Will Scott Thompson Fix Yahoo!? 5 years. 3 CEOs. What makes Scott different? He actually codes. He was the CTO and president for PayPal. But it appears employees are excited to have him on board. One employee from Yahoo! mentioned in Wall Street Journal described having Thompson as a “relief.” Yahoo! has a lot of […]
Public Blog
This is the free public blog. The really good stuff is locked up so Matt Cutts won't stalk us. Contact us and we'll see if you are a good fit for the membership.
Don’t Follow – Lead
You are probably wondering where in the hell have I been? It’s been seven months since my last post … a lot has happened. The biggest change was I received custody of my two teenage sons in March, and while I was elated at the time, I had no idea how much of a challenge […]
Ecommerce Good. Old Commerce Bad.
On Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton spoke at ICANN’s 40th public meeting and was asked his thoughts about Internet taxation. Clinton signed the Internet Freedom Tax Act in 1998 which meant retailers without a presence within a state were exempt from collecting tax on sales. The goal was to let the e-conomy grow and evolve. […]
AdSense Publishers Get Speed Boost
It struck a lot of Webmasters as ironic that Google made page speed a rank signal when AdSense scripts was one of the factors slowing sites down. According to Google, it slowed publisher sites by about 12%. Gone are those days. Google developers improved the show_ads.js JavaScript needed by AdSense publishers and sped up delivery […]
YSlow Page Speed Availabe for Chrome
Speed, Chrome and bugs. I’m not talking cars, grilles and things that stick to grilles. I’m talking about YSlow Page Speed being available for the Chrome browser, without needing an add-on, like Firebug. YSlow is a tool for webmasters that helps identify ways to speed up page load time. Download YSlow for Chrome
Amazon Dumps all Illinois Affiliates
Amazon sent a “Notice of Contract Termination” to all Illinois affiliates today in response to a new law in Illinois. The law, sponsored by Rep. Patrick Verschoore (D-Rock Island) and Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), requires online retailers with affiliates in Illinois to collect sales tax and submit it to the llinois Department of Revenue […]
PubCon Austin Starts
I arrived in Austin on Sunday and have been soaking in the sun and BBQ waiting for PubCon to start. This is PubCon #9 for me and today I am speaking on the Essentials Overlooked by 90% of Affiliate Managers. I’ll be summarizing the happenings over the next two days right here and going into […]
Jonesing for Something Open
How many times have you needed to find a store, bank, post office, restaurant, dry cleaners, hair salon, coffee shop, taco stand, etc. that was open NOW? We’ve all been in that position either on holidays, weekends, during road or business trips, and later in the evening when places start to close. Google’s mobile search […]
Leave a Message on Skype–Literally
Skype announced today via a press release that for the first time they’re offering display advertising. Ads appear in the Home tab of the Skype software, for Windows users only in the USA, UK and Germany. Groupon and Nokia were two big names that shoved off the launch. Ads can include audio, video, social media […]
What’s Going on With Titles in Google?
It’s common practice that your Title will be truncated if it’s too long and pulled from DMOZ or Yahoo!’s directory, but lately Google’s use of Titles is making a lot of site owner’s scratch their heads. A domain name overriding a Title Tag’s contents? Titles crafted from anchor text, ALT or H3 tags? Titles coming […]
It’s Time to Take Social Search Seriously
In March 2010 we told you about Google Social Search, which gathered blog posts, images, Tweets, and other information your friends/family were posting and placed them at the bottom of search results. You can read the March 2010 article here: Google Launches Social Search. Previously, if Google’s algorithm deemed information from friends/family useful for your […]
Borders Files for Bankruptcy
Borders Group, Inc., the second largest bookstore chain, filed for bankruptcy today in New York. Borders plans to reorganize, but must close 200 of its 642 stores and sell the furniture and merchandise. Sales could start as early as Feb. 19. Furthermore, if negotiations with current landlords fall through, Borders may need to close 75 […]
When Did JCPenney Grow Cojones
If you haven’t read it, here is a link to the JcPenney “links gate” article. The Dirty Little Secrets of Search To give you a recap of the article, no doubt during some unauthorized web shopping at work, a New York Times reporter found that JCPenney was consistently #1 in Google for keywords like “casual […]
You Too Can be a Signal in Google’s Algorithm
What if instead of waiting for Google to act on a spam report, you could just remove the site yourself? A new experimental Google Chrome extension does exactly that. It allows you to remove sites from your Google search results, and then sends that information to Google. This pool of user feedback may become a […]
I Do–Not Really Like This
As I was reading through Google’s “to doings” for the week, I had a “which one of these is not like the others” moment. A stable version of Google Instant for Chrome was made available. A voice activated translation application was announced. Satellite/terrain maps are reachable via the results page, should the search warrant it. […]
Do Not Track Me Online Bill Introduced
The Do Not Track Me Online Act was introduced in the House of Representatives February 11, 2011 by Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA). It prohibits the unauthorized tracking of a consumer’s online behavior. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will regulate, monitor and enforce the bill should it become a law. Noncompliance could result in unfair or […]
The National Wireless Initiative
Early Internet entrepreneurs were a breed of their own–still are. I’m sure back then you had conversations with people who didn’t understand the Internet and who advised you to get a “real job.” They clearly didn’t see it, but you did—that the Internet was revolutionary. Today, the Internet job sector is responsible for employing one […]
LinkedIn Offers Targeted Marketing
You’re LinkedIn, part of a network of 90 million professionals, in the know—so why is the advertising so archaic? Soon it won’t be. LinkedIn will allow advertisers to target professionals by job title, company, or LinkedIn group level, instead of just location or industry. Companies that participated in beta testing saw clickthrough rates 3-4 times […]
How PubCon Made Me a Millionaire
Updated: August 31, 2012 Nearly every person who achieves great success always knows the moment momentum swung in their direction. I remember my moment well. A hot and humid June in New Orleans … in 2005, just a few months before Hurricane Katrina hit. What happened in the Bayou? PubCon happened. While I had ten […]
Webmaster Tools Even Less Accurate
In an effort to make analyzing stats fair for everyone, Google has made Webmaster Tools less accurate. Starting February 3, 2011, page impressions listed under Search Queries will be reported differently. Previously, impressions were rounded up two or three numbers, for example 12,100. Now they will only be rounded up one or two numbers, for […]