It was an interesting weekend for food beginning with Friday’s grilled lemon chicken breasts. Using my usual brine of salt and lemon juice (1 teaspoon each per cup of water) the breasts were incredibly juicy and flavorful. Saturday we decided to try a new restaurant in the neighborhood. It is a breakfast and lunch place and we tried it in either day one or two of its opening. It will need to improve before it becomes a place I would frequent. I tried the in house cured corned beef and it tasted like regular brisket. Moreover, the portion was quite small for a Reuben. Finally, although the tortilla soup was well seasoned it was almost devoid of chicken. It was a very disappointing meal. As lump crab was on sale this weekend, Sunday, I decided to make crab cakes with an avocado cream sauce. I used the same recipe as listed on my blog with one change. I decided not to use any of the Panko bread crumbs as a binder. I, therefore, used only half of the liquid mixture to season the crab. OMG! I have been trying to replicate a fantastic crab cake I had in Hong Kong for years and Sunday, I achieve success. The recipe of the week was supposed to be the avocado cream sauce with a hint of jalapeño, which was excellent. However, I have to give you the new version of the crab cake recipe. It is ground changing. I assure you that if you make these crab cakes, all other versions will seem inferior. So, the recipes of the week are Crab Cakes with Avocado Cream Sauce. Enjoy!

Internet Marketing State of the Union

It would be difficult and inconsiderate of me to only discuss Google when reflecting on the Internet Marketing strides we’ve been making this year, so today I will address Bing and Yahoo.  Late last year, Bing and Yahoo formed a partnership that essentially removed Yahoo from providing search results to their visitors.  In a groundbreaking 10 year deal, Microsoft began showing Bing results through Yahoo search pages.  This deal provided a much needed cash influx for Yahoo and allowed Microsoft real traction for their highly touted search engine investments.  These changes provide reliable alternatives when deciding where to spend ad dollars. While Google still maintains a stranglehold of 63% market share for search traffic, Bing Powered Search Engines managed an increase to 31.6% market share in May 2011.  I have seen numbers with Google as high as 68% and Bing as low as 27%. However, these numbers reflect the general trend. As such, Broadvox's Internet marketing efforts have increased around the same percentage for Bing and I can say we are intrigued with the results we’ve been seeing. Competition is a good thing and having Bing as an option for online marketing is positive. Whether they can continue to grow is uncertain but they are attempting new things in an effort to do so. Tying search engine results to social media activity is one example of such an attempt. As long as Bing can avoid LOL and reach for OMG they have a chance of leveling the playing field with Google.