Marketing the Mom and Pop Shop Way
Image by amburn.everett via Flickr
by Frank Reed
I have been on a big kick lately to examine business-related content (both client and non-client) with a different set of lenses. I have been as guilty as the next guy in trying to uncover or even create some great mystery around content creation. The more I search, though, the more I find that there is a great way for companies of all sizes to market themselves through their content.
How you ask? Well, I don't care if you are IBM or Bubba's Country Store—you must remember that your audiences are just people. People like you and me. No matter what kind of façade they put up, they still put their pants on one leg at a time. They still have emotions and they just want to be treated fairly.
I know there are exceptions to this rule, but I contend that the vast majority of people in this world like things to be as simple, easy and straightforward as possible. Especially as the world gets louder and more aggressive, people seek an honest voice of reason to cut through the clutter and to help them make a good decision.
I'll give you an example. About 8 years ago, I was introduced to a man who cut my hair until he passed away a year and a half ago. He was just a nice guy who cared about me and did good work. Well, his daughter also worked in his shop, but I never had her cut my hair /> [...]
Fri Jul 16, 2010 05:15 am
Opera Brings "The World's Fastest Browser" to the Mac
After a number of beta releases over the course of the last few months, Opera just released the first stable version of its Opera 10.52 browser for the Mac. This is the first production version of Opera for the Mac that features the company's new Carakan JavaScript engine and Vega graphics library. Opera 10.52 also supports multi-touch gestures on modern Apple laptops and Growl notifications.
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The company claims that this new version is the "world's fastest browser." In our somewhat unscientific tests (using the SunSpider be/> [...]
Tue Apr 27, 2010 09:40 am
Google Delves Into 45° Imagery
Satellite views of a town are often neat - until you realize it's hard to recognize places by their rooftops. So Google seems to have made a wise (and possibly Microsoft-inspired) update to Google Maps by releasing what it simply calls "45° imagery."
45° imagery is quite similar to what Microsoft/Bing Maps has termed a "Bird's Eye" view. Or, in fairness to Google, it's just what you get when Street View and a top-down view are sort of averaged out.
Anyway, a post on the LatLong Blog explained, "This type of imagery allows you to explore the sides of buildings and other locations -- you can even rotate around a particular point of interest using the compass ring to view it from four different perspectives."
As for how the feature works, "To see the new imagery, simply zoom into an area while in Satellite mode. Where we have 45° imagery available, the imagery will switch from an overhead to 45° angle as you zoom all the way in. You can then pan smoothly across the map to get a richer view of the area."
Just note that 45° imagery isn't available everywhere (or even close to it) at the moment. Google thought it better to release the feature now and expand its coverage in the months ahead.
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Sat Jul 10, 2010 13:11 pm
Webmasters Cry Mayday for Google Rankings Again
A lot of people had something to say about Google's Mayday algorithm update from the beginning of May. A lot of people felt that it was costing them rankings and revenue.
Google's Matt Cutts talked more about Mayday at SMX Advanced a couple weeks ago. He said that it was designed to try and spot signals of quality on pages and sites that would be good for users, and that auto-generated pages and content farms tend to get hit the most by Mayday.
