Thoughts on Thursday’s Google Algorithm Change
Don’t panic!
I know, I know. My stomach turned a bit too when I got emails asking if I’d heard about the most recent Google drama – the same stomach twinge I get when I drive by a cop, even when I’m not speeding. But the same reality is true – there’s no need to panic if you’re not breaking Google’s “laws”. I’m not a content spammer or farmer or scraper. I write my own posts on this blog. If I ever invite a guest to write, it will be something original. I write original content for all my clients. And I try to make sure it’s content worth reading – informative and helpful, or in the very least comical.
I loved the statement made in a recent article that said something like, “Google is turning the web into a jungle” in reference to the thousands of pages of junk that spammers are churning out trying to rank something in the great search engine. I wouldn’t say it’s Google’s fault, but the web is definitely starting to feel very crowded by thousands of useless sites.
SEO’s reading this – those of us not speeding, or at least not much more then 5 or 10 mph over the limit, keep up your good work. Produce excellent content and maintain safe and legitimate linking campaigns. Google is getting better at weeding out the junk, which means black hat techniques will not always reign against white hat.
Charging Light CR48
I noticed that some people are having problems with the CR48 charging light. As I mentioned in my unboxing post, we had a similar issue while charging my wife’s Chrome netbook. After charging it for 6+ hours there was still no promised white glowing light, indicating a full charge.
The solution: we found some advice online that recommended we remove the battery completely and then re-attach it. After doing that, and plugging the charger back in, the white indicator light showed up immediately. We booted up her notebook and the Chrome OS started up right away showing a full charge in the notification bar on the top right.
Google Chrome CR-48 Netbook (Notebook) – Opening the Box
Ok, so my wife got a Google Chrome Notebook (also known as the CR-48). But that counts as me getting one, because according to God and the government, we are one entity. Right? Plus she lets me log on to it every now and then and agreed to let me blog about it…
That’s how the beginning of this post was supposed to go, when I started working on it 6 weeks ago and never finished. The funny thing is, I put off writing the post long enough to get my own Google Chrome OS Notebook! That’s right, I’m not kidding. We are now a 2 Google Notebook family. I’m not sure what went wrong in the science behind Google’s distribution algorithm but that means 2 were shipped to the same address. And that means I’m a lucky buzzard. So I figured I better get on it with the whole “sharing this info with the world” thing. And by world, I mean the 3 readers that accidentally end up on my blog (hi guys!) Watch for future posts on usability, bugs, etc.
This post is the un-boxing of the Google Chrome Notebook CR-48.
Let’s start with the packaging: Read the rest of this entry »
Top 5 MLK Quotes – My Favorites
In honor of a man who impacted the culture of an entire nation, my 5 favorite Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes:
- A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
- Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.
- Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
- I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems. And I’m going to talk about it everywhere I go.
- Reason, devoid of purifying power of faith, can never free itself from distortions and rationalizations.
Guest Blog Posting
A friend of mine always says “SEO is a very deep rabbit hole.” I find that to be more and more true the more I learn about Search Engine Optimization and the millions of ways you can spend your time trying to optimize you or your clients sites. My team and I have recently started looking into writing guest blog posts and what all that entails.
Guest Blog Posting Background
Guest blog posting was inspired by how hard it is to blog regularly. (Look at the consistency, or should I say inconsistency of how much I blog here). Bloggers are always looking for more content and more ways to spin that content as something new and interesting to their readers. Featuring a guest blogger solves both problems:
- more content: the main blog writer gets a day off from writing
- something new and interesting: the blog gets fresh, interesting content from a new perspective
Usually as a thank you to the guest poster, the guest is allowed to include a sign off reference to their own blog or website, link and all.
Our Journey to Guest Posting Oz
We don’t necessarily need the content but we could definitely use more exposure to readers of other blogs and the gratuitous links pointing back at our site. So our journey is to become guest blog posters. I quickly realized that the hardest part about guest blog posting was finding blogs to post to, then upon finding them, figuring out how to contact the author. As each blog became it’s own research project, I started to think the Guest Post idea was not worth the time involved.
Then I heard an interview on WebmasterRadio.fm with Ann Smarty about her site: MyBlogGuest.com guest blog posting community – an open forum for bloggers to connect and share content ideas and unique/original posts with each other.
Regular bloggers go there to post guest authoring opportunities when they need a break from writing, and writers go there to earn valuable content placement in front of high-readership blog audiences. What a great free place to connect with other bloggers – thanks Ann!
Google Places with Hotpot – New Google Local Maps Interface
As I went to login to my Google Places account this morning, I arrived at a very different place than I normally do. A completely redesigned landing page with a big bold graphic and an invitation to “Discover Yours – Local recommendations powered by you and your friends” and a button asking me to Start Rating now with Hotpot. So Google has entered their offering into the local-check-in-review-social-community-ratings race. Took them longer than the others, but here’s to hoping it’s better than the others (not like the Nexus One Google phone).
Will Google Hot Pot (or Hotpot) incorporate Google’s mobile check-in app SCVNGR? Probably.
And is the choice of the name really just a coincidence given the recent California legislature voted down, to legalize marijuana? Or is Google keyword stuffing?
You be the judge, but one thing is certain – Google maps has changed.
