The big news today is that an AdSense publisher with a PhD sued Google after being kicked out of the program for clicking on her own ads. Why is she suing? Well for a couple reasons, but she claims she spent 100 hours adding the Adsense ads to her site - 100 hours!!! Ha ha. Also, a reminder, we will be conduction the first edition of the Search Pulse this coming Tuesday at 5pm (EST), make sure to tune in! TrueLocal launched their Canadian version of the site. I posted a beginners guide to Google AdWords. I also covered tips on getting into local engines as well as understanding the popular Digg.com. Matt Cutts shocked the SEO industry by saying that keywords in URLs help. Ask.com added smilies to their Smart Answer product. I also covered a post on a Wordpress plugin that beautifies AdSense ads. Finally, there is an excellent WebmasterWorld thread where they rank Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's PPC engines on eight different factors.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Bradley Sues Google AdSense Over Ban & Violation of TOS - You kidding me?
   
2. AdSense Beautifier for Wordpress - ooo pretty
   
3. Ranking Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing & Microsoft adCenter - looks kinda spammy that post
   
4. TrueLocal Launches Canadian Local Search Engine - love the design
   
5. Beginner to Google AdWords? - useful to some
   
6. The Search Pulse Live, Sept. 5th at 5PM EST - exciting!
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Tips On Getting Listed In Local Search Results - useful
   
2. Understanding Digg.com - good work Vwag
   
3. Keywords In URL May Help Rankings, Google's Matt Cutts Says - wow! more here
   
4. Google Uses AdWords Conversion Data To Fight AdSense Fraud? - Punch Out!
   
5. Ask.com Adds Emoticons Or Smiley To Smart Answers - Cute Answers
   

Posted at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (2) (0) | Speak

WebMD has an article says 2 Out of 3 Americans Don't Wash Hands. Wow! Shocking!

A thousand Americans participated, evenly split between men and women. All were at least 18 years old.

Here are the percentages who admitted they might not wash their hands properly in these situations:

- After sneezing or coughing: 37%
- After handling animals or pets: 27%
- Before eating or handling food: 10%
- After going to the toilet: 7%
- A bit more than three in 10 said they wouldn't skip or skimp on hand washing in any of those situations. But the remaining 69% didn't make that clean-hands claim.

But Germans have dirtier hands than American's.

So how can you better wash your hands, the article says?

• Wash your hands with soap and clean running water for 20 seconds.
  
• Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap.
  
• Use warm water if available.
  
• Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all hand surfaces.
  
• Continue rubbing hands for 20 seconds -- the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice.
  
• Rinse hands well under running water.
  
• Dry hands using a paper towel or air dryer.
  
• If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet.
  
• If soap and water aren't available, use an alcohol-based product to clean your hands.
  

Or get a singing, music playing soap dispenser. You can buy the Soap Genie™ Automatic Dispenser, which plays a charming musical chime while you wash at, Amazon.com, SkyMall, Sharper Image or other fine retailers.

Posted at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Just Funny | Comments (2) (0)

The Pleobot blog reports that the Pleo's release date, which I thought would be 12/24 is now sometime in March! I want one already! I am a kid! Give me it! Just kidding...

Why are they pushing it off? Well to continue to make it better and more life-like;

At Ugobe, we are committed to making Pleo absolutely right. In pursuit of this goal, we have added upgrades to Pleo's basic design (i.e. Pleo now has a camera, upgraded CPU and microprocessors, more powerful motors and quieter custom designed gears).

So I guess I'll just have to continue waiting.

Posted at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Category: | Comments (1) (0)

Today was a busy but kind of mellow day in search. Let's start with Google topics... Google's CEO joined the Apple Board of Directors, I am very into that. I took a look at some Invalid Click Rates provided by folks at WebmasterWorld and Google. Also, did you know that if someone took your UA from Google Analytics, you can have screwy traffic stats? Also, Google can be taking $285 million from AdWords advertisers. Finally, on the Google front, make sure to catch Matt Cutts and Vanessa Fox on WebmasterRadio.FM tomorrow night.

Windows Live QnA is in public beta now, watch out Yahoo! Answers. I pleaded with Yahoo! to add support for a no Yahoo! Directory tag. The 2nd edition of the Search Marketing Standard finally arrived at my door step. Yahoo! has been hiring up all the brains, ahem, I'm still here, wink wink. Oh, and the suit against the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has finally been settled.

That is all, off to an other meeting now.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, Joins Apple's Board of Directors - two favorite companies
   
2. Google Analytics & Misplacing Code - too easy
   
3. Yahoo! Please Enable a No Yahoo! Directory Tag - NOYDIR
   
4. Second Edition of Search Marketing Standard Released - nocomment
   
5. Google AdWords Customers Share Invalid Clicks Rates (ICR) - so?
   
6. Microsoft adCenter Content Ads Coming Early Fall - I am accepted!
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Windows Live QnA Beta Now Live - Answerbag.com got jealous again
   
2. Google's Accuracy Can Easily Cost Advertisers $285 Million - shocking stuff
   
3. Yahoo Hiring Up All The Brains - old but good
   
4. Internet Archive Suit Settled - makes me happy this is done
   
5. Matt Cutts & Vanessa Fox On WebmasterRadio.FM Thursday AT 1PM (PST) - excited?
   

Posted at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

As I said, I live and die by Bloglines and RSS. One of my biggest pet peeves is how Google News RSS is managed. Like I said, if I read something once, I do not wan to see it again. But when it comes to subscribing to a news search at Google News via RSS, it appears that the same articles are updated every 20 minutes or so. Yes, the same articles are updated and appear as new in Bloglines.

I am not sure if this is an RSS bug, a Google News bug or a Bloglines bug - but it is annoying.

Now you can say that the news search itself was updated. I.e. a new source was added but is not displayed, but it was added to the search. But it is down right annoying, just like when people constantly update their posts.

So what can be done to fix this? Can I do something?

Posted at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (0) (0)

Not much I can say, I knew that Danny was going to announce his resignation from Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Strategies for almost a week now. But it still came as a shock to me when I finally saw the post live at Daggle.com. I have some detailed posts on that in my coverage below.

On other search news, Yahoo! revamped their Real Estate portal, there are some bugs with the new features - maybe they will pull it (just kidding). AOL relaunched their music portal. Flickr added this very cool geo tag feature, a must see. Google AdWords added an opt in and valuable email alert feature. Google fixed their related search command. I covered the forum buzz on Google and eBay's partnership. Finally, I looked at some people who place AdSense ads in their forum signature files.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Danny Sullivan To Leave Search Engine Watch :: Search Industry Shocked - ö
   
2. Using Google AdSense in Your Forum Signature File - not cool?
   
3. Google & eBay Work Together - too funny
   
4. More Changes to Google's Related (Similar Pages) Command - Matt Cutts commented
   
5. Google AdWords My Client Center Adds Email Alerts - Nice addition
   
6. Reaction from the Search Community on Danny Sullivan's Departure - a must read, I think ö
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Yahoo Revamps Real Estate Portal - Um, many shortcuts dont work
   
2. Flickr Adds Geo Tagging - very cool
   
3. AOL Launches New Music Store - The Portal
   

Posted at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (1) (0) | Speak

The one bad thing about being so dependent on a free service is that you have no one to hang when it is not operating at optimal performance. I was just praising Bloglines - and how it changed my life along with RSS and now I am barely able to breath without it.

Bloglines has been incredibly slow to update most of my feeds today. They must be having some spidering and index issues.

I don't fully understand the process they have there.

I just hope it gets back to normal, soon.

Posted at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (1) (0)

The big new is that Yahoo! simply dropped their blog search feature, just dropped it completely. They did not tell anyone prior that they are doing maintenance or pulling it, they simply just yanked it. Honestly, this seems very strange to me. Yahoo! isn't dumb, if you remove Yahoo! Blog search, it is removed from Yahoo! News, and that means bloggers get less traffic - bloggers are loud and you normally don't want to upset too many of them. Um, Yahoo!, you upset almost all of them! Why won't they give an ETA for a release date? Why remove it if they are going to do an upgrade? Why not leave it and then release a new version when they are ready? The answers I got from Yahoo! to any of these questions were not satisfactory to me. They did not answer the questions. Brian of Yahoo! did say that the speculation that Yahoo! removed blog search due to not being able to handle the blog spam issue, was not true. Honestly, I think something big must of happened. Just not sure yet.

Next, I covered that Google released application for your domain, not just gmail, but Calendar, Talk and Page Creator. GoogleGuy then compared the Pluto update to Pluto's downgrading. eBay signed an ad deal with Google for eBay international. Google is almost done securing office space in Seattle, here we are Microsoft. Oh, Google is getting sued for a patent infringement on personalized search features. Last up on the Google front is a way to view ads as if you are in a different country.

We learned that Microsoft rolled back their update on Friday. We also learned that Philipp Lessen just got married yesterday! Congrats Philipp!

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Microsoft Rolls Back MSN Search Update - ouch! But I like the honesty here.
   
2. Google Launches Applications for Businesses & Domains - not too into it
   
3. Viewing Google AdWords Ads in Other Countries & Languages - this may come in handy
   
4. Yahoo! Temporarily Removes Blog Search for Retooling - something very fish about this!
   
5. GoogleGuy Downgrades Google Update Pluto - honesty rocks!
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Google Apps for Your Domain Live - diddo
   
2. Yahoo Removes Blog Search For Short Term - again, doesn't add up
   
3. eBay Signs International Paid Search Deal With Google - nice
   
4. Google Blogoscoped's Philipp Lenssen Gets Married - wowee!
   
5. Google Seeks Offices In Seattle Again - Microsoft, here we come
   
6. Google Sued Over Personalized Search Patent - yawn...
   

Posted at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

I am a Mac guy, if you didn't know by now. But I really hate the "Get a Mac" commercials.

They make Windows users look dumb and like victims.

Is it just me that dislikes these commercials?

More ads at http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/.

Posted at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs | Comments (1) (0)

Advertisers often pay more to have a radio personality read a scripted advertisement live on the radio, then to play a pre-recorded commercial. This morning I was listening to Q 104.3 on the radio on the way to work and heard live scripted commercial for Purina dog food. He was reading off the script and then ad-libbing to the commercial, to make it stand out. As he was talking, you can hear the co-host in the background holding in her giggles. It was pretty humorous, I mean, it sounded to me that Jim Kerr was having way too much fun with the commercial. :)

Hey, I enjoyed it.

Posted at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (2) (0)

I will be giving an internal SEO pow-wow today. Ill be covering all the basics and then some of the futuristic stuff. So if I am not quick to reply to your emails, that is where I am.

I start in about 15 minutes, 10am (EST) and won't stop until I am done.

Tons and tons of material to cover.

So I suspect I won't be done until 6pm or so. But I will talk as fast as possible.

Update: Burned through about 200 slides in less than 3 hours. Done and done.

