Swicki, I killed the golden goose
01 Sep 07
Did Swicki shrivel and burn? Have the enterprising team taken the venture capital and run like hell? Is Swicki a defunct dead-end web 2.0 fly by night idea? No, definitely a big NO to all the above. Ed, the dumb ass deleted the Swicki bubble from the search side bar!
It is back and visible.
check out the thepisstakers swicki at eurekster.com
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. Google bite back at "review for backlink" gamers
01 Jun 07
Sounds like Google are biting the butts of a certain genre of blogger , the ones who run backlink for review features that resemble Googlebombs. This term, according to Google
In a new angle on reviews, reviewers had to include links to a site using specific meaningful phrases (proscribed anchor text). Overnight, these terms, like make Money Online became new world googlebombs. The gamers would have got away with it, if they hadn't milked the idea to death to get top of the SERP.
This new algorithm isn't so harsh that it treats every review for links feature as undesirable. Good reviews with content and keywords of value to readers / searchers are what Google encourage. However, the gamers took a decent idea and turned it into a shady content-poor idea - and ultimately wasted the reviewers' time. With no desire to add any content of their own to the conversation, except make a link and ask for more submissions, the gamers banged away at the feature for months, building link networks and adding not a lot else to the value of the internet.
Google has taken a look at their contribution to content and decided enough is enough. The gamers have been knocked down a peg or two and to get back to the top of the search results they are now going to have to add valuable content again. How harsh is that!?
Surely experts know that Google search algorithms are nebulous and constantly in flux. The secrecy surrounding the content of algorithms is tantalizing, but one thing that is no secret is that Google are striving to make sure that when you search for a term, you damn well get a relevant and authoritative set of results. How hard can it be to follow that ethos?
As long as you blog fairly and expansively and don't try to manipulate scenarios (that are only ever going to be temporary flaws due to the ongoing development work of the Googloids), how wrong can most people go on their path to higher SERP and PR?
I suppose it is human nature to game, to cut corners? Certain people have that arrogance that somehow they are cleverer than a multi billion dollar gang of search engine geniuses who have forgotten more than most people ever know about search.
No doubt these gaming characters now languishing on lower pages will be back, but who is going to follow them up another garden path. Not me, at least not till I see evidence that content is king in their plan, and the best content rises to the top.
As my grandfather said, Some people are so clever they are stupid! I don't aim to be stupid, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot. I am going to keep Google happy and keep posting original content and link to relevant sites regularly but in moderation. And choose who I review for carefully. Ades was a good choice, he actually has something real to offer, and doesn't take the piss.
Do you think the new algorithm solves a problem, or opens different doors of abuse?
Googlebombs projected a certain politician to the top of searches for miserable failure, but it looks like they have evolved into causing failure for smart ass bloggers.refers to a prank where people attempt to cause someone else's site to rank for an obscure or meaningless query
In a new angle on reviews, reviewers had to include links to a site using specific meaningful phrases (proscribed anchor text). Overnight, these terms, like make Money Online became new world googlebombs. The gamers would have got away with it, if they hadn't milked the idea to death to get top of the SERP.
This new algorithm isn't so harsh that it treats every review for links feature as undesirable. Good reviews with content and keywords of value to readers / searchers are what Google encourage. However, the gamers took a decent idea and turned it into a shady content-poor idea - and ultimately wasted the reviewers' time. With no desire to add any content of their own to the conversation, except make a link and ask for more submissions, the gamers banged away at the feature for months, building link networks and adding not a lot else to the value of the internet.
Google has taken a look at their contribution to content and decided enough is enough. The gamers have been knocked down a peg or two and to get back to the top of the search results they are now going to have to add valuable content again. How harsh is that!?
Surely experts know that Google search algorithms are nebulous and constantly in flux. The secrecy surrounding the content of algorithms is tantalizing, but one thing that is no secret is that Google are striving to make sure that when you search for a term, you damn well get a relevant and authoritative set of results. How hard can it be to follow that ethos?
As long as you blog fairly and expansively and don't try to manipulate scenarios (that are only ever going to be temporary flaws due to the ongoing development work of the Googloids), how wrong can most people go on their path to higher SERP and PR?
I suppose it is human nature to game, to cut corners? Certain people have that arrogance that somehow they are cleverer than a multi billion dollar gang of search engine geniuses who have forgotten more than most people ever know about search.
