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<title>Sphinn / billslawski / Hot Today</title>
<link>http://sphinn.com</link>
<description>Sphinn</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:56:12 -0700</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Visual Comparison of Search Results: A Censorship Case Study]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/60345</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/60345</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:56:12 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Tips &amp; Tools</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/60345</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The search results that you see from Google in the US for a specific query may be different than the search results you see in France, or China, or Germany.  Indiana University researchers have developed an interesting tool that points out differences in search result sets from one country to another.  These differences may be the result of censorship, or could be caused by other factors, such as a preference for showing shopping or local results.  Very interesting tool, regardless.<br/><br/>39 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Social Responsibility and the Small Business]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/59712</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/59712</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:40:40 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Social Media</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/59712</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The growth of the social web, increases in search engines understanding sentiments and opinions in reviews and user created content, and greater scrutiny of misleading business practices urge businesses to become more socially responsible.  What steps are you taking with your business to treat all of your stakeholders more responsibly, including your customers and your community around you?<br/><br/>49 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Representing Your Business on the Social Web]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/47968</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/47968</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 15:00:06 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Social Media</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/47968</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Linkbaiting false stories, using sockpuppets in social voting networks, engaging in comment spam and forum spam, being solely self promotional in venues where self promotion is frowned upon?Small business can benefit from engaging in conversations within their markets.  But, what responsibilities do merchants have when they venture into social networking and blogging, in entering into the conversations that people are having about those markets?<br/><br/>49 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The Social Art of Creating Titles]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/33633</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/33633</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:30:49 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Social Media</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/33633</guid>
<description><![CDATA[What makes a title a good one for the personalities that you see in a social setting? In your personal networks? An insightful and fun exploration on the topic of creating page and article titles for the many people you may find in different social atmospheres.<br/><br/>47 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[SEO = Content, Site Architecture, Traffic & Popularity]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/32740</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/32740</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:47:12 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/32740</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A nicely done high level overview of search algorithms and the role of SEO in optimizing sites.<br/><br/>38 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[You've got Mixx in My Facebook]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/31667</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/31667</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:05:09 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Social Media</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/31667</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mixx shares the news that just about anything you could do on Mixx, you can now do in Mixx on Facebook.Good move, bad move?  I don't know.  But it's interesting to see social sites being social like this.<br/><br/>39 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tips to StumbleUpon Success]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/28349</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/28349</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:17:15 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Social Media</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/28349</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Stumbleupon is a great way to discover new websites, and the lessons learned, and shared, in this article about SU are helpful and insightful regarding stumbleupon and social networks in general.<br/><br/>50 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Dona4t Get Too Comfortable at the Top!]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/25419</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/25419</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:52:00 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/25419</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Does the evolution of search and the web point towards search engines favoring sites that update and change frequently,and follow the conversations between site owners and their audiences?Nice discussion of the topic.<br/><br/>39 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Spurring Discussion (Posts) on Sphinn]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/25143</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/25143</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:26:32 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Sphinn Zone</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/25143</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A quick run through the &quot;Hot Topics,&quot; the &quot;What's New,&quot; and &quot;Sphinn's Greatest Hits&quot; shows that news posts outnumber discussion posts on a grand scale.I think it's great that news posts are so popular, I wondered if discussion posts could gain in frequency with some minor changes to Sphinn.I do believe that the architecture of a social site can influence how it is used, and that there might be some way of calling more attention to discussions.  Since Sphinn allows both News posts and Discussions, it seems like discussions were envisioned to be part of the site, perhaps on a greater manner than they are now.One change that might make a difference is having a  comments box for news stories and a comments box for discussions.  Presently, comments for both inhabit the same area on the pages of Sphinn.Anyone find that thought interesting, or have some other ideas on how to spur on more discussion posts?Thanks.<br/><br/>44 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Learning SEO Tidbits: Did you know?]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/24717</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/24717</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:31:36 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/24717</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I like looking at primary resources like patents and white papers.  I also like exploring the history of the Web and the .net to understand those better.SEO is constantly changing, as noted in the article, and 1998s SEO has evolved a great deal since those days.  Looking back at that history, and understanding the changes since then can provide a lot of insights that you might not otherwise perceive.<br/><br/>31 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Dropped Search Engine Rankings]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/24701</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/24701</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:48:11 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/24701</guid>
<description><![CDATA[There are a number of reasons why rankings within search engines may decrease.  Some of them might not be that obvious.  Provides a number of things to explore, and resources, to understand why rankings may have dropped.<br/><br/>41 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Power To The Dojo]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/23724</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/23724</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:13:44 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Online Marketing</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/23724</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Kim offers encouragement to people considering the Search Marketing industry, and thinking about entering into jobs in the SEO field.What would you tell someone contemplating becoming an SEO?<br/><br/>33 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[New Google Approach to Indexing and Stopwords]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/23640</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/23640</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:59:14 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google Searching</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/23640</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Frequently used words, or stop words, were often ignored in search engine indexing, but sometimes they can be  significant to a search, like one for the opening line of a Shakespearean soliloquy, &quot;To be, or not to be?&quot;  If using compression intelligently in an index can mean more precision in results, and make phrase searching better, without sacrificing speed or disk space used (and perhaps even reducing the use of disk space), that can have some interesting implications.<br/><br/>54 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Yahoo Replaces PageRank Assumptions with User Data]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/23376</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/23376</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:05:59 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Yahoo</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/23376</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It's good to see folks in the search community challenging some assumptions behind PageRank, while introducing a new flavor of PageRank which replaces those assumptions with user data. A patent application from Yahoo, published last week, takes aim at Random Surfers, Unguided Teleportation, Block Level Approaches, and the Equality of Links, from people who know PageRank very well.<br/><br/>58 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[How Search Really Works: Meta Keywords]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/22745</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/22745</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:57:36 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/22745</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Ruud dives into how search works, with a review of the usefulness of meta keywords and how off page factors act as meta data.<br/><br/>53 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Search Party: Google squares off with its Capitol Hill critics]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/22306</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/22306</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:12:59 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/22306</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This long New Yorker article provides some intriguing insights into the leadership, operations, and ambitions of Google.  Lots of great quotes from many conversations with people inside and outside of Google.One of my favorite passages:&quot;What sets Google apart, Schmidt told me in another conversation, is that although people like him always assumed that 'Google would be an important company, the founders always assumed that Google would be a defining company.' He remembers a day in 2002 when he walked into Page's office and Page started to show off a book scanner he had built. 'What are you going to do with that, Larry?' Schmidt recalls asking. 'We're going to scan all the books in the world,' Page replied.&quot;<br/><br/>42 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Google on Reading Text in Images from Street Views, Store Shelves, and Museum Interiors]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/21282</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/21282</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:59:15 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/21282</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Real picture taking robots, coming to stores and museums near you?  Plus, how well can Google really understand text within images?  Possible very well.<br/><br/>44 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Do Search Engines Hate Blogs?  Microsoft Explores an Algorithm to Identify Blog Pages]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/19956</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/19956</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:53:42 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Blogging</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/19956</guid>
<description><![CDATA[From the patent application:&quot;Search engines are increasingly implementing features that restrict the results for queries to be from blog pages.&quot;Do you think that search engines purposefully push down search results from blogs?<br/><br/>50 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Google Patent on Anchor Text and Different Crawling Rates]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/18143</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/18143</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:45:04 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/18143</guid>
<description><![CDATA[How does Google mine anchor text from links, and what kind of text around links might it also use to determine relevancy for pages being linked to?What role might PageRank play in a page being included in a Base, Daily, or Realtime crawling process, and what other factors might be involved in how quickly pages are recrawled?Might anchor text pointed to duplication pages influence the relevance of the canonical versions of those pages?A newly granted patent from Google explores those topics.<br/><br/>52 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[What every SEO should know about Personalized Search]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/15011</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/15011</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:28:04 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/15011</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A thoughtful and helpful look at how personalization in search may impact search results, and an exploration of a handful of the key metrics involved in that personalization.Very nicely done.<br/><br/>30 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Color Me (Socially) Green]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/12518</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/12518</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 06 Nov 2007 01:16:11 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>News Sites</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/12518</guid>
