SMX Advanced 2008 Seattle a few days away

Search Engine Land's SMX Advance comes to Seattle June 3rd and 4th.

While access and networking passes are already SOLD OUT, Developer Day and Expo passes are still available.

Search Marketing Expo has added a variety of networking options, some of which can be found here.

Keynotes include Kevin Johnson, President of the Platform and Services division at Microsoft as well as Google's renowned spam fighter Matt Cutts.

For those interested in tuning in to some advanced search engine marketing techniques, there should be numerous live bloggers at the event.

If you're in the Seattle area on Tuesday or Wednesday, even expo passes usually provide a good networking opportunity (not to mention a bag full of schwag!)

Microsoft named Best Place to Work Europe 2008

Microsoft edged out Google, taking the number one spot in the annual '100 Best Place to Work Europe' study for 2008. Number three was Cisco Systems.

The report is prepared by the 'Great Place to Work Institute', a global research and management consultancy, and is published in the Financial Times.

The institute, which has been rating firms over 25 years, studied 1250 companies in 15 European countries. For 2008, the list was divided between the 50 best large companies and the 50 best medium and small companies.

In a press release from Paris, Microsoft's chairman for Europe, Jan Muehlfeit commented:
"Microsoft is a company that was built on innovation and individual initiative, and that creative energy continues to pervade our culture. Ranking number one among large European companies is fantastic validation that we're doing the right things to keep our people engaged and satisfied in their work — and that bodes well for the long-term mutual success of Microsoft and its employees."

Reaktor Innovations, a privately-held company in Finland, landed the number 1 spot is the medium / small company category.

The entire report (with facts, statistics, comments and more) can be downloaded from the FT.com website here.

Fast AJAX! - Google's new GWT 1.5 RC1

This past week, Google announced the release of Google Web Toolkit 1.5 Release Candidate 1.

Downloadable now, the latest GWT release incorporates a host of improved as well as new features.

Creation of more compact code, multiple-browser support, Java 1.5 support, full-feature debugging , lots of online support, and more.

You can download the RC (or read more about it) at the Google Code website here.

Behind the deal for the Weather Channel

It's been in the headlines one way or another for almost six months.

Privately-held Landmark Communications has been shopping for a buyer for it's weather divisions including The Weather Channel and Weather.com.

IHT , the NY Times, (and others) reported the news in early January of this year.

There have been numerous (large cap) 'interested parties' since that time.

Several headlines this morning are speculating that a consortium which includes NBC (the broadcast unit of GE) and the Blackstone Group (best known for it's upscale hotel acquisitions and as the first private equity firm to go public) will win the bidding with their latest offer of $3.5 billion US.

It's unclear whether Landmark will actually agree to the bid.

The weather is one of those things that's always there. While there are tens of thousands of weather destinations on the Internet, the weather.com brand is extremely strong, as is their cable / satellite tv channel audience. The combined audience could be considered HUGE.

It's a defined space that never goes away.

While NBC's Weather Plus is mentioned in most of the articles, Weather.com's strongest competitor is not. Privately-held AccuWeather, with it's large team of meteorologists, 'mega-computers', and popular website (AccuWeather.com) is considered by many industry watchers to be The Weather Channel's strongest competitor in the TV and radio weather syndication space. In fact, many NBC television franchises currently use AccuWeather products, which include everything from branding to graphics to complete weather forecasts by their own on air team (as well as a barrage of other industry-specific professional weather services).

Also in the US TV/Radio weather media mix is AWS Convergence Technologies with their extensive network of public school based weather stations, providing current local weather readings to TV and Radio stations.

The Weather Underground is now competing somewhat in the newspaper and mainstream market as well. The website was the first commercial consumer oriented internet weather source.

Enter the US Government. The US National Weather Service (part of NOAA) maintains more on site weather radars (and satellites) in the US than anyone. Most of the data (along with some provided by NASA) is made available to these companies and the public on a multitude of websites including, yes, weather.gov.

At the current price, this deal is probably good for NBC (and GE). It's the brand, the URL (in this case) and cross-marketing possibilities. The mainstream media weather landscape would change somewhat short-term and it actually could be good and bad for the competing brand-name weather providers, depending on how NBC integrates the TWC product.

Links / References Updated June 1

Two Freeware upgrades - Flock 1.2 arrives

Two programs that I personally use a lot just released upgrades:

CCleaner not only makes it really easy to empty that huge cache (and much more) but also has an excellent registry cleaner. New version 2.08.588 is now available. If this is your first time using CCleaner, during the installation, you can chose whether or not you want to install the Yahoo Toolbar (which is in the package), and whether or not you want the program to automatically check for updates. Simply a great way to occasionally 'clean-up the mess' and other unnecessary stuff on your hard drive. (For new users, exercise some caution with the advanced features!).

