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Archive for May, 2010

DMOZ Editing

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

There is a lot of chatter around the net about DMOZ being worthless along with complaints from people about how long it takes to get listed. I’ve been editing several DMOZ categories for a few years now and I can tell you, the directory is of value, and there’s a reason it takes so long to get listed.

Since I edit several popular categories I get hundreds of submissions per month. That’s a lot to go through. Since so many of the submissions are from spammers, affiliate sites, lead-gen sites, content cloakers, and morons, it takes quite a while to sift through the submissions to find the sites that are of real value. Here’s a list of the steps I take to review EACH submission to my categories:

  • Check to make sure the URL doesn’t redirect by reading the server response codes.
  • Check for content cloaking.
  • Check all the links on the site to ensure that they function and send the user to the expected location.
  • Check the content of the site to make sure it is themed to match the category where they submitted. If not, I find the appropriate category and send the listing there.
  • Check for a valid cert if the site collects personal information.
  • I try to be sure the site isn’t just an adsense advertiser, a lead generation site, or an affiliate site. The site has to actually offer the services they say they offer.
  • Most times I have to edit the title and description of the submitted site because the submitters very rarely adhere to the submission guidelines for a category.

I try really hard to dedicate an hour a day to editing DMOZ submissions.  Checking each site for the items above takes anywhere from 1-5 minutes so you can understand why it takes a while to get your site listed in DMOZ.  If you’re having problems getting listed, check out my Webmaster’s Guide to DMOZ Inclusion.

Posted in DMOZ | No Comments »

Google Meets Living Room. Living Room Meets Google.

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Yesterday at Google I/O, Google announced that they are working on a method of delivering Google content to a user’s TV. They are introducing an AppleTV-like appliance that can be added to existing systems. Even more interestingly, they announced that they have partnered with Sony, Logitech, Intel, and Dish Network. Logitech will build the appliance, Sony will plant the system into their TVs, and Dish Network will build the software into their satellite boxes. Let that sink in for a moment…

The plan is to have the appliance, TVs, and satellite boxes ready for a pre-Christmas launch in order to give it the best possibility of success. Expect a massive conventional marketing campaign from these heavy hitters.

The platform will be based on the Android operating system and come with the Google Chrome browser. YouTube is also in the mix planning on releasing a new product for viewing videos on big screens. Existing Android apps will work on the platform and allow an Android phone to control the system. I expect the functionality will be very similar to the relationship between my iPhone and my AppleTV. GoogleTV will also allow for a wireless keyboard and most. They could make navigating the web on GoogleTV super-easy by introducing a remote similar to the Wii remote.

One of the biggest features – at least to me – is the fact that the GoogleTV appliance will support Flash. That’s a big dig on Apple amid recent controversy over their lack of support for Flash.

Bridging the gap between the internet and the TV has been extremely challenging. Every attempt to blend the two technologies has seen less than enthusiastic adoption. Sony’s Playstation, Microsoft’s XBOX, the AppleTV, all have access to the internet but none of them have gotten it exactly right. The GoogleTV seems to be on the right track. However, it’s unknown if people will leave their computer for the TV to view the internet.

What may hurt proliferation of GoogleTV? Lack of Apps. Adoption might be a little lack-luster, especially if the appliance has a high price tag. It’ll be even worse if there aren’t many apps for the platform. There probably won’t be many apps until late in Q1 of 2011 since the SDK (software developer’s kit) isn’t scheduled for launch until early 2011.

One last point about GoogleTV… If it takes off it’s likely going to put a huge strain on websites. Delivering TV-quality video is no small feat. We may see a resurgence of user-agent based content delivery, not out of malice, but out of necessity. Why would a large video site waste all their bandwidth delivering TV-quality videos and images to every device. Also, why would a site deliver a watered-down experience to every user because the GoogleTV needs to have one mode of navigating the site, pre-selection of expected navigation, and limit vertical scrolling. (See Google’s tips for designing websites for GoogleTV) Sites are going to cloak, and Google’s going to have to be ok with that.

