AllBusiness.com, Inc., a leading online resource for businesses, has announced the results of its 2007 year-end “SMB State of the Union Study” and SMB Barometer. The study found 74 percent of small and mid-size business (SMB) leaders list search engines as their top source for business information to help them run their company. The study also found 63 percent of SMB leaders will be turning to search engines even more going into the New Year. While “word of mouth” is still a solid source of information at 71 percent, this marks the first time in the “SMB State of the Union” study history that search was cited as the top source. Overall business sentiment among SMBs is positive For the third straight year-end forecast, SMBs are generally optimistic about their business outlook for the coming year and say the falling value of the dollar is their most important economic concern. Other findings focused on SMB outlook included:

• 55 percent of small business leaders planned to hold a holiday party while
• 38 percent of small businesses did not. One recent survey of bigger businesses indicated that 85 percent of companies hosted a holiday party this year.
• 30 percent of small business leaders were planning on giving year-end bonuses and 33 percent were not.
• 60 percent of small business leaders are concerned about the falling value of the dollar while 23 percent are primarily concerned about immigration.
• 78 Percent of small businesses took green measures this past year; recycling paper and trash were the most common measure.

Last fortnight, Google reduced the Page Rank of Stanford Daily from 9 to 7 because that website was selling text link ads. It was later confirmed by Google that PageRank scores were being lowered for some sites that sell links.

Well, that may have picked up steam as Google PageRank values of several prominent sites have taken a hit during this week. Some examples:

Washingtonpost.com - from 7 to 5

Searchcamp.in -
SearchCamp is a two day event aimed to bring together the best minds from the Search Engine Marketing space to talk about search engine advertising, including optimization and marketing issues. This event is the first of its kind in India and will feature workshops, debates and keynotes on the present state and evolution of Search Engine Marketing.

Millions of people use search engines everyday. Today, the world is a global market place; working around the clock and across time-zones. It is therefore critical to have potential clients find you. The question is how to stand out and ensure that your offering is seen by consumers who are precisely looking for it?

Google’s advertising programme is called “AdWords”. It is used by thousands of businesses of all sizes in India and worldwide, to reach new customers in the most cost-effective and targeted way.