Saturday, August 30, 2003

Barefoot Doctor Bit: Do Long Distance Love Affairs Really Make Sense?

Barefoot Doctor: "Looking at it from a romantic perspective, a person has no real choice in the matter either way since destiny makes them enthralled with this or that lover, irrespective of wherever they're based.

From a psychological angle, however, some people choose long-distancers intuitively because they feel safer than getting involved in liaisons closer to home, since they offer a built-in protection (via the sheer physical distance) against the relationship getting too heavy.

Conversely, for those who suffer from any degree of masochistic tendencies, long-distance lovers offer the opportunity to indulge in the pain and suffering of semi-unrequitable love. Then again, they also makes sense for people pursuing the harem model of romance though masochism (and sadism) can also be linked to this role.

Ultimately thinking about it conceptually at all is merely mental masturbation because if your hormones are sufficiently stimulated and perturbed, you'll go for it anyway, even if one of you lives on the moon."

Google

Even Pete couldn't win this game.....
Photo Gallery

http://londonfetishscene.com/gallery/viewgallery.asp?ArtistID=2&GalleryIndex=9 (multi-pierced and tattooed 72 year old clubber John Lynch [almost certainly NOT good for work!!!])

Google

Friday, August 29, 2003

After every flight, pilots fill out a form called a gripe sheet, which conveys to the mechanics problems encountered with the aircraft during the flight that need repair or correction. The mechanics read and correct the problem, and then respond in writing on the lower half of the form what remedial action was taken, and the pilot reviews the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews and engineers lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual logged maintenance complaints and problems allegedly submitted by Qantas pilots and the solutions recorded by their maintenance engineers. By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an accident.

(P = The problem logged by the pilot.)
(S = The solution and action taken by the mechanics.)

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200' per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're there for.

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right..

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P. Mouse in cockpit.
S. Cat installed.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

Google

Stats & site reviews

"Online travel bookings are forecast to grow from $24 billion (or 11% of all travel bookings) in 2001 to $64 billion (22% of all travel bookings) by 2007. Online hotel bookings are the second largest segment of online travel (after air travel) and are forecast to almost triple from $6.3 billion (9% of all hotel bookings) in 2002 to $17.5 billion (20% of all hotel bookings) in 2005."

"we took a look at the best and worst aspects of the ten most popular Web sites, such as Orbitz, Priceline and Skyauction.com. We judged the sites on ease of use, design, clarity, flexibility and other options available, such as car rentals or hotels. "
Forbes.com: Which Travel Site Is Best?:

Google

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Purchase tickets - Internet Marketing Masterclass:
"MIKE GREHAN presents: - SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING - The art and the science
- & -JIM STERNE presents: - WEB METRICS -Measuring the success of your web site

Tickets £50.00 plus VAT
Includes buffet and refreshments while you network and mix with Mike and Jim.
Book now online before September 22nd and get a £5.00 early-bird discount!
ONLY £45.00 plus VAT!"

Google

Also mildly amusing...
"YORKSHIRE TIMEWASTER SEEKS EMPLOYMENT"
Guardian Unlimited | The Northerner

Google

from the Guardian Northener newsletter....I wonder which we are...I would hope to defy such limited categorisation, but perhaps many doctors have limited minds...

Ever wondered what LOBNH, GROLIES or FLK meant? The Yorkshire Post reveals the meanings of a plethora of medical slang terms. More than 200 colloquial terms are reported to be in use among medical professionals, ranging from the witty to the downright abusive. The use of slang has been common among doctors for years, despite official disapproval of derogatory terms.

LOBNH means Lights On But Nobody Home, GROLIES is Guardian Reader Of Limited Intelligence In Ethnic Skirt and FLK is the shortened version of Funny Looking Kid.

Other terms included TTR (a Tea Time Review to assess patients, used in northern hospitals only), NFN (Normal For Norfolk) and TEETH (Tried Everything Else Try Homeopathy). Not homicide?... sure some patients bring out the Dr Shipman in their doctors...

Google

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

The Word Spy - phishing: "Phishing is the term coined by hackers who imitate legitimate companies in e-mails to entice people to share passwords or credit-card numbers. Recent victims include Charlotte's Bank of America, Best Buy and eBay, where people were directed to Web pages that looked nearly identical to the companies' sites.
The term had its coming out this week when the FBI called phishing the 'hottest, and most troubling, new scam on the Internet.' The name appears to have no connection to the band Phish, an FBI spokesman said.
�Andrew Shain, 'Phishing to steal your information,' Charlotte Observer, July 25, 2003"

Google

So we cave dwellers do get some exercise after all..

To Google, and Other Neologisms: "All you Webmasters will want to know about 'tag wrestling.' It's a 'popular new sport, usually accompanied by grunting, slaps to the head, and cries of 'I'm sure I put in that end tag' and 'They must have changed the syntax of HTML on me.''"

For the brain exercise - or to seek that elusive acronym the source of the defination of "tag wrestling" & much more useful stuff is:

The Tech Word Spy: "The Tech Word Spy Web site is a lexicon of technical terms. "
An outstanding glossary that features many Internet neologisms is maintained by writer Paul McFedries. His Tech Word Spy Web site is a lexicon of technical terms, many of which come from books he's written. If you're a fan of language, it's a fun and fascinating site to engage in what McFedries calls "lexpionage."

Google

Image optimising tips list...
How To Optimize Images To Increase Rankings:

"Adding simple alt and title tags to an img tag may not seem to be too important. But it can be go a long way if it�s the little extra push you need to rank better in the search engines. Plus the blind and screen readers will be overjoyed that you thought of them. A well optimized page that pays attention to the details is always favored over one that does not take a few short minutes to take the opportunity to better itself for the search engines"

Google

Search engines provide an interpretive window on the net and provide links in their top positions according to that interpretive framework..

How Search Engines Interpret the Net - InfoSeeker News - Microdoc News: "When working with any of the search engines, you need to be aware of the potential bias and the perspective of its interpretive framework. When seriously completing searches, and where perspective matters, search the identical search in several search engines and compare perspectives. One thing is for sure, search engines are not just a reflection of what is on the net. Search engines provide an interpretive window on the net and provide links in their top positions according to that interpretive framework."

MSN - Interprets the world from a commercial perspective. Commercial interests dominate with physical shopping, manufactured products and commercial power dominant.
Google - Interprets the world from a technical, organizational and position of consensus of a group. The Google perspective is a quasi-academic view of the world, with a heavy bias towards the United States, freedom of thought and individualism.
AllTheWeb - This is a copycat site where the perspective of results is similar to Google.
AskJeeves - Interpretive framework tends to be postmodern, collagic and mixed. Commerciality is mixed with individualistic freedoms, government controls, and ancient and modern juxtaposed as traces of identity

Google

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Link Building Tip - Google Alert: "The Google alert tool (http://www.googlealert.com/) keeps a watch on new entries within the top 50 on Google for one of up to 5 keywords or/and a total of 150 query requests. How it works is it will email you every time a new entry enters the top xx (where xx is the number of results you wish to test) for a chosen keyword. So I have used for example as a related term to my website the keyword ‘web design’.

Each time a new site enters the top 50 with that search term I get an email with the domain and the exact rank.
The webmaster of this website makes for a great potential link partner.

"Here's Why
1. The webmaster is obviously active as his/her ranking didn’t just enter the top 50 because he sat on his thumbs. This signals a willingness to change things.

2. The webmaster may not know he has just entered the top 50 so you could be the one bearing good news and informing him/her the ranking may get higher with an exchange of links due to Pagerank factors. Which you can imagine be quite effective :-)

3. The site may well be new, so you might be the first to be asking for a link exchange. This is always good news of course as you get in before the space runs out or whatever.

4. If the site is ranked in the top 50, it is fair to assume the site has a reasonable Google PageRank. Normally above 3 or four for semi competitive phrases."

Google

Keywords: Teoma for brainstorming ideas.
High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum -> Seo Conference/questions: "Simply search on your keyword phrase and Teoma brings back a list of results, refined searches and resources/link collections for you to browse through."

Maggot Woman....

Exotic Myiasis: "Infections with myiatic flies start out as itchy sores that then develop into painful boil-like lesions, which often ooze. Most of these cases of human myiasis are uneventful, but patients should be monitored for additional and subsequent lesions as the development of the maggots is not synchronous or isolated, and their growth phase may be prolonged. Treatment of this condition can be undertaken by forcing the maggots to the skin's surface by cutting off their air supply. An application of Vaseline or similar material will encourage the maggot to move towards the surface exposing more of the maggot's body that can then be extracted. A local anaesthetic and incision to extract the maggot is another common method of treatment. "

Google

Linking: "Google does look at and gives weight to the text surrounding a link."
High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum -> Seo Conference/questions:
"All of the Google reps in attendance used the words 'relevant' in their statements regarding anchor text. One Google rep suggested using 'descriptive anchor text” to place links 'in places to help with navigation' and to 'stay away from JavaScript'."

Google

Monday, August 25, 2003

Aside:
As I watched another deadline fall because the software
engineers still hadn't finished the now 3 months overdue product,
I wrote a parody ad about the real product being the endless
promises that were keeping them employed at high incomes

Google

Interdisciplinary skills - a more constructive way of naming multi-tasking:

MeansBusiness - 20,000 ideas from today's top business experts on Management,Marketing,Finance,Business,E-commerce,Leadership,Strategic Planning,Knowledge Management,Reengineering,Internet Marketing:
"Our biggest challenge in stimulating a creative culture is finding ways to encourage multiple points of views. Many engineering deadlocks have been broken by people who are not engineers at all. This is simply because perspective is more important than IQ"....."The antidote to such canalization and compartmentalization is being , a term that is at once utterly banal and, in advanced studies, describes an almost impossible goal. Interdisciplinary labs and projects emerged in the 1960s to address big problems spanning the frontiers of the physical and social sciences, engineering, and the arts. The idea was to unite complementary bodies of knowledge to address issues that transcended any one skill set. Fine. Only recently, however, have people realized that interdisciplinary approaches can bring enormous value to some very small problems and that interdisciplinary environments also stimulate creativity. In maximizing the differences in backgrounds, cultures, ages, and the like, we increase the likelihood that the results will not be what we had imagined.'"

Google

Saturday, August 23, 2003

Dot-travel domain comes a step closer - 22 Aug 2003:

The mission to get a dot-travel domain name for the travel industry is set to move a tentative step forward on Monday, when one of the deadlines for the sponsored Top Level Domain application closes."

Google

Friday, August 22, 2003

More writing guidelines...
BBC Training & Development > BBC News Styleguide - Online course details: "Description:
Avoid clich�s and improve your journalism with this PDF version of the BBC News Styleguide. The Guide gives practical suggestions on many aspects of journalism style, including abbreviations, clich�s, reported speech - and how to avoid irritating your editor.

Who it's for:
This guide was written for BBC journalists but is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to write well."

Google

More writing guidelines...
BBC Training & Development > BBC News Styleguide - Online course details: "Description:
Avoid clich�s and improve your journalism with this PDF version of the BBC News Styleguide. The Guide gives practical suggestions on many aspects of journalism style, including abbreviations, clich�s, reported speech - and how to avoid irritating your editor.

Who it's for:
This guide was written for BBC journalists but is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to write well."

Google

Google PageRank
Inside Search Engine Strategies, San Jose - Day Three: A Chat With Sergey Brin:
" Sergey Brin explained that it was still very much an important part of Google�s ranking system and that more than half a dozen new ranking technologies are tested each month with roughly half of these being integrated into Google�s PageRank algorithm. "....
"Paid inclusion. "I don’t really believe in it" said Brin, adding that he wanted to "keep any kind of payment from objective search results". "Objective search" the very thing that has made Google popular, hence his reluctance to tinker with its formula for success."

Google

Links to all things content related & some original ok content too:
Contentology.com - How to create content for your Web community: "



Google

WEB STYLE GUIDE, 2nd edition 2002
8 sections — Process, Interface Design, Site Design, Page Design, Typography, Editorial Style, Graphics, and Multimedia

Web Style Guide, 2nd Edition: "



Google

Possible schema for spreads/ project manage content design for other countries:
Digital Web Magazine - Features: Content? Or Dis-content?:
" I recommend completing this CRP and a Content Design Strategy as thoroughly as possible prior to embarking on a major Web design project, and as one of the first steps in a project plan. "

Google

New Media Review - Provided by the European Travel Commission:
"Usage patterns Online travel market Interactive TV & mobile devices"
This informative and comprehensive report discusses how Europeans access the Internet and discusses surfing habits. It's full of useful statistics.

UK Internet access statistics
(in PDF format) from the United Kingdom government

Nielsen NetRatings European Search Engine Ratings
European search engine ratings from the Search Engine Watch Web site.

Google

Stats & reports in full
New Media Review - Provided by the European Travel Commission: "Travel planning

According to the Cyberstudy on E-Commerce from America Online and RoperASW, at the end of 2002, 73% of Europeans said they regularly or occasionally went online to research products and services. Findings also show that:
53% of respondents conducted some online research for airline tickets and/or hotel reservations that they later purchased.

37% of respondents conducted online research for event ticket purchasers.
(eMarketer, April 2003)


According to the 2002 'Cyberstudy' from America Online and RoperASW, in 2002, 36% of home Internet users respondents, in France, Germany and the UK, go online at work to plan a vacation.
AOL and Roper surveyed around 500 home Internet users in all three countries. (eMarketer, March 2003)


Luc Carton has reported on its eTourism Newsletter (eTourism Newsletter), that according to Forrester Research (Forrester), the Internet has become one of the most important information sources for European travel worldwide, with almost 50% (47%) of European Internet users researching online data to book their leisure trips. (Luc Carton�s eTourism Newsletter at eTourism Newsletter, Issue Friday November 16, 2001)


Internet users in Northern European countries tend to research travel planning information online more than users in Southern European ones. The following countries have a percentage higher or equal to the European average of 47%:
Sweden: 60%

Norway: 59%

Switzerland: 55%

Ireland: 53%

UK: 51%

Germany: 51%

Finland: 51%

Netherlands: 48%

Austria: 48%

Belgium: 47%
"

Google

Europe stats & search engines...
Promotion Tip: European Search Engines:
"Internet usage in Europe is growing quickly. By the year 2007, there will be more than 200 million European users. That's a 68% increase over the 2001 numbers. Other compelling statistics include:
Europe had the world's 2nd largest Internet user population in 2001, just behind North America.
63% of Europe's Internet users live in Germany, the UK, Italy, and France.
Germany is likely to account for 1 in 5 Internet users in Europe by 2004.
42% of all UK households have Internet access. "

According to a search engine rating chart at the Search Engine Watch Web site, European audiences access a variety of search sites. Here are some of the most popular by country, along with the percentage of searchers who accessed the sites during 2002.

Note that many people use multiple search engines, so the numbers don't equal 100%.

France
Lycos.fr (38.4%)
MSN.fr (28.4%)
Viola.fr (23.2%)
Germany
T-online.de (54%%)
Google.de (36.2%)
MSN.de (33.7%)
Italy
Virgilio.it (55%)
IOL.it (52.6%)
MSN.it (41.2%)

Google

I had forgotten that I signed up for UGO IGO....
Welcome to Igougo

"Although members of IgoUgo's 11-person staff post journals, the most of the site's content comes from people who have made trips and felt compelled to write about them. Once you become a registered member, you can enter as many journals as you like, using a template provided by the site that gives you places to make general observations and also specific recommendations about where to stay, where to eat, and what to do in the city you're reviewing."
The quality of the journals runs from great to unhelpful at best. A peer rating system does help site users filter through the junk: IgoUgo's registered users can rate any journal they read on a scale of one to five stars. Also, the editors highlight "featured guides" -- those who get consistently good reviews -- on the site's entry page.

Google

Thursday, August 21, 2003

All things Google - An In-Depth Look at the Search Engine Giant

Eric Lander at Search Engine Guide 03/28/2002



Google boasts the largest searchable database of indexed web content,
provides users with the ability to search for more than just web
documents, and has the largest user base of any one search engine.
This article breaks down what Google has powering it's dramatic
success.

<-> Interview With Chairman and CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt

IHT 03/28/2002


From an initial cult following, Google has gone mainstream. CEO Eric
Schmidt is expanding Google's search for revenues.

Google combats these attempts by identifying what it considers to be
"artificial" link structures and adjusting or eliminating their influence
in the rankings. Google has also recently taken action against reciprocal
link pages, link "farms" and guest books, downplaying their importance in
its link analysis algorithms. And there's no doubt that Google will take
action against weblogs, if those weblogs are seen as manipulating results
in a way that doesn't correspond with user expectations.

Google Time Bomb
Microcontent News, March 3, 2002


Why We Sell Advertising, Not Search Results

Google's spirited defense of its new AdWords program, assuring users that
its non-advertising results are absolutely not for sale.

Up Close With Google AdWords


Forget the hype about what the new cost-per-click AdWords program means
for Google, in terms of competing with Overture. What's in the program for
advertisers, and how does the cost per click pricing fit in with the
existing cost per impression ads? Search Engine Watch editor Danny
Sullivan takes a close look at the new AdWords program

Google

FLIGHT COMPARISON & BOOKING...
openjet.com - europe's low fare flight search & booking engine:

"Designed for ultimate ease of use, openjet.com lets you compare, combine and book low-cost tickets with the low-cost airlines. openjet.com does the work for you. We search the following sites on your behalf; Easyjet, MytravelLite, BMIbaby, Volareweb and Basiq Air. Thats a total of 123 destinations and more will be added soon."

Google

Conference review/ summary
Inside Search Engine Strategies, San Jose - Day One:
"Inside Search Engine Strategies, San Jose - Day One By Andy Beal 2003-08-19 "

Google

D Sullivans predictions for the future of search
Inside Search Engine Strategies, San Jose - Day Two:
"Danny decided to look into his 'crystal ball' and made some predictions of what is to come. Some important observations included:

1) Yahoo will launch its new search engine sometime in 2004 with a combination of Inktomi, AltaVista and AllTheWeb technologies.

2) MSN should also be ready to launch their own crawler in 2004, with the possibility of purchasing any of Ask Jeeves, FindWhat, LookSmart or even Google, to help speed up the implementation.

3) AOL is likely to continue its partnership with Google as this remains a non-competitive relationship for them.

Moving on to audience reach of the search engines, Danny explained how Google’s current reach of 76% of all searches would be diminished in 2004. He predicted that Google’s total audience would reduce to around 51% with Yahoo at 25%, MSN at 15% and the other engines making up the remainder."

Google

Internet Archive: "

The Internet Archive, working with Alexa Internet, has created the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine makes it possible to surf more than 10 billion pages stored in the Internet Archive's web archive. The Wayback Machine was unveiled on October 24th, 2001 at U.C. Berkeley's Bancroft Library. Visit the Wayback Machine by entering an URL above or clicking on specific collections below."

Google

"Women don't like men who act as if they date their own hands."

Google

Cannabis Culture's First Disciple
From 15 August 2003 Skrufff-E® #114

Jesus Christ may have used cannabis to achieve his miraculous healings, according to dramatic new research on the New Testament.

According to a report in High Times (published in January), the Son of God apparently used the drug himself and also mixed it into potions with which he anointed his disciples and sick people he came across.

"If cannabis was one of the main ingredients of the ancient anointing oil and receiving this oil is what made Jesus and his followers Christians then persecuting those who use cannabis could be considered anti-Christian," said biblical researcher Chris Bennett (The Guardian).

Google

Did I send this to Mike already? Maybe Simon could replicate this tool - or it may be cheaper to buy it....
Google Count - Keyword Ranking Tool
" What is Google Count?
Google Count is a Web based Google™ search engine positioning and ranking reporting tool. Google Count allows you to easily create reports and run them over and over again. Each run can then be analyzed against each other. This enables you to easily review your progress over time and see where you need improvement."

Free report:
Your URL: http://www.totaltravel.com
Keywords: australia travel discounts guide
Position: 2
Page Number: 1
Max Checked: 100
Total Results: 188000
Page Listed: http://www.totaltravel.com/
For full reporting and multiple keyword reports,

Google

Mike, these two (3 now) blog entries are especially for you, don't know if I have recommended this sites newsletter - they come up with a real beaut every now & then - today they have lead me straight to the Purple Cow book which I have had mentally listed as a must read for ages....

Trendsetters.com - Hot Trends, Cool Things
"Where can you be part of the marketing revolution? The door is open and the lights are on at BZZAGENT. Trust us, these people are brilliant."

Purple Cow by Seth Godin: Bonus Chapter:
Quote : his marketing plan.....
"Sell what people are buying
Focus on the early adopters and sneezers
Make it remarkable enough for them to pay attention
Make it easy for them to spread
Let it work its own way to the mass market. "

Google

Click the duck.... I love it...


Purple Cows is the other book about remarkable companies I have been bangin on about but couldn't remember the colour when I went to buy it - DOH!
Anyway here's a few snippets & such about it & it's author (Seth Godin) from a site - the 99th in his other book - 99 Cows - which tries to bring to life the tipping point theory re communicators - those special few who collect people & influence their behaviour....
BzzAgent: Purple Cow Super Reward!

"What if smart marketers could organize people who love great products and get them onboard early? What if this legion of sneezers was available for hire - not for money, but for the love of great stuff? The result would be a short-circuiting of the early-warning radar that retailers and the media use. Marketers could cut through the randomness and start early.
That's what Dave Balter is building at BzzAgent. A squadron of agents, all waiting for the next remarkable thing, all trained on the best way to spread the word. It turns out that it's not very hard to double the sales of a book and then make it even hotter.

Get the entire e-book for FREE."
BzzAgent: Purple Cow Super Reward!: "book for FREE."

Google

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Check all forums for topics/keywords
Marketing Forum Watch:
"Marketing Forum Watch offers constantly updated, searchable, customizable headlines from your favorite internet marketing and search engine optimization (plus a few ecommerce) discussion forums and message boards - FREE! "

Google

A step beyond KEI.....must give this a try with some of keyword/tracker research...

Keyword Effectiveness RANK. Search engine optimization resources. Calculate the KER for 25 words.

"Keyword Effectiveness Rank (KER) for 25 phrases
From WordTracker you can copy the data straight into this Excell file. If you got your data from other resources, just type in the Keywords with their Count and Competition and let the sheet calculate the KER for each phrase. Make sure to fill in 25 words. Using less words will slightly ofset the results. Click here to see an example sheet. If the sheet below does not show up or does not work good, download the sheet here: Keyword Effectiveness Rank sheet"

Google

Ahead of the game? OK, it is about general search engines but the principle of geo -targetted traffic applies to TT....
Who wins when search goes from national to local?

"Well, so far I can't type in the 'Thai restaurants... ' query and get anything relevant on any of the major search engines. Having typed that into Yahoo's search, I end up with a Sushi bar listing and a Thai restaurant 95 miles south of San Francisco.
Indeed, unless there is some simple standard for local searching, merchants might shy away from nationwide-search engines for fear they're paying for someone that's not really a potential customer" .......

" Local search, and who wins? (Surprisingly, local search is not a topic on the agenda at the SES conference.)

Local merchants are increasingly being eyed as fresh meat for the search companies. Of all the searches conducted, about 10 to 20 percent are local in nature, according to Paul Levine, Yahoo's general manager for the online media company's Get Local properties.

Local advertising accounts for two-thirds of the overall advertising business, says Jim Lanzone, vice president of product management at Ask Jeeves.

"The auction-bidding process, which generates the price-per-click, is not as competitive in the local business, said Susan Wojcicki, director of product management at Google. "The more advertisers, the potentially higher the market price. There are a limited number of players in local," she said. That means prices-per-click should be less or "bargains" for local merchants, said Wojcicki.

On the other hand, a local platform catering to a local audience should be more valuable to a local advertiser and worth paying up for. Indeed, people spent more time on Craigslist.org, which provides local information, than any other online directory or local guide, according to NetRatings."

Google

Advanced optimising with keyphrases for Google:
Anatomy of a Google Niche - News on Google - Microdoc News:
"My testing of this concept has produced excellent results. When Your webpage arrives within the top ten and your AdWords advertisement arrives on the same page, you increase the chances of a potential customer actually arriving at your page many times over. From our testing we have found that 10% of people will click on none of the results, 70% of people will click on one or more of the top five listings, while 18% will click on many more, and only 1% to 2% will click on the AdWords advertisement.
By optimizing so that I have a webpage and an advertisement in each page of a Google Niche, I have increased the traffic from Google for a particular niche by a factor of 50 times. Thus, on pages where I was getting both free/paid referrals from Google at a rate of 10 a day, I have increased the number of referrals from Google to 500 a day for a specific page. To get this type of result it is necessary to have the Google Niche words in the title of the page and at least in three to four other places in the text arranging the words in the various orders that are potentially possible for that niche. You can test the type of number for a particular niche by running an AdWords advertisement using the particular niche words as the keywords for that AdWords Group. Set the bid price to the highest range so that you show in that niche for every query -- otherwise you do not get a good reading of how many people visit the niche. "

Google

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

THE forum (well, one of them) debating recent events at Google - from dance to rolling update etc, etc.
Google dance not going as google planned? - Google General Forums - Search Engine Optimization Forums
"How to capitalize?
Build lots of small niche pages which are topical in orfder to capitalize on Googles quick indexation turn around.
Plus carry on as normal really. The algorithm doesnt seem to have changed a great deal. Link text is probably weighted more than it used to be however."

Google

A question from the ultimate roads & motorways anorak site, though you may as well ask what is the point of anything & get metaphysical with it
Readers' questions and comments
"What is the point of Scotch Corner (junction of A66 and A1)? There's almost nothing there, but it's signposted from about 30 miles away. Are there any more non-places like this? Is there a generic name for them? "

Google

More bedtime reading for Mike...

Monday August 18, 2003 The Guardian The bubble that didn't burst
:
"The middle of the dotcom crash may not have seemed the ideal time for another internet startup - but two years later, listings service Espotting is worth over £100 million. Kate Bulkley on a rare internet success story".... "'From day one it was never a question of failure, it was only a question of how much pain we could take,' says Ishag, 30, the older of the two founders by three months. 'Or how big we were going to get,' adds Bishop, who is the more softly spoken. Ishag intermittently hops up during the interview to take a call or check his computer - always "

Google

Travel stats report to watch for...
netimperative : Latest internet industry sector reports; data, research, case studies,opinion & features

"Forthcoming reports for 2003 November: Online Travel"

Google

Google search Syntaxes for easy ref
Google Review: "
Field Searching:Google offers several field searches connected with entering URLs. In the December 2000 revision of its advanced search form, it add several title and URL field searches.
Note that most field searching cannot be combined with other query words. In others words, a search entered such as uniqueword link:name.com will only be processed as if only the field search was present as in link:name.com. The uniqueword is ignored. One exception is the site: limit which cannot be used alone and must have another search term. The more recently added intitle: and inurl: fields can be combined with other search terms.
FieldExplanation
intitle:Finds pages that have the term(s) in the HTML title element. Can be combined with other search terms. intitle:search engines. This should find 'search' in the title and 'engines' anywhere in the page.
inurl:Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the URL (host name, path, or filename). Can be combined with other search terms. inurl:searchenginewatch.
allintitle:Finds pages that have the term(s) in the HTML title element. allintitle:search engines.
link:Finds pages which contain hypertext links to the exact specified URL. link:notess.com/search finds pages with links to this site.
allinurl:Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the URL (host name, path, or filename). allinurl:searchenginewatch.
site:Finds pages from the designated Web site. Paths and file names cannot be included. An additional search term must be used. Try a term from the domain name for the most comprehensive results. notess site:notess.com finds how many pages Google has index or listed. As of April 2000, this was an undocumented search feature.
allinanchor:Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the lilinks to the page. .
related: Invokes GoogleScout to find other pages similar in linkage patterns to the given URL and at a similar hierarchical level. The URL must be exact. In other works related:notess.com and related:www.notess.com find different results.
flink: Used to find pages linked from the given URL. No longer working as of Oct. 30, 1999. flink:notess.com
"

Google

Updated version of Bruce Clays Search Engine Relationships Chart:
Search Engine Relationship Chart - SEOToolSet by Bruce Clay, LLC

Google

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Using adwords as last step of keyphrase/wordtracker process...
High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum -> Keyword Research - I Need Some Direction...: "I only run the campaign long enough to gain a sense of what traffic and clickthroughs I can achieve on various keywords, and also on what combination of title and description gets the most clicks, sometimes only a week is enough. "

Google

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

More on personalisation....

Searching for the personal touch | CNET News.com:
'A lot of it is going to be experimental. Personalization can turn people off if it's interfering and annoys them,' said Amanda Spink, professor of information science at the University at Pittsburgh. "...."the main task will be getting the user interface right. That means giving people notice of what data has been collected, where that data will be stored and how it will be used. It also means giving users the choice of changing data or removing it.

Google

Monday, August 11, 2003

Pay per clicks (PPC) - Looksmart for MSNLookSmart Opens Deep Listings Option To Small Businesses: "LookSmart's deal with MSN also makes it one of the best Google-alternatives out there, for search engine marketers. Currently, Google results power three of the four most popular search sites: Google, Yahoo and AOL Search. That leaves MSN as the remaining search powerhouse with its own unique voice. If you've been failing on Google, then LookSmart at least offers a way to buy your presence cheaply into the search space."....
"Of course, you could always purchase Overture listings to show up on MSN -- and this remains an option. However, LookSmart's hope is that you'll find they offer a cheaper alternative. LookSmart's paid inclusion model doesn't guarantee placement, so it remains a toss-up whether you'll appear for any particular term. But if you do, there remains a good chance you'll get that top ranking for less expense than going with Overture."

Google Stuff
Google Synonym Command
Google synonym search:

Want Google to look up words related to a keyword you've entered? Now there's a new synonym command that you can try. Just place a tilde character (~) in front of the word. For example, while a search for "gardening tips" would look for pages relevant only to both of those words, "gardening ~tips" will make Google look for synonyms for tips, such as "help," "guide" and "techniques." A bit more information on the command is provided by Google at the URL above, and we'll probably take a closer look at it in the SearchDay newsletter later this month.

Google

Googles change to Adsense - their contextual advertising program which places adverts on clients sites rather than alonside serps as in the adwords advertising...

Google Backtracks on AdSense Changes: "One of the changes was the addition of 'related searches' links to the bottom of all contextual ad units. In addition, related searches would appear in ad space on pages where Google did not have sufficiently targeted ads to serve. If it had no information at all, on such pages as registration forms, Google would serve a blank ad unit with a message reading 'This blank space brought to you by Google.' In the past, Google would serve up public service announcements for groups such as the American Red Cross. "

Google

Saturday, August 09, 2003

Translate into Spanish for the USA??

Demographics: Hispanic Presence Felt At Travel Sites: "Visitation by U.S. Hispanics to the travel category overall has grown by 7 percent in the past 6 months, and 3 percent between May and June alone. The most significant increases in the past 6 months have been to Hotels.com (124 percent growth) and Hotwire (66 percent growth), followed by Travelocity (32 percent), Priceline (29 percent), and Expedia (24 percent). Growth to the travel category was only measured at 4 percent for the general population over the past 6 months"

Google

Friday, August 08, 2003

http://www.good-tutorials.com/ - 1165 Photoshop Tutorials. 'Nuff said.

Metatag to monitor for furure usage...
Metadata, Mark II: "Metadata, Mark II

Getting on the Map with GeoURL

With just two lines of code, GeoURL maps documents in cyberspace to real-world locations. Once you’ve added your site to GeoURL’s database, you can immediately see who else has registered Web pages in (or about) your neighborhood. "..."GeoURL’s Geocoder page is the easiest method; it quickly converts street addresses into regional coordinates. (Nifty, no? A crafty search spider which sniffed out postal addresses in web pages and indexed them by location with this technique won Google’s 2002 Programming Contest."

Google

Thursday, August 07, 2003

More on Click Tracks - especially noted for Mike...

ClickTracks Log File Analyzer, Web Analytics, PPC, SEO and ROI stats.: "New ! ClickTracks 4.0 Analyzer and Pro

ClickTracks displays website visitor behavior directly on the pages of your website. It's a completely new web stats method that improves over traditional log file analysis. You can see campaigns, site navigation and ROI instantly.

ClickTracks uses a radically different architecture that makes it easy for marketers to locate customer behavior data that is difficult or impossible to obtain using earlier methods of web analytics."

Google

Cogent critique of Googlewatch....with some v relevent points:
Google Watch Watch: "What Google doesn't do is give entirely new sites high rankings, and why should they? New restaurants don't automatically become popular, they need to advertise and even then it may take awhile. This is why franchises are so popular. It's much easier to buy a McDonald's franchise (if you have the cash) than to open a no-name burger joint. So if you're a new site and you want traffic you'll need to advertise, just like if you were opening a new business. You wouldn't expect your new restaurant to succeed instantly without any promotion so why would you expect that of a new website? "

Google

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

A name to remember at Google...

TRAVELCOM Report Newsletter: "Butler Heads Travel Category At Google
Google announced the recent appointment of Jane Butler, 33, to head the travel category at the leading internet search engine. As Head of Travel, Butler is responsible for driving the strategy for both advertising sales and product development with travel marketers company-wide. In addition, Butler acts as a strategist and analytical resource for the Google sales team and their travel clients. A veteran online travel and advertising professional, Butler joined Google from LastMinuteTravel, where she led global sales and marketing as president. Butler's travel industry experience also includes more than 4 years as Publisher of DoubleClick's Travel Network. She is also co-author of the 2002 PhoCusWright report, 'Online Travel Advertising: Success Factors and Recommendations for Improved Effectiveness"

Google

UK hitwise stat 2002 - 3 - Last minute are in the pole position...

Teletext pips ebookers in annual travel site rankings - 28 Jul 2003: "Online retailer Lastminute.com tops two of the Hitwise travel categories - �travel agencies� along with �travel - destinations and accommodation.� In "

Google

Quote for today:
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more
important than any one thing.
--Abraham Lincoln

Google

Monday, August 04, 2003

This article echoes my reservations about direct comparisons with other travel sites:

I-COPYWRITING archives -- August 2003 (#2): "The effects of your product and
the service you provide should be able to speak for
itself and hold its own without direct comparison "...
further if you absolutely must...
" One way to do both is to focus on the places where your
product/service outshines the competition, and minimize
places where they outdo you. By sticking to the
(proveable) truth, and appearing objective, you move to
the prospect's side of the table.
"

Google

Great site for "buzz" words....

The Word Spy - glocalization: "AA: What do you think of the trend toward 'global marketing'?
Paul Walsh: We've witnessed what you might have heard called 'glocalization': making a global product fit the local market. To do that effectively, you've got to have individuals who understand what makes that particular market tick. Someone sitting in Minneapolis and exporting product to France isn't necessarily going to have that level of expertise. The local knowledge component is essential."

Google

An interesting way of analysing site development - could this be useful when putting together the manuals for other countries?

The Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams: "The Nine Pillars Of Successful Web Teams

By Jesse James Garrett Contributing Writer Article Date: 2003-07-24"

Google

Saturday, August 02, 2003

Top Global Properties, June 2003, Home
Velly interesting that City Search/Ticketmaster have crept in at the bottom
Traffic Patterns: Global Usage and Popularity, June 2003: "Vivendi Universal9,803,12003.9300:10:08
NTT Communications9,751,45403.9100:15:09
CitySearch/Ticketmaster Online9,522,58703.8200:17:52"

From the Guardian Northener newsletter - branding Liverpool...

Mersey Partnership, the region's marketing body, has decided to review its name. Roy Morris, chairman of the partnership, told the Post: "When someone in Boston thinks of our
area, they think of Liverpool not Merseyside. You no longer talk of Tyneside, you talk of Newcastle and the same can be said for Bristol and Avonmouth and Birmingham and the West Midlands."

The North West Development Agency's marketing director, Peter Mearns,
said they had identified Liverpool, Manchester, the Lake District and
Chester as the most important brands to be promoted across the UK.

"Liverpool is what I would call the sizzle that sells the sausage.
Other areas around these brands - like the wider Merseyside area -
will benefit from this branding."

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