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Went Hot: January 30, 2008 - 5:18 pm
Posted By: aimClear 219 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.searchengineguide.com)
Category: Google Other
17 Comments
Went Hot: January 30, 2008 - 5:18 pm
Posted By: aimClear 219 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.searchengineguide.com)
Category: Google Other
17 Comments
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Comments
Hours of work put into this one. Bookmarked! Thanks
The review shakeup was interesting. Results beginning to settle down a bit (on local map results). Bookmarked here too.
Just highlighted the post over at SEWBlog: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080129-234052
Ok now I'm ticked off, because I did this first and had it ignored by nearly everyone: http://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/google-maps-serps-earthbooker-pictures-panoramio-reviews/.
And pretty much the same thing happened with the whole 'can seo be automated' thing being popular at SEJ, who wrote it up weeks after I did (though to be fair, it's much less similar than the above from SEG, which is nearly a ripoff of my own list).
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/can-seo-be-automated/5662/
http://seoroi.com/seo-faq/can-seo-be-automated/
Gab - if you're suggesting that Miriam is ripping you off, I'd suggest you get to know Miriam first. That's not at all like her. Her post is more reminiscent of stuff Mike Blumenthal has been doing on his blog since last year.
Second, your post, if I may say so, seems to be about several different things. The list of review sites is added at the end almost like an afterthought. Your Sphinn headline is completely different. You mention the list of review sites in the Sphinn description, but I'll bet it was cutoff from being seen on the What's New page.
I guess what I'm saying is - please don't judge Miriam wrongly. :-)
@Gab: Don't blog when your pissed dude! Your comment is a little "Forrest Gump" like. Even if you're totally right, it does not come off well accusing someone of plagiarism in public. I've made plenty of mistakes in social media, so I'm not passing judgment. It's just one more example of why not to blog when your pissed.
@Matt: Yay for the even-handed & measured comment.
Trust me Gab, Miriam is not ripping you off. She has the utmost integrity and has been in the Local space for even longer than I have.
I agree with Matt -- her article was much more targeted & I also think her headline (and the Sphinn headline) were a bit more concise and might have led to more interest.
If I had ever heard of Gab's posts, I would have enjoyed them sooner.
Hi Guys,
Thank you, first of all, to Marty for sphinning this. What a treat :)
Gab, I give you my word, I do not recall ever seeing your post. I'm so sorry if you felt that I had taken something you wrote, and can only say, I simply would not plagarize a fellow SEO's work. And I'd be awfully foolish to do such a thing and then publish it on Search Engine Guide, thus compromising the reputation of all the other authors there. I spend hours and hours in Maps every week, and it simply occurred to me that a list like this would be useful. This is a case of coincidence...and not so odd that this could happen, right? After all, how many good bloggers have now written about quality directories for link getting purposes? Likely, as local becomes more and more studied, many of us who are interested in this will be turning our thought to like topics. I hope that makes sense, and that your concerns are alleviated.
David & Matt - thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate your defense of my character. It is a happy thing to be so highly regarded.
Miriam
Matt, Marty, you folks are right about cooling it. It's just frustrating when you had an idea first and then when someone else does it, they get the credit/attention for it.
I think I got a little excited because I'm taking intellectual property and we've been discussing this sort of thing, including unintentional copies where someone sees something then imitates it later subconsciously. (We were discussing whether that was infringement or not.)
As to the post being about several things, you're right again Matt. It's getting to be a bit of a style with me, as I have a lot of ideas and find a lot of things when researching around, so that I'm frequently in need of a good brain-dump. I started the scratchpad column for that reason, and I think you guys'll find some neat things there too that you won't have seen elsewhere: http://seoroi.com/case-studies/post-88-scratchpad/
BTW, Marty, have a look around for '20 top sphinners you should know' ...
Miriam, I apologize if I insulted you/offended you. I jumped to a conclusion that I shouldn't have, though in fairness I would like to claim the original take on this idea.
Gab, LOL, I missed the POST. I know who YOU are :) Good job dude.