Posted in Google | 1 Comment »

Your Facebook Friends are a Spammer’s Best Friend.

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
I was surprised when I checked my privacy settings on Facebook to see that there is a new feature allowing my friends to share information about me with websites.  This is different than it was a couple weeks ago when I heard about the partner websites thing for the first time.  It looks like Facebook intentionally changed the selection option after all the press.  I’ll be it was intended to slip one by the users who opted out.  This latest updated overwrote my previous settings and made everything public.
Here is a list of the things that Facebook is selling, via my friends, to third party marketers:

I was surprised when I checked my privacy settings on Facebook to see that there is a new feature allowing my friends to share information about me with websites.  This is different than it was a couple weeks ago when I heard about the partner websites thing for the first time.  It looks like Facebook intentionally changed the selection option after all the press.  I’ll be it was intended to slip one by the users who opted out.  This latest updated overwrote my previous settings and made everything public.

  • status updates
  • online presence
  • website
  • family and relationship status
  • relationship details (significant other, looking for, etc)
  • my videos
  • my links
  • my notes
  • my photos
  • photos I’ve been tagged in
  • about me
  • my birthday
  • my religious and political views
What a rich list for a spammer.  Though many of those options are turned on by default, you can deselect them and prevent your friends from helping people spam you.  You cannot, however, stop third party sites from looking into your contact list.  They will see every contact you have, every contact your contacts have, etc.  If your friends don’t have their options set to block spammers… well you can imagine.

My advice to you, never, ever allow any third party sites to connect with your Facebook account and lock down all your information so only your friends can see it.   Here is a link to a tool that will reset all of your Facebook privacy settings back to private.  http://www3.untangle.com/saveface

Be sure to keep your eye on Facebook’s privacy settings because apparently they like to slip in changes periodically that overwrite your settings!

Posted in Around the Interwebs | 1 Comment »

Google Trends

Friday, May 14th, 2010
Google Trends offers a good look at year-over-year data for search volume.

Google Trends offers a good look at year-over-year data for search volume.

Google Trends can be a very effective tool for planning your SEO campaign if you know how to use it.  The tool is a great way to look for seasonality and “burstiness” of topics online, which is especially important to review if your client has season-related products.  Using Google Trends you can establish a target date where your campaign needs to come to fruition, which allows you to allocate your resources appropriately in order to reach your target.

As an example, I’ve used the terms “lawn mower” and “snow blower” because they obviously have very season-related sales.  You can see in the image below the year-over-year number of searches for the two terms.  You can see that “lawn mower” peaks around May of every year and then drops off as the season wears on.  If a client sells several seasonal items, you can see the importance of using the time leading up to May to prepare for the peak lawn mower season.  You can also see in the image below, that searches for “snow blower” peak in December – January of a given year and is subject to bursts of traffic related to major snowfall.

Google Trends can be a very effective tool for planning your SEO campaign if you know how to use it.  The tool is a great way to look for seasonality and “burstiness” of topics online, which is especially important to review if your client has season-related products.  Using Google Trends you can establish a target date where your campaign needs to come to fruition, which allows you to allocate your resources appropriately in order to reach your target.

As an example, I’ve used the terms “lawn mower” and “snow blower” because they obviously have very season-related sales.  You can see in the image below the year-over-year number of searches for the two terms.  You can see that “lawn mower” peaks around May of every year and then drops off as the season wears on.  If a client sells several seasonal items, you can see the importance of using the time leading up to May to prepare for the peak lawn mower season.  You can also see in the image below, that searches for “snow blower” peak in December – January of a given year and is subject to bursts of traffic related to major snowfall.  Another good use of this tool, beyond seasonality is illustrated below; the ability to measure one phrase’s popularity against another.  This is a good way to evaluate some of your long-tail phrases.

