Para procurar blogs.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is known by US Consumers as Black Friday.

Many shoppers begin searching for Black Friday deals seven to ten days before Black Friday actually arrives.

A quick way to create a list of up to the minute information on Black Friday deals is to search Google News and Google Blog search.

Google News Black Friday Deals

Google News provides links to recognized news media stories about Black Friday deals while Google Blog Search provides lists of blogs with information not often available from traditional news sources.

Google Blogs Search Black Friday Deals

Combined Google News and Google Blog search provide a wealth of Black Friday deals information.

December 1997: Jorn Barger invents the term ”weblog” to descrbe his own website

December 1998: An inventory of all known weblogs is taken; it tallies all of 23 sites

April 1999: Peter Merholz coins the shorter term ”blog”

August 1999: Pyra Labs launches Blogger, a free blog-hosting service

October 2001: Six Apart releases Movable Type for making blogs

December 2002: Political bloggers drive Trent Lott from US Senate majority leader post over allegedly racist comments

February 2003: Google buys Pyra Labs and its blogger.com; becomes the world’s top blog host

March 2003: The Oxford English Dictionary lists blog as a noun and a verb

September 2003: Worldwide blog count soars to 1m

August 2004: Bloggers are cleared to cover US political conventions

May 2005: Blogosphere explodes to 10m blogs

September 2005: Google introduces blog search features

November 2005: Blogosphere double in size again; at 20m outposts.

This information was obtained from Forbes.

In my last post I mentioned a book I recently finished reading by digital marketing expert Mitch Joel titled, “Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone.”

This fantastic book integrates digital marketing, social media, personal branding and entrepreneurship in a very clear and easy to understand way. A great read! Below is a list of 15 main points from the book that stood out to me. It was tough to choose which main points to include in my list so if you’ve read the book and think I missed one feel free to add to the list or submit your own list. I’d love to hear what other people took away from this great book.

15 Key highlights from “Six Pixels of Separation”

1. Trust + Community = ROI
ROI is now driven by how loyal and engaged your consumers are, especially when using online channels.

2. No one is “using” anymore. Everyone is creating.
There is no such thing as a “user” anymore. No one is “using” anything anymore.  They are creating. You are creating. It’s all about creating. Ex.) Facebook: Everyone creates their own experience through the many profile apps Facebook offers. Add your own pictures, create events, build pages, create groups, update your status, send people messages, online chat etc. They’re all centered around the idea of letting people create their own Facebook experience.

3. Embrace the “conversation”
Everyone is talking about starting, joining, or being a “conversation” in order to grow your business. New online media platforms such as blogs and Twitter all embrace the idea of conversation. Before choosing to use online channels you must embrace the conversation.

4. Human nature is about community.
It’s human nature to want to be part of a community. Online channels offer another community for people to participate and connect in. Start your own community and embrace your members.

5. What are people saying about you and your company?
6 free online tools to help you find out:
1. RSS readers (Google reader)
2. News Alerts (Google alerts)
3. Watchlists (Technorati)
4. Google blog search
5. Search Engines
6.  Google trends and Facebook Lexicon

6. Online communities = brand building power
You can’t have a strong business without a strong community so harness the power of online communities to build your business. NOW is the time to harness the power that lies in online communities!

7. Think ripples, not splashes.
Traditional advertising campaigns = big splash in a pool of water.
Splashes do work (when done right) but only for a limited time.
Using less energy you can throw small pebble (your idea) into the pool and let the ripple effect take hold. Ripples = powerful WOM conversations generated when you share your content online. In the digital world it’s a lot easier and less expensive to create a ripple than a splash.

8. “Great brands provoke people”
Don’t worry about controlling your brand. Focus on creating a great brand with a great message that resonates with consumers. Concentrate on connecting to your consumers and creating engaging brand experiences.

9. Make personal branding PERSONAL in a digital world
Online channels are used to connect, share, and grow and are a great way to build your personal brand. They can help you establish yourself and your company as a recognized industry authority. Online channels used towards building a global audience are creating new business models and new marketing campaigns that are targeted and relevant, and deliver tremendous ROI.

10. Quality NOT quantity
Attention does not equal trust. Trust is gained through good content, engaging participation on your part, and how you engage with your community. Be helpful. Be sincere. The long-term game of sustainability in the online channels is one of quality versus quantity.

11. Online credibility is EVERYTHING.
Very few brands are embracing the idea of creating credibility through the use of digital channels. Most look for quick fixes. (i.e. banner ads, 3rd party email lists, add anyone to Facebook, Twitter etc.) Ask your consumers for their thoughts, ideas and comments and then be proactive with their feedback in order to gain credibility.

12. Invest in creating great content
People want to work with a company that is seen and recognized as an industry leader. Investing in online channels can help your business create great content such as text, images, audio and video, which provide consumers with information that adds value to their lives, gives them things to think about and keeps them engaged with your brand much longer than a thirty-second t.v. commercial.

13. Embrace collaboration
Readily available, free and easy to use, online tools allow easy mass collaboration between you and your consumers. See and embrace collaboration with your consumers as a business opportunity, a business development strategy and part of your long-term growth.

14. Mobile marketing = huge business opportunities
In Mitch Joel’s own words, “Cellphones have become the personal remote control for our lives.” Mobile channels offer business opportunities to connect, share and grow with your costumers. Be a leader. Seize the opportunity before others in your industry do.

15. Everyone is connected. Connect your business to everyone.

If you’ve read the book I’d love to see your list of main points or hear your thoughts on the book. Hope to hear from you!

Technorati geprobeerd, maar nog te weinig sjoege van wat ik ermee moet om er iets van te vinden. Mijn eigen blog was nog niet ontdekt door Technorati waardoor ik me afvroeg in hoeverre andere door mij gewilde blogs er wel zijn. Die van de ZB vond ik gelukkig wel, maar dat wist ik eigenlijk al door de tweet van Edwin.

Onder het motto RTFM toch maar even verder gekeken. Ik schijn mijn blog bij Technorati te moeten claimen om te zorgen dat het wordt meegenomen door hun zoekrobots. Tja. Goed om te weten, maar nu even niet. Komt ook een beetje door de negatieve tweet van hierboven, dat ik me daar nu even niet in ga verdiepen. Misschien later?

De volgende in de lijst is Google Blog Search. Daar had ik meer succes en deed ik meteen een paar opmerkelijke ontdekkingen. Ten eerste blijkt Janaca een naam te zijn waar levende mensen daadwerkelijk mee rondlopen en ten tweede is er een blog waar een tweet van Ingmar aan mij is opgenomen. Weird?!!

Ik heb een paar keer de zoekterm janaca op de blogs losgelaten en kreeg tussen de 38 en 133 hits. Heb er een beetje doorheen gebladerd maar vond alleen die tweet van Ingmar en nog een melding ergens op de #23ad website, maar die tel ik dan maar even niet mee. De term Archivaris in de Zeeuwse klei (alleen zonder aanhalingstekens!) gaf 1 treffer: de verwijzing naar dit blog, die ik bij blogspot heb aangemaakt. Voorlopige conclusie: Google blijft voor mij vooralsnog de meest gebruikte…

Toen verder werken over egofeeds. Leuk, ik heb er direct een paar aangemaakt, waaronder natuurlijk m’n eigen.

Het klopt wel, zo raakt Netvibes steeds verder gevuld. Leuk!

Cauti si ajungi la mine :

palarie intr-un picior , ghici ciupercă   – sunt deja celebra datorita acelei persoane ma bucur ca aveti un reper

tigara  – uuh… daca gasesti pe google , poti sa-mi lasi si mie una

m-am plictisit de mine – serios? Si tu esti asa dragut/a incat vrei sa ma plictisesti si pe mine… admirabil!!

poze cu fetite mici intre 10 ani si pedofili - eei , acu-i acu’!!! Si ce fetite mici ai gasit aici ? Da pedofili?? :>

sti sa te f*ti – Asta chiar nu imi imaginez cum te-a adus la blogul meu.    Nu ma gandesc sa devin Laura Andresan , deci aici n-ai sa gasesti niciodata lectii de sex

cercei de buric - ?

hot girl – uuuh, da!!! Cea mai hot!! J) :>

fatza de curva - oare? Aah , m-am prins!! Vrei sa-ti faci operatie estetica :>

conditii pentru a deschide o brutarie - asta cu brutaria e de la Dede =)))

sut-in-fund -acu’..eu as da cu placere , credeti-ma… dar nu asa , degeaba.. asa ca n-ai sa gasesti nici asta pe blog

google dracu si printesa lui  - Asta chiar ma face curioasa… daca reusesti sa gasesti o poza , mi-o dai si mie pe mail? :>

palmele date la fund - pervers nebunatic ce esti tu ))

imi place si nu imi place de el – si te astepti sa-ti pun eu ordine in sentimente? Habar n-am ce-i in inima mea.. imi pare rau ca nu te pot ajuta.

Hi5 cu panarame dezbracate  – vezi pitzipoanca.org

scuze ca sa nu mergi la scoala  – asta-i mortala =)) unde ajung copii nostri…
pitipoance cocalari hi5 – dragul meu , aici e wordpress. Vezi hi5.com

panarame de femei – spuse intelectualul realizat care a ajuns sa caute asta pe google :-j

iliuta otv - pe asta ti-l doresti? n-avem si noi fantezii normale,  ma fetitza?

In business, you want to stay ahead of the competition. One of the best ways to do that is to know what the competition is up to in the first place.

You need to be aware of what innovations they’ve got in the pipeline. What big deals are in the works? Are there any weaknesses you can exploit?

Ah, but how to find all that out?

You must snoop around.

Corporate espionage is illegal, yet you can still learn the inside story.

Short of coaxing information out of someone who works for a competitor, the best tool for sleuthing is right at your fingertips. Akin to a search engine, you can spider around the web to uncover competitive intelligence.

Here are three ways to go about it:

Stay on alert

People are likely talking and writing about the competition online. But how do you know where and when it’s happening?

Set up alerts. All major search engines enable you to set up free news alerts from their news sites. For an extra edge Google alerts not only sorts through news, but also blogs, video, discussion groups and the web in general. Socialmention.com works in a similar way, though its focus is social media. Another means to monitor blogs is to use a blog search engine, such as Technorati, Blog Search Engine,  Google Blog Search and Bloglines, where you can search for terms and then set up RSS alerts to keep up with online conversations.

There are also for-pay tools for online watchdogging (some also provide analytics) such as The Search Monitor,  PR Newswire eWatch, Trackur, CyberAlert, and Radian6.

Scour your competitor’s web site

Plenty of great information is right there for all to see. Yet you’d be surprised how often this most basic investigative tool is overlooked.

Thoroughly scour a competitor’s web site.

Analyze press releases and news announcements. Sometimes a company’s plans are out in the open, but you also need to read between the lines. Certain key new hires can indicate an intended but as yet unannounced entry into a new area of business. Reductions in workforce can be early sign of trouble, or perhaps the company is looking to get out of one area and move into another.

Check out the careers section. Note what job categories have the most openings. Are they doing a lot of executive hiring? Read the job descriptions, especially if the position is new to the company. Here again you may be able to tell if a company is looking to ramp up existing areas of business or enter new ones.

