Professional webmaster and wannabe over funded technology uber guru.
Archive for July, 2007
July 26, 2007 at 8:45 am · Filed under Search Engines
I’ll have to admit, when I first heard about Mahalo courtesy of Jason Calacanis’ blog, I was a bit skeptical and mentally put Mahalo low on my list of launches to be excited about. While the idea of a “human powered search engine” has always been intriguing to everyone in the tech industry due to the amount of SPAM and SEO exploitation in Google/Yahoo!/MSN, this latest execution stunk a little of pre-Web 2.0 bubble bursting material.
Fast forward a few months (the Alpha for Mahalo was released in May 2007) and while researching and composing an article on car insurance, I ended up at Mahalo to see the types of results I would get. The positive experience (the results were MUCH better than Google’s) was so interesting, I added some praise to the article for Mahalo and began to think that Mahalo may be a better search site for terms like “car insurance” where consumer education and research is just as important as the commercial vendors.
Which brings me to this article about popular search terms and Mahalo. The first issue I had to tackle was Mahalo’s lack of support for “adult themed” searches (read Jason’s comments on the topic). Searches for very common and broad keywords like “sex” and “ass” turned up absolutely nothing which means the popular keyword list is cut almost in half. This obviously is a very popular market that Mahalo is skirting around and I can see the reasoning behind it, although they are leaving out a huge opportunity in doing so. A more savvy strategy would be to embrace the adult market and provide the appropriate safe guards (something Google is unable or unwilling to do).
My focus then for this article is going to be other terms in the top 300 surge report I get weekly from WordTracker. This report shows the top 200 most commonly searched for phrases in the last 48 hours.
These searches represent non adult terms in the 300-250 most popular range.
1. Term: three days grace Result: Nothing
The grade would be lower but it seems this is a newish band and on the “surge” list for a reason.
Grade D
2. Term: expedia Result: Good
Full custom results, with information and links about the company and competitors.
Grade A
3. Term: short haircut Result: Nothing
Apparently people like to research new hairdos online, unfortunately Mahalo doesn’t help them in this regard.
Grade D-
4. Term: bank of america Result: Good
Good coverage like Expedia, except even more robust with a financial graph and more links.
Grade A+
5. Term: music Result: Okay
This results was interesting, instead of a typical results page I got a huge list of sub categories with breakdowns for each genre. Still, there’s no other content besides this.
Grade B-
6. Term: game boy cheats Result: Nothing
Amazing no one has gotten on this term already, gaming is one of the largest uses of the Internet and it’s keyword variations dominate search phrase inventories.
Grade F
7. Term: meaning of names Result: Nothing
Another common search engine term, people love looking up name “meanings”
Grade F
8. Term: bratz Result: Good
Good results, plenty of information links.
Grade A+
9. Term: linux Result: Good
Another home run, the Linux results are plentiful and quality.
Grade A+
10. Term: free online games Result: Nothing
Another gaming related keyword with no results, I’ll skip the future gaming keywords as I don’t expect results.
Grade F
11. Term: google earth Result: Nothing
Nothing from Mahalo Although the default Google results are just what people will need.
Grade C
12. Term: sunrocket Result: Nothing
This was a little surprising (as they’ve been around since 2004) but I’ll grade it fair as it appears sunrocket is new to the list.
Grade C-
13. Term: pictures of cats Result: Nothing
If I had a grade lower than F- I would hand it out here. Come on… no results for pictures of cats?!?! Shame.
Grade F-
14. Term: wwe Result: Good
Good results, plenty of information about this popular sport/attraction.
Grade A+
15. Term: bleach Result: Good
Surprisingly good results for such a boring term.
Grade A
16. Term: daniel radcliffe Result: Good
Another hit for Mahalo, the results are great here.
Grade A+
17. Term: vida guerra Result: Nothing
Vida is borderline “adult” material as she’s famous for mostly her body part(s). But I would expect to see some results as she’s managed to exploit her initial Internet celebrity into a somewhat legit career. Curiously “paris hilton” has good results and one could argue she’s more of an “adult” star then anything else.
Grade B-
18. Term: metallica Result: Good
Ah yes, the original RIAA piracy poster boys enjoy good results at Mahalo.
