Last night, Google's Gmail announced priority inbox. I love the concept and I think it can be incredibly useful. But I hope I never have to use it on a daily basis.

As many of you know, I have email OCD. There are fewer people who reply to emails as quickly and efficiently as I do. That doesn't mean I don't get a lot of emails. I do. I get a ton. Likely more than you - yes, I said it, I get more email than you. But I am so crazy when it comes to my inbox that I hope I never need to use a "priority inbox."

What is it? Well, here is a quick video:

To be totally honest, I can see myself using this feature after being offline for three days straight for the upcoming Jewish holidays. But I really hope that this never becomes a feature I use daily or a feature any of my staff use on a daily basis.

Posted at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers | Comments (1) (0)

Google Reader lets you look at your reader habits on the Google Reader Trends page.

Did you know that recently Google Reader began documenting how many items you read in Google Reader over the course of time you have been using Google Reader?

Google said, "we now show you your lifetime read item count. That's right. Every. Single.* Item.**"

So I take a look and mine says:

Since December 2, 2009 you have read a total of 300,000+ items.

That is where the ** comes in, Google added, "**Okay, that's not quite accurate - once you hit around 300K (which we know some of you are already over) we stop counting for performance reasons. Consider that "beating the game"."

So I guess I beat the Google Reader game! Do I get a T-Shirt or something?

Not only that, I have been using Google Reader since April 2007, after switching off from Bloglines after tons of frustration - in hindsight, a great move. Diller killed Bloglines, for the most part.

So how much did I read since 2007? Hmm... Let's say 30,000 items per month for the past 40 months or so. That is about 1,200,000, one million two hundred items since using Google Reader. Shouldn't I have to pay Google for that?

I guess I beat the Google Reader Game four times now. I guess I deserve a t-shirt, sweater, scarf and hat.

Posted at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Daily Grind | Comments (5) (0)

Many of you know what is going on over at Digg now. The users are revolting and posting tons of reddit.com stories to it, which is kind of a competing site. The revolt is over recent changes to the site, and their top user base is not happy with it.

So all the top users are standing up by submitting stories from reddit.com. I find it refreshing and a sign of camaraderie at it's best.

Why does it remind me of 11th grade? Well, my 11th grade class, at least the subdivision I was in, represented true camaraderie. How so?

Looking back at it, I am not proud, but it was a true sense of camaraderie, which is why I will share it.

Whenever one of our fellow students were penalized unfairly (as judged by the kids in the class), the class stood together. There were times where the class, as a whole, would not answer questions raised by the teacher. There were times where no one would answer the tests given to us, as a sign of camaraderie for our friends in our class. The class, no matter what, always stuck together, no matter what the consequence.

Back then, it was fun. But clearly, it was kind of foolish, but hey - that is kids for you.

Then came 12th grade. The administration split up the class and the camaraderie died with it. In fact, there was one student in our new class that believed there was still camaraderie in the new class. To prove it, I did something stupid, but I did it respectively as possible. The next time someone was asked to leave the class for misbehaving, I stood up and said nicely something like "If he is asked to go, I would like to be asked to leave as well." I looked around and no one else said anything, and I walked out of the class. I then explained why I did it to the teacher later, who found it all very interesting. But I had to prove the point.

When I see what is going on over at Digg now, it so reminds me of that camaraderie. The beauty here is that these are people coming together from all parts of the world, all ages and all backgrounds, supporting each other on a site they loved.

Posted at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Interesting | Comments (0) (0)

Ever since moving into my home I never wanted to pay for a trash can.

The concept of paying for something to store something that you are throwing away, just well - doesn't necessarily make full sense to me. I know it has to go somewhere but to pay for a container to keep it somewhere, seems wasteful.

Same concept of a wallet. To pay money to store your money, seems kinda reverse. So to pay money to store stuff that is less than worthless to you, again, kinda reverse.

Of course, people pay for trash cans - it is a big industry. Waste removal has a big price tag on it. You don't want the trash, you pay someone to get rid of it. It makes sense when you think of it that way. But when you think of it the other way, it does not.

Yesterday, almost 3 years since moving into my house, I spent money on my first trash can. I bought a 64 gallon Toter trash can at home depot.

What!? I didn't have a trash can for 3 years?! No, I did. I just took used ones from family. But they won't store enough trash for the upcoming holidays. When I have company over for three-days straight, it produces a lot of trash. So I decided to go big and put up some money to store trash.

Why Toter? Well, it was the best value for the size. I needed one that can fit a lot of trash and that had the lid attached to the basket. The already lost two lids due to the garbage disposal men or women throwing them on the ice and snow and then them blowing away, never to be found again.

