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Daily Search Coverage:

Live Search keeps messing up their bots. AdSenseAdvisor gets some new legs. Google pushes AdSense to AdWords advertisers. Most SEOs like older links. Use TwitterFeed to socially promote. Google Analytics is a bit bugged out. Don’t link to my IP address. Viacom takes a hit on YouTube case. EU approved Google-DoubleClick deal and Google closes that chapter.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. MSNBot Again Failing Reverse DNS Test
2. New AdSenseAdvisor Comes to WebmasterWorld
3. Google Promoting Content Network To AdWords Advertisers
4. 65% of SEOs Prefer Old & Aged Links Over Fresh & New Links
5. Expand Your Blog’s Reach with TwitterFeed
6. Google Analytics Skip Updating Last Night? Nope
7. Hey Buddy: Link To My URL Not My IP!

Search Engine Land Topics:

1. Judge Denies Punitive Damages In Viacom Vs. YouTube Case
2. EU Approves Google-DoubleClick Acquisition

Daily Link Finds:

This is the March 11th, issue of a daily post that will contain links to commentary of the posts over at the Search Engine Roundtable. All links I find throughout the day that ad some commentary to the posts written over at the Search Engine Roundtable, will be in the Daily Link Finds. The purpose is two fold: (1) To help people find discussion around our articles and (2) To thank people for linking to us. How do I find these links? Only one way, via a Google Blog Search link command, so make sure that (1) you are in Google Blog Search and (2) link to us.

Daily Link Finds for March 11th, 2008:

• Ask com Falling Apart, SearchNewz
• Ask.com Falling Apart For No Good Reason, InsideGoogle
• Google s New Advanced Search Page, Search Newz
• SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 10, 2008, Search Engine Land
• 8 Random Things About The Marketing Punk, Marketing Punk
• Digg, Verweildauer auf Social Networks, AdWords Qualitts fakto underungen, Internet Marketing News
• Live Blogging at SES NY next week for Search Engine Round table, The Analytics Guru
• SMX West - SEO & Social Media Marketing - Amplify Overview, Amplify Interactive

We have been using Fonality for our phone system for well over two years now. In fact, I wrote a quick Fonality review back in January 2006 that still gets comments to this day. Overall, I have to say I am still very happy with the system - it rocks for us, a small high-tech company.

In short, Fonality is a supported and pre-programmed PBX system that you is co-hosted by them and with a server in your office. It runs off the Asterisk code-base, an open source PBX project. We love Fonality because:

(1) It comes with a ton of pre-built solutions so we don’t have to build it up ourselves via Asterisk
(2) It is continuously upgraded
(3) We have phone and email support for hardware and software support if needed
(4) We can hack the heck out of it and build it into our PHP solutions because it is Asterisk based

Last night I was emailed that they have automatically upgraded us to the 4.0 version. The main feature in 4.0 is the “FindMe with Boomerang Mobile Integration” that basically is a FindMe feature (i.e. if your out of the office, you can have the system try calling you at different phone numbers and if you like, you can answer it. Then with “Boomerang” when you get back to your office phone and you are still on the call, you can send the call back to your phone at your desk (I could have used that feature a billion times). Here are screen captures of how it kind of works:

You go to your features tab and then you can click on the “FindMe with Boomerang Mobile Integration” and you are shown a screen. Select, “FindMe Using a schedule” and you will see this:

Then based on the schedule you can set up a billion actions based on certain cases. Here is a screen capture:

Schedule is nice, but HUD status is really where it is at. If you use the Fonality HUD feature and set your status to available, away or offline and it will do different things based on that. Here is a screen shot of that screen:

Then at the bottom of each of these options are “FindMe White Lists” and also “VIP Lists” which are self-explanatory.

There are a ton of new features in 4.0 that I need to explore. Here are some:

• Calendar-based Scheduling
• Night mode feature
• Cards pages
• Faster reports
• Faster UI
• New set of alert notifications
• Many more features which I can’t list

There is however a large debate on if Fonality should sell this product. The open source community or at least some of them, are upset Fonality is profiting on this. Personally, they are providing huge value to me at a low cost, so I am all for them selling this. This is seriously a large corporation phone system at a small business price.

I have a meeting with a crew of people (who exactly, I am not sure) at Yahoo Search tomorrow. It is some sort of “advisory meeting” and I am delighted I was able to make it this time and even more delighted to have been invited to join.

I am not sure if I can blog about me even going, since I really can’t blog about what we talk about - but I am blogging that I am attending the meeting. Under NDA, like all of these things, I will only be able to blog about things in that meeting that I have permission to write about. So until then, I won’t be saying much more.

I have been at Yahoo advisory meetings in the past. The first formal one was when they launched Panama, the new Yahoo Search Marketing platform in October 2006. At that meeting, Yahoo Search Marketing hooked me up with some excellent Yahoo schwag. I wonder what type, if any, schwag they will have at this even.

As you know, I am going to Yahoo Search but I think I might be nuts for how I plane on doing it. Here is my schedule, if everything goes according to plan:

• Got up at 5:30am (EST) today and in office at 6:10am
• Leave office about 2ish to go to airport
• Get through security and on Internet at about 4ish
• Try to do blog research for tomorrow while waiting to board
• Take off at about 6pm
• Land in SFO at 9:30pm (12:30 midnight EST)
• Pick up rental car at SFO at 10pm (1am EST)
• Arrive with rental car at hotel 11pm (2am EST)
• Check email at hotel and prep for sleep by 11:30pm (2:30am EST)
• Set alarm clock to wake at 3:30am (6:30 EST)
• Work on RB, SER, SEL and so on until 9:30am (12:30 EST)
• Go to Yahoo
• Censored
• Leave Yahoo at about 7pm (10pm EST)
• Arrive at SJC (closer airport) at 7:30pm (10:30 EST)
• Get to gate by 8:30pm (11:30 EST)
• Try to do blog research for tomorrow while waiting to board
• Take off sometime after 9pm (12 midnight EST)
• Land in NY at 6am ish EST (if on time)
• Get out of airport by 6:30am
• Get to office at 7:30am

Now, if I can sleep on the flight from SJC to NY, then I will be okay. Chances are, I won’t be able to sleep. So I figure I will be sleeping about four hours between 5am this morning and 11pm Thursday night.

I did something like this once before, when I went to SES Sweden in 2004.

But when all is said and done, I should have reached my “Elite Status” with Continental airlines - making it all worth while.

Now that Ask.com ripped my heart out, I need to replace them as my default home page. I was thinking of going back to my old home page, Yahoo.com but then thought I would ask others what they use?

I also thought that since I rarely use a home page button, maybe I should make it one of my sites? What about Google personalized home page? I am not sure. My main sites that I use every day and all day are always open, heck I wrote about speeding that up. But now I have this home button that does nothing for me. I can always search Google, Yahoo, Live, or even Ask using inquisitor, one of my used tools on my computer. So I don’t want a search box to be my home page anymore.

Any ideas? Take the poll or comment…

Thanks!

Great comic by Chris Pirillo at his Flickr stream:

Daily Search Coverage:

How much do you love SEO? Google’s AdSense goes down on Saturday. Google promotes TV ads. Google mocks its own PageRank. Which data center are you on? SES NY schedule posted. Google drops military pictures. The do nots of conferences. Digg’s algorithm is hard. Yahoo’s Decker aims closer at becoming a search billionaire.

Search Engine Roundtable Topics:

1. A Great SEO License Plate
2. Google AdSense Down for Two Hours on Saturday
3. Google Sends Out More TV AdWords Beta Invitations
4. Google Once Again Says Toolbar PageRank Score To Be “Abstract”
5. Which Google Data Center Am I On Now?
6. SES New York 2008 Conference Coverage Schedule
7. Google Removes Military Installations off Street View
8. What You Should NOT do a Search Conferences
9. Digg’s Algorithm Cut Front Page Promotions by 38%

Search Engine Land Topics:

1. Search Engine Billionaires & Yahoo’s Decker Boosts Her Salary

Daily Link Finds:

This is the March 10th, issue of a daily post that will contain links to commentary of the posts over at the Search Engine Roundtable. All links I find throughout the day that ad some commentary to the posts written over at the Search Engine Roundtable, will be in the Daily Link Finds. The purpose is two fold: (1) To help people find discussion around our articles and (2) To thank people for linking to us. How do I find these links? Only one way, via a Google Blog Search link command, so make sure that (1) you are in Google Blog Search and (2) link to us.

Daily Link Finds for March 10th, 2008:

• AdWords Quality Score FAQ, PPC Discussions
• Bloggers Digest - 3/7/2008, Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog
• Friday Recap, BruceClay.com
• Google Temporarily Inaccessible In Germany, WebProNews
• SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 7, 2008, Search Engine Land
• Twitter is Actually Useful…I Know, I Was Shocked Too, InsureMe Affiliate Blog
• Amor SEO, adseok
• Camo saber de qu Data Center son los resultados de Google, adseok
• Google AdSense Site Suffers Outage, WebProNews
• Google e Governo, Querido Leitor - UOL Blog
• Google redesenha pagina de pesquisa avansada, Pretog News
• Is real estate’s mobile tipping point about to arrive?, Business2
• Link Building this Week (10.2008), Wiep.net
• Obsolete Skills and the Skills Needed for Today’s Blog Communication, Raven Wood Creative
• Search Headlines & Links: March 6, 2008, Search Engine Watch Blog
• What’s Happened To Ask.com?, R& R Web Design
• ??? ??? – ???? ?? ??? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ????, www.yud.co.il

I keep trying to upload images to Flickr from iPhoto via FlickrExport but I get “Error 2 in photos.upload.checkTickets.”

Seems like is it on Flickr’s side. A Flickr help post has a message from staff on this issue:

Hi folks -

This morning we lost a part of Farm1, and as a side-effect we’ve stalled on the uploads. We’re working on the problem right now, and we’re hopefully going to get it sorted out ASAP.

Sorry about this!

Hope it is fixed soon, got to show you guys something.

I decided to groom myself this weekend and get a hair cut and shave. Look how different I look now:

Yes, I know 52% of you wanted me to grow a beard. I can always do it later, it was just time for me to shave and while I was at it, I got a hair cut.

To see what I looked like on Friday, check out my video.

It has been light in the mornings at 5:45am, when I get out of the house. But that is going to change Sunday, when we change the clocks.

We spring forward.

So 5:45am will be like 4:45am - that always confuses me.

Back to darkness for a while, technically until late April, when the sun rises at 5:50ish.

Ughh, hate dark mornings.

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