If you didn’t attend Web 2.0, you can watch my ten-minute keynote about “What Google Knows About Spam” (and several other keynotes) on blip.tv. I’ll embed the keynote below as well.

The only thing I don’t like about conference speaking is preparing slides. When I use slides at a talk, I almost always make a custom presentation. That’s why I prefer Q&A sessions; making slides is too much work.

To make the process easier this time, I tried using Google Docs to create the presentation, and then saving my Docs presentation in PowerPoint (PPT) so that the conference could easily project the slides. The “Save as PPT” feature worked perfectly for me — go Google Docs team! Here are the slides in PowerPoint (PPT) form.

In case you want to see the slides yourself, here they are in embedded form:

In addition to simple PowerPoint exporting, it’s also easy to embed a Docs presentation on your own web page.

[Thanks to Tracy O for cc-licensing the "money" image that I used in the presentation.]

I’ve always meant to do a post to say that search engine optimization (SEO) is not spam and that Google doesn’t hate SEO, but I never seem to get around to it. This presentation gave me a chance to slip those facts into the minds of several thousand tech-savvy folks.

Posted by randfish

Most of us in the search space are familiar with the principles of the "query deserves freshness" (QDF) algorithm at Google, but this is almost certainly not the only intent detection process and algo-tweaking area the engine applies. One popular theory that gets inspires a good bit of discussion around the SEO water cooler is that Google may recognize queries with the potential for multiple intents and attempt to modify the search results to include more than just those pages that would normally rank (based on their standard algorithm).

This weighting system for more ambiguous or multi-intent queries can’t be proven, but it doesn’t seem unlikely to me. Let me walk through a quick example to help illustrate the concept. Let’s say you’re performing a search for "GDP."

Why, Googlebot, what a fascinating idea. What kind of results might this produce?

So - because a lot of searchers express a preference for more diverse results than just those pages that ordinarily would "make the cut," Google provides an extra helping hand to pages they feel help to satisfy those searchers. This data could be gleaned from lower CTRs in the SERPs, greater numbers of query refinements and even a high percentage of related searches performed subsequently.

Of course, when Google wants to get really serious about disambiguation, they go a different route. Check out these SERPs for the term "application:"

These "horizontal line," disambiguation style results appear on many searches where Google thinks that the searcher is probably seeking something that their query isn’t producing. They’re especially likely to appear for very general search phrases.

My personal experience has been that a more subtle, "Query Deserves Diversity" (QDD) algorithm does exist, at least to some degree. It makes a lot of logical and searcher satisfaction sense in results like:

• Company names (where folks might want to get positive and negative press, as well as official company domains)
• Product searches (where e-commerce style results might ordinarily fill up the SERPs, but Google tries to provide some reviews and non-commercial, relevant content)
• News & political searches (where it might be prudent to display "all sides" of an issue, rather than just the left/right-wing blogs that did the best job baiting links)

I’d love to open up the question to more discussion. Do you think that QDD exists? Where do you think it might be used? And, of course, how might we, as SEOs, take advantage of this for our clients and our campaigns?

p.s. Just out of curiousity, does anyone know why, on that first search result I showed for "GDP," the second result from BEA.gov isn’t indented?

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Often during a web conferencing meeting, a participant may experience breakage in his internet connectivity. Once the internet connection is restored, the participant needs to manually connect back to the conference. However, such issues can be easily avoided if you are using RHUB Communications web conferencing products.

The RHUB range of web conferencing solutions has an auto reconnection feature that reconnects the participant to the internet conference, immediately after the internet connection is restored.

Compared to other web conferencing companies, RHUB communications solutions carry an edge owing to its various innovative features such as unlimited web meetings, security for web meetings with firewall, compatibility with most operating systems and platforms, and a  4-in-1 functionality combining Remote access, Web conferencing, remote support, and Web seminar.

The products support application sharing, remote rebooting, chats, file transfer, whiteboard, annotation, meetings schedules, international language support and screen and voice recorder. The products are adaptable to locked computer also. The best feature of the RHUB products is that there is no need to download any software to make an internet conference.

The maintenance of an elaborate Information technology (IT) infrastructure often requires the services of a set of technicians. Providing support to your employees and other stake holders in an organization when they are situated at remote locations becomes a difficult proposition. Hence to reduce the cost of ownership of IT infrastructure, the concept of remote support tools were introduced.

Prominent among them is RHUB Communications which offers a number of remote access tools which are workable on both PC and Mac. They provide instant control, remote reboot and a remote control speed which is 3 times faster. They are also firewall and proxy friendly. RHUB’s products are helping users make the most of remote support applications. To know more about such innovative features you can visit RHUB site at http://RHUBcom.com

Continuing with our series of extreme-geek-only stuff, here’s one for “that” special moment.

Remember  how geeky you were going to go for your wedding? Well, for those of you die-hard geeks who want something geeky and completely unique, check out Etsy artist Jana Brevick’s Cat 5 Compliant wedding ring set.

Made of sterling silver and an ethernet plug (if you don’t buy into the whole every-girl-needs-a-diamond thing), these rings could be the one-of-a-kind touch you’re looking for — for the geek wedding to end all geek weddings!

Sony has confirmed that it will stop making tube-based TVs by the end of the month. Sony had actually ceased production of CRTs in Japan back in 2004, according to MarketWatch, but it was still churning out “Trinitron”-branded tube sets in Singapore and Malaysia for sale in Latin America and Asia.

The news is sad but inevitable, with the rapid rise in flat-panel TV sales taking a serious toll on the CRT market. I was a CRT holdout myself until just a couple of years ago, when I finally replaced my 32-inch Sony WEGA HDTV (my second WEGA, actually) with a 42-inch Westinghouse LCD TV (since replaced by a 46-inch Sony Bravia XBR4-and yes, I love it).

And indeed, many videophiles will still tell you that the latest flat-panel sets still can’t hold a candle to CRTs in terms of video quality. My old Sony WEGA tube-based HDTV, for example, had the deepest, darkest black levels I’ve ever seen in a set, even compared to Pioneer’s Kuro plasma line.

Now resolution, that’s a different matter. But for what most people watch today, standard DVDs, the CRT is still tops. We get our DVDs from the local library; they get them as soon as they get released for cable distribution.

Having said this, we should not weep over the disappearing of Sony’s CRT TV Sets. We can still find a lot of great sets on E-Bay, ready to be snatched. Have you ever wondered why these products are cheap and how it reached E-Bay?  You shall find the answer at www.i-soldit.com.

At iSold It anyone can stop by any iSold It store with an item they would like to sell, like the 9″ Sony Portable TV shown on the left, and many more Sony CRT-based TV sets. So, if you love top-quality movies, you should not waste time and get your hands on one of them. And, while you’re at it, you should check their really nice product selection.

An experienced staff will conduct some quick online research to help estimate its value. During the check-in process, the store staff will work with the owner to capture any key copy points he would like to make in the eBay listing. Once the item is registered, the item is placed in the iSoldIt inventory, photographed and listed in eBay.