Blogging
Googlenoping
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | May 30, 2007 | Share This
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In case you missed this Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine, Gene Weingarten published a brilliant survey on the newest classification of search terms, the until-now undefined, Googlenope.
Googlenope (n) : A phrase cannot be found on Google
Examples (from Weingarten): “Queen Elizabeth’s buttocks”, “Plush Osama doll”, “I believe dust mites have souls”, and so on.
As he explains,
“It’s pretty hard to find a phrase or expression that is not out there somewhere on the Web. I know. I’ve tried. No matter how unlikely it may seem that anyone has ever put certain words together, someone, somewhere, probably has. When I Googled the exact phrase “Santa Claus nude,” I got 278 hits.
It’s tricky. For example, I tried Googling “unintelligent Jew,” which not only denies a ubiquitous cultural stereotype but uses an unusual adjective to do so. I figured I was safe, but this is what came right up: “I have yet to meet an unintelligent Jew.”
More failures followed. After a while, I got mad and decided to do something about it.
Want a phrase that doesn’t appear on Google? Try searching for the Magritte-inspired, epistemologically impossible sentence “This phrase doesn’t appear on Google.” You should find only one hit, and that hit is from the very paragraph you are reading. When I wrote this, before it was archived, that sentence was nowhere on the Web.
Voila. The assault begins.
When a phrase cannot be found on Google, I call it a Googlenope. Once a Googlenope is discovered and written about, it is no longer a Googlenope.”
Thus, upon publishing this post, the term “googlenope” (and others listed above) will show up in multiple search results and by definition become declassified. Would we call this the “De-googlenoping”? Or, do we simply call it a “Googleyep”?
Read the full article for more details.
SES NY: Social Media Optimization
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | April 12, 2007 | Share This
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Day Three of Search Engine Strategies New York - the much anticipated panel, “Social Media Optimization”, opened to a mixed audience. Though nearly 3/4ths of the audience indicated that they “engage social media optimization activities for their company or as a service for other companies,” the majority of the audience seemed unfamiliar with the topic. Perhaps it was the candor with which panelists referred to bribes and Digg’s “worthless traffic”, but on several occasions I overheard dubious remarks coming from people around me. More on that later though…
Moderator Rohit Bhargava introduced Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz. Rand presented an overview of the benefits of social media optimization: rule the SERPs, control brands, gain link love, show communities that you’re a participant, get traffic from new sources, and influence traditional media. Fishkin thinks that social media is especially hard for SEOs to break into, because social communities notoriously perceive online marketers as spammers. Though SMO spamming exists, Fishkin believes that SEO helps social media grow more than it “manipulates” its content - and that as such, social media sites will eventually learn to embrace SEO. (As a side note, social media sites based on local content, such as Yelp.com, gained traction within specific cities specifically by building their pages to be search engine friendly). For SEOs, on the other hand, social media can help increase seach visibility by sending traffic and links. But, said Rand, marketers have to proactively manage their social media profiles. Though social media sites rank well, it’s not always positive content that shows up. Rand summed up with SEOMoz’s list of sites to target: Magnolia, Yahoo 360, LinkedIn, Newsvine, Squidoo, wikiHOW, Ning, Frappr, FURL, Wetpaint, Shadows, Shoutwire, 43Things….and more.
Neil Patel, CTO of ACS, discussed the use of Digg and StumbleUpon. Patel opened, “the first thing you need to know is that the Digg and StumbleUpon audiences are little kids” - in other words, they’re fickle and not likely to be interested in your marketing content. But, he said, advertisers can spin anything into something “diggable” with a proper title. A promotional ad for a tax service, for example, becomes “how to screw the government.” Patel ran through the most important factors to think about when submitting to Digg - votes, time, voters, submitters, friends - and gave a little insight into how the top 100 Diggers have such strong influence. Making friends, he emphasized, is extremely important. What Not To Do: Self-promotion (wait, isn’t that what he just told us to do?), add biased information, pay for votes, break community rules, spam. What To Do: Add tons of friends (tip! “instead of your real photo, put up a picture of a hot girl to make more friends!”), participate in the community, use great titles and descriptions, become a top user, and submit at the right time (11 am, PST, M - Th, to be exact).
