luni, 25 iulie 2011

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Food Photographed with an Electron Microscope

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 05:22 PM PDT

Caren Alpert is a food photographer based in San Francisco. For the last 18 months, she has been shooting food with an electron microscope. The foods featured here are Cake Sprinkles, Brussel Sprout, Shrimp Tail, Passion Fruit, Sun Dried Tomato, Star Anise, and Blueberry.

Pineapple Leaf


Table Salt


Cauliflower


Fortune Cookie


Kiwi


Sun Dried Tomato


Life Saver


Passionfruit


Chocolate Cake


Raisins


Vitamin C


Raw Almond


Shrimp Tail


Fried Onion


Oreo


Brussel Sprout


Cake Sprinkels


Star Anise


Blueberry


Comic-Con 2011

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 04:46 PM PDT

Thousands of costumed fans have flocked to San Diego for Comic-Con 2011, the annual pop culture convention. Hundreds of exhibitors and more than 130,000 guests are expected to pack the San Diego Convention Centre for the sold-out, four-day event.
































































Source: telegraph


Tropical Island Paradise on a Yacht

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 04:29 PM PDT

Having a yacht is no big deal today. What matters is the class of yacht you own. Even a super luxury yacht is not a novelty any more. You have to own something bigger and better to be noticed and appreciated as being better than the rest.

Yacht Island Design introduced to the world of yachting a new concept. This consists in a theme of luxury yacht design, a tailored environment for the customer to enhance his cruises by taking his own custom build habitat anywhere he wants. They were very creative and they already created a project called "Streets of Monaco" design and their latest creation is called the "Tropical Island Paradise", a 90 metre island with a top speed of 15 knots. Both are amazing and very unique.

The main deck is a beach "cove" of cabanas surrounding a massive ocean view swimming pool, with a waterfall falling nearby from the volcano. Apart from that the stunning yacht has a bar area, outdoor dining, there's a private spa and four VIP suites for friends, all with their own private balcony. Sounds good,isn't it? and at all these adds and a sweet helicopter landing pad and underneath the gorgeous swimming pool, the recreational area includes jet skis, kayaks and a RIB.
















Source: raredelights


SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog


Mission ImposSERPble: Establishing Click-through Rates

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 01:01 AM PDT

Posted by Slingshot SEO

Google and its user experience is ever changing. For a company that has more than 60% of the search market, it's common to hear the question, “How many visitors can we expect, if we rank [x]?” It’s a fair question. It's just impossible to predict. Which is a fair answer. But, as my father says, “If you want fair, go to the Puyallup.” So we inevitably hear, “Well, can you take a guess? Or give us an estimate? Anything?”

To answer that question, we turned to major studies about click-through rates, incuding Optify, Enquiro, and the studies released using the leaked AOL data of 2006. But these studies are old; this study is new. Ladies, Gentlemen, and Mozbot, it is our immense pleasure to present to you…

The Slingshot SEO Google CTR Study: Mission ImposSERPble

There have been a number of changes to the Google user experience since those studies/surveys were published years ago. There's a new algorithm, a new user interface, increased mobile search, and social signals. On top of that, the blended SERP is riddled with videos, news, places, images, and even shopping results.

We made this study super transparent. You can review our step-by-step process to see how we arived at our results. This study is an ongoing project that will be compared with future SERPs and other CTR studies. Share your thoughts on the study and the research process to help us include additional factors and methods in the future.

Our client databank is made up of more than 200 major retailers and enterprise groups, and our sample set was chosen from more than thousands of keywords based on very strict criteria to ensure the accuracy and quality of the study results.

The study qualification criteria is as follows:

  • A keyword phrase must rank in a position (1 to 10)
  • The position must be stable for 30 days

Each keyword that we track at Slingshot was considered and every keyword that matched our strict criteria was included. From this method, we generated a sample set of exactly 324 keywords, with at least 30 in each of the top 10 ranking positions.

We are confident in the validity of this CTR data as a baseline model, since the data was generated using more than 170,000 actual user visits across 324 keywords over a 6-month period.

Data-Gathering Process

Authority Labs: Finding Stable Keywords

We currently use Authority Labs to track 10,646 keywords' daily positions in SERPs. From this, we were able to identify which keywords had stable positions for 30 days. For example, for the keyword “cars,” we observed a stable rank at position 2 for June 2011.

