Category: Technology

Google v PayPerPost Act III

Google recently socked PayPerPosters with a decrease of PageRank to 0.  Harsh, but needed in my opinion.  If you’re going to dance to Google’s music, you’ve got to be willing to pay the band.

Robert Scoble makes the point that:

Bloggers beware. If you just write great content and put the ads around the content like everyone else does you won’t be messing with Google and Google won’t mess with you.

VCDan writes in the comments to that post:

GOOG’s latest move isn’t about disclosure or search relevance. IZEA’s launch of http://www.SocialSpark.com (prior to this GOOG move) with mandatory disclosure, transparent RealRank, no-follow links, and face-based analytics positions IZEA to lead on transparency and convert even more bloggers from AdSense to sponsored social media.

Which got me thinking… one of the people that I listen to the most when it comes to all things web, Jim Kukral, has similar things to say about SocialSpark. 

In fact, Jim says that Izea should dump PPP as a brand and focus on SocialSpark.

So, the big question is can a con-man reform himself and can Ted Murphy rebrand Izea and SocialSpark as separate from the PayPerPost stigma?  I’m not so sure, but it will be fun to see how bloggers (and Google) handles SocialSpark’s upcoming release.

Google makes moves to protect organic relevancy « Scobleizer

User Generated Content Can Solve Problems

For all of its noise, "user generated content" can sometime be a huge help.

Yahoo Answers, for example, is sometimes a great resource when you have a random question like when a new laptop will arrive…

Does FedEx Deliver on Saturdays, I mean regular ground delivery.?

Does FedEx Deliver on Saturdays, I mean regular ground delivery.? – Yahoo! Answers

Press and Speaking Engagements

I’ve updated the “Publications” page up in the menu bar to reflect some of the places I’ve spoken recently and how to get in touch with me if you’d like for me to speak at your meeting or show.

Sure it’s a little vain, but I’ve gotten more and more requests for this type of thing recently so I wanted to make it easier to find and see examples of my previous speaking engagements or publications:

I’m available to speak to groups interested in social media, affiliate marketing, performance marketing or web metrics. Contact me if you’d like to have me speak to your group.

Here are a few places where I’ve spoken and published:

Press and Speaking

Tomb of Ezekiel?

This one shows the building from the outside. Cool, eh? And this one shows part of a Hebrew inscription on the inside. The first part of the inscription is outside the frame, but the rest reads הנביא בן בוזי הכהן זכותו ינן עלינו ועל כל ישראל אמן, “… the prophet, son of Buzi, the priest. May his merit increase upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.” The prophet in question is, of course, Ezekiel, who was a priest and whose father’s name was indeed Buzi (Ezekiel 1:3).

PaleoJudaica.com

New Star Trek Movie Plot Spoilers

JJ Abrams (Lost, etc) is heading up the eleventh Star Trek movie.  Supposedly, it’s going to be based on the academy time of Kirk, Spock, etc and how they all meet.

Here’s a (potentially) major spoiler post (that you have to read if you’re a fellow fan):

I can’t stress how big of a potential spoiler the following information is. If you want to remain spoiler free DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.

IESB.net – Movie News, Reviews, Interviews and More! – JJ Abram’s Star Trek Story Details!

How To Play the Piano?

Learning to play the piano at a respectable level is not difficult (or so I’ve been told).

So I’m going to learn to play the piano.

Anyone have a link to a site to help me out?  Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email (mail@samharrelson.com) if so!

I’ll keep you posted on my progress here.

Here’s a great piano tutorial from Mahalo:
http://www.mahalo.com/How_To_Play_Piano_For_Beginners_(And_Save_$500_In_Lessons)

Google and The Quest for Information Archiving

I’m imagining a future 3,000 years from now when scholars and archaeologists attempt to put together the scattered fragments of our digital cuneiforms like we attempt to do today with the scant remains of Mesopotamian cultures from the past that were just as vibrant as ours. 

I wonder how far Google will get before the barbarians invade and the library is burned?

As early as the third millennium B.C., Mesopotamian scribes began to catalogue the clay tablets in their collections. For ease of reference, they appended content descriptions to the edges of tablets, and they adopted systematic shelving for quick identification of related texts. The greatest and most famous of the ancient collections, the Library of Alexandria, had, in its ambitions and its methods, a good deal in common with Google’s book projects. It was founded around 300 B.C. by Ptolemy I, who had inherited Alexandria, a brand-new city, from Alexander the Great. A historian with a taste for poetry, Ptolemy decided to amass a comprehensive collection of Greek works. Like Google, the library developed an efficient procedure for capturing and reproducing texts.

Onward and Upward with the Arts: Future Reading: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

My Cousin’s Death in Afghanistan

David was my cousin, but functioned more as a brother.  While growing up, there wasn’t a week that went by when we didn’t see each other.  We spent countless hours reading comics, drawing comics, watching Beavis and Butthead, playing with GI Joe’s and re-enacting our Transformers scenes in the backyards.  He was always Superman and I was always Batman.

My favorite memory of David?  The day we decided to walk to the comic shop a few miles from his house without telling anyone when we were 12 or so.  To make matters worse, he had just had surgery on his toe, so he was on crutches.  My dad finally found us walking the streets (we made it to the comic shop!) a few hours later and drove us home. 

I love you, David… can’t tell you how much we’ll miss you.

A Marion soldier serving in Afghanistan has died in action, his family confirmed Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. James David Bullard, 28, was serving with the Army National Guard 1st Battalion 263rd Cavalry (Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition) S.C. National Guard Unit B Company based in Dillon, his brother-in-law Harold Caldwell said.

Marion soldier killed in Afghanistan – News – South Carolina Now (SCNow.com)

Blogged with Flock

GMail Changes?

I’m seeing a few subtle and not so subtle changes in GMail tonight.

1) Quicker message loading
2) New graphics (the yellow type found in Google Reader) at the top of the screen for loading messages
3) New contacts manager which is very slick and a great upgrade
4) The ability to add an event invitation when composing or replying to messages.

Nothing revolutionary, but pretty neat tweaks given last week’s big inclusion of IMAP in GMail. After a couple of years of stagnation, it’s nice to see a few new additions to the interface.

MORE: Evidently Google is rolling this out to all users (whew, I’m not crazy). Thanks to Andy Beal for the pointer!