joi, 30 septembrie 2010

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


The Funniest Scene Ever In Spiderman One

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 08:48 AM PDT

Go Web Go!!!


Hello Kitty Pop Culture

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 08:05 AM PDT

I got used to see the same Hello Kitty over and over again. But this time it's a collection of many different Hello Kitties that can easily participate in a Costume Ball.

Hello You know who


Hello Kill Bill - The Bride


Hello KISSy PETER


Hello KISSy ACE


Hello KISSy PAUL


Hello KISSy GENE


Hello Flash


Hello Green Lantern


Hello TRON 2010


Hello Hitty


Hello UltraKitty


Hello DarthKitty


Hello Daft Punk GUY


Hello Daft Punk THOMAS


Hello Dalek


Hello H2K2


Hello Dark Knight


Hello Buster Kitty


Hello CyberKitty


Hello Venom


Hello Mr Fantastic Kitty


Hello Thingy


Hello Torchy


Hello Spidey


Hello Captain Amerikitty


Hell-o Kitty


Hello StaypuftKitty


Hello Kicky


Hello Smurfy Kitty


Hello Lucky Kitty


HALO Kitty


Hello Clockwork Orange Kitty


Hello zombie Kitty


Hello rorschach


Hello DR MANHATTAN


Hello IronKitty


Hello Gangsta Kitty


Hello Kirk Kitty


Hello Spock Kitty


Hello Trek Kitty


Hello ween Kitty


Hello Snow Kitty


Hello Kitty Boushh


Hello Boba Kitty


Hello Emperors Guard Kitty


Hello Scout trooper Kitty


Hello Rebel pilot Kitty


Hello c3po


Hello Storm Kitty


Hello Homer


Hello x-Kitty


Hello BuzzKitty


Hello Kitty UGLYBETTY


Hello All Black Kitty


Hello Gundam


Hello RoboKitty


Hello Batty


Hello Kia Ora Kitty


Hello Jason


Meat House

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 06:38 AM PDT

A house made out of sausages and bacon. Sounds delicious and it looks so.
















































Source: easyjo


The Official Carla Bruni Facelift Timeline

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 05:49 AM PDT

France's president Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni really should quit Botox. Take a look.

More timelines:
The Official Angelina Jolie Aging Timeline
The Official Jennifer Aniston Aging Timeline

1989


1992


1994


1997


2003


2004


May 2007


March 2008


September 2008


April 2009


July 2009


March 2010


June 2010





And beyond, if we don't quit the Botox:


When Fiction Becomes Reality

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 05:29 AM PDT

Let's take a look at this fun compilation of people or animals spotted IRL which just totally look like well-known fictional characters. Whether it was made on purpose for some, others were a complete random occurrence.You probably have seen most of them in the past, here on Damn Cool Pics or elsewhere on the Internet, but it's just great to see them all again here, in one single post.

Andy, Woody, and Buzz


Mario and Luigi


Carmen Sandiego


The Kid From "Up"


Family Guy's Meg


Simba and Nala


Timon and Pumbaa


Maxine


Where's Waldo?


Peter Griffin


Jessica Rabbit


Simba and Timon


Kenny

Source: huffingtonpost


Funny Optical Illusion

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 02:55 AM PDT

Do you see a slim brunette in the picture? Well, let's take a closer look.






Grave Curiosities

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 02:44 AM PDT

Even though death is mostly a sad occasion, different people think about it differently. Learn the most curious and bizarre grave facts throughout history, cultures and famous people after the jump.

Click to enlarge.


Source: imortuary


SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog


How to Turn Google Analytics Into Your Own Rank Tracker Using Custom Variables

Posted: 29 Sep 2010 02:02 PM PDT

Posted by MikeCP

Today I want to talk about tracking organic ranking in Google Analytics. Previously, we were able to determine the page from which a Google organic click was coming from (detailed on the Distilled blog by Will Critchlow). This was nice because we could append this to the end of our keywords in Google Analytics for some interesting data (André Scholten's post at Yoast.com has a step by step) as seen below.

