Kate Morris

I have a party trick … searching. I tell people that I can find almost anyone on the internet with very little information. They tell me no way, and I prove it by googling things like their email address and phone number, common pieces of information. They all get amazed.

I have always know that I am good at search, that’s one of the reasons I do what I do. I get search engines and love to try to figure out what people are thinking and needing. My mom and even coworkers will come to me and ask me to search for things. To teach them how to search. But even they know what Google is.

A recent study just said that 24% of the population fail at doing a Google Search. Yes — a quarter of the population. Some say they want to use Google because that is the term for search engine today. Think Kleenex. In fact they just type in the search to their address bar and get MSN or Yahoo.

This doesn’t surprise me because of the Google brand name issue, and the fact that most people don’t know how to change the settings on their browsers. I sometimes forget that I am happy in my little world and assume that everyone else is like me. Then I reads something like this and get ripped back into the real world. We have a far way to go before search engines can be used fully. It’s no one’s fault, its a common learning curve. We’ll get there.

Until that day I will help people find stuff, be the travel agent, and fix the computer every once in a while. Small price to pay for education and a world of better information.

I’ve got to sound off about this. It’s minorly related to SEM, but it needs to be said. The economy is in a collapse, we all know it. But those of us who work for a living aren’t really feeling it. I just took a job as an in-house SEO. The people I market to are in financial trouble and we provide help. This is not affecting me or the SEO world from what I can tell.

For the top executives at Bear Stearns, they feel it. Their “life savings” are now gone to a measly $28 million. Yes, that’s a far cry from the billions they used to have in stock of the company, but PEOPLE! Their bankers … I mean the REAL workers who have ONE house, maybe ONE car … if that … I doubt are hurting. They are still getting their paycheck.

This is what we get for relying on a system to make us money where we don’t do anything. Investing requires no work, no thought. The gamble was always there. And now these executives are outraged that they have to sell their weekend homes?? I don’t have a HOME! I rent! Their second car??? I am debating about getting a bike because I can’t afford the gas on my car. Given, its a nicer car (my mustang, not an Audi or anything), but still.

I am sorry. I feel no sympathy for these people. When Enron crashed I felt a little bad for the smaller people. But second homes and penthouses mean little to me. Live in one house, drive one car. You live in NYC, you don’t even NEED a car for crying out loud.

We got a call from AOL marketing services yesterday. Bit of a surprise to me, but then I thought about how many times I’ve heard AOL’s name in the past week and was surprised no longer. From new executives to the acquisition of Bebo, their like 105th acquisition in the past year (I exaggerate), I can see they are on the move.

Then thinking about how Time Warner is planning to spin them off got me thinking. Ask just made a dumb move focusing just on women (I am one and all, but really??), Yahoo is in trouble, and AOL is going psycho.

Humor me for a second. How interesting would this situation be? Ask and AOL merge, which is highly probable according to other industry experts (and AOL’s 106th acquisition), forming the now AOL. I propose another name or something — but with AOL’s base, Ask’s technology, Quigo/Ads.com and AIM/Bebo, they have something there.

Take that company and put that up against the top 3. Now remember that Yahoo is in danger of being bought out. I don’t want that to be Microsoft, so why not merge the new AOL/ASK and Yahoo? Talk about a powerhouse! Ideas, technology, subscribers galore! That is the only way I can see anyone giving Google a run for their money.

Everyone knows that my hero is Matt Cutts. I don’t hide that fact. But I came across something really funny today … to me at least.

I started with a new auto refinance company (It’s my blog, I can link to who I want), and presented my 24 Hour Strategic Plan to them yesterday. That’s my plan I came up with in 24 hours. Well, in that plan I mentioned that in marketing material (website copy and ad copy on AdWords) does best with numbers in it. People love numbers, and in resumes they are solid gold.

Well this Wired Q&A with Matt posted today asks the question: Does SEO (search-engine optimization) work? Well … Duh. But his answer was priceless:

It does to some degree. Think of it this way: When you put a resume forward, you want it to be as clean as possible. If the resume is sloppy, you’re not going to get interviewed for the job. SEO is sort of like tweaking your resume . . . It’s helpful if you just think about which words people would use to search for your content. If you’re writing something about Mount Everest, for example, people are probably going to look for ‘How high is Mount Everest?’ . . . If done responsibly, [SEO] can be a great thing.

Love it!!!

I just read a story about how Google is heading downwards in financial terms. Of course this has little impact on their status as the search engine leader, but its interesting to read today. One reason really … Ask.com

The morons (sorry, its true) at Ask.com have decided to go back to the 1996 way of doing things and stop playing with the big boys.

Partner this with Yahoo’s downturn … and all of a sudden I am scared. Seriously. I really don’t like MSN. I don’t like AdCenter, and I don’t need them taking Yahoo and the second position. I want innovation. I want the ideas at ask!

So I’m with Lisa … today sucks for the search world. I finally get happy about the state of the US, and then my search world goes to hell. *sigh* I want all parts of my life out of hell at least once.

I’ve changed jobs, and now working for a company who knows the value of search engine marketing. They are moving from having an agency to bringing SEM in house. As I review what has been done in the past few months, I see a new term … a new term to me. Rented Link

So I’ve been doing some research there. All I can come up with is that a rented link is just a paid link in the short term. Remember the beginning of paid links? You bought it for a year, whatever? It was still a paid link. Well these rented links are paid for monthly, and when you stop paying the link is removed.

How is this any different? It’s just like in managerial accounting. All costs are variable in the long run. They can be variable or fixed for the short term, but they all end up being the same kind of cost.

A paid link is a paid link is a paid link. If you pay for it, it’s still a paid link. I think agencies are using this as a way of dealing with client fears until they can come up with a better way of dealing with the hole they’ve dug.