If Memory Serves Me Correctly

I don’t like Mondays, but in this case it is OK

2009-11-24T10:39:00.000-05:00

I know it has been a while since I have posted last, but there was a lot going on and I also wanted to not really say anything to put a ripple in the situation, you know, just in case anyone reads my ramblings.

Now is a good time to talk as any so here you go;

I am now employed at a new company, and the only reason I took the job was for a view of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade (my new employer is on Broadway) only to find out that the parade route switched and now is going down Seventh Ave, right by my old employer. I am just screwing with you; well at least the new parade route changing to Seventh Ave. is true. I was offered an awesome opportunity at SMG Search that I couldn’t refuse. So I didn’t. I have a new boss, who goes by the name of Jill, and so far I think I am really going to like her. My first week was last week and what a whirl-wind. 5 Days of new people, new clients, people eager to have me, and then throw in a Rangers game with Lard on Tuesday, dinner at Craft Steak with Bing Cashback team (Jorge and Angela who I am completely looking forward to working with – great team), Jill and Kristen, drinks after at Budahcon (I don’t have internet connection right now so I can’t check how bad I just massacred that name), and then closed the week out on Thursday night with Christian & Lindsey (Vibrant), Lard, Brad and Ellen at Republic , then to the Pretty Things show for a little dance music, followed with a pretty intense Friday in the office. WOW! Back at it on Monday…

But I am so excited for Thanksgiving. I can’t stand it when people are so short-sighted and go straight to Christmas and skip over Thanksgiving. Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas, but I also love Thanksgiving. Trying to install the value of being thankful in my kids, because I have it pretty fucking well, and for once just letting go to drink some beer and eat some delicious food. This will be the first year since moving to NY that we are going to have Thanksgiving at our house with just us. This is how great Upstate is, when people find out that we are not going back to the West Coast to see family (would be a nightmare to travel on Thanksgiving for only a few days – so not worth the pain and cost) our friends invite us over to have it with them and their family. This has happened for at least four years, so it will be a little different this year. Welcomed though.

So what else is new or worth talking about… I haven’t had a chance to miss my old co-workers, or actually even get to know my new ones. I don’t feel that I will miss my old ones only because I don’t plan on saying good-bye to them. Yeah, I won’t see them everyday in person but I definitely plan on seeing them. Hell I saw Lard more times last week not working at MEC than I did when I did work there. The new co-workers will come in time, because that is half of the fun moving to new places, learning the details. Obviously as time goes on I will let you know how it goes and might have to change the names of a few guilty parties…

I am going to the Pixies tonight which should be so kick a$$! I am a huge fan and have been since the early, early nineties. Lard is going, which I am happy for, but I was really disappointed when I mentioned them to him and he didn’t have a clue who they were, or even after I played a few of their better known songs. Oh Lard, crazy Swede / English / Hawaiian guy, but it works for him…

Ciao

Just Some Tuesday Thoughts & the Improper Way To Say Good-bye

2009-11-10T08:10:00.004-05:00

Well, this is my last week at Mediaedge as a Search Director. I have been here for 2 years, 8 months and 3 weeks. It has been a blast, and an experience where I truly enjoyed coming to work most of the days. The New York office started out with approximately 10 people and I leave it with us grown to over 40 people. Some of it had to do with a major client win, but none the less I have been part of an amazing process. Most everyone here I could call a friend, and most definitely a great co-worker. I am not leaving out of spite or anger (trying to remember a Motley Crue song here but no dice) but out of a great opportunity at SMG Search. Stay tuned you will hear more about us, I promise. I think what I will miss most is the friendships that I have established, but I guess in the end if they were friends then they still will be no matter where each of ends up.

Not sure how everyone's Halloween went. Mine was good except the kids did not get a lot of trick or treatin' done due to the cold and rainy weather we had. You can't win them all and we have had great weather the previous two years. The kids still had fun and did not let the weather effect them that much. It did force us to move our Washas game inside to my buddies garage. Thanks Brad.

What is up with my iPod!? Does it know that the stores are already advertising for Christmas. It keeps playing Holiday songs and I am not ready yet. I still want to lay around and gorge myself on turkey before I start thinking about Christmas.

Raked the leaves out of my yard and now my back is telling me that it was not happy. I need ibuprofen stat once I get into the office.

Go Karting with Yahoo!

2009-10-23T14:26:00.005-04:00

The Mediaedge Search team and Yahoo! went go karting on Wednesday night. Damn was it a kick in the pants! We all piled in to a bus a drove north about an hour, which actually was the lamest part of the trip. We were not allowed to sip any adult beverages since we did not want the Grand Prix of New York to ban us from driving the karts. This is gas powered karts on an indoor race track. We were doing 25 mph. Insane fun. I after all of the qualifying and racing came in third due to a bogus penalty called against me. Lard went wide I ducked under and when he came back low he got t-boned by me, spun out while I kept going. But hey who's bitter. Actually me! Then we had some drinks and food at the bar at this place and then headed out on the bus back to NYC. This time we were able to drink some beers and rehash all of our driving stories. Thanks BoneIll.

Hump Day

2009-09-30T16:14:00.005-04:00

I realized that I never published this post, so it is now being delivered about 2 weeks late.

1. I am heading to Fenway Park to see a Boston Red Sox game. This will be the first time so it is pretty exciting. I am mixing some pleasure with business and taking one of my clients with me. I am excited. I don't plan on rooting for the Sox but I can imagine it will become hard not to when the crowd is getting into it. I just hope it is a fun game. Oh, and I still have not made it to the new Yankee's stadium.

2. www.PeopleofWalmart.com is the best site on the web right now. I have been visiting it for over a month and it is freakin' amazing every time. It still has not become old.

3. Advertising Week - great time and too much enjoying the social scene. Good times. IGN party had an amazing location. The MSN loft was insane, I want to live there. facebook party was fun but fairly ordinary. Yahoo had a good set-up at the Standard hotel.

4. Gaydar: is not just a good feeling any more but is now scientific by using a MIT program. I could write a lot about this and how we are going down a slippery slope with it, but I actually might write about it for SearchFuel.

5. Google Sidewiki: First of it has an extremely lame name. Who comes up with these? It must be a search marketer and not a creative director. This tool seems cool, but I am not sure if it will catch on. There have been a few attempts with the same concept in the past that never gained a foothold. I also cringe for companies. I agree that they should build awesome products and not hide completely behind marketing, but this could really hurt good companies. I am also torn between does a company own "its" brand or does the public own "the" brand. This definitely answers that question. I will be watching this one to see how it plays out and what SEM opportunities become available.

6. Dirty Dianna by Michael Jackson: Excellent song.

7. Amtrak Acela: First class is nice. Think I will need to upgrade again for my return trip. Is it OK to drink mimosas before work these days?

Off to enjoy some Boston culture.

Ciao

Til' Tuesday

2009-09-22T07:49:00.003-04:00

1. MIXX Awards tonight: I am up for two awards with the work that we did on the Pizza Hut campaign. I keep forgetting which awards they are but without checking I believe they are for Best Direct Response campaign and maybe Best Search campaign. Whoever reads this blog and knows definitely comment the correct awards. I am not tooting my own horn, but two years ago I won a Silver and Gold for these exact two categories with the Showtime campaign. The awards were fun and hosted by the John guy who won the Last Comic Standing. Tonight's ceremony is being hosted by John Breuer, so should be entertaining. Hey at least it is free drinks and free dinner. Which leads me into...

2. Advertising Week in NYC: Too much going on each night. Actually tonight isn't too bad, so if you have a cool party let me know. Tomorrow I am triple booked, but all events seem fun. This is our SXSW I believe.

3. Creative Media Awards: These are tomorrow night and I am up for the Best Search Campaign with Pizza Hut. I am going to sound like a broken record but I won this award a couple of years ago with the Showtime campaign. It would be nice to win it again.

4. Gaydar: Has now gone from an instinct in a human being (being able to predict if someone is gay) to actual technology. The Boston Globe had an article about how some MIT students built a program that scrapes people's facebook profiles and from that info can predict if that person is gay. Now I find this interesting on a few levels, one not being if someone is gay (doesn't matter to me), but on using technology to do something that we do everyday, judge someone. This is interesting on the factor of scariness. What if companies start using this technology to scan potential employers? Let's say everyone you hang out with is young, you talk about toga parties, etc and they brand you as a partier. Good bye job opportunity. Even scarier is what happens if the government starts to use this? Can we say Big Brother and Big Father. I do find it interesting that technology can be used to accuracy to categorize people. My immoral side says this is going to be cool and one more tool in the behavioral marketing arsenal that we have. I would believe if they aren't already using this kind of technology that dating sites like eHarmony and Match.com that they should. It seems that if the tool is accurate it would be one of the best ways to match people because now it is not based on what answers they give you on a form but on actual behaviors. Good news, I am not out there looking for dates, I am happily married. But what happens if this tool tells me I am gay, there could go that happy marriage...

5. How about Fall in NY??? I hate that summer is over and was not one of the better ones on record, but so far Fall has been beautiful. The leaves are changing, the temps at night are cold, so no bugs and fires, and the days are sunny and warm (in the 70's). So nice.

6. Fantasy Football: I Love and Hate Fantasy Footbal, but at least this weekend comfirmed why I love it. Almost ruined a Chris Johnson performance by losing, but Dallas Clark pulled it through for me on a Monday night when all hope was technically lost.

7. Captiva Secret Society: Will happen.

Not Sure

2009-09-15T08:31:00.001-04:00

But I am thinking about giving this whole Social thing up. Don't have the time to live it and talk about it, so my only real options are to just live it, or to just talk about it...

Has Twitter Jumped the Shark?

