joi, 10 noiembrie 2011

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Surfer Breaks the World Record Riding a 90-Foot Wave

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 09:03 PM PST



US surfer Garrett McNamara made history by breaking the world record for largest wave ever surfed in Portugal. McNamara successfully surfed on a monstrous 90-foot wave (27 meters) in Praia do Norte off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal. The previous biggest wave record, 77 feet, was set by another surfing legend – Mike Parsons in 2008.


Interactive Map: Reducing Federal Real Estate Costs by $3.5 Billion

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday Nov.10, 2011
 

Interactive Map: Reducing Federal Real Estate Costs by $3.5 Billion

Almost 14,000 federal government properties sit unused and unneeded, costing taxpayers millions of dollars a year in operating and maintenance expenses. The Obama Administration has taken unprecedented steps to reduce this stock of unused property and is on track to save $3.5 billion by the end of Fiscal Year 2012.

Keep track of the progress being made to eliminate unneeded federal properties on our interactive map:

In Case You Missed It

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

The Department of Homeland Security's Commitment to Veterans
Veterans now comprise 25 percent of the DHS civilian workforce, in addition to the 49,000 active duty and reserve members of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Addressing Trade Barriers in the Asia-Pacific Region and Supporting American Jobs Through Exports
This week, the United States is hosting the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers and Economic Leaders’ Meetings in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"A Victory for the Middle Class" in Ohio
Vice President Joe Biden issued a statement congratulating the people of Ohio for rejecting Issue 2 -- a law that would have stripped public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern StandardTime (EST).

1:30 PM: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney WhiteHouse.gov/live

3:00 PM The Vice President visits with local veterans at a Manchester-area American Legion.

5:15 PM: The President meets with senior advisors.

7:00 PM: The Vice President delivers keynote remarks at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications First Amendment Award Event in Concord, New Hampshire.

WhiteHouse.gov/live Indicates events that will be live streamed on WhiteHouse.gov/Live

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Using Google+ Ripples to Connect with Influencers

Using Google+ Ripples to Connect with Influencers


Using Google+ Ripples to Connect with Influencers

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 01:19 PM PST

Posted by caseyhen

Two weeks ago today, Google released “Ripples” for Google+ and most of the world went on with their daily activities. Personally I thought it was just another one of those features that was interesting but nothing I could really use. That was until this Whiteboard+ video which I filmed with Rand. Both Rand and I were blown away at the amount of data a Ripple gives you and what you can do with it.

What is a Ripple

The definition of a “ripple effect” is: a spreading effect or series of consequences caused by a single action or event. When it comes to Google+ a Ripple is an interactive diagram that shows how a Google+ post spreads as it’s shared by users. You can find the Ripple of any public post using the dropdown to the right of the post.

You can quickly see who the top sharers of your content are, the timeline for which it was shared and other statistics. A quick look at this post shared by the Dalai Lama shows that there have been 1,414 recent public shares of this post. You can zoom into each circle and see the sharing within different circles.

At the bottom of the page, Google shows you the top Influencers, stats about how the post spread and the different Languages of the sharers. We’re going to dig into how to use the Influencer information to help you get your content shared by the right influencers, not only on Google+ but on other social sites as well.

Make That Ripple Effect Happen

Sometimes getting an influencer to share your content can be very difficult, if not impossible. Ripples provides an easy way for you to investigate who are the influencers of the influencers. Let me give you an example of how this might work in a real world situation. Let’s say I write a blog post on Google Analytics and am hoping to get Avinash Kaushik to share it, since he is a leader in the Analytics area. However, I don’t have a direct relationship with Avinash, so I need to find someone approachable who does.

Step 1 - Find an influencer

Look at Avinash’s Google+ page and see what type of content he is sharing with his circles. Find a post that he shared that has quite a few shares and view that Ripple. Look for a Ripple where the original poster has an account that is in a reasonable amount of Circles. Below is a Ripple I found that is perfect since it was originally shared by user with a small but strong following.

Since Avinash shared Michael’s content, there is some form of trust between Avinash and Michael. Even if it’s a fluke, there is a good chance that Michael may be an influencer on a different social network and could still be worth contacting.

Step 2 - Make a connection

Reach out to Michael and make a connection. All of his contact methods are displayed in his profile on Google+. Most users have linked their Google+ account to their Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts which gives you plenty of ways to reach out and make a connection. Establish some sort of “relationship” before asking him to share your content. I suggest that you provide something of value first or other comment on something he has posted as the first point of interaction. 

Once a connection is made, share your content with him via Google+ and ask him to share. With luck he will share your content and it will catch the eye of Avinash and he will re-share it exposing it to thousands of more people than you had before. Even if Avinash doesn’t re-share it, you did get Michael to share your content and expose it to another group of people outside of your norm. Plus there is a chance that he will expose your content on other social networks which he may have more visibility on.

Step 3 - Rinse and repeat

Obviously you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket with Michael. Continue to see who Avinash is re-sharing and reach out to those people as well. Soon you will have contacted a large number of people who Avinash trusts and the chances of him seeing your post are much higher.

Another Ripple Effect Example

Below is a Ripple of a post recently shared by Cyrus Shepard. His post was re-shared by Jason Morrison which then John Muller of Google shared. Now even though only one person in John’s circles re-shared it, it was still put in front of a much wider audience thanks to John’s share.

Future Ripple Uses

If Google+ continues to create things like Ripples that share large amounts of data on how users are interacting with your posts, I could see Facebook stepping up their game with the current version of Insights. Think about if you could see how your Tweets were shared and what effect power users have on sharing your content.

Lastly, Ripples is “very experimental” according to Google which means that their is no clear vision where this is going. There have been no rumors of this ever making it to an API version or anything beyond what the current Ripple version does. Do you have any plans to use Ripples and how do you plan to use it?


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The White House, Washington


Good morning, 

I want to introduce you to a few federal employees who are serving our country every day, and who are thinking about ways to make sure your tax dollars aren't wasted.

Yesterday, President Obama announced the four finalists for the 2011 SAVE Award, an annual contest for federal employees to submit their ideas for cutting costs by making government more effective and efficient.
 
We need your help to determine this year's winner – help us choose who gets to discuss their idea with President Obama.

Cast your vote for the winner of the SAVE Award:

Cast Your Vote

This year, nearly 20,000 ideas were submitted from federal employees across the country.  There were a lot of great ideas, but in the end, these four really stood out: 

  • Matthew Ritsko, NASA: At Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA employees purchase specialized tools and ground support equipment for developing and building flight projects. Many of the tools are not tracked once projects are complete, and as a result funds are wasted on duplicative purchases. In order to cut down on repeat purchases, Matthew suggests creating a centralized tool repository – or "lending library" – where these tools can be stored, catalogued, and checked in and out by NASA employees.
  • Eileen Hearty, Department of Housing and Urban Development: All across the country, HUD contractors and staff conduct annual Management and Occupancy Reviews of multifamily properties (i.e. apartments) that are privately-owned and subsidized by HUD. Many of these properties receive high marks year after year and consistently provide excellent service. Eileen proposes a reduction in the frequency of reviews for high-performing properties – a change that would reward superior properties for their excellent work and reduce the travel costs, staff time, and fees paid by HUD for these reviews.
  • Kevin Korzeniewski, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: When Kevin began working as an attorney in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, he automatically received a new set of U.S. Code books that get updated and reordered every year. Because the information in these books is now available online through LexisNexis, Westlaw, and free sources – where it is also updated in real time – Kevin suggests that his agency stop automatically ordering these books.
  • Faith Stanfield, Social Security Administration: Every quarter, the Social Security Administration (SSA) produces and mails OASIS, a 25-plus-page, glossy magazine to 88,000 SSA employees all across the country and more than 1,000 retired SSA employees. The OASIS magazine has been around for decades; however, as more and more SSA communications shift online, Faith suggests that the magazine be released only in an online format to save money on printing and shipping that could be put to better use elsewhere.

The SAVE Award is just one of many ways we're working to ensure that none of your hard-earned tax dollars go to waste. Yesterday, President Obama signed an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to reduce spending by 20 percent on things like travel, cell phones, laptops and other devices that can be issued to employees, printing documents that can be posted online, and unnecessary plaques, mugs, water bottles, and other frivolous swag.   

For three years now, federal employees from across the government have submitted their ideas to help streamline and modernize their departments and agencies. These are the folks who know the system best, people who have a genuine understanding of the nitty-gritty details.
 
All their ideas help to save taxpayers money and make sure the government better serves the American people. And this is a chance to make sure that each of them is recognized for their foresight and creativity.
 
But only one of them will get a chance to sit down with the President and present their proposal. And it's up to you to choose who that is.
 
Vote on the SAVE Award today: 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-award

Sincerely,
 
David Plouffe
Senior Advisor to the President




 
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SEOptimise

SEOptimise


Google Freshness Update – what it means for your brand

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:20 AM PST

Last week Google released yet another algorithm update, and although it wasn't Panda 2.6 or Panda 2.5.2, it has affected up to 35% of searches. The newly-named ‘freshness update’ is built on the Caffeine update that was launched last year, allowing Google to provide the very latest content.

Google's Amit Singhal states that

"Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today's world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old."

This seems to be a very timely release, especially in the UK, with lots of hot topics currently trending on the web and on social media, including Frankie Cocozza being kicked off the X Factor, the England poppy fiasco and Carlos Tevez leaving Manchester. With all these topics trending across the web, the freshness update has provided us with the very latest information on the subject from the last day, hour or even minute. There has been a lot of information around about the freshness update and here is Google's official announcement.

So we know that the algorithm will do the following:

  • Shows the lasted information on hot topics, trending stories and breaking news.
  • Provides the latest information on regular and upcoming events including concerts, Olympics, General Elections, etc.
  • Identify the very latest information on product releases, product reviews and information.

So what does this all mean for large brands?

Brands

For the majority of brands I don't see this having a significant effect on their current rankings, especially those that are targeting very generic terms such as "car insurance" or "tents". These terms are not generally in the news or terms that would be considered hot topics, but more research queries.

The issue will be where brands target key phrases that are constantly having new content produced, such as product reviews and releases. As a user you will want to see the very latest information on new products and the most up to date reviews. This would mean that the brand needs to devise a content strategy around specific product keywords to ensure that the very latest information is available to the user.

In theory, brands could use the algorithm to their advantage. Staying with the topic of Carlos Tevez leaving Manchester without consent, a sports brand could potentially write some great content about the story and rank well for a short period of time, generating a spike in traffic but also increasing brand exposure to a different audience. The traffic generated might also provide links to help the page sustain some rankings in the future, whilst also creating an increase in revenue from new visitors. All this at the moment is theory, but could it be potentially used as a short term tactic?

What are your thoughts on the latest freshness update? How do you think it will affect large brands? Could brands use this to their advantage by creating content around a hot topic or event to generate a short-term traffic boost? I look forward to hearing your comments below and of course on Twitter @danielbianchini.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Google Freshness Update – what it means for your brand

Related posts:

  1. 30+ Google Quality/Panda Update Resources for Content Farmers and SEO Practitioners
  2. Why Not All Shopping Search Engines Have Lost in the UK Google Panda/Quality Update
  3. 10 Tips to Improve Your Social Graph for Google

Seth's Blog : The starfish and the long tail have trouble getting along

The starfish and the long tail have trouble getting along

We've all heard the parable of the kid throwing back the starfish, even though there are a million on the beach. "It makes a difference to that one!"

The Long Tail argues that if you can aggregate enough choices, people will make a choice and you'll do fine. Netflix, superstores, eBay--these are all long tail businesses. They might not sell that thing, but you can bet they're going to sell something.

Long tail businesses excel at selling anything, but they're not so good at selling one thing.

Which is fine, unless you're a starfish.

In a world of endless choice, it's mathematically obvious that something's going to get picked, but you, you the creator, the marketer, the one with something at stake--you're not at all concerned about something. You're concerned about you and your product.

If you're a starfish, then, don't sign up with the long tail guys. Build your own universe, your own permission asset. Find a tribe, lead it, connect with it, become the short head, the one and only, the one that we'd miss if you were gone.

The long tail is for organizations that own warehouses.

 

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