Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Top 10 Facebook Pages

"Does your business have a Facebook page? Have you ever wondered what successful Facebook page owners are doing right? Well, look no further.

This article examines 10 of the top Facebook pages from brands you’ll likely recognize. Regardless of the size of your business, you’ll discover great ideas that will help you take your Facebook experience to the next level."

Top 10 Facebook Pages | Social Media Examiner

How should I configure If-Modified-Since on database-driven pages?

You No Longer Control Your Company’s Brand

"It used to be that the big, Fortune 500 companies would spend millions of dollars on fancy advertising and huge global PR campaigns and years and years and years to tell their customers and prospective customers what they wanted them to think about the brand. If someone was happy with the product or service, they wouldn’t tell anyone. If they were unhappy, they’d tell five to 10 people and hope to get attention through a nastily written letter to the CEO that almost always went unanswered."

Monday, August 30, 2010

REPORT: Facebook and the New Age of Privacy

As we evolve into a more open society, the economic value of privacy has inverted. Years ago it was inexpensive to maintain a sense of controlled solitude and expensive to earn public attention. Now the cost of publicness is far lower than the expense of cultivating privacy.

REPORT: Facebook and the New Age of Privacy

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Can a site's downtime affect its ranking?

How do PageRank updates work?

Which Chrome extensions are popular at Google?

How are sitelinks generated?

Is it better to have keywords in the URL path or filename?

Google Realtime Search : a new home with new tools

"On the new homepage you’ll find some great tools to help you refine and understand your results. First, you can use geographic refinements to find updates and news near you, or in a region you specify. So if you’re traveling to Los Angeles this summer, you can check out tweets from Angelenos to get ideas for activities happening right where you are."

Specific Media Sued Over Flash Cookie Use

"Online ad network Specific Media has been hit with a lawsuit for allegedly violating Web users' privacy by using Flash cookies for tracking purposes."

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, six Web users allege that Specific Media failed to provide adequate notice about its online data collection techniques, including Flash cookies. The lawsuit also alleges that Specific Media used Flash cookies -- which are stored in a separate location from HTML cookies -- to recreate HTML cookies that users had deleted so it could "obtain personal identifying information, monitor users, and to sell users' data."

Having a strategy doesn’t make you social

"Let me clear up front: If you are going to use social media, you absetively should have a strategy driving your efforts.� Totally.

But simply creating a social media strategy and executing it doesn’t mean you are using social media correctly.� I can create a blogging strategy for your company and tell you exactly what to do, but that still doesn’t mean you’ll have a successful blog.� You still have to follow-through.

Having a strategy isn’t enough, you still have to BE social.� You still have to WANT to connect with your customers."

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

META Descriptions Very Important Search Results Click Through Rates

"Dynamical.biz translated a new eye tracking study done Spanish (PDF here) of how searchers look at the search results on a search results page.

Here is the break down of the study, but before you look at it, let me define a 'fixation' in terms of eye tracking studies. As per Wikipedia, a Fixation online eye tracking refers to the test subject fixing on a particular portion of the page. It is used to determine which areas of a web page receive the most views. This is used to adjust where content resides on a web page to maximize its exposure."

Infographic Case Study - How We Got a Link from CNN, Drove Loads of Traffic w/ Infographics | WordStream

"Unless you've been living in a cave, you know the flavor of the month for link baiting is INFOGRAPHICS!!! They're everywhere, and many major online publications (Huff Post, Fast Company, BoingBoing, Mashable, etc) make it a habit of running cool infographics each day. What's more, infographics hit the front pages of social giants like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon on a regular basis."

Facebook's Places live map

Checking In with Facebook Places

Yahoo Moves U.S. Search to Microsoft

"Yahoo Inc. said it has completed a transition of the inner workings of its Internet search service to Microsoft Corp. on sites in the U.S. and Canada, marking a significant milestone in the companies' partnership.

'The transition of organic search between Yahoo and Microsoft is complete,' Yahoo senior vice president of Yahoo Search Products Shashi Seth wrote in a blog posting Tuesday.

Mr. Seth wrote that Yahoo's Internet, image and video search on both desktop computers and mobile phones are now being powered by Microsoft, though the companies are still testing the shift of Yahoo advertisers to Microsoft's search advertising platform.

Yahoo announced last week that it had begun shifting its search service over to Microsoft's technology."

Monday, August 23, 2010

Philly requiring bloggers to pay $300 for a business license

"Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To [Marilyn] Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license."

