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		<title>New PageRank Formula May Change Your SEO Priorities</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/new-pagerank-formula-may-change-your-seo%c2%a0priorities/</link>
		<comments>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/new-pagerank-formula-may-change-your-seo%c2%a0priorities/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:34:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[This is one of the more interesting articles I have read for a long time on&#160; Link Building and Page Rank.&#160; I&#8217;ve included a few relevant quotes but it is well worth going to read the whole article if you &#8230; <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/new-pagerank-formula-may-change-your-seo%c2%a0priorities/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=33&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<p>This is one of the more interesting articles I have read for a long time on&nbsp; Link Building and Page Rank.&nbsp; I&#8217;ve included a few relevant quotes but it is well worth going to read the whole article if you are involved in any kind of SEO or online marketing.</p>
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<h3><a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/new-pagerank-formula-may-change-your-seo-priorities/27536/" title="Permanent Link to New PageRank Formula May Change Your SEO&nbsp;Priorities" rel="bookmark">New PageRank Formula May Change Your SEO&nbsp;Priorities</a></h3>
<p>The vast majority of website owners seem to be obsessed with  PageRank. It was one of the heaviest ranking factors in the original Google  algorithm, and the fame persists. I must admit that I also find it hard to  ignore the single most visible feedback figure presented by Google.</p>
<p>Google has been worried about all the unnatural link spam  that results from this</p>
<p>&lt;clip&gt;</p>
<p>Yet no-one seemed to listen much. PageRank was bought,  stolen and begged for in every possible way. So now Google seems to work extra  factors into PageRank value itself.</p>
<p>  &lt;clip&gt;<br />
<h3>New Google&rsquo;s patent hints at a new PageRank&nbsp;formula</h3>
<p>&lt;clip&gt;</p>
<p>There is one key difference the new patent suggests.  Previously, each link on a page passed the same amount of authority to the  target page. Now, every link is weighted according to how likely a &ldquo;reasonable  surfer&rdquo; would be to click on that link. To estimate that, Google considers a number  of factors, which boil down to 2 main categories:</p>
<ul>
<li>link visibility (placement and appearance)</li>
<li>link relevance</li>
</ul>
<p>So, you can say goodbye to small text links in page footers,  forum and blog comments, stuffed sidebars, link exchange pages and other similar  link spammer paradise areas. They didn&rsquo;t bring much PageRank juice before, now  they will hardly bring any at all.</p>
<p>&lt;clip&gt;</p>
<h3>Why I believe  PageRank formula is really&nbsp;changing?</h3>
<p>I have recently launched a new blog on <a href="http://web-tracking-guide.com/blog/">web tracking</a>. Having some  experience with online promotion, I started building links for it. Here is what  I did:</p>
<p>  &lt;clip&gt;
<p>The link building techniques that I used worked well several  years ago. And they still produce some results, just not as good as they used  to. Now I figure this could be because of the change in PageRank formula.</p>
<h3>What does this  mean for you and your&nbsp;blog?</h3>
<p>With  this possible change in PageRank algorithm, is it time to change your link  building habits?</p>
<p>&lt;clip&gt;</p>
<p>So I suggest you to scale down these link building methods in favor of others:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Forum posting and blog commenting.</strong> It has  plenty of benefits, but don&rsquo;t do that in hopes of increasing your PageRank.</li>
<li><strong>Social bookmarking.</strong> Same as above, share  what you think is valuable. You can get some click-through traffic, but don&rsquo;t  expect any PageRank.</li>
<li><strong>Article submission.</strong> Don&rsquo;t go for the  numbers, submit to top directories to get traffic, syndication and recognition.</li>
<li><strong>Bulk directory submission.</strong> It&rsquo;s probably  not worth your time and money any more.</li>
<li><strong>Bulk link exchange.</strong> This is explicitly  discouraged by Google now, and can get you banned from their search results.</li>
</ul>
<p>&lt;clip&gt;</p>
<p>Now, some quality link building methods to scale up:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Guest blogging.</strong> It&rsquo;s the most reliable  way to get a quality context link on a reputable, relevant blog.</li>
<li><strong>Link baiting.</strong> While it is hard to create  a successful link bait, one success can pay for several failures.</li>
<li><strong>Press releases.</strong> With some effort and some  luck, you can get a quality link from big media.</li>
<li><strong>Joint ventures.</strong> Get to know people and  discuss how you can do business together. Be creative.</li>
<li><strong>Building communities.</strong> Create a resource  that attracts a targeted community, and they will link to you.</li>
</ul>
<p>As you may notice, the methods that bring the highest  quality links are also the ones which are widely used by the bloggers, and  which can benefit a lot from their already high social activity. So as a  blogger, you should probably welcome the change, and hope that the Internet  will become a better place for everyone, with less spam and clutter.</p>
