If Facebook Nails This, Twitter is Toast!

Wow. Facebook continues to take on Twitter. Mashable’s post describes the new Profile Fans feature Facebook rolled out recently. Check it out here: Facebook to Emulate Twitter’s Follower Model With Profile Fans

Notice something different? Look closely and you’ll see the new option to receive an email notification whenever another Facebook user “Connects to me as a fan.” In other words, Facebook followers, here we come.

Facebook has a long way to go, but I think they are on track to become the clear winner in the long run. I do not believe that Twitter will completely go away or throw up a white flag. I do believe that Twitter will be around for a while, but by following Twitter’s lead (no pun intended), Facebook may one day have a clear upper hand in the microblog/status feed market.

Michael Jackson Death Sets Search Records on Yahoo

Yahoo’s Corporate Blog announced today that the passing of Michael Jackson led to some new records for Yahoo search (source). Without further ado, here are the main highlights of that post:

• Yahoo’s front page story ‘Michael Jackson rushed to hospital” received 800,000 clicks within 10 minutes.
• Yahoo’s news of his death received 560,000 clicks within 10 minutes.
• The News area on the Yahoo homepage received 5 times the normal amount of traffic it usually gets
• Yahoo News set a record with 16.4 million unique visitors (breaking the previous record of 15.1 million unique visitors on Election Day 2008)
• 4 million people visited Yahoo between the hours of 3:00pm-4:00pm PST
• Yahoo recorded 175 million page views for the day June 25th (placing 4th highest on the all-time behind Inauguration Day 2009, the day after Inauguration Day 2009, and Hurricane Ike)
• In Yahoo Music, 21,000 people left comments on a blog post about Michael Jackson
• On Flickr, 4,000 Michael Jackson-related pictures were uploaded

Also, according to Mashable.com, Michael Jackson’s death had a global impact on social media, specifically Twitter (source):

• In total, at least 30% of Tweets are remarking upon the star’s tragic passing, and that’s likely an underestimate.
• 22.61% of Tweets currently contain the phrase “Michael Jackson”.
• 22.61% of Tweets currently contain the phrase “Michael Jackson”.
• “MJ”, meanwhile, accounts for 9% of Tweets right now.

Granted, Michael Jackson was likely the most famous person in the world, but this event shows you the power of the internet and social media in regards to breaking news.

Google PageRank Update: June 23, 2009

The most recent Google toolbar PR update occurred around May 27th. Last night as I was up to white hat type of stuff, I noticed that many June blogposts already had a toolbar PR > 1. WTF? Had Google already made a PR update again, just one month after the last one? The answer:  Yes. My buddy Frank over at Tech Jaws (a badass SEO and internet security blog) sent me a link to the SEO Round Table PR update post that confirms the update.

After checking it out for a few minutes, it looks like the PR update is affecting internal pages moreso than homepages. There’s no way I can check the entire internet to support this claim, but from just looking at a few sites, that’s what I am seeing. However, I have also seen a several homepage PR changes, and the results look to be split. Some of them are up 1 level, some of them are down 1 level, and most of them just stayed the same.

We all know that toolbar PageRank is nothing to go apeshit over, and we also know that Google updates the real PR quite often. Could it be that Google has decided to frequently publish more of their internal PageRank updates? I guess only time will tell.

Getting to Second Base with Omniture…Not So Fast!

Waiting on Omniture: Your Report is Being Generated

I don’t know about you, but I have to use Omniture on a daily basis. I hate waiting for these reports. Yeah, I’ve got a ton of them scheduled for delivery via ftp and email. But it’s the one-off reports that really get on my nerves. And don’t even try to login in the afternoon. By then, the entire West Coast is also trying to download Omniture reports.

Waiting on Omniture: Your report is loading...

The entire Omniture report process reminds me of dating in middle school. Wait. Who am I kidding? High school. There I was, 14 years old and making out with some girl for like 15 minutes. It was pretty clear that the next step was to make a move (getting to second base, right?). But you’re never sure when the right moment is. If you wait too long, you’re a loser. If you move to fast, you’re in trouble. But we all know what the end result will be: boobage. It’s a waiting game for the sake of waiting. Kind of like waiting for Omniture reports to generate. Well, maybe not. But what can I do here? When I’m waiting for like 45 seconds, my mind starts racing. And this is what you get – a post about my lack of success with girls when I was 14 and how it sucks waiting for stuff. I am Tyler’s lack of patience.

