SEO Blog

I was very impressed when Blake Rhodes from IceRocket responded to my original (and subsequent) post about IcreRocket and Blogscour on this blog. It was a short personal note; he had read the post, mentioned something specific about it, commented, but in spirit and in fact, he simply said “thanks.”

Thanks.

I wondered briefly how many other people had similar experiences. Based on what I read today at Rick Segal’s blog, I think a lot of people have enjoyed similar communications.

I realized today that his first note was more than I have received from all other senior search engine representatives in 5 years in response to any article, commentary, or blog posting that I have made. (!)

I get lots of feedback on my articles, see them reprinted all over the place. That’s rewarding. I’ve been getting lots of email from people who have visited this blog. I don’t expect to hear from anyone, but I do, and I really appreciate it. But until today, I never really even thought much about the fact that I speak with search engine representatives fairly frequently, but can’t recall ever having one of them mention any particular article. It just never mattered to me. I don’t write for them.

So I’ve been watching the Kai-Fu Lee affair with interest for that last week. I’ve been trying to reconcile it with Google’s mantra of “Do No Evil” and the non-MS supporters view of Microsoft as “the evil empire.”

If Microsoft’s allegations are true - can Google still unequivocally use “Do No Evil” is their mantra? Is it evil for Microsoft to demand Mr. Lee to honor his agreement?

No.

I have not read Mr. Lee’s Non-Compete Agreement, however, I’m sure that Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez has. Obviously, he has found Microsoft’s position to have enough merit to warrant granting a temporary restraining order to prevent Mr. Lee from violating his noncompete agreement; Otherwise he would not have taken this step.

I’m concerned with Google’s request to have a different court declare the noncompete provisions of Mr. Lee invalid. Mr. Lee is an intelligent man. He knowingly entered into an agreement with his employer. He asked that his employer honor their share of the agreement, and nowhere have I seen comments to indicate that Microsoft did otherwise.

Is it evil if Google knowingly encouraged Mr. Lee to break his agreement?

There’s an interesting note over at Hotel Chatter, whcih picks up on something I missed.

It appears that there are a couple of beta sites which are using Navteq Maps and the corresponding Google - Keyhole satellite imagery to help you locate a hotel. One is at Hotels X which is owned by 3Genius Corp, and the other that I looked at was ReserveMy.com

The sites also have made use of the pushin popup, which means you can click on any of the hotel markers, and get the essential information; price, hotel class, guest rating, and address, along with a link to more information.

Both sites are beta still, so it would be unfair to consider theri designs, layouts, or speed. However, I thought that the use of the Navteq maps with the Google imagery was a very good idea.

Sites like Expedia and Travelocity use maps. They have for a long time. But the addition of the satellite imagery is a nice feature. I wonder how quickly they will react?

I wrote a blog entry a couple of weeks ago, when we just launched this blog. It was titled, tongue firmly in cheek, “Hilton’s Perverted Bedding Initiative”, which someone over at HotelMarketing.com read, and wrote a nice comment on. Must have been a slow day that my opinion made it to the head of a newsletter, but thanks!

Wow, what a traffic spike it generated! I got some random feedback, but surprisingly, I also got some interesting and complimentary emails from a few Hilton employees. Almost every one of them seemed to enjoy the commentary, and wished that their bosses would allow them more marketing freedom - They indicated that the online furor was making them afraid of the elephant in the corner, without realizing that they really are the elephant in the corner!