SEO by the Sea

As much as I love exploring search engines, and how they tick, sometimes its good to get away from behind the monitor, and go exploring outdoors.

I’ve been writing recently about topics such as how search engines might mine data found on the Web, and in their own log files to learn more about the intent behind searchers queries, but I learned a little about a different kind of mining this past weekend with a trip to a local Gold Mining Camp Museum.

The earliest history of gold mining in Virginia dates back to 1804, and miners dug ore out of Virginia’s mines until World War II, though many speculators moved out West during the California Gold Rush. In the early 1800′s Virginia and surrounding southern states were the major gold producing region in the United States.

Continue reading Hornet’s Balls and Gold Mining

People still read books. I started on Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness not long ago. I’m about a fifth of the way through, and I’ve already added “Choice architecture” to my list of concepts to study more, and I’m looking more carefully at the choices I make.

Seeing a lot of intriguing search patents published by Yahoo over the past few months, and that’s made me sad. I don’t know if they will end up in the graveyard of unfulfilled intellectual property, or migrate to Redmond, Washington, with Microsoft taking over Yahoo’s search results.

My favorite baseball team is in first place in their division after more than a decade straight of losing seasons (Go Reds!). Part of the reason for their winning comes from a few trades that have turned out better than expected, and part comes from an improved minor league system. I can’t help thinking of that as I watch Yahoo search engineers move to Microsoft or begin startups of their own. Also wondering if the Yahoo/Bing search merger has helped to made Google stronger. Especially when observing things like Yahoo’s Chief Scientist of Search choosing to join Google instead of Bing.

Seeing too many Search Engine Optimization tools that include keyword density calculators. Please stop.

Continue reading Some Random Observations

Simon Owens, from Bloggasm, sent me a note yesterday pointing out a post at MediaShift – Google Blocks Chrome Browser Use in Syria, Iran.

When I received his message, I had been working upon a post for Blog Action Day 2008, and had started compiling resources that nonprofits working on issues involving poverty might find useful. But the idea of Google limiting access to their Chrome browser had me thinking about how important it is to provide access to information and to tools to access that information (pdf) to people around the world.

Google does offer a number of programs that can help non profit organizations, such as

Google Grants,
YouTube Nonprofit Program
Google checkout for Nonprofits
Google Earth Outreach

Continue reading Search Engines, Poverty, and Opportunity: Google Blocking Chrome Downloads in Syria and Iran

There are many web sites for nonprofit organization online that could use a little direction, a little help from people in the web design and internet marketing communities.

I came across a site this weekend that works to connect professionals interested in helping non profits with organizations that need their help.

The Taproot Foundation is a non profit that partners with corporations, universities and trade associations to help provide pro bono marketing, human resources and IT consulting to non profit organizations.

The term “pro bono” means “for the good,” and Taproot has been working to connect business professionals with non profits since 2001, enabling those professionals to provide a few hours a week to help organizations that can benefit from their experience and expertise.

Many of the Taproot projects involved creating or updating web sites for non profits. Here are some of the names of non profits that have been benefitting with Taproot, on projects involving basic or advanced web sites:

Continue reading Pro Bono Opportunities for Non Profit Web Site Marketing and Development

Since I spend a lot of time over at the web site of the US Patent and Trademark Office, looking for patent information, sometimes I get questions from someone about the goings on over there.

Charlie Anzman noticed recently that both Apple and Adobe (warning – audio and video start playing on arrival) were touting new products with the name AIR in them. Charlie made a post at his blog asking if it were possible to Patent Air, and called upon me to see if I could give him an answer:

“Is it possible, one of these guys can get a patent on AIR?”

Continue reading Trademarking Air

Ok, so why is a blog that usually focuses upon internet marketing and search related patents publishing a post about saving amphibians?

The short answer is that I was asked very nicely, by Jeff Davis of Frog Matters and Amphibian Ark.

The longer answer is addressed by some other folks who are also posting about the Year of the Frog:

Darren Naish, vertebrate palaeontologist, and blogger at Tetrapod Zoology – Get Ready for 2008: Year of the Frog

Continue reading 2008 is the Year of the Frog

I had read that a hearing regarding the proposed Google-Doubleclick merger was going in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights on Thursday.

In looking for information about the hearing, I also decided to take a look at when and how Google was mentioned by Congress on the Congressional Record.

A search on Thomas for the 110th Congress yielded 43 results, and I’ve listed those below, along with the quotes where the word “Google” was used. It’s difficult to link directly to documents found through Thomas, so if you want to see more context for those, the best way might be to go to the Thomas page that I’ve linked to in this paragraph, and search for “Google.”

Congress has used Google as an example (good and bad), and as a verb. The number of results found for a search in Google has been used as proof of a position, and as a clever retort of that position.

There are mentions of Google the company, and Google as a new employer of a former agency member. One Congressman pleaded for others to look at Google Maps for proof of the size of a particular land mass.

Continue reading How Does Congress Use Google? Mentions on the Congressional Record

I was trying to come up with an idea for a fake patent application for April Fool’s day, like a description of something earth shaking, and completely unbelievable. My plan was to provide a detailed description, and then have a link to the “patent application” that was something completely made up.

I come across a lot of unusual patent applications as I’m searching to find what’s been filed by the search engines, like a method of building a better snowman, or creating a crash warning system for cars that learns how to avoid accidents, or even a simple antigravity device, or carrying informational codes in DNA.

I didn’t expect the folks at the Goddard Space Flight Center to come out with a patent application that sounded more like science fiction than science.

The focus of this patent application is on monitoring spacecraft, and determining when one craft amongst a fleet may be experiencing problems and can’t continue with a mission. Here’s a snippet from the patent filing:

Continue reading NASA’s Light-Sailing, Miniature, Nanotechnology-Based Spacecraft Artificial Intelligence Management Patent Application