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Happy Friday! Katie’s birthday was yesterday, so let’s start off with a celebration. Everybody now! Happy birthday to Katie, happy birthday to Katie… Okay, I’m no Christopher Hart so I’ll stop singing.
I know lots of you crazy SEO kids were out in Austin for this week’s PubCon South. And some of you may even be staying in the Lone Star State for SXSW this weekend. In Portland, Oregon, SearchFest premiered at the Oregon Zoo. But those of us left to get our con-fix through blogs and microblogging weren’t left wanting.
Kate Morris shared her Austin insider tips with those not sure how to prepare for Texas. Megan Slick of InsiteCopy liveblogged SearchFest while Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media liveblogged PubCon. And a number of people tweeted their favorite conference moments. Of course, as one conference ends, another is just around the corner. Pamela Lund and CK Chung are gearing up for their road trip to IM Spring Break (donations are welcome!).
Hmm. It doesn’t look like they’re stopping in Tennessee, where next week Santa imposters the world over will don their beards and cherry-red suits for the first annual Celebrate Santa Con. What? This story totally fits here.
In the twittosphere, lots of people use their power for good. Like Tim Ferris, who is donating $3 to U.S. public classrooms for every new follower he receives in the next week. Or SEO Samba, which is giving away a full conference pass to SES New York to the winner of its Twitter contest. Three case studies of brands using Twitter right are a reminder of what the service can offer businesses. It’s easy to see why Twitter had a good month.
 Photo by Tracy O via Creative Commons |
But it’s possible our dependence on the microblogging service has become dangerous. One guy could think of nothing better to do than Ustream and tweet as a stranger broke into his house. [Dear loyal readers, I'm begging you, don't let this be you. --Susan] Jason Calacanis is willing to pay Twitter $250,000 to be part of the suggested users list. Sounds like a Web 2.0 weenie to me.
Instead of getting in front of eyeballs unfairly, Debra Mastaler suggests a link building stimulus plan while MarketingProfs proposes a brand building stimulus. WebProNews explores how FAQ pages can boost your rankings. At HuffPo we read that consumer reviews are a great opportunity for local businesses.
Quick tip: Use negative match PPC keywords to improve your quality score. While you’re at it, you may want to play around with interest-based ads (take our poll!). Just try to stay away from the dark side.
Also in the ad realm, Craigslist has eliminated 90 percent of the erotic ads on the site. Meanwhile, under the guise of AdSense, Google wants to squeeze the life out of the news industry by scraping news content and letting you post it on your site.
The e-Justice Blog alerts us to 25 surprising things that Google knows about you. Yes, Google’s spying on us. At least this guy will tell you when he’s recording all your moves. [I keep wondering if he's going to edit out the blinking? Do people with prosthetic eyes still blink? --Susan] Whereas no one’s safe from the prying eyes of couch-potato border control.
Ask is analyzing how long queries can be served better. Rumors of a live Kumo.com were tweeted. Google upped its threat to voice services with Google Voice. And Andy Beal requested that the nofollow link attribute be ditched once and for all.
 Image by EuroMagic via Creative Commons |
Google, Facebook and Twitter appear to have jumped the shark. In the UK, YouTube users can no longer view music videos. (Maybe someone can fill the void with Bill Clinton’s iPod?) While musicholics will suffer, at least chocoholics will not.
At TechCrunch we find out the 50 media sites bloggers link to the most. A new news aggregator, TechFuga, has hit the scene. And a beautiful bald eagle cam makes for some peaceful bird watching. Elves, however, remain in hiding.
Things I learned from Boing Boing this week:
- The LOLcat has a proud and storied origin. Did I just make cats speaking broken English sound cultured?
- Social media’s origin story is pretty cool, too.
- Distracted by a wiggling raccoon with his head stuck in a hole? Build him a butt shelf.
- Speaking of butts, mine is toast if I ever run into this 12-year-old special effects wizard. Look out George Lucas!
Copyright Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog – Friday Recap – Shake Your Booty Edition
