Reality SEO - Search Engine Commentary

Video: Powerset Search Engine Beta Test

2008-05-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

Powerset Demo Video from officialpowerset on Vimeo.

First thing I noticed is that the thing is down - I can't get any queries to load. Could be a bad day because Microsoft is rumored to be considering acquisition of Powerset and the news caused enough interest to overload their servers tonight. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt unless it continues to happen. Meanwhile, enjoy the video and give it a try yourself. I'd be interested in hearing comments on how it worked for you.

The blog post from nearly 4am this morning suggests that it was a late night at Powerset labs - and it appears they have a few more late nights overcoming whatever is causing the server response times that make me give up and go away. But that blog post also shows that they get marketing because they suggest that bloggers go look at their press coverage news page (which they mistakenly call a "Social Media News Release" - nope) and links to del.icio.us, Flickr, and a help page.

Actually, I just got it to load on a final test before giving up for the night. The results didn't impress for the searches I tried. They did suggest that I search for something that interests me. So I guess I didn't try something that can be found at Wikipedia or Freebase - which they are currently drawing on for the beta results. Now it's locking up again and not returning results. Well, looks promising if it starts working as advertised in that video. ;-)

Update, saw a twitter post from Powerset they had hit the pages of SlashDot and that was causing the overload. Well OK, I'll excuse the slow server times.

Post Once, Change All, Spam Once, Spam Everywhere

2008-05-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

It's truly a strange world online now. Google is rumored to be on the verge of an announcement on Monday that would make all social media data portable, connectable and linkable. How strange would it be to post to your favorite social networking site with an update like, say maybe adding a new friend - and instantly update any of your other social profiles with that change or addition?

Michael Arrington, first with many big announcements because businesses (and insiders, and PR departments and...) know the attention level of a TechCrunch post can beat (or lead as the source) for National Media outlets.

Well, Arrington is speculating (or leaking) that Google is about to launch "Friend Connect" following on the heels of the Yahoo Open Strategy announcement, the MySpace Data Availability announcement, then the FaceBook response to the MySpace announcement with Facebook Connect announcement and now, a truly strange service called OnlyWire bookmarklet for posting links to social bookmarking services - all of them - at ONCE.

Despite the fact that many want those services to be shared by different groups of friends, coworkers, or family - this is a very interesting development in what it means to be social, what being social means to search visibility and how this might affect spamming for SEO. Want a sample? Check out this Google Search for Xoost - a truly bizarre result-set.

If that group of Xoost search results doesn't concern you about how multi-posting and single source updates to social bookmarking sites might be abused for search engine spamming, then you have nerves of steel.

For perfect clarity - I am not labeling any site, service or company mentioned here as spammers - I fear for the abuse of this newest development as taking a step too far toward openness, so that all of them could be abused horribly. Yes, with proper attention, only briefly - but it's like standing on the precipice looking down several stories to a river of sewage we could fall into.

What is the right amount of openness, portability and single source updating? I don't have a clue - but I worry that the noise level could go up dramatically and search relevance could suffer in an escalating "openness" arms race.

I've had my nervous moment now - let's hope it doesn't get as ugly as all that.

Update shows that Friend Connect from Google is different from the expectations and not joining in the portability madness in the way I had feared - whew! Below is a Google video on this new social networking tool.

Google News Showing AP & Reuters Video's Inline

2008-05-06T00:21:00.000-07:00

Google News showing news video from Reuters and Associated Press video (posted at YouTube) in both search results and on home page.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

This was apparently announced without fanfare on the Google News Blog back on the 21st of August of 2007. Barry Schwartz blogged about it at SearchEngineLand that same day. Did nobody care about this? I hadn't heard about it until I noticed the little tiny word "video" next to a "+" sign to expand it tonight - over 8 months later. Hmmm. I'm on Google News daily and hadn't seen this before and hadn't heard anyone talking about it.

Clicking through takes you to the AP or Reuters channels at YouTube.

Startups in Social Content Sharing

2008-05-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

Docstoc Series B Funding Press Release - Get more documents

Microsoft / Yahoo Merger Off: Ballmer Walks Away

2008-05-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well, it's over, thank goodness. Microsoft has walked away from their unsolicited bid for Yahoo. Whew! Deep sigh of relief from many Yahoo senior employees. But predictions are for an ugly day on Wall Street for Yahoo Monday morning - with a potential return by Microsoft with a lower bid after Yahoo tanks in the markets.

It's frustrating to those of us who love search to watch this epic battle, knowing that Microhoo may yet emerge from the burning embers. I commented in my last post that the Yahoo Open Strategy announced by Ari Balogh last week at Web 2.0 introduced some exciting prospects for the future of search if they can successfully pull it off and Microsoft doesn't win the merger through a lower offer and proxy battle. Well nobody has even commented in the news about the effect the YOS could have, not even Microsoft.

Maybe I'm way off base with this one, but I'm going to stick to my assertions until we see how this all shakes out. If Yahoo survives to stand on it's own and can put together the strategy for opening up their entire network to developers in a sweeping move like they've outlined - I predict that Yahoo could overtake Google in two years - but only if Google stands still and watches - which is not likely either.

Danny Sullivan has an excellent analysis and commentary on the Microsoft / Yahoo / Microhoo battle. I'm surprised that he didn't bring up Yahoo Open Strategy either - is it because nobody expects them to survive to see where that could take them? What if the merger happened - would Ballmer nix YOS?

I'm no Yahoo fan. I've disliked their strategy for years, I hate how they buy up companies and then kill them off or let them die within Yahoo, I can't believe they didn't leverage GeoCities and Yahoo Groups to become a social networking leader. I'm astonished that they aren't more profitable than they are because they emphasize monetization above audience satisfaction and utility. (Yahoo mail still doesn't allow pop access unless you pay for it when gmail allows this access, even using imap.) So I don't use my Yahoo mail account except to log in to the few services I use like MyBlogLog, Yahoo Groups and Flickr.

The public seems completely uninterested in the whole thing if Google Trends is any indication. The chart showing searches for the story and news stories seem to drive little interest. (click to enlarge)

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Well - I will once again throw out a cautious cheer for Yahoo and hope that they survive the Wall Street rollercoaster to pursue Yahoo Open Strategy as it is their best hope for a true contribution to search. Without YOS - it's over for Yahoo IMHO.

