New Google Sidewiki: Will it Stay or Will it Go? October 24, 2009
Posted by Daniel in Search Engines, SEO, WebApps, WebStuff.Tags: Bruce Clay, google, SideWiki
2 comments
Although I’m sure you’ve already heard by now the news about Google’s newest toolbar-gadget the Side-Wiki (even Bruce Clay briefly mentioned something about it), I thought I’d make a quick reference to a feature webmasters/site owners should get to first just in case people actually start using it. As the site owner, you can post a note about your site that stays on top of all other notes. An algorithm similar to Google’s current search algorithm will be used to rank the listing of the rest of the notes people post. Take advantage of your site ownership, and use this space to communicate the heart of your business. Make it a little more personal, as a note should be. This isn’t the place for sales pitches. I can almost guarantee that a sales pitch posted in the owner’s note will drive away some visitors. While your checking it out – post your impressions on the Side-Wiki of the HireAHelper local movers landing page.
Two More Reasons Apple is Overrated September 19, 2009
Posted by Daniel in WebApps, WebStuff.Tags: Apple, AppStore, FCC, Federal Communication Commission, google, GoogleVoice
2 comments
A follow up to the Top 10 reasons Apple is Overrated
Reason number 11
A claim by security expert Charlie Miller that “Snow Leopard’s more secure than [previous release] Leopard, but it’s not as secure as Vista or Windows 7.”
Interesting when one of the loudest horns Apple keeps tooting is their resilience against virus’ and spy-ware.
Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is the key difference Miller points to. Vista upgraded their version of this random memory placement tool, but Apple has ignored Vista’s updates and made none of their own.
Charlie says that Macs get hacked less, but not because they’re harder to get into, but simply because there are significantly less out there than there are PCs. He says “That’s because if [the hacker] can hit 90 per cent of the machines out there, that’s all he’s gonna do. It’s not worth him nearly doubling his work just to get that last 10 per cent.”
So Apple’s claim to security fame… not so impressive.
Reason number 12
Apple has been lying to the FCC – a federal offense.
Image via CrunchBase
Ok so I know it’s not a technical reason, but still. Apple has rejected (or according to Apple, is still pondering over) the Google Voice app. Apple has been denying this rejection but Google recently submitted a letter to the FCC stating that they have screenshots documenting the rejection.
But Apple won’t back down and in a recent letter to the FCC still says they have “not rejected the Google Voice application and we continue to discuss it with Google.”
Apple lists in that letter that Google Voice falls in the same category as 3 other third party GV apps. Those apps strangely enough have all been removed from the app store. In fact, the company behind one app sent a screenshot confirming their rejection from the app store to Tech Crunch. So why would Apple categorize Google Voice with other rejected apps if GV wasn’t rejected, but merely “under consideration.”
Lying to the FCC – there’s an app for that.
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Pirates Attack the Hyatt Regency Miami Hotel September 8, 2009
Posted by Daniel in Search Engines, SEO, WebStuff.Tags: Blackhat SEO, Google Local, Google Maps, Hyatt Regency, SEO Pirates
2 comments
…which gave me an idea – to write a quick how-to. Check out what inspired my how-to below step 4.
How to Rank First in Google Local Listings With Almost No Effort
1. Find an Un-claimed Company Ranking First in Google Local Search
Do some general searches in your area on Google Maps for items totally unrelated to what you’re trying to sell. For example, you’re selling moving boxes, try searching for pizza. Click on “Edit” for the top listing and if the business is unclaimed you’ll see a link to “Claim Your Business” which will take you to the Google Local Business Center (LBC).
2. Claim the Listing (Even though it’s not really yours) in Google Local Business Center
Once you either create an LBC account or log-in using your existing Google Account, you can enter your phone number and website for the business you are comandeering. After you finish replacing the true business contact information with your contact details, Google will ask you to verify by mailing you postcard in 1-2 weeks with a PIN on it that you’ll enter in your LBC account.
3. Verify the Listing and Watch the Traffic Pour In
Here’s where there actually was some creativity in the SEO Pirate’s plan and why it only works on Hotels. When the verification postcard is mailed out, you’ll need some way to be the recipient of that postcard at the business’ real address. So a pizza place (example in step 1 above) wouldn’t work. However, lets say you claimed a hotel and booked a 2 week stay in that hotel immediately afterward. You’d simply have to let the front desk know that a peice of mail containing your name and phone number would be arriving and to have them send it up to your room.
