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Matt Cutts - Spam Fighter, Zombie and the MC?

By Li Evans

Matt Cutts is Everywhere
Matt is the Spam Prevention Guru over at Google, he's even got groupies who have been dubbed "Cuttlets."  Matt's also a fan of Halloween, last year he went as the character Inigo Montoya (middle guy in picture) from the movie The Princess Bride.

This year Matt's taken his Halloween fun and added a little "Search Engine" flavor to his costume.  Take a look at Matt's rather good impression of the "Jeeves Zombie".  Who does your makeup Matt!? :)

Anyway.... I digress, just a little, there is another reason for this humorous post about Matt.  You see, everywhere I searched today  there was Matt.  I was image searching today.  Crusing pictures in relation to certain terms combined with SEO or Search.... inevitably Matt turned up somewhere in the results, not just a few, but everywhere! (BTW, Cartoon Barry came up too) This was happening so often I was just waiting for Matt to appear before me and ask my if my results were "spammy".

Then I found out what Matt does in his free time.

No, he doesn't sword fight.  No, he doesn't go to werewolf vs. unicorn matches.  No, he doesn't have coffee with this dude who claims to be his supposid evil twin.  Alright, I know you are all waiting.... Matt is really "MC Matt Cutts"!  Really I don't know what's more funny, the page that hosts "In Da Plex" or the song itself, I just know that someone must've known I needed a good laugh while doing all that research today and graced me with the MC Matt Cutts link.

I also stumbled across this cartoon version of Matt, but it's from a German Blog.  I can understand very little German, so I don't know what they are saying about him there.  Could he be a beer meister?  Maybe he looks as good in lederhosen as Danny Sullivan?  I really don't know.... and after searching so much in image search today for a project I'm putting together, I'm afraid to search anymore!  :)

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Instead of Google Bombing - Take Seth's Advice

By Li Evans

I read a wonderful post by Seth Godin this morning that just kept resonating throughout my day today.  Around this time of year I try to avoid watching TV, and I'm ever so thankful that my VOIP number doesn't get published.  I vote, I make my own decision, but I do value those opinions of my friends and to some degree use that to help me sift through the garbage that is volleyed at myself and all Americans until November 8th.

Those political bloggers that want to Google Bomb candidates should read Seth's post, and perhaps learn something from it.

Happy Halloween - Search Engine Doodles!

By Li Evans

Happy Halloween!  Next to Christmas, this is my favorite holiday.  I love costumes and this past weekend I saw the coolest Witch Doctor costume, I've even got a picture I'll post of it.

Speaking of costumes, the search engines are in full swing with the holiday and Nathan Weinberg over at the Inside Google blog has a round up of all the doodles.  The only thing I noticed though is that Google isn't showing the Halloween doodle on the personalized pages - what's up with that Matt?

And now, I will have that Sha-na-na "Witch Doctor" Song in my head for the remainder of the day..... Ooh-ee-ooh-ah-ah, ting-tang-walla-walla-bing-bang....

Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Liberty Media #277

By Li Evans

Up next in my corporate blogging review project was Liberty Media Corporation.  Liberty Media is a holding company that owns interests in a broad range of electronic retailing, media, communications and entertainment businesses.  They use to trade under the stock symbol (L), however in the past year they've made some moves to help better for better valuation of the company.  Within the last year they've created "tracking stocks" that trade under the symbols: LINTA, LINTB, LCAPA, LCAPB.

Liberty Media owns by entirety, or in some percentage a portion of some very familiar companies.  Under it's Liberty Media Interactive it lumps QVC*, InterActiveCorp (IAC), Expedia and Provide Commerce among others.  Under Liberty Media Capital is lumps DirecTV, Starz, Encore and News Corporation.

No Corporate Blogs
Once again, as with my Target review, the search for a corporate blog was a fruitless one.  Plenty of people blog about Liberty Media or its subsidiaries like QVC, Expedia and Starz, but there is not an official corporate/company blog in relation to the holding company.

The only thing remotely related to a corporate blog in Liberty Media's "stable" is through it's 22% ownership of InterActiveCorp (IAC), in which Ask.com and Bloglines.com have actual active blogs which they communicate with to their audience.  John Caddell at the Shop Talk blog, did the full review of InterActiveCorp (IAC) #313 for the Fortune 500 Blog Project.

I searched for a blog written by John Malone, Chairman of Liberty Media or by Gregory B. Maffei - President & Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Media.  Again, no blogs written by them, but plenty written about them - especially John Malone.  Mr. Malone's been active in the financial sectors, especially when it comes to the investment in News Corp.

Liberty Media, its subsidiaries or its Chairman or CEO would benefit from a blog.  Especially since a lot of the information out on the Internet is not of the flattering nature.  With a blog, Liberty Media could actually show how its using "Interactive Technologies" to promote it's "Interactive Unit" (LINTA).

Like any kind of holding company, interest in the company usually has definitive peaks and valleys.  When quarterly financial statements are due or if members of its board or the company itself is involved in any type of acquisition talks, it sparks the blogosphere around Liberty Media.  The chart is representative of this nature.  If Liberty Media had some sort of blog, it could put a much more positive light on why their company takes the direction it does.

* Disclosure:  I am a former employee of QVC, Inc.

NY Times Behind on the Google Bomb

By Li Evans

ValleyWag has a little blurb about NY Time's piece on the political "Google bombing" and how they are way behind and not even crediting the sources who first reported about this.

Jason Miller over at Web Pro News was first to bring this political tactic to light with his "Dems to Set Off Election Google Bomb" piece.  A few days later I found & blogged about a splash on MSNBC.com on "Google Bombing" that even made the front page of the news website.

Reading the NY Times article gave me a few chuckles, as the writer obviously doesn't really understand the search industry.  This quote in particular made me shake my head, it reads as if Mr. Bowers is coining the phrase "search engine optimization."

"But Mr. Bowers suggested that he was acting with complete transparency and said he hoped political campaigns would take up the tactic, which he called “search engine optimization,” as a standard part of their arsenal."

Why didn't the political desk editor talk to the technology desk editor at the NY Times?  Maybe they wouldn't look so "behind the times" if they had.

Related:  Google Bombing Makes the Front Page of MSNBC

Yahoo! & AOL Speculation Begins with Fortune

By Li Evans

Fortune magazine started off the speculation this weekend about a possible acquisition of AOL by Yahoo!  Siting several sources, Fortune is writing that Yahoo! has approached Time Warner about purchasing it's beleaguered internet arm, American OnLine (AOL).  What's probably the most interesting thing about the article is what it views Yahoo!'s next likeliest moves will be - including a possible sale to Microsoft or merging with E-bay.

Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Target

By Li Evans

My first choice for the Fortune 500 Blog Project was Target.  I have a bit of interest in Target, as I've blogged about them before (in regards to the Target Usability Lawsuit), so this allowed me to dig even deeper into how Target possibly engages its customers or shareholders.  Target is a publicly traded company on the stock market with the symbol TGT.

No Target Corporate Blog
I searched high and low and could not find any official corporate/company blog run by or sanctioned by Target.  I searched all around Target.com and Targetcorp.com and came away with nothing in the direction of any sort of blog.  I then did a search on Technorati in both their blog directory as well as extensive searches throughout blogs.  A lot of people blog about what they buy at Target - but nothing from Target themselves.

I also went and did a search on Target's CEO Robert "Bob" Ulrich, no blog, but two blog mentions came up:

• Why Collaboration Matters
• Top CEO, Top Business Leaders Top ANA Members

I also did a search on Target's President, Gregg Steinhafel.  Found a lot of blogs reporting about the letter he wrote to the Movie Association in regards to the deal Apple, Inc. struck for iTunes downloads, and that was pretty much the extent of my findings there.

I took my search over to both Google and Yahoo (both blog and regular searches), the closet thing I came to a blog run by any sort of relation to Target was a blog listing for the Target Racing Team, however, the link was dead, but you can view a cached version of it.  I did find another interesting item to note, there is a union blog aimed at Target employees.  Target Union is run by United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 789, not the Target corporation.  That led me to a post on whether or not Target should have a blog written last year by the Strategic Public Relations blog.

Other Notes on Target
To wrap up my research on Target a few things to note.  There is an extensive Wikipedia entry for  the Target Corporation, which was last modified 10/27/06.  Another article that seemed to come up rather frequently was one from Fast Company, that pointed out how Target sort of "stuck it to Walmart", although not the main point of the article - its what a reader will remember. Lastly, there could be signs that Target is stepping into the realm of blogging - they have set up RSS Feeds for their Media/News section (image to right).

Fortune 500 Blog Project

By Li Evans

I recently volunteered for the Fortune 500 Business Blog Project run by Easton Elseworth of Business Blogwire.  I've been a reader of his blog for a while now and when I saw this project come up I sent the email off and offered my hand.  I'm pretty excited about this as I picked companies I've got some interest or background into.

The posts will be intermingled with the normal search marketing stuff, so I hope to give you readers a peak into who's blogging in the corporate world and who isn't, what's good and what isn't.  You can also read other reviews by the other researchers by subscribing to the "f500bp" tag in Technorati.

How To Piss Off Your Fan Base

By Li Evans

Have loyal fans?  Die-hard, loyal?  Want to piss them off?  Ask Universal Studios/Universal Pictures how to do it right.

I found this tidbit on Slashdot this morning and I just couldn't stop shaking my head.  I wonder what corporate genius thought this one up?  Who is responsible at Universal Pictures or Universal Studios to make sure that the Marketing Departments and Legal Departments are on the same page?  Who didn't get the memo at Universal Studios that you just don't go after the "Fan Boys" after you've encouraged them to promote your movie?  These people have more time on their hands to undo all the positive things they did to promote your movie, and look out - they are fighting back.

Being a Joss Whedon fan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer days (yes I'm also one of "those"), this story has particularly  piqued my interest.  The movie Serenity based on the FireFly television series featuring Nathan Fillion, had lackluster performance at the box office.  However, much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it has a huge cult following.  If Universal doesn't know it, they soon will - these fans mostly live on the Internet and a LOT of them blog.

Prior to the release of the DVD, Universal Studios took the step of engaging the FireFly cult audience.  Affinitive was the company hired to tap and engage this audience, from which they created a community called "Browncoats".  Even Joss Whedon called it "Free Advertising" and had a favorite Fan Art Piece.  The results of tapping these fans ended up being nothing short of phenomenal, the campaigns were even featured in articles on the San Francisco Chronicle and Media Life Magazine.  Other than payment to Affinitive, this cost Universal NOTHING in advertising, the fan base didn't charge a dime to write or create their FanArt.

With the news hitting Slashdot and now starting to take root on other blogs, it is not going to be long before a lot of loyal fans turn into loyal enemies.  Hopefully someone at Universal or Affinitive will do something to quell the surge of bad Word of Mouth Marketing that's about to come their way.  Hopefully Affinitive can explain to their client that Viral Marketing is a two-way street.

Others blogging/talking about this:

• Slice of SciFi
• Cincom Smalltalk
• Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit
• Sun Comprehending Glass
• Prospero Forums
• Against Monopoly
• Blacknell.net

There's even two Diggs on this:

• Universal Goes After FireFly/Serenity Fans
• Can't Stop the Signal:  Universal shuts down Browncoats

You Can Ask on Google, But Not Google On Ask

By Li Evans

Yes, a bit confusing ... all this Googling, Asking, & Yahooing, a Search Marketer can get confused!  Imagine then the average "Joe" who doesn't even realize a search engine is a search engine - they think it's a "white box on a page were I type in and 'Get Lucky'!"  (True quote from a friend of mine - I kid you not)

I had a bit of a chuckle this morning reading Ask's blog post, taking a slight humorous jab at Google's blog post which they give the "proper" way to use the term "Google".  Update - Jeremy Zawodny over at Yahoo! is also letting us know we are "welcome to google on Yahoo!".  Over the last few weeks the old "Googling" meaning has reared its head as an issue again, when news of Googles "Legal Letters" came from a Washington Post journalist among others letting readers know they were "chastised" by Google for improperly using their company name.  The tongues waggled as if this was somthing new, but Danny Sullivan pointed out this usually resurfaces every three years.

I can understand Google's concerns, and sending out letters and writing blog posts will educate the "professionals," I guess that they are hoping for the trickle down effect.  Good Luck!  Yesterday I was in line at the WaWa (convience store like 7-11) waiting to pay for my gas and I heard this woman say to this man "Why don't you 'Google' it,  ya know look it up on those search places on the web, like that Yahoo or Google place.  I saw a commercial about it."

It made me think immediately about this whole bit about the Google letters and then about the impact of the commercials the search engines are running.  I think Google's got to do a lot more than send out letters and make blog posts about how to properly use their name to stop the avery "Joe" from using it improperly.  Maybe Google should run commercials too?

Thanks for the chuckle this morning Ask! And Google - I do "Google" on Google and Ask on Ask.com! :)

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