Stable 30 day ranking - ImposSERPble

Google Adwords Keyword Tool: All Months Are Not Created Equal

We found the number of [Exact] and “Phrase” local monthly searches using the Google Adwords keyword tool. It is important to note that all keywords have different monthly trends. For example, a keyword like “LCD TV” would typically spike in November, just before the holiday season. If you’re looking at searches for that keyword in May, when the search volume is not as high, your monthly search average may be overstated. So we downloaded the .csv file from Adwords, which separates the search data by month for more accuracy.

Google keyword tool csv download - ImposSERPble

By doing this, we were able to calculate our long-tail searches for that keyword. “Phrase” – [Exact] = Long-tail.

Google Analytics: Exact and Long-Tail Visits

Under Keywords in Google Analytics, we quickly specified the date of our keywords’ stable positions. In this case, “cars” was stable in June 2011. We also needed to specify “non-paid” visits, so that we were only including organic results.

Google analytics non paid - ImposSERPble

Next, we needed to limit our filter to visits from Google in the United States only. This was important since we were using Local Monthly Searches in Adwords, which is specific to U.S. searches.

Google analytics phrase and exact - ImposSERPble

After applying the filter, we were given our exact visits for the word “cars” and phrase visits, which included the word “cars” and every long-tail variation. Again, to get the number of long-tail visits, we simply used subtraction: Phrase – Exact = Long-Tail visits.

Calculations

We were then able to calculate the Exact and Long-Tail Click-through rate for our keyword.

EXACT CTR = Exact Visits from Google Analytics / [Exact] Local Monthly Searches from Adwords

LONG-TAIL CTR = (Phrase Visits – Exact Visits from Google Analytics) / (“Phrase” – [Exact] Local Monthly Searches from Adwords)

Results

What was the observed CTR curve for organic U.S. results for positions #1-10 in the SERP?

Based on our sample set of 324 keywords, we observed the following curve for Exact CTR:

Google CTR curve - ImposSERPble

Our calculations revealed an 18.2% CTR for a No. 1 rank and 10.05% for No. 2. CTR for each position below the fold (Positions 5 and beyond) is below 4%. An interesting implication of our CTR curve is that for any given SERP, the percentage of users who click on an organic result in the top 10 is 52.32%. This makes sense and seems to be typical user behavior, as many Google users will window shop the SERP results and search again before clicking on a domain.

Degrees of Difference

CTR study comparisons - ImposSERPble

The first thing we noticed from the results of our study was that our observed CTR curve was significantly lower than these two previous studies. There are several fundamental differences between the studies. One should not blindly compare the CTR curves between these studies, but note their differences.

Optify’s insightful and thorough study was conducted during the holiday season of December 2010. There are significant changes in Google’s rankings during the holiday season that many believe have a substantial impact on user behavior, as well as the inherent change in user intent.

The study published by Enquiro Search Solutions was conducted in 2007 using survey data and eye-tracking research. That study was the result of a business-to-business focused survey of 1,084 pre-researched and pre-selected participants. It was an interesting study because it looked directly at user behavior through eye-tracking and how attention drops off as users scroll down the page.

Long-Tail CTR: Volatile and Unpredictable

For each keyword, we found the percentage of click-through for all long-tail terms over the same period. For example, if “cars” ranks at position 2 for June 2011, how much traffic could that domain expect to receive from the keyword phrases “new cars,” “used cars,” or “affordable cars?” The reasoning is, if you rank second for “cars,” you are likely to drive traffic for those other keywords as well, even if those positions are unstable. We were hoping to find an elegant long-tail pattern, but we could not prove that long-tail CTR is directly dependent on the exact term’s position in the SERP. We did observe an average long-tail range of 1.17% to 5.80% for each position.

Google CTR data table - ImposSERPble

Blended SERPs: The “Universal” Effect

Starting in May 2007, news, video, local, and book search engines were blended into Google SERPs, which have since included images, videos, shopping, places, real-time, and social results. But do blended SERPs have lower CTRs? Since these blended results often push high-ranking domains towards the bottom of the page, we predicted that CTR would indeed be lower for blended SERPs. However, a counter-intuitive hypothesis would suggest that because certain SERPs have these blended results inserted by Google, they are viewed as more credible results and that CTR should be higher for those blended SERPs. We analyzed our sample set and failed to show significant differences in user behavior regarding blended versus non-blended results. The effect of blended results on user behavior remains to be seen.

