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What Happened In The Real World While SES Chicago Was Going On

By Li Evans

So last week while I was out at SES Chicago, speaking on panels and networking with people, a whole lot of stuff was going on in the "Real World".  So here's a link round-up, if you were out in Chicago you might have missed some of these stories.

• Danny Sullivan Announces New Search Conference:  Search Marketing Expo
• Jason Calacanis becomes Entrepreneur in Action with Sequoia
• Yahoo!, Yahoo!, Yahoo!, Yahoo! and more Yahoo!
• Yahoo! still has more visitors than Google
• Forbes Magazine is covering Arbitrage
• CNET just doesn't get Digg at all
• Jim Hedger stirred up Matt Cutt's ire with his story about Google funding Terrorists
• Google announced it's extending its free transactions with Google Checkout until Dec. 31, 2007.
• 30 Amazing things you can do with Widgets
• WOMMA Announced its WOMMIE Award Winners
• TV Networks reportedly planning a You Tube Rival
• Yahoo! & Facebook is back Again:  Deal or No Deal?
• HP & State of California settle Lawsuit

I think that about covers it all!  These bloggers all covered it much better than I, especially since I was at the Hilton in Chicago for most of the week.

Digg - Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?

By Li Evans

These days I can't go through any news aggregating sites without seeing at least 1 or 2 stories about Digg.  The social news site has been stirring up a lot of controversy lately, check out this list:

• algorithm updates
• admission of moderators
• stories reaching the front page with just one "digg"
• banning of top tech bloggers
• services popping up aiming at gaming digg's system
• digg's CEO overstated its traffic numbers
• digg issues cease & desist to DiggDot.us

And that's just a small bit, some other influential bloggers have been questioning where digg's going an the quality of stories being put out there.  The entire "mob rule" is being placed into question, especially in light of how John Chow's blog has been banned from digg submissions.  Take a gander at these recent blog posts from more well known blogger's in the industry:

• BusinessWeek's Rob Hof:  Shoveling on Digg
• Robert Scoble: Digging on Digg
• Tailrank's tracking a whole list of discussions on this
• Danny Sullivan's Digg vs. News Traffic Case Study
• Dissing digg....Why? (GigaOm)
• Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim:  Bribe a Moderator and Get On Digg
• Google Blogoscoped: Kevin Rose & Digg on Moderation
• Steve Rubel's Micropersuasion

I really see digg's audience changing from the technology and geek readers and branching out and attracting mainstream readership.  I read and hear a lot about professionals in our industry having their stories "dugg" but then the discussions that happen on the threads show the total lack of knowledge of the area the article speaks to.  It is not saying that the "diggerz" are dumb or stupid, they really are just lacking the in-depth day in and day out knowledge the technology and search industry professionals have.

As new "diggerz" come into the fold the more it annoys and drives away the early adopters.  Not necessarily those who "digg" lots of stories, but more the folks who read the stories.  Both Rob Hof and Scoble point out they are opting out of the feeds from digg, as the stories being submitted are no longer of much value to them.  This is just how services who have been in the "geek realm" change when they reach the mainstream, an evolution, it changes and morphs once the mainstream populace gets a hold of it.

As digg courts investors or potential buyers (such as News Corp.), this "mainstream" reach helps to up the value of digg, so who can blame Kevin Rose for leading digg in a new direction?  Don't worry though, I'm sure Venture Beat or Tech Crunch will find us another internet darling that us geeks can become early adopters of.

Google Settles With 2 Belgium Media Groups

By Li Evans

Over the holiday weekend here in the states, the rest of the world business and courts churned, including Belgium.  Google didn't rest on its laurels either, in fact news first broken by Bloomberg and updated 4 times since originally breaking cam on Friday 11/24/06.

Google was also in court appealing the ruling back in September against them using Belgium news sources without permission in its Belgium news portal.  Friday's news now excludes the Belgium groups Sofam (who represent photographers) and Scam (who represent journalists) from the case.  A ruling on the case is expected sometime in January 2007.

Meanwhile, the Danes are still without Google news as Google put that version on hold because of the Danes wanting and "opt in" option, rather than the standard robots.txt file.

