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This Is Why that Amazing NASA Earth Image Looked So Familiar

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Y-HwSNlxHLo/this-is-why-that-amazing-nasa-earth-image-looked-so-familiar

After publishing the The Most Accurate, Highest Resolution Earth View to Date, it got extremely popular: The day after, countless newspapers and blogs worldwide reposted the story. NASA wrote to us, surprised. Why? Because everyone already knew about it:

Yes, the Blue Marble is the iPhone’s default screen, which have been seen by millions of iPhone owners and by everyone who has read about the iPhone since 2007. In fact, the image has been public since 2002:

From: *************** <***********@nasa.gov>

Mr. Diaz

Hello. I am the photo editor for the Public Affairs Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

We were happy to see you featured our Blue Marble image on your website last week.

http://gizmodo.com/5478787/the-most-accurate-highest-resolution-earth-view-to-date#comments

We also featured it on our Flickr page but it has really taken off on the web. We had over 500,000 hits in the last two days alone.

Given that this is an image from 2002 I’m just curious what prompted you to post it on your site? Or did you pick it up from someplace other than our site? I see at the bottom it says “NASA via Twitter”

Really, I’m just curious because it’s gotten so much play over that few days.

Thank you for your interest in our work.

Take care,
Rebecca

The reason? Because it’s a beautiful image, that’s all. One that makes you marvel at the beauty of our planet, and how tiny and insignificant we are, but also how unique and rare. [Gizmodo—Thanks to John Hermann for telling me about the obvious]

Don’t forget to check NASA Goddard’s Flickr page. They keep posting really cool stuff.

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Friday, March 5th, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

Aardvark Publishes A Research Paper Offering Unprecedented Insights Into Social Search

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/IMDRrISRf-8/

In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin published a paper[PDF] titled Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Search Engine, in which they outlined the core technology behind Google and the theory behind PageRank. Now, twelve years after that paper was published, the team behind social search engine Aardvark has drafted its own research paper that looks at the social side of search. Dubbed Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine, the paper has just been accepted to WWW2010, the same conference where the classic Google paper was published.

Aardvark will be posting the paper in its entirety on its official blog at 9 AM PST, and they gave us the chance to take a sneak peek at it. It’s an interesting read to say the least, outlining some of the fundamental principles that could turn Aardvark and other social search engines into powerful complements to Google and its ilk. The paper likens Aardvark to a ‘Village’ search model, where answers come from the people in your social network; Google is part of ‘Library’ search, where the answers lie in already-written texts. The paper is well worth reading in its entirety (and most of it is pretty accessible), but here are some key points:

  • On traditional search engines like Google, the ‘long-tail’ of information can be acquired with the use of very thorough crawlers. With Aardvark, a breadth of knowledge is totally reliant on how many knowledgeable users are on the service. This leads Aardvark to conclude that “the strategy for increasing the knowledge base of Aardvark crucially involves creating a good experience for users so that they remain active and are inclined to invite their friends”. This will likely be one of Aardvark’s greatest challenges.
  • Beyond asking you about the topics you’re most familiar with, Aardvark will actually look at your past blog posts, existing online profiles, and tweets to identify what topics you know about.
  • If you seem to know about a topic and your friends do too, the system assumes you’re more knowledgeable than if you were the only one in a group of friends to know about that topic.
  • Aardvark concludes that while the amount of trust users place in information on engines like Google is related to a source website’s authority, the amount they trust a source on Aardvark is based on intimacy, and how they’re connected to the person giving them information
  • Some parts of the search process are actually easier for Aardvark’s technology than they are for traditional search engines. On Google, when you type in a query, the engine has to pair you up with exact websites that hold the answer to your query. On Aardvark, it only has to pair you with a person who knows about the topic — it doesn’t have to worry about actually finding the answer, and can be more flexible with how the query is worded.
  • As of October 2009, Aardvark had 90,361 users, of whom 55.9% had created content (asked or answered a question). The site’s average query volume was 3,167.2 questions per day, with the median active user asking 3.1 questions per month. Interestingly, mobile users are more active than desktop users. The Aardvark team attributes this to users wanting quick, short answers on their phones without having to dig for anything. They also think people are more used to using more natural language patterns on their phones.
  • The average query length was 18.6 words (median of 13) versus 2.2-2.9 words on a standard search engine.  Some of this difference comes from the more natural language people use (with words like “a”, “the”, and “if”).  It’s also because people tend to add more context to their queries, with the knowledge that it will be read by a human and will likely lead to a better answer.
  • 98.1% of questions asked on Aardvark were unique, compared with between 57 and 63% on traditional search engines.
  • 87.7% of questions submitted were answered, and nearly 60% of them were answered within 10 minutes.  The median answering time was 6 minutes and 37 seconds, with the average question receiving two answers.  70.4% of answers were deemed to be ‘good’, with 14.1% as ‘OK’ and 15.5% were rated as bad.
  • 86.7% of Aardvark users had been asked by Aardvark to answer a question, of whom 70% actually looked at the question and 38% could answer.  50% of all members had answered a question (including 75% of all users who had ever actually interacted with the site), though 20% of users accounted for 85% of answers.
Information provided by CrunchBase


