Friday, June 10, 2005

Macintel

Robert X. Cringely's latest column speculates that Apple and Intel are going to merge.
Check it out here. Now in addition to Wintel, we'll have Macintel!

He always has thought provoking posts.

By the way, I'm a HUGE Cringely fan and own both computer history series "Triumph of the Nerds" and "Nerds 2.0.1" I recommend getting these out of your local library if you are a PC history buff like me.

I took the day off today to work around the yard. We decided to plan some vegetables this year, so I was digging out about 500 pounds of rocks and listening to Valerie Richardson's show on WPKN
She had a fantastic interview with
Brendan Hanrahan. They talked about the natural history of Connecticut and about his book "Great Day Trips in the Connecticut Valley of the Dinosaurs".

Check out the Road to Discovery series of guides to the Natural History of Connecticut.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Here is an interesting BusinessWeek article from the May 2, 2005 issue:

Six Tips for Corporate Bloggers

As we go down this road of evaluating corporate blogs have been asked "why?"Here are a few reasons (among many)

Can you think of any others?


Our media department gave a great presentation on alternate forms of media meant to augment traditional media outlets. It was a great presentation and I think we all walked away with new ideas for our clients.

Here are some of the topics covered:

• Product Placement
• Product Integration
• Interactive Entertainment
• Video Game Advertising
• Cellular Phone Advertising
• Word-of-Mouth
• Buzz Marketing
• Nightlife Advertising
• Building and Street Displays
• Mobile Advertising
• Aerial Advertising
• In-Hand Advertising
• Airport Advertising
• Sports / Entertainment Venues
• Health Club Advertising
• Movie Advertising
• Grocery Store Advertising
• Shopping Mall Advertising
• Digital Advertising
• Parking / Transit Tickets
• Restroom Advertising
• Gas Station Advertising

Some of these things are new and some have been around for a while, but it was great to see them put together in one presenation. Very Cool Stuff! We should get this up on our website too!

Kudos to Becca, R2 and G for doing such a great job.

I've been thinking wouldn't it be great for us to create RSS feed 'reading lists' based on industry segments such as food, insurance, financial etc...

This is possible with OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML that allows these RSS feeds to be downloaded into feed aggregators such as bloglines.com. Here is the spec document on how to create these lists:http://feeds.scripting.com/powerOpmlGuidelines. We could put these reading lists together and then post them on our website to be downloaded into their feed aggregator.

I think this would be a great service to offer! It would be great for clients, prospects, media reps, editors and anyone interested in a particular segment. And NO, it wouldn't have to be all BLOGS. It would include RSS feeds from companies in the industry, trade journal web sites, and even traditional media web sites.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

I just finished watching the BBS documentary that was filmed by Jason Scott of textfiles.org fame. It took me a while to get through it all considering its 3 DVDs chock full of interviews. It really is an amazing story and a real important piece of computer history. BBSs were the blogs of their day.

It really brought back some memories how I got my start in BBSs back in the early 90s. I always had computers through high school and college, but I never had a modem until 1991 when I received a hand-me-down IBM 286 with a 20mb hard drive. That was cool and all (no more swapping floppies when I wanted to spell check my WordPerfect documents!) . But the big news was the Hayes 2400 baud modem that came with it! Now the world was at my fingertips. I soon discovered the world of BBSs and started calling every local number I could find! This was our only connection to the online world until we got our AOL account in 1994. This is about the time that the Internet started to take hold and marked the death toll for the BBSs.
I highly recommend this documentary for anyone interested in the evolution of computer networking and software development .

Here's a breakdown of the episodes:

Baud introduces the story of the beginning of the BBS, including interviews with Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, who used a snowstorm as an inspiration to change the world.

Sysops and Users introduces the stories of the people who used BBSes, and lets them tell their own stories of living in this new world.

Make it Pay covers the BBS industry that rose in the 1980's and grew to fantastic heights before disappearing almost overnight.

Fidonet covers the largest volunteer-run computer network in history, and the people who made it a joy and a political nightmare.

Artscene tells the rarely-heard history of the ANSI Art Scene that thrived in the BBS world, where art was currency and battles waged over nothing more than pure talent.

HPAC (Hacking Phreaking Anarchy Cracking) hears from some of the users of "underground"

BBSes and their unique view of the world of information and computers.

Compression tells the story of the PKWARE/SEA legal battle of the late 1980s and how a fight that broke out over something as simple as data compression resulted in waylaid lives and lost opportunity.

No Carrier wishes a fond farewell to the dial-up BBS and its integration into the Internet.

Listen to good music and help with Autism Research. What's better then that?

I LOVE this Beck sample! http://www.dimensionmix.com/funky%20BK.mov

Beck, Stereolab, the Eels, Irving and the Apples in Stereo are among a slew of artists who will be covering the tunes of electronic-music pioneers Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson as part of the forthcoming LP Dimension Mix. Haack and Nelson founded the Dimension 5 record label, which has released several children's records and influenced the field of electronic music. Produced by Rich Harris and set for release by Eenie Meenie Records, a portion of the album's sales will go toward the charitable organization Cure Autism Now. Look for the disc to hit stores August 23. ...
Check out http://www.dimensionmix.com/ for all the details

Here are some basic definitions to get you up to speed on RSS and Blogging that I found very helpful.

Aggregator
Two main types of aggregators: web-based aggregators and desktop/software aggregators. Web-based aggregators allow individuals to subscribe to feeds online and read feeds in a web browser. Desktop aggregators are software programs installed locally that updates when feeds are updated. The aggregator shows new information and allow for users to read feeds.

Atom
An XML-based file format. Although Atom is not the same as RSS, it has similar functions. FeedForAll will convert Atom feeds to RSS v2 feeds.

Blog
Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site.

Feed
A feed is a machine readable (usually XML) content publication that is updated regularly. Many weblogs publish a feed (usually RSS). Readers can subscribe to these feeds to automatically check for updates

Feed Validator
Tests the formatting of feeds to ensure that they are correctly formed.

OPML
OPML an XML-based format that allows exchange of outline-structured information between applications running on different operating systems and environments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML

RDF
Resource Description Framework. The frameworks for RSS version 1. The RSS v1 format is quite different from all other RSS versions.

RSS
Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary

Syndicate
To supply information or content for simultaneous publications in several periodicals or web sites

Weblog
An online journal or diary that is frequently updated (also referred to as a blog).

XML
eXtensible Markup Language. RSS is based on XML.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Search Engine Optimization - Descriptions and Definitions

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 MILLION searches. In a recent Forrester Research report 81% of consumers on the Internet find products and services by using the Search Engines.

Two Types of SEO:

1. ORGANIC SEO (AKA Traditional SEO)
- Results appear in regular listing area. Patience is required for this type of result. Sometimes there is too much competition to break into the top rankings

2. PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
- Bidding for sponsored placement in search engines such as Yahoo and Google. Good for quick traffic and for keywords that have too much saturation. This technique is not as easy as one might think. Keywords need to be highly targeted, descriptions need to be optimized and campaigns need to be continuously managed.


LEGAL SEO Techniques -

Keyword-rich content
Optimize key places on the page and throughout the site structure
Legitimate link development
Optimize and wait.



ILLEGAL SEO Techniques - Definitions

Cloaking - any of several means to serve up a different page to the search-engine spider than will be seen by human users - is one of the most controversial methods of search engine optimization. To wit, cloaking can be an illegitimate attempt to mislead search engines regarding the content on a particular Web site

Link spam - Occasionally a problem for some search engines such as Google, which can be fooled into assigning higher relevance to a site based on thousands of inbound links that weren't properly "earned" by the site

Link farms - The main purpose of a link farm is to deceive the indexing programs of Internet search engines that assign rankings according to the number of pages that link to a specific page. If the link farm works as planned, the search engine will believe that the promoted page is hugely popular because of all the pages that link to it and give it a high ranking

Wondering what all the fuss is about Google and Yahoo's record profits? Dan forwarded me some great insights of the importance of integrating Pay-Per-Click advertising with your traditional SEO

Pay Per Click (PPC) Optimization and Management

A recent study by JupiterResearch sighted a 34% increase in paid search from 2003 to 2004 (2.6 billion in advertising in 2004), and predicting an increase to 5.5 billion in 2009. The paid search market is filled with companies that understand PPC can provide an effective way to boost sales and generate leads. However, most companies are not equipped to effectively manage and monitor a successful PPC campaign.

What should you look for in a company to help manage your pay-per-click campaigns? You need to look for a company that provides clients with the experience to effectively manage all aspects of PPC management, including:

Extensive keyword research to ensure clients are effectively utilizing their PPC budget and not targeting keywords with low conversion rates.


Dan, our resident SEO expert put together some interesting things to consider when selecting a company to help with your SEO program:

Organic (natural) SEO - Search Engine Optimization


In order to reach the complete online audience companies must engage in both paid advertising and organic search engine optimization. A developing trend within organizations is to only undertake one of these types of advertising which can substantially reduce your online visibility. In a recent study by iProspect it found that over 60% of all clicks occurred in the organic listings (the regular listing area on the page). The result of this and other studies clearly shows that companies must pursue organic search engine optimization as part of their SEO strategy.

What should you look for in an SEO provider? A company that provides clients with the marketing knowledge and experience to research, optimize, and effectively manage all aspects of organic search engine optimization, including:

* Extensive keyword research to uncover highly targeted and niche keywords that are relevant to your customers
* Integrate keywords into key areas of the page, file, and image structure
* Optimize specific areas of the page content with the appropriate keywords
* Establish links with reputable and relevant websites
* Submit the site to the top search engines
* Write and optimize a description for submission to the major directories

I often equate SEO to growing a bonsai tree. It takes quite a bit of trimming and grooming to keep it growing right. An integral part of and SEO program is ongoing maintenance.

Maintenance should include:

* Continuously search for relevant linking opportunities
* Monitor competitors, including any possible spamming tactics that effect your website rank
* Monitor changes or trends in the search engine algorithm (the way a search engine determines the rank of a website) and make adjustments when necessary
* Recommendations on where content development is needed to promote the performance of a keyword
* Tracking and reporting of the selected keywords within the major search engines.

Just signed up with ping-o-matic
This is a service that notifies the following feed syndicators that my blog has been updated:

Weblogs.com
Blo.gs
Technorati
Feed Burner
Syndic8
NewsGator
Feedster
My Yahoo!
PubSub.com
Blogdigger
BlogRolling
BlogStreet
Moreover
Weblogalot

This is actually a good list of feed search engines/feed agregators.

It will be interesting to see how this works!

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
This is an XML file that is used to create a web feed.
A good place to figure out what RSS is used for is to look at my blog roll (list of web logs I read) at http://www.bloglines.com/public/jcnork.

As you will see, I get updates from the New York Times, CNet and Wired through RSS feeds. You will also see quite a few bloggers including Robert Scoble from Microsoft and other "industry blogs". But I also use it for updates from my family. I get notified when any of my family posts pictures on nork.com, or when my brother Michael writes in his online journal or when my favorite tech writer, Robert Cringely posts a new article.

I have been talking to PR about posting their news releases for clients as RSS feeds so that reporters can be notified instantly when a press release is posted. We will also be implementing a blog for head PhD of the Advanced Development Lab at Speedline Technologies to post information on his latest research. RSS can also be used for when our clients post newsletters on line. It can be used to be notified when a new video has been posted (vlog) or a new audio file (podcast) have been posted.

Shel Isreal is publishing a book on blogging and is posting chapters online as he goes http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/. He summarizes the keys to blogs as:

Blogging's Six Pillars

How it all happened is only relevant of course, if its occurrence actually matters, and in the case of blogging we see five reasons why it matters a great deal. Scoble has previously published these as Blogging's Five Pillars. We added one for good measure. Blogs are:

(1) Publishable. Anyone can publish one. You can do it cheaply and often. Each posting is instantly available worldwide.

(2) Findable. Through search engines, people will find blogs by subject, author or both. The more you post the more findable you become.

(3) Social. The blogosphere has been called on big conversation. Interesting topical conversations move from site-to-site, linking to each other. Through blogs, people with shared interests build friendships unrestricted by geographic borders.

(4) Viral. Information often spreads faster through blogs than via a news service. No form of viral marketing matches the speed and efficiency of a blog.

(5) Syndicatable. By clicking on an icon, you can get free home delivery of the RSS-enabled blogs you like into your email software. RSS lets you see if a blog you subscribe to was updated saving you search time on information that interests you. This process is considerably more efficient than the last-generation method of visiting one website at a time, then each page of that website to see if there have been any relevant changes since your last visit.

(6) Linkable. Because each blog can link to all others, every blogger has access to the tens of millions of people who visit the blogosphere every day.

7-17-05 Funny- this was my second blog post and I didn't know about spell check yet! I am number ONE on MSN for people who spell Really Simple Syndication WRONG - Realy Simple Syndication heh notice the one 'l' ;-)...

Monday, June 06, 2005

Link to one of my favorite online comics:
Kevin & Kell by Bill Holbrook

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