Web 2.0 News Podcast June 30 2007

Welcome to Get Found Now’s first weekly Web 2.0 news podcast. Every week I am going to review the hottest news and emerging trends in social network marketing. Each article will have an accompanying podcast for those of us who prefer to listen then read. Today’s podcast is going to go over all the latest news for the month of June.

Social Network Marketing News Podcast 1

What’s New In Web 2.0

Even thought to most it’s old news, Google’s acquisition of FeedBurner is my top story of the month. The other day I wrote the first in a multi-part series on RSS Syndication Services You should be Using: FeedBurner which goes into detail about what FeedBurner is and why it is so powerful.

The acquisition makes sense since I am sure that the selling of Adwords within the feeds should easily get Google their ROI. Since RSS is the backbone of social network marketing and Web 2.0, this purchase quantifies the potential of syndication as another means of using the Internet.

The month started out with the release of Andrew Keen’s “The Cult of the Amateur”. I first heard of the book on one of my favorite blogs Lessig.org. I went out an grabbed the book more out of curiosity then thinking it was going to give me any real information, or maybe inspiration for a post or two. Keen goes into excruciating rants about the amateur Internet, how wikipedia is as useless as your neighbor Bob’s blog, and how the web needs to be institutionalized.

I suppose my question is who is this guy, and what make him an expert? The fact is he failed in his attempt with audiocafe.com, it didn’t last 2 years. So who are the amateurs? He makes some good points about the inaccuracy of blogs and wikipedia, but if you’re like me you only use it as a starting point in research. Anyway I wasn’t impressed with Keen’s accuracy, and his opinions on digital sharing whether its music or video seemed over the top to me. I certainly don’t condone theft, especially of content, but there’s a big difference between making a valid point and ranting like Bill O’Reilly. I found his comparison of Google to a parasite amusing at best, dangerous at worst. I am sure he is bitter over the results of a Google search for his name. I really don’t recommend this book to anyone that is looking for positive answers to their Web 2.0 goals, in fact I don’t know who I would recommend this book to at all!

A positive Web 2.0 social network marketing story that came out this week is about U.S. Congressman George Miller (CA-7) who is one of the first politicians to embrace the power of social network marketing. Representative Miller is using Facebook to promote anti-war sentiments with his “ask george” campaign. He is asking visitors to use the tag “askgeorge” with their anti Iraq videos and messages so his staff can weed them out. As I was researching this story, I found it amusing how the non-techie political sites kept referring to Millers methods with the “so-called Web 2.0 sites”. What the hell does so-called mean? I am still amazed at how little people really don’t understand the legitimacy of Web 2.0. I know it is a term that is often misused or improperly categorized, but they had better realize that Web 2.0 is real, and it is here to stay.

What’s New In The Search Engine World

This next section will deal with what is new in the world of search engines. It will focus on the majors; Google, Yahoo and Live. If Ask or any other small engine has some important newsflash I will report them as needed.

Google News For June

June was a great month for Google. Their new SERPs called “Universal Search came out of beta. I know that Universal Search is ruffling a lot of feathers in the SEO world, but I like it. It certainly works for me as my strategies about news oriented marketing and dynamic content play out. I have been supportive of Google’s personal search amid criticism about privacy and Google’s data gathering policies. As a user and researcher both personal and universal search help me. I use iGoogle as my home page and follow all of my feeds as well as feeds of sites I am interested in. Using Google on Firefox with several plugins including the Google Toolbar has made searching much more effective for me.

Now changing to my SEO hat, I can see how these things can be worrisome to some webmasters. The fact is the SERPs are different, and moreover they are less predictable as users’ search history effects their results. As news, images and videos are thrown into the mix along with all the advertisements, organic listings are going to be tougher to maintain, especially above the fold.

Google also announced the creation of Google Gadgets. Developers can win a grant for as much as $100,00.00 for any successful gadget that can make iGoogle better. Developers will be able to set up their gadgets and the ones that get 250,000 page views will receive a $5,000.00 grant. If they can produce a plan to improve the utilization of their gadget, they can get a grant up to 100K. Things like this is what I love about Google and their attitude. They are definitely one of the biggest supporters of open source. By promoting creativity, and open source projects, Google is once again supporting that community.

Google also have released their Google desktop for Linux. While it isn’t as robust as Google Desktop for Windows, it is still a good sign. I am sure developers will be creating more desktop gadgets. All my primary computers in my office run Kubuntu, so I use Konquerer as my desktop search and am happy with that.

Yahoo and MSN or Windows Live Search Updates

Other than Yahoo adding more complexity to their horrific paid search interface called Panama, they have been pretty quiet outside of Yahoo adding Flickr streams to their image search. I will tell you that I am preparing a major series on Yahoo and how Inktomi has changed. I am sure many of you remember the good old days when Inktomi was as easy as pie to manipulate. Now Slurp is more advanced, but the foundation of their algorithm is still pretty easy to optimize for. If anyone has any specific questions they would like addressed leave a comment in this post.

That’s it for this week, I’ll be talking to you next Sunday about the exciting world of Web 2.0 and Social Network Marketing.

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