January 30, 2008 in SEO by sbaradell@ideagrove.com
What’s the Most Important Web Site on Earth? According to Google, It’s Google.com

Most of the billions of Web sites out there today have a site map, labeled as such. So if you run a search on the term “site map” in Google, you should get a fairly decent indication of which sites Google thinks are most important, shouldn’t you?

Here are the 25 organizations whose Web sites come up first in a “site map” search:

1. Google
2. eBay
3. Apple
4. CNN Money
5. Wikipedia
6. Microsoft
7. The Seattle Times
8. The Chronicle of Higher Education
9. The New York Times
10. Internal Revenue Service
11. FindLaw
12. CNET
13. The White House
14. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
15. Austin American-Statesman
16. U.S. Dept. of Defense
17. The Washington Post
18. U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
19. LiveJournal
20. MapQuest
21. The Arizona Republic
22. MSNBC
23. International Monetary Fund
24. U.S. National Library of Medicine
25. Los Angeles Times

Whaddya know? Google thinks it’s important. Of course, we’ve demonstrated this before.

 
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January 13, 2008 in Social Media Marketing by sbaradell@ideagrove.com
Why Anyone Who’s Been Blogging as Long as I Have Should Want to Kill Themselves


Why? Because the same people are writing about the same things they were when I started, with the difference being that we’re all drunk with consulting work so the writing is shittier (or we’ve hired a college student to do it for us), and more people are inserting themselves into the “conversation” to make a quick buck every single day.

I don’t really have the energy or the inclination for a full rant here, but I stumbled upon (and I don’t mean Stumbled Upon) this post by Steve Rubel (who is a friend) and had to at least spew something or other. See, I don’t read Micro Persuasion (or a lot of other blogs) regularly like I used to, and though I’m a fan I’ve never been an avid reader just ’cause I’m not a tech geek. So I just thought I’d check in to see what’s doin’.

So we get Steve saying too many bloggers are writing lazy, boring shit, which they are, and then we have Steve promising to try to do better, which in all probability he simply won’t have time to do, and then we have a bunch of commenters who might as well have written their posts in 2005. Commenters bitching that Steve is ignoring them; commenters kissing Steve’s ass in hopes of some future link love; and even Jeremy Pepper, who still hasn’t tired of his little snipes at Steve after all these friggin’ years.

Does anyone wonder now why I’d prefer to do blog posts about Paris and Lindsay having vag slips in Africa?

I’m like Jack on the bridge in the season finale of Lost last year, only I don’t want to go back to Blog Island. I want to blow up Blog Island.

I think the best thing that could happen to improve the quality of blogging would be to shut down Digg, Techmeme and Twitter; for Google to stop indexing blog content; and for Technorati (even as f’ed up as it already is) to go away,too. Then you’d have people blogging who actually give two shits about what they’re writing.

Today finding worthwhile content online is like looking for the best ballet dancer in a mosh pit. Good luck with that.

 
May 4, 2007 in Celebrity by sbaradell@ideagrove.com
Alycia Lane Bikini Pics!!!

Sorry, we had to do it.

Truth is, the “mortified” Lane, now the most searched-for bikini girl on the Internet, says she’s locked up her controversial pics and thrown away the key.

So this may be the closest thing you’ll find, Google pervs.

 
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October 27, 2006 in Media Orchard, Picks by sbaradell@ideagrove.com
Pick of the Orchard 10.27.06

  • Could Political Google Bombs Work? (The Bivings Report)
  • Introducing the “Golden Rules of Blog Etiquette” Writeboard (Rohit Bhargava)
  • Nancy Johnson’s attack ad on Chris Murphy — and Murphy’s response
  • Sarah Silverman has a dream (NSFW) (YouTube)
  • Unclear on the Concept; Lessons from Blog Business Summit (Jeremy Pepper)

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    June 17, 2006 in Advertising, Content Marketing, Media Orchard by sbaradell@ideagrove.com
    Liberty University’s Surprising Google Ad Campaign


    If you’re not familiar with Liberty, it’s the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s university in Lynchburg, Va. Its stated mission: “To produce Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge, and skills required to impact tomorrow’s world.”

    It boasts “behavioral standards which include the prohibition of drug, alcohol and tobacco use, coed dorms, and sexual promiscuity” and “a modest dress code, reasonable curfews and respect for authority.”

    So we can assume that the mostly-naked bookends to its Google ad (view the Web page where it appeared here) are not Liberty students.

    We can also assume that Liberty recruiters don’t know much about Google AdWords. Got to be careful with those contextual ads, Rev.

    (Update: LinkBee.com has been up and down for unknown reasons. It’s affiliated with the Jokaroo site.)

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