Philly requiring bloggers to pay $300 for a business license | Washington Examiner

Friday, August 20, 2010

Top 25 Social Media Keyword Search Tools and Engines |

"Want to find out who is talking about what in your niche or industry? There are many search engines that allow you to search one or multiple sources of information to see real time results. Check out these popular (and free) blog, forum, and social media search engines."

Top 25 Social Media Keyword Search Tools and Engines | StayOnSearch

Embed YouTube Videos with Valid RDFa Markup

"The techniques explained in this tutorial are fully supported by Google and Yahoo, and can boost your video’s visibility in their search results!
YouTube videos have worked their way into a prominent position as a tool for both content and SEO, in websites from all over the world. The convenience of being able to embed a video on webpages has given such media an important place in the marketing strategies of many sites.
Of course, the more progressive SEOs and web developers have also focused heavily upon valid code, with the best concentrating on RDFa compliance."

comScore Takes Closer Look At Search

"More than a few ruffled feathers and changes in what defines a search prompted comScore to release a new metric Monday called 'Explicit Core Search,' along with the July 2010 search market report. So, the data firm will report two versions of monthly search engine query stats, a change resulting from an increase in non-traditional searches. In a blog post comScore's Cameron Meierhoefer defines the metric as 'user engagement with a search service with the intent to retrieve search results.' The Core Search report will include a breakout that highlights Explicit Core Search. It will not include contextually-driven searches."

The Fading Glory of the Television and Telephone

"One day you're the brightest star in the galaxy. Then something new comes along -- and suddenly you're a relic. It's a turn of fate that awaits sports heroes, movie stars, political leaders. And, yes, even household appliances.

After occupying center stage in the American household for much of the 20th century, two of the grand old luminaries of consumer technology -- the television set and the landline telephone -- are suffering from a sharp decline in public perception that they are necessities of life."


Thursday, August 19, 2010

Takeshis Castle


Just heard about "Takeshi's Castle" today... i wonder if Takesi's Castle is the same as the game on comedy central?
More info..
Wikipedia - Takeshi's Castle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi's_Castle

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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Social Media Patterns

"Social Media marketing can be likened to herding cats or catching greased pigs – there are so many sites, so many activities, and so many connections to be made. Where do we focus, and why? Can we manage social media marketing? �By developing processes, the marketer can more easily share the work across a team of individuals, make documented improvements over time, and help sell the work across to the C Suite.

SEOmoz | YOUmoz - Social Media Patterns


One bit of work that is �helpful in creating process is to understand the various parts of social media in terms of patterns. �I’ve heard it said that there are only 10 or so stories in the world – that all novels, plays, and movies somehow fit these prototypes. �The same is true for social media sites."

SEO 10-Minute Missing Page Audit

"Some of you know that I spend a lot of time behind the scenes here on Pro Q&A. One of the challenges of Q&A is that we often have to tackle complex problems in a very short amount of time – we might have 10-15 minutes to solve an issue like 'Why isn't my page showing up on Google?' with no access to internal data, server-side code, etc.

Of course, I'd never suggest you try to solve your own SEO problems in just 10 minutes, but it's amazing what you can do when you're forced to really make your time count. I'd like to share my 10-minute (give or take) process for solving one common SEO problem – finding a 'missing' page. You can actually apply it to a number of problems, including:

Finding out why a page isn't getting indexed
Discovering why a page isn't ranking
Determining if a page has been penalized
Spotting duplicate content problems
I'll break the 10 minutes down, minute by minute (give or take). The mini-clock on each item shows you the elapsed time, for real-time drama."


Social Marketing Lifts Organic Conversions

"More marketers said SEO, rather than social media, was a “very effective” way to:
o Increase brand or product awareness (42% vs. 37%)
o Increase website traffic (57% vs. 33%)
o Increase lead generation (35% vs. 18%)
o Increase offline sales revenue (17% vs. 10%)
o Increase online sales revenue (26% vs. 9%)

On the flipside, more marketers said social media was a “very effective” way to:
o Improve brand or product reputation (37% vs. 29%)
o Improve public relations (36% vs. 27%)

Clearly, SEO is more effective at attracting attention and ultimately converting people. However, social media is more likely to increase positive thinking around a product and brand."

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

"Yahoo! organic search transition to begin
Later this week,

we will begin the work of transitioning the back-end technology for Yahoo! Search over to the Bing platform. This is an important step toward our goal of improving the overall relevance of Yahoo! organic search results and attracting a larger audience to Y"

Vimeo Gets HTML5-Friendly Embeds

"Online video community Vimeo has added HTML5 support to its video embeds, making its content accessible on devices like the iPhone and iPad.