2009-08-21T08:44:00.004-04:00

I still remember, vaguely, when Fonzi jumped the shark on Happy Days, signaling what we know today as the decline of the show, but more importantly I remember when Henry Winkler actually jumped a shark on Arrested Development. Much like Happy Days, Twitter seems to be in a decline. This statement is based on general observations and not on actual usage statistics because user statistics don’t show the real value that something can provide. I know from personal usage (I have been registered on Twitter for over a year now) that I check it frequently and every once in a while I find something useful, but a majority of the time there isn’t anything that peaks my interest. The following is some of my observations why I believe that Twitter has strapped on their water skis, hit the ramp, and are flying through the air in their best Fonzi impersonation.

There is too much spam right now. Everyone is asking me to check out their sexy pictures, which I would if I a. wasn’t at work, or b. didn’t have morals. Even the ones that don’t ask me to check out their pics are someone who is trying to be the social marketing entrepreneur of the year and just posting news articles from other sites. Trust me lame guy I have news aggregators that I have been using long before you lost your job and decided that we had a real need for you getting me news. Also, these twammers are all about getting followers for their Twitter profile. Red flags tend to be raised when you have over 1,000 followers and no updates.

People seem to be locking their profiles now in order to follow them. Dave Navarro (@davenavarro6767) of Jane’s Addiction has done this recently and swears by it. I have also seen more people that do not deal with fame lock their profiles. I am tempted to do this but I feel that I would be defeating the purpose of Twitter. I have always treated Twitter as my public profile and facebook as my more private profile.

Even legitimate twitters, at least on the surface, are now willing to take money to post ads in their tweets. I don’t knock them for trying to get the money while there is money to be getting, but come’on you have 4,000 followers and I don’t have a clue who they are or how I begin to target them other than a generic message. I could definitely do test messages to see which one resonates the best, but then I come back to you only have 4,000 followers and 10 updates a day.

Just today this short term study that Pear Analytics put together puts some analytical data with my above ranting. This study should be considered in the eye of the beholder but it does state an interesting trend, “Twitter tweets are 40% 'babble'.” I think I would have used a more descriptive term like crap. It also goes on to state, “8.7% of messages could be said to have "value" as they passed along news of interest.” That is not much, especially considering the amount of time people spend on Twitter. I know that people don’t spend 9% of their time on Twitter, but when budgeting out time shouldn’t you have more than a 1 to 1 ratio of value?

I will still use Twitter and feel that companies should get involved in tweeting, especially if they have something of value to offer the follower. It can be done respectively, just check out Pizza Hut (@pizzahut), and follow their twintern. A company mixing in some personality with breaking news and a promotion here and there will go a long way on validating Twitter and keeping it an option long after they touch down on the landing ramp, clearing the shark with ease. At this moment I have my concerns but I am still thrusting my two thumbs up and saying “Aaay.”

Friday Nonsense

2009-07-17T15:47:00.003-04:00

1. What the hell is up with facebook not being able to place you in the same location that you were in when you clicked on a photo, saw it and hit the back button. Big pain in my ass.

2. While I am on a rant about internet companies, what is up with Yahoo!'s My Yahoo! not being able to retrieve about 80% of my RSS feeds all of sudden - Yahoo! FAIL. I am done with them, no longer my homepage.

3. Amtrak turn on the AC. I feel like I am in the south tropics in this metal box.

4. Get this, it is supposed to rain this weekend Upstate, wow didn't see that coming. This summer weather-wise blows. I am sure the dirt track will be rained out, not that I need another night out.

5. Golf game not too bad considering that I haven't physically played in over two years, and I was using rental clubs. It was the first time that I have ever played golf with a caddy. I kept thinking of Caddy Shack, I even dressed the part of Ty Webb. The club was private, beautiful and definitely worked me over. But fun as hell. Followed up the beating with a nice scotch, which definitely made me forget how crappy I am at golf.

6. After the golf I ended up killing the rest of my night (and possibly some of Friday early morning) at the Vibrant Awards Party. Good time but made for a hard Friday morning. My clients didn't win anything but still fun.

7. Going to be celebrating my 11th anniversary with the woman of my dreams this Saturday. Something low key just the two of us with the kids having a sleep over at a friend's house. Should be fun for all.

8. All in all a good week. Have a great weekend.

Tuesday Randomness

2009-07-07T07:15:00.004-04:00

Well it has been a few weeks since I last spewed my thoughts that are rattling around in this head of mine, and technically a lot has happened and if I could just remember them, a lot of opinions from me.

1. My brother came into town at the end of June and left right before the July 4th weekend - a day later than planned due to some huge storms that we experienced here in Upstate NY. He seems to always bring the crappy weather. Maybe I don't want him to come back. His one real goal was to go watch the dirt track races, which happen on Friday. They of course were rained out - 0 for 3 there Bryan. Good news was that we were able to hit the dirt track races at the Devil's Bowl located in Vermont on Sunday night. Definitely not as good as Malta, and they didn't serve alcohol. Not sure what the hell is going on there. Isn't the point to drink and just so happen catch a dirt track race. We did bring our own - a little Jack Daniels, and then a stop over at The Mill afterwards. Definitely good times, with the night being capped off at my place with a cigar by the fire under the stars and ending around 4:30am. Last count on the whole trip; 2 - 4:30am nights, 2 - 3:30am nights, 2 - 2:30am, and then a couple that actually ended before 1am. And more beer than can be tallied or remembered at this point. Good times and here's to next year!