<p>And listen to the advice from Google. Pay less attention to  PageRank and more attention to your content, traffic and conversion rates.</p>
<p>&lt;clip&gt;</p>
<p>There may be no new PageRank formula in reality. Maybe the  data in my case study can be explained by pages with too many links per page,  or temporary glitches when ranking new pages. Still, even if the PageRank value  itself will not change, the new Google patent clearly outlines their priorities  in ranking. You should seriously consider introducing the suggested changes to  your link building strategy. Especially considering that it will bring you more  traffic regardless of Google, possibly reducing your dependency on their free  search results.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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</blockquote>
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		<title>Google Hotpot now on Google.com and around the world</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/google-hotpot-now-on-google-com-and-around-the-world/</link>
		<comments>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/google-hotpot-now-on-google-com-and-around-the-world/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:52:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Back in November, we introduced Hotpot, a new local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends. Using Hotpot is simple: you rate places on google.com/hotpot—restaurants, hotels, cafes—and add friends on Hotpot whose opinions you trust. Then the next time &#8230; <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/google-hotpot-now-on-google-com-and-around-the-world/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=32&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<p>Back in November, we introduced Hotpot, a new local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends. Using Hotpot is simple: you rate places on google.com/hotpot—restaurants, hotels, cafes—and add friends on Hotpot whose opinions you trust. Then the next time you perform a search, Google will serve up personalized results, listing places based on your tastes, as well as recommendations from your friends.</p>
<p>  (edit)
<p>You can now enjoy Hotpot recommendations in your regular search results on Google.com. So say you’re looking for a restaurant in Barcelona. Go to Google and search [restaurant barcelona]. If a friend has rated a particular restaurant, you might see their rating and what they had to say about it—as well as their name and photo—directly beneath that restaurant’s listing. To see all recommendations by your friends, click “Places” on the lefthand side of the page, and choose “Friends only.” Remember, you’ll need to be logged in to your Google account in order to see recommendations.</p>
<p>Seeing place recommendations based on your tastes and those of your friends across more Google searches will make results more relevant to you and maybe lead you to discover a new gem. If you don’t have Hotpot friends yet, you can invite them to share all the places they love with you by using the “Friends” tab on google.com/hotpot</p>
<p>But Hotpot will only be half the fun if you can’t share it with all your international friends. So starting today, we’re making Hotpot available in 38 new languages—including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian and Spanish—allowing people to share their favorite places in their native language</p>
<p>Start rating and sharing recommendations with Hotpot everywhere, anytime: at google.com/hotpot, on Google Maps, using Google Maps for Android with an easy widget, and on our new iPhone app.</p>
<p>    <span>  </span>  <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html" title="permanent link">Permalink</a>  <span>  <span>  <a href="http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=10861780&amp;postID=2706319298177697011" title="Email Post">  <img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_email.gif" alt="" />
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<p>  <span style="float:left;padding-right:8px;">Share: </span>  <a href="http://www.google.com/buzz/post?url=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html" title="Post on Google Buzz">  <span></span></a>  <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/blogspot/MKuf/%7E3/0bVxB4xhG-k/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html#" title="Twitter">  <span style="display:none;">Google Hotpot now on Google.com and around the world</span><span></span></a>  <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html&amp;t=Google%20Hotpot%20now%20on%20Google.com%20and%20around%20the%20world" title="Facebook"><span></span></a>  <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html&amp;title=Google%20Hotpot%20now%20on%20Google.com%20and%20around%20the%20world" title="Google Reader"><span></span>  </a>  <a href="https://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=add&amp;bkmk=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html&amp;title=Google%20Hotpot%20now%20on%20Google.com%20and%20around%20the%20world" title="Google Bookmarks"><span></span></a>  <a href="http://www.digg.com/submit?phase=2&amp;url=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html&amp;title=Google%20Hotpot%20now%20on%20Google.com%20and%20around%20the%20world" title="Digg">  <span></span></a>  <a href="http://delicious.com/save?url=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html&amp;title=Google%20Hotpot%20now%20on%20Google.com%20and%20around%20the%20world" title="Delicious">  <span></span></a>  </p>