Google Trends offers a good look at year-over-year data for search volume.

Google Trends offers a good look at year-over-year data for search volume.

In the image above you will also notice a couple of other really important things; rankings of states and cities.  This information can help you specifically target your PPC campaigns to cities and states where the most searches for your items occur.  Another important thing you can see is the ability to export the results to a CSV file which allows you to present your own graphics and charts outside of the Google tool.  This is great if you are doing research for a client and want to brand your results as your own.  Don’t worry too much about the alphabetized article results displayed to the left when you are looking at a huge period of time as in the image above.  These links point to news stories that will give you a very small glimpse into what items and on this scale, much of the content is dead.

In the image below we’ll look at 2009’s trends related to these categories.  You can get a little deeper look at a single year’s trends like this as well as looking at which cities and states performed the best for a given year.  You can get a solid peak month for your campaign by using the single year view.

The Google Trends yearly view of results show seasonality in detail.

The Google Trends yearly view of results show seasonality in detail.

The single-year results can also be exported to an CSV file to allow you to play with them in Excel.  Earlier I said you should ignore the alphabetized article results on the left, but in this case these articles can be of use.  If you click the “more news results” link you’ll be taken to a page where you can see the articles that trended throughout the year.  This will help you determine market-factors that drove the number of searches and find out what was going on in the industry to help explain the search volume.  You’ll be able to find seasonal trends like the effect of huge snow storms on snow blower searches, and the effect of drought in regions on lawn mower sales.  When the grass doesn’t grow, sales go down.

One last thing I’ll mention about the “more results” is that there is more data here than meets the eye.  Since Google has been indexing offline content such as newspapers and books, you have a deep look into information going all the way back to the 1800s in some cases.  Though data from that far back is probably not relevant to today’s market, it is very interesting to see.

Google Trends shows mentions of items in offline material.

Google Trends shows mentions of items in offline material.

To sum up, there is a TON of data available to the SEO in Google Trends if you know what to look for.  You can offer a wealth of information to your clients to help them see why you want to focus on certain campaigns leading up to the busy season.  They will better understand why you want to focus so much effort on organic SEO for “snow blowers” in the summer instead of when they are selling.  The more the client understands the data behind your online strategy, the more likely they will value it as a part of their company’s strategy, instead of just a “bolt on” curiosity.

Posted in Google, SEO Tips & Tricks | No Comments »

Diaspora – Harbinger of Doom for Facebook?

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
I recently learned of a project being developed by four NYU students with money raised through Kickestarter.org.  The whole point of the project is to replace the giant personal-information-hoarding networks like Facebook and MySpace with a social network that puts you in control of your personal data.
Diaspora is currently under development and the team hopes to have it up and running for a small user base this summer with the main launch towards September.  Diaspora is an open-source, decentralized social network allowing individual members to connect directly instead of through a main hub.  That means that you would host your own copy of the social network software on your computer and your computer would communicate directly with each of your friend’s computer.  Decentralizing the network allows a user to keep their private information on their own computer, instead of passing it through a third-party server where their data is collected and sold to advertisers.  As users become more aware of the amount of data they are leaking from the Facebook profiles, they will likely make the move to Diaspora.
I think these guys are really on to something here, especially considering Facebook’s latest move to get their fingers into your web experience through Facebook Connect. (as discussed here)  Facebook Connect is a major intrusion into a user’s privacy and does not set well with the user base.  It could end up being Facebook’s demise.
Though the prognosis might sound bleak for online advertisers wishing to reach the millions of people who use social networks, creative advertisers will find a way to get through.  The key will likely be a model similar to the iPhone and iPad; apps and plugins supported by advertisers.  Since the software is based on an open source platform, anyone can develop plugins and apps to augment the experience.
Here are a few challenges that Diaspora needs to overcome:
It might be difficult to reach a large audience and convince them that their solution superior enough to Facebook to make the user switch.  That might be a bit challenging considering a lot of Facebook users are still trying to figure out all the functionality of their current system. Terms like “seed” and “decentralized network” and “open-source” might be enough to scare people off.
Another challenge is the potential barrier-to-entry associated with setting up the software.  A user will either have to setup their own installation on their computer, or setting it up on a third-party service much like the majority of Wordpress blogs.  (Wordpress blogs can either be setup on your own server, or you can setup a blog at whatever.wordpress.com.)
One of the biggest challenges might be updates. If a user doesn’t install the latest software updates, they could put their computer at risk.
I’m going to watch the development of Diaspora closely.  If these guys pull it off, they will reshape the web as we know it.

I recently learned of a project being developed by four NYU students with money raised through Kickestarter.org.  The whole point of the project is to replace the giant personal-information-hoarding networks like Facebook and MySpace with a social network that puts you in control of your personal data.

Diaspora is currently under development and the team hopes to have it up and running for a small user base this summer with the main launch towards September.  Diaspora is an open-source, decentralized social network allowing individual members to connect directly instead of through a main hub.  That means that you would host your own copy of the social network software on your computer and your computer would communicate directly with each of your friend’s computers.  Decentralizing the network allows a user to keep their private information on their own computer, instead of passing it through a third-party server where their data is collected and sold to advertisers.  As users become more aware of the amount of data they are leaking from their Facebook profiles, services like Diaspora will sound enticing.

I think these guys are really onto something here, especially considering Facebook’s latest move to get their fingers into your web experience through Facebook Connect. (as discussed here)  Facebook Connect is a major intrusion into a user’s privacy and does not set well with the user base.  It could end up being Facebook’s demise.

Though the prognosis might sound bleak for online advertisers wishing to reach the millions of people who use social networks, creative advertisers will find a way to get through.  The key will likely be a model similar to the iPhone and iPad; apps and plugins supported by advertisers.  Since the software is based on an open source platform, anyone can develop plugins and apps to augment the experience.

Here are a few challenges that Diaspora needs to overcome:

  • It might be difficult to reach a large audience and convince them that their solution is superior enough to Facebook to make the user switch.  That might be a bit challenging considering a lot of Facebook users are still trying to figure out all the functionality of their current system. Terms like “seed” and “decentralized network” and “open-source” might be enough to scare people off.
  • Another challenge is the potential barrier-to-entry associated with setting up the software.  A user will either have to setup their own installation on their computer, or setting it up on a third-party service much like the majority of Wordpress blogs.  (Wordpress blogs can either be setup on your own server, or you can setup a blog at whatever.wordpress.com.)
  • One of the biggest challenges might be updates. If a user doesn’t install the latest software updates, they could put their computer at risk.

I’m going to watch the development of Diaspora closely.  If these guys pull it off, they will reshape the web as we know it.

Posted in Around the Interwebs | 3 Comments »

Teoma Resurrected

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Meaning “expert” in Gaelic, Teoma was launched in 2000 by a team of scientists at Rutgers.  You may have never heard of Teoma before because it was not a very popular search engine, even at it’s prime.  Though it wasn’t popular, Teoma had a big impact on the web today by utilizing an algorithm that ranked websites based on communities similar to Google’s, but Teoma took it a step further by using subject-specific popularity.  Subject-specific popularity is the number of related sites that link to a specific site, making that site an authority.  This is now a major part of modern search engine algorithms.  The site was acquired by Ask Jeeves in 2001 as a technology grab.  Ask Jeeves needed the technology to analyze links better and Teoma had the solution.  Ask pretty much let the brand languish and eventually the site died in 2006.
Teoma was re-launched in April of this year as with no fanfare at all, similar to it’s demise in 2006.  Teoma just doesn’t make much noise about it’s technology or existence.  Are we going to see that change?
According to a couple responses from Ask about Teoma, they re-launched Teoma to “provide a simplified interface for everyday keyword web search.”  I find this response interesting considering the recent addition to the Google search results – the everything bar.  Is Teoma hoping to capitalize on a small percentage of Google users that are a bit peeved about the new Google features?  Perhaps.
Though I enjoy the Teoma experience, much like the older Google, the results just don’t seem to be as good as Google’s.  Teoma seems more susceptible to web spam.  For example, a search for “home loan” in Ask, Google and Bing list LendingTree as the number one result – a pretty expected result considering the brand’s power.  Yahoo offers LendingTree as the number two result, second to a government resource page, which is somewhat understandable.  Where is LendingTree in Teoma’s results?  Number seven.  All six results that precede LendingTree in this search are spam lead-gen sites, one of which has several broken images on the first page.  Would these results make you happy?  I expect not.
If the results are so crummy, why would Ask re-launch Teoma?  I think they are planning on using the site as a test-bed for future search features and algorithm changes before they push those changes to Ask.  This is the most likely course of action for resurrecting a site such as Teoma, especially with such a soft re-launch.  Ask has barely made a peep about it.  Maybe Ask has some really cool new feature they are looking to test, or a significant change to their algorithm and they don’t want a lot of attention on Ask.com about it.
Though I’m very underwhelmed by the results, I’m going to keep my eye on Teoma.  Teoma had a major impact on today’s search environment many years ago, maybe they are teeing up another paradigm-shift.  Maybe not.

Meaning “expert” in Gaelic, Teoma was launched in 2000 by a team of scientists at Rutgers.  You may have never heard of Teoma before because it was not a very popular search engine, even at it’s prime.  Though it wasn’t popular, Teoma had a big impact on the web today by utilizing an algorithm similar to Google’s that ranked websites based on communities, but Teoma took it a step further by using subject-specific popularity.  Subject-specific popularity is the number of related sites that link to a specific site, making that site an authority.  This is now a major part of modern search engine algorithms.  The site was acquired by Ask Jeeves in 2001 as a technology grab.  Ask Jeeves needed the technology to analyze links better and Teoma had the solution.  Ask pretty much let the brand languish and eventually the site was taken down in 2006.

Teoma was re-launched in April of this year as with no fanfare at all, similar to it’s demise in 2006.  Teoma just doesn’t make much noise about it’s technology or existence.  Are we going to see that change?

According to a couple responses from Ask about Teoma, they re-launched Teoma to “provide a simplified interface for everyday keyword web search.”  I find this response interesting considering the recent addition to the Google search results – the everything bar.  Is Teoma hoping to capitalize on a small percentage of Google users that are a bit peeved about the new Google features?  Perhaps.

Though I enjoy the Teoma experience, much like the older Google, the results just don’t seem to be as good as Google’s.  Teoma seems more susceptible to web spam.  For example, a search for “home loan” in Ask, Google and Bing list LendingTree as the number one result – a pretty expected result considering the brand’s power.  Yahoo offers LendingTree as the number two result, second to a government resource page, which is somewhat understandable.  Where is LendingTree in Teoma’s results?  Number seven.  All six results that precede LendingTree in this search are spam lead-gen sites, one of which has several broken images on the first page.  Would these results make you happy?  I expect not.

If the results are so bad, why would Ask re-launch Teoma?  I think they are planning on using the site as a test-bed for future search features and algorithm changes before they push those changes to Ask.  This is the most likely course of action for resurrecting a site such as Teoma, especially with such a soft re-launch.  Ask has barely made a peep about it.  Maybe Ask has some really cool new feature they are looking to test, or a significant change to their algorithm and they don’t want a lot of attention on Ask.com about it.

Though I’m very underwhelmed by the results, I’m going to keep my eye on Teoma.  Teoma had a major impact on today’s search environment many years ago, maybe they are teeing up another paradigm-shift.  Maybe not.

Posted in Around the Interwebs | No Comments »