As our site grows every day we want to share some information with you on the way we are operating the project. We call this section «Business Blog» as it is similar to doing a log book where data is recorded in a chronological order. «Blogging» is gaining popularity with more and more people picking up the habit of publishing their experiences and thoughts on the Internet. Our Blog covers various topics — from TOEFL, TOEIC, MBA, GMAT, ESL/EFL test preperation to cultural traditions and current political events.
There will also be some Internet marketing terminology and if you have any questions regarding the information simply let us know.

The Business Blog is written by Torsten Daerr and edited by Alan Townend.

2004 — June 30
Tomorrow english-test.net will have been online for exactly one year — a good time to review recent achievements. A couple of days ago Google gave our site PageRank 6. Now, what exactly does this mean to you, our user? Well, I'm sure you know about the importance of Google — it has become the world's leading search engine within a very short period of time. As Google themselves state — PageRank provides the basis for all of their web search tools. As many other systems that have gained international recognition, PageRank is simple yet powerful. It is based on a democratic principle: Linking webpages to each other to create a vast yet transparent and reliable network. Google's PageRank evaluates the weight of each single webpage by giving it a grade on a scale of 0 to 10. So, a webpage showing PageRank 10 is very valuable according to Google's assessment. PagerRank is mainly determined by the number of webpages linking to a certain page. For example, if 10,000 webpages link to www.bbc.co.uk it is a clear indicator that this particular page is very important — otherwise why would so many people make a link with itIf you want to see the Google PageRank of a certain page you can install Google's free toolbar — a little program that appears in the task bar of your webbrowser enhancing its functionality. For example the Google toolbar shows you how important A webpage is, it blocks annoying pop-up ads and translates webpages for you into English or other languages.

2004 — June 23
You never know what is going on behind the scenes of the Search Engine business but right now one thing is obvious: Google has managed to further stabilize and improve their position as the leading Search Engine. It is no secret that Mr Gates and his crew are fiercely working their own search index system in order eventually to have the edge over Google . That's why they have teamed up with Overture, a commercial search service which claims to reach over 80% of active internet users. I'm sure not many of you have ever heard of Overture and when you visit their site you will clearly see that they have a completely different approach from that of Google. The latter has built up their reputation and immense name recognition through offering their two major products: Precise and immediate search results to information seekers for free on the one hand and free indexing of webpages to information providers on the other hand. So far this concept has almost no competition - Google develops and uses cutting edge web bases search technology that is gaining even more importance as the internet grows by the hour.

So, why are people still using MSN, Yahoo, Altavista and other search engines if Google is really that much better than anyone else? Well, the main reason for someone to use Yahoo or MSN as opposed to Google is convenience. Microsoft bought Hotmail, the fastest growing service the business world has ever seen. An average of 150.000 people sign up with Hotmail every day. Especially in the face of spamming and email virus attacks free web based email has become an essential online communication tool. So, when you have established the habit of going to MSN or Yahoo in order to check your email you are very likely to use those portals to search for webpages too. In addition MSN and Yahoo are providing a number of other services such as Instant Messaging and online travel booking that Google has yet to implement.

2004 — June 13
You have probably heard this statement many times: There are two sides to every story. Well, it's the same of course with any new technology. The internet has made tremendous progress in the way we communicate, access information and exchange knowledge and it goes without saying that this a very positive development.
Yet, on the other side the internet also opens doors to those who want to abuse it. At the moment I get the impression that the internet is being spammed to death. More than 90% of my incoming email is unsolicited junk. Well, it's not that it slows my activities down significantly, it's just a nuisance. It takes several minutes each day to filter out the messages addressed to me and the delete key is my best friend on these occastions.
In the face of the massive spam pressure I'm all the more impressed by the way Alan Townend has been able to attract almost 2000 subscribers to his newsletter. When he started his e-publication in July 2003 it had an initial reader base of less than 100. Those were former students of mine whom I had sent short updates via email for about two years. Then Alan took over from me and began to create articles in a style only he is able to. Every new issue of his newsletter comes out I think of a quotation by Rudyard Kipling: «Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind».
You might ask which topics and words Alan is covering in the June edition. Well, he is making a connection between people use the adjective «nice» ad nauseam when writing summer holiday postcards, Shakespeare's Malvolio and virtual communities. On top of all that he takes a humorous look at the phrase «not really» which is now used excessively in Germany.

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Newsletter where you also can read back issues.

2004 — June 12
When I started the NetLog on August 15 last year I had several goals in mind. One was to keep the growing English-test.net community up-to-date on our project as well as a variety of English language related topics. If you think about it — there is a myriad of issues that are related to language simply because language is the number one tool for achieving your objectives. In my current research on internet marketing ebooks one factor is central and predominant: Language. One of the books I'm reading at the moment contains a number of new words and phrases that make good sense.
For example there is the term «preselling» which means that before you can sell a product or service to anyone you have to first «warm-up» your prospective customer and this can be achieved only by providing valuable information. Here is another highly interesting thought I've found in that book: It says that the vast majority of all websites fail in their business efforts because their creators work along these lines: First they create a product, then they makes a website, then they add payment options and wait until someone makes a purchase. They are aiming at their profits while they should be aiming at quenching their visitors' thirst for information. Here is the language describing this process: Creating a theme-based website through netwriting. I must admit that I really like this approach and I'm convinced it's the right way to success.