I've had the Outbrain stars on my blog and vote option on my feedflare for a while. I like the ease of use and I like the anonymous feedback.
I recently got on to the beta to add the Outbrain recommendations widget. You can see the most popular stories (by rating) have been added to the top right of the blog.
I'd encourage you to start rating my blog posts. Why? Outbrain learns what you like and starts to make recommendations for you. Think of it as a personalised and content sensitive widget version of Google News.
There's a catch; it needs enough data before it can start to make recommendations. Does anyone know of any other search related Outbrain blogs? I'm inclined to start reading them so I can start building up my Outbrain profile.
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Outbrain
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Steve Leach the blogger
Well! This is certainly better than finding your mum on Facebook but who expected to find a Steve Leach blogging?
I don't see Steve a fraction as often as I used to. He's busy jetting around between the bigmouthmedia offices and being the Big Cheese. His blog is going to be a good way to find out what he's thinking about this week! Personally, I'm thinking about a campaign to inundate his blog with comment demands for a pizza chef for the Edinburgh office.
I did greet our new UK Head of HR with a staff request form outlining the need for a head pizza chef, pointing out that the position was currently vacant, but I didn't get very far. Oh well!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Search Engine Land's Secrets : Mining SearchCap
I really like SearchCap - it's the daily summary of events at Search Engine Land and it includes interesting link finds from around the web.
I've been analysing those link finds. I've looked at three whole months of data! That's a lot. That's 2963 links, excluding links to press release wires and sphinn, and a date range from 1st August to the 31st of October.
In this time Search Engine Land has cited 467 sources! Wow. That's a figure you should use when someone tries to claim that bloggers single source or simple repost news from their RSS reader of a dozen sites.
The most influential site is Search Engine Roundtable (182 posts) which easily beats SearchEngineWatch (105 posts). The top ten sites account for 801 posts and that's nearly 30% of the total. Not bad. I actually have a graph of the longtail (though Microsoft's Excel doesn't name every node on the x-axis). This is a very long graph and you need to click and horizontally scroll to cope with it. 
To get these figures I've done my best to aggregate names and sources. For example, Barry Schwartz is sometimes cited as Cartoon Barry, Wolf Howl could be Graywolf or Micheal Gray, etc.
I'm uploading a bunch of visualisations for this research as they're the best way to get to grips with the data. However, Excel can only map about half of the sources that Search Engine Land actually uses and so graphs like the radar to the left of this have been limited to the top 50 or the top 20.
There are some interesting bits of advice if you're interested in getting into Search Engine Land's SearchCap. Looking at the figures you can see that there are days when the editor (Danny Sullivan, Barry or, I suspect, Tamar giving Barry a helping hand) has made the effort to look around the net for a bunch of new sites or the established information feeders are having a slow day (SMX is on and they're all presenting or live blogging). Looking at this 3 month time period there are days when up to 8 sites make their premier appearance in the list of citations. The good news is that once you have the editors eye you're equally likely to get 2 post mentions as you are to get 1. Furthermore, once you break into the roundup you're likely to get mentioned sometime later that week too.
I'm going to do something crazy and post the whole top 467 list! Are you on it? Here goes!
- 1st - Search Engine Roundtable - 182 posts
- 2nd - Search Engine Watch - 105 posts
- 3rd - Search Engine Journal - 84 posts
- 4th - TechCrunch - 83 posts
- 5th - SEOMoz - 70 posts
- 6th - Search Engine Guide - 62 posts
- 7th - News.com - 57 posts
- 8th - SEO Book - 54 posts
- 9th - ResourceShelf - 53 posts
- 10th - Google Blogoscope - 51 posts
- 11th - SEO by the Sea - 42 posts
- 12th - New York Times - 40 posts
- 13th - Google Operating System - 38 posts
- 14th - Read/Write Web - 37 posts
- 15th - Reuters - 35 posts
- 16th - Online Marketing Blog - 32 posts
- 17th - Bruce Clay - 30 posts
- 18th - Googlified - 30 posts
- 19th - adCenter Blog - 27 posts
- 20th - Inside AdWords - 26 posts
- 21st - MediaPost - 26 posts
- 22nd - Marketing Pilgrim - 25 posts
- 23rd - Forbes - 24 posts
- 24th - Google LatLong - 24 posts
- 25th - Official Google Blog - 24 posts
- 26th - Search Engine Watch Blog - 24 posts
- 27th - ClickZ - 23 posts
- 28th - Digital Inspiration - 23 posts
- 29th - PPC Hero - 22 posts
- 30th - Google Earth Blog - 21 posts
- 31st - InformationWeek - 19 posts
- 32nd - Daily SearchCast - 17 posts
