Vertical Scope, the Canadian-owned giant that touts a whopping 30 million unique monthly visitors amid its 300-plus web properties, according to its Google Analytics report March 2011, announced yesterday via Twitter that rumors of its acquisition of what is purportedly the largest off-road website upon the web, Pirate4X4.com, were in fact true, adding to its massive portfolio of automotive, powersports, power equipment, sports, action sports and technology websites.

It's great when the clock strikes 9 am, and you've already put in a several hours worth of work, allowing for more time to work or play throughout the rest of the day. In checking some quick web analytics (Google Analytics / Woopra / AWstats) on several websites that I am actively performing modifications upon, I was directed to Google Labs and its Browser Size graphical analytics report, which is a graphical visualization of browser window sizes of people who visit Google. Such information as this is critical in assessing website usability and web design effectiveness at conveying your brand's marketing message. As you can see by the visualization, you can see, that unless the average website visitor scrolls on many larger format websites, much of your page is useless. So, be sure to have the important elements of your web page, such as critical call to actions, within the window of opportunity.

Got links? Here are some good reads. Perhaps the best of the lot is the 10 free social media tools every public relations (PR) pro should master. And if you're a small businesses and looking for some insight on how to increase the eyeballs landing upon your good name when conducting local business searches, then there's a great link for optimizing your business listing. For those looking for domains for an existing business or a startup, there are five tips to get you started. Got content? There's an excellent strategy for those charged with developing a web content strategy. In my experience, especially for those working as contractors, you'll want to maintain an open stream of communication between client and client assets. Social media strategy, tactics and success is yet another link worthy of a read.

I rarely donate any time to my personal websites. I am not one who has been too zealous on self promotion. I don't promote many of the projects I have worked on or am actively working on and don't Tweet too many of my own blog posts. I'm trying to break the mold but still haven't gone full bore on the endeavor. This could change. One sign is that after the late evening's work, which consisted of strategizing a marketing effort and weighing its web presence against available search engine trends, I scrolled over the various Google Analytics accounts and landed onto the DIRT FORGE.com search engine analytics report.