DygiScape

There are many tools and applications that are in every optimizer’s arsenal, but only a few are truly useful and effective for their purpose. I’m going to share with you the tools I find relevant and helpful for anyone who wants to optimize their Web site.

Keywords, Meta Tags, Niche-Industry Research

• Google Trends - Compare and research various topics and review the trends with them. For example, “britney spears, lindsay lohan,”you can aggregate search volume, news, and of course, it’s pretty with Google.
• Blogpulse Trends - Similar to Google Trends, but focused only on blogs. Blogs are important if you plan on viral marketing or want to see what active users are buzzing about. If used correctly, they could buzz about you.
• Wordtracker: Free Keywords - Gain valuable insight on search volume for various terms. For example, comparing the frequency of “cars” versus “autos” that users search for.
• Keyword Density Checker - Visually and statistically look at the most frequently used keywords on your Web site. The tag cloud is helpful to quickly glance, as well as the table of frequently used terms.
• Meta Tag Analyzer - Get a review of your keywords and Meta tags all in one page. Warns you if you are out of compliance in various areas.

Web site reviews and research

• Xinu - Compare a lot of valuable information on any Web site, including Pagerank, Alexa Rank, Backlinks information, Social bookmarking and news counts, IP information, W3C Validation, number of indexed pages and more. The original distribution of this free Web suite is available here.
• Google Webmaster Central - Webmasters have always wanted to know what’s up with their site after they submitted it to Google. Google responded with a very intuitive tools to assist site owners identify problems to fix them, and get their content indexed as well as learn how Google surfers find the site.
• SEOmoz Page Strength Tool - Get an overall composite score on how well your site is doing amongst the search engines and backlinks within them.

Additional Tools

• Backlink Watch - Learn more about the backlinks you have such as the anchor text (link text), the PageRank of that page, and if the nofollow attribute was included (meaning you don’t get credit for the link).
• Backlink Finder - Want to build quality targeted backlinks? This tool will help you find web sites that let you submit your site to it. Note that some of these sites are just linkfarms and won’t necessarily will result in PageRank increases.
• Backlink Builder - Not sure if it’s still working, but has served me well. Very similar, arguably better than the Backlink Finder above.
• SearchStatus Firefox Addon - This addon is a must for Webmasters looking to analyze their web sites or possible link partners.
• DMOZ - Submit your Web site to the largest human edited directory. Google issues a bonus for sites that even make it to here. Additionally, other “copycat” directories source their data from DMOZ. It’s free, but does take a while for your site to be approved. In the meantime you can find quality link partners within your category if you’d like.

There’s probably a lot more search engine optimization tools out there. If you have any that you recommend that are free, let me know in the comments.

Blogging, Geeky, Tips seo, tools, web

For my birthday, my sister got me World of Warcraft. I’ve always said I wouldn’t play it because it’s too nerdy for me. Well, I’m on a trial and I guess I see how it is.

Do you play WoW?

Blogging, Geeky, Personal WoW

College Humor has a new installment of the Internet Commenter Business Meeting. It has more memes, more NSFW references, and even more like the Web. If this was a podcast, I’d totally subscribe to it.

Watch the original, then watch the new one titled, Commenter Business Meeting 2.

In this you will find references to:

• “First Post!”
• “Pwnd!”
• “Heil Grammar Nazi!”
• “Zing!”
• “Can’t edit yourself”
• LOLCat
• LOLerskates, LOLapalooza, Great LOL of China, ‘I fought the Lawl and the Lawl won…’
• Off-topic banter
• “Meh.”
• Wikipedia references.
• The immediate distraction of pr0n (girls kissing)
• Scrolling
• Troll, who is lonely.
• Offensive picture (probably Goatse).
• “Burying”

Wow. Just watch it.

Blogging, Funny, Geeky funny videos, internet, memes, people

MediaDefender, an anti-piracy enforcement firm, just got owned via an unintended release of 700MB of internal e-mail. MediaDefender collects IP information from people who participate in peer-to-peer file sharing — entrapment in the digital age.

I haven’t looked at the original e-mails, but from the shortened version I read, their success was based on damage control and obscurity. Of course, like most PR disasters, this never works and may hold off the short term disclosures but will usually blow up later.

