Web 2.0 Galore

Almost all of web 2.0 Logos in one place.. an giant collage of logos....

Raising Your Profile: Beyond the Basics

Small companies may not have to take big steps to raise the likelihood that potential customers can find them on the Internet.

Bankrate

Bankrate Editor in chief Julie Bandy and Rudy De La Garza Jr.

One or two changes in the way they do things often can help lift a Web site's visibility online, says Rudy De La Garza Jr., manager of search-engine optimization at Bankrate Inc., an online consumer-banking marketplace.

Search-engine optimization, or SEO, makes a site more friendly, or "optimal," for Internet search engines such as Google Inc.'s, Yahoo Inc.'s and others. SEO can improve a site's listing in "natural" search results -- the unpaid rankings on search engines that many people use to look for information online.

Bankrate hired Mr. De La Garza last year to integrate SEO into how it thinks and operates.

Ajax Startup Launches Web Desktop Linked To Gmail

Net entrepreneur Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com and Linspire, is on a crusade to change the software industry again. This time, he's putting his energy and expertise behind a new startup that uses Ajax as a middleware platform to create a niche in the software as a service (SaaS) marketplace.

The company is Ajax13, the product is ajaxWindows, and the concept is pretty straightforward: The software platform is operating system-agnostic and based on the XML User Interface Language (XUL) to act as a Web-based desktop. Files can be moved around and opened, and applications launch with a mouse click. The interface also includes customizable wallpaper, start-up and shut down sounds, and browser bookmarks. But instead of interacting with the hardware, the user stores all desktop data, documents, and content, free of charge into a Gmail account.