Grade A+
19. Term: dog Result: Good
The results are very complete and offer many categories of links and information for dog lovers and researchers as well as consumers.
Grade A+
Final Conclusion:
The final verdict is a bit mixed. There are plenty of A’s on the report card above but also plenty of F’s. All of which shows that the staff at Mahalo still has a lot of work to do. If Jim Lanzone is to be believed and 60% of all searches are unique and new, Mahalo might have a never ending battle ahead of them that they cannot win.
However, if Mahalo positions themselves as Wikipedia for search and the web community embraces them (and contributes) they could be one of the late Web 2.0 success stories.
July 24, 2007 at 9:02 am · Filed under Energy Drink Review
I first want to say that I do not drink energy drinks, nor have I ever drank an energy drink that I can remember. I have had small tastes of Red Bull here or sips of Amp there, but I hadn’t drank an entire serving until now. I decided that since I’ve been hearing so much about energy drinks on various media and from my various friends who are addicted *cough* I mean drink them I should write up a review based on a non-biased an non-experienced energy drink drinker’s (which is surprisingly easy to say really fast 5 times) perspective.
I headed out to select 5 energy drinks randomly from the selection at local convenience and grocery stores. After hitting a few spots I was surprised at the overall quantity of selection of energy drinks in each store (some had over 20 choices). I picked up the following 5: Red Bull, Rockstar, BooKoo Shot, Full Throttle, and Amp Energy. Each of the energy drinks cost around $2.50, which was surprising to someone used to (relatively) cheap Coca Cola and unfamiliar with this price point.
1. Red Bull
Ingredients: Carbonated water, sucrose, glucose, sodium citrate, taurine, glucuronolactone, inositol, niacin, D-pantothenol, pyridoxine HCL, vitamin B12, natural and artificial flavors, colors
Nutrition Facts: Serving Size: 1 can; Amount per serving: Calories: 160; Total Fat: 0g; Sodium: 290mg; Protein: less than 1g; Total Carbohydrates: 40g; Sugars: 39g; Niacin: 140%; Vitamin B6: 360%; Vitamin B12: 120%; Pantothenic acid: 70%
I figured I might as well start with the energy drink that I have heard the most about and that I see all over the place on TV, in magazine and online sponsoring events and advertising their “wings” campaign.
First Impressions: I popped the cap and the first thing I notice is the aroma coming from the energy drink. It smells almost cough syrup in that is smells very fruity and syrupy (I’m not really looking forward to the first taste at this point). Well, here goes! … … Yow! carbonated liquid lifesavers comes to mind.
Energy Diary: 10:45am and I’ve begun drinking the Red Bull.
Just to give you some info while I’m waiting for my “wings” , the Red Bull can states that “Red Bull energy drink improves performance….and increases concentration”. I guess only time will tell how true that statement is as I feel nothing right away. I do find it hard to drink because it is so syrupy and candy flavored but I’ll press on, I have a feeling there’s more of this in my future with 4 left to test.
11:10: I have been drinking the the Red Bull now for about 20 minutes and I seem to be about done. I just cannot get past the taste and consistency of this drink. I might as well take some lifesavers put them in a bowl, take them outside and let them melt in the sun and then drink them up. It would be cheaper and would probably give the same results.
Well it has been about 1 hour since I finished my Red Bull energy drink and I feel like I got a “little” boost. But mid afternoon on a hot July sort of takes any energy from you.
Final Conclusion & Rating: I waited another couple hours to see both the immediate effects and after effects of the energy drink and I have to say I didn’t feel that much different. 2 out of 5 stars.
2. Amp Energy Drink Tall Boy
Ingredients: Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavor, orange juice from concentrate, guarana, sodium benzoate, sodium polyphosphates, maltodextrin, caffeine, gum arabic, erythoric acid, taurine, panax ginseng, calcium disodium edta (to product flavor), potassium benzoate, brominated vegetable oil, yellow 5
Nutrition Facts: Serving size: 1 can (8.4oz); calories 120; total fat 0g; saturated fat 0g; cholesterol 0mg; sodium 75mg; total carb. 32g; dietary fiber 0g; sugars 30g; protein 0g; riboflavin 20%; vitamin B6 10%; vitamin B12 10%; niacin 10%; pantothenic acid 10%
Amp is a Mountain Dew related product, and comes in a rather large 16 OZ can which contains 2 servings. Which brings up a good point. Some manufacturers offer a smaller “shot” style packaging which contains 1 serving (6-8 oz.) However others offer tall and wide cans that typically contain 2 servings. For this review I’m drinking the entire can, regardless of serving size as I feel that’s how most consumers… consume these products (who splits a can of anything with someone?).
