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I’ve avoided this subject for a reason, because most people don’t understand it enough to care about it, but I can’t resist mentioning it.
The basic idea is that the telcos think they should be able to charge sites like Google or Amazon for using all of the internet provider’s bandwith. They see it as sending customers to the big websites, and they want their cut.
Normally these big cable and telephone companies foul up by trying to run the internet like it’s a telephone or cable company.
(I’ve mentioned earlier how my old DSL company only routed me along their lines, so when a server in chicago went down, I couldn’t access any websites hosted in Chicago. As if there were only 1 way into the city).
This is just flawed thinking. The internet is NOT similiar to a telephone or cable infastructure. It just uses the same lines. I know that’s a hard distinction to make, but it’s crucial.
In the phone industry, I pay for who I call. If I make a long distance call to India, they recipient in India doesn’t pay for it.
In the cable TV world, I pay the company for access to channels that they in turn paid the content provider for. If Comcast wants to carry ESPN, they pay ESPN, and I pay Comcast.
Now, I’m already paying Comcast to access the internet. What the big companies want to do is now charge Google or Amazon for me accessing them. But I’m already paying. And if they do charge the big websites, guess who’s going to pay on both ends? The consumer.
If Amazon gets stuck with a charge from internet providers, you can bet prices are going to rise.
Do we really need to give PayPal another reason to add another surcharge?
It’s time for the telcos to start replacing their management with people who understand what the internet is and how it works.
July 5th, 2006
I spent the last 5 days up north at my cottage, and not having broadband internet access or cell phone reception really changes what you do.
I did get a lot better at horseshoes and golf though.
Honestly, I can’t believe how slow dial up access is though (although it is just a free dialup provider from U of M).
Some websites just wouldn’t load in a decent time (like my bank website to check my account balance… who knew crown royal could have been so expensive)
Also, if you run the only store that sells ice in a 20 mile radius, it’s probably a good idea to order more than usual for the 4th of July weekend… Next year eh?
If you emailed me, I’ll try to get back as soon as possible. I’ve sorted out the spam and I have about 30 some at home to reply to, and I have no idea what’s waiting for me at work tomorrow.
I’m also looking for new phone reccomendations. My Nextel dropped 8 calls on me on thursday, and 1 today. I’m thinking of switching to cingular (my whole family has it and it works up north, so the mobile to mobile would be great no?)
Anyway… tell me your praise or horror stories about cingular, and let me know which phone I should buy. I want one with a camera in it and text message capabilities (yeah my phone doesn’t do either… old huh?)
July 4th, 2006
buy modafinil online amazon Update: I wrote this post in 2006, but the advice is still relevant today.
Let’s talk about a simple concept that many webmasters and business owners can’t grasp: If your site isn’t showing up in Google it’s probably because it’s not useful.
Well ok it may be useful, but not in the way you want it to be. One of the hardest things to do in SEO is to look at your site from the perspective of a searcher. What’s useful to you may not be what’s useful to your visitors. That’s why it’s a great idea to hire a 3rd party company, they’re not attached to your site in any way; they have no feelings to hurt. Ecodelogic is a full service custom web development company that can help you create a robust website for your business.
Let’s use a fictional example:
John owns a chimney sweeping company, and he’s really frustrated that he can’t get on the front page of Google for “chimney sweeping”.
John’s done his SEO, he’s traded links, got listed in all the good directories, put out press releases, wrote articles, has a blog and a newsletter, updates his content frequently, has a good PageRank, and even an affiliate program, but he just can’t crack the top page of Google for his key term. (2011 Update: He’s doing fine in Google Local – but only for his city, and he still can’t get into the natural search results.)
Eventually John gives up and buys AdWords. He then swears it’s a Google conspiracy to force him into buying AdWords. He even makes a post on Matt Cutts blog accusing Google of unfairly not ranking his “useful” site. He claims Google is putting a good chimney sweep out of business.