Yahoo Open Strategy a Volley Against Microsoft?

2008-04-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

Yahoo announced last week at the Web 2.0 conference that they are opening up their entire network to developers to build apps and mashups. The announcement was covered by Greg Sterling for SearchEngineLand and the brief 14 minute announcement and explanation by Yahoo CTO Ari Baolgh has been covered by very well by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. There's also a wonderfully prescient view from Loren Baker at SearchEngineJournal - from a YEAR ago, which he looks at again in the light of Yahoo announcements this past week.

Here's a video of the Ari Baolgh Web 2.0 Keynote presentation, thanks to Yahoo Video:

I got to attend a later, Friday Web 2.0 presentation titled "Yahoo! and Open Platforms, A Deeper Dive by Yahoo Chief Architect of Platforms, Neal Sample, who delivered as promised with a presentation on how the whole Yahoo Network, including Yahoo Mail, Flickr, Answers, etc. all get reworked and rejiggered to make this one massive Social experiment.

I've taken a look elsewhere at the Y!OS or Yahoo Open Strategy idea through the lens of privacy concerns this may raise for the 500 Million claimed Yahoo users.

But privacy issues aside here, this announcement could truly gain Yahoo an increased bid from Microsoft now that the MSFT deadline for a response from Yahoo has come and gone this past weekend. Watching the video above, one has to imagine Balogh seeing this as a presentation directly to Microsoft and picturing the camera as Steve Ballmer - the video being made available first to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch (hmmm what Yahoo strategy!), who put it well in his coverage, saying:

They still, of course, have to actually launch this massive project - for now it’s all ideas and vaporware. And no one knows what Microsoft thinks of all this, or what happens to YOS if that deal is done.

Now let's see how the press reacts Monday morning and what noises Microsoft makes in light of these Yahoo announcements. Microsoft invested $240 Million in Facebook not long after they announced a much smaller scale "Open" strategy, that's the same Facebook which is not even participating in the Google Open Social model - but Yahoo is participating and - one might argue - leading in this monstrous experiment that must have Microsoft groaning in agony.

Microsoft, open? They gotta hate this Yahoo Open Strategy (YOS) idea. Google moves to undermine Microsoft on Google Docs, Yahoo moves to undermine Microsoft takeover bid by open-sourcing their entire network (hmmm what Yahoo strategy!).

Despite my privacy concerns, I'm excited at what this may mean for search in general - not just for Yahoo - but for the web and how search works. I've been critical of Yahoo for their massive acquisitiveness in the past and have never understood how they failed to take advantage of their massive audience to become a social networking leader (Geocities anyone?).

This is big and I can't imagine how this could fail to evolve search and social media. It will affect everyone if they pull it off successfully and if Microsoft doesn't screw it all up for them with a proxy battle and eventual win.

I never could have imagined myself in a position to cheer for Yahoo, but I may ... I just may. ;-)

Previous Query Refinement vs. Search Pollutants

2008-04-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

This morning I saw a Danny Sullivan post from SMX Sydney after interviewed Google's VP of Search Products, Marissa Mayer during the SMX keynote. Sullivan emphasized the importance of Mayer's announcement that "Previous Query Refinement" is coming to web search - after that product had been tested in a limited way on Adwords ads only.

But then today Mediapost also wrote about search privacy concerns voiced by the Center for Digital Democracy in a complaint filed with the FTC back in November of 2006, brought to a head when public comment to FTC's proposed "voluntary guidelines" drew objections by all major players in "behavioral marketing" ad networks . According to MediaPost, Google's comments to the FTC, said:

"We are currently experimenting in our Search service with providing ads based on both the current query and the immediately previous search," Google wrote. "For example, a user who types 'Italy vacation' into the Google search box might see ads about Tuscany or affordable flights to Rome. If the user were to subsequently search for 'weather,' we might assume that there is a link between 'Italy vacation' and 'weather' and deliver ads regarding local weather conditions in Italy."

So while the two issues (web search and Adwords that appear beside those search results) would not BOTH be affected by the FTC "guidelines" it could mean that we would see better search results and worse ads if those "guidelines" are in any way enforced by the FTC against ads, but not natural algorithmic search results.

What an odd position to be in for a privacy advocate like me. While the search results are bound to be better when previous queries are factored into the algorithm, the ads may be off-limits to the same refinement. Hmmm.

A very funny kink in this story from MediaPost is the quote:

Google rival Microsoft, on the other hand, said it supports the FTC's goals and that the proposed guidelines should be extended "to include the full array of online advertising activities."

Umm, yea - poor search results, no worthwhile algorithm from the last place search company MSN Live - who would never use their latest $6 Billion acquisition, aQuantive, to serve behavioral advertising to anyone - right? aQuantive execs had to be moaning in pain when they saw their new parent making such statements.

It's bound to be an interesting decision with lawsuits flying in both directions from privacy advocates on one side and ad networks on the other after those "voluntary guidelines" from the FTC are finally handed down.

I really do believe the search results using "Previous Query Refinement" would be better in most cases, for most people. I'll probably like those results sometimes and hate them others. I'll love them when I search for "Restaurant, New York City" and then "Italian food, Theater District" but I'll absolutely hate those results when I'm researching "accounting software" client keywords and decide to switch to my "plastic surgeon" client keywords or a search for a local auto parts store right after doing a medical search query.

Do those of us who search constantly get different types of cookies served for "Previous Query Refinement" searches than say my wife who searches for things only after asking me a tough trivia question or home repair question and I say, "Why don't you Google it?" She does two searches a day at most and I do 50 to 100 daily. Will I need to disable cookies? Sign out of my Google personalized search? How will "Previous Query Refinement" distinguish between those of us who want Unpolluted search results and those who need a helping hand with "Query Refinement?"

Best Pictures On Web Awards

2008-04-06T02:27:00.000-07:00

Best Pictures Awards - Get more documents

Google Adsense Ads Scroller Feature? Why?