I talked with a few folks and the alleged way to minimize your risk (when downloading Torrents) is to enable protocol encryption and use PeerGuardian. They claim it will conceal the data being transmitted and prevent your connection from being visible to anti-piracy firms like MediaDefender.

I’m not a PR guy, but seriously, this is just common sense. Stop trying to control the Web. Obviously NetNanny works 100%, so will anti-P2P firms. ::sigh::

[tags] mediadefender, security, email, web, p2p, torrent, pr, disaster, anti-piracy[/tags]

Blogging, Geeky, Tech News E-Mail

You know you’re in Tucson when the local alt-rock station has their semi-annual rock concert featuring several newer bands and a couple headliners. Further, it will be at either the Pima County Fairgrounds or at the Tucson Electric Park (home of the Diamondbacks spring training and Arizona Sidewinders).

Instead of boring my mind out of bands I don’t know, my sister, Seth and I went around 5PM. ‘Against Me’ was just getting done with their set, then some non-live music and then Cypress Hill went on stage.

Also, I love how Tucson concerts always are kicked off with “F!&@ Tucson!” and some other crowd-pleasers. Surprisingly (note: sarcasm), despite the high presence of police, I smelled a lot of smoke that wasn’t from tobacco. CH performed quite well and played their most popular songs as well as classics.

Next up was Smashing Pumpkins who was the main headliner. Clouds moved in and thunder rocked the folks, but the show went on as planned. People squeezed in together and moshed for a bit. While I don’t (and can’t) crowd-surf, I figured I can help the younger patrons enjoy it by me giving them a lift. It was pretty fun, and I felt like I was 16 again.

“RAIN OR SHINE” was printed on the ticket for good reason. Rain came in from the south and started as a sprinkle but resulted in a downfall of a couple inches (in Tucson?!), and the concert was interrupted. Judging from the people, the show kept going on with the numerous jumping, flailing arms and screaming minors. After a few minutes and fans getting soaked, the chants began; when I even helped start a few since I felt very “viral” that moment:

“We Want More!” , “Smashing Pumpkins!” , “Rain or Shine!” , “Booo!” , and other jeering chants. Eventually, Billy Corgan responded, telling people to relax, stop throwing trash at the band, and to have patience as they check all the equipment. Everyone cheered and basically people just waited as it poured. Then the show resumed, everyone went wild and the moshing resumed. Three songs later, SP ended off with a mediocre slower song; and that was it.

On the way out, it was gridlock with no assistance from the local law enforcement. I always question why the police never seem to be there for traffic control or to assist in moving a large volume of people. Instead, they just do paperwork in their car, put their ‘red and blues’ on collect their overtime pay for the special event.

Made it home, tired, wet, cold, but very satisfied. I’ll be working tomorrow, but it’s my birthday. I didn’t put a lot of foresight into that, but I’m sure my managers will give me a little break and only expect me to check e-mail periodically. My manager’s boss’ boss gave me a birthday balloon on Facebook, which was a nice treat to end off tonight.

Back to watching Cops on CourtTV.

Blogging, Personal music

For a while now, some of you know that I’ve made some mistakes with my past relationship. First of which is being too civil and reasonable. To some, that means “whipped,” to me, I’ve made compromises and have maintained flexibility. The only problem was the other person was too stubborn, thus resulting in more drama later.

I’ve given this individual more than reasonable notice to change their direct deposits and get their own health insurance, and to cease any further activity from my bank account. With the intention of not becoming an asshole, I facilitated my own demise in the situation. I figured being a nice guy, it would pay off — think again.

Of course now, on my vacation, I have the time to tie all my loose ends. Not really the first thing someone wants to do on their vacation, but it had to get done.

You know what’s funny? The fact I blinded myself from acknowledging this problem from happening. I mean I can give advice to others who are in my situation, but I didn’t have the awareness of seeing this unfold. For instance, for the last few months of our relationship, every discussion started out about money. It was sickening to say the least. It resulted in me volunteering her $215 cash out of my goodwill, and let her use the account for hotel stays along the way back home. It was “reasonable,” and certainly not the worst that I could have done.

More recently, I withdrew $250 from my own account to hold me over with things while I’m here and the very first voice mail I get is from her wondering where my money is. Then, she pulls some attitude with me about her money in my account, and later lies about creating her own bank account or even taking the time to pursue it. When under stress, her true colors shine so brightly, and to her it’s anything for a free ride.

