Archive for November, 2006
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Hi from Charlie the Search DogNov 30 2006 | Charlie |
Hi Everyone! Charlie here. Since I already have a fan (right back at ya Molly!) I figured it was about time to get in on the blogging.
My day starts off with mom and dad in the office. Then as everyone gets here its my job to greet them hello and show them to their desk. Sometimes I let them throw my toys around too. Depends on my mood.
After everyone has settled in and the ipod is going, its time for my morning nap. Sometimes the mailman tries to sneak in and drop off the mail but I always find a way to sniff him out and run up to the front to make sure he knows who’s boss. Who’s going to protect all these techies if not for me?!
Here are some pics from my first day on the job.
5 Comments » - Posted in Charlie by Charlie Winfield
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Danny Sullivan Leaves BUT He Won’t be Gone for LongNov 30 2006 | News |
Many are calling it “the end of an era” in the Search Engine Marketing blogosphere. Danny is in fact leaving Search Engine Watch, but soon heading into a bold, new land of his own - Search Engine Land — which launches on December 11th.
Along with Danny comes the committed Chris Sherman, Barry Schwartz and a gang of other talented folks. They will be providing information about search engine marketing and how search engines work in general, from a searcher’s perspective. When the new site launches, it will provide visitors with features like:
- Original content covering developments in the search space.
- Daily blog posts covering search news from across the web.
- SearchCap: A daily email newsletter recapping search news from Search Engine Land and across the web. Also available by feed.
- SearchCap Monthly: A monthly email newsletter recapping search news over the past month. Also available by feed.
No Comments » - Posted in News by Erika Miller
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Where’s the Best Place for Site Navigation?Nov 30 2006 | Design |
Where should you put your site navigation? The Internet can be a powerful tool for just about anyone but it can also be a cumbersome experience. Your site can have the stickiest content on the web but if your visitors don’t know how to access that content, they’ll just get lost or more likely move on.
Navigation encompasses the range of ways a user may move around a specific web site and the tools designers offer to help them do that in the easiest, most user friendly way. Navigation is about communicating with the user.
The web is currently torn between two opposing forces. One being usability and interface design that argues for clarity, simplicity and consistency. On the other hand new web standards and technologies are allowing for the proverbial envelope to be pushed a bit further and create something fresh. Designers are looking elsewhere for inspiration and throwing new ideas into the mix. It seems to be a trade off, or balancing act, of clarity and coherence and not being to boring or sterile.
2 Comments » - Posted in Design by Patrick Winfield
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Google Stops Answering Your Questions |
“Over 800″ Google Answers participants (though not 1,000) probably explains Google’s decision to shut the service down. Google Answers was simply never as popular as Yahoo! Answers, which has more than 50 times the market share.
Why did Google fail? I took a look at the two services and came away with my own opinions.
- Google says it themselves: 800 is a small number. And they claim that this was the community that existed on Google Answers “over the last 4+ years.”
- Google charged you to ask a question. Ironic, isn’t it, coming from the world’s largest and wealthiest search engine.
- It was so web 1.0. Yahoo’s success is largely in its community aspect and its friendly and welcoming interface. Google Answers just didn’t have that element. Most people answered for the money, not for the community. And the Courier font that I see on my browser is totally unflattering.
No Comments » - Posted in Google, Yahoo! by Tamar Weinberg
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If Not Black Friday, There’s Always Cyber MondayNov 29 2006 | E-commerce |
Online merchants should know that while a lot of people are jumping for Black Friday sales, there’s also the recently popular trend of online shopping the following Monday, which was dubbed “Cyber Monday” after online retail sales following Thanksgiving jumped substantially. With a long holiday weekend for most shoppers, the mindset is still on holiday gift buying and online retailers should still consider the benefits of successful preparation for the big day.
According to data presented by comScore (via the Wall Street Journal), this past Monday’s online sales have jumped up 24% to $599 million. Interestingly enough, online sales went up 42% on Friday — but online sales only reached $434 million that day.
Hitwise also presented data that showed a 13.3% sales increase compared to Cyber Monday 2005.
Regardless of the “accurate” statistic, one thing is certain: early preparation for big shopping days will only help you (and your customers). Fortunately, the WSJ states:
2 Comments » - Posted in E-commerce by Tamar Weinberg
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20 Real Facts About Matt Cutts, Google’s Spam SheriffNov 28 2006 | Google |
Matt Cutts is Google’s most public face to webmasters around the globe. There has always been a lot of speculation and rumors about Matt, what he does, what he did before joining Google and just about every other thing you can think of. After seeing Matt at PubCon Las Vegas recently I thought it would be cool to have one list that could serve as definitive facts about Matt so here are 20 researched facts about Matt Cutts:
14 Comments » - Posted in Google by Chris Winfield
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VerizonTube Comes to a Cell Phone Near You |
Got Verizon? Your cell phone multimedia experience is about to get much better. In a partnership with Verizon, Google has agreed to deliver YouTube content to Verizon-serviced cellular phones (subscription required). It was only two weeks ago when CEO Eric Schmidt stated that “Your mobile phone should be free,” indicating Google’s desire to reach into the world of cellular communications, and well beyond personal computing.
While cell phones and their plans still will cost money (I’d imagine Google is still working out the logistics of a “free mobile world”), Google’s partnership with Verizon enables them to benefit with the exclusive content of YouTube’s home videos, musical performances, pranks, and more — for a limited time. Eventually, it is speculated that YouTube’s media will be rolled out to other wireless carriers.
Meanwhile, all Verizon users need to access the exclusive YouTube content on their cell phones is a compatible cell phone and the “V Cast” media service, which costs $15/month (or $3/day).
No Comments » - Posted in Google, News by Tamar Weinberg
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How to Make a Reflective Logo EffectNov 27 2006 | Design |
This is a brief tutorial on how to create a reflective or shiny logo effect. This has been a design trend that has been appearing more and more throughout Web 2.0 sites. *With this tutorial I am assuming you know some of the basics of Photoshop, like how to feather a selection or merge layers.
Whats all this Web 2.0 stuff? Web 2.0 is a loose term describing the new generation of the Internet that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. How all the logos started getting “shiny”, I have no idea. Maybe it is because of all the new shiny floors that now seem to be the standard on Web 2.0 sites. But it has now become ubiquitous so maybe most of you don’t need this tutorial, or perhaps you even wrote a better one 
Let’s start:
3 Comments » - Posted in Design by Patrick Winfield
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Black Friday Retail Site Unique Visitors Up 42% From 2005Nov 27 2006 | E-commerce |
Online retailers, take note. It’s time to begin preparing for November 24, 2007. Black Friday isn’t only for in-store purchases only — there’s just too many people to compete with.
Why face the long lines and pushing-and-shoving if you don’t have to?
This past Black Friday saw a record number of unique visitors, now up 42% on online retail sites. comScore, which presented these results on November 2006 spending, says:
With 42 percent growth versus the same day last year, it’s clear that many consumers opted for the convenience and sanity of shopping from home in order to avoid mayhem at the malls and to take advantage of the extremely attractive deals being offered online. This growth figure is especially encouraging for online retailers when taking into account that much of the country saw beautiful weather on Friday.
No Comments » - Posted in E-commerce by Tamar Weinberg
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Ask.com does Sitemaps too?!Nov 22 2006 | Search Engines |
Actually, if they do, it’s news to me.
But I found this comment on their blog about Black Friday extremely interesting:
Start by typing “Black Friday” into Ask.com’s Blog & Feed search. You’ll find blog postings everywhere about Black Friday sales. See a blog you like? Just hit that pull-down menu and subscribe to it on your preferred service. We let you subscribe via Bloglines, Google, Yahoo, even AOL… it doesn’t matter to us. We’re uniters, not dividers.
We’re uniters, not dividers?
Where were you when the sitemaps standard became the norm? How come I haven’t heard that Ask.com is adopting the same standard as Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google? Do they unite only on certain fronts?
I’m really confused.
