taking advantage of online directories as marketing platforms for some time now, but a new development in this field has expanded the potential of directory submission. Article directories are a newer development in the blogging world, and they offer both businesses and individuals a great opportunity for internet advertising. However, many webmasters don?t know how to take advantage of this new opportunity.

Blogging is one of the best ways to help build traffic and generate exposure for your website. Whether it?s business or personal, a blog is a great promotional platform. Search engine indexing is strengthened by regular updates full of relevant content, making blog articles some of the best available tools for improving search engine optimization. Article directories combine the SEO benefits of blogging with the increased exposure that comes from directory submission to give you a whole new internet marketing platform for their websites.

Article directories are websites that accept article submissions from writers all over the web for publication on their pages. The writers are not paid by the directory, and there is typically no charge for uploading articles to the directory. Both you and the directories reap their benefits from secondary sources; the directory gets to increase traffic by keeping its pages stocked with relevant and highly searched content. As the writer, on the other hand, you get a free place to publish articles. The potential for writers to use this as a marketing platform makes it a kind of symbiotic relationship.

For example, any business owner could write and publish an article about their own business, generating tons of exposure through the article directory?s traffic. Whatever industry you call home has tons of potential for article writing. If you?re operating a web design service, for example, you could write an interesting article about recent trends in web design and the importance of professional design for businesses. You could include links to your own website and drop the name of your business to increase exposure and lead new traffic to your own pages. The potential for marketing on a platform like this is huge, almost too great to resist.

If you already run a blog for your website, then you already know the importance and benefits of generating fresh content. New and interesting articles keeps your audience engaged and captivated, turning casual viewers into loyal readers. Every mention of your business or website on an article directory is a new opportunity for bringing in readers. If your website is too young to get the exposure it needs, article directories can be a great help in growing your traffic and readership. Always remember to stay relevant and engaging, and your articles will bring new readers in droves.

When you get right down to it, article directories are free advertising. When you can fill some of your marketing needs for free, you can allocate your funds to other pursuits, like securing ad space or listing with a paid?property directory. Enjoy huge potential benefits from this new development in online directories, and put your website on top.

Related posts:

1. 5 Internet Marketing Tactics for Real Estate Professionals
2. Top 5 Internet Marketing Tips for Car Dearlerships
3. Top 5 Internet Marketing Tips for Healthcare Professionals
4. 5 Internet Marketing Techniques to Promote and Sell Music Online
5. The Best Internet Marketing Techniques for the Auto Industry

from your own site.

Source: http://www.toddwestmedia.com/477/how-to-take-advantage-of-article-directories-for-internet-marketing-purposes.html

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PFT: Chiefs, Dolphins reportedly still talking Albert

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As this year?s crop of incoming players, especially those taken in the first two rounds, celebrate their new circumstances, they need to keep one thing in mind.

Several months from now, there?s a chance they will think those circumstances stink.

Rams running back Isaiah Pead fell right into that category last season, despite being the 50th overall pick in the 2012 draft.? Presumed to be the heir apparent to Steven Jackson, Pead became largely forgotten last year, sliding behind seventh-rounder Daryl Richardson.

?Honestly, I would call it miserable,? Pead said of his rookie season, via the University of Cincinnati official website. ?Miserable life.? Miserable four-five months.?

When the season finally ended, Pead packed up and left.

?I took off and I didn?t come back until it was time to,? Pead said.? ?I just wanted to stay out of this area, I came back for a couple days to pack up then all the memories and walking back into my house by myself, had a couple days by myself, I just needed to get out of that area.?

Pead is partially responsible for his misery.? He didn?t deal well with being demoted behind a guy taken 202 spots later, showing up late for a pair of meetings.

?I was literally fed up with football,? Pead said.? ?Not a quitter, not quitting, I was just tired of football.? Tired of practice for the day and I would just lay there play video games and whatnot because it was so miserable, so stressful.?

With a fresh opportunity coming from the departure of Jackson, Pead is ready to turn the page.

?Whole new era, whole new attitude, whole new team, whole new Pead,? Pead said. ??I?m not going to sit and linger on something, but I am one to not forget about a situation.? I am moving on from last year, last year is last year, but I have not forgot about last year.? I wouldn?t call it revenge, but the chip that I put on my shoulder is just a little bigger.?

He needs to perform more than a little better to erase the head start that Richardson earned in 2012.? While Pead finished with 10 carries for 54 yards, Richardson had 98 carries for 475 yards.

Pead also needs to hope the Rams don?t use one of their high draft picks on a rookie who?ll get a chance to in 2013 that which Pead couldn?t in 2012.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/24/report-dolphins-chiefs-resume-dialogue-about-branden-albert/related/

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John Galliano to teach master class at NY fashion school

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Disgraced fashion designer John Galliano is continuing his public image rehabilitation with an upcoming stint teaching a master class at one of New York's leading design schools.

Galliano, who was fired by Dior in 2011 after he was caught on camera making anti-Semitic remarks in a Paris cafe, will teach a course titled "Show Me Emotion" at Parsons The New School For Design, the school said on Monday.

Parsons said the class "will be a dynamic and intimate opportunity for our students to learn from an immensely talented designer."

"We believe that over the past two years Galliano has demonstrated a serious intent to make amends for his past actions," the school added.

Earlier this year, the 52-year-old British designer, widely thought of as one of the most talented and creative names in fashion, spent several weeks working at Oscar de la Renta's studio in New York, preparing for de la Renta's New York Fashion Week show in February.

A French court handed out a 6,000-euro ($8,000) suspended fine to Galliano in 2011 after he was found guilty of anti-Semitic behavior. Galliano has said an addiction to drugs and alcohol had left him out of control and he was determined to make amends.

Parsons said students in the master class "will have the opportunity to engage in a frank conversation with Mr. Galliano about the challenges and complications of leading a design house in the 21st century."

Following his Dior dismissal, Galliano designed British model Kate Moss's wedding dress.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud, editing by Jill Serjeant and Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/john-galliano-teach-master-class-ny-fashion-school-182955829.html

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Amazon's AWS Turns On Redshift Data Warehousing And EC2 High Storage In Europe

Amazon's business model, CTO Werner Vogels reminded us today, is based on "low margins, high volume", and today the company announced a development on how it's applying that principle to its enterprise services. From today, it's expanding to Europe its Redshift data warehousing service and its EC2 High Storage service. Amazon first announced the intention to go global in February; it's actually turning on Europe today.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/hMuRrjrwa0U/

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