SEO and Tech Daily

Microsoft launches Silverlight 3 (Updated)

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:45:00 +0000

Microsoft quietly began rolling out the latest version of Silverlight (3.0.40624.0) late yesterday.

Visitors to numerous Silverlight-driven websites were greeted with a message "You do not have the latest version of Silverlight ... Would you like to install?".

Details on the new Silverlight 3 can now be found at the Silverlight website here.

The roll-out of Microsoft's rich media competitor to Adobe's Flash, came a day sooner than the official announcement, which took place a short time ago.

Update 1: Previous developer builds of Silverlight 3 must be uninstalled (from Windows Update in the case of Windows 7) before installing this new version.

The demo is now up and running at seethelight.com, and a few moments ago, Microsoft product manager Karen Corby posted links 'to the good stuff' (including the all-new Microsoft Expression Blend 3 Release Candidate) at her blog here.

Google : We're looking at you Microsoft (Update 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:13:00 +0000

There was a lot of speculation last year when Google announced their own Internet browser Chrome.

The search giant was developing a competing product to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Firefox (heavily funded by Google), Apple's Safari (and numerous other products).

This morning, Google reintroduced Chrome as an Operating System.

Cloud computing has been in heavy development by both Google, Microsoft and others. Essentially, using the web for your applications rather than having them loaded on your hard drive.

In a prelude to today's announcement, Google dropped the Beta tag (finally) from a host of online products including GMail, Google Docs, Google Sites, and more yesterday. The Google online 'office like' suite was, in fact, one of the first, and now competes directly with Microsoft's Office Online (now known as Microsoft Office Live) which has been growing a rich feature set as well.

Enter Google's browser Chrome. Available in three 'flavors'. Developer, Beta tester, and a stable release.

Initially targeting Netbooks (mini-Notebook PCs), Google has used the phrase Google Chrome OS for the first time today and announced that Netbooks running the Google Chrome OS will be available in the second half of 2010 confirming that Google is also working with hardware manufacturers.

While some will speculate that Google is taking a shot at Microsoft with this announcement, it's more likely that Google is looking at the bottom line and other products and services that make money. Google needs to go beyond search and this is one direction they are taking seriously.

With there's little doubt that the tech community will be all over this rollout, it still remains to be seen whether or not large enterprise users will embrace (or trust) cloud computing.

Our take for now is that this very possibly could effect the price of Microsoft's (and other) client products as well as their online offerings, depending on how aggressive Google gets.

Everyone is looking at the huge potential of an economic turnaround (worldwide) and the outright fact that almost every company in some way (including most in the Fortune 500) have a lot of delayed technology upgrading to do.

Competition is healthy for the consumer. Google just kicked it up a notch for next year.

Update 1: An informative Q and A has been posted regarding the Google Chrome OS to the Chrome Blog here.

Update 2: Google has confirmed (on the Chrome Blog) that they are working directly with hardware manufacturers including Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.

Beta invites go out - Microsoft Hohm

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:43:00 +0000

A few hours ago, beta invites were received by a variety of Microsoft Connect members, other registered Microsoft users, and even by quite a few users that simply have a .net log-on address.

The Hohm beta website, which is open to ALL, is now live and can be found here.

You'll need a .net logon (IE: @live, @msn, @hotmail, etc.) to access the site.

A critical examination (with links to other articles as well) was posted this morning by my colleague Peter Troast at Energy Circle here.

Friendfeed on Steroids - NO LIMITS

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:32:00 +0000

It's no secret that I've been a fan of Friendfeed from just about the beginning.

Watching the service mature, change, experiment and react to suggestions by users has been not only fascinating ..... but I've always felt just a preview of the 'next big thing'.

While I'm the first to admit I've never taken the time to truly leverage Friendfeed's capabilities like Robert Scoble, Louis Gray and others have (particularly lists), those of us that have watched Friendfeed evolve and participated as possible, easily saw the potential of what these ex-Googlers were doing.

The one thing Friendfeed still lacks is a guide of sorts for new users. The feature set is not yet obvious despite numerous changes. (I have been asked by lots of people why I'm so loyal to Friendfeed. The reason they ask is that if you just stumble across it, you can engage, learn, even have some fun .... but you won't really realize what it can do).

Factually, in the past year, some of my best (and profitable) business contacts have been made on Friendfeed.

Earlier in the week, Friendfeed added a few themes. It had to be a teaser, although I like the Helvetica theme a lot:

This morning, Friendfeed which is already real time with no limits on followers, unleashed Friendfeed Real Time search.

This is more than gravy. This is back to ' Friedfeed month one'. It's a whole new ball game.

Example (hat-tip Louis Gray):

This is my current Friendfeed:

If you're currently logged in to Friendfeed, you can literally access it right from here. There's no denying it. This is HUGE (and updating in Real-Time!).

Get lost? Type in a couple of letters to Friendfeed's new search box and locate your groups, follows and more .... in seconds.

Then came a suggestion by Googler Matt Cutts:

It was implemented in less than a couple of hours (and yes, you can embed someone's else's stuff in your blog too .... :)

The reality (that Scoble, Gray, more recently Leo Laporte and others) have been trying to drive home is that if you take the time to set up Friendfeed to your own taste (including over 50 online services, most with import and export) you can have discussions, get serious, have some fun, or network the way networking should be.

Do yourself a favor and head over to the newly-updated (again!) Friendfeed.

Join in ..... or just find out more on the 'FriendBlog' here.

Just try not to get addicted ... like I did all over again tonight :)

Twitter just got better

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:28:00 +0000

As noted by Biz Stone just a few moments ago on the Twitter Blog .... the team at Twitter just rolled out a few changes aimed at making it easier to work with your 'follower' and 'following' lists (directly from the web interface).

The ability to SMS, Follow, Direct Message, and more just went live.

I doubt anyone would argue that most of these changes are long overdue.

Simple on the surface, yet Twitter just got better.

Microsoft - 2 Huge New Green Data Centers

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Microsoft announced the addition of two mega data centers to go online during July.

The first goes live tomorrow in Dublin, Ireland.

Spanning 303,000 square feet, this new data center currently has 5.4 megawatts of critical power available and is expected to be expanded to 22.2 mega watts.

The second is in the US. The Chicago data center will go online July 20th. The facility is 700,000 square feet (or the size of 16 football fields!) and will utilize the latest 'container' technology.

Both facilities have been built to new (Generation 3) energy efficiency standards.

More on the new Microsoft mega data denters can be found at TechNet here.

Details on Microsoft's practices for environmentally sustainable data centers can be found here.

Bing Photo Contest and Webmaster Toolbox

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:46:00 +0000

Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, continues to roll-out a variety of new marketing and webmaster initiatives.

The Bing Photo Contest on Facebook lets you enter your photos for your own 'moment of fame' on Bing's front page.

Webmasters were introduced to the Bing Toolbox over the weekend with updated information including how to get your website listed in Bing, submitting XML sitemaps, and a new Bing API.

It's worth noting that Bing, like it's predecessor Live.com, still relies heavily on the sitemaps.org robots.txt file standard (IE: Include that XML sitemap line in your robots.txt file!).

You can also ping your new or updated XML sitemap to Bing directly from your browser. The new layout is:
http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?siteMap=[your full xml sitemap URL]

Bing IS still producing a significantly higher organic return than Live.com on websites that I watch.

Is it novelty or do people like it?

Time will tell :)

Got News? Google and YouTube Want You!

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:17:00 +0000

Many of us have noted significant changes at YouTube over the past few months.

YouTube has ramped up monetizing. Not only with large banner ads right on the front page at times, but within videos themselves, as well as YouTube promoted videos.
A cool feature that lets you link to mark specific spots within in your videos.
Expanded use by of YouTube by Google themselves, with new and expanded Google Channels, and most recently ....
Brand Channels, expansion of the YouTube Reporters Channel , integration of YouTube videos in Google News, and ...
The very cool YT Screening Room.

As noted in a post of the YouTube Biz Blog as short time ago (and cross posted to the Google News Blog), the YouTube News Channel is partnering with Google News and is rolling out the welcome mat.

It's important to note that Google IS including 'citizen journalism' video as well as 'unique' news organizations deemed to be 'authoritative' in the news partner program.

It's pretty apparent that Google and YouTube want to be 'the' online video news portal while making Google News faster and more relevant.

With Video and Mobile still on the cutting edge of search and no doubt the continuing next chapter on the Internet, Google wants to be all over this .... and right now, they're offering you a chance to be part of it.

More details on how to be featured on the YouTube News Channel (or other new channel) can be found here (or here). The YouTube Partner program can be found here.

Firefox 3.5 likely for this week (Updated)

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:09:00 +0000

Earlier today, I noticed a post on WebMonkey that the public 'final' version of Firefox 3.5 could be available as early as Tuesday.

Apparently, BetaNews confirmed this info a short time ago.

Firefox is still my default browser. The reason, for the most part, is the myriad of extensions that just make it an easier and customizable Internet experience for me. I do use Google Chrome (the dev versions), and seem to have had a better-than-most experience with the version of Internet Explorer 8 version that's comes with Windows 7 RC.

My earlier attempts with various release candidates of 3.5 were not as 'healthy' but that's what Beta and Release Candidates are all about...... To get those of us that like messing with this stuff to help get the bugs out (while getting the word out) ... for free :)

Late this afternoon, I downloaded the latest RC (3) of Firefox 3.5. I installed it using Windows 7 RC on a laptop with reasonable system resources.

There IS a 'noticable' difference and it's been running smoothly with no crashes or huge 'memory blocks'. While I don't (never have) benchmark software because I think it's a very safe assumption that there are too many variables (IE: Your hardware, Internet connection, existing running processes, etc.), I think it's safe to say that Mozilla has a fairly substantial improvement on the way with Firefox 3.5.

The Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 3 can be downloaded here , or, you can 'play it safe' and wait for Tuesday :)

Great Weekend you guys ...
Charlie

Update 1: Some major websites are not yet recognizing Firefox 3.5 including the new Google Adwords PPC interface.

Update 2: June 30, 2009 11 AM ET: Firefox 3.5 has been released. The current 'available languages' download page can be found here, and the release notes are here.

Microsoft launches special Windows 7 pricing (Update 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Microsoft Investor Relations (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced they will be holding a conference call / webcast at 8 AM PDT today to explain the new Windows 7 upgrade program (and discount program for early purchasers) and related accounting information for investors.

The Webcast and Powerpoint presentation will be available here.

Some insight was been provided earlier in this video from the Windows Team Blog:

Announcing the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program & Windows 7 Pricing

Update 1 - 6 PM ET: ArsTechnica appears to have the rundown on upgrade and full pricing in an updated piece here.

Update 2 - Channel 10 (owned by Microsoft) has confirmed the pricing being reported.

Update 3 - Friday June 26, 8 AM ET - The two Microsoft Windows 7 upgrade program websites are now live here and here, although some individual manufacturers are still putting up their own pages.

Microsoft is also now offering the Windows 7 pre-order pricing at the Microsoft Store.

What's beyond a Black Belt ? A Gmail Master?

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:38:00 +0000

In a post to the Official Gmail Blog a short time ago titled So, you want to be a Gmail ninja? ....
in a way I suppose only Google can do, the Gmail team introduced a new chart explaining the in's and outs of Gmail, which ... ugh .. allows you to rank yourself:

White Belt .. Green Belt .. Black Belt, or (have a seat?) .... Gmail Master!

From what we can tell, there is no bodily harm potential (IE: Kicking, quick movements, splitting bricks).

Just a good understanding of what you can do with a Gmail account.

You can 'peek' at the chart right here. (Note: It will open as a PDF) ... or .... you can order an (official) laminated one from www.barcharts.com/gmail for $1.25 US.

The 1024 freebies that Google offered earlier today are already gone.
(Yeah, I know, bummer).

There's also a new online Gmail tip page just launched here.

I have a feeling we may see a few of the laminated babies floating around SMX East or the next Google get together ...

We'll see :)

Microsoft Unleashes Free Antivirus Beta (Updated)

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:54:00 +0000

Announced in November by Microsoft, the long awaiting (beta) successor to OneCare arrived a short time ago.

We downloaded copies from the Microsoft Connect Website for both XP and our Windows 7 RC box.

Set-up was essentially seamless.

Being a touch cautious, we offloaded Avast (on the XP3 box) and AVG (on the Windows 7 box) before installing.

The program goes through a validation check (IE: You must be using 'genuine Microsoft software') prior to installation, then in an easy step-by-step fashion, downloads current virus signatures and goes through a quick default scan of your PC.

Unlike other beta testers, Windows Essentials (previously code named 'Morro') found no spyware or viruses lurking here.

Perhaps that's because we use CCleaner on a regular basis to clean out our caches, junk files, cookies, etc ... or ... the other AntiVirus software just worked ? :)

Interestingly, there was no problem logging into Microsoft Connect using Firefox to download the new Beta.

While some other pre-release articles are noting a limit on downloads, we were unable to confirm this plus (check this out?), Microsoft is currently running ads on Google announcing the release:

Security Essentials will replace Windows Defender on your PC if you use it. So far, memory use on both boxes appears minimal.

Microsoft has stated that Windows Essentials is not an attempt to replace commercially available AntiVirus solutions but to spread a touch more security to those that can't afford more elaborate programs.

Of course, with plenty of free programs out there, most notably AVG, there could be a bit of an argument to be made there.

On the other hand, if Redmond designed the program to run better with their own software as well as proprietary pieces, it might be 'a good thing'.....

Update 1 - 2 PM ET: ZDNet is reporting that downloads will be capped at 75,000. Liveside.net is saying it 'might be changed'.
Update 2 - 10 PM ET The beta is still available at this hour (no doubt exceeding 75,000 downloads) and is also available with an interesting write-up at BetaNews here.
Update 3 - 11 PM ET An alert Digg user (with thanks to 'diskserious') noted that the disabling of Windows Defender is not yet active. The Microsoft explanation can be found here.
Final Update - 11 AM June 24 - As of this morning, downloads were no longer available in the US.

Google - A new landmark in computer vision

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:46:00 +0000

This morning, Google announced an initiative for computer recognition of thousands of landmarks around the world.

Cross-posted a short time ago from the Google Research Blog to the Official Google Blog, the research team is presenting a paper (see below) at the CVPR Conference in Miami that explains "a new technology that enables computers to quickly and efficiently identify images of more than 50,000 landmarks from all over the world with 80% accuracy".

The Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference is put on the by the IEEE Computer Society and is ongoing now until June 25th.

You can read the entire Google paper here (Note: will open as a PDF).

You can also follow the CVPR conference on Twitter @CVPR or check out their Facebook page here.

The new (SEO-friendly) CBS News Beta website

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:58:00 +0000

As US and International news websites continue to position themselves for greater visibility to a wider audience, we couldn't help but notice the all-new CBS News website with a 'tour' now online in Beta.

The site embraces four search marketing and user-friendly vehicles that others are also moving to:

1) It's easy, simple-to-navigate, and uncluttered. (With a touch of rich media, simple is the new 'in').
2) It's more SEO friendly than the old CBS site. Perhaps less a few 'alt tags', the code is easier to crawl than ever.
3) User engagement is on board "Tell us what you think" and ...
4) Lots of video.

The tours offer you the choice of being introduced to the site by Katie Couric, Lara Logan, Charles Osgood, Bob Schieffer, Peter Van Sant, Lesley Stahl, or the CBS Early Show Anchor team.

It's a pretty good guess that they're keeping track off who you click on first :)

We did several pieces on CBS and their hyper web engagement during the CNET acquisition and after the 60 Minutes Stahl - Zuckerberg interview in January 2008. (It was well before the entire electronic world jumped on Facebook for promotional purposes).

CBS continues to innovate and do a little combat with their competitors here in the US, and now hundreds (thousands?) of news outlets around the world right here on the web.

The site designers also seem to have an affection for Darth Vader?!

If it's still there when you read this, the first line is within a comment tag (IE: You have to look at the source code to see it). Just before the first head tag.

-- Vader loves you and chad --

Apparently a reference to these guys.

You can check out the new Beta CBS News format here.

TweetDeck Desktop upgrade now available

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:53:00 +0000

While everyone's bound to be writing and commenting later today on Tweetdeck for iPhone, Tweetdeck's Desktop client just got upgraded to version 0.26.2 as well!

Previously in beta, the public release today introduces a LOT of new features, among them :

Sync –Sync your TweetDeck and iPhone
Multiple account support - Manage multiple Twitter accounts
Local trends
Qik and 12seconds video clip integration.
A new ‘Block & Report Spam’ button (yeah!)
‘Reply All’ - Tweet everyone mentioned in a tweet in just a couple of clicks.
Share and preview YFrog photos inside TweetDeck.
Smart filter – Start typing a username to find a person and add them to a group quickly and easily.
.... and more.

You can checkout the new Desktop TweetDeck here and the new (free) TweetDeck for iPhone at the Apple iPhone app store here.