2. Rain sucks! Especially right now considering that this is our summer and we have not had one yet. Come'on Mother Nature, quit screwing us, you're not that hot.

3. What is up with all the bad smells (old gym shorts!?) on the train this morning.

4. Work, work, work - need to catch up, hopefully that happens this week but highly doubtful. Have a happy hour at Apotheke with a good partner in the search space. I have talked about this place before in Twitter if not on this blog (see how ironic the title of my blog is) when I went with a friend. This time the drinks are on them not me so maybe I will be trying the $35 absinthe they make. Wednesday is golfing with they great guys at Yahoo - this has the potential for trouble... Then a lot of work on Thursday with me heading back home since my wife's long time friend and her family are paying us a visit. We will be heading to Six Flag's Great Escape. I so love roller coasters, I have to one day do a roller coaster tour of America.

5. Fourth of July was a blast with the annual Jimmy and Jeanie Party. Bunch of people with a Boston accent and the drinking of approximately 200+ CLs, with the night ending again at 2:30am by the fire signing the National Anthem. This might not seem notable, but you have to realize I am old. Tried a new game that I love here called Washers (but actually pronounced Washas). I wasn't actually too bad at it. The only thing that would made this day better was some fireworks - I am going to have to travel to New Hampshire and get some next year, and yeah I know this is incriminating me, but oh well. Sunday was actually just as good with a post party hang out with the weather actually being beautiful, so a swim was in the books. This is living...

Other than I am starving right now and need to get some work done that is all I got right now.

Microsoft (David) vs. Click Fraud (Goliath), Let’s Go MSFT!

2009-06-23T13:23:00.003-04:00

I know from the title alone that people are scratching their heads and wondering how the heck I could apply the title of “David” to a behemoth of a company like Microsoft. I can because Microsoft last week announced a civil suit that they have filed against three individuals that they accuse of participating in click fraud on the MSN ad platform. Microsoft is the “David” because Click Fraud (now turned into an entity by this post) is huge in the search industry and though we deal with it, sweep it under the rug, pretend it is not there, etc. it is the “Goliath”. The civil suit that Microsoft filed is less than One Million Dollars (as you read that I am touching my pinky finger to the corner of my mouth and looking evil), but will reap much, much more. The PR alone, when we are all evangelizing about Bing is enough to keep the momentum going for MSFT.

I for one am glad someone with weight has stepped up to do something about this, even if in the end they receive benefit for it. Google hasn’t publicly been a champion of going after click fraud other than giving credit back to campaigns where fraudulent activity seems to be present. They have even taken a some-what staunch stance and have splintered off from the third party click fraud companies (I can’t say I blame them, since these companies have a monetary reason to accuse Google and everyone else of click fraud), and decreed that they are fighting the battle of click fraud and doing a good job. The difference between MSFT and Google is that MSFT has taken it to the streets by suing the fraudsters. In all of this over the years, Yahoo is has been more silent than a poor person at a Christie’s auction, and because of this I am not sure exactly where they stand on click fraud, other than against it. The one thing that I believe MSFT could do a better job at is rallying people and letting the public know what they are doing. I have not seen that many articles written about it yet. It isn’t even on the Microsoft homepage.

I would like to see more engines stand up and take the initiative to at least publicly make a stance with their actions, not words. I admit that I believe the actions of MSFT will not curb or even put a dent in click fraud, but it is a step in the right direction, plus a huge win for MSFT in the public’s eye, and that is who MSFT needs on their side right now in this search engine battle that they have committed to. On a side note, read about the technology and process that they went through to identify these fraudster (OK alleged fraudsters right now). It is fascinating and kind of DEA like.

Tuesday Randomness

2009-06-17T20:07:00.002-04:00

1. The events of the day could of been better - I hit the snooze button to start the day 6 times and completely missed the chance to work out. At least I got a decent night sleep, since my roommates convinced me to stay up and watch the Real Lives of the NJ Housewives (or whatever you call that show). I admit it was somewhat entertaining. But then work is work, but today I had to let a great guy know that he was no longer employed by our company. Great guy, just didn't have what it takes to do search marketing. I wish him luck.

2. I am wondering how Bing is doing, hoping that it is still increasing in its search share.

3. Went to the Google B2B Summit yesterday. I felt that it definitely could of been better. I want to use the term a waste of my time, but I am guy that likes to find the positive in everything, and there are some. Just not enough that I would do it again.

4. I have my youngest daughter's Father Day event at her school tomorrow. I am so looking forward to it - I even canceled on an all paid corporate event at the US Open this weekend. Fathers Day will be so much more fun.

5. After next week all hell is going to break loose, a lot of it good, but none the less.

6. I could really use a scotch right now...

7. Found a cool new bar (to me) that I can't wait to try out, which will be the second week in July unless my fellow Captiva Society alum can change their plans. I will let you know after I pay it a visit.

