Disclaimer: I’m an SEO by trade. I’ve been around the game since there was a game. That’s not said to toot my own horn, it’s said to prove a point. The point is that SEO is alive and well. While SEO continues to eat into the advertising budgets of every major corporation in the World, guys like Jason Calacanis still get off thinking that this industry is “bullshit”. And while he may not have the balls to use such language on his blog, I’m pretty sure I’ve done worse in my time.

Mahalo is nothing more to me than a failed business model that has been attempted before; Albeit by much more talented and accomplished individuals. Perhaps more importantly though — the model’s failure has come at much more encouraging and fruitful times for the search and tech sectors.

By now it’s obvious that I’m rubbed the wrong way by Calacanis’ claims, character and efforts with Mahalo. I trust that this and my previous blog posts invoke the same feelings on his end. With that said, I actually look up to Calacanis for what he has been able to accomplish in his career and personal life.

Still, Jason’s being extremely hypocritical here.

(more…)

I’m living under a rock large boulder or continental plate that shields me from anything newsworthy. It’s called parenthood. And sadly, I missed the much anticipated launch of Mahalo.

I’ll condense the story. Jason Calacanis, the same person who declared that SEO was bullshit, and later proven wrong, was given venture capital funding to start a search engine to compete with Google. He called it Mahalo. It features a crapload of Google AdSense.

Someone stop me if you’re smelling something called irony. Or bullshit.

What’s better? Jason Calacanis is actively looking for feedback on this ALPHA release of Mahalo. In case you can’t tell on his post, the use of the word ALPHA 32 consecutive times should really give you an indication of what you’re in for. More bullshit.

(more…)

I’ve been busy beyond belief the past few days, but yesterday’s news on Google’s Universal Search is something that really motivated me to finding time to post.

For years now, Google has made the search industry worse. Yesterday though, I got some good news when I heard that Google Universal Search was released.

At one point yesterday, I told myself that I had never before seen such a horrifying SERP. Then, I hit up Google for something else — and was proven wrong.

Kudos to those willing to sell their souls for the sake of monetizing and killing search.

(more…)

Shortly after testing the new format of the top two sponsored listings, Google is now playing around with their SERP layout.  I caught this first over on Gerhart’s blog — but major props are due to Lee Odden for grabbing a screenshot and blog post for us all to enjoy.

I’m not going to say the same things over again, so here are some keys to what Lee had to offer on the matter (emphasis mine)…

The example above shows a link to Google Products. However, other keyword queries generate links to other Google search products: Google News, Scholar, Blogs, Books, Video, etc. I am only able to create these results on Firefox using Google, not via MSIE or Opera browsers.

And, as Andrew offers…

…fact it pushes the Adwords ads in the right column down removing at least one ad from above the fold.  Would you be pleased if it was yours that got knocked out?

Great points by both bloggers.  Now, here’s my take.  First, the addition of a box like shown to push users to other Google search products is not a bad thing.  It is however a dicey situation given how poor these products can be.  If Google is testing a layout matter only — it’s all good.  If they’re planning to link to the other products as is… I’m less thrilled.

Next, I’m concerned about the real estate this box uses.  It could be closer to the top (therefore granting more space to AdWords ads) and it’s not helping to refine the search at all.

Bottom line — I’m pleased to see them testing something new — but this wouldn’t be a solid change to implement.

If it weren’t for Andrew Gerhart, I’d be scraping by as an HTML designer in a second rate firm just trying to get by. Instead, I’m managing the organic search efforts for more than 600 websites for a Fortune 500 (#272). More than six years ago and despite being an unpaid intern, Gerhart forced me to realize the power of SEO. (more…)