thoughts

Blog thoughts from Paul

Kintsukuroi

A gold lacquered repaired porcelain bowl
| Paul Gailey

Play this while you scroll on for 5 min.

If any country and it’s people ever typified resilience, Japan wholly qualifies.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukushima.

Incredible stories of destruction and suffering.

And recovery.

Kintsukuroi is a fabulous Japanese word, laced with a beautiful philosophical potency.

Per Wikipedia:

Kintsugi (Japanese: 金継ぎ, romanized: “golden joinery”), also known as kintsukuroi (金繕い, “golden repair”), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.

The art of Kintsukuroi and it’s metaphor oh so resonates with me.

It may well be relatable if you have a scar.

And we all develop scars throughout our lives.

I was recently gifted a kintsukuroi t-shirt, a navy garment with golden Kintsugi lines.

I shared the sentiment of the item with a small group of people who, like myself, had undergone a massive life altering Whipple surgery and chemotherapy.

And they all related 💜.

Aside from the arduous physical recovery of a pancreaticoduodenectomy, aka a Whipple, it’s a challenge to come to terms with such an invasive surgery and cancer treatment, on another level.

The loss of one’s body parts, provokes a complex range of feelings from a sense of mourning and pain, to an admiration for the marvels of modern surgery, from astonishment to self belief of human resilience and recovery.

That our bodies continue to function, with several digestive organs removed, split and spliced, to be surgically reassembled, albeit requiring a modest intake of mealtime medicine, is nothing short of incredible.

I had a laparoscopic intervention, machine surgery conducted as a Da Vinci robotic assisted surgery.

Whilst this meant my operation lasted nearly twelve hours, far longer than most, I was spared the open surgery incision and huge abdominal scar that fellow Whipplers endured.

My most notable physical scars remain the pencil diameter puncture points for drainage bags tubes that accompanied me for months afterwards, and even those are barely visible now.

Fellow patients flaunt their abdominal scars and will lovingly boast how many staples or stitches it took to patch them back up.

Yet scars are more than physical.

The Japanese believe that when something has suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful.

That’s why they repair broken objects with gold lacquer, and instead of trying to conceal defects and cracks, they accentuate and celebrate them as they have become proof of imperfection and fragility but also of resilience and of the ability to recover and become stronger.

A marvellous philosophy to beholden in this all too disposable age.

Resilience is indeed remarkable.

My friend who gifted the t-shirt knows it.

She lost a leg in a road accident during childhood.

It did not thwart her.

She became a long distance open sea swimmer.

Our scars, your scars, all, tell a story.

They nurture resilience.

We become from them.

Kintsukuroi is to heal.

Healing is life.

And life is beautiful.

Vivir es urgente

Pau Donés de Jarabe de Palo
| Paul Gailey

Soy jarabesco.

Y lo fui desde hace décadas.

La música, la letra, y el espíritu de Jarabe De Palo siempre me ha encantado y el fallecimiento del cantante del grupo, Pau Donés, en el 2020 de cancer, me emocionó de una forma muy profunda.

Annus horribilis

Aunque los últimos dos años de mi vida, entre síntomas, admisión al hospital, diagnostico, cirugía, recuperación, complicaciones y quimioterapia* – todo me ha puesto de prueba, recuerdo que durante esos días y noches larguísimas en la UCI de abril 2023 tras la cirugía, la música fue parte de mi salvación.

En aquellos momentos escuchaba mucho Bach. Y veía videos de Robby Naish, otro héroe de mi juventud.

*Pronto publicaré otro post con detalles de mi año que me ha cambiado la vida.

Recuperación

Cuando salía de cada sesión de quimioterapia del edificio del hospital del día el año pasado y hasta noviembre cuando tuve que abandonar el tratamiento de forma prematura, escuchaba la música de Jarabe de Palo de Depende.

Dentro del recinto del hospital se oía por altavoz del colegio cercano y me llenaba el alma.

El colegio lo ponía a toda regla al patio para notificar a los peques de volver a o salir de clase.

La letra y el significado de la canción me inspira.

Al igual que la letra de Déjame Vivir, una canción que esta bien interpretado aquí que se centra en la libertad y expresión.

Filtro perro globo ✨

Cuando observe que además se había pintado el exterior del colegio por un muralista con un perro globo estilo Jeff Kroons, me alimento la imaginación y decidimos en Everywoah de colaborar y aumentarlo por la camera en las apps de Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, y Snapchat produciendo un filtro de realidad aumentada.

Apuntas al perro globo con la camera del móvil y con un toque lo liberas del mural y lo envías al cielo.

La letra de las canciones de Depende y Dejáme Vivir combina con el mural y la idea y realidad aumentada de liberarlo.

Tambien me hablaba a mi las letras de esas canciones a mi condición y tratamiento.

No sabía que ponerme y me puse feliz

Esa frase estaba escrito en la fachada del cole y encajaba con el espíritu del arte.

Aquí lo explico.

Espero que los alumnos y viandantes de la zona, tantos pacientes oncológicos que cualquiera que disfrute de su imaginación y que quiera disfrutar de la felicidad le inspire la obra al igual que lo ha hecho para mi.

Porque tal como dijo Pau:

No tengáis miedo, no odiéis, la vida son cuatro días, y tres pasaron ya. No estemos aquí de mala leche, estemos aquí de buen humor….Sean felices, la vida es urgente, la vida es una y ahora, y hay que vivirla a tope.

Porque vivir es urgente.

Liz lettuce gets a facelift

| Paul Gailey

The lettuce won – that’s how every person and their dog shared the news last week of the resignation of Liz Truss as the UK PM.

What started out as a healthy LOL about 10 days ago for me when the live cam was created, rapidly turned into a work sprint to serve up a googly eye official augmented reality Instagram filter after the Daily Star formally commanded Everywoah to rustle something up.

At times of gloom and woe, and yes political hellfires, people continue to fiercely enjoy shared experiences and healthy humour, and there’s plenty of reasons why remixable video, aka AR filters, compliment video live streams, chats and tweets, with copious amounts of bantz all week long.

Tip of the Lactuca sativa var. capitata

When you end up walking into a meme with an AR filter it can take any sort of direction, these video clips in this compilation are literally the tip of the iceberg.

As trite as silly face filters may seem, they appeal to our innate sense of escapism, of acting, of playing up –  sort of like momentary fancy dress without too much of the hassle of the apparel and physical makeup.

And it’s notable how many people feel free and safer when their true identity is partially concealed yet they can still exasperate and express themselves through a daft mask. 

The Daily Star bantz big time

Congrats to the Daily Star who sparked a cultural phenomenon as the story gained widespread participation and coverage from UK and global media.

In doing so they have ensured that the humble 60p lettuce follows in the tradition of british satire entering the hall of political fame and folklore, forever destined to rank highly among other revered foods joining the likes of the tub of lard (Roy Hattersley), eggs (John Prescott, et al), milkshake (Nigel Farage, various), custard pies (Ann Widdecombe, Rupert Murdoch), and that more contemporary morsel, the bacon sarnie (Ed Miliband).

And whilst many astute observers around these parts have noted that the Daily Star staff are closet Economist fans having taken editorial inspiration from their “iceberg lady” and “shelf life of a lettuce” quips, there’s another deeper conspiracy story worth digging up that may explain the head start the lettuce genuinely had.

Grocery Gazette spills the beans

You see back in sunny hot September, the esteemed publication Grocery Gazette, announced that UK supermarket Tesco had relaxed the required specification of its Iceberg lettuces, allowing growers to harvest them quicker so they retained their crispiness.

The new sizing specification meant that lettuces  – mostly exported here from Murcia, SE Spain from where I compile this piece – were permitted to be harvested up to two days earlier than before, ensuring they didn’t wilt in the fields and stayed crisper for longer.

So now you know, global warming and the risk of crop failure ultimately impacts political life.

And people love to dress up as a vegetable.

Try the filter at everywoah.com/filters/liz-lettuce on Instagram or TikTok.

Last week: unexpected vegetables, this week, reptiles loom large.

50 Ways to Leave Your Filter

| Paul Gailey

It’s some 44 years since Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” was composed.

Released in December 1975, it only took a few weeks to become a hit in ´76.

It has endured as a classic song marking the end of a significant relationship.

The drum intro alone has been much sampled and the song interpreted by many acts in homage to the songwriter.

It’s some 44 days, or thereabouts, since Arno Partissimo released the What Disney? are you Instagram filter that has since kicked off a craze.

It’s been much copied, and rehashed by many since, with little regard to the originator.

Whilst imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it’s a welcome change to at least see things remixed a little, yes?

If you’re wondering how, perhaps the problem is all inside your head.

Because there must be fifty ways to remix, to improve, to create filters that engage an audience.

The answer is easy if you take it logically.

The what sort of… randomiser filters succeed, in part, because of their simplicity.

They invite a momentary lapse of reason for everyone, to escape from reality.

They appeal to being free. 

I’d like to help you in your struggle to be free.

To consider fifty ways to finesse your filter.

Be visual

The language of filters is predominantly visual.

You don’t need to discuss much.

Your filter doesn’t need text to thrive.

Infact, if your filter contains excessive text, you’re likely to be denied publishing approval from Instagram.

Make a new plan.

Think audio

Filters need not be silent.

You don’t need to be coy.

Include ambient audio in your filter or facially triggered audio fx.

Just listen.

Rear is here

It’s not all self.

Rear camera face filters don’t have to be identical to selfie filters.

Filters on rear camera allow detection of objects, placement of augmented ones.

Mix it up.

Just slip out the back.

Delight more

Everyone likes a surprise.

An Easter egg perhaps?

A raise of eyebrows, a tilt of the head, a pucker up.

To make you smile again.

Unlock to play

A Russian Doll reveals more within it.

Reward filter behaviour with more filters.

Maybe a time sensitive coupon code?

Just drop off the key, in backchannels.

And get yourself free.

Filters offer creative freedom in abundance

Form yours or hire a filter fanatical team to finesse further

It’s really not my habit to intrude

I hope my meaning won’t be lost or misconstrued

But I’ll repeat myself at the risk of being crude

There must be fifty ways to leave your filter.

Press the Stop Brexit button

| Paul Gailey

An awful lot has happened since I last blogged.

A lot that has happened since I last blogged has been awful.

Those assertions could of course be true for many and the few.

Since starting up Everywoah, the vision has remained to evoke a feeling, to elicit a woah, through augmented and virtual reality.

Communicating feelings that transform into positive actions is the goal that follows from a woah.

There is an innate series of reactions that people experience when they interact with augmented reality and exude a woah.

No matter how short lived the moment, the pure fantasy, and escapism that accompanies that momentary lapse of reason of a woah is a joy to behold.

From joy and woah comes action.

Realities are questioned.

Assertions are challenged.

What if it wasn’t virtual?

What if the augmented were mixed?

What if we didn’t have to mix our reality?

The clock is ticking.

The UK Parliament is revolting.

People are entitled to a final say 🗳️

Press the 🛑 Stop Brexit button.

Press it on Facebook

Press it on Instagram

Record a video.

Tell the world.

Made for Best For Britain by TFUK supporters with ❤️ at Everywoah.

The Black Swan Referendum

| Paul Gailey

So last week, I had a moment where I thought out aloud.

I tweeted this:

I didn’t dwell any further to explain in detail what I was really thinking, until I was asked.
In the increasingly toxic atmosphere of the discussion around the UK European Referendum vote, a day before the heinous murder of Jo Cox, MP, I was referring to a Black Swan.

As I told Becky, who I met a few weeks ago at The Inbounder event in Valencia, I was referring to the phenomenon as explained by the author, former trader, and essayist of probability Nicholas Taleb, that rare events that have a significant impact, appear predictable in hindsight, as opposed to in foresight.

I trust that not only does the UK vote to remain in the European Union on Thursday 23rd June, but that the sentiment of #moreincommon prevails here on in.

..we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us’ – Jo Cox, MP

Vive la réalité virtuelle!

| Paul Gailey

We owe it to the French.

When I retorted with this tweet to the statement about Morton Heilig’s Sensorama:

I was referring to Antonine Artaud (1896-1948), a french theatre director, widely recognised as one of the major figures of twentieth-century theatre and the European avant-garde.

The Arrival

Be it the early works of Auguste and Louis Lumière and the The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station,

 
 

to the fabulous efforts of Damien and David to persuade Larry of the delightful viability of Cardboard, that post-modern day plastic, VR aka, réalité virtuelle bleeds tricolore more than anything.

Live VR video

And if we’re talking about the continuation of the #avralance then note how those leading the field for many years now, and about to step into big Facebook and Google pursued limelight, is Video Stitch, the company behind the newly launched Orah, a 4k Live streaming camera for prosumer usage that streams to your HMD and your soon your social feed.

Yes, Orah is lead by the French Nicolas Burtey and a team of Parisians. (Ed. seriously thinking of getting one of these!)

And yet in some ways, that narrative of film making in VR is still very much in it’s infancy, in a sort of Lumière moment, as story tellers grapple with how to craft a story with new fandangled  tools.

Ghosts and Characters

I recommend digesting Devon Dolan’s VR thesis around the The Four Different Types of Stories in VR as modified by Kent Bye. It’s a fascinating take on the art.

This piece (in Spanish) from one of the VR creator’s of Ministerio del Tiempo for RTVE, goes into more detail about the film and post production techniques in VR to achieve viewer immersion. The notion of cuts and edits is an eternal one in VR that is touched upon:

To change from scene to scene, there’s always some elements that allow a transition, an envelope is handed to you, and you have to deliver it to someone…

Para cambiar de escena a escena, siempre hay unos elementos que hacen de transición; te dan un sobre, se lo tienes que entregar (a alguien)

Master story tellers

And yet, those very same story telling techniques and film hacks, that are now flexing a new generation of VR maker’s minds, are not too disimilar to the ones that tested yesterday’s great directors:

How Alfred Hitchcock hid 10 Edits in ROPE from Vashi Nedomansky.

ROPE (1948) is Alfred Hitchcock’s murder/suspense film that showcases the killing in its second shot. ROPE is often described as the film with no edits or cuts.

On further examination…Hitchcock’s gem actually contains 10 edits. Five of them are hidden as the camera lens is filled by foreground objects. The other five edits are regular hard cuts that not many people either realize or acknowledge. I’ve isolated all 10 edits in the video below so you can learn from the Master of Suspense on how to hide your edits without losing momentum in your story.


Vive la revrolution!

Good day, good people

| Paul Gailey

Sometimes you discover, quite by chance, that touching piece of writing or video, that no one else seemingly has.

And it comes at just the right time, when the mood calls. 

Maybe you’re not feeling at your absolute best and need a pep talk. 

I did not give you permission to quit!

That one’s for you sister.

Maybe you’re just receptive to a fleeting moment of sheer joy with a proper sing-along, no matter if it ends on a bum note.

Neon got me like!

You’re an hero among a sea of the unsung.
Karma’s gonna get you Captain.
Over and out.

If Mr McGuire were real

| Paul Gailey

I confess.

I dropped a howler.

Last time I mentioned Walter Brooke, as in the actor,  who played the wise family friend to Benjamin (played by Dustin Hoffman) in The Graduate, I made a mistake.

In that infamous scene by the pool, where Mr McGuire gave the upstart graduate a single word of wisdom – plastics – I incorrectly spelt his name in my previous blog post.

Materially wrong

Alas if Mr McGuire were choosing his words and materials at any point since 1967, he may well have reasonably uttered silicon instead of plastics, or perhaps graphene.

In any case, I still assert that filters is worthy, if not more so than in 2010 when the abstract term crossed my mind and I spontaneously blogged much like now.

Yet today, the material that avidly evokes inspiration in me is cardboard.

Cardboard is a start, and as Joey “The Lips” Fagan, the Trumpet decrepit extraordinaire, recalled in The Commitments ….I believe in starts.

“Once you had the start the rest was inevitable. The Lord made sure of that.”

Cake, nails and Pita bread

So what do this assortment of food and objects have to do with cardboard and Cardboard?

Well, it so happens I’ve lately been somewhat busy with Cardboard and VR ever since last summer at Droiders we combined Glass with VR during some wearable surgery.

You see, the thing is, where as Oculus is tricky, and Glass is misunderstood, watching 360º is a piece of….

even if filming 360º is hard as

and editing 360º is a

(bread as an acronym.) 

So hands up who doesn’t like cake?

And now, due to a whole confluence of factors, cardboard and cake is getting real.

And Cardboard

I’ll be talking more Cardboard and VR, online and in person in Manchester on Friday 12th June, 360 degree deciphering those culinary and steel metaphors.

The real Mr McGuire is unlikely to show up, other than perhaps as a bit part in a deck, but you are most welcome to try Cardboard* if you pop down to SASCON for the wearables session.

*Supplied with free cake. While stocks last.

Vaso

| Paul Gailey

I do enjoy this music.

I selected it to match a video I made recently and it was a really challenging exercise.

Recently I’ve become far more tuned to sound in films and acoustics all around me.

I think the impact that sound editing has on mood is huge.

The blog post with it’s accompanying video is published on vaso.me.

Interactive Mega-SERP

| Paul Gailey
Keeping up with Search Engine Results Pages is, these days, even for full time SEO professionals, a fraught affair.

Google make hundreds of changes each year to their underlying algorithm.

However, not only are the query processes altered – aka Hummingbird – and the ranking methods adjusted, but their display is also subject to huge flux and continual experimentation.

Here is an interactive, tablet and fat finger friendly version of Dr. Peter Myers’, Mega-SERP as featured on Moz.

Want to use it? Grab the embed code from Thinglink.

Whilst strictly speaking this SERP result is a blend of ingredients – just like our humble taco – it’s a fascinating illustration of the wider complexity that we now face as marketers, and paradoxically the accuracy, relevance and richness we encounter as users.

In a lot of ways peak keyword has long since passed, even if conversations about keywords in the boardroom may not have.

Peak taco though?

I suspect that’s a whole different byte.

El relaxing sound of marketing que es la leche

| Paul Gailey

A veces me mosqueo, aunque suele durar poco.

No me refiero al relaxing cafe con leche. Muy a menudo me preguntan ¿y tú? de donde eres?…

Pues de aquí, ahora vivo en murcia…

Si pero, pero es que con esa pinta, pareces que eres…

¿..un guiri?

…bueno, es que no tienes acento de extranjero. ¿Donde nacistes?

En Londres.

Y aveces doy las explicaciones pertinentes o toreo la pregunta y seguimos por otro camino.

