DISQUS

Thanks for the kind words Jeanne! I have to write-up a more up-to-date version soon... But all these tips do still help! Keep it up with your blog! Posting great content about what you love is what it takes to get things going--you're doing it right!

Thanks Mani.

Courtney - It's unfortunate that they went this route. Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose; especially online!

Thanks for your comment Stuart, and for including the jaunted.com reference, I hadn't read that or seen it online (Royal Caribbean Cruises Has Web 2.0 Viral Infection). There is likely more of this going on than we're all aware of.

Hey Benk -
Thanks for your comment. I never followed up on this post, but I have continued and tried different terms (that were more popular) and could get results for terms that more difficult. Here's one example: Google Search for iPod video rumor. It's not the term "iPod," but there's a good amount of competition.
The post on the On a Mac blog that I was testing was this post. It's in the #4 spot currently.
On the link part, the video was embedded in the post (there's no link from YouTube).

I want one. I have absolutely no need since I'm packing an iPhone and it's absolutely fine. Android's openness is the draw for me. One would assume that )if they've got it stable and ready to roll) Android phones will eclipse iPhone sales quickly creating a demand for apps that will produce a firehouse of great applications. All-in-all, what a great time for mobile. It's great to see mobile phones getting away from the abysmal UX of the flip-phone era.

I stopped accepting entries at midnight last night.

I'll pick the winner, announce their name and ship their iPod touch before midnight tonight!

A few of Google's posts regarding Andorid's launch:

The first Android powered phone
Google on Android

As a browser there are some accolades - it's fast, clean, and key functionality (such as how downloads are handled) has been well thought out.

But... it's more than a browser to Google. I'm interested to see how they create need for a product that there really isn't need for right now.

http://www.onlinemarketingperformance.com/googl...

Wow. That is a bad experience. I used to immediately install any and all updates (Apple, Microsoft and otherwise) but have since cooled down. I had an OS X point upgrade that fubar'd all the fonts on my Mac which turned into a wild goose chase to fix. That experience was so painful I've since found some patience and wait a few days so if something does go wrong someone else has already overcome it.

I was considering doing my 2.1 iPhone update tonight... Since it's 9pm I'm going to wait for an evening when I can start it earlier... just in case...

With Google favoring blog content for so long now, and the desire for them to keep people from gaming the system, I wonder if they'll take aggressive steps against DoFollow blogs and those using CommentLuv.

<abbr>Scott McAndrews last blog post..SEO company stupidity search (win an iPod Touch)</abbr>

Ritchie -

Thanks for contributing! In a nutshell what I was getting at is that Google has long-term plans, and realizes than in the short and long term they can be cut out of markets (think IE 8's anonymous browsing feature) which they rely upon, and/or be prevented from entering new ones without a solid foothold on the client side. But, regardless of what they need or want to do, without a clear value proposition to the end user it won't happen. They won't get the installs.

Raising the bar is great, but there isn't much further for the bar to go. What Google presented on Tuesday isn't revolutionary. That doesn't mean it can't be, but to the end-user it's just another browser.

When Firefox hit the market, the online community was conducive to a browser alternative. Firefox's launch message was that it was simple and secure. There was also the implied: Try it-it's not Internet Explorer. Firefox was fast, flexible and a good alternative in a one-browser world at a time when Microsoft was being criticized for gaining market share for their web browser by bundling it with Windows and making it the default web browsing application. That practice was seen as a reason for the death of Netscape, and Firefox became an underdog play that had Netscape (Mozilla) at its core.

What's Google's compelling reason for installing Chrome? It's not the Chrome EULA... I'm not saying they are going to fail, we just haven't seen their plan for success yet.

Thomas: The videos that are being used in these examples are from common video sharing sites (like YouTube and Google Video). When creating the blog posting, the video 'share' code was added to the content so the video is embedded into the post. Looking forward to sharing more results soon.

Thought everything went smooth with the 3 domains I bought (checked out pretty quickly, saw the receipt page, etc.). Then late in the afternoon I checked the email account that is associated with my GoDaddy account and realized that I had also not purchased the domains I thought I had.

I spoke too soon. I didn't get the domains I thought I did, but didn't realize it because while the order went through on the GoDaddy web site, I didn't check the email account which I have on file with GoDaddy (where I received several emails which informed me that the registration did not go through).

Maybe it was fortunate I wasn't in front of a browser until 10am! I hit Summize and saw some of the chatter you were talking about... Brutal!

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who wasn't impressed with the Google App!

Thanks for providing the link, Nick. I'll give it a look (as I'm sure other visitors will).

Based on Andy's post, I no-follow'd the link in the original post and marked the comments that Widecircles left that linked to their site as spam. Thanks for the catch.

Based on Andy's post, I no-follow'd the link in the original post and marked the comments that Widecircles left that linked to their site as spam. Thanks for the catch.

I was actually wondering if Google Analytics had this capability for a specific client. Thanks for the tip!

@Robert: When writing the post above I noticed that in the Nielsen study the option that you called out as 'consumer opinion posted online' is presented as 'consumer options posted online.' At first glance I read it as you did. Whether consumer opinion or consumer options, my take on the Nielsen report and what I meant when in point #2 when I cited 'user generated content' was broader-based than blogs. If it were blogs alone I would agree that the demographic would be incredibly narrow, and further, the results wouldn't be nearly as high (in my opinion). I'm thinking respondents were (rightfully) including user posted reviews that appear alongside product at ecommerce sites.

@Robert: I'm not sure of its effect on overall traffic. That's an obvious place to start for any Internet company, however. I've been contemplating what Facebook's overall goal is online since the community at large started contemplating Facebook's place in the search space-which in turn brings up the point "why would Facebook want to give its members a reason to leave." In this case, the question is "Why would Facebook not only passively, but actively encourage users to spend less time on Facebook?" What could they possibly gain? Well, at the core, what is Facebook's business model? Facebook doesn't overtly discuss finances (nor does it need to as a private company). Are they making a killing on advertising? One would have to assume that they are making decent money on ads, but not enough to propel them in the grandiose directions they're heading. What is it that Facebook has of value? Extremely valuable data for marketers. Facebook's value lies in the data it collects about its users. The kind of data that companies (and the government for that matter) pay good money for. What they're retaining likely has companies like Acxiom wishing Mark would have just finished his degree and gotten a job with them.

@tim heuer: The posts I wrote earlier this year are on my other (older) blog...http://smcandrew.com - just search on Parallels. I actually took my MacBook Pro under the knife and upgraded the hard drive to 160GB. I then Bootcamped Vista, and finally pointed Parallels' latest release at it. Vista is now telling me that due to a "hardware change" it requires I re-register Windows. I haven't had time to fiddle with it yet but hope it doesn't become a big deal. XP us IMO tgecqay to go if you don't gave a specific need for Vista and/or don't have at the VERY least 2GB of ram...

Justin - An email went out in the past 24 hours talking about some glitches they have been having as well as some updates that they are currently rolling out. I did notice that blogs that had the BlogRush widget were a bit sluggish yesterday, but they seem to be fine today...