On a side note: I’m not certain of the current baseball setup/analogy for today’s youth. It seems like they have reassigned the bases. I think they might skip first base these days. I don’t know. I just have to hear my aunts and uncles bitch about my cousins who are in high school. Sexting? WTF? I’m old.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Admits to Wanting Do-Over on Search

There is an awesome post over at TG Daily (link). At the Executives Club Chicago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was asked a question that had everyone on the edge of their seats: “If you could have one do-over, what would it be?”

I would probably say I would start sooner on search,” Ballmer stated to the crowd. Ballmer stressed that the company knew of search the research and effort had been put in, they weren’t sure of the market and that they had no business model. It just wasn’t there. The company lacked in an application for their findings.

Wow. I’m amazed at his honesty. However, I completely agree. I also like how he referred to Bing.com as “the little engine that could.” FYI: Microsoft is marketing Bing.com as a decision engine, not a search engine.

Twitter Launches Verified Account Program

Twitter Verified Account Beta

Wow! This is a pretty awesome week for social websites. Just 2 days after Facebook announced custom usernames and vanity URLs, Twitter has announced Twitter Verified Account (Beta):

What is a verified account?
To prevent identity confusion, Twitter is experimenting (beta testing) with a ‘Verified Account’ feature. We’re working to establish authenticity with people who deal with impersonation or identity confusion on a regular basis.

Great! Twitter is going to let me verify my account, so people know that it’s really me? Oh wait a minute. Crap. It’s not going to work for common folk like me. In their words, the Twitter Verified account program is for “well-known accounts that have had problems with impersonation or identity confusion. (For example, well-known artists, athletes, actors, public officials, and public agencies).” Oh awesome. Celebrities get even more privileges. What about us commoners, huh? What about us?

Twitter Verified Account

In all seriousness, this program is probably a great way to start dealing with the impersonation problems inherent in Twitter. Twitter is a kinda like the Myspace of micro-blogging. It’s so cool, and you can get a ton of followers/friends, many of whom you might not even know. But the bad part is that you really have no idea if the account is legitimately owned, managed and/or updated by the person you think it is. I mean, is that really Britney’s Twitter account? Really? How can you even tell? And then it starts feeling kinda slimy when some dude you don’t even know starts to follow your updates. It’s not as bad as Myspace, but it could be. And hopefully it won’t be. Because MySpace is soooo 2007.

Hopefully, the Twitter Verified Account program will begin to clean up Twitter’s impersonation issues. And then maybe Twitter can address all of the username squatters in a constructive manner. Or maybe they can address the recent study that shows 90% of tweets are made by 10% of Twitter users (link). Or maybe they can begin to address the reason behind roughly 80% of Twitter users only posting 0-9 times and then never returning(link). Just saying is all…

The Twitter Verified Account page goes on to clarify that, at this time, the Twitter verification service is not available for businesses. Well that sucks. I have big name clients who would love to verify their site. Customers want to know that they are dealing with the official Twitter page for Brand X. Why not open this Verified Account service up to brands? Oh yeah. Admittedly, it’s a time and resource issue (FYI: Twitter only has 58 employees right now).

Honestly, I’m just happy they created this service at all. Hopefully it’s the start of a glorious campaign to verify user accounts and corporate/brand accounts. I know there are a ton of brand on Twitter, doing their best to actively use Twitter to market their products. So c’mon, Twitter. I applaud Verified Account initiative, but please give us some brand support soon.

Be sure to check out the official Twitter Verified Account page for more details.

Facebook Usernames & Custom Vanity URLs: Landrush Begins June 13th at 12:01am

Facebook Usernames for Custom Vanity URLs Begins Saturday, June 13th at 12:01am

According to this post on AllFacebook, Facebook.com will finally be launching custom usernames for vanity URLs for Facebook accounts on Friday at Midnight (well, technically it’s Saturday, June 13 at 12:01am). What this means for you – go grab your name, your brands’ names, and several other names that you think might be valuable. Of course, you may need to create several accounts in order to have multiple URLs, but such is the life of a grayhat.

