Blog Word Expo Recap: Great sessions at the B5 Blogger Summit
September 25, 2008
Robert Scoble, Hugh McLeod and Stowe Boyd during the B5 Advisory Board Q&A
One day before the official Blog Word Expo started, B5 Media – one of the largest blog networks in the world – was running a training day for their bloggers, titled B5 Blogger Summit, that was opened up to any BWE registrants that wanted to attend. Needless to say that I did not want to miss this great opportunity to get blogging tips from the pros and get to know the people behind this rapidly expanding blog network in person.
In the hindsight I have to say that it was totally worth to take this additional day off and travel to Las Vegas already on Thursday night in order to be fresh and ready for the first session on Friday at 9 AM. Here’s why:
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Links for 2008-07-03
July 3, 2008
The Top 10 Media Properties in the USA
June 26, 2008
Well, I always liked Top 10 list about the media industry. According to Silicon Insider, these are the 10 biggest media properties in the USA:
NYT – SEO Master In Print Media?
June 13, 2008
Former newspaper colleagues always ask me: Why should we do Search Engine Optimization? We heard of this online marketing method – isn’t it kind of sleazy? And isn’t that a threat to our journalistic integrity?
I usually ask back: Well, doesn’t your marketing department promote your newspaper in ads, TV commercials and on billboards? Are you sure that’s well spent money in the digital age? And why shouldn’t you spend your advertising money where the eyeballs of your readers are – the world wide web? Read more
What Europeans Really Think Of Each Other
June 11, 2008
Europe is the third most populous continent (with its population of 710 million inhabitants) after Africa and Asia, but also the world’s second-smallest in terms of area. So it’s no surprise that the 48 European nations haven’t always lived in piece and harmony together – and animosities remain until this very day.
I had to really laugh out loud when I found this great blog post on Daily Candor about the characteristics of all the different Europeans and what they think of each other – a “basic backgrounder for Americans”, as the author describes it. Here’s a little excerpt of some of Europe’s nationalities:
The French
Disliked by some Spanish (particularly the Catalonians), for being arrogant. One woman from Barcelona told me, “Come on, who really likes the French? Nobody!” The Swiss don’t like the fact that they have contempt for authority and are lazy.
The Italians
Most of the stereotypes are positive, but mostly because of the food. Northern Europeans consider them lazy and flaky, and maybe incapable of managing anything right.
The Germans
Germans are considered industrious but uptight and humorless, by just about all the other Europeans. (…) The food is considered uninspired, too. The most anti-German sentiments are among the Dutch and Danish, who just hate them from invading their countries too often.
The Dutch
The Dutch, like the Scandinavians, have an enviable economy and social order that’s admired by southern European countries. However, they do have a reputation of being self-righteous “know-it-alls” and very similar to their German cousins in terms of their rigidity.
The Swiss
Considered extremely rigid, even by the Germans. Blunt to the point of being rude, the Swiss probably have the least likely reputation for being characterized as “friendly” or “warm”. (…) The German-speaking Swiss are more like the Germans except even more stiff, rigid and cranky.
The British
About half of the British would be really angry at being called European, so that should provide an apt starting point. They are considered polite, but maybe a bit two-faced (hence “Janus Britain”) and snobby.
The Belgians
Considered idiots by both the Dutch and the French. Belgians, in turn, consider the Dutch to be a bunch of cranky assholes, and French stuck-up.
I can only say – it’s all true! And being a native Swiss, there must be a reason why I relocated to the United States long time ago…
The “Google Generation” – No Search Experts
January 19, 2008
Ahh, clichés. Aren’t older people supposed to be technical ignorants and “web allergic”, while the younger guys and girls surf, chat and entertain themselves on the web 24/7? Well, apparenty that’s wrong. A new UK report (PDF version) on the habits of the “Google Generation” finds that kids born since 1993 aren’t quite the internet super-geeks they’re sometimes made out to be.
Yes, it’s true that young people are generally competent with technology, but it’s not true that students today are “expert searchers.” In fact, the report calls this “a dangerous myth.”But these are some truths about the “Google generation”, according to the report:
- They like to cut-and-paste. “There is a lot of anecdotal evidence and plagiarism is a serious issue.”
- They prefer visual information over text. “But text is still important… For library interfaces, there is evidence that multimedia can quickly lose its appeal, providing short-term novelty.”
- They multitask all the time. “It is likely that being exposed to online media early in life may help to develop good parallel processing skills.”
Does that mean they don’t care about copyrights, get easily bored about lengthy investigative magazine articles and suffer from ADD big time?? Well, somehow I expected a little bit more. Good news: We, the “older people” (meaning over 30), still have some chances to compete in the digital age….
10 Interesting Search Facts I Learned Today
December 7, 2007
Well, there were gazillions of search news out there todays, but I thought these were some of the most interesting insights:
- With 20 billion to 35 billion worldwide searches in 2006/2007, search growth is as strong as ever. (Via ClickZ)
- Google remained in the top spot for search queries in the United States, accounted for 64.49 percent of all searches (Hitwise)
- More than $14 billion has been spent online during the holiday season-to-date – a 17 percent gain compared with the corresponding days last year. (via MarketingVox)
- Nearly 400 million Google search referrals are to its own multimedia properties. (via ClickZ)
- Local search is expected to grow from rougly $2.5 billion today to $5 billion in 2008. (via SearchEngineLand).
- In the third quarter of this year, more than one of four clicks on ads running on content networks like Google’s AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network was fraudulent. (via Mediapost)
- The caches of major search engines are still providing a safe hiding place for malicious code. (Computerworld)
- Google will very soon begin treating subdomains not as separate domains, but the same as subdirectories. (via Webmasterworld)
- Search Engines can help you to find a “dead” spouse. (via SearchEngineLand)
- And last, but not least: Larry Page, the world’s only remaining bachelor Google billionaire, is getting married today. (via ABC News)
Congratulations, Larry! Hope your first child will have cute googly eyes!
10 Interesting Insights About Internet Use In Europe
December 4, 2007
Did you always wanted to know how internet savvy the Europeans really are? Here are a couple of interesting facts – fresh off the press and provided by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European communities:
- Internet access across the EU is increasing, with 54 per cent of households having access of some sort, compared 49 per cent last year.
- The highest proportions of households with internet access were recorded in the nordic countries: Netherlands (83%), Sweden (79%) and Denmark (78%).
- The UK, usually know as internet savvy and technologically advanced, is trailing the Nordic leader with 67%.
- 57% of individuals had used internet search engines.
- 50% had sent e-mails with attachments.
- 30% said they kept viruses and spyware off their computers.
- 25% of individuals had taken part in chatrooms, newsgroups or online discussions.
- 15% had used the internet to make phone calls.
- Peer to peer file sharing for exchange of movies and music had been used by 13%.
- Only 10% had created a web page.
Despite the fact that most of these numbers are lower than the ones in the United States, this study proves that internet access is gradually extending across the 27 states of the European Union – especially broadband connections have risen sharply.
Mobile Social Networking booms
August 30, 2007
That’s interesting. According to ResourceShelf, mobile social networking has 12.3 million friends in the US and Western Europe. MySpace has largest mobile network in the United States and UK; and MSN/Windows Live Spaces is preferred in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
How search is redefining the Web — and our lives
January 27, 2007
Recap. I found an great article by The Seattle Times from 2005 about the growing importance of internet search, how it effects our lives and how search engines help us in our daily quest for information. Most of the numbers are outdated, but the basic info where search is headed is still true today. Here are a couple of facts I found interesting:
- Three quarters of U.S. Internet users, or about 120 million people, have used engines, searching an average of 38 times a month.
- As a business, search brought in $4 billion in sales last year, and will become a bigger cash cow as its power and influence grows.
- Microsoft found that people search an average of 11 minutes before they find what they are looking for.
- The first search engine was created in 1990 by a college student in Montreal and named “Archie” — a variation on the word archive. There wasn’t even much of a Web at that point, and Archie was mainly used to dig through public file-exchange sites.
- Google is the most popular engine today, home to 35 percent of Web searches. It receives hundreds of millions of requests every day.
- Google hit the $1 billion quarterly sales mark in 2004, just five years after its official launch.
- Search engines are going after more eyeballs by adding their own content, and now offer users street maps, phone numbers, weather forecasts and even answers to algebra problems. Many also offer separate search-based shopping and news services.
- Web users add more public information daily. A group of University of California researchers estimated the size of the public Web at least tripled from 2000 to 2003, when it contained 167 terabytes of data. That’s equal to about 560,000 sets of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
- Experts say the search technology will jump digital boundaries from the browser to other platforms. Its next stop is the cellphone; in the future, television.