The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog The GottaQuirk blog is a great resource for information about internet marketing. It’s an up-to-date resource on the happenings in the fast-moving eMarketing industry. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 13 4697

Articles from The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog

The launch of Yahoo! Local 1.6 2007-05-17 11:26:13 Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Local 1.6 just yesterday. The upgrade means that Yahoo! Local is back in the UK mapped services directory game. With the new release comes two improvements: They have a new data provider. Infoserve data replaced BT data, giving Yahoo! Local greater freedom in terms of product enhancements. It also gives Yahoo! the opportunity to source from other data providers, as Infoserve is not going to be the exclusive provider this time. It means that Yahoo! Local has the potential to provide a much broader service than it did before. Infoserve clients can now be integrated into the Sponsored Links section of Yahoo! searches as part of a reseller agreement. This will drive business towards Infoserve and the increase in competition will mean that the value of the Sponsored Links will also rise, increasing the revenue that Yahoo! gets from them. So now it truly is a mutually beneficial relationship For Yahoo! Local and Infoserve. Apart from that, a Yahoo! Local ... Yahoo

The Power of the Analogy 2007-05-17 10:12:25 Never underestimate the power of something that makes life easier and far more interesting. Like an analogy. An analogy is something used to describe something that possesses similar properties to that which remains misunderstood, the beauty of an analogy being that the comparison is made between two completely unrelated things. As most writers should very well understand, correct use of an analogy can open up pathways of communication that may completely change someone’s mind or convince them of something that they may not have otherwise understood or taken an interest in. Therefore, the analogy can create an element of interest, or it can break something down, making it a simpler concept to understand. This is what communication is all about, and it can be achieved in one figure of speech. Correct use of analogies make impossible communication possible, and become an indispensable tool when trying to convey a message about a product or its benefit to someone who may not initi ...

In Google we trust? 2007-05-16 10:08:44 Last week I looked at who the top 10 SA sites with the most authority are, and investigated why Google favours them more than others. Well, I decided that there is more to it than just the number of backlinks and pages indexed. So I did what we do best at Quirk, and played cricket...I mean did a little more digging. But first, I need to explain some of the inconsistencies with the results from the tool in our previous report.  Why did we get some negative values in the results for IOL and SA Gov sites? This was what it looked like: IOL South African Government iol.co.za Pages indexed in Google 225,000 ... Google

SearchStatus adds Compete rankings 2007-05-15 09:38:18 A quick heads up: I've just released the new version of SearchStatus. For those who haven't heard of it, SearchStatus is a Firefox extension that tells you your Google PageRank and Alexa ranking in a neat status bar in the corner of your browser. It also has a number of menu accessible functions such as keyword density, link report, backlink checks, WHOIS etc. If you haven't tried it (and use the 'Fox), I urge you to give it a go. For those running the previous version of 1.18, Firefox should auto-update this extension (Tools->Add-ons->Find Updates). New to this version are statistics from Compete.com. Compete has been coming up in the world of web traffic measurement, and while Alexa remains king of the pile, Compete offers some pretty interesting stats such as average stay on a site - which is a critical measure, and a topic for another post. SearchStatus presents the overall Compete ranking for the domain you are on, and provides a menu showing the estimated number of mon ...

Dell riding out the storm 2007-05-15 04:52:58 Dell embraced Web 2.0 with IdeaStorm, an interactive brainstorming forum in which the public can suggest improvements they'd like to see made to Dell computers. They can then discuss and rate their peers’ ideas. Dell offers to look at the most popular ideas and keep the site updated with their research and development on the viable ones. The site shows the public that Dell isn’t just a monolith that churns out computers – it’s looking to put the ‘personal’ back into personal computer. The fact that someone is listening instils a certain amount of trust in the Dell brand (and they need this after the fallout caused by Dell Hell). Does it work? IdeaStorm was launched on February 16, 2007. What initially came to light was that there was an overwhelming demand for Dells that were preloaded with Linux. Within a week of IdeaStorm’s launch, Dell announced to the public that it was going to launch computers with Linux as the operating system. Needl ... Dell

Stephen Colbert is still the greatest American alive 2007-05-14 10:38:31 As many of you know, a few months ago Google reported an update to their algorithm designed to counter the phenomenon known as “Google bombing” or “link bombing”. At the time there was a lot of debate around how this works and whether it was a genuine change to the algorithm - suggesting wider implications for link popularity and backlink profiles - or whether it was a manually implemented change. At the time the change appeared to affect what is probably the most famous of Google bombs, George Bush’s bio ranking for “miserable failure” – however it didn’t affect the counter bomb, “great president” (probably because the page actually contains the term “president”). Now the debate has come to the fore again. Just a few weeks after Danny Sullivan hailed Stephen Colbert’s success at being considered the “Greatest Living American” by Google, it seems the Google-bomb-defusing algo has kicked in ...

Who is this Tim Shier then? 2007-05-14 08:01:12 I am the newest of the QuirkStars, my focus - events co-ordination at Quirk eMarketing. Born in 1985 in East London and then being deported to Cape Town I was fortunate to have experienced a bit of, shall we call it, both worlds – the secure, soft small town and the dangerous, high-paced city! After leaving Rondebosch Boys high school in 2003 I moved to UCT's Bsc faculty. Within the quiet enclosed walls of UCT I plotted to take over the world through my study of Computer Science and Psychology (as my majors) with the hope of one day developing Artificial Intelligence. Alas, I didn't have the academic vigour required for such aspirations and instead invested my time in the development of other facets of my being. I mean, who really wants to cause the single worst invention/creation in world history – I’m sure I will discuss this further online. In an effort to develop myself I joined UCT RAG as what they like to call a Rookie (in reality, I was free labour). Afte ...

Happy Mother's Day 2007-05-13 03:39:24 Considering that if left to my own devices I'm likely to forget about Mother's Day, or any other significant date for that matter, I suppose that I should be grateful to the various people that have insisted on reminding me about it every single day of this past week. I suppose I should be even more grateful for the card companies that save me the pain of squeezing out the scant remains of the creative juices that still reside in my brain in order to write an appropriate message. Honestly it's just not worth spending hours trying to think of something witty to write when you know that anything funny that you say will probably get you into trouble. So here's to cards and their safe messages: Hope all the mum's reading this have a fantastic Mother's Day! Comment on "Happy Mother's Day" ...

Save the Monkeys, save the World 2007-05-12 02:42:48 Do you want to be a Hero? Save the world? Well it turns out that you don’t have to be able to bend space and time, fly or even paint the future (yes, yes I have a bit of a Heroes addiction). Turns out all you have to do is stop eating bananas. Go on be a hero – Save the Monkey, Save the World. Comment on "Save the Monkeys, save the World" ...

A priceless nightmare 2007-05-12 02:40:15 MasterCard has produced some priceless gems in its time but I doubt that any top today's clip. An oldie, but a goodie! Comment on "A priceless nightmare" ...

Block Party 2007-05-11 09:56:36 It’s with no surprise that I was greeted by a few “phuza faces” when I arrived at work this morning. For our overseas readers, “phuza face” is a term coined by local radio station 5FM. “Phuza” means “drink”….’nuff said. Once in a while, the QuirkStars come up with some cracker ideas, and last night played to one of them. There are a number of companies that share our office block and what better excuse to have a few laughs than to throw a meet-and-greet Block Party. I’m happy to report that there was a fantastic turnout! The beers were on ice from 2pm (nice work Andrew and Grant!) and come 5 o’clock the fires were lit and the party was in full swing. With the sun setting over the mountain as the backdrop, we got to know our friendly neighbours over a few (read: many) cold ones and some great nosh. Thanks to all involved! (you know who you are…) Check out the photies here to see what really wen ...

Who does Google favour most in SA? Part 2.3 2007-05-11 09:51:52 And then there were 4. The time has come to take a look at the last set of the Top 10 SA Pages that Google favours. 4). CSIR Description – 8 May Page Rank 7 Links from EDU domains 113 csir.co.za Pages indexed in MSN 18,611 Links from GOV domains 22 csir.co.za Pages indexed in Google 10,900 Links to home page 2,033 Pages in Google Supplemental Index ... Google

David Bullard: Master Baiter or just a Wanker? 2007-05-11 06:14:57 I’ve wanted to write this post since Monday. Then, when I saw the volume, and level, of online response, (is this Amatomu graph giving the finger?) I absolutely wanted to stay the hell out of it. David Bullard, the Sunday Times columnist that many South Africans love to hate (and equally many just hate) set the blogosphere ablaze with his column (I gave serious thought to using a rel=nofollow on this link) on Sunday. I’ll not go into too much detail about his column other than it contained a half-decent metaphor about air guitars, a quasi-funny reference to the Virginia Tech shooting and plenty of whinging and insulting.     Despite coming across as a prat, Bullard, the whiny-shot-in-the-stomach old hack that he is, is completely right. We covered it on Gottaquirk earlier the week – there are lots of shitty blogs out there written by bad bloggers – just as there are bad columnists, bad politicians, bad doctors and bad prostitutes. Also ...

Who does Google favour most in SA? Part 2.2 2007-05-11 05:50:08 In our quest for answers, we take a look at the second set of the Top 10 SA Pages that Google favours. Will the results reveal any surprises, or will the secret remain buried with Google’s hate for farming and cross linking partners? 7). News24 Description – 8 May Page Rank 6 Links from EDU domains 895 news24.com Pages indexed in MSN 45,237 Links from GOV domains 36 news24.com Pages indexed in Google 65,000 Links to home page ... Google

Whose choice is it anyway? 2007-05-10 06:06:29 In line with all the recent publicity that Google has been receiving as a result of their new products: personalised search, search history and the personalised homepage, I have some questions: Why does Google set the search history function to default? Why is the option to reset this default as non-functional on your own page not highlighted in a way that would immediately jump out at users? Why is this issue of utter importance overlooked? Is it not perceived as important? As mentioned in a previous post, Google sets the search history as a default, so that the minute you enter Google world, your search behaviour is being monitored until you notice the tiny option that allows you to switch it off.  While I understand what it is that Google is trying to do in the way of making things more convenient for its users, it also seems that they may have overlooked people’s growing need for privacy. Essentially, what happens if you don’t cotton on to the fact that you can re ...