First Impressions: Amp tastes like a cousin of Mountain Dew, a cousin who lives the fast life and may or may not be on some sort of mind enhancing cocktail of drugs. This is probably a good thing for Pepsi as it’s most likely what they were shooting for when they designed the flavor of this go juice. I can’t say I like the taste of Amp, but it is slightly better than Red Bull and closer to a typical soda experience.
Energy Diary: 12:30 I feel a slightly more powerful boost this afternoon after drinking Amp with my lunch. I feel slightly more alert but nothing that couldn’t be explained by a better night’s sleep or daily variation in mood. I’m going to guess if I only drank 8 oz’s I wouldn’t notice a difference.
Final Conclusion & Rating: Better tasting than Red Bull but still not a very effective energy producer, 3 out of 5 stars.
3. Full Throttle Energy Drink
Ingredients: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sucrose, citric acid, taurine, natural and artificial flavors, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate (to protect taste), ginseng extract, caffeine, carnitine fumarate, maltodextrin, niacinamide (vitamin B3), yellow 5, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), guarana extract, cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12).
Nutrition Facts: serving size 8fl oz; servings per container 2; calories 100; total fat 0g; sodium 70mg; total carbs 28g; sugars 29g; protein 0g; niacin 205; vitamin b6 20%; vitamin B12 10%
I noticed Full Throttle was made by Coca Cola, and I immediately thought of my previous experience with Amp and wondered if Coca Cola could win me over like it has with it’s Cola. Regardless, it won’t garner any brownie points from me just for the parent company no matter how addicted I am to it’s sugary Cola cousin.
First Impressions: My first taste went surprisingly well, although I was still greeted with the common ingredient; ultimate sweetness I was also greeted with a milder carbonation than the others and a slight lime flavor which was a fairly pleasant aftertaste experience.
Energy Diary: I haven’t even left the house to go back to the office and I’m already feeling the effects of the Full Throttle experience. Full speed ahead indeed! It’s a weird feeling though, I’m slightly nervous, a little anxious and starting to feel a little antsy, all the tell-tale signs of excess energy but without the pure boundless energy you get on a brilliant Saturday morning or maybe the day after a big promotion.
Final Conclusion & Rating: It’s been almost 2 hours and I’ve come down considerably from the initial energy rush I experienced. I’d say this drink does the job, and doesn’t taste half bad either, I’d give it 5/5 but I can hear the whining now, so it’ll rank in at 4 out of 5 stars.
4. BooKoo Shot Wild Berry
Ingredients: caronated water, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, sodium citrate, potassium benzoate (as a preservative), natural flavor, taurine, caffeine, glucuronoloctone, insitol, niacin, d-pantothenol, pyridoxine HCL, red 40, blue 1, vitamin B12
Nutrition Facts: serving size: 5.75 fl oz; servings per container: 1; calories 80; total fat 0g; sodium 150mg; total carbohydrate 19g; sugars 19g; niacin 65%; vitamin B6 164%; vitamin B12 54%; pantothenic acid 33%; taurine 1000mg
BooKoo comes in a mini shot container (under 6 oz’s), and has the impression that it delivers an explosion in every can.
First Impressions: The first thing I noticed when I opened the BooKoo Shot was the color. It is a dark pink color and it smells like candy. With my first taste I noticed it was very carbonated and tasted like a candy flavored soda.
Energy Diary: About 15 minutes after I started drinking the BooKoo shot I noticed my body starting to twitch. I was kind of jittery and I did feel a little burst of energy. I felt the need to get stuff done, which I did very fast.
Final Conclusion & Rating: It has been 8 hours since I had my BooKoo shot and I still feel a little antsy. I did get a slight headache about 3 hours after I had the shot. As far as an overall rating this energy drink does give you energy and the taste ok OK so I would give the BooKoo shot a 4 out of 5 stars .
