In August, we alerted webmasters to the news from the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) team of the beta 1 release of their excellent new tool, the IIS SEO Toolkit. The public response we received was very enthusiastic and supportive. In response to many requests, we followed that up with a more detailed article explaining how the new tool is installed as an extension of IIS 7. Since that time, the tool was refreshed in a beta 2 release and, as of November 13,

by Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Grammy nominations   (Searches increased by 1,826%). Get on Kanye watch: Beyonce and Taylor Swift scooped up the most music award nods . Robin Wright Penn (+1,577%). The star's performance in "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" is receiving raves . Jane Fonda (+1,498%). The 71-year-old star credits plastic surgery and an active love life for keeping her young . New Super Mario Bros.   (+180%). Old name, new game,

MySpace is continuing to make big strides on the music front. Or more accurately, the social network has made a huge, across-the-Atlantic leap, as late yesterday, MySpace Music launched in the UK. A MySpace representative explained in an email to WebProNews, "With this launch, MySpace Music brings to the UK all of the functionality currently available to U.S.,

After a rough year for retailers, it looks like things are perking up for the holidays, especially on Bing. According to the SearchIgnite Mid Q4 Search Marketing Report published last week, in the first half of Q4 conversion rates were up across all major search engines by 17% year over year. US search spend is following the same trend, up 7% over the same time period. Conversion rates and spend are clearly on the rise,

When you browse the web, you type in the domain name of the URL you wish to visit. But behind every URL is an IP address - and it takes a bit of computing to get you where you want to go. The URL is kind of like a nickname, but your computer will actually need to access the legal name, the IP, in order to view the site. This can take several steps of resolution, which is all done behind the scenes. In an effort to speed up the process,

Tweet your fave raves for the past year with Yahoo! By all accounts, 2009 was pretty rough year: economic meltdowns, persistent war, piracy on the high seas, fires and floods. You name it, we endured it. But not all the news was bad. This year saw airline Captain "Sully" Sullenberger save the lives of 155 people by successfully ditching hos plane in the Hudson ; a new world land speed record for a steam-powered car; America's first commercial Zeppelin"yeah,

Decision engine Hunch has unveiled a new Question and Answer interface . The reasoning behind the new design is the ability to see real-time recommendations from Hunch as you answer the questions. If you haven't spent a lot of time on Hunch, you'll want to know that answering questions is how you "teach" Hunch how to make suggestions tailored towards you. The more time you spend teaching Hunch, the better your suggestions should be.

Today, we're shining the spotlight on the men and women who have bravely served - and are presently serving - in all branches of the U.S. military. Video has become a vital tool for current soldiers who are trying to communicate their wartime experience to the public and for older veterans who want to share their stories from past battles, like Lewis Bennett, the youngest member of the 84th District in World War II: In addition, on the homepage,

The Pulitzer Prize Board said Wednesday it is opening its doors wider to entries from text-based online-only newspapers and news sites. A year ago, the Board broadened the competition to include many news outlets in the United States that publish on the Internet at least weekly, but it required that all entered material had to come from outlets "primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing events.

Local search is only one sliver of the search marketing game, but it is an increasingly important one, and one that is changing rapidly. These days people are going to the web to find local businesses, sometimes more than even the phone book. Having a presence in local search is imperative for any small business, but just as imperative is being able to compete for visibility. There is a good discussion taking place in our WebProWorld forum on the topic of local search.