George W. Blog

Olympic Heroes - The Running Race

2008-08-31T03:55:00.001-04:00

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Ergo Video

2008-06-02T10:32:00.002-04:00

One of the more interesting things I have found in the development visual search. See this video on this cool new tool.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T06:33:00.000-05:00

No real news today. Just saw this great collection of quotes from DailyKos and thought I'd share.

More SEO Spam

2006-05-09T14:47:00.000-04:00

Another day, another site to report to Google's SEO Spam Report.

This time it was a backgammon site, Games4Dollars (http://www.games4dollars.com).

Their site looks like this:

Hidden in the page, in the source or by doing a select all, is this text:

Backgammon games Backgammon game | Domino game Domino game | Klondike game Klondike game | Pyramids game Pyramids game | Mahjong game MahJong game
Backgammon money Backgammon money | Domino money Domino money | Klondike money Klondike money | Pyramids money Pyramids money | Mahjong money MahJong money
Backgammon
Backgammon game Backgammon is a game of luck and skill. It is played by two people with 15 checkers each on a board consisting of 24 spaces or points. The checkers are moved according to rolls of the dice. Each player tries to bring his own checkers home and bear them off before his opponent does, hitting and blocking the enemy checkers along the way.

Backgammon gambling Backgammon has been around a long time, with origins dating back possibly 5000 years. The ancient Greeks played. So did the Romans. The game we know today was refined in England in the seventeenth century, which is also when it acquired the name backgammon. One significant innovation of the twentieth century was the addition of the doubling cube in the 1920s.
While not as popular as during the boom of the 1970s, backgammon still enjoys wide appeal. There are clubs all over the world. And dozens of servers on the Internet where you can play any time of the day or night.

Rules of the Game
The rules of backgammon are simple and easy to learn. In fact, it is quite remarkable that a game as rich and interesting as backgammon has such a simple set of rules. Here are the complete rules, with diagrams showing how to set up the board and move the pieces.

Backgammon online Rules of Backgammon
A popular social variant of backgammon is the Chouette, which allows for play by three or more people.

Backgammon 3D How to Run a Chouette
Special rules are used in tournaments and on many Internet servers where play is organized into matches.
Rules for Match Play

Backgammon gambling Backgammon Software
There are many backgammon-playing computers programs around. Most programs are free or are shareware and can be downloaded directly from the Internet. Some of the more expensive programs are able to point out errors in your play and analyze positions for you.
Programs That Play Backgammon

Backgammon online Where to Play
A great way to sharpen your game and meet new people is to play backgammon on the Internet. There are many sites where backgammon enthusiasts from all over the world come together. You can play a fun game of backgammon, or just watch and learn from other players. Many servers have a rating system that provides a way to track your performance over time or see how well you are doing compared with others.

Backgammon bet Places to Play Online
If you prefer face-to-face competition, Laila Leonhardt has lists of backgammon clubs in:
North America
Europe
Asia, Africa, and Australia

And Bill Davis maintains a list of:
Backgammon clubs in the United States
Carol Joy Cole keeps a calendar of upcoming tournaments.

Can't get much more blatant than that. I'm started to get fed up with all this spam. I think I'm going to put a page up with all the worst offenders.

Who Can Buy or Sell Text Links? Google Decides.

2006-04-10T15:07:00.000-04:00

Trying to understand Google's postion on Buying Text Links can be tricky.

Do they just devalue the links? That seems likely. Do they penalize sites for having these links? Some believe so. Do text links work despite Matt's warnings? Sometimes.

But how does Google feel about the link sellers? Surprisingly Fine.

Until today, it seems. AdvertiseU, a notorious link seller, has been banned from Google. While most everyone went up on the latest PR update (i got some PR7s), AdevrtiseU dropped out. Try a site: search in Google and you'll see. AdvertiseU sells text links on many major pages, which I will not disclose here. You probably recognize this logo

from many of their pages.

Were they banned for selling text links? If so, it will be the first time any search engine has specifically penalized a site or broker for selling text links. Did they violate some other SPAM policy?