8. Something that I have not spoke much about, but damn the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Final were insane this year. Such great games, a few series were let downs but amazing hockey this year.

MSN Search Summit – Seattle

2009-06-08T08:51:00.002-04:00

Forgive me for at this current time I am functioning on 2 hours of sleep. One would think that this is a bad thing, but actually in this case it is a good thing. You see I was invited by MSN to attend their Search Summit in Bellevue, which had an event at Lucky Strike bowling alley. When last call was called there, which was around 12am we took the party to Pearl around the corner. I will state this that I made it back to my room by I believe 2am, but there was a group that broke off and took their own adventure. I guarantee I would not be sitting on my plane right now if I would have been a part of that group. Anyway, enough about last night’s festivities (my team did win for worst bowling score though) It was an intimate setting and by that I mean there were approximately 100 of us, but don’t quote me on that. I was there to give feedback on some of the things that MSN has in the pipeline (can’t discuss some of them because I am under an NDA, not like anyone reads this blog) and drink the Microsoft Kool Aid. Considering that just the week before I was drinking Kool Aid with Pizza Hut, I am feeling a little full of the sugary stuff, so I had to spike mine with vodka. In all honesty the summit was great and it was not too hard to swallow the Bing Aid. I think that at this current time that Bing is a better engine and much more user friendly one than Google. Microsoft just needs to get the word out to the masses, something that they are saying they are committed to do. Now I know what they are going to spend on this and it is a substantial amount, but considering that Microsoft makes their own money, it seems a little unsubstantial. We will see what the future holds on this. Another thought or beef of mine, and this one is not actually with MSN (I want to mention that my previous thoughts on the amount of media spend is not an issue at all), is how everyone wants to tear apart MSN on Bing, and I am not sure why. I think it is so that these people need to feel wanted and heard, and this is the only way they know how; since they don’t understand the whole Speidi thing to write about (I don’t actually understand it either). Saying something nice usually doesn’t get attention. At its worst if MSN fails we keep doing what 70% of the search population has been doing, and we use Google to answer our search queries. At best Bing starts to garner more and more market share, hopefully hitting 20 – 30% search share, giving us marketers another viable option in our arsenal. We all know unless Yahoo does something soon, they will be in third place holding on to 3% search share. I really want to see the best case scenario, because I do believe that Bing is a lot more user friendly than Google (how MSN lets users know about the features will be a big task), and that MSN is approaching this internally in the right way. They know Google is the beast, and that they need to create a search engine that they believe in, not one that will be a Google killer (which is very refreshing to hear the media not use that word in their articles). The attitude that is present is very refreshing and open minded, something that we have not seen in the industry for a long time, and makes you want to work with MSN for search campaigns. So I will lay it down right now, I plan on Binging it. Long live Bing! This is going to be Bingstastic.

Wednesday Randomness

2009-06-04T17:05:00.002-04:00

1. Allergies Suck: Is this one of the worst allergy seasons or am I just messed up. I woke up in the middle of the night (3am) last night with snot just pouring out of my nose. I have to give it to Texas (I actually use to live there), but when I was in Dallas last week my active allergies were all but nonexistent. I am not sure that I want to give into taking a pill everyday in order to make them disappear but it might come down to that, and then the question is whether to take an over the counter med or go natural.

2. No AT&T service for my Blackberry at the Delta gate at JFK: What kind of crap is this? Everyone wants to text, Tweet and update fb profile during this time. This is the time that you can let your loved ones know that you are about to take off soon and that they should be prepared for an update when the plane lands at your destination. Plus this is the time you let all of your friends know that now is the time to be jealous because you are going someplace cool / to garner sympathy because you are going to some place not cool / or to inform them of some crazy as a bat out of hell that is sitting next to. Anyway I was not able to do any of these. I am not sure who I thank for this, AT&T or JKF.

3. Really wanting Bing to succeed: This needs to happen, so please all of you that don’t read this blog (the world population minus me) use Bing. Make it a success. Bing’s success is for the better good of mankind, well maybe not that far, but at least for the better kind of the search world. We need more opportunities and competition in this space. Google has become complacent and that is not good. Plus, some of the best people work at MSN. I am not sure if I am now supposed to call them Bingers.

4. Delta 6 hour flight and I received two small bags of peanuts?!: I know on this one I should just shut the hell up, but I am not. I could use a little more food considering that I am stuck on this plane for 6 hours. I could buy something but then I will just become bitter because I had to pay for food that isn’t worthy to serve to people in prison. I have to figure out which airlines are the best at the amenities – I am actually going to get off of my ass and join a frequent miles program. I have been saying it for years thinking that I don’t travel enough, but actually I probably do, and it all adds up. I also need to do this for hotels. I am always hearing of people getting free nights stay for their little mini vacations because they have points for a particular hotel. I want those mini vacations that are paid for by miles and points, too.

5. Hoping that the hotel has an alarm clock with an iPod docking station: If you remember correctly the Dallas Marriott did not – they suck. I am still on the plane so I have not found out the answer to this one so at the current moment is just some hope. Also, again I didn’t bring my iPod charger so either my iPod last this entire trip, which is quite possible with the batteries in the new generation iPods (they are amazing, I am talking days of continuous playing), or I am SOL on the 6 – 8 hour trip back this Friday. Update: no iPod alarm clock - Westin Bellevue sucks.

In the Big D - ABR in Dallas

2009-06-02T07:06:00.004-04:00

This trip has not been too bad, except it came up quick and right after a holiday, which always makes for a busy make-up session. I feel that I am never at the office, what have I become, a panty–hose salesman? Anyway the trip down was uneventful and right after work so I was able to get some stuff down. ARB was actually great training and I believe will definitely help me communicate to the client that requested us to be there, plus the team that went down are good people. The only problem I had was it was long and made my ass hurt. It was a lot of information and most will be useful at work, but more importantly should be used in life also. Fairly good benefit if you ask me, because most trainings that I go to get shelved until I move offices and then I thumb through the manuals going, “oh yeah that was a good idea back then.”

Margaritas and Tex-mex for dinner that night were great and our client contacts are always a good time, even if the female section turned the conversation to John and Kate. The guys stuck to the usual, and I capped the night off with a Shiner Bock, one of the best beers out there. Mine was warm but you will hear no complaints from me. A few more of those and who knows how the evening would have ended.

Another half day, if you consider 8:30am to 3:00pm a half day, more of training and then we were off to DFW. Our plane was delayed by over an hour and changed gates three times. This didn’t deter my mood, it just made us go on a DFW bar hop. Some Texas style bar, then Chili’s, then capped it off at TGIFriday’s. Woo hoo. Plane ride home was not bad and even a little exciting. I have never flown by a huge funnel cloud with it lighting up like a Christmas tree due to lightening. Then we could see off in the distance all of these flashes of light. It kind of reminded me of the display that is shown when people are trying to show the brain and its nerve receptors firing. It was pretty amazing, especially since I am flying at night. Hopefully this trip ends soon, because my Friday is packed with the usual and a Q3 review in person with a client. Those are always fun, and can be interesting. Plus, I want out early in order to get Upstate and start my weekend.

Ciao.

Tuesday Randomness

2009-05-26T08:18:00.004-04:00

I am on the train about to arrive in to NYC and feel I should throw some thoughts down, since it has been a little while.

I am having concerns with that I am being more social outside my social networking circles. Is that wrong that I am becoming more human and would rather live life than write about trying to live? Sarcasm there, but you are more than welcome to comment with your thoughts.

I have yet to finish my personal post on the Search Insider Summit, the "work" related one can be found on SearchFuel. At this point I will probably just say screw it, plus even though nothing crazy happened I have internal conflict on how much I really want to talk about in case there ever is a day that someone actually reads my postings.

I am also having great issue lately with Google. I get along with some of my reps, actually quite well on a couple, but I am becoming so fried on all they want to do is sell your clients (behind your back none the less) on their offerings. I am sorry Google, y'all are F*$%ed about YouTube. It doesn't work for my clients. I understand that they have numbers to hit each quarter, but c'mon.

And to tie this in with the thought above, I am really enjoying my relationships with my MSN and Yahoo! reps. They rock! We enjoy each others company and I actually like doing business with them. That is why I hope and pray that those two engines survive and can keep bringing me opportunities that keeps them in the mix. I have a feeling that Google has topped out and that MSN and Yahoo! can start whittling away at their dominance.

My allergies are reaking havoc right now, and I did not receive as much sleep as I really needed over this holiday weekend. Let the summer begin! The pool is open and the BBQing is in full swing. I don't believe I have a weekend to rest. Oh well that is what the winter is for.

Have fun and talk to y'all soon.

Google's New Trademark Policy

2009-05-15T15:33:00.004-04:00

I am not quite sure what Google is trying to accomplish with this policy other than in the quest to get sued the most times (I am kidding here folks, I don't believe they will be sued more). Google decided to open up their trademark policy, effective June 15th, by allowing anyone to use another companies trademark term in their ad, as long as they follow approximately three rules. These three rules are basically what Yahoo! and MSN have been practicing as an actual competitive bidding policy. You are able to use the trademark term if it means something else in an ad (i.e. Apple iPod could be used as apple tree), your landing page in fact is a reseller or an aggregate (ebay, shopping.com, etc) or if your site is an informational site. This last one is the one where I see controversy, because what is "informational" or who is going to police and define informational? I don't believe this new policy is going to have a big impact how we do business in Google, we will have to police our trademarked KWP a little more diligent, but we should be doing that anyway. The one thing I don't get is why is Google doing this, we won't receive more revenue by allowing this because I am not sure if it will change or increase anyone's bidding strategy. Time will tell, and by the way Google is only rolling this out in the States, which makes since due to the more restrictive European rules.

Craig's List Caved

2009-05-14T10:06:00.004-04:00

Media Post had an article today about how Craig's List is going to remove their "erotic services" ads. I am not a fan of them doing this, and not because I frequent these often, I am happily married, but because they were not doing anything illegal. When a company the size of and an influencer like Craig's List acts, it has the potential to create a norm, and I am not prepared for censorship to be the "norm". Craig's List does have a plan that they are going to put in place, but by the basic notion of changing what they were currently doing because of outside pressure, causes them to lose.

CEO Jim Buckmaster stated in a blog post, "We are optimistic that the new balance struck today will be an acceptable compromise from the perspective of these constituencies, and for the diverse U.S. communities that value and rely upon craigslist," pertaining to business owners, law enforcement, and free speech advocates. I think free speech advocates lost, because there is no real gray area for free speech.

These changes that Craig (not actually the real "Craig," found here) has implemented; new adult labeled section (not sure how "erotic services" was mistaken for not being adult), screening process, and an increase in fees from $5 to $10, is going to solve the problem that law enforcement has with them posting prostitution ads, as they see them. It will also not take back the murder and injuries that the wack job committed, which is the reason we are even having a discussion about this topic.

Let's Play Musical Chairs

2009-04-20T11:10:00.001-04:00

I want to preface this by stating that these are my opinions and I by no way have all of the facts, but that will not stop me by any means of spewing my thoughts.

My employer, which has been great for the past 2 and a quarter years - no I am not sucking up, I actually do like it here - has decided to undertake a massive move of all of the account teams. I am not sure how much of this info is privy or the release of strategy, so I will tread lightly. Like I said I really like my job and don't exactly want to jeopardize it. The idea is to have everyone that is on a particular team sit together, so that all media disciplines can learn form each other and really make us integrated. Oh that wonderful term that we all preach but don't always practice. Or at least that is what I thought the move was for. After seeing the seating chart I am not so sure that was accomplished.

I work for the search team and we do things slightly different. My book of business spans quite a few businesses so sitting in or near one client team is hard for me to achieve. Plus, the search team is in a sense like a family. We all hang out together, yell out questions in our area with hopes that someone knows the answer, crack jokes, and just practice a sense of camaraderie.

This move is going to blow this up. Yeah we will have to use AIM more diligently but it is causing us to come up with solutions for things that we took for granted everyday. An example is how will we orchestrate Burrito Box Friday?

Update before even posting: We have had a week to absorb the move, I technically had 3 days, but since I barely was in my office and we all had Friday off, I am not sure if I can talk with expertise on the subject.

Back to the previous thought before the update. Burrito Box Friday and how will it be effected. We had one last Thursday (Friday we were off) and it went alright, but it didn't "feel" right. We are going to have to work on it and "tweak" it to work best for us. I have already gone through a trial and error of would it work better trying to create a group on AIM to inform the masses that the Box order was about to be placed. That created chaos on "what is this for?," "is this a sex chat room?," etc. So I created a group in my contacts in Notes (yes I am forced to use Lotus Notes at my company) called Burrito Box. I fired off the email and informed that they needed money in DL's hands if they wanted the Box. This actually worked well, except for the people that were in meetings when that email went out, and did not get back to their desk until after the order was placed and delivered. Anyway, the Box was eaten and enjoyed as best as it could of been, I guess.

OK back to this move before you were rudely interrupted by my Burrito Box dilemma. I want to get this posted so I am going to end this post rather abruptly, but before I do that I want to express one thought, or actually try to from this ADD addled mind of mine. I believe the move will work and people will get use to it, but I do believe that the search team will lose a little piece of itself that made us "us" and kept our retention rate ridiculously high. I will keep y'all informed as this move has a chance to get some time under its belt, and I actually have a chance to unpack, which will not happen this week - off to Florida for the week tomorrow.

Dominos & Boogers

2009-04-20T07:52:00.003-04:00

AdAge posted a good article about what Dominos did right and what it did wrong, and I do lean on the side that they did a great job in their response time and what medium they used to issue their response. I have one bit BUT though, and it is all the people that I talked to who actually ate Dominos before this whole event (I actually don't eat it so my opinion is worth anything) still say that A. they will not eat Dominos again, or B. this event will really play in their minds and they are not sure if they will order from Dominos again. I feel for Dominos right now, even though I do Search Marketing for one of their competitors, because this event will hit them in the sales department, maybe not as hard as everyone thinks it will, but it will hit them. And the only real difference between these two jerks at Dominos and the other food chains we all eat from is that they filmed their prank, while the others that have not been caught yet have not yet filmed it.

If yo have yet to see what the whole fiasco is about, check it out here

Google is Testing Favicons in Paid Search Ads

2009-04-16T12:44:00.003-04:00

Google, I believe, started testing Favicons in their Paid Search ads on Tuesday. I noticed it on Wednesday and was able to pull a screen grab.

I am not sure where I stand on this or what my feedback could be. I did follow up with my rep and she informed me that they do not have any data on if ads with a favicon have a better Click Through Rate than the ones that do not have one. Also I could not replicate the favicons in IE, only Firefox. If I learn more I will let you know.

Twitter is Like Assholes

2009-04-10T15:25:00.002-04:00

I wrote this a couple of months back and have come to the conclusion that I will never finish this rant of a manifesto, so I am going to just push it live in its bare naked glory. I also must preface this with that I do frequently use Twitter (@JeffGores), so I am not so sure that I am not one of the assholes or even more a contradictory asshole.

Twitter to me is a great tool and has great potential much in as Google trends or Insights brings to us. It provides a level of buzz to the conversation, but as a tool to provide expertise I am not so sure. It lacks the potential to be checked, i.e. Wikipedia, and without this Twitter just becomes Opinion, and we all know that opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. I do feel that having only one source of info (whether it is trusted or not) is somewhat akin to a dictatorship, but I am not sure Twitter is the answer. The answer will be somewhere in between,

The internet in general causes problems with validity. I was helping my daughter with her school project that revolved around reporting on a piece of our solar system. Something that would seem simple. She chose Saturn, so instead of heading to the library and sifting through published books and encyclopedias, something I did as a kid, I chose to use this very convenient tool that we call the internet. I found three or four sites, Wikipedia included as one of them, that all seemed reputable and had info about Saturn. To my surprise they all contradicted each other on how many moons Saturn has, and on a few other key points. This threw me because I feel that the internet in general has become a place for people to slander, spew nonsense in order to feel wanted (somewhat my opinion on Twitter), etc. but about Saturn?! This disagreement is great for conversation starters and intellects with telescopes but not when my daughter is needing to put together a project that she is going to be graded on.
This brings me back to Twitter. If I did a search on Saturn in Twitter, my results are not going to be that accurate, plus 140 characters is not quite long enough to culminate a report from. So until teachers, who drive our future society based on known facts, not someone’s ramblings because they feel that it is important for others to know that they are having a bowl of cereal or that they read a great article on how social is going to change the world. This is also another issue I have with Twitter – it creates this sense of validation to individuals that other people really care. These people are technically common folks that have no chance to ever win a Nobel prize or be educated scholars speaking to our younger generation. So it brings me to that opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, now we just realize it quicker with the instant push of content …

Pizza Hut Delivery

2009-04-10T09:28:00.002-04:00

Not sure if any of you keep track of news on Pizza Hut. I have to because they are a client of mine. The scary thing is I keep track of all the news through a bunch of different feeds and I would say approximately 85% of them are news around some delivery person getting robbed. This has to be one of the most dangerous jobs out there, and one I got to imagine doesn't pay at the level of danger involved. Just a random thought...

Tweet Deck

2009-04-09T11:09:00.002-04:00

I am going crazy on trying to get Tweet Deck to work on my computer. I know that I need Adobe Air installed which I do have. Everytime I download Tweet Deck on my computer, it will open but does nothing and won't populate. I am wondering if Air is installed in the right section of my computer, because IT does have us locked down on installing programs to our computers, which they rightfully should considering the intelligence level of some people around here. The funny thing is some programs will install, you just need to put their executables in My Documents. Any way if someone is reading this (not sure who) and has an answer please let me know. It is one of those things that I can't have it so i really want it, plus it looks cool.

How I Almost Followed a Porn Star

2009-04-07T17:50:00.003-04:00

It started harmless enough, reading an article on Google buying Twitter. Where can you go these days and not find an article on that subject? Anyway, I saw a link in the article about a pornstar (@brookehavenxxx feeding her pets. I will admit that it sounded interesting enough to warrant at least a look. That look turned into about ten minutes of reading some posts and checking out her friends. Very interesting to see what lame stuff she was up to, but also to see that all of her friends seem to be in porn, makes some sense I guess. I wonder if she ever cryuises the Search Marketers tweets and is like ooohhh wow, naw I doubt it. In the end I decided not to follow her, the wife might question it, but one very cool thing came out of it. I am now following @SlashHudson...

Silicon Valley Ponzi Scheme

2009-04-07T05:45:00.002-04:00

I am not so sure that Lindsay isn't on to something here. My only concern is that if the big boys in the technology world didn't dump money into these start ups then the internet wouldn't be as cool as it is. These companies, like Twitter and Facebook make the world cool and in some cases allow wares to be hocked, but more importantly once they catch on to mass public bring value to the internet as a whole. This in turn makes my job, search marketing, of great value and even Google as a whole, valuable. So in a back handed way, Google by buying up start ups that do not have a business model to sustain it is actually driving growth and value for its share holders. I personally would rather see the internet grow then pad my pockets with an extra $60 a share of some stock that I am actually not rich enough to own in the first place.

Old Blog About Scotch

2009-04-06T16:28:00.002-04:00

Here is an old blog that a friend and I use to write for, called Scotchy Scotch Scotch. It has been over year since our last posting, seems to follow the life span of most blogs. It is disappointing that we quit it, but I have by no means quit drinking scotch. Who knows maybe inspiration will hit and we start it up again.

current craziness

2009-04-06T16:23:00.001-04:00

Decided that I need to start this up and let the world in on my thoughts and I how I view the world, especially when or if it clashes with my employer's guidelines and philosophy.