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Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

Why Job Seekers Should Worry About Their Online Reputation

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/online-reputation-important-for-jobs/12582/

If you are looking for a job or are a potential job-seeker, be very careful of what you write or share online because HR departments and recruitment professionals are scanning tweets, blog posts, photos, and other online profiles of job candidates before offering them positions.

Why Online Reputation Management is Important

Around 70% of hiring managers in in US have rejected candidate just because of their online reputation. The chart looks at the various types of online information that have led companies to reject candidates.

Why Companies Reject Candidates

Tomorrow is Data Privacy Day and this research (download PPT) was originally commissioned by Microsoft as part of the same initiative.

Other than Microsoft, Google, Intel, AT&T are also part of the Data Privacy Day group. You should also check their site as it contains some excellent resources on how companies, students and parents can better protect their online information.

Why Job Seekers Should Worry About Their Online Reputation

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Facebook    Twitter    Technology Blog

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Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

Even Major Sites are Not Yet Benefiting From the Full Power of Search

@glenngabe’s post on  FaceYahoogle – The Impact of Facebook, Yahoo, and Google on Website Traffic inspired me to also look at the search terms driving traffic.  Most sites, even major ones have their own brand terms driving traffic. This is OK, but it is taking significantly less advantage of the full power of search.A more ideal scenario for sites is that they have a large number of non-brand terms driving traffic — i.e. the keywords they want to be known for are driving traffic to them.  The premise is that if the user already knew the brand or brand name, it would be redundant for the advertiser to spend awareness ad dollars on them. The advertiser wants to get users to their site who do not already know their brand name.  This is especially true for pharma drug websites, as you will see in the following examples.

GENERAL SITES

These sites have such a diverse set of products, services, or topics, we don’t expect the top search terms driving traffic to be anything other than their brand terms.  But they should have a long tail of thousands of keywords driving traffic (and they are, in the following examples).

NYTimes.com

nytimes

LinkedIn.com

linkedin

Weather.com

weather

CATEGORY SPECIFIC SITES

These sites focus on specific product categories, so one would expect that they should have keywords around their product category driving traffic — e.g. clothing, chocolate, wine, etc.  But as you can see, most don’t and the total number of keywords driving traffic could be larger than it is now (implying more long tail keywords).

JCrew.com – clothing

jcrew

Apple.com – computers, consumer electronics, iPod, music

apple

Godiva.com – chocolate

godiva

AnnTaylor.com – clothing, women’s

anntaylor

SINGLE NICHE SITES

Such sites should be all over search terms that surround the topic areas that they want to be known for. But as you see from the analytics, most don’t. Instead, the top terms driving traffic are their own brand name. Again, if the user already knew the brand, additional advertising would be wasted on them. The sites need to make efforts to “own” additional keywords (or at least “show up at the party”) so people who don’t know the brand name might still have a chance finding them when they type in other keywords surrounding the specific niche.