Posted at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind , RustyBrick , SEO Tips | Comments (0) (0)

I had on my list of topics to write about, "How RSS ha changed my life." I was going to hold off on that entry but then York commented about Which Search Blogs Am I Most Likely To Read In More Detail?

You see, I have a list of 75 plus blogs I read. York said,

How do you read all those blog? I mean even if you speed 5 minute per blog, you will have to spend 6 hours per day for all these reading.

And 5 minutes is not even long enough for you to type the url and talk a good peek at the details of those blog.

If I spent 6 hours per day reading those blogs, how would I be able to do anything else?

RSS is the answer. I use Bloglines to manage my RSS feeds. I subscribe to blogs/news sites/searches that I am interested and I set it to only show me content that I have not read yet. So if I have read yesterday's blog post from Diamond Vues, Bloglines knows it, and it won't show me the feed if the site hasn't been update since then, it also won't show me anything I have read in the past, unless that post is updated with new content. So I do not read 75+ blogs each day, far from it.

But even if I did, the way Bloglines and most RSS readers display the content makes it easy to skim new content within a matter of seconds. Here is a screen capture of Bloglines at this moment in time for me.

Now, on the left hand side, it shows only feeds (news/blogs/searches) that have been updates or not read since I last viewed my Bloglines. It also shows a number by each folder (I categorize my feeds in several folders, some you can see and some are not displayed because they have nothing new in them at this time), and it shows a number by each source.

For example, the "Barry RSSes" folder has 28 items of new items I have not yet read or that have been updates that contain searches I set up for my name or similar names. Also, you can see I clicked on the Slashdot feed, it is now unbolded and has no number on the left side, but it does show I am viewing 3 items, 3 items that are new and I have no seen yet. Next time I go back to Bloglines, it will not show me those same three items for Slashdot.

So in reality, I do not read 75+ blogs each day. I do track 75+ sources (much more that 75) each day, but Bloglines and RSS helps me with that.

Then I can simply scan the updates feeds and decide wether I want to click deeper into the feed. I rarely do, so that is why I came up with my Which Search Blogs Am I Most Likely To Read In More Detail? list. If I click through, then it must have a great title and short description.

So that is how I manage to stay on top of things without those things staying on top of me. RSS is an invaluable tool for me. It has, without a doubt, changed my life.

Posted at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (2) (0)

Big blogging day, I wrote over 16 blog entries in all today. Five new blog posts today at this blog, six at the Search Engine Roundtable, and five at Search Engine Watch. So what search news did I cover today?

On the search index update front, all three engines showed some signs of an index update - that includes Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Windows Live Video is found and then put through the tests. A credit card processing bug takes down AdWords advertiser ads. Tim Converse, Yahoo! spam fighter, writes about "aggregation spam." Google pleas with the Securities and Exchange Commission to not classify them as an investment fund company. Google launched the Webmaster Central blog officially today. I looked at link popularity of a specific portion of a page, based on anchor links. And Google seems to be sending out warnings of AdWords keyword maximization limits.

Everyone, have a wonderful weekend!

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Keyword List Maxing Out Warnings Sent by Google AdWords - before the fact
   
2. MSN Search Bug Due to Recent MSN Update - 1
   
3. Credit Card Processing Errors Halt AdWords Buyers from Advertising - give me my ads
   
4. Link Popularity Associated With Portion of Pages? - no dice
   
5. Yahoo! Search Update Underway? - 2
   
6. Back Link Update At Google.com - 3
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Tim Converse OF Yahoo Talks About Aggregation Spam - Sweet post!
   
2. Windows Live Video Beta Now Available - streakers rule!
   
3. Google, Yahoo, & MSN Update Search Results - 2 of 3 confirmed now
   
4. Google Has Too Much Money, Possibly Classified As Investment Fund - no comment
   
5. Google's Webmaster Central Adds A Blog - nice info
   

Posted at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (1) (0) | Speak

One of the stories I covered today was about how Google may be classified as an investment fund company because they have more than 40% of their assets in investments. While I was covering the story, I was on the phone with someone. We were talking about scheduling something on a Monday. But at the same time, I was writing the title of the blog post.

Original (Typo) Title: "Google Has Too Much Monday, Possibly Classified As Investment Fund"

Real Title: "Google Has Too Much Money, Possibly Classified As Investment Fund"

I bolded the typo to add some emphasis.

So if you did a search in Google News for Google throughout the day you may have seen:

Yea, pretty embarrassing. But also a bit funny. I actually got Monday to be bold by searching in Google News for monday. :)

I was wondering why I didn't get a hundred emails from people who noticed this typo. I mean, it was like that for well over an hour. So I asked the IRC WebmasterRadio.FM chat room and one person said...

that is actually pretty funny.... I saw that in my RSS reader and, while it confused the hell outta me, I just accepted it that you guys knew more than me, and it was some type of weird investemnt-related terminology

Wow, dangerous.

Sorry about that guys.

Posted at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind , Just Funny , Just Weird | Comments (1) (0)

When you order something online, they most likely ship it to you via UPS. Sometimes they ship it to you via USPS, the good old government postal service. Now, I have no problems with the service - really. I do have problems with their online tracking system.

Typically I will get the shipment before anything shows up on the track and confirm page at USPS.gov. If at best, I would get a notice that it has been shipped out the day it arrives at my office.

But today, we got a package, that was already marked as delivered, yesterday at 8am in the morning. Ahem, we got it today at 11am. It said, yesterday, that we got it yesterday at 8am.

I just don't understand that one. Maybe it was delivered to the local post office? Who knows...

Posted at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Category: Shopping , Web Development | Comments (31) (0)

My wife found these tables she wanted at Bombay, so I was like, let's just order them online and have them shipped. At the time it was about $50 less, and then we forgot about them. When we remembered, and checked the price listed on the Bombay site, it just felt wrong ordering them for $50 more.

But we saw a coupon listed on the site, and we tried adding that coupon code at the checkout step, but it did not take. We then called the 800# but they were already closed. So I told my wife to call the next day. Yea, she did call. And it turned out to be a $100 less if we picked it up from one of the local stores. So while at the mall we ordered it from Bombay. I then came back Wednesday night to pick it up, the thing was, I was in my small car.

I have the Lexus SC 430 (2005), although it is a sweet car, it doesn't fit much in it, especially not large boxes. Heck, even their promotional material kind of mocks the space limitations. It says, "still leaving enough room for a set of golf clubs."

Anyway, when the guy from Bombay took the box out of the storage area, he looked at the car and laughed. I looked back at him and said, everything always manages to fit. I first tried putting it in the trunk and tying the trunk down. That didn't work too well. Again, the Bombay guy was smirking. I then moved the top down into the trunk, which kinda made the Bombay guy go 'ooo.' I then moved the passenger seat as far forward as I could, and pushed down the front of that seat into the dashboard. I placed the box in the space behind the passenger seat, it barely fit. I smirked at the Bombay guy and said, I told you, everything always manages to fit.

I then squeezed myself in the drivers seat. Picture the box taking about a 3rd of my seat. My right shoulder was under the forward part of the box. I was completely unable to look through the rear view mirror, and the right side mirror was 95% obstructed. I couldn't look right to see if cars or people were there either. But I drove slowly, I didn't take the highway back, I took the side streets. And I made it back with the box intact that night.

I wish I had a picture of it, also a picture of all the weird faces I got from other drivers on the road.

Posted at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0) (0)

This morning I drove my wife to Newark Airport, she is flying to Chicago for the weekend. One of her good friends is getting married and she is going to be a bridesmaid. The wedding is this Sunday afternoon, but there is this little weekend the bride and bridesmaids are having before the wedding.

So I drove Yisha to the airport, about 45 minutes each way, this morning. I was shocked, I was expecting a boat load of traffic. There was not one patch of slow down, outside of the tolls. So I drove back and forth in less than an hour and a half. It would have been quicker, but I had to make a pit stop 15 minutes from my office, on the way back, due to a Big Gulp I had prior to leaving. Note to self, go for a little gulp next time you drive long distances.

So what do I do the whole weekend when my wife is gone?
(1) I will be spending about 24 hours of it at my parents, I think the miss me (do you?)
(2) Saturday night, Ill play basketball until well after mid-night (normally do that anyway)
(3) Sunday morning, I do RB work (normally do that anyway)
(4) Sunday afternoon I am suppose to hang up some new light fixtures - let's see how far I get
(5) Sunday evening I will be picking up Yisha at the airport

What will my wife be doing?
(1) Getting her hair done
(2) Getting her make up done
(3) Getting into her dress
(4) All that wedding stuff
(5) Having fun with friends at a big party

So how was that? Two new posts, with personal stuff. :)

Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (3) (0)

It is the slow season for my wife at her work, I think it runs for about two or three weeks in the summer time. So she has been checking out this blog over the past few days. She complained to me twice already that I do not update it enough with personal stuff that she is interested in. You know, she isn't into that search stuff... Heck, it is that search stuff that is and will be changing our lives and how we live them every day - but whatever. ;-)

So I am now going to write more posts about personal stuff, or at least try to. But at the same time, bring in search topics, as often as I can.

Honestly, I have a list of about 15 items that are off search topic to write about. Whenever I think of something that I think will be cool to share, I write it down in a little note pad (text edit) on my computer.

Oh, did I tell you how my wife mocks this blog? Whenever something funny happens, she says --- "Why don't you blog it?" in a sarcastic tone. One day I will record the voice she uses, it is funny. So babe, I just blogged it. :)

Posted at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (0) (0)

The esteemed Gary Price documented a Forbes list of America's Drunkest Cities.

1. Milwaukee
2. Minneapolis
3. Columbus
4. Boston
5. Austin
6. Chicago
7. Cleveland
8. Pittsburgh
9. Philadelphia
10. Providence
11. St. Louis
12. San Antonio
13. Seattle
14. Las Vegas
15. Denver/Boulder
16. Cincinnati
17. Kansas City
18. Houston
19. Portland
20. Francisco-Oakland

The list continues, it is a pictorial list of each city and can be accessed here. New York is ranked number 32 out of the 35 cities judged, go NY!

How did they come up with these rankings? Well, they posted the methodology, which basically describes that pulled stats by state laws, drinkers, heavy drinkers, binge drinkers and alcoholism of each city. They calculated scores for each category, added them up and then ranked the cities.

Now, where was Mel Gibson?

Posted at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0) (0)

Well, Danny is off to somewhere now, so I got the SEW blog to myself again (of course, there are the other correspondents that do an excellent job). But today, so far, I kind have been solo. So what did I write about today?

Let's start with Google... I spotted a query that does this witty top 5 list, it is pretty cool. I found a thread that discussed folks thoughts on Google's executives selling off boatloads of stock. I looked at how Google Maps are being tested within the search results under listings. Google decided to join a child pornography coalition, but they did destroy a Dutch farmer dating site's chances of keeping their clean name.

