Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Watch those Google rankings change

[Tags: , , ]. Poynter is reporting on the update of Google's search rankings:
"Google is intentionally vague in describing the mechanisms behind PageRank, but an easy way to understand the system is to think of every link from a particular site as a "vote" for the site being linked to. Votes from sites with high PageRank are worth more than votes from low-ranking sites. The more votes you have -- and the more from high-ranking sites -- the higher your own PageRank."

Splogs

[Tags: , , ]. Ah yes, the internet continues to throw up new language at an exponential rate. The latest is 'splogs' - fake or spam blogs that exist solely to enhance search rankings. There's an article at Poynter on splogs - to quote:
"By creating fake sites that link to a revenue site, an unscrupulous operator can -- in theory -- manipulate Google's results. To allow its software to ignore potential spam links, Google proposed a "rel=nofollow" property for links that most blog software providers quickly implemented. However, it generally is applied to comments (often open to the public) and not to blogs themselves."

Monday, October 17, 2005

Making Flash usable

[Tags: ]. I've only just discovered this very useful article by usability guru Jakob Nielsen on making your Flash work more usable. In a nutshell, people invest very little time figuring out how to use your Flash wotsit, so make it simple. And they will often mistake over-hyped animated links for adverts, so stick to a basic hyperlink to help users find it.

Friday, October 14, 2005

It doesn't matter how relevant the result is, as long as it finishes top

[Tags: , , ]. Jakob Nielsen reports on an interesting experiment regarding search engine results, which confirms what we already suspected - that users really are very lazy.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

A new PR blog

[Tags: ]. Those interested in the wider world of Public Relations (i.e. not just the interactive side of things), and particularly the study of PR, should take a look at Public Relations, a blog recently launched by my colleague here at UCE Birmingham, and Degree Leader for Public Relations, Caroline Wilson.

Hopefully this will mark the start of a collection of blogs for our department, with myself also recently starting a blog for the degree in Web & New Media which I lead (more details at www.mediacourses.com). Watch this space.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Email marketing most popular method

[Tags: , ]. "Email marketing is the most frequently used marketing method among European businesses, according to the first digital marketing benchmark from Knexus Community" - so reports this week's New Media Age. Doesn't mean that it's good, but there you go.

Viral ad competition

[Tags: , , ]. Channel 4 have launched a viral ad competition - open to the "general public" as well as agencies. Looks like good exposure for BoreMe.com - but still a good place to see the best viral work - or submit your own.

Monday, October 03, 2005

A PR blog to bookmark

[Tags: , ]. Plenty of links at Stuart Bruce's PR blog...