If it was for selling links, then why them? Many other sites openly sell text links and seem to flourish in Google.
Blogs do it: Zawodny's Blog is a PR8 and SERoundtable is a PR7. Even non-SEO blogs - Gawker is a PR8.
Marketing Firms: VKI Studios and SubmitExpress have a PR7.
And Link Brokers: Text-Link-Ads, LinkWorth, TextLinkBrokers and LinkAdage are PR6.

What made AdvertiseU less seemly than these sites? They sold links for PR as do all text link brokers. Was it they openly listed themselves (through an email address) on the sites where the sold link appeared? Is this just the beginning of the end for text link brokers?

Friday Morning Fun

2006-04-07T10:10:00.000-04:00

TBS Copies YouTube

2006-04-06T10:24:00.000-04:00

There's a right way and a wrong to use viral marketing. Unfortunately, these days, all we see is the wrong way.

TBS is pioneering a new wrong way of going about it. Virals need original and entertaining content, something you would send to a friend.

Instead they've made content that is copied, hackneyed and boring. Yes, copied. Take a look at this Brokeback Mountain parody that appeared on YouTube in February, call "Brokeback of the Rings"

Now take a look at the campaign TBS in running online and on TV starting last Month.

And didn't anyone tell them Brokeback parodies are dead? See the rest of their videos here.

Google in a Red Blazer

2006-04-04T23:11:00.000-04:00

Another great breaking story from Shimon Sandler: Google is in the real estate business. Try a search for "apartment for sale" in Google and you get this:

Clicking on that search box takes you to a Google Base page combined with Google Maps on the side.

Guess it was inevitable. I think we all saw this when Google Base went up. Maybe Google Romance wasn't just an April Fool's Joke.

Wonder if Craig is shaking in his boots yet...

The AdSense Bottom Line

2006-03-29T11:09:00.000-05:00

I was talking recently with Shimon Sandler about how to make AdSense and Yahoo Ads really perform. I've been doing some testing recently with AdSense and other self-serve web advertising and here are some the results I've found.

I know that first paragraph above might seem spammy, but that's the point. Check out the AdSense on the bottom of this post - it should be showing links about AdSense.

We all know that advertorial content works best. No one like to be advertised to. The same principle applies to AdSense. I get the best results when I use the AdSense "line" - the Link Unit. You can easily integrate it into your content and introduce it as "More Resources" or "Find out More." Since I started changing my AdSense on my sites to that format, my daily profits have doubled!

Notice I removed the borders and matched the link color with the other links in this post. On most of my sites, the average user probably doesn't even suspect that these are sponsored links, despite the "Ads by Google" line.

SES NYC

2006-03-03T00:03:00.000-05:00

Sorry, been at SES New York all week. Will do some more posting as soon as I get a chance.

Good show so far. Found out that an old collegaue is now working for MSN and got in on their beta.

Good parties too. :)

Yahoo SERP is 50% SPAM

2006-02-07T22:52:00.000-05:00

So i was searching for "bingo" in Yahoo Canada today, in preparation for our new Canadian bingo site, and I came across something rather surprising: SEO SPAM--tons of it. Of the 6 results above the fold in Yahoo, 3 were blatant examples of javascript cloaking, the same thing killing German companies online these days.

I consider myself a pretty white hat SEO these days, with some pretty good rankings to back that up. Awful SPAM like this pisses my off. Where is Yahoo's Matt Cutts? Who do I tell about this?

For posterity, here is what I found. (Click for larger images):

1. The search in ca.yahoo.com. #3, #4 and #6 are SPAM:

2. Listing #3 is a doorway page for PartyBingo, cloaked using javascript. Compare the page the spider and non-js user sees on the top with the redirect on the bottom.

becomes

3. #4 is a cloaked doorway to Mad Bingo, also using javascript.

becomes

4. #6 is a doorway to BingoHall. At least that one has the courage to say BingoHall in the doorway title.

becomes

Am I the only one who has enough of this? Especially the Party Bingo redirect, which is just gibberish stuffed with keywords. What can I do? Should I just use Yahoo's Report Spam Tool?