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<p>  <span>  Labels:  <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Geo" rel="tag">Geo</a>  </span>  </p>
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<p>Services like this are making SEO for local businesses so much more important &#8211; and on keeping a close eye on your online reputation.</p>
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		<title>Google Docs can now be edited with iPhone or iPad &#124; TiPb</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/google-docs-can-now-be-edited-with-iphone-or-ipad-tipb/</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:45:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Google Docs can now be edited with iPhone or iPad by Brian Tufo, Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010, 7 Comments Google has added some much awaited functionality to Google Docs today — you can now edit your docs on-the-go with iPhone, &#8230; <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/google-docs-can-now-be-edited-with-iphone-or-ipad-tipb/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=31&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<h3>Google Docs can now be edited with iPhone or iPad</h3>
<div>
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<td valign="top">  								<span>by <a href="http://www.tipb.com/author/brian-tufo/" title="Posts by Brian Tufo">Brian Tufo</a>, Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010</span>, <span><a></a><a href="http://www.tipb.com/2010/11/17/edit-google-docs-onthego-ios-device/#comments" title="Comment on Google Docs can now be edited with iPhone or iPad">7 Comments</a></span>  							</td>
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<p><img title="Google-Docs-logo" src="http://www.tipb.com/images/stories/2010/11/Google-Docs-logo.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="318" /></p>
<p>Google has added some much awaited functionality to Google Docs today — you can now edit your docs on-the-go with iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad!</p>
<p>The feature will be rolling out over the next few days and means that:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can work on that important memo…while on the bus or train to work.</li>
<li>If you’re behind on a group proposal, but really want to make it to the ball game tonight, your whole team can work on it from the bleacher seats.</li>
<li>You can take minute-by-minute notes at a concert so you’ll always remember the setlist. And your friends can jealously follow in real-time at home.</li>
<li>…and the list goes on!</li>
</ul>
<p>If you utilize Google Docs all you have to do is visit <a href="https://docs.google.com/">docs.google.com</a> in Safari on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and select the document you would like to edit. Once the document is open simply select the edit button and you will be switched over to their mobile editor.</p>
<p>Let us know if you are excited for the seemingly much anticipated feature and if you use it how it worked out for you!</p>
<p>Check out a video of Google Docs editing on-the-go in a video after the break!</p>
<p><span></span></p>
</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/11/create-and-edit-your-google-docs-on-the.html">Google Mobile Blog</a> ]</p>
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		<title>Tips For Writing Website Copy That The Client Can’t Possibly Reject</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/tips-for-writing-website-copy-that-the-client-can%e2%80%99t-possibly%c2%a0reject/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:41:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Tips For Writing Website Copy That The Client Can’t Possibly&#160;Reject As hard as some web content copywriters try, they always find their writing rejected or sent back for major revision, often multiple times, because the style and substance doesn’t blend &#8230; <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/tips-for-writing-website-copy-that-the-client-can%e2%80%99t-possibly%c2%a0reject/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=30&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<h3><a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/tips-for-writing-website-copy-that-the-client-can%e2%80%99t-possibly-reject/25265/" title="Permanent Link to Tips For Writing Website Copy That The Client Can’t Possibly&nbsp;Reject" rel="bookmark">Tips For Writing Website Copy That The Client Can’t Possibly&nbsp;Reject</a></h3>
<p> 
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/clip_image002_0035.jpg" height="318" alt="" width="463" /></p>
<p>As hard as some web content copywriters try, they always find  their writing rejected or sent back for major revision, often multiple times,  because the style and substance doesn’t blend well with the client’s existing  site. For a copywriter, this is a frustrating (not to mention time-consuming)  experience, and there’s a temptation to become unnecessarily resentful.</p>
<p>I spoke with <a href="http://www.tianasmith.com">Tiana Smith</a> and <a href="http://www.seo.com/author/aeliason">Andy Eliason</a>, lead  copywriters at <a href="http://www.seo.com">SEO.com</a> about their experiences  with a variety of client sites, styles, and expectations and how they write website  copy that won’t get rejected (or at least has a much lower chance of  rejection). They shared some great tips that have resulted in more “blendable”  writing and happier clients.</p>