Y es que el mosqueo aunque parezca una tontería, no es porque será la milesima vez que se me hace la misma pregunta, sino porque siempre acabo diciendo Londres en vez de London.

Por mucho que el idioma nos fascina también nos marea

No cabo de entender porque, por ejemplo los españoles, que al menos coinciden, por si fuera poco, con el nombre de Gibraltar tanto en inglés que en español, no puedan llamar la capital de inglaterra de la misma forma. Como London en los dos idiomas.

Vale, que la pronunciación del peñon varie en cada idioma lo entiendo, pero al menos lo escriben igual. Pero si yo hubiera nacido en Boston por ejemplo, no tendría que vivir ese mosqueo inútil tan amenudo.

Y no creo que London tenga tanto variación de pronunciación entre un inglés y un español. Se entiende y eso es lo esencial.

Esa adventura de los extranjerismos hoy en día en españa continua a un ritmo extraordinario y en todas direcciones. En el campo de marketing (¿ ó bien debería decir el mercadeo o mercadotécnica? – ¡no  basta!) uno de aquellas contaminaciones lingüísticas que me irita sigue siendo el tuit en vez del tweet por muy oficial que sea la versión que no se suele usar en la red española.

Por mucho que los catedráticos o instituciones intentan fijar un uso correcto del idioma, la calle siempre gana la batalla del argot hasta que el nuevo vocabulario, por muy sacudida de anglosajismos este, sea reconocida con un uso cotidiano por todos.

Otro gran ejemplo:

Tal como explica, Inma Ferragud en su blog con el toque de #marketingposturero, en inglés todo suena mejor.

Aunque ten en cuenta que eso lo dijo antes del éxito del relaxing cup of café con leche.

Como muchos otros más me suelo mover en un entorno social online bilingüe donde disfruto de los idiomas, culturas y marketing tanto en inglés que en español.

Eso si, observo que las actualizaciones en castellano son cada vez más invadidas por el inglés incluso dentro de los tweets de 140 caracteres donde se practica a menudo el splanglish, quizas porque sea más escueto, más hipster, y sinceramente porque al tratar de marketing es inevitable introducir el inglés para tener credibilidad hoy en día.
El post, el feedback, el email, el SEO, el PPC, el API, el target, Et cetera, etc.
Soy consciente de ello además porque acabo de traducir una joya de un post para un amigo escoces titulada la anatomía de la página web perfecta.
Ahora si, no doy por hecho que la traducción sea perfecta – la hice durante varios vuelos low cost este verano y no suele ser el entorno ideal. Si me he equivocado me lo puedes comentar aquí abajo o @paulgailey y en un plis plas lo cambio.
La verdad es que cada vez que traduzco terminología del inglés al castellano la audencia española, al menos la de marketing, demuestra tener suficiente control del idioma y parecen preferir usar la terminología anglo sajón.

Todo suena mejor en inglés

Pero como ya sabemos, con la resaca y espasmo madrileña olímpica que hemos vivido estos dias, no solo vale defenderse y saber leer el inglés, o hasta ponerse los cascos y el listen the ask, sino que la pronunciación correcta del inglés te puede suponer una gran ventaja de credibilidad.
Hay veces que aunque a ti te suena mejor en inglés, a un inglés todo le suene Botella. Y si tratas con un inglés o un estadounidense, os recomiendo practicar ese acento un poco. Atentos ¡vamos a da una clase!

No te fies de lo que dice Google

Lo primero. No te fies de Google. Me refiero al Google Translate y no a Matt Cutts, sino nos podemos enredar algo más de lo previsto.
Muchos son conscientes de que las traducciones automáticas no son adecuadas por muy sofisticadas que sean. De acuerdo. Pero yo me refiero a la pronunciación y no solo a la traducción.
Por ejemplo, no te recomiendo que sigas las pautas de este chavo:
Con Google Translate puedes escuchar la pronunciación de cada palabra que introduzcas. La voz que asignan al inglés sera de un varón de unos cincuenta años. Serio pero aceptable.
Pero la española parece una muñeca de lo más hortera posible igualando el tono de Dora Dora. Es espantosa y no la soporto. Mas adelante la vais a escuchar a la pava. No hace falta abrir otra pestaña por ahora. Tranqui.
A veces Google Translate no da la clave con la traducción a la primera, por ejemplo para community manager ofrece administrador de la comunidad, aunque hay que reconocer que permite seleccionar otras opciones tambien e incluso corregirle.
Vamos a eschuchar a Gibraltar, primero en inglés y luego en español…
Vale. Me parece correcto en ambos idiomas por idiota que parezca la voz femenina española.
El siguiente. Algo más social media ¿vale?
Linkedin.
Primero en español y luego en inglés tal como nos lo dice el tío inglés y la Dora Dora de Google:
y en inglés según Translate.
Aquí ya fallaTranslate. Tanto en español que en inglés. Un gran fail.
Aunque Dora Dora lo dice tal cual muchos lo pronuncian en españa y asi se entiende os aseguro que así no se dice, almenos cuando hables con un inglés.
Ahora si, esa tentación de pronunciarlo lo entiendo cuando alrededor tuyo lo hacen así y hasta grandes del SEO de españa caen en esa tentación al discutir entre ellos, por ejemplo….
Incluso hay veces que yo mismo me encuentro teniendo que pronunciar a lo Botella para que me entiendan. Lo peor es cuando lo hago de forma inconsciente y encima me dicen que no me entienden. Ahí ya me autodenomino de todo.
En cambio un inglés lo pronuncia así, como os he grabado aquí, sin prisa pero sin pausa, haciendo la pregunta ¿tienes perfíl en Linkedin?
Es algo parecido al comfortable (cómodo) tal como lo pronuncio la sra. Botella equivocandose separando el sonido de table y comfort. La forma correcta es pronunciarlo de golpe tal como el Linkedin y no Link-ed-in.

Osea asi:
en vez de 
La siguiente palabra, el Search Engine Optimisation (ya sabes que los estadounidenses lo escriben Optimization con zeta y los ingleses con una ese), el SEO. ¿Como se pronuncia SEO?
Escuchamos a Translate de nuevo, primero en inglés 
y luego en español.
Con sus siglas todas juntas Translate se lía y lo pronuncia mal en inglés aunque de forma correcto en español. Y es que la clave está en que en inglés, se pronuncia cada letra, osea
Pero claro, no te puedes fiar de Translate para la pronunciación ni de su capacidad de diferenciar entre mayúsculas o minúsculas.
Por ejemplo, SERPs tal como se suele escribir (de Search Engine Result Pages) se suele pronunciar entero así:
al igual que en español
pero, si introducimos la palabra en mayusculas en Translate y pinchamos sobre el icono de escuchar, suena así:
Fatal.

El caso de API. Como happy pero en español ¿no?

Pues no. No señor.
No se dice API en inglés como al estilo de pronunciación onomatopéyica de happy. En españa si, se suele decir así al igual que el IBI or el IVA. Es decir, así:
Pero el inglés lo deletrea, así:
Y tampoco digamos que los ingleses deletrean todas las siglas al pronunciarlas. Sería demasiado fácil y el inglés está repleto de excepciones, por eso le puede resultar tan reñido a un extranjero aprenderlo.
El IVA (Impuesto al valor añadido) por ejemplo, a veces escrito como V.A.T or VAT (Value Added Tax) se dice de ambas formas deletreado:
y VAT de golpe:

Translate se la lía parda

Y aunque algunos dirán que no usan Translate para la pronuciación, también Dora Dora de Google es capaz de tirar un wobbly (to throw a wobbly), como dirían los ingleses.
Por ejemplo Google parece entender que el Return on Investment, el ROI si lo introducimos con espacios entre las letras, tendrá algo que ver con el mundial de Brasíl como demuestra aquí:
Por cierto, no os lías con definiciones del ROI en marketing. Siempre ha sido un cálculo financiera que se puede aplicar a la inversión de marketing tal como este formulario en inglés de Christopher Penn lo explica.
Así como Ganado – Gastado / Gastado. Os recomiendo su post sobre ello, o el libro, incluso aún disponible en castellano, de Olivier Blanchard, Social Media ROI.

Otras herramientas para pronunciar el inglés

Menos mal que existen otras herramientas para aprender pronunciar el inglés. Entre ellas destaco Forvo que es curioso (¡ojo! curioso se traduce en ese sentido como funny en vez de curiously) porque aunque suele acertar a menudo, veras que con alguna terminología tampoco es fiable.
Forvo funciona reuniendo pronunciaciones ofrecidas por los usuarios de diferentes partes del mundo de tal forma que puedes elegir e incluso votar las pronunciaciónes preferidas. De un vistazo puedes identificar el origen geográfico ofrecido de un pronunciación y presumen de un vocabulario de más de 2 millones de palabras.
Pero aún asi, no te fies. Aquí vemos como el ROI al menos para el sentido a que nos referimos, está erróneamente pronunciada por una francesa
un gallego
una vietnamita
un chino
Aqui oimos el ROI mal pronunciado de nuevo por la Dora Dora
y de la forma correcto en inglés.
Osea deletreandolo R-O-I en inglés.
En cambio con el SEO, usando Forvo, acierta un italiano,
un estadounidense…
pero se equivoca un escoces
y un irlandes.
Osea que no nos fiemos de esos guiris. No se aclaren ni entre ellos mismos.
La otra herramienta se llama howjsay y suele ser bastante fiable de lo que he visto.
Pero, y hay un gran pero, al ser programado en Flash, no funciona en tantos dispositivos hoy en día y tampoco contiene definiciones como el ROI.

Los glosarios de marketing y el spanglish

Hay varios glosarios por ahí en español que te pueden servir para aprender marketing online como este y este aunque no he visto ninguno que te pueda ayudar pronunciar la terminología correctamente. También hay tecnologías de accesibilidad como Browse Aloud que pueden ayudar.
Cada vez que revise la traducción de aquella página perfecta, perdía esa batalla de limitarme al castellano y poco a poco fui introduciendo más palabras spanglish porque eso de referirme a fragmentos enriquecidos de video me sonaba casí académico comparado con los video rich snippets. 

¿Quien, hoy en día, se refiere a su bitácora en vez de su blog?
Lo dificil es medir cuando vale la pena descartar del todo la traducción exacta cuando la palabra extranjera ya se ha asimilado del todo en en vocabulario de la audencia. Sería algo cansino estar traduciendo o dando explicaciones de un post cada dos por tres en un artículo cuando ya no sea necesario.
Por lo tanto pido disculpas si he cometido algún error, aunque al igual que el SEO donde hay diversas opiniones, si le preguntas a dos traductores por una traducción de una solá palabra, te contestarán con al menos tres respuestas.

El faulty inglés

No nos limitemos a la Sra. Botella a la hora de celebrar la pronunciación. Uno de los personajes más queridos en inglaterra es Manuel, el camerero de Barcelona, en la series clásica de los 80 llamado Fawlty Towers.
Y para que no nos hundimos, aquí vemos la importancía de pronunciar bién el inglés para un alemán.

Bésame mucho como si fuera el last time

Cabe recordar que la sra. Botella no es única ya que no todos han logrado el éxito esperado ante una cita importante.
Quizas el ejemplo más famoso sea la de los Beatles, cantando el famosisimo bolero mexicana en la audición de Decca Records el día 1 de enero 1962, cuando les dieron las largas argumentado que: 

No nos gusta como suenan, y la música de la guitarra esta pasando de moda.

Menos mal que los chicos de Liverpool no se tomaron las críticas en serio.
Se ve que a la canción le tuvieron bastante cariño durante su carrera con otra versión grabada al mismo tiempo que el grán éxito de Let it Be.

Siempre serán the milk

Pero eso si, tanto como el discurso de la sra. Botella, como mi traducción de la página web perfecta, algo lost in translation, y como el spanglish del marketing y los tweets, los Beatles cambiaron la letra de la canción original, improvisaron un poco y lo pronunciaron a su aire.
Like a boss porque siempre serán the milk.
Por cierto este post no lo ofrezco traducida al inglés. ¿Para que me voy a liar más?
¡Cha cha boom!

Adios Posterous, long live long form

| Paul Gailey

In a few hours time some 59 million URLs will vanish from the web.

Thousands of hours of personal pensive endeavours will disappear as blogs and content go to the digital graveyard.

Posterous is closing on April 30. The Posterous backup tool will continue to be available until May 31 so you can download all your Spaces.

— posterous (@posterous) April 26, 2013

Posterous was acquired by Twitter last year.

I’m feeling a tad nostalgic, as personally I’ve not only used Posterous a great deal  – it powered this blog for a long time – but it provoked a good many people to express themselves easily online without all the hassle of setting up and maintaining a blog.

At one point Posterous and Tumblr were constantly pitched against each other in the tech press, probably as reluctantly as Blur and Oasis in their day.

They were infact quite different, mechanics apart, because the audience that each platform attracted were different.

Posterous content was perhaps less visually outlandish than Tumblr which continues to part of the temporal web of memes.

Posterous however, I found was home to a great deal of fantastic content from all walks of (online) life.

I read countless blogs from founders of companies, journalists, marketers, writers, that all wrote with real thought and devotion.

It was very easy to whack out a post, it’s ease of use was initially just writing an email and clicking send to have it published even under your own domain in an instant.

You just didn’t need to really worry about all the ins and out of running a blog. Alas, things have changed now.

There is still real value to be had in writing on your own domain, despite the ease and attractions of participating and writing in social chambers, albeit large ones like Google Plus or niche places like ADN.

5 days until 59 million Posterous URLs disappear from the planet. My only solace is to keep coding. posthaven.com/ourpledge

— Garry Tan (@garrytan) April 26, 2013

Fortunately, there are still alternatives for easy, light blogging. This blog, despite maintaining the personal domain, is currently powered by Posthaven – a phoenix service headed by one of the original founders of Posterous.

And Posthaven allowed a brilliant method to easily import your Posterous data into it without data loss. Alas Twitter decided not to tell anyone about this in their last emails:

@posterous How churlish & mean-spirited of you not to recommend #posthaven as a replacement for #posterous in your last email. Disappointed.

— Stephen Daniels (@sdonline) April 26, 2013

Not only is content likely to be lost in this darwian reality afflicting so many online services these days, but of course so will many a thoughtfully placed or earned link.

If your professional crust depends on it, it’s not too late to determine precisely how much you may have invested in a .posterous.com link profile:
The web needs longer and more diverse content.
Blogging is talk and thought and that’s not going away.
Long live long form.

Why you should follow the lowest of the low

| Paul Gailey

A beloved raspy throated entertainer, Jimmy Durante, affectionately know as Schnozzola for that trademark nose, once said:

Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down.

Jimmy Durante, 1893-1980It’s true.

Some of the most grounded marketers, commentators and successful people in all walks of life out there, are at the top of their game because they listen to all people no matter what their rank.

You see you need to be reading content that is relevant, fresh, and unheard.

Unheard?

Why how absurd?

You see when it comes to finding great advocates about inbound marketing, there’s little to compete with the thousands of inbound.org members.

Yes, there’s nearly some ten thousand members in a little under a year of full activity.

The least active and lowest influential users also have karma and upvotes assigned to them and in some cases they score negatively.

Now you might, for a split second, dismiss low scorers from the depths of any league table, or infact any social network as made up of bots, spammers, charlatans, trolls, chancers, snake oil, MLM, and other assorted bottom feeders.

However while scraping the barrel of karma it occurred to me that such users are possibly misunderstood.

I did a little – actually a lot – of digging into their online presence, and here’s what I found.

These people actually are not what you think.

Hear me out.

You see, in this oh so often misguided metric world, we are all too quick to judge a book by it’s cover, a person by their score or rank and hey who can blame us right, we’re all too busy busy and we all crave our filters right?

Well in a kind of hippie utopian way of looking at things, I think there’s a little bit of beautiful magic in everyone and yes, sometimes the numbers do actually lie.

So here’s a not so scientific closer look at some of the lowest of the low.

You decide if that adds up.

The lowdown on the Inbound.org low

as of November 5th, 2012

Nº 9065. Paris Childress | 0 Karma | 0 Upvotes | Web: hop-onilne.com | Twitter: @parischildress | Google+

Paris ChildressThe magnificently named and not unlike Seth Godin looking Paris, is a Bulgarian based New Orleans native CEO of an SEO agency in Sofia. Paris’ firm is listed as an SEOMoz recommended company and counts the Everywhereist as a trusted client.

I particularly admire how he uses the lesser used but wholly valid LinkedIn technique of embedding Linkedin cards to display the credentials and connectedness of his staff.

Paris uses a live Skype button on his contact form and eschews captcha’s to detect spam instead prompting users to multiple choice the definition of SEO with false answer choices such as Silent Elephant Oozing. 

Oh and Paris’ first link on his agency homepage is to inbound.org.

Not too shabby.

Nº 9064. Jamie Steven | 1 Karma | 1 Upvotes | Web: seomoz.org | Twitter: @jamies | Google+

Jamie StevenJamie is the VP of marketing at SEOMoz. He has dabbled in some WBF’s in 2010 and recently whipped up a deft post about Google Analytics and Google Docs mashing.

He has admitted on Twitter that he inserted an F-bomb into a Moz press release and he is the possessor of a couple of Cameroonian short URLs.

Jamie has an illustrious online career with some nearly four years as a product manager at Microsoft in the halycon days of Encarta.

Nº 9055. Kipp Bodnar | 0 Karma | 0 Upvotes | Web: b2bsocialmedia.com | Twitter: @kippbodnar | Google+

Kipp BodnarKipp was promoted to Director of Marketing at Hubspot six months ago after spearheading the content at their eponymous blog during nearly three years, and we all know that Hubspot is the spiritual other half of the origins of Inbound.org.

Kipp is the co-author of The b2b Social Media Book and one of his last posts on his personal blog a few years ago stated how he wanted to change the world.

From 2008 to 2010 his own blog was a hive of activity and his tenure at Hubspot seems to have put a brake on his non Hubspot output ever since.

You can hardly blame him for that though, in this video he explains how Hubspot publish marketing materials up to three times a day.

And with a $35 million in a fresh funding round of investment for international expansion just announced, Kipp and crew are due some huge congratulations.

The Inbound chunky middle

At this point, I should stress that the selections that continue were on the basis of a random finger in the air of who’s next that has the slightly less least amount of karma, whereby if the above hadn’t yet neither upvoted or accumulated karma then what would be of the bunch that had been bestowed with a unit of at least 1 karma point.

And it turns out that until I paginated to upper eighteen hundreds, everyone was pretty much on the same score of double zero karma and upvotes.

That’s a lot of marketing inertia right there in the middle Inbound dot org managers. People who signed up, had a quick peek and perhaps a vote and were never to be seen again.

I waded in deep and pushed on for something of note, and came across Chris.

Nº 1798. Chris Gilchrist | 1 Karma | 2 Upvotes | Web: hitreach.co.uk | Twitter: @hitreach | Google+

Chris GilchrisChris is the MD of the Scottish outfit Hitreach.

Like many a mid town SEO agency – hey no offence to people of Dundee – Chris has mulled how to attract the attention of fellow SEOs from afar.

So most recently his agency produced a match the SEO tatoo to the person competition, and featured a host of SEO hotshots and their own body ink.

Chris also lobbied recently to uncover the avatar of fellow linker James Agate on Inbound, but alas was not as successful as a bloke called Jon from Florida who managed it this week in between lectures and classic blog posts.

Hitreach are also prolific WordPress plugin makers and released an allow PHP in WordPress plugin two years ago.

The blog post about it has recieved over 414 comments to date, including some tireless support from Jamie Fraser of Hitreach, and the plugin itself has been downloaded more than 68,000 times.

Nº 909. Ani Lopez | 5 Karma | 2 Upvotes | Web: dynamical.biz/blog | Twitter: @anilopez | Google+

Ani LopezAni Lopez is a Spanish marketing strategist based in Vancouver, Canada.

Ani is a fine proponent of multilingual SEO and advanced Analytics with a host of SMX speaking gigs to his name and is now the inhouse analytics advocate of the delightfully named 1-800-GOT-JUNK? claiming his role involves mastering “Garbage in, Insights out.”

Ani previously translated and published a spanish eye tracking and SERPs study into English on his blog which was warmly received, proving that advanced SEO abounds not just in English.

Nº 734. Chandra Clarke | 7 Karma | 9 Upvotes | Web: chandraclarke.com | Twitter: @chandraclarke | Google+

Chandra Clarke

Chandra Clarke is a founder of scribendi.com, a proof reading company in Canada that can safely boast: “trusted with more than 604 million words.”

There are few outfits that can carve a business podcast niche about the proper use of parentheses like Chandra’s.

As a seasoned wordsmith and evocative blogger Chandra has a strong distaste for pink, for mompreneurs, and has ardently blogged about styrofoam peanuts.

There is a huge pool of talent within the member pages of Inbound irrespective where you look.

And whilst the pareto rule most probably applies to the karma and upvotes across the board, it doesn’t really tell the full story.

Numbers cannot evoke

It doesn’t really tell the full story because numbers may indeed indicate but they can’t evoke, like words do, like stories do, like story tellers do, like people do.

So next time you’re evaluating marketing effectiveness, be it rank, score, grades, DA, PA, Likes, Tweets, the whole shebang of metrics, and the left hemisphere is in full swing, remember to counter balance it with some right brain evaluation.

Marketing and persuasion are inextricably linked and persuasion is a powerful force. Only right now, two men are putting that to the test in a $5.8bn gamble.

Maybe they should just cop an ear to the vaudeville Schnozzola before it’s game over.

ps. with thanks to Mark Traphagen of Virante for the inspiration of this post.

Claque SEO is out

| Paul Gailey

History will teach us nothing….so sang a Geordie teacher who long since donned a yellow and black jumper.

Indeed I was equally intrigued as Christian Payne, aka Documentally, of the parallels that Matt Locke – founder of the outfit named StoryThings – spoke about during a lecture about the History of Attention.

Of course attention and applause is an elusive goal that all publishers and companies strive for.

Matt explains that during the 19th Century opera era, aplause was a metric of attention for the business of opera, something that is not too removed from percieved marketing success metrics of today.

Claque Monsieur?

Claque agencies sprang up in Paris some two hundred years ago to serve up large dosages of canned enthusiasm with neatly defined roles for the chef de claque (leader of applause), the commissaires (officers/commissioner), the rieurs (laughers), the pleureurs (criers), the chatouilleurs (ticklers), and the bisseurs (encore-ers) all intent on generating ROI for their clients.

It’s tempting to cruelly draw parallels with a SEO agency job positions or indeed any marketing specialists but that would be perhaps a cynical step too far.

Listen below to an excerpt of an interview Christian did with Matt.

In the audio clip below Matt explains:

the economy around content in that era was built around applause, because it was economically important there were ways of cheating it, there were ways of gaming the applause, just as there was payola around radio and TV, around music…

Can hollow content echo?

So technology apart, not much has really changed since then.

Marketers still yearn for big breakthroughs and crave attention as much as the chef de claques and their paymasters did then.

Whilst the lacey bonnets of yesteryear may have been replaced with racey miniskirts of today, in essence the motives and human methods have not really shifted.

During the last World Cup in South Africa a Dutch brewery avoided official sponsorship by deploying a classic guerilla advertising tactic of ardent blonde applause in minimal attire.

However with the advent of the Games this summer, the inexorable proliferation of content, spam, and competition for attention it’s getting ever harder to succeed.

If you are a marketer you face stark choices.

Run the Olympic risk of incurring the wrath of the legislation and branding regulation around the Games by going guerilla?

Continue deploying outdated SEO practices that fuel the myths and misunderstandings of SEO and risk the severe penalties that are being handed out?

The fat lady is seoing

Over time the evolving concert etiquette of opera rendered the Claquers obsolete and the art moved on.

And these days, despite protests by the SEO all too often navel gazing community, the search updates by Google, most recently Penguin – attacking thin links, and before that Panda, taking out sites with thin pages, the search results have generally improved for the wider public.

Despite the scaremongering about negative SEO and complaint about effects of business being wiped out because of sudden deindexation, there is little celebration of the counter side of the recent changes that have equally rewarded business who have flourished as a result of dramatically changed rankings.

Marketing is moving on.

It’s not all about claque nowadays, the truth is if you plan to succeed your marketing needs more than just a sting.

Google Drive is a lexical anachronism

| Paul Gailey

What’s in a name?

Quite a lot I would say.

Thankfully when they decided against Backrub as it was initially called, the Google founders choose well.

Since then, they have flirted with all sorts of naming conventions for Google products, but I do not regard yesterday’s choice of Google Drive as the zenith of product naming inspiration.

Take Dropbox for example, it does what it says on the tin. The analogy works for most people.

Even for non english speakers.

And that is where my beef of contention is with Drive.

It reeks of geek. Yes I know we all have a C: Drive and assorted other alphabetical ones but even my non geek english speaking friends cannot relate to a Drive.

When Google launched Wave, some argued it was a peculiar name to give it although the product was so ahead of it’s time and regular users that it defied easy definition anyhow.

A soul of silicon and the logo of a british bank

But Drive? I mean even Microsoft have used Sky as in SkyDrive in some way making that, heaven forbid, fashionable association with the Cloud.

Why not Disk Google? Surely even that name is more universal than Drive, or would it infer a too much of a physical item or be a remanant of CD Discs or even floppy disks from yesteryear?

So Folder is not a contender because that way of thinking is the anti-thesis of search and carries far too much MSOffice connotations.

The people at the Plex have done everything to distance themselves from the Folders ways of thinking in the hope users would follow suite. Remember it’s dubbed collections in Docs.

So how about Space?

Everyone wants space, more space and space is far more multilingual than Drive.

Was space given the elbow because of fear of association with MySpace?

And while we are on the subject of design, please don’t get me started on the logo. For the brits among us, Google Drive has the logo left overs of a famous high street british bank.

What would your mum say?

You see my mum, that acid test of computing, well she is spanish and even Maria Josefa Alburquerque Lorencio, Fifina to you and me, cannot emote with Drive.

I talk with her about stuff, places, spaces, boxes, folders, and hey even computers and stuff I do on the internet to make money for a living.

Mostly in spanish, and not just limited to that simple vocabularly. You get my gist.

Directories I try to avoid and Drive I reserve only when referring to the Renault or the Fiat on the parked on the driveway.

Here’s one Google Drive however I do want and could readily emote with.

Lastly, if like me you have tried your level best to emote with Drive and have been greeted by such a cryptic message like so, then there’s a Google Group for that – which of course you are welcome to join.

With your Google Account of course.

Vroom, vroom.

Algo Columbo

| Paul Gailey

If you’ve ever asked two SEO professionals a probing question, you’re likely to have recieved at least three different answers.

Search is never truly a precise science, because it’s conditions are set, not just by the mighty G force, but also by the behaviour of everyone else using their services.

And because neither Google or its’ users are never still, it makes for a compelling adventure, intellectual headscratching and a fair amount of good ole detective work when things don’t pan out.

And in some quarters recent Search events have not panned out as expected.

How could it be that a highly respected SEO agency from Philadelphia would succumb to some sort of Google search maelstrom that would result in it being obliterated in search results so suddenly?

Every half decent SEO pro possesses an inate curiosity and of course this statement by Wil set off a whole chain reaction from SEO people as to the cause and remedy for Seer Interactive’s plight.

Was it a result of the parked domain slip up recently admitted by Matt Cutts?

Was it the result of nascent Negative SEO?

Heaven forbid, an over optimised title tag or the velocity of link acquisition?

It could be some or none of those, one of the equal joys and frustrations of Search is that it’s not straight forward to conclusively prove a theory either way.

Wild goose chases and red herrings are all par for the course.

And often that leads to drastic action being taken.

So what did Seer Interactive do?

They acted fast and reading between Wil’s blog lines and comments we can definitely see two actions Seer took to specifically combat the situation.

  • A 301 redirect from the previous company name of Seer Interactive was ruthlessly severed, taking with it years of legacy backlinks, of all sorts.
  • And a link to a client site was also removed from Seer Interactive.

Forgive me if I have a rummage with some SEO tools to delve a little more.

Using Link Detective the classification of links to Seer are itemised for the current domain and their legacy one.

It’s revealing to see at a glance, may I stress, the emphasis of link strategies that the company has pursued over time.

Previously, the back links to Seer were very much SEO keyword focused, and what looks like the deliberate departure of that tactic is evident with a very different proportion of anchor text links for seerinteractive.com

Let’s be clear though, this is only one of probably a plethora of checks and tools that evidently the Seer lieutenants and close pals would have used to diagnose matters.

After all, three eyes are better than one.

Baggage and ties

In severing that 301 redirect, in one swoop Seer may have disassociated themselves from their baggage and simultanesouly removed the effects of a mixture of probable quality and lesser quality links.

Some of the quality of those legacy links may well have deterioated over time and with the advent of an algorthmic change by Google recently, may have tripped a certain threshold, and possibly an attempt by Google to penalise abnormally low volumes of branded anchor keywords.

Put another way, there may have been insufficient naturally worded links to the Think Seer domain in the past, using the keyword term Think Seer.

Thin links to big sites

The other action Seer did was remove this page from their blog.

This screenshot cache is a quick blog entry with a link to a prominent client of Seer Interactive.

During the intial frenzy of SEO excitement many friends of Wil were looking up if seerinteractive was ranking for it’s own name.

Yet often it’s worth looking at things from another perspective all together.

That famous supplier of email marketing software has on the face of it, a huge link profile with some of the highest scores possible.

How could it be that such an industry stalwart has a page 2 position whilst a lesser known rich snippet spammer occupies the number º1 spot?

Is the SERPs for email marketing software as obtuse of that for SEO companies?

At that point I’ve not dug any further. Others will do so.

However I find this particularly fascinating that Seer chose to remove this somewhat thin link.

And yet in some respects, Seer have with immediate effect and by (mis)fortune of circumstance, actioned of much of what SEOMoz’s latest white board friday video championed, that is:

  1. Use Authentic Titles
  2. Avoid manipulative internal links
  3. Forget crappy footer link stuffing
  4. Don’t cram irrelevant text with links on the page
  5. Avoid links from penalty likely sources
  6. Get links from distinct pages not near clones

To rename or to rebrand, that is the question

One of the most significant wider issues to rise from this SEO event is the implications for marketers with respect of any rebranding exercise.

Too often the term rebrand is substituted for the the word rename, when they are wholly a different order of magnitude.

It’s something I have raised with SEO agency colleagues and I do question how effective or risky any such exercise is in future.

A mere name change of your domain with classic 301 redirects in place, may not be enough, indeed it may, subject to your link profile be somewhat risky, compared to a full scale true rebranding exercise where you do amass branded keyword links.

Of course, Seer could revisit and cherry pick modification of the most significant legacy backlinks with a view to preserving some of their weight to the power of their domain, but that is a huge exercise with questionable outcome.

It’s an interesting dilemma that far from begs of a formulaic answer.

Negative SEO or The Perfect Storm

Of course speculation, informed or not, never ceases online and even more so when SEO is involved.

Wil refers to Negative SEO as something to be aware of in his blog post, but does not infer this was directly a cause in Seer’s case.

I’m less inclined to believe Seer were explicitly a target, but perhaps if anything, an inadvertent victim of the same effects of Negative SEO rather than any malicious intent.

In any case there are other targets, including ones cited on this page openly courting attempts to bowl them.

If SEO navel gazing industry talk about Negative SEO does one thing, it is to disproportionately steal attention of the positive Search successes that have come out of the last few weeks and reassociate marketing minds with shady SEO practices yet again.

That is not to say you should turn a blind eye to it.

Of course if you are convinced of the adverse effects of Negative SEO, you’ll speak up and show the evidence, much like Seer did with their heads up sharing of their short lived predicament.

And forget not what Peter Falk did in his pre Columbo days when playing baseball as recounted to Cigar Aficionado magazine.

“I remember once in high school the umpire called me out at third base when I was sure I was safe. I got so mad I took out my glass eye, handed it to him and said, ‘Try this.’ I got such a laugh you wouldn’t believe.”

Some people really have to see it for themselves.

So if you have overwhelming evidence about Negative SEO, bring it on.

That’s when Search marketers can revel in the detail to test theories and prove/disprove notions.

Oh, just one more thing…

I’ve detected a Columbo spirit in many SEO characters and a penchant for detail.

Take this last quote from the actor Peter Falk himself:

“I have an obsessive thoroughness. It’s not enough to get most of the details, it’s necessary to get them all. I’ve been accused of perfectionism. When Lew Wasserman (head of Universal Studios) said that Falk is a perfectionist, I don’t know whether it was out of affection or because he felt I was a monumental pain in the ass.”

The Search marketer is an intellectually restless animal.

Don’t ya think?

Death, pets, children and renewal

| Paul Gailey

I am melancholy.

My wife and I just took the decision at the veterinary clinic to put down one of our two cats.

Maasai was a fantastic Seal Point Birman.

Like many cats of his breed, at the age of twelve, Maasai had developed a kidney dysfunction which had rapidly reached a chronic stage, and after two days under care it was apparent his condition was irreversible.

Regardless if you are a dog or cat person the loss of a pet companion is a wrench. If you’ve gone through similar with your pet, you may know how awful it is. 

This pic is when he was only a couple of months playfully old at the start of the millenia.

Stuck for a name at the time we acquired them, we named the pair of Birman cats we bought in London, Maasai & Mara, having recently returned from a trip to Kenya.

That second picture is Mara – the titanium hip plated sister to the 6+kg Maasai – atop a hot router.

Children and the idea of death and renewal

It’s not my first time I have experienced this situation, as I unhappily recall the moment as a child, however this time the ordeal was as a parent which was even more testing with a nine and three and half year old accompanying my wife and I at the vets.

My son Alexander (9 years) was old enough to comprehend the situation yet evidently sad about it. I feel it important that the notion of death is not concealed in his upbringing.

He is at the age where curisosity abounds in anything he learns and is immediately pondering and querying aspects of the cat’s final moments.

He has developed logic and yet can be abstract in thought and exercise wonderful imagination.

My daughter Olivia, at three and a half years old, was expectant we would return home from the vets with Maasai and naturally was bewlidered, upset and yet equally rapidly distractable.

Guilt about guilt

The relationship between human and animal is a strange one. We develop affections for a pet animals while they depend on us during their lifetime for food, shelter and attention and yet the majority of us, myself included, comfortably remain meat eaters for example.

What has played on my conscious though has been putting this episode into perspective in the midst of far greater difficulties that afflict our life and that of many others in these times.

I know that family health of other relatives is more important and recent news has certainly reminded me of that.

It can seem absurd to mourn yet as the vet explained, you’ve spent all that time being attentive to an animal who devotes and seemingly adores its’ owners and the loss evokes memories of past stages in your life that you cannot easily dissociate.

Today I feel guilty about feeling guilty. I am confused. Is that wrong?

Children are your love

Can you really love an animal?

Language carries a lot of weight and whilst a bond is developed with a pet, it never surpasses a human relationship.

If there was one moment of joy today, it was the indefatigable inadvertent humour that a three and half year old brings to your world.

As I talk spanish with my already bilingual daughter, I explained that Maasai was sadly not coming back home as he was going to heaven.

And heaven in spanish is cielo, meaning sky.

Alas, Olivia nonchantly replied to me:

Maasai is not going to heaven, he doesn’t have wings papa.

No papa, Maasai no puede ir al cielo, no tienes alas.

This picture was snapped just moments after she convincingly told me that.

Love family.

Una comparación de conferencias SEO entre España y Inglaterra

| Paul Gailey

El pasado noviembre tuve el placer de acudir al Congreso SEO – también conocido como el SEO Pro – como ponente invitado en el Hotel Olympia de Valencia, aquí en españa. Prefer English?

El organizador, Miguel Lopez, de Marketing Online Valencia casi el solo, organizó con un esfuerzo tremendo, un evento fabuloso que reunio la mayor peña de los mejores talentos SEO españoles para machacar ideas y fortalezer amistades durante tres intensos días.

No voy a detallar las presentaciones. Eso ya se hizo en su momento tras el evento por varios otros ponentes y asistentes de todas partes del mundo.

Basta con decir que el nivel era altísimo y las presentaciones fueron todos un éxito. Ya lo ha confirmado más que uno quien viajo desde lejos para vivirlo.

Por suerte mi trabajo y mis raices hace que amenudo viajo entre españa y inglaterra y como siempre caigo en la tentación que comparar lo bueno y lo malo de cada uno, me atrevo aquí hacer una comparativa de los eventos SEO entre españa y el Reino Unido.

Foto gracias a @carrero
La selección. A lo grande.

¿Realmente importa o no si hay muchos eventos para elegir? En el Reino Unido el panorama SEO es más grande. Bueno, no voy aquí a indagar en estadísticas, comparando empleados por agencia, ingresos o métricas de Search o PPC, pero si me arriesgo en algo, me atrevo a decir que el SEO como una profesión está más establecida dentro del mundo del marketing en el Reino Unido que lo está en España. ¿Y que? Pues, al tratar de la magnitud de conferencias, el aforo, y frecuencía de eventos, el Reino Unido tiene un montón para eligir. Desde lo gratis, a lo muy marchoso, hasta el precio VIP y eventos SEO que forman parte de un mayor evento de marketing, hay mucha variedad.

En cambio, españa tiene menos eventos pero no quiere decir eso que sea una desventaja ya que todo depende como cada evento le saca partido, ¿o no? Durante el Congreso SEO en Valencia, los setenta o asi asistentes tuvieron más que suficiente tiempo para verdaderamente hacer enlaces estrechos profesionales y reforzar amistades.

En cambio en el Reino Unido, yo por lo menos me he encontrado debido al tiempo limitado, que he tenido que investigar con mucho cuidado de antemano los asistentes y empresas al que quisiera hacer networking para que pudiese desvirtualizar a todos los SEOs a tiempo. Lo cierto es que existe un buen rollo entre SEO españoles que aún recuerda aquellos tiempos de SEO en inglaterra antes de la época de Google.

Y seamos claros, solo porque seas es primero en inventar algo, no te confiere el título de ser el mejor practicante de ello. Los Ingleses ya conocen esto a tope, el futból por ejemplo…err ¿Quién coño gano el último Mundial?

Inglaterra golea de un tiro libre con un rebote algo chanchullo

El marcador a los 20 minutos: Inglaterra 1 España 0

Organización del Evento

Por supuesto un evento de gran envergadura requiere bastantes recursos para garantizar que todo transcurra bien y esto inevitablemente contribuye al precio de la entrada.

Durante el SearchLove en Londres de Distilled, hubo un montón de gente para llevarlo todo a cabo, el audio visual, toda la grabación y lo todo lo demas que exige sacar adelante el evento.

No es solo el evento en si, sino todo su promoción previa y despues que pone a prueba a los organizadores y sus capacidades promocionales.

El SearchLove de Distilled hizo bien en generar interés antes del evento en octubre y crearon un librillo para los asistentes repleto de entrevistas con los ponentes.

En españa Miguel Lopez del SEOPro sin embargo armo un buzz varios meses antes con un uso listo del blog y Feedburner poco a poco enviando correos de entrevistas con los ponentes durante los meses previos.

Esto mantuvo un hashtag hilo continuo durante las semanas previas al evento. Los asistentes no se marcharón sin cosillas mientras que algunos asistentes y empresas ponentes repartieron regalos y mas importante códigos e invitaciones a pruebas gratuitas de herramientas SEO y lo demás. No fue una versión cualquiera de shitforlinks.

Es cierto que SearchLove punteo bien repartiendo los PowerPoint poco despues del evento, con la grabación de video de las ponencias – eso si a la venta –  en cambio SEOPro solo repartio los .ppt entre los ponentes de forma privada y sin audio o video.

Como ya han pasado cinco meses desde que di mi presentación (Representación de datos para SEO o Infografía para atraer enlaces) Miguel ha permitido que lo publique.

Puedes pillar todos los enlaces de la presentación o leer y comentarlo en una versión foto albúm Google+. Descargatelo entero desde mi Dropbox pero ojó desafortunadamente los videos de YouTube no se reproducen en Dropbox.

Relativo al tema del networking y la marcha, diría que Valencia triunfaba por encima de Londres.

A pesar de que tanto SEOPro y SearchLove montarón el evento continuo en una sala, de presentaciones con una duración de 45-60 minutos (y no de forma multi-canal), el horario de Londres era brutal con menos opciones para hacer networking comparado con Valencia.

Es cierto que hubo una fiesta networking despues del evento principal en Londres, pero no todos atienden ya que hay que desplazarse del local de la conferencia al bar.

Claro, la cultura del sandwich, o tapear de pie en Reino Unido se considera normal, y no es para declarar que la comida no estaba bien –  ¡que va! – y al fin del cabo la gente no viene para la gastronomía, sino para las ponencias, pero aún así, la comida en Valencia durante los tres días era de gloria.

Asistentes se sentaban en un restaurante, con amplias oportunidades para conocerse uno a otro y las ponencias volvían a empezar a las cinco de la tarde y acababan a las ocho.

Ese parón de medio día permitía que asistentes SEOPro pudiesen ponerse al día con sus temas de trabajo o tomarse una siesta bien merecida.

¿De que otra forma vas a recuperar esas horas perdidas de marcha hasta las tantas? Basta con decir que Valencia gano cualquiera comparación de marcha nocturna.

Centrocampistas españoles deslumbran con un tiki taka de muerte y un toquecito de película para marcar un empate merecido.

Marcador a los 45 minutos: Inglaterra 1 España 1

Champion & Premier league SEO

Entonces, vamos al grano y preguntamos ¿como compara la calidad del SEO entre los dos eventos?

Ambos eventos pueden presumir de una calidad de presentaciones muy altas.

La gente había hecho sus deberes, y compartía sus datos y trucos aprendidos, al menos parecío que los asistentes de SEOPro y SearchLove salieron en ambos casos muy satisfechos.

Ambos eventos han sufrido críticas de gente quienes malinterpretaron comentarios que se difunden por Twitter o que se convierten en medio mentiras, gente quien juzgan el evento sin haber asistido en persona.

Por supuesto en ambos eventos, el tema del Panda dominaba aunque en españa el elemento más común fue un homenaje casí mítico al scraper.

Edit: una mención de Panda merecida fue la coincidencía que seleccione una infografía para mi presentación de una empresa llamada AttachMedia. Sin saberlo de antemano, el autor de la infografía estaba presente en la sala y se introdujo despues. ¡Había venido desde Peru solo para el evento!

Los ponentes SEO de SearchLove en Londres, incluían nombres destacados de EEUU y Brítánicos, en contraste en Valencia con alguna excepción eran casí todos de españa.

Creo que hubo varias ponencias en Valencia que se merecían una mayor audencía como por ejemplo, las presentaciones de navegación de facetas avanzadas de Fernando Macia y Rodney Cullen. Me gusto especialimente la charla de SEOcial media de Jose Llinares.

En españa la gente no tenía pelos en la lengua a la hora de hablar en alto de técnicas del lado oscuro, en comparación cuando algo parecido ocurre en Reino Unido viene con advertencias de no probarlo a solas, de no retweetearlo y todo se habla en voz baja. ¡Ssssh!

En cambio en españa hay mucha soltura del tema, quizas porque tampoco las declaraciones se amplifican fuera del entorno SEO comparado con el Reino Unido.

Yo no soy partidario de lo gris/negro aunque no puedo denegar que a veces sea éxitoso, pero eso si, desde noviembre del año pasado algunas ventajas de las técnicas mencionadas en Valencia han disminuido con los cambios algoritmicos de Google, incluso diría que algunas ya son contraproducentes.

El año pasado me alegre ver que renombraron la descripción del puesto de Matt Cutts, al ser reconodico como un ingeniero distinguido en vez que el Jefe de WebSpam en Google.

Imagínate si llamaramos al equivalente del mundo de Marketing Directo como el Jefe de correo basura. Vaya.

Bueno, lo que quiero decir es que mientras que el SEO en mercados anglo-sajones madura, la disciplina es cada vez más aceptada como una práctica típica de marketing y su definición engloba el inbound marketing, denominado tambien en castellano como el marketing de atración.

Hay un esfuezo colectivo por líderes del SEO en el mundo anglo-sajón de posicionar el SEO más como una práctica normal de marketing en vez de continuar sufriendo una mala reputación e evitar una percepción de una imagen del SEO en crisis.

Incluso el debate de la definición del Inbound marketing se ha acelerado desde noviembre del año pasado y poco probable se calme en adelante.

Si contrastamos con la situación en españa, yo siento que la profesión del SEO está aún algo más lejano del centro de marketing online a que debería estar.

Parece haber un roce entre la comunidad SEO en españa y su equivalente de Community Managers tan ruidoso.

Los esterotipos contienen algun grano de verdad, el Community Manager tiene que demostrar el valor de sus acciones y los SEOs tienen que practicar más acciones sociales.

Hubo un momento en Valencia durante las ponencias que se vio una diapositiva contrastando los salarios web 2.0 y se producio alguna reacción de alarma y algo de irritación en la sala.

Esto fue a pesar de que diapositivas previas de casos de éxito habían demostrado el valor disproporcionado comercial que el SEO había ortogado a las organizaciones.

Incluso hubo un evento más orientado al Community Manager en Sevilla ese mismo fin de semana (EBE) y se sentía algo de resentimiento mientras se cruzaban algunas palabras sueltas entre ambos campos por Twitter.

Un clásico repetido

Quizas no sea justo comparar eventos SEO en cada país. Creo que SearchLove y Congreso SEO fueron igualmente un éxito y si tienes alguna oportunidad de acudir, deberías ir a cualquiera. En serio.

A mi me resulta muy raro a la hora de comparar paises y decantar por España o Inglaterra en estas circunstancias. Incluso cuando los equipos nacionales compiten en algún deporte, suelo respaldar al que pierde en ese momento más que nada para que haya más competición.

…a la selección española le niegan un penálti en los últimos instantes e Inglaterra pilla un gol en el minuto 93!

Marcador final:

Inglaterra 2 España 1

Of course this post is also available in English.

La conferencia Distilled de Linklove fue la semana pasada en Londres y Boston. Aquí hay un resumen (en inglés). Si te lo perdistes, habran videos SEO de la conferencia a la venta.

El Congreso SEO se celebra este año en Madrid, el 6 y 7 de julio 2012. Las inscripciones con descuentos se acaban muy pronto.

¿Que opinas?

¿Inglaterra triunfa a españa en conferencias SEO o al revés?

¿Tarjeta amarilla para mi juicio o qué?

SEO Anglo Spanish conference comparison: No contest

| Paul Gailey

Last November I had the pleasure of attending the Congreso SEO – also referred to as the SEO Pro – as an invited speaker at the Olympia Hotel in Valencia, here in Spain.
¿Lo prefieres en español?

The organiser, Miguel Lopez from Marketing Online Valencia, had made a herculean near solo effort to put on a superb SEO event that united a devoted bunch of the finest Spanish SEO minds to knock heads and hearts together for three days.

I won’t delve into a detailed round up of presentations. That was already done in the afterglow of the moment by several other speakers from Spain and attendees from around the world.

Suffice to say the excellence of thought and presentations was outstanding. Don’t take my word for it, other seasoned SEO speakers who travelled afar can attest to the level on show.

Fortune has it that my job and background means I frequent England and Spain for work and pleasure all the time, and as I am tempted, with so much in life, I often pause to contemplate the pros and cons to each. So this is my take on how Spain and UK stack up at SEO events.

Photo thanks to @carrero

Event choice. Size and shirt matters.

Or does it? In the UK the SEO scene is bigger. I’m not going to start digging up the stats, comparing agency head count, billings or search or PPC metrics, but I will put my neck on the professional line and claim that SEO as an industry is a more an established profession in the UK and accepted discipline within marketing compared to that in Spain.

And so what? Well, in terms of conference size, attendance and frequency of events, the UK has a wealth of events to choose from. Ranging from the free, the spirited raucous to the premium priced and the SEO events that form part of a larger online marketing fairs, there is a wide choice on offer.

In contrast, Spain sports less amount of formal events, however that is not necessarily such a bad thing, as it’s what you do with your SEO event that counts, right? During the SEO Pro in Valencia, the seventy or so attendees had ample time over three days to really make solid professional connections and strengthen friendships.

In contrast in the UK, I’ve often found myself forced to diligently pre-research attendees and companies whom I wanted to network with, before the event, to allow myself time to adequately devirtualise the SEO brains in the room.

Wealth of riches you might say, well there certainly is a camaraderie in Spanish events that has echoes of the earlier days of the British SEO scene in the pre halycon days of Google.

And let’s be clear, just because you’re first to invent something, that does not confer you the status of the best practitioner at it. The British know that all too well; Football? err Who won the last World Cup for petes sake?

England score from a free kick with a cruel deflection!

Scoreline at 20mins: England 1 Spain 0

Event organisation

It goes hand in hand with size, that a large event demands significant resources to keep everything all tickety-boo and this will invariably be a large contributing factor to the price of the ticket.

During London’s recent SearchLove event by Distilled [c], the army of people running the show allowed for professional sound and vision, full recording, and all the ancillary tasks required for a glitch free event.

It’s not just the event itself, but all the promotion of it before and after that places great demands on the organisers and tests their promotional skill.

Distilled’s SearchLove did a good job of whipping up interest via online buzz prior to the event in October and produced once again a delightful printed booklet for attendees packed with speaker interviews.

Spain’s Miguel SEOPro Lopez however, single handedly built buzz several months before hand, deftly blogging and regularly emailing interviews with speakers’ SEO stories for months beforehand.

This sustained a hashtag level of interest in the event for weeks in advance. Attendees didn’t go home without any goodies though as several attendee and speaker companies dealt out schwag or more vitally, free trial codes for worthy paid SEO services/tools. It wasn’t just a Spanish version of any old shitforlinks.

Where SearchLove excelled was the supply and openess of the speaker .ppt decks after the event and the filming of the presentations, in contrast SEOPro restricted the distribution of slides only among the speakers privately and neither audio or video recorded presentations.

As five months have elapsed since my CongresoSEO presentation (Representación de datos para SEO or Infographics for linkbuilding) Miguel has kindly consented for it to become public.

Grab all the links from the presentation or read and comment it in this Google+ photo presentation. View or download the entire deck from my Dropbox although please note unfortunately the embedded YouTube videos will not playback.

In terms of hob nobbing, mingling and entertainment I’m afraid there was little contest between Valencia and London.

Whilst both SEOPro and SearchLove ran single track jam packed days of speakers presenting for 45-60 minutes, the London timetable was brutal on social options for mingling compared to Valencia.

Yes, they’re is after-event shoulder rubbing at SearchLove but its attendance is partial relative to conference crowd.

Of course the sandwich lunch culture, or should I say stand up SearchLove noshing is accepted practice in the UK, don’t get me wrong the food was very good and people came for the talks not the grub after all, however the food in Valencia throughout the three days was just glorious.

Attendees sat to eat in a restaurant in well mixed up tables during the event and conference talks would restart at five ending at eight o clock in the evening.

That stoppage time during the day allowed for delegates at SEOPro to catch up on business or take a well deserved siesta.

How else are you going to recuperate the mad late hours of partying? Suffice to say Valencia stole the show on the partying aspect.

Superb tica-taca possession by Spain’s midfield, then a sublime touch sees Spain equalise.

Half Time Score Line: England 1 Spain 1

Champion & Premier league SEO

So when it comes down to the crunch, how does the quality of SEO compare between the two?

Both events boasted a high quality of presentations.

People had done their homework, generously shared their data and insights and anecdotally it seemed attendees were highly satisfied with both Congreso SEO and SearchLove.

Both events have suffered from external criticism from non attendees who have either misinterpreted comments, that seep out via Twitter or morph into Chinese Whispers.

Sure enough both events were dominated with a plethora of references to Panda, although in Spain the most common element that unified all presentations was a devout homage to scrapers.

Edit: one worthy Panda inclusion, was the bizarre coincidence that I selected an infographic to show during my presentation from a company called AttachMedia, unbeknown to me, the author of it was in the audience and introduced himself to me afterwards. He had come from Peru just for the event!

At London’s SearchLove, speakers included big USA names in SEO as well as local Brits. In contrast Spain featured pretty much all local based talent with a few exceptions.

I think there were presentations in Valencia worthy of a wider audience such as the advanced faceted navigation decks from Fernando Macia and Rodney Cullen that would go down well with an audience in London and further afield. I particularly admired the SEOcial media thinking from Jose Llinares.

However there was no shrinking violets in Spain when it came to openly talking exposing the darker techniques of SEO, in contrast when this happens in UK, it’s usually preceeded with a stern warning not to try this at home, a plea not to RT and a hand clasped over the microphone.

If anything Spanish SEO’s pull no punches when discussing dark SEO in public, possibly in part because their thoughts are not as amplified compared to the UK.

I’m not an advocate of grey/black hat techniques although I can’t refute there are short term success eeked out at times by some, although since November of last year, some of the techniques discussed in Valencia have since proved ineffective and infact counterproductive with further algorythmic refinements by Google.

Late last year I felt a little relief to note that Matt Cutts was referred to in a Google Blog as a Distinguished Engineer instead of the Head of WebSpam.

Indeed imagine a Direct Marketer equivalent being continually referred to as the Head of Junkmail. Hardly appropriate.

Anyway, my point here is that as the english speaking SEO market matures, SEO is more mainstream marketing accepted and it’s defintion evolves to overlap social and inbound marketing.

There is a collective effort by leading english speaking SEO practioners to drag the SEO discipline more to the marketing mainstream than continue to suffer from a poor reputation and escape the perception of SEO in crisis.

If anything the debate about definition of Inbound maketing has accelerated since November of last year and is unlikely to subside.

In contrast in Spain, my feeling is that the profession is still too far from the centre of online marketing.

There is a telling friction between the SEO community in Spain and it’s noisy Community Manager’s virtual nascent sister it is awash with.

Unfortunately stereotypes have a grain of truth in them, Community Managers need to get more accountable and SEOs need to get more social.

At one point during the presentations in Valencia, a slide with the average advertised salary levels contrasting Community Managers and SEO’s jobs, drew gasps of mild shock and the odd irritation.

This was despite the previous slides demonstrating the disproportionate commercial value SEO had conferred to the organisations.

There was actually a Community Manager centric event in Sevilla at the same time as the Congreso SEO and there was a palable gulf of disdain between the occasional interesecting monolgues on Twitter amongst the two camps during the weekend.

A game of two halves

It’s perhaps an unfair call to compare SEO events in both countries like for like. I think SearchLove and Congreso SEO were both successful in their own right and if you have the chance you should attend either of them. Seriously.

And as usual I am quite torn between any comparison between Spain and England and whenever the national teams compete in sport I typically back the underdog for want of more competition.

…Spain are denied a penalty in the dieing minutes of the game and England snatch an injury time winner in a goal mouth scramble.

Final Scoreline:

England 2 Spain 1

Por supuesto este post también está redactado en castellano.

Distilled’s LinkLove conference was held last week in London and Boston. Here’s their round up. If you missed it, you will be able to buy SEO conference videos. 