Review product, service and landing pages. Note what features and benefits are highlighted. What’s the gist of the sale pitch? This is all great fodder for knowing how you can counter with even better promotional efforts.

Visit discussion groups, forums and corporate blogs. These can be goldmines for finding out what’s up with a company beyond its marketing and public relations schemes. Notice what’s being hyped. What are customers complaining about? The latter can help you identify potential weaknesses to pounce on.

Read annual reports and financial statements. If it’s a publicly traded company these documents are available. They’re another great source of information where you can glean insight into what’s really going on deep inside an enterprise. For instance, if you see a sizable rise or drop in R&D that gives you some idea of how much innovation is in the works. Financial breakdowns can provide clues about how specific divisions are performing.

Social media. A company’s online presence is more than its main web site. Be sure to pay attention to what competitor’s are doing, and to what customers are saying, on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Let them tell you what’s new

To get the latest news and special offers straight from a competitor’s mouth sign up for its RSS feeds, email newsletters and other promotions.

Note: Some businesses comb through these lists and weed out email addresses that belong to members of the competition. The workaround here is to go undercover: Set up a free email account with Goggle, Yahoo, or Hotmail.

– Deni Kasrel

What to YOU think of these three ways to spy on the competition? Do you know of other (legal) methods to gather competitive intelligence? Comments welcome.

So, we’ve graduated into the worst economy since the Great Depression, but lucky for us we have this handy thing called the Internet. This is a working list, so please add comments on other resources, or articles that you know about.

Tip #1: Leveraging Social Networks, and cleaning up your personal pages. According to the New York Times, more and more companies are using sites like Linkedin and Twitter to find and screen employees. This means if you aren’t using these pages, or if you are using them poorly, then it could leave you out of the eyes of future employers. Remember the stuff you post online can be seen by most people. Adjust your privacy settings and follow the general rule of thumb that, “if you wouldn’t want your parents to see it, then it’s probably not good to post openly online.”

Useful Social Networking Sites for Job Hunting

Linkedin- If you don’t know about Linkedin, I would highly recommend setting up an account. There’s a job search and it acts as a sort of “online resume”. Some companies exclusively put job postings on this site. Join networks to increase your visibility and make sure your page looks similar to your resume- avoid spelling mistakes, and keep it updated. Also, recommend friends and colleagues, who you would recommend outside the internet. Usually, they’ll return the favor.

Twitter- I’m sure everyone has heard of Twitter, and many people when first seeing this are very put off by it. It seems mundane, but if it is used correctly, Twitter can be a great resource. This article gives a basic overview on how to leverage twitter to find jobs or get tips. Keep your Tweets PC. That NyTimes article said that 7% of employers are tracking future employees on twitter, and I think this number is only going to grow. Also, there are twitter accounts dedicated to job postings.

There are also social networking sites that are designed for specific professions, experience, and companies. Be sure to research and see if there are any that would be good for you.

Tip #2: Use the Internet to find tips and articles to hone up your resume and get other general tips.

Google Blog Search is a wonderful resource. Just type in some keywords like “how to build a resume” or “how to network” and there’s a myriad of good (and sometimes not so good) articles.

Also, use websites like Digg and Reddit to find good articles. Type keywords into their search function and sort the answers by the highest rated.

Some good articles I’ve found:

Make an impression with your resume in 30 seconds

Resume Templates for Microsoft Word (download the higher rated ones and use them as a basic starting point for your resume)

10 Tips for a Slightly Less Awful Resume

60 of the most creative business cards

Tip #3: Use job search websites. There are many of these and it’s sometimes hard to sort through everything. I personally like Simply Hired, but there are many more including, Craiglist, Monster.com, and Linkedin. Here’s a list of the top 10 job search engines. Narrow down searches with advanced searches to make your life easier. Another tip is to look in job specific forums. For example, if you work in the arts, there are many art related internet forums. Search these for job postings and tips. They are great resources.

Tip #4- Don’t forget old school approaches. Print some decent looking business cards and use them. Use your networks. Join alumni associations and use college career services. Ask friends for advice or if they’ve heard of any job openings. These will get your foot in the door. Many people talk about informal interviews as well. This is asking advice from professionals on how they got their job and any advice they would give to someone looking to start a career in that field. Don’t forget to help out friends or acquaintances whenever you get the opportunity. This will open doors in the future.

Be proactive and good luck!

Know of any other resources or tips? Please comment below!

1967

• The Internet is born. It has been commercially available since 1988.

1979

• A decentralized system of discussion boards called the USENET (User Network) is created.

1994

• The online travelogue travel-library.com is launched as a community on USENET.

1996

• cyber24.com is launched by photographer Rick Smolan to promote collaborative photo blogging under a project named ‘24 hours in Cyberspace’.

1997

• John Barger, an American blogger, publishes short posts in reverse chronology calling them the ‘Robot Wisdom Weblog’ . Soon similar web pages came to be commonly known as weblogs.

1998

• Blog hosting-cum-online journal service called ‘LiveJournal’ is launched.

• ‘OpenDiary’, another online journaling tool is launched.

1999

• As a web joke, blogger Peter Merholz broke the term weblog as ‘we blog‘ in the sidebar of his blog ‘peterme.com’. The term later gave way for the new generic term Blog.

• The blog host ‘Blogger’ is launched by the Pyra Labs. It will be taken over by Google Inc. in 2003.
• A journal hosting tool for beginners called ‘DiaryLand’ is launched.

2001

• The advent of political blogging begins with ‘Instapundit’.
• One of the first audio blogs ‘Buzzgrinder’ is launched to enable members to upload mp3 files in to their blogs.
• The bloggies awards are initiated. The winners will be chosen by the public and blogs will be nominated in around 30 categories.