Linkification Extension Circumvents AdSense!

2006-02-03T14:47:00.000-05:00

I have a collection of Firefox extensions I can't live without--one of which is the great Linkification. This extension turns unlinked URLs, like www.georgewblog.com, into links.

A problem I've noticed recently is for webmasters with AdSense on their page. Linkification sees the display URL at the bottom of the ad and automatically links in to that URL, overriding the Google redirect and actual URL--and the webmaster's commission!

Try it out on this page. Add Linkification and check out the AdSense below on the right. Linkification will turn the URLs into direct URLs.

Can anyone think of a redirect. I don't want people like me preventing me from my getting my commissions, and I gotta imagine people like me would be my audience.

SEO Spam - Or is it?

2006-01-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

OK, so I just got some SEO Spam in my inboxsent to a technical support email we publish on the home page. Oh wait - it's not SPAM, see their narrow definition at the bottom of the email:
SPAM is officially defined as, unsolicited, sent in bulk and automated (must be all three to be spam).

Well, according to U.S. Can-SPAM Act, unsolicited email must be labeled and contain an opt-out option. I don't see any of that here. In the U.K., unsolicited bulk email is illegal, excluding work addresses, such as mine.

Their claims:
1. Unsolicited - it certainly was. If I want SEO help, I'll turn to our 5-person in-house SEO team or one of the three comapnies we employ for additional SEO services.
2. Bulk - it probably was. The thing is a form letter with my web site and backlinks from Google pasted in. They don't mention the nature of my business or anything like that.
3. Automated - I imagine it was as well. That would be the smart way to do it.

The Email:

From: Backbone Solutions [mailto:josie@backbone-solutions.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 8:48 PM
To: ME
Subject: Your Free Link Check and Top 10 Placement Offer

Hello,

I've been looking at your website at www.yoursite.com. Apologies for contacting you unannounced but we have already provided a service for you for no charge (see below). wow, thanks!

You are not on any list so this is the only email you will receive from us. one too many

As a no charge service we conducted a link check for your website. We searched on Google for link:http://www.yoursite.com and found that you have 30 websites linking to you that are indexed by Google (try it, you can find websites that link to any other website in this way).

As a no charge service I conducted a link check for their website. I searched on Google for link:http://www.backbone-solution.co.uk and found that you have 0 websites linking to you that are indexed by Google (try it, you can find websites that link to any other website in this way). Backbonesolutions.com has 27. And a whopping PR of 3.

As you're probably aware the more websites that link to your website the higher up Google (and Yahoo and MSN) your website is likely to appear. Getting other websites to link to you is an essential but very time consuming aspect of any successful search engine optimisation process.

This is where we can really help you. Using your preferred search terms (we can assist in choosing these if you want) we can achieve top 10 placements on Google, Yahoo, MSN for you. This is done through a combination of tried and tested "off-site" (arranging for websites to link to you) and "on-site" techniques.

We are highly confident we will succeed. In fact once your account is set up we operate a "more than your money back guarantee" should we fail to obtain your chosen top 10 placements for you.

We have achieved top 10 positions on Google, Yahoo and MSN for numerous clients and are happy to show you examples. We know we can do the same for you. I'd love to see that.

For further details we can ...

NOTE: This is not *spam, you have been contacted by a person sending this email manually, with the sole purpose of introducing ourselves to you with no cost or obligation on your part, also you are not on any list with us. We sincerely hope you appreciate this is the politest way of contacting you and we sincerely apologise if it has inconvenienced you in any way.
*Officially defined as, unsolicited, sent in bulk and automated (must be all three to be spam).

Anyway: This company might do good work, but why would they go out of their way to get themselves grouped in the list that includes Traffic Power and the rest?

The Bottom Tens of 2005

2005-12-07T18:54:00.000-05:00

As everyone comes out with their top 10 and other impressive lists from 2005, I present the things that pissed me off the most about this past year. Call me a cynic, but terrible things are usually more interesting and fun to discuss than helpful innovations (see: Crystal Pepsi, New Coke). I got the idea for a bottom ten list from my main man Strongbad.