The problem here is that while John’s site IS useful, it’s probably NOT useful to somebody searching for “chimney sweeping”.
Among the top results for “chimney sweeping” we [saw – in 2006]: National association of, how to guide, training school, job profile, and how to find a chimney sweep. (Fast forward to 2011 and we see national chimney sweep guild, wikipedia, chimney sweep institue, and “how to” sites. Pretty similar)
These are useful sites. Why? the term “chimney sweeping” implies that the searcher is looking for information about the topic, NOT a chimney sweeping company. If they wanted their chimney swept they’d have searched for “chimney sweep Boston” or “chimney sweeping company”. These are the terms John should focus on. He should worry more about what his customers are doing and less about ranking.
Since John never did his research and couldn’t look at his site from the perspective of a searcher, he wasted months optimizing for terms that he realistically couldn’t achieve top rankings for.
That’s what SEO is about. It’s not about tricking the search engines or writing code to make your site better than others. It’s about anticipating what somebody is searching for, and then building a site that is relevant to that search – from the searcher’s perspective.
June 9th, 2006
A while ago while shopping at Best Buy I couldn’t help but start people watching. One such couple, a mother and daughter, were buying CDs and DVDs in front of me. The mother was a pretty lady, probably in her mid 30’s, wearing a great dress like short black prom dresses online.
What I couldn’t help notice was that her shirt, who was probably aged 10-12, was wearing a glittery cut-off shirt. Immediately questions started racing through my mind: Did I just read that? What did you fake? A temper tantrum in front of the vending machine? Does the girl really know what the shirt means? Does the mother know what the shirt means? How come they make cheese-filled hot dogs but not chili filled ones?
Thinking about it for a while I realized that with a little bit of hard work and venture capital I could easily rule the stuffed hot dog market. Then the door alarm sounded, and as I watched the security guard demagnetize her new Britney Spears CD more questions started racing through my mind. How could she let her daughter wear such clothing? How could she let that CD anywhere near her stereo? Chances are good that the girl had to explain it to her mother, or that the mom thought it was cute and harmless.
It’s not just this family either, its happening all over America. Kids see sex symbols on TV and want to mimic what they see. After all, it looks good on Britney, it must look good on me too. It’s not just kids, fashion designers know this too. Somebody obviously made the shirt big enough for an 80lb girl to wear.
So the kids want to wear it, the fashion designers make it for them, who else can we blame? Somebody has to be at fault, and as tempting as it is to try and point a finger at MTV, Rockstar Videogames and those damn liberals, it’s obviously the parents who are culpable here.
People wonder why we have such high teenage pregnancy and STD rates, and immediately think stronger laws are needed. The answer is simple. Stop teaching our children that sex is funny or cute. Stop treating sex education as a forbidden subject. Everybody knows that the more you forbid something, the more a child is going to want to do it.
Parents raise a fuss when schools want to teach sex-ed, yet they turn around and allow their 10 yr old daughters to dress like hookers. If you want your kid to grow up right, stop telling her that this clothing is cute. It’s not cute at all, it’s sick.
Remember, parental responsibility is not a dirty word.
June 6th, 2006
Which of the following crimes do you consider the worst?
child pornography
repeat drunk driving
dealing drugs
stealing someone’s identity
playing poker online
Actually, it doesn’t matter. Starting tomorrow in the state of Washington, all of these are class C felonies. (ok, so all of them BUT playing poker WERE class C felonies)
That’s right.. playing poker online in washington now carries the same prison sentence as being caught in possession of child porn… up to 7 years.
Can’t wait till they actually try to enforce this… If you think jails are overcrowded now, just wait.
June 6th, 2006
Here’s some great patent ideas that nobody has yet to claim:
1.) The process of patenting / trademarking obvious things, then using the patent for financial gain.
2.) The process of creating legislation to protect pre-1990’s business models from failing due to the company’s refusal to adapt to current technologies. (RIAA, MPAA, SONY, Disney, publishers etc would owe a TON of royalties)
3.) Commiting a crime soley to write a book / sell the movie rights afterwards.
4.) Selling A get rich quick book that consists of merely telling the customer to start selling get rich quick books.
5.) Selling products that don’t exist hoping that ther person will wait too long to report it to Ebay / Amazon to get their money back.
Seems like this is where the real money is these days.
May 6th, 2006
In a recent publicity video, the president can be seen with an ipod in tow. When a reporter asks him what’s on his ipod George answers the beatles.
Everything is fine right? Why is this news?
Well… No Beatles music is currently available for download at any of the buy songs online type sites like itunes, napster etc..
The only way George could have gotten the beatles onto his ipod is if he ripped it from cd, or downloaded it illegally.
Both of these are illegal according to the RIAA.
RIAA, if you’re reading this… go get him.
side note.. I thought George listened to country..
April 18th, 2006
It’s been a long time since Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson game his “angels and devils” speech. In fact, I was even an employee of Best Buy at the time, and it made a lot of sense.
But Brad Anderson is wrong. While he is right that some customers are more profitable than others, his method of only appealing to the good customers is flawed.
Caution, marketing speak ahead
At first glance it makes sense to cater to the profitable customers while shunning the less profitable customers, but that’s not looking at the big picture. It’s time for Brad to think outside the box.
The question to ask is “How can I turn those devils into angels?”
The reason they’re not profitable, is because you’re letting them be. Find out what they want, and provide it for them in a way that’s profitable. That’s what business is about.
If you’re read Business2.0 this month, you’ll see that Wells Fargo CEO Dick Kovacevich understands this idea, and he’s one of the only profitable bank stocks out there.
High schools don’t stop teaching the C students, they help them change. So, if you have unprofitable customers, figure out why, and do something to make them profitable… Don’t just shun them.
April 6th, 2006
What’s your take on the Rebel flag?
The omnipresent symbol of the souther uprising dons flags, jeeps, sports uniforms, tattoos, and more david alan coe, hank williams junior, and jamey johnson songs than I can count; but is it racist?
I know it’s a taboo in this country (or europe) to fly a Nazi flag outside one’s house, but what about a rebel flag?
To some people I’m guessing it is. (I had a cousin who flew a pirate flag for a week before one of his neighbors replaced it with the stars and stripes)
American textbooks tend to imply that the civil war was only about racism, but in reality there was so much more too it.
To many southerners, the rebel flag is a symbol of their heritage. It reminds them of the hard work, honest pay, philosophy of life. Roots are important.
What do you think? Is flying the rebel flag ok?
April 6th, 2006
I like that you’re trying to change search, but you got a few things wrong… let me explain.
1. It’s called live search, but it’s not live. Where’s the AJAX auto suggest like google has to help with my search?
2. You broke my scrollbar. No matter what program I open, the scrollbar always works the same: I can slide it and it lets me know how far up or down in the document I am.
Don’t change what a user expects. When I see a button, I want to push it. A handle? I pull. A scrollbar, I scroll. Try going to result number 200, then tell me how I get back to result number 1 quickly without re-searching for it? I can’t.
3. Your ads are cut off. I know they scroll with every 10 results, but it took me about 15 searches to figure that out, the average user won’t figure that out at all, and seeing cut-off ads makes you look very unprofessional.
4. It’s still not relevant. I like that you give importance to new sites, but you’re still not as relevant as Google. Search for “cds” on Google and the top result is a place where I can buy music. On MSN, I can learn about investing. What do you think is the more common definition of “cd” worldwide?
The new features are nice and pretty, but that’s all they are. I’m sure the marketing department loves them, but the average searcher probably just scratched their head while clicking on over to Google.
It’s not the interface that matters, it’s the results I get back that I care about. Keep on the “fresh web pages” and lack of sandbox.. you got that right, but don’t screw with my scrollbars.
March 9th, 2006
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