2008-04-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

Last week I saw a couple of up/down arrows displayed next to the Google Adsense ads on my blog and, curious what it was, I clicked the down arrow - a bit worried that it might count as clicking on my own ads - but the ads simply changed. They changed five times to show different ads and then I could scroll back up through them again. How odd - what good is this to visitors? You know you are looking for a particular advertiser and want to find them? Maybe you are bored and just like studying others ad copy? Hmmm.

Anyway, the feature then disappeared for a week and I didn't see it again. So I kicked myself for not getting a screenshot and moved on. Today I saw it again, but so are others. Has this fully launched?

The first time this was spotted was apparently in December when a couple people on the Webmasterworld forums brought it up. Today there's a bit of buzz on it again.

My question is why?

SEOBook Firefox Rank Checker Extension - Free

2008-04-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

Aaron Wall of SEOBook is offering a free Firefox Rank Checking plugin which may come to replace many paid services or software! At only one day old (introduced publicly on March 31st), it's got some significant buzz going - at least on his own site - with over 75 comments already.

Here's a tutorial video Aaron Created which reviews the powerful feature set and use of the tool.

Amazing Stuff Aaron! Thanks for the great FREE tool!

Google SiS (Search in Search) Scares Control Freaks

2008-03-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

Google Search-in-Search and a New York Times article titled "New Tool From Google Alarms Sites" has provoked a "startle response" from bloggers, search engine marketers and a few major publishers and online retailers. This all started on March 5th, when Google engineers announced the "Search-in-Search" aka "Teleportation" feature in the official Google Blog. The reasons appear to boil down to three responses to Google:

How DARE you steal my pageviews!
How DARE you sell ads against my brand!
How DARE you claim your search is better than OURS!

Before I get into my thoughts on the matter, here is what that new Google Search Within Search Result looks like for a "NY Times" query:

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Here's how this controversy boils down for me on each of the above three points:

The (weak) argument suggesting that Google is stealing pageviews from publishers who hope to capitalize on page after page of bad internal site search results is like saying - "Hey site user, we think you are an idiot and that you are probably willing to click through page after page of bad search results on our site and will tire of this eventually and click on one or two of our advertisers banners in order to escape the torture." or Bad user experience (most site search sucks and is NOT optimized) equals extra incremental income - so bad user search experience is good for us!
Objection two seems to be some sort of opposition to Google showing competitors ads in their Adwords results. Again saying "User, we think you haven't a CLUE what you wanted when you typed OUR company name into the search box and you may decide to go to our competitors instead. If your competitors Adwords copy is so good that users go there instead of your site and you are not making keyword buys against your own brand - You Deserve to lose the customer!
There has been some discussion of the loss of internally optimized long tail searches which seem to justify point #3 above in the list of objections to "SiS" (Search-in-search) but this objection is only applicable to those VERY few sites that actually have good site search and (even rarer) those who optimize internal search results for EVERY long tail search phrase.

I do happen to agree with everyone who has suggested that this probably should be "opt-in" for those companies that have "SiS" appearing on their brand searches at Google. This suggests though that a) all of those brands are participating in Google Webmaster Central accounts and have verified their pages or b) that "Search-in-Search" be manually turned off and administered by Google (that will only happen with Fortune 100 web companies, if that) appears to be already turned off for Amazon and Ebay.

I believe Google when they say they are doing this to improve user experience, and while it may increase their Adwords income incrementally, I say to Google - Bully for you - and congratulations on, yet again, finding a way to improve the search experience while increasing your own income. Google does not owe anyone more pageviews, and should be allowed to offer tools which increase their income.

To those moaning over lost opportunity and incremental income, I say - Get over yourselves - Your site search sucks and this saves me from doing the standard: "site:yourcompany.com product name" queries I'm always having to do because your internal search is so bad.

$299 Yahoo Directory Paid Link Worth Every Penny

2008-03-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

I originally wrote the article below in August of 2005, note the copyright date at the bottom. But I was nudged to republish it after seeing a Sphinn post discussing the value of a Yahoo text link.

My three-year-old, but still true article follows:

Last week a client called me excitedly exclaiming that their Google PageRank had jumped a notch and their targeted keyword term now ranked #23 (up from #45) for their competitive search phrase. I asked the client if he'd been notified by Yahoo that his site was now included in the index after we had submitted it three weeks ago. "Yes," he said, "but why are you changing the subject?"

"I'm not changing the subject. Inclusion in Yahoo Directory is the most likely reason for the jump in both your search position and your PageRank. Remember when you doubted the value of inclusion in the Yahoo Directory and I pushed for submission anyway? Now you know why I insisted."

That seemingly expensive Yahoo Directory listing has one little known benefit to your website. It is the most important and valuable text link you could ever purchase. That one link from one source will do your ranking more good than any other single link (except possibly the Open Directory).

Many webmasters look at potential traffic referred from the Yahoo Directory as the determining factor for submissions, when that is not the best reason for inclusion - It's the link value that matters above all else in this case.

I've had several SEO clients see a leap in ranking for targeted search terms a week or so after that Yahoo Directory link goes live for them. Many clients have argued with me about the value of that Yahoo Directory text link. But at $299, the yearly fee is cheaper than many of those commercial text link ads sites and does far more for your ranking in search engines OTHER than Yahoo.

Why? It's purely the value of that link. Search engines know that only sites of a certain quality level will submit and get accepted into Yahoo Directory. They know that serious businesses will pay that yearly fee, while marginal or hobby sites will not pay that $299 every year. Surely there is some level of value assigned in search algorithms to inclusion in the Yahoo Directory.

It's a little known technique for gains in ranking which is based purely on empirical observation over time. But the result of inclusion in the Yahoo Directory is the same for every client, every time - their PageRank ratchets up and targeted search terms suddenly take a big jump just a week or two after inclusion. The same is true of inclusion in the free Open Directory Project at http://DMOZ.org .

I've seen client sites jump from positions on page three at MSN search to top 5 positions on page one of the MSN SERP's following inclusion in the Yahoo Directory. Now we are submitting this same client to the Open Directory for the 5th time in as many months hoping for elusive editors to add the site, leading to another jump in search position and PageRank if and when they get around to adding the site to the DMOZ database.

You do know that Google uses that Open Directory listing in their own directory, don't you? It's worth submitting and resubmitting until they finally include your site. It really is worth the trouble to keep trying, no matter how long they ignore your submissions.