The guidelines for Facebook username URLs:

• Usernames must be at least five characters long.
• Usernames can only contain letters, numbers, or periods.
• Usernames will only be available in Roman characters at launch.

Here are some links that verify and describe the details at Facebook. Check them out:

• official post on the Facebook Platform page
• official blog post on the Facebook Developers Blog
• Facebook.com’s countdown page (this page is the best!)

Uh oh. It looks like Facebook has gone and done something to mess up our plans of vanity URL world domination. According to this post on InsideFacebook.com:

Facebook isn’t allowing transfers in order to undercut the rampant squatter market that would otherwise develop – although there will still definitely be cases of abuse. Facebook says that generic words like “flowers” or “pizza” will not be available as usernames, though we’re not sure how exactly those rules will work.

Facebook says that if you signed up for a Facebook Page after May 31 or a user profile after today at 3 p.m. EDT, you “may not be able to sign up for a username immediately because of steps we’ve taken to prevent abuse or ’squatting’ on names.”

Well, crap. That’s not going to be fun for you who were planning on creating multiple accounts between now and Friday. However, if you are an SEO who has already been planning for this, you probably already have several Facebook accounts. ;)

While this may not be as crazy as the landrush for Twitter usernames over the past few months, it’s going to be fun to watch. I wonder who will find a way around the rules. I wonder who will get some of these awesome names (or if anyone will find a way around the 5-character minimum and/or the restriction around highly generic keywords):

• facebook.com/viagra
• facebook.com/phentermine
• facebook.com/seo
• facebook.com/tech
• facebook.com/shoes
• facebook.com/realestate
• facebook.com/london
• facebook.com/hotels
• facebook.com/tickets
• facebook.com/travel
• facebook.com/auto
• I could go on…

Well, good luck everyone. Let’s play fair. Or at least let’s pretend to. :)

Update: I found some more links that you might find interesting and/or useful, especially if you are working with clients who have protected brand names:

• Help Center: Usernames
• Help Center: Usernames (Eligibility)
• Help Center: Facebook Pages (Guidelines & rules for companies)
• Notice of Intellectual Property Infringement (Non-Copyright Claim)
• Preventing the Registration of a Username (link)

Like a Fat Kid Playing Halfback in Soccer, Bing.com Tries Really Hard to Keep Up

Tom Smykowski: It's a Jump To Conclusions Mat

Bing.com, the new search engine from Microsoft, launched last week. And at the end of the week everybody was jumping to conclusions about Bing overtaking Yahoo as the #2 ranked search engine in the world. And that would have been pretty cool. I guess. Everyone in the SEO world would love to see Microsoft have a great product. And maybe it would have been cool if just for one week, Bing.com could have jumped over Yahoo. It would have proven that you can throw out a new product and a lot of marketing and have a tremendous opening. But alas, Danny Sullivan is reporting that it wasn’t a Cinderella story after all.

Like many other search marketers, I was waiting for Nielson, comScore, Compete and Hitwise to weigh in with Bing vs. Yahoo data. Please check out Danny’s post at searchengineland.com for more detail. But here’s the message:

What these data collectively show — and we’ll update if/when we get more — is that Bing has received a potentially significant traffic bump compared to Live Search/MSN since launch and rollout of the marketing campaign on TV and online. However Bing has (so far) not surpassed Yahoo for the number two spot.

Well, good luck, Bing! And on a side note, maybe you could answer the claim that Bing.com is switching title tags with search queries to increase clickthru (here). I mean, that would be crazy. Replacing the title tag from a page with the exact search query – only to increase clickthru? Well, that is definitely grey area. It makes me kinda happy in a way, but my clients are not going to like it. Just sayin’ is all…

Also, remember that scene from Groundhog Day, where Ned Ryerson yells “Bing!” about 100 times in 60 seconds? Why isn’t Microsoft using that video as the official marketing video for Bing.com? It could have gone viral. Just ask Rand. He’d agree. Well, probably not. But I seriously would not be surprised if this scene from Groundhog Day did not play a role in naming the new Microsoft search engine. I mean, everyone loves Ned Ryerson. Why not use his quote as the name for a search engine? Check out the video and see for yourself: