april 2008

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Hi there… can u lend me a hand? I could use one. Just a note to all that after a trip to the fracture clinic yesterday, seems my hand is actually broken (who knew?) - after spending the last few weeks thinking it was ‘just a bit of swelling’ – huh, freaky… Next visit to the doc’ is Thursday (May 08) and so, for the next while, I shall be limited to one-handed typing which is not only frustrating, but a tad tiring strangely… Fortunately I have a few posts nearly done, but things will still likely be quieter here none-the-less… clients come first. Talk to the hand For now I have a funky fiberglass 1/2 cast which is like wearing a concrete glove (@$% ). Fortunately I can take it off to shower.. and scratch them itches (whew)... If anyone out there feels like guest posting over the next while – go for...

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Because it's about time When in comes to doing SEO for Google, one thing is certain; you’d better know about backlinks. Given the fact that the core algorithm is based largely on ranking and detecting spam via links, it is certainly an area to be familiar with. A while ago there was a re-release of a Google patent on temporal ranking factors (/Search-Engines/Algorithm-Matters/Lost-Google-Patent-Resurfaces.html) which really was a watershed back in 2005 when it first came out, as were subsequent related patents. Analyzing the recent (re-released) publication for new anomalies gave life to the thought that it would be interesting to highlight a few areas as a bit of a refresher course. For this post I am merely going to address the implications of temporal factors on link building programs. The basics of historical factors Just because a web page is 10 years old, doesn’t mean it is still relevant. It also...

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If you have some time this weekend, settle in and watch this 'made for the web' movie from Jim Killeen who decided to meet other Jim Killeen's from around the world. A Google vanity search gone mad! Fun stuff....

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Microsoft’s take on user behavioural data A search related patent released by Microsoft the other day touches on a popular theme of late, (with me at least); user behaviour analysis. In simplest terms, they look at various interactions with the search results (SERPs) and listing pages, to try and determine the relevance of a set of results. This has been a common theme among the Big 3 as noted by these recent posts; Google confirms using query analysis (http://www.huomah.com/Search-Engines/Algorithm-Matters/Query-analysis-confirmed-as-Google-ranking-signal.html)– use of past queries in the regular indexGoogle on User Performance Metrics (http://www.huomah.com/search-engines/algorithm-matters/beware:-google-is-watching-you.html) – trio of patents on the subjectYahoo Personalized PageRank (http://www.huomah.com/search-engines/algorithm-matters/yahoo-page-rank-and-teleportation-oh-my.html)– user behaviour and PageRankYahoo on Personalized Networks (http://www.huomah.com/Search-Engines/Algorithm-Matters/Yahoo-to-improve-social-searching-through-trusted-networks.html) – user annotations used to populate networksSearch system using user behaviour data (http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1 Sect2=HITOFF d=PALL p=1 u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm r=1 f=G l=50 s1=7,363,282.PN. OS=PN/7,363,282 RS=PN/7,363,282)- Filed; December 2003 – Published; April 22 2008

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Another chat with Bill SlawskiWhere is the future of Search headed? Will algorithmic, link based, search engines continue to rule the roost? Or will the Web 2.0 world produce a social search engine that takes the world by storm? What about a mix of both?These are some of the questions that have been bantered about with a few of my friends in the SEO and SMM worlds over the last few months. As you might imagine, the views are as varied as the individuals I talk to. Many of my mates in the social media marketing world tend to believe that people are the answer to search relevance and the death of spam. I personally can’t see a straight social search approach ultimately providing the most relevant results. Granted it is hard to say as there have been no widely-accepted/used social search engines and the premise requires a larger data...

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The things I do to get a beerThe other day I had mentioned to a cohort that it had been a while since I added new pics of the family to the personal section (/personal/) of the ol Blog… Now that warm weather has finally arrived here in the Great White North (eh) – yesterday was a great excuse to get out. For those that don’t know, we left the city life back when our daughter was born some 7 ½ years ago and now live a peaceful small town lifestyle. As you’d expect in Canada, we have a Maple Festival each year that includes street festival activities on the main strip and more on the local maple farm…fun for the whole family! To give you an idea of the size of our town, there is maybe 20 stores and not a single set of stop lights… a couple of...

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It’s all about the Buddy System…Recently I have been engaging a few of my industry cohorts on the topic of social search engines and the future of search in general. In the coming weeks I will be publishing some of these discussions which for me lead to some hybrid of algorithmic, performance metric based and human enhanced ranking signals. One of the problems facing those that believe in a pure social powered search engine is the fact that over time, once the novelty wears off, many users will be less inclined to actively be involved and so the few (in the form of power users) would be creating indexes/SERPs for the many. One way of dealing with this (and spam) would be to have a form of personalized (trusted) network search approach… But how do you make creating networks and accessing ranking signal easier? Yahoo seems to have a plan.In...

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Ok... now this is a totally groovy idea baby! This is one of those ad campaigns that makes me wish I'd thought of it first. Very nice work....watch the video and tell me...is dat da bomb or whaat? Thanks to GoogleSystem (http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/04/outdoor-campaign-for-google-video.html) for the find

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Fond memories of Social Networking 1.0Once upon a time there was a mystical magical land called Social Networking 1.0; or as us old folks like to call them – forums. It was a wonderful place where you could not only meet up with other professional SEOs, but webmasters and curious onlookers alike. They could be engaging, enlightening, frustrating and fun; often quite consuming. But, for a young SEO practitioner, there is also a hidden value to remember that is potentially important to your future. I don’t get out to the boards as much as I did a few years ago, but like many SEOs, countless hours have been consumed within them. True to my moniker, theGypsy, I have bopped around a lot and have accounts in more locales than I can remember (right Able?). While reflecting upon what I enjoy about that social format, a few things seemed truly important...

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It’s all about getting along with your neighbours A while ago the fine folks at Yahoo! had a patent granted relating to Personalized PageRank (/search-engines/algorithm-matters/yahoo-page-rank-and-teleportation-oh-my.html), (or User Sensitive PageRank (http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20080010281.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080010281RS=DN/20080010281)). At the time it was not only interesting but just fun from a ‘my PageRank is better than yours’ perspective. Today I ran into another Yahoo! patent that makes mention of said Personalized PageRank and another potential candidate for the lexicon; HarmonyRank. It is sort of like, how well do you play with others ;0)System and method for characterizing a web page using multiple anchor sets of web pages (http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20080082481.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080082481RS=DN/20080082481)- filed Oct.2006; Published April 03 2008 “ An improved method for characterizing a web page using multiple anchor sets of web pages. “search masters (http://www.seobythesea.com/), have a look around right? Ok, seems these fellows have ALL also worked on; Anchor-based Proximity Measures (http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amrutaj/work/papers/www2007.pdf) (PDF) – 2007; which discusses...

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Just in case no one had filled you in on it yet - people are gaming the system. Yes, shocking but true. In today's story, via TechCrunch, it seems a company named Slide was caught putting fake reviews of their FaceBook app (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/03/slide-caught-posting-fake-positive-reviews-for-their-own-app/). Now I am sure this comes as no suprise to you as aptly put by Duncan; Fake reviews seem to be part of the norm these days. however most companies are smart enough to cover their tracks. Ain't it the truth? These turkeys actually used company linked FaceBook accounts. The point here is more about the ones we don't see and the viability towards many aspects of trustability for said networks. Will they soon become poisoned?It reminds me of a story that I covered (/news/latest/creating-content-the-easy-way..html) a year and a half ago about newspapers using automated software to write news stories (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8JMB7E00&show_article=1)... ha ha ha... by now I...