Sutent (Pfizer) – cancer drug

sutent

Nucynta (J0hnson & Johnson) – pain drug

nucynta

Spiriva (Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer) – COPD drug

NOTE: This is the best of the bunch of drug sites.  COPD, the disease area they want to be known for, does actually show up in the first 5 search terms driving traffic, along with emphysema and their product name handihaler. Also, notice they have nearly 10 times the number of keywords driving traffic compared to the other 2 drugs cited (65 vs 7 or 8 )

spiriva

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Sunday, December 6th, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment

A new definition of “digital” – the collection of habits and expectations of modern users

By defining “digital” as not the technology, device, or channel, but rather the habits and expectations of modern users, we are able to make practical decisions about which marketing tactics, technologies, devices, and channels to use to match these users’ habits and expectations.  If you know their habit is to search, then you wouldn’t blow your whole budget on TV ads and have nothing for them to find online when they search. if you believe they expect to be able to find information from their iPhones, then you wouldn’t make your whole site high bandwidth, flashy, and Flash because they wont be able to view it at all.

Thank you all for your comments and retweets.

HamiltonWallaceA New Definition of Digital: http://bit.ly/2deV5u Article nails how “digital” is changing behavior. Listen-up marketers!

glenngabeA New Definition of ‘Digital’ http://bit.ly/2deV5u via @acfou on ClickZ

belindaangRT @randymatheson: Do we need a new definition of ‘Digital’? | ClickZ http://ow.ly/qZ4N

randymathesonDo we need a new definition of ‘Digital’? | ClickZ http://ow.ly/qZ4N

jonnylongdenRT @arkley68: Good post by @acfou – A New Definition of ‘Digital’ – http://www.clickz.com/3635052 #measure #roi

BennaPReading: the new definition of ‘digital’ from @acfou -via Clickz – excellent and informative read http://www.clickz.com/3635052

bwhigamInteresting POV – A New Definition of ‘Digital’ – http://bit.ly/2deV5u

MJinNYCRT @acfou – Branding is dead; targeting is dying; social media is not media- A new definition of digital? – http://bit.ly/TTTPC

acfouBranding is dead; targeting is dying; social media is not media – if you believe this new definition of “digital” – http://bit.ly/TTTPC

SgtWiggidyA new definition of Digital – http://bit.ly/2deV5u – Good Read!

jacqueswarrenNot so hot about his definition of digital, but this is certainly an action packed article !! http://bit.ly/2deV5u

Adtraction_RAJ_The new definition of digital – not just websites anymore. http://bit.ly/pAfEP

arkley68Good post by @acfou – A New Definition of ‘Digital’ – http://www.clickz.com/3635052 #measure #roi

MPPR755DCSRT @kathymbaird Defining ‘digital’ http://tinyurl.com/yb5f9tq I work with a ‘digital’ team I teach a ‘digital’ course. This about sums it up

jeanaandersonI just had this conversation at an interview Tues: Is Digital killing the brand? Is creative losing its pull? http://www.clickz.com/3635052

RaynaNyc‘A New Definition of Digital’ http://bit.ly/Xn2Gr Thought provoking post by @acfou (via clickz)

HeidiPatmoreRT @Jussipekka Reading A New Definition of ‘Digital’ (via @DaGood) http://www.clickz.com/3635052

kathymbairdDefining “digital” http://tinyurl.com/yb5f9tq. I work with a “digital” team. I teach a “digital” course. This about sums it up.

mktmobileA New Definition of ‘#Digital’: is not about products, it’s all about habits and expectations http://bit.ly/iTH67

fsdigitalA New Definition of ‘Digital’? : http://bit.ly/moxhd

konsultantasRT @baltix A New Definition of ‘Digital’ http://htxt.it/ZnVv

JussipekkaReading A New Definition of ‘Digital’ (via @DaGood) http://www.clickz.com/3635052

baltixA New Definition of ‘Digital’ http://htxt.it/ZnVv

sunshooter81A New Definition of ‘Digital’: Many people actively search for things online. And the moment they type i.. http://bit.ly/19irO8

DeanLandRecommended reading. Good piece from AC Fou: RT @acfou: How do you define “digital”? I define it thusly … http://bit.ly/TTTPC

acfouHow do you define “digital”? I define it thusly … http://bit.ly/TTTPC

LevickHow the new definition of “digital” is shaping marketing trends (from @acfou) http://bit.ly/Xn2Gr

