Jobs, housing data bolster growth outlook
WASHINGTON – New U.S. claims for jobless benefits hit a seven-month low last week and permits for future home construction rebounded strongly in October, the latest data to suggest the economy was gaining traction.
The improving economic picture was spoiled somewhat by another report on Thursday showing factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region slowed this month on weak orders. However, employers hired more workers and increased working hours.
“Economic conditions are moving upward at an accelerating pace,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.
Google gives a little peak under the hood as they disclose some search algorithms
Google recently released a blog post and video detailing ten recent search algorithms. Now just to be clear, Google is not doing this to be nice and help you understand their system better. They are facing an antitrust investigation among other things. Of course this disclosure is just a small sampling (10 of 500+ changes) so it is not going to allow you to jump to the top of the search engine results, but it will give a better idea of what Google is looking for when crawling and reviewing websites.
Here is a quick review of some of the more relevant items.
- Google is more likely to choose text from the page content, and less likely to use text that is part of a header or menu. Honestly this is nothing new.
- They are putting more relevance on titles specific to the page content instead of boilerplate links with duplicate anchor text. Anchor text in links has slowly been losing relevancy over the years as people abused anchor text links. Ideally you should still concentrate on both as they make for a better user experience.
- Providing fresher more recent results. A lot of this has to do with the loss of the agreement with Twitter in addition to trying to compete with the fresh news and content provided by social networks like Twitter, Facebook, etc. Either way this is a win-win for businesses who provide fresh content and news on a regular basis.
And to learn more follow the link in my opening paragraph.
Santa Cruz County unemployment up slightly, to 10.1 percent in October 2011
SANTA CRUZ — Unemployment in Santa Cruz County was 10.1 percent in October, nearly identical to the 10 percent figure in September, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.
The job mix was different, however.
Jobs in state government education jumped by 2,000 due to hiring at UC Santa Cruz for fall quarter. That gain outpaced a loss of 1,300 agriculture jobs as the growing season wraps up.
Online help wanted ads show UCSC with the most ads, 77. Others in the top 10 were Dominican Hospital and its parent, Catholic Healthcare West, Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center, Watsonville Community Hospital and its parent Community Health Systems, with registered nurses, medical managers, and physical therapists the most highly recruited positions.
Universal, Sony/ATV to buy EMI for $4.1 billion
AP Photo A man walks on the crossing made famous from the cover of The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ album in front of Abbey Road Studios, seen at left, in London. EMI Group Ltd., home of The Beatles, Coldplay and Katy Perry, is being sold in two parts for $4.1 billion.