One caveat always applies to Directory submissions! They must be done with great care applied to keyword phrases used in the site description. That single line of text you submit in the "Site Description" text box on the submission page will strongly affect your keyword phrase ranking in OTHER search engines for a very long time.

Take care in crafting a keyword rich and effective description for your site. I always request that clients either have me submit for them or use text I've written for them in that description. If you do it badly, it will be re-written by an editor who cares more for categorization than keyword rankings. Be Careful!

Before you run off begging for reciprocal links from slick webmasters or purchasing text links of dubious value from text link outfits, submit to Yahoo Directory and pay the $299 (or $24.92 monthly) for the most undervalued text link available. Then swallow your pride and re-submit to the Open Directory until they finally include your site.

Rock your rank with dynamite text links! Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project.

Mike Banks Valentine blogs on SEO at: http://RealitySEO.com/

SEO Career Training: Search Marketing Education

2008-03-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of years I've been building up an SEO Jobs Search Resource here which includes multiple search engine optimization training and salary articles from top SEO's - plus a couple stories from my own experiences in seeking a senior level corporate SEO position after 8 years running my own company. Information can be hard to come by, just like qualified SEO candidates.

Today John Alexander of Online Web Training made another great article available about preparing for an SEO career, and I've reproduced that below. Thanks John!

12 Tips to help build the foundation for a new SEO career

by John Alexander

TIP 1. Set your focus on your clients success.

Stop focusing on sales and start focusing on your client's success! Do all that you can do to make them successful. Pour all of your talents into making their projects work. So many folks I talk to can never stop thinking about
where they will make their next sale, instead of working on delivering results to the clients they ALREADY have. In so doing, you establish "lifetime" residuals.

Make your client successful and they will literally become part of YOUR sales team.

TIP 2. A difference in your performance is a difference in your profits.

If you are NOT up to speed, you better catch up fast. Truely a difference in your performance is a difference in your profits! If you are not up to speed on solid SEO marketing techniques and methods, start learning now. Take a course or study at a live workshop but however you do it, get your SEO career skills up to speed so you can genuinely help get your customers results. If you can show them a strategy that really puts dollars in their pocket, they'll put dollars in YOUR pocket!

TIP 3. Have confidence in your own strategies and explore profit sharing.

How's your batting average with profit sharing? Don't be afraid to explore this one! If your skills are medium to above average, why not share in the profits yourself? I am referring to offering someone a vertical deal. This would be a deal where you own part of the company in return for making it successful with your SEO skills. Don't brush this off. There are some exceptional deals to be had if you start thinking laterally.

TIP 4. Don't forget community and charitable work.

When's the last time you helped promote a charitable work at NO cost. Build a site and promote it for the literacy council or the Easter Seals Society or your local Rotary Group or your Chamber of Commerce.

Don't forget that this work can OFTEN open unusual and even surprising doors. Help make others successful and you will NOT fail. Many important leaders within your local community will be serving on these committees right next to you!
This is a great way to network and meet new people and help the cause too.

TIP 5. Work on Relationship building and position yourself for success to come.

Watch the latest SEO trends and position yourself to quickly take advantage. The study and practice of SEO has been extraordinary. A few years ago, I never dreamed that my study of optimization would lead to the Internet lifestyle. As a result of our work, we enjoy wonderful repeat business and client loyalty.

If you have not been enjoying good profits, a rewarding lifestyle and being appreciated by your clients, then you need to consider a plan of action.

Tip 6. Set your course of action and get started.

Consider taking a live hands-on SEO workshop which can kick-start your professional SEO career in just a few days of hands-on training. Or if you cannot travel, consider taking an Online SEO Training Course.

Tip 7. Choose which voices you choose to listen to carefully.

You MUST be able to "deliver" and make a difference. Do whatever it takes to get your SEO skills and lateral thinking skills up to speed. In business there are many voices offering free advice. You need to choose carefully who you will listen to.

Tip 8. Run a balanced business.

Are you charging for what your services are worth? There are some folks who charge steeply and don't even know how to get the results. For goodness sakes, if you're good at what you do, make sure you are charging well for your services. You DESERVE fair reward if you're helping other business owners to prosper.
(Some folks are afraid to charge for their work)

Note: The ones that charge steeply but DON'T deliver may make a few dollars initially, but they won't enjoy the customer loyalty, the referral business, and the repeat business that you do, and they won't have a "customer for life" like you will.

Tip 9. Don't forget to recognize and be thankful for the progress you've made.

Yes, this is extremely important. How else can you truly measure your progress unless you benchmark along the way. Be sure to benchmark your victories but even more important, celebrate your CLIENTS' VICTORIES too! After all, you helped bring them about.

Tip 10. Give something back to your community (with gladness).

Look for opportunities to help others who genuinely need help and avoid those who are only after your talents to exploit them. (Trust me, when your SEO talents and success stories increase, you'll have strangers coming out of the woodwork to take you to dinner and wine you and dine you and pick your brain). Proceed with wisdom.

Tip 11. You must be willing to change and take action!

Performing the way you perform now has delivered a certain result. Maybe you're happy with that result. If you're happy with this result, carry on exactly the same way and you should get very similar results. However, if you are NOT happy with your results now, then you must change the way you do things.

Some people go all their life complaining that they would like a better career
or a better position in life and yet they continue taking the same actions and
getting the same results year after year.

Think of it like this...

Same action = same result
Different action = new results

Tip 12. Surround yourself with the high quality people!

Without a doubt, your SEO interests and abilities will make way for many new working relationships. Be sure to carefully choose the people you want to work with. Look for those with whom you can share synergies and be very observant of the skills and abilities within the others that surround you. No single person can operate as effectively as a group of people that work as a team. Learn to choose the right people to work with and recognize the latent strengths and talents that will sometimes be present but initially hidden within the group. Build to your ultimate potential by choosing wisely, encouraging one another and recognizing the talent in one another.

Is a career in SEO right for you?

Are you ready to take your SEO career to the next step?

We would be delighted to meet with you personally and teach you exactly how
search engines work. The beauty of learning new SEO skills, is that it puts you
back into the position of having the power to choose and make your own choices.

Check out upcoming workshop dates here if you are interested in building an SEO career.

About John Alexander
John Alexander is Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with partner Robin Nobles as well as online search engine marketing courses through Online Web Training. John is author of an e-book called Wordtracker Magic.

The SEO Job Search Engine here is based on Google Custom Search and the SEO Job Search Widget from SimplyHired shows only SEO jobs in an RSS feed.

SMX West Day 3: "Matt & Danny and Rand! Oh My!"

2008-02-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

I'm just back from three days at SMX West in Santa Clara with an observation which has me puzzled, but one that comes down to my own quirk of valuing SEO topics over "SEO personalities." Over those three days, I overheard several groups of colleagues who had gathered around the large conference schedule boards to choose their next sessions.

One of these gatherings this afternoon had me wondering where people placed their priorities when two of those standing there chose which session they would attend by which SEO Rockstar was on the panel or by which SEO celebrity was speaking. "Matt Cutts is on that panel, I'm going to that one!" was the line that got me thinking about this. (Matt seems like a great guy, but why would I attend his session if he's talking about "linking" - really, how much more can be said about it?)

I chose a great session with Shari Thurow and Lance Loveday on "SEO and Usability" and came away with some great insights and valuable case studies to quote to my clients when they insist on elements that look pretty, but suck for SEO value. While it's great to get authoritative answers on things that matter to your business or your SEO passions, I don't recall ever having chosen even one of the three hundred or so conference sessions (over the eight years I've attended SEO shows) with the criteria of celebrity - I choose them based on the topic of discussion.

This habit has left me more than annoyed several times when the title of the session was a bit misleading - but I continue to choose based on the topic, rather than the speakers. I've also missed wonderful sessions because someone wanted to be "creative" rather than descriptive, something I somehow believe wouldn't happen at an SEO conference.

This morning I missed one I would have loved to attend called "Industrial Strength SEO" which was about SEO for large enterprise sites, not power plants and sewage treatment SEO. This is one case where knowing Marshall Simmonds (SEO for New York Times/ Primedia) was a speaker would have been worth knowing as I would have recognized the reason for that silly title. New York SES last year called this session "BIG SEO" which was a bit clearer. Grrrrr. (Yes I could have looked at the show guide book, but I wasn't carrying it - please guys, pretend you're optimizing your conference schedule, will ya?

Another item had me scratching my head as well when I saw that you could purchase a "Networking Only Pass" for $250, which let you into cocktail receptions, parties and other non-conference events. That pass comes with two drink tickets and permission to stand in a room with a few hundred strangers munching pretzels while holding a drink in one hand and business cards in the other. (I wonder if I could "rent" my "All Access" pass to someone for those events, since I always leave? Hmmm.)

I just don't get it, but props to Third Door Media for recognizing that people will pay good money for this. ;-) While there is no doubt that networking can be valuable, I'm a bit confused as to the value of networking with your competitors. Don't get me wrong, please. I think that Rand Fishkin, Danny Sullivan, and Lee Odden are probably all great guys, as a matter of fact, I think, based on things I've read on their blogs (and SEO Podcasts) that I'd probably be honored to call each of them friends - but they surely have plenty of friends already and I just can't imagine wading through the adoring fans to say hi. I probably have more in common with Kim Berg of Cre8pc who said:

"I’m goofy. I’m terrible with names. I’m shy and uncomfortable in crowds until I get a sense of the place."

It all comes down to personality I guess. I like it quiet while I'm working, I don't party and I've NEVER approached a speaker after a session unless I had something of value to offer them

I have approached precisely three speakers after conference sessions in eight years of attending - to trade business cards and then I've called each of them afterward on business.

There are those of us who love SEO work and love to discuss it with the odd friend or two willing to hear about the value of robots.txt auto-discovery of xml sitemaps. I am not like Shoemoney, who recently told the world, "I do not like 95% of SEO's" - because I actually do very much like most SEO's, but not because they are famous to a couple of thousand other SEO's. I like SEO's because they are usually very smart and interesting people.

Then there are those who worship at the feet of celebrity.

You have probably guessed that I don't watch the Oscars and can't name more than a dozen or so movie stars, but I still watch movies. I tend to choose those movies I watch based on the genre, good critical reviews or by the subject of a good documentary - NOT the BIG names on the marquee - go figure. Probably why I don't read people magazine or ask SEO Celebrities to pose for a photo with me.

PS: GREAT show Chris and Danny! Though I'm sure you don't know me from Adam, (no not Adam Lasnik - Adam the cliche) if you see this blog post, I want you to know that I chose this show and got more from it than from SES New York last year and won't be going to New York for that show next week. I also attended SMX local and Mobile in Denver and loved that one too. I wish I could attend SMX Seattle in June, but the conference budget is blown for this year. The program gripes are minor and I have nothing but praise for the line-up of speakers and their topics. Damn! Shari, can you teach SMX about conference schedule usability? ;-)

ADDED 3-2-08: After a bit of discussion over at Sphinn about this post, there's one thing I wanted to add to this post on further reflection. I've probably already over-thought this, but had another insight about SEO celebrities and star quality. I will admit that there is one time at conferences that I will attend in large part due to who is speaking, and regardless of the topic.

Keynote presentations are put forward by conference organizers as a high point, emphasizing that everyone should attend by placing it front and center without competing sessions, in the big room, encouraging full attendance.

They've said implicitly, "This is big, with a big name speaker discussing important stuff with no distractions." So I trust that and will attend without questioning, no matter the topic.

SMX West: Dangerous Place for Rand Fishkin

2008-02-25T08:06:00.000-08:00

Mike McDonald is mistaken for SEO Superstar Rand Fishkin, taken hostage and beaten for SEO "insider" information. When the bad guys realize it's not Fishkin, they release McDonald to have a friendly beer and hear him tell web nerd jokes. The closing graphic says, "Getting answers shouldn't be this hard ... SMX West ... Get all the coverage at WebProNews."

Creativity runs high at WPN and serves as great link bait and wonderful content for blogs that never get tired of discussing exactly the minutia that McDonald jokes about in the end.