Keyword Page Rankings
Image courtesy of Yoast.com

This solution provides limited utility, and if you're like me, you implemented it, maybe checked it out once in a while, but never really turned this into actionable or otherwise meaningful data. I'm going to detail how rank tracking in Google Analytics can be made a lot more useful thanks to custom variables and a change in Google's referring URLs. But first...

Some History

When Google began testing an AJAX search interface in early 2009 there was a flurry of concern that it could mean the end of traditional rank tracking, web analytics packages, and I'm sure someone said SEO was dead, too. The concern wasn't without merit; Google was serving results in AJAX with the URL pattern as http://www.google.com/#q=keyword, and most analytics packages ignored the hash and everything after.

Fast forward to September 8th, when Google introduced Google Instant. The AJAX SERP usage had been steadily increasing over time, but shot up in usage when Instant was rolled out. Fortunately for Omniture, WebTrends, and other third party analytics packages, Google worked out a way to pass the referrer information from the SERPs, rank tracking still works, and I'm still working as an SEO in a living industry.

As it turns out, Google includes even more information in the AJAX SERPs than they previously did, including one really interesting parameter: "cd=". The cd= parameter contains the exact ranking position of the search listing, which makes for some really awesome possibilities, especially when paired with Google Analytics' custom variables.

Why Custom Variables?

Custom variables are a bit of an enigma to even advanced Analytics users. I'll admit that I never really made much use of them in the past. You'll often see examples where custom variables are used to track logged in vs. unlogged in users, which is definitely a great use. Rob Ousbey's 6 cool things YOU can do with custom variables is a good set of examples to get your feet wet.

In André Scholten's example above we're using Google Analytics user defined value, isn't that just as good a custom variable? Well, the difference depends on how you intend on using your data. With custom variables, you're granted much more flexibility within Google Analytics for slicing and dicing data. For instance, through the use of either custom reporting or advanced segments with custom variables, I can pretty easily track how much revenue a keyword has brought in when ranked in the 2nd position, as opposed to the 4th. While this may be possible with the user defined variable, it would require quite a bit of work after an excel data dump. 

Now, let's get to business:

The How

Getting this properly set up was remarkably easy for me, and I have so very little programming knowledge, so I would imagine most wouldn't have much issue. I used PHP, as I was working with a WordPress site, but I'm sure you crazy hackers can do the same in most any language.

Update: See Joost and André Scholten's comments below for a JavaScript method of passing the cd= value

Step One - Extract cd= Value from Referrer String

I used this snippet to do this.

 <?php preg_match("/cd\=(\d+)/",$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], $matches); $str = $matches[0]; preg_match("/(\d+)/",$str,$matches); $rank = $matches[0] ?> 

Please don't make fun of my hacky coding

This assigns the cd= value to the $rank variable. We'll reference this in...

Step 2 - Call cd= Value in our Google Analytics snippet

Now, we want to insert the custom variable call between the setAccount and trackPageview lines in our Analytics snippet (shown below using the asynchronous code):

 var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXX-X']);   _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar',1,'Google_Ranking','$rank',2]);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);" 

We've set the custom variable slot to 1, and the scope to the session-level (the last argument, set as 2). If you are already making use of custom variables, be sure to not overwrite a previously occupied slot. For more information on how the custom variable is formatted, see Google's help page on the topic.

Step 3 - Create an IF Statement so the CustomVar isn't Called Every Time

We only want to include this line when we have a cd= value, otherwise every new click will overwrite the last value. To do this, I used the following IF statement, again coded in PHP. This is the final step, and the complete Google Analytics snippet:

 <?php if ($rank != '' ) { echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n   var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXX-X']);   _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar',1,'Google_Ranking','$rank',2]);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);"; echo "\n";   } else { echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXX-X']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);";     } echo "\n"; ?>    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  </script> 

Here we're checking if $rank has a value. If it does, we'll include the custom variable call with that $rank value, if not, we'll print the Google Analytics code as normal. Also included in the above are some line breaks (\n), so that the code formats correctly.

The Most Important Part - Analyzing Our Data

What's the point of going through all this effort if it doesn't provide you with any analytical insight? None, of course. But this rank tracking solution has some added benefits over the traditional rank tracking software that may be really useful to some SEOs. These include:

Rankings by City, Region, Country

Traditional rank tracking software suffers in that its ranking results are dependent on the location of the servers. With custom variable rank tracking and a little spreadsheet pivot table magic it's pretty easy to get your site's rank for any location.