Later the next day, I attended a wedding where we were mutual friends with the bride and groom. I called her the night before to confirm the date and time (which by providing me the location and time, it’s implied its OK for me to go). I get there, and not more than 10 minutes later, she (MoH) asks her minions (groomsmen) to ask me to leave. It wasn’t too surprising, but I was intrigued at the fact the requester didn’t have the fortitude to address me in person. Secondly, it was just so classy of her to bring her personal agenda into someone else’s wedding. I acted respectful and sent my regards to the bride and groom, then I left. Actions speak louder than words.

Later, I deleted her from MySpace (which these days means you REALLY don’t like them). Then changed all my passwords for my accounts. It was my mistake for letting her use the copy of Firefox with all my passwords saved. In addition, I switched my direct deposit from work, which only took a few minutes. Breaking off the cell phone from her account was quite nice, since she failed to pay the bill on time, and everything started out with “I thought …”

Then the excuses came. I received a couple text messages on my phone from her stating, “…if you want to talk about this like adults, then call me…sorry…,“which is really ridiculous. Maybe if you acted like an adult at the wedding, or an adult at any point in your life, you’d have the foresight on how your actions will be interpreted. Then I get the long-winded, zero paragraphs, broken-punctuation letter from her justifying her actions over the weekend.

I’ve learned vicariously through some contacts who were present at the wedding, that she just couldn’t get enough from talking about me. I mean, I know I’m a good guy and all, but it’s flattering to hear that I was the topic of discussion without me even being there. Thanks, I appreciate the smack-talk, but just realize that it only makes you look more like an ass in front of your friends. Besides, isn’t it more disrespectful to bring up your ex, while two people just got married?

Growing up is hard. I’ve learned my lessons. I’m actually glad this happened to me now. She was special to me at one point. But after her charade was over, her character really disgusts me. Second, being nice about money bites you in the ass. Money is money, it has no feelings. I can’t dictate what someone does and all I can do is control my actions, feelings, and tone with people.

For someone who didn’t want things to “end badly,” well, life’s a bitch, just like you. You manipulate people by playing the victim all the time while lacking responsibility during all of your tragedies. I made my mistakes, and I admit them; but you fail to do so. Your actions speak for yourself, your impulses, and your psyche. I may have been flexible and nice; but that ended Saturday at 10:15AM. Things are going to have changed. You get zero sympathy from me. Go on, tell your friends what a dick I am. Tell them something they haven’t heard. Surprise them.

Good Riddance, STFU GTFO, n00b.

Blogging, Personal Personal, Rants

Ever since the early 90’s, Web users have always wanted to block pop-up ads from invading our desktops. It’s been kind of a push-then-shove fight between users and Web sites. I’ll share my perspective on the battle with online advertising and share some insight on both sides.

No one likes ads, on the same note, not many want to pay for high-quality services. Even when people did pay a premium for services, they still were shown ads (e.g. Flickr, AOL, Yahoo*) and users today are given very little choice with their online experience, except for guerrilla tactics by using third party programs to block/hide/prevent advertisements from reaching their eyeballs.

Do providers listen? Sorta.

A majority of online marketers understand that people’s Web browsers have pop-up blockers and acknowledge that their marketing techniques stepped over the boundary that users are willing to accept to access a given Web site. Instead of pop-ups, marketers have resorted to more “organic” marketing such as text link advertising. Google AdSense is the best example of this. Whatever, at least I didn’t have 768×60 pixels of real estate blinking at me.

Anyhow, a free addon for Mozilla Firefox, AdBlock Plus, has come under fire lately because it enables users to manage their online experience by blacklisting known advertising networks and heuristics on possible ad-related strings in Web objects. It landed on my five extensions that I can’t live without as number one. The author of the addon responds back to the campaign against ABP stating the profit has to be earned and isn’t a right, and questions the profitability of ads themselves for Web site owners.

Essentially, the argument is based on the assumption that ads generate revenue and that sites would become extinct without the ads. While possibly true in some circumstances, the demographic of ABP users are folks who have become blind of ad sizes — you know, you just ignore anything on a page that is a 468×60 block of content.

