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Google Talks Their Self-Driving Car

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sebastian Thrun, a software engineer at Google, posted on the company’s official blog over the weekend that they have been developing technologies that will allow vehicles to drive themselves. Thrun states that some of the very best engineers have logged over 140,000 miles in the self-driving cars; traveling on the Pacific Coast Highway, across the Golden Gate Bridge, around Lake Tahoe and from their Mountain View campus to their office in Santa Monica.
The way the cars work is by the use of sensors, video cameras and laser range finders all in tandem with information collected by manually driven vehicles that Google has sent out to map routes. The automated cars are relayed the information gathered by the other cars after it is processed at Google’s data centers. The goal of these cars is to, not only, cut energy consumption but to also cut the amount of deaths caused in traffic accidents (the number is currently at about 1.2 million people a year). Google hopes that with these cars incidents can be avoided because even when a human doesn’t see something coming, the car does and will act accordingly. Although these vehicles are self-driving, none of them have ever made a journey without a driver present to take over and police officers have been told as to what is going on.
Google is just now informing of these cars, however, various California residence have spotted and captured them on video as early as last year, though they weren’t sure what they were and some of them just assumed they were the Google Streetview cars.

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Hyatt, Omni Eye Pittsburgh Hotel Project

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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Bill Marriott Blasts Feds’ Tourism Policies

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

From Marketwatch.com:Chain Leader Says State Department Is Unresponsive
The chief of Marriott Hotels says he has an easy way to help President Obama achieve his goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years: make it easier for tourists and travelers to visit here. Since terrorist attacks in 2001, the government has made it far more difficult for foreigners to travel to the U.S., costing the nation tens of billions in lost revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to J.W. Marriott, Jr., the longtime CEO of Marriott International Inc. Click here for the full story.

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SEO Audits – Strategic vs. Tactical

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

For many years I operated in a bubble performing audits on client sites. Coordinating and providing consulting in the implementation of my findings, yet not ever having an open dialogue with other professionals in the industry regarding what commonalities or differences we had in our approach.
As I began writing blog articles on my approach, and fielding questions from others regarding how I went about the process, I began to learn of two typical approaches.
One involves a quick audit, an hour or two, where the most common mistakes or issues are found, followed by broad recommendations. On the other end of the extreme, someone will spend countless hours auditing every detail, examining every page and inbound link, leading to a 50 page report, replete with complex Excel spreadsheets and analytics reports.
Personally, I take a different approach, one that works well for my needs, though it may not work for yours.
Strategic SEO Audits
The vast majority of my work these days involves strategic audits. Depending on the size and complexity of a site, I’ll spend anywhere from a few to several hours examining various aspects of a site revolving around how those aspects affect information architecture, content organization, and topical focus. While I’m doing this review, I consider indexation barriers, usability, and accessibility.
I then spend anywhere from a few minutes upwards of a couple hours examining the sites inbound link profile, considering total links, total root domains, link to root ratio, and scanning the source domains for patterns regarding domain families, domain types, keyword vs. brand anchor patterns, and overall inbound link health.
I also spend a few minutes up to an hour or so reviewing the competitive landscape and set up one or more sweet spot charts, looking for areas of weakness in the landscape. This is critical to my process because it shows me where opportunities exist to overcome competitive difficulty with the least amount of effort for the most value.
When appropriate, I’ll also review social media factors. Here, I’ll spend anywhere from a few minutes to upwards of an hour at most.
Patterns Reveal Bigger Problems
As I’ve communicated in several articles, I look for patterns in my audit reviews. If I find three or five pages on a site that have problems with any area, my experience tells me that this is something that needs addressing. Yet once I discover an area of concern, I don’t dig too much deeper at this point in my strategic audits. Instead, I record the information, describe the problem, describe why it’s a problem, and offer a few examples of it along with examples of how it can be resolved.
By the time I’m done with this process, I typically end up with a 10, 15, or 20 page document. A road map to resolving issues, that shows where energy needs to be applied. I don’t however, go beyond this much effort during a strategic audit.
Time is Valuable
I don’t go beyond the above described effort in a strategic audit for several reasons. First and foremost, I’ve contracted for a fixed bid audit. And with so many issues to consider, it’s too easy to get bogged down in any single factor and quickly use up all the time I’ve allocated. As much as I want to go the extra mile for my clients, I’ve come to learn that I’ve got a business to run, and my time is very precious in that regard.
Another reality I’ve found is if I present too much information to site owners and managers in my first audit, they rapidly become overwhelmed, discouraged and otherwise disheartened. By keeping my audits concise from this perspective, it’s enough to wake them up to real problems. It provides them enough education to help them accept the seriousness of issues revealed, and builds a level of trust and respect for the next step, implementing tactical SEO.
Tactical Audits
When I’ve presented a strategic audit and we’ve had a follow-up discussion regarding my findings, the next question from clients that comes naturally from that process is – “Where do we begin?”. If the client has an in-house person or team, or an existing vendor, they often have the ability to determine where to begin and how to go about the work. Or I might provide them a copy of my Guide to SEO for Content Writing.
If they need guidance or call upon my team and I to collaborate in the implementation, which is usually the case with clients facing extreme competition, here’s where it’s time to roll up my sleeves and get tactical.
Prioritization
Every site audit reveals different unique concerns and needs. Some sites might need to focus mostly on inbound link factors, others on-site factors, and others still, social media signals. Most of the time its a hybrid combination. Since I’m not an industry leading link building authority, or social media thought leader, I leave the tactical audit work in those areas to others I recommend – people and companies who are as passionate as I am but in their own area of expertise.
Defining What’s Important
When it comes to on-site factors, a typical tactical audit process happens in stages, and can most often be broken out into phases over time. There may be issues a sites developer or development team can resolve – these can include resolving on site 301 Redirect issues, duplicate content caused by other sites they own that should be eliminated, or architectural speed issues for example.
What I encounter most often involves keyword assignment and topical dilution issues related to those assignments.
Audits Addressing Topical Dilution
Quite often the first tactical audit requires one or more discussions with the client to help more clearly define the highest value and most important areas, sections and pages on their site.
What comes from that dialogue involves my need to validate or invalidate the clients beliefs. Is this topic really the most valuable? Does this section of the site really have the most potential for long-term goal achievement? Could there be content stuck down one level that is more important than it’s given recognition for?
Start at the Top
Once these considerations are made, reviewed and confirmed, we can begin the work of final keyword assignment. Depending on the size of the site, this usually involves only a tiny fraction of all the sites pages. (remember – I work on sites with tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of pages.)
Perhaps it’s all of the main navigation linked pages, or those, along with all or a portion of the product or service categories. Rarely does it involve sub-category level or lower pages at this point.
My best weapon in this process is an Excel spreadsheet. In this spreadsheet I’ll have two, three or more tabs depending on how far this first tactical audit goes.
Required Tabs
In a tactical audit, the following tabs are required:
Pages Evaluated
Topical Organization
Keyword Assignments
Pages Evaluated Tab
Columns included in this tab include:
Page Name
URL
Topical Focus
In this tab, I list all the pages I’ve evaluated – pages the client thinks are valuable. While my goal might be to make recommendations on only 10 or twenty high level pages, if I think pages these link to need to be reviewed, I’ll include those in this tab. Which means for this tab, I might look at upwards of a couple hundred pages. Doing so sometimes shows me pages that are buried that need to be brought up to a higher level.
I then review the top pages in that list to examine their individual page optimization, as well as cross-page optimization. I do this to determine whether there’s topical dilution at the page and cross-page level, and whether they’re grouped together properly or need to be moved to a different location.
Topical Organization Tab
In this tab, columns inlcude:
Top Tier Content
Second Tier Content
Third Tier Content
Existing URL
Reorganization Notes
In this tab, I’ll typically include ten, twenty, or in rare situations, upwards of 100 or so pages. I reorganize and rearrange, if needed, the content from the first tab just carrying over the individual page names, or their re-assigned page names (from a topical focus perspective) – separating things out for better or more refined topical focus, and designate which of these is truly the most important content, which should be consolidated into other pages, and which can be relegated to lesser importance.
Keyword Assignments Tab
This tab typically includes the following columns:
Page Name
Topical Focus
Existing URL
Top Two Phrases
Secondary Phrases
New URL
H1
Now depending on how big or complex the site is, or how much time has been allocated for this audit, I’ll usually only include information in this tab for the top ten, fifteen or twenty most important pages as revealed through processing the first two tabs.
Optional Columns
Optional columns I sometimes include in the keyword assignment tab include:
Page Title
Meta Description
Paragraph Content
Sectional Navigation Re-write
Breadcrumb Navigation
I’ll include these optional columns if the client prefers I take it this far, such is often the case when they want to ensure the actual final step optimization is better served by being performed by me. Otherwise I leave it to their team or 3rd party vendor.
In these optional columns I do the actual work of re-writing the page Title, meta Description, actual on-page content, and if appropriate, I will also provide the new recommended section level navigation, and individual page level breadcrumb trail, though these elements typically only come along when I’m performing specific section level tactical audits.
How Far You Go is Up to You
By this point, I’ve expended anywhere from five to fifteen hours, the most I’ll put in for any single client tactical audit in any given month. This alone usually gives site owners, content managers and/or developers enough work to deal with in actually implementing and applying my recommendations in between all the other work they’ve got on their plates. If you want to do more at this point, feel free to have at it.
Subsequent Tactical Audits
Once that first round is completed and the work has been applied, I then go into sectional audits – taking on one section of a site at a time. If it’s a complex and deep section, I’ll break it down, starting with the most important content in that section (or the most perceived important content) and go through the same tactical evaluation and refinement process I’ve described above.
The beauty of this multi-stage or multi-phase approach to tactical audits comes from the fact that we’re going to see improvements right away – and with each additional tactical audit being implemented, it’s a building-block process to success.

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Goldman Sachs Puts 3 New York Hotels Up For Sale

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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How to Get Banned on Google AdWords

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

With all that is going on in the SEO world, it is easy to forget that there are things that can illicit action from Google on the paid side as well. Many companies start AdWords Campaigns without reading the guidelines and that can cause many issues down the road.
There are four main ways to almost guarantee that your site will be banned from AdWords. In general, they boil down to two things: Lying and Harming Consumers. Google is all about what is best for the end user and the tactics below violate that.
Launch Campaigns for Your 10 Domains
You were able to purchase a keyword specific domain. Congratulations! You were able to nab 10 of them you say? Awesome, hope you have great content going up on those and using them in ways to target different users. Now your executives want to use the domains to dominate all of the ad positions. Easy right? Just use the new shiny domains and one account each.
Not right. It is against Google guidelines to serve multiple ads for one business. The actual words they use for what is NOT allowed is:
Ads across multiple accounts for the same or similar businesses
Ads across multiple accounts triggered by the same or similar keywords
This is what caused so many affiliates to lose their accounts a few years back. All they were doing was placing users to the main company site after a redirect on their site, or to a thin landing page that pushed user information to the same company. Both instances were bad user experiences for consumers.
Pretend to be Someone Else
Imitation is a form of flattery. Well not for Google.
You think you are the best, and want to tell searchers that you are better than XYZ. That belief is subjective and doesn’t fly in advertising.
In the same light as the last point, if you are trying to pass off as a competitor, you can be banned. In AdWords, you can bid on competitor names, but cannot use their name in the ad.
Keep in mind that this means any competitor names need to be in their own ad group. The ads cannot have dynamic keyword insertion in them. Make sure you aren’t inadvertently violating guidelines.
Sell Free Items
I cheated on this one; I looked at the guidelines for inspiration. If you want to be banned, you can always get inspiration for things to sell from conferences and the schwag they give away there. Those awesome pens … people want those, right? You can make a killing!
No. AdWords is not your ticket to a million dollars by using the funds of others. Cutting corners will mean being cut out of the program.
Infect user’s machines
The “end all, be all” of ways to get banned – hurt consumers in some way, or their machines. The ultimate in black ninja tactics. The next time you are in that bad of a mood, just step away from the computer.

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Gaylord Opryland Plans Three-Day Opening

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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Excel Tools for SEO

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Search Engine Optimization is an activity that calls for a lot of tools. There is so much data, so many variables, and so much change, that if you tried to do everything manually over the long term then you would soon get overwhelmed.
Thankfully there are a lot of free and commercial tools out there that can help a lot. What they don’t offer though is a way to keep track of all your own vital SEO information in a centralized manner, and you have very little customization or control available.
With this in mind we have been turning our Excel talents towards building some small tools that you can customize easily and completely, and taken together give you a great deal of SEO insight.
The Excel SEO Tools
These tools should be looked at as a suite of utilities but also as a guide to the main tasks that you should be performing in your SEO work. We start with getting an idea for where you are now. What do you already rank for, and how much work will be involved in getting further ahead?
Track Your Search Positions

Over time you will need to monitor your search positions, take note of what helps you creep nearer to that coveted number 1 spot, and what impacts you negatively, driving you down the rankings? The more terms you want to rank for, the more you need to automate this monitoring work!
Generate Keyword Variations

As just mentioned, it is not likely that you will only want to target one search phrase. Generating new phrases that you want to rank for is also important. One way we generate additional phrases is to create small variations on our existing keyword choices, especially when looking at PPC and the long tail. This Excel spreadsheet helps you do this.
Monitor Backlinks

Do you know how many of your link building results are sticking and which links are getting broken or pulled? You need to monitor your links and this spreadsheet will help you automate the process. It will also tell you if the link is passing Google juice or if it has been “no-followed”.
Check Your Redirects