On the MSN front I noticed that the API still limits you to 250 results. Also, they have some weirdness going on with a page one and page result duplication of listings. Moving to Yahoo!, there are some signs of a Panama release, but maybe not, I am not 100% sure. Yahoo! also showed some love towards Flickr, vertically showing their images for some queries done at Yahoo! Search. Ask.com hired a big shot from PayPal to get technical. Finally, if you are in search of a SEO Company, I got a post that may be of use to you.

Oh, I am feeling much better right now...

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. MSN Search Shows 1000 Results But MSN's API Still Shows 250? - priorities...
   
2. Yahoo! Notifies Advertisers Of Upgrade - But is this "Panama"?
   
3. Finding the Right SEO Company - Some useful tips for the needy
   
4. Google as a Top Five List - Smart & Witty
   
5. Google Executives Sell Off Stock - Of Course - cashing in while others cash out
   
6. MSN Listing Same Top Five Sites on 1st & 2nd Page Search Results - wow, weee
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Ask.com Hires Former PayPal CTO, Chuck Geiger - AskPay? kidding...
   
2. Google Maps Inline With Search Results - kinda cool
   
3. Yahoo's Panama Release Coming Sooner Then Expected? - same deal...
   
4. Google Joins Coalitions To Fight Child Pornography - why?
   
5. Dutch Farmers Site Loses Court Case Against Google - because...
   
6. Yahoo Search Integrates Flickr Images In Search Shortcuts - It seems like a manual integration to me...
   

Posted at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

I am happy to say that I have finished setting up my necessary Windows applications on my MacBook Pro. Tuesday I set up Parallels Desktop for Mac, activated my Windows XP Pro license, and let it sit. Today, I configured the settings of the OS how I like it, transferred over the applications I need, and tested them out.

I also "installed parallels tools" which in affect made everything run smoother between Mac OS and Windows XP. Such as:

• Setting up a shared folder between the two OSes
  
• Enabling copy and paste between the OSes
  
• Ensuring all drivers work (mouse, printers, internet, etc.), mouse even runs as smooth as it does on Mac, which is huge.
  
• Don't have to click off the Windows screen to use OS X, it just scrolls off like two different screens.
  

Here is a screen capture of my desktop state on both OS X and OS XP. I blurred stuff out on the larger version, such as my buddies screen names...

So now I can trash my Dell!!!

Posted at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Computers | Comments (3) (0)

Very international day here in search. I hear that Google will be uploading a Japanese localized version of Gmail. MSN is testing a new design in their UK version. Google's results seem to be bit whacky if you search in the UK.

I also reviewed issues of separating out AdWords on Google Maps. I looked at AOL firing the CTO and others over the their blunder. Also, I learned that MSN does not randomize their search results. Google released an API for Google Base today. I read a few things about Google's dominance. Finally, Microsoft struck a deal with Facebook to serve up ads and possibly search.

Errr, I don't feel too well...

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Brazil Fed Up With Google & Orkut - República Federativa
   
2. Google UK Unique Indexing Issues? - UKy indexes
   
3. How Do You Turn Off PPC Ads on Google Maps - common G.
   
4. MSN Search Doesn't Randomize Results Within One Index - why not? ;-)
   
5. AOL Makes Statement By Letting Go CTO & Two Employees - Æ
   
6. MSN UK Testing New Search Results Layout? - looks familiar
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Facebook Partners With Microsoft In Ad Deal - contextualize me
   
2. Google's Dominance Of Big & Small Companies - watch out
   
3. Google Releases Google Base API - love em APIs
   
4. Gmail In Japanese - 日本
   

Posted at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (1) (0) | Speak

I hear that if you make the top 100 list at http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs/ that you would receive a t-shirt or something. I have been in that list for like over 3 months now and I got nothing. Oh well. :(

Anyway, yesterday I was at the number twenty-two spot, now I am at the number 28 spot.

The only search blog that ranks higher than me at the moment is the Google Blog at 18. Technorati also has a way to favor a blog. SER currently has 27 people that favorite it, that is pretty cool.

You can also see the Roundtable's "tag cloud" at the profile page, pretty neat. And it shows you the number of links pointing to the blog by authority and by freshness. You may have also noticed I use Technorati to power the search feature of this specific blog.

Oh, please feel free to favorite SER at Technorati:

Posted at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (0) (0)

There are just some things you do not post in public. One of those things are private messages. If someone sends you privileged information in private, you must - without a shadow of a doubt - keep that information private, unless you have explicit permission from the source that you can share that information with the public.

Nintendo posted the full transcript of a private message sent to him via Threadwatch from Adam Lasnik of Google at ThreadWatch (which was pulled), at DigitalPoint forums and at Google Groups. I will not quote it here, but the context is not relevant to my point. The private message was sent privately to Nintendo and was not understood to be posted in a public setting.

Adam replied in the Google Groups area;

Encouraging further e-mails to my personal address and e-mail subjects with my name in 'em probably isn't the most scalably-smart thing to do ;-).

Before Threadwatch deleted the conversation from their site, I caught a few responses from both Matt Cutts and the founder of Threadwatch, NickW.

Matt Cutts said;

I'm also surprised that you're quoting a PM from Adam Lasnik. Doesn't PM stand for "Private message"? Most people I know dislike having private replies quoted without asking.

NickW said:

Obnoxious little shit Nintendo, you are a fuckwit of gargantuan proportion. You snivelly, sneaky little whining shit. How disgusting to post privately communicated info in public, and how much worse to then continue your obnoxious teenage footstomping after being told your a dickhead (in politer terms, but that's what Matt meant.). You twat. PS: Why the fuck is this on the homepage? Hellllloooo.... anyone paying attention?

Now, that is why I have a published Search Engine Roundtable Code of Ethics which I and the authors at the Search Engine Roundtable are required to uphold.

Trust is just so important and it only takes a second to lose it. Be careful!

Posted at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird , SEO Tips | Comments (0) (0)

I am proud to say, I am 99.999% done with my migration to the MacBook Pro. The last item, outside of setting up my Windows Apps was to configure a backup utility to run.

On my PowerBook G4 I used Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to backup all my data as a bootable drive on an external USB hard drive. I ran the utility about twice per week. But it often wasn't able to back up everything, it did prompt me with errors every now and then. When I was ready to backup the MacBook Pro, I noticed that CCC was not fully supported with the Intel based Macs.

So I found SuperDuper, an other popular utility that creates a bootable version of your computer at any state in time. I tried it out tonight, while at ball and it ran without flaw. With CCC I had to do a bit of configuration to get it working, with SuperDuper, it just worked out of the box. Plus it has a sweet user interface, something anyone can appreciate. The full process from start to finish took a total of one hour and forty-five minutes (about 60MB of data).

You can use it for free or upgrade to add features like scheduling, Smart Update (only updates changes), Sandboxes, scripting and more. I'll probably upgrade.

Next step is to finish up moving Windows applications (really only one application) to my Mac.

Posted at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Computers | Comments (0) (0)

Just got off this 2.5 hour conference call, so I am a bit bugged out - those always affect me some how. Anyway...

Five topics on each blog covered today. MSN has added about 750 results to the query results, to their existing 250 results. We looked into some cross site exploits with XSS HTML injection on .gov sites. We dug into how one can create contextual ads that are complimentary to your products (instead of those pesky competitive ads). On the contextual front, we saw some (IMO) racy eBay ads. Talking about racy, how about some of those link baiting ideas - how much are those ideas worth anyway?

Other topics include Google's make-shift audio player, Google and Yahoo! maps saved locations, LibreDigital's Google Book search killer, and some search theory on user generated traffic and search signals.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Google Flight Maps Games - simple but cute
   
2. MSN Now Goes Beyond 250 Results - about time
   
3. Creating Complimentary Google AdSense & Contextual Ads - neat concept
   
4. eBay Contextual Ads Can Be a Bit Too Graphic - oooo
   
5. Signals & Understanding User Queries - love these topics
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. LibreDigital Warehouse Competes With Google Book Search - publishers duke em up
   
2. How XSS HTML Injection Might Let Others Put Links On Your Sites - ouch!
   
3. How Much Is Link Baiting Services Or Projects Worth? - do tell
   
4. Saving Addresses At Google & Yahoo Maps - "how to" post
   
5. Google's Audio Player - doesn't work on Safari
   

Posted at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Many of you know I got a new MacBook Pro and I have been giving some updates on migrating over from the PowerBook G4 to the MacBook Pro. One of the big +'s of the MacBook Pro is that it is Intel based, which means you can run virtually any OS on it, including Windows.

I downloaded and installed Parallels Desktop for Mac, which enables me to run Windows on my Mac. It is now set up and it runs pretty well. I am still tinkering with setting up a shared folder, so I can drag and drop between the two OSes. Ultimately, I would like to move over the one application I need a PC for, to this parallel desktop solution. I also hear that Apple's next OS Leopard may switch the BootCamp software to run both OSes in parallel, so this application may no longer be needed then.

So a few more days of testing and then Ill move over the application and trash my PC.

Exciting...

Posted at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Computers | Comments (4) (0)

If your browser resets its favorite icon cache, you may notice that I have added a favorite icon to this site. Favorite Icons are always challenging being that they are typically displayed at 16x16 pixels within the tiny URL bar and in your browser bookmarks. More details on the Favorite Icons at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon.

So, I hoped I squeezed a clear representation of this site into that 16x16 space.

If you don't see it yet, this is what it may look like in your browser (downsized to 32KB PNG file).

Posted at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Category: Web Development | Comments (0) (0)

What am I getting for the holidays? At least two Pleo's. What is a Pelo? Yea, it is one of those green dinosaurs.

Pleo is a 'designer species'. He incorporates all the basic traits of autonomous life. He is specifically engineered and enhanced to mimic life and relate to his owner on a personal level.

Pleo is equipped with senses for sight, sound, and touch. He learns as he explores his environment. He will exhibit genuine reactions to sensory stimuli. Every Pleo begins life with certain tendencies but, interaction with his environment has subtle effects on his behavior. Every Pleo eventually exhibits a unique personality.

Pleo is capable of expression. He can feel joy and sorrow, anger and annoyance. When Pleo is tired, he will become drowsy and go to sleepóeven dream. Two or more Pleos will recognize one another. Be careful though. They can transmit colds to each other. Achoo! Pleo even sneezes!

Don't believe the marketing speak? Check out this live demo at demo.com.

The Pleobot blog reports that the Ugobe, makers of the Pleo, is taking pre-orders on December 24th. They will begin shipping in early March.

I posted a forum thread on this at Search Engine Roundtable Forums back in March of this year.

Posted at 9:10 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0) (0)

TechCrunch reports that Amazon went down today at around 12:45PM (EST) and went back up for some about two hours later.

People are trying to guestimate how much money Amazon lost.

Those figures just scare me.

More details at TechCrunch.

