Posts Tagged ‘Google’

A Cautionary Tale

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

With apologies to Hillaire Belloc, I thought the title of this post to be particularly appropriate. Here’s why.

When it comes to computer gadgets, I’m a danger to myself and others. And this is kinda frustrating because it’s so much fun to push buttons on web sites and download software, files, and attachments. Before the Web really became interesting, I used to routinely disable my computer by deleting things out of the control panel that I ‘knew’ I never used. When the Web finally got into full swing, the number of possibilities became practically endless. That brings me to the subject for today.

This blog is run on or by WordPress. This means that there are an untold number of apps, plugins, and widgets from which to choose. The other day, at the suggestion of someone who judgment I trust, suggested that WordPress users install Twitter Tools. By then, I’d learned enough about WordPress to be able to install this stuff myself.

So, I downloaded the program, put it into the appropriate file on my web page, and went merrily on my way. Unfortunately, there was another program in there that automatically shortened URLs. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I activated it as well.

After a couple of days, a friend of mine noticed that a sort of continuous loop had been formed on the blog. Because I had the blog connected to various social networks, when I posted something one place it automatically updated posts elsewhere. Unfortunately, this created a kind of perpetual motion. Altogether, about 40 unwanted messages were created.

Now this by itself was a nuisance, but not a huge problem. But, when I sent out the following -”Keyword stuffers are internet turkeys,” it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. It wasn’t long before it looked I was the one doing the stuffing. Fortunately, a friend of mine spotted the problem, told me what to do, and then un-indexed them all from Google.

So, the moral of the story is to not mess with the technology unless you know what you’re doing. There’s nothing more humiliating than living up to the otherwise low expectations of others.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: Google, Twitter, WordPress
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

My Latest Frustration w/Google

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

We’ve all experienced it. A company starts out with a great idea. We wonder why we didn’t think of it first. We embrace the company. Soon, everyone else does. At first the company seems to have our best interests at heart, but after awhile they start to behave as if they’re untouchable. Then they become the company we love to hate. This has happened with the oil companies, car manufacturers, and browsers, and now it’s happening to Google.

The beta version of Google’s keyword search tool (a.k.a. the Adword Tool) used to be the best free tool of its type on Web. It provided a place for each of us to find words that defined the solutions that people were looking for so that we could optimize our sites for them. It made our content better and enabled us to learn how the Web worked faster. But, a strategy or a tactic is only effective if a relatively small number of people are doing it. When it becomes mainstream, it no longer has much impact.

Then came Google Trends, a means to discover if the number of searches for a particular short- or long-tailed keyword was increasing or decreasing. This new capability was important because it lengthened the impact of these words. After all, why would anyone optimize for words that were become less popular?

Google’s latest incarnation of its keyword tool combines these two capabilities. At first, I could use the tool as I did with the original version. Just type in the words of interest and click Search. But, Google is beginning to behave as if no one can compete with them. Now when you type in your words of interest, you have only 30 seconds, if you’re lucky, to analyze the information. Then the page automatically redirects to another page where they hope you will bid on the Adwords.

And this is not an isolated instance. It happened to me every time I typed in a keyword. In fact, when I backspaced to change the text, that, too, triggered the redirection.

This latest change in their attitude to customers is the beginning of the end. At the moment, there seems to be little anyone can do about it, because there are no other search engines that are as big or as comprehensive. But someday soon, someone will appear and steal the march on them. It happened to Internet Explorer, and it will happen to Google, too.

Watch this space.

Bruce Hoag, PhD, CPsychol
Work Psychologist

http://www.p-advantage.com

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: AdWords, Google, Google Trends
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »