In response to news this week that affiliate marketers appear to be placing affiliate URLs into prominent hotel listings on Yahoo! Local, a Yahoo! official confirmed today that they’re “looking into it,� and suggested the situation may not be as bad as the reports make it appear to be.

Brian Gil, Director of Product Management for Yahoo! Local, told me today that the company is aware of recent reports on the eClick Performance blog and on Search Engine Land. I asked him about the overall response to Yahoo!’s “Consumer Submit� program, which allows users to make edits to business listings on Yahoo! Local, and specifically about the affiliate hotel “spam� reported this week:

“We haven’t seen what I would categorize as significant abuse issues. I’m not going to speak specifically to the hotel thing. That one is a unique case. We have been looking into it…. We’ll take the appropriate action, but my gut is telling me that it’s not nearly as suspect as what was written up. “

Brian did explain that there are times when businesses want to use a unique URL in their business listing for tracking purposes, but this didn’t appear to be one of those cases. I asked him if Yahoo! was aware of the potential for abuse when Consumer Submit launched in late 2006:

“Yes. Whenever we roll out a service like that, we always couple it with increased fraud prevention measures. We don’t just throw more people at it, because oftentimes a person couldn’t even detect a pattern of spam. So, we always complement our human moderation team with automated controls, some of which will automatically reject submissions if it determines that something’s gotten out of hand. Or, it will just raise [an issue] as needing deeper investigation by human beings. All of that is in play, and we were very cognizant of the risk.�

It’s worth nothing that Google also recently announced that anyone will be able to edit business listings on Google Maps.

My conversation with Yahoo!’s Brian Gil today involved a variety of topics related to local search, small business, and, of course, Yahoo! and Yahoo! Local. Stay tuned for a more complete version of the interview in the next day or two here on SBS.

 

read more:www.smallbusinesssem.com/yahoo-locals-affiliate-spam-a-unique-case/1115/

Every day a half of a million people eat out at restaurants in the US, and with Internet usage as prevalent as it is, it’s important that you make sure you are present wherever people look for restaurants — you better be sure your restaurant can be found online.

With all of the search, cityguide, social networking, yellowpage, and other sites available online, how do you make sure you’re listed? I’m compiling a list here of all of the restaurant-oriented or general local search sites that allow you to update business profile information — there’s a lot of them. Most of these sites allow you to update or add basic listings and some information for FREE.

Search Engines

- Google - You can add, edit, or delete local business information via Google’s Local Business Center. Once you’ve done this, your business will show up on Google Maps - and sometimes in the main Google search results (see previous post). This service is free once you create or login to a Google account, although Google can also sell you sponsored listings.

- Yahoo - Yahoo has a very robust set of listings, reviews, and ratings for local services and businesses, including restaurants. As a restaurant owner, you can add relevant information like hours of operation, specialties, cuisines, a short description, etc. This basic information is free with your Yahoo account, although their login site will try to get you to sign up for sponsored listings as well. Yahoo’s Local Listings site is here.

- Windows Live Local - This is Microsoft’s local search site. You can check your listing and edit or add listings through the Windows Live Local “Local Listing Center� here. You’ll be asked to sign up or login with your Windows Live ID.

- Ask City - Currently they don’t have an online method to update listings - but they source many of their listings from InfoUSA and from Citysearch (see below).

- AOL Local Search - Currently they don’t have an online method to update listings, but they source many of their listings from InfoUSA and YellowPages.com (see below).

- Local.com - Local.com is a search site dedicated to finding local businesses. You can update or add your restaurant on Local.com here.

Cityguides/Review Guides

- Citysearch - Citysearch is the grandaddy of Internet city guides; be sure they have your correct restaurant information. Search for your business on www.citysearch.com, then click on the “Have Updated Info? Suggest a correction� link. They also pull some information from InfoUSA (see below).

- Metromix - Metromix is a relatively new cityguide on a national level, having started in Chicago. They currently cover 9 markets in the US. You can submit your restaurant listing for consideration by their editors here (free account required).

- Yelp - The popular social networking and review site Yelp accepts information updates or additions from all of their users - search for your restaurant at www.yelp.com and click on the “Edit Business Info� link. Be sure to check the “Are you the business owner?� box next to the “submit� button on the update information form.

- InsiderPages - Although InsiderPages is now owned by Citysearch, you should check your restaurant listing on their site as well. You can sign up as a business owner here.

- WCities - Wcities is an editorially-oriented cityguide. You can submit edits or adds to their listings by selecting the appropriate topic from the pull-down list here.

Dedicated Restaurant Guides

- BooRah - BooRah is a restaurant review guide, pulling & summarizing reviews from other review sources across the web. Go to www.boorah.com and search for your restaurant, then click on the “Update Restaurant Info� link. You can also upload photos, menus, write a short description, and even track reviews on your restaurant for free by clicking on the “Are you the restaurant owner or manager? Click here to get involved� link. (Free signup) Disclosure - I work for BooRah.

- Restaurants.com - Restaurants.com is a restaurant listing site. You can add/edit your information here. They require you to display an “advertisement� for them on your restaurant website if you register, otherwise you can simply submit changes as a user.

- Dine.com - Has restaurant listings and reviews from their users. You can setup a “free website� on there site by registering here. They allow you to upload photos and menus for free, as well.

- Menupages - Has a comprehensive set of restaurant menus, with many restaurants in their 8 metro areas. You can get instructions to submit your menu for listing here.