Although the main Vimeo website is HTML5, its embed codes have remained Flash-only. This has been frustrating for mobile users and content creators who want to be on as many devices as possible."

Monday, August 16, 2010

Agencies Divided on Where to House New Mobile Units

"In a matter of weeks, several new mobile units have sprouted up within adland, prompting debate in ad circles about whether the offerings should take root within creative agencies or form under media shops."

Tracking Seasonal Search Behavior

"Many products are naturally seasonal in nature. For example, Halloween costumes are generally only sold in the weeks preceding the holiday each year. However, while this seasonal behavior is easy to conceptualize, it can frustrate your ability to measure the progress of your SEO efforts, and the traffic growth you would like to see from those efforts. For example, if the overall market for your product is down 20%, and traffic stayed flat through a normal seasonal decline, you have actually made progress. Your SEO efforts have completely offset a pretty significant market trend."

9 Ways to Use Twitter for Your Business

"There is actually a lot you can do with Twitter, and more uses are being discovered every day. Every niche uses Twitter differently (lawyers may use it to get advice on cases, while programmers might find work through Twitter). How many of these ways do you use?
Customer Service: One of the best known examples of how businesses are using Twitter is for customer service. We’ve all heard about @ComcastCares helping cable customers (even those that don’t use Comcast), but there are other examples. Dell has many employees (like @LionelatDell) who are tweeting about various things, but who are always happy to help a customer. @GEICO is another example."


Twitter Allows Tweets Longer Than 140 Characters (By Accident)

"If you’re crafty, you can now publish a tweet longer than 140 characters. It’s not a feature but rather a bug of course, so don’t expect it to be possible for much longer.

We first read about the bug in the Twitter Development Talk Google Group, where forum user Chris White posted a step-by-step of how to make it happen. He wrote that you go directly to the Twitter Share URL (http://twitter.com/share?url=) in the Firefox web browser and put your tweet’s text after “url=” — for example, “http://twitter.com/share?url=This is a test of the Twitter 140 character bug.”"


Tech titans Finalist : Metroplex Technology Business Council Names Revere Security a Finalist in 10th Annual Tech Titans Awards

"The Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC), the largest technology trade organization in Texas, has named Dallas-based Revere Security, the leading provider of security for small, resource-constrained devices, as a finalist in the Emerging Company Horizon category as part of the 10th Annual Tech Titans and Titan Fast Tech Awards. The Tech Titans Awards recognize outstanding technology companies and individuals in the North Texas area who have made significant contributions to the industry over the past year. The Emerging Company Horizon Award recognizes outstanding innovation and unique accomplishments through potential breakthrough technology, processes or services within the technology and communications industry."


Friday, August 13, 2010

Share This and Like It - Social Media and PR Savvy Website Tips

"Press releases, articles, blog posts, videos, and photos are one click away from letting your social circle know you like it!
Making it easy for readers to 'share the love' is becoming increasingly more popular with the onset of social media buttons and widgets. And still, many corporate websites lack social media integration.
I used to start my client website reviews looking first for the online newsroom strategy. Today, I begin with a social media checklist. While social media plug-ins are more the norm for a blog, corporate website newsrooms make up content-rich information that is sharable, so making this information easy to 'Like,' 'Recommend,' and 'Share' is key for today's PR pros."

Twitter / Twitter Translation Community

"Twitter has become a valuable tool for folks to exchange timely bits of information, whether it be a momentous news event, a personal story, or a random thought. We want everyone in the world to have the opportunity to engage in this important exchange, so we're calling on the help of real Twitterers to translate our site into their own language. You've helped define what's important about the product, so you should define your local experience, too."

Go Ahead HR, Creep My Facebook

"So, a lot of people may not agree with my thoughts on this subject (I know because I've read a lot of blogs, articles and books that don't) but this is my opinion anyways.

I'm fine with prospective employers looking at my facebook.

I thought about this because last year a friend of mine in law school was applying for his summer articling student position and while doing so he completely changed around his facebook. He made the security extra secure on it and even removed his wall altogether. When I asked him why he did this, he said, 'because I'm trying to get a job right now.' This made no sense to me."

Why Be a Mommy Blogger?