- 33rd - Valleywag - 17 posts
- 34th - Wall Street Journal - 17 posts
- 35th - CNN Money - 15 posts
- 36th - Joost de Valk - 15 posts
- 37th - ViperChill - 15 posts
- 38th - ProBlogger - 14 posts
- 39th - ShoeMoney - 14 posts
- 40th - SEOish - 13 posts
- 41st - SEOptimise - 13 posts
- 42nd - Stone Temple - 13 posts
- 43rd - Inside AdSense - 12 posts
- 44th - Pandia - 12 posts
- 45th - Wired - 12 posts
- 46th - www.10e20.com - 12 posts
- 47th - AdWords API Blog - 11 posts
- 48th - Bob Massa - 11 posts
- 49th - BusinessWeek - 11 posts
- 50th - Googling Google - 11 posts
- 51st - The SEO Scoop - 11 posts
- 52nd - Traffick - 11 posts
- 53rd - Vanessa Fox - 11 posts
- 54th - Ask.com Blog - 10 posts
- 55th - Bill Hartzer - 10 posts
- 56th - BlogStorm - 10 posts
- 57th - Cre8PC - 10 posts
- 58th - InsideGoogle - 10 posts
- 59th - John Andrews - 10 posts
- 60th - Pronet Advertising - 10 posts
- 61st - Rimm Kaufman - 10 posts
- 62nd - Yahoo Search Blog - 10 posts
- 63rd - AIM Clear Blog - 9 posts
- 64th - Bloomberg - 9 posts
- 65th - E-Consultancy - 9 posts
- 66th - Hakia Blog - 9 posts
- 67th - Matt Cutts - 9 posts
- 68th - Search Marketing Standard - 9 posts
- 69th - Cartoon Barry - 8 posts
- 70th - Fantomaster - 8 posts
- 71st - GigaOM - 8 posts
- 72nd - Google Maps API Blog - 8 posts
- 73rd - Greg Boser - 8 posts
- 74th - LinkJuicy - 8 posts
- 75th - Official Google Webmaster Central Blog - 8 posts
- 76th - PC World - 8 posts
- 77th - Silicon Alley Insider - 8 posts
- 78th - Times Online - 8 posts
- 79th - Wolf Howl - 8 posts
- 80th - Ad Age - 7 posts
- 81st - Askville Blog - 7 posts
- 82nd - ComparisonEngines.com - 7 posts
- 83rd - David Dalka - 7 posts
- 84th - Eric Goldman - 7 posts
- 85th - John Mu - 7 posts
- 86th - Jonathan Mendez's Blog - 7 posts
- 87th - Official Gmail Blog - 7 posts
- 88th - Reviewlicious - 7 posts
- 89th - SEO Speedwagon - 7 posts
- 90th - Site Visibility - 7 posts
- 91st - Techipedia - 7 posts
- 92nd - The Guardian - 7 posts
- 93rd - The Register - 7 posts
- 94th - WebProNews - 7 posts
- 95th - Yahoo Publisher Network - 7 posts
- 96th - Inside Google Book Search - 6 posts
- 97th - Lifehacker - 6 posts
- 98th - LiveSide - 6 posts
- 99th - mashable.com - 6 posts
- 100th - orkut Blog - 6 posts
- 101st - Performancing.com - 6 posts
- 102nd - SEO Fast Start - 6 posts
- 103rd - Shimon Sandler - 6 posts
- 104th - Small Business SEM - 6 posts
- 105th - venturebeat.com - 6 posts
- 106th - Yodel Anecdotal - 6 posts
- 107th - eKstreme.com - 5 posts
- 108th - Financial Times - 5 posts
- 109th - Google - 5 posts
- 110th - InfoWorld - 5 posts
- 111th - Jim Boykin - 5 posts
- 112th - John Battelle's Searchblog - 5 posts
- 113th - Karl Ribas - 5 posts
- 114th - Los Angeles Times - 5 posts
- 115th - Mercury News - 5 posts
- 116th - San Francisco Chronicle - 5 posts
- 117th - Search Marketing Expo Blog - 5 posts
- 118th - SiteMost - 5 posts
- 119th - SmartMoney.com - 5 posts
- 120th - Webware - 5 posts
- 121st - Wired Blogs - 5 posts
- 122nd - ZDNet - 5 posts
- 123rd - AdWeek - 4 posts
- 124th - Andrew Girdwood - 4 posts
- 125th - DMOZ Blog - 4 posts
- 126th - Google Analytics Blog - 4 posts
- 127th - Google Code - Updates - 4 posts
- 128th - Google Public Policy Blog - 4 posts
- 129th - Hitwise - 4 posts
- 130th - Jennifer Slegg - 4 posts
- 131st - Live Search Blog - 4 posts
- 132nd - Locally Type - 4 posts
- 133rd - McAnerin Muse - 4 posts
- 134th - Pacific Epoch - 4 posts
- 135th - Paid Content - 4 posts
- 136th - PPC Discussions - 4 posts
- 137th - Red Herring - 4 posts
- 138th - SeattleTimes - 4 posts
- 139th - SEO Beginning Podcast - 4 posts
- 140th - The Link Spiel - 4 posts
- 141st - YouTube Blog - 4 posts
- 142nd - AllThingsD - 3 posts
- 143rd - AP - 3 posts
- 144th - Chicago Tribune - 3 posts
- 145th - Compete Blog - 3 posts
- 146th - eWeek - 3 posts
- 147th - Google Gears API Blog - 3 posts
- 148th - Google Mashup Editor Blog - 3 posts
- 149th - Google News Blog - 3 posts
- 150th - Inside Facebook - 3 posts
- 151st - Micro Persuasion - 3 posts
- 152nd - National Post - 3 posts
- 153rd - Oilman - 3 posts
- 154th - Paul Kedrosky - 3 posts
- 155th - Robert Scoble - 3 posts
- 156th - San Jose Mercury News - 3 posts
- 157th - Search Engine College - 3 posts
- 158th - Search Engine Strategies - 3 posts
- 159th - Techdirt - 3 posts
- 160th - Telegraph - 3 posts
- 161st - Threadwatcher - 3 posts
- 162nd - Twitter Blog - 3 posts
- 163rd - Vnunet.com - 3 posts
- 164th - Washington Post - 3 posts
- 165th - Web Analytics World - 3 posts
- 166th - 97th Floor - 2 posts
- 167th - ABC News - 2 posts
- 168th - Ars Technica - 2 posts
- 169th - Ask Kalena - 2 posts
- 170th - Between the Lines - 2 posts
- 171st - bigmouthmedia - 2 posts
- 172nd - Bill Tancer - 2 posts
- 173rd - Blogger Buzz - 2 posts
- 174th - Bloglines Blog - 2 posts
- 175th - BtoB Magazine - 2 posts
- 176th - Carnage4Life - 2 posts
- 177th - Channel Register - 2 posts
- 178th - Chris Pirillo - 2 posts
- 179th - Closed Loop Marketing - 2 posts
- 180th - ComputerWorld - 2 posts
- 181st - comScore - 2 posts
- 182nd - Copyblogger - 2 posts
- 183rd - David Naylor - 2 posts
- 184th - Digg the Blog - 2 posts
- 185th - DM News - 2 posts
- 186th - Docuticker - 2 posts
- 187th - Download Squad - 2 posts
- 188th - Economist.com - 2 posts
- 189th - Engadget - 2 posts
- 190th - Evil Green Monkey - 2 posts
- 191st - Facebook Developers News - 2 posts
- 192nd - Fast Company - 2 posts
- 193rd - Google AJAX Search API Blog - 2 posts
- 194th - Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog - 2 posts
- 195th - Google Health Ads Blog - 2 posts
- 196th - Google Photos Blog - 2 posts
- 197th - HighRankings - 2 posts
- 198th - JenSense - 2 posts
- 199th - Jeremy Zawodny - 2 posts
- 200th - Joseph Morin - 2 posts
- 201st - juberjabber - 2 posts
- 202nd - Jupiter Research - 2 posts
- 203rd - Justin Davy - 2 posts
- 204th - MacWorld - 2 posts
- 205th - MarketingVOX - 2 posts
- 206th - marketmou.com - 2 posts
- 207th - MarketWatch - 2 posts
- 208th - Mike Blumenthal - 2 posts
- 209th - Muhammad Saleem - 2 posts
- 210th - news.com.com - 2 posts
- 211th - Official Google Checkout Blog - 2 posts
- 212th - Official Google Mac Blog - 2 posts
- 213th - Opera Developer Community - 2 posts
- 214th - PC Magazine - 2 posts
- 215th - Portland SEM Professionals Blog - 2 posts
- 216th - Radar Online - 2 posts
- 217th - Reflections of a Newsosaur - 2 posts
- 218th - Rev2.org - 2 posts
- 219th - Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog - 2 posts
- 220th - Search Engine War - 2 posts
- 221st - Search Marketing Gurus - 2 posts
- 222nd - Search Pulse - 2 posts
- 223rd - Searchnewz - 2 posts
- 224th - SEC - 2 posts
- 225th - SEM Geek - 2 posts
- 226th - SEM Portland - 2 posts
- 227th - SEO Home - 2 posts
- 228th - SEO Montreal - 2 posts
- 229th - SiteProNews Blog - 2 posts
- 230th - Skrentablog - 2 posts
- 231st - Squareoak - 2 posts
- 232nd - Stuntdubl - 2 posts
- 233rd - Tamar Search Blog - 2 posts
- 234th - TorrentFreak - 2 posts
- 235th - Tropical SEO - 2 posts
- 236th - Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search - 2 posts
- 237th - USA Today - 2 posts
- 238th - Yahoo Local Blog - 2 posts
- 239th - 24/7 Wall St. - 1 post
- 240th - AccuraCast - 1 post
- 241st - Adotas - 1 post
- 242nd - AFX - 1 post
- 243rd - AIMS - 1 post
- 244th - All About Microsoft - 1 post
- 245th - Alt Search Engines - 1 post
- 246th - Altogether Digital - 1 post
- 247th - Andy Beard - 1 post
- 248th - Assetbar - 1 post
- 249th - Australian IT - 1 post
- 250th - billing.tmcnet.com - 1 post
- 251st - blog.flickr.com - 1 post
- 252nd - Blogger Blog - 1 post
- 253rd - BloggingStocks - 1 post
- 254th - Bloglines News - 1 post
- 255th - blognation UK - 1 post
- 256th - blogs.cnet.com - 1 post
- 257th - blogs.msdn.com - 1 post
- 258th - Blue Hat SEO - 1 post
- 259th - boston.bizjournals.com - 1 post
- 260th - Brad Geddes - 1 post
- 261st - Brisbane SEO Blog - 1 post
- 262nd - Business Standard - 1 post
- 263rd - Campus Technology - 1 post
- 264th - Catherine "Cat" Seda - 1 post
- 265th - CBC - 1 post
- 266th - CenterNetworks - 1 post
- 267th - Charlene Li - 1 post
- 268th - Chilling Effects Clearinghouse - 1 post
- 269th - Chris Boggs - 1 post
- 270th - Chronicle.com - 1 post
- 271st - CNBC.com - 1 post
- 272nd - Coding Horror - 1 post
- 273rd - Cre8asite Blog - 1 post
- 274th - Cre8tive Flow - 1 post
- 275th - CRN - 1 post
- 276th - Cshel - 1 post
- 277th - Daggle - 1 post
- 278th - Dairies Around The World - 1 post
- 279th - DamnDomainer - 1 post
- 280th - Dan Skeen - 1 post
- 281st - David Airey - 1 post
- 282nd - David Weiss - 1 post
- 283rd - Deutsche Welle - 1 post
- 284th - Dexterity Media - 1 post
- 285th - Digg - 1 post
- 286th - Distilled - 1 post
- 287th - DomainTools - 1 post
- 288th - DoshDosh - 1 post
- 289th - Editor & Publisher - 1 post
- 290th - Ego Food - 1 post
- 291st - E-Marketing Performanc - 1 post
- 292nd - Engine Ready - 1 post
- 293rd - Eric Enge - 1 post
- 294th - eWhisper.net - 1 post
- 295th - Fathom SEO - 1 post
- 296th - F'dGoogle - 1 post
- 297th - FierceIPTV - 1 post
- 298th - FirstMonday - 1 post
- 299th - FTC - 1 post
- 300th - Gadood - 1 post
- 301st - Geeking with Greg - 1 post
- 302nd - Gnucitizen - 1 post
- 303rd - Google Custom Search - 1 post
- 304th - Google Desktop APIs - 1 post
- 305th - Google Reader Blog - 1 post
- 306th - Google SketchUp Blog - 1 post
- 307th - Google Web Toolkit Blog - 1 post
- 308th - googlewatch.eweek.com - 1 post
- 309th - Graphing Social - 1 post
- 310th - Green Marketing Blog - 1 post
- 311th - Groklaw - 1 post
- 312th - Groundswell - 1 post
- 313th - Gspy - 1 post
- 314th - Guardian Unlimited - 1 post
- 315th - ha.ckers.org - 1 post
- 316th - Half's SEO Notebook - 1 post
- 317th - Hamlet Batista - 1 post
- 318th - Hindustan Times - 1 post
- 319th - Hotmail Blog - 1 post
- 320th - HTML Goodies - 1 post
- 321st - IEEE Spectrum - 1 post
- 322nd - I'm Not A Doctor - 1 post
- 323rd - InfoToday - 1 post
- 324th - INQUIRER.net - 1 post
- 325th - Inside Google Desktop - 1 post
- 326th - Intrapromote - 1 post
- 327th - Jabz - 1 post
- 328th - Jack Humphrey - 1 post
- 329th - Jason Bartholme - 1 post
- 330th - Jewess - 1 post
- 331st - Jill Whalen - 1 post
- 332nd - JLH Design - 1 post
- 333rd - John Honeck - 1 post
- 334th - Joost - 1 post
- 335th - Kevin Lee - 1 post
- 336th - Lee McCoy - 1 post
- 337th - LinkedIn Blog - 1 post
- 338th - Linux Insider - 1 post
- 339th - Live Maps Blog - 1 post
- 340th - Lost Art Of Blogging - 1 post
- 341st - Mad - 1 post
- 342nd - Marketing Piranha - 1 post
- 343rd - Marketing Week - 1 post
- 344th - MarketingSherpa - 1 post
- 345th - MarketingShift - 1 post
- 346th - Media Info Center - 1 post
- 347th - MediaWeek - 1 post
- 348th - Mercury News - 1 post
- 349th - Metaversed - 1 post
- 350th - Middle East Times - 1 post
- 351st - Mike Grehan - 1 post
- 352nd - Mike Nott - 1 post
- 353rd - Mike The Internet Guy - 1 post
- 354th - Mitt Romney - 1 post
- 355th - MSNBC.com - 1 post
- 356th - Multilingual Search - 1 post
- 357th - Natural Search Blog - 1 post
- 358th - Netcraft - 1 post
- 359th - News & Observer - 1 post
- 360th - news.zdnet.com - 1 post
- 361st - Newsknife - 1 post
- 362nd - NewTeeVee - 1 post
- 363rd - NMA - 1 post
- 364th - nvestor's Business Daily - 1 post
- 365th - Official Google CPG Blog - 1 post
- 366th - Official Google Enterprise Blog - 1 post
- 367th - Ogle Earth - 1 post
- 368th - Ogletree - 1 post
- 369th - Omniture - 1 post
- 370th - One Man's Blog - 1 post
- 371st - ONLamp.com - 1 post
- 372nd - OUT-LAW.COM - 1 post
- 373rd - Page Zero Media - 1 post
- 374th - PC Advisor - 1 post
- 375th - Pennsylvania State University - 1 post
- 376th - Pipes Blog - 1 post
- 377th - Pocket SEO - 1 post
- 378th - PPC Lab - 1 post
- 379th - Practical Ecommerce - 1 post
- 380th - Pubcon Blog - 1 post
- 381st - Quick Sprout - 1 post
- 382nd - radar.oreilly.com - 1 post
- 383rd - RB Digital Rodeo - 1 post
- 384th - Reality SEO - 1 post
- 385th - RentVine.com - 1 post
- 386th - reportonbusiness.com - 1 post
- 387th - ResearchBuzz - 1 post
- 388th - Rhea Drysdale - 1 post
- 389th - rizzn.com v11.1 - 1 post
- 390th - Royal Pingdom - 1 post
- 391st - roySchneider.com - 1 post
- 392nd - Salon - 1 post
- 393rd - San Jose Business Journal - 1 post
- 394th - Scott Hendison - 1 post
- 395th - Screenwerk - 1 post
- 396th - ScrippsNews - 1 post
- 397th - Scripting News - 1 post
- 398th - Search Engine Blog - 1 post
- 399th - Search Engine People - 1 post
- 400th - Search Tools - 1 post
- 401st - SearchRank - 1 post
- 402nd - Seattle 24x7 - 1 post
- 403rd - Seeking Alpha - 1 post
- 404th - SEM Scholar - 1 post
- 405th - SEM Spot - 1 post
- 406th - SEO 2.0 - 1 post
- 407th - SEO Brien - 1 post
- 408th - SEO Consultants - 1 post
- 409th - SEO Egghead - 1 post
- 410th - SEO Refugee - 1 post
- 411th - SEO Trends - 1 post
- 412th - SEO Wife - 1 post
- 413th - SEOCO Blog - 1 post
- 414th - SEOdisco - 1 post
- 415th - ShadyKing - 1 post
- 416th - shanghaiist.com - 1 post
- 417th - Shylock Blogging - 1 post
- 418th - SiteLogic - 1 post
- 419th - slashdot.org - 1 post
- 420th - smackdown.blogsblogsblogs.com - 1 post
- 421st - Small Business Hub - 1 post
- 422nd - Snowboard John - 1 post
- 423rd - Social Media Explorer - 1 post
- 424th - Sugarrae - 1 post
- 425th - Sydney Morning Herald - 1 post
- 426th - Technology Evangelist - 1 post
- 427th - Technology Review - 1 post
- 428th - Technovelgy - 1 post
- 429th - Text Link Center - 1 post
- 430th - The Agency Blog - 1 post
- 431st - The Canadian Press - 1 post
- 432nd - The Dalles Chronicle - 1 post
- 433rd - The DigitalGrit Blog - 1 post
- 434th - The Korea Times - 1 post
- 435th - The Mobile Gadgeteer - 1 post
- 436th - The New York Observer - 1 post
- 437th - The Onion - 1 post
- 438th - The Organic SEO - 1 post
- 439th - The Pownce Blog - 1 post
- 440th - The Red Tape Chronicles - 1 post
- 441st - The Sun Chronicle Online - 1 post
- 442nd - The Unofficial Facebook Blog - 1 post
- 443rd - TUAW - 1 post
- 444th - Twist Image - 1 post
- 445th - US News - 1 post
- 446th - Utah Search Engine Optimization - 1 post
- 447th - V7N Blog - 1 post
- 448th - Virtual Hosting Blog - 1 post
- 449th - Wiep.net - 1 post
- 450th - Windows Live Blog - 1 post
- 451st - Wireless Business - 1 post
- 452nd - www.btobonline.com - 1 post
- 453rd - www.fathomseo.com - 1 post
- 454th - www.internetnews.com - 1 post
- 455th - www.kxan.com - 1 post
- 456th - www.labnol.org - 1 post
- 457th - www.localseoguide.com - 1 post
- 458th - www.pubcon.com - 1 post
- 459th - www.ranksmart.com - 1 post
- 460th - www.sagoodnews.co.za - 1 post
- 461st - www.webbedmarketing.com - 1 post
- 462nd - www.webwereld.nl - 1 post
- 463rd - Yahoo Research - 1 post
- 464th - Yahoo Widgets Blog - 1 post
- 465th - Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog - 1 post
- 466th - Yahoo! Video - 1 post
- 467th - The Venture Skills Blog - 1 post
The graph above shows the inclusion rates of the top 20 contributors. As you can see; it's fairly spiky. Simply put on some days SearchCap includes more citations than on other days. There are days when the top feeders dominate the SearchCap and provide, between them, nearly 90% of the links.