Unfortunately, now we're going to be flooded with videos from others trying to top this great one from the WebProNews team. I'll wager Barry Schwartz makes a list of all the competing SEO video linkbait for SERoundtable before long and we'll hear at SES San Jose this summer about the link counts and ranking increases of the top seo video link bait.

Looking forward to the conference myself - maybe if I use a little smarter kidnappers next time, they'll actually get Fishkin, damnit!

TV-SEO - Samsung Brings Search to Live Television

2008-02-23T19:14:00.000-08:00

I never would have noticed this myself, until David Berkowitz from "Search Insider" at Media Post finds the little nugget at Engadget and starts talking about the search element to the unfortunately named "See'n'Search Set Top Box". Berkowitz suggests that

"... media companies, cable operators, and advertisers will want to discover more ways this technology can be used."

Well let me pipe up here and offer a suggested use!

TV SEO may be on the horizon sooner than expected. Samsung electronics has introduced a "Set Top Box" (Demo Video here) hardware which allows a TV viewer to search for related content on the web. (Seems like they would be better off selling their chip to Motorola, Tivo, et al to incorporate into current cable and satellite and DVR boxes.) This technology is based on television standard "Closed Captioning" which provides text transcripts on screen for the hard-of-hearing. There is also metadata available for programs listing program titles, characters, news anchors, talk show guests and movie actors, and/or those appearing on-screen during broadcast.

That information is available over the air and is rich in what it takes for search engines to determine relevance - text. Now Samsung is offering hardware which can access that standard television closed caption and metadata and use it to search relevant and related information for viewers and display web searches for that data through a scrolling menu, rather than a keyboard.

This is a disruptive way to watch television, as you may have observed from the video above. But there are options, actually two or three options - which Samsung is apparently offering.

Immediate viewing of web pages or multimedia web content on-screen. Disruptive to the viewing experience.
Access via externally connected devices such as tablet PC's or smart phones. Better and less disruptive to family members viewing the same TV.
Access to searches via connected PC's or Laptops running an application tied to the set top box. Good solution so far.

But I have a suggested best-by-far option - DVR such as Tivo with functionality which stores and saves all that information (metadata and closed caption text) as the program is recorded, for use later by laptop or PC.

Clearly those with DVR's will recognize the value of making all of the information made available via the SamSung set-top-box accessible at a later time to use as you wish, allowing time-shifting of the search functionality as well as the recorded program.

So how long will it be before we (SEO's) are optimizing our web sites and multimedia content for TVSEO? Clearly it opens up dramatic traffic potential for sites addressing items discussed in hot news stories, or products mentioned on talk shows, or any number of authority web sites on any conceivable topic which may be discussed on television.

I see the potential there for new meta data inserted in both the closed captioning and within web sites, which facilitate find-ability of information online through this new search window on television sets. (Official TV Show web site, links to advertisers, PPC ads, actor profiles) I also see many more players entering the market to mine this potential traffic source. Those who jump in early will clearly benefit.

Kudos to Samsung for clearing the path to television search - now I hope Tivo, Google, and the television industry, as well as cable and satellite providers will see the value and offer the option of truly interactive television by linking it to the web and allowing recording of the closed captioning and related meta data for later use.

(I'll never understand why Microsoft didn't go this way when they bought WebTV for $450 Million in 1997 - they had both audiences in hand. Maybe their potential marriage with Yahoo will help them see the way to do it now? No- Yahoo had the original social media site in GeoCities and wasted that audience too. Neither company knows how to make the most of their assets.)

Here's what is available so far from Samsung on the box, beyond the video you saw above:

I've seen a secondary press release from Samsung distributed on February 14th Valentines Day all over the web, but the release below, distributed by Samsung on January 6th, the day before CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas in PDF form and lost to all in the crush of new product announcements, was made available on the Samsung site (available in HTML in the Google cached copy) - when will corporations begin to understand the web?

They've introduced the "See'n'Search Set Top Box" at CES where it is buried among thousands of press releases and 187 other mentions of Samsung electronics products at the show. They distributed a secondary press release on Valentines Day, neglecting to do some sort of tie-in to attract attention to their product using maybe a love theme?

Nope, but then it's duly reported by engadget, parroted on Mashable and again repeated by Techmeme, then dropped again from notice. Samsung, in that secondary press release fails to say what they did say in the first release - that the unit will be available Q3 2008 (see below). I even saw a couple of tech blogs saying, "Samsung doesn't say when the unit will be available" and thus the problem with bloggers, nobody does any research.

Samsung doesn't make it easy to find, but there is an "About See'N'Search" page on their site.

Here's the January 6, 2008 Press release from the Samsung web site promising delivery by Q3 of this year:

NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:SungIn Cho
Samsung Electronics America
Phone: (201) 229-4752
E-Mail: sungincho@sea.samsung.com

Colin Ruane
MWW Group
Phone: 212) 827-3742
E-Mail: cruane@mww.com

SAMSUNG’S NEW SEE’N’SEARCH SET-TOP BOX REVOLUTIONIZES HOW CONSUMERS ACCESS THE INTERNET

New Technology Eliminates the Need for a PC, Keyboard or Special Content Programming, Bringing Targeted Media Content Directly to the Living Room

LAS VEGAS, January 6, 2008 – Samsung Electronics, a global leader in consumer electronics and digital technology, today is changing the way consumers enjoy the Internet in the living room with the introduction of its See’N’Search technology. Using just their TV’s, users can directly pull up Internet information and media-related content onto the screen program without the need for a PC/keyboard and or special content programming.

Where previous attempts at bringing the Internet to the TV have faltered due to the need for a keyboard or the overhead of special authoring through a content ecosystem, Samsung’s See’N’Search technology automatically suggests existing Internet media and information related to the programs users are already watching.

“See’N’Search technology will revolutionize how consumers will see and use the Internet in the living room in the next few years” said Alan Messer, director of connected consumer technologies of Samsung’s U.S. Research and Development Center. “By greatly minimizing the need to manually search for related content and special interactive content authoring, this technology enables consumers to directly watch or surf Internet content that is relevant to them.”