<description><![CDATA[People are talking: Carbon offsets, plug-in hybrids, species extinction, debt-for-nature swaps, urban sustainability, permafrost meltdowns, carfree days.Links to Green Communities and Social Networks, so that you can join in on the conversations.<br/><br/>37 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Expanded Broad Match Corrupted - Stop Using It!]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/9199</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/9199</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:43:42 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google AdWords</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/9199</guid>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;Around August 20, 2007 many clients' Google AdWords accounts saw their cost/conversion skyrocket - in one particular case we saw it was over 100% increase. It was caused by a corrupted &quot;Expanded Broad Match&quot; algorithm.&quot;Why does Google refuse to allow opt out for &quot;expanded broad match&quot;?  Does it have to do with pressures applied from Wall Street?<br/><br/>41 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Should a Small Business Blog?]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/7382</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/7382</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:35:38 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Blogging</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/7382</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I'm sure that many of the ideas in this post are probably familiar to the many bloggers who post here.  I'm curious though as to some of the things that you might tell people who express an interest about blogging for their business.<br/><br/>44 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[20 More Ways that Search Engines May Rerank Search Results]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/6171</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/6171</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:21:18 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/6171</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Last October, I wrote about &quot;20 ways search engines might rerank search results.&quot; It was Sphunn a couple of days ago (thanks, Dave), and Danny pulled it from the &quot;what's new&quot; section, because, like, it's not new. :)I vowed to write a sequel in the sphinn comments to that one.  So here it is.<br/><br/>48 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google's Gpay Not a Paypal Competitor After All]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/4439</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/4439</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:25:26 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/4439</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The question is, though, will they launch it.  The Google patent application highlights a method of using text messaging to make offline payments directly to merchants, or even through vending machines.The patent filing includes screenshots of Gpay interfaces.<br/><br/>20 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Staying at the Paris Hilton: Untangling Location Searches and Searcher Location]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/2953</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/2953</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:58:09 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Yahoo</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/2953</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Yahoo explores methods to figure out a user's intent in location-based searches, and to identify the location of searchers, in a patent that was granted yesterday.<br/><br/>19 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[What Triggers Local Search Information to Appear in Web Search Results]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/2719</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/2719</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 12 Aug 2007 15:58:32 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/2719</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I've been hearing that local search results appearing in search engine Web results pages have become pretty popular since being introduced.How might whois data play a role in whether contact and address information is displayed in search resuls?  What special challenges might large sites, or businesses with many locations face in having that contact information shown?  A new Google patent application considers those issues and others.<br/><br/>27 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Going Supplemental with Google's Extended Databases]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/2471</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/2471</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:09:39 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/2471</guid>
<description><![CDATA[How does Google estimate the number of results for a query?When and why do you get that message at the bottom of SERPs, that tells you to click upon it to see more results?  How does a standard index, cache, and extended index work together to provide results to a searcher?I've walked through, and summarized, the processes described in a couple of Google patents to see how and when expanded database results might appear with standard index results.<br/><br/>21 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[The SEO of Everyday Pages]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/1973</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/1973</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:39:38 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>SEO</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/1973</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Often contact pages, directions pages, and other mundane &quot;everyday&quot; pages are overlooked when it comes to optimizing a site.  Yet, those pages may present opportunities for organic and Universal Search results that can't be matched by other pages on a site.  These are pages that small businesses could be taking advantage of, but often don't.<br/><br/>34 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Google Patent Granted on Semantic Units (Meaningful Compound Words) -]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/1400</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/1400</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:02:12 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Google</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/1400</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A Google patent granted this week, and filed in 2000, describes a reranking process for semantically meaningful phrases appearing in search queries.  This isn't the phrase-based indexing that some have blamed a -950 penalty for, nor the Infoseek phrase-based indexing technology that Google acquired in 2005, but it does seem like a sensible way to do some reranking of results when there are semantically meaningful relationships between words which appear in a query together.<br/><br/>21 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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