2002

• The photo blogging service ‘Picasa’ is launched by Idealab. It will be taken over by Google Inc. in 2004.
• One of the first blog search engines ‘Technorati’ is launched.

2003

• A travel blog called ‘BootsnAll’ is launched.
• One of the first vblogs ‘Metacafe’ is launched.

• The blog hosting-cum-social networking website ‘MySpace’ is launched.
• The photo blogging websites ‘Photobucket’ is launched. It will be taken over by Fox Interactive Media in 2007.
• One of the first open source blog hosting websites/ blog tools ‘WordPress’ is launched.

• The Weblog awards are initiated.  The winners are chosen by public votes.

2004

• The blog search engine BlogPulse is launched by ‘IntelliSeek’. It will be taken over by the Nielsen Company.
• A health based blog hosting service called ‘HealthDiaries’ is launched.

• The photo blog hosting service ‘Flickr’ is launched. It will be taken over by Yahoo! in 2005.
• The BOBs – Best of the Blogs awards are initiated. The winners are selected by an international jury of independent journalists, media experts and blog experts.

2005

• ‘Blogher’ – A women oriented blog hosting service is launched.
• One of the largest and video blogging site ‘DailyMotion’ is launched.
• Google introduces a blog search engine called ‘Google Blog Search’.
• Yahoo launches a blog hosting service – Yahoo! 360°

• One of the most popular video blogs ‘YouTube’ is launched. It will be taken over by Google Inc. in 2004.

2006

• One of the first micro-blogging website ‘Twitter’ is launched.
• Another micro-blogging service called ‘Jaiku’ is launched. It will be taken over by Google Inc. in 2009.

2008

• Another micro-blogging service called ‘Plurk’ is launched.

ascoltare la blogosfera con un Google Blog Search che è un motore di ricerca specializzato nei blog, costa poco (il tempo che ci si dedica) e fa quello che serve, che ne dici ?

• Google Blog Search assomiglia molto a Google
• permette di trovare informazioni pubblicate solo nei blog
• è molto più pratico da usare con la ricerca avanzata per affinare la ricerca ed avere meno risultati inutili
• inoltre puoi vedere quali e quanti post del tuo blog sono presenti utilizzando la funzione “site“
• e quanti link portano al tuo blog utilizzando la funzione “link“

semplice, cosa ne pensi? ma ascoltare la blogosfera è una attività continua e quindi per evitare di andare tutti i giorni su Google Blog Search, tanto vale ricevere direttamente gli ascolti non in posta elettronica perchè la mailbox è già intasata, meglio un feed rss, come spiega anche questo simpatico video su rss (in inglese)

• come si fa:
  • puoi usare Google Reader o altro .. le scelte possibili sono tantissime
• cosa puoi ascoltare:
  • cosa si dice nella blogosfera di te o dei tuoi prodotti
  • cosa si dice nella blogosfera di altri argomenti che ti interessano
  • come per esempio ascoltare la blogosfera sui tuoi concorrenti

spero che quello che ho scritto ti sia utile, mi piacerebbe sapere cosa ne pensi …

Where do you go when you need your music fix? 

The article “Top 10 Things Better Than Sex” quotes a survey conducted by Marrakesh Records that proves that “Music is hugely important… 60% of 16-24 year-olds would rather go without sex than music for a week. This increases to 70% for 16-19 year-olds.”

In no particular order (because I did enough work finding the sites, let alone organizing them) here’s the top 10 best blogs to visit to get your indie music fix.

How did I find these? I did a google blog search and I judged the blogs by the titles. The thing about Indie kids is that they love to be avante guard, so it was easy to pick the good blogs by their titles. I also find that Indie kids like to wear plaid with stripes, drink PBR and talk watch the movie “Harold and Maude.”

10. The Walrus

9. hear ya

8. Covert Curiosity – I love Austin, and I’ve never even been there. This is why – they have an amazing music scene there. 

7.  Fingertips Music – free and legal downloads, what a neat concept! 

6. Electric Mustache

5. Deaf Indie Elephants

I couldn’t find a picture to put with this post and the site isn’t update as much as I’d like, but they have a good 2009 compilation of best tracks. 

4. The Catbirdseat

3. Indie Shuffle - Okay, so you can’t download the tracks on this site, but they pick some fantastic songs, and if you’re internet savvy you can probably find them somewhere else anyway … 

2. Obscure Sound – This site almost didn’t make the top 10. The synopsis’ were a little too long, the pictures they post are almost uninteresting and the layout is boring. But, they go to great lengths to bring you a few tracks from each featured artist. The tracks are for very specific tastes, however, so you may not find a lot of things you like here. 

1. Everybody Cares – Ideally I was only posting blogs on here that have a lot of music posted and are updated frequently, but I stumbled across this blog and fell in love with the title “Everybody Cares”. It’s so true, everybody does care, and their most recent post is an Elliott Smith track which sealed the already pretty tightly sealed deal. 

Ok, you’ve already Googled your own name a few times and laughed at some of the things people with your name (henceforth called your “dopplegangers”) have done. Now, while you know what you’ve done in your online life, a hiring manager or HR person could easily mistake these doppelgangers for you while doing a background check prior to a job offer. With that in mind the following is a list of tips and resources to check out just what can be found out about you or any of your doppelgangers and how to boost your online presence at the same time.

1. Google

Google is the first and most obvious place to start. I typed in my name and  straight away found two comedians: Rick Byrne and Richard Byrne. There’s also another Richard Byrne, a professor of sociology at the University of St Andrews who has published many books on primate psychologist. Nor am I likely to be mistaken for the Richard Byrne, the Martial Arts Grand Master.

