Central Perk

joi, 25 octombrie 2012

Damn Cool Pics

Pool Fails Compilation 2012 [Video]
Hot Girls of the Electric Daisy Carnival 2012
Shishi-Maru Cat is the Star of Instagram
32 Childhood Crushes Then And Now
Music in the Cloud [Infographic]
The Science of Dogs

Pool Fails Compilation 2012 [Video]

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 11:15 AM PDT

The best (most painful) swimming pool fails of the year, all in one video.

Hot Girls of the Electric Daisy Carnival 2012

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 10:15 AM PDT

300,000 fans gathered at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Electric Daisy Carnival 2012. The EDC is an international annual electronic dance music festival held in the summertime in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Shishi-Maru Cat is the Star of Instagram

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 09:50 AM PDT

Shishi-Maru is a Scottish fold cat, which means he has a gene mutation that makes his ears bend forward and down. This cute cat has become an internet sensation!

32 Childhood Crushes Then And Now

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 09:13 AM PDT

There's nothing like your first celebrity crush. You probably developed a love for them before you even formed a love for boys you actually knew and their posters covered every inch of your wall despite your parents protests. So, do you still have the hots for them?

Via Buzzfeed

Music in the Cloud [Infographic]

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 08:44 AM PDT

Much like the Rock n Roll Hall of Game, the cloud music scene is full of rockstars with unique 'personalities.' This infographic takes account of which cloud music service has no ads, offers no ads with payments, has a mobile app, is usable offline, allows you full library access and also includes the number of songs they have in their service, users and just how much it'll cost you to be a member.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Via Visual.ly

The Science of Dogs

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 08:33 AM PDT

This comic is most likely based on personal experience with dogs, and we can all agree its conclusions are valid. And we love them anyway.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Via thedoghousediaries

What Does "X% of Queries" Mean?

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:00 PM PDT

Posted by Dr. Pete

Over the past few months, we’ve seen a number of public statements from Google regarding algorithm updates that sound something like this:

Tweet from Matt Cutts - "0.3% of English queries noticeably affected"

Tweet from Google - "Fewer than 0.7% of queries noticeably affected"

Notice the carefully chosen phrase “X% of queries noticeably affected”. Those statements sound very specific, but once you stop to think about them, you’re inevitably left with a couple of questions: (1) percent of which queries?, and (2) exactly how much is “noticeably”?

Percent of Which Queries?

When most of us hear “X% of queries”, I think we naturally assume unique queries (different keyphrases), but there are really two interpretations: (1) unique queries, and (2) total query volume. Here’s an example, from a conversation I posted on Google+ - let’s say that we live in a world where there are only four searches anyone ever uses:

“iphone 5”
“justin bieber”
“platypus pants”
“charlie sheen”

If we ran 100 searches on our parallel universe version of Google, the volume would be distributed to our four keyphrases as follows:

That's right - suck it, Charlie Sheen. Now, let's say that query (c) is impacted by an algorithm update. By definition #1, this would affect 25% of queries. By definition #2, that same algo update would only affect 9% of queries.

I’ve put this question to Google a couple of times, and while they didn’t reply directly, a few people were kind enough to repeat it. Jacob Klein’s tweet to Matt Cutts got the following reply:

Tweet from Jacob Klein

Tweet (reply) from Matt Cutts

It’s not quite an official statement, but I’ll take it. In most cases, Google is talking about overall query volume. I wouldn’t read too much into the “typically” – Matt naturally doesn’t want to commit to “% of queries affected” only ever having one meaning when uttered by any Google employee. I’m comfortable, though, that Google’s recent statements refer to query volume. This also makes sense from the way Google views the data – overall volume is probably much easier to measure than unique queries.

I don't think Google is being deliberately cryptic in this particular case – the statement is simply ambiguous. As SEOs, we naturally think of "queries" in terms of unique keywords, because that's what we track. Google thinks in terms of overall search volume and each query is a discrete unit..

How Much is “Noticeably”?

So, now that we know we’re talking about query volume, what’s this “noticeably affected” bit all about? Does any change count, or does it have to be significant? Hat tip to Matt McGee for reporting on a follow-up conversation that sheds some light on this one:

Tweet from Rob Watts

Tweet from Matt Cutts

It’s not quite cut-and-dry, and the definition of “noticeable” may be a little complex, but basically they’re talking about Page 1 changes and probably even flux in the first few rankings. A query where the #32 ranked keyword drops to #34 isn’t going to be counted as “noticeably affected” by an algorithm update.

Knowing Is X% of the Battle

So, when Google refers to “X% of queries noticeably affected” they mean the total volume of queries and a significant change in the Top 10. Since we don’t see the entire universe of queries that they do or really know the relative volume, this still leaves a lot to interpretation, but I think any little bit of transparency helps at this point. It’s a useful gauge of relative impact as Google uses the same metric across multiple updates.

Keep in mind, though, that any given query either impacts you or doesn’t impact you. Don’t rely on the aggregate statistics – pay attention to what matters to you. Look at it this way – unemployment was just under 8% in the US in September, but you and I either have a job or we don’t. That 8% may be a useful gauge of economic prosperity or the effectiveness of our leaders, but ultimately we have to be aware of our own situation. If an update only impacts 0.3% of queries, but your money term was one of them, knowing that 99.7% of queries were untouched won’t be of much comfort to you.

For reference, I've recently added Google's impact percentages to the MozCast Events page. This page lists recent algorithm updates, along with the severity as measured both by MozCast temperature and Google's publicly stated percentage, to allow for easy comparisons.

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A Chat with Jay Leno

Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, October 25, 2012

A Chat with Jay Leno

President Barack Obama jokes with host Jay Leno in-between segments of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in Burbank, Calif., Oct. 24, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Get Tickets for the 2012 National Christmas Tree Lighting

On December 6th, we'll celebrate the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse just outside the White House. You can watch the whole event online, but if you'll be in Washington, DC, you can get tickets to be there in person.

Learn more about the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, and how to attend.

Seth's Blog : The only purpose of 'customer service'...

The only purpose of 'customer service'...

is to change feelings. Not the facts, but the way your customer feels. The facts might be the price, or a return, or how long someone had to wait for service. Sometimes changing the facts is a shortcut to changing feelings, but not always, and changing the facts alone is not always sufficient anyway.

If a customer service protocol (your call center/complaints department/returns policy) is built around stall, deny, begrudge and finally, to the few who persist, acquiesce, then it might save money, but it is a total failure.

The customer who seeks out your help isn't often looking to deplete your bank account. He is usually seeking validation, support and a path to feeling the way he felt before you let him down.

The best measurement of customer support is whether, after the interaction, the customer would recommend you to a friend. Time on the line, refunds given or the facts of the case are irrelevant. The feelings are all that matter, and changing feelings takes humanity and connection, not cash.