Redirects can have a profound impact on your search results. Ideally when a page is moved, or when you want to send a visitor to a new URL, the redirect should be a permanent one so that the search engines know what to do with it. This tool will check a link and tell you what redirect type is returned and if it is working correctly.
Predict Organic Keyword Traffic

Do you know if that keyword phrase is worth the effort? Use this tool to predict the kind of travel levels you can expect for various rankings.
SEO Competitor Research

SEO is not just you versus the search engines, as you have no doubt realized. Yup, all your competitors are going after the same search results that you are. You need to watch what they are up to and react accordingly. Step one is finding out where your direct competitors are performing.
Summary
While these tools individually might not compete with the top commercial services out there in terms of premium functionality, they offer lots of useful information right at your fingertips, and are a great starting point for developing your own SEO toolkit. At the very least they ought to give you a lot of ideas for what is possible.

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Firefox and Google Chrome Extensions for Web Developers

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The browser wars are heating up again. While Internet Explorer once held a near monopoly in the web browser market, other browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are slowly chipping away at Microsoft’s empire.
One of the prominent features of these two alternative browsers is extensibility. Rather than being limited to the features that ship with the browsers, users can easily install extensions that add limitless functionality and enhancements. Furthermore, extensions are easy to create, and many users will create extensions and then share them freely with the world.
Web developers spend most of their time working on the web, and both Firefox and Chrome offer a wide range of extensions to help make web development and website evaluation easier. I have compiled a brief list of some of the outstanding Firefox and Chrome extensions for web developers, as well as some of the helpful built-in features of the browsers.
Mozilla Firefox
Built-in Features
View Source
This is the easiest and most basic way to see how a site is constructed. Simply right click on any page and click “View Source”, and the source code for the page will appear in a new window. It will then display the HTML code for the site. For dynamic sites, this is a good way to make sure the final code is appearing as you intended it to when you wrote your web application.
To view only part of the source code, highlight the portion of a page you want to view, right click, and click “View Selection Source”.
View Page Info
This feature is a great way to find out important information about a site. For example, “Render Mode” will tell you whether Firefox was able to render the site according to web standards or “quirks” rendering. “Media” gives you information about each media item (images, video, etc.) on the page.
Extensions
DOM Inspector
DOM Inspector provides a complete outline of a website, highlighting each portion of code and the part of the page that the code represents in the browser. It uses an expanable tree to show you each part, which is helpful in determining the hierarchy of code. It also provides information about tags, such as any CSS classes or IDs associated with them.
View Source Chart
A more colorful way to view DOM page information, View Source Chart displays each element in color-coded graphics, providing a visual experience for viewing DOM structure. This is also a good way to see how HTML works, as it displays tags within their proper hierarchy.
Web Developer
Web Developer is like the Swiss army knife of development extensions. It is a toolbar with all sorts of development goodies for testing, analysis, viewing of particular elements, and a whole list of CSS, HTML, forms, images, and other tools.

Firebug
This is a web development suite that includes an editor, debug tool, and monitor. You can use it to edit any page directly within your web browser.

Google Chrome
Built-in Features
View Source
The view source feature for Chrome is essentially the same as the one for Firefox. One major difference is that Chrome opens the source code in a new tab instead of a new window, and another key difference is that it displays line numbers for the entire document.
Inspect Element
The Webkit engine, which powers Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and some other browsers, ships with a built-in website inspector. To use it, right click on any page and click “Inspect element”. Like DOM Inspector for Firefox, it will display a tree of HTML tags. Click any tag to expand its tree and see nested tags. If you highlight one, it will display other helpful information about the tag, such as classes and IDs.
Extensions
Web Developer
Web Developer for Chrome is a port of the same extension for Firefox with most of the same features. Instead of using a toolbar, however, it maintains Chrome’s low profile by using a tool button. When you click the button, it opens a hovering bar over the page.
Speed Tracer (by Google)
Speed Tracer records analysis information about a website in real time, helping you identify portions of a site that need tweaking to increase performance. It displays data in both numerical format and in charts and graphs. The extension analyzes Javascript, CSS, layout, DOM event handling, timer fires, network resource loading, painting, XMLHttpRequest callbacks, and more.
Lorem Ipsum Generator
Filler text is a good way to fill out a site with text, even if you have not yet created real content. Lorem Ipsum text refers to random Latin words strung together into paragraphs to create filler text for websites. This simple extension automatically generates the filler text.
Pendule
Pendule is an alternative to the web developer extension that provides tools for many aspects of a site, including CSS, Javascript, forms, images, and accessibility.
Other Options
There are many other extensions for both browsers, such as HTML and CSS validators, that can help make your web development and troubleshooting efficient and productive. For more extensions, you can search the extension database for both browsers. The browsers, and most of their extensions, are free.

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