Why hasn’t Microsoft Internet Explorer ever been upgraded from IE 6.0 to IE 7.0? After being disavowed several times as unneeded, because Windows XP is a “finished product” at the end of its development path (can you hear the choked laughter?) Microsoft now says it has listened to customers and is going to release a beta version of IE 7.0 some time this year. Here’s a link to the blog where this is presented: IE 7.0 blog. What to expect? A product that will still not be standards compliant (that is, it still won’t pay any attention …

Does having a static IP addresses make a difference in search rankings at Google? I have long believed so. Bruce Clay of www.bruceclay.com, one of the better search engine optimizers out there, was the first to point this out. If you analyze the top sites for just about any search phrase, many of them will have static IP addresses. Since only about 2% of websites have static IP addresses, finding a disproportionate amount of those at the top of the search engines must mean somthing. A static IP address is only one factor among many, but I’ve seen …