RyanJin.me

No its not.

So I was on Facebook this morning, when for some reason, I accidentally clicked an ad. I’m not sure what the ad said, or looked like, but I think I clicked on one. I move fast. All of a sudden, I’m taken to this….

Image taken from: washington-reporter.com - DUMB

What a well done phishing job!

So after I saw the post, I had to admit that the site looked legit. First I looked up at the URL… http://washington-reporter.com/gibberish. Then I read a few paragraphs. Then I checked out the picture of the dude, read the caption, then scrolled down to see if there were comments. Sure enough, there were. I didn’t click on anything though. Let me just get that point across. There was no clicking whatsoever.

Any ways, after thinking that this could possibly be a true post, I did some searching myself and found the actual Piece of Crap link to Twitter Profit House. (That was a SEO joke.. did you catch it?) – After looking through the site, I soon began to realize that this could be a total piece of douche baggery going on here. Back to the article again.

After a glance at the comments, I soon realized that there was not an ounce of negative reaction to this article. Everyone was 19 and making hundreds in their parents basement or something. I dunno. But the picture for the 1st comment killed me.

Everything about this image is hilarious!

Tell me, what does AdSense for content have to do with Twitter?

Any ways, if any of you have ANY experience with Twitter and AdSense, then you should find that picture just hilarious. – By this time, I began asking myself, whether it was companies like these that push those freakingly dumb tweets out there that try to make you click stuff. You know, the ones that say… “Just found a great site! Free $100 Visa Gift Cards! – http://bit.ly/AnEKT” Probably right?

With this recent influx of crap that is floating around on Twitter, I think it is important to reevaluate the metrics that we hear about on almost a daily basis. Yeah its growing substantially. Sure there are lots of famous people out there. But maybe, just maybe, there is a bit of falsity going on here. I mean, what is with the increase of spammy accounts out there? Oh maybe these people follow @NYTimes and want to emulate the way they tweet. Who knows.

Peace.

So last night I was chilling at home with Andrea, and I wanted to play some music on the good ole’ Nintendo Wii. So what do I do? Pump up Wii Internet Channel Powered by Opera, check out YouTube… but whats this? YouTube XL…

This is the first thing I see as soon as I go to www.YouTube.com. (I had to make it big to fit in with the theme of the huge XL in the logo) Although this was the first time I noticed this new feature for YouTube access, come to find out, its been out since June 2nd. You can see how up to speed I am.

Pleasantly surprised that I’d be able to see HD videos, in their full glory with little effort on my part, I chuckled with excitement and glee. Although some of the videos I was looking for were a bit glitchy at times, others seemed to work perfectly fine. Not quite sure the dilemma there, but rather irritating nonetheless. To take a quick look at my YouTubing experience last night, check out these gems…

Rick Ross’ Maybach Music 2 feat. Kanye West, T-Pain, and Lil Wayne is brilliant. I know its main stream, but the instrumental is so complex and ’stadium status’ and for some reason, reminds me of video game music from 1998. Hot!

Target Women is a great series of videos produced by CurrentTV starring Sarah Haskins. The ideas typically take a selected topic every week… ie Wedding Shows, Chocolate, Cleaning, or anything else often stereotypically associated with women, and brings the humor out of their respected advertising campaigns.

And then we had to watch HGTV’s $250,000 Challenge.

Any ways, after watching a few videos on YouTube XL, I’ve come to realize that… As our modality of accessing the internet continues to evolve and change, so do our websites. Thanks primarily to the iPhone, many highly trafficked web pages now have Mobile versions, or less CSS’d and imaged versions, compared to their original state. Means faster and easier readability on your mobile phone of preference. XL on the other hand caters to those of us with internet connections to our large screen televisions, via anything from the Wii, or anything else that allows you to access the internet from your couch. “I’ve been at work all day.. why would I sit behind a computer at home to watch YouTube videos?” Sheesh.

