Impact of Google’s Changes on Small Businesses

by: Joseph - April 21st, 2011   Filed under: Article Summaries Add Comment

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Burned by Google Inc.’s recent changes to its search formula, small businesses are experimenting with strategies to recover lost Web traffic while seeking out new ways to generate sales—some even scaling back daily operations.

Seeing a 40% decline in sales since Google adjusted its algorithm, online ergonomic-products retailer Ergo In Demand Inc. in Central Point, Ore., reduced its 17-person staff to five, moved to a 4,500-square-foot office space from one more than double in size and cut $4,000 in monthly software subscriptions.

With the savings, owner Peter Scholom hired a search-engine optimization firm to do an audit of the 11-year-old company’s website, ergoindemand.com. He hopes to learn how to regain the site’s previously high Google rankings for search terms like “keyboard trays” and “TV mounts.”… Read More

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Montana MBA Students Meet Warren Buffett

by: Joseph - April 19th, 2011   Filed under: Article Summaries, News & Notes Add Comment

The University of Montana School of Business LogoStudents from The University of Montana’s Masters of Business Administration and Accountancy programs visited on March 11 with legendary investor Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Neb., and with Thomas Hoenig, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City, Mo.

Students met with Buffett for a 150-minute question-and-answer session, followed by lunch at Buffett’s favorite local restaurant, Piccolo Pete’s. During the session, Buffett answered 20 questions about his lifelong personal and business experiences. Two questions were asked by UM students. In February the UM students took a course titled Investment Strategy and Warren Buffett taught by UM professors of various backgrounds and community members, but said they felt that no amount of reading or watching videos matched the reality of meeting Buffett in person… Read More

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Is Your Tween (Illegally) on Facebook?

by: Joseph - April 18th, 2011   Filed under: Article Summaries Add Comment

Facebook LogoYou have to be at least 13 years old to legally use Facebook, and there’s a reason for that: According to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), websites that collect information from a general-audience population must receive guardian permission to gather data from children 12 years old and younger. Often, sites like Facebook choose to make the legal age of usage 13 and up to bypass the litigious headaches that parental consent incurs.

But, as I’m sure you know, rules are made to be broken. Even if you help your child set strong privacy settings on Facebook, the service frequently changes its privacy policies. This makes it difficult to continuously adjust the settings to create a “bubble shield” around your tween.

And of course, many unsuspecting parents out there have tweens who are sailing on Facebook, playing games and socializing. Many parents aren’t aware of relationships their children are building on the social network… Read More

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