Monday, April 20, 2009

LucEnA citY

The City of Lucena (Filipino: Lunsod ng Lucena) is a first class highly urbanized medium sized city in the province of Quezon, Philippines. It is the capital city of Quezon and belongs to the 25 most competitive cities of the Philippines. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 236,390 people in 45,902 households. Nearby towns of Lucena are Pagbilao (east), Tayabas (north) and Sariaya (west).


History

Lucena City was originally a barrio of Tayabas town, then the capital of the Province of Tayabas (now Quezon) which was explored by Captain Juan de Salcedo in 1571 & 1572. The town was founded by the Franciscan fathers, Juan de Plasencia & Diego de Oropesa between 1580 & 1583.

It was then called by the Spaniards "Buenavista" (beautiful scenic spots) because of its awe-inspiring scenic beauty.

It was then changed to "Oroquieta" in honor of the Spanish Gov-Gen. Oroquieta. Then in the 17th Century it was changed to "Cotta" meaning a strong fort because forts or cottas were built to defend it from Muslim piratical raids. Spanish records mention the existence of cottas (Tagalog: kuta) along the coast of Lucena, particularly in Cotta itself and in the Barrio of Mayao, though these structures are no longer extant. Finally, on November 5, 1897, pursuant to an Orden Real Superior Civil, the community was named "Lucena." It became an independent municipality on June 1, 1882, coinciding with the growth of local maritime trade facilitated in the Cotta port and with the final defeat of Moro pirates plying the Luzon and Visayan waters.

Popular knowledge attribute the origin of the name "Lucena" to the town of Lucena, Andalucia where the late Reverend Mariano Granja, the Franciscan pioneer parish priest was said to have earlier served (some even say that he was from this town). But according to the monumental work (Catalogo Biografico de los Religiosos Franciscanos de la Provincia de San Gregorio Magno de Filipinas), of a fellow Franciscan, Eusebio Gomez Platero, Fr. Granja was born in Paredes de Nava, diocese of Palencia, distant from Andalucia. Records also show that he had no previous post as priest of Lucena, Andalucia.

During the Philippine Revolution in 1896, the captain municipal of Lucena, Jose Zaballero, led the local revolutionaries. However, the local revolutionary government was organized by Manuel Argüelles, with José Barcelona as president. After the declaration of Philippine Independence, Gen. Malvar took over Tayabas Province on Aug. 15, 1898. Don Crisanto Marquez was elected municipal president during the first elections.

Lucena was the site of bloody struggles at the outbreak of the Filipino-American War in 1899. Upon the establishment of a civil government in the Province of Tayabas by the Americans on March 12, 1901, Lucena was made capital of the province after a bitter debate between Tayabas-born and Lucena-based officials. The decision to make Lucena as capital was primarily based on its strategic location. Unlike the former capital town (Tayabas), Lucena has access to the sea.

During WW II, Lucena was not spared from the grim realities of war at the hands of the Japanese who occupied the city on Dec. 27, 1941. Fortunately, however, the city was not devastated by the war. The Hunter ROTC guerillas succeeded in driving out the Japanese on January 25, 1945. Quezon Province was formally liberated by joint Filipino & American troops on April 4, 1945.

On June 17, 1961 by virtue of Republic Act No. 3271, sponsored by Cong. Manuel S. Enverga & Cong. Pascual Espinosa, Lucena became a chartered city. The City of Lucena was inaugurated on Aug. 20, 1962 after the occasion of the 84th birth anniversary of the late Pres. Manuel L. Quezon during Aug. 19.

Today Lucena is home to a population of 220,834 people (as of 2005) and is fast flourishing as an urban community and planning to build an Economic Zone.


Friday, April 17, 2009

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

SEM

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or Spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

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