I hope this Toter lasts me a long long time.

Posted at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Rambling | Comments (0) (0)

I was driving to work this morning, by myself and looked over and saw this:

I then thought --- hey, what if I was a lonely guy? What if I never had anyone sitting in my passenger seat? What if I had no friends? What if everyone hated me?

This would make me feel so sad.

Posted at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny , Just Interesting , Motor Vehicle , Rambling | Comments (2) (0)

Last week I tweeted, "Elmer Fudd just ripped me off!" and I never followed up on that.

I have to tell you, I was angry. I don't often get angry, but I feel like Elmer Fudd ripped me off!

Why "Elmer Fudd"? Well, that is the name that came to mind when I had a groundhog problem at my house. We hired some company, I won't mention the name of the company, and the guy ripped us off.

He told us it would cost $75 to get rid of the animal. When he showed up, he said, it costs $375 for him just to show up and then $75 to remove the animal. Then he went on to say that we had to spend $1,500 worth of work to make sure it doesn't happen again.

(1) To not tell us about the $375! Ripp Off!

(2) To lie to me and tell me he told me that and I wasn't listening!

(3) To then take an extra $1,500 for something that was not necessary!

So we called another Elmer Fudd over, and he was nice. When we asked him about the price, he said, "I never say bad about competitors, but that's just not right."

So I got ripped off by $500 by Elmer Fudd.

Posted at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4) (0)

I was thinking random thoughts on the way to pick up the mail from the mailbox yesterday.

Affiliates make money for delivering money to their merchants. Why shouldn't the mail man make money for delivering money to his/her customers?

What if all the mail man took 1% of all the checks they delivered? They would be very well off and would make sure the checks got delivered on time.

Of course, then shouldn't they pay 1% of all the bills they delivered?

Okay, this post makes no sense cause it is not like the mail man got you a sale or anything.

Ignore ;-/

Posted at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (3) (0)

The more I fly, the more I become a slave to those airline miles. The programs the airlines design to keep their most important customers, loyal customers is working on me. I fly Continental and I keep flying them and only them just so I can retain my Elite Status, which I earned in 2008.

I don't often get the first class upgrades like others who are Platinum or Gold, I am just Silver. But it does let you do a few things that 'basic' customers don't get. Things like bonus miles, priority phone line (no long hold times), preferred seating, priority boarding (yes, overhead space), free checked bags and more. So sticking with an airline is important for these reasons.

I feel like I need these options. They say once you fly first class you can't go back. I don't have a problem flying coach, as long as I can pick a nice seat using Seat Guru and a lot of those nice seats are taken first by Elite Access members.

This year, I flew to Israel for the SphinnCon event 2010 on miles (not SphinnCon 2011 announced). You don't earn miles for flying with miles. So the 11,384 miles I normally get to get me Elite Access yearly with ease was not so easy this year.

I have already flown 14,896 miles in 2010, outside of that singe, not counted, 11,384 trip. I have a few more trips booked and scheduled, including 1,438 miles, 2,146 miles, 4,454 miles. That brings me up to 22,934 miles, I am 2,066 short of the 25,000 mile requirement.

Thing is, if I decide to visit the in-laws in St. Louis and I take Continental by the end of the year, I will get 2,180 miles. Thus be 144 miles above the requirement and keep elite status for 2011.

I am a sucker - but at least I admit it.

Posted at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Category: | Comments (0) (0)

Often when I attend conference I leave this blog somewhat empty. If I do end up writing something, it is often short.

So why do I not blog here much during conferences?

(1) I spend my days at conference blogging. It is search specific blogging, so I write about SEO stuff, but it is blogging. I blog prior to the session coverage, I blog live session coverage and then I blog recaps of them and in addition, I blog news during the day. So blogging for fun those days are not fun.

(2) Connectivity stinks. I have a Verizon MiFi and to be honest, my AT&T iPhone has more reliable connectivity. Sad but true. The MiFi constantly drops connection. So blogging from the hotel room, with a connection that constantly goes up and down, is frustrating.

(3) Less time. Between attending the conference, blogging in the AM and PM prior and after the sessions and between running the business, there is so little time. At least when I am at work, I do have more time, but going to a conference all day takes up too much time.

Those are some of the reasons the blog was empty last week.

Posted at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging | Comments (0) (0)

I am extremely happy to have announced the return of SphinnCon Israel in 2011 to Jerusalem!

This year, we are having it at the Inbal Hotel, one of my favorite hotels in Jerusalem.