Fox-It Reader has significantly improved speed and compatibility with Version 2.3 (Note: The reader is free - the 'Pro Pack' is not).

Flock 1.2 reviewed previously is now out of beta. The new features can be found here.

Friendfeed is leveling the playing field

The A-list is changing faster than ever before. Yes, it's another side benefit of, you guessed it, Friendfeed.

Your reputation is everything. You want to bring your talents to the forefront and let the world know who you are.

The rules are changing, and at a very fast pace.

In the past, you built a reputation slowly. It didn't hurt to have a few bucks. Many small companies or individuals simply couldn't afford to attend conferences.
They don't have the resources (yet) for a large staff and/or PR department.

I've noted a few things in the past where Friendfeed has been a benefit to me. This is yet another one where Twitter and Friendfeed are similar, but Friendfeed is better.

Since I started this blog last August (and came out of the shadows of mostly in-house SEO and electronic marketing), I've used all kinds of online tools to network and create relationships.

400 or so people follow me on Twitter. 200 or so on Facebook. I've been moderately active on Friendfeed almost since the start.

Not a day goes by that I don't have more than a few new people subscribing to me .... but that's not the magic.

I've developed 'instant relationships' with a wide range of talented people ... from all generations. They recognize who I am and what I can do. I've realized there's a whole group of people with all kinds of skills that can be an asset to me, many of whom I simply never heard of before. They don't go to meetups or conferences. They don't have widely publicized websites or blogs and they're not buying keywords on the Search Engines.

Many of simply entertaining AND enlightening.

They've always been there. I just didn't know it?

The playing field is changing again, and while there's no doubt the notable names in Tech, SEO, PR, and other spaces will be around for a long time ..... a whole new crop of talented, interesting and knowledgeable people are emerging on the pages of Friendfeed.

It's not an option anymore to be an early adopter. The Internet space is changing so fast that if you don't stay current with the trends, you WILL be left behind, whether or not your name is etched in the Web history books.

There's no longer any question in my mind.

This chapter in Internet discovery, networking, and more belongs to Friendfeed.

We're back .... I think :)

This past weekend we implemented a few simple changes to SEO and Tech Daily (and a few more are in the works).

Comments, for the most part, on older posts were not restored and we have moved comments to Disqus (by popular demand!). Yes, you can now expose your comments or videos to the 'lifestreaming world'. Most of you have been interacting on Friendfeed anyway?. Either way, it's now up to you.

Be sure and check out the new additions to our shared feed. The latest Tech and SEO headlines from a variety of sources around the web, updated 2-3 times daily.

Format for this decade - Keep it simple

Here's a little Sunday perspective for you website designers and bloggers..

As we enter the age of legacy migration (IE: Taking existing websites and making them cooler looking with Flash, Silverlight, etc.), it's interesting to note that some of the most successful pages on the Internet are 'just plain vanilla'.

The most obvious example is Google. While iGoogle is available, Google.com is probably the most simple page on the Net. (It's also interesting to note that the company has never adopted a slogan or 'tag line', leaving them open to whatever challenges may lie ahead).

Others? Craigslist (still growing), Twitter, Friendfeed (although I got lost and had to find my way out of the new 'rooms' :), TechMeMe, and numerous others.

So-called 'plain' sites are also almost always easier for search engines to index.

I really enjoy watching both. Some of the newer sites employing next generation rendering technology are literal works of art, and more often than not, much easier to navigate.

If you're thinking about a legacy migration and you have an awesome search engine position, there are ways you can do it without losing it. In general, at this juncture, you may want to think about starting a separate website (NOT with duplicate content but simply making it clear about what you're doing in your landing page). A 'blank piece of paper' and a fresh start employing all of the 'basics' of SEO is probably better for most, than migrating your existing site.

There's lots of new stuff out there from Adobe, Microsoft, and others. Even some pretty decent freeware and shareware. Download some trials and get 'into the curve'.

Legacy migration will be the next big thing (It already is for larger corporate websites). For SEO companies, it's the next boom .... and well worth studying.

Google hyper indexing new Friendfeed Rooms

Almost overnight, Friendfeed is becoming a rather 'large house' with a lot of rooms!

Google has indexed over 100 rooms.

The 'room' feature (somewhat reminiscent of the IRC and chat room days), was just introduced by Friendfeed in the past few days.

Some of the public rooms include numerous individuals, topics, special interests, search (sem), blogging, FAQ's, advice, tips, weather and more.

Anyone can create their own room (and decorate it accordingly :)

Update: Google Blogoscoped has posted a Friendfeed room listing with over 500 entries here.