5. Rockstar Energy Drink
Ingredients: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, citric acid, taurine, natural and artificial flavors, guarana seed extract, ascorbic acid, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative), potassium sorbate (preservative), caffeine, niacinamide, inositol, l-carnitine, milk thistle extract, ginkgo biloba leaf extract, calcium pantothenate, siberian ginseng root extract, cyanocobalamin, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride
Nutrition Facts: serving size 8 fl oz; servings per container 2; calories 110; fat 0g; sodium 35mg; total carb 29g; sugars 27g; protein 0g; vitamin b2 200%; vitamin b3 50%; vitamin b5 50%; vitamin b6 50%; vitamin b12 50%; vitamin c 100%; taurine 946mg; guarana 200mg; inositol 25mg; carnitine 25mg; siberian ginseng 25mg; milk thistle 20mg; ginkgo 15mg
After having a good experience the previous day with Full Throttle, I was looking forward to the next entry in the review. Rockstar wasn’t at all what I was expecting and turned out to be the best tasting and most peculiar of the 6 I reviewed.
First Impressions: The first thing you’ll notice when drinking Rockstar is that it taste’s somewhat like grapefruit juice. Instead of the candy/soda effect the other had, Rockstar has a pleasant and almost fruit juice taste to it, making the overall experience not one of ultimate sweetness (although saying Rockstar isn’t sweet isn’t at all accurate either).
Energy Diary: I did notice a nice boost in energy from Rockstar, but not the same effect I experienced with Full Throttle.
Final Conclusion & Rating: I’d pick Rockstar up again if I needed a small pick me up, and a pleasant fruit-like drink to quench my thirst, I’ll give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
–
Credits: Props to BevNet.com for providing Ingredient and Nutrition data on each drink (it made composing this article slightly less time consuming).
July 20, 2007 at 3:15 pm · Filed under Car Insurance, Keyword Experiment
While I was recently researching search arbitrage (yes I know I’m 6 months late) I spent a lot of time in front of keyword discovery and bid level tools looking at terms like car insurance. What I found was a huge variation in keyword bid levels, and it got me thinking; using bid $ levels to guide content creation could speed revenue generation for an AdSense blog like mine.
Which explains why I’m talking about car insurance and not some other high paying keyword or more “tech” related topic. In fact I do have a lot to say about car insurance, and this article should have a decent change to rank for the term. If not the secondary keywords usually still demand a higher price and are much easier to rank for.
I have the wonderful privilege of living in Massachusetts, which means I pay 1 amount for my auto insurance no matter which insurer I choose (I just choose an “agent”). All those glorious (and costly) car insurance commercials on TV from Geico, State Farm, All State, AIG, Progressive, and Esurance are useless on me as I can’t save any money, and their services don’t matter to me in a state where the price is regulated. It’s all explained better at the DMV.org site.
I also need to point out that advertising auto insurance on price alone, isn’t a great idea for the consumer unless they are in dire need of the cheapest coverage available. You want to make sure you’re protected in case of an accident, and that might mean slightly higher premiums to cover hospital expenses and possible injury to other occupants. Which depending on how you look at insurance in general, may be worth it for you (head of household primary source of income anyone?).
The second item I wanted to discuss was the search results in Google for the term “car insurance”. It’s completely dominated by the commercial players in this market, and Wikipedia is no where to be found on page 1. Interestingly the results over at Mahalo paint a much different picture. Not only are the large national providers listed (with a simple link), but also Car Insurance Tips and Buying Guides, Car Insurance Company Comparisons, Car Insurance News & Articles, and information on Car Insurance Scams & Fraud. This is an area where the consumer and one could argue the insurance companies are better served by human search. But I digress.
Coming back full circle, I’m going to track just this post (using AdSense Channels) to see how it pays out over time, and compare it with the average for my more tech focused and misc topic posts.
July 17, 2007 at 9:00 am · Filed under Business Tech
If the math done by John Chow is correct and any indication of real payout rates for the AGLOCO network, the concept and company is doomed for failure.
For those of you who don’t know, John Chow (a minor Digg/blog celebrity) has amassed over 21,000 AGLOCO sign ups all originating from his highly trafficked and highly profitable blog. Having 21K referrals has put John on the top of the list in total referrals and most likely represents the highest payout of all AGLOCO members.