Posted at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Category: Web Development | Comments (0) (0)

Some hot news today, but it was not crazy with search news buzzing all day. Towards the end of the day, AOL has taken action by firing their CTO, the researcher who released the data and the researchers manager. Also, Google is on record that the Washington Post Blogroll links do not pass PageRank. Farecase launched a sweet travel search engine that predicts the prices of flights for 55 cities. Google's shares drop on word that Google "reached a topping point." MSN decided to drop some spammy sites, at least they said so. Google Base serves up metrics on impressions, clicks and pageviews. We also looked a bit into the AdSense Firefox referral program. Finally, we discussed the legalities of subdomains and trademarks.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Google Doesn't Count Washington Post Blogroll Links - or do they?
   
2. Cre8asite Forums Turns Four Years Old - oh my, growing so quickly!
   
3. Google Reaching a "Topping Point" - & GOOG is ↓ $5.67
   
4. MSN Search Demotes "Spammy-Looking" Pages - no spam please
   
5. Recommending Firefox with Google AdSense Referral Product - a "good to know" post
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Farecast Adds Cities To Flight Fare Prediction Tool - i'll use this often enough
   
2. Google Base Adds Click & Impression Metrics For Merchants - very useful for merchants
   
3. Subdomains Trademark Violations? - would love to see legislation on this
   
4. AOL Fires CTO & Two Employees After Search Records Slip Up - a must by AOL
   

Posted at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (3) (0) | Speak

The SEO world has been buzzing with tons of link bait ideas. Danny has an SES session on Link Baiting & Viral Search Success, there are top ten list out to wazoo, there are new tools, new games and controversy articles being released daily all with the intent of building links. Heck, even this piece of content is an attempt to get some links.

But at what point does the effort of a specific piece of content, the price of a tool, the cost of time worth the link bait you are generating?

Is there a simple equation?

PR6 = $400 per link, PR2 = $25 per link. Link lifetime value = 6 months on average? High trafficked sites that link to you generate links from other high trafficked sources and even more smaller trafficked sources...

Then you have to look at the content/tools that bring in one time links versus repetitive links over time. And then does that require additional work (more content, maintenance of tool, etc.) or not?

Let me pull out two examples:
(1) http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
(2) http://www.theadsensegame.com/

DigitalPoint's tool will

1. Keep gaining new links
   
2. Keep adding additional users
   
3. Keep repeat users coming back
   
4. Requires little maintenance
   
5. Word of mouth referrals for that tool keeps coming
   
6. Generates links as long as the tool is useful
   

The AdSense Game will

1. Generate some initial buzz
   
2. Will drive initial users to the tool
   
3. Will generate some word of mouth referrals
   
4. But after you play once that is it
   
5. Very little repeat usage
   
6. Link bait is built once, and not repetitive
   

I suspect DigitalPoint's tool over the years, took him about 50 hours of work, guessing (shawn says it is less than 50 hours). Let's say his time is worth $100 per hour (we all know he is worth way more than that). Cost of link bait is around $5,000.

I suspect the AdSense Game took a heck of a lot of time to build also, if I had to guess, let's say 50 hours, minimum. Let's say the time is worth $100 per hour, to make it round. Cost of link bait is $5,000.

Now how would you figure, with both these types of bait, what the ROI (return on investment) is for each?

For some reason, I would think the DP tool will come out better.

So at what point does it not pay to build link bait? Would love to see some scientific equations? Orion?

Posted at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (2) (2)

Just giving you guys, mostly noting for myself, an update on my last Update on MacBook Pro Upgrade from PowerBook G4.

- Started working magically, speed tests here. Still need to figure out how to tether the MBP to the Treo 700p, it failed several times last night, Ill keep trying. If it continues to fail, Ill call Verizon Monday.
- Need to set up the Mac to run Windows in Parallel
- Need to install some new software, Intel based versions, and find old registration codes that happened not to work after migrating
- Set up my palm sync software, the Missing Sync (excellent software)
- Set up * Phone & iTunes integration script
- Set up local server passwords
- Need to configure Carbon Copy backup solution with new MBP
- Go to all the sites that require passwords and reenter them (shouldn't be a big deal).
- Need to install Windows software that I use on Parallels on Mac.

Everything else seems to be running well.

Posted at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Computers | Comments (0) (0)

This morning I decided to try the EVDO connection on my MacBook Pro via the Treo 700p and it worked. No idea why it worked today, and not Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I assume that Verizon just updated my plan to work with the tethering option.

It was fast, but let me get you the numbers from the Speak Easy Speed Test page.

My normal connection via T1 and Cable (I have both in the office) runs at:

My connection via the Verizon EVDO network connecting over Bluetooth to my MacBook Pro runs at:

So there is a huge difference but honestly, the speed is pretty quick, quick enough to not purchase temporary Internet while in airports and possibly quick enough to not buy Internet when in hotels (which typically are slow and block several ports I use).

Posted at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Computers | Comments (1) (0)

I was snapping some pictures of recent traffic I was in on the way into Manhattan tonight. While getting on to the George Washington Bridge (GWB), I was reminded that no pictures are allowed on the GWB. So, of course, before I got on, I decided to snap some pictures of the sign that disallows camera usage. Don't worry, Yisha pulled the camera from me before we merged on, so no pictures were taken while on the bridge.

Click for a larger image, it will take you to Flickr.

Posted at 8:27 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0) (0)

Some of you know how much I love going shopping at physical stores - or not! Today we went to the mall, while Yisha was in Banana Republic, I sat on my favorite bench outside of the store, and listened to the August 18th edition of the Daily Search Cast.

Nope, I did not pre-download it on my Treo. I streamed it directly from the MP3 file source. No choppiness at all, pure, sweet, uninterrupted, search news.

I just love technology.

Who knows, maybe I'll become a shopping maven. Hmmmm.... Maybe not...

Posted at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Category: Shopping | Comments (3) (0)

As many of you know, I got my MacBook Pro this Friday. Towards the end of the day on Friday, I tried transferring all the data over from the PowerBook G4 (PB) to the MacBook Pro (MBP) using the migration assistant. That failed three times, even after calling Apple Support.

So Saturday night, I spent a few hours manually moving files and applications over from the PB to the MBP. I booted up the PB into a FireWire drive mode, and then mounted the PB drive to the MBP via the FireWire ports to drag and drop files over. Firewire is soooo quick!

Most everything went over smoothly and I was able to ditch a lot of apps and files I no longer need. I even spent a lot of time moving over preference files, this way I had some of the settings I first had on my PB. Moving over the mail files and address book and iCal events wasn't too bad either.

I am now writing this on my MBP and the MBP is now my primary computer.

What remains:
- Still need to figure out how to tether the MBP to the Treo 700p, it failed several times last night, Ill keep trying. If it continues to fail, Ill call Verizon Monday.
- Need to set up the Mac to run Windows in Parallel
- Need to install some new software, Intel based versions, and find old registration codes that happened not to work after migrating
- Set up my palm sync software, the Missing Sync (excellent software)
- Set up * Phone & iTunes integration script
- Set up local server passwords
- Need to configure Carbon Copy backup solution with new MBP
- Go to all the sites that require passwords and reenter them (shouldn't be a big deal).

I plan on holding on to my PB for at least a week, to make sure I moved everything over.

Then I completely reformat the PB, and give it to a family member for them to use.

Almost there... But I am able to work efficiently now.

Posted at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Computers | Comments (2) (0)

A fairly quiet day in search today, but we did have some excitement. The most exciting thing I may have covered was the news of the Washington Post starting to sell what they call "Sponsored Blogroll" links, which are in a sense, text links that may pass PageRank. Hope to see interesting developments on that over the next several days. Outside of that, the rest of the topics are all Google related, minus one MSN thing. MSN said the "no link" response has to do with there being no link in the ad landing page URL parameter. Ok, on to Google...

Google did an update of some sort a day or two ago. People are complaining about more supplemental results in the index, to be continued... I looked at the removable of the Froogle link, and the addition of the "more" link. I read some real examples of GoogleWifi real tests and how Levi dropped Google Checkout. Also I reviewed some domain legal cases Google recently had. Finally, I was upset to learn that not one person in Google bought any stock since the IPO, not one token stock even!

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Google's New Expandable More Link - SEO's perspective
   
2. Follow Up on MSN adCenter No Such Link Response - figured...
   
3. Google Update Sends More Pages Back into Supplemental Index - check your rankings
   
4. Feedback on Google Wifi (GoogleWifi) in Mountain View - is poor WiFi, really WiFi?
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Google Data Refresh: More Supplemental Results? - bump
   
2. Googlers Only Have Sold GOOG Stock - Cause Of Drop In Stock Price? - token stock, token stock!
   
3. Levi.com Quietly Drops Google Checkout Due To A "Particular Issue" - hmmm, really makes me wonder
   
4. Fighting For GoogleCheckout.com & More Google Complaints Against Others Who Registered Google-Like Domain Names - Danny trumped me on this
   
5. Washington Post Selling Text Links? - ETA on nofollows? < 1 week
   

Posted at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Buddy DaveN has posted a video of (I think) one of his employees running around a traffic circle naked. Now that can cause a huge accident. Im surprised no one got hurt. Or...

Upset I shared this with you?

Also, what is it with Brits finding naked men running naked in the public so funny?

Posted at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (0) (0)

You know those number games, where someone can predict what number you were thinking? They ask you do add, subtract, shift numbers around and then asks you to remember which number it was. And to your surprise, they are able to predict the number that you had written down?

Well, there is this flash based game that does it over here, it is cool, because the Flash animation is fun and interactive.

They also mix it up so that you don't think you are getting the same response each time.

Don't ya just love math?

Give it a try at LearningEnglish.org.uk. Link bait...

Posted at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0) (0)

I finally made it into one of the blog entries of the new Men of SEO blog. It is a blog by an SEO chicklet, who talks about "the men of seo." Here latest post is about Bearded Babes, and she has a roundup of those with goatees. In the group are Martinibuster, Stuntdubl, Matt Cutts, WebGuerrilla and myself.

What did she say about me specifically?

Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick smiles, knowing the 2 guys behind him don't stand a chance.

Stand a chance to grow a goatee, I guess. :)

Oh, that is Andy with the thumbs up, right above me.

Posted at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (2) (0)

Whoo hooo! I just picked up a new Treo 700P in preparation for the new MacBook Pro I am getting tomorrow. Why did I pick it up before I got the new Mac? Because I wanted to sync up the new Treo on the software that I know works right now. Upgrading, who knows, but may break the syncing software (Missing Sync).

I am so psyched to have this new phone for a few reasons:

(1) I can use the EVDO high speed network and tethered via Bluetooth to my MacBook Pro. This way when I am anywhere, I can use high speed Internet via my phone on my laptop.
(2) I can get phone calls while using the Internet. When I got phones on my Treo 650, while using the slow internet, it went into voicemail right away (Verizon network). Now, with the new EVDO network, I get the call and I can choose to ignore it or not. My wife and business will like that feature.
(3) The phone is more solid and has more neat features and design to make it more usable.

Those are main reasons. Already synced up in a matter of 5 minutes.

Tomorrow when I get the MacBook Pro, I sync up with this computer to the new one. Then after it is all working, I then work on the tethering part, which should be easy.

Posted at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Category: Computers | Comments (3) (0)

Yea, today, was a sunny day with search news, as Danny would describe a day that is slow with search news. I personally dig for things to talk write about at SER, but Danny is smart and he decided to take it easy on days like this. So what did I cover today?

Some poser created a Matt Cutts MySpace account, I have confirmation from Matt, that he knows how to spell surprise. :) Some AdSense addicts use their earnings metrics to determine if it is a holiday or not, yea - it is true. Also, with AdSense, the video ads, prompted users to download 3rd party software, such as QuickTime - this was apparently a Google bug that has been fixed. Since we are still talking about Google, we learned that we are tied 50/50 with those still happy with AdWords. Finally, with Google, they released Google Trends for Music last night - it is pretty cool.

Yahoo! released an API for Answers, so I provided some reasons why SEOs should jump on it. Oh, and if you like childish and petty fighting between big and professional names, then check out the former China Head suing Yahoo!. Ask.com released an upgrade to their movie smart answer, useful stuff. Guess what, MSN wants to do something about the sub domain link spam that is hurting their relevancy - go figure! And on a final note, all the search engines are afraid of China, China is a scary country.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Matt Cutts on MySpace? - nah, it is not him
   
2. One Word Answer Thread: Are You Happy With Google AdWords? - 50/50
   
3. Yahoo! Answers Now Has an API - get to it!
   
4. Publishers Using Google AdSense Metrics For Holiday Notifications - kinda funny
   
5. Google AdSense Ads Prompting 3rd Party Downloads - oops, I did it again!
   
6. MSN Search to Fight Sub Domain Link Spam - when?
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Google Music Trends: See What Google Talkers Are Listening To - this is cool
   
2. Former Yahoo China Head Sues Yahoo For Defamation - doesn't look good for anybody
   
3. Ask.com Adds DVD & TV Data To Movie Smart Answers - smart answers
   
4. Human Rights Group & UK House of Commons Demand Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft To Stop Censorship - step up already guys!
   

Posted at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Want to know what it was like being at SES San Jose 2006? Well, this can give you a partial feel of the experience at the conference.

Great work on that video!

Posted at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2) (0)

Many search engines want you to make their engine your default home page. But let's think about that. Why, today, 2006, would you want to make a search engine your home page? Any search engine, that has a box, and a search button, as the home page adds no more value that you using a toolbar in your browser, that allows you to search via the toolbar.

But still, people have set Google.com as their home page.

Back in the day, I used to set Yahoo.com as my home page, because Yahoo.com is a portal. Now I set Ask.com as my home page, specifically because (1) I use bloglines a lot and (2) I want to force myself to search with Ask.com more often.

Why do you think Google made google.com/ig? Yea, now that is a page worthy of being a home page. Same with Yahoo.com or my.yahoo.com but not search.yahoo.com, unless you activate some features on that page such as Yahoo! News results on search.yahoo.com. Of course, the same with google.com and search.msn.com. Heck, live.com gives you the ability to add portal like features also.

So why do people make Google.com without any portal like features their home page?
- They don't have a toolbar
- They don't know how to use a toolbar
- They are afraid to use any toolbar
- They want to be cool

Posted at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (7) (0)

I subscribe to a ton of blogs, as you can see by a select few listed on my link farm. One such blog is the Yahoo! Shopping Blog where they post interesting products listed at Yahoo! Shopping every now and then. The latest entry they posted about is a computer bag made specifically for a blogger. Yea, a blogger bag.

Timbuk2 makes a bag called Blogger, a bag for a blogger!!!

Timbuk2's newest computer bag "the Blogger" is a vertical shoulder bag featuring ballistic nylon exterior, classic Timbuk2 three-panel design and a built-in padded laptop compartment (fits 15" laptop). Two exterior pockets and rubberized bottom keep contents protected at all times. Padded shoulder strap adds comfort and convenience.

Features Listed specifically for bloggers?

• Exterior zip pocket with secured organizer pockets, ticket pass holder, cell phone pocket and key ring tether
  
• Main compartment with MP3 pocket
  
• Built in padded laptop compartment
  
• Padded handle
  
• Quick-adjust cam shoulder strap
  

It seems like this bag would fit my current 15" PowerBook and I am sure my new MacBook Pro. I currently use a bag from Lands End that I have personalized with rustybrick.com on the front flap. Wonder if this "blogger bag" would be more useful and helpful to me???

I most likely would buy this blogger back, if I could personalize it as well.

Here are images of the outside and inside of this blogger bag.

Prices start at $80, find more at Yahoo! Shopping.

I am still getting over that a company designed a bag specifically for a blogger. I am also still trying to figure out why this bag is not for a computer geek, as opposed to a blogger?

Blogger bag features I would like to see added include:

• External battery pack
  
• Wireless mobile router
  
• External keyboard attachment
  
• Really quick access to the computer
  
• Digital Camera easy access pocket
  

Gets me thinking... The RustyBlogger Bag... :)

Posted at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (1) (0)

Lots of coverage for you today, a total of 16 new blog posts since yesterday's recap posted over at the search blogs. I even wrote three generic blog posts today and two more last night, so that brings it up to 21 blog postings in the past 24 hours.

Let's start with Google, they released printable coupons to try to track the untraceable, offline marketing. Google also enabled AdSense for Search on site, yea, they can now be on your domain name and not off on Google's domain. Google takes a second look at the exchange rate privacy position, too funny. Google also found itself serving up checkout shopping cart icons on all AdWords ads. Because of that, they offered free WiFi to it's hometown. On the legal front, Google sent some weird warning to an advertiser for using an add to Google Reader button. Duh! And Google is in hot water again with Brazil over Orkut.

Also in the news, Yahoo!'s class settlement information was disclosed today. Yahoo! partnered with Go2, a mobile yellow pages company. Yahoo! also released a sweet API for their Answers product. MSN dude told spammers not to be too excessive. MSN seems to also be bugging out on some adCenter ads, but I am not 100% sure about that. Jen and John were quoted in USA Today.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Google Coupons & Custom Map Icon: A Deeper Look - now that is a deep look
   
2. Yahoo! & Checkmate Click Fraud Settlement Notices - check and mate, Yahoo!
   
3. Google Enables AdSense for Search On Your Own Pages - this is nice, check it out...
   
4. Jennifer Slegg (Jenstar) & John Scott (V7N) in USA Today on Google AdSense - Go SEM forums!
   
5. What Would Cause "No Such Link" to Display on adCenter Click? - so confused...
   
6. Google Becomes Transparent on AdWords Exchange Rates After Danny Tells Eric Schmidt - this made me smirk
   
7. "Spam is Often About Excess" Says MSN Search - live MSNdude, just love him!
   
8. Google Checkout Bug: Shopping Cart Icons Shown on All Ads - ooppps
   
9. Google Warns Trademark Infringement by Using Google Reader Button - this better be a hoax!
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Rand & I Rank The Best Search Blogs - Top Two, sweet!
   
2. Yahoo Class Action Settlement Information Released - see above
   
3. Yahoo Releases Yahoo Answers API - more spammer tools!
   
4. 101 Ways To Build Links & Popularity - exhaustive list but useful
   
5. Google WiFi Hits Mountain View For Free - which they released it a week ago
   
6. Yahoo Partners With Go2 For Mobile Search Ads - $$$
   
7. Orkut Causing Trouble In Brazil Again - ummm, what can I say...
   

Posted at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Cute, very cute - http://bigbluepineapplechair.wordpress.com/.

Re: Big Blue Pineapple Chair and The Obscure Query Revisited: A Look at SEM Forum Discussion which is now resolved, but not fully because of the above.

Made me laugh. Too funny.

Posted at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (1) (0)

I always wondered what percentage of speakers who ask the audience questions prior to their speech, actually fine tune their speech at that moment.

So what are some of the reasons presenters ask audience questions?

(1) Cheap and fast market research
(2) Grasping level of audience knowledge in subject
(3) Discovery of demographic of audience
(4) Waking up the audience and gaining their attention

I am sure there are other reasons, but those are the four I can think of at this moment.

Numbers 1 and 4 do not suggest to the audience that the speaker will be changing his/her speech for them. But when you ask a question that falls under numbers 2 and 3, it may suggest that the presenter will be adding, removing or going in more or less detail on certain slides they have.

Example question of number two would be, "Do you know what an API is?" If not the speaker needs to first explain that an API is an application protocol interface that allows developers to gain access to data and/or write data to a 3rd party application, in some type of uniform fashion. Jeremy Zawodny did just that in the Search APIs session, kudos.

Example question of number three would be, "How many of you are advertisers?" "How many are you are publishers?" "How many of you are agencies?" etc.. Now that seems to me, that if more people are advertisers, the speaker may add more detail to his or her slides on that topic?

Anyway, do you feel that some presenters ask these questions but make no effort to tailor their presentations after asking? Sometimes I do...

Posted at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (0) (0)

In the SEO World, people cloak for a few reasons:

(1) To serve search spiders different content then the users
- To rank better
- To save bandwidth
- To block bad spiders
- To spam
- etc.

(2) To direct users based on IP to the most geo-specific page possible
- Google does it also, if you come to Google.com in Israel, you will get the Google Israel search engine.

(3) There are more reasons...

But here I found an interesting and upsetting use of cloaking. Caitlyn Martin at O'Reilly Linux DevCenter Blog wrote that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad new blog detects if your IP address is from an Israeli geo-location, and if it matches, then it will send you a "virus or trojan (reports vary) designed to exploit an Internet Explorer vulnerability."

More details at Yael K's blog, an American-Israeli and YNetNews.

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1) (0)

I have been meaning to compile an ordered list of blogs that I am most likely to read in more detail. By that I mean, blogs I read in my RSS reader (Bloglines) that I am most likely to click through, from the RSS reader, to the blog itself to read. Rand pushed me to write this based on his ranked list. Here is the ordered list of blogs I am most likely to click-through on.

I list all the blogs I read currently in my link farm section of this site. I have pulled out the 76 SEM blogs in the current list. This is an ordered list of which blogs I am most likely to click over to from my RSS reader (this is not based on actual metrics, since I don't have those numbers, would be cool to have that Bloglines, wink wink): Oh, of course, I left Search Engine Roundtable off the list, and I probably should of left Search Engine Watch off the list, either way, here it is.