<h3>Read Everything – And  Don’t&nbsp;Skim</h3>
<p>When you try to emulate content already on a site, you skim  at your own peril. You should deliberately read every page on the site when  possible, unless the site is huge. You’ll be able to tell whether the site was  written by a single person or, in most cases, by multiple people. Let the  client specify which pages are considered acceptable if the site has multiple  writing styles. In a few cases, like one Tiana recently experienced, the client  may want not even like his own website copy and want something completely  different.</p>
<h3>Take Note of&nbsp;Length</h3>
<p>How long is the average paragraph? What about sentences?  Recognize that you may actually have to resist your urge to write crisp,  concise sentences if the existing site content is long-winded. It behooves any  decent copywriter to let a client know when the current content is just awful,  but you may be dealing with a company owner who wrote it himself and absolutely  loves his run-ons.</p>
<h3>Look For Recurring  Elements – Especially Calls To&nbsp;Action</h3>
<p>Are there phrases that are used consistently across multiple  pages? Are you familiar with all of the terminology used on the site? Good  copywriters must be familiar with client industry terms on a basic level in  order to use those terms in appropriate contexts. When looking at the content  you’ve written, many clients will subconsciously accept or reject content based  on the calls to action. The call to action is the most important promotional  element on a page and most reflective of the client’s business and how he wants  to be branded, so make a special point to not diverge too far from the norm,  unless requested.</p>
<h3>What’s On The Black&nbsp;List?</h3>
<p>Just as you’d ask a dinner guest beforehand what his food  allergies are, you should do the same in asking a client what’s on his “black  list” of prohibited words. Many companies have quality control rules about what  can and can’t be said on the website. Some businesses refuse to use  superlatives, e.g., “the best” or “one of the top companies.” Others are bound  by SEC regulations because of their status as a publicly traded company. One  client I worked with had terms he avoided because he felt they made him  susceptible to potential liability (even though others in his industry used the  terms freely on their sites).</p>
<h3>The Devil is in the&nbsp;Details</h3>
<p>You’d be amazed at how many obscure details add or detract  from new content’s ability to mesh well with the old. Don’t forget to look at  conjunctions, whether the site uses “won’t” vs. “will not.” Notice the reading  level of the text and whether the pages assumes the reader already knows the  acronyms and jargon. Determine whether the content is weighted more heavily in  favor of SEO and keyword usage or readability (though these don’t have to be  mutually exclusive).</p>
<p>Even after preparing with these tips, it’s usually best to  send a sample of text that you’ve completed to the client before writing the  rest, especially for a big project. You might save yourself a lot of headache.  Finally, be prepared for clients who will add their own “finishing touch” to  whatever you write. And remember that you’ve never been fully initiated as a  copywriter until you’ve experienced the client who rejects all of your work by  completely changing his mind after you’ve written everything strictly by his  instructions. Consider it a rite of passage.</p>
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		<title>Tesco Fail</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/tesco-fail-2/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:40:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Dear Mr Tesco, A few weeks ago you sold me a Laser Printer, a Samsung CLP-320 Series which you were pushing as a really good deal, and a very good printer. You were absolutely right. It was a very good &#8230; <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/tesco-fail-2/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=29&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<p><img src="http://www.mutterz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Tesco-300x148.jpg" height="148" alt="Tesco Fail" width="300" /></p>
<p>Dear Mr Tesco,</p>
<p>A few weeks ago you sold me a Laser Printer, a Samsung CLP-320 Series which you were pushing as a really good deal, and a very good printer.  You were absolutely right.  It was a very good deal, and it is a very good printer.  I am delighted with it.</p>
<p>The nature of printers is that they are used to print things.  In the case of my printer, it prints a lot, which is why I bought this particular printer.  When laser printers print, the nature of the beast is that they run out of toner.  Not a problem, you told me that you stocked all the consumables (toner is a consumable in case you hadn’t realised).</p>
<p>In dire need of toner I turn to the Tesco website where I need to order Black Toner, item CLT-K4072S – no problem.  I need to order Cyan Toner, item CLT-C4072S – no problem.  I need to order Magenta Toner, item CLT-M4072S – no problem.  I need to order Yellow Toner, item CLT-Y4072S – what’s this?  I search and search, no Yellow toner appears on your list. I visit your store to be told ‘No, you have to buy that online’.</p>
<p>I have no objection to buying online, in fact I do it all the time.  I return to the website and search, and search and search, all in vain.  No sign of yellow toner.  This seemed a little odd to me, why would you sell me a printer, and then stock only three out of the four cartridges – it seemed a little odd when customer service is supposed to be your watchword.</p>
<p>Contact was made via Customer Service where a very helpful young man was equally as bemused as I.  ‘It must be a mistake, perhaps someone forgot to put it on the stock list.  I’ll ring you back.’  Several days later, he did indeed ring back to say he still hadn’t got to the bottom of it but he was still working on it.  Today, some three weeks later, he rings to say ‘We don’t stock it at all, we do stock the other three but not yellow’.</p>
<p>?????????????????</p>
<p>Perhaps you can explain the logic of this to me, dear Mr Tesco, because I cannot see it.  You had a customer for the life of my printer, which I expect to be long and fruitful needing much toner.  Now you have one very miffed customer who is going to share her level of dissatisfaction, not to mention bemusement at your stupidity in stocking only three out of the four toners needed.  I am sure there is a logic in your giant superstore mind, but it makes no sense to me – the shopper – the person who gives you money in exchange for goods, the process which keeps you in business.  I would have given you some £400 in the last month – if you had stocked the items you said you did when I bought the printer from you in the first place.  Why stock three and not four?</p>
<p>Mr Tesco, I have no choice, I have to say it.  On your part this is not only very stupid but an epic</p>
<p><img title="TescoFail" src="http://www.mutterz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/TescoFail.png" height="246" alt="Tesco Fail" width="500" /></p>
<p>PS. For anyone else who has bothered to read this far, toners were supplied with next day delivery by the very excellent <a href="http://www.printware.co%20.uk" target="_blank">www.printware.co .uk </a>– the mighty Tesco would do well to take a lesson in customer service from them!</p>
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		<title>Tesco Fail</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/tesco-fail/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[via mutterz.com I still cannot believe that they are this stupid!<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=26&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<div class="posterous_quote_citation">via <a href="http://www.mutterz.com/rants/open-letter-tesco/">mutterz.com</a></div>
<p>I still cannot believe that they are this stupid!</p>
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		<title>Worth following&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/worth-following/</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:42:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve followed Mark Copeman on Twitter for some time (@mark_copeman) &#8211; it is a worthwhile experience. Apologies for lifting the post in it&#8217;s entirety but I do think it is worth sharing and would recommend that you take yourself off &#8230; <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/worth-following/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=23&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<p>I&#8217;ve followed Mark Copeman on Twitter for some time (<a href="http://twitter.com/mark_copeman">@mark_copeman</a>) &#8211; it is a worthwhile  experience.  Apologies for lifting the post in it&#8217;s entirety but I do  think it is worth sharing and would recommend that you take yourself off  to </a><a href="http://www.being-smarter.com/">http://www.being-smarter.com</a> where you will find some very interesting reading</p>
<p><a href="http://www.being-smarter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/calculator.gif"><img title="calculator" src="http://www.being-smarter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/calculator-300x291.gif" alt="" width="191" height="185" /></a></p>
<p>You may have read our sister blog – <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.watchusgettingreal.com/" target="_blank">Watch us Getting Real</a>, where we write a regular diary of the trials and tribulations of an online startup and building a web application, following the process outlined in the totally awesome <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0578012812?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=busipowe-21&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=0578012812" target="_blank"><strong>Getting Real</strong></a> book from 37 Signals.</p>
<p>We are getting to the stage where the talking’s about to stop, the planning’s done and the focus swings onto execution. Remarkable execution we hope.</p>
<p>I couldn’t help noticing a sidenote in <strong>Getting Real,</strong> from a chapter you find in its entirety <a rel="nofollow" href="http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch06_Done.php" target="_blank">here</a>, but I wanted to emphasise the thinking of the entrepreneur, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://sivers.org/" target="_blank">Derek Sivers</a>, founder of CD Baby and Hostbaby. He provides the simplest of formulas behind the making of a good idea and it’s based on a multiplier:</p>
<p>Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.</p>
<p>Explanation:</p>
<ul>
<li>Awful idea = -1</li>
<li>Weak idea = 1</li>
<li>So-so idea = 5</li>
<li>Good idea = 10</li>
<li>Great idea = 15</li>
<li>Brilliant idea = 20</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>No execution = $1</li>
<li>Weak execution = $1000</li>
<li>So-so execution = $10,000</li>
