Google Gadgets & SEO

Hi, this is just an open letter to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask spam teams.
I will be speaking in depth about SEO and widgets at a couple of upcoming conferences and highlighting some of the more “dangerous” behaviors that can lead to spam trouble within widgets.
I have sent an email to Matt Cutts and I hope he sees it […]

Affiliate programs often do not have many of the basic functionalities that I like to see that help me use them in gadgets.
I was surprised when I saw what Superpages was offering for their affiliate system.

SuperPages is a local search company and they have a simple and innovative system to distribute their services. It is […]

I happened across something that would make Michael Gray of Wolf Howl chuckle…
On the Google analytics features page there is a reference to paid links as if they are just as fine and dandy as can be, in fact you should definitely use Google Analytics because of the keyword and campaign comparison…

I have no real […]

When marketers are planning gadgets I have seen over and over again the first fateful and almost universal mistake.
Marketing team gets together, has phone conference, drinks coffee, eats donuts, and then leaves meeting with a great plan and a clear vision of what they want…
“We need a gadget, and we need it to go viral”
Um, […]

I will be speaking at the SEM Canada conference this year. The conference will take place on September 4th and 5th in Calgary.
There is a great (and growing) lineup of speakers including Todd Friesen, Andy Beal, Bill Slawski, Jane Copland, and Ken Jurina - see the most current speaker list here.
More conference info […]

Like any brave new world worth it’s salt, the brave new world of Google gadgets is at first difficult to navigate, but once you know a few things about it you can tread easier. Which brings us to the feared Fire Swamp o’ gadget strategy. Doesn’t matter if you are a company wondering about gadgets, […]

I made a gadget from Aaron Wall’s search engine spider tool source code, available from his SEO tools page.
I have had my version of this spider tool on my other site for a long time, but I wanted to make a gadget that showed the results within the gadget, instead of throwing you off to […]

A Google gadget for Sphinn.
It displays Sphinn Hot topics, whats new, and comments. This gadget grabs the feeds and then displays them four at a time, you can quickly browse through topics by using the “next” link near the bottom of the gadget. It should be really helpful for those with slower internet connections who […]

Google will make some announcements on their new APIs and social networking platform called “Open Social” soon, until then you can learn more at SearchEngineLand.
For developers, the APIs will provide the ability to develop for multiple platforms at once. Here is a great pre-launch article about the API that answers some initial questions.

My favorite video has been removed from YouTube. I thought it was safe, It is in Spanish. But dammit, they are catching up. In the last week my favorite songs are dissapearing off of YouTube, even though they are in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and yes, dammit, Arabic.
The real sadness for me occured today, when my […]