I thought it might be interesting to look at SEOmoz and see how their inclusion has been over the last three months. Does it fluctuate? Yes, it does, but no more than any other site.
Gosh. There are some caveats here. There is an acceptable degree of error here. If this was a work project one of our Search Analysts would have done this, this would have been checked by another before being given to whoever requested the research in the first place (and may be checked again by their line manager). None of that happened here (no work resources was wasted on this project! :) ) so I've bound to have put a tally wrong here or there - but, as a whole, this is accurate enough research.
Update Barry suggested it would be nice to see what the average citations per day was - the answer is 40.8. It's rare to find a site get more than 5 citations. Search Engine Roundtable tends to pick up about 4% which is about 10%.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research
Dave Munger at ScienceBlogs.com has created a series of badges (which I'm using incorrectly here) designed to be used when a blog is posting news of a science story and posting with some authority.
The most common science blog post is a lot like the most common SEM blog post - it's a "me too" post. The blogger has seen something that's worth passing on, writing up or commenting on.
We have "SEO discoveries" that become "concrete truths" when enough famous SEO bloggers cover the story (which is a bad thing, btw). The science blog community is stalked by a similar problem. If enough science bloggers comment on a story or paper then there's the risk that the paper begins to have more gravitas than it really deserves.
What Munger's badges help do is identify those science bloggers who are commenting on the story and who has looked at the original paper. ScienceBlogs.com say this;
Use of the logo, ... , means a blogger is not just commenting on research that's been reported in the media, but rather has gone, so to speak, straight to the horse's mouth to look up the original peer-reviewed journal article.
As this stands - this wouldn't work for the SEM community as not enough of us publish anything and because it's next to impossible to test in 'lab conditions'.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Spam from LiveJournal's Project Gizmo partner
I've been with LiveJournal for years (and, right now, I'm not going anywhere) without having any Unsolicited Commercial Emails (UCE) issues with them.
Today I got UCE from Project Gizmo who power the default Windows application for LJ Talk - LiveJournal's Instant Messenger.
Now, I don't recall any opt-in or opt-out checkboxes in the process. In fact, the screen grab alongside this shows the download form. You simply grab the .exe and log in.
LiveJournal do say that they'll share some data with their partners. That'll be how Project Gizmo managed to translate my log in into an email address.
Brad Fitzpatrick, of course, left LiveJournal and Six Apart to join Google (not Facebook; which is the fashion currently) and there were rumours at the time that Six Apart/Danga was sinking into dark times. I would imagine he would be less than happy with the idea of LiveJournal passing details on for an UCE blast.
What's Fitpatrick doing now? (Probably) deeply involved in Google's forthcoming social networking projects. 
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
SMO pisses people off
They consider my personal voice a commodity to be acquired, along with what little credibility and authenticity I have. This--I'm afraid--just pisses me off.
That's a quote from one of my favourite blogs, Plasticbag.org, by Tom Coates of Yahoo.
Tom goes on to note that even Jeremy Zawodny finds some of the SMO approaches to be slightly queasy.
Tom's talking about 'PR people' but this is PR in the SMO sense. In particular, a comment from keeneypr got his goat - and rightly so.
Our job is to get even "challenging" people like you to write, say and/or do what our clients and companies want -- of your own volition -- and not even realize that you're doing it. If you are telling us that you only want information from people whose views you like and trust, then we'll just reach you through them and you'll never be the wiser.
Talk about smug confidence, huh?
The thing is - Coates is smart. He will realise when he is being 'optimised'.
Most of the blogs you care about are written by smart people. These smart people will have either made the decision to accept influence (often in return for a goodie or two) or will, like Coates, reject it.
So, am I against Social Media Optimisation?
No. I actually like it. I like it because it works, because it represents one of the evolutionary paths that Search Marketing is taking as our discipline begins to take over from traditional marketing and I like it because we get to work with smart people like Tom Coates1.
The issue with Social Media Optimisation (other than the word 'optimisation') is that it is new and we are learning.
I believe that we have ethical social media optimisation and unethical social media optimisation. An example of 'unethical social media optimisation' could be something as a false review or as something as malicious as faked complaints.
I think we will also see aggressive social media optimisation and polite social media optimisation. It's the aggressive social media optimisation that, I think, pisses Tom Coates off. Aggressive SMO is bombarding key influencers with press releases or shelling blogs with a never ending rain of sycophantic comments. Polite SMO is the willingness to come forward and invite conversion, to rate key bloggers as highly as key journalists, a quick response time to issues on the web, openness, community insight, trust networks and I'm sure we can find time for some influence diagrams too.
I predict that we'll see some division over which works best - aggressive or polite. My natural inclination is to favour polite. I suspect it'll work better and piss less people off.
One thing is for certain - if "PR experts" are commenting that they're getting you to say what they want and that you'll never be the wiser - then the SMO/online PR community still has a lot to learn.
1 I don't actually work with Tom Coates.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
SEO in Scotland
Yep. That's right. I'm from Scotland and live in Scotland. In fact, I've just bought my first wee flat down near Edinburgh's Shore district.
It takes me about an hour to fly down to London. I do this once or twice a week. That's not bad for a commute at all. I was talking to a Google Manager today who takes an hour every morning to reach her desk in Google's Manchester office.
In today's marketing world distance really isn't an issue. We have email. We have phone and internet conferences. Oh, we certainly have voip and Skype too. I find communicating and meeting with clients based in London and even New York is easy.
One thing to note about Scotland is how strong it is for SEO. There are quite a few agencies, blogs and names worth noting. If we had an SEO World Cup - then Scotland would do very well.
I particularly enjoy keeping an eye on Scottish SEO blogs. It's pleasing to see that we ride the curve. Two in particular, Paul Steven and his North South Media blog and Shaun Anderson's Hobo SEO blog keep my attention. In fact, the battle for 'Scottish SEO' terms is so fierce among the locals that Paul keeps tally of how well people are doing.
The other thing to note about Scotland is that we have our own notes. We use Pound Sterling like the English, Northern Irish and Welsh but print our own folding money. It's perfectly legal to spend it in England... just be prepared to battle with London taxi drivers!
While I'm on the subject of SEO hubs in the UK I'd have to mention Brighton of course. There's an unusual collection of good (some not so good!) SEO firms and bloggers down there too.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Remember when Google was slow - part two
There you have it. I managed to pull a Vanessa Fox. 
I'm still not sure whether Google's just very fast, whether this is Universal Search or whether it matters at all. Never the less; I'm impressed.
Remember when Google was slow?
Here's a question for you? Is this an example of Google's Universal Search plucking a Blog Search result and adding it into the main search or is this Google being very quick?
Vanessa Fox's post has the SERPs all to itself. If anyone has what it takes to get rankings quickly then it would be Vanessa. Zillow will be pleased!
How quick was Google? It took less than two hours.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Yahoo try again to define SMO
After the poor schmoes incident I couldn't but help notice that Yahoo had had posted another possible definition of social media optimisation again.
Social Media Optimization
Social media optimization refers to making a web site or blog more adaptable to social media. It involves adding compelling, dynamic and fresh content on a regular basis—stuff like tip sheets, how-to’s, white papers, podcasts or videos can be especially sticky, can get more links to and help drive better ranking among search engines and specialty sites such as Technorati or Blogpulse. Other examples of SMO include the implementation of links to social media web sites to make tagging, sharing book marks (del.icio.us, Add to MyYahoo!), and voting for content (Digg, Reddit, Netscape) by visitors easier.
This quote is taken from Yahoo's YPN publisher blog. I'm sure more people will be happy with this write up.
Yahoo's post is also a good example of SMO. It's using the blog space to try and build bridges. It's about encouraging conversation and being around to reply.
Monday, June 11, 2007
RSS updates, LiveJournal and Google
Google 0wns my LiveJournal friends page right now. They do so unfairly. Google hasn't posted a whole wave of new blog posts (sadly). Nevertheless, all but one of the posts on my friends page is from Google. The graphic on the left is a shot of my friends page summary.
LiveJournal has decided that old posts are new. This is an easy trap to fall into in Blogger - just add a label to an old post and it'll get a new timestamp and you'll find it in people's RSS readers. Sometimes webmasters tweak things so that the whole RSS feed updates (or seems to be updated; republished for example) and the whole whack of 'recent' entries get re-posted.
I like LiveJournal. Okay. It's not cool. I was on LiveJournal went MySpace wasn't coo l and Facebook was for kids - so it's been around for a while
I really like LiveJournal's "friends" function. My friends page is an collection of the most recent posts from my friends (as marked in the LiveJournal network) and as you can see I've Google as a friend. Or rather; you can also add RSS feeds to your friends page.
Recently, both Vanessa Fox (naked) and Adam Lasnik (clothed) have posted about their wish for a social network that lets you filter friends/interest appropriately. Okay; this may be a clue for us.... but let's come back to LiveJournal for a moment. LiveJournal lets you set up filters on your friends page. I've my friends tagged as "people" and Google tagged as "newsfeeds". My default friends page shows both - but I can filter out "newsfeeds" if I just want to see what actual people are doing.
I could (but haven't) also create different levels of friend filters - so I could stay up to date with what close friends are doing but tune down the twitter scribblings of a less well known associate. Better still; these contacts can't see my internal friend filters and so they'll never know.
LiveJournal was bought by SixApart (Movable Type) a few years ago and now uses "nofollow" on the friends page (to stop spamming). I do think they are a "buy" for a search engine or large company looking to move into the social space. However, LiveJournal is very large and hard to earn revenue from (though a good internal search engine would be great!) and I'm sure this is one of the obstacles in any further acquisition.
Update: Techcrunch as some reasons to as to why Google may have republishing feeds and battling with RSS.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Blogs, blogs, blogs
"Blogs, blogs, blogs" - haha, no - not trying to keyword stuff. This is an aggregate post on blogs.
I've re-jigged my blogroll (and called it a blogroll for the first time too). I still read the blogs I've taken off but just thought they were either inappropriate for this blog's blogroll or unnecessary for the blogroll. I don't need to recommend Google's main blog to you, do I?
I've added Hoachi's excellent Googlified, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim (and credit to Jordan McCollum's contributions too) and I've added SEO by the SEA too. One of the early "wins" from this blog has been my discovery of SEO by the SEA.
I've also added a link to e-Consultancy too. I tried to slyly make that blogroll point directly at my new expert blogger status there but just couldn't do it! It seemed too much like a cheap trick. I'm really pleased to be blogging at e-consultancy. The additional blog gives me the chance to talk more about SEM to an audience interested in learning about SEM or hearing what professional SEMers from agencies have to say.
Here's a recommendation for you. Andy Beal's hit on another clever idea and is asking for suggestions of RSS feeds worth subscribing too. This isn't re-hashing the 'A-list' of blogs but Andy's attempt to unearth blogs worth reading that aren't counted among the 'A-list'. I'm using the post to talent scout too!
The 'A-list'. Meh. What a horrible phrase. I remember clearly that one of the reasons I started this blog was because of frustration at the unhelpful cliques on the forums. Are people beginning to get annoyed at the blogging cliques now too? Yes - based on the grapevine today. Much of this started when Michael Gray asked 'non A-list' to stop blogging. I think this was un-intentional linkbait though I'm sure he'd argue it was intentional now!
I'm not an A-list blogger. I only kick started this blog at the start of the year. I get more traffic to my Bom Chicka Wah Wah post than to my homepage at times. I don't really deserve to be an 'A-list' blogger either because I simply don't have the time to give to this blog. However I am aware of a real difference between 'A-list' bloggers and Search Marketing consultants with experience of, say, an annual $2,000,000 PPC campaign, or an SEO campaign across 20 countries, three creative agencies, four production teams, six project planners and co-ordination with a multi-million pound TV campaign.
I'm not saying that simply working at a large and successful Search agency makes you 'A-list' in anyway but there cannot be many marketing disciplines where the collective voice of so many SME's out weighs the reputation of the heavy-hitters.
In some ways this is a good thing. This innovation and transparency in the forefront. If Jo Blogger discovers a Google bug they'll blog about it and lap up the traffic. I won't do that. If I discover a Google bug then I'm emailing that off to contacts in Google. I reckon, since I started this blog, I've written two such emails that could have put this blog on the main news at Search Engine Land. I've been linked to by Techcrunch and ZDNet already this year. Rather than shouting; "Yay!" I winced and worried that I'd blogged too much detail!
I also sometimes wince at what is handed out as canon advice to people in search conferences. My Meta, meta, meta post at e-consultancy touches on that. I so often hear SME SEO dismiss the Robots meta tag. That's fair to a point but the larger the project then the more important future proofing becomes. This is sometimes an example of a so-called 'A-list' blogger not being able to translate their skills to an 'A-list' client roster.
Also on the negative side of having so many passionate, intelligent but relatively small consultancies and companies set the SEO agenda is that it keeps the industry feeling 'cottage' rather than looking like the multi-billion offering it is.
Lisa Barone, over at the Bruce Clay blog, is an example of someone who does really well at getting that mix right. She writes from one of the bigger SEO agencies, but writes in a style which captures the attention of the SEO blog community, she writes about issues appropriate to both a blog and a client-based readership and writes about them to an appropriate depth. The Bruce Clay blog does not feel cottage!
Do I have a conclusion? I do. I'm disagreeing with Gray. I don't want less famous search bloggers to stop writing. I want them to keep on writing. I also want to see more blog posts akin to what we get from The Lisa and Gord Hotchkiss. I want to see blog posts from bigger SEM agencies or full service agencies who try and offer SEO and PPC to their clients!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Why SearchEngineLand and SERoundtable are heavy hitters
Look at my subscription trends. Brand Republic dominates. Brand Republic is closely followed by the ever cutting The Register and then, after a gap, Search Engine Land.
Okay. That's a big gap. Search Engine Land does not compete with the high volume, high quality professional sites... but compare it to TechCrunch. Search Engine Land, with Danny Sullivan at the helm, out posts TechCrunch who have just hired Heather Harde from Fox to act as CEO. If Danny is the CEO of Search Engine Land he's also the MD and editor in chief. That's a lot of responsibility and you would have to admit that he does very well.
Of course, at Search Engine Land there are other passionate and intelligent contributors - you'll have noted that I've come to really rate Bill Slawski and Barry Schwartz. You know Chris Sherman is a power of support behind the scenes. Slawski does quality. Schwartz seems to dedicate himself to writing about breaking news. A review of my trends shows that he has two - Cartoon Barry and SERoundtable - in my list. That's some achievement!
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, of course, does well as does UK favourite E-Consultancy. It's a shame that there isn't an US equivalent of E-Consultancy as I find myself only able to review the high level agency activity and the blog level SEO activity. I'm not sure how to classify Marketing Pilgrim. It seems bigger than a blog but also more personal than a news site like Search Engine Land or The Register. However I classify the site - I do get a positive and up-to-the-minute vibe from the site.
What Search Engine Land and SERoundtable do (and bare in mind that Barry Schwartz contributes to both) is to dedicate ample resources to monitoring the internet. They have people watching the Key Influencing Forums and Blogs (*gasp* social media optimisation) and have resources enough to post quick and intelligent replies.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Evolved blogging - paying to comment
Heh. I'd ask you to file this one under "crazy brainstorming ideas" but it is the third time I've been inspired to scribble down and evolve this idea. Over at Techcrunch there's a quick feature on Seriosity. What Seriosity allows you to do is attach a virtual e-payment to emails you send. Not real money. This is a virtual currency; the Serio. I agree with the psychology. People like to collect things. One of the reasons, I think, sites like LinkedIn do well is because people like to be seen to have connections. They collect connections. Attaching Serios to emails means your email will stand out. If you're collecting Serios then you're much more likely to open an email associated to 100 Serios (and keep the 100 Serios for doing so) than you are to open an email from a name you do not recognise (and earn nothing). Serios are there to make your emails stand out.
Arrington argues that the Serio is pointless and worthless unless you're allowed to cash out (as you could with beenz and other boom currencies). He may be right.
The debate reminded me on my past ramblings on Blog Comments 2.0 and CAPTCHA versus Cash. Each post discusses the idea whether people would be willing to pay a micro deposit in order to leave a comment on a blog. Real money. You'd invest something like 0.1p (which would be 0.05c currently) in order to comment. If the blogger approved your comment then you'd get this back. If not - then you'd loose it.
The idea is that if you're an average user you might invest up to, what, 10p (100 comments!) a day. Not much of a risk. Of course, you'd loose 0.1p now and then but could make it back by not approving unwelcome comments on your blog. Once you get over the initial technological and psychological hurdles this would not be too scary at all. Spammers, on the other hand, would risk £pounds as they dumped thousands of comments a day and would be unlikely to get anything back.
This real money solution depends on Google or someone else cracking micro-payments. However, there is an alternative.
Do I think a real money solution would work? Today, right now, when I think about this - nah. No. Never. People are unwilling to comment on a blog when there's a rel="nofollow" around. It seems that if people need an incentive (all be it a small and free one) in order to be persuaded to comment then the psychological barrier that paying to comment represents would be unscalable.
Maybe Seriosity and I can combine ideas. You use a virtual currency in order to leave blog comments. If your comment is approved you get the virtual token back. If your comment is rejected then the blogger keeps it. You can cash in your virtual currency for - gosh, extra hosting space for your blog, Google Checkout cash, a mention on a Seriosity/Digg hybrid newspaper which highlights blog posts or maybe you could use your comment currency in conjunction with a site like co.mments in order to ensure your contribution triggers an email alert.
Thoughts? I promise it's free to comment!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Designing your RSS for Mobile Devices
I travel a lot. I travel an awful lot. In the UK we have offices in Edinburgh, London and Manchester and I've staff in each one. Around the world we have offices as far a way as New York, Russia and Korea. Needless to say - we've clients in equally as far flung locations!
When I travel I need my BlackBerry. It keeps in touch with email. There's a handy app for Google Maps (though a paper map is always quickly). There's also Google Reader Mobile. Many ARHG readers will know what it's like to aggregate (easily) over a hundred RSS posts a day. If I'm away for several days then there can be a mountain of posts to sort though if I don't check the mobile reader.
First off the mobile reader, which you can check via your normal browser, strips away everything apart from the first five RSS headings. If you want, at a click, you can mark these all as read. When you do the reader fetches the next five. It fetches them quickly. Posts are marked as read as you read them unless you click to leave them unread. You read from one post to another.
A really clever bit is that you can select those RSS posts which only offer a summary, click through to the full post but still stay (somewhat) inside the reader. I can read the likes of ZDNet (who don't give away much of their post in the RSS nodes) without having to persuade the BlackBerry's browser to download the normal HTML page.
I highly recommend Google Reader's mobile version.
Could it be better? Sure. Of course! I subscribe to both The Register and Brand Republic because each site is cracking for news. Each site, however, is a very busy RSS feed and when I'm trying to review my RSS at the end of a long day on the BlackBerry I wish there was a way to mark all the posts from any given publisher as read.
There are some RSS feeds that I can't cope with on the mobile reader though. One of my regular reads is Andy Beard. I read his blog because it mixes marketing with technology in a way that many others do not and Andy's not afraid to say what he thinks. So, I like Andy's blog. I've taken him off my Google Reader though. Why? His posts aren't kind to slow and small screen devices.
Here's what a footer looks like from an Andy Beard post on the web.
Here's what a footer looks like from an RSS point of view. 
It's much longer! When you're on the mobile device you really don't want to download a picture nor is a feedflare for facebook or trackbacking. The related links are nice, subtle and useful on the web read but clutter on the mobile device.
I'm just using Andy Beard as an example here. There are many other blogs with a similar approach (Search Engine Land has a largefeedflare ) and until Google Reader offers me a "for mobile / not for mobile" switch I'm left to subscribe to mobile safe (safer) feeds and check the others by hand when I'm at my laptop or PC.
As it happens, I expect we'll see more mobile enhancements to Google Reader and other RSS aggregators.
... roll on WiMax, huh?
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Bog Search References
File this in the "new for me" folder. I spend so much time charging around London that I can sometimes miss these little tweaks. Our internal newsletter is at hand to scoop up all the search engine news that I miss through my travels and I particularly liked this one.
Google's encouraging us to examine the backlinks for blog posts - references to the blog. Of course, this is exactly the original Google model where links are treated as academic citations.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Comments coming - despite Google's wi-fi woes
Over at Google's Webmaster Central Blog Vanessa Fox has posted to let us know that comments are coming to that blog. The webmaster blog will be among the first Google blogs to tackle the thorny issue of comments. We're also told that the Webmaster Console is coming out of the beta.
I'm not surprised that the Webmaster Console made it. I am surprised that comments are coming so soon.
I recall a Googler describing the (then) Sitemap XML as a project which would either succeed hugely or fail hugely. It's succeeded hugely. Although some SEOers dislike and distrust it (they dislike anything which empowers the average webmaster in the ways of SEO) the rest of the internet has really embraced it.
I'm intrigued as to how the Google comments will work. At the tail end of last year I wrote about comments 2.0 in the hope that Google would find something new. Have they? Already? It seems so soon. Perhaps Google have simply hired the man power needed to approve or ignore all the comments they'll get.
Oh. My favourite thing about Vanessa's post? That she was two meters away from me inside the Speakers' room at SES London when she (coffee in hand) hit the Publish button.
At SES London we found this news out a few minutes before the rest of the world as Matt Cutts announced it during his keynote interview with Chris. He scouted the room for Vanessa first. "It's not posted!" she shouted, "There's no wifi here!". I feel her pain. There is the ghost of wifi here. You can sometimes see the SES network blipping onto your radar, sometimes get connected (if you know the password) but rarely have enough juice to establish even an HTTP connection before the network fails again. Ah! Conferences!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Success?
Many years ago a made a New Year's Resolution to stop making New Year's Resolutions because they were naff. Last year, just before New Year, I made the determination to do something with this blog. Last year I posted 42 times. This is the 45th post this month. More in a month than in last year.
- Eric Marcoullier
- Graywolf
- rustybrick
- cre8pc Kim
- Dugdale
- Lisa Barone
- BHartzer
- AbleReach
- Bill Slawski
- Bradley Horowitz
- Jill Whalen ... well, nearly.
If you're starting a blog, if you're moving up a gear with your blog or if you want to make changes to your blog then really do consider MyBlogLog!
Next month should be good too. I'll be speaking at eWorld, Technology For Marketing and Search Engine Strategies London. There are a handful of e-Consultancy roundtables lined up too. All-in-all; there will be much to blog about.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Which is better for SEO? Absolute Unique Visitors, New or Returning Visitors?
Ha. This blog title is a loaded question.
Which is better for SEO? Absolute Unique Visitors, New or Returning Visitors?
Simply put different web sites have different needs and different visitors do different things. A client rang with the "Which is better?" question within minutes of Google posting a useful walk-through on their Analytics Blog. I recommend this Google blog above many others. You will find countless SEO blogs but this is the only analytics blog.
The client in question is the marketing manager for a content site with a subscription model. You get a teaser of an article for free and if you want to read the whole thing then you need to subscribe to the site.
Absolute Unique Visitors are important to them because they represent people finding the site. This is their search traffic as well as links from elsewhere - blog citations, Google Desktop alerts, forum links, social search links or even direct traffic. Each absolute unique visitor is someone who could become a subscriber. If comparison date range is large enough then absolute unique visitors are highly unlikely to already be a subscriber.
That can't be said for New or Returning visits. A New Visitor could well be someone who has discovered the site before. A "New Visit" can come from an "Prior Visitor". The Google Analytics GU