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miercuri, 9 martie 2011

President Obama & the First Lady Address Bullying in Facebook Video

Your Daily Snapshot for
Wednesday, March 9, 2011

President Obama & the First Lady Address Bullying in Facebook Video

SEOptimise

30 Social Search Tools & SEO Resources for Power Users

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 06:03 AM PST

While everybody is talking about content farms right now, most people seem to overlook the far more important change that took place recently: Google has incorporated social search results right into the regular ones.

Until now they displayed searches by your Twitter, FriendFeed or Google Buzz friends below the regular organic results. These changes are even more profound; I can’t explain them in a few short sentences. What’s clear though is that for power users who have a Google account, there has been another important layer of personalisation added.

The rankings differ significantly when logged in and out. For instance I see shared results for the keyword [seo] on #3 and #5, while they are usually #5 and #7 behind the Google News results. Compare the two screenshots below, the logged in version comes first.

Social search is not just Google though. Google is late to the party. There have been several first generation social search engines around since 2009 or earlier, but most of them haven’t survived or only offer a poor user experience and search quality. On the other hand there are plenty of new tools out there – not necessarily search engines as we know them – that offer unmatched social search capabilities.

Last but not least, Bing and Blekko offer Facebook search, which Google does not. So it’s time to dig deeper into search, both from an end user and an SEO specialist perspective. Thus I have compiled one of my infamous lists: 30 Social Search Tools & SEO Resources for Power Users.

Definition and features of the new Google social search

What is social search? How can you use it? Which results are social, and how are they determined? I won’t answer these questions. Google and other publications have already explained and visualised it:

Bing Social Search (Facebook Search)

While Google uses Twitter, Google Buzz, Friendfeed, and even Quora and other results from the sites you have connected on your Google profile, it doesn’t have access to your Facebook data. Microsoft Bing does.

Other Social Search tools (non-Google and non-Bing)

You don’t have to rely on the two big players to get social search from your online friends and colleagues. You can use third party tools, which often do an even better job at facilitating social search, be they browser extensions, similar site collections or less known search engines.

Greplin – you can search all kinds of third party sites, be they Twitter and Facebook, Gmail or Dropbox using this tool.
Wajam – an add-on that creates an extra result which you can expand. It’s based on your friends’ favourites from Facebook, Twitter & Delicious, on top of Google.
SideStripe – similar to Wajam, but you can add the widget to Facebook as well to search it from there.
blekko – search your friends’ likes using custom search engines (“slashtags”) provided by others
SimilarSites.com – use a toolbar and sidebar to browse similar sites to the one you have open in the current browser window. Results are user submitted.
SimilarPages – like Similarsites, but using a less intrusive browser extension.
Rollyo – as on Blekko, people can create and search custom search engines (search only selected sites) on the fly.
Topsy – the best real-time Twitter search out there. Find out quickly what’s currently popular.

Social Search SEO for Google and Beyond

OK, so now you agree that social search is probably the future of search, or you at least you consider the ramifications of all these tools and changes as a webmaster. Other people have done that before you. What do SEO specialists consider to be the impact of social search on SEO?

The history of Google social search (newest first)

For all those who haven’t followed social search in the past, while it was evolving, take a look at where it came from and how it developed. As I said in the first paragraph, social search has been around for years and what we see now is already the second wave of more advanced social search tools.

Issues and Trends

While social search might be the next big thing, it also raises some eyebrows. Do you really want Google to know who your friends are? Do you trust the social search tools and your online friends? Once we admit that social search is about to stay, how will the future look when it becomes more popular?

Why is this list geared to power users? The average searcher might still frown upon social media enhanced search, as they prefer to use Google in the same way that they did for the last decade. For the others, Google appears to become more and more low quality, despite the latest “farmer update”. Some content farms have even been winners in this update.

So advanced searchers are frantically trying to leverage their social connections to get better search results.

For good reason, it’s sometimes better to trust people you know, or at least large groups of people liking something, than algorithms counting words and links, especially as hardly anybody links naturally anymore.