4. Viola – You Now Own Hyatt Regency (According to Google Maps)
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While doing research for our Miami Movers, I stumbled upon a very interesting approach to SEO. When searching in Firefox for Miami Hotels on Google Maps, the first result listed turned up “Miami Moving and Movers“. As I’ve been working on the movers aspect of the HireAHelper site for a while now, I thought maybe Google was using my search history in an attempt to enhance my search results by providing me with a result pertinent to what I normally search for.
So I opened Internet Explorer and did the search again, staying logged out of my Google account. When that search yielded the same result, I knew something was up. Clicking through the additional info, I found over 700 reviews. I started to assume that Miami Moving and Movers had simply posted themselves in the wrong category and spam reviewed themselves as a hotel to rank in an easy-to-rank, high-traffic area. But to my surprise, the reviews sounded very real, and halfway down the page I found 2 reviews directly referencing the Hyatt Regency Miami.
That’s when it clicked – pirates had attacked the Hyatt Regency Miami. Some SEO genius thought it would be a good idea to claim the Hyatt listing as his business after it had already risen to 1st place in the local rankings with several hundred reviews. He then changed the name and contact info to point viewers to his moving company.
I guess if you want a lot of easy traffic and don’t care about your site getting blacklisted then this approach makes sense – almost. Getting all that traffic from a different industry probably doesn’t result in a lot of conversions. Definitely not enough profit to cover the costs of the lawsuit Hyatt should bring against the offender. I wonder why Miami Moving isn’t associated with any trustworthy associations or accreditation like the BBB or the AMSA (American Moving and Storage Association).
To Miami Moving and Movers: Sorry to turn you in… well not really. I work too hard trying to do our SEO in a real, sustainable way to let you get off that easy. Good luck in the Hyatt vs. SEO Pirate trial.
Daily Booth – A Picture Worth a Thousand Tweets August 18, 2009
Posted by Daniel in Uncategorized, WebApps, WebStuff.2 comments
So I was talking to my wife the other day about how nice it would be if we could send in pictures from our phones to Facebook (via the Twitter app). We already both keep up our Facebook status’ this way and it would be nice to keep up on our photo uploads. Well, where Facebook dropped the ball, Daily Booth picked it up.
Daily Booth Screenshot
From what I’ve gathered after exploring the site and reading various CNET and TC articles about it – Daily Booth is like a Twitter that uses pictures instead of 140 characters. You can add text subtitles to the photos, but the core of the communication is focused on photo interaction. For example, most of the comments on other people’s photos are photos.
One of the cool things about DB is that you can click Snap A Picture from within the site, allow it access to your webcam and viola – no tricky camera downloading, formating, or resizing on your computer before uploading. It’s all very easy/user friendly.
Snap a Picture
The CNET article I read basically dishes it out against Daily Booth saying it doesn’t measure up to Daily Mugshot – a site dedicated to watching your own pictures over time to see how you’ve changed. I agree with Jerry Cooke’s comment on the article, that the comparison was made incorrectly as each site serves very different functions.
We’ll see if DB gets any traction – other articles I’ve read are impressed that teenagers are getting so plugged into it (something Twitter isn’t so good at).
My only doubts come from the failure of video phones to really launch. We’ve had the technology in place for a long time now but no one seems to want to be seen in their PJ’s or wherever else in whatever else they might answer the phone in. I think the same might eventually be true for Daily Booth and other sites like it. We still live in a culture where people like to look put together and presentable as much as they can help it – which might put ceiling on who signs up.
How the Google Stole Christmas… July 14, 2009
Posted by Daniel in Search Engines, SEO, WebStuff.Tags: google, Regulation, SEO
1 comment so far
An anonymous post on TechCrunch.com calling for SEO/SEM regulation supposedly “written by a well known executive at one of the largest sites on the Internet” has sparked a tremendous amount of discussion and debate. I agree that we should find someway to credential or license exceptional SEO’s. However, I don’t agree that the government needs to be involved or that total transperancy from the search engines is necessary.
The post makes Google look like the Grinch who stole E-commerce. The author does this by arguing that Google abuses its position as the sole gatekeeper to most of web-based commercial world by changing its search algorithms without warning and disabling clients pay-per-click accounts without notice or reason.
