Today on Webcology Jim Hedger and I discussed privacy. I should note that when it comes to privacy I have a fairly right-wing approach to most aspects of it (though not all). Jim on the other hand tends to be a little more left-wing on the subject (reminding me of the Net Neutrality debate we’ve had numerous times). 
The discussion spanned Facebook and Google (with a little general issues in there) and started with the fact that Facebook has come under attack lately for selling information to third parties to advertising and has this included in their privacy policy. Jim of course understands the desire to capitalize on the data but has issue with the practice of violating people’s privacy like this. I don’t quite see it that way and here’s why …
When you enter any information into an online source you are giving it to the world. That’s about that.
People seem to believe (falsely) that when they enter their information into Facebook (or any other online source for that matter) that the information is somehow only called on by their closes and dearest friends. That somehow Facebook is the benevolent entity that is allowing developers to build tools around their system for the good of mankind and somehow shouldn’t profit. And magically – there will never arise a situation where Facebook (or similar entity) has their data taken by hackers. This belief by people that they can enter copious amount of personal data into Facebook assumign that Facebook is somehow collecting it for the good of all mankind actually annoys me.
So the onus lies on …
You.
Who has hold of all the information that could be abused? You do. Facebook didn’t launch one day with all the information about everybody on the planet. No – they just asked and you told them. If we stop and ask ourselves, “Do I want the world to know this?” about the information we give away then the privacy issues won’t exist. I’m OK with the world knowing I’m an SEO, I went to Cairine Wilson Secondary School, I watch Arrested Development and I play Bioshock 2. Information that I wouldn’t want the whole world to know – never makes it into Facebook or any other social medium.
I was lucky to have a father who was a political adviser and who is now a lawyer. He would say, “Never write anything down you don’t want the wold to know.” At the time he was referring to print but the same can be said for the digital world. Don’t give your information to a third party if you don’t want the world to know. The onus lies with you – not them. They have to protect their interests (profit) and you have to protect yours (privacy).
Let’s also remember that capitalism has an uncanny way of self-regulating. If your information is used for purposes you don’t approve of enough times – you will stop using the service. So if Facebook violates your trust you will stop using Facebook and the slow and steady decline will begin.
The exception to my rule …
For the companies out there who think I’m given them an all-clear the are some exceptions. I only put the onus on the individual when there is reasonable reason to believe you are giving the information away. When I search on Google I know my behavior is being tracked (heck – they’re personalizing my results based on it) and then I enter my favorite shows into Facebook I know it’s being stored. But what about pre-installed widgets and toolbars that come with your fancy new computer. They can track your behavior but in my humble opinion – I believe this is where the scrutiny should lie. If my new PC by default is monitoring my behavior, preferences and web patterns then this is private information and the consumer likely isn’t aware this is going on. If they search int eh toolbar (for example) then it is the individuals responsibility but if it is data gathered when the individual likely didn’t know and and shouldn’t reasonably have known that data was being collected – herein lies the potential violation of implied privacy.
But of course this is just my opinion. The rule of the day though: Don’t write anything down you don’t want the world to know.
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 10:27 pm
Just about anyone who has worked in a large office has seen the company they work for make rash decisions about how firing an employee will affect their company. Although it doesn’t happen very often sometimes these decisions have a way of just blowing up in the companies faces and creating a PR disaster. Today I read about Ivell Marketing & Logistics who recently fired someone because of the contents of her Facebook account.
Ivell Marketing & Logistics recently fired Kimberley Swann, 16 from their firm for posting on her facebook about her job being boring. Now right away any of you that do Social Media Optimization, or Reputation Management would think this is something to be handled with tact with perhaps a written warning or some other kind of reprimand. As we all know that one whiff of a news headline relating around Social Networking, Social Media, or Facebook will be picked up by the blogosphere which can create a PR nightmare for companies (especially marketing firms). And lets all be honest most office admins find their jobs boring, especially if your a 16 year old female teenager.