I’ll quote Chow from his blog posting yesterday so I don’t mis interpret what he was saying:
Basically, the ad revenue will be divided by the total number of network hours to arrive at a cost per hour (this is after AGLOCO takes their 10%). Once you have your cost per hour, take that number and multiply it by your total accumulated hours. For example I have 5,665.9 hours accumulated. If each hour was worth 15 cents, I would get $849.88.
So John Chow, at the literal top of the pyramid (pun intended) of the AGLCO scheme has only made $849.88 from having twenty one thousand referrals and 5,665.9 hours accumulated!
What this means for average users with almost no referrals is making money from AGLOCO is nearly impossible. To compare John’s payout with my potential payout (I have 1 inactive referral), you’d have to do some rough math;
$849.88 / 21,000 = $0.04
Which basically means I make more money finding random change on the ground than I would from AGLOCO. Unless of course I refer thousands and thousands of users and dupe them into running the crappy ad bar (a whole separate story to come.)
July 15, 2007 at 6:27 pm · Filed under Announcements
Chocolate Candy Bouquets dot com offers handmade, one of a kind bouquets made of only the best candy by experts at crafting delicious candy gifts. Each bouquet is made by hand and packaged professionally to ensure your candy gift arrives in-tact and extra tasty for the lucky recipient.
Chocolate Candy Bouquets.com also offers custom bouquets which you can configure to your needs and (candy) taste using an online form. Pick your container, your desired candy and gender of recipient and their experts will match the bouquet to your specifications.
Their most popular bouquet by far is the Birthday Fun Time Bouquet which sells for about $38.99 making it not only tasty but affordable as well. When someone you love has a birthday coming up or is in need of a candy pick me up coming, think of ChocolateCandyBouquets.com for a memorable and delicious gift.
If you would like a post like this one about your company read more here about our promo photo link project.
July 15, 2007 at 9:30 am · Filed under Humor
The joys of a first birthday cake for your little one:
This what your child will look like after you let her eat her own birthday cake. The highchair was covered in cake and we had to practically hose it down.
July 11, 2007 at 7:41 am · Filed under Privacy & Security, Web Development
If you manage and edit your own website or run a blog with it’s own domain then you are probably aware of a type of file called the .htaccess file. You may or may not know what this file actually does, or how to create and edit one but fret not, I’m here to help.
Josiah Cole dot com runs a slightly out of date WordPress 2.1 install (the horror I know), and a fairly standard one at that, with a couple select plugins like Askimet and wp-cache to help me possibly survive another Digging. The one item that is lacking is a complete and robust .htaccess file that sufficiently protects and aids my site in handling traffic and visitors.
This quick tutorial will provide you with an htaccess file that does the following:
1. Protects itself (security)
2. Turns the digital signature off (security)
3. Limits upload size (security)
4. Protects wp-config.php (security)
5. Gives access permission to all visitors with exceptions (security, usability)
6. Specifies custom error documents (usability)
7. Disables directory browsing (security)
8. Redirect old pages to new (optional)
9. Disables image hotlinking (bandwidth)
10. Enables PHP compression (bandwidth)
11. Sets the canonical or “standard” url for your site (seo, usability)
1. Step 1, create a blank .htaccess file. This can be done in Notepad or a comparable simple text editor of your choice (no MS Word does not count although it’s possible). Open Notepad and Click Save, name this file htaccess.txt. If you’re using Windows XP the OS won’t allow you to name a file e .htaccess but don’t worry, you can rename it once it’s been uploaded to your server (no idea how Linux, Vista or OSX handle this).
2. Add content to htaccess.txt. Now that you have htaccess.txt saved, you can start to edit the file and use it to better manage your site without relying on complex PHP or bloated JavaScript code.
The example htaccess file below is one that can be used for a website like this one (running WordPress and nothing else), simply un-comment the sections you’d like to use by removing the # at the beginning of the line and copy+paste the contents into your own .htaccess file.
# protect the htaccess file
<files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</files>
# disable the server signature
ServerSignature Off
# limit file uploads to 10mb
LimitRequestBody 10240000
# protect wpconfig.php
<files wp-config.php>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</files>
#who has access who doesnt
order allow,deny
#deny from 000.000.000.000
allow from all
#custom error docs
ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.php
ErrorDocument 403 /forbidden.php
ErrorDocument 500 /error.php
# disable directory browsing
Options All -Indexes
#redirect old to new
Redirect 301 /old.php http://www.yourdomain.com/new.php
#block referring domains
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} digg\.com [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]
#disable hotlinking of images with forbidden or custom image option
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yourdomain.com/.*$ [NC]
#RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ - [F]
#RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/stealingisbad.gif [R,L]
# php compression - use with caution
<ifmodule mod_php4.c>
php_value zlib.output_compression 16386
</ifmodule>
# set the canonical url
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# protect from spam comments
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .wp-comments-post\.php*
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !.*yourdomain.com.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$
RewriteRule (.*) ^http://%{REMOTE_ADDR}/$ [R=301,L]
3. Upload htaccess.txt. Once you’ve created your master piece of an .htaccess file upload the htaccess.txt file to your web server via ftp (in ASCII mode) and rename the file to .htaccess. Once it’s been renamed change the file permissions of the .htaccess file to 644 to further protect it from malicious hacker types.
4. Test, Test, Test. Go to your site, is it still up? Good, now check to see if you can access files you protected, or try and see a directory listing. Not all variables are testable but do your best to make sure your file is working.
Lastly Josiah Cole dot com is now running a variation of the htaccess file above with no hotlink protection (I only host a couple images) and no redirects or custom errors docs (yet). No problems *yet* but I’m still running tests to make sure there are no problems. Maybe my visitors can help me do this by commenting? If I like it I’ll add your suggestion to the article and give you some URL lovin’.
Note: If you are already using a custom permalink structure to format page names, you’ll need to keep that code in the htaccess file in order for that to continue functioning. To see your htaccess file in WordPress click Manage>Files>.htaccess (for rewrite rules).
July 6, 2007 at 6:24 pm · Filed under SEO, Web 2.0
I’ll admit I’m a bit of a stats obsessed freak when it comes to my personal projects. I simply can’t stay away from my Google stats, raw log file stats and of course my Ad Sense stats.
After my last blog posting on the iPhone 2 I detected a large increase in keyword searches that landed people on that article. A quick check on Google and I was ranked #5 for the search phrase “iPhone 2″ and that was resulting in 79 (so far) incoming visits. 79 may not sound like a lot but it’s almost 3 times the previous month’s top keyword total and there’s only been 6 days in July.
This got me thinking, is traditional keyword targeting a better traffic/income generator than the new breed of social sites (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon)?
With each article I publish, I attempt to ride the social wave just like my original 19 Things NOT To Do When Building a Website article did several months back. I’ve had the lucky experience being on the front page of Fark.com, Reddit.com, Digg.com and Shoutwire/TorrentSpy and it sends a ton of traffic and assuming your web server stays up (I didn’t survive the Digging) it also means a good chunk of money gets racked up in your advertising/affiliate programs you’ve implemented on the site. But getting into the home page of any of these sites is not an exact science and there’s a ton of competition just like there is for keywords. However the pay off is a “long tail” effect on traffic, and if I gain traction for any of these keywords, I can leverage that for a longer more sustainable gain in traffic.
One of the other things I’m most obsessed about is keyword and search engine usage reporting. I’m a sucker for any service or tool that shows me what real users are searching and in what proportion to each other. One of these tools I subscribe to is WordTracker’s weekly keyword report which shows me the top 200 keywords people are using in two time frames 48 hours and 90 days.
This got me thinking; I should experiment to see if keyword targeting is more worthy of my time blogging than social site bait.
Here’s the plan: I’m going to attack this list and start at the bottom, crafting articles using the non adult, n non offensive keywords in an attempt to place in the search engines for searches of this popular term. Some of them won’t relate to my current blog theme, but running Oomny.com has shown me that you can rank for some fairly weird stuff.
First up on the list: global warming
There’s no way in iceberg melting hell I’m going to rank for the keyword “global warming” but I guess I’ll start with it. Maybe some obscure or second rate search engine will find it and give me some rank loving. But it brings up a concern for this experiment, will the top 200 be too competitive? This will only be solved by playing out the experiment and measuring the results.
My next post will be on global warming and won’t mention this experiment as it will attempt to be helpful and contain relevant information.
July 2, 2007 at 9:58 am · Filed under Hardware
First off let me be honest, I don’t have an iPhone and I don’t intend on buying one. It’s not that I don’t like it, or think it’s pretty fricken’ sweet, or that it’s too expensive (it is). The reason I’m not buying this generation of iPhone goodness is simply because it’s the first generation of this device. Let me share a story about another Apple product that has done exactly what Apple is envisioning for the iPhone; total market dominance.
A friend of mine bought one of the original iPods, for those of you who forget what that product actually looked like and worked like let me remind you:
Scary I know, not only did this iPod look rather ugly, it ran like Windows ME. Now at the time the newly announced iPod from Apple was undoubtedly the hotness, and looked like pure sex compared to what we had seen before it. However as time passed, and mobile devices continued to evolve in form and function Apple slowly and wisely updated the iPod to it’s now current beautiful form. Once the first video iPod was offered I snapped up a 40 GB model and am enjoying it to this day. It doesn’t look as bad as the first one and doesn’t crash like the first one did (not to mention iTunes is 50% less crappy… just another 50% to go).
The point of that little walk down memory lane was twofold, a; first generation Apple products (and for that matter tech products) are always weak when compared to the second and third revisions and b; it’s wise to wait for Apple to revise these devices as you’ll gain features and pay less and end up with a truly superior product just like this current generation if iPod’s show:
On to the good stuff. From the blanket and absolute crushing coverage of the new iPhone around the web I’ve gathered some observations and made some guesses as to what the new iPhone should have. I’m calling it the iPhone 2 only for confusion’s sake as I’m sure Apple will have it’s own name for the new device (and no it’s not the Jesus phone)
1. Better camera. Currently the iPhone has a 2 mega pixel, no flash no frills camera that doesn’t take video. The 2 megapixel/no flash thing can be excused but the no video support is mind bogelingly stupid oversight on Apple’s part (it’s got YouTube support hello!). Unless my sources are wrong, the second gen iPhone should have video, more mega pixels and possibly a flash and better motion support.
2. More memory. This is an obvious one and almost isn’t worth mentioning but I’m sure Apple will (and should) up the amount of space available for the user to store data.
3. Better battery. It’s barely out on the market but I can already see the blog posting, forum rants and customer petitions starting now. Consumers are never happy with battery life on new gadgets and this generation iPhone is no different. Look for better power management from a smarter OS or a battery replacement option in the next iPhone.
4. 64 bit Vista/XP support. Small one but support should be there.
5. Multi carrier deals. We all know this is coming but Apple should offer this phone across the board to the other evil wireless companies. This will help drop prices which is good for the consumer and increase penetration which is great for Apple.
6. Better keyboard. There have been reports of some laggy keyboards especially when confronted with talented thumb wielding Blackberry addicts. I’ll say the jury is still out on this one but I am certain Apple will focus on improving this aspect of the device with the iPhone 2.
7. Faster network/3G Support. The problem the iPhone is presenting to the wireless networks in the United States is finally users have a proper browser to use, and actually want to take advantage of their new multi media cell phone which includes the ability to send and receive large amounts of data. Much like YouTube, and Bit Torrent as well as Napster before them the iPhone is going to help push along the advancement of these wireless data networks and actually allow users to take full advantage of the features this new device offers. This should only improve over time, and once the iPhone 2 is ready, the providers of wireless networks like AT&T, Verizon and others will be scrambling to support his new user trend.
8. Gaming support?. This one is a bit of a stretch (and was thought up by me) but the iPhone presents a unique chance for Apple to take some of the Nintendo/Sony money in the handheld gaming market. They should take the Nintendo approach and go simple and addictively fun with their games. There are tons of Flash web games available now that are simple and provide geeks with hours of unproductive fun on the web within the browser. If the iPhone offered and promoted this feature to users/developers they should have a very nice gaming system on their hands and bring in some money with in house developed apps and accessories/licensing deals.
That’s the list. I’m sure it’s full of logic holes and will spawn thousands of flaming emails from Apple fanboys but I welcome that. If you have an idea for this list leave it in the comments and I’ll put it in the article with link gratitude.