Andy Hagans, “professional link baiter”, presented next on social media and link generation. Hagans gave us a case study: Network Security Journal, a client with Tech-oriented content, but a dry topic. Hagans reiterated Patel: “its all in the title”. Rule of Thumb: Can you imagine this title on a magazine cover? Furthermore, he said, make sure your content is focused and concise. Well-written content helps avoid the “Digg Bury”. Hagans presented the five sites he usually submits to: Digg, Netscape, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious. Hagans recommended using social media link-baiting with some “old fashioned link begging” - aka sending personalized emails to bloggers. He suggested that all promotional efforts be done within the same 1 - 2 hour block of time.
The panel then launched into Q & A. After questions like, “do the search engines count this in their points?” to “how does the link come back?”, I have to admit I stopped paying attention. One interesting question did come up - “is it better to submit a link that comes back to your site, or is it better to send it back to social media sites?” If you DIgg your own video that’s hosted on YouTube, for example, is it better use that traffic to promote the video on your site or to promote the video on YouTube? Rand’s answer was, “it depends”. The remainder of the session was devoted to the details of who does and doesn’t have nofollow tags on outgoing links.
One thing that struck me about this panel, which I also heard in Chicago, was that everyone seems to have a different approach to the “best practices” of social media optimization. Fishkin likes submitting to a lot of second-tier sites to build aggregate traffic, Patel wants to focus on building the relationship, and Hagans uses SMO to build search visibility through link baiting. Though I can’t disagree with the utility of any of these practices, they’re difficult to scale without engaging in social media “spamming” - something the panelists even seem to admit, as they joked about sending iPods to bloggers in return for “link love”. It’s encouraging to see such a broad audience interested in social media, but I left with the impression that few will adopt SMO as a long-term practice. Until a more “enterprise-friendly” version of SMO develops, it will remain a marketing tactic best suited to organizations with niche offline communities and low budgets.
Technorati Releases “State of the Live Web”
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | April 5, 2007 | Share This
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After six months of silence, David Sifry has finally released an updated State of the Blogosphere report - well, technically, “State of the Live Web“. The new data isn’t revolutionary, but it does show a rich picture of many obvious trends. Sifry reports:
- Technorati is now tracking over 70 million weblogs, with about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day.
- Spam and splogs (spam blogs) continue to be a problem in the blogosphere
- The blogosphere is no longer doubling every six months, but that’s understandable considering its size
- Posting volume is growing more slowly, though spikes in posts per day occur surrounding global crises.
- Blogs continue to become more and more viable news and information outlets.
- Japanese blogs occupy the greatest percentage of the blogosphere
- Tagging has seen “explosive growth”
(and of course…)
- “Technorati continues to grow well beyond its roots as the leading blog search engine”
Two significant points stand out from this report. One: the decline in posting volume, and two: the “explosive” use of tagging. The fact that people are posting less is likely attributed to their increased participation in other networks - Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. The increase in tagging, likewise, shows a growing perception that content is threaded across multiple networks. Together, these points indicate a new kind of awareness required for online marketers. As users’ attention fans, it will be increasingly important to leverage search as the gathering point of all related content. The footprint of a site, thus, may one day be more valuable than the site itself.
For more detail, check out some of Sifry’s charts :
- Daily Posting Volume
- Weblogs Cumulative
- Total Posts Using Tags
- Monthly Percent of Posts Indexed Using Tags
Reprise Media Reading List: 01/04/2007
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | January 4, 2007 | Share This
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Must Read
Lee Odden has compiled a very comprehensive list of 250+ “must read” search marketing blogs. It’s a terrific summary of the search industry online, and a good place to start for new SEM bloggers.
