Does Anybody Else Get Fooled, Then Annoyed When Google Does This?

I was going to Tweet this, but then I’ve not had a blog post up for a while.

Lets say I do a Google Search, finding the directions between Witton Albion to Northwich Victoria. I click search and this gets brought up.

Useful, but not exactly what I want. Instead I want Google Maps. And I click on the link highlighted in the green arrow. This what happens:-

The query disappears!

I can’t be the only one who does this, am I? I know you can click on the links down the side, but surely it’ll be more useful preserving the queries between the links on the top of the page.

Anybody? Or just me?

Why Rand Fishkin is More Powerful Than Hulk Hogan….

….and how you can be as well

For those of you who follow me on twitter on almost stalkerish levels, you’ll know that a URL I have analytics access to was retweeted by Hulk Hogan yesterday (not sure why I’m linking to Hogan, if you don’t know who he is you really have lived a sheltered life). I took bets on how many visitors he’d bring to the website. One person – Sam Crocker – gave a suggestion. He was off. Way off.

So, at 7pm on a wet Thursday in Manchester, here’s what the Analytics have shown for the page that was tweeted by Hogan:-

60 visits. In comparison. I got retweeted by Rand Fishkin once and here’s the traffic I got:-

Over 1000 visits! Therefore, Rand Fishkin is more powerful (in terms of online reach) than Hulk Hogan.

How You Can Be Too…..

I guess I should explain about the tweet in question that Hulk Hogan retweeted. The tweet was about Callum Murray. Callum is a 9 year old kid that suffers from Arnold Chiari Malformation. You can read the full story here. It’s long, it’s heartbreaking, and it’s white text on a black background. Long story short the poor little guy is in pain everyday and desperately needs an operation from the only place that specialises in this condition – The Chiari Institute. The Chiari Institute is in New York.

If you can help, please please do. Be it a retweet of this post, or if you can donate cash. Every penny will be greatfully received.

Please Donate Here

As an incentive, if that total rises above £500 by next week, I’ll link on my Twitter to a wrestling match I’ve been in. You can probably find it on youtube, but you’d now be a selfish cunt for searching for it now & not donating.

Thank you.

When One Website Bear Scrapes Another Furry Bear’s Website, That Makes Me A Sad Little Panda

I can’t be the only person who thinks of this when people talk of the Google Panda Update?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5I9TWMA4U8[/youtube]

Who lives in peace ‘neath in Mountain View?
Google Harassment Panda!
Who explains Google harassment to me and you?
Google Harassment Panda!
Don’t cloak that, don’t link there..
Don’t be evil says the silly old bear!
He’s come to teach you what’s right and wrong..
Google Harassment Panda!

In other news: I’ve noticed nothing untoward, so I’m going back to bed/pub/doing what I should be doing.

WWE: When is it Not Ashamed To Be a Wrestling Promotion?

In the last few months, me and a few of my wrestling fan mates (of which there is numerous) have been having a good giggle at the WWE, and it’s refusal to be called a wrestling promotion.

They have tried to distance itself from the name since the mid 80’s, when they used it to get passed being listed as an athletic event so they wouldn’t have the same regulation as boxers (“wrestlers? No, they are superstars!”), but recently it’s got a bit silly, PR departments have been agressive in emailing sources in press coverage asking for titles that mention the word “Wrestling” changed, even removing coverage when journalists not wanting to change. Jokes about how many times the word “Wrestle” was said at Wrestlemania (which is probably going to be changed in name next year to something like “Entertainamania” – hey that could work as a name) did the rounds over the weekend, and as somebody who is involved in the wrestling business in such a small way, I find it amusing.

However, the other business I’m involved in is SEO, and – during a boring evening pissing about on the internet – I found this:-

Furthermore, here is the Meta Description, where it explicitly says it’s targetting wrestling fans!

<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Wrestling merchandise from WWEShop.com
includes a huge variety of WWE DVDs, action figures, accessories &amp;
more at everyday low discounted prices. WWEShop.com satisfies all
WWE wrestling merchanidise needs for the wrestling fan in all of us!">

I don’t blame WWE for this. After all, if you sell wrestling merchandise and don’t include the words “Wrestling Merchandise” in your title and meta description tags, then you are – quite frankly – pants on head retarded. Certainly I applaud your SEO team and if Vince McMahon is reading this, I suggest you give them a pay rise for bringing in a lot of sales for standing up to your branding department (who, really, should be fired).

Oh and whilst your at it. Give Zack Ryder a push.

I’m not sure either of those will happen, in fact I’m pretty sure that the word “wrestling” will be removed from the title and descriptions!

Twitter Turns 5 & Twestival Manchester

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AN4_N5N52U[/youtube]

Today, Twitter turned five years old. Probably the one service I use more than any other service on the Internet, and I hate to say if something changed my life, but Twitter did change my life. New job, friends and even a relationship that all arose from the social media site. So to Twitter: happy birthday, thank you and I’ll be celebrating your birthday.

To everybody else, I’ll be celebrating Twitter’s birthday, and it’d be great if you could come!

You see, this Thursday, along with Mancseo, it’s the Manchester Twestival! Last year’s Twestival was an incredible night, where I met my new co-workers, won a flight to Jersey, and generally had an amazing night. Each Twestival’s different, so who knows what’s going to happen on Thursday, but we do know that all proceeds from the event will go to the Wood Street Mission.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6YRvcBkqAg[/youtube]

The Wood Street Mission is a charity that helps Manchester’s needy in a varity of ways. Beginning in the middle of the 19th Century, The Wood Street Mission donates clothing, bedding and toys to help alleviate the effects of poverty on children in families in Manchester and Salford. You can read more about their work done here.

Manchester Twestival will be held on Thursday 24th March from 6:30pm onwards at Noho, Tickets are available from: http://www.amiando.com/MancTwester