Isabell Wagner speaking at SMX Munich

Isabell Wagner speaking at SMX Munich, originally uploaded by Bigmouthmedia.

I've uploaded this and a whole bunch of new photographs to our Flickr account.

We've snow in Norway, SMX in Munich, SES in New York, a Marathon in Paris, Ad:Tech in Paris and a party in Milan!

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

Flickr banned by the United Arab Emirates

Yahoo's excellent photo sharing site Flickr is banned and blocked by the United Arab Emirates.

The blocking page reads:

We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.

If you think this site should not be blocked, please visit the Feedback Form available on our website.

Update: Flickr folk tell me this is old, old news... but sometimes old news becomes new again! Er. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

P.S. YouTube isn't banned.

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

World of Search on Flickr (update 2)

It's been a while so I've updated my World of Search on Flickr post. Added are SEOrs or search workers I've found on Flickr.

The new comers are:

• Donna Fontenot, Dazzlin Donna
• Frank Thomasetti
• John Mueller
• Kurt Krejny
• Sante J. Achille
• Simon Heseltine
• Vanessa Fox

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

Faceball - Google has no balls

This Faceball video is quite fun.



Even if it is just to hear Yahoos John Allspaw and Dunstan Orchard say that Google doesn't have the balls for Faceball.

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

Security alert at Flickr

Yahoo! have the best security of the big three. When was the last time you heard of a Yahoo! security issue?

There's an alert on Flickr right now.



It's a simple phishing scam. It's worth Flickr taking this extra effort because so many of Flickr's users aren't web savvy. They don't need to be web savvy because Flickr is so easy to use.



Microsoft's adCenter Labs are fantastic. It just took me three seconds to dig up some supporting evidence about Flickr's demographics.

How many web sites have that natural alert space built in? My bank has had to adapt their log in page so that it contains a reminder about security. Even then the message is below the log in box and I've no reason to look below the log in box. Flickr's security alert is right where I look.

Yahoo's Security Seal is an absolutely cracking idea too. At a glance you can tell if there's something fishy with the log in page. It's such a simple but effective device.

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

World of Search on Flickr (update)

The first World of Search on Flickr did very well. This is thanks to Andy Beal who not only picked the post up, but called it for the sly linkbait it was :) Did the post generate a lot of links? Eh. Well. No. But! It did move this only-recently-kick-started blog up a peg on the awareness ladder.

A number of SEOers have been added to the list. Here's who's new:

• Kim Krause Berg, cre8pc


• Scott Clarke, Site Creations


• Lara Kulpa, Anubis Marketing


• Rae Hoffman, Sugarrae


• Dave Dugdale


• Natala Menezes, Google


• Nathan Holman, Vizion Interactive


• Markus Urban, AU Interactive


• Camron Deen


• Tony Spencer


• Tamar Weinberg

Google Analytics, which I like a lot, proves that some SEOrs visited the site. I use the "Network Location" option (In Visitor Segment Performance) to see if any one "big and interesting" visited. I say "big" because you need to be more on the M side of the SME in order to have a network name for yourself. SEO consultants tend not to need a whole network of computers.

I can see that I had a visitor from Bruce Clay LLC. That doesn't necessarily mean it was Lisa Barone but that's not a silly guess. Also - and how cool is this - a visitor from Apple too. Here's the full list:

• Microsoft Corp


• Reprise Media LLC


• Kinetic Results


• Apple Computer


• i-level Ltd


• Bruce Clay LLC


• Yahoo Europe Operations

The screen shot is added as evidence. How come the Google Analytics list just shows these visitors and no one else? That's because the filter option supports the | or character.

Apple will probably leave "Apple Computer" footprints on the web for a while despite their re-name to "Apple Inc".

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

Is the US Department of State watching Andy Beal, webpronews or Flickr?

I was going to include a little run down of who has been checking out the site since World of Search on Flickr. One particular visitor caught my interest.

I've had a visit from the U.S. Department of State. They came to the site through Andy Beal's WebProNews article.

I'm sure it is just a friendly WebTech who happens to be on the Department of State's infrastructure (which is huge) but it did put a smile on my face. Maybe I'll get another visit.

Did I say I really like Google Analytics? I do. Few people realise how much information you can get out from it.

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

The World of Search on Flickr

Let's not beat around the bush. I have a Flickr addiction. It ebbs and flows. Some days I'll struggle to stay off the site. Other days I'll do just fine. Previously I thought I'd only get addicted to three letter acronyms; seo, ppc, rpg, php, etc. Urm. Fkr?

In a moment of shameless abandon I merged my addictions to Search and Flickr into one list and produced a list of search people (and agencies) on Flickr.

• Adam Lasnik, Google


• Andrew Girdwood, bigmouthmedia


• Andy Beal, Marketing Pilgrim


• Andy Hagans


• Antony Mayfield, Spannerworks


• Barry Schwartz, rustybrick


• Becky Ryan, Trellian


• Best of the Web


• bigmouthmedia


• Bill Slawski, SEO by the Sea


• Camron Deen


• Chris Hooley, MCP Media


• Danny Sullivan


• Dave Dugdale


• David Naylor


• David Wallace, Search Rank


• Donna Fontenot, Dazzlin Donna


• Frank Thomasetti


• Fortune Interactive


• George Kepnick, DottedOnline


• Giovanni Gallucci, The Agency Blog


• Greg Hartnett, Best of the Web


• Ian McAnerin


• Jennifer Sleg, Jenstar


• Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategist


• Jeremy Zawodny, Yahoo


• Jim Boykin, We Build Pages


• John Mueller


• Karl Ribas


• Kim Krause Berg, cre8pc


• Kurt Krejny


• Lara Kulpa, Anubis Marketing


• Laura Lippay, Yahoo


• Lee Odden, TopRank


• Liana Evans, Commerce360


• Manuel Schmidt


• Markus Urban, AU Interactive


• Matt McGee, SmallBusinessSEM


• Meg Walker, Network Solutions


• Melanie Phung, All About Content


• Michael Gray, Graywolf


• Natala Menezes, Google


• Nathan Holman, Vizion Interactive


• Nilhan Jayasinghe, Spannerworks


• Phil Bradley


• Rae Hoffman, Sugarrae


• Sante J. Achille


• Scott Clark, Site Creations


• SEOmoz


• SEO Writer


• Shandy King


• Simon Heseltine


• SmallBusinessSEM


• Tamar Weinberg


• Todd Malicoat, stuntdubl


• Tony Spencer


• Vanessa Fox


• Ward Tongen

Missed anyone out? Got anything wrong? I'm bound to have had. Let me know.

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

Flickr pushes "Search by Camera" harder

I really like Flickr. I do. I can hold my hands up and admit all the blame for my agency's Flickr account. It was that important to me that we had a presence there.

I'm a little wary of Flickr's Search by Camera feature. Right now it spends a lot of time in bed with Nikon. It is an advert. Yahoo says so but in light grey on white.



Yahoo have added a Search by Camera call to action on to their flickr search pages.



Yahoo can do this if they want. It's their site. I think it was a wise choice to do so.

It may be worth reflecting just how much Nikon's D80 has with the site right now. Flickr's own stats don't say anything for the Nikon D80. Canon dominate the most common type of camera, the Point and Shoot. In fact, Nikon aren't even on the radar.



In the overall league, Canon have the run-away lead again and the D80 isn't anywhere.



There you go. The news here is that Yahoo is pushing the Search by Camera feature a little harder not that they're doing adverts in a semi-sly way.

I'm reminded of the onebox verus advert debate which ensured Google ended 2006 with a thump. I think Danny Sullivan had it right when, in his fury post, he said:

I really dislike other companies getting free passes when Google is held up to higher standards.

Phil Bradley described Google's tactic as the search engine admitting that they're failing. I don't think Yahoo are failing here. That's not the news. The news here isn't that Yahoo is taking money for a semi-sly advert. The news here is that Yahoo has added an extra search feature.

So Yahoo can run these semi-sly adverts in a way that Google couldn't. I very much doubt any other blog will post on this. If Google slapped a Nikon D80 up on Picas Web Albums then we'd all hear it. I dare say Blake Ross would walk and the forums would buzz for weeks.

Yahoo should exploit this. Why? They can. That's why. It'll make them money.

I think Google are in the mess because, in the past, they've painted themselves whiter than white. It's impossible to be whiter than white. It's a bit like a football coach asking for %110. Quack, quack, oops! It can't happen. Google have done well to move, slowly, away from the "Do no evil". Yahoo are doing well to team up with Nikon and sell more D80s!

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit

Google - slyly does it.

I'm impressed by Writely the real time and collaborative web word processor that Google has just bought. The program isn't even finished yet.

This is very much Google's style; buy the interesting start-ups. Yahoo will find the cash to buy those companies which have proven themselves to be real winners (Best Yahoo purchase? That has to be Flickr).

With Microsoft also working on an on demand Office I think we find ourselves at the start of the next big race. Those people who have been saying that Fat Server and Thin Client architecture will come back and rule the day may well be right.

It's the less wow pow upgrades from Google which I think will have the biggest impact in the short term. I'm very surprised that so little has been paid about Google Base accepting payments. This is probably because Google Base has been less than an impressive hit to date. However, if Google Purchases does manage to crack the micropayment saga then Google will have found a very real cash flow which does not depend on AdWords.

Not so impressive as the micropayments but still big news - especially to MSN's demographic targeting lure for AdCenter is Google's stealth addition of demographics to AdWords and SiteTargeting. At a glance Google's demographic information is not as impressive as MSN's but this could change. It is certainly unusual for Google to be so upfront about a collaboration and Comscore/MediaMetrix is in the limelight for being able to provide information to the Master of all Information.

What are people talking about? They're talking about Google giving some peanuts back to people (peanuts in credit) if you can prove Click Fraud. They've simply extended the window in which you have time to complain.

Be Social: del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit