Holy shit right?

Wrong. After you're done editing your video, you can register with the site and then they give you a badge to embed whereever you please.

Wait...Holy shit right?

Wrong. The badge simply takes you to here, where you can see Teen Beat style photos of the band and look at Japanese characters while wondering where things went wrong.

This is a massive blunder from two entities that rarely make massive blunders when concerning technology. Radiohead has been at the forefront of music distribution and Internet/Web savvy for a long time. Japan has given us the USB necktie. Clearly, these two should have pulled off something better than this.

While it irritates me that I cannot share my directorial debut, and it pains me that yet again someone drops the ball on using the Web to spread both culture, technology, ideas and joy; I must say, go make your own video, because it's still really fun.

Just be sure to call everyone over to your desk when you're done.

Wake up

Check email

Notification that Pownce is shutting down

Ask aloud "What the hell is Pownce?"

Yes, it seems that everyone's favorite robust Twitter has gone the way of the bison. Why? Well, like the bison, Pownce was a bloated version of Twitter. It didn't have the quick and easy updating options of Twitter's multiple apps, mobile apps, etc. In fact, I knew more people that updated their Pownce via Ping.fm, thus catering their Pownces to their Tweets. Kinda how those of us in PPC advertising have always written ads catering to Google's format.

Why does Plurk survive when Pownce dies? One reason is that Pownce was purchased, and thus didn't really die so much as get absorbed by another company and deemed irrelevant (which it was). I'm sure if you were to (harkening back to Physics classes here) put them in a universe with the same condiditions, no competition but each other, et cetera that Pownce would win. Which may actually be the crux of their failure. Because they are better, they will fail. The cost of supporting users outweighs their investment.

Another reason is Karma. Many of us don't give a shit about that little tally at the bottom of the Plurk profile, but enough teenagers (hypothesizing) do that they can remain popular, yet not too popular. Shit, they're no Twitter.

And thus we see one of the endless amount of social media profile whore machines die today. Be sure to export all your Pownces so you can upload them over on Twi-oh yeah, you use Ping.fm, you're fine.

This SEMpdx Hot Seat's (btw - did you guys realize that SEMpdx is really annoying to pluralize or add possessiveness to? SEMpdxes? SEMpdx's? Just really annoying.) featured guests were Eric Peterson and Ian Lurie. Enough with this semi-formal writing...

6:10pm - Mirror Pond

Eric Peterson is giving a high level introduction to the wonders of GA 3.0. Highlights include:

• Custom Reporting
• Advanced Segmentation
• API Access (will allow integration of analytics into proprietary reporting and data collection ZOMG this is so awesome!!!! OMG OMG ESPN BBQ IMHO - this will cut down reporting time by ... some large percentage!!!!)

Eric's slick, but he didn't speak long. I think he's going to be more interesting when we get to the Hot Seat.

6:20pm - Same Mirror Pond

Lurie time. Ian's got a presentation on segmentation. Ian does a great job of introducing the topic and showing a real world example. He used the latest fad of charging a fee on airline luggage. I'm going to use a different, more Web relevant example. Audience Segmentation is essentially treating visitors as tags. On a blog, or bookmarking site, we use tags to identify where a post, link, etc. belongs.]]> Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:45:39 -0800 http://virb.com/jipper/posts/text/927677 http://virb.com/jipper/posts/text/912023 There's a great map over at SwingStateProject.com. It tracks every state/region poll closing time so you can be alert to the latest results tomorrow as they happen.

Click for a larger size.

Thankfully, it's a headache of pure bliss; created by my own unwillingness to turn down my headphones. Earlier this week my pal and WordPress wunderkind, Nate, turned me on to Fucked Up's latest opus, The Chemistry of Common Life.

Why am I writing about an album on a SEM blog?

Reader, I am many things. A search engine marketer, a musician, a sports-enthusiast, a political scientist and a humorist. I tried having 6 blogs take care of all of my interests, but frankly, I have to consolidate. In my personal life, I work for 9 hrs/day at my SEM job, then 1-2 hrs on music, then 1-2 hrs are alotted to personal time. When the hell was I going to update 5 other blogs??? It's kindof like when you're cleaning your closet, and you find your pleather. Sure, it was a good idea at the time, but now it's a week later and you've realized you're never going to wear those pants again.

So, let's let this post, and all subsequent I Need a Little Escape posts, be time to unwind from SEM.