You might think “so what?” Well, I certainly hope a HR person wouldn’t think I was this Ricky Byrne. It’s good to know about what’s out there and to combat potentially being mistaken for all these other Rick/RIchard Byrnes I send people my email address (based on my site’s URL), my site’s URL, my LinkedIn profile as well as my cell phone number as the signature of all my emails. This cuts out the possibility of people having to track me down online by directing them specifically to the sites I can control.

2. Check out variations on your URL

I focus on my ByrneCommunications.com URL as sometimes people looking for me often end up on RickByrne.com which shows some guy stroking an Alligator. Ok, I’m probably not going to be mistaken for him but I have been mistaken for another designer also named Richard Byrne. One Creative Director thought he was me and had very negative comments about the work on his website. As a result I created as much distinction as possible from his website. I’ve taken the same approach to dealing with Byrne Communications Inc., a small marketing agency in New York. Not only will a distinctive look help with this problem but also making sure that all emails have your site’s URL in the signature so people don’t have to google you to find it.

3. LinkedIn

Make sure your LinkedIn Profile is up to date and has a photo so that you can be discerned from all the other people with the same name.  LinkedIn’s ability to show your contacts is also likely to point to the right ”you” too. Get involved with the discussion groups that are specific for your industry (or segment of your industry). This will put you in direct contact with peers in a format that gives you a chance to shine by commenting or providing insight.

For more details see my posting on LinkedIn here.

4. Facebook

On Facebook I remove all personal details and set everything in the privacy settings to “friends only” for security reasons. A genuine friend looking for me will know it’s me specifically from my name and photo alone. Put up a photo you’d like HR/hiring managers to see – I’d rather be found as me than this guy who may be too old for positions I might be applying to. I also know someone who deliberately has a false name on their Facebook profile so that no one from their professional world will find them there. Also keep posting things to your page to push it higher up in the Search Results.

5. Intelius

I did a search for myself using my legal name and home town on intelius.com. There I was – or so I thought. It turns out that there is someone with the same name (including the same middle name) liveing just a few blocks away. Armed with these details you can actually physically locate your dopplegangers which is relevant for the next point…

6. Crimes and Misdemeanors

Check for any accidental attributions of crime to you by running your name through any of these sites (http://www.criminalsearches.com,  http://mybackgroundcheck.com and http://www.peoplefinders.com) just in case a doppelganger of yours is out there breaking the law. I found another Rick Byrne with lots of traffic violations – luckily in another state but what if he had been in the same State/County? Would a HR/hiring manager take the time to check that it wasn’t the same person if the incident was in a town I had worked in previously?

You might think “so what” but I am a little sensitive because at a previous address the IRS mistook me for another person with the same name who lived on the same 12 mile long road. They probably thought ‘how could there be two people with the same name on the same road?’ and promptly sent me the bill for THEIR tax arrears. If I hadn’t found out about it and cleared it up the IRS could have really blighted my credit rating. I also found another Rick Byrne in a different town who had traffic violations and there it all was online.

7. Yasni

Yasni provides a composite of information from a number of sources including Wikipedia, Amazon, LinkedIn, NamesDatabase, MySpace, Friendster, Jigsaw, Vox, jobster, IMDb, Google News and blog search, Bloglines, Find a Grave and many more. I was amazed at some of things that turned up here but not in a Google search such as old webpages from my website that I thought were down, my birthday and book wishlist (both on Amazon – see below) photos of me (one from Facebook and one from LinkedIn). The site is not comprehensive but seems to be getting increasingly popular as companion to a Google search.

8. Online comments

Comments on Hulu.com, TV.com and similar websites can easily be found in a search as can reviews on Amazon.com so be careful what you say. Check these sites for comments under your name – again just in case there is someone else out there. If you find a topic you can excel in keep track of it through BackType.

Type your name in to http://www.thinkexist.com/quotes/ just in case their is something there under your namesake. You could be surprised what you find like this.

9. Photos

Check out photos of you on Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, KodakGallery.com or similar photo sites. Click “remove tag” from the ones you might deem inappropriate for a someone thinking of hiring you to find. Check your name in Google Images to just to see what you find. If undesirable images are found you may be able to contact the site to have them removed. When uploading photos make sure your name is not in the title if you don’t want them to be found by search engines and vice versa.

10. Amazon

The good thing about writing reviews on Amazon is that you can target specific books, perhaps career related and display your “thought leadership” and insight. These reviews then come up in a search. However I was shocked to find that by birthday could be found out through my Amazon account. I had naturally assumed that because it has credit card details that my Amazon account’s default privacy settings who prevent this. You could even see the books I had on my wishlist. Click “Privacy Notice” at the bottom of the page. Then Click “Your Content”  in the left hand column and click any of the options that appear below so that you get the sub-nav with the “Edit Profile” option (I’m not sure why they make it so hard to find…).

11. Blogs

Blogs can provide a great opportunity to display your insight, experience and thought leadership. If you’re not starting one of your own  then find blogs in your area of expertise (or an area you’d like to become an expert in) and practice there.

To find a doppleganger use Google Blog Search, a search engine that targets blogs specifically. I found this Rich Byrne. Luckily he blogs about totally different things.

12. MySpace

Remember that if you have a MySpace page everyone can see it so be careful what you say and post. Just being on MySpace could take away from how you are perceived for a more senior position. If you are designer make sure it looks good as you will be judged.

Conclusion

While you can’t totally eradicate all negative references to you or your doppelgangers at least being aware of what’s out there will help you bring it up in a jokey way in an email or interview. I’ve done this several times and it really helps break the ice. It also reveals whether they’ve done a Google search on you or not.

If you have a doppelganger in an area of the web where you have no presence (such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc) you may want to put something up just to make sure that the right “you” can at least be found by a HR/hiring manager.

