Want to know what Web 3.0 is going to be about?

So did an audience member at the Seoul Digital Forum back in May when he asked Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt to define Web 3.0. Schmidt’s first response was that Web 2.0 is nothing more than “a marketing term” – which I partly agree with. I think Web 2.0 used in the mass media to create hype is a marketing term. But when I consider Web 2.0 from a user’s perspective (gotta watch this video as well), I can honestly see the difference from the web of yesteryear.

But Web 3.0 already. My oh my!

Schmidt gave a great answer, which you can watch in the video below. What his answer boils down too is much easier application building along with much more robust access to data. And, of course, that data will be stored in ‘the cloud.’

Take a look at the 2 minute video and tell me what you think…

Well, he’s been part of the team that has been redesigning Google Analytics. You can read about the whole new experience with Google Analytics to get an idea of what’s changing. Or read a great overview from Avinash Kaushik. Avainash has a ton of screen shots of the new interface, highlighting a number of new features. Last thing, take a tour of Google Analytics new features and design – definitely worth watching.

Of course reading this in Jeffrey’s blog this morning, I jumped right over to my Analytics account to see the updates. I was a bit saddened to see the same interface. I soon learned that the updates will happen to everyone’s current Google Analytics accounts over the next few weeks.

All I can tell you is the changes look incredible. As do some of the new features. Can’t wait until my account is updated.

Are you using Google Analytics? Do you find it to be useful?

Thanks to Jeffrey Veen for use of the new Google Analytics screen shot.

UPDATE: I’ve found a bunch of others who have done reviews of the new Google Analytics.

• First Look: Google Analytics Launches New Interface and Reporting
• Google Analytics Gets A Pretty Reporting Interface
• Google Analytics Relaunches with a Simplified Interface
• Google Analytics Gets An Upgrade
• Google Analytics Gets A Beautiful New Interface
• New Version of Google Analytics
• Google Analytics Redesigns
• Google Analytics Relaunches
• Hurray, A New Version of Google Analytics
• A New Version of Google Analytics Released
• Google Analytics Relaunched
• Google Upgrades and Re-launches Analytics

What is popuri.us? It’s a single site where you can check a number of your blog’s rankings and popularity stats, including:

• Google Pagerank – Google Pagerank and the Prediction Tool
• Alexa Rank
• Compete Rank
• Quantcast Rank
• Google Backlinks
• Yahoo! Backlinks
• Live Search Backlinks
• Technorati inbound links
• del.icio.us bookmarks
• Bloglines subscribers

I used it and it ranked everything accurately as I know it. If nothing else, I got a bunch of information about the popularity of my blog with a simple click. Not bad. Useful to some degree.

What might be more useful is the popuri.us widget that can display live stats on your blog. I’m probably not going to use it just because I don’t want to add any clutter to my blog. But it could useful for others.

But I’ve always wondered if Google is always the best option.

Well Phil Bradley has compiled a list of what he calls Finding What You Need With The Best Search Engines. I’ve looked over the list and found the usuals like Google, Yahoo! Search and MSN Live Search for keyword searches.

But there’s some other gems in the list. Like using Encarta and Answers.com for facts searching or GooFresh for new additions to Google. KartOO, of course, gives some beautiful, visual search results (try it if you haven’t) and can be fun to use. I’d never seen Quintura before, but I can see its usefulness. It displays search results with a tag could of similar search keywords.

There’s lots of good stuff on his list. Much you’ve probably seen but some I’m sure you haven’t. So take a look, and let me know what gems you find.

By the way, he plans to continue updating this list on a regular basis. Maybe this is a resource to bookmark.

Well, Andy Beard started the campaign to get people to remove nofollow. And I, and number of other bloggers have picked it up.

Now Andy has found a post that explains how to remove nofollow from Movable Type. Take a look.

With the post on removing nofollow from Blogger, that leaves us to work on TypePad. Mike Sansone and I thought we had a solution for TypePad, but it hasn’t tested through with credited link backs in Google or Technorati. He’s still working on it.

So please, pass the word to Movable Type users. And, in general, keep passing the word about removing nofollow from your comments. And join the growing list of members in the Do Follow Community on BUMPzee.

