Just had a thought…
If i put a given keyword into Google, say i’m
looking for a blog on windsurfing, i get a list of 10 blogs. Now i know
roughly how Google indexes the pages, but nobody knows for sure, the
algorythm is pretty complicated and not public. Google would have a
direct income from some of those blogs, through the AdSense programme.
Now do we trust Google that the possible gain is not influencing the
results? What i mean how do we know we’re not served the sites that
earn Google money before the sites that don’t if all the other factors
are comparable?
Do we trust Google ethics? I mean if it was any other company, we’d laugh.. But Google is cool, right?

James Patterson with Peter DeJonge

A winner!! Finally!! we’re back to the Patterson we all know and love
The
story is beautifully developed, leading the reader through the
procession of facts and clues and leaves just enough room to double
guess every character.
And the final is as unexpected as should be.
And there’s the crafty insight into criminal mind. I have a feeling it
could do with a little bit more time spent on it, but at least you
don’t have a feeling you’re reading a first draft..
Keep it up Mr. Patterson

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html

a very interesting read, i love no6: Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

i have two clients within the recruitment market – and they’re on the
opposite poles too: financial and construction. Now after reviewing the
year with both we came to the same conclusion. Online-only approach
does not work. Or maybe it would work if you had unlimited funds to pay
for SEO and SEM campaigns, AdWords and pay absolutely HEAPS for SE
positioning. But in the cost-effective small business world, having a
site with joblistings – and don’t get me wrong, all interactive with
loads of jobs and as current as possible – and advertising in industry
papers/magazines seems to be the most effective combination.
Which
came as a bit of a surprise, we all look for jobs online, innit? And
after an industry moves online (as we’ve seen with most shopping,
travel, flights…) it stays online? Well recruitment seems to have
moved online and stayed in print just as well. Now I’m not sure i can
explain the phenomenon, in my opinion it could have something to do
with the printed word still carrying some weight, or with the fact that
most of professionals (apart from IT/Marketing) are still reading
papers instead of online-papers and blogs, and thus advertising in
print still yields good results.
As i said, i won’t attempt an explanation, however i thought that our findings might interest some of you guys.
For
both companies the best results were obtained after slight rebranding -
nothing fancy, just bringing the company’s corporate look a bit up to
date. Careful competitor research, bit of market research and putting
together paper ads – then analysing what worked and what didn’t. So in
the end the advert served as a teaser to look for ‘more’ on the
website, and the website had to make sure it had ‘more’ and it all
worked just fine… Classic marketing, innit?
So next time someone
offers to put you on top of Google listing for ‘jobs’ for gazillions,
sit back and consider advertising in two of the industry papers. Seems
to work…

Internet world 2007 came and went and i must say i’m glad i went but
might skip it next year… Yes i know it sounds confusing but i was
confused too – looking at the list of exhibitors made me wonder who the
target audience was.
Half companies seemed targeted at Web Managers
and industry professionals: hosting, payment processing solutions,
analytics and such. Half companies our direct competitors: off-the
shelf CMS systems and e-commerce applications, people selling to an
audience who have their own product. Then the seminars – i cannot
comment on the Google academy, as i haven’t managed to get in, but from
the turnout it looked like the most interesting thing in the whole
exhibition. However every time i went past they seemed to be discussing
screenshots from Google local. I have sat in on a seminar on ‘The
ROI of Usability’ and popped in on a number of seminars on Web 2.0. And
it all seemed like preaching to the converted – everyone who’s in the
industry would be clued in about these issues already, they would form
our working practice, so my overall impression is – nothing new. But
it’s still good to see Web 2.0 finding its way into all online
solutions.

However i did pick up a couple of interesting leads for SME companies:
Payment processing: eKashu – looks to be affordable and easy to set up for SMEs, SecureTrading – bit higher prices but definitely good value for money
Product presentation – brandsauce - 3D modelling of your product to any specs – and the price seems really affordable.
And postcode anywhere – a solution we’ve integrated for a client before, and seems to work
like magic, so will look into providing it for other clients.