The mysterious author draws the comparison to Los Angeles where the entrances are guarded by one company, and the streets changed sporadically by the same company – restricting the customer’s travel and often completely blocking access to some vendors.
The funny thing is, as I was reading through articles this morning on SEO techniques and tips, one of the articles (from SEObook.com, Is PageRank Important) pointed out that because search aglorythms are always changing, the best approach to search engine marketing is a traditional marketing strategy – provide great content, products, or services and people will come back with their friends.
In constantly updating their algorithms, Google isn’t being a Grinch, they’re attempting to weed out the trickery and magic of SEO to find honest, helpful search results. On the other end, SEO’s are finding out more and more that their goals should be to produce accurate and high quality content and market it to the right crowd.
In other words, the market is already regulating itself. Nobody is forcing the public to use the Google gateway to the e-commerce world. Who knows, maybe bing.com will turn out to be a surprisingly strong competitor for Google. The consumer will dictate which gates to use in their online experience, and if Google fails to produce relevant results, the consumer will find another gate.
Thanks Mr. Anonymous for sharing your feelings about regulating SEO/SEM. But its already fixing itself as you write.
New …ish PageRank Rules Revealed June 23, 2009
Posted by Daniel in Blogging Advice, Search Engines, SEO, WebStuff.add a comment
Last week, Google’s Matt Cutts blogged about a change to PageRank that took place a year ago. The change was drastic enough that the comment list ran on for over 200 responses. However, Cutts made the argument in one of his comment responses – “The fact that no one noticed this change means (to me) even though it feels like a really big shift, in practice the impact of this change isn’t that huge.”
The change is in reference to the Nofollow link command. Previous to 2008 if a page had 20 links on it, with 10 of those links being Nofollowed, the other 10 would carry the PageRank passing power of all 20 links divided up among them (1/10 of the PageRank Power).
Now, since the change last year, on that example page – the 10 followable links would only carry 1/20 of the PageRank passing power. The 10 Nofollow still don’t pass PR but the other 10/20 power to pass PR disappears.
This has people up in arms about all the work they’ve done to direct and steer their PageRank power within their site. The basic feel for what Cutts was saying was that if people haven’t noticed in a year apparently their work to contour PR hasn’t been worth it. He says, “In practical terms this change really doesn’t affect rankings very much at all.”
Personally, I disagree only in that those people who have made PageRank contouring a pillar of their SEO plan will need to re-think their repertoire. Otherwise I don’t really know what all the fuss is about. Continue making pages with great, resourceful content and people will want to visit and link to your site.
What do you think? Vote in my poll and let me know.
5 Reasons to Celebrate Google’s Birthday September 27, 2007
Posted by mikeglanz in Search Engines, WebStuff.3 comments
A tear comes to my eye when I think of everything that Google has done for me in its 9 years of existence. Today is the 9th anniversary of the day that Google.com launched. In honor of Google.com here are the top 5 reasons Google.com is my favorite website:
- They taught us to search – Back when I was still using a 26k modem is the first time I ran across Google.com. My best friends mom was a software developer and told him to start using it instead of Yahoo. I remember not knowing how it worked, but actually being impressed with the relevance of the results for the term I was searching. To date I use all sorts of advanced search techniques like “site:”, “linkdomain:” (RIP), and date search (which I picked up from Matt Cutts).
- They brought us Gmail – Hotmail would never let me have my own name (mikeglanz@hotmail.com was taken!) – when a friend from Stanford gave me a gmail invite, I was stoked to get not only mikeglanz@gmail.com, but my wifes, and my parents names as well. With few exceptions, all my friends have their name on their gmail account (Pete Johnson had no such luck)
- Free Analytics - To date HireAHelper still gets calls from analytics firms offering to sell me $1000/mo+ analytics packages.
- Online Advertising – with positive ROI! – CPC has been responsible for 50% of HireAHelper sales to date. We will most likely never stop making money off the AdWords platform.
- They gave us inspiration – Larry and Sergey jumped to the 55th richest men in the world when Google.com had its IPO. Other companies have inspired me as well (Amazon in particular), but Google is at least partly responsible for me quitting my job and launching my own startup. How many other great startups have been founded because they were inspired by Google. (Ask any VC how many entrepreneurs come in telling them they have the next Google!)
So here’s to you Google. May you last another 9 years. And may HireAHelper.com show up as result 1 for Moving Help!