A few days ago, Randa Clay had the great idea of creating a badge. Great idea, I thought. Why didn’t I think of that? Well, the great thing is, she has.

What does nofollow do?
What it was supposed to do is greatly reduce comment spam. We all know that didn’t work. What it does do is tell Google bots, and other search engines bots, not to follow links in your comments. That means, when someone posts a comment, they get no Google Juice. I don’t feel that’s right. It’s sort of like thanking your clients by cutting off their hand (okay, maybe not that extreme).

Why should we remove it?
First, it doesn’t work to reduce comment spam. Or if it does, it’s quite minimal. Second, by removing it, you reward your commenters with link love. And link love is good. I’m all for spreading as much link love as I can.

Why the U Comment, I Follow Badge?
It’s one way to let your readers know that when they leave comments, they’re going to get link love. Sure, you can write a few post about it and even remind readers from time to time. But many will not see it. But the badge, that stays and your readers can see it.

More and more bloggers are removing nofollow every day. So what are you waiting for? Hop on over to Randa’s blog and get yourself a nofollow badge.

And if you still have nofollow on your comments, take it off, learn how. Using WordPress plugins, it’s easy. I’ve even found how to do it in TypePad – it’s just a bit complicated and would one long post. You can also remove it Blogger and Movable Type.

Let me know when you’ve removed nofollow from your comments. If you need help, let me know. And please, keep spreading the word.

As a blogger, or website owner in general, you want links coming back to your site/blog. Links to your site is one of the major ways to increase your Google ranking. That’s why in the blogosphere, link love is high currency.

If you knew that, then you likely think that each comment you leave on a blog would give you more links to your site or blog. Most often, though, this is not the case. Most blogware has a little piece of code it attaches to outgoing links from comments called a ‘nofollow.’ What does nofollow do, well, it tells Google bots not to follow links off your blog. Hence, no link love and no Google Juice.

So really, nofollow sucks. So bloggers like Ben Yoskovitz, Wendy Piersall, Chris Cree, Andy Beard and Chris Garrett have all seen the light. As has Robert Scoble. Well, I have too. So no more nofollow on dmiracle.com.

This means now that every time you leave a comment on my blog, you’ll get a little more link love to yours. You’ve helped make my blog successful, so it’s the least I can do for you.
Want to join the party? Here are some resources for removing the nofollow attribute from your blog comments.

• Andy Beard has a the definitive resource for nofollow plugins for WordPress.
• Semiologic’s Dofollow is probably the most used plugin for WordPress. Easy install, by the way.
• You can also read Dougal Campbell’s piece on the nofollow.
• MovableType users can check out this post.

I’m looking for resources to remove nofollow from TypePad and Blogger, if it’s possible. Know of any?

So, how do you feel knowing that all your comments (beginning yesterday) will now be full-on link love?�

What I’ve done is identified a number of topics that I want my blog to focus on. I then search for those topics in Google Blog Search. Once the search results come up, I subscribe to the RSS feed for that specific search. Now each time I update my feeds, I get an update of the most recent and relevant results of from a search for that topic.

This may not seem like such a big deal. But think of it this way…if I want to seach for 10 topics each day to write about, I would need to go to Google Blog Search, search for each topic, read through the results, click on interesting links to read about the post and then somehow capture the link for that post for future use. And, I’d have to do that 9 more times to search 10 topics.

By subscribing to the search results in my feed reader, I can see the results of 10 topics, with titles and links, all from my feed reader – all at once. No need to search each time. All I have to do is find the topic titles that most interest me. This is a HUGE time saver.

What makes this even more powerful is that most of the other blog search engines offer the same search subscription feature. So you can not only do with with Google, but with Technorati, BlogPulse, IceRocket, Feedster or your own favorite blog search engine. So now you can track multiple topics from multiple search engines – all in one place.

I can’t even begin to tell you how this has changed my blogging.

How do you find topics to write about?

But the place that it made the most impact was on my Technorati ranking. Every day I watched my ranking in Technorati change; and change a lot. Some days I’d jump 30,000 positions. It was amazing. And for a few weeks, I was quite excited. As of today, my ranking is somewhere around 26,000 – a long way from where I began four short weeks ago at 1,618,000.

