Technorati Suffers Major Data Accuracy Loss

My link count was 262 last night, this morning it’s 220?

This is just plain wrong as I did not have a major linking event 180 days ago. I’m emailing this to David Sifry and Adam Herst and expect a quick resolution of this issue and a restoration of my ranking along with an explanation as to how it occurred.

Technorati is rapidly becoming unstable. It’s losing data or not reading certain blogs while double or triple counting the links of other blogs.

UPDATE: This link was not counted this morning.

UPDATE #2: Adam Herst has contacted me to say they were doing a test of a new feature they are testing and did not know it was going live.

Google Developer Day 2007 - London and Mountain View

This is the URL to interact with Google Developer Day 2007 Online. Have fun!

Google Experimenting With Blogs Button in Main Search Results

As you know, I strongly advocate blog search being a top level option on all search engines. Now with selection of category on the top bar, there is even less excuse not to do this on a permanent basis. Now Google is showing signs of experimenting with this via universal search on a case by case basis depending on the search term. Before I go on, I feel that I should disclose that I’m an undecided voter in the 2008 Presidential election.

Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton now show Web, Images, News and Blogs in their search result selectors!

Ron Paul, the candidate with tons of video viewing activity now shows Web, News, Blogs and Video. This shows a customization that is occurring, either video submission or video viewing trends to change the view to video from images. It would be interesting to see the Ron Paul supporters reaction to this.

One result that puzzles me is that of Dennis Kucinich, the search results only show Web. This is odd to me because I know he has active blogosphere results and has had a trend of increased video views. It makes me ponder whether Google might have something against Dennis Kucinich? Is there any history here? Or is this just some random event? I look forward to seeing your posts on this.

A result that baffles me more is that of Matt Cutts. When I think Matt Cutts, I think blogs, yet his results show only Web and Video! Strange indeed.

There is clearly other things going on as well. A search on the Rolling Stones currently returns Web, Music, News, Images, Video and yes even Groups.

Again, Google should act to add blogs permanently to all search results so they are not perceived as favoring the mainstream media. What do you think of these variations? What unique examples can you find? I appreciate your thinking about these complex issues and joining the discussion via a post of your own on these issues.

Screenshots:

Mazda March 2007 Test Drive VISA Gift Card Not Received After 8 Weeks

I got an email from Mazda in March to get a $25 VISA Gift Card for taking a test drive. I’m considering buying a new car in the not too distant future to replace my aging Acura Integra (I should be buying another Acura but they no longer make cars with appropriate headroom for a 6′3″ adult - but alas this is another post).

I completed the test drive, mailed in the form and 8 weeks later I still have not received this gift card. It appears I have plenty of company as well based on these message board posts. Not a good way to treat prospects of your 5 figure products. If you can’t send a gift card in a timely manner, does this experience build confidence that you will be dealt with fairly if something went wrong with your new Mazda? No.

When companies are creating incentives to interact with their products and services why aren’t they realizing that how the experience is handled can have considerable impact on their brand - either positive or negative?

Happy Memorial Day 2007

It’s not just a day for a BBQ with your friends. It’s a day to remember and thank those who gave their fellow U.S. citizens the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms which we enjoy today.

I’d ask that you please honor their memory by fully familiarizing yourself with the candidates running for President in 2008. Not based on mainstream media or historical political dogma, but instead based on your own independent study of the issues of our times so that you may make an informed decision and participate in our Republic. Think for yourself, then discuss with your neighbors. It is what I’m doing as an undecided voter. It is my opinion that this is the best way you can honor these fallen soldiers which will hopefully ensure a bright future for our country. Thank you.

Based on Wikipedia, these are the announced and likely candidates:

Candidates for the Democratic Party:
Senator Joe Biden of Delaware
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York
Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut
Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina
Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska
Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois
Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico
Potential candidates:
Retired General Wesley Clark of Arkansas
Former Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee

Candidates for the Republican Party:
Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas
Former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York
Former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas
Representative Duncan Hunter of California
Senator John McCain of Arizona
Representative Ron Paul of Texas
Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts
Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado
Former Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin
Potential candidates:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia
Former Senator and actor Fred Thompson of Tennessee

Candidates for the Constituton Party:
James Gilchrist of California
Dale Thompson of Kentucky

