Thursday 5 July 2007

Does Web 2.0 really have a soul?!

"In the future... the Web will grant us not only the vision of gods but also their power."

I've just read the above in an article about the 'amorality of Web 2.0'.

OK, i was only joking when i named my blog "I've sold my soul to Web 2.0". But what's that they say about the truth being spoken in jest...

Update: I've renamed my blog from "I've sold my soul to Web 2.0" to "The meaning of web" so losing the meaning of some of this post. However considering it wasn't that good to begin with i feel i haven't done much damage.

A diagram of Web 2.0 words

There's a really good image on Wikipedia about the history of web 2.0 and its associated words. As you can see "Web 2.0" is 2004/2005 but most of the words it embodies are way before then.

Diagram showing in what year certain web 2.0 words entered usageImage and author details can be found on Wikipedia.

Finding keywords for Google Adwords

I've been using Google Adwords for a couple of years now and find it so much easier to use than Yahoo's version. Like everything Google you can adapt it to how you want it, everything's quick and automatic and it's really easy to use.

Did you know you can't stop Yahoo ads appearing on certain sites even if you want to? That means if a site is spamdexing by filling itself with adverts and no other content you can't remove yourself from it, that's up to Yahoo, in the meantime irrelevant visitors cost you money. OK you could stop your ads, refine them, adjust keywords, but wouldn't eliminating bad sites from your campaign be easier?!

However the one area with Google that's lacking is finding keywords.

Google keyword tool is handy and what i've been using for most ads but that was until i found something that was far more fun! - Quintura. OK it may be doing the same thing but with all the floating, moving words it gives you so many more ideas. So for a list of similar words then keyword tool is fine but for inspiration use Quintura. Then when you're bored of that just start typing in random words - I was amused to find that "Crystal Palace" also brings up "knitting needles".

Quintura also seems better for finding negative keywords - words to eliminate from your campaign that you don't need.

Related posts
Growing strange cacti (Feb 2009)
Is the Google Keyword Tool any use for SEO? (Nov 2010)

Tuesday 3 July 2007

How we use and peruse the web

I've just read an article about web usage that a friend kindly sent me.

Putting links 'below the fold' (ie. off the page so you have to scroll down to see it) has always worried me, based on this report it doesn't seem to have too much of an adverse effect.

"User rarely scroll horizontally (total of 0.4%), but over 23% of all links followed were "below the fold." This is surprising considering the short mean stay time on pages."

The article also mentions the 'Golden Triangle' - users tend to look at the top left of a search results page - I must have been living under a rock because I've never heard of it until now.

Yet more ammunition to support the argument that high Google listing is important. I still believe in SEO through content rather than spamdexing though.

Wikipedia

The more I look into this the more I realise how much stuff is Web 2.0 and also how much of that stuff has been around since the early nineties. Web 2.0 is a bit of a rubbish word for all this web technology really! Anyway a nice list of Web 2.0 applications.

Amongst those I found loads of stuff I'm already well acquainted with. Wikipedia being the main one. Pretty much everyone who's ever surfed the net must have surely visited Wikipedia at some point. If you haven't edited anything, then try it now, find an article (your home town is always a good place to start) and correct it, there's bound to be typos or inaccuracies. Two areas that inevitably lead to criticism of Wikipedia.

OK, a lot of the criticisms are valid, particularly accuracy and lack of depth but if you look at the quantity of featured articles and their quality, these articles surely must be atleast an alternative to the Encyclopedia Britannica if not a replacement. However its still nice to have around even if it is just use for answering pub quiz questions.

I now get annoyed that I can't press edit when reading a book to correct grammar! Although that's probably also an after effect of reading "Eats, shoots and leaves".

The first day of Web 2.0

I've been trying to improve my company's website listing so i started a few months ago by redesigning. I got some accessibility experts at Clearleft in funky Brighton to tidy up the design and i've now started adding decent content - the best way to increase SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation was scaring me till i read this website helpers site. I've got friends who work for SEO agencies who bang on about how they have 100 sites that can link to my site immediately if i use them, I will now start ignoring them!

There are loads of really informative blogs out there about Web 2.0, just search Technorati. I'm only writing this one so i can get the hang of this blogging lark and can explain it to my colleagues with some degree of clarity! Will add a blog roll and other elements of Web 2.0 as i look at them.

Anywhere you can point me much appreciated...!