Latest InsideMicrosoft Posts: InsideGoogle: Search Engine Radio: Whew! .comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}
InsideGoogle
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
 
Search Engine Radio: Whew!
Well, I just finished my interview on SEO Radio, and boy was that nerve-racking! Hopefully, I didn't come off as enormously nervous on the air. It was definitely a fun experience, although I wish I hadn't had to run around fixing problems with our paper's printer, race home, desperately looking for a corded phone (which I never found) while balancing a hot coffee and a laptop. I hope it went well, and it should be in the archives at http://www.wsradio.com/seo/ in about a week. If you listened, let me know what you thought.

Comments:
I listened to the whole thing and would say you came off ok... at least you didn't sound like a big sissy like the average seo guest. I was a little disappointed that the conversation was kind of kindergarten... I was also surprised that neither you or the guest interviewer seemed very well prepared.... I'm mean there were quite a few "I don't really have anything to say moment's". I guess while I'm heaping criticism I might as well say that your appraisal of the search industry and google was a little too much like "Pollyanna in Wonderland" to suit my cenacle critical taste... but you're one of "them" so I suppose I didn't expect anything different. In the end I would say I don't much like what you had to say... but I would say you said it well enough.

signed,
arttworks --the other search industry opposition guy
http://donotgo.com
 
Well, I guess that's not as bad as I had thought it might come off as. The biggest problem, I would say, is that I wasn't entirely sure what sort of audience I was supposed to be speaking to. The host was switched at the last second, and while Larry was definetly good to talk to, he's more of a marketting guy and not a technology guy, and I was afraid of getting into techno-babble specifics. Also, I wish we could have gone over the topics beforehand. I wanted to spend more time talking about integration and personalization and privacy, but it just seemed rushed. I'm used to doing radio, but always politics, so this was a bit of a nervous first time for me, and I hope it goes better in the future.

Oh, and as for the optimism about the search industry, that's just who I am. I am the only optimistic reporter in New York, I think, and you won't see me giving a negative prospectus.
 
Nathan,
If you don't mind doing a critique exchange... I just added your site to this seo feed update page. I realize there's other ways to catalog and read feeds-- but this seems a simple HTML "quick fix" when you just want a fast overview. anyway I like to know what you think.

-arttworks
http://donotgo.com/tester4.htm
 
Well, I looked at your site and found it very interesting, especially that moving box on the side. The one thing that I couldn't figure out is what the main idea of the site is. Do you have an "About" page?
 
Nathan,

I kind of think the home page is sort of about-ish..."Information Super-highway?... No Map -- No Point!" ...& "The last best hope for rational Internet navigation" ...Seems to me the statements would indicate that the site is about "search industry reform" of some kind... I suppose if someone (no offense) can't glean that perception, they are probably not going to be able to understand the complexities of the DSN and Meta-data, so who cares if they run away.... you mentioned google-watch on the radio show... I think if you can understand that website you really should be able understand mine-- I mean mine comes with two years of blog posts and its own message board.

The "moving box" I call powercons, there is a page explaining that.
http://donotgo.com/book.htm or
powercons.com

Anyway, "very interesting" seems a satisfactory accomplishment even if I have left you confused. I don't mean to harp on details but I'm more interested in a fair opinion of the search industry Blog feed update page. I also made one for technology Blogs
http://donotgo.com/tecblog4.htm
The thing is I don't want to waste anymore time developing or expanding on this idea if I am the only one who sees it as useful enough to support (or link to). Let's say I was part of the regular "I love marketing" seo crowd-- would you think the page was worth linking to?

Regarding your new logo thing-- I'm kind of a content person and really hate that kind of stuff. Also, I think you should be aware that that kind of "always" active Dhtml can be kind of rough on computers of marginal memory and processing speed. Even though JavaScript renders quickly the browser and the computer have to devote not unsubstantial resources to maintain this form of animation.

-Gary
 
Yes, your site does remind me in many ways of Google-Watch, although it seems more aware than Daniel Brandt's site is about other search industry commentators.

As for the feed pages, the one thing I would worry about is useability. The page is a very long list, with only post titles. Perhaps something shorter, or with snippets of the posts, would be a little easier to go through. Most people would want to scan a page like that, especially one with so much data.

Going through the various pages on your site, I found several examples of some very innovative uses of code. I almost wish you would tie it all together as a bit of a technology showcase. There's a lot of things I would like to do one day, as I become more experienced with the various forms of HTML, Javascript, and other web authoring languages, and your site proves to me that many of those ideas are possible.

Which brings me to the DHTML logo. That is just another example of me trying something new. I think in experimenting with it, I've learned a lot. It's too annoying to keep, but I can probably use the lessons I learned from it in some interesting ways.
 
Your response wasn't exactly what I was looking for... I'm trying to more or less assess the basic value of the content. It's really not intended to serve the needs of SE news hounds more like just the average dog who occasionally might wanna check in and see what's happening around the search industry. In my opinion the drop down menu is the real beauty of this thing... it gives you a up to the hour (or so) overview of what's being talked about conveniently ordered from most recent, to least recent with the inclusion of a few news headlines and /dot stories. The fact that the drop down menu is portable, and could be installed on any web page is a nice bonus. Personally the thing saves me a lot of time as I no longer waste time visiting websites that haven't been updated-- I realize using a feed reader could solve a lot of the same problems-- but feed readers have their own liabilities... advertising, setup time, bandwidth etc.

Regarding the "innovative code"... It has been a real disappointment that the innovations have just been a waste of time... I've never expected to make any money doing "code" but I did expect that if I had a few moments of brilliance I would it least get some extra traffic as a reward... Unfortunately the Internet just isn't designed to make that possible for the unconnected-- I kind of had the same problem as an artist... in the art world it's really not about the quality of your work, it's about the quality of your contacts... anyway, as this kind of rant is probably gonna get me the "sour grapes" mantra, I will move on.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

Powered by Blogger

Who Reads InsideGoogle?
Cnet

The Seattle Times

Evan Williams

Most Popular Posts
A Look At Google's Secret Instant Messaging Product: Hello

New Gmail Features Include An Atom Feed

An Interview With Google's Marissa Mayer at Digital Life

Google And Microsoft: Neighbors