Hi Gab,
No offense taken, and I appreciate the apology. I just went and visited your website. Unless I'm mistaken, I've never been there before. Looks like you have some great information.
I'm afraid I'm not seeing eye to eye with you about intellectual property or original ideas on this, though. The reviews are there in Maps for anyone to study, as they wish, you know? I'm not seeing a benefit for me saying, "I own this list. It's my idea." Anyone could amass the same data. It's not a secret. Perhaps if you expanded on how you see this, I would be able to better understand you. My current feeling is that there is nothing unusual in two SEOs posting on the same topic, and no reason this wouldn't happen spontaneously.
Case in point - when Bill Slawski writes about a patent, he is discussing a document that is available for all of us to see. I can't imagine him being bothered if others were writing on the same topic. To me, the concept of intellectual property might apply if one invented something, but not if one is merely covering applications or events. Do you see this differently? I'd be interested in hearing your further thoughts.
Miriam
I have a few hospitality clients and I’ve been paying close attention to local business results and blogged about it a few times.
This is a great post although anyone outside the US needs to do their own research and compile their own list because Google pulls information from local sources.
One thing I would add is that I’m seeing some quality problems with local business results. One of my clients is number one in the 10 box listing which is great and we’ve taken some steps to get there. However, when you click through, some of the reviews and photos are for a completely different business. I’ve seen other quality issues as well and know that other people have blogged about this. It’s still in roll out mode so I guess issues will be resolved as time goes on.
GMaps seem to be changing on a weekly, if not daily, basis these days. IMHO it seems like they are getting more responsive to feedback than they have been...and maybe Mike Blumenthal's post today on the Yahoo Local experience will get them going even more.
FWIW, Mike's definitely the best source I've found to stay on top of all of this regularly over at http://www.blumenthals.com/blog. He lives and breathes this stuff. Miriam's blog and Tim Coleman @ ConvertOffline do a great job too. Just my .02.
@Gab, one of the things that sets the SEO industry apart from others, to me, is the willingness to share credit with others for great ideas and techniques. Also, there've been tons of way more important scientific postulations (Calculus, for instance) where people discover things independently & both deserve credit for an original idea. Seems like this should be one of those cases...
Agreed, David. Mike Blumenthal is The Man as far as local is concerned.
Miriam
Little late to the party but....
In the end this isn't about me, nor Gab and certainly not about Miriam.
We are confronted with a black box that affects our lives every day. Between us, we have the brain power and some great communication technologies that will help us to better understand this black box....the intellectual problem is challenging and ever changing. It is more than any single person could ever understand from the outside looking in.
Only by cooperating, each picking off pieces, sharing knowledge and experimenting, tracking and reporting can we hope to understand what we are dealing with. Ultimately we need to work on this "aggregate knowledge" as only a collective "brain" can if we ever hope to understand enough to develop best practices. That knowledge will help us all.
The "open source" model works not just across software development but around all types of knowledge development. Knowledge is "meant to be free" and only together we can free more of that knowledge. When we do free it by working together, we all will benefit.
Mike Blumenthal
Miriam, Mike, I just meant that I wanted to be associated with the idea ("the original take on the idea"), not that nobody else could use it. I can see how you might read it that way, given the earlier reference to IP, but that wasn't the meaning there.
Also, and this is a glaring oversight on my part that's quite embarassing, I need to give Mike credit for opening my eyes to the value of reviews, and posting what I think was the first list of this nature. So the 'review site list' idea credit should go to Mike, imho, and if we want to talk specifics, he also did the first list of restaurant review sites, where Miriam and I did the first for hotels (Dave M, I agree with you).
Getting back to the original comment of mine that started this little debate, I was venting about it not having gone hot, for the most part. "Had it ignored by nearly everyone" was mainly a reference to the 4-5 sphinns it got. It still bugs me that you can't share multiple new ideas/discoveries in one post if you want sphinn's attention.
Lastly: whoever voted my earlier comment down ... you ever heard of an open discussion where you don't stifle opposing voices? Yeesh.