Others that are commenting on this news:

• Greg Sterling - Search Engine Journal:  Will Google News Pay for Content?
• New York Times is cover Bloomberg's article (you'll need a NY Times registration to read it)
• Danny Sullivan - Search  Engine Watch:  Google Settles with Some Belgian Publishers Over News Inclusion
• Techmeme has a whole run down on the discussions
• PaidContent:  Google Settles Dispute With Two Belgian Media Groups; Denmark Delay
• John Battelle's Searchblog: More Europe: Settlement in Belgium

Past Related Articles:

• Norway Now a Problem for Google News
• Forget Belgium, Google News Opens for Scandinavia
• Official Google Blog - Belgian Case Explanation

Saturday Morning Experiments

By Li Evans

I'm catching up on all my reading I've missed the last couple of days before all the festivities here in D.C. start and I saw two experiments that have caught my eye that I'd thought I'd pass along to those who are reading over the holiday weekend.

• Jason Calacanis is running an experiment on how easy Alexa is to game.
• DaveN has some domains in the UK he's running an search experiment on - like this zombie post.
• Marketing Pilgrim has a poll on whether readers will stay with Search Engine Watch, move over to Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land or read both (go ahead and vote!).

World Usability Day

By Li Evans

Did you know that today is World Usability Day?  Until this morning I didn't!  That's why I love RSS and the ability to read a lot of different types of blogs and find out things I have never had a clue about before.  I'm still a "newbie" in the usability area, but here's a "Link Round Up" on some great posts from bloggers highlighting the day.

• Google Celebrates World Usability Day
• Google Blogoscoped - In Celebration of World Usability Day
• Cre8pc - Takes a look at Ms. Dewey's Usability
• Stephan Spencer's Scatterings - Getting the Balance Right between SEO & Usability
• Logic + Emotion - I Love U-sers

And check out Matt Bailey's blog on Accessibility Issues, like Cre8pc, this blog focuses on usability and accessibility issue for websites and search marketers.

Friday Night Ponderings

By Li Evans

I'm going to try a new thing - at least for Search Marketing Gurus - the occasional "Link Roundup".  I'll  revert to this when it seems the job that pays the bills requires much more of me.  Today being on of those days it was rough to get any kind of coherent thoughts down on virtual paper, thankfully, a lot of other bloggers did it for me.

• First, hat tip to David Naylor who led me to a great blog post by Graywolf entitled "The Secret Army of Digg Trolls".  To be honest, I think Dave's likely one of the funniest and most blunt guys in the Search Industry.  There is never a day that I don't laugh when he's co-hosting with Danny or Mikkel or Jenn.  I also enjoy reading what he writes, he's short to the point and usually damn snarky!
• Not only is Yahoo! sprucing up, but did you hear that Yahoo is cooking up something?  I thought you might of, that smell of the blogosphere churning wasn't hard to miss!  Even the Hillbilly's didn't miss this one, 'possum stew anyone?
• John Battelle's reporting that the "Spooks" really aren't scaring Google.  He's even got the proof! (so to speak).
• Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim blog has been buzzing with acquistion news & deals abound - Reddit acquired by Conde Nast, Jotspot bought by Google, Lycos Asking for Search Help and Marketing Sherpa acquired by Marketing Experiments.
• Jeremy Zawodny is being Zen, while Matt Cutts is being "Complete"ly Snarky.
• ZDNet is reporting about what cancer searchers are really looking for content wise.
• Want to help build a vertical search engine?  The Fortune 500 Blog Project is looking for volunteers.
• Alan Meckler ponders if Myspace is so "yesterday".
• Steve Rubel reports that the NBA and Google have ended their landmark deal, but Jenn Slegg lets us know hockey is now there.
• Stephan Spencer asks if Hitwise will reveal their biases since they won't reveal which ISPs provide them with data.
• WOMMA.org redesigned their home page, meanwhile they also put Edelman's membership on review.
• Finally, Robert Scoble explains why you should not get drunk with podcasters.
• Oh and before I forget - Pick Your Color and comment below at where on the scale you fall!

And that's a wrap on the link roundup! :)