So without further ado, the list.

10. DRM. I long ago stopped stealing music, so please stop treating me and everyone like criminals! From the revelation that Sony's attempt to protects its intellectual rights certainly infringed on yours, to the awful DRM bundled in MSN Music, Musicmatch and iTunes that makes bringing tunes to work a chore, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH. And I'm not going to take it anymore. I'll buy every song I can from allofmp3, and what they don't have I'll steal. I tried to do this legit, but you just won't let me--I can't buy from any other online store or from a B&M music store. Tell me, what other choices do I have?
9. B-List Celebrity Shows. Dancing with Celerities? Skating with Celebrities? When your biggest star is John O'Hurley, it's not really a celebrity show. (Skating's biggest star is Dave Coulier - he was Joey on Full House, the one Alanis went down on in a theater). Even Celebrity Poker scraped the bottom of the barrel: Poker Royale, Celebrity Poker Showdown, Celebrity Poker Club. Here's a handy guide:
Can't go inside for fear of getting mobbed by fans: celebrity
Recurring guest star on TV sitcom: not celebrity
8. Overdose of social-networking sites: Maybe its because I'm not 15 anymore, but do we really need MySpace, Hi5, TheFaceBook, Friendster, Orkut, Mooble, Tickle, Xanga, LiveJournal. If I wanted to see 1000s of pics of kids who look like this, I'd--well, I guess I'd visit these sites. Which is exactly my point. I don't.
7. Financial Spam: Enough with the home loans! I'm pining for the good old days of viagra, rolexes, housewives and penis enlargement
6. More to come...

8 Ways to Make Thanksgiving Dinner Better

2005-11-24T12:03:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving Dinner with Family: A special time filled with stress, relatives coming out of the closet and people saying things whil drunk they will regret later. And Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberries and corn (mezo). What could be better?

Well, try these 8 suggestions to make Thanksgiving Dinner Better and see if they help.

8. Reenact the Harsh Winter of 1620. Remember - 46 Puritans Died!
7. Reenact the Trail of Tears: Leave your Children on Your Neighbor's Doorstep
6. Screw Trytophan, Put Ambien in the Stuffing
5. Go Around the Table and Have Everyone Say What Relative They are Thankful Didn't Show Up
4. Come up with a catchy Native name for yourself, like "Sits on Ass all Day and Watches Stupid Internet Videos/Porn"
3. Play Thanksgiving Dinner Buzzword Bingo - You Win When Terrible Things Happen!
2. Go to Indian Reservation Casinos and Give Back
1. Replace Turkey with Wild Turkey

Z100 Uses SEO in a Radio Commercial

2005-08-23T23:16:00.000-04:00

SEO may have finally gone mainstream. I forgt to charge my iRiver and was listening to Z100, a NY top-40 style radio station, when I heard a radio promo espousing the station's phenomenal SEO.

It went like this (in a deep radio guy voiceover):
Look up "hit music" in Google and see who's number 1. Z100 - New York's #1 Hit Music Station.

And its true. Lots of other radio stations seem to fighting for the phrase--and almost all use "#1 Hit Music Station" in their title.

But what a great use of SEO! Proving in other media outlets that you are #1 because you have #1 ranking in a search engine. Genius! And the general public certainly will buy the argument.

P.S. MSN think Boston's KISS 108 is the #1 Hit Music Station; Yahoo! chooses Amazon as the place to go for hit music; and Jeeves likes the Weekly Top 40 web site.

Dave Matthews off Allofmp3

2005-05-25T15:22:00.000-04:00

Dave Matthews mysteriously disappeared of the face of Allofmp3 today. They were definitely there before. I have proof, thanks to Google Cache.

So what happened? Did Dave sue? I can't believe Dave Matthews accomplished what The Beatles could not!

Any thoughts?

BTEFNET is Back!

2005-04-07T10:00:00.000-04:00

Sorry for worrying everyone. BTEFNET is back and as good as ever. Great speeds and almost 0-delay uploads.

