It’s great to see a local lad launch a lovely world wide web widget to generate traffic. OK, so I got carried away on the alliterations, but check out Mark Schumann’s site Publicity Wheel.

Hat tip to Bill Hartzer for alerting me to this site. In a guest post on Bill’s blog, Mark says he is an e-learning developer who built edutagger, a K-12 social bookmarking site for educators. He also built the Fame Experiment, from which was born the idea for Publicity Wheel.

Publicity Wheel works by placing some code that generates the 125×125 pixel button you see above. Your visitors click this and are taken to the publicitywheel.com site, where they can sign up and get their own button. Each click earns the site owner some points and a pie slice in a conceptual Wheel of Fortune game. More clicks mean more chances to win when the wheel is spun. Winning means their site is “featured”, so people will check out such featured sites and generate the traffic to them.

I won’t be using this button on every page here because the traffic lottery is weighted against me. Being a low traffic site, the number of my readers who own a website are lower; so the chances of them installing this button are even lower. On the other hand, the Publicity Wheel site gets a lot of traffic.

I notice that Bill too did not install the PW button on his site. I wish Mark well with this project.

Popularity: 32% [?]

When you are trying to optimise your Google AdWords campaign so that your ads rank high for less money, you usually are sharpening your ad copy, improving your landing page, playing with the bid and so on. If you worked at Google Maps, you wouldn’t need to work so hard.

At least in Australia if you search for <placename> <word>, e.g. Toorak dentist, Werribee cafe, Narre Warren restaurant, the first (almost always) AdWords result is an ad for Google Maps.

You can see this in the image on the right. Another interesting discovery are the two Menulog ads - one is the gTLD .com and the other is the ccTLD .com.au. Nice technique to remember if you need to display more than one ad. Just buy a few ccTLDs, since the algo won’t know if the various domain names in different “countries” are the same entity.

My next search was for a cafe in my old stomping ground, San Mateo, CA. Both Google and MenuLog were confused (click image on the left). I wasn’t logged in, but both remembered my previous search. Google Search showed the right results, but AdWords didn’t want me to leave these shores, choosing to show me an ad for Toorak cafes, and Menulog.com.au hedged its bets by showing me an ad for Armadale cafes, and Menulog.com showed me Toorak cafes. OK, these are broad match ads for the word “cafe”, but why show an irrelevant city in the wrong country? Since Google isn’t paying for its top-ranking ads, I think it could have shown a PSA or none at all.

Yes, cafes are in a tough category for AdWords. Either you phrase match <placename> <cafe> for thousands of placenames (not practical) or load a whole bunch of negative keywords (not practical) — I’d rather not see this prime position taken up by Google Maps ads at all. You can see these ads for many location searches, such as dentists, restaurants, etc.

eBay can’t handle the place name Narre Warren, a Melbourne suburb. Search for Narre -Warren (that’s a negative Warren) and eBay will exhort you to buy a Barre, whatever that is. MyLocal gets too familiar — look for Narre Warren cafe and it will tell you to go to Narre Restaurant. Local search doesn’t seem easy for some companies. TrueLocal still wants me to go to the solitary cafe in Redfern. Menulog wants me to go to Barre, WA - apparently there is a cafe/restaurant of this name in Perth.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Being an Indian by birth and an SEO, nothing riles me more than seeing Indians behaving badly on the international stage known as the Web, particularly link monkeys.

I run many sites, one being a directory of Australian and New Zealand websites. In the registration email, I say

SEOs please note: Do NOT submit sites that are not about Australia or New Zealand, else your account will be deleted.

Indian SEOs: Read the above para in case you missed it.

There is an idiot of a link monkey who gives his address as “Block-B/191, Lohia Nagar, Ghaziabad 201001″ or “191, Block - B, Rahul Palace, Lohia Nagar, Ghaziabad-201001″ depending on his mood. He is always pushing some recovery software website - partition recovery, flash drive recovery, pictures recovery, etc. Clearly, he cannot read English, as I keep deleting his account and his submissions. But he keeps resubmitting the numerous websites that are all registered to one Tarun Tyagi, also of Ghaziabad. Tarun, if you read this, fire that link monkey!

Just take a look at this poor, unsuspecting directory that was spammed by the same idiot: http://www.japanautopages.com/city/ghaziabad-India.php. A screen shot is on the right. Here is another, and another.

Submitting links to low-value directories does nothing for ranking. Getting a link from a reputable website in the same industry is worth a thousand of these spammy submissions.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Research In Motion (RIM) will ship the BlackBerry Bold 9000 multimedia smartphone this northern summer. It features a world-first for a BlackBerry: It supports Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g), tri-band HSDPA high-speed Internet access and has an integrated GPS. The new “Push Button Setup” will make it faster to connect to protected wireless networks that require a sign on process

The BlackBerry Bold comes with 128 MB Flash memory, 1 GB on-board storage memory and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot where you can add further storage. Apart from being a phone, it also manages your email, messaging, organiser and web browser. The supplied DataViz Documents to Go suite enables you to view and edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.

The 480 x 320 colour display is fused to the lens, which promises to show videos and pictures with great clarity. The photograph on the left suggests that the viewable area is very small, but judging by from other images seen on the web, it appears that during video playback the full screen area is used. That is probably also the case while browsing the web or reading emails. Streaming videos can be watched via RTSP – real-time streaming protocol and you can download files from websites and save them on the phone’s memory storage.

At 2 Megapixels, the camera won’t attract much interest, but it has a flash and 5x digital zoom. The USB 2.0 interface enables the device to sync with and transfer files from a PC.

The media player comes with Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry and Roxio Photosuite 9 LE, which enable you to enhance pictures and create photo albums on your computer. You can also sync iTunes music collections with the smartphone. Music can be played through its stereo speakers or headphones and you get 11 pre-set equaliser settings.

The integrated GPS works even while you are on a call, so you can be talking to a rescuer while giving them your precise location!

Premium phone features include Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), Bluetooth 2.0, which supports hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including the ones that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile) and other Bluetooth peripherals. Its quad-band EDGE and tri-band HSDPA support global roaming.

Smart phone features include dedicated “send”, “end” and “mute” keys, smart dialling, speed dialling, conference calling and call forwarding. Its noise cancellation technology masks background noise. There is a powerful speakerphone and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.

The removable rechargeable 1500 mAh battery provides talk time of about 5 hours and 13 days standby time. Supplied extras include a stereo headset, travel charger, carrying case or sleeve and USB cable.

You will soon be able to pre-order the BlackBerry Bold 9000 at Amazon.

Popularity: 32% [?]

So says a press release from Transcend, announcing the new StoreJet 35 Ultra, an actively cooled eSATA external hard drive. Of course, you would say that if you were flogging an actively cooled drive. I have about six external drives and none have cooked themselves to death so far.

All the same, the StoreJet 35 Ultra has attractive specs. It measures 197.5mm by 127.5mm by 48mm and comes in an aluminium case that takes a 3.5-inch SATA hard drive. There are two connection options: A 3.0Gb/s eSATA interface and a 480Mb/s USB 2.0 interface.

What does active cooling mean? For this unit, it means an extra-quiet 80mm high-flow fan that cools the hard drive. It also comes bundled with StoreJet elite software, which offers intelligent backup scheduling, security, and file compression.

The Transcend StoreJet 35 Ultra supports all commonly used operating systems, including Windows 2000 / XP / Vista, Apple Mac and Linux . You can buy it with either a pre-installed 500 GB SATA hard drive, or you can buy just the enclosure and add your own 3.5-inch drive.

Popularity: 25% [?]

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian association websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to be the best. Best means trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. This list does not imply that one site is better than another - that exercise is left to the marketing head of each website. If your site ranks in the top 10 or top 20 for the typical search phrases used by ordinary people, then your website is a winner!

Well done to the webmasters!

According to a Google.com.au search for “www” and restricting it to .asn.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. Australian Breastfeeding Association
2. NATA
3. Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA)
4. FPA
5. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
6. Australian Industry Group
7. Bicycle SA
8. Australian Council of Trade Unions
9. AASW
10. 101FM Logan City
11. Australian Water Association
12. Carers Queensland
13. Australian Bankers Association
14. Australian Automobile Association
15. Australian Anthropological Society
16. Financial Industry Complaints Service
17. Australian Council for International Development
18. ALA
19. Mental Health Association
20. Chiropractors’ Association of Australia
21. Australian Local Government Association
22. ASFA
23. APESMA
24. Law Institute of Victoria
25. Cancer Council WA
26. Law Council of Australia
27. Local Government Association of Queensland
28. Australian Institute of Food Science Technology
29. Ai Group (incorporating AEEMA)
30. Australasian College of Dermatologists
31. APA
32. The Law Society
33. The National Folk Festival
34. NECA
35. Surf Life Saving Australia
36. Carers NSW
37. Queensland Writers Centre
38. The Australasian Evaluation Society
39. Institute of Actuaries of Australia
40. APC
41. Craft Victoria
42. Netball Australia
43. Australian Employers Network on Disability
44. Municipal Association of Victoria
45. Water Services Association of Australia
46. Australian Institute of International Affairs
47. Women’s Legal Service NSW
48. Public Interest Advocacy Centre
49. New South Wales Bar Association
50. Food Safety Information Council
51. Logistics Association of Australia
52. Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory
53. Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch)
54. Law Society of South Australia
55. RSPCA Western Australia
56. Carers WA
57. Palliative Care Victoria
58. WMAA
59. VAC/GMHCe
60. Optometrists Association Australia
61. The Australian Gas Association
62. Film and Television Institute
63. Restaurant & Catering Australia
64. WALGA
65. Bicycle Federation of Australia
66. Australian Music Association
67. The Australian Association of Gerontology
68. Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists
69. Alzheimer’s Australia NSW (redirect)
70. Native Fish Australia
71. Motor Neurone Disease Association of New South Wales
72. CRC Association
73. Pride Western Australia Inc.
74. Australian Pituitary Foundation
75. SNAICC
76. Energy Networks Association
77. Australian Law Students’ Association
78. Palliative Care Council of South Australia
79. NSW Nurses’ Association
80. West Australian Music Industry
81. GriefLink
82. Australian Marine Sciences Association
83. Immigration Advice and Rights Centre
84. Australian Institute of Radiography
85. AVBC
86. SimTecT 2008 Simulation Conference and Exhibition
87. ASSDA
88. ParaQuad Victoria
89. UNYA
90. Australian Shareholders’ Association
91. APMF Australian Paint Manufacturers Federation
92. A3P
93. AEPCA
94. Australian Practice Nurses Association
95. The Push
96. MTBA
97. Dads in Distress
98. Australian Forest Growers
99. Theatre Australia
100. Aged and Community Services Association of NSW & ACT

Popularity: 28% [?]