Getting Serious About Your Org Chart
Manu's funny brilliance aside, this collection of org charts might help you think hard about why your organization is structured the way it is. [read more]
Google Finally Weaving Local Strategy
This content from: Duct Tape MarketingGoogle has the money, resources and clout to compete in any market they enter fully. Problem is they also seem to suffer from a focus problem. They tend (or at least it appears to me) to release features without strategy.Of late, however, it looks like they just might be getting their local strategy... [read more]
Accurate Contrarian Theories
When Google released its search engine in 1998, its search results were significantly better than its competitors’. Many people attribute Google’s success to this breakthrough technology. But there was another key reason: a stubborn refusal to accept the orthodox view at the time that “stickiness” was crucial to a website’s success... [read more]
Selection Trumps Motivation (Solving Google's Social Problem)
While I have a feeling that Larry Page won’t take any of my suggestions (darn), I am happy to see him come out swinging hard. What a welcome contrast to when Jerry Yang took over as CEO at Yahoo. Several people have written that it is a bad idea to have a corporate wide bonus depending on the achievement of social goals.... [read more]
+1 on +1
Okay so it’s not as mass market as the Like button is, but Google’s attempt to embrace social interactions is a better start than people are giving them credit for. I agree with Louis, this is a hint at a future rather than a capability they are ready to lead with today. Google can use this to amass very quickly a significant amount of... [read more]
Thinking About Wikileaks to Groupon Deal
There is so much going on with Wikileaks that it’s hard to know where to start. Here are some of the questions that I am thinking about:Will the cable leaks make diplomacy harder or easier? Is the answer different for the long-term versus the short-term? A foundational question for this is: what is the role of... [read more]
How Google Works - The Scary Truth About Search
I can remember when Google first came along, promising improved search. I scoffed. “Who needs better search?”, I said. After all, I knew the most relevant and valuable websites. I knew some people who kept and updated good site lists. I could navigate the web with confidence. I felt like a Renaissance Man of the early web. And even after... [read more]
Is Google a vampire sucking the blood out of media and the web?
Here is a nice video of the highly-respected Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand speaking at Web 2.0 Expo SF about how Google plays fair and less fair, giving a balanced view of the accusations of vampirism from media tycoons such as Mark Cuban and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton. The video is well worth watching. Each of... [read more]
And You Thought Google Was Big Brother?
A lot of concern circulates about just how much information a company like Google has on individuals and virtually everything else. While it makes me queasy at times as well, I don’t get the same Orwellian feeling about Google as I do about the government and the data they collect. That’s why the White House’s new policies on... [read more]
Facebook Passes Google as Most Visited Website
According to Hitwise, Facebook passed Google becoming the #1 site in the U.S. measured by number of visits. The number of visits to Facebook also continues to grow at a strong clip, up 185% from March 2009 to March 2010. Facebook's platform business is one of their drivers of traffic growth. The... [read more]
Microsoft Pulling a Google in Europe?
I realize that what I am about to write is a stretch but just go with it for a minute. In the past week we have seen Google act as if they are standing up to the Chinese government by not censoring their search results and thus risking expulsion from the world’s largest market. A market in which they are getting beat. Now Microsoft is... [read more]
Search Neutrality?
By Frank Reed As expected it looks like this week may be a bit light in the news department. That’s fine. Everyone needs a break from time to time. So as I am looking around this morning I come across an op-ed piece in the New York Times that is written by Adam Raff, a co-founder of Foundem, an Internet technology company. From what I... [read more]
Top 10 2010 Social Media Predictions
My Best Guess Following yesterdays post on 5 Predictions for the Next 5 Years, here are my Top 10 2010 Social Media Predictions. Unlike yesterday’s post, where I was looking at the bigger trends that would shape our space, this is a little more like playing fantasy football. I’m really just guessing. Facebook goes public at the... [read more]
Social media 2009 and beyond
2009 ranks as both the year that social media went mainstream and as the year that we saw a seismic shift in the comfortable world of traditional media. Some evidence of the former is the fact that Dell made $6.5 million in direct sales via Twitter. Further evidence is the rise of the social media job, with titles like Emerging Media... [read more]
Anatomy of a bad search result
In a post last week, Paul Kedrosky noted his frustration when looking for a new dishwasher using Google. I thought it might be interesting to do some forensics to see which sites rank highly and why. Paul started by querying Google with the phrase dishwasher reviews: Pretty much every link on this page has an interesting story to... [read more]
Google’s feature creep
Microsoft used to be considered the king of feature creep. Here was Microsoft Word when it was most cluttered: I don’t use any of Microsoft’s software anymore, but from what I hear they’ve toned down the feature creep a lot in recent versions of Windows and Word. Google has been adding so many new features to its results page,... [read more]
Best of 2009 (So Far): SEO Guidance, Part 3
How can you help SEO clients, whether internal or external, understand what SEO (and isn't) and set proper expectations for an SEO project? What are the key signals of SEO quality on a website? How does the increasing use of social media affect SEO efforts? What common SEO mistakes should you avoid, and what myths to dispel? Find the... [read more]
Top 6 Lessons Learned Since Deciding to Become an Entreprenuer 6 Years Ago
On January 1, 2004 I officially made the leap from Cubicle Land (that’s not actually my old desk in the picture) in corporate America and started my own company. These last six years have been pretty typical of someone who sets out on their own – full of highs and lows, challenges and rewards. Every day is unique. I wouldn’t trade it... [read more]
Twitter Developing Specific Features for Business
By Frank Reed If you are Twitter you have to be feeling a bit dizzy by now. 2009 has been a year of tremendous growth, more than a little success followed by more than a little criticism. There are always questions hovering over why Biz did that or if Jack really meant that or if Evan is saying something that isn’t supposed to be... [read more]
Search and the social graph
Google has created a multi-billion-dollar economy based on keywords. We use keywords to find things and advertisers use keywords to find customers. As Michael Arrington points out, this is leading to increasing amounts of low quality, keyword-stuffed content. The end result is a very spammy internet. (It was depressing to see Tim... [read more]
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About Social Media Today







“To your final comments, right on. Those who cheat will do so regardless of how simple or complex the tax laws, or the rules of the road, or whether they have an admission ticket.”
“To your final comments, right on. Those who cheat will do so regardless of how simple or complex the tax laws, or the rules of the road, or whether they have an admission ticket.”