Historical, Definite, Data

Once this is properly set up you've got access to definite rankings within your Analytics data from that point on. So as holiday season 2011 rolls around, its easy enough to review where your site ranked during the 2010 holidays, helping to set budgets, goals, and expectations.

Bounce Rate/eCommerce Data/etc. by Rank

Whatever your KPI, you can compare it against search ranking. Reporting the ROI of link building efforts or on site optimization becomes much easier when you've got rankings included in your dataset.

Some of the quick ideas I had around this include:

  • Average rank over time for top 50 keywords
  • Average rank over time for 4+ word keyphrases
  • Bounce rate for 2nd+ page clicks
  • Revenue % increase for Keyword X when ranking increases from 2 to 1

I should note that getting averages is a lot easier in Excel with a pivot table, as seen below:

Average rank pivot table
This can also be adjusted to show your minimum rank, as well

Creating Custom Reports and Advanced Segments

Custom variables aren't included in the default reports for Google Analytics, so unless you do all your work in Excel, you'll probably want to create some custom reports or advanced segmentation to work with the data directly in Analytics.

Advanced segmentation is great for this data. Below is the function one would use to track rankings between 11 and 15, which might be strong candidates for on-page optimization that could provide the boost onto the first page:

Advanced Segmentation
You can apply this particular advanced segment with this link.

The Downsides

The most obvious downside is that you're only receiving a ranking when a listing is being clicked on, so for very small sites there may be limited utility. Ranking data will be spotty past the 2nd page, as well.

Additionally, the AJAX SERPs are not being served to all users in all locations. Small sample size warning here, but I'm seeing about 40% of organic Google traffic coming from the AJAX SERPs (done through a simple calculation of visits with our custom variable divided by total Google organic visits over the same time period). Michael Whitaker is seeing this number over 50% in his data. This number is likely going to increase as Instant is rolled out further.

The #-pack local listings can really throw things off, too. If a particular query gets one of these to start the SERP, the cd= continues after:

cd= rankings

Lastly, there does exist the possibility that Google discontinues its use of the cd= variable for whatever reason.

Go Analyze

I hope some of you can make some good use out of this functionality. I've only had it installed on my sites for a short time, but I've definitely found it interesting to play around with. If you don't already have Excellent Analytics installed in your Excel I would highly recommend doing so, even if you don't implement this tracking, and especially if you do.

I'd like to thank Michael Whitaker of Monitus for his help. He's been installing this setup for his clients for a bit now. Monitus offers proper eCommerce Google Analytics installation for Yahoo! stores, which is surprisingly difficult without Monitus.

If you've got any other ideas for working with this data, sound off in the comments or let me know on Twitter @MikeCP. Personally, I'm really excited to have this data rolling in and the possibilities are nearly endless. I'll be sure to report any interesting ways to manipulate the data in future blog posts. Cheers!


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Seth's Blog : Good stuff: 3 day free seminar plus LA and Atlanta

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Good stuff: 3 day free seminar plus LA and Atlanta

Fembalogo On November 1, 2 and 3, I'll be hosting 12 of you in my office for a free three-day seminar. It's by application only and it's only for women entrepreneurs. If you think you can benefit from and contribute to this intense roundtable experience, I hope you'll apply. Or tell someone who might benefit. And surprisingly, please follow the guidelines as closely as you can, because it's the only way we can consider your application.

ALSO: I'll be taking the road trip to Los Angeles on November 9th. It's my only public gig in LA for a while, and it's being done in conjunction with the Peter Drucker Business Forum. There are a very limited number of tickets for the entire 8-hour session (use the code sethsblog to save some money on the full day ticket), or if you only have an hour or two in the morning, you can buy a ticket just for breakfast ($20) and the on-stage interview I'm doing with journalist and author Lisa Napoli.

Before that, on Friday, October 8, I'll be in Atlanta. (We'll try to top Chicago, which was probably the best yet... here's a video with feedback from some attendees).

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Daily Snapshot: New Video - White House White Board

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, September 30, 2010
 

White House White Board: Austan Goolsbee Explains the Tax Cut Fight

Introducing White House White Board. One of our key players on the White House team will cut through the political back-and-forth you hear every day and break down an issue affecting American families into simple, understandable terms. Today, Austan Goolsbee, the new Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers here at the White House, tackles the fight over tax cuts. Watch the video

White House White Board

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time

10:30 AM: The President and the Vice President receive the Economic Daily Briefing

11:00 AM: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

12:45 PM: The President meets with Democratic Congressional leadership

12:45 PM: Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs WhiteHouse.gov/live

2:00 PM: The President meets with senior advisors

3:00 PM: The Vice President attends an event for Congressional candidate Tom White

7:00 PM: The Vice President attends an event for Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish

7:35 PM: The President attends a DNC dinner

9:15 PM: The President delivers remarks at a DNC Gen44 event

 WhiteHouse.gov/live  Indicates Events that will be livestreamed on WhiteHouse.gov/live.

In Case You Missed It

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

Reforming Government: Congressional Republicans Haven't Changed & Can't Bring the Change We Need
Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer compares the President's record on reforming government with Congressional Republicans' record.

A Backyard Stroll Through Health Reform in Des Moines
The President is the beneficiary of another family's hospitality, this time the Clubb family in Des Moines, Iowa, who hosted him and about 70 of their neighbors for an open conversation.

Preparing the Nation to Better Address the Challenge of Alzheimer’s Disease
Melody Barnes, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, discusses the Obama Administration's commitment to strengthening our nation’s response to Alzheimer's disease.

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They're Holding Your Tax Cut Hostage


The White House, Washington


Good afternoon,

Ten years ago, Congress passed broad income tax cuts. But in a cynical accounting trick designed to mask their long-term impact, they scheduled these cuts to expire next January.  Now we are approaching that cliff, and millions of Americans are facing thousands of dollars in higher taxes on January 1.

That's why President Obama is fighting to extend the tax breaks for middle class Americans.

Under the President's plan, the tax cuts would be permanently extended on incomes up to $250,000, which includes 98 percent of American taxpayers. This is fair, just and crucial for our economy.
 
Middle class Americans saw their incomes shrink during the last decade, and have borne the brunt of the recession. They need the relief, and America needs a strong, thriving middle class.  Because middle class families are most likely to spend this money quickly, these tax cuts give our economy a much needed shot in the arm.

Seems like a no-brainer, right?  Not to the Republican leaders in Congress.

They're holding these tax cuts for the middle class hostage, demanding that we also lift the cap and extend the breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

Austan Goolsbee, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, explains what’s going on in this video:

White House White Board - Watch the Video

The Congressional Republican tax cut plan would add an additional $700 billion to the deficit over the next ten years and give America’s wealthiest people an average tax break of $100,000. To top it all off -- the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that giving a huge tax break to the wealthiest Americans is one of the least effective ways to stimulate our economy. 

Adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit while doing very little to grow our economy, put people back to work or strengthen America’s middle class is exactly the kind of economic policy that got us into this mess in the first place. 

We simply cannot afford to go back to their failed policies. It’s time for Congressional Republicans to stop playing politics with tax cuts for the middle class. 

Sincerely,

David Axelrod
Senior Advisor to the President

 

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Seth's Blog : Getting better at seeing

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Getting better at seeing

A giant pitfall in the way small companies and individuals market themselves, particularly online or in presentations, is that they're often cheesy, ugly or unreadable.

I don't think people deliberately set out to be ugly, but they end up that way. And a quick look at your own buying behavior should tell you that you don't often buy from the sketchy-looking sites, ads and media that are often pitched at you.

No, I think the problem is that people don't realize that their work is ugly. They don't see it. Just like the close-talker down the hall from your cube doesn't realize that he's a close-talker. I'm not talking about skill or talent or even guts. I'm talking about learning to see what others see.

John McWade taught me how to see. I'm not great at it, I'm certainly guilty of designing my own not-so-ideal materials. But the gap between the one-eyed man and the blind is pretty big.

It might take a few weeks of hard work to start to notice what looks right in the world (and why). I think it's worth it.

(Easy to recommend books from Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds too)

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