Semantic search supplements and advances traditional search queries by utilizing several data points including XML & RDF data, demographic data, geographic information, and more to improve the accuracy of search results by adding layers of keyword context to the search algorithms.  Thereby enabling search algorithms to go beyond the current search metrics of keyword-rich content and data, and instead begin to eloquently dissect the meaning of each word in the search query in correlation to the all of the words within the query as well as considering other available data points.  This method weighs the relationship of each keyword in the query to each other, delivering a more sophisticated, relevant search result.

If we can truly establish and adopt better semantic standards for the Web, then search will become more accurate and context oriented.  However, there is some doubt about whether the W3C framework for semantics will ever be implemented since there is not a clear benefit driving its adoption to the industry drivers.

We will be publishing future articles and blog postings on this in the over the next few months so stay tuned…

NeboWeb has just received the great news of being recognized as one of PromotionWorld’s “Top 10 SEO Companies” for June 2008.  Although this isn’t the only time we’ve made a Top 10 list at PromotionWorld, we’re always very excited to receive the accolade.
 
Receiving recognition or awards isn’t just about NeboWeb and our team or process.  We’re very proud of our team of highly trained, dedicated, and passionate search engine marketing professionals.  However, whenever an agency succeeds, including us, it’s a function of great teamwork between the client and the agency.  Every successful project starts and ends with the client.  We have great clients and we are very thankful to them for helping to make us look good and being great teammates on our collective projects.

We’d like to say thank you to PromotionWord for the recognition, thank you to our team for the hard work and great results, and to give special thanks to our clients for everything they have done to help all of us to be successful!

Once again NeboWeb has picked up recognition for our interactive marketing work!

We were given 7 Award’s of Distinction (Silver Communicator Awards) from the 14th Annual Communicator Awards.  Below is the work that was recognized:

- REVALESKIN – Pharmaceuticals Category Award of Distinction

- Shared Health – Health Category Award of Distinction

- American Fiber Systems – Telecommunications Category Award of Distinction

- NeboWeb – Marketing Category Award of Distinction

- NeboWeb – Professional Services Category Award of Distinction

- EarthLink DSL and Home Phone – Microsite Category Award of Distinction

- ASU Center for Entrepreneurship – Education Category Award of Distinction

Congratulations to our clients and team for great work!

About The Communicator Awards
The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for Communications Professionals. Founded by communication professionals over a decade ago, The Communicator Awards received over 8,000 entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world.

The Communicator Awards provides winners and their clients the recognition they deserve and gives communications and creative professionals proof and validation that their work is outstanding and highly regarded by their peers. The Communicator Awards provides an equal chance of winning to all entrants regardless of company or agency size and project budget.

The Award of Excellence, our highest honor, is given to those entries whose ability to communicate puts them among the best in the field. The Award of Distinction is presented for projects that exceed industry standards in quality and achievement.

For well over a decade, the Communicator Awards has honored the best creative work in the communications fields. And now, as we enter our 14th season, we are thrilled to announce new initiatives to make the most important and relevant award of its kind even better.

NeboWeb has picked up even more recognition for our work!

NeboWeb’s 2008 Horizion Interactive Awards Include:

- REVALESKIN (http://www.revaleskin.com/) – Silver in Consumer Information

- NeboWeb (http://www.neboweb.com/) – Bronze in Self Promotion / Company Identity

- Soho Myriad (http://www.sohomyriad.com/) – Bronze in Business To Business

- Cardpricer (http://www.cardpricer.com/) – Bronze in Consumer Information

About the Horizon Interactive Awards
The seventh annual, international competition saw just over 1000 entries from 20 countries around world including: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Spain, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand Turkey, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and nearly all 50 of the United States of America. An international panel of judges, consisting of industry professionals with diverse backgrounds, as well as an end user panel evaluated 18 different categories ranging from online advertising to video games. The 2008 winning entries showcase the industry’s best interactive media solutions including web sites, CDs and DVDs, online ads, video and more.

Congratulations to our clients and team for great work!

Normally the phrase “close, but no cigar” is considered a bad thing.  However, given the recognition that NeboWeb has received lately, we’ve taken to viewing the phrase as a positive indicator of where we’re headed.  Although we didn’t win a Webby (the Oscars of the Internet), we were recognized as an Official Honoree for the REVALESKIN website design in the Pharmaceuticals category of The 12th Annual Webby Awards. 

The Official Honoree distinction is awarded to work that scores in the top 15% of all of the Webby Awards submissions.  With nearly 10,000 entries received from all 50 states and over 60 countries, this is an outstanding accomplishment for NeboWeb.  We are especially proud of our accomplishment considering the fact that many of the winners had much larger budgets and better known brands.  We’re not going to give away project prices, but both the REVALESKIN project and the AMY Awards Finalist American Fiber Systems project were under 100k in total project costs. 

The AMY Awards finalists included American Fiber Systems (NeboWeb), FEMA (JWT/RMG Connect), and Manheim/Cox Enterprises (Bright Impact, Inc.), with FEMA bringing home the AMY award in the Web & Interactive Marketing Generating Awareness / Leads category.  Beyond the top 3, there was stiff competition including those who were submitted, but didn’t become finalists such as Kroger (Avenue A), Renaissance Homes (Olive Studio), Home Depot’s 2007 Kitchens Microsite (Moxie Interactive), and many other great sites with strong, recognizable brands.

We’re excited that NeboWeb is being recognized for quality work, even when compared to clients with much bigger project budgets and better financed brands.  Of course, we don’t believe that we didn’t win because the winning firms simply had larger budgets.  The winning firms and their clients collaborated and produced great work and we applaud their creativity and execution.  We’re simply honored to be recognized for our work given the competitive landscape and the high-quality work being produced. 

Maybe next year we’ll win, but in the meantime we’re enjoying the recognition we’ve received and we’d like to congratulate all of the firms that were recognized or that won a Webby or AMY Award this year.

NeboWeb embraces the future and past of interactive marketing with its planned integration of its proprietary project management tool, TimeTravLR, with Google’s gDay.  In addition to the gDay integration, NeboWeb also plans to integrate TimeTravLR with Google’s Custom Time.

Check out the press release to learn all about it (http://www.neboweb.com/press-room.php?id=104).

Check out the site and video below to see how it works!

Site: http://www.timetravlr.com/
Video: http://www.timetravlr.com/making_of.php.

The TimeTravLR press release is located at http://www.neboweb.com/press-room.php?id=103.

You’ll have to excuse the blatant, self-congratulatory post, but we’re rather pleased with ourselves.  A project we created for American Fiber Systems has been selected as a 2008 AMY Awards Finalist.  That, my friends, is a big deal.

For those of you who may not know, the AMY Awards is the annual awards program presented by the Atlanta chapter of the American Marketing Association, an international organization consisting of 45,000 professional marketers in more than 100 countries.  The Atlanta chapter is the fourth largest with almost 1,000 members who meet regularly for luncheons, mixers, meetings and the annual AMY Awards. 

Now, it may sound cliché, but simply being named a finalist truly is an honor.  There were more than 130 entries submitted by more than 40 marketing and public relations agencies on behalf of 72 organizations.  The finalists were selected by measuring delivery of results, the impact on business objectives and the successful execution of marketing best practices. 

In short, that means we’re doing our job and doing it well.  The nod places us with the best Georgia has to offer the marketing world.  Of course, we’d love to win, but we’re quite proud of our team for consistently creating the kind of work that got us to the finals.  It’s like the Oscars.  We’re donning our black ties, gowns and heading off to the Fabulous Fox Theatre to sit with the best Atlanta has to offer.  With any luck, we’ll be back in a few weeks with even better news!

We find it funny that our particular industry, Search Marketing, is still viewed with a touch of mysticism by some.  It’s not that intriguing, really.  Many of the SEM professionals actually originated in the more traditional roles of marketing and advertising.  Many came from the worlds of graphic design and programming.  In short, SEM is more like an old profession in a new market.

Now, we’re not “old”, but we’re certainly not young.  We may not remember the invention of the TV, but we do remember the embracing of Cable TV.  We remember losing the rabbit ears for a brown box with red numbers.  We also remember many people dismissing Cable as a fad.  Unlike the BetaMax, Cable TV has not only survived, but thrived throughout the years.  Television has gone from 3 channels to 800.  The role of Cable TV has even changed other industries by challenging phone companies on their own turf.  Yes, we have seen change.

We have also seen the Internet change.  We have literally seen the internet crawl to its current state.  Call us speed freaks, but what did we do before broadband?  We’ve also seen companies come and go, live and die on the Internet.  It was only natural that marketing evolve and establish its roots on the Internet.  As more and more people came online to exchange information and ideas, it was only a matter of time before companies began to follow.  And where there are companies, there’s money to be made.  And you’ve got to spend money to make money.  Industries all over the world evolved.

Marketing evolved, too.  Now, SEM is a worldwide practice.  Still, some look at SEM as some kind of black magic.  Some still see a shroud of secrecy wrapped around our industry.  Well, we’re here to tell you there’s no secret.  There are people looking to give you money for whatever it is you have to offer.  Like those before us, we simply help your customers find you. 

It’s a totally different medium, so we employ totally different methods.  That much is obvious.  If the old methods worked, we wouldn’t be here.  The world has been changing for years and it will keep right on changing.  The smart ones, like always, will evolve right along with it.  After all, it’s only change.