No doubt these gaming characters now languishing on lower pages will be back, but who is going to follow them up another garden path. Not me, at least not till I see evidence that content is king in their plan, and the best content rises to the top.
As my grandfather said, Some people are so clever they are stupid! I don't aim to be stupid, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot. I am going to keep Google happy and keep posting original content and link to relevant sites regularly but in moderation. And choose who I review for carefully. Ades was a good choice, he actually has something real to offer, and doesn't take the piss.
Do you think the new algorithm solves a problem, or opens different doors of abuse?
Behind the traffic report
01 Jun 07
Not wishing to state the obvious, but apart from comments, and stats, there isn't too much to go on when looking for evidence of effective blogging. Gut feelings are a waste of time, because digital content floating through comcast tubes doesn't give off too many human vibes, at least not the last time I looked. And who can even begin to double guess the world of Digg, or Stumble Upon? Nobody.
However, Awstats, Google Analytics or any other Stat counter worth zip cuts through the basic crap and sets your curious mind straight, at least as far as telling you how many people called by for how long and where they hail from.
That green bar in May represents 7200 unique visitors ie the number of individuals who visited in May is 10% higher than in April. Excellent. In real life that upward trend equates to a higher Alexa rank, perhaps, which equates to more negotiating power with companies like ReviewMe, who like to see evidence of sustained action.
You could of course just be controversial for one post, and get Dugg. Visitors bookmark you and improve your "authority" in the eyes of Reviewme. But one-off visitors fail to return and then forget you and forget to unsubscribe, leaving you a little more popular overall - and somehow that is good for Reviewme and readers?
(FWIW, Ed's reviews are free and to be honest, building a reputation for interesting reviewing is more important than pocket money just now.)
3 times more pages viewed in May than January. Not bad. In real world terms, that means the 5 sites currently in the ad box under my left side bar get 6000 impressions per month. The freebie, zero money down zero to pay offer is worth anything from $10 to $1.50 depending on where you compare.
Kontera, the adlinks that slow down your website, is another page view oriented deal. They usually ask for evidence of 500,000 pages monthly before they even look at you. Joel Comm will get you in for less however! And no, I am not going to mention the other JC because he makes out that his are the only readers Kontera gives concessions to.
I smile when bloggers ask for money to cover bandwidth costs. Nothing wrong with generating an income, but if you are so strapped for cash that you need to beg, or more conventionally, fill your site with ads to supplement $5 a month for a web host, maybe you should forget ads and blogging and get a paper round!
I say $5, the current cost of a small ASmallOrange hosting plan, but at current rates, the bandwidth supplied by ASO actually equates to $1 a month. When I get 35000 uniques a month I will have to upgrade to $10 a month. Shoot. But at that stage, if I charge to advertise on The Pisstakers, it won't be because I need $10, but because I will have something to offer advertisers! Funny how it all ties in.
This is interesting to me. I know exactly where my first round of foreign correspondents are going to be located. Anonymity is a shame for the Unknowns, whoever they are. Those dark lurkers will never be famous.
Doing a meaningless calculation produced the meaningless stat of 1150 hours usage last month!
Who says Google aren't important! ? And (Images) is a new twist for many sites. And Powerset is a semantic language search engine for the future.
Thanks to the visitors who call by regularly, much appreciated, and if it continues, I hope your patronage will be rewarded with ever more valuable links from The Pisstakers.
Don't forget that Technorati deletes links over 6 months old, so keep posting about all your fave sites, else their popularity will wane.
And I will be interested to see what happens to traffic next month, because I am about to go all giddy and upgrade my blogging software which as I mentioned, has been super SEO-ed and promises to be a google whore/friend of spectacular dimensions. So, till next month, I'm all statted out.
However, Awstats, Google Analytics or any other Stat counter worth zip cuts through the basic crap and sets your curious mind straight, at least as far as telling you how many people called by for how long and where they hail from.
Unique visitors
You could of course just be controversial for one post, and get Dugg. Visitors bookmark you and improve your "authority" in the eyes of Reviewme. But one-off visitors fail to return and then forget you and forget to unsubscribe, leaving you a little more popular overall - and somehow that is good for Reviewme and readers?
(FWIW, Ed's reviews are free and to be honest, building a reputation for interesting reviewing is more important than pocket money just now.)
Pages visited
Kontera, the adlinks that slow down your website, is another page view oriented deal. They usually ask for evidence of 500,000 pages monthly before they even look at you. Joel Comm will get you in for less however! And no, I am not going to mention the other JC because he makes out that his are the only readers Kontera gives concessions to.
Bandwidth
I say $5, the current cost of a small ASmallOrange hosting plan, but at current rates, the bandwidth supplied by ASO actually equates to $1 a month. When I get 35000 uniques a month I will have to upgrade to $10 a month. Shoot. But at that stage, if I charge to advertise on The Pisstakers, it won't be because I need $10, but because I will have something to offer advertisers! Funny how it all ties in.
Countries sending visitors
This is interesting to me. I know exactly where my first round of foreign correspondents are going to be located. Anonymity is a shame for the Unknowns, whoever they are. Those dark lurkers will never be famous.
Time spent on site
Doing a meaningless calculation produced the meaningless stat of 1150 hours usage last month!
Search engine referrals
Who says Google aren't important! ? And (Images) is a new twist for many sites. And Powerset is a semantic language search engine for the future.
Conclusion
Thanks to the visitors who call by regularly, much appreciated, and if it continues, I hope your patronage will be rewarded with ever more valuable links from The Pisstakers.
Don't forget that Technorati deletes links over 6 months old, so keep posting about all your fave sites, else their popularity will wane.
And I will be interested to see what happens to traffic next month, because I am about to go all giddy and upgrade my blogging software which as I mentioned, has been super SEO-ed and promises to be a google whore/friend of spectacular dimensions. So, till next month, I'm all statted out.
Amazon amaze with S3 services
03 May 07
Not that I am suggesting you buy in now, (ask Wallstreet Fighter for those sort of tips) but Amazon the shopping giant has to be a good bet for future growth. They are ploughing a mighty impressive furrow with their S3 services software and ensuring the future continues to hold great promise for them in the shoposphere.
What is S3?
It is not a variant of car from Audi, but it has a hot engine to power all sorts of database search - Amazon's database, of course. Working on a simple theory, that the more searches made, the more sales will follow, Amazon are encouraging developers to tap into lots of juicy shopping info and present it in imaginative ways off the back of the S3 framework.
TicTap and Amazon
This is a periodic feature on The Pisstakers. Simple random search based on keywords, plus simple presentation with lots of pop-up info. Ideal for shoppers and/or bloggers short of material!
Penny book store
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Auto parts review
Fancy writing about a muffler, or a Xantrex 852...power back-up unit, now's your chance!
Conclusion about S3 services
The upside of all this is that Amazon S3 enables developers to make sense of a website that many find unusable. I am talking amazon.com, not The Pisstakers btw.
Younanimous social search engine becomes Aftervote
05 Apr 07
No sooner did we write up some info on a new meta search engine called Younanimous, than the developers unanimously decide that you need to know it henceforth as Aftervote. In this case, I dunno, calling a spade a spade sort of explains better what the search engine does, but Younanimous is so cool and so evocative.
What is in a name?
There was an article by Pud (of Adbrite and Fucked Company-Techcrunch April Fool's fame) where he went into the machinations of entrepreneurs tackling product naming. Would Flickr have taken off if it were called Yahoo Online Photos? Probably not. But, then again, I could conjecture that Google Maps may have flown better as Larry's G-spot mapping, or G-Maps. And something as retro as GTRE (G-Topographic representations of earth) could have captured the imagination, had they tried hard enough to market the name! So who knows the answer to names.
Younanimous upgraded into Aftervote
I guess the main thing is to make sure the product works well and offers users a newer, better experience than anyone else has been able to do, so far. No doubt the list of improvements coming into Aftervote, will leave Younanimous in the dust. To name but a handful:
—Per Engine Weighting
—Fix Social Bookmarking Links
—404 pages
—Fix ‘back button’ issue via ajax
—error handling
— change title on page for search
—install plugin on all pages
—Add Multiple pages ( Ala, 1-2-3-4 next)
—popdown for toolbar
—Fix Social Bookmarking Links
—404 pages
—Fix ‘back button’ issue via ajax
—error handling
— change title on page for search
—install plugin on all pages
—Add Multiple pages ( Ala, 1-2-3-4 next)
—popdown for toolbar
Unanimous name changes may work for them, but I reckon the developers should keep their finger on the pulse and ask more than their mates what rings best as a name tag for their superb meta web search engine. Our original highly out of date summary of Younanimous social web search awaits you here!