Great weekend everyone!
Charlie

Update June 29, 2009 - TweetDeck moved to version 0.26.3 today adding a variety of new features and fixes.

Windows Update - The Update That Isn't There

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Ever since Sun managed to 'extract' the Java Virtual Machine from Microsoft, updates for Java SE have only been available to those checking the Java Website or those who have 'notify' or 'automatic update' turned on.

While Java has generally been declining in use, it still is used on many websites (and for many other apps and applications).

Earlier today, the Java 'engine' was upgraded to SE6 Update 14.
The Update has a host of bug fixes, speed enhancements and more. Release notes can be found here.

Unfortunately, there is still no mention of Google's Chrome Browser.

Two things to keep in mind:
1) On most Windows systems, you will see multiple versions of Java showing in your 'programs'. It IS safe (and will save some hard disk space) to remove the older one.
2) Continuing the tradition of 'icky bundling', Java comes packaged with the Yahoo! toolbar on either fresh installs OR and updates. If you don't want the toolbar, you can opt-out during the installation (or uninstall it afterwards).

Java SE Update 14 can be found at the dedicated Java website here.

Sidenotes: Despite not being listed, the upgrade is working here under Windows 7 RC without conflicts.
Mac OS X users should use the software update feature to check for updates.

Update 1 (Correction): The recent versions of Java are compatible with Google's Chrome browser (It's just not mentioned specifically on the Sun website).

It's Official - Traditional Journalism is Dead (Updated)

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:47:00 +0000

After a few brief forays into radio and print journalism in my somewhat (very?) eclectic career, the one thing I always had a serious beef with was editors. Particularly editors that insisted that I use the NY Times Style book (which I felt was totally obsolete).

I wrote a piece a while back mentioning this, A reader responded "Who cares about the style book anymore if you're trying to make an important point?".

Enter the 'Citizen Journalism wav'e that started about a year or so and my comments at the time that it was cool but needed to be authenticated at times (not to mention the fact that thousands of reporters were probably being 'displaced'). Reaction was mixed.

Many may remember Dan Rather's exit from CBS and the reason given as 'bad information' on a political piece he had produced. Rather may have been a bit dry but he was a 'follow the bosses orders' guy, as evidenced many times in his long tenure with the network.

The reality, of course, was ratings.

This past week, the hashtag #cnnfail trended on Twitter for almost 5 days. People, real people, from all over the world .... wanted real-time coverage of events happening in Iran.

As of earlier today, the CNN 'Internet Desk' was in full swing, delivering video from YouTube, comments from Facebook and, comments from Twitter. It was all done with a disclaimer "We have no way of verifying this information". Amazing. Twitter spoke. CNN listened.

While there's no doubt that some if it is 'spam' or 'planted', the fact is that while the BBC was already using every vehicle to tell the Iran story, many wanted CNN reporting the story, regardless of how they did it. Twitterers even managed to get CNN to very quickly stop using the sources' names (in less than an hour yesterday) after some complained they may be putting students and others in Iran in harms way.

It's a sad reality that television news, for the most part, relies on ratings. On the other hand, maybe it is time for the rule book to be banished. There's always the 'retraction', 'apology' and or a beefed up legal department if necessary.

With the wholesale shift to the web continuing (much of which is NOT verifiable), it's time to engage so-called citizen journalists and the tens of thousands of others that have 'real' information. Younger viewers would probably be all over this as wanting to be 'a part' of the news.

I know a few reporters and journalists that were early adopters of new media. Often, they had the stories first, and if necessary (and when possible) could travel to the scene.

A short time ago, I found Fox's Julie Banderas engaging her Twitter followers for opinion of how to best implement 'the new media' (and particularly to engage younger viewers without alienating existing ones).

It doesn't matter how you feel about Fox or any other network. Times are changing at light speed. I, for one, think it's exciting.

You can send your thoughts to Julie at @JulieBanderas on Twitter.

The people are speaking out.

Who knows what's next?

Charlie

Update 1: June 20, 2009 8 :30 PM Fox News is running continuous Live weekend coverage of the events unfolding in Iran. The other cable news networks in the US are not. It's apparent, whether this piece played a small role or not, many of you are continuing to speak out.
Update 2: At 10 PM ET CNN did return to coverage of Iran.

Google - Hey, we can do that !

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:36:00 +0000

As the buzz continues to build around Microsoft's Bing 'decision engine', over at Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan commented on a new link appearing today on Google.

Google took to their front page Wednesday with a 'small note' :

The bottom link goes here. It's not only a reminder to Bing users, but to WolframAlpha AND Twitter users (Quakes?) as well.

In the Search Engine Land piece, Danny also points to an older Google 'help' page showing even more search shortcuts. I had forgotten entirely about the 'quakes' shortcut and find myself hopping over the the USGS pages every time a new one trends on TwitScoop.

The jury's still out on whether or not Bing can maintain and/or grow a double-digit search market share. In a piece by Reuters a short time ago citing comScore's recent 'search numbers' and titled 'Microsoft makes big gains with Bing', Steve Ballmer was quoted a calling Google 'a big dog competitor'.

Think I'll leave that one right there :)

The pessimists aren't laughing anymore

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:45:00 +0000

Over the past seven years, I've written more than a few articles in various places including right here about one of my 'dreams' for the future of the Internet.

For the most part, my comments were dismissed, even laughed at, almost every time I went in that direction.

The 'dream' was a simple one. Connecting the people of the world, even bypassing governments, in a way that the average citizen of any country could learn the truth about each other, and the fact, that most people are generally good natured and want peace and friendship.

The recent events in Iran as well as the obvious 'cave' by US media outlets to the wishes of Twitter followers is the first real example I've actually seen of 'the dream'. Of course, it comes under very disheartening circumstances with many being hurt, injured or worse.

Yet, the evolution is here. It's here now. The pieces to the puzzle are in place. The people are ready.

The only obstacle the the 'average citizens of the world' connecting and communicating over the coming years will be 'hate' teachings that have been handed down over generations. It's up to all of us to educate each other and our children that these teachings are part of a completely obsolete bias. That won't happen overnight. It could even take a generation.

As I drove home this evening and listened to a US satellite news channel continuing their coverage (almost non stop) on the continuing protests in Iran, I couldn't help but wonder if my dream had begun.

That ..... we've witnessed a new beginning.

With all the financial gloom and doom worldwide, I'm viewing this first step as a very bright light for our childrens' future.

Charlie Anzman

Music Royalty Fee for Sirius Satellite Subscribers

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:38:00 +0000

A short-time ago, Sirius satellite radio announced that a 'U.S. Music Royalty Fee" to take effect beginning beginning July 29, 2009.

Facing financial difficulties, Sirius recently received a government 'green light', and merged with XM Satellite radio, essentially creating a monopoly in the US for individual and commercial satellite radio subscribers.

According to the release, "100% of the U.S. Music Royalty Fee will be used to offset payments from SIRIUS and XM to the music industry."

Details and an explanation of the new charges can now be found on the Sirius radio website here.

Update June 17 PM: Sirius is set to launch an iPhone app on Thursday June 18. The app will work free on the iPod Touch (and Wi-Fi). Others will pay approx. $3/month in the US.

Try Google Reader without a Google ID

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:13:00 +0000

Those of us that read Google Reader using Feedly or some other program may have missed the updated Google Reader log-in page with 'live samples'.

The simple (yet informative and easy to try) interface provides a glance at some current feeds in three categories ... News, Popular, and Sports.

You can scroll down without logging in for some (current) sample feeds .... and, as you scroll down, the script adds more from the bottom up.

For those of you that are yet sharing via Google Reader (Huh??) or using the product, you can test it out here.

Now I'm convinced. BING could be HUGE.

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:47:00 +0000

On a day when the 'tech press' is talking up Hunch.com, the latest start-up in online 'decision making' (and a fun test drive no doubt).... a week or so into it's premier, I was taking Bing for a serious spin.

Is this just another 'search identity crisis' for Microsoft?

I know I've written numerous posts about Bing in the past week, but any SEO or SEM that's serious about what they do, should always be experimenting and researching any new product that comes along that 'has a chance' (while at the same time, keeping up with the latest changes from established players).

I think it's safe to say that after 13 years of doing this stuff, I have a decent feel for the web landscape .... where many authoritative answers come from .... and which websites (new and old) can be trusted in various spaces.

During the course of the day, (in between working and entertaining unexpected guests ?!), I asked Bing 40 or 50 questions. Just like that. Not in 'search form'. I asked it questions.

Without hesitation, I can honestly say .... I was outright blown away.

This is NOT Live.com with a facelift. This IS what ASK should have been ...