Congreso SEO is being held in Madrid on the 6th & 7th July 2012. Early bird discounts expire pronto.

So what do you think?

Does England pip Spain for SEO conferences or vice versa?

Did I referee that right or would you give me a yellow card?

Dr Seuss’ SEO Star Wars

| Paul Gailey

So Search is changing, what’s new?

SEO is ever more morphing to inbound marketing.

Sometimes advantages in Search last only as long as the professionals privileged to have tested their thesis, discovered a prize technique, exploited a flaw, escaped punishment of one, or preferably gained a massive reward for successful inbound marketing efforts.

And before not too long, often the cat is out of the bag and that advantage becomes standard fare.

Step forward Rich Snippets.

Rich Snippets are the prized gold stars and descriptions a search result can boast of adjacent to the URL in Google’s search results.

Last week, Joost de Valk, aka Yoast, blogged about rich snippets everywhere in a self fulfilling post detail, since Google started applying seller extensions more liberally in the search results in recent weeks.

The original GoogleBlog Spot post about Rich Snippets infact seemed to garner less attention or engagement than the post from Yoast.

Search Engine Land reported the videos in a quick post, but miserably failed to cast any analysis on the matter.

Star Wars, the next frontier

So the theory is that seller extensions, to you and me, gold stars, help users separate the wheat from the chaff when we Google.

And welcome that they are, in that we demand ever more social proof of content on the web, they are worthy of caution.

do you trust a starred result because the publisher has earnt it through merit or because they have managed to have it display through ingenuity?

Yes, seller extensions – gold stars – are also a superb device for publishers to display collective social proof of customer reviews, ratings and so on, irrespective of the sector they compete in.

And the click-through rate of results with stars is no doubt higher than those without.

But are they infallible? I mean do you trust a starred result because the publisher has earnt it through merit or because they have managed to have it display through ingenuity?

The truth is at the moment, there is little way to verify the authenticity of those stars, and indeed Google do not appear to, as of yet, pre-vetted the search results that sport them.

In those snippet video tutorials Google hint at reserving the right to control the display of starred results, however the initial results of webmasters’ efforts suggest this is a worrying loophole that has no discrimination in place.

The plain fact is that publishers can fabricate them and just mark up their pages with technical precision, just as they have embellished customer testimonials since day one.

Google has just made it easier for site owners to display stars for all their results

In many instances starred reviews link to 3rd party sites of the publisher so that is acceptable, but the difference now is that Google has just made it easier for site owners to display stars for all their results, on all pages if they so choose.

There are services for Business Owners that can assist you to garner verifiable reviews such as TrustPilot which I recently trialled for a client with great success. Therein lies the crux of social proof, it must stand up to scrutiny to really offer you legitimate long term advantage.

I suspect the whole Schema bandwagon, which is really in it’s infancy in some ways, is likely to be a real differentiator in the future as publishers and aggregators scramble towards a more meaningful web.

If anything, 2011 has professionally taught me that it’s now less about rank anymore than richness and trust of search results.

Part of me cannot believe there is no Mountain View checks and balances in place for this. Yoast concludes in his blog that he “very much doubts whether this will continue to be as easy as it seems to be now though“.

It seems we’ll all be seeing the stars soon even if some of us are not.

Are you star struck when you view search results?

ps. I read this Dr Seuss story to junior Gailey probably every week to his delight, here’s the full version 12min video of the The Sneetches. 

Happy Marketing Christmas

| Paul Gailey

Actually, I’m being serious.

I started the relationship because I thought we would both get something out of this, but alas no, you: email marketing manager, just bundled me into a huge list, and this is your nemesis.

Don’t worry, email marketing manager, there’s plenty more like you out there and with cool services such as Unroll.me I can also bundle you up with your cohorts, and one-click-unsubscribe from all of you.

Boom!

Hey, I don’t want to sound ungrateful, keep those unsubscribe gift links coming!

Happy marketing Christmas.

The Supermechanical Internet of Things – Twine

| Paul Gailey

When people postulate what web 3.0 will be like, or talk about the Internet of Things, they typically prescribe it’s creation to men in labs with white coats producing web enabled devices for giant corporations to churn out of factories.

Your power to connect stuff.

This is different. Twine is exciting because it honours that same creativity that propelled web2.0 – enabling consumers to be publishers – by putting the power into the hands of the end users and not the intermediaries or manufacturers.

Twine is like the real life cousin of IFTTT and allows everyone to manufacture their 3.0.

Exercise your imagination and standback to adjust your filters.

It’s been fun viewing how rapidly this brilliant Kickstarter project reached its funding goal this week, and I am eager to obtain a device as a backer, but is this project more than just Arduino for the hoi polloi?

Is the Internet of Things coming to a hand near you?

Unloving the #SearchLove cookie monster

| Paul Gailey

If there is one aspect that really surprised me this week at the SearchLove Distilled event in London this week, it certainly was not the:

  • quality of the speakers’ insights, or the
  • diversity of online marketing subjects related to SEO, or the
  • high level of skill among the audience, or
  • the general excellence of the event

Infact I don’t pretend here to offer comprehensive coverage of SearchLove like Samuel Crocker magically served up moments after each talk ended.

And I cannot compete with the superhuman Human Level‘s Fernando Macía’s prolific tweet rate, or fellow visiting spanish speakers such as the charming Aleyda or the affable Gian Luca, aka the Moz Oracle, or indeed the succint actionable roundup blog posts of Koozai’s Mike Essex.

The speakers’ discourse was peppered with fashionable references to Bamboo and ingenious ways to combat Pandalization, leaving a vocabulalry legacy of bewliderement to possibly many a marketeer who does not breathe the daily nuances of the Search industry. Hey, every vertical has it’s own lexicon, right?

I certainly found myself nodding and quietly yaying in awe of Wil Reynolds nail on the hammer delivery and admiring the pragmatic link-building competitive success of Branded3‘s Patrick Altoft.

And yes whilst I applaud and signed Martin MacDonald’s keyword transparency initiative (he continues to bask in the afterglow of tweet chit-chat with MCHammer), I still cannot but help think it’s somewhat crying over spilt milk.

new era of freemiunsation of search…

Distilled did indeed accommodate the audience’s interest in hearing a panel discuss the freshly vexed issue of Google’s defacto keyword search query removal. This effectively is regarded by the industry as Google’s thin edge of the wedge of a new era of freemiumisation of search data.

If you’re interested in the background of this, Go Google Paloma Gaos for a litigation lowdown.

All that said, the real elephant in the room this time, was neither, the oh so last year’s issue of hat colour and SEO ethics, nor was it the effects of Google’s latest iteration of a search quality algorithms affectionaly labelled as Panda by the search community, or indeed the ritual announcement of the deathknell (or not) of the efficacy of exact match domains.

No, that looming metaphorical elephant in the room, at least for me, was the cookie monster – yes, the wider issue of the implications of the impending EU privacy legislation that without intending to sound dramatic, threatens the very existence of the internet economy.

As Ciarán Norris explained in his introduction to his deck: “if you don’t pay for the service you are using on the internet, you are effectively the product“

Ciarán cogently argued how our collective usage of the services effectively surrenders our privacy so the mega sites can monetise them for advertisers prepared to pay for audience access. He also exemplified interactive gesture controlled TV services that personalise the viewing experience and ultimately how compelling this is for the end user and advertiser alike. He’s touched on this before.

And the reliance on cookies, perma-logged in social services, javascript tracking and more, are the essential ingredients in the mega internet economy and the real enablers of for the personalisation bandwagon to roll on.

site owners are stymied to monetize…

However, if site owners are compelled to display landing page explicit opt in notices interstital nuisance style, then as Ciarán rightly argued, they may as well thereafter display a blank screen to users who decline to opt in to data collection, because without consent, site owners are effectively stymied to monetize and it’s Game Over for everyone.

Ever wondered how some services recoup the massive effort it takes to offer a global service?

For example, the AddThis button, installed on some 1 billion domains and 9 million users?

Ever mused for a moment how they make money, without charging you; the widget installer who happily benefits from the enhanced site functionality it offers?

Well, AddThis happily drop you a cookie which allows adverts to be displayed to you, on other sites you visit thereafter. You get the widget, they get you targeted, advertisers sell more stuff, no one gets hurt and it’s a good deal allround right?

Except some people don’t like it or just don’t get it and lobbying of the legislators is where the real battles are being fought right now.

Fast forward to a time if/when such EU cookie legislation comes into force in 2012 and such services would not work so silently: your user experience might become a journey through optin hell, with endless repeat questions each time you opened a tab and so much as looked at anything interactive.

Don’t even think of cookie cleaning, you’ll probably make it even worse for yourself ultimately. Oh and want to casually Like something? Well before you do, step this way, let me read you your rights and confirm you might want to like something before you Like something. Go figure.

So when the SearchLove audience was polled for a show of hands about their awareness or action taken on this issue, the reaction seemed to be one of nonchalance at best and resigned ignorance at worst.

what surprised me was how unbothered people seem to feel..

OK, so maybe I got the wrong end of the mood stick, please correct me if so, but the impression I got was as if SEOers were instead itchily awaiting some golden insider nugget of …ok, so now do this neat little tweak and you’ll get page one rankings in 3 days…

And that’s what surprised me: just how unbothered people seem to feel about the cookie monster.

Joanna Lord from SEOMoz also presented a fascinating look at how retargeting worked for SEOMoz at SearchLove. It’s a whole marketing discipline that the cookie monster issue threatens omniously.

I raised the issue in person with @JoannaLord during the Mozcation in Barcelona and she confessed that at worst it would manifest itself at the browser vendor level, if at all.

So if SEO community truly want to earn the respect of the wider marketing community, it’s time to collectively articulate the cookie monster concerns, query and challenge thought leaders on the subject, and support efforts to lobby for a functioning internet economy that benefits everyone.

And people, this is more important than your Klout score. Really.

If only we saw that same passion that was applied by SearchLovers to engaging MC Hammer, gently goading him to attend London or NYC SearchLove, now applied to this critical cookie issue, then it’s the best chance over the coming months that we have to influence the outcome.

The message to send to policy makers is, mess with the internet economy at your political peril.

put another way, this is the internet, you can’t touch this.

In New York? You should go to NYC SearchLove. Check out the #searchlove vibe or Follow the London searchlovers on this unofficial Twitter list: http://mmkt.in/searchlovers

Postscript: Econsultancy have published an in depth article about the EU cookie directive. Monday, 31st October.

The six and ⅔% more interesting Trey Pennington

| Paul Gailey

I never met Trey Pennington. I wish I had.

Many people close to him have written moving tributes to him in the last few days.

Others have tried to rationalise Trey’s passing, the illness he suffered from and the helplessness of social media in his death.

I won’t go there. Trey touched many people’s lives. He struck a chord with me.

Of the many people highly active in social media, he always struck me as someone who was naturally at ease with the true human socialising that his profession brought him, those moments where he would get together with other Like Minds without the barriers of technology inbetween human relationships.

Sure he would like to document so many of these moments incessantly with any sort of cam, but you really got the impression the guy relished true interactions with people.

Like many people I did wonder how the one hundred thousand plus followers made any sense and how his prolific and relentless output was possible.

Maybe I’m mistaken but Trey would have met you all in person given the chance.

When people have queried me what social media really meant in terms of a mindset, I would often cite him and express a sentiment along the lines of  “look you have to be totally selfless in a karmic kind of way if you’re prepared to do this…“

I feel as if that came naturally to Trey.

People’s affection towards him seems heartfelt. In the British parlance, the man was surely a great bloke if any person stood up to that description.

He made a massive contribution to social media and I trust a celebration of his life today and in the future will recognise that.

I contend there’s enough wisdom in his archive to merit a Trey Day.

However if there is one video, one tip, one piece of sound heartfelt advice that would most resonate about him and his thinking it may well be this video with Zig Ziglar.

Would less have been more?

Trey’s thoughts, podcasts, blogs, published material, tweets and interactions made for compelling content in the last few years although recent months his output did change.

I don’t do Facebook so I don’t pretend to know all of facets of his life, but some time ago I did think, what if he could produce more.

More?

What if his tweets were more repeatable by shortening his Twitter id. Could he produce more Trey Pennington content by allowing more content to fit in his tweets?

So about a year ago I had this email exchange with Trey.

The gist of it was this: Trey, go shorten your Twitter name, it’s possible here you could have this username.

After all Trey, you are one of the biggest names in social media, literally. You are 10% of every tweet!

After these emails followed a series of Direct Messages on Twitter (which unfortunately I can no longer access or reproduce) and @ replies that have forever withered away.

About this time on Twitter it was possible to recuperate dormant accounts of usernames, I had done it before and Trey could have owned @treyp had he so wished.

I opened a support ticket on Twitter, sometimes exchanged cryptic @ replies with him and sent him DM’s along the lines of :

Trey, lose the ennington and get yourself a five letter Twitter name, you can do it – you’ll become six and two thirds per cent more interesting.

Trey did ponder it, perhaps he may have been minded to do it had we met at the Like Minds event in the UK in 2010 but alas I wasn’t able to make it in time despite being in London at another marketing event.

Perhaps not.

Perhaps he would have remained Trey Pennington.

RIP

Response to the OFT Debt Management Guidance

| Paul Gailey
The OFT (Office of Fair Trading) has invited responses from interested parties to the document, Debt management (and credit repair services) guidance of June 2011 consultation ending September  5th.
As per the scope of the consultation the document represents the OFT’s draft guidance for all licensees engaged in the licensable activities of debt counselling and debt adjusting (where the debts arise under consumer credit or hire agreements)…..It focuses on unfair and improper business practices for the purposes of section 25(2A)(e) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 which, if engaged in, would call into question a person’s fitness to retain or be granted a standard consumer credit licence or to operate under cover of a group licence. In addition, it provides a basis against which the OFT can undertake assessments of whether businesses have appropriate skills, knowledge, experience, business practices and procedures, to be licensed by the OFT to operate an ancillary credit business providing debt counselling, debt adjusting or credit information services.

Page 5 of the document available on the OFT website here, expands further: This consultation is aimed at all those with an interest in, or involved in, the provision of regulated debt counselling, debt adjusting and credit information services (including credit repair). This includes debt management companies, not-for-profit advice organisations, creditors and some lead generation and claims management companies……The consultation may also be of interest to trade associations, professional bodies, regulators, enforcement agencies, consumer organisations and credit reference agencies. 

In accordance with the consultation, I as Paul Gailey, in the capacity as a contracted marketing consultant to ClearDebt Ltd, a Consumer Credit License holder nº565479, hereby offer my formal response to the guidance as itemised below.

3.6 f. Examples of unfair or improper business practices with regards to lead generation and direct marketing include: claims or statements regarding ‘status’. For example, operating websites which look like and/or are designed to look like the web-site of a charity or a government body.

I note the guidance cites the 2009 OFT press release about this subject. http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2009/26-09

The prevalence of decieving websites, false claims and incomplete debt management information has regretfully continued since 2009 and today still exists. Detection of existence of these sites is a simple exercise in conducting an internet search for popular debt management related terms. Attached is an image of a website, BBCdebts.com which I regard as in violation of the guidance contained in chapter 3 as a minimum.
I broadly welcome the guidance contained in chapter 3, especially with regards to lead generation activities and I am strongly supportive of the guidance sections 3.3, 3.4 and 3.6b.

Advertising and other communications
All marketing, advertising and promotion and other oral or written representations should be clear, accurate and truthful and should not mislead, either expressly or by implication or omission.

This guidance applies to all forms of marketing, advertising and promotion across all media 

types. This includes online marketing such as paid for/sponsored listings and advertisements on 

internet search engines, contextual advertising (targeted advertisements based on the content of 

websites on which the adverts appear) and all marketing content on paid-for and non-paid-for 

online space including new media such as social networking websites, forums and blogs.

I disagree with the statement in the guidance or omission in relation to all forms of marketing, in particular paid for listings, contextual advertisements and non-paid for online space.

I agree that representations should be clear, accurate and truthful and should not mislead however I disagree with the statement in relation to omission because not all forms of accepted marketing permit a full explanation of all the positive and negative aspects of offered debt resolutions.

For example, the display of advertising messages, particularly in online media is in some instances severely limited to short messages or limited display of characters and it is unworkable to expect licensee holders to convey extensive information in all paid and non paid spaces. I do believe licensee holders can abide by the guidance to avoid misleading consumers by explicitly displaying the providence of their advertisement and or displayed message with a further link and/or citation of company details.

By this I refer to the common practise of displaying either a profile link, company website link, company name, terms, contact details of the licensee holder in the communication. 

3.12 Examples of unfair or improper business practices include….
…b. falsely claiming or implying that help and debt advice is provided on a free, impartial or independent basis, where the provider has a profit-seeking incentive

I disagree with the guidance in terms of its definition of help and debt advice and usage of the term free whereby a commercial debt resolution company and licensee holder publishes considerable volumes of debt information for consumers that is free to access, as in no purchase or indeed contract is necessary to consult the information and that this information can be of help to the consumer.

Furthermore, usage of online tools – that contain and display caveats of accuracy – which capture user information and compute debt scenarios and financial options are a valid form of marketing communication.

3.12 f. I agree with the guidance and am strongly supportive that the guidance applies to both the private commercial and creditor funded organisations (i.e charity), whereby particularly in the case of the fees for an IVA (Individual Voluntary Agreement) to be arranged and implemented, that the fees are clearly stipulated and explained how the organisation receives it’s fees.

3.13 Licensees who advertise or sell online or by email must comply with the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002. Before using internet based and social media  marketing, licensees should consider whether they can exercise adequate control over its content, whether it is an appropriate medium and whether the required information, warnings and caveats, can be included sufficiently prominently. The 
OFT considers that search engine sponsored links and online messaging forums which limit the number of characters are unlikely to be an appropriate means of providing consumers with sufficiently balanced 
and adequate information. 

I disagree with part of the statement above of 3.13. Exercising adequate control over its content. Marketing materials that are shared by consumers can rapidly gain a high number of advertising impacts when the sharing is viralized whereby the original producer of the content may no longer be able to exercise adequate control of it if the message is copied or modified by consumers.