1. Search Engine Watch Blog
2. Google Blogoscoped
3. Matt Cutts
4. SEOmoz
5. JenSense
6. ResourceShelf
7. Shoe Money
8. News.com: Google
9. Search Engine Journal
10. Steve Bryant
11. ZDNet Googling Google
12. Stuntdubl
13. SEO Book
14. Bill Tancer
15. Bruce Clay Blog
16. ClickZ News
17. SEO By The Sea
18. SEO Scoop
19. Threadwatch
20. David Naylor
21. Tech Crunch
22. Techmeme
23. Yahoo Search Blog
24. Ask Jeeves Blog
25. Google Blog
26. Inside AdSense
27. MSN Search Blog
28. Inside AdWords
29. InsideGoogle
30. On Google Scholar
31. Battelle's Searchblog
32. SearchViews
33. V7N Blog
34. Lee Odden
35. Kim Krause's Blog
36. Mike Grehan
37. Smart Keywords
38. Search Engine Guide
39. Marketing Pilgrim
40. PaidContent.org
41. Link Building Blog
42. Search Engine Blog
43. Traffick
44. Jeremy Zawodny
45. Jim Boykin
46. Link Spiel
47. MSN Shopping Insider
48. Greg Sterling
49. Todd Friesen
50. Shandy King
51. Greg Linden
52. Ask Kalena
53. Gray Hat News
54. Comparison Engines
55. Greg Boser
56. Chris Boggs
57. Justilien
58. Pandia
59. David Wallace
60. Dirson
61. Search Engine Showdown
62. Joe Morin
63. Multilingual Search
64. Marcia's Blog
65. ResearchBuzz
66. Robert Scoble
67. Russell Beattie
68. Niall Kennedy
69. SiliconBeat
70. David Sifry
71. Thomas Bindl
72. Tim Bray
73. Unofficial Google Weblog
74. Xooglers
75. In Search Of Stuff
76. Vinny Lingham

If I do not have you on my list, feel free to comment and I will make sure to update my blogroll and then possibly add you to my list.

Hope I didn't insult anyone...

Update 11/1/2006: I have updated the link farm to include over a 150 resources.

Posted at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (29) | TrackBacks (1) (1)

Rand has stuck out his head on this post named Ranking 50 Top Blogs in the Search Space, where he ranks, in order of which blogs he feels are most important, the top 50 SEM blogs in the search space. Of course, I am personally happy with the list, being that I write at the number one blog (SEW Blog) and the number two blog (SER Blog). I will stick my head out by making my own personal changes to his list.

I would swap Threadwatch with Google Blogoscoped. I agree that the Yahoo! Search Blog should be hire than the Google Blog. I would move Jeremy Zawodny blog down the list, since he often goes off the search topic and move up StuntDubl, since his posts are often, down right awesome, when he posts. I have become a huge fan of the BruceClay.com Blog, move that up the list to lower 30s or upper 20s. Fantomaster hasn't been updated in ages, so I really don't think it should be there, along with the others that are stale.

I will be following up with my list of the blogs I am most likely to click through and read more detail on, from my RSS reader.

Posted at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2) (0)

I can't remember the last time I was this exhausted at work. Three cans of soda and I am still not good. Anyway, I covered several search topics today. Google hired Andrew Morton of Linux, and let Brian White out of his box. Yahoo's CEO stumbles on some tough questions, and Tim Converse of Yahoo! decides to go face to face with Matt Cutts? Yahoo! then falls rock bottom with customer satisfaction, while AOL surges forward. Finally, if you feed farmers Google Ice Cream, maybe they won't be upset over the porn?

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Brian White, Newest Google Representative To Hit Forums - very very nice to see
   
2. Get Your Google Ice Cream - maybe this will help me? But doubt it is kosher
   
3. Google AdSense Adds Last Login Date - too funny
   
4. Stop 'Googling' & Starting Searching with Google - people have been 'googling' at Yahoo! for ever, so can people continue to 'google' at AOL?
   
5. Is Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo! the Matt Cutts of Google? - TIm Converse, I guess
   
6. Microsoft adCenter Goes Live in UK - some buzz but not craziness, like with the US launch
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Yahoo, MSN, & Google Fall In Customer Satisfaction Survey - Go AOL!
   
2. Microsoft adCenter Now Live In The UK - Yup...
   
3. Google Hires Linux Coder, Andrew Morton - first glaring public sign I was dead today, some of you know
   
4. Farmer Dating Web Site Sues Google Over Porn Ads - this is no joke, but should be
   
5. Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel, Answers Tough Questions - some of the answers here re embarrassing, imo...
   

Posted at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Like many of you that read this blog, we all get a ton of email. A ton! We all have several spam filters to help weed out the bad stuff. We all have unsubscribed from newsletters and switched over to RSS subscriptions for those newsletters. We have all set up automatic rules to put messages you don't need to read immediately into different folders for later. But I am finding email these days to be unbearable...

It starts around 9:30am (EST), the emails start flying in. I begin to reply to one and then bam, as soon as I hit the reply button and put that email away, five more hit my inbox. Heck, I am a fast typer, I am very quick to reply to emails but I can't keep up between the hours of 10am-5pm throughout the day. Normally, after 6pm I am able to get through most the emails.

The good thing, is that if I am away from my desk for an extended period of time, I get less emails. For the obvious reason, that I do not reply to my previous emails, that require an additional reply, and so on.

Today, it is 1:30PM (EST), and I have already sent over sixty emails manually. This is not automated stuff. I sent 60 emails. How many did I receive? No idea, few hundred? I should get a program that works with Apple Mail to keep stats on this stuff, it would make for a nice graph.

Spam is still bad, but it catches 95% of the stuff, I would guestimate.

The real issue are the emails that need responses. Again, 60+ emails sent and it is only 1:30.

Between client work, employee stuff, internal business, side projects, press releases from the search writing, and other things, it is just sometimes, overwhelming.

Do I prefer the phone? Heck no! If you do call and get my voicemail, I will get that via email.

I am also psycho with keeping my email organized. I have a very detailed folder structure that works well for me. So putting emails in their appropriate buckets, is something I am a bit paranoid about. I think I need some counseling. :)

Alright, now I have a ton of emails that need my attention, so I will cut this short.

Posted at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (0) (0)

Watch this video until the video tells you to look away. I know it gets boring, but keep watching until the video says stop. Then, watch Cartoon Barry do a little wave shuffle.

Via Yahoo! Video team blog.

Posted at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (0) (0)

Today I covered ten topics in total, I would have done more, but I had to jet to the city. With my coverage, I discussed how some web hosts are cloaking paid links on your site, without your knowledge. In addition, adCenter is launching in the United Kingdom this week. We covered Google topics, including false information at the Wikipedia, some robots text exclusion rules and a data center they are building in India. Also we looked at an other AOL keyword tool. Finally we discussed how Google Video may begin to allow pornographic content. That is my news for today.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Web Hosts Found Cloaking Webmaster Content - not good at all, check your sites
   
2. Microsoft adCenter to Launch in the UK this Week - get ready for the shift in traffic
   
3. GoogleGuys Explains Robots.txt Handling - good to know, if you didn't
   
4. Two Sites, Same Niche, Same Server, Same IP - don't drive your car to the bank you are going to rob - robert
   
5. Wikipedia Claims Google Has Content Targeting like Tags for Crawling? - hmmm
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Yahoo Hires Away comScore Executive - playground for data guys
   
2. Google To Allow Pornographic Movies In Google Video? - there are just too many funny things one can say about this
   
3. Another Tool Uses AOL Data For Search Term Research - this one is snappy but requires some more tools to make it work
   
4. Google To Build Data Center In India - no comment
   
5. Beware: Is Your Hosting Provider Cloaking Paid Links On Your Site For Their Benefit? - this is kinda a big deal
   

Posted at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

I was driving to the city today, with the top down on my car, and as I got closer and closer to Manhattan, it started to smell worse and worse. I look up at the sky and the the sunny sky was a bit dark and grimy looking.

Got me thinking of that movie where everything in the northern part of the world froze over. But I forgot the name of that movie...

Anyway, off to my next meeting here in NYC.

Posted at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1) (0)

This week was Apple's developer conference, WWDC2006 and they announced new MacPros (i.e. desktops) but not new MacBook Pros (laptops). So I have enough of waiting and decided to order the MacBook Pro. I got the 15.4" screen, the 17" is way too big. I also got the top of the line version, i.e the 2.16GHZ. I wish it came in black, but oh well...

I then also purchased Apple Care for it, since I always forget to get that. I also ordered a Mac Mini 1.66GHZ and a SlimTouch wireless keyboard for the Mac Mini.

Love getting new toys, it should be shipped out today!

Posted at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs | Comments (0) (0)

Seriously, out of al chandeliers to fall on you, what if this one fell on you?

Yea, I was bored in a session...

Posted at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (3) (0)

http://www.ask.com/web?q=lederhosen
http://images.google.com/images?q=lederhosen
http://images.ask.com/pictures?q=lederhosen

Click for a larger image.

Need I say more? Want the story behind it? See here.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (1) (0)

I am in San Jose Airport with the wife waiting to go through security. We are here pretty early so we decided to hang out in the cafe area prior to going through security. The airport seemed pretty slow and nothing crazy going on here just yet. I did see a cop with a pretty large shot gun. But aside from that, it is pretty quite here.

Our flight is already delayed, hope it is not too bad. So, expect delays in any search news from me tomorrow.

If you are also flying out today or tomorrow, have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable flight.

Posted at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0) (0)

I did not forum coverage today, zero, I hope to be able to do some tomorrow. I will be taking a red eye, with my wife, tonight. We don't arrive in New York until after 6am tomorrow, which may be later, with all this airport security stuff going on. But we did cover the sessions and I did cover a few sessions today. Also, I think I lost a session I covered yesterday, named Search Engine Bloggers, I am pretty upset. But what can you do.

Search Engine Roundtable SES Coverage:

1. Search APIs (Yahoo! Developer Network, YSM API, Google AJAX API & AdWords API)
   
2. Search Engine Q&A On Links (Ramez MSN Search, Kaushal Ask.com, Adam Google & Rajat Yahoo!)
   
3. Organic Listing Forums (Danny Sullivan In Costume)
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Custom Map Icons Added For Google Local Business Ads
   
2. Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 - Day Four
   
3. Which Queries On Yahoo Search Get Redirected To Site Explorer?
   
4. The Good & Bad Of Working At Yahoo
   
5. Google's Costs To Increase With Data Center Needs & Increased Employee Compensation
   
6. Google Pays AOL $400M In Ad Deal
   
7. Google Video Replaces Froogle & Expandable More Link Added To Google Home Page
   

Posted at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Typically, the last day of the large SES conferences (4 day conferences) tend to have an abridged version of the 3 previous days. This is the day where Danny, moderators, and speakers, plus the remaining attendees tend to sit back and relax. But boy does a huge convention center look empty when most the people pack out before the sessions begin.

If you are a speaker, then you normally want to be slotted for day one through three, to get as much exposure as possible. If you are shy, then slot yourself for day four.