The questions ranged from very simple querys (in question form) to specific ones, some in newer and emerging industries. Yes, I even asked a few tough 'out there' questions to see if websites that I am current 'involved with' would appear.

Bing ... WE were right there. (Ugh ... Wow?).

So was 'What time is it?' :)

It's no secret that I'm a huge Google fan. I love (and use) just about everything they have out there.

This is an entirely different product and the 'Bing lovers' I've run in to on Twitter have a reason to be talking.

So this guy, whose been running around saying "Microsoft's next big thing IS Windows 7" (and pent up demand for PCs by businesses and individuals worldwide) .... is now thinking Redmond is on the verge of a major growth spurt on the web as well .... well beyond the enterprise level.

Bing works. Period.

I'll tag this post to Friendfeed here (or as always, feed free to chime in below).

Did YOUR Bing questions work?

Did Facebook strike a deal with Bing?

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:54:00 +0000

It's hard for me to imagine that Microsoft's Bing is 'hyper-indexing' .... something that Google has been doing with select blogs and websites since last year.

About 7 hours ago, I (like so many others), decided to grab a Facebook vanity URL.

While running some SEO tests with Bing just now, I just noticed this :

While we know that Microsoft holds a small investment in Facebook ... Was there a deal here?

It's either that or Bing has made some significant changes since the name change from Live.com.

Verizon unleashes LG EnV Touch in the US

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:34:00 +0000

The long-rumored, LG enV Touch cellphone was rolled out over the last 3 days in the US by Verizon.

The predecessor to the LG Voyager is lookin' good....slimmer, lighter, and with improved features.

The VX11000 began hitting stores late Wednesday and the Verizon Wireless website yesterday.

As posted on Friendfeed last night, after putting it through it paces, I bought one. It was bye-bye Blackberry for this guy. Yes, I liked it (for my purposes) better than the 'Storm' which is still experiencing a few issues (with a promised software update coming).

The rundown:
It DOES have 'the network' .... so here in rural America with multi-band capability and the new Verizon 'Rev A', the Internet works with a flash-compatible HTML browser.

LG has yet to put out a phone that 'bombs' (to my memory). Their quality control in this space is excellent. In this short period of time, that appears to be the case for the Touch.

The phone not only has a unique 3 inch touchscreen (with vibrating feedback) but flip it open, the speakerphone goes on, and you have a second screen with a QWERTY keyboard that is not crowded, even for people with big fingers.

The onboard 3.2 MP camera has a flash, does video, and the phone accepts standard inexpensive microSD flash cards for expansion and easy transfer of music, photos and videos to your computer.

Dolby stereo (with 6 customizable EQ settings) for downloaded music is also included (the music isn't :), and the Touch is Bluetooth stereo compatible.

It's pretty obvious (with regional pricing and a slew of ongoing TV commercials) that Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have declared 'war'.

With the original iPhone selling for about the price of this phone already. and the new G S on the way, I haven't seen phone prices at these levels for some time. (Some stores are even sporting almost-crazy 2 for one deals).

I may not be able to 'get an app for that' but it's the closest thing to it .....

Have a Great Weekend All
Charlie
staff edit June 13, 2009 3 PM

Will analog TV watchers turn to the net?

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Anzman) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:17:00 +0000

Estimates floating around the web the past few days have approxiamtely 2.8 million people here in the US without access to television signals this morning.

Yes, the once-delayed switch to DTV is now on .... and the analog signals are off.

There are numerous resources on the web to find your local DTV station. Most are commercial in nature (Wanna buy an antenna ? :), but the government site now has a feature where you can simply enter your zip code for a list of stations and approximate signal strength.

The other important fact for over the air HD and DTV watchers is to remember to re-scan your TV. Some stations will actually change frequency and a few are adding local simulcast transmitters in more rural areas.

In these more remote areas of the country, broadband Internet, in many cases, is actually easier to find (or get) than cable or an over-the-air TV signal.

If the numbers are right, and loads people waited til the last minute .... Will some go satellite? (Competitors DirecTv and Dish Network are both advertising heavily on the web and elsewhere today).

With 2.8 million TV viewers without a signal today (for whatever reason) and a middle class dealing with a severe economic downturn, it's my guess that Hulu, YouTube, Sling.com and TV.com will see an immediate increase in users.

Will anyone give up the 'old tube' entirely? Many already have but it's still mostly people in the tech sector and but all indications still a very small number.