Blog Master G

In my continuing research on Google, I just read a really interesting article about Google Bombing, the concept of rallying a community of bloggers together to link to a specific site using a specific phrase. Of course, that’s what Google’s algorithms are all about: Content and links to content.

What I really love about the concept is that it’s a great example of the power of the people. A mass of individuals rallied behind a cause is always stronger than an individual. This is the same concept at work in one of my favorite books, Bill Buford’s Among the Thugs, a non-fiction work about English football hooligans.

Reading the article on Google Bombing also led me to Tony Pierce‘s really funny Britney Spears photo journal (with some revealing behind-the-scenes shots of Britney, who turned 21 on Monday).

As with most Web experiences, this one began a few hops away: At fellow Vassar alum David Gallagher‘s site. David has a link to the Google Bombing article.

I sure do love ’80s arcade games. As a Child of the Eighties, I occasionally have this longing to reconnect with my boyhood days. And what better way to connect than playing some Webized versions of the same Atari games we grew up playing?

Tonight I had a longing for QBert, one of my all-time favorites. I used to have a Qbert watch. I checked eBay to see if there were any for sale (mine is long gone in the ’80s time machine). There aren’t right now, but now I know what I’m going to keep an eye out for.

Jen and I just played another classic, Super Breakout. She beat me. I’ll give her that. I also played a game of Spy Hunter, one of the best games ever.

But back to that Qbert watch. Google yields just 1 result for a query of the exact phrase, “Qbert watch,” and the result doesn’t even refer to the timepiece turned arcade game. That watch is out there. And I will find it.

Until then, Asteroids, Joust, and Pacman will have to suffice.

My new Web site continues to come together, and its extensibility was proven today, as I seamlessly added a new writing portfolio to the site. This is a tremendous improvement over my old writing portfolio, which was just a bunch of static HTML pages that were nearly impossible to manage. And forget changing the design.

This is one of the many reasons I’m so psyched to have my whole site being delivered dynamically: I can now manage content and design easily and independently across the board (one design “switch” filters down through everything). I even have full control over the various attributes of my writing samples (title, subhead, bylines, publication, etc.). Ahh, the beauty of creating and managing my own database and content.

I certainly plan to “avoid the compression of penile arteries.” According to a new study, men who ride 3,000+ miles on mountain bikes per year may be at risk of infertility. Good thing I haven’t ridden a bike in ages. But when I do get back on one, I’ll have to get some kind of bike odometer to make sure I stay well under 3,000 miles annually.

The old saying sure is true: You learn something new every day. And today I just learned that I’m a fiancé and Jen is my fiancée. I had no idea there was even a difference. But sure enough, according to the ol’ Merriam-Webster, it’s true:

Main Entry: fi·an·cé
Pronunciation: “fE-“än-‘sA, fE-‘än-”
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Middle French, from past participle of fiancer to promise, betroth, from Old French fiancier, from fiance promise, trust, from fier to trust, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin fidare, alteration of Latin fidere — more at BIDE
Date: 1864
: a man engaged to be married

Main Entry: fi·an·cée
Pronunciation: “fE-“än-‘sA, fE-‘än-”
Function: noun
Etymology: French, feminine of fiancé
Date: 1853
: a woman engaged to be married

So I promptly updated the main page of my new Web site to reflect Jen’s appropriate status.

I read this review of The Donnas show, which we went to Saturday, in today’s Chronicle. The reviewer seemed to think pretty highly of the show, as did I. Although, as Jen pointed out, none of our group seemed to fit into the reviewer’s assessment of the crowd: “an awkward mix of newbie garage rockers, indie scenesters and head-banging meatheads.” Hmm. Not quite us. Well, maybe I could see you as a garage rocker, Enoch. And James, well…are you a head-banging meathead? If so, that would leave me and Jen as indie scenesters, along with the pink-haired chick in the white jumpsuit who kept pacing back and forth in front of our table all night.

The only thing that’s unfortunate is that we decided not to mosh with the fist-fighting kids in the front row, ’cause The Donnas sure are hot (I’m not sure which Donna she is, but the one of the far right in that photo is my favorite — I think she was the guitarist).

In this eye-opening and rather disturbing article from the Toronto Star, Murray Whyte (oddly enough, the paper’s entertainment reporter), reviews Mark Crispin Miller’s The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder. The book was originally supposed to be funny (about Bush’s slip-ups in speech), but turned into quite a bit more. What remains is a scary portrait of the man running our nation. And scarier yet is that Miller’s analysis makes some sense. Who knows what the actual psychology is behind Bush’s verbal goof-ups, but more and more these days, I really believe that the government (and he at the top) is shadier than anyone realizes.

Of course Bush’s supporters will disagree. But it’s a free country, right?

Traditionally, the groom is not supposed to know anything about his bride’s wedding dress, let alone see it before the day of the wedding. Jen and I are anything but traditional. Although I’ve decided that I don’t want to see her in the dress until our wedding day, I have agreed to give her my opinion on the gowns she is considering. So I have.

And Saturday was a big day for Jen, as she had a really good experience at Bridal Galleries in San Francisco, where she found the two finalists, and has pretty much made up her mind to go with one of them. My vote is also for the first one, which is really pretty and non-traditional, like us.

One of the cool things about purchasing the gown from this place is that they’ll give me a free tuxedo with purchase. Not a rental; it’ll be for keeps. That rules.

I decided to archive the gown images on my Web site when I got to work this morning and found them on my laptop, which we were using on the coffee table pretty much all weekend. Jen emailed the images to all her girlfriends and her parents for input.

I love Sundays. Sadly, it’s the end of the long Thanksgiving weekend, but Jen and I had a great time (capping it off last night by seeing The Donnas at Bimbo’s 365 Club with James, Enoch, and Sharon — chick bands rule). Peter will maybe be coming back either tonight or tomorrow, since he heads back to Tucson tomorrow night.

So I’ve spent most of the day overhauling my Web site (stale since 1999) and updating my resume (since these days, you never know), both very tedious projects. But it’s a great feeling, seeing how much progress I’ve made on both fronts. I expect to launch my new Web site later this evening.

The results are in, and the Google ad for my blog has proved a great failure. It’s been displayed 1,000 times with zero click-through. Woohoo! I logged into my account this morning to see the following message:

Your last 1,000 ad impressions displayed on Google did not generate enough clicks to meet our minimum clickthrough rate requirement. We are therefore showing ads only occasionally for those keywords with a low CTR. Please follow the directions for improving keyword targeting, then press the Restore Full Delivery button above.

Please note that the AdWords automated performance monitor will continue to watch the clickthrough of your keywords, so if your targeting improvements don’t work out, you will receive another email. If you need to restore full delivery a third time, you will be charged a $5.00 re-activation fee.

I said it before and I’ll say it again: What a kick-ass revenue model. Google is all about ensuring accuracy of content and even ads that aren’t popular with customers get the hi-yah! There’s also the additional revenue generation for ads that need to be restored a 3rd time. So not only is that extra revenue for Google, but advertisers who aren’t serious will take a hike — or fine-tune the content in the ad or assign it to different keyword(s).