The real problem with getting blogger all fired up is the fact that a lot of a larger bloggers have very strong sites which tend to rank fairly easy especially for company names like Ivell Marketing & Logistics which is a three word phrase. In fact if you Google the Ivell Marketing & Logistics company name you will find 5 instances of them firing Kimberley Swann in the top 10. The sad thing for Ivell Marketing & Logistics is this is still a relative fresh news story so as it gets picked up on a larger number of blog, where some of these blogs will credit their sources with a link they are in some real trouble.
With this kind of negative media and blog exposure its very unlikely that Ivell Marketing & Logistics would ever be able to push all these negative blog posts out of the top 10 on the search engines. With two or three negative pages in the top 10 it is possible to push them to the bottom of the first page or off completely, but once posts of this nature start to build organic links then it no longer becomes possible. Bad PR stories unfortunately can be some of the best link bait.
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 5:05 pm
Just about anyone who has worked in a large office has seen the company they work for make rash decisions about how firing an employee will affect their company. Although it doesn’t happen very often sometimes these decisions have a way of just blowing up in the companies faces and creating a PR disaster. Today I read about Ivell Marketing & Logistics who recently fired someone because of the contents of her Facebook account.
Ivell Marketing & Logistics recently fired Kimberley Swann, 16 from their firm for posting on her facebook about her job being boring. Now right away any of you that do Social Media Optimization, or Reputation Management would think this is something to be handled with tact with perhaps a written warning or some other kind of reprimand. As we all know that one whiff of a news headline relating around Social Networking, Social Media, or Facebook will be picked up by the blogosphere which can create a PR nightmare for companies (especially marketing firms). And lets all be honest most office admins find their jobs boring, especially if your a 16 year old female teenager.
The real problem with getting blogger all fired up is the fact that a lot of a larger bloggers have very strong sites which tend to rank fairly easy especially for company names like Ivell Marketing & Logistics which is a three word phrase. In fact if you Google the Ivell Marketing & Logistics company name you will find 5 instances of them firing Kimberley Swann in the top 10. The sad thing for Ivell Marketing & Logistics is this is still a relative fresh news story so as it gets picked up on a larger number of blog, where some of these blogs will credit their sources with a link they are in some real trouble.
With this kind of negative media and blog exposure its very unlikely that Ivell Marketing & Logistics would ever be able to push all these negative blog posts out of the top 10 on the search engines. With two or three negative pages in the top 10 it is possible to push them to the bottom of the first page or off completely, but once posts of this nature start to build organic links then it no longer becomes possible. Bad PR stories unfortunately can be some of the best link bait.
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 5:05 pm
While there have been rumors that social media uber-site Digg.com has been up for sale, it’s only recently that they have hired Allan & Company (a small but reportedly influential private investment firm) to broker the deal. The price? They want a paltry $300 million dollars.
This of course leaves the question – who would want to buy it? Sure it’s cool enough but what value does it really hold? Well, not as much as some similar properties or they wouldn’t be looking for someone to broker a deal – they’d already have an offer and be looking for someone to make sure the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed (oh, and to negotiate the highest possible value of course).
When we think about it, who stands to gain the most out of the Digg userbase (it’s primary offering asset). It doesn’t hold a value or information anywhere near what Facebook has.
If I were a betting man (holdem anyone?) I’d put my money on a max offering of $150 million (if that) and the offer will likely come from an outsider as opposed to one of the usual suspects. Perhaps if anyone … ASK’s around they might find a bidder. And no, in reality I’m not saying Ask will be the buyer but that the purchase will likely be made by one of the suspects in that level of the game. Good – but not dominant.
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 5:41 pm
I was chatting with one of my clients today and he was noting how their site has been holding steady for a while in the top five and how he’s now nervous about updates. Funny, you look forward to them when you’re not in the top 20 and you fear them when you enter the top 5.
I realized that my client was not the exception to the rule. I get IMs, calls and emails every day from clients who monitor their sites for the slightest fluctuations. And then I recalled that when I launch my browser in the morning it launches with 4 tabs, 2 with different Google datacenters, one with Yahoo! and one with MSN – all launched with our primary phrase in the search box. OK, maybe, just maybe, I/we have a problem.
I decides to let me fingers do the walking and clicked my way over to helpguide.org’s list of signs and symptoms of addiction. Here’s what they had to say about it (their references are to drugs but we can all make the comparison):
- Inability to relax or have fun without being high … um … in the rankings.
Do you relax when there’s an update going on and you’re not sure how your site is faring.
- Angry outbursts, mood swings, irritability, manic behavior, or overall attitude change.
How did you behave the last time your site dropped in the rankings, even temporarily?
- Talking incoherently or making inappropriate remarks.
Normally towards a monitor.
- Deterioration of physical appearance and grooming.
No comments needed on this one.
- Wearing sunglasses and/or long sleeve shirts frequently or at inappropriate times.
Too pale from dark offices to not wear sunglasses and long sleeves outside – even in the harsh moonlight.
- No longer spending time with friends who don’t optimize sites and/or associating with known users.
Social life? That’s what we do on Facebook when we’re having downtime right?
- Engaging in secretive or suspicious behaviors, such as making frequent trips to the back room, basement, or Starbucks where Internet connectivity use would be undisturbed.
Excuse me, I just have to check on something quickly (… 2 hours later …)
- Talking about optimization all the time and pressuring others to do it too.
It’s a great way to make money from home! And you can signup for the affiliate programs in my downline !!!
- Expressing feelings of exhaustion, depression, and hopelessness.
This doesn’t apply if your site is in the top 10.
- Checking your rankings first thing in the morning.
If you need to check your rankings more than you need a coffee in the morning – you have a problem.
So it was this that made me really realize it … I have a problem and chances are, if you’re on this blog, you do too. Because most of us don’t have a life outside our computers and SEO conventions (go ahead, admit it) I’ve created a Facebook group for us. Of course we’ll all probably chat about SEO and … ummm …. OK maybe I’m making the problem worse but if you’re not afraid then you can visit http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5531324665 to join us on the dark side. 
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 7:02 pm
Today we’re going to discuss three things. Links, links and … well … links. Where to begin where to begin? I know, let’s start with links:
Links
Today Jim Hedger and I hosted our weekly radio show on Webmaster Radio. We covered a variety of topics from Google surpassing $700/share in trading to the battle over advertising and Google’s upcoming issues with Facebook (i.e. Facebook stands to provide a TON of relevant search and advertising opportunities and they’re going to provide them to Microsoft).
After a brief discussion on those topics we had on patent guru Bill Slawski for the remained of the show to discuss … you guessed it … links. Bill definitely knows more than your average bear about search engines and links and was happy to share his wisdom bringing up important points to consider such as the move AWAY from global search results to results tailored more to the individual user’s likes and dislikes as defined the the user, their search behavior and the behavior of similar users. If you’re interested in this subject (and if rankings are important to you – you should be) you can read more about it in an article I wrote on Personalization as well as on Bill’s blog where he lists the important patents related to personalization. To get a full feel for it you’ve just going to have to visit Webmaster Radio and download the podcast.
Links
And so let’s move on to topic #2. Links. The link counts are getting messed up at Google again (not that they’ve ever been particularly reliable. As Jim Hedger points out, whenever we see these sorts of fluctuations going on it usually means there’s something bigger about to happen.
I was already predicting an algorithm update later this week or over the weekend. Could this just be the tremors before the Earthquake. And please dear God let Google haven’t learned a valuable lesson from the Florida update of 2003. (and for those of you who were SEO’s at the time (white hat at least) you’ll shudder at the mere though)
Links
And lastly we’re look at links. Well, we won’t so much look at links as we will a rap about them. I’ve gotta say, this is a first for me.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC3UNewnA5g]
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 2:55 pm
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