Just like Spring cleaning you’ll need to come back and go through the exercise again once a year. It gets easier as there will (hopefully) be very few new entries in your search – unless one of your dopplegangers suddenly becomes famous. Luckily Google Alerts makes it easier by sending you an email every time something new with your name is posted online.

]]> http://myaspnet.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/checking-google-keyword-rank-a-visual-basic-serp-checker/ Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:14:39 +0000 alexhiggins732 http://myaspnet.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/checking-google-keyword-rank-a-visual-basic-serp-checker/

Check a Search Phrase’s Google Keyword Rank

As the title says this post contains code in Visual Basic (Asp.Net 2.0) to check the SERP of a keyword in Google Web Search, Google News Search and Google Blog Search. The code in this post will parse the HTML from each of the pages using built in Asp.Net WebBrowser Control and parse the search results provided from Google into a data table containing a list of Domains, Urls, Title and Description for each search engine result

The Final result of the search engine rankings are displayed in a DataGridView with the results ordered by the search engine ranking in the order they where retrieve from Google.

Getting started: Create a Windows Application In Visual Studio. On the default form, add a WebBrowser Control, A DataGridView, a textbox, a button and three radio buttons to the form. (TIP: Add a panel to the form and add the WebBrowser control into the panel) Rename the radio buttons {rbNews, rbBlogs, rbWeb} and change the text for the radio buttons to {News, Blogs, Web} respectively

Double click the button to automatically create the event handler for the button click event.

Since Google search forms all use “GET” requests instead of “POST” request, we can get the list of Google Results pro grammatically simply by requesting a URL Special formatted with search Query. Let’s define a class that has the url’s of each of the search result pages.

Public Class UrlFormats
    Public Const Google_Web As String = "http://www.google.com/search?q={0}&num=100"
    Public Const Google_Blog As String = "http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?num=100&q={0}"
    Public Const Google_News As String = "http://news.google.com/news?num=100&q={0}"
End Class

We can use this class to take a search query which we collect from our text box and the format the urls we will need to send to Google as an Http Request to retrieve our search results. To do this modify the code in the button handler so it looks as follows

 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim Phrase As String = Me.TextBox1.Text
        Dim Url As String = String.Empty
        If Me.rbBlogs.Checked Then
            Url = New Uri(String.Format(UrlFormats.Google_Blog, Phrase)).ToString
        Else
            If Me.rbNews.Checked Then
                Url = New Uri(String.Format(UrlFormats.Google_News, Phrase)).ToString
            Else
                Url = New Uri(String.Format(UrlFormats.Google_Web, Phrase)).ToString
            End If
        End If

        AddHandler WebBrowser1.DocumentCompleted, AddressOf DocumentCompleted
        Me.WebBrowser1.Navigate(Url)
    End Sub

When a user clicks the button it will make our WebBrowser control open up the correct Google web page with the search results from either the Web, Google News or Google Blogs. Once this page is opened need to capture the event that is fired when our WebBrowser control finishes loading the web page from Google, the Document_Completed Event. We already added our handler in the button click code above, so now we simply create the method to handle the delegated event.

We can do this with the following code

 Public Sub DocumentCompleted(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs)
        RemoveHandler WebBrowser1.DocumentCompleted, AddressOf DocumentCompleted
        Dim Dt As New DataTable
        Dim Col As New DataColumn("Rank")
        Col.AutoIncrement = True
        Col.AutoIncrementSeed = 1
        Col.AutoIncrementStep = 1
        Dt.Columns.Add(Col)
        Dt.Columns.Add("Title")
        Dt.Columns.Add("Domain")
        Dt.Columns.Add("Url")

        Dt.Columns.Add("Description")
        On Error Resume Next
        If Me.rbNews.Checked = True Then
            Dim Container As HtmlElement = Me.WebBrowser1.Document.GetElementById("main-table")
            If Container Is Nothing Then
                Return
            End If
            Dim Table As HtmlElement = Container.GetElementsByTagName("table")(0)
            Dim Divs As HtmlElementCollection = Table.GetElementsByTagName("div")
            For Each Div As HtmlElement In Divs
                Dim ClassName As String = Div.GetAttribute("className")
                If ClassName.StartsWith("story") Then

                    Dim TitleTag As HtmlElement = Div.GetElementsByTagName("h2")(0)
                    Dim Title As String = TitleTag.InnerText
                    Dim Row As DataRow = Dt.NewRow
                    Row("Url") = TitleTag.GetElementsByTagName("a")(0).GetAttribute("href")
                    Row("Domain") = New Uri(Row("url")).Host

                    Row("Title") = Title
                    For Each ChildDiv As HtmlElement In Div.GetElementsByTagName("Div")
                        If ChildDiv.GetAttribute("className").StartsWith("snippet") Then
                            Row("Description") = ChildDiv.InnerText
                            Exit For

                        End If
                    Next
                    Dt.Rows.Add(Row)
                End If

            Next

        Else

            If Me.rbBlogs.Checked = True Then
                Dim Container As HtmlElement = Me.WebBrowser1.Document.GetElementById("m")
                If Container Is Nothing Then
                    Return
                End If

                'Dim DivList As New List(Of HtmlElement)
                For Each Link As HtmlElement In Container.GetElementsByTagName("a")
                    If Link.GetAttribute("id").StartsWith("p-") AndAlso (Not Link.InnerText.StartsWith("More Results", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)) Then
                        Dim Row As DataRow = Dt.NewRow
                        Row("Url") = Link.GetAttribute("href")
                        Row("Domain") = New Uri(Row("url")).Host
                        Row("Title") = Link.InnerText
                        Dim Table As HtmlElement = Link.NextSibling
                        Dim FontTag As HtmlElement = Table.GetElementsByTagName("font")(2)
                        Row("Description") = FontTag.InnerText
                        Dt.Rows.Add(Row)
                    End If

