Archive for the ‘Out on a Limb’ Category
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 |
Twas the night before Google
Twas the night before Google when all through the net
the users and SEO’s were all upset,
Search Wiki, and GMail Themes were rolled out in style
Lively was nuked and GOOG sat with a smile.
Matt Cutts and the Spam team were out on the prowl,
with visions of Black Hatter’s on a moonlight howl.
Comments and Blog post were active indeed
Tweets and Diggs until some fingers did bleed.
Pushing the Chrome, the browser of GOOG
Collecting the data of the unknowing newb.
Signed into Google for a Search Wiki rating
Seeing spammers explode like a round of speed dating.
Knowing that Search Results are the victims of Change,
Exploring the options and manipulating the range.
There is a way to succeed with out a Adwords Budget
Social Book Mark Me Please for a Link Back, Nudge (it)!
Webmaster tools now showing me data,
my info is delayed come, back Later.
The Capcha’s not working on Signups for things,
Google Local Maps verification not giving me rings.
Twas the Night before Google and Tool Bar Page Rank still not Updated
the Indian outsources were on alert for some projects we stated.
The Ranked Hard Seo Comic issue explains it all well
It’s all Will‘s fault, What the…
So Digg me, Tweet me, This Link Bait attempt
At humor towards Google et al, I am feeling a little “verklempt!”
Posted in Google, Out on a Limb | 3 Comments »
Thursday, August 21st, 2008 |
When you think of basketball, you think of Michael Jordan. When you think of golf, you think of Tiger Woods. When you think of swimming, you think of Michael Phelps. These people have elevated themselves, and what they do, to the next level — they are the rockstars.
How about in SEO? Are there any SEO rockstars? If so, do these rockstars help the industry like Phelps has helped swimming?
The Trend-Setting SEO Rockstar: Aaron Wall
When you pop SEO into Google, what do you get? Some Wikipedia entries (naturally), a .org for the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, but one of the entries that catches your eye is probably “Learn. Rank. Dominate.: SEO Book.com.” Learn, rank and dominate? Sign me up; if I put SEO in Google, I’m certainly not looking for Sponsors for Educational Opportunity — I want to learn about Search Engine Optimization!
Such is the star power of Aaron Wall. He, quite literally, wrote the book on SEO — “SEO Book,” which first debuted in 2003. He started very simply with Search-Marketing.info, but quickly learned his trade by trolling through forums, writing articles and eventually setting up his new site, SEObook.com, writing his SEO book and then tirelessly marketing it.
Wall has grown his newest site to a massive scale. He is a sought-after speaker at almost every SEM and SEO conference and everywhere he goes in the SEO world, people follow what he says.
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Posted in Out on a Limb, Search Engine Optimization | 9 Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008 |
Every Internet startup company deserves a chance to prove itself. Unless, of course, that startup comes out of the gate and immediately starts making bombastic claims like “We’re better than Google” and “we index more of the web then they do.” Then an examiner has every right to shove that startup under a microscope and pull out its insides. But, in Cuil’s case, you don’t need to pick apart its internal organs to uncover its deficiencies. In fact, all you have to do is a simple long tail search, like “how to train a cat.” <click image for larger view.>
So, what’s wrong with this picture? Well, for starters, if Cuil has 120 billion pages indexed, then why is it only displaying about three thousand for this keyword, which is roughly 29 million less than what Google shows. Secondly, why are there two pictures of dogs on the page? I recall searching for cats. Thirdly, why is there a Tropicana can on the page? I could go on, but I’ll stop in the interest of time.
Why don’t we look at another long tail keyword people might search for, like “how to give a dog a haircut.”
No results. I suppose if Cuil has its way, we’ll all live in a society where dogs walk around with hideously long hair.
Now, I don’t wish Cuil to fail. Quite the contrary, I think any competition in the search space is desirable. But, sadly, I think Cuil may end up going down in history as one of the most “borked” Internet startup companies of all time. Venture capitalists gave 33 million to a search engine that couldn’t even handle long tail searches on its launch date. Seriously? Have we entered the twilight zone? Ever heard of a soft opening, Cuil? If their algorithm was truly going to be as underdeveloped as it was on its launch date, they should have announced a public beta (and had it be real beta and not just a catch phrase). Instead, Cuil did the complete opposite. They worked the media to ensure they would be mentioned everywhere on their launch date and hyped their product to ludicrous proportions.
The often spouted but obviously wrong cliché is that all publicity is good publicity. Let’s evaluate that cliché in terms of Cuil. Now Cuil is in a hole it has to dig itself out of. The general perception is that its algorithm is awful, and the burden is on Cuil to make people change that perception. Is this really where Cuil wanted to be? Is this the finest demonstration of why all publicity is allegedly good publicity?
At least search engines like Powerset and SearchMe had premises they could back up. Powerset said it could handle natural language search, and it does an adequate job (depending on many variables). SearchMe merely claimed to offer a visual display of search results. Cuil’s tagline is that it indexes more of the web than Google. You’re really just asking for it when you say that.
I’ll end this rant with two predictions. 1.) Someone at Cuil will come across this article and attempt to fix the search results for the keywords I mentioned and 2.) when someone mentions the name Cuil a year from now, the person standing next to him will have to choke to hold back his laughter.
Now it’s Cuil’s job to prove me wrong. They do have a lot of that venture capital still sitting in the bank.
Posted in Out on a Limb, Search Engines | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 |
Here is the beginning of a very good article on why we should be suspicious of Google. Sooner or later some entity will have to get involved to monitor this information Goliath. You can read the full article here: Top 10 Reasons to Fear Google.
Once just a search engine, it is now sprouting up extensions like Jack’s bean stalk on steroids. These extensions are what’s making Google so irreplaceable for many people who want the one stop shop. Google is fast becoming the Wal-Mart of the Internet. And it’s for that reason that some people are starting to fear the company.
10. Google Video
When most people think of looking for videos, YouTube is the automatic choice. However, Google has gone a step beyond YouTube. Not only does a Video search yield all of the YouTube results and play them in the Google window, but the search engine also searches the entire web for your content. While Google Video may not feature categories like YouTube, when you can search the entire web, who cares?
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Posted in Google, Out on a Limb | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 |
I found this funny graph at graphjam.com. I thought it was appropriate considering my latest post on twitter. Agree or disagree?
Posted in Out on a Limb, Social Media Optimization, Twitter | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 |
This is perfect example of why I don’t use Sphinn anymore. And yes, I realize the irony of writing that statement and then posting a screen shot of Sphinn. I was curious to see if a comic we wrote (which has a gravestone with Sphinn on it) had been “sphunn”. I scrolled down the front page and saw the following item had been sphunn 44 times. Unbelievable.
What is so amazing about this story? Well, nothing.
I apologize to Lisa Barone, I’m sure she is an excellent person and I wish her a happy birthday, but is this really worthy of going “hot” on Sphinn? Is this the Internet Marketing information we crave? From their own “What’s Sphinn?” page:
Sphinn is a social site for search and interactive marketers. It’s designed to allow you to share and discover news stories, read and take part in discussions, discover events of interest and network with others.
Does this story fit that ideal? I firmly believe the top sphunn stories are usually made so by a group of people mutually sphinning their own stories and I have seen many sphunn stories like this, both frivolous and unrelated to the cause that Sphinn is supposed to have. It feels like a gated community where only members are allowed to achieve success.
This is exactly why I stopped supporting Sphinn a few months ago and removed the Sphinn buttons from this blog. Too many stories making the hot list that shouldn’t be there. Do we need anymore proof that the Sphinn site has little value and is really a marketing tool for a select group?
While I believe Sphinn is just a ego massage for Internet marketers it really isn’t hurting anyone, but on the other hand I believe everyone should take information and opinion of Sphinn with a giant grain of salt and realize where the real spinning is taking place.
Posted in Out on a Limb, Social Media Optimization | 11 Comments »
Monday, June 9th, 2008 |
We have a few clients that sell products that are not labeled as “cheap” but they are considered inexpensive. The problem is very few people do a search for the term “inexpensive”, they usually use the search term “cheap”. But you don’t want to put the word “cheap” in the text so you hope the search engines will figure out the semantics if you use word similar to “cheap” such as “inexpensive”. So I went to the online site http://thesaurus.reference.com and was very surprised to see the amount of advertising on the site and in some cases how far off that advertising was.
Of course every one has the right to earn a living and capitalism is the fuel of our country, but there has to be limits to the commercialization of a website, especially one that is an academic website, or so I thought. But even if you allow the number of ads they have displayed, the sneaky way in which they try to trick you into clicking is reprehensible.
If you click on the image to the left (view it larger) you will notice that the advertisements are the first links you will see to click. Luckily in the subject matter of text ads the ads themselves were so far off from my search term (Homemade Jerky showed up for a lookup of the word “cheap”) that I didn’t click them by accident. But I did additional searches and could have easily been fooled. Some of the ads actually had the clickable ad link read, “Synonyms For” which might lead an unwary Internet traveler to click it.
I’m certainly not idealistic enough to believe that advertising on the Internet will go away or even believe it should. Too many people feed their families and make their living through Internet advertising. No, I’m simply saying a website owner should take responsibility for the ads they show their audience and the consider the number of advertisements on the page. At some point, too many ads make the website in question extraneous, extrinsic, immaterial, impertinent, inapplicable, inapposite, incidental, inconsequential, insignificant, marginal, moot, nonessential, peripheral, pointless, tangential, unapt, unconnected, unessential, unimportant, unrelated, wide of the mark…well, you get the point.
Rant over.
Posted in Out on a Limb, Website Conversion | 11 Comments »
Thursday, May 1st, 2008 |
A few weeks ago a co-worker and I were discussing some bands we like (we are children of the eighties, so bear with me) and more than a few we labeled “wuss” rock bands. Now this isn’t necessarily an insult, but more of a classification. As I said we personally liked the bands, but we had to admit that a large number of their popular songs were kinda, well…wussy.
We then asked friends and colleagues who they considered the top wuss rock bands. So I included them below in order of wussiness, based on the number of times a band was listed. The top five bands have a link to a YouTube video for your listening and viewing pleasure.
Top Five Wuss Rock Bands (based on votes):
- Air Supply – Two guys you hope weren’t actually singing to each other.
- Chicago - Does every Chicago song sound the same to you?
- Abba - I was never sure if they were friends, siblings, spouses or what.
- Loverboy - The name says it all.
- REO Speedwagon – I can’t fight this feeling any longer…I’m numb.
Other bands receiving votes, in order of number of votes received. (I published comments as well):
- Coldplay
- Foreigner
- Hall & Oates
- Jefferson Starship
- Journey
- Radiohead – great musicians, but let’s face it, the Backstreet Boys could probably take them in a fight.
- Styx
- Survivor
- White Lion
- Winger
- A Flock of Seagulls
- Aaron Carter – it’s bad when your brother was a Backstreet Boy and he’s referred to as the “hardcore” one.
- A-Ha
- Ambrosia – Holdin’ on to Yesterday was their biggest song and their destiny.
- Backstreet Boys
- Bang Tango
- Bread – I found your Diaper underneath the tree?
- Creed
- Culture Club
- Dashboard Confessional – been singing about the same girl that left him for nearly 10 years…get over her dude.
- Dire Straits
- Everything But the Girl – I still have EBTG worship issues.
- Extreme – Hole in my heart makes me want to put a hole in my head.
- Fall out Boy
- Fleetwood Mac
- Genesis
- Goo Goo Dolls
- Heart
- Huey Lewis & the News
- Maroon 5
- Mr. Big
- N Sync
- Nelson
- New Kids On the Block (reunited)
- Night Ranger
- Teenage Fanclub
- The Carpenters – They had a chick playing the drums. If Mama Cass would have given Karen a sandwich, they’d both be alive.
- The Scorpions
- Toto
- Warrant
If you would like to contribute, feel free and post a comment.
Posted in Out on a Limb | 14 Comments »
Friday, April 25th, 2008 |
Anyone think Google isn’t the most powerful company on the planet? Well, you are wrong. And besides that they know how to keep their employees happy. Feed them. And they did to the tune of $72 million dollars.
Wrap your head around that number. Wow. Some small companies hope to bring in 1 million sales a year. Here’s a tip for you, start a food catering business and cater to Google! 
Get your fill and read the full story on Softpedia.
Posted in Google, Out on a Limb | 3 Comments »
Thursday, April 17th, 2008 |
While doing a check for backlinks to our wildly popular SEO Comic, I found this blog post (http://filehostfactory.com/site/8/?p=7268). What intrigued me the most was the overwhelming number of link ads (contextual ads) being placed in the post. If you look at the screen shot below you can see what I mean.
I counted 171 words starting with Filehostfactory and ending with “your own site.” Out of those words, 34 are being sold as Chitika ads. That is 20% of your content being sold to advertisers. Wow! And it doesn’t make reading it any easier either.
According to Chitika big money by top bloggers is a certainty so this type of in-your-face link advertising may be more prevalent as small-time bloggers seek a bigger piece of the blog advertising pie.
Has anyone had monetary success with this type of advertising? It would seem to drive viewers away in my opinion.
I do appreciate the link to our comic.
Posted in Blogging, Out on a Limb, SEO Mistakes | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 |
A very resourceful gentleman by the name of Andrew Baron put his Twitter account on ebay. This account has 1,400 followers who have also been put on the auction block whether they like it or not. You can see the auction on eBay. It was up to $1,550 when I took this screen shot, with 7 days to go. Amazing!
Why is he sellng his account? From his own words:
I really love my Twitter account but I feel like I haven’t been using it the way I want to. Quite honestly, I feel sorry for all of my followers because they wind up with my tweets in their timelines and I haven’t been able to utilize the medium the way I want to. I also participate in another Twitter account over on Rocketboom so I’m thinking I’ll post more over there and start up a new account to do what I want to do next.
So I guess Twitter does have monetary value and you can throw your “twits” under than bus when you sell it. I would personally be a little upset if I was following him, but you have to appreciate the genius of this auction. What is your Twitter account worth?
If anyone has a twitter account they think I might like to follow please submit it in a comment. I’m still not sold on its value.
Posted in Out on a Limb, SEO Tools, Social Media Optimization, Twitter | 7 Comments »
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