While YouTube isn’t really a search tool (yeah I know it is), it does give a good representation for how search is developing. With statistics saying things like, ‘more and more people search from the cellphones these days then from their computer,’ there is a great disservice going on here between what is being said, and what is actually going on. I don’t know for a fact that more and more people are not searching online these days.. I do think that more and more people are search from their phones, though… or their TVs in my personal case. Search hasn’t shifted, it has just become more broad. Now stemming from my experience in SEM, maybe we should do a better job compensating for these new audiences rather then trying to fit them in with the rest of the crowd. They are converting on something totally different. Right? Often times… on nothing!

But as we begin to watch YouTube videos in our cereal bowls and from the backs of our hands, I think companies are really starting to realize they are having more and more reasons to venture into online advertising and publicity. ‘Hey.. I sell good cereal.. I’d like to be in your cereal bowl browser/app!’  Coming Q3  ‘10.

Peace

So last week sometime, I forgot what day it was, I came across a Tweet mentioning the new features of Google Maps. Have you seen them? They are ridiculous. Check out my old office when I worked in Seattle at Marchex…

View Larger Map

Any ways, if you haven’t noticed, you’re now able to click on various parts of the street view map to zoom in or travel to the specific location of which you clicked. Gone are the days of clicking through streets to find the restaurant you want to go to. Gone are the days of thinking.. ‘Wow, somehow, I’m here when I need to be all the way down there.. it’s too much work to go to map view again just to go to the right location. I’m going to just keep clicking until I get there.’ – Okay so that might just be me, but you get my point. Take a minute to go to maps.google.com and play around in street view. It’s kinda fun!

But whats the point? Why make a good thing better?

So Google Maps isn’t Social Media. It isn’t SEO, or even PPC, but it is content… and you better believe you’ll be finding all three of those things embedded into it sooner or later if not already. Take for example. Google Business Listings. Google was smart enough to tell people.. ‘Hey… we’ve got this application out there that is way better then other maps on the internet, that we’d like to populate with GOOD information.. such as your business! Do you want to be on GOOGLE MAPS?’

‘Sure?’ says Barry Wells of Barry Wells Chevrolet. (Disclaimer: I don’t think there is a Barry Wells Chevrolet.. if there is, you should rejoice in my free publicity!)

Why wouldn’t local businesses want to show up on the map most Googlers, let alone people, use today. – Add features such as kick ass zoom, position warping, and simulated earthquake damage.. this is not available yet, and you’ve got a content factory that people are just going to want to keep pouring their heart and soul into. It’s the Google business model. (If you don’t know the Google business model…. Create Content Theme Parks (Search Engines) -> Slowly Incorporate Advertising -> Make Gazillions… its sort of similar to this video:

Alright so those mind trick videos are kinda dumb; your attention is not on the moving bear, but nonetheless, the bear was there… you can never go back and tell me otherwise. Although the bear is irrelevant to the basketball players, it does ad value to the video. Essentially.. Google has perfected this illusion, so much that it’s not really an illusion anymore. PEOPLE LOVE BEARS!

As Google Maps continues to pull more and more people, businesses, and cool tools/applications that make map navigation easier, why not optimize for this local audience. Make the effort to create the Local Business Listing, or submit some photos for a particular address, or just write a review or two. You know SEO, you know that content is key. Join the local conversation, and you might be surprised at who sees you. But although you might not be a local business owner, you can at at least wave to people when they drive by.

Peace

So I just got word that I’m all set and ready to go to start my BUS 604 class on Monday next week. Can you believe I’ve actually decided to get another degree.. or at least attempt? If you knew me in college, you probably wouldn’t believe me. Oh well. Its done, and I’m kinda looking forward to it. I just hope it doesn’t turn out a complete failure. Oh and did I mention that books are kind of expensive?

In all reality though, my continuing education plans are perfect for me right now as I’m beginning to realize that while I’m new to this career thing, I might as well set myself up for when I’m 50 or something. Plus it will get me thinking about stuff besides work when I’m home. It can be a bit depressing when you lay awake at night running through things that need to get done the following day. #rough

Speaking of higher education though… a recent series of events had me thinking of some blog posts I’d like to write regarding higher education, universities, online universities, degrees, and reputation. Do you remember when Facebook was college exclusive and you join class networks in your university. That was a great person finder. How has Facebook/Social Media changed university life since those days? Can communities raise the perception of online degrees?

Peace