In a nutshell, here’s the talking points about ABP:

Pro-AdBlock Plus:

• Puts users in control.
• Results in faster load time.
• Forces a Web site to offer compelling content to satisfy users.
• Users that enjoy content become more engaged.
• With only a plausible 2% saturation rate, they still profit from the 98% of users.
• More happy users, happy users == $$$ users.

Anti-AdBlock Plus:

• ABP violates copyright by infringing on a Web page.
• Steals revenue from Web site owners.
• Impacts other users who do view ads, making it unfair.
• Makes blocking ads “too easy.”
• Breaks the display of certain Web sites. (Broken experience)

Are advertisers about to have another pop like they did with pop-ups? Maybe users don’t like ads anymore. Users evolved and the only way to defeat ABP is to use in-stream contextual advertising and not use massive advertising networks that can be blocked. Should it become a cat and mouse game? Depends, are advertisers and Web owners ready to respect their users?

Innovate or die. Web site owners need to find new methods to monetize their users. Maybe, giving an option for ads to be turned off if they pay a fee, or after a certain account tenure? Not a decision for me to make, but one for a site owner to determine based on their demographics.

What about the loss of my dollars as a Web site owner? Listen to your audience, and cater to their needs. This could mean adding a premium content areas, it could mean monetizing the content itself (”…Brought to you by Coke!”). Second, CTRs have been dropping as users are simply not interested and have cognitively become blind to the traditional ad spots.

What do you think? Are ads good to keep the Web moving, do they hinder users’s experiences, or could a good experience for users and authors be made with ads? Post in the comments below!
*Yahoo - Yahoo “Plus” users are given a “premium” e-mail box with less ads and POP access.

Blogging, Geeky ads, debate, discussion, online advertising

Adblock Plus has received a lot of criticism lately from small Web site owners. The debate rages on. So I’m curious to see how many folks use the Adblock Plus addon for Firefox.

{democracy:4}

Share your thoughts in the comments about what you think about Adblock Plus!

Blogging, Geeky ads, firefox, mozilla, online advertising

What better way to share your love passion for Internet Explorer than paying more for your next license plate?

This is mine, no one take it, please!

Blogging, Funny, Geeky, Personal virginia

In Virginia and DC, the possession and use of Radar Detectors are illegal. I had to give up mine when I moved here back in November ‘06. However, I never had the chance to explain my beliefs on why these devices should be legal.

Myth: Radar detectors reduce speed of drivers.
False. Speeding is usually a conscientious behavior many people make when either late or fulfilling their own need to go faster. A Radar Detector doesn’t grant someone that right. However, I’ll mention that radar detectors do probably aide on one’s decision to speed.

Myth: Radar detectors prevent police from giving you a ticket.
False. Radar detectors only will alert the driver after the officer is acquiring your vehicle’s speed. I would find it very difficult for one to reason with a judge citing that “my detector didn’t go off, so I should be dismissed.”

Myth: Radar detectors danger everyone else when someone speeds.
False. I can think of many additional factors that danger everyone else when on the road. In fact, I think radar detectors keep the roads safer because the driver is generally more attuned to the risks that affect their driving. Many detectors now available offer the ability to detect ambulance strobe patterns, thereby alerting the driver there is an emergency vehicle approaching. This can be especially valuable when the driver has their windows up or their radio’s volume up.

Myth: Radar detectors promote illegal activity.
False. The drivers that choose to speed make an active choice to violate the law. On all the packaging of radar detectors, they always state that you must obey all local traffic laws.

——

Radar detectors receive the signal that is already being blasted at it. It’s a radio frequency (in the 27-38GHz band), so it is nothing special. It is not a police vehicle detector, contrary to popular belief. The effectiveness is greatly reduced when LIDAR (Infrared, “laser”) speed measurement devices are used on a speeder due to their 600-1000nm wide beam.

If a driver wishes to spend their money on these devices, they should be able to. I would suggest a sticker to be placed on packages advising of the local traffic enforcement laws, so ignorance isn’t an excuse.

My conspiracy theory is that the manufacturers of Radar Detectors (Cobra, Bel, Whistler, Escort, etc.) probably share their secret sauce with law enforcement speed measurement companies (LTI, Kustom Signals, etc.) so the police can keep up with the technology.

What do you think? Should Radar Detectors be legal or not? Let me know in the comments.

Blogging, Personal, Politics debate, OpEd, virginia