Posted at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0) (0)

Ok, I am zonked. Just got back from a drive to San Francisco. We went out to eat, but the place was not worth the trip. It was nice going to SF with the wife. SF is a nutty place, all those hills, crazy. Posted pics at flickr. Anyway, did some search coverage today, of course.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Search Engine Forums Thread Hit List
   

Search Engine Roundtable SES Coverage:

1. A Conversation With Google CEO Eric Schmidt
   
2. When Search Engines Do Search Marketing (AOL, Business.com, Yahoo! & Local.com)
   
3. Link Baiting & Viral Search Success
   
4. The Vice Presidents Of Search Marketing
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Google To Open Research Center In Shanghai
   
2. Google Jet Lawsuit, Over Bed Sizes, Has Been Settled
   
3. University of California Joins Google's Book Scan Project
   
4. The Google Doctor Interviewed
   
5. Yahoo & Google Commit To An Other Independent Click Fraud Audit At SES
   
6. Google Talk & Sony Partner With Mylo Device
   

Tired, going to sleep. Good night all!

Posted at 1:15 AM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (2) (0) | Speak

Honestly, I am not crazy, this is the loudest typing I have ever heard. He is in this very quiet press room, all you hear are soft taps from around him and then his bass like echos of the keys he is pounding on. He is back.

Posted at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (1) (0)

Proof I actually went to a party. Well, honestly, I never missed the Google Dances since going to SES San Jose. Here is a picture of Danny Sullivan, Yisha (my wife) and myself at the Google Dance.

More pictures here.

Posted at 1:32 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0) (0)

First, it is so cool that people asked if I was still tired. I am less tired now, but I have yet to go to the Google Dance, Yisha and I leave for that in about an hour. See you there... So let's see what I wrote today in search....

Search Engine Roundtable Topics (Pre SES Coverage):

1. Google Redesigns AdWords Home Page - nice look Google
   
2. Expect "Fresher Supplemental Results" At Google.com - so what?
   
3. AOL Messes Up by Releasing Sensitive Search Data - big ouch!
   
4. Yahoo! Search Engine Builder - cool
   

Search Engine Roundtable Topics (SES Coverage):

1. Can You Please Them All? (Google, Yahoo!, MSN & Ask.com)
   
2. Search Arbitrage Issues
   
3. The Bot Obedience Course - New Yahoo! Site Explorer Tool Announced
   
4. Search Algorithm Research
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 - Day Two - Exhausting...
   
2. Yahoo Releases Updates To Site Explorer - Sitemaps ring a bell?
   
3. Google Fights Claims Of Some Third Party Click Fraud Studies - Hmmm
   
4. Yahoo News Gains Search Engine News Market Share - Go Yahoo!
   
5. More SEO Video 'Cutts' By Matt - Nice stuff Matt
   
6. Google Supplemental Results Get A Fresh Look - Again, so what?
   
7. Google Adds Video Tab to Related Links - I like it, I tried it out below
   

Pictures posted at sessanjose06 tag.

Posted at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

So Yisha and I got into San Jose last night, flight was early, everything so far is working out nicely. Came into the hotel that night, saw Danny Sullivan & Chris Sherman welcoming those who entered the hotel. Well, they happened to be there - I believe Danny had some reservation issues... Saw a few more old time SES Goers in the lobby, won't name names now.

Then the Monday, woke up at 6am (PST) to begin blogging at SER and SEW. Didn't blog that much prior to the show. Got ready, posted the following items not directly related to session coverage.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Google Sitemaps Renamed to Webmaster Central
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Google Music, Not Any Time Soon
   
2. Google & Viacom Partner In Video Ad Test
   
3. AOL Releases Search Data & Raises Privacy Concerns
   
4. Yahoo Launches Search Builder
   
5. Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 - Day One
   

Session coverage included:

1. Social Search Overview: Yahoo!, Windows Live & Eurekster
   
2. Social Search: Up Close With Yahoo!
   
3. Social Search: Up Close With Google (Google Co-op)
   
4. The Search Laboratories
   

Big thank you to Benjamin Pfeiffer, Chris Boggs and Lee Odden for covering the rest.

My SES San Jose images are at Flickr.

Introduced my wife to a bunch of folks; Rand, Danny, Chris, Chris, Debra, Kevin, Gillian, John M. Hope to show her off around at the Google Party tomorrow. I went for a walk with Yisha during lunch, took a picture outside of the Art Museum. Then we went to a movie after the sessions, which we walking out on, since we were kind of tired. Also, I am sorry I was unable to go to the other parties tonight.

Posted at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Tim Mayer first took a picture of me and DaveN, so I snapped him back, but he was on guard.

Joshua Schachter of del.ici.us owned by Yahoo! on that panel.

And the rest of the Yahoo! Team; Flickr, Trip Planner, etc.

Next up Google...

Posted at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0) (0)

I am sitting here in the press room at SES San Jose and posting my recap of the Social Search Overview session but something keeps distracting me. I try to ignore it and move on to a really quick post on Yahoo Launches Search Builder but the typing is still irritating me.

(1) It is loud, really loud
(2) I feel like he is breaking his keyboard and it worries me

Get this, he just got up and walked away. The computer was IncisiveMedias. Ouch!

Posted at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (0) (0)

How can I best describe this....

Traveling With The Wife = Two Duffels

Traveling Without The Wife = One Carry On

As some of you know, my wife is coming with me to SES San Jose. We should be arriving tonight. I have never prepared so much for an SES before in my life.

We are taking a huge duffel, one big cooler bag, two large carry ons and of course, my computer bag.

Curb-side checkin, here we come. :)

Posted at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (0) (0)

15 posts, two overlapped from blog to blog, but overall a busy morning. Let's see... First, a big mazol tov to Gary Price and Lisa on their engagement. Good luck to Mike Grehan and Andy Beal on their career moves. With Google, we noticed they changed their Web categories front, we also saw that they warn us of wares with interstitial pages and they hired a new executive to fancy Madison Avenue. We also discussed how Google can be used to find secret Chinese Military bases, also soon you will be able to make phone calls on a new WiFi phone via Google Talk and that you have a 200 URL limit with the AdSense filter. I blew up at Yahoo! over stealing Google's searches, but MSN does the same thing. And I also was upset with Yahoo! over how they handle tracking URL arguments. But Yahoo!'s del.icio.us did announce a new social network badge, yea, I made a friend. That wraps up this weeks search news, see you in San Jose!

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Mike Grehan Leaves MarketSmart Interactive - Best of luck Mike!
   
2. Yahoo! Search Bit Too Dynamic URL Happy? - this is kind of strange
   
3. Google AdSense's Filter List Max is 200 URLs - good to know
   
4. How to Convince Clients to Stay After Rankings Drop - beg!!!
   
5. Can a Competitor Hurt Your Google Rankings? - yea, they can
   
6. Gary Price Proposes To Long Time Girlfriend Last Night - Mazol Tov Chosen & Kallah
   
7. Google Changes Look of Web Categories - pretty up your URLs
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Gary Price, Former SEW News Editor Gets Engaged! - congrats from SEMs
   
2. Google Provides Warnings Of Potentially Hazardous Search Results - SEMs be prepared
   
3. Google Grabs Former "Time" President As Head Of Ad Sales - Madison Ave Suck Up!
   
4. Searching For Other Search Engines At Search Engines - MSN Also? Ehhhh...
   
5. Get Your del.icio.us Network Badge - I made a friend!
   
6. More Chinese Military Secrets Found With Google Earth - stop looking there! ;-)
   
7. Google Talk WiFi Phone Coming Soon? - who's calling?
   
8. Google Web Category Links Get Overhaul - same deal as above, I like it
   

Posted at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Some of you know that the Search Engine Roundtable has a discussion forum but many of you do not. The forum is nice, it is just a couple dozen active users who are very close. It is public but requires registration to post, like most forums. Only thing is that when a new member goes out of line, I don't private message them, I ban them right away.

We have this no tolerance policy.

But yet, we have a very grey area on what our policies are.

Yea, they don't go well together. But no one seems to be upset by it.

Posted at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (2) (0)

Let's play the where is Waldo Game... Andy Beal has posted that he is departing Fortune Interactive. Ok some history for you.

Andy first founded KeywordRankings, then KeywordRankings was bought by WebSourced, WebSourced changed its name to MarketSmart Interactive. Andy left WebSourced, many bad rumors buzzed through the SEM community. Then Andy started Fortune Interactive. And now, ten months later, he is leaving the company he co-founded.

Got that? Phew... Spinning here...

Oh, when he left WebSourced he wasn't allowed to keep his popular blog, the Search Engine Lowdown. But with this departure, he can keep Marketing Pilgrim.

Good luck Andy!

Posted at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , Daily Grind , Rambling | Comments (0) (0)

Gary Price has proposed to Lisa (leaving out last name for privacy purposes) last night, and she of course said yes. I have known Gary for years, he is a very smart individual who has a big heart. I met Lisa, when they came to my wedding in August. They go well together and I know that they will have a long and happy life together.

Yea, I know I blogged this three different times. Here, SER and SEW but I am just so happy for the both of them.

I can't wait for the wedding. Mazol Tov Gary & Lisa!

Search Better with Gary: http://www.ask.com/web?q=gary+price

Posted at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Buddies | Comments (0) (0)

All I can say is thank god. Mike Grehan, someone I have always deeply respected and looked up to, have made a bold move. He has formally resigned from MarketSmart Interactive (AKA WebSourced).

Now that I have a place where I can speak frankly, I will - to some extent.

I was honestly shocked and sad when I heard Mike joined WebSourced. But I did not state so there. Soon after Andy left WebSourced and it worried me even more. Since Mike and Andy were pretty good buddies, I had to think - something was up.

Heather is still there, I believe and also a good guy, Garrett French. When will they leave? I don't know. The reputation MarketSmart I. has rubs off on those who work there. Mike leaving, doesn't help them much. 22 comments in a post on my personal blog doesn't do much for them either.

Mike, I know this must have been a hard situation. But you know you can count on us in the community you helped build. If you need anything, we are here for you.

Posted at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (5) (0)

Today we got a bit into the details of the economies of the PPC game, not just within one PPC engine but how Google may affect Yahoo!'s prices. We also reported on the engines joining together to fight the search engines. We looked at some reports of people saying Yahoo! is rankings sites based on links only and no content. We also found that Yahoo! is stealing searches from Google, for real! Eric Schmidt puts on his shy face the other day. Google reach 60% search market share, 60%! Before you leave today, make sure you decide if you want to join the class action lawsuit against Google for click fraud.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Does Google AdWords PPC Prices Affect Yahoo! Search Marketing's Prices? - not a conspiracy theory but more an economic theory
   
2. Search Engines Form Pact to Fight Click Fraud - whoo hoo, hope it helps
   
3. Google Really Does Radio Ads; XM Radio & Google Partner - Google can hear us now
   
4. Yahoo! Search Not Ranking Based on Content of a Page? - the real deal? I doubt it
   
5. AdWords Invalid Clicks Claim Form Due Tomorrow - get those papers signed, um on screen of course
   
6. Yahoo! Stealing Searching From Google - Tim Converse of Yahoo! said it may be a joke?
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Eric Schmidt Asks Photos Of Him & Wife To Be Kept Private - kinda feel bad for him
   
2. The Concept Of A "Perfectly Optimized Page" - nice post Aaron
   
3. Google Reaches 60% Search Market Share - what else is new?
   
4. Use Frequency Of Google Products Survey - nice survey
   
5. Reminder: AdWords Claim in Click Fraud Settlement Due Tomorrow - same deal
   

Posted at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

I promised some SEO tips at this blog, so here is my first one.