Candidates for the Green Party:
Elaine Brown of Georgia
Kat Swift, co-chair of Texas Green Party
Alan Augustson of Chicago, Illinois
Kent Mesplay, California Delegate to the Green National Committee
Potential candidates:
Ralph Nader of Connecticut
Former Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia
Rebecca Rotzler of New York

Candidates for the Libertarian Party:
Mike Jingozian of Oregon
Bob Jackson of Michigan
Steve Kubby of California
George Phillies of Massachusetts
Christine Smith of Colorado
Potential candidates:
Barry Hess of Arizona
Robert W. Milnes of New Jersey
Wayne Allyn Root of Nevada
Kent McManigal of Pennsylvania

Candidates running as Independents:
Dustin R. Gray of Pennsylvania
James H. Mccall of Ohio
Donald K. Allen of Ohio
Steve Adams of Kentucky
David Koch of Utah
John Taylor Bowles of South Carolina
Potential candidates:
Francis Playfair of Louisiana
David J. Masters of North Carolina
Jeff Shapiro of Indiana
Rumored candidates:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City
Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska

Mobile Search and Content Needs Flexible Revenue Models

“There has to be all sorts of models, both subscription and ad-supported,” Fox Interactive senior vice president and general manager John Smelzer said, speaking at the iHollywood Forum’s Mobile Entertainment Summit. While the revenue mix may be different, he added that the key to driving user adoption of all types of content is “to make the entry point easy.” Source Article

I couldn’t agree with this more. There are too many subscription only mobile models emerging, this will slow adoption in an already fragmented market. The mobile medium is not a failure, many of the business models are. It’s a fascinating paradox. There are too many 20th Century business cases that are being built that work on paper but not in reality.

PBS Article: The Final Days of Google

This article about Google is certainly an interesting read. It raises some interesting questions worth pondering.

Google Search Activity by Trends

Barry Schwartz started a meme on Google Search Activity by Trends and I was tagged by Cshel to join the discussion.

Well, I’ve turned off search history because I’m taking a wait and see attitude about the whole issue. I don’t currently see a lot of value in seeing my searches in a graph by hour of day versus the potential cost of having this data stored and I see more potential downsides than upsides at this point, but I hope time proves my caution unwarranted.

So, I’ll tag:

Adam Lasnik (How is that paper airplane post coming along btw?)

Online Passive Resume

Chicago area resident (OK Naperville) Rick Klau put up his resume up on a wiki last Fall. He talks about how to put your resume online here. It was also interesting to Mazyar Hedayat who spoke to Rick about it. This concept of putting your resume online is interesting to me and I’ve seen people put up resumes in many different ways with varying degrees of success. It’s certainly different than a candidate or alumni resume book.

What examples have you seen of putting resumes online and them effectively seen by sourcers? What did and didn’t work with your online resume? I’d like to hear your ideas and learn from the best practices that are developing out there. How do the sourcers out there select to search or use university alumni resume books?

Wordpress Trackback Spam On The Increase Akismet Needs To Step It Up

All with the same 10 drug names over and over. It’s time for Akismet to step it up a notch or for you to remotely allow banning of certain words in trackbacks as a trigger to kill real spam.

A functional, spam-free trackback community is critical to a functional blogosphere as it’s a critical component of the conversation!

Apparently I’m Banned in China!

According to the greatfirewallofchina.org, I’ve joined a long list of web sites that are banned in China.

Youtube, Scoble, Search Engine Land and many others are banned. Based on the list I almost feel like I’ve reached some new form web success. Somehow Jeremy Zawodony is not? That wasn’t clear. I don’t see anything that is bashing China in my posts.

Click the link above and let me know if you are banned as well…

Biz Stone of Twitter Interviewed

Jennifer Jones at Podtech took community questions and posted them. Jeremiah put it up today. Nice!

Building Chinese Walls for Search Engines and Advertising Agencies

Danny Sullivan has been steadily beating a drum about the potential conflicts of interest in regards to Google, and now Microsoft, owning the search engine while owning a firm that provides SEO and SEM services.

In yet another area where my expertise from BlackRock would prove to be extremely valuable for immediate consulting or leadership roles at search engines, it is in the building of policies and management controls to build effective Chinese Walls. STOP - read that previous Chinese Walls link completely so that you don’t confuse it with the China Search Marketing Tour)!

If Google and Microsoft are to retain these services fully, they will immediately need to bring in people experienced in working in these Chinese Wall environments and who also understand the Internet space. This is a rare and highly valuable combination! Only this select group is capable of to be able to develop policy and have a Board of Director’s mandate and resources to make it a reality.

I look forward to continuing this conversation, there is much work to be done here to ensure the integrity of the marketplace and it needs to happen quickly!

Cicada Emergence Map for Brood XIII Chicago and Lake County 2007

The Cicadas are coming! This neat, interactive map put together by the Lake County Forest Preserve District allows you to report the amount of cicadas in your area!

This is a great example of a government agency collecting data through user generated content. The site is also nice link bait and will draw traffic and awareness of the Lake County Forest Preserve. This is also a good usage of an unique event to draw attention and awareness to the entity as a whole.

Texting Teen Gets $1,100 Bill For One Month

This Washington Post Article does a good job of laying out the increasing problem. With increasing stories like this, it will be interesting to watch what if any backlash occurs.

Marshall Field’s

You will recall that last year, Federated Department Stores, now Macy’s, changed the name of Marshall Field’s to Macy’s. Now that flagship State Street store is well on it’s way to failing. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone was trying to buy it from them right now to start it anew. When history examines this, it will see lessons of branding and hospitality.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a press conference after its (Macy’s) annual meeting here Friday, Federated’s chief financial officer, Karen Hoguet, said former Field’s stores are performing no worse or better than the roughly 400 regional department stores Federated acquired from St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co. in 2005 and converted to Macy’s. But there is an exception: the Chicago store on State Street. The landmark store, long a tourist destination, is “doing badly,” Hoguet said, without providing specific performance data.

After listening to Danny Meyer yesterday (see post below) I can’t help but noticing this wasn’t about a store, it was about hospitality, word of mouth and networking and the way people felt during that customer experience. A recent post on Marshall Field’s - fieldsfanschicago.org message board (which is amazingly still getting strong traffic - you may recall I stated I thought this issue had blogsphere legs back in September) says it best:

“I miss shopping in Marshall Field’s because Field’s IS Chicago. For me shopping at Field’s was an adventure because Field’s was more than a store…it was an institution which made people feel special just being there amongst the special merchandise that only Field’s could offer and the sales people made even the transactions memorable because of the way they wrapped items, hard and soft, in white tissue paper sealed with a green MF sticker before generously pulling out a large MF forest green shopping bag in which to place my purchases. That was ‘the frosting on the cake’.”

“But you know what I r-e-a-l-l-y notice at commuter train stations, on North Michigan Avenue, on State Street and in the Chicagoland shopping centers, at O’Hare and Midway and at other airports around the country???? I miss seeing people, by the dozens and dozens carrying the distinctive green Marshall Field’s sturdy shopping bags with the handles! The absence is so barrenly striking. You readily KNEW they were either FROM Chicago or had a fun shopping trip as a tourist and were going back home. You just do not find people carrying macy’s plastic sacks anywhere it seems, she added. Why should they?! Macy’s is everywhere, and therefore not special at all. It is all so sad.”

Do you hear this Mr. Lundgren?

Another reader posted in reply to the many clearance items at the store now…

“Customers want the stores converted back to Marshall Field’s not Marshalls.”

In a related matter, Macy’s has new problems due to accusations of a former LA Times reporter.

NRA Show Danny Meyer of Union Square Cafe NYC on Enlightened Hospitality

During my time in the New York City area, few things outside the financial services industry affected me more than the restuarants. Of those, few bring back fonder memories than my time in NYC than the Union Square Cafe and the restuarants that followed. These include the Grammercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla (my second favorite after Union Square Cafe), Blue Smoke & Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, The Modern, Cafe 2, Terrace 5 and Hudson Yards Catering. The newsletter they send, a blog in paper form before there were blogs play a special role in building that bond.

What follows are the raw notes of Danny Meyer’s speech at the National Restuarant Association in Chicago on May 19, 2007. There are amazing insights in his speech and new book, Setting the Table, in regards to separating the concepts of service and hospitality, recruiting and how to life to it’s fullest. All lessons that can be applied to web 2.0 or any business in need of refined and high performance culture. Please note that the notes are raw and from his voice:

He let everyone know that it was his first time speaking at an NRA show. However, he attended the 1985 NRA convention. I wanted to learn about a POS system. We got a big presentation on it. I gathered the courage to ask a question. Is it really feasible to give a rolled thermal check instead of a proper check? If you give them good food at a fair price you can give them a check on toilet paper and they will come back someone chimed in.

Something dawned on me about five years ago. We focus on mistakes more than what is going right. My grandmother was proud of her garden. She taught me to garden at the age of 6. Ignore the weeds water the flowers. It dawned on me many years later that is what we should do in real life. A lot of things were going right.

Opening my restaurant was a passion. The strongest business decision I ever made was to fire myself as chef. In a city that has 22,000 restaurants, we have 6 in the top 42 Zagat Favorite Restaurants. People who are highly institutive make poor analysts. I do things that are intuitive. I employ over 1,500 now.

What does it mean to be my favorite (restaurant)? When you put those words in front of anything it is the highest compliment that can be paid. If I could figure out the secret sauce, Id have something. Location has ceased to be a critical fashion. The other 95% of the people say its’ service and not location, location, location. We needed a service economy. The car rental company didn’t have the convertible you wanted, the bank didn’t do what you wanted, etc. The Internet changed the rules. If you wanted to rise to the level of my favorite, you did if via performance. Performance used to be the thing that did it for you. I’ve always made a practice of asking why. You guys make the best roast chicken, you seat us on time, etc. We stopped hearing that when people started using the Internet. If you wanted to set yourself apart you could do things to differentiate, but replication happens much sooner now. Performance is a lot like air conditioning. Nobody has ever walked into the Grammercy Tavern and said this is great air conditioning, but if it doesn’t work, they don’t come back. Performance is now a lose proposition, it is not a win proposition. Nobody defined how hospitality is different than service. Did the waiter clear the table timely? Hospitality defines how you make someone feel. You have made them feel like you are on your side. Hospitality only occurs as we see it. Service is the technical delivery of product. You can write a manual to define the service and we have a different manual for hospitality. If you do something, do it consistently. Hospitality is not a monologue it’s a dialogue. The preposition for is involved in hospitality and the preposition to is there when you do something to somebody. It takes certain technical skills to open up a bottle of wine. We had been focusing 49% of skills training for technical skills. We spent the other 51% hiring for hospitality.

Hospitality IQ is the companies which are successful are the most successful in hiring the right hospitality. We need to hire people who derive pleasure from giving pleasure. What occurred to me is that you can’t teach it.

Kind, Intelligent and Curious, a high work ethic and integrity. These people were people with a high degree of empathy. Integrity is more than honesty. It is the judgment to do the right thing. More often than not they are life choices. Talked about leadership and the relationship to being a captain on a team. You get to be in a business of setting rules. Every single organization in the world have the exact same five stakeholders – customers, investors, community, employees and suppliers. We created a virtuous cycle of events. But if you believe in virtuous cycles, you can make more money by putting ourselves first, employees trust and put investors last. If I could raise my Hospitality IQ when hiring we’d be better. We put our community and suppliers ahead of investors to. Why would we have a community investment department? Why not help fix the park across the street. A rising tide lifts all boats. You might succeed at that. You can invest in the tide. Do your competitors go up with you? The niche of BBQ goes with the tide. Table is another example. We needed to create a new tide. We have been working to build community. In the same way that a championship horse is born with the DNA, it still needs to be trained. Make sure your staff needs to have the heart muscle worked hard. Birds of a feather flock together. The staff wants other people to work with that have a high hospitality quotient. People who have the same emotional need to learn pleasure. If you teach me more than the next guy, I’ll stay here. The biggest thing, please listen to my aspirations. We always want people to be part of a new opening of a new restaurant.

49% of a swans body mass is below water, 51% of the swan is above water doing the graceful stuff. My favorite chapter is the road to success is paved with mistakes well traveled. Waves are like mistakes, there is another one just behind it. My biggest mistake was back in 2002 and I found it hard to find the type of people. It took 35 minutes to get a drink on opening night at Blue Smoke. When I learned the swan theory, I never knew. Eye contact, a mile a hug and some pretty darn good food.

Question: Questions about putting staff ahead of customer.

What I’m saying is exactly that. If you have the best recipe, it’s not good if you don’t have good ingredients. Our hospitality will never rise to a higher level. The two things I look for in any business are focused on their work and enjoying each others company, I know it will work.

Question: When you were hiring for HQ, how do you train your managers.

Since you derive pleasure for making people for feeling comfortable, you can be blind to it. Have others help you. The prospect drops out that can be frustrating. I’ll ask someone, “Tell me how you used heart in your last job.” We tell people there are the skills that matter for you.

Question: Can you talk about the importance of the quarterly newsletter?

Listening is as important as expression. The fact that you think it’s quarterly when it’s twice a year is a testament to its’ effectiveness.

End.

It was a pleasure to listen to Danny speak. I’m glad I took the time to listen and learn from his wisdom about life and hospitality.

UPDATE: He had a book signing to go to at 2PM. At 4:45PM, I still saw him standing there with a line of people with books. Nothing short of amazing!

Initial Thoughts on Microsoft Aquiring Aquantive

Techcrunch had an earlier article. At $6 Billion or $66.50, an ~85% premium over the previous days selling price that creates a price to earning rating of around 52, many people would consider this to be overpayment. With approximately $26 Billion in the bank that shareholders consistently complain is underutilized, it is more likely insurance to prevent a bidding war and a break up of the deal as apparently happened behind the scenes when Microsoft originally tried to acquire Doubleclick.

With headquarters both in Seattle, these partners likely know each other well from the tightly woven Seattle networking community so there is likely a known cultural fit. It is likely clearly friendly due to this and how quickly it came together so quickly after losing the bidding for 24/7 real media. The major question is can Microsoft quickly integrate and leverage these systems with its’ own, some of which have overlap and the graphical side. The other risk is can Microsoft tie up the critical thought leadership staff in an appealing way that maintains the creative culture? Time will tell.

Much like Google’s acquisition of Doubleclick there are conflicts of interest to be resolved. In Doubleclick’s case they own Performics, a search marketing and optimization firm. The Avenue A | Razorfish division performs a significant search marketing and search optimization function just like Performics. Google has yet to state how they will resolve this. Microsoft could score points by stating a plan to deal with this before Google does.

Aquantive has spent $200 Million in the 2004-2006 acquiring Accipiter, iFRONTIER, Franchise Gator, DNA, Amneisa, e-Crusade, GOTOAST, Neue Digitale, NetConversions, Technology Brokers/Media and SBI.Razorfish. While the impacts of these businesses are not yet fully known, Aquantitive prides itself on buying and integrating emerging businesses. Some of these are creating a media exchange like Right Media recently acquired by Yahoo!. Some of the value of this transaction likely lies hidden in these small business lines.

While the integration risk is not insignificant, Aquantive was one of the last premium players available and Microsoft can certainly afford the premium.

Vornado Rocks

I bought my first Vornado fan in 1993, it’s still working today! Vornado fans are powerful, cool and awesome. They also allow you to set the thermostat a few degrees higher in the Summertime, also a good thing.

A few weeks ago, the second fan I bought from them in 1999 had the fan motor die a few weeks back. I called them up and they agreed to replace the motor for free no questions asked. It arrived yesterday and I ‘m pleased to report that the fan works as good as new! Vornado rocks (well they blow too, but in a real good way!).

Wouldn’t it be great if all companies built products that last, stood behind their products and treated their customers with respect like Vornado?

UPDATE June 12, 2007: TO CONTACT VORNADO - PLEASE VISIT THIS PAGE.

Facebook Spamming Your Identity To Drive Their Traffic

The other day I was highly surprised to learn that my Facebook profile was showing up in the top 10 for Google when you Google my name. In my opinion, turning on a feature like this without informing your users of the change to drive traffic using users’ identity to their social network via search engines is rather sleazy. After looking through their 89 zillion privacy options, I could not find a way to do it without excluding current community users which I did not want to do. This was their response to my question on how to do want I wanted.

Hi David,

I’m afraid there is currently no way to prevent your Facebook
account from appearing in a Google search. However, please
keep in mind that only users that are currently able to view
your profile will be able to view your listing in a Google search.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to let me
know.

Thanks for contacting Facebook

Let’s ignore the factual inaccuracies of that statement and just say that Facebook clearly doesn’t get it here. Or purposely chooses not to. I do want everyone who sees Facebook as a valuable tool and who has signed up to be able to search on me and find me. What I don’t want is for people outside this community, who often have misperceptions about these communities to see it when they do a search on me in Google or another search engine. What I don’t get is why it’s not already possible within the confines of the 89 zillion privacy options Facebook already has:

So Facebook, please give this user (and the thousands of others like me) what they want. Immediately add a noindex option for my profile so that community users can fully see and search my profile when inside the community while not allowing outside search engines to index it. I look forward to your prompt action and resolution of this request. Thanks.

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