Earlier this week I was putting together my Top list of albums released this year, and to the best of my knowledge my favorite had been Paul Westerberg's 49:00. An epic sprawl of songs crafted by one of America's finest songwriters finding his voice again and creating the best music since his youth (see: The Replacements). Also in a short list: Blitzen Trapper's Furr, Destroyer's Trouble in Dreams and The Hold Steady's Stay Positive.

So what catapulted The Chemistry of Common Life to the top of that list? To be honest, I think it was something about the guitar brilliance on display, the attention to detail in song craft, the lyrics confronting life and religion, the depth of instrumentation...or it was the raw energy of hardcore.

To hearken back to Reagan - I didn't leave the hardcore and punk music. The music left me.

Yes, when I was in my first years of college, I'd found the brilliance that is hardcore and punk. You know, the old stuff: Black Flag, Bad Brains, Operation Ivy and the like. Sadly, as quickly as I found it, it left me. Soon, bands like Blink 182 and Less Than Jake were on the national stage, and I wanted to vomit. 2 years later I'm listening to Uncle Tupelo, the Old 97s and thinking that Steve Earle is a genius (which he is).

So you can imagine my excitement, when after more than a decade (Lord...) I'm told that I "might" like this new album from a band called Fucked Up because it's got "good guitars" on it.

Apprehension sets in.

The first sound I hear on this supposed hardcore album is a flute. Let me repeat that. The first sound on the fucking album is a flute. Not a flute sample or keyboard mimic, but a real fucking flute (yes I'm trying to beat Hack's record for F-bombs (yes I realize I just wasted an opportunity there)). The textural surprises don't end there. There are 2 gorgeous instrumentals that separate the three sections of the album perfectly. It's refreshing to hear a hardcore band pay attention to not only instrumentation (a fucking flute!), but also to album sequencing and purpose.

Fucked Up has crafted a damn fine album here, but more importantly, it's a smart album. It's a running discussion about birth, death, life and religion. Maybe I'm just getting old, but these themes seem to be very pressing to me right now; and, it's great to hear a band like this, present the topic in this manner. It makes me feel young again, while being more receptive to the inevitability of growing old.

Well, there it is - the typical Syzlak self-reflection part of the post. Like the music at the end of an episode of Dr. Katz, the Wonder Years like self-reflection often signifies the end of a post for me. I'd had more things to say, but really if you can handle some beautifully orchestrated hard rockin' music with a rather gruff sounding frontman, you should really just check out the album.

Our time is up.

To some of you this may be familiar:

This eye research has been shown countless times to illustrate the Golden Triangle of search - the red area in the top left of a SERP where users are most active, violently clicking away to their hearts' desire on the first thing they see. Since you're probably familiar with this research, you probably know that I used it in a post from December of 2007 about Google's encroachment on this Golden Triangle. Shit, I'm not even the first to use it! In fact, if anybody clicked through on the link Rand gave for the pic, you would see that Inspired Impressions used it back in April of 2006 (over 2 years ago). 2 years in "search time" is an eternity. For reference, if you were to have a kid in 2000 and he were to grow up in "search time," he'd be Robin Williams from Jack.

Here's how SERPs look more often than not today...well at least as of December 2007 (I'll admit when I took the screenshot)

See how our buddies at Google are putting ads into that Golden Triangle? Do you suppose that users might be clicking on those a bit more often than they did 2+ years ago? More importantly, did you see what the top listing was in the pic that Rand gave us?

Look's like that's a Sponsored Link, and it's getting quite a few clicks too...

Wouldn't it be great if current data was used to make claims of suspect? While I think that some of what Rand is arguing is prudent (SEO could use a bit more money and focus for many companies), I do not agree with either his methods or his implied conclusion (we didn't get a conclusion out of Rand, so I don't want to put words in his mouth).

The fact of the matter is, PPC can drive instant gratification (traffic), qualified visitors (through ad copy and keyword targets), motivated visitors (drop 'em on a landing page...they've seen everything - they've seen it all), and it can do all of this for as many or as few pages as desired on as much or as little a budget available.

Market size is also a determining factor of PPC/SEO budget. When I worked in local search for a few years when it was first blossoming, I would never have suggested to the 100 plumbers in Atlanta that they could spend their budget on trying to beat each other, as well as the national giants, on organic listings. For some industries, it's pretty easy to compete in the less competitive field of PPC with focused keywords than to try to tackle 8,000 competitors in organic. So, why not allocate $100 towards a PPC budget that will pay off, and do so quickly, as opposed to spending thousands on SEO - especially when thousands aren't available?