Google Getting Too Expensive
According to MarketWatch, high bid prices and diminishing returns have convinced many online advertisers to cut spending with Google Adwords. Some will increase print advertising, others will turn to cheaper Google alternatives. Though Google insists, “the majority of our customers continue to see strong return and value in our ad program,” advertisers’ increasing dissatisfaction with Google could mean big business for Yahoo - especially after Panama goes into effect.
Miva Switches Sides
MarketingVox reports, “Miva has ended its longstanding partnership with Yahoo and will turn its search ad business over to rival Google.” The 2 year deal not only gives Miva a boost in revenue, it makes Yahoo look even more vulnerable to Google’s dominant network.
Google Partners With China Mobile
Today Google joined forces with China Mobile “to provide Chinese Mobile users with world-class, high-quality mobile search products and services.” China Mobile is the largest cellular operator in the world, though it has a market penetration rate of only 33%. Thus, not only does China Mobile have enormous growth potential, it already has an enormous subscriber base - in other words, it’s the ultimate breeding ground for Google Mobile Ads.
Brazil Sides With Slutty Celebs Over YouTube
Today a Brazillian court ordered YouTube to shut down until it had removed all videos of celebrity Daniela Cicarelli (ex wife of Ronaldo) and her boyfriend having sex on a beach. This isn’t the first highly-public legal battle that Google has had with Brazil - Orkut, Google’s popular social networking site, has a long history of displeasing the Brazilian authorities.
Reprise Media Reading List 12 - 14 - 2006
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | December 14, 2006 | Share This
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Free Directory Assistance
AT&T is testing an ad-supported directory assistance service. Residencts of Bakerfield, CA, Oklahoma City, OK, and Columbus, Ohio can call 1 -800 - YellowPages, listen to an ad, and receive free directory assistance. Verizon is rumored to be testing their own “free” DA system, to compete with AT&T and other similar services. Search Engine Land notes that, unlike Mobile Search, people already know how to use DA and are quick to adopt these offerings.
The Twelve Ways of Click Fraud
Honestly, it was the title that caught me. But, Marketing Pilgrim takes a creative spin on Google’s “2% click fraud”, inviting readers to sing along.
Bully Demands Higher Ranking
Blogger Dean Hunt is being threatened by an online retailer to remove his site from Google for a certain search term or else face legal consequences. Writes the unhappy retailer, “On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I haev checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [keyterm]…Please understand that we make our living from this, and you are just writing a blog that has nothing to do with [keyterm]. If you do not remove yourself from google for this search, then I will call them myself and have you removed.”As David’s Life writes, “boo f*cking hoo”.
Google Patent Search
Google has a new search portal for U.S. patents. From Google, “Using the same technology that powers Google Book Search, Google has converted the entire image database of U.S. patents into a format that’s easy to search. You can search the full text of U.S. patents from the Google Patent Search homepage, or visit the Advanced Patent Search page to search by criteria like patent number, inventor, and filing date.” Though it’s not the first patent search engine, it’s certainly the most accessible, and well aligned with Google’s other search services.
Monster’s Monsterous Error
Monster.com informed the SEC that it has overstated profits by $272 million since the late 90’s.
Google Talent Agency
Google is auditioning talented audio industry professionals to become “ad creation specialists” for Google’s new Audio Ads program. Their audition call is running under the tag line “It’s a Jingle Out There….”
Amanda Congdon on ABC
Amanda’s VideoLog is back, now supported with a flashier intro, glowing stage, and ABC logo. The New York Times calls her an “enthusiast for new media“…I think that means they like her.
AOL Downsizing
As part of a massive cost-cutting strategy, yesterday AOL fired 450+ employees from its corporate headquarters in VA. Like Yahoo, AOL is going through an identity crisis, as one of the many search engines struggling to differentiate itself from Google’s shadow.
AdRants Offers Marketers Fake Blog Apology
Step Right Up Folks, “For any marketer who finds themselves at the mercy of forum freaks, blog purists and righteous cause group watchdogs, we promise to create a public apology devoid of marketing and PR babble that is contrite and actually reflects the honest acknowledgment of your idiotic mistake.”
