Guide to pants off living
March 2006
SEO Gone Mad
Friday, 31 March 2006
I was shown this page today by one of my esteemed colleagues who was completely astounded at the non-sensical, meaningless and completely fruity writing included within.
Obviously she'd found the page high in a Google search but when she landed on the page there are some very unhelpful instructions about how to actually find what you're looking for. Since it's just search phrase babble - using every possible heading and paragraph to shove the keywords into.
For example;
Street search for Camping Shops
You can locate a Camping Shop by searching for the street in which you think the Camping Shop is located. Just remember that as well as returning the Camping Shop you are looking for, this type of search will also return every other business in that street as well as other businesses they may have your search term in their Melbourne listing.
Really, that just doesn't make any sense. Sara was right to find this hilarious and pointless. This kind of garbage is just gonna force people to search the old fashioned way - with the Yellow Pages.
Posted by travo at 8:01:24 AM
Comm Games housing near Brunswick... not such a good idea.
Friday, 24 March 2006
If you're searching for lost athletes you probably don't have to search too far from the Athletes Village. Perhaps a quiet stroll along Sydney Road Brunswick and into Coburg and you may well find a few asylum seekers, and among them might be one or two missing athletes.
Posted by travo at 8:47:21 AM
Web 2.0 WTF? / Why Lonely Planet needs a Wiki
Thursday, 23 March 2006
There is a lot of talk / jibberish floating around about Web 2.0 - there are a lot of people getting very hard about it and there are also a lot of shysters who are flogging things that are now 'Web 2.0 enabled'
Essentially, Web 2.0 is a name for a lot of really nice business models and concepts which are finding a market online. Again, time will show which of these models are able to actually generate income and create solid revenue streams.
I think this article today on Webmonkey gives a really good summary of these models and also what web 2.0 is really about.
There is also heaps of ammunition here to make a solid argument as to why I think Lonely Planet should go with a Wiki. No really, hear me out.
The whole LP / Wiki thing is a torch I've been carrying around for a little while now and I think it would be a great way for them to capitalize on the knowledge / expertise that they have - and also what they've shared with 100's of 1000's of travellers around the world. Here's a few reasons why;
- They shift the content production from their staff, to everyone who is able to create and edit an entry on their Wiki. They may not necessarily need to reduce their staff numbers but their staff may have access to more up-to-date content which they can take ownership of online and effectively become wiki content editors.
- As mentioned, the accuracy / currency of their content has the potential to become higher.
- In time, they may be able to offer travellers the option of downloading to their PDA / iPod / Handheld a whole section from the Wiki on a particular destination. This could then ensure that while travelling you have access to the most current notes about Lismore.[update]As 37 Signals mention - these kinds of services are thing that LP shouldn't be afraid to charge for.
- With this model Lonely Planet may also make it possible for you to update your content online with revised travel information from the Wiki
- Most importanly, I think LP have a strong context within which they can foster a strong online community of travellers who could contribute effectively.
I think there are heaps of opportunities here for Lonely Planet, it would be a bold move, but I think they have the right climate to grow a business activity like this; Human Filters, Information Architecture, Social Networking Model and the potential for strong Folksonomies and Tagging.
Posted by travo at 9:53:32 AM
Microsoft ASP.NET, now with Atlas (AJAX) - be alarmed.
Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Checked Slashdot this morning and read the news about Microsoft's integration of AJAX into ASP.NET with Atlas.
Someone handily provided the url for a streaming movie demonstrating how to 'assemble' (build just doesn't sound right in this context - this guy ain't building nothing) an ASP.NET application using Visual Studio Express.
Frankly, I find this whole scenario alarming in many ways on many levels.
- Application development just got a whole lot easier for twits.
- Debugging an ASP.NET application (without Visual Studio) now sucks harder.
- Visual Studio behaves more like a 'toy' IDE, drag and drop this, click that - obscure fundamental component here, bury core business logic there.
This sucks a whole lot more because I kinda need to add .NET to my CV, seriously - but seeing this just doesn't make me want to - honestly. I'm really afraid that using Visual Studio Web Developer will make me a less smarter person - it won't actually introduce me to new and interesting concepts in compiled languages nor will it expand my skillset with useful and transferrable learnings.
Posted by travo at 1:53:39 PM
AJAX - Welcome to my CV
Thursday, 16 March 2006
Finally found a genuine / commercial excuse to do something legitimate with AJAX. I decided to use the Prototype library, despite the fact that it's not well documented by the guy that developed it, there is a plenty of nifty pieces of documentation out there for it.
In the end, this kind of stuff was very easy - I suspect though that polishing what I've done and making it a nicely integrated 'widget-type-thing' that a visitor/customer to the website will use is a whole nother thing.
I also suspect that, if I choose to be super dilligent, making my web page work for people who don't have a javascript enabled browser will be a tricky minefield to navigate. I guess I can't really add AJAX to my CV until I've proven that I can do that.
I'll keep you posted.
Posted by travo at 3:57:26 PM
Vintage Wallpaper Rocks!
Tuesday, 14 March 2006
This is so cool; so many tasty brown tones to be seen here - check out these vintage wallpapers.
Posted by travo at 2:04:59 PM
Pattern Language and Moderation Strategies
Thursday, 09 March 2006
I got very excited last year when I discovered Clay Shirky writings about moderation strategies (unfortuantely I can't locate the original article). His wiki for Pattern Language is an equally valuable resource for developers who are working on social software and need to consider moderation and group / self management strategies to ensure the project doesn't go pear shaped.
Even if you're not working on a large social software application, it's worth have a read of this material. It provides some genuine insights into online group behaviour and how to consider managing it.
Posted by travo at 10:01:48 AM
Balloon Hat Website!
Thursday, 02 March 2006
Oh this is so cool. So what do you do when you're travelling to 34 different countries, take balloons of course and make them into hats and photograph indigenous people wearing them; let hilarity ensue.
I hope Davey sees this.
It seems that Davey has been subscribed for three years or so! Seems I came in late, or strangely may have reposted something I've seen before.
Posted by travo at 9:11:13 AM