"Why would I want to be a Mommy Blogger? I get this question a lot. Why would I want to share intimate details of my everyday life with the world? Very good question, which I will answer in a moment. First let’s look at the Mommy Blogger phenomenon.
Marketing to Mommy Bloggers appear to be a new phenomenon, however, Moms have had the purchasing power in the family for decades. Marketing to moms is not new at all. Here is an ad from the 1950s, which clearly depicts a Mom making her child very happy with the 7-Up. If only it were that easy!"

Why Be a Mommy Blogger? | Blog World Expo Blog

Thursday, August 12, 2010

CNN item Blogworld lemon beats cancer

Simon Cowell : uses SEO firm to show people he's actually a good guy

Simon CowellImage by cliff1066™ via Flickr"Simon Cowell can dish it out, but can he take it?"
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Visualize All Your Foursquare Check-ins

"Since Foursquare launched its API late last year, developers have been utilizing the service’s massive store of geodata to create a variety of elegant apps.

Weeplaces takes Foursquare data to a whole new level, though. The app, built by the Movity team in one weekend, is a data visualization tool; once you log into Weeplaces with your Foursquare account, the app loads your geodata and plots all of your check-ins on a greyscale map of the world."

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

SEO - Optimize EVERYTHING!

"'Digital Asset Optimization' - Search affects every part of every job for every client, are you offering all the SEO services or leaving money on the table? - Steve Plunkett, M/C/C Inc. Pr, podcasts, images, blogs, social Media, Video, PDFs, what digital assets are you forgetting to utilize that could bring your client business.
Questions Answered:
What is a list of EVERYTHING I can optimize for search?
What are ways to grow my client's business and increase their presence in search?
I'm working with an ad agency, what else can i do for them?
i'm sub contractor for Pr Firm, how can i make more money with them?
I am in-house SEO for Fortune 500, what am i missing?"

Is Facebook Foursquare's Enemy?

"At this point, pretty much every tech industry insider knows that Facebook is going to jump into the geolocation game. First rumored to be launching at Facebook’s F8 conference back in April, the exact date of Facebook’s location launch has been up in the air.

Yet another report, this time from CNET, pegs the release of Facebook’s geolocation product to be “within weeks.” The difference between this report and previous reports though is the that it has some specifics about what the product will look like. From the CNET piece:"

Social Media Monitoring Tools Comparison Guide

"Monitoring social media outlets (i.e. blogs, forums, social networks) and responding to relevant posts is an effective strategy for organizations looking to: understand brand perception from internal and external audiences, connect with buyer personas, increase visibility online, establish thought leadership, provide value to their online communities and become familiar with how target audiences interact online.

However, due to the vastness of the web, social media monitoring can often be a time-consuming and cumbersome task. Luckily, there are tools available – both free and paid – to help streamline and simplify the listening process."

ATTENTION - This book will make you money

"It takes a special skill to be able to figure out ways to reap the rewards from your attention-getting ideas you come up with to promote your blog. It’s important to have a plan in place so that you don’t get caught up in a situation where the momentum passes you by."

Why Can’t You Make Money From Your Ideas? You Can! | Blog World Expo Blog

- actually looks like a pretty good book
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Turning Search Engine Keywords into Action

"I love search engine keywords reports in web analytics tools. Depending on the tools it may be referenced as Search Engine's phrase, terms, or keywords reports. These keywords reports usually represents terms searched by users on Search Engines like Google / Yahoo! / Bing and reached your site after clicking on the link.

To make these keywords report useful and bring value to the business, you really need to segment and apply that into different kinds of reports to find that golden nuggets.
Here are some example of segments that are helpful and insightful:"

Turning Search Engine Keywords into Action - ZoomMetrix

Series of Tubes Music Video




- R.I.P. Rep. Ted Stevens

Google Slides into Social Apps

"Google has made a number of attempts to break into the online social networking and social media arena. Its latest move was the acquisition of Slide, a social media application developer. Should Twitter and Facebook be concerned?
Before we answer that question, let's take a look at what Slide brings to the table. The company develops social media applications that let users create virtual communities and� exchange gifts, tokens, images and other virtual items. Facebook has even used Slide to enhance its members' abilities to interact with each other. So is Google trying to get some of Facebook's money?"

Google Slides into Social Apps

Online Surveys and Social Media

"One of the many ways companies have engaged their customers, gained insight into a marketplace and conducted research for a variety of purposes has been through surveys. �If you think that list of activities almost sounds like the reasons many companies engage in social media monitoring, you’d be right."

Online Surveys & Social Media - Online Marketing Blog

The Amazing ARM Powered Android Speedcuber

First Trojan for Android Phones Goes Wild

"Google Android phones must be popular - they've just been targeted with their first Trojan. An SMS Trojan called Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a has already infected a number of mobile devices, according to security firm Kaspersky Lab. Purporting to be a harmless media player application, the Trojan, once installed, actually sends out SMS text messages without the users' knowledge or consent."
First Trojan for Android Phones Goes Wild

Monday, August 09, 2010

Facebook Credits Will Spark Race For On-Site “Buy Now” Buttons

"Want to get an idea about the future of the payments industry? Taking a look at Facebook’s push for their Credits platform and the recent boom in in-app payment providers will help shed some light. As I highlighted on Friday, reduction of friction is the center of “innovation” right now on the internet. For payments, that means easier ways to make transactions. While new offerings, like SMS payment providers, provide solutions to expand the payments market, the most significant innovation in payments is instant, one-click, “buy now” buttons."

Facebook Credits Will Spark Race For On-Site “Buy Now” Buttons

PubCon Vegas 2010

"PubCon, the premier search and social media conference and expo will hold its multi-track Las Vegas event on November 8 - 11, 2010 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada.

PubCon Las Vegas 2010, supported by the industry's leading businesses, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors involved in social media, Internet marketing, search engines, and online advertising, will offer a week-long look at the future of technology presented by many of the world's top speakers."

WebmasterWorld PubCon Conference Vegas 2010

10 Great Local Search Tools That Don’t Exist Yet

: "Here’s a look at some fundamental local search features/tools that seem obvious, and that should be fully functional—but don’t exist, or don’t work. At least I think they don’t exist yet. Feel free to prove me wrong in comments, tweets, Molotov cocktails, etc."

10 Great Local Search Tools That Don’t Exist Yet

BlogWorld v. BlogHer: the Differences are Apparant | Blog World Expo Blog

"Several months ago, I explored the differences between SXSW and BlogWorld. I did this because many conference attendees only have room in their budgets for one conference and want to know which conference best suits their needs. Also, I wanted to show that we’re different than the other conferences and that we may even be a better fit for most bloggers.� That post was well received, allowing attendees to make an informed decision. I thought I might do the same today after spending the last few days in New York City to attend my first ever BlogHer conference."


BlogWorld v. BlogHer: the Differences are Apparant | Blog World Expo Blog

Why doesn't search query data in Webmaster Tools appear to match what I ...

Friday, August 06, 2010

Twitter Users Who Rack Up the Retweets Top Most Influential List

"Got a lot of Twitter followers? So what? Unless they’re listening to what you’re saying and actually passing it on, you’re likely not all that influential, according to a new study by HP Labs.

According to the study, “The correlation between popularity and influence is weaker than it might be expected. This is a reflection of the fact that for information to propagate in a network, individuals need to forward it to the other members, thus having to actively engage rather than passively read it and cease to act on it.”"

Twitter Users Who Rack Up the Retweets Top Most Influential List

Facebook Buys $40 Million Worth of Social Networking Patents

"Facebook has acquired a broad set of patents on social networking covering the basic functions of just about any social app, ranging from friend lists to the news feed.

The patents were acquired from Friendster, which has been awarded a wide array of social networking patents over the last decade. According to VentureBeat, there are 18 patents in all; GigaOm reports the price of the portfolio was $40 million."

Facebook Buys $40 Million Worth of Social Networking Patents

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Mobile Social Strategy With Platforms You Already Know

"One of the coolest things about mobile social networking is the open nature of the networks themselves. Most of the social networks that have a mobile component use APIs to pull in vital information from other profiles and push out updates across multiple networks (like pulling your Tweets into Facebook, or adding all your Twitter friends to FourSqure). This means users don’t have to create full social profiles to interact across a wide variety of social networks, and if they are “mobile” it means less typing with their thumbs. It also means one update can reach a variety of friends on a variety of social networks very quickly and easily. This is a stroke of genius for the social networks, and also really good for your marketing campaign"

Mobile Social Strategy With Platforms You Already Know

AdWords Campaign Experiments: Introduction

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Keyword - Landing Page Combinations

"Starting today, we’re reinstating the Back To Basics series. Each Wednesday, we’ll share a Google Analytics tip, usually something that you can try right away with your own data to gain new insights. This week, we’ll illustrate a quick way to see how many visits you get from different keyword/landing page combinations.

A friend of mine recently created several new landing pages that she hoped would attract traffic. She wanted to see at a glance whether people who searched on her top keywords were seeing the new pages. While she knew that she could use the Top Landing Pages report to analyze each individual landing page, she wanted to see keyword/landing page combinations in a single report."


Google Analytics Blog: Back to Basics: Keyword/Landing Page Combinations

21 Case Studies in Conversion Rate Optimization

"Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the newest darling of Internet Marketers, after all what good is traffic if it doesn’t convert. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it), unlike Pay Per click (PPC) marketing, CRO isn’t a game of how much money you can throw. In fact, this field requires as much creativity, as it requires monetary investment. That’s what makes conversion rate optimization a fair arena. Your well-funded, bigger competitors can of course beat you at generating more traffic but they can’t beat you at the conversion rate game (unless you allow them to)."

SEOmoz | Lessons Learned from 21 Case Studies in Conversion Rate Optimization

Should I remove widgets that increase my site's load time?

Can you make the realtime results more conspicuous?

Can a spammy website affect the ranking of other sites hosted on the sam...

Is Spamming Twitter Good Google SEO?

"A Dutch design and development firm Conceptables noticed some odd behavior regarding Google's use of the Twitter API during their development of Mopinion, an online feedback tool. It appears that simply repeating the same tweet over and over was having an impact on the actual Google search results.

To test this theory, the developers created several fake Twitter accounts tweeting out generic buzz words like 'social media,' 'client interaction' (in Dutch) and 'feedback' along with links to the Mopinion website. The result? The Mopion site moved up in the Google search results."

Is Spamming Twitter Good Google SEO?

Hackers love Apple's iPad, iPhone, too

"Today, Gizmodo posted an unsourced report about a security breach in iOS products that are being pushed through PDF files and the Web pages that load through the Safari browser. Gizmodo calls the vulnerability “easily exploitable” and explains that unsuspecting users who could be giving “total control” of their iPhones, iPod Touches or iPads to hackers. The blog reports:

It just requires the user to visit a web address using Safari. The web site can automatically load a simple PDF document, which contains a font that hides a special program. When your iOS device tries to display the PDF file, that font causes something called stack overflow, a technical condition that allows the secret ninja code inside the font to gain complete control of your device.�The result is that, without any user intervention whatsoever, that program can do whatever it wants inside your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Anything you can imagine: Delete files, transmit files, install programs running on the background that can monitor your actions… anything can be done."

The curse of popularity: Hackers love Apple's iPad, iPhone, too | ZDNet

How To Hire The Perfect B2B Search Marketing Manager

"A search manager will need to juggle many moving parts in order to be successful – Web developers & designers, link builders, content writers, social media participants, PR people, and any outsourced areas of specialty such as PPC management, e-mail marketing, etc."

How To Hire The Perfect B2B Search Marketing Manager

FaceBook Music Video Request Show

"Remember the days of Delilah and other call-in radio luminaries — when you would put trembling hand to phone and dedicate a jam to your beloved? Well, now you can return to those times with a new Facebook app from Fuse TV called Tag Your Tune.

Tag Your Tune is basically akin to those call-in shows and music video request lines of yore. All you have to do is download the app on Facebook, choose a vid from a rotating list of 30 (the app re-ups on videos every week) and dedicate it to a Facebook friend with a personalized message."

Music Video Request Show Lets Facebook Users Call the Shots

Facebook SEO - Optimizing for an Audience of 500 Million

"Fast forward to today: �comScore’s June 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings report shows that Facebook�search queries have grown from 395 million in January of 2010 to 621 million queries in June. That’s almost half the monthly queries reported for Bing (1.7 billion) but not anywhere near the 10 billion plus queries on Google.

With over 500 million registered users worldwide, Facebook still presents an opportunity for marketers to better connect their social content with searchers through optimization. The optimization and search visibility opportunity with Facebook comes in two forms:

Facebook hosted pages ranking well in external search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Content that can be displayed in the search results from Facebook’s internal search engine such as Facebook hosted pages, Facebook Questions and web pages served up through Facebook’s search results partner, Bing."


Facebook SEO: Optimizing for an Audience of 500 Million - Online Marketing Blog

GReviews for your business on Google Place Page

"Whether you’re looking for a great lounge to hang out with your friends or a trusty shop to repair your bicycle, the web is a great place to discover and learn about local businesses and services. Some of the listings on Google Maps showcase reviews to help prospective customers make informed decisions and find the places that are just right for them. Reviews on Google Maps are assembled from a variety of sources on the web to give you the best possible overview of what people are saying about a specific place. We also encourage users to share their opinions by writing reviews directly on the Place Page of any place they’ve visited, be it a local business, tourist attraction or the like."

Google LatLong: Respond to reviews for your business on Google Place Page

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Will adding my Twitter feed to my website increase my PageRank?

Are Chrome's 'usage statistics' used in evaluating site speed?

Do tag clouds help or hinder SEO?

The Twitter Celebrities We Seek The Most, According To Google

"There are plenty of celebrities on Twitter, and it easy to find lists of those who are most popular according to the number of people following them. But here’s a twist. Who are the most popular celebrities on Twitter that people are trying to find, in order to follow them? Below, a top ten list using data from Google.

To compile the list, I used Google’s keyword research tool that shows the number of searches made for any word on a monthly basis. I looked through the top 100 terms that were listed in a search for “twitter,” to find that word being used in conjunction with a celebrity’s name (such as “lady gaga twitter). To me, that indicated someone trying to find the celebrity’s Twitter account by using Google. I looked at searches in the United States, made in English. More about the process after the list…."

The Twitter Celebrities We Seek The Most, According To Google

Can the Internet lower college costs?

"Chris Lehmann, principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, has a lot of good ideas on what needs to be done to revamp the educational system. One area that’s going to need a serious overhaul is colleges and universities. Why? The current model just isn’t sustainable.

Speaking at the Supernova conference last week at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Lehmann said:

I doubt my kids will have the college experience the same way we did. Most of us just can’t afford it and the system is going to break. College will be a hybrid online/offline experience."

Can the Internet lower college costs? - SmartPlanet

Two years and $100 million to “Internet Armageddon”

"Charlie Miller, a five-year veteran of the National Security Agency’s computer espionage department, was tasked with finding the cost and time it would take to bring down America’s cyber infrastructure.

That cyber infrastructure isn’t well-defined, but it would certainly include vital elements like the smart grid, the banking system, and communications–a vague attack, but one that would essentially cripple the entire country’s networked presence."

Estimate: two years and $100 million to “Internet Armageddon” - SmartPlanet

5 Things I Learned Cutting Off IM, Twitter, Email & Facebook

"Everyone knows the things that literally GRAB your attention often get it. As much as you try to ignore the guy popping into your office, the woman calling non-stop, the screaming child pulling on your leg, those things can end up inadvertently trumping other things you could be doing. But all of those things are REAL world problems... now lets talk digital."

5 Things I Learned Cutting Off IM, Twitter, Email & Facebook : Lifestyle :: American Express OPEN Forum

How Gatorade Brings Athletes Closer To Fans

"Late last year live video events broadcast over the Internet started putting up TV-like viewership numbers: 10 million for a U2 concert, 3 million for the red carpet premiere of a Twilight sequel, and more than 250,000 for a screening of a film from hip hop mogul 50 Cent."

How Gatorade Brings Athletes Closer To Fans - Forbes.com

Why Do So Many Companies Suck at Social Media?

"The current iteration of what we all call social media has been around for at least 3-4 years but apparently brands are still�irrelevant on Twitter and companies continue to blunder on Facebook and show a lack of understanding of what makes social media conversations succeed at reaching business goals.

Part of the problem is that most companies are not inherently “social” to begin with. It’s not in their DNA to understand what it means for individual employees to start having conversations with the social web at large as representatives of a company personality. Marketing is about many things including connecting audiences with products they want to buy."


Why Do So Many Companies Suck at Social Media? - Online Marketing Blog

Video Is Now A Must-Have Feature For Competitive SEO

"This is the year in which we will see video grow from a “frill” some businesses occasionally include on their websites, to an essential, competitive differentiator that drives SEO and increases brand identification. Knowledgeable companies have already embraced this shift and made video a central part of their online offerings. The most advanced have found ways to create high-quality video that is automatically updated across their websites on the fly, using existing web content. At this point, it’s possible to create endless numbers of professional videos with no human intervention, and the SEO implications make it too appealing to ignore."


Video Is Now A Must-Have Feature For Competitive SEO

Monday, August 02, 2010

Old Spice's 'Your Man' Meme Starts to Fade -

"No viral meme can last forever, right? As good as Old Spice's 'Responses' campaign was, it's peaked and is now in a downward slide, losing 70% of its audience on the web last week.

Mind you, down 70% for Isaiah Mustafa still meant more than 11 million views for the customized YouTube responses alone and four of the top 10 slots on the Viral Chart. All versions of the Old Spice videos -- ads, responses and Odor Blocker videos -- have racked up 130 million views on the web since February, according to Visible Measures."

Old Spice's 'Your Man' Meme Starts to Fade - Advertising Age - Digital: Viral Video Charts

Geolocation Grows Despite Privacy Concerns

"The most popular geolocation apps included Google Latitude, used by about three in 10 respondents. Flickr, which geotags photos, and Google Buzz were each used by about two in 10. Twitter, which geolocates tweets, was popular with fewer than 15% of respondents, while about half as many used foursquare.

Forrester Research also found men and younger adults dominated the location-based landscape. That study, of the wider group of US internet users, found that only 4% had used check-in apps like foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, and only 1% checked in at least weekly."

Geolocation Grows Despite Privacy Concerns - eMarketer

Realizing Greater ROI From Onsite Behavioral Targeting

"Onsite behavioral targeting enables you to customize your website to create the most welcoming, enticing destination for your visitors, ultimately engaging them more deeply in your site. So-called machine learning engines provide a means to automatically offer the most relevant content to individual users based on real-time behaviors and predictive attributes. Such solutions collect and use hundreds of anonymous data points, and self-learning algorithms can draw out the most pertinent attributes for each visitor, track activity in real time and record and cluster onsite activities. The end results are the same ones you might see if you had the time and resources to speak directly with each and every customer: increased loyalty, engagement and revenue."
Realizing Greater ROI From Onsite Behavioral Targeting

Five Tools To Manage Social Media For The Franchise

"Managing social media content and conversations can be difficult and time consuming. You’ve got a company blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube and Picasa accounts for multimedia, perhaps do some participating on industry message boards … even for a small business, the time and effort can be overwhelming. Now imaging you have five locations, each with its own distinct need for outposts and content. Or that you’re a national brand that needs to be consistent and efficient with social media content, but you have franchisees who want their own Facebook pages."

Five Tools To Manage Social Media For The Franchise

How Small Business Will Use Social Media in the Future

: "Short of saying we’ll all be doing business from Foursquare-fueled hover cars, the future of social media and small business is very much an unknown. While most social media-savvy businesses undoubtedly have an online presence, the ability to then monetize online efforts is still in its infancy.

The usual suspects — Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare — have already proven to be great ways to engage with an audience and promote a brand, but what are the next steps in using these social networks to earn real money for your small business?"


How Small Business Will Use Social Media in the Future

Yahoo-Bing Integration Begins In Earnest

"At last week's local working group meeting of SEMPO here in San Francisco, an impressive delegation from both Yahoo Search and Microsoft joined us to provide a comprehensive update on the Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance. Organized by DataPop's Chris Gale and moderated by Gap Inc.'s Mark Fiske, it was a hugely informative meeting, and impressed upon me the need for search marketers to get ahead of the changes that are already under way.

(For those who were not able to attend the update in person, there will be a free Webinar on Aug. 4 at 9 a.m. PDT hosted by Gale (chairman of SEMPO-SF), covering all the information from the meeting in detail.)"

MediaPost Publications Yahoo-Bing Integration Begins In Earnest 08/02/2010

Consumers Embrace Geekdom

: "It's a geek world these days, and non-geeks just live in it. With new technology and the flow of information taking on unprecedented importance for consumers en masse, people once derided as geeks now find themselves at the vanguard of sweeping social change. And the number of people who've internalized at least some geek characteristics has grown to make them a majority of the online population, according to a study from Geeknet, which owns and operates such online geek venues as SourceForge and Slashdot. Its report gives a detailed look at this cohort, which is embracing its geekiness as never before."

- I never really considered myself a geek.. unfortunately.. everyone else in the world disagrees with me


Consumers Embrace Geekdom

Personal Details Exposed Via Biggest U.S. Websites

"The largest U.S. websites are installing new and intrusive consumer-tracking technologies on the computers of people visiting their sites—in some cases, more than 100 tracking tools at a time—a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.


The tracking files represent the leading edge of a lightly regulated, emerging industry of data-gatherers who are in effect establishing a new business model for the Internet: one based on intensive surveillance of people to sell data about, and predictions of, their interests and activities, in real time.

The Journal's study shows the extent to which Web users are in effect exchanging personal data for the broad access to information and services that is a defining feature of the Internet."


Personal Details Exposed Via Biggest U.S. Websites - WSJ.com