December 17th, 2007 by bentley007
Can anyone else spot the strangeness? Could it be?
Apparently, Microsoft is the most relevant result across all three search engines for the search term “search”. Who knew?
It’s strange to note, that while Google and Yahoo each suggest that MSN is the most appropriate destination to “search”, MSN returns it’s own property. Funny Stuff 
November 28th, 2007 by bentley007
Please note: the title of this article is meant purely in jest.
I was doing some shameless vanity searching this morning, and I came upon an interesting and intriguing discovery.
A search at Yahoo.co.uk for “geosign seo” turned up a listing from SEOmoz.org. Surely, there is nothing surprising about this. While I was SEO for the publishing division at Geosign, I arranged for Rand to come spend a couple days with our staff. We spent two remarkable days in workshops with the Wizard of Moz, who graciously allowed us to set the agenda for the sessions. Our attendees were derived mainly from the editorial, design, seo, and development teams. We essentially bombarded him with questions of every sort for two days. It was awesome! Rand blogged about it shortly thereafter, so it comes as no surprise that he would rank for a non-competitive longtail term like this.
At last check, SEOmoz.org was sitting at position #17. What was most interesting to me in this instance was not that SEOmoz was ranking for the term, but the actual page that was ranking. It wasn’t the blog post noted above; it was something else entirely. It appeared to be a log file of some sort!
http://www.seomoz.org/user_files/2007/WS_FTP.LOG
I fired off a quick email to Rand, and he seemed genuinely grateful for the “head’s up”.
A quick search for the filetype turned up the following:
From the site ranking #1:
“Neohapsis provides independent information risk and security consulting, forensic services, and product testing of unparalleled depth and quality. Our experts deliver specialized services in information risk management, application security, network and endpoint security, security product testing, and digital forensics.”
From their forum archives:
“WS_FTP is a popular & feature rich ftp client. It
makes upload/download as easy as drag & drop. But
mostly peoples using this forget that it creates a log
file with name ws_ftp.log. This file holds sensitive
data such as file source/destination and file name,
date/time of upload etc., People when use this to
upload files to their website, never know that along
with other files even ws_ftp.log file also gets
uploaded to the webserver, making it globally
accessible.
One can find thousands of ws_ftp.log files with a
quick google search as follows,
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=inurl%3Aws_ftp.log
now people might use extensive google search to find
files that have got copied to web server recently with
following query, which will show you what files
actually got copied in Auguts 2004, because its likely
that those files will still be in there in web server.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=2004.08+inurl%3Aws_ftp.log+&btnG=Search
An attacker has a look at cached google page (without
actually hitting the target & leaving traces at
webserver logs) and quickly finds out some vital
informations such as,
1. Exact location of file in web server (i.e.,
/usr/local/www/test/abc.htm instead of
www.web.dom/test/abc.htm).
2. It some times also gives user names(in case where
web master gives each user a directory to host their
websites), which later can be used with brute
force/dictonary attack to gain access to web server.
3. It makes it easy to find/download vulnerable
scripts or classes in a website, with again just a
google search, as given below. Which otherwise can be
found by viewing source of html file. Which can later
be use to attack the host.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=class+2004.08+inurl%3Aws_ftp.log+
Other than that it also (sometimes) gives internal
hostname/ip address of webserver. ”
The moral of the story: these files contain sensitive information about your site, your technology and possibly your business activites. Think about it.
A lesson learned: it looks like Yahoo is now ranking meaningless log files…at least for long tail queries. I can almost hear the spam engines revving up now.
It does make me wonder though…
Has Rand finally gone over to the dark side? Is this all part of an SEOmoz experiment in the dark arts of blackhat SEO? The truth is out there, my friends.
July 31st, 2007 by bentley007
Greetings, dear reader! Welcome back! It’s been a while, huh? I haven’t blogged in quite some time, but that’s not to say that there has been nothing going on. Quite the contrary; things have been completely mad and frantic as of late. In the past 12 weeks:
I quit my job and started a new gig.
I was threatened with a lawsuit by my former employer over an interview I gave to the local newspaper.
I launched a handful of new sites.
I completed the first draft of a kickass business plan.
I put together a small, informal network of local talent in new media.
I attended a couple sweet industry networking events.
I discovered the inherent power of the Facebook.
I was recently approached for an interview on search engine optimization and online reputation management by Red Canary Magazine, and considering I haven’t posted in a while I have decided to post my answers here. Jessica, I hope you don’t mind
1) How do search engines, such as Google work? (In your blog, you mentioned that most searches use a citation-based model. What does this mean exactly?)
The major search engines use (among other indicators of quality) a citation based model to help determine the relevance of a particular document to a specific query. On the web, these citations are known as links. The number, quality, authority and trustworthiness of your inbound link profile speaks volumes about the integrity and intent of your website. I am a big believer in truly organic link development. Think organic…think natural! Natural link growth patterns are critical for establishing the trust you need to rank. The competitiveness of your space will (to some degree) determine the link popularity you will need to outrank your competitors. If your site is about designer handbags, you want to score links from other topically related sites. Word to the wise…avoid reciprocal linking on a large scale and learn how to linkbait! One-way inbound links from trusted, authoritative sources are the gold standard of links. And regardless of the FUD that Matt Cutts perpetuates, don’t be afraid to buy links!
2) If I were to type my name, “Jessica Lam,” into a Google search, how can I improve and increase my search engine visibility, such that my profile would appear several times or at the top of the page?
To some degree, this depends on how common your name is. With only 10 spaces available on the first page of the search engine result pages (serps), it is only natural that the competition for common names is going to be high. I could rehash some posts from other industry friends, but I like to give credit where credit is due. Michael Gray, aka Graywolf, produced a brilliant series of articles last year about online reputation management. These are his tips for controlling the top 10. Todd Malicoat, aka Stuntdubl, just posted the other day about this very topic. Check out his Reputation Management Emancipation Proclamation for the straight goods!
3) What is the importance of increasing your search engine visibility?
LOL! This is a trick question, right? This really depends on your personal goals or those of your business. If you want the recognition you deserve for your brand name/company name/given name, then you have to engage with the market. Ever increasingly, consumers use search engines to research their purchases. If you want to flog your products or services on a scale of any significance, you need to optimize your website for search traffic. Owning the top position(s) for a competitive keyword can result in a massive financial windfall. If you operate an online business, this is mission critical for your future success. If you are into affiliate marketing, take some time to read and absorb this recent post from Sugarrae on surviving the affiliate revolution. Then read it again!
4) How do I minimize negative information written about me? This is especially important for professionals, when being screened by recruiters and employers.
Well, you can begin by trying to ensure that you or your company does not do anything to garner negative coverage online. Aside from that, see question #2. Furthermore, you can always hire somebody to perform some negative SEO for you. For some background, here’s a link to recent article on Forbes.
5) In a recent blog, you wrote that you can increase or gain exposure through “organic link development” and “social media optimization.” Can you elaborate on what these terms mean?
I would recommend spending some time on the Link Development Forum at WebmasterWorld.com to gain some understanding. Social media optimization, or social media marketing is another monster entirely. It is all about leveraging the strength of communities to further your internet marketing goals. Part of the challenge that old media companies face in modern times is that they no longer control the discourse of ideas. In the past, due to the concentration of the power of media in the hands of the few, interruption marketing was the defacto tactic. New media changed all of that. We are the media now. We control the debate. We pwn the community of ideas. On a more practical level, there are a number of sites out there that allow individuals to capitalize on the strength of communities and user generated content. My advice would be to spend some time exploring Digg, de.licio.us, Facebook, Reddit and other such sites. Engage with people. Share your ideas and insights. Build up the authority of your user profile with meaningful contributions to the community. Contribute your knowledge and experience to the collective marketplace, and it will pay off in spades for your marketing efforts. Remember…people like you and I are the cornerstones of the new media marketplace.
6) Are the search results listed at the top necessarily the most relevant ones? If not, why do most people assume so?
No…the top search results are not necessarily the most relevant. I wrote about this just a short while ago. I was doing some link dev research and I discovered that the site ranking #1 in Google for the term “global warming” was a front for an energy industry lobby group. What a joke! Google currently places far too much trust in the authority of a domain, and it is damaging their result set in a big way. Look at Wikipedia, as an example. It ranks across the board for almost any search query right now, based solely on the perceived authority of the domain. Wikipedia is hardly an authoritative source of information. It is founded upon user generated content, and users have inherent beliefs, biases and motives. I think relevance very much depends on the competitiveness of the industry. Marketers that are targeting big money terms are going to use tactics that are more aggressive than those in less-than-competitive industries, and their efforts inherently skew the relevance of the search results. I think that the intent and perspective of the user also plays a big role in trying to establish search relevance. What is meaningful for one user, is not necessarily meaningful to the next. My advice would be to drill down into the search results until you discover a source you can trust, and not to rely on Google’s algorithm to do your homework for you. You are the best judge of relevance.
7) How do you compete for search engine visibility against someone with the same name, if they’ve had a longer online presence than you have (i.e. they started their profile or their website before you)?
In the short term, I would suggest doing some pay-per-click advertising. Anyone with a website, a credit card, and a little bit of creativity can advertise on the search major engines. Google has Adwords, Yahoo has Sponsored Search, and MSN has Adcenter. Go set up an account at each, and create some ads for the terms you want visibility for. Aside from that, good old fashioned SEO will do the trick. SEO takes time to produce lasting results, whereas the effect of PPC is immediate. Use PPC to gain exposure in the short term, while you build links and write the unique content necessary to rank in the long term.
May 17th, 2007 by bentley007
Wow! Friends and dear readers, I am not sure where to begin. Have you ever had one of those moments where things just click? You know…when for a fleeting second…you are completely self-aware and feeling fully alive in the present moment? I have just come from a speaking engagement with John Wood, and I cannot recall (rather sadly) the last time I felt this inspired by the wondrous beauty of the one thing that is common to all of us; our humanity.
A few short years ago, John was a well-to-do senior executive with Microsoft. You’ve heard of them, right? In the midst of a bout of corporate burnout, John decided to venture off to Nepal in an effort to bring his life back into balance. What he discovered on his journey was nothing short of his purpose in life. Believe it!
On his travels, John came upon a small village. After befriending one of the locals, he was given a tour of the villiage which included a visit to the local schoolhouse. While there, he discovered a desolate barren room known as the library. The strangely surreal part was that there were no books in this library. In fact, they were locked away in a small safe. When the teacher arrived, they unlocked the safe to discover a couple dozen books…for over 400 students! These were books left behind by thoughtful tourists and, while possessing inherent value, were hardly appropriate or appealing to young children.
Upon his return to America, John realized that it was well within his reach to affect positive change in world. The image of the empty library back in Nepal had a profound impact on John and with the help of family and friends, he made it his personal mission to do what he could to help those in third world countries break the cycle of poverty and depair through literacy. It never ceases to amaze me how the thoughts and actions of one individual can affect the lives of so many in so many ways. Allow me to share a few statistics with you (courtesy of John’s website). Since it’s inception, Room to Read has:
While it may seem out of reach for many of us to do what John has done, I want to assure you that it is not. We can all play some role in making the world a better place. We can engineer reality, not only for ourselves, but for those less fortunate. It all begins with our thoughts. Thought IS Action. I, personally, am still searching for my one true mission in life. The event last night was just another reminder that great things are possible when people allow themselves to dream…when they let go of fear and uncertainty…and when they realize that they have the power to initiate change.
John’s initial goal was to deliver a few hundred books back to that small village in Nepal. A few short years later, he has raised millions of dollars, build countless schools, and established thousands of scholarships. He has given an entire generation of children the prospect of a bright and prosperous future; a future completely unknown to the generations before them. If you are interested in learning more about John’s work, or you would like to get involved, please visit www.roomtoread.org.
Thank you kindly to Tim Nye and Family for sponsoring this inspiring event.
May 15th, 2007 by bentley007
Note: I drafted this over a month ago, but I wasn’t sure that posting it would go over too well back at the office. I have since tendered my resignation at Geosign Corporation, so fuck it! Enjoy!
Allow me to begin by stating that the following is my own personal opinion and in no way reflects the views of my employer, Geosign Corporation.
Things have been moving ahead at breakneck speed over at Geosign. In the two years I have been with the company, we have grown from a small staff of 20 people into the internet publishing powerhouse we are today. In one of the biggest technology success stories in recent Canadian business history, Geosign recently announced the closure of a HUGE investment deal. American Capital Strategies Inc. has purchased a minority equity stake in Geosign, to the tune of 160 million dollars. As a consequence, Geosign has been the talk of journalists, bloggers, and businesspeople everywhere.
I have been monitoring the chatter in the press and in the blogosphere over the days surrounding the announcement, and overall it has been very positive. Tim Nye, our founding father, gave a very enlightening interview over at Frank Schilling’s blog, and the folks over at WebmasterWorld seemed very excited about the news. Our press release was picked up by CNN, and we had stories in two of Canada’s national newspapers; the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. We even got a mention on TechCrunch, one of the most widely-read tech blogs online today.
While reading the story in the Globe and Mail, however, I was taken aback by one peculiar statement. Apparently, Geosign has developed “software to optimize” our sites to rank high in the search engines. As the SEO Specialist for the Publishing division, I was completely blown away by this absurd and astounding claim. All this time, I have been optimizing our sites and doing organic link development (with the support of an amazing team of Link Ninja’s) and (according to the Globe and Mail) we have bit of software that performs these functions for us.
I want to go on the record as stating that, to my knowledge, Geosign does not engage in any shady, blackhat search engine optimization tactics to make our sites rank higher at the major search engines. Our primary focus is on providing exceptional user value and a positive web experience for our visitors, and this cannot possibly be accomplished by programatically optimizing our sites.
The implication made by the Globe and Mail is that we are search engine spammers, and that could not be any further from the truth. We take a very straight-forward, honest approach to promoting our sites in the search engines. We write great content, we structure our sites in a way that pleases the search engine spiders, and we do what we can to gain exposure for our sites through organic link development and social media optimization. Our approach to site promotion is a far cry from the programmatic approach taken by push-button spammers and their made-for-adsense web graffiti. Frankly, I am surprised that the story has not been corrected. Geosign should start giving some more thought to reputation management. Seriously.
April 15th, 2007 by bentley007
April 5th, 2007 by bentley007
Aiiiiight…I’ve been fucking around on Facebook for a few weeks. I’m pretty sure I *get it* now. I can say with complete confidence that there is something fookin amazing going on over there. It’s strange and creepy in a big-brother-is-your-friend kinda way, but I have the distinct feeling that Facebook is going to become the defacto social networking site of the very near future.
Inspired by the research endeavors of Sugarrae and Graywolf, I signed up a few weeks ago and before long, I was caught up in the midst of a highschool reunion. Ex-girlfriends, old drinking buddies, childhood friends, family members, even complete strangers started creeping out of the woodwork asking me to be their friend. I found myself visiting the profiles of friends and their friends and their friends. I would read the messages on their wall, check out their photos, interests, etc. There is something strangely stalkeresque about the Facebook. Incidently, witnessing the facebook virus take hold of so many people (myself included) in so little time was one of the most interesting things I have seen in some time.
Then I started to look at Facebook from a marketing perspective. The Facebook demographic is a marketers dream and like any other form of social media…it’s just a matter of time before people start searching for a way to game it. Then I learned about Flyers from a friend. To quote the Facebook: “Why spend time posting paper flyers around campus, when you can post a Flyer on Facebook? Facebook Flyers are a great way to advertise something to your school and other schools. Also, you can use Facebook Flyers to post announcements for your friends on their special days.”
The beautiful thing about flyers is that you can embed links in them. Current costs are pretty low, so there is literally no barrier to entry; 2500 impressions for $5USF. I’m planning to do some testing soon, and I will be sure to report back later. It would be nice if I wasn’t limited in my flyer posting to a specific school or campus. I would love to be able to post a flyer on the wall of…say…a group I am a member of…or to all my friends.
As I dug into Facebook, I learned a few interesting tidbits of information. My homeboy Rmay blogged about some of the issues surrounding information security and privacy not long ago. He makes some interesting observations and a number of other people have since raised similar concerns. Did you know that the Facebook has ownership of all the images you have uploaded?
Did you know that your profile, by default, is available to the general public? Did you know that the Facebook has released their development platform so web dev types can create cool new tools, features and mini-apps. Did you know that, unless you choose to opt out (click My Privacy), the Facebook is sharing your personal information with that same development community? Did you know that the Facebook is also a mobile app? Did you know that the Facebook has ties to the intelligence community?
I think I am seeing an information revolution in the works over at the Facebook. I think Yahoo will look back at 2007 and their failure to acquire the Facebook as one of the greatest missed opportunities of this decade. They were apparently in talks to purchase the Facebook for a very reasonable price and the deal fell through. Then the fools bought MyBlogLog for 10 million! What they failed to understand is that the Facebook is the next Wordpress. The Facebook is about to become, to social media, what Wordpress became, to blogs.
With this in mind, and having the MySpace experience to look back upon, how long will it be before some crafty marketer develops widgetized monetized blog bling for social media sites developed on the Facebook platform? How much longer will it be before the Facebook opens up it’s network to blog bling and widgets the way MySpace did? If you’re still reading this, you might be interested in the video posted below. It is an academic presentation made at the GooglePlex by a fellow named Fred Stutzman, entitled “Our Lives, Our Facebook”. Very interesting stuff, indeed!
March 29th, 2007 by bentley007
Posting has been light lately, but I wanted to take a few minutes to introduce you to a sweet new site I discovered last week. Unless you’ve been on a serious bender for the last year or so, you must have heard all the buzz on the interweb about social media and the next generation internet. Web 2.0 became the 900lb gorilla of buzzwords, and VC firms broke out their chequebooks for the first time since the dot com crash of the late 90’s.
If you’re not familiar with any of these sites (honestly, where have you been?), be sure to check out the Web 2.0 Awards over at SEOMoz. More than likely, you are familiar with sites like Facebook and YouTube. While there are differing opinions on the distinguishing characteristics of Web 2.0 sites, they all invariably include some form of online collaboration and sharing. Web 2.0 is the transformation of the internet from network into platform, in conjuction with the rebirth of old media as new media. My favourite element of Web 2.0 has got to be the sexy lexicon of technobabble buzzwords; long tail, mash-up, podcast, folksonomy,tagging, taxonomy, ajax, soap, clouds, bookmarks, diggs, ect, ect, ect.
Web 2.0 “tipped” when Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. purchased MySpace in July of 2005. You have to check out the Alexa stats for MySpace, and be sure to sort by three years. That spike is a beautiful thing, indeed! Even though *everyone* is fleeing MySpace for Facebook, it is still in the enviable position of being one of the highest traffiked sites online today. On the topic of Facebook, I have a few observations to post sometime soon; be sure to check it out bitches. When News Corp. moved on MySpace, a lot of people (especially in the investment community) started to pay attention.
Every other start-up in the Web 2.0/Social Media space benefitted directly from the newfound investor confidence in new media. Was this the beginning of dot com boom 2.0? Without a doubt! Then along came came a cool video site called YouTube. Has anyone out there ever heard about it? Not long ago, Google bought them for something like 1.6 Billion dollars! Anyways…I didn’t intend for this to become a brief history of Web 2.0.
The site I was meaning to write about a paragraph ago is called Virb. When I discovered it one of my favourite bands, Bloc Party, was profiiled on the homepage. I have to admit, I was sold right away. It’s like MySpace for hipsters! If you’re a music fan, you should really check it out. It’s a little bit Last.fm, a little bit MySpace, and a whole lotta Web 2.0 sexiness. They even let you rename your profile URL If any of you heed my advice and decide check it out, let me know what you think in the comments below. Virb is the Werd!
March 10th, 2007 by bentley007
Have you guys noticed anything strange about Gmail lately? Is it just me, or am I seeing the early signs of Google Personalization? People have been speculating and ranting about this for a little while now, but I think I’m starting to see it in action. Let’s do a little test. Go over to Wikipedia, and pick ten random topics. Feed them into the search bar, then copy-and-paste each of the articles into notepad or whatever. Then log into one of your email accounts, and send each of those articles (individually) to yourself at Gmail. And be sure to use the name of the article (or a related keyword or phrase) in your subject line.
Now, when you check your gmail take note of the adverts in the right column. They will be subtly tailored to the content of the message, and I have to admit that it’s really starting to creep me out. The ad targetting is slightly off-base at times, but they are generally on point. What is really freaking me out is that when the ads are off-topic, they are still representative of my interests (ie. the general subject matter of my historical messages). This is precisely why I think that personalization has just been turned on. Is anybody else seeing this, or am I just slightly paranoid?
Not only is this sort of personalized targetting being applied to the advertisements contained in Gmail, it is also being applied to the standard search engine result pages. All signs are suggesting that Google is going to scale this out very soon. They are currently logging all of your user data with that nifty little toolbar, and now they have decided to supplement that data by implementing something called “search history“. What this means is that your search results will be tailored to your historical search profile. Over time, it will almost be like we are all using a different internet. What are the implications for the search marketing industry?
Matt Cutts, Google’s Chief Spam Hunter, claims that it will be the end of blackhat SEO. In a recent interview, he also refers to the new SEO (linkbaiting, social media optimization, etc) as a highly effective whitehat strategy for long term Google search marketing, and suggests that adopting the long tail theory will help to insulate sites from the effects of effects of personalization. I think most of us are already aware of this, but one thing that really caught my interest was the idea of optimizing for user experience. This poses an interesting dilemma for search merketers, in that a positive user experience is rooted in the intent of the user. I suppose we are all going to have to learn a lot more about remote viewing…
Honestly, I don’t know what to make of all the recent talk about Google Personalization. Essentially, Google will be tailoring their tools and services to your ultrasecret user profile housed deep in the depths of the GooglePlex. Larry Page recently claimed that they are not far off from implementing true artificial intelligence. Now, I don’t particularly believe him…but it does make me wonder. I have always believed that the highest of high technology in the public realm is roughly twenty old. I would be willing to bet the farm that certain governments (and by extension, their friends like Google) are in possession of technology that we can only imagine; literally the stuff of science fiction. Hopefully, there will still be some blackhats around when the army of GoogleBots come. Skynet, anyone?
March 4th, 2007 by bentley007
Working as an in-house SEO has it’s pro and cons. While it is great to dream stuff up and pass it off to IT or Development for creation and implementation, I often feel that I am missing out on learning how to do things myself. Until recently, my day-to-day SEO tasks were limited to on-page optimization, organic link development, and performing site audits. While working on any specific site, I would produce recommendation reports and pass them off to another department for implementation. So when it comes to performing certain technical tasks, I have limited practical experience.
That was my primary motivation for launching this blog; to force myself to learn how to do new and exciting things outside of my comfort zone. I also have certain reservations about doing anything beyond the basic whitehat stuff while working on somebody else’s sites. Now I have the opportunity to experiment with various shades of grey, without the fear of compromising or tainting sites belonging to somebody else. This is also my first foray into technical webmastery and working on the Wordpress CMS. I must say, I absolutely love working with Wordpress!
I was experimenting with a number of plug-ins before I pushed this site live, and I came across a dirty little plug-in called WP-Autoblog. Once it has been installed, it gives the user the ability to enter a list of RSS feed addresses. It will then go out and fetch all of the posts in the feed, republish them to your blog, and trackback each post in the process. I know, I know…it’s absolutely filthy. But it’s kinda cool, too. Obviously, I would never knowingly appropriate other people’s content. I know how challenging it can be to come up with quality, unique content on a regular basis. I also know how frustrating it can be to have somebody come along and dupe it.
But, my mind works in shady ways at times and I can see this as being very useful for doing trackback spam. So here’s what I have in mind… Like I said, this plug-in actually fetches and posts automatically once the feed address has been input. I would like to use this to post to a specific category that is not accessible to users or the bots. I would then like to be able to generate 301’s on the fly, based on the postings made with this plug-in. It should work something like this - fetch feed and post to /spam/, 301 all requests for /spam/ to $ page. Anyone out there willing to hack this plug-in for me? If I use .htaccess for my redirects, how do I get it to automatically update with each new post? Can I use wildcards? Hopefully, the .htaccess pimp can help! This is probably very simple to do, but I could use some direction. Any takers?
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LifeInSearch.com
The daily musings and meanderings of another dodgy search marketer.