SPeaking of which, I've made the decision to continue using bittorrent only for TV shows. My reasoning/rationalization is this: television is basically public domain. I really just use torrents to download shows I generally watch (The Daily Show, West Wing, CSI, Monk, 24) if I miss them, instead of taping.

A la the Grokster & MGM proceedings, it's my betamax. Thanks Jack Valenti!

For movies, however, I'm starting to feel guilty. I used to only download torrents of movies I would never rent or see in the theaters. I.E. stuff my wife would hate. Then stuff she wasn't particluarly interested in, but would watch. Now: everything.

But if wasn't using Azureus, I would rent these movies or go to the theaters. Plus, with all the alternative, like Movielink, Netflix, Blockbuster, it's cheap to watch at home.

I made the switch from P2P to AllOfMP3 last year and I haven't gone broke, so here goes nothing.

April Fools: Search Engine Style

2005-04-01T07:51:00.000-05:00

Google and Jeeves have their April Fool's Jokes Up:
vs.

Google Goes Under the Sea...

2005-03-31T22:30:00.000-05:00

On the eve of the release of their 2004 Report, Google acquired the web analytics firm Urchin. Urchin is a great company, and is run by a great guy, with whom I built earthquake-resistant towns at the Yahoo! Party @ SES San Jose.
But why did Google buy it?

Some theories:
1. Andy Beal from SearchEngineLowdown thinks Google wants to track to conversions to set up a CPA program. I.E. You only pay when you convert instead of per click.
I don't think so. First of all, Google already has conversion tracking in place. And they recently expanded it to include methods other than Adwords. If they wanted to run a CPA program, they easily could have done it without spending a reported $30 mil on Urchin.
Second, I don't think Google would ever do a CPA program, as "rival" search engine SNAP is doing. Google is so concentrated on relevancy, and a CPA model promotes bidding on non-relevant terms, as you only have to pay for conversions, not clicks.
And how would it work Google's current Ad Rank (CTR*CPC) model? Right now SNAP drops you from the CPA model if your conversion rate is too low, but nothing happens if your CTR is too low. CPA also promotes pre-qualification in adwords, which don't work so well now. I.E. you could bid on the term "windows" and sell storm-proofing how-to guides to the .0001% that was actually looking for them.

2. I think Google's plan is to become a marketing solution for small and medium-size businesses that are currently using Adwords through a third-party solution, agency or tool. Google always intended Adwords to be completely DIY, but didn't build enough management, tracking and optimization capabilities into Adwords. With Urchin, they can build a tool like Overture and Lycos have, and squeeze the tool and tracking SEMs and agencies out of the picture. Barry from SearchEngineWatch thinks I might be onto something. The tool/tracking-heavy SEMs must either be worried or restructuring right now.

3. Of course, Google might have bought Urchin just because the analytic's company has the worst Adwords ad I've ever seen. Ever:

urchin
you will love Urchin
- give it a try
www.urchin.com/

Open Source Google

2005-03-17T19:13:00.000-05:00

Google code is open and free to all!

Well, sort of. Google opened a new code section for developers today.

The APIs (search, adwords & desktop) are there and Google hosts open-source software using them. Kind of like a Google-centric SourceForge...

There is also a contest for the best program written with the API. I would love to nominate Did-it.com, but that'a probably a conflict of interest. I do love GoogleRace; without them I wouldn't know that Al Sharpton would be our president if "bowel movements" were the number one issue. I'll nominate them.

The coolest company just got cooler.

Thoughts?

Say it Ain't So: BTEFNET.net is Down!

2005-03-13T23:35:00.000-05:00

First Suprnova and TorrentReactor and now this. How the mighty have fallen.

BTEFNET is the major TV show torrent site online. Based on the EFNET IRC network, BTEFNET is usually the first to post TV shows, generally in HD, DivX format, without commercials and widescreen where available. For many, myself included, BTEFNET takes the place of a VCR or TiVo.

Let's hope I'm jumping to conclusions and it's just temporary.

Check it out yourself. As of 11:00 p.m. EST on March, 13 2005, Btefnet is down.

It was just TV shows, for Valenti's sake!

Personally, I think it's part of a major conspiracy...

Sloppy SEM or Algorythmic Anarchy

2005-03-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

Is it me, or has there been some really sloppy SEM on display recently?

Searching for "Vacation Packages" (for a client--I aint going anywhere), I came across this ad:

[For RSS readers:]
Vacation Packages - Travelocity
Book your TotalTrip on Travelocity. Book your hotel, flight and more for one low price.
clickserve.dartsearch.net

Now you and I know that the URL is just doubleclick's tracking redirect for Travelocity, but to the average searcher, the ad looks like it has the wrong URL, like it belongs to an affiliate or--maybe--like Travelocity got bought out. In any case, it's bad branding.
All our research, and common sense, dictate that display URL is one of the most important factors in determining clickthrough and conversion rates.

On the day after SES, when I noticed that yet another SEM firm was bidding on "Did-it", I did a quick check to see who was bidding on other firm's names. Looking for Perfomics, I found this:

amod title
amod desc1
amod desc2
www.performics.com

Again, you and I know that it's just a hiccup from an automated PPC feed. But to a potential customer, its tragic. The bottom line is that every SEM, mine included, needs to implement a layer of human quality control and management. Algorythmic bid management tools work great and are neccessary for creating ads from numerous products, enacting bid changes based on marketing metrics and creating unique tracking URLs. But people should be implementing everything into the engines, or at least checking everything as in goes in.

A press ad or a television commercial would never be released with such signifacnt errors. Pay Per Click ads shouldn't be either.

If we're being paid to be experts, we need to look like experts.

Brittney Spears and the Beatles Have Something in Common:

2005-03-03T17:25:00.000-05:00

They're both instruments of Satan, designed to spread evil throughout the world.

At least that's what I learned by watching a 25 minute promo "Rockumentary" on the site on the Official Site of Fight the Good Fight Ministries (side note: is there an unofficial site I should be staying away from?). I found the site doing my monthly Google search of misspellings of Britney Spears' name (It's an SEM thing; don't ask)

Turns out all rock n' roll artists (and rap and crappy pop ones too) actually made a pact with the devil in which they sold their souls in return for musical talent, or in Spears' case, slutiness. There are now required to spread Satan's message through music and interviews.

Among Satan's willing messengers:
Robert Johnson - The first to sell his soul
The Beatles & The Rolling Stones - They did not, as is believed, have a rivalry, but were in fact united in worship of Lucifer
Snoop Dogg loves Beelzebizzle, and sold his soul for wealth, which is respected in the hip-hop community
Madonna kissed Spears and Christina to promote homosexuality and to undo God's plan for the family
The lists goes on. Ooh--and it includes Creed! Haven't I been saying that they are Christ-doubting devil worshippers doomed to hellfire? Or something like that?

Of course, it's not just musicians. Hollywood has its fair share of devil worshippers, like Steven Spielberg and Sandra Bullock. Oprah too, but I knew that.

My favorite quote: "As soon as Marilyn Manson spends his first moments in the torment of Hell, he will realize he made a big mistake." Can't argue with that.

The 4-hour Rockumentary costs $29.95 -- and the 3-hour version is only $14.95. Can someone please buy it for me?

On the Superbowl, Ads and Lawsuits

2005-02-07T10:04:00.000-05:00

Visa's Superbowl Superhero Ad may have been cute, but to some, it's a slap in the face.

To some at Oglivy & Mather, DC Comics, WDDG and American Express especially. The theme of the ads--superheroes who don't need to use their powers because of protection provided by a credit card--is a direct rip off of the AMEX Superman and Seinfeld ads.

Big deal, you say. Everyone copies. Why shouldn't Marvel and VISA? Well, because Marvel is suing NCSoft and Cryptic studios, makers of computer RPG "City of Heroes." And why are they suing? Becuase the allows players to make superheroes that may bear a resemblance to Marvel characters. Need I mention that most original were blatant rip-offs created in the Golden Age to capitalize on the success of their competitors!

Calling Captain Hyprocisy!