Industry News

Sometimes when I tell business owners how much I charge for blog posts they tell me that it's expensive. At the same time they would gladly throw that same amount and much more money at "drive by" traffic from Google Adwords or some half-hearted attempt at manual link building (e.g. outreach).

Even when it comes to services that are far less scalable I can in many cases charge more than for content creation that inherently earns shares and links.

Other clients pay me without flinching but...

We recently had an opportunity to work with one of my favorite companies, Praekelt Foundation. They do amazing work with projects like MAMA (using mobile technologies to improve the health and lives of mothers in developing nations) and TxtAlert (automated, personalized SMS reminders to patients on chronic medication).

One of their products is called Vumi — a conversation engine for the delivery of SMS, USSD (Star Menu), and chat messages to diverse audiences. Vumi is a custom development...

Late last night, Microsoft announced on the search blog the next phase of Bing, Microsoft's search engine. You can "explore" these changes at bing.com/new.

The most obvious change is the new yellow/orange logo...

Google announced that HTTPS sites, SSL secured can now have Google AdSense ads on them without an issue.

For this to work, you simply need to go into your AdSense console...

Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy is such a brilliant post. Funny, way too true, and great illustrations. It follows the story of Lucy, a fictional Gen Y yuppie who is not having such a good time right now. This part about social media sites (or what I guess is known as Facebook image crafting) really stuck with me:

Social media creates a world for Lucy where A) what everyone else is doing is very out in the open, B) most people present an inflated version of their own existence, and...

Horace Dediu makes an interesting point about some of the new iPhone 5s features in M is for Mystery:

Perhaps this is why Apple chose to describe the iPhone 5s as “forward-thinking”. The M7 and the Touch ID are like research projects whose actual value will be realized at some future time, in probably different contexts.

Sisir Koppaka takes this idea further in The Most Forward-Thinking Apple Yet. On going 64-bit:

I don’t believe Apple added 64-bit support to iOS 7 and all their...

This morning, Google is rolling out a new top bar navigation style worldwide. They have not yet announced it...

What’s hot in search? Often, it’s the same-old, same-old. That’s why Google Trends has added a new feature today, “Trending Top Charts,” to show interest areas that are spiking in popularity outside the norms. Most Searched For Vs. Trending

For example, the Top Charts area shows the Ford Mustang and Ford F-Series are the most searched for cars in general. But by using the new trending option, you can discover there’s spiking interest in the Tesla Roadster & the Mini:



Similarly, while...