Seth's Blog : Herbs

Herbs

Thyme is cheap. Twenty five cents worth is plenty for a family of four.

Hang out at the market and watch people buy expensive fish, chicken or beef to cook for a family gathering. Amost no one is buying fresh herbs. What's that about?

I guess that the main course is so expensive and so much work and so apparently foreboding and complex that most people believe they can't be bothered with the effort of adding herbs. Herbs would change everything. A twenty-five cent investment would transform a simple but expensive dinner into something really great.

"What! I don't know how. It's not worth the effort. I'll screw it up. Isn't this expensive piece of fish enough? I'm too busy. Hey, it's just dinner..."

Metaphor alert: your marketing is missing herbs.

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marți, 8 martie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

ECB's "One Size Fits Germany" Policy; Portugal 10-Yr Debt at Record Yield; Greece, Ireland Near Highs; 3 Hikes by Year End? Rate Hikes to Stress PIIGS

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 10:21 AM PST

ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet uses the word "vigilance" as a market signal he is going to hike. Trichet has used that word a couple of times recently.

Today, outgoing German Central Bank president Axel Weber expressed agreement with Trichet regarding "vigilance", going so far as to say he would not correct the market's expectation of 3 hikes by year-end.

Please consider Axel Weber: Markets have understood ECB correctly

Markets have understood the European Central Bank's policy signals, ECB policymaker Axel Weber said on Tuesday, adding he did not want to correct expectations for rates to be at 1.75 percent by year's end.

"I think President Trichet said the right thing: it's possible but not on auto-pilot," Weber told reporters when asked if a rate hike should be expected in April or May.

"I think markets have understood this kind of language, which is a bit stylized, in the past very well. And I think they've got it this time."

Asked if he was comfortable with market expectations that ECB rates will rise from their current record low of 1 percent to 1.75 percent by year's end, Weber replied: "I wouldn't do anything to try to correct market expectations at this point."

One Size Does Not Fit All

Pray tell what inflation is the ECB worried about?

One cannot find it in Greece, Spain, Ireland, or Portugal, where various austerity measures have reduced both jobs and wages.

Here's a better question: Where was the ECB when credit was exploding in Spain and Ireland, fueling enormous property bubbles?

Nowhere is where. Inflation in Germany was close to 0%.

One Size Fits Germany

It was in the best interest of Germany to ignore reckless credit expansion elsewhere. Now, because gasoline prices are soaring in the wake of a crisis in Libya and the Mid-East, Trichet wants to be vigilant.

Here's the deal. This has nothing to do with the price of oil or the price of anything else. Trichet is using the price of oil as an excuse to do what he wants to do, and that is hike.

Why does he want to hike? Because recent wage negotiations in Germany have headed much higher as noted by Factbox.

Public Sector 3 Percent
Chemical Industry 7 Percent
German Construction Unions 5.9 Percent

Wages have collapsed in Ireland and Greece, and are lower in Spain and Portugal. However, Germany and France call the shots because they have the largest economies.

Those rate hikes will increase the already significant stress in the rest of the Eurozone.

10-Year Yield Greece: 12.331%

10-Year Yield Ireland: 9.416%

10-Year Yield Portugal: 7.558%

10-Year Yield Spain: 5.381%

10-Year Yield Italy: 4.893%

10-Year Yield Belgium: 4.279%

10-Year Yield France: 3.623%

10-Year Yield Germany: 3.273%

Sovereign Debt Spread to Germany Jan 2010-Mar 8 2011
Country	Jan 01	May 07	Dec 30	Mar 08
Belgium	0.3%	0.7%	1.0%	1.01%
France	0.2%	0.4%	0.4%	0.35%
Greece	2.4%	9.7%	9.5%	9.06%
Ireland	1.4%	3.1%	6.0%	6.14%
Italy	0.3%	1.5%	1.8%	1.62%
Portugal	0.7%	3.5%	3.6%	4.29%
Spain	0.6%	1.6%	2.5%	2.11%

Portuguese, Irish, and Greek sovereign debt yields are at or near record highs as are yields relative to Germany. Moreover, the ECB's "One Size Fits Germany" policy is not going to help those countries any.