Just as a consumer would search a channel guide to see what’s on and when, Samsung’s See’N’Search set-top box uses the same information, in addition to the closed caption metadata that is present for most programming, to scour existing Internet content (HTML coding, Web video, etc.) and make recommendations that would appeal to the user. To do this, the system monitors the contents of the program being watched, using lightweight natural language technologies to determine the topics that are being discussed. When the user presses the “More Info” button, the See’N’Search UI appears on-screen with related information or media that the system found on the Internet. The consumer simply selects a piece of content from any particular topic, and See’N’Search takes them directly to that content.

What’s more, See’N’Search information can also be transmitted from the TV or set-top box to any connected devices in the living room, such as Wi-Fi enabled phones, tablets or laptops. This enables users to personally surf related Internet content without disturbing the family.

“Samsung’s See’N’Search technology gives a whole new way of getting to the Internet without turning the TV into a PC,” said Victoria Coleman, vice president of Samsung’s U.S. Computer Science Laboratory.

Samsung’s See’N’Search set-top box will be available in Q3 of 2008.

About Samsung Electronics America, Inc. Headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., markets a broad range of award-winning, advanced digital consumer electronics and home appliance products, including HDTVs, home theater systems, MP3 players, refrigerators and laundry machines. A recognized innovation leader in consumer electronics design and technology, Samsung is the HDTV market leader in the U.S. and is the only manufacturer that produces all four major digital television technologies. Please visit www.samsung.com for more information.

Super Bowl Ad Ratings: USA Today, Nielsen, MediaCurves

2008-02-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

OK, Last word on Super Bowl 42 XLII Commercials this year (one week after the game) comes from the ratings services, which turned out to have very different results and to prove how much polls and statistics can vary. The most visible ratings came from USA Today, which awarded the top spot to the Budweiser "Rocky" send-up starring Hank the Clydesdale, who fails to make the team, then trains with a dog for a year and makes the beer wagon team next year. That spot is featured below in another post.

The next rating came from Nielsen and also gives their number one nod to Budweiser. But Nielsen also rates ads on TV viewership numbers and ranks them according to which was most seen - they give that honor to the Victoria's Secret ad with Adriana Lima, which ran in the fourth quarter in the second to last ad slot and they claim was seen by 103.6 Million viewers (and an additional 980,000 times on MySpace, 520,000 times on AOL, 417,000 times on YouTube.

Victoria's Secret Super Bowl Commercial with Adriana Lima

Super Bowl Commercials

Then comes Media Curves, which added an odd element of second-by-second emotional interest to their ratings and award the top slot to the Fedex Carrier Pigeons spot. That link shows you a graph of viewer interest on top of the ad as it plays, but that seems a bit silly to me. People who voted at MediaCurves liked Fedex more than Adriana Lima or Hank the Clydesdale because they were more emotionally engaged? Which emotions? Fear of flapping feathers and pigeon poop from both the normal dirty birds in that shipping department or the giant dirty birds outdoors wreaking havoc on the city and trashing the shipping managers car? Hmmmm. (AOL gave the top slot to Hank the Clydesdale again, and gave the Fedex spot position #10 in their top ten list!) Here's that Fedex Ad:

Fedex Super Bowl Ad: Carrier Pigeons Bad Choice for Shipping

Watch Superbowl Commercials.

Very interestingly, you can also judge the commercials at each of the places they are housed on the web to see most popular ads by number of views. That honor appears to go (as of this writing) to the Bud Light "Ability to Breathe Fire" ad, which has been viewed over 4 million times at AOL (Total ad views 10.5 million), 1.7 million times at MySpace (Total ad views 34.7 million views) and (only) 372,000 times on YouTube, where it barely ranks at all). But wait, there are different numbers of most watched at each of these places! Choose your audience carefully. (YouTube is set to announce their winner later on Tuesday February 12th, based on number of votes - will anyone still care then?) YouTube ranks the Naomi Campbell "Thrillicious" Dancing Lizards ad tops, with 965,000 views, topping all it's other super bowl videos by 200K or so. Hmmm. Thrillicious is in 5th place at MySpace - Here's that ad:

Sobe Life Water Super Bowl Commercial: Naomi Campbell

Super Bowl Ad Videos.

So when ranked by raw numbers I'll award top choice to "Ability to Breathe Fire" from Budweiser. Ranked by viewer emotions during viewing, I agree with the MediaCurves emotions rating, but only because I want to dive under a table to avoid the flying rats, er pigeons. When ranked by Underdog factor, I'll go with Hank the Clydesdale and the Rocky theme. When ranked by libido interest, I think Naomi Campbell wins for Sobe Life Water. When ranked by overall favorite, I'll fall back on my previous juvenile humor assessment and go with the Tivo most replayed rating which ranks the eTrade Talking Baby Spit-up spot.

eTrade Talking Baby Super Bowl Commercial: Baby Buys Stock

More Superbowl Commercial Videos

Not enough ratings for you? Here's a few more:

Finally, for those of you who can't wait for next year to see what Super Bowl Ads, here's that MySpace Super Bowl Countdown Widget to take you into the 2009 Contest in Tampa Florida.

See Super Bowl Commercials

Get this widget!

Super Bowl Bonus: Budweiser Cut The Cheese Ad

2008-02-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

Budweiser, in an attempt to draw more audience engagement around their Super Bowl Ads this year, created a *Bonus* "Secret Spot" which was available only to visitors who either participated in a text message poll from their mobile phones or filled out a ranking poll called "order the spots" on BudBowl.com> If you didn't do that on their site, here's a version you don't have to do anything else to see. I see why it didn't run at game time, since it would have suffered the same fate that GoDaddy did with the network censors. Poor taste, body humor. I had to do extra work to see this?

Tivo Users Loved Talking Babies Spitting Up in Bowl Ads

2008-02-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

Tivo has now given us a better gauge of what SuperBowl Commercials viewers actually watch the most, rather than those they SAY they like the most. For the Tivo fans, excuse me while I tell the other 200 million uninitiated television watchers briefly about these magical machines. (Tivo users, skip down two paragraphs)

Tivo lets you pause live television for up to 30 minutes and go back and watch when you want to, then the thing you've heard most, lets you skip through anything you don't want to see, which for most of us is the commercials. So we Tivo lovers often stop live television to have a conversation with our spouse, use the restroom, make a sandwich, answer the doorbell or telephone... In short, we're not a slave to "Time" and can stop and start the television.