Sony Fake Blog Worse than McDonalds Blog, Walmart Blog, LonelyGirl Combined
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | December 12, 2006 | Share This
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Sony took a beating today for their fake blog, “All I Want for Xmas is a PSP“. Allegedly written by “Charlie” with YouTube appearances by “Cousin Pete”, the blog attempts to reach a male demographic by speaking like Ali G on IM and featuring low-resolution rap videos (”holiday hitz!”). The worst part is, the PSP blog keeps up the act, even long after commenters publicly flog the ad agency behind it. About 550 hate-comments later, the president of Zipatoni (the ad agency) replies,
“Please know that we approached the client initially with this scenario and they said ‘who cares if people find out? As long as it is funny, we do this stuff all of the time.’…when was the last time people were blogging about Zip ato ni? I’m confident Dawn will turn this into one helluva a case study in the months to come.”
I’d launch into a rant about why this site is neither funny nor a case study in viral marketing, but I’ll let the 600+ comments speak for me…
“If you want a PSP badly enough you should get together with an ad agency. Then try to sell the product through a lame website while attempting to speak down to what you consider your target audience.”
Comment By Jim At 12/11/2006 3:35 PM“I am totally insulted. But, by spreading the word, just like zi-p-pa-t-o-n-i, I am doing my best to make sure this does not work.”
Comment By iam At 12/11/2006 1:44 PM“How many consumers has this website activated so far?”
Comment By john At 12/11/2006 3:39 PM“I doubt this message will reach whoever it needs to, but Sony desperately needs to stop hiring these bozos to do their marketing. This website is as bad as the PS 3 baby ads, which are as bad as the PSP dust ball ads, which are worse than the most annoying Old Navy ad you could possibly think of.”
Comment By D-stab At 12/11/2006 1:59 PM“All i want for Christmas is a Nintendo DS and a copy of Nintendogs.”
Comment By Jimmy At 12/11/2006 5:00 PM
Here are some of charlie/cousin pete’s “funny” responses…
“You all is haters tymes 4. Dis is lee-git. Don’t know why youse thinks this is a schill. Are site was registered through an external provider. We don’t work for sony. And for all you dissin’ my skillz I’m down for a one on one rap off or settling it street stylez if you feel me playa. Teh.
I own a Nintendo DS and I love it. I would still like a PSP for shizzle. But the DS is just as solid.”
Comment By cousinpete At 12/11/2006 7:21 PM“Why you h8ers h8ing on our site so much?
We juz 2 d00dz that wantz a Sony™ PSP™ (PlayStation Portable™) real bad yo. We dun noe no dam ad agency yo.”
Comment By Charlie At 12/11/2006 10:20 PM
Reading What You Seek to Criticize
Last Thursday I did a roundup post of search engine news, including a note about Eric Schmidt’s denial of the Google/YouTube collusion rumors. On Friday, Mitch Ratcliffe, a blogger for ZDNet, posted an interesting response,
“The folks at SearchViews, which is a blog run by RepriseMedia, a company that makes a business of optimizing Google and Overture results, are not in a position to dispatch questions without revealing their own conflicts of interest. In order for me to blow Mark Cuban’s rumors “out of proportion” you’d think it would have been necessary for Cuban to publish first. Not to mention that I would have had to be writing about the same thing. On neither count is the charge accurate. Cuban posted his assertions of collusion on October 30 where I published on October 19. Somehow, I managed to take his ideas and expand on them 11 days before he published… More to the point, the linking of my posting to Cuban’s is erroneous and self-serving, not to mention just plain full of crap because it seems calculated to ingratiate RepriseMedia to Google. Hey, SearchViews, you should correct and retract your posting. At least, you should try reading what you seek to criticize, though in this case the posting doesn’t rise to the level of criticism.”
You can read the entire rant here. Needless to say, I felt Ratcliffe would appreciate a response. Thus, I’d like to begin by saying,
Mr. Ratcliffe, I recognize that you would like credit for being the first to call the deal collusion. You are correct in pointing out that your post is technically earlier than Mark Cuban’s. My bad, consider credit given. However, I don’t believe that it changes my inherent points that,
a) Mark Cuban’s post was picked up by several major blog sources who were too quick, in my opinion, to take his anonymous source as verifiable (especially considering Cuban’s overtly biased position on the deal). For example, note story coverage by PVR Wire, Search Engine Watch, Frank Barnako, Techmeme, and Clickety Clack Online Ad Blog.
b) Ratcliffe’s own assessment of collusion was also overly speculative, based on his quick assumptions from a vague passage in the New York Times. Ratcliffe, however, did seem to recognize this by linking to a follow up by PaidContent.org that clarifies some details on the YouTube deal.
These points are not as important, however, as responding to another of Ratcliffe’s unwarranted accusations:
“the linking of my posting to Cuban’s is erroneous and self-serving, not to mention just plain full of crap because it seems calculated to ingratiate RepriseMedia to Google.”
If nothing else, a comment as boneheaded as this shows that Ratcliffe doesn’t understand a search marketer’s business model. But, I’m glad to take this opportunity to clarify the role of Searchviews in relation to Reprise Media. Searchviews is a blog representing independent voices from within the company, that do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Reprise Media as a whole. We highly value that independence because it gives Searchviews liberty to write unbiased commentary on search news - including criticisms of the engines. As an independent blog, Searchviews doesn’t have anything to gain from “ingratiating” with Google - except maybe a link from the Google blog. Sure, we’ll take that.
In case this doesn’t satisfy Ratcliffe, here are a few of the many less-than-ingratiating reviews we’ve done on Google in the past:
On Google’s love of money
On Google’s shady traffic distribution model
On Google being creepy
On Google’s poor quality Book Search
On Google Checkout’s long lines
On Google’s little bits of evilAnd in the meantime, I’ve removed my original link to his post, but maintain criticism of Ratcliffe’s overblown assumptions. Finally, regarding his defametory remarks about Searchviews - Hey ZDNet, you should correct and retract Ratcliffe’s posting. At least, you should try reading what he seeks to criticize…
UPDATE: Ratcliffe had more…ahem..interesting words in response to our response, which you can read here. Then, check out our response to his response to our response, in a comment to his post here.
Video the Vote Brings Out The Ugly
To follow up on the Video the Vote project that I blogged yesterday, check out their YouTube profile. Videos have already been uploaded to report excessive lines, rude and incompetent poll workers, voting machine security issues, broken machines, difficulties with the touchscreen, and so on. Today the New York Times reports that political […]
To follow up on the Video the Vote project that I blogged yesterday, check out their YouTube profile. Videos have already been uploaded to report excessive lines, rude and incompetent poll workers, voting machine security issues, broken machines, difficulties with the touchscreen, and so on. Today the New York Times reports that political blogs used these YouTube videos as supporting evidence to publicize voting machine irregularities. Below is one of the most popular videos, showing a polling station videographer being intimidated and barred from entry,
Interestingly, the combined effort of citizen videographers and political bloggers has uncovered more than the shortcomings of our voting system, it’s also proven that social media is a more efficient means of dispatching breaking news. The NY Times confirms, “In a lot of ways [social media] are helping to set the agenda for the mainstream media in fast-moving events like this.” As blogs and other viral media become the preferred source of breaking-news information, print newspapers, radio, and even television will either have to speed production or find a new angle. Jeff Jarvis predicts that as blogs and Comedy Central clips become more important vehicles of political dialogue than television, politicians will need to reinvent their advertising strategies. He writes, “I believe that we will see an ever-declining influence of television and political advertising on TV in future elections. [Politicians] will find new ways to get ugly in new media.”