If you are included in the Yahoo! News search index, then you should try naming the title of one of your posts, "Google.com XXX." The XXX should obviously be replaced by the topic of the post.

You should notice, a ton of referrals from Yahoo! News with Google.com as the keyword referring the traffic.

Yahoo! News searchers are stir happy for searching on the keyword "Google.com."

For example, this page received well over 3,000 unique visitors in one day from Yahoo! News for the keyword search "Google.com."

Posted at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0) (0)

The Yahoo! Video blog posted this video of a hamster really running quickly. So quickly that it, well, looses control.

This video kind of reminds me of Sonic The Hedgehog, I used to play that game years ago. Now he was quick! There is a pretty detailed wikipedia entry on Sonic the Hedgehog, if you are interested.

Back to the hamster, gotta love that, don't ya.

Posted at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (1) (0)

I was able to post one item this morning at the SEW blog and then bam, it wouldn't load. None of it would load. Not the blog, not the forums, not the main site, not the admin areas...

For me, it is timing out after

so-1-0-0.cr1.dca2.us.above.net (64.125.28.125) 20.547 ms 34.961 ms 26.304 ms
so-6-0-0.cr1.lhr3.uk.above.net (64.125.31.185) 89.840 ms 109.154 ms 92.362 ms
* * *

uk.above.net (64.125.31.185)

I pinged Danny, hope it gets back up soon. It has been about 20 minutes so far.

Some others can get to it, some others can not. It is not specific to my computer or my ISP.

So that is why there are not many posts at SEW right this minute. I am writing offline for now.

Update: And we are back, about 10:10 it came back online. Hence, all the new stories live at SEW.

Posted at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (0) (0)

Honestly, who would you rather look at? Me, or Matt Cutts?

Thought so...

You can find Matt Cutt's SEO Videos at Google Video. Yea, some person put up that Hostage Video, I don't know who.

Oh, you notice how I am looking down at Matt. A ploy to get you to vote for me.

Wow, this is a dumb post... Just waiting for the wife...

Posted at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Category: Rambling , Rambling | Comments (6) (0)

As many of you know, Danny Sullivan is out this week in California. He is spending some time with the search engines and preparing for the big San Jose SES show. While he is out running from search engine to search engine, I am at the SEW blog trying to cover both my area of topics and Danny's topics. Today, happened to be a crazy day for search news. As you can see from today's daily recap, I posted on 8 items and also placed 21 different stories into the search headlines at the SEW blog. Number of stories I viewed today in total? Plus the number of forum threads I reviewed? No idea, but I can guess well into the thousands.

Days like today can get a bit crazy and nutty. Between compiling a list of about 30 items to manage at the SEW blog, I covered 6 items at the Roundtable and placed several more in my hit list for the other authors to tackle, when they can. After then, Danny shot over a few items he received on his email, that I should take a look at. I believe there were like 4 or so new items I had to either blog or include in headlines.

Who would of thought, the search industry can be so incredibly busy. Heck, it is the summer and news for search engines, specifically, is suppose to be slow. I am afraid for what the fall brings.

But honestly, I really enjoy it. Do I enjoy it more when Danny is away? It has its pros and cons.

Pros:

• Freedom to post whatever
  
• Freedom to not post items I don't like (there is a difference)
  
• Can hook up friends with links in headlines (of course I use my best judgement with that)
  
• Can get to items whenever, as long as it is before 11:30 AM (EST)
  
• Less IMs and emails throughout the day
  

Cons:

• Danny is a huge help with finding stories
  
• I can get up at 5AM and it is already the early afternoon at Danny
  
• I don't always need to find stories, sometimes Danny got them all on a list for me (huge time saver)
  
• Danny is brilliant and I love talking with him throughout the day
  
• Funny also, so we sometimes mess around with non-search topics
  
• Days like today can cause an overload
  

Today proved to be exceptionally challenging with the things going on with SER & SEW blogs, the implementation of a dynamic sitepal cartoon barry character on this blog, AOL giving me issues with things (more on that later), some issues with a few sites that needed my attention, made a job offer to a new RB employee, interviewed an other potential employee, had an in person client meeting, dealt with a couple family things, reviewed items with a sick employee and then the generic stuff.

But overall, it is nice to run shop over at SEW when Danny is away. But I can't wait for him to come back.

The next two weeks, I pretty much run solo. This week Danny is doing pre-conference items. Next week, is the conference. I plan on updating all the blogs prior to 9AM (PST) time, and possibly some updates in the evening. I also will be proving, with an excellent team of volunteers, real time coverage of the conference, throughout the day. So next week should be even more search nuttiness, but I won't be dealing minute to minute with RustyBrick items.

So, anyone want anything funny or inappropriate posted over at SEW? Just kidding...

Posted at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (0) (0)

Google announced a deal with serving dynamic ads on XM Radio, while the rest of Google spends time mending relationships with search marketers. Some top search engine optimizers share some of their secret SEO tips. Danny makes the spot light on USA Today. Ask releases a new smart answer feature for ISBN number searches. MSN hires a new executive, but what does this executive do exactly? Bloglines releases a new standard for marking RSS feeds as private or public. Finally, we learn that many search marketers do not track, what is called "assists" down to the conversion.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. Google AdWords Video Team Watches Forum Thread For Feedback - good opportunity for you guys
   
2. Responses to Ads on Web Search vs. Maps, NOODP Hurting Rankings & Indented Google Results - nice to see guys, good work
   
3. SEOs Share One Secret Each - don't wanna miss this one
   
4. Full Page Article on Danny Sullivan in USA Today - now what are you looking at?
   
5. Google's Vanessa Fox Rips Up Webmaster Communication with Matt Cutts - one symbol for ya ☼
   
6. Matt Cutts SEO Videos - Matt, you rock!
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Search Marketers Often Don't Track All Referring Conversions - why not!
   
2. Starts Google Videos At A Specific Point In Time - neat feature
   
3. USA Today Gets A Hold Of Danny Sullivan - yea, birds?
   
4. More Matt Google SEO Videos: Google Terminology & More - nice Matt
   
5. Ask.com & Bloglines Proposes Blog Search Exclusion Tag - nice standard
   
6. Ask.com Releases ISBN Number Smart Answers - cool, but Yahoo! beat ya to it
   
7. MSN Search Hires Media Analytics Executive - mysterious
   
8. Google Signs Deal With XM Radios To Distribute Ads In Satellite Radio Spots - wow
   

Posted at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Weekly, I help my buddy, ShoeMoney, out with his show Net Income. I do what he calls, The Money Minute, where I give a roundup of some of the most popular topics in the search community, all within 10 minutes.

The show begins at 6pm (EST) and runs for about an hour every Tuesday.

Well, why do I always leave right after I give the Money Minute?

I also play basketball Tuesday nights at 7:30PM (EST). So I need some time to get home from work, change, eat a quick bite and say hello to the wife - before getting to my ball game that lasts typically until after 10PM (EST).

Hope that answers the question some folks have been asking me via email and in the chat room.

Posted at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , Daily Grind | Comments (0) (0)

In order to continue using the Sitepal feature, I have decided to use the API feature to automatically pull the contents I enter into the excerpt of the entry, into the mouth of the Cartoon Barry feature. It addition, we now require you to click the "speak" button or the icon at the top right of each entry to both view and listen to the character do its thing. I have reconstructed some of the past entries, to use this feature. I am sorry about the rss updates, I hate doing that.

Oh, the popup automatically closes when it is done talking...

Posted at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Category: Web Development | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

The other day I complained that Flickr is Just Too Hard to Sign Up With. Well, since then, Tim Mayer of Yahoo! pointed the co-founder of Flickr, Stewart Butterfield towards this entry. Stewart commented stating that they are aware of the issues and will be working on an "email a friend" feature to make it easier for family and friends to view private photos.

Whooo hooo!

In any case, you shouldn't need to have an account to see private photos if the person who uploaded the photos wants you to see them - we are working on a way to securely share private photos without requiring that your in-laws have to have a Flickr account.

(Finally, we don't have a simple "email to friend" feature right now, but that is coming as well.)

I simply cannot wait! Go Flickr!

Posted at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Category: Family , Rambling | Comments (0) (0)

Let's start with Microsoft. MSN named their crawlers today and they issued an announcement about a new upgrade for adCenter that will be coming soon. AOL will be launching a new video portal and we have a new tool that utilizes the Yahoo link command. Now Google, we looked at weirdness between AdWords ads on search results versus map results. Also, we analyzed forum chatter with the NO ODP tag hurting a site's rankings. We also explored when a search listing may or may not be indented. Google has a bug with the Google Toolbar that kind of benefits them. Google began paying off some news sources for Google News. And finally, Matt Cutts answers some SEO question on Google Video.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. AdWords in Google Web Search Versus Google Maps - interesting results
   
2. MSN Crawlers Are Named - celebrate!
   
3. Can Adding the NOODP Tag Hurt Your Google Rankings? - nah...
   
4. Google Loosing a Grip on Indented Results? - get a hold of yourself!
   
5. Microsoft adCenter Upgrades; Including Firefox Support - about time!
   

Search Engine Watch Topics:

1. Google Toolbar Bug Warns Against Use Of Other Search Engines - too funny
   
2. AOL Video To Launch New Video Portal - portal & media company
   
3. Site Geolocation Tool Sorts Backlinks By Top Level Domain - nice tool
   
4. MSN Assigns Names To Vertical Search Crawlers - yea yea yea
   
5. Google Paying News Sites For Google News Syndication? - questions...
   
6. Google's Matt Cutts Answers Questions On Google Video - thanks Matt
   

Posted at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Search Coverage | Comments (0) (0) | Speak

Sticky, greasy, or grimy fingers messing up your nice new keyboard? Well, this new keyboard may be the answer for you. has the product for sale (yea that is my affiliate link). Basically, this product projects a keyboard on a flat surface, it then detects where your fingers are pressing on that keyboard. This way, you only muck up your desk or flat surface (disposal table cloth?).

I can't imagine this device working too well. I mean, it can't detect the pressure from your finger... How does it know if you are shifting your fingers from the t key to the r key, versus an actual press of those keys?

It makes all the noises a normal keyboard would make, when you tap. I assume it may get some time to get used to. Heck, if it was $50 I would buy it to test it out, but at its current price, I don't think I would go for it.

Pretty geeky if you ask me...

Posted at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Shopping | Comments (1) (0)