Latest Articles
Using Cloud Computing to Innovate at InfoSpace
October 20, 2011 By Stacy
In an article published recently on Forbes.com, contributor Joe McKendrick wrote about a study that claims that cloud computing makes it easier to innovate. In the Accenture-sponsored study titled, “A new era of innovation: Cloud and the future of business,” the study’s authors identified the adoption of a company’s use of cloud computing in three stages:
1. Technology and operational changes – McKendrick describes this level as, “The one-of-one exchange of traditional applications and resources for those offered as services through the cloud, such as Software as a Service (SaaS).”
2. Business process changes – This stage allows companies the capability “of delivering market innovations that enhance existing products and services, create new ones and enable entry into new markets.”
3. Innovation in business design – The final stage is considered the stage that a company reaches when the commit fully to cloud computing, and “may provide a platform for radical innovation in business design.”
Through this article and study, we’re able to gauge where InfoSpace is positioned among these stages.
For the first level, an example of where InfoSpace made an exchange from traditional software to cloud computing services is with our WebPosition SaaS Reporter product, as referenced in an earlier blog entry.
We have been using cloud computing services, such as those described in the second phase, to enhance our current portal service offerings for our distribution partners. Our new content experience platform, which expands our portal offering to include access to content using mobile phones, tablets and readers, was developed on the Heroku platform (Platform as a Service or PaaS), which, in turn, is hosted on Amazon’s Web Service (Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS).
Despite its current popularity, cloud computing hasn’t entered the technology space without concern. InfoSpace CTO Travis McElfresh is well aware of the potential risks of relying completely on cloud providers, yet considers the public cloud to be an important part of the company’s IT strategy.
“We are at the beginning of reaching the third stage,” he said, “with a considerable amount of attention dedicated to ROI and risks associated with a transformative move towards a deeper leverage of a cloud strategy”, he said. “Still, we expect to be well into this stage by the end of 2012.”
McElfresh shared this and more of his thoughts on cloud computing as a panelist at a recent Harvey Nash CIO Forum.
InfoSpace CTO Travis McElfresh talks a bit about the public cloud before sharing his viewpoints with a panel of other CTO/CIOs.
Whether your company is in the first stage of cloud computing, fully embracing it, or not using it at all, there is still a lot to be discussed over cloud computing, including privacy and security issues to name two. To continue the conversation, or to share how your company is using cloud computing, please visit us on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/infospace.
WebPosition to Demo two BETAs at SMX
June 7, 2011 By Stacy
SMX Advanced, a search marketing conference designed exclusively for experienced internet marketers, is being held in Seattle, and it’s starting tonight with a Meet & Greet! Since WebPosition became a part of the InfoSpace family just a little over a year ago, we haven’t gotten a chance to attend this popular conference before. That’s why we’re so excited to attend and be a part of it for the first time this year!
If you’re one of our customers, please stop by our Expo booth (#31) and tell us what you think of all the improvements we’ve made to WebPosition Reporter with our SaaS offering. We’d love to meet our SEO professionals and hear your feedback!
We’ll also show demonstrations of our new BETA optimization and analysis tools, PageCritic and InLinks, so come by for a visit and see what WebPosition has to offer.
See you at SMX!
The WebPosition Team
InfoSpace’s newest SEO feature now in BETA
March 25, 2011 By Korbodo
Some of you know that InfoSpace not only provides great search results on its metasearch engines, we also help Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals monitor search engine rankings through our SEO tool, WebPosition.
WebPosition became a part of the InfoSpace portfolio of products a couple of years ago when we saw how helpful the software was for SEO experts. Although the brand is well known for its downloadable software product, we noticed that it could have a lot of potential if it was re-cast using a Software as a Service (SaaS) approach. Since then, our talented team of engineers developed a new cloud version with WebPosition Reporter, launched last May. The Reporter feature helps SEO practitioners monitor search engine rankings for their sites and their competitors. Now, less than a year later, we’ve upgraded our SEO tools even further with PageCritic, a new feature that allows SEO professionals to analyze individual web pages. PageCritic is in Beta, available to current WebPosition subscribers.
We’re especially proud of the PageCritic Beta because it reviews live and local files to show how keyword usage is similar to or different from top ranking competitors. It lets you learn from pages that are already ranking at the top for a specific keyword, rather than analyze the page against generalized heuristics that might not be helpful when competing in your niche. Over a short period of time, PageCritic can help website owners able to better understand why competitors may be ranking higher, and know where to target their optimization efforts.
Get a quick review of how easy it is to use with the PageCritic demo at the WebPosition Blog, MarketPosition.com. If you have any feedback or questions about the new PageCritic BETA, please share them with us. We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.