| LED Digest 1946: Down to Earth Blog Discussion |
|
|
|
================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 17, 2005 Issue #1946 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ======= NEW ===================== --== Blogging ==-- ~ Ronni Rhodes "I'm tired of reading the hype and would enjoy a down to earth discussion of blogging." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Google's Toolbar Stealing? ==-- ~ John Barendrecht "Barnes & Noble had to add links (code) to millions of their ISBN numbers..." ~ Diane Dennis "I immediately emailed Google to ask them..." --== RSS Feeds, Spam, and The Future of Publishing ==-- ~ Steve Pronger "There is no email address for the spam-bots to harvest." ~ Kathryn Martyn "...the main thing with an RSS feed is you can simply turn it off..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== BuyDomains.com ==-- ~ Tom Williamson --== PHP, MySQL and Search Engines ==- ~ Rich Dudley ~ Renee Kennedy ======= NEW ====================================== From: Ronni Rhodes Subject: Blogging I'm a bit surprised this hasn't come up on this list as it seems to be one of the "hottest" topics around! Do you think blogging is here to stay? Or is it just another internet "phenomenon" that will go the way of the blinking marquee? Do blogs truly have commercial value for the average small business? Or are they just a substitute for a web site? Can they attract a large enough audience to actually create revenue? (We all know there are a few, like those blogs of Gawker Media, that are being "monetized" quite nicely.) I'm very interested in hearing the opinions of the people in this group. I'm tired of reading the hype and would enjoy a down to earth discussion of blogging. Best regards, Ronni Rhodes Ignite Your Site with Sound and Motion! http://www.wbcimaging.com Blog: http://www.ronnirhodes.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: John Barendrecht Subject: Google toolbar > [With] new beta v3 Google toolbar... users may bypass > your "buy" button in favor of Google's "Provide Book > Information". It also makes your ISBN # a clickable link > to Amazon, without affiliate code. Anyone beside me > opposed to toolbars rewriting web pages? - John Barendrecht, LED 1944 > If, and only if there is no existing link, ... the toolbar > will then pass the ISBN to Amazon's search window. - Dave Starr, LED 1945 Dave then asks for a real world example. Barnes & Noble had to add links (code) to millions of their ISBN numbers once the Google toolbar came out because Google linked the ISBN # to Amazon. Like him, I like the map linking but it is the concept of toolbars adding 'stuff' to web pages that worries me. I think we are going down a slippery slope here. Today it is book numbers, tomorrow ??? Would Dave feel different if Google linked his product to competitor.com? I might feel different if Google only presented the info in the toolbar, rather than making addresses on my site clickable - here they have changed my page. Apparently there is now a Firefox plug-in called Butler. "Butler enhances Google search results by adding links to competitors. It also removes ads, changes typography, and a few other useful things." Will Google complain about Butler? What if Microsoft implemented Google ad removal as default, or opt-in, in Internet Explorer 7? Is there a difference between adding and subtracting content from a web page? John Barendrecht Centralhome.com Company Inc http://www.centralhome.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Diane Dennis Subject: Google toolbar Hi All! When I read the post about Google I immediately emailed Google to ask them about it. I received a response the same day, this is what they wrote: ----------------- "Thank you for your your note. AutoLink is a user-initiated feature of the Google Toolbar. AutoLink links are generated only when a Toolbar user clicks on the AutoLink button on his or her Toolbar. Links aren't automatically generated on a page, and a Toolbar user must click on the generated links in order to go to a linked page. AutoLink does not modify links that already exist on a page. Finally, Toolbar users choose whether they want to enable or disable this feature and when to use it. "Because Toolbar users choose whether they want to enable or disable features and when to use them, we do not provide a way for webmasters to disable features such as AutoLink and the Popup Blocker on their visitors' Toolbars. "We appreciate your taking the time to share your feedback about the AutoLink feature, and we'll keep it in mind as we work to improve our service." Regards, The Google Team ----------------- While I haven't fully digested it all it does look as if it's not quite as bad as was originally stated. Just thought I'd let you all know what they told me. :) Have a great day! Diane Dennis http://www.thecontractorsgroup.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Steve Pronger Subject: RSS and more > We have all complained at one time or another about > some of the annoying ads associated with Web pages. > Looks like they are also coming to an RSS feed near you... - Tom Aman, LED 1945 To which I say "so what". This very digest is supported by ads, is it not? But we continue to read it because we find the content useful. If the ads became intrusive, inappropriate or annoying we would stop reading it I suspect. If you reach the same conclusion about an RSS feed you receive just click-click and it's gone. Unlike spam, which you can not receive via RSS, nothing is foisted on you. There is no email address for the spam-bots to harvest. The publisher is providing a "feed" but you are "pulling" that feed into your desktop. Stop pulling any time you want. If publishers do choose to use an ad-supported delivery system then they'd better have good content because consumers will move on in an instant. Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: RSS and more Ads in RSS are not a bad thing, IMO. Spam is a bad thing. If I own a store, merchandise I stock is meant to bring me profits -- that's how it works. I trade my services for other goods or services (i.e. money, usually) and the world keeps on turning. If not for ads how would you know of new products and/or services you might be interested? Can you imagine a world without advertising, where you'd only discover new products and services that might make your life easier if your neighbor happened to mentioned it while standing at the back fence sharing the day's events? Not in my world. I like ads, always have. I read them in magazines more so than the articles. I'm not adverse to ads in e-mail, if they come from people I know and trust (newsletter providers for examples), and as for TV, I don't watch because ads are too much of an interuption (you can simply choose not to receive them). I still need to make a living and if I'm able to include an advert in my RSS feed, I'd certainly do so. I run Google ads on my sites, and they are a welcome addition to my income (my son's soon starting college so this is getting serious folks!). I believe my clients are interested in goods and services outside what I can provide, and I have no reason not to help them find them. In fact, if anything, I like to be a source of information. I never liked the idea of ads targeted to buying habits because they don't include the possibility that I may be interested in something outside my usual -- which is why I'm such a fan of magazine adverts. I'm also an information junky so perhaps I have a differing viewpoint from the norm. Above all, the main thing with an RSS feed is you can simply turn it off, much like you can turn off the TV and that puts control in my hands. Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Tom Williamson Subject: Question - BuyDomains.com I've have two domain names registered at BuyDomains.com. I've been a customer since 1999. Recently, however, I have been unable to access my accounts. The passwords are rejected. I've tried to contact support without any success. Is anyone else having this probem? What is going on with this company? Is there an internet organization that oversees domain registrations to who I can complain? Thanks, Tom Williamson ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Richard Dudley Subject: PHP search > Would anyone know if google and yahoo search engines are > capable of spidering the info in databases of PHP / MySQL? - Super Perez, LED 1944 No search engine can directly spider a back-end database. Short answer: if there's no link to a page which displays the data you want to show, it won't appear in a search engine. If you want the information to be exposed to the search engines, you need to guide them to it using a site map or the like. A standard instance is an e-commerce site. At www.bloomeryweddings.com, we have all of our products in a back-end database, and there are only two pages that are used to display hundreds of products--search_results.asp and details.asp. For us to lead the search engines to the products, we have various static links for the different categories, and in some cases, to specific products. Our design serves as both the menu and site map, and if you follow all of the links, you (and a spider) will see everything we have to offer. If you're using a content management system for articles (rather than selling products), you'll still need some way to generate a site map for the spiders to follow. Rich Dudley www.bloomeryweddings.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Renee Kennedy Subject: PHP search Yes, Google and other search engines are capable of spidering PHP sites, indexing them, and ranking them right up there with regular HTML sites. However, there are a few issues with PHP. For one, you can't put a TITLE tag on PHP pages that you're calling up from your main or index page. What you can do is program for the "title" variable into each link: < A href=" http://www.e-healthcaresolutions.com/main.php? pid=overview&title=health care medical advertising and marketing"> Another issue is that apparently, it's not good for search engines if you have too many variables in the string. In the above example, there are two variables, the page name (pid=) and the title (title=). For a more complete examination of this topic and exactly how to add in the title variable, try this site: http://www.stargeek.com/php-seo.php Renee Kennedy e-Healthcare Solutions, Inc. www.e-healthcaresolutions.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains © Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein |
