You must have heard it by now. Mocality, a leading Kenyan online business directory, has accused Google of scraping its database, and fraudulently soliciting for business from business owners listed in that database. See full details in this blog post by Mocality’s CEO, Stef Magdalinski.
As you would expect, there has been a massive reaction online, both locally and globally.
Most people are condemning the “evil” Google and labelling this as a fraudulent scandal. But I think Mocality are just throwing a tantrum, and we are simply overreacting. And no, I am …

(But Google May Also Have Shot Itself in the Foot)
In the past few months, Google has made several significant changes, the most talked about among them being the Panda algorithm update. These changes, in my opinion, mark the beginning of a huge shift in the world of internet marketing in a way that many of us are yet to fully grasp.
In a nutshell, for an online business to continue operating profitably, you will need a more solid business model, now more than ever.
Let me expound. Up to a few months …

Note: This post is meant for beginner-level webmasters, more so small business owners who often have to play the webmaster (and several other roles) for their online businesses. If you are already an internet marketing expert and an accomplished web administrator, this post may not be for you. That is, if you have already mastered search engine optimization, PPC, social media marketing, and other related online marketing techniques. I would however encourage you to read on, you might find a nugget or two that you did not know about.
In a …

According to CCK’s latest (May 2011) Kenya internet and mobile phone usage report, internet penetration in Kenya currently stands at 25.9%. That is to say, in numbers, there are about 10.2 million internet users in Kenya. And the number is growing. Now, more than ever therefore, Kenyan businesses should take note of the obvious online marketing opportunities this presents. See graph below:

I wanted to find out which sites most of these Kenyans visit. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything much from the Kenyan internet service providers. The closest I came accross …

I am writing this from a recent experience. Two days ago, one of my websites was “hacked” by an unknown person. The hacker created a phishing page in the site, targeting clients of a leading European bank. He/she also installed a script that sent thousands of spam messages to get people to that phishing page.
Since the rest of the website was working just fine, I would probably not have known of the hack quick enough to act, had I not received notifications from some internet security organisations. You can imagine …