I disagree with the guidance regarding whether it is an appropriate medium whereby social media marketing channels are an accepted mainstream form of communication. 
Recent information published by the Office for National Statistics, in the annual British Internet Habits shows that
  • in 2011, 57% of over-16s in the UK are using the internet for social networking, as opposed to 43% in 2010
  • Internet access from mobile devices is increasing substantially – 45% of UK adults accessing the Internet from mobile devices, up from 31% in 2010
  • 91% of 16-24 year olds use social media. Usage is high for the 25-34 year old (76%) and 35-44 year olds (58%)
I regard social media as a legitimate channel to communicate with users seeking information from debt management organisations.

With regards to the statement: and whether the required information, warnings and caveats, can be included sufficiently prominently I refer to my earlier statement that I agree debt management organisations can abide by the guidance to avoid misleading consumers by explicitly displaying the providence of their advertisement and/or displayed message with a further link and/or citation of company details. In the case of social media, this can be done typically via a biography or profile description, where a link to the company website can be clearly displayed.
With regards to providing consumers with sufficiently balanced and adequate information I believe social media channels can satisfy the need for balance and adequate information because the ability of the licensee holder to send a link in a short message, a tweet or an update to Facebook is possible.
I strongly agree with the guidance 3.14a and 3.14d

Whilst I agree with 3.14b however in exceptional circumstances whereby the licensee may still act in compliance with search engine guidelines to keyword bid in contextual advertising using another organisation’s name, respecting trademark law, the licensee – without misleading the consumer – may require to do so. I would like to take this opportunity to stress that I believe it is inadvisable to keyword bid in contextual advertising with another organisations name as a routine matter.

–ends

The above consultation response was also sent by email to [email protected] as agreed with OFT officer Aaron Berry of the Debt Management Team on September 5th.

The views expressed here are my personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of ClearDebt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ClearDebt Group plc.

Paul Gailey is supplying this guidance consultation reponse in his capacity as a contracted consultant to ClearDebt Ltd, a debt management company of qualified debt advisors and licensed insolvency practitioners for individuals in debt principally seeking an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) or a debt management plan.

Don’t know how to plan an Internet Marketing Strategy?

| Paul Gailey
Yes you do.

But maybe not yet.

That’s because the trouble with the internet, is you can never finish reading it.

If like me, you spend your working hours devising an internet marketing strategy for clients and executing it, then such a report from the likes of Econsultancy makes compelling reading.

This document – which is untypically free to download on Econsultancy – outlines some of the latest thinking, case studies and best practices in:
  • User experience
  • Customer experience management
  • Voice of the customer
  • Mobile app vs. mobile web
  • Mobile as the ‘glue’ connecting channels
  • Mobile commerce
  • Measuring the value of social media
  • Social CRM
  • Attribution management
  • Social for search engine optimization
  • Social commerce
  • Social media management
  • From bought media to earned media
  • From impression to expression
  • Enriched content: video, games, apps, metadata etc.
Note that all important etc. at the end – that’s the sign of a infovore in EC1,  just like me.

We all learn by knowledge gained ultimately through sharing which is why so many fellow marketers welcome the opportunity to participate in social networks and mix professional with recreational updates.

I have a voracious appetite for information and an perhaps an increasing intolerance for those that don’t. 

This manifests itself usually by about 2pm each day when the amount of tabs I simultaneously have open crush all the favicons together whereby they vanish.

On a good day this might not happen till 3pm.

But that really depends how define good. On a bad day this can happen as early as 11pm.

Swap good for bad or vice-versa.

When I say intolerance for those that don’t, I refer to the infinite availability of information, yes and even insight that we have at our disposal.

So if you can’t Google it successfully, you can ask someone you know, or someone they know, or someone who may know someone who may know…and so on.

And no I don’t expect everyone to know everything of course, as I say the trouble with the internet is you can’t ever finish it.

However when I hear a “I don’t know” professionally uttered as a first reaction to a challenge, I wince just a little and I think a yes you can attitude is called for.

It’s all out there, all the time awaiting your investigation and participation.

So next time you are faced with planning your internet marketing strategy don’t say you don’t know.

Please.

The reason Google+ is not yet available to Apps Users

| Paul Gailey

First off, I don’t have the answer. Maybe you do.

Familiar with this message?

If you are a Google Apps user and have tried to access Google Plus, or use the +1 button, that image will have haunted you a plenty.

There are great deal of benefits from being a Google Apps user. It’s essentially like having Gmail acount and more but instead of @gmail.com having @mycompany.com

However for many months now, the gap has been widening between the Google services available to Gmail users versus Apps users.

The reason the new Google + and the +1 button is unavailable is because those services are dependant on creating a Google Profile and as Apps users and Admins know, Google Profiles are not yet available.

Coming soon?

There is a Google blog post from March 2011, that hinted the functionality would be enabled for Apps users ‘soon’. Alas the comments steadily grow.

Since the launch of Google + and +1 button the clamour on other networks from Apps Users has been getting louder:

And the demand is only going to continue.

So why the delay?

The truth is no-one really knows or is not openly saying.

Here is a thread on Quora Why aren’t Google Profiles available for Google Apps users? that hint at the extra challenges of Profiles for Apps users and some high profile bloggers have enquired why but don’t shed light on the motive for the delay other than caution from Mountain View.

Too important to fail

So Google have a proud record of products that never really exited beta, technologies that we never quite liked (Sidewiki) or understood (Wave) or embraced (Buzz) and the tradition will long continue.

Except this time around, the revised efforts at cracking social for Google are possibly just too important to fail.

Generally speaking the reception to Google+ has been pretty positive and almost universally understood by those who have meddled with it. That bodes well for Google.

The invites window period was brief enough to recruit an enthusiastic army of testers that will implicitly supply enough feedback for Google and publicly appraise or berate the service so it can be refined.

Buzz me not

In contast when Buzz was launched it was quickly exposed at having shortcomings that despite being rectified, created a wave of antipathy against it and a provoked a legal and regulatory headache for Mountain View.

A Federal Trade Commission settlement and compliance for Google has now resulted in a comprehensive privacy program that will be audited for 20 years.

Basically dogfooding Buzz at Google was insufficient to detect the risk that manifested itself in the early public phase.

And this is where I can understand the cautious approach winning at Mountain View over the prevalent Silicon Valley tendency to fail fast and iterate.

Apps users are different

So Apps users are not a homogeneous bunch. From vanity domain personal users to small businesses upto major organisations, corporates with many thousand of users and multinationals, the only aspect that really unites them is not being an individual gmail user.

Not all Apps users pay, but those that do, pay because they earn, and if their earnings can be affected by Google mistakes in their adventures in social, then Google and the rest of the world will soon know about it.

Individual Gmail users engaging in lawsuits against Google because of an obscure loophole in their new social suite? I doubt it.

A corporate or an organisation doing the same with all the reputation consequences? Possibly.

Early adopter dogfooding

So only hours after the window of Google invites is now closed, we already see a frenzy of activity about Google+.

The critical acclaim has been generally good.

People seem to latch on how it works quickly, at least there is not the initial bemusement akin to the welcome of Wave, although bizarrely enough +1’s don’t display within Google+  as Search Engine Land observed.

More importantly, already there is a sufficient army of testers who can implicitly through their usage, and publically through their blogging and tweeting, supply enough feedback for Google to refine matters.

And refinements are sure to happen.

Already the Financial Times’ observation about a privacy flaw have been amplified by the tech press and other issues about Google+ spam bots are gaining attention.

This early phase testing is a protective period for Google as much as it is for Apps organisations.

Because the risk of getting it wrong this time around or not quite getting it absolutely right for Google is just too high.

Ask any Google employee, their salary is now tied to the social success of Google.

The challenges of Profiles for Apps Users

The background to Profiles for Apps Users and other Google services was the legacy around the different infrastructures in place at Google. If you had a Google Profile before setup with an Apps email and now cannot access it, you may have been be one of those who Google has earmarked as having a conflicted account. 

You might be waiting and wondering what to do next. Wait for Apps to get Profiles and start +1 content out there on the web under that identity? Or succumb to opening a Gmail account to use Google+ instead?

And what happens when Apps Users finally get onboard? Will they have a Profile used in Gmail and another one with their Apps email just add to the confusion.

More importantly will there be some portability function to allow migration of account information between a Gmail and an Apps account including that all valuable digital footprint. What if I join company XYZ and then move on, can I haz my data?

The greater the delay between the launch of Profiles for Apps and now, the more socially messy things will become.

There are probably a lot more issues at stake for Profiles for Apps users. Preventing +1 abuse from same domains or IP ranges so to quash efforts to manipulate computing of SERPs? Surely that’s on the agenda.

I’m sure there are more reasons, let me know.

Why do you think Apps Users cannot access Google+ or +1?

Receive Notification of Profiles for Apps
You can receive notice formally from Google once Profiles is launched for Apps users and thus know when your organisation can use Google+ via this official form: https://spreadsheets4.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEc2TjBVanQ4ckNVZGJsTHJYWjBTUWc6MQ&ifq

IFTTT is Automatic for the People

| Paul Gailey

I don’t remember a time when I never wondered: How does that work?

Equally I cannot recall a moment when I have not wondered: and what if?

I fondly recall, how avidly as an eleven year old, I read through my first hardback, proudly bought with my own pocket money, entitled 1000 questions and 1000 answers.

Except I was never really satisfied that the answers were the whole story because invariably more queries would arise from tales of science, history, fables of the reconstruction, and assorted factoids.

I’ve often found the downside to a curious mind is dissatisfaction at the endless pursuit of knowledge because the more you know, the more you know that you don’t quite know.

The upside to being mentally wrestless are those times when you can actually exercise your imagination, experiment with stuff, be it physical or virtual and enjoy the results like the admen above or the band below.

So if I rewind back to the time that I was preparing for my final degree exams when the album cover of Green adored my bedroom, I devised a set of weights and pulleys, connected to rope and various pieces of windsurf kit, a kettle, the record player, the duvet and the curtains, that were all wired and set for the daily call of the maid alarm.

The Maid Alarm

Every morning without fail, the maid would knock hard on the door of every student in the dormitory.

Normally I would ignore the loud knock at the door, emit a murmur, continue asleep and typically be late for a lecture, but in an effort to awaken for exam week my convoluted dorm setup worthy of applause by Rube Goldberg, was sensitively set so that the mere stroke of a welsh knuckle at the door would set off a frenzy of interconnected wires, rope and weights that would immediately begin the begin:

  • slam open the door
  • lift the duvet off me at it’s four corners to the ceiling
  • start the record player at What’s the Frequencey Kenneth at max volume
  • whoosh open the curtains for a full blaze of Gower sun
  • drop a brick onto a switch to boil the kettle at full steam

It was a system, that according to my engineering dorm mates was technically described as “effing brilliant” – I did not major in engineering – but one which my philosophy friends just queried with a dismissive “why effing bother?“

Well, if I had a photo of the contraption now, it might fit somewhere more at home in the pages of the delightful blog post that goes to the soul of the service called IFTTT. Sadly I don’t so I’ll shamelessly display the modern classic of Cog by Honda. If you like that you’ll also like The Making of Cog.

IFTTT to put the internet to work

If this then that, IFTTT is a joyfully created service that allows you to meddle like a mad student in an informational internet kind of way that helps you do stuff.

If IFTTT had a object hero it might probably be a straight bit of wire, bent into a shape that binds paper together – aka the paperclip. (Is it paper clip or paperclip?)

I work with programmers, infact I’m sometimes guiltly of programming myself and often I find they, programming minds, revel when you can articulate what you need to happen when such a such thing is entered, or done here, to make that stuff get sent there and so on.

Be it with a whiteboard stuffed with arrows, an ugly mockup, a set of sentences or a load of yellow posticks on a huge sheet of paper the great thing about working with software developers is not developing the software but developing the ideas that power it.

You see software is not always just task driven steps to addressing functional needs, it should be fun, like this:

IFTTT is a service that allows you to control the input and the output.

Similar to Yahoo Pipes, but with an even more unambivalent interface and simplicity to boot, IFTTT really is Automatic for the People.

IFTTT can really be part of your internet filter. You’re only limited by your imagination ma boy.

Want something to happen for you when something else happens on the internet? Yep, step this way.

So maybe that sounds vague? Well how about if you – the decisive non programmer – define the something and the happen?

Want your Dropbox to Tweet you when someone shares or amends a file? You can do that.

Get a text message when it comment is left on a blog you moderate? Yep.

There’s a tonne of cool IFTTT ideas out there, some are listed here.

You just start imaging and think out aloud as you point click and paste your wishes on the pigeon step simple web page of IFTTT.com

Given how unfashionable and how repeatedly dead RSS is declared to be, with IFTTT you’ll defintely redevelop an orange crush on the sites that sport it because RSS really allows you to weave all sorts of magic together.

And with RSS you don’t always need any old monkey to help you, but it can be useful.

You can sign up to use IFTTT by invite only at the moment but as I have a few spare you won’t have to lose your religion to get one.

How do I get an IFTTT invite?

Just tell me which musical titles of what band are referenced in this blog post.

I’m all ears. Comments or tweets welcome.

And if you’re still not feeling inspired….

Do you misunderstand the pursuit of #linklove ?

| Paul Gailey

Last week I attended the brilliant SEO seminar about Link Building by Distilled otherwise known by #linklove among the 300 or so attendees in London.

Many a blog has already effused and poured over the topics and professional speakers who shared their experiences and expertise.

And since the event, the reaction has been very positive. On the whole.

However there continues to be people who misunderstand SEO.

So allow me to introduce you this video. It propelled my career interest in advertising and open thinking from an early age, and like all timeless communication, it’s still relevant now.

More than one hundred of the seminar attendees are unofficially listed on Twitter here http://bit.ly/linklovers.

If you’re in the USA you can still attend the imminent New Orleans Link Building Seminar on 25th March or buy the video of the London event. I highly recommend it.

The psychological brilliance of Microsoft’s upside down #ie6countdown campaign

| Paul Gailey
So it’s not often you’ll hear such effusive adjectives in the same sentence as Microsoft, let alone in relation to their communications which so frequently has attracted derision for its allegiance to a well trodden 90’s style fresh faced clichéd image library.

However with the advent browser wars again, this time it’s different:
Instead of lauding the benefits of the new browser from Redmond, Microsoft have embraced the passionate dislike so many web developers still harbour towards IE6, they have created a rallying cry in #ie6countdown and recruited an army of advocates to their cause.

Had they marched on with yet another product launch of their latest browser in a yesteryear fashion, they would have attracted plenty of yah boo hiss hiss from an ever vocal group of users and programmers.

Instead they have a magnificent awareness campaign being conducted for them.

The evidence speaks for itself.

So if the the aim is to consign IE6 to the history books, what should I upgrade to?

Well, that’s precisely the question Microsoft want you to ask.

Just flip that number 6 upside down.

I tip my hat.

What do you say?

The greatest action to take with Your Data is to remove Y

| Paul Gailey

Leerlo en español

Some people may know that I am a regional organiser of The Monday Reading Club for Murcia in Spain.

Each first Monday of every month, in around ten to to twelve cities in Spain, people with an interest in marketing, get together typically at the local bookstore for an informal presentation by an invited guest to talk about the theme of a book that has been selected nationally among the organisers.

The idea of The Monday Reading Club (TMRC) was the brainchild of Tristán Elósegui back in 2009 and each edition has brought together all sorts of people to discuss wonderful modern marketing classics.

This month, the selected text was Web Analytics 2.0 by a personal digital hero of mine, Avinash Kaushik, and the event was one of the most successful to date.

Why was this TMRC the most successful to date?

Well in a gracious karmic exchange that took a turn of it’s own, I reached out to the affable Avinash, who generates a great deal of goodwill among his fans (as you can gather from his growing Flickr photo fan set), and we agreed that attendees of the forthcoming TMRC event could exclusively register their email to be granted access to Avinash’s very own Analytics account.

For past editions of TMRC, some members including myself, had occasionally courted authors to participate somehow, but without much success. Video requests were, understandbly politely declined, and too often the demands amounted to little more than trite attention seeking acknowledgements that were worthless to each party.

But with AK, things were wholly different. The Monday Reading Club wanted to boost attendance nationally, reward attendees and stimulate action after the event. Avinash has a natural infectious passion for data that has earnt him the chief Analytics Evangelist of Google in a roving ambassador role and was totally up for it.

Before each host gave their presentation during the simultaneous ten city TMRC event, attendees were prompted to, register their email (using the fine Chimpadeedoo App from MailChimp that prevented viral list leakage!), pose for group photo and were reminded to visit the author’s blog and book webpages.

Exclusive access granted to Avinash’s Analytics 

This last point was particularly important, as the motive for attendees to do so, was that they themselves with access granted to the Analytics account, would be able to use the data and ascertain which of the ten cities had demonstrated the highest interest in the site during the event period. A fun contest with an important learning.

The event spawned some fantastic presentations from hosts across Spain, such as Gemma Muñoz’s in Madrid on SlideShare (Gemma is arguably a devotee to AK of groupie like proportions with a fine Analytics blog entitled as “Where’s Avinash when you need him?“) in Valencia, Miguel López’s presentation, Joseba López Hervella’s presentation in Seville, Ricardo Tayar’s presentation in Zaragoza, Felipe Maggi’s presentation in Alicante, Christian Oliveira’s presentation in Salamanca and more. Speakers included the chief web analyst of the leading publication El País, Adrián Segovia, who spoke in Málaga and all host cities reported a record turnout.

Subsequentley, hundreds of attendees who registered their email, have now been granted exclusive access to the Analytics accounts of Avinash’s blog and book

and the hope is that a new generation of ninjas and squirrels will flourish, with the end result that data based decisions will strengthen their business success.

Y not necessary

I’m still elated at the wonderful response from Avinash that has enabled unprecedented mass access to his Analytics data. It’s real honour that I trust TMRC attendees will cherish and revel in, and I wish to publically thank Avinash for the kind gesture.

And yet if you contemplate this action, it is totally in keeping with the philosophy of liberating data for the benefit of the community. It’s part of the same sentiment that was behind making Analytics a free to use powerful product that we too often take for granted and arguably the greatest embodiment of this blog’s title was that grandaddy release of all APIs that was Google Maps back in its day.

So next time you, as a beholder of data are pondering what to do with it, have a think what others have done and contemplate that the greatest action to take with Your data is to remove Y.

If you also #lovedata today, go tell the world why or feel welcome to leave a comment below.

—-

If as an attendee you signed up with your email during the TMRC event on 7th February, you accepted the terms of access by email within 72 hours, and you have not recieved a notice by email, please contact Paul. On the 23rd February at Tucamon Murcia, Paul will be speaking about A/B testing.