                Next

            Else
                'If Me.rbWeb.Checked Then
                Dim Cites As HtmlElementCollection = Me.WebBrowser1.Document.GetElementsByTagName("cite")
                For Each Cite As HtmlElement In Cites
                    Dim Row As DataRow = Dt.NewRow
                    Row("Domain") = Cite.InnerText

                    Dim Li As HtmlElement = Cite.Parent.Parent
                    Dim Link As HtmlElement = Li.GetElementsByTagName("a")(0)
                    Row("Title") = Link.InnerText
                    Row("Url") = Link.GetAttribute("href")
                    Row("Description") = Cite.Parent.InnerText.Substring(0, Cite.Parent.InnerText.IndexOf(Cite.InnerText))
                    Dt.Rows.Add(Row)
                Next
                'End If
            End If
        End If

        Me.DataGridView1.DataSource = Dt
        Me.DataGridView1.AutoResizeColumn(1)
        Me.DataGridView1.AutoResizeColumn(3)
        Me.DataGridView1.AutoResizeColumn(4)

        Dim Strip As New ContextMenuStrip()
        Strip.Items.Add("OPEN", Nothing, AddressOf OpenClick)

        Me.DataGridView1.Columns(3).ContextMenuStrip = Strip
    End Sub

You’ll notice that the method abopoveuses the DOM (Document Object Model) to parse the HTML elements in the WebBrowser’s HTML Document. Depending on the page we are searching (News, Web or Blogs) we need to transverse a different HTML Hierarchy. We use a variety of tests including Tag Id’s, Classes, and even using Next Sibling and Dom NOde indexes to find our elements.

Once we have an object reference to the needed HTML Elements (again that’s what we do in the Vb.Net code above) from the Google search page, we take the corresponding properties, either InnerText or Href Attributes and assign the to our datarow which is then added to the Data Table created in our code above. Finally, to display the Search Engine Ranking Positions to the User we simply assign datasource of our DataGridView to use the DataTable we created.

From here the possibilities are limitless and you can tweak or extend the code to your needs. As an example, I added a final touch by adding a context menu strip that allows a user to right click the column containing the Url of the search result and open it in a new instance of Internet Explorer.

 Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        AddHandler DataGridView1.CellMouseDown, AddressOf HandleMouseDown
    End Sub
    Private Sub HandleMouseDown(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal e As DataGridViewCellMouseEventArgs)
        Try
            Console.WriteLine(e.Location)
            Me.DataGridView1.CurrentCell = Me.DataGridView1.Rows(e.RowIndex).Cells(e.ColumnIndex)
        Catch ex As Exception
        End Try
    End Sub
    Public Sub OpenClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
        Dim Ctl As DataGridViewCell = Me.DataGridView1.CurrentCell
        If Not Ctl Is Nothing Then
            Me.WebBrowser1.Navigate(Ctl.Value)
            Console.WriteLine(Ctl.Value)
        End If
    End Sub

One caveat is that if you send to many requests to Google from the same IP in a given time period, Google will block the IP from accessing the site. However, if you allow some time between requests you shouldn’t run into that problem. If you need to process results in Bulk you’ll have to use various proxy addresses to hide your IP., I’ll post the code for that another time. I’lll also post a code to parse Google Search Results from both the RSS and ATOM formats from Google in Visual Basic.net.

Until then Happy Coding.

The latest series of bomb blasts in Spain – currently being attributed to Basque separatists Eta, suggest a rise in blogging regarding terrorist events.

By conducting a simple advanced Google Blog Search it is possible to identify an increase over time in blogging following attacks.

Note: This does not represent all blog posts published on the Internet.

For further information on the situation in Spain see the BBC, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Reuters, Telegraph, Al Jazeera.

Several days ago I wrote about my frustration with WordPress.

I had moved my original WordPress domain to a new url  – SearchMarketingCommunications.com via their domain mapping service January 29th of this year.

To my dismay, I witnessed all of my Google search referrals vanish along with my WordPress domain from the Google search results.

To add insult to injury, my new domain went nearly six months without being re-indexed by Google even after authenticating and validating the new domain with Google Webmaster tools.

I contacted WordPress again and they said it wasn’t their fault the domain wasn’t in Google’s index.

Their response may have been intellectually sound, but it didn’t help me much.

I did however decide to take their advice and use Google Webmaster Tools message center to contact Google and ask for a review of my site.

To my surprise, in my Google Webnaster tools inbox I received the following message:

Google Webmaster Tools Reconsideration Request

A Google site search for Search Marketing Communications also yielded 17 pages.

Google Index Search Marketing Communications

This is 17 more pages from my new site than were found in Google’s index yesterday.

Although I have several hundred pages in SearchMarketingCommunications.com – 17 pages in the Google index is better than none.

Googlebot crawl stats show its crawling two pages per average visit.

Googlebot Crawl Stats

I expect to see the average number of pages crawled increase with each Googlebot return visit to my site.

Another way to verify whether or not a blog is receiving optimum distribution is to check whether or not its in Google’s Blog Search.

Based on the following Google blog search results, it appears a successful Google Webmaster tools reconsideration request into Google’s index also yields placement in Google blog search.

Google Blog Search Marketing Communications

I am cautiously optimistic this entire site will soon be available in Google’s index.

If and when this occurs, I will be sure to report on the outcome here @SearchMarketingCommunications.com

Let’s talk about cleavage.  or can we.   I mean,   can we even look at cleavage?  Are we supposed to look at it?    Exposing the valley between side-by-side breasts started years ago in Europe.   They were much less uptight tossing their ta-tas to the wind.   Had absolutely nothing to do with why I loved going there.   Or that trend of showing lingerie or whale-tailed thongs.   No.  Not at all.   It was a horrible distraction and completely inappropriate.  Beyond the Academy Awards, Dolly Partan & Peggy Bundy from Married with Children,   American women seldom revealed,  and those that did were assumed daring and naughty.

But now it’s become mainstream.  Yankee nipple-odeon.  And men ask — what are the expectations?   Do we glance, and if so,  how long before it’s considered staring?   If we don’t look — have we offended you?  And is gawking or clapping ever acceptable?   Can we,  or should we compliment you?    I was at Starbucks and a 50 year old woman was in a tank top with some tastefully done, but obviously store-boughts.  She couldn’t be prouder.  And couldn’t try harder to merchandize them  in an overt show of mammary dominance.   I glanced quickly,  smiled,  and went to the creamer stand.  Apparently my smile was not enough.  She too,  headed over and did the “excuse me”, and bent across the station for the sugar.  Her balloons eclipsed the entire row of creamer assortments.  A full 12″ canyon.  This was no accident.   At this point,  I pretty much gave up and decided I should simply say “bravo” or “well done”.

I refrained,  of course, being the good boy I am.   And yes,  I shared this story with my wife.

There are women out there revealing serious gappage that I have absolutely no interest in seeing.  But it’s like that proverbial car crash.   you don’t want to look at but everyone does.  I’ve done that.  We all have.   Looked at said cleavage when we don’t want to.   Seeing horribly misplaced hair,   mishapened jugs,  moles and valleys that would hold smallish pumpkins.  Refraining from a visible wince or audible scream, whilst maintaining an even reaction is a terrifying tightrope.

So my question remains — why is this gratuitous act of aggressive voyeurism so madly popular now?   I went to Vegas recently,  and no exaggeration,  90% of the women were clearly  in a massive contest to see how much boobage they could put out there,  without revealing areola.   My wife felt like she was Amish.   I even suggested we go buy her a 4 inch tube top and join the fray.   She’s not about that;  and I’m okay with,  and respect that.  But I had to ask.  So I exposed my man-boobs thru a Hawaiian shirt instead.  Game on.

I still don’t even understand the obsession with breasts anyway.   It’s a global phenomenon.   And the topic of countless conversations for centuries.  I mean really,  they were designed for a purpose and have morphed into the holy grail.  The ultimate attraction for men (likely ranked #1 or 2 by most men, which I guess includes moi) — and subsequently,  a significant weapon for women as they enter the battle of attraction and accompanying lust.

What about women that have them out on display with their guys on their arms?   God forbid you look at their cleavage.   Your eyes are quickly met by a violent man.   So why is she showing them dude?  If they are off limits for sight and sound,  why put ‘em out there???  It’s like you have to put an invisible horizon in place.  Stare at the face john.  Fine to look at the neck John.  Your friend’s wife.  Awkward.   Your wife’s friend.  Awkward.   A co-worker.  Awkward.   Your mom’s friend.   Ah… yeah,  super.

Yes,  they are clearly in your peripheral vision.   But she can’t see that you are looking.  So she suddenly adjusts her top and that obvious look of “busted” shows on your face.  But you didn’t stare!  You didn’t even glance!    So why is she tugging on her clothing — to intentionally draw attention?

And how do men merchandize their wares?   we don’t, and won’t I hope,  start to show our belly buttons.  Pierced or otherwise.  Or our boobs.   And yes fellas,  those aren’t pecs anymore.  Clutch one and let it floop.  That ain’t muscle gents.  That’s 100% boob.  Manziere material.

What about the jogging tank top?  Men don’t feel obligated to show their tummies.  Don’t tell me this is for comfort.  Don’t tell me you aren’t trying to show off your 476 daily crunches.  So why the dirty look when we glance?  Perhaps slamming on the brakes or ramming into the car in front of you is going too far.  But it is asking too much for a quick peek?

And for those less fortunate,  there’s now toe clevage?  Confuse me some more please.  How anyone can remotely have a foot fetish is way over my head.   Some shoes,  sure.  I can follow you there I guess.   Feet?   Ah,  no.   At one point or another mine smell like vinegar and I have to assume yours do too.

Please tell me ladies — what is our role here?

Look.  Don’t look.   Glance.  Don’t glance.   Stare.  No stare.   What is the threshold — at what point do we go from polite —  to perverted?

And please know,  this is not a complaint.  At all.  Floopies are  great and more than welcome.  But it was a more defined sport before blouses everywhere  seemingly exploded overnight.  It’s no longer black or white — you’re busted looking and you’re a pig.   Now it’s grey, and for the love of god,  we need some guidelines.

Google Blog Search is a new tool that is gaining popularity on the Internet lately. The Blog Search might also be a good source of visitors if your blog rank on the first positions for specific keywords, but what factors does Google take into account to elaborate the search results?

The “Seo by the Sea” blog has an interesting article analyzing a new patent from Google that contains some indicators about the positive and negative factors affecting blog ranking, check it out:

Positive Factors:

• Popularity of the blog (RSS subscriptions)
• Implied popularity (how many clicks search results get)
• Inclusion in blogrolls
• Inclusion in “high quality” blogrolls
• Tagging of posts (also from users)
• References to the blog by sources other than blogs
• Pagerank

Negative Factors:

• Predictable frequency of posts (short bursts of posts might indicate spam)
• Content of the blog does not match content of the feed
• Content includes spam keywords
• Duplicated content
• Posts have all the same size
• Link distribution of the blog
• Posts primarily link to one page or site