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Thursday, September 24th, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments

How NOT to design a web page

a great technique to use to see if your website design is too cluttered or busy is to shrink it down to a thumbnail (like below).  You will quickly see that your eye is trying to find something to focus on in each case.  If you can’t find the thing to focus on, then you need to go back and simplify the design. Only in rare and specific circumstances should your site deliberately have multiple points of focus.  Even then, there should be a sequential order to what the user is led to see.

website-design

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Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 Uncategorized 3 Comments

Contextual Help Bubble – Dictionary, Thesaurus, Wikipedia, Amazon, Google Translate, Clip2Send

Dead simple, handy tool for adding contextual help to any web page or entire site. It is installed on this blog — so go ahead and select something with your mouse.

Install on any webpage or blog by way of 1 line of code:

<script src=”http://64.202.162.213/bubble/bubble.js“></script>

Select any text, contextual bubble appears, click Wikipedia to get more information about the selected text

contextual-bubble-wikipedia-1contextual-bubble-wikipedia-2

When more than 5 words are selected, other options are grayed out and clip2send is the link to click to send the selected part of the page via email. Type in the email address; the subject line is autofilled, but editable; the source URL is automatically cited>

contextual-bubble-clip2send-1contextual-bubble-clip2send-2

Select text, contextual bubble appears, click Amazon link to bring up results on Amazon.

contextual-bubble-amazon-1contextual-bubble-amazon-2

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Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments

Top Posts Week Ending August 22, 2009.

  • Samsung 52 inch HDTV $9.99 at BestBuy – purchase receipt below (6:21a eastern time August 12, 2009)
  • The JKWeddingDance video was real; the viral effect was MANUFACTURED – Post 1 of 2
  • How to manufacture a viral video sensation and make viral profits – Post 2 of 2
  • Facebook advertising metrics and benchmarks
  • Two perfectly executed viral marketing programs in the SAME day – #bestbuy #jetblue #all-you-can-jet
  • The Perfect Babe – Megan Fox (pics)
  • JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet Pass – how viral can be manufactured (easily)
  • social media benchmarks
  • What is Web 3.0? Characteristics of Web 3.0
  • crispin porter bogusky’s beta site
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    Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments

    Top Posts – Week Ending August 7, 2009.

  • The JKWeddingDance video was real; the viral effect was MANUFACTURED – Post 1 of 2
  • Facebook advertising metrics and benchmarks
  • How to manufacture a viral video sensation and make viral profits – Post 2 of 2
  • The Perfect Babe – Megan Fox (pics)
  • crispin porter bogusky’s beta site
  • What is Web 3.0? Characteristics of Web 3.0
  • social media benchmarks
  • Twitter Marketing; Twitter Advertising; Twitter Customer Service
  • Enthusiast digital cameras – super high-speed, high dynamic range, foveon direct capture
  • Brand Gravity attracts new customers and keeps current ones in orbit
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    Monday, August 10th, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments

    #whentwitterwasdown – Twitter crippled by massive #ddos (distributed denial of service) attack

    As many of you may have noticed, Twitter was down for many hours starting Thursday morning August 6 and remained intermittent even when it was brought back up. The theory is that this was caused by a massive DDOS attack on their servers including the services that other web applications depended on — that means that outside services (twitter applications) were also taken down.

    For an explanation of denial-of-service attack or distributed-denial-of-service, this is the wikipedia entry. It basically is an attacker using a large number of “zombie” computers to “hit” the victim’s site at the same time, thus overloading it, and causing it to not be able to respond to legitimate traffic.

    ddos-diagram

    Full Coverage of the Social Media DDoS (Source: Mashable)


    Is Cyber Warfare to Blame for Twitter Meltdown?

    Denial of Service Attacks Being Investigated by Google, Twitter, Facebook

    Facebook Problems Also the Result of DDoS Attack

    Twitter Outage Explained: What’s a Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDoS)?

    Twitter Down Due to Denial of Service Attack (DDoS)

    Facebook Down. Twitter Down. Social Media Meltdown.

    Twitter Down: Twitter Doesn’t Know Why

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    Friday, August 7th, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments