So Yahoo! was caught doing some user agent cloaking on one of its online properties. Since then, a Yahoo! rep (unconfirmed) posted an unofficial reply here.

Turns out that they weren’t trying to game the engines, but instead it was a misunderstanding of the SEO recommendations. I had given them some keyword research tools and told them to find the popular versions of the keywords relevant to the page and be sure to include them 3-4 times in the text if they could. What they ended up doing was finding all even remotely relevant keywords and copying and pasting all of them 4 times at the bottom of the page. Kinda funny misunderstanding, but I could imagine the overcrazed, overhyped, yahoo doesnt follow their own rules, what on earth is going on, oh my god the world is coming to an end blog posts & comments like these if that engineering manager hadn’t caught this at the last minute.

We do continue to work on processes here for automating all SEO checkpoints on all pages that go out every day using a complex system of publishing and CMS tools, by automation, by hand, and/or by partners. In the meantime, we will continue to whisk through the halls like SEO superheroes with a keen eye for white on white, doing our best to save the Yahoo! properties from unintentional villainous blackhat ways.

Cute reply. Now let’s see some heads roll :)

That’s me coughing in the background. Apparently, you had to swallow your saliva to keep your airway moist. Apparently, I wasn’t listening during that part of the lecture.

They say once you’ve been bitten by the diving bug, you’re hooked. I’ve been bitten, but still think I need another bite before I commit.
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The next Philippine SEO Contest…. malapit na malapit na! :) Stay tuned for details.
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Just like Boracay, only cleaner and more tranquil. More things to see too.

After much preparation and anticipation, our Bohol expedition finally happened. It would be my second trip to the island. The first one was when a few Ateneo buddies decided to do a Southern semestral break swing. That was a complete disaster as I missed seeing them in Bohol (they thought the Chocolate Hills were more important than waiting for dear old me). Even if that 1998 trip pushed through, we wouldn’t have seen as many tourist spots since most of them have not been developed yet.

This time around, I was with the Sharmskee and the band. I also had the touring prowess of my mom behind us. Mom the linkbaiter had been organizing numerous trips to Bohol for relatives and friends and was organizing this trip too. With so many happy tour groups under her belt, I was very confident ours would be no different. That was before Murphy decided to join us. But before I elaborate on all the Boholian boo boos, let me walk you through the painstaking preparations.
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One of the best examples of a viral campaign by a local company would be Star Trends Apparel’s warehouse sale. I learned about this through Anton’s blog and have followed it through the years through word-of-mouth (WOM) eyes. Here’s why I think they’ve been effective:
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I’m starting a meme for Filipino bloggers in support of Anton’s excellent post on why he thinks we are at a turning point in our country’s history. Answer this question: What are the 3 signs you see happening now that make you say, “it feels great to be Pinoy” then tag ten (10) of your blogger friends.

3 signs why it feels great to be Pinoy:

• Voters are thinking more these days (I hope) - gone are the days when a local celebrity can just run for public office and win; that in itself is an achievement in my book!
• People have access to additional revenue streams - high paying fulltime/freelance jobs abound to those who have the necessary skillset. People are more liquid now. The best thing about it is they don’t have to go overseas to earn good money. Earn it here, spend it here.
• The boomers are back - family friends and relatives who have migrated to other lands are coming home and are falling in love with the Philippines once again. I want to explore the entire archipelago!

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Back when Yahoo! was the dominant Web destination and Filgifts was just a toddler, companies wishing to make a dent online relied much on advertising schemes like cross site promotions and direct ad placements to generate eyeballs. Web 2.0 saw the rise of a new breed of online marketers: the viral first, traditional second type.

With viral methods yielding better adoption, traction and ROI rates, buzz marketing has become the preferred promotional platform for launching and sustaining an online business. The smart search marketer understands this and prioritizes link building initiatives that have the potential of creating hundreds of links from a single viral idea over direct link building methods like link buys, link drops and link exchanges. The virus is transmitted from one prospect to another through user generated content (UGC) sites like blogs, forums and review sites. Marketers understand the buzz value of UGC sites. I call it the Multiplier Effect.

Here’s how the Multiplier Effect works. A feature on Techcrunch reaches thousands of early adopters and is instrumental in leading readers to either two conclusions: adoption or rejection. A scathing review from Michael Arrington would almost certainly mean a death sentence as the spirit of the Techcrunch review would be echoed over and over again by countless Arringtonians. Similar to how restaurants treat the published food critic as God, the Web critic that’s read by hundreds is somebody that deserves tender blogging care.

Now what about those bloggers who actually demand tender blogging care. I call it blogmail (blog + blackmail).

Thanks to this comment by Robin (excellent technology blog by the way), I found this TipidPC thread which I feel mirror a lot of the sentiments generic customers feel during a viral crisis. This thread is also a treasure trove of consumer insights for Globe. I’m just surprised Globe hasn’t joined the conversation (the thread’s 26 pages long and counting). TipidPC is geek central and is 100% in tune with their “mobile broadband for the mobile laptop-toting geek” positioning.

I feel a lot of marketing and PR professionals are sufficiently trained in ‘inducing’ a neutral-to-positive response from customers and prospects. I have friends in consumer goods and media who are on top of their game as far as conceptualization and roll out implementation plans for their beloved brands and clients go. What most of them lack are hard skills to induce a negative-to-neutral or better yet, a negative-to-positive response. The other thing that scares them is that they are absolutely clueless on how they should be reacting as brand managers to a downward spiraling online story. Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing in a Web 2.0 environment is something most marketers don’t understand and thus, can’t appreciate.
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The honeymoon is officially over. Watch out Globe, time to start monitoring your online reputation before it’s too late. It all started with people leaving comments on my Globe Visibility post. You can see the evolution of comments from ‘wow Globe Visibility’ to ‘it’s not functioning as advertised’ to ‘off with Globe’s head’.

Saw the first signs of the blog revolt at Robin Lim’s blog, then here, then on Bryanboy.com with his well documented nightmare. A forum post at Tsikot.com is also starting to catch fire. Track the snowballing buzz here and here.

As for me, the service has been a bitch lately. No 3G. Like MobilityPH, this blog’s powered by Globe GPRS. With this type of mobile ‘broadband’ service, Globe Visibility is suddenly not worth the $45 per month price tag.

The typical Web marketing pitch usually ends with a “if you can’t bring your business online, you’re fucked” slide. This Accenture study puts some fresh perspective into the long standing rumor that having a full e-commerce enabled website is the only way to go.
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