flickr the game
I have already mentioned how Flickr has the characteristics of a massively multi-player online role-playing game, but I wanted to expand on this a little more. A “sticky” site has a sense of play to it. Flickr does this wonderfully, with interesting features just a few explorative mouse clicks away. What’s more, Flickr encourages you […]
MSN Search embraces wikis as a customer communication channel
A few days before Christmas, Microsoft’s MSN Search team announced their MSN Search Wiki. The word quickly spread to blogs like ResearchBuzz and Google Blogoscoped. Of the major search engines, MSN Search is the only one to employ wikis as a way to encourage customer participation in the product development process. Hats off to Microsoft […]
Google bug reveals favored web sites
A couple months ago I shared one of my Google secrets, since that secret no longer worked. 😉 Specifically, it was how to obtain a list of the most important web sites according to Google. Now, surprisingly, this little trick appears to work again (it stopped working in 2003), thanks to a bug introduced into […]
Google happenings
Lots of Google-related happenings of late. Here’s a quick list: Google Scholar released a new advanced search interface (SearchEngineWatch Blog) CBS’ 60 Minutes gets up-close and personal with Google (you can watch the segment here) Google publishes their 2004 Year-End Google Zeitgeist, with a cool interactive summary of the data done in Flash. Google Labs […]
An objective approach to choosing an SEO vendor
In the midst of choosing an SEO vendor to advise or implement search engine optimization for you? Don’t base your decision on just a ‘gut feel’. Effectively separating the wheat from the chaff requires that objective rather than subjective criteria be used. These include: PageRank scores Review PageRank scores of your candidate SEO firms’ home […]
Email address harvesting and opt-out: Do the crime, do the time
Most email marketers agree that ethically, email address harvesting and sending unsolicited opt-out messages are taboo and should be avoided. I of course agree. It’s always fun to talk ethics, but let’s bring the discussion to a practical level. I contend that harvesting and opt-out are both impractical for legitimate email marketers. Let’s look at […]
Can the CAN-SPAM
With the one year anniversary of CAN-SPAM passing into law now past, I am seeing a number of articles (like this one) all concurring that CAN-SPAM has been totally ineffective in stemming the tide of spam emanating from the United States. In fact U.S. orginating spam has grown significantly. I can’t say that I am […]
Study on blog readership, RSS aggregator usage
The Pew Internet & American Life Research Project just released a new study on blog uptake. Here are the highlights: 7% of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the internet say they have created a blog or web-based diary. That represents more than 8 million people. 27% of internet users say they read blogs, […]
Blogger for hire
Don’t think you’ve got what it takes to author a great blog? No worries; just hire a blogger. That’s exactly what BizNetTravel has done to author the BizNetTravel Blog. They hired Olivier Travers to maintain the blog for them, which he does quite well, imo. (Actually, initially it was Rick Bruner they hired to maintain […]
