by Jonah Stein on October 27, 2008
Sites such as Youtube, Digg, Yelp and Facebook provide mashups of content sources along with a platform for interaction and participation. Inherent in this model is the assumption that each “user” is an individual who is participating in a community. The reality is that many “users” are avatars, bots and sock puppet created to spread Spam, disinformation, attack individuals, organizations and companies or manipulate rating systems to promote a private agenda that is not in keeping with the spirit and intent of the community.
The success of Web 2.0 has made it a prime target for spammers, vandals and hackers who want to exploit the trust implicit in this ecosystem. The May, 2008 headlines about Craiglsist’s ongoing battle with spammers highlights the problem. Web 2.0 companies need to recognize this type of manipulation as a fatal cancer and develop strategies to aggressively defend themselves against the ravages of blight that can devastate their communities.
by Jonah Stein on May 13, 2008
I was at the flex for the Campfire One event last night to mingle with the Blogarazzi, drink hot chocolate while being regaled with Guacamole recipes and tales of how Google’s new friend connect was going to allow anyone to add social features to their website with only rudimentary html experience. Google has [...]
by Jonah Stein on April 8, 2008
The difference between great link bait and a spammy off topic widget is basically whether someone complains.
by Jonah Stein on May 14, 2007
In Candidates Need SEO , Scott Willoughby examined the need for political parties and candidates to begin serious search marketing. Scott’s analysis is excellent as far as it went, but he missed the big picture. SEO and PPC for candidate sites is a tiny piece of the potential of search expertise to [...]
by Jonah Stein on March 7, 2007
Have you noticed the plus sign within some Google SERP that started showing up next to invitations to map an address or get a stock quote a month ago?
Pundits are quick to conclude that this is a portal feature and that Google.com is compromizing their search-only philosophy to become a “portalized non-portal.” [...]
