Saturday, October 8, 2011

New Blog HungryNFoolish.com about Startups

Hi All,
As of now I can be found writing at hungrynfoolish.com So do follow us there, for more info about startups and technology.
If you have any information about innovative startups, do contact us there!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Yahoo Powered by Bing: Posing New Challenges to Marketers


Yahoo is now being powered by Microsoft’s Bing. Critics and media are raving about Bing and the direction it’s taking, but don’t expect this to produce any short term organic gains. Organisations could even expect a short term organic loss, if their optimisation strategies have focused mainly on Google.

Most of the major sites are heavily dependent on Google search results and almost neglect Yahoo and Bing. Bing has replaced Yahoo’s algorithm and reveals different search results. For large retail sites, Bing produces organic traffic for about one page while Yahoo produces organic traffic for about 1.5 pages. This fact is compounded by the volume of search traffic from each engine to the landing pages. It can be observed that Yahoo’s engine yield on a per page basis has been about twice than Bing’s; because of higher traffic volumes sent to landing pages and across greater quantity of landing pages. One can estimate the impact of this organic traffic redistribution to businesses.

This difference may be explained somewhat by taking into account the large user base of Google and Yahoo. Lager audiences conduct diverse search queries which in turn lead to more varied set of landing pages. This difference in engine yield also reflects how differences in the search algorithms can negatively affect the discoverability of landing pages optimised for Google. In such a case, Bing’s engine yield may act a limiting factor for pages optimised specifically for Google.

An easy way to overcome this may be to further optimise sites for Google and ignore the others. For marketers looking for a wider audience, it may be wiser to consider Bing’s new algorithm in the picture and optimise their sites accordingly to prevent losses in the coming holiday season.

Growth of Twitter and User Retention

Twitter has grown exponentially in the past few months and boasts of a user base of 190 million. Celebs are scrambling to climb onto the Twitter bandwagon, people are joining in droves. Now days it has become essential to have a twitter profile. Audience is increasing at faster speeds than ever before. But despite such promising growth, Twitter faces a daunting task of making sure that the new users are brought back, again and again.

So what’s the problem?

For quite some time, about 60 percent of new users signing up for Twitter fail to return the following month, leading to an audience retention rate of around 40 percent only. According to researchers a high retention rate of around 60 percent may guarantee far better internet reach, that is, a wider audience. While a low retention rate which Twitter is showing right now may cripple its future prospects.
It’s too early to strike Twitter off, it is still a fledgling, and even other similar sites faced some problems in their earlier days. Behemoths of social networking like Facebook and MySpace also faced problems of retention. A point to note here is, when they were in this stage, their retention rates were twice as high. And after their budding stage, they managed to sustain a retention rate of about 70 percent.

A detailed study of Twitter and its associated services also revealed the same trend. About 60 percent of new users hang around for month and then disappear. But some Twitter fans do swear by the service and are loyal to it.

Twitter does indeed have a strong and vocal user base with some people having adopted it as a normal way to communicate and express themselves. Everyday people send 50 million tweets, by no means a small amount. To grow further and survive, undoubtedly it needs to achieve a higher level of user loyalty and retention.

what is currency exchange

                                      
The Foreign exchange market with a daily turnover of around $3.98 trillion is the biggest financial market in the world. Forex market exists for trading of currency. It’s an international market and operates for 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Investors and traders are allowed to trade currencies around the world. Different financial centres around the world function as the anchors of trading among buyers and sellers. The main aim of the currency exchange is to assist international trade and investment.
Foreign Exchange permits borrowers to borrow low yielding currencies and invest in high yielding currencies. In Forex transaction, a party purchases a quantity of one currency by paying the required trading rate in another currency. Often people relate this market to stocks but unlike that, in this market the main game is played by “Currencies”. Here traders buy and sell money all at the same time. The trades are done in pairs. The main pairs traded in the market are Euro/JPN, USD/CHF, and CAD/USD. In this scenario not only big corporations and banks take part in the trade, there are various individuals who make a living out of trading here.
Banks, International companies, Central banks, Forex fixating, Investment management firms are the few organisation which play key role in this market. Large banks trade billions of dollars daily. Some of this trading is done on behalf of customers. An important part of this trading comes from various international financial companies seeking foreign currencies to pay for their goods and services. Central banks try to control the money supply, inflation and interest rates in conjunction with the market. The daily exchange rate fixed by the national bank is known as Forex fixing. Banks, dealers and online foreign exchange traders use this exchange rate to evaluate behaviour of their invested currency. Investment management firms use the foreign exchange to facilitate transaction. Money transfer companies perform high/low level transfers by economic migrants back to their home.
Forex is influenced by various factors comprising of mainly two categories: Fundamental and Technical. Fundamental factors refer to government policies, bank policies, natural disasters, and trader’s mood. A country’s economic situation depends on these factors. Technical analysis on the other hand, depends on the fundamental issues. Movement of market depends on data purely generated by the market, and this is termed as technical issue. A good trader must consider all of these risks and benefits before indulging in any kind of transaction.


why learn forex trading?

The forex market is a very lucrative market which dominates the news headlines with its updates and attracts a lot of young minds. Forex trading or currency trading can be a great way to earn income. It does not require huge investments, all one has to do is continuously participate in online currency trading.

There are a number of online forums, authors offering to tutor you in learning the art of currency trading. But beginners need to stick to the basics. All one needs to learn is to never forget the aim of forex trading. As one currency rises another currency falls. The aim of trading in forex is to identify these trends and act on them. If one can just stick to this very simple principle he can be assured of obtaining huge profits. Now coming to managing currency exchange which by the way is like any other basic trading, one ought to try to get a very good grasp of the elements which help in boosting your chances of making gains.

In order to learn currency trading exchange methods which bring in profits is a relatively simple task. One need not have a college education or be smart or be clever to do currency trading. All one needs to have is the right knowledge, avoid all the common myths and most important of all trade with dedication and discipline. Learning currency trading is easy and each and every trader has it in him to become a successful trader but most of them either don’t have the correct forex education or they have a problem in applying what they have learnt. If there happens to be a method one must apply it with rigid discipline or else there it is very hard to gain profits in this trading system at all. A lot of discipline comes mostly from understanding and also confidence in what we are really doing. Winning or losing in currency trading is in your very own hands, one cannot blame others if they happen to fail, so one needs to take up the responsibility and act on it.

Forex trading or as we call it currency trading is a great way to achieve financial freedom by doing it the right way, just by sticking to the basics and being a cool head will help in long term wealth. It is definitely a challenge but for beginners the first question put forward is are you ready for the challenge?

Trade forex on iphone for maximum profits


Forex is a market that has captivated many individual as well as corporate investors and traders due to its liquidity and market value. It is the most dynamic of all equity markets beating the NYSE and the NASDAQ with a big gap. Forex, being an international market operates 24 hours a day, five days a week. To make maximum profits one needs to be on constantly their toes. A great way to do this is to trade in the forex market with an iPhone itself.
Forex is a highly liquid market with daily activity exceeding USD 4 trillion a day, and one needs to be constantly updated to keep on top of the trends. With the use of an app for the iPhone, staying updated with the latest news and trends becomes an easy and effortless task, whether one is at away travelling or in the comfort of your home. These apps have features to provide real time charts and even perform live trading and instant trade execution. In such a volatile market, news of every event is essential and direction changing. And using such apps one can get the latest news and information on the go.
For making deals all the associated information is available at your command. View second by second trackable charts, live currency quotes and everything that may help you make the best decision, all at your fingertips. An iPhone app can come in handy in situations when sudden market changes take place, as it will take only a few seconds to make that deal. So whether you are in a meeting or away travelling, this app will give you the freedom to trade from anywhere, anytime.
On the spot deals and latest updates can minimise the risks posed by the foreign exchange market. In an open and volatile market like forex before making any trade every decision should be reviewed and an iPhone app can come to your rescue and make you free; you no longer have to be in your office and can trade from anywhere, anytime.

Forex trading online

Forex is a market for trading of currencies worldwide and is also known as foreign exchange. Trade in this market takes place on the basis of the currencies’ relative value of exchange rate. Earlier, the trading was done only from large trade outlets, so was undertaken only by those who were accomplished at it. But now, with the dawn of internet, online forex trading has replaced the old method as it is easy to use and readily accessible from anywhere around the world.

With the help of online trading platforms the forex market is not based at any particular location, and can be accessed from anywhere around the globe. Online trading is surely a blessing for traders as the forex market functions 24 hours, 5 days a week. In a volatile and high volume market like the forex an investor needs to act swiftly as new developments takes place. With just the click of a mouse, traders can sell and buy currency instantly. The high speed provided by online platforms can be a huge aid in such a liquid market like forex where quick decisions are required.
Online forex trading has many advantages not only the ease of trading, but also being able to keep a check on your trading record with the analysis toolkit available with some of the platforms. The analysis provided by these tools can provide valuable insight into which currencies to invest and which to sell in order to increase profits. With proper analysis of the data, profit margins can be increased dramatically. Another helpful feature of online trading platforms are the various resources for learning the tips and tricks of the forex world. Hence, even a newcomer can adapt to the rules of the game as fast as possible. Trading from such a platform also helps us to obtain instant notifications as soon as anything untoward takes place in the market, so that we can capitalise on the opportunity and decrease losses.
Online trading is done not only my large investment houses and corporations but these days even small investors are turning to it for quick income. More and more people are trading online, mainly due to its many ease of use and the flexibility it provides. Online forex trading promises to simplify the whole trading process and usher in a new era of financial prosperity for even small investors.