I hate to call out my pal David Mihm, but I also had a problem with his comment:

Well, honestly, it all stems from Kate's comment, but I was more irked by this one. Not to be a downer, but sometimes in a "down economy" (I call it a depression, but ok ), some companies may have to go with the cheap & quick solution just to stay alive. A lot of times, that's the small businesses. Small businesses need to be present, build their brands and get visitors "in the door" just to make it to the next step-especially in a "down economy."

I know Mihm, I know his work, he's damn good and any small business would be wise to pay for his SEO services. Hell, businesses of any size would be wise to spend money on SEO; but for a lot of them, it's just not in the cards right now. Not everything comes down to SEO having a bad reputation, being misunderstood & misrepresented, complex or the rest of the excuses a lot of us use; sometimes, SEO is just not what a business needs when we're trying to sell it.

So why bother?

Why bother to write all this useless shit? I have a couple tips I'd like to share; but when I start thinking about posting them, I start dreading the act of posting. The hour or more to properly craft the piece. The 10 minutes to get a good pic. The endless waiting for a response from 1 of my readers - not for fame, but to make sure it made sense. The massive boost of 4 visitors to the site...

What's the fucking point anymore?

If you don't read this blog religiously (by the way, religiously for me is a perfect description of my interaction with this blog. I was raised Catholic and never made a habit of going to Church since I lived in Illinois. Once in awhile, as I believe is the case with a lot of Catholics who have strayed from the Church (which isn't entirely accurate, but I digress) I will go to Mass. I don't know why, I just do. So, it's kind of like posting here - I do it when I feel guilty) then you might have landed here after hitting the Stumble button. If so, click an ad before you leave, I know you're not paying attention to what's being said anyway.

Do I sound defeated?

If so, it's your own damn fault. Everyday hundreds of "SEO" bloggers post useless lists in order to have new content on their sites. They repeat what someone else took the time to write. Sometimes they disagree with something someone wrote, and they expect us all to care. It's like the song by The Hold Steady "Most People are DJs." Cloak and Dagger Media has a great quote from Craig Finn about his song

I think that DJing, like rock criticism, tends to be a way for people to participate in the "scene" without taking the risks to the ego that go along with producing music or any other art.

Sounds like blogging. "Hey everyone! Come read my list about stuff I didn't think up!" Congrats. Awhile back, I'd read that the current crop of 15-25 year olds are being labeled the "Look at Me" Generation. That's not entirely fair, as the age bracket should be bigger. Let's say 10-40. While we're out, let's rename it. I think anyone that writes a popular blog should be known as a member of the "Look What I Found" Generation.

What's my point?

Fuck, I don't even know anymore. At the risk of depressing everyone Hack my reader, be prepared to read a lot of depressing posts over the next few days. I've lost the energy to care about this blog. Well, at least this incarnation of the blog. I'm tired of trying to find something to say about something I don't care that much about.

In the end, maybe that's a good thing.

Photo Credit to Stereogum

No. No. No.

I am but a humble SEM cave dweller. Doing my work dilligently, never asking for a moment's rest to come and visit my now shitty blog. Never being able to login to MyBlogLog, forgetting about Plurk, tweeting but once a day...

Hardly a rockstar's life for me.

In all seriousness, where the fuck have I been? This is my first post for August??? This is the site's first post in August???? Screw my own self-concern, where the hell has Steve been?

Sorry reader, I know I haven't been around lately, but I intend to remedy that if I ever lose my job and have to resort to blogging like so many others before me.

Happy Birthday Hack, next year we'll get you the real Hannah Montana!

Former Googler Anna Patterson disagrees.

Patterson has recently launched Cuil - a new search engine that displays results in a magazine layout. Apparently, Cuil is going to return results based upon the "actual content" of a given page.

Ok.

In my preliminary searches, Cuil has not impressed me. I think it's great to have more competition in the search engine world, and I honestly would welcome an upstart on to the scene. However, this engine just doesn't do it for me. The idea behind a magazine layout is kinda cool, unfortunately the pictures that are interspersed with the results ruin the experience. Since Cuil displays pictures next to a result, I assume that the picture is somehow tied to that page-in reality it's just different media into one big SERP.

Is the layout the appeal? To me, it seems confused. I think SERPs should be analytical; give me my results ranked on a page and differentiated by file type. Pages in one result, pics in another, videos in the next. If you have to put them on one page, try to do it like A9 or Ask...oh wait, they aren't really doing so well are they?

I think Cuil could be competitive if they stop trying to fool me into thinking that I'm reading the newspaper. People understand that the web is not a magazine, and I believe they want results to be ranked. For that matter, I think that most of the time (studies prove this) people just want one result. In that case, allow me to promote the Search Engine Highlander. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.