Google’s screwy spelling filter

C’mon, Google - your spelling filters are getting silly!
I’m trying to do historical research on the “Picts”, an early Gaelic people of Scotland, but look what happens when I search for “Inverness Picts”:

It looks like Google thinks “Picts” is the same as “Pictures” and “Pics”!
Let’s not see Google dumbed-down in this way, please, thanks? :)

Google is killing its user’s experience

Google’s recent changes have done everything to damage my experience as a Google user, and I can only hope Google realises their mistake.
Problem 1: Search suggestion
I don’t want “search suggestion” on by default for two reasons:
a) Sometimes in Firefox the autocomplete box won’t close, so I have to refresh the page so I can click [...]

Clever new Paypal phishing scam: Andrew Jackson has sent you 85.00 EUR with PayPal

Just received a string of clever phishing scam emails through different email addresses I operate.
I know they are phishing attempts because:
1. They do not address myself in a personal sense, ie, by name
2. They are being sent to addresses I do not use for Paypal transactions
However, they are quite convincing because even in the junkmail [...]

Why Web 2.0 Social Media Wil Die

The big flaw with Web 2.0 is the social media aspect - the idea that the “wisdom of crowds” will somehow emerge and flourish, leaving the site/business owner with valuable free content.
The reality is that what is more likely to happen is that the “madness of crowds” will take over.
After all, history doesn’t tend [...]

Revenue Share - the next webmaster economy?

Recently I’ve noticed an emerging new trend online - revenue share as a business model applied to forums, blogs, and news communities.
The idea is simple - whatever advertising revenues the site earns is split with the active community members.
The most common way this is set up is via contextual advertising accounts, such as Google Adsense, [...]

ReviewMe: Benefits, hazards, and overall use

ReviewMe is one of a number of services that pays bloggers to review websites. Simple.
The aim is to try and generate some kind of buzz for sites leveraging the blogosphere, and there has certainly been no shortage of nervous comments about the potential for commercial corruption of the blogosphere.
Anyway, when Aaron announced discounts on the [...]

Buying links for mindshare, not search engines

After Aaron gave notice that ReviewMe was going to be offering half-price posts this month, I figured I should give the service a closer look.
We already know Google wants to devalue paid links, and for once I’m not looking at buying ReviewMe posts for direct ranking benefits - instead, I’m looking to buy mindshare.
One of [...]

How I’ve increased Adsense earnings by 50%

I’m not a huge Adsense earner, but at the beginning of this month I decided to more aggressively try to increase my revenues.
I’ve now seen a 50+% increase in my Adsense earnings since I began.
What does that mean in real terms? It means my earnings would now comfortably pay off the monthly mortgage repayments [...]

Ev1 servers scraping juggernaut

Well, I’d hate to sound too much like IncrediBill - but today I received nearly 9,000 emails to my Inbox - all vbulletin MySQL failure error messages.
Turns out someone at Ev1servers was hitting my comparative religion forum really hard and frequently maxing out the MySQL connections.
Took the site down for an hour in [...]

Predictions for 2007

It’s customary every year for people to write predictions for the coming year.
I’m going to be no exception.
Below in no particular order of importance - are my predictions for the internet world in general, with a specific emphasis on the SEO/SEM industry:
1. Vista uptake with be slower than predicted
Microsoft thinks Vista will see rapid acceptance, [...]

Wordpress on PDA - plugin

Here’s a gift of a plugin for Wordpress install - my CMS of choice:
Wordpress PDA Plugin
Apparently, it works by detecting the user-agent string - if it looks like a PDA browser, it publishes your site on a slimmed down theme to make it much more easily readable on a PDA.
Now that’s nice. :)
Hat tip to [...]

Sometimes I just hate webdev work - part 2!!

Dealing with errors in Platinax is proving child’s play at present compared to a recent client site I’m redeveloping.
So far it’s a catalogue of miscommunications and misjudgements as I take a site built with .inc files in .asp to php includes in a Wordpress CMS.
I have never wanted to abandon any project as much as [...]

Bye bye Brian’s Business Blog

Platinax is currently undergoing redevelopment, and with that it’s time to say bye bye to Brian’s Business Blog.
The key reason?
It’s a crap blog.
I read various other blogs online, and the good ones are:
*fresh!
*informative!
*interesting!
I’ve managed to fail on all 3 here.
I have some excuse, though - since the last Platinax redevelopment I found myself separating the [...]

The pitfalls of news reporting

Running Platinax News has been an eye-opening experience.
Not only has it shown me very clearly the value of a news portal for increasing traffic and organic link development, it’s also shown me some clear pitfalls on story reporting.
The key lesson is one of wording - you need to ensure you have a lawyer’s perception of [...]

Taking internet marketing offline

Often as a SEO/Internet Marketer the focus remains directly on - the internet.
Recently, however, I’ve been changing my promotional focus to - offline.
Point being, the internet has become such an integral part of life for many people, that by generating conversations offline, it translates into conversations - and links - online.
One way to do this [...]

Traditional print publishing is dying

I was at FantasyCon a couple of weekends ago, and got to meet up and chat with writers such as Neil Gaiman, Raymond E. Fiest, Ramsey Campbell, Amanda Hemmingway, and Storm Constantine.
One of the most interesting conversations I had was with some very charming marketing staff from HarperCollins.
In conversation we mentioned Amazon, and that HarperCollins [...]

What to do with a PR7 website?

So Peter was right - Platinax is now PageRank 7.
I’m surprised - firstly because there’s no special link building program in play to try and increase the site’s PR value, and secondly, because I don’t think the site has done anything particular to warrant a PR7.
A couple of years ago I would have been overjoyed [...]

Social networking - the overhype

The BBC waxes lyrical about social networking and Web 2.0:

The notion of Web 2.0, or an internet model where content is created and shared by users, has given birth to some of the most popular sites the internet has ever seen.

The trouble is, social networking has been at the heart at the internet from the [...]

Communities as the future of the internet

Ever since I set up my first attempt at an online community in 2001, I’ve seen online communities - focussed on forums - as a key to internet development.
I’ve repeatedly recommend that clients set up forums - either just for support, or else as a marketing tool in itself.
Why?
Firstly, it helps increase visibility.
If you [...]

Passive information as a marketing tool

I nearly stepped into another potential libel issue recently - critical comments I posted about the Transcendental Meditation movement over 2 years ago on the comparative religion forums were revived and called out as slander by a member.
Having already learned my lesson on dealings with Platinax, I removed the original comment and set out a [...]