At first, I didn’t put together that my jump in rankings had anything to do with the 2000 Bloggers. Every day I was writing posts and commenting on a number of other blogs. I figured my ranking was due to my efforts. Until one day early last week I looked more closely at who was linking to me. To my surprise, the great majority, more than 75%, were from the 2000 Bloggers.

That got me to thinking…what’s the point of joining a meme like the 2000 Bloggers? Sure, I got some traffic and my Technorati rank increased dramatically. But what did I really gain? My rank in Technorati is obviously inflated. So what good is it as it’s not representative of my true position in the blogosphere.

Then I read Tony Hung’s “‘2000 Bloggers’ is Over – An Exercise in Link ‘Building’ At Its Most Useless and Pathetic. Tony writes that 2000 Bloggers is actually ‘over’ due to pressure from Technorati. He goes on to say:

What’s the big deal? It inflates your link “worth” so to speak. As Webomatic mentions — its basically a linkfarm in new clothes. Imagine you’re a new blog with a few dozen inbound links, and then you’re flooded with almost 2000 of them. Bongo bonanza! People use Technorati for all kinds of things — tracking buzz, is one of them. They also use it as a metric, to measure a blog’s “worth” or “influence” given how many inbound links its got. 2000 new inbound links? Artificial inflation of your Technorati ranking … or, at least, in theory, as Technorati has new algorithms for this kind of thing.

When I first heard of 2000 Bloggers, it felt a little funny to me. But I did it anyhow, not really knowing about linkfarming. In hindsight, and being honest, I’d probably do it again. I did gain a bit from it in experience more than benefit. Though in the future I probably won’t join anything like this again.

You see, I want my blog to do my work. I want to offer content that’s engaging, informative and really helps my readers. Ultimately, that’s my goal and what I want my blgo to be known for. Rankings, while important, certainly don’t mean as much as getting my blog in front of those that I can help. So I don’t want to inflate my standing. Nor do I want to waste time, energy or thought on such pursuits. I’ve learned with this one.

I agree with how Tony closes his post:

…at the end of the day some of the most important metrics for “influence” *aren’t* the absolute number of inbound links a site has. Its what those links *do* for you.

If they’re not leading to increased traffic or increased recognition on behalf of the linking blog, then it doesn’t count for squat.

Its that simple.

So let the 2000 bloggers artificially increase their Technorati ranking. …I suspect it’ll mean very little to the numbers most bloggers are interested in – or even, the effect it will have on their own relative importance to their own corner of the blogosphere.

Well said, Tony. My feelings exactly.

For more, read Jeremiah’s I Don’t Deserve This Technorati Rank. And Instabloke is going as far as calling for a boycott of Technorati
I want to know what you think of the 2000 Bloggers. Do you feel you gained from it? What about your Technorati ranking…do you feel it’s inflated? Do you care? One way or another, let me hear about.

Now we could each wait for Google’s bots to crawl our sites and find our content – both old and new. Or, we could force the issue a little bit by taking advantage of a Google’s Webmaster Tools.

Part of Google’s Webmaster Tools is Google Sitemap. With Google Sitemap, you can submit a site map of your website/blog to Google and their bots will pick up your new content right away. Much faster than waiting for the bots to come back around your server.

My new friend Gary Conn covers the ‘how to’ using WordPress and a WordPress plugin in a great post from a couple of days back. Read his post for the details. But here are the highlights:

Step One: Add Your URL to Google.

Step Two: Create a Sitemap

Step Three: Add Your Sitemap to Google

Step Four: That’s it! No More Steps

Creating a Google Sitemap was an item on my development list that I hadn’t gotten too. Gary made it sound so easy, I decided to jump in and do it today.

I followed the steps, using Arne Brachhold’s Google Site Map Generator Plugin for WordPress v2. It was easy. I had the plugin installed, a Google Webmaster Tools account added to my Google account and my sitemap file added to Google in about 10 minutes. No kidding. It’s that easy.

And Google had my site indexed in less than 90 seconds itself. So there you go, in less than 15 minutes, all the page of my site are indexed in Google. And when I finish this post, my Arne’s plugin will update my sitemap file and ping Google to reindex my site. From now on, every time I write a post, the plugin will update the sitemap and ping Google. Gotta love instant gratification!

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… “Dawud, you’re a web developer, you deal with code all the time. Of course this was easy for you.”

So I’m going to prove it’s easy by putting one of my friends on the spot. Over the weekend, I’ll ask Dave Schoof, a client of mine, who owns The Disquiet in Men, go through this process himself – without my help. I’ll have him follow Gary’s tutorial. Once he’s done, I’ll ask him to post his comments on how long it took him and how easy it was.

If you need further help, I did manage to find a video by Andre Cheperon. It’s a bit dated as Google Sitemaps was a stand-alone product when he made this tutorial. Though it’s still quite a valid as Google just added Sitemaps into their Webmaster Tools.

I’d love to hear your experiences both installing and using Google Sitemaps. What difference has it made in your site traffic?

1. Google Is a Calculator
2. Google Knows Mathematical Constants
3. Google Converts Units of Measure
4. Google Is a Dictionary
5. Google Is a Glossary
6. Google Lists All the Facts
7. Google Displays Weather Reports
8. Google Knows Current Airport Conditions
9. Google Tracks Flight Status
10. Google Tracks Packages
11. Google Is a Giant Phone Directory
12. Google Knows Area Codes
13. Google Has Movie Information
14. Google Loves Music
15. Google Knows the Answer to the Ultimate Question

Everyone seems to be asking me about blogs. What is it? Do I need one? Where do I get one?

So I thought I’d answer some of these questions in this month’s newsletter. And specifically I want to answer the question…”Should I Blog?”

What is a ‘Blog’?
Simply, a blog is an online journal stored on a website. Just like with your bound journal, you make post entries into your blog. These entries are then recorded and posted to your blogging website. However, unlike a paper journal, what you write is available for the entire world to read.

Why would I want someone to read my journal?
Simple, because you have something to share. Blogs aren’t, necessarily, about your deep, inner personal thoughts (though they can be). They are about anything that interests you. That’s one of the beauties of blogging – you write about what you know or have interest in. So your blog can be about anything – a business niche, an area of expertise, even a hobby. The sky’s the limit. You’ll even find blogs that are simply links to the updates in other blogs.

You mean I can write about anything I want?
Yep, anything you want. It’s good to remember that the most successful blogs – meaning blogs that are read often by a large number of people – are written on a specific topic. Picking a topic that really interests you, business or personal, and then offering good, informative blog entries is the key.

Let’s say you own a bike shop. You have a nice website with usual pages – about your store, about the brands you carry, store hours and location, calendar of in-store and local events, etc. You have some well-written articles about how to choose the right bike, what accessories to consider and so on.

You’re passionate about cycling and you love talking about it. When someone comes in the shop you really enjoy sharing your years of knowledge, rides, good gear and tips with them.

With your knowledge and passion, you could have a really good blog. Imagine being able to share cycling stories, give updates to coming events, and provide info on favorite rides. You could review gear and even market upcoming in-store events and sales. Furthermore, your blog would let you answer questions that you get asked daily by people in your store. After all, there are plenty of people locally, and across the internet who have the same questions. So a blog is perfect for you – and it adds great benefit to your reader’s lives. And… a well-written blog could even increase sales.

So then, what makes a blog different from a website?
Well, a blog is a website. The difference is in how the site content is added, updated, sorted and managed.

Your website is made up of individual webpages that have your design, your navigation links and your content on them. Each page is different because the content is different. To update the content on a page you need to ‘open’ that page and edit its content. To add new content you need to create a new page, type your content and then link it to other pages. All this is done manually and often takes some technical know-how. This often leads to website not being updated all too frequently.

Blog sites are often updated quite frequently. They use “instant publishing tools” that make adding to, updating, editing and sorting your blog easy to do – even for the least experienced computer user. Instant publishing means that all you need to do is type your content into your blogging tool (software) you’re using (more on this later) and publish it. The blogging tool automatically adds your entry into the blog site’s design, sorts, creates new pages and handles all the upkeep itself. Entries are placed in date order and, often, sorted by topic categories you create. So a blog is often much, much easier to edit and update on a regular basis.

So why wouldn’t I skip the website and just have a blog?
A blog is organized by the date of entry, like the pages of your journal. A website, however, is organized in ways that lead toward specific goals. For instance, if you’re selling a service, you’ll likely have a few pages of content take your visitors through a sales flow. Not so possible with a blog.

Using a blog solely, that same sales process would become buried deeper into the site as you add entries. So while a blog works great as a journal, it’s not ideal – on its own – for a business simply because of how it organizes your content (entries).

So what else is special about this blog thing?
Two more points that need to be mentioned…Comments & Search Engines.

Comments
Very often bloggers (people who have blogs) allow users to add comments to their blog entries. This gives users a sense of relationship, community and that they are valued. Moreover, it creates a higher level of interest for users, who will often want to check back more often to view further entries or to make further comments. When the same people regularly visit and and place comments on your blog, this can lead to a naturally developing community – all about your topic – and all driven by your entries. You can dream away about how this kind of community might have benefit for your business.

Search Engines
Search engines just seem to love blogs. Especially Google. After all, blogs tend to be topic oriented – which search engines love. They also tend to be updated frequently – search engines love fresh content. And blogs tend to build traffic quicker than non-blog sites due to their community-type involvement – more traffic, higher search engine placement. Just remember that just like with your website, a blog is not the short rope for ranking #1 in Google for the search term of your choice. It still takes planning, effort, time, persistence and patience to build search engine rankings. And a blog can help with that.

Wrapping it up…
Hopefully, I’ve given you a clear overview of what a blog is and how it can aid your business. From this, you should be able to answer the question, “Should I Blog?” If not, or if you have questions or want to discuss whether a blog fits into your business needs, please contact me at any of the ways below and we can schedule a time to talk.

Additional Resources
Here are some additional resources you will likely find helpful.

Blogging Tools

• Blogger
  Probably the most popular blog tool on the web. Owned by Google. Free and fee-based services available. Lots of design templates. Can literally have a blog up in minutes. A good choice for the avarage user.
• Moveable Type
  A very popular blog publishing platform you download and install on your own webserver, by Sixapart. Can be challenging to install, but once installed, is a breeze to use. Basic version is free with upgraded features available.
• TypePad
  A subscription-based weblogging service that Six Apart hosts. You don’t install a thing, even if you use your own domain name. Service and features are fee-based.
• WordPress
  Very powerful, very customizable blog tool you install and host yourself. Installation very easy. Many templates (called themes) available. Admin area very thorough and easy to use. Some basic file management needed to make some changes. May already be part of your web hosting package. WordPress is open source – meaning it’s developed and maintained by a group of programmers instead of a company. It’s also free.
• There are a lot more blogging tools like GreyMatter, PMachine, Radio Userland, Blogspot (now part of Blogger) and many more.

Other Articles on Blogging

• Best Blogging Tools for the Mac
  MacWorld article from Oct. 2005 comparing blogging tools available for the Mac. This article as very helpful for PC users as well as all compared tools can be used on the PC.
• Blog Tools
  PC Magazine article from Dec. 2003 about blogging and what tools to use. Most information pertinent as of this writing.
• Blogs: An Introduction
  Your Guide To Sharing Your Thoughts with the World. A July 2005 article in PC Today Magazine.
• Working Smart: How to Start a Blog
  Simple, few steps on beginning a blog. He focuses mostly on hosted services like Blogger and TypePad.
• How to Start a Blog
  A really nice beginners guide for blogging. Maybe a bit too technical for the average user, but good info, none the less.
• Deconstructing the Blog
  An Apr. 2002 article in PC Magazine listing eight sure-fire ways for blogging success.
• 11 Quick Tips for New Bloggers
  Some good tips. Though his opinion on Blogger and Blogspot being “old and busted,” itself, is outdated. Other 10 tips are pretty good, though. If you look at any of the other content on this site, just remember that it’s called “Right Wing News.”

Recommended Books

• Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content
  I think this is the best book out there on blogging. Biz Stone really knows what he’s talking about. Highly recommend this book.
• Blog Marketing
  Pretty good book about using your blog to market your business. If you’re leaning this way, a must read.
• Blogging for Dummies
  Part of the “…for Dummies” series. Easy to understand, a good beginning source.

Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia)

• Blog
  Vast resource for anything related to blogging.