The ECB ignored rampant inflation in Spain and Ireland, and other problems elsewhere because it suited the interests of Germany and France at the time. Now the ECB is ignoring rampant deflation in those same countries because it suits the interest of Germany and France.

The ECB is not concerned with such matters or what countries it wrecks. It is just concerned that Ireland, Greece, and Spain pay back debt owed to German and French banks.

Here is the key question: How long can the other countries survive in a one size fits Germany setup?

For more on the mess in Europe including a look at gasoline prices please see

Goldman's Blood-Sucking Leeches Model, Money Multipliers, Macroeconomic Dark Ages, the Taylor Rule, and Nonsense from Trichet

Record Gasoline Prices in Europe, Over $8 in UK, Italy, Germany; California Faces $4; Reflections on "Inflation"

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Kansas Bill Seeks to Outsource Government Jobs

Posted: 07 Mar 2011 11:19 PM PST

A bill in Kansas establishes a commission to study ways to outsource government jobs to private sector jobs or to non-profit organizations. The bill passed, the house. If it passes the senate, governor Sam Brownback will likely sign it.

Please consider Kansas bill encourages outsourcing of government jobs.

After a lengthy floor debate, the House passed a bill Friday establishing an 11-member commission to study ways to outsource public jobs to private-sector companies and nonprofit groups.

The group would be called the Kansas Advisory Council on Privatization and Public-Private Partnerships.

According to House Bill 2194, the council's main responsibility would be to "review and evaluate the possibility of outsourcing goods or services provided by a state agency to a private business or not-for-profit organization that is able to provide the same type of good or service, and whether such action would result in cost savings to the state."

The council would also identify areas where government services compete with private business, "to determine ways to eliminate such competition."

One possible concern is this bill will simply produce another stack of paper that no one will act on.

However, the cost of the study is not much, and the goal of eliminating every possible government job is sound. Let's hope the study comes up with some rock solid proposals that are enacted.

I assure you there is fertile ground.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

38-Meter High Dive Goes Wrong

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 05:45 PM PST

Constable Velumurugan of the Tamil Nadu State Police gives a whole new meaning to the words 'pain dive'.

Creative Tear-Off Ads

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 05:37 PM PST

Usually Tear-off advertisement is just a plain white paper with tear offs of contact information. While in our today's collection, we try to show you some creative and inspiring designs. Those tear-off pieces in those designs are quite good combined with the product/service they want to promote and encourage the interaction between ads and people.

MacDonald's Balancing Sasuke Toy

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 05:13 PM PST

Sasuke is a weird little meme with a great kernel. This McDonald's Happy Meal toy, based on the Sasuke Uchiha character from the Japanese anime show Naruto and issued in Japan and Taiwan, is surprisingly easy to balance large objects on. This ability has landed him in loads of forum pictures and on Taiwanese TV.

Maybe it's the deceptively long surface area of the top of Sasuke's hair, forming a steady triangle without looking like a flat surface. The little plastic Sasuke can apparently balance coins, computers, other toys, handguns, rice cookers and the front wheel of a motorbike on its head or even upside down.

Source: jorsindo

2011 Rio Carnival

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 04:10 PM PST

The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is coming to end today on March 8th and it is quite a spectacle. Thousands of revellers and spectators enjoyed a visual display of colors, dancers, floats, streamers and costumes all set to the sounds of samba music.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

Superhuman: The Incredible Savant Brain

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 03:43 PM PST

One of the more common arguments against our capability to build an AI (or reach the singularity) is built upon the premise that we are still very far from understanding fully the capabilities of our own human brain. Thus, the argument goes, we are unlikely to simulate let alone re-create successfully any artificial one, be it in a virtual or silicon based environment.

I just found out this interesting graph called Superhuman: The Incredible Savant Brain that makes me pause…