The real test will be in translating the gloss that politicians are accustomed to presenting for television into a more authentic voice for social media. For the 2008 election, at least, going from glossy to genuine will be what politicians struggle with most. I expect they’ll take an advertising route similar to highly-branded corporations - spending outrageous sums on banners, email campaigns, and rich media, until they learn to leverage SEM and SEO. In the meantime, there will always be a blogger with a video camera to bring out the ugly.
Friday Links: Rocky Road for Tech
It’s been a rough week for some major tech firms. Microsoft trumpeted their Spaces relaunch, only to run into several kinks almost immediately. Yahoo’s social bookmarking site, del.icio.us, has been in a slide since April (via TechCrunch). And Apple says they might have to “restate” four years worth of earnings due to stock-option grant snafus; Norway might even ban iTunes, says Techdirt. It’s a regular road of trials, as we head to the links:
“Uh, what country do you think this is?” It seemed more like the kind of move the Chinese authorities might make. Tuesday, blogger Josh Wolf was held in contempt and jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury or hand over video footage he took at a protest rally last year. The feds said they wanted to see whether the video showed any crimes being committed - one person suffered a fractured skull at the rally - but Wolf claimed journalistic privilege, saying he had a right to protect his sources. This ignited a conflagration online, as bloggers and others struggled to define exactly who a journalist is, and what protections they should receive under the law; news.com rounds up some choice quotes.
Banned in the
USAWikiped-I-A A stunt earlier this week by TV satirist Stephen Colbert resulted in temporary chaos over at Wikipedia… coincidentally, Colbert has been dis-invited from editing the site while his identity is being verified (thanks, Newsvine). Well, who needs a Wikipedia for everyone when you’ve got your own? Head over to the decidedly less-factual-than-entertaining Wikiality, the Colbertized wiki-community where the elephant population has tripled over the last six months (via Digg).Did I say Bill Gates? I meant Vill Vates. An interview with Bill Gates…it’s the stuff that could make a writing career. Only problem: how do you get the guy to sit down with you for a couple of hours? Well, who says he has to? Why not just say you met him on a plane, make up some stuff he might have said, and no one will be the wiser? A Norwegian journalist followed that plan to a ‘T’ - except for the part about nobody catching on. Says the AP, the bogus interview was printed in a Norwegian magazine (Mann) and a Swedish tabloid (Aftonbladet) before Gates’ personal assistant caught wind of it. The magazine will print a retraction, but the paper is standing by their man, saying they have no reason to doubt a reporter whose previous interviews include Tom Cruise and Oprah. On a personal note, we believe we’ve set a SearchViews record with two entirely separate mentions of Norway in the same post.
‘Boom Lowered on Popular Video Blog Host
Rocket news always seems to come in threes. First, Discovery launched yesterday without a hitch (knock wood). Then, North Korea fired off some rockets of its own. Finally (and significantly for the Internet-o-sphere), the popular video blog Rocketboom and its telegenic host Amanda Congdon parted ways this morning.
Congdon announced the news on her new Amanda UnBoomed blog (thanks, Digg), implying that she had left Rocketboom against her wishes, but promising to resurface “hosting some crazy, crazy stuff” in the near future.
This probably rates as a split of CBS/Dan Rather proportion for the video blogging world, and appropriately, there’s some controversy. An unsigned announcement appeared on Rocketboom’s website saying that “Congdon has decided to move to L.A. to pursue opportunities that have arisen for her in Hollywood,” and that co-creator Andrew Baron will remain with Rocketboom in New York, producing and directing the blog’s segments. “Financial” realities and other unnamed difficulties were blamed in part for the blog’s reluctance to follow its host cross country.
Rocketboom, live since October of ‘04, claims a viewership in the tens of thousands for its daily installments of talking head pieces centered on internet culture. The blog will reportedly return Monday, July 10 with an interim host while in the “daunting process of recruiting a replacement for Amanda” - Scoble speculates as to who might take over. We hear Star Jones is available…(this obligatory reference brought to you by the Bureau of Obvious Jokes).