I have already launched the registration form and we are offering an early bird discount of $75.

I will make one recommendation. Even if you have a small chance of going, register now. For $75, you don't want to miss this event by registering too late. If you happen to not be able to attend when the event comes up, worse thing you are out is $75. But if you are able to attend and you are locked out of registering due to it being sold out, which historically has always been the case for many, you will be mad at me.

I cannot make more seats. I can beg you to register early so you don't make the same mistake so many have in the past.

Please register now, please.

Here is a big banner ad:

We do currently have 5 sponsors, I will write about them later. Sponsors make the $75 possible. So thank you.

Posted at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0) (0)

Saturday night, I found myself covered in baby throw up.

Well, not sure if she is still a baby, it has been 458 days (or 15 months). So I had "toddler" throw up on me Saturday night.

I was covered.

It would have been funny if it happened to someone else, but it happened to me.

We both survived and we are both doing well. Thanks for your concern.

I am sure many parents can relate.

Oh, how awesome is that picture? Click on it to read the story on Flickr.

Posted at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (2) (0)

Kind of a continuation of my hate of RFPs and paper...

Here is my rant for quote requests I get on occasion:

- A prospect basically tell me they are in the X industry and I need a web site.

- They then politely ask to send them a quote that include all my ideas and prices for those ideas.

- They are unsure which direction they want to go, but they want me to spend my time figuring it out for them, at no cost.

- Then when I am done working up ideas for them.

- They can take those ideas to India to do at a fraction of the cost.

Or maybe I am looking into these requests too deeply and they have no intention to do that.

Posted at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Category: Business , Rambling | Comments (2) (0)

Every few weeks, we get a about 30 gallons of water delivered to the office.

The delivery is for 30 or so gallons of Deer Park Water. But every few weeks a guy in a green Poland Spring shirt comes to deliver the Deer Park water.

Are you confused? Well, he also comes in his big green Poland Spring truck.

Confusing?

Nah - most of you are like, well - it is the same company. Nestlé owns both Poland Spring and Deer Park, Nestlé charges more of Poland Spring then they do for Deer Park. In fact, they own tons of water brands.

Can you taste the difference between Poland Spring and Deer Park?

All this talk of water makes me think of the hundreds of comments on my Sunbeam water cooler post from ages ago.

Posted at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (2) (0)

Most of your know that I hate RFPs, request for proposals. I consider them the same as feeding (or teasing) hungry dogs with samples of food. I rarely respond to an RFP.

What do I hate more than RFPs? RFPs mailed to me via the post office, on physical paper.

Last week, I received an RFP via the mail. It was one of those special deliveries, via FedEx or something. I opened it up to find a "Request for Proposal" in fancy type set. I laughed and it is still sitting on my desk as a reminder to blog about it. Thing is, it was buried under other papers, until I dug it out and was reminded to blog about it.

Yesterday, I received a letter from a client. The letter was very legal-like. It had a request for a change to their web site. Move this here, that here, etc. It was typed up on fancy stationary, signed and mailed. I received it, opened the letter, read it - and dare I say it, threw it away.

Seriously! You have email, you have a web site - just email me with the changes you want or even call. To write up a formal letter? Seriously?

Back to the RFP. Do any of you get paper-based RFPs anymore? I get a few from government offices, but this may be my first or second from a non-government office. Seems wasteful.

Posted at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Business | Comments (2) (0)

This morning I decided to buy pretzels from the vending machine downstairs. I am not feeling too hot, so wanted something light for breakfast.

So I put in 85 cents, pressed the letter and number combination and out came the bag of goodness. But a second later, another bag fell to the bottom of the machine. That left me with two bags of pretzels for the price of one!

It was a very thrilling moment for me, since normally I am on the other side of the scenario where the bag gets stuck and the food stays safely behind that glass wall. But this time, I got two! Yea!

Then Jewish guilt came down on me and I thought, hmm - I only paid for one, shouldn't I return the other one somehow? So like any social geek, I came to Twitter to see what other's would do and I tweeted it:

The responses I got were pretty diverse, some said call the company to return it. Another said drop more money in the machine to make up for it. But the best answer, in my opinion was:

So yea, what would you do? Please take my quick poll:

Please have your friends take the poll. The bag is still sitting on my desk.

Posted at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Category: Food | Comments (4) (0)

Don't know if I ever told my blog readers this, but I am a Chris Farley fan.

Something about funny fat people that I like.

Spotted this image via Google Images via exaggerart.com to share:

Posted at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (1) (0)