————————————–

La mayor acción que puedes hacer con tus datos es liberarlos

Algunos sabran que soy co-organizador regional del The Monday Reading Club en Murcia.

Cada primer lunes del mes, en unos diez o doce ciudades de españa, gente con interés en marketing se suelen reunir en alguna librería local para recibir una presentación informal de un invitado y charlar de la temática de un libro que ha sido perviamente seleccionado por los organizadores nacionales.

La idea del The Monday Reading Club (TMRC) fue la creación de Tristán Elósegui en el 2009 y cada evento ha reunido todo típo de personas para tratar de maravillosos textos de marketing.

Este mes el texto seleccionado fue Web Analítica 2.0 de un heroe digital mío, Avinash Kaushik, y el evento fue uno de lo más exitosos hasta la fecha.

¿Porque fue este TMRC el más exitoso hasta la fecha?

Pues en un intercambio de karma que se me fue de las manos, contacté con el simpático Avinash, quien genera un gran dosis de buena voluntad entre sus aficionados (podrás averiguarlo viendo la colección en de sus grupos en Flickr) y acordamos que los asistentes del siguiente evento TMRC podrían registrarse de forma exclusiva para poder acceder a la propia cuenta de Analytics de Avinash.

Para eventos anteriores, algunos miembros de TMRC, incluso yo, hemos a veces intentado hacer que autores participasen de alguna forma, pero realmente eran esfuerzos sin éxito. Peticiones de videos fueron, cordialmente rechazados y demasiadas veces las solicitudes de ayuda no eran más que gestos inútiles entre ambos.

Pero con AK, las cosas fueron absolutamente diferentes. El Monday Reading Club quería incrementar el aforo a nivel nacional, recompensa los asistentes y provocar alguna acción después del evento. Avinash tiene una pasión contagiosa para datos, se ha ganado el papel de Evangelista principal de Google Analytics y estaba completamente dispuesto a echarnos un cable.

Antes de que cada ponente hiciera su presentación durante el evento sincronizado en diez ciudades, los asistentes fueron dirigidos a; registrar su correo electrónico (usando el esplendido Chimpadeedoo App de Mailchimp que limitio la posible viralización de un formulario online!); posar para una foto en grupo, y se les recordio a todos de visitar las web del libro y del autor.

Acceso exclusivo otorgado a las cuentas Analíticas de Avinash

Este último punto fue muy importante, porque el motivo para que los asistentes lo visitasen, fue para que ellos mismos pudieran, con el acceso a Analytics otorgado, indagar con los datos y averiguar cual de las diez ciudades había mostrado más interés durante el periodo del evento. Un concurso divertido pero con un fin importante.

El evento genero unas presentaciones fantásticas de ponentes por toda españa, como la de Gemma Muñoz en Madrid SlideShare (Gemma quizas sea la más fan de todos con un tremendo blog analítica titulada ¿Dónde está Avinash cuando se le necesita?), en Valencia; la presentación de Miguel López, en Sevilla la presentación de Joseba López Hervella, la presentación de Ricardo Tayar en Zaragoza, la presentación de Felipe Maggi de Alicante, la presentación de Christian Oliveira de Salamanca y mas. Ponentes incluyeron el principal web analista de la publicación de El Páis, Adrián Segovia, quien hablo en Málaga como invitado, y todas las ciudades registrarón un aforo máximo.

Posteriomente, cientos de asistentes quienes registrarón su correo, ya disponen de acceso exclusivo a la cuenta de Analytics del blog y del libro de Avinash.

y la esperanza es que una nueva generación de ninjas y ardillas vayan a florecer con el resultado final que decisiones basadas en los datos fortalecen sus éxitos empresariales.

Datos liberados

Aún estoy ilusionado con la respuesta encantador de Avinash quien habilito de forma masiva el acceso a los datos de su cuenta de Analytics. Es un verdadero honor, que confío que los asistentes del TMRC vayan a saborear, de disponer de ese acceso y quiero agradecerle públicamente a Avinash por el gesto.

Sin embargo si contemplas está acción, es totalmente en linea con la filosofía de liberalizar los datos para el beneficio de la comunidad. Forma parte del mismo sentimiento que estaba detrás de lanzar Analytics de forma gratuita que ya tan a menudo lo damos por sentado, y quizás el mayor ejemplo de liberalización de datos mediante un API en este sentido, sea el mítico lanzamiento de Google Maps en su día.

Por lo tanto, la próxima vez que, como un propetario de una base de datos estes pensando que hacer con ella, piensa lo que han hechos otros tantos y proponte que la mayor acción que puedas hacer con tus datos es liberarlos.

Si tu también estás enloquecido por los datos cuéntalo al mundo hoy mediante #lovedata o deja un comentario aquí.

—–

Si como asistente el día 7 de febrero te registrastes durante el evento TMRC, acceptastes las condiciones de acceso en un plazo de 72 horas, y aún no has recibido un aviso por correo, contacta con Paul. El próximo día 23 de febrero Paul hablará en Tucamon Murcia sobre A/B Testing.

How to show Quora content on your blog

| Paul Gailey

Contrary to reports in Spanish that I’m disillusioned about Quora – La Gran Decepción de Quora – note, that decepción in Spanish does not mean deception in English!, infact I personally think it’s superb, here’s a quick and easy screencast showing you how to embed your Quora activity on your WordPress blog.

Have a WordPress blog and wish to display your Quora activity automagically?

Remember this is suitable if your blog is a self hosted WordPress one and you have a theme which allows Widgets, and you have access to the Plugins options as an administrator of the WordPress site.

If the screencast below is too blurry, view the High Definition version at Screenr. 

For your reference, the sample HTML code I used in this screencast, that is placed above the Quora feed, which displays a graphic like this

can be obtained here.

I’m sure in time official plugins and others will appear that will make this even easier.

With Quora having enjoyed hockey stick like growth in the last month, I’m now detecting a love/hate sentiment towards Quora.

Are you decepcionado with Quora, how do you feel about it?

La gran decepción de Quora

| Paul Gailey

Tras observar la llegada de Quora a los Trending Topics de Twitter en España está tarde, estoy viviendo unos momentos realmente agridulces.

Por una parte a mi me ilusiona ver que este proyecto tenga tanto éxito porque a nivel personal me encanta Quora y sin embargo temo que tan rápido que haya materializado la fiebre de Quora en España, la decepción que crea entre usuarios españoles sea igual de grande.

Porque Quora te puede amargar el día – ¿Do you speak english?

Quora, Questions or Answers, preguntas o respuestas,  ha tenido éxito porque la misma gente que impulso Twitter en el 2007 son los que han contrbuido a las opiones consensuales que crea este nuevo sitio con un diseño y tecnología tremendo y que ha experimentado un crecimiento brutal en recientes semanas. Mi explicación aquí en inglés del fenómeno: http://blog.paulgailey.com/how-quora-is-taking-off

Y allí está el tema, si no hablas inglés, Quora no te permite participar.

Podras darte de alta, crear tu perfíl, consultar preguntas y respuestas, incluso podras lanzar una pregunta en castellano y si a caso tus seguidores son espabilados, te contestarán en tiempo real, quizas te dará tiempo de hacer preguntas como está: ¿Qué aporta Quora que no pueda hacer con Twitter?

Pero al ser una Quoramunidad moderada por ingenieros y usuarios muy participativos, pronto verás que te etiquetan con Needs To Be Written In English – Debe de estar escrito en inglés y en poco tiempo la pregunta desaparecerá.

Hay una política sobre la internacionalización de Quora, donde el fundador, Charlie Cheever, se limita a decir que probablemente en el futuro se habilte en castellano. 

I predict a riot..

Creo que muchos españoles van a vivir la gran decepción de Quora al sufrir una wiki muerte de sus contenidos publicados y su tiempo invertido.

Ya detecto que está política haya sido cuestionada por otros blogueros españoles, aunque otros no comparten esa limitación y aplauden el sitio.

Otros blogueros destacados ni mencionan lo del idioma o aún están contemplandolo.

La decepción al estílo Google Wave

Hace unos años vivimos una fiebre parecida con la prometedora llegada de Google Wave, pero casi todo el mundo no pudo engancharse y acostumbrarse a una nueva forma tan radical de colaborar en tiempo real.

Quora, sin embargo, entre la clase de early adopters, ha creado un fanatacismo sin precedentes.

El super geek, Robert Scoble, de Silicon Valley, ha confesado haber escrito más en Quora que en su blog durante las últimas semanas y ha blogeado que Quora es la inovación mas abrumadora de la blogosfera en los últimos diez años.

Para muchos españoles esta euforia no sera compartida en los próximos días.

Consecuencias de crecimiento controlada

La ironía es que en parte la razón por el cual Quora triunfa es porque emplea moderación para evitar spam y mantener la calidad de la comunidad.

Hasta que no tengan un plan para internacionalizar el sitio me imagino que por varios motivos no querran contaminar los resultados del funcionamiento de la super barra de búsqueda que muestra el contenido al estilo Google Instant mientras tecleas una pregunta.

Ahora mismo estan viviendo un crecimiento viral que es tremendo.

Las marcas tambien castigadas

Sin embargo, el que no hable inglés no es el único que no está invitado a la fiesta por ahora.

Las marcas no han tardado en plantaerse saltar la norma que no permite la presencia de cuentas corporativas y también ya han sido castigadas con notificaciones al respeto.

En el futuro habra oportunidades para preguntas patrocinadas por empresas y está claro que marcas inovadoras ya pueden contemplar la escucha activa en Quora para su sector.

La realidad de las redes internacionales

Es posible que veamos clones de Quora en otros idiomas o que el interés se limite al mundo anglosajón y que pase de moda en españa. Siempre hay algo nuevo.

Preguntale a un estadionense que es Menéame y probablemente no te sabra decirlo, al igual que un Ruso te comente de V Kontakte y te quedes frío.

La realidad es que a nivel mundial la única red que domina es Facebook, y aún asi les queda los grandes territorios de China y Russia para conquistar el planeta. Este blog destaca las diferencias de las redes sociales por todo el mundo con un mapa fenomenal.

Quora sera sera

Si tienes conocimientos del inglés te recomiendo pescar por Quora, porque seguro que encuentres temas de interés. Yo confieso que estoy enganchado.

Si aún te has quedado con ganas de participar en Quora, lo puedes hacer mediante una invitación para registrarte. Enviame un email y te hare llegar una invitación.

Y si tienes una opinión sobre el uso del idioma en Quora, deja un comentario aquí abajo sin miedo de represalias de eliminación.

Yo soy Paul Gailey, ¿tú quien eres? ¿estás decepcionado con Quora?

How Quora is taking off

| Paul Gailey

Social network fatigue afflicts all of us at some time or another.

And equally, shiny new networks attract attention from the fatigued.

I just took a five day sabbatical from Twitter as a sort of Christmas truce offering to my family. It was a great Christmas.

It reinvigorated my enthusiasm for the Twitter upon my return. No two days are ever the same on there and I owe lots to Twitter.

However, during that rest period I became more restless on Quora ;)

I think it’s superb. It’s like Yahoo Answers without the design odour of the 90’s..

It’s Like LinkedIn without the blatant self interest. Like Facebook without the nauseating inaneness. Like Formspring without the seedy anonymity. 

And it’s attracting a lot of attention.

But it’s much more than unlike other networks with their negatives.

..hits the sweetspot of functionality and integration..

It sports a fine UX and hits the sweetspot of functionality and integration with other networks without a sensation of page clutter, but more than anything, it’s the community that determines its appeal.

Prominent tech bloggers have covered it and play there, as has the tech press and the wider media who have reported it. Marketing types are arriving, advocating it and pulling with them more devoted users all the time.

I took a little tour of Google Trends to see how it’s adoption is stacking up.

Let’s not forget Formspring is some 20 million users strong so the scales which show worldwide search volume in this graph above only hint at that upward December 2010 curve from Quora denoted by the red line.

If we then take a closer look at Google Trends for Quora for the last 30 days, we can see a much more noticeable lift:

Now, let’s look a closer at the Silicon Valley effect.

So, if we now split this data to a regional level, to USA search traffic, and display the December 2009 Formspring equivalent boom period for USA traffic…

…and then compare that to the recent few days of the Quora take off..

…whoosh, you can appreciate the difference in that steepness of the curve.

the Quora adoption curve sets a new steepness precedent..

I know it’s very hard to compare periods as conditions, even in 24 months in tech and social media are so changeable and there are probably many other yardsticks to look at.

The possiblities for amplification of a message via the likes of the now engorged Twitter compared to two years ago is significant, but nonetheless the take off of Quora is remarkable and it does feel like it has real momentum.

Infact the new arrivees, the buzz, and the growing pains that are being generated is already being noticed during december 2010.

It will certainly be interesting to see how Quora develops in 2011.

What do you think of Quora? Will it flatline or ramp up in 2011?

ps. You a Chrome user? Want to install the unofficial Quora Chrome extension?  This is how you find, download and install it: http://screenr.com/iIu

Let’s have a post strike

| Paul Gailey

Nobody likes jargon.

Least of all, anyone who does not understand it.

I mentioned this with a fellow usability soul recently and the conversation soon degenerated into a shared rant about the hangover of web design conventions that all too often leave us with websites littered with buttons that say Submit, Reset, and Post.

Well fine if you have become numbed to it over the years using the web and accept it, but for so many people that are light users of the web, do those terms really resonate with what they want to do once they have visit your page?

Are they really clamouring to submit?

Think for a moment how Facebook pays attention to the vernacular of it’s calls to actions.

You don’t post comments to a blog, you write on a wall.

Facebook tune in to the psychology of users because the subtleties of language have a massive impact.

A recent study by Dan Zarrella, earmarked Don’t “Submit” To Landing Page Button Text cogently illustrates the weakness of using the default text for the button by revealing the comparative Click Through efficacy of buttons that did not use the word ‘submit’.

The conclusion: submit stinks.

I am an advocate of customer centric thinking and use the mighty Get Satisfaction service for a client.

Get Satisfaction relentlessly position themselves as a customer champion.

Yet even there I notice jargon creep in their widgets with the inclusion of the dreaded word post tucked into their interface.

Jargon is ineffective and exclusionary but it seems that JarGon marches on and still exists in too many places.

The elephant, a cow, and a room full of #ProSEO

| Paul Gailey

This week I shared a room with the finest SEO minds in town and a cow disguised as an elephant.

Yes, I attended the superb Pro Seminar in London.

It was hugely gratifying to experience in person the final session showdown between Rand Fishkin and Will Critchlow as they intellectually bludgeoned us with their SEO brilliance, goading the audience to up their game in pursuit of excellence.

You can view a clip of the final session showdown on SEOMoz.

What you won’t see in the rough Ustream clip is the elephant.

The elephant in the room, was infact a cow, and a purple one at that.

In essence Rand and Will coincided in their conclusions and possibly both echoed a sentiment that Seth Godin is infamous for: Be remarkable

Rand actually featured Seth in his slidedeck and although Will did not cite him, his thinking gravitated towards “doing kick ass stuff“…it will bring the links.

Rand talked about owning instead of competing and offered some sparkling examples of brands that had stuck their necks out.

Ownership in branding is a concept espoused by the advertising cognescenti and it remains a genuine way to achieve success, for big and small players.

But is it too much of a slippery subject for Mozzers and SEO pros alike to grapple with as link navel gazing continues to run amok?

Is now the time to take the un out of unmarketing return full circle?

If Mr Maguire spoke today

| Paul Gailey

If all the talk of New Twitter and Google Instant is distracting, please spare a thought for Ben.

You see when Mr Maguire led young Ben aside in The Graduate he only wanted to utter a single word.

If Mr Maguire were here today, I’d bet he would say something different:

Filters

Maybe yesterday Mr Maguire would have said: Search.

But the times they are a-changin.

With the advent of services such as DataSift and Formulists we need ever finer filters.

Never mind #newtwitter this>>> @formulists <<< is a fantastic list app service for curation and social filteringWed Sep 15 08:16:55 via webPaul Gailey
paulgailey

What word do you think Mr Maguire might say today?

Mine a timeline in Twitter

| Paul Gailey

Metal detectorist by macaz1977 © Flickr

Do you like to rummage?

Do you like to get to know people not just for what they are saying right now and a just a few days ago, but also for what they said months ago?

Don´t you ever wish you could investigate further back on Twitter more than the seven or so days that their own Search allows.

OK, so you can examine someones timeline on twitter.com but it´s not so easy to rewind.

Sure, you can click on more at the foot of the page. But it´s not all that useful.

You can do the following though:

Add ?page=XXX to the end of the URL of the Twitter user you want to research

http://twitter.com/paulgailey?page=130

Replace XXX for any number you wish.  The higher the number, the older the results that will be returned.

You can use any number up to 160, so the oldest date of the updates will vary depending on the degree of activity of that user.

If you are interested in the timeline of someone you just started to follow, you are sure to dredge up another gem in their timeline.

Mine that timeline.

Dredge it, sieve it, scan it, mudlark it, whatever you want to call it.

Because that way you can unearth something valuable to RT so it doesn´t go undetected and under appreciated.

Go find that needle in the haystack.

Go back in time.

Because history is important.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach. – Aldous Huxley

¿Rastreas en Twitter?

| Paul Gailey

Beep Beep Beep by Ian Han © Flickr

¿Te gusta indagar?

¿Te gusta conocer a la gente no sólo por lo que dicen ahora mismo y hace unos pocos días, pero también por lo que dijeron hace meses?

No te pasa alguna vez que quisieras indagar algo más de lo permitido en Twitter, más alla de los siete días que guarda el propio Search de Twitter.

Tienes la opción de consultar el timeline de una persona en twitter.com pero no resulta tan fácil rebobinar hacia atrás.

Podrías optar por pulsar en more en el pie de página. Pero no es muy útil.

O podrías hacer lo siguiente:

Añadele ?page=XXX al final de la URL de Twitter a quién quieras rastrear

http://twitter.com/paulgailey?page=130

Reemplaza XXX por el número que quieras. Cuanto más alto sea, más antiguo te devolverá los resultados.

Podrás introducir cualquier número hasta 160, por lo tanto la fecha de actualizaciones varia en función de lo activo que sea el tuitero.

Si te interesa algo del timeline a quien acabas de followear seguro que encontrarás otra joya en su pasado.

Indaga. Indaga.

Porque así podrás hacer un RT de algo de valioso para que no pase desapercibido.

Indaga.

Porque la historia es importante.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach. – Aldous Huxley 

Quizá la mayor lección de la Historia es que nadie aprendió las lecciones de la Historia

PacMan nearly goes social

| Paul Gailey

Friday afternoon and few office workers are in the mood for a great deal of productivity.

What better moment than for an inspired Google homepage doodle to be released to the wild.

Has to be one of our best doodles ever! PacMan’s 30th anniversary – you can play the game on our logo! http://www.google.comFri May 21 15:47:24 via webmarissamayer
marissamayer

And wild goes the internet with joy in a bout of collective nostalgic arcade escapism.

I´m more of a Tetris man myself, but hey the whole point of this is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man.

So, what´s my point?

Well Google does some great things, let´s not forget, and this one is a proverbial rabbit out of the hat moment, but here we have a phenomenon that people are craving to tell each other about and yet after the “Game Over” message the user is redirected to a bog standard search results page:

And that´s where it went a little flat for me.

My point is, where is the social proof of the success of this action? Where are those tweets that can appear in the Everything search results?

Where are the tweets about PacMan on the Google page?

If you browse with Chrome there is infact an extension to include Tweets above the standard search results. You can also achieve this with a Firefox extension.

The results look like this:

I know the whole Google UI experience is ever fluxy and has recently undergone a huge redesign. A brilliant one at that.

And yes, I also know you can click More, then Update in the left hand panel to view recent Updates i.e. Tweets, but why are they not displaying in the Everything default view of the search results.

Am I quibbling or does Google always not quite excel at the social side of things?

****************

POSTSCRIPT:

One day on and it seems the Google redirected search result page does now include Updates or Latest results which are Tweets to you and me. Here below is a snapshot:

What can we conclude? Well, it would seem that the learning ability of the search engine to adapt the Everything results requires some sort of critical volume before the tweets are injected mid way on the page like they do above.

So does that make this blog post a complete premature strudle of assumptions?

No, because I would argue that the tweet injection on Google happens very late compared to the Twitter trends where the collective sentiment is true real time.

How late I don´t know. Late enough for the likes of me to postulate about it is late enough. What do you think – Could Google be more social?

ps. You can continue to play Google Pacman

Aeroccino – Coffee customer service

| Paul Gailey

A few months ago after lots of (real world) searching I had the misfortune of discovering my beloved Aeroccino in the dishwasher.

After a full wash cycle. (Video below for those unsure what this thing is.)
 
Sure, it was shiny shiny clean, but I tried to diplomatically explain, in my not-so-subtle gesture like heated Spanish, to the sweet lady from eastern Europe who does the house cleaning, what exactly the tiny writing on the base of the Aeroccino means when it reads DO NOT IMMERSE right there next to the infamous Made in China.
 

Yo no hablo inglés

 
OK, horse and bolted and all that, I shouldn´t have even bothered, besides by this stage it didn´t matter, the Aeroccino circuitry was more flooded than the Titanic ballroom by now and all I could possibly do at this point was take solace in some sort of “what a crap day I´m having…” tweet.
 
Instead, I tweeted @Nespresso and posed the question:
 

Could I bake it back to life?

 
After all the thing had already had a intimate tour of other white goods in my kitchen, what harm would a few hours in the oven do it now?

It took me about an hour to prize the thing apart in order to pop it in the oven. After a gentle roasting I thought I would reduce my carbon footprint somewhat and just leave it outside instead to gain a steady tan in the Mediterranean sun.
 
I thought nothing of my tweet.
 
After all I screwed up as the owner, and had this been a phone returned for disassembly in a lab, the moisture detector would have been irreversibly activated by now, the device would have been returned to the owner with a nicely written letter along the lines of  “you dropped it in the toilet, pay for a new one yada yada..”
 
Of course, I´m a loyal customer of Nespresso. I´ve had the machines for years and zealously evangelized them to others. I adore their direct mail and all those little luxe touches, I had previously tweeted Nespresso of the utopian possibility of re-ordering capsules by tweet, and had publicly observed how many advocates they seem to spawn online.
 
Nonetheless, in this age, when every wrong turn that is made by major brands in social media is so eagerly amplified and scrutinized by citizens and social media marketeers alike, it´s a breath of fresh air to report a positive experience from a brand. Nespresso is a premium positioned brand that is part of Nestle which at the time was getting a hammering for their PR social media disaster.
 
So what happened next? They listened and reacted.
 

@paulgailey Hi Paul, did you manage to dry up the Aeroccino after getting it out of the dishwasher?Tue Mar 23 06:50:34 via SeesmicNespresso
Nespresso

 
At the time I had not tried to put the Swiss Italian Sino-humpty dumpty back together again and was finding other ways to obtain my milk mousse fix.
 
It took about two days of fiendish dexterity just to reassemble the Aeroccino let alone try it, but before I completed the task I was interrupted and received a phone call from George Clooney´s team themselves from the Barcelona office of Nespresso.
 
They expressed great interest in the state of my inebriated and disassembled Aeroccino and advised very kindly they could make arrangements.
 
I duly thanked them and shortly afterwards realised the lengths they went to just to obtain my telephone number. Either their social media team followed my online scent to my published contact details or they cross referenced me in their customer database. However I was tweeting to the global Nespresso account and received a call from the local Spanish offices. Commendable effort and attention to detail noted.
 

…great customer service happens every day……it deserves more celebration

 
It´s not my first customer service experience that has been transformed by social media but all too often, it´s the negative experiences that get amplified in the social media bubble that we hear about.
 
My professional role for clients is directing efforts from the other side of the fence, nonetheless it always feels great when something unexpectedly good happens as a consumer that reverses a negative into a positive. It deserves more celebration.
 
I didn´t take them up on the offer of a courtesy replacement, that wasn´t my intention in the first place.
 
Now, if only that tweet re-ordering of capsules could really happen……what else?
 
What great customer service have you had online?

7 is the social media number

| Paul Gailey

My earlier post on the theme of numbers (http://blog.paulgailey.com/el-espanol-peor-pagado-de-la-historia) produced a healthy but mixed reaction when it transpired that I had miscalculated some estimates confusing my billions and trillions. I had made an error using differing numbering conventions that each side of the Atlantic prefers.

This time I’ll stick with single digits.

So, after a splendid reconnection today with an old friend, I continued to read his blog post about why 3 is a magic number, and I couldn´t help but happily disagree as a subconscious itch took hold. I´ve ruminated similar recently about numbers, and noted that seven is not only in vogue and actually really effective on many fronts, but have been inspired to conclude that 7 is the social media number.

It´s not just because of Windows 7 or that it´s one more than De Bono´s collection of hats which I passionately advocate. And I don´t necessarily think it´s related to Pythagoras, the planets, the sins, the seas or even Blake. (Note to non Brits: It´s a dated UK sci-fi TV series)

Oddly enough in Chinese, 7 denotes “togetherness” – a lucky number for relationships – if ever there were a more suitable number and more appropriate definition for ´social´ media these days. And as Wikipedia points out, 7 is a number that just works in Western and Chinese cultures which is rare indeed. Google take note.

But why is 7 the social media number?

Well, the eminent marketing publisher, Brian Clark of @copyblogger fame, overrates 10 as the default list number when publishing a top XYZ list type blog post, perhaps as too contrived, derides 5 as parsimonious and 3, let’s face it, is hardly more than a bloated tweet, which is not a list by most standards.

And don’t get me started on 99 reasons… why type lists. That’s just silly, not right for the attention deficit decade, displays a lack of editing skills at best, and besides I said I would stick with a single digit.

Upon closer inspection of Brian’s sidebar highlighting his fine CopyBlogger posts, I note that 7 is the dominant number that features in the popular articles list. His posts are frequently of the ‘list’ style. They are avidly consumed and endorsed by many a blogger creature, and are packed with 7 this and 7 that all over the place and only the occasional cursory nod to 5 or 10 or even a first.

And as if 100,645 RSS subscribers and some 46,720 followers is not enough validation (didn´t I say single digit?), I  remain somewhat taken aback by the overwhelming prominence of 7 for this search:

http://www.google.com/search?q=7+is+the+social+media+number&pws=0&hl=en&num=10

Of course numbers are not always as beloved as much as words even in social media, or indeed any media. Ask Dave Gorman. Everyone pulls out the stops to beautify their URLs from digits to words, understandbly for SEO reasons and to try to make sense of matters. Let’s face it the DNS system that is the internet is the biggest culprit.

I notice Mashable recently published a stellar article about social media in the enterprise and despite the author seemingly sharing my penchant for inclusion of the number 7 in the headline, Mashable’s publishing setup deletes the number 7 from the URL but retains it in the page title: 7 Things to Consider for Social Media in the Enterprise

So perhaps my fanaticism for 7 is not shared by you or maybe it evokes the similar disdain of CMS administrators like Pete Cashmore’s crew and other Celts.

I do see plenty of other numbers out there every day and you have a choice of another 9 single digits to argue with.

So tell me why you think otherwise but I’m convinced 7 is the social media number.

Let’s dispute. Nicely.

Esa foto desde otra perspectiva

| Paul Gailey

Esa foto, la salida de la tierra (Earthrise), esta entre las más famosas de la historia y fue fotografiada en 1.968 por el astronauta William Anders, tripulante en la misión Apolo 8.

Apolo 8 fue el primer viaje espacial tripulado en entrar en el campo gravitacional de otro cuerpo celeste y tuvo gran éxito científica.

Aún asi, quizás la foto más transcendente de la misión fue la captura de esa imagen de la tierra en un momento de pura espontaneidad entre los tripulantes durante su órbita de la luna.

El comandante de Apolo 8, Frank Borman, tomo la primeras dos fotos de la tierra en blanco y negro, siempre presentandolas con la superficie de la luna de forma horizontal.

Sin embargo, tal como se aprecio y fue fotografiada por Bill Anders, con la superficie de la luna a la derecha de la imagen y la tierra al fondo, pocas veces la vemos así, sino que se orienta la foto como si fuese una puesta o más bien una salida de la tierra sobre el horizonte de la luna.

En realidad a veces tienes que alejarte de algo para realmente apreciarlo como sintieron los astronautas, y aún asi tendemos entre nosotros mismos a ver la cosas desde otra perspectiva.

Recuerdo que la fotografía no es una pura reproducción de la realidad sino un arte abierto a la interpretación humana que hasta un mismo científico pueda ejercer.

¿Manipulación o interpretación?

¿Tú cómo lo ves?
——–

English speakers: read this fine account of Earthrise

El español peor pagado de la historia

| Paul Gailey

¿Te suena su cara?

Quizá no, pero la melodía:

Se estima que el Gran Vals del compositor y guitarrista de Castellón, Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), se reproduce unos 20.000 veces por segundo en todo el mundo que yo calculo ser unos 657 billiones de veces al año.

Más o menos.

No obstante Nokia reclamarón la melodía como su soundmark en 1993.

Entonces, ampliando un poquito el ancho de la columna por defecto en la hoja de calculo, yo cuento que trás unos 17 años, estamos barajando unos 11,169,000,000,000,000 veces que hemos oido al querido Paco de Villarreal.

La comunidad científica entiendo que lo llamarían 11 cuatrillónes (quadrillion en EEUU)

Yo lo llamo bastante.

y la SGAE

¿Llamarán a Nokia?

iPad reveals a Bing monkey weakness

| Paul Gailey

When Bing came on the scene I was quite lifted. Secretly chuffed.

Here was a contender to Google for search, that somehow had less of a Mircosoft edge than before, and despite a starting share of the search market at around 8% there were plenty of early indicators it was quite promising. Despite being wedded to Google for search and ever more activities, I felt compelled to try Bing for a variety of reasons, and I really wanted it to succeed.

After all, this is the operator who gazumped Google to the announcement of inclusion of the blended search results that were to include tweets on the page of results.

Wow, they are on the ball. I thought they really meant business.

And so every now and then I would Bing it instead of Google it, willing on the david v the goliath, always supporting the underdog, and increasingly often being genuinely satisfied with the experience.

I even began to warm to the whole onomatopoeic allusion that Steve Ballmer planted in my memory somewhere in 2009, when he explained that the search engine was named as such because that is the sound associated with finding something. A sort of eureka moment.

Then tonight I realised that all that was just an allusion.

What happened? – iPad happened Steve, that´s what happened. – iPad –  you hear me?

Like a few others I indulged in the online mobbing of the coverage of the iPad and swarmed over Twitter in the quest for information emanating from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater somewhere in San Francisco (what a cool name, eh? – it almost translates as good grass)

The Apple hype machine had been in overload for weeks leading up today, and tellingly, Twitter´s service degraded for a period under probable weight of related activity – as they deactivated the lists function for a period. Reporters on the scene complained of jammed networks, slow wifi in the hall, and online streaming sites buckled under the weight of the thirst for information from an eager worldwide crowd desperate to get in on the act.

So a few hours later, once the frenzy had settled down a little and bloggers continued to exchange thoughts and write up the features of the device, I thought I would Bing once again.

Now, many a more authorativive author has indulged in laborious comparisons of Bing v Google in the past, and I know there are more rigourous ways of A/B testing search results – nonetheless the snapshot results as displayed in this image gallery are shocking.

Google.com, Google.co.uk (both non personalised results) show a good dose of iPad related results with tweets, news and blogs. Even Yahoo does an OK job, and to be fair Bing is not entirely blank on the subject.

However shuffle through these screenshots taken only a 120 minutes after the event ended with all the content being created by pros and amateurs alike, and you may see in my case for the Bing results,  Australian, even New Zealand based results that are entirely irrelevant. Incidentally, I´m sat the other side of the world to those countries, in Spain. Most of the returned Bing results are abysmal.

Instead of possibly relevant tweets results in my Bing search page I got served links for the internet Primate Aging Database (iPAD) – a  multi-centered, relational database of biological variables in aging, captive nonhuman primates.

Monkey business?

OK, to be fair by the time you read this, those results for the term iPAD of Apple fame – which has already attracted the disdain of the general public in many anglo-saxon cultures – will have almost definitely changed for the better and Apple will squeeze out the test tube primates back into their lab and happily allow everyone to Bing away and thus conflab about tech specs on the latest latest.

And so whilst in SEO terms, recency may not always mean relevancy, in this case Bing just went totally flat on me, and completely shattered any trust it might have earnt from me in the last year.

It just goes to show who in search engine terms is still very much on top of their game despite having two syllables and still sounding like a laryngeal disorder.

On reflection, I don´t know if I´ll ever recover that sonic joy I had cultivated in my primary auditory cortex, somewhere in my temporal lobe, since Bing took a welcome bow on the stage last decade.

Unfortunately Bing sort of rings hollow now, and perhaps explains why this video rings such a loud bell instead. Maybe it resonates with you too.

Still curious about the other iPAD?

What about you – ever felt chronically let down by a search engine?

Blogging gets easier, choosing where to blog gets harder.

| Paul Gailey
The announcement of the Posterous themes directory is a welcome part of the evolution of their excellent service, one that does simplicity really well.

I must admit when I opted for using Posterous as a blog platform for this adventure, like may other people, the ease factor really swayed me. That and the email thing. I know it´s not cool to admit it, but I do use email still. Don´t you?

And let´s be clear, sometimes the choice that come with total publishing control can be overwhelming.

© hawklord007 on Flickr

Yes, I maybe able to do so much more on a hosted WordPress blog, I hear you – pimp it out to the nth degree, adsense here and there, feeds of every flavour, and an array of embedding and mashups galore, hey even get under the hood as a wannabe php ninja, but at the end of the day all the effort of perpertual configuration, modding, widegitising and tweaking a hosted blog just detracts from the core purpose of blogging in itself – that of devising and publishing your thoughts.

There is so much choice of blogging platforms these days, and especially given the ability to use domain aliasing on so many of them, that it´s worth considering if the gain of all that finite control and fiddling from a self hosted setup is really worth it, even if you depend on a developer, a webmaster dare I say it. It´s got to be quick and easy. Some say, they are even more easy options to blog than Posterous.

After all this is the attention deficit decade right, and if you are still reading this far, you are probably among the few – thank you for your attention so far, hear me out.

There is a trend towards simplification, at least in presentation, in many web services, and it´s noticeable how many of the leading web apps themselves genuflect to 3rd party blog services, in recognition of the single track mind brilliance of these platforms.

I´ve heard these platforms being labelled as mini-blogs, however the flexibility of this evolved breed of blog platforms allows easier integration with your social presence with autoposting left, right and centre with a one-time click of a tick box. And that same flexibility allows people to produce more creative ways to harness them. Can you use them to compliment your hub? Of course, but maybe they are your hub.

The chief social media officer at Mullen, Edward Boches, ingeniously uses the mini blog approach here to contain his comments which merit more than 140 words and those expanded comments as mini blog entries earn a short url reference which is then sent out via his twitter stream. That´s big thinking in a so called mini platform.

So you want total control your blog and don´t want to get sucked in to the fremium thing with monthly subscriptions? OK, just make sure when you do your ROI calculations, you include all those hours of impossible to predict upgrade headaches, plugin conflicts, security patching, server this and thats etc. It´s not about cost, it´s about value, and your time is valuable right?

It evokes memories of yesteryear for me of hearing those yearnings of “I want to run my own email server..” – sure go ahead, I´ll stick to Gmail or whatever and get on with emailing while you toil away in your vortex of spam. Horses for courses, swings and roundabouts, yada yada yada.

Next time you need to select a blogging platform, be it for you or your client, bear in mind this core tenet of blogging as reinforced in this video.

And that is from a respected WordPress theme framework developer wearing the scars of tweak fatigue.

So you are still thinking through the options for your next blog setup? Just think it through carefully: that´s free to do, but by not doing it, it could cost you.

Of course, there is a nuanced counter argument to this, and I´m all up for hearing your take on it.

What do you think? Easy choice?

Evocative Summer 2009 Memories

| Paul Gailey

It seems no part of the northern hemisphere escapes the cold at this time of year. Furthermore, the tourist industry goes into overdrive in January enticing us to select our next summer holiday or winter break.

This summer holiday video brings back lots of memories of yesteryear and also elicits mixed emotions for me.

It was filmed at the island location of Formentera, where a Spanish advertising companion from here in Murcia, with a promising future ahead of him, was tragically killed in August 2009. R.I.P. Álvaro Abadía

Y aquí está la versión subtitulada en español. Verás que no encaja nada si intentas seguir la canción, pero por lo menos la letra te explica algo – a no sea que te sirva lo visual y el buen feeling que tiene el video.

Dedicado al compañero murciano de publicidad, Álvaro Abadía, quien falleció en Formentera, augusto 2009.