Google CTR blended data table - ImposSERPble

As previously mentioned, this study will be used in comparison to future SERPs as the Slingshot SEO Research & Development team continues to track and analyze more keywords and collect additional CTR data. It is our hope that these findings will assist organic SEOs in making performance projections and consider multiple factors when selecting keywords. We look forward to additional studies, both yours and ours, on CTRs and we encourage you to share your findings. With multiple prospective and recent social releases, our research team will be dedicated to examining the effects of social platforms and Click-through rates, and how the organic CTR curve changes over time.

Visit the Slingshot SEO website for the full Mission ImposSERPble: Google CTR Study Whitepaper. It’s free.


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BREAKING: President Obama Addresses the Nation Tonight at 9

The White House Monday, July 25, 2011
 

BREAKING: President Obama Addresses the Nation Tonight at 9

Tonight at 9 p.m. EDT President Obama will address the nation on the stalemate in Washington over avoiding default and the best approach to cutting deficits.

You can watch the speech live at WhiteHouse.gov/live starting at 9 p.m. EDT tonight.

President Obama Addresses the Nation. Watch Live at WhiteHouse.gov/live

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Your Photo of the Day: Inside the Oval Office

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, July 25, 2011
 

Your Photo of the Day: Inside the Oval Office


President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen in the Oval Office to discuss the DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) repeal certification, July 22, 2011. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Kathryn Ruemmler, Counsel to the President, also attend the meeting. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog.

Some Republicans in Congress Once Argued Against Short-Term Solutions - They Were Right
First Lady Michelle Obama announces nationwide commitments from major food retailers to open or expand over 1,500 stores to help provide healthy, affordable food to millions of people in underserved areas.

Getting "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Done
On Friday July 22, 2011 President Obama signed the certification for the repeal of DADT. The policy will begin implementation on September 20, 2011.

Weekly Address: A Bipartisan Approach to Strengthening the Economy
President Obama discusses the urgency of Democrats and Republicans coming together to take a balanced approach to cutting the deficit to strengthen our economy and secure our future.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

9:30 AM: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

10:00 AM: The President meets with senior advisors

12:50 PM: The President delivers remarks at the National Council of La Raza at their annual conference luncheon WhiteHouse.gov/live

4:00 PM: The President welcomes the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants to honor the team and their 2010 World Series victory WhiteHouse.gov/live

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Seth's Blog : No such thing as business ethics

No such thing as business ethics

The happy theory of business ethics is this: do the right thing and you will also maximize your long-term profit.

After all, the thinking goes, doing the right thing builds your brand, burnishes your reputation, helps you attract better staff and gives back to the community, the very community that will in turn buy from you. Do all of that and of course you'll make more money. Problem solved.

The unhappy theory of business ethics is this: you have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit. Period. To do anything other than that is to cheat your investors. And in a competitive world, you don't have much wiggle room here.

If you would like to believe in business ethics, the unhappy theory is a huge problem.

As the world gets more complex, as it's harder to see the long-term given the huge short-term bets that are made, as business gets less transparent ("which company made that, exactly?") and as the web of interactions makes it harder for any one person to stand up and take responsibility, the happy theory begins to fall apart. After all, if the long-term effects of a decision today can't possibly have any impact on the profit of this project (which will end in six weeks), then it's difficult to argue that maximizing profit and doing the right thing are aligned. The local store gets very little long-term profit for its good behavior if it goes out of business before the long-term arrives.

It comes down to this: only people can have ethics. Ethics, as in, doing the right thing for the community even though it might not benefit you or your company financially. Pointing to the numbers (or to the boss) is an easy refuge for someone who would like to duck the issue, but the fork in the road is really clear. You either do work you are proud of, or you work to make the maximum amount of money. (It would be nice if those overlapped every time, but they rarely do).

"I just work here" is the worst sort of ethical excuse. I'd rather work with a company filled with ethical people than try to find a company that's ethical. In fact, companies we think of as ethical got that way because ethical people made it so.

I worry that we absolve ourselves of responsibility when we talk about business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Corporations are collections of people, and we ought to insist that those people (that would be us) do the right thing. Business is too powerful for us to leave our humanity at the door of the office. It's not business, it's personal.

[I learned this lesson from my Dad. Every single day he leads by example, building a career and a company based on taking personal responsibility, not on blaming the heartless, profit-focused system.]

 

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