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So Fast Company posted an article entitled Six Jobs That Won’t Exist in 2016. Hey Fast Company Staff get your heads out of your collective asses and stop with the paginated articles … especially when you don’t need them … if you don’t people will stop reading you and you won’t be around to see if your predictions came true in 2016 or not.

So Seth Godin and Robert Scoble talk about a video by Fred. When you look at all the views of his videos he has over 45 million youtube views

Scoble and Seth go on to say how the traffic numbers aren’t important and it’s the quality of the viewers. Umm hey did you guys miss that his show has a sponsor Zipit Instant Messaging, which he uses twice in the video. Think I made it up … check out the LATimes

“They just think he’s the funniest thing ever,” said Valerie Moizel of the L.A.-based WOO ad agency, which found out about Fred after it conducted kid-centered focus groups for its ZipIt instant messaging product – which later showed up in Fred’s videos. “We watched them watch him – they fall on the floor hysterically laughing. They’re just mesmerized.”

Seems to me the zipit product placement is exactly in front of who it wants to be and the kids don’t consider it offensive, intrusive, or useless like 99% of all the other advertising out there. Lets not omit the facts just because they don’t agree with your world view next time … kthanksbye

… oh and for the record I am over 40 and I find Fred pretty funny

Last night I was using Google Maps to get directions and noticed a new feature, a camera icon located next to each of the steps on Google Maps. When I clicked on the icon I saw a picture of my house!
Google Knows Where I Live »

When Google switched to a single universal icon a few weeks back they created problems, the icons on my bookmarks toolbar are now … (wait for it) … IDENTICAL. The last two on the right are Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Central, so I have no idea which is which. Compare that to the Google Calendar, Google Reader, and Google Docs icons on the left which are different.

Yes I do use Google Reader, Google Calendar, and Google Docs after having tried many other options IMHO they are the best products in their category.

Today Google released an new feature that gives away traffic stats and keywords for most websites on the internet. However what everyone failed to notice is that Google laid everyone else bare, naked and exposed but kept their own stats locked up and private.

Google’s Two Tiered Internet World Sinks to a New Low »

Really I wasn’t going to post this but since Matt Cutt’s asked people to snitch on paid links again I thought I’d bring up another case of Google’s double standard and two tiered justice.

Hey Matt Cutts Be Fair if You Are Going After Paid Links »

Since Ron Paul failed to galvanize the interwebs I’m going to have to step up to the plate

So according to the google blog they think they have the duplicate content problem under control, I remain less than convinced. Here’s my original post, but as of right now google is giving everyone but me credit (screen shot below) lets see what happens:

Now that I’m back from SMX advanced and have had a few days to catch up I’ll share my thoughts. SMX Advanced 2008 Recap »

C’mon Facebook I really thought we had moved past this

It’s not that I care that you are telling everyone I bought tickets to Kung Fu Panda, it’s that you assume that I want you to by default. These programs should be opt in not opt out out. Yes I know almost nobody would do that … but that should be your clue that it’s a bad idea … just sayin …

You know it would really be nifty if Google, Gmail, Google Apps, and Gmail for domains were able to merge/sync contact data with LinkedIn really easily. It would be super nifty if there was a nice automagic script that did the hard stuff for you (you know the way computers are supposed to). It would be even better if I didn’t have to export a CSV, get the error screen (although I find goggle misspelling “ocurred” funny) and then manually monkey with the CSV file … just sayin …

Hey Mihai Parparita Google reader has really gotten better at the dupes thing but today … wow this one just went crazy. I’m sure it’s something Wired is doing wrong, but I’m hoping you can be smarter than them and fix it, cause as interesting as it is to know D&D has updated and it’s great I really only need to know once (click to enlarge)

Have a Gmail account? Log in unless you’ve set your preference otherwise you’ll get the AJAX UI. Now change your user agent to Googlebot, and refresh your page, it automatically loads the HTML version instead of asking you if you want the HTML. What’s up with that? Why would GMail need a UA detection branch in it programming? Does it seem odd that it’s there and that it works that way? I could understand a JS based switch but a UA based changeover … damned peculiar dontcha’ think?

So while I was at SMX Advanced I did an interview with Virginia Nussey of Bruce Clay for webmaster radio you can listen to it in the SEM Synergy Archives. It’s short only about 8 minutes, or so the second half of the show has Derrick Wheeler of Microsoft talking about how he helps SEO’s.

Hope to have a my thoughts on SMX advanced up in few days

Does Your website have a squeezy top? Is it designed and laid out with the ruthless goal of facilitating conversions, or is it series of compromises that barely accomplishes it’s true goal.

Does Your Website Have a Squeezy Top »

Lately there’s been quite a bit of brouhaha over a fairly popular bit of hoax marketing involving a teenager, stolen credit cards, and prostitutes. I’m no stranger to hoax marketing in fact I advocated it back in 2006 and have been debating it with Matt Cutts for at least as long. While I don’t expect either of our viewpoints will change, I have to say I find the disclosure that Google will now be taking steps against hoax marketing an amusing bit of hypocrisy. What we have is another in long list of double standards and selective application of Google justice especially when it involves internet marketers or SEO’s. Don’t believe me read on for some examples …

The Only Real Hoax is that Google Treats Everyone The Same »

So I installed the Seesmic video comments plugin and am giving it try. if you’ve got an account and a webcam leave a comment. If you don’t head over to Seesmic and create one. You can get the plugin and try it on your blog as well.

Youtube may be the dominant player in online video but without competition there isn’t innovation, I wonder if youtube ever would have come up with an idea like this

I apologize for the liberal quoting of Matt Cutts comments over on sphinn, but I think it’s important to understand the ramifications of something like this:

“Where does Cutt’s and search engines stand on something like this?”
My quick take is that Google’s webmaster guidelines allow for cases such as this: “Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites). It’s not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn’t included on this page, Google approves of it.”
There’s not much more deceptive or misleading than a fake story without any disclosure that the story is hoax.

When Google has the ability to decide what information get presented and valued on the web with absolute and unquestioned authority, all because we trust them and they give us free tools and 25GB of free GMAIL space, we’ve sold them the internet for pile of magic beans.

Remember friends authoritarian dictatorships start by controlling what information the people get to see, hear, and read. It doesn’t matter if they are censoring jokes, or hoaxes today, what matters is they are going in and changing the rules of the game, midstream, just because they didn’t like the way things were turning out.

Don’t think hoax news stories have value, perhaps you should learn about Orson Wells and War of the Worlds. It’s easy to dismiss things like this as trivial today because maybe you agree with Google … but what happens when you are the one being censored … think Google will offer you a refund on those magic beans …

One of the questions I get asked frequently is “which search conferences should I attend”. Seeing as conferences end up costing you between $3500-$5000 a pop when you include travel, lodging and meals I thought I’d share my experience.

What Search Engine Conferences Should I Attend »

Earlier this week we had our IMNY monthly meet-up and our member Dani Horowitz was nice enough to host the event at her bowling alley Dani’s Strike Zone in Elmont NY. I have to say for bowling alley the place was pretty cool. Nice and clean, good food, and a huge party room. So big thanks to Dani for hosting a great night. You can also check out Dani’s website IT Discussion Community for Developers & Technology Enthusiasts.