There is much more to Tivo, but that covers the only part I want to discuss here. Tivo users often rewind and rewatch things that interest them. It is very easy to do and so it becomes a habit to back up and watch something over again. Not only watch it over, but frame-by-frame if we choose - in slow motion or stop anywhere in freeze frame.

(Ok Tivo users, you can tune in again...) So Tivo Central can see user behavior, and while they anonymize it slightly, they know what everyone is watching, frame-by-frame, second by second and how many times something is watched. My wife looked at me sideways when I said the E-Trade ad of a talking baby spitting up after buying stock online was my favorite. I felt a bit childish, but now I see I wasn't alone. That was the most replayed ad on Tivo owners sets. Hah!

eTrade Talking Baby Super Bowl Commercial: Baby Buys Stock

More Superbowl Ads

Here's the Tivo list of most watched Superbowl Ads

1. E-Trade: “Baby Talks Demonstrates Easy Stock Buy Online” (spitting up)
2. Pepsi Co: “Every Sip Gets you Closer to Justin Timberlake MP3”
3. Doritos: “Mouse Trap - Giant Mouse Attack” (user-generated)
4. Coca-Cola: “James Carville and Bill Frist Jinx, Buy Me a Coke”
5. Ice Breakers Gum: “Carmen Electra and Spontaneous Woah!”
6. Bridgestone: “Deer in the Headlights, Alice Cooper, Richard Simmons”
7. Bud Light: “Cavemen Invent Wheel to Carry a Stone Cooler”
8. Vitamin Water: “Horse Race with Jockey Shaquille O'Neal”
9. Cars.com Plan B: “Witch Doctor Shrinks Car Salesman's Head”
10. Life Water: “Thriller Lizard Dance with Naomi Campbell”

Budweiser Super Bowl Ad: Rocky Theme Rated Best

2008-02-04T22:13:00.000-08:00

There was a very understated Hyundai Genesis Superbowl commercial which said in its voice-over, while showing the new luxury car, "We don't know what the USA Today Admeter will say about this Ad on tomorrow, but we're pretty sure BMW, Mercedes and Lexus aren't gonna like it." Well now everyone knows what the USA Today Admeter thinks about the Hyundai Genesis commercial, as it ranked at #43 out of the total 55 commercial spots.

Pretty much as expected though the number one ad was the Budweiser "Rocky" send-up of Hank the Clydesdale, who after missing the Budweiser beer wagon team one year, goes into intense training with a dalmation as his personal trainer. You can see that ad (and all the others with ratings #1 through #55 at the USA Today Admeter page, titled "Budweiser's Dog and Pony Show" in a mocking tone about the number one ad. (Dalmation and Clydesdale, Dog & Pony -- Hmmm). Here's that ad if you missed it.

Budweiser Clydesdales Superbowl Ad: Hank the Clydesdale

Superbowl Ads

Audi's R8 Supercar Super Bowl Commercial - No

2008-02-01T02:04:00.000-08:00

OK, for those of you who can't wait to see the Audi R8 Supercar, here's a sneak peek. Though this is NOT the Superbowl Commercial, which will be a play on the "Godfather" movie theme. This is an "assembly" time lapse starting from the frame up with a catch phrase, "The Slowest Car We've Ever Built" appearing at the end. ... History, experience, carefully assembled, etc. -

Ok, now 3 days after the fact, here's the real SuperBowl ad, realeased nowhere early, but now available everywhere. ;-)

Audi R8 Luxury Sports Car Super Bowl Commercial Ad

More Super Bowl Ads

Budweiser Super Bowl Ads Dominate Game Day

2008-01-31T07:35:00.000-08:00

The Super Bowl commercials that always stick in people's minds each year are inevitably the Budweiser ads. Last year's "Rock, Paper, Scissors contest for the last bottle of Bud at a party was the big winner in mind-share. This year Anheuser Busch will dominate again with seven spots during the Patriots, Giants contest. Here are a group of ads that have been leaked to the web ahead of Sunday's game (some are just teasers giving you the first few seconds of the ad):

Here is one about cave men, which have become wildly popular in the past couple of years between Fedex, Geico Insurance and now Budweiser, I've now had my fill of hairy guys with big foreheads:

This one is titled "X-Ray Vision" but that's about all you'll see in this short teaser:

Now we have a fire-breathing date, because, well, Budweiser is everything you want in a beer, including the ability to breathe fire:

Now we have a friendship budding between a Dalmation and the last lonely Clydesdale, who didn't get chosen for the team:

And finally, here's Carlos Mencia teaching immigrants how to pick up "American Chicks" in a bar with unlikely pick-up lines:

But that's not all Bud has up their sleeve. They will make you work for it, but if you really MUST see another Budweiser ad, they will give you a code to "unlock" a secret ad, viewable on their web site after the game if you vote each ad up or down on your cell phone during the game after "registering" to do so! Wow, that's serious brand engagement. Here's and Advertising Age Video Link where you can get more details before the game on this odd Budweiser "Secret Ad" effort from their own video "3 Minute Ad Age".

Leaked Superbowl Commercials Cars.com & Under Armor

2008-01-29T20:33:00.000-08:00

New Super Bowl Ads seem to be trickling out before the game, this first one is from Cars.com, and was posted on the Associated Press site.

Sneak Peek: Cars.com Super Bowl ad

There are also about a half-dozen movies being advertised during the game, all of which already have movie trailers available online - a couple from Sony Pictures (Zohan and Hancock), one from Disney (Wall-E), New Line Cinema (Semi-Pro), Paramount Pictures (Iron Man) Universal Pictures (unannounced) and Warner Bros.(unannounced). Fox (unannounced what they will use their time for) is a named advertiser, but that time is likely to be broken up into separate promotions for American Idol, House, 24, The Simpsons, Prison Break, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and multiple TV shows. It could be that they will promote the Eva Longoria movie "Over Her Dead Body" but we'll have to wait to see there.

Meanwhile, heres an MSNBC news clip on what we can expect from a new Superbowl Advertiser, Under Armor, plus commentary on making of that Silent Pepsi ad discussed here previously, as well as the now nearly obligatory GoDaddy commercial preview and commentary: