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Wednesday, March 30, 2005

To slash or not to slash In linking....

High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: Ron Carnell "was appalled to hear Yahoo rep, Jon Glick, say they purposely strip the trailing slash off search results because 'that's the way most surfers would type it.' MSN chooses to not display the trailing slash in their SERPs, but nonetheless adds it when implementing their redirect. Only Google, of the big three, both displays the slash to visitors and uses it in linking."

Ref: Apache 1.3 URL Rewriting Guide

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Searchable You : Yahoo launch social networking service

internetnews.com Article covers Yahoo 360, Jigsaw, MSN Spaces and Ziggs, a professional people search service.

These "social and business networking services let users help others to see them the way they'd like to be seen."

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Tuesday, March 22, 2005

London Underground Brand | Modernizing an Old Brand |

brandchannel.com Interesting read charting the natural evolution of the "Tube" as a brand highlighting it's strengths and weaknesses.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Bloggies >> Fifth Annual Weblog Awards

Fairvue Central

My pick of the winners: London Underground Tube Diary - Going Underground's Blog

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Micro Persuasion: Quote of the Day

Steve Rubel teaser for future posting on Marketingprofs based on recorded of his conference call with Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, Toby Bloomberg, BL Ochman, Seth Godin, Shel Israel and Debbie Weil.

Interesting line up....

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Seven Tips for Blogging Your Way to a New Job

marketingprofs.com Debbie Weil outlines "seven rules for effective blogging."

1. Start with a topic you're passionate about
2. Concentrate on shorter, more frequent entries in your blog
3. Let your authentic voice emerge
4. Use correct grammar and syntax (no misspellings allowed)
5. Purposefully organize the content of your blog
6. Post a new entry at least once a week, preferably two or three times a week
7. Include your key contact information on your blog
8. A bonus tip (Conclusion possibly sums up Weil's aim?)

"Have fun when you blog. You may find that blogging is truly a creative outlet. Over time, you might find yourself teasing clarity out of a complex topic or delving into subjects you didn't know you were so interested in.

Keep chipping away with each blog entry. Who knows? Your blog might turn into a book!"

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Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Conversion Corner: Turf Wars -- Who Really Wins?

iProspect's Search Engine Marketing Advisor Newsletter Tale about how "Performing a conversion audit on a client’s website gave us the opportunity to see what a turf war can do, and how conflicting priorities among multiple departments can render a website ineffective." ho hummm

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Seven Bloggers Named to Media 100 List

Micro Persuasion: Steve Rubel reckons he fels like Forest Gump because of his inclusion on Media Magazine's annual list of the people 'to know' in the media world...keep an eye on his list of other bloggers he reckons should have been mentioned:

Jeff Jarvis Buzzmachine
Dan Gillmor typepad
Jason Calacanis weblogsinc
Henry Copland blogads

and, of course, etc...

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Monday, March 14, 2005

AOL's TOS Change Sparks PR Crisis

Micro Persuasion Steve Rubel posts about AOL's new TOS highlighting the cause of the buzz:

"The blogosphere is buzzing this morning over a major privacy change to AOL Instant Messenger's Terms of Service. The change is sparking outrage because ...(this clip especially)

by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses."

Andrew Weinstein Spokesman, America Online refutes "The rumors flying around the blogosphere about the AIM Terms of Service are totally false."

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Best And Worst Of Site Design, 2005

Forrester Research

"Forrester used its updated Web Site Review methodology to evaluate the customer experience offered on 20 major sites — five each in the auto, media, retail, and travel industries. Retail outperformed all other categories and travel came in decisively last. Kmart led the pack, edging out nytimes.com and Wal-Mart — but we found basic design flaws on even the best sites we tested. To ensure that they get at least the basics right, firms need to add discipline to their design efforts."

Contents include:

How Good Is Web Customer Experience In 2005?
Nineteen Out Of 20 Sites Fail
Major Design Flaws Exist Across All Evaluation Categories
Some Best Practices Shine Through The Flaws
Recommendations
Processes To Ensure The Basics

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Blog reader survey :: high % are "opinion makers"

Blogads

"opinion makers" are the 10% who influence the other 90%

Definition of blogging that really appeals to me: "the blogosphere is all about biases and conversations and boot-strapping and not waiting for some authority-- a newspaper editor or university dean or foundation officer or venture capitalist or government agent -- to tell you something but figuring it out yourself, and, finally, about sharing fragments of imperfect data with peers to arrive at some useful collective knowledge."

2005 BlogAds blog reader survey summary

75% over 30
75% male
43% income over $90K
71% have signed a petition
66% have contacted a politician
50% rank blogs tops in usefulness for news and opinion

Andy Wibbels concludes:

"Still skeptical about blogs? This is how you reach educated, affluent, active and online-savvy folks. Ya know, the kind of folks that buy stuff online!"

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Friday, March 11, 2005

FArk'in blogs

Steve Rubel states "Fark is the new slash dot" mainly based on the stats for one of his favourite blogs... Slacker Manager : I've been fark'd: "Lifehacker picked up my post on body language in the office, and then somebody posted it on fark.com and Metafilter (those guys are harsh). Fark gets a lot of traffic. And it kinda rolled on from there. Slacker Manager hasn't been slashdotted (yet)"..

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Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites

Promote your blog: Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings: "Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites"

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heWeblogProject : A Film For, By and About Bloggers:

masternewmedia.org
"TheWeblogProject is a movie to help people to better understand: "What's a 'blog'?" "What do 'bloggers' do?" "'Blogging' - what's that?" "Where's the 'blogosphere' exactly?"

By showing:

- why blogs are important

- what it's possible to do with a blog

Here are some possible complementary sub-themes:

a) what can be done with a blog today?

b) what social and cultural impact can blogs have?

c) how is blogging impacting news, business, politics and all the social fields around us?

d) how are blogs changing the world of media?

e) how are blogs changing your life and all of our lives?"


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Surprise--Gates is still world's richest person

CNET News.com: "In the Internet search industry, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, with $7.2 billion apiece, beat out Yahoo founders David Filo and Jerry Yang, with $3.1 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. "

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Netscape comeback?

Forbes.com: Review: Netscape Captures Eyeballs for AOL: "The once-mighty Netscape browser is attempting a comeback."

Details pros and cons....

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Thursday, March 10, 2005

Top Corporate Hate Web Sites

Forbes.com Charles Wolrich reports on "perennially peeved people build--and obsessively maintain--sites devoted exclusively to complaining about their least favorite corporations."

Advisable to not seek links from these venom and spleen sites...

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Yahoo launch Small Business Resource Center

Reuters.co.uk

Report that "Internet media company Yahoo Inc. has launched its Small Business Resource Center, a new effort aimed at helping entrepreneurs run and market their online businesses while also helping big advertisers target the small business market.
Available at http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources, the service and content offering includes about 1,000 articles from sources like Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur.com on topics ranging from marketing and legal to finance and human resources.
Yahoo already sells a variety of small business offerings including Internet domain names, Web hosting services, e-mail and e-commerce services."

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Wednesday, March 09, 2005

FAQ: Blogging on the job

Legalities :: CNET News.com: "FAQ: Blogging on the job"

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Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Bloggers, chill !

CNET News.com: "Reports of a Federal Election Commission plot to 'crack down' on blogging and e-mail are wildly exaggerated. "

No need for paranoia?

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Web on Wheels

Business 2.0s: "How did Mike Peterson help to bring the Internet to the dashboard at GM? How else: by breaking the rules"

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Monday, March 07, 2005

Seth Godin - Liar's Blog

Seth Godin - Liar's Blog: "
This is a blog inspired by my new book, All Marketers are Liars, published this May. "

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Friday, March 04, 2005

Kayak.com uses ITA Software air fare search engine

Travel Weekly

Not so different after all? Has Kayak reached the limits of travel search comparison engines?

Dennis Schaal reports:"Kayak.com March 3 began using the ITA Software air fare search engine to supplement its reliance on supplier and third-party Web sites.

Kayak CEO Steve Hafner told TravelWeekly.com that the travel search and comparison shopping site will continue to conduct searches -- at least for now -- in the manner it has been doing. It will continue to spider some Web sites, access other fares through an XML application programmable interface, and will query Orbitz and OneTravel.com.

But he called access to ITA a big deal for Kayak because, now we can get the comprehensiveness we desire without relying on online agencies.
Orbitz is a Kayak partner and Kayak desires to keep the partnership, but Hafner said he wouldnt be surprised if the relationship ends.

He also conceded that some suppliers object to the volumes of users that Kayak was sending their way, a complaint that some suppliers had with previous generations of Web search and screen-scraping tools. Hafner said some airline sites cant handle the search volumes."

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Havard Business Review Calls Blogs a Breakthrough Idea for 2005

Micro Persuasion: Steve Rubel
Gives blogging a big up by quoting an article in HBR by Mohabir Sawhney, Tribune Professor of Technology and Director, Center for Research in Technology and Innovation, Kellogg School of Management.

Rubel states "When the Harvard Business Review starts praising blogging strategies, you know it's time to start planning. What's your plan?"

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"Slashdot Effect" WANING

yahoo.businessweek.com
"Less Impact from the 'Slashdot Effect' :: Links on the tech news site no longer harvest the overwhelming numbers of readers they used to

Gives example of "tom's site" where previously a mention on Slashdot would send traffic up by 30%, now a mention increases Tom's traffic by just 5% to 10%.

The article concludes that the drop in traffic from slashdot is because it: " faces a more crowded online news world, with competition from look-alikes such as Geek.com and Gizmodo as well as blogs kept by individuals...for the major tech news sites, Slashdot is looking more and more like a big fish in a huge and growing pond."

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Wednesday, March 02, 2005

How to Write Compelling Blog Posts

marketingprofs.com B.L. Ochman, president of Whatsnextonline.com and whatsnext blogger has some useful tips for writing search engine friendly blog posts to also grab readers.

"The basic guidelines are: keep copy lively, factual, tight, clear, short and search engine optimized."

Your style:
•Adopt a direct style
•Use a consistent voice
•Don't be afraid to voice opinions - check facts though
•Don't take yourself too seriously, keep your sense of humor
•Write like it counts

For readers:
•Make posts easy to scan
•Use bullet points
•Use white space
•Use subheads every few paragraphs
•Use bold text and italics
•Keep sentences and paragraphs short

Also:
•Write good headlines
•Write less: remove words until removing one more would destroy the sentence's meaning
•Link, Link, Link: to all blogs, websites and resources mentioned

Before hitting "Publish" ask yourself:

•Does the headline convey the topic?
•Does the first paragraph state who and what the post is about and why readers should care about it?
•Is your angle newsworthy?
•Would a newbie to this topic understand this post?
•Is there too much jargon?
•Are the facts conveyed in an objective, journalistic style?
•Have you cited your sources?
•Do headline and copy use keyphrases that will attract search engines?
•Does it make sense? Read posts out loud


How to Write Comments on Blogs

To build a reputation as an expert in your field:

•Provide useful, factual information
•Keep comments short and topical
•Keep signature to email address and URL
•Make any business connection clear
•Cite sources

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Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Successful serial website creator's secrets

SourceWire

Hannah Reynolds will be sharing the secrets of creating a successful business online. Reynolds, managing director of Zarr Internet Services, is an expert in launching websites and setting up online businesses that make money..."

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Yahoo, Apache, Ebay, Amazon, Netscape More Birthdays

Slashdot
"Yahoo, Apache, Ebay, Amazon, Netscape Celebrate 10 Year Anniversaries"

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Topix.net: becomes profitable

Internet Daily: www.marketwatch.com

"Topix.net, a two-year-old news search service, turned profitable in December. Richard Skrenta said that made it possible for him and his fellow founders to take their first paychecks. Things are looking up even more after the company this month announced a deal with The New York Times "

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Venture Capital: Expedia founder joins venture firm

VC Notebook reported by John Cook of seattlepi

"The founder of Expedia, Rich Barton, is adding a new job title to his résumé: venture capitalist.

The 37-year-old technology executive, who built Expedia into the biggest online travel agency in the world, today plans to join Benchmark Capital as a part-time venture partner...

As an entrepreneur, Barton said, he has been curious about the venture capital business for a number of years. The team- approach and consumer Internet focus were two of the attributes that Barton said attracted him to Benchmark.

"Learning how that business works from the pros seems like an intriguing challenge and a new thing to learn," said Barton, who first entered discussions with the firm about a year ago. "I am always interested in learning a new business with guys that I respect the heck out of."


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Sherpalo Ventures - VC stuff

I Am Adam Smith reports that Ram is a seasoned entrepeneur and VC. He's been in deals such as Amazon (as an Exec) and Google as an investor. He was named a Top 10 VC of 2004 by Forbes.

Sherpalo Ventures - Guiding entrepreneurs with disruptive ideas and technology to the summit of business success "Ram Shriram profile"

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