Central Perk

marți, 15 mai 2012

Damn Cool Pics

People Awkwardly Smiling For a Picture
Before I Die I Want to...
Crazy Coffin Designs
A Woman’s Place in the World, Ranked From First to Last [infographic]

Posted: 15 May 2012 12:54 PM PDT

Check out filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp's clever prank photography project featuring videos of people awkwardly smiling in front of cameras while they think they're picture is taken.

Before I Die I Want to...

Posted: 15 May 2012 11:34 AM PDT

"Before I die, I want to...." is the brain child of photographers KS Rives and Nicole Kenney where they asked the simple question: What do you want to do before you die? Both started the project with the news that Polaroid would be discontinuing products, allowing a symbolic death of this iconic product. I loved reading the different responses - some were silly while others were incredibly honest.

Crazy Coffin Designs

Posted: 15 May 2012 11:19 AM PDT

These days, a lot of designer coffins are being made which are innovative and reflect a part of today. The folks at Crazy Coffins have customized caskets to give you some great ideas, because it's never too early to start planning for the inevitable.

Here are certain stylish coffins that depart the dead in style.

Dumpster

Guitar

Ballet Slipper

Skateboard

Cell Phone

Via: Gizmodo

A Woman’s Place in the World, Ranked From First to Last [infographic]

Posted: 15 May 2012 10:23 AM PDT

Researchers from Save the Children have ranked 165 countries in regards to their treatment of women using factors such as health, education and economic status. Not surprisingly, Norway grabs the top spot, while the US ranks 19th and Somalia comes in last.

Click image to see a larger version.

Via: Nationalpost

Response Codes Explained with Pictures

Posted: 14 May 2012 02:11 PM PDT

Posted by Lindsay

Man thinking of a water gun. Friends and I were recently debating the finer points of serving a 410 versus a 404 response code when a brick and mortar retail analogy was born. I hope you'll have half as much fun reading through these amateur comics as I've had putting them together. You might also come away with an extra line of lingo when explaining HTTP Response Codes to clients or colleagues.

What are Response Codes?

When a search engine or website visitor makes a request to a web server, a three digit HTTP Response Status Code is returned. This code indicates what is about to happen. A response code of 200 means "OK, here is the content you were asking for." A 301 says, "Gotcha. That page has moved, so I'll send you there now." And so on.

Einstein once said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't know it well enough." It is in this spirit that I present to you my brick-and-mortar retail store analogy.

A man walks into a store looking for a particular model water gun. In each scenario, he is greeted by a different Sales Associate (our response codes).

200 OK

A 200 is the most common type of response code, and the one we experience most of the time when browsing the web. We asked to see a web page, and it was presented to us without any trouble.

301 Moved Permanently

We were expecting to find a web page in a particular location, but it has been moved. No worries though, the web server has sent us to the new location. Most users won't notice that this has happened unless they watch the URL change.

302 Found (Moved Temporarily)

You're in the right place, but the page has moved temporarily to a new location. Just like a 301 the user doesn't usually notice anything because the web server seemlessly moves them to the new URL.

Important SEO Implication: A 302 isn't a permanent move. Any SEO strength that the original page had won't be granted to the new URL.

401 Unauthorized

We've requested a page, but a username and password are required to access it. We're presented with a way to login.

Important SEO Implication: Search engines won't submit a username and password for entry. If you have content hidden behind a login, it won't show up in the search results.

403 Forbidden

We've requested a page that we don't have permission to access at all. This page isn't for us.

404 Not Found

We've requested a page, but the web server doesn't recognize our request. The page can't be shown because the server doesn't know what it is.

Important SEO Implication: Most default 404 pages are a dead end for users and search engines. Look at using a custom 404 for these cases.

410 Gone

We've requested a page and the web server knows what we're asking for, but the page is gone.

Important SEO Implication: There is some debate in the SEO world as to the advantage (if any) of using a 410 over a 404 in certain cases. This post by Barry Schwartz is a good place to start your own research.

I prefer to use a 410 when removing unfavorable (perhaps penalized) content from a website. Perhaps the website has some bad links pointing to a bad neighborhood within an otherwise quality site. I'd use a 410 to say, "We know what you're asking for, but we've deliberately removed it from the site, permanently."

500 Internal Server Error

We've requested a page, and in return, we get a generic error message. No information is given. It is like looking a sales associate in the eye, asking a question, and recieving a blank stare in return.

503 Service Unavailable

We asked for a page, but are told that it is temporarily unavailable. Something is wrong. Perhaps the website is down for maintenance.

Status Code Readers & Additional Reading

If you're like me, you came to SEO out of an interest and background in Marketing, rather than approaching it from a start on the Techology side. I understood the meaning of the basic response codes for SEO (301, 302, 404) long before I understood what was technically happening. I needed to see it before I really got it. If you're feeling the same way, you can use a browser plugin to watch the communication between the your browser and a website behind the scenes as you browse the web.

Try these:

Chrome: HTTP Headers
Firefox: HttpFox
Explorer: HTTP Analyzer ($)

There are a number of excellent resources available to help you better understand HTTP Status Codes and determine when to use them to your best advantage for user experience and SEO.

Here at SEOmoz there is a nice summary and infographic that breaks down the impact on users and search engines in each scenario.
Ian Lurie placed a solid post on SearchEngineLand that covers .NET and IIS solutions nicely.
Another way to look at the information is SEOgadget's infographic parralell with London's Tube. Just click the link. You'll see. :)

Happy optimizing!

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Photo Gallery: Behind the Scenes in April

Your Daily Snapshot for
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Photo Gallery: Behind the Scenes in April

Official White House photographers captured some great Presidential moments during the month of April, including a taping on the Jimmy Fallon show, addressing students on student loan rates, and some laughs with the Vice President.

Check out our full April behind-the-scenes gallery on Flickr:

President Barack Obama jokes with Vice President Joe Biden and Senior Advisor David Plouffe in the Outer Oval Office, April 26, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Seth's Blog : Hard work on the right things

Hard work on the right things

I don't think winners beat the competition because they work harder. And it's not even clear that they win because they have more creativity. The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters.

It's not obvious, and it changes. It changes by culture, by buyer, by product and even by the day of the week. But those that manage to capture the imagination, make sales and grow are doing it by perfecting the things that matter and ignoring the rest.

Both parts are difficult, particularly when you are surrounded by people who insist on fretting about and working on the stuff that makes no difference at all.