- AllMenus - Another restaurant menu site; they claim to have over a quarter million menus listed. Search for your restaurant at www.allmenus.com, then click on the “Incorrect information� link to correct your listing or menu (they’ve collected most of these menus on their own!). You can also upload photos.

- UrbanSpoon - A restaurant listings and reviews site, featuring selected reviews pulled from other sources. Search for your restaurant at www.urbanspoon.com, then click on the “Edit restaurant info� link; be sure to check the “Do you own or manage this restaurant?� box at the bottom of the form.

Online Yellowpages Sites

- Superpages.com - Superpages is an online yellowpages site. You can review, edit or add your business listing here. Basic listings are free; they have many upsell options.

- Yellowpages.com - Yellowpages.com is an online yellowpages site. You can edit or add your business listing here (login required) by clicking on the “Get a FREE listing� link. They also have many upsell options.

- DexKnows.com - DexKnows.com is an online yellowpages site, primarily serving the Qwest phone company region. Search for your restaurant at www.dexknows.com and click on the “Business owners: Make updates to your business profile� link.

- MojoPages - Mojopages is a reviews-driven local business site that has some restaurant listings and reviews. You can add or update your restaurant listing for free here.

 - Yellowbot - Yellowbot is an online yellowpage site. You can update your listing by searching for your restaurant at www.yellowbot.com, then click on the “Submit a correction� link at the bottom (free login required).

Data Aggregators/Providers

- LocalEze - LocalEze is a data aggregator that provides business listings information to other online sites. You can add, edit, or delete your restaurant information here.

- Acxiom - Acxiom is a data aggregator that provides business listings information to other online sites. I couldn’t find an online method to update their listings - let me know if you find one.

- InfoUSA - InfoUSA is a data aggregator that provides business listings information to other online sites. You can add or update your restaurant listing at www.infousa.com - click on the “Update my Listing� link at the very bottom of the page.

- iBegin - iBegin is a data aggregator that provides business listings information to other online sites. You can add or update your restaurant listing here (free login required).

Install ffmpeg library in your server first.

Place a video file of any type on current directory (or anywhere), here it is clock.avi .

Click more for source code:

extension_loaded(‘ffmpeg’) or die(‘Error in loading ffmpeg’);
 
$ffmpegInstance = new ffmpeg_movie(‘clock.avi’);
echo “getDuration: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getDuration() .
“getFrameCount: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getFrameCount() .
“getFrameRate: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getFrameRate() .
“getFilename: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getFilename() .
“getComment: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getComment() .
“getTitle: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getTitle() .
“getAuthor: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getAuthor() .
“getCopyright: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getCopyright() .
“getArtist: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getArtist() .
“getGenre: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getGenre() .
“getTrackNumber: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getTrackNumber() .
“getYear: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getYear() .
“getFrameHeight: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getFrameHeight() .
“getFrameWidth: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getFrameWidth() .
“getPixelFormat: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getPixelFormat() .
“getBitRate: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getBitRate() .
“getVideoBitRate: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getVideoBitRate() .
“getAudioBitRate: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getAudioBitRate() .
“getAudioSampleRate: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getAudioSampleRate() .
“getVideoCodec: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getVideoCodec() .
“getAudioCodec: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getAudioCodec() .
“getAudioChannels: “ . $ffmpegInstance->getAudioChannels() .
“hasAudio: “ . $ffmpegInstance->hasAudio();

//___________________________________Code end here_____________________________________

I also can be used for file format conversion

Eg: exec(’ffmpeg -i ‘.$SourcePath.’ ‘.$Destination);

Here $SourcePath any file of any format , and destionation also another format.

eg: exec(’ffmpeg -i saji.3gp saji.flv’);

Memory management is the main problem when you extent your website over a wide range. In php there are a lot of method for speeding up the execution. For a simple case.

 If you write an algorithm for search a particular keyword from a table, you need to go through all the records for total search results. In this case , you probably use array for saving the result. For a single search it is enough. Think, if your site is viewed by more than 100 users simultaneously, a lot of memory will be loosed for saving the search results as arrays, and you need to execute the database query again and again.

 

If you can save the intermediate array after the queriying and execution for a particular period of time, you can reuse this array for further queries for a particular period. The php function memcache is using for this purpose. For this you need to install memcahced server on your machine.

 

Sample php code:

 

//$a = array(1,2,3,4,5);
$mmc = new Memcache;
$mmc->connect(’127.0.0.1′ ,11211 ) or die (�Could not Connect�);

echo $mmc->getVersion();
$mmc->set(’myarray’,$a, false, 60); // the value will be saved with key myarray for 60 seconds

print_r ( $mmc->get(’myarray’) ) ;

 

//—Code Ends———————————————

For install memcache using cake use this link:

http://jirikupiainen.com/2007/04/11/memcache-cakephp-cache-memcached-component-helper/

 

For windows use this link:

http://jehiah.cz/projects/memcached-win32/

 

For more details use:

http://www.danga.com/memcached/.

 

Another installation method:

http://pecl.php.net/package/memcache

 

For user manual

http://www.php.net/memcache

Here is an example demonstrating the power of cURL. This code posts all the correct post fields to Googles universal Account Services login and brings the user directly to the AdSense Overview page. Cookies are used in this example as well as setting the USER AGENT and REFERRER HTTP headers.

Downloads