<li>Good execution = $100,000</li>
<li>Great execution = $1,000,000</li>
<li>Brilliant execution = $10,000,000</li>
</ul>
<p>To make a business, you need to multiply the two.</p>
<p>Simple.</p>
<p>How well are you executing?</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Execution+is+much+more+important+than+the+idea+%3Ca%20href=">http://bit.ly/90A1Pf</a>&#8221; title=&#8221;Post to Twitter&#8221; rel=&#8221;nofollow&#8221; target=&#8221;_blank&#8221;&gt;<img src="http://www.being-smarter.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter-big1.png" alt="Post to Twitter" width="100" height="28" /></p>
<p>No related posts.</p>
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<div class="posterous_quote_citation">via <a href="http://www.being-smarter.com/2010/08/execution-is-much-more-important-than-the-idea/">being-smarter.com</a></div>
<p>I&#8217;ve followed Mark Copeman on Twitter for some time &#8211; it is a worthwhile experience.  Apologies for lifting the post in it&#8217;s entirety but I do think it is worth sharing and would recommend that you take yourself off to <a href="http://www.being-smarter.com">http://www.being-smarter.com</a> where you will find some very interesting reading</p>
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		<title>Twitter Search Via Google Reader</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/the-musings-and-mutterings-of-a-net-wanderer-online-marketer-and-grumpy-old-woman/</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:01:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[We know everything, don’t we – those of us who have been in this game for years – then you discover you don’t.  Sometimes that discovery makes you feel a fool, sometimes it gives you great joy – that was &#8230; <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/the-musings-and-mutterings-of-a-net-wanderer-online-marketer-and-grumpy-old-woman/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=19&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<p>We know everything, don’t we – those of us who have been in this game for years – then you discover you don’t.  Sometimes that discovery makes you feel a fool, sometimes it gives you great joy – that was what happened to me today.   Most people probably know about this – but I didn’t, my delight may be tempered by a slight feeling of foolishness when I discover that everyone did know about it.   It was also a useful lesson in not assuming anything.</p>
<p>Gathering information is one of the things we have to do on a daily basis, we have to be ‘all over’ our chosen market.  You need information that is current as well, or your market will leave you behind.  One of the best ways to get current information is Twitter, love it or loathe it, that is where the chatter is.  Gathering that information is made easier by Twitter search and there are more twitter apps out there than you could shake a stick at to help you but today I discovered a way to make it even easier.</p>
<p>I use Google Reader for so many things, it is one of my favourite tools, in fact I would pay good money for it.  Whenever I start a project for myself, or a client, one of the first things I do is set up all the search terms, feeds etc in Google Reader so the information is at my finger tips.  I have used it for years.  I know they have been making changes and doing a few things with it but I had grown complacent and stopped investigating it – it was like a  comfy pair of slippers that I put on whenever I sat down with a cup of tea.  I was setting up a new series of searches and went to ‘Browse for Stuff’ to set up some keyword searches  to be greeted by rather more options than I remembered.  Being unbearably curious I had to investigate them all and came upon an option to add a twitter search on the keywords of my choice to my feeds.  Fabulous!  Now I can have all the info I want in the one place I like to have it -  and that wasn’t the only thing I found but more of that in another post (or two!).</p>
<p>To set up the Twitter Search feeds is simple – open your google reader and click on ‘Browse for stuff’</p>
<p><img title="Browse" src="http://www.mutterz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Browse.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="260" /></p>
<p>Next click on Search – you can come back to the other things later – staying focussed here is essential – I lost hours of my life!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mutterz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Search.jpg"><img title="Search" src="http://www.mutterz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Search.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="263" /></a></p>
<p>Finally, go down to the bottom section, enter your keyword and click on the drop down box to select ‘Twitter Search’ – or any/all of the other options</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mutterz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/choose.jpg"><img title="choose" src="http://www.mutterz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/choose.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="283" /></a></p>
<p>There are lots of other options on the page as well – and I shall be visiting ‘Bundles’ in a future post.</p>
<p>If you already knew about it – you could have told me – and if you didn’t – enjoy and tell all your friends where to come and find out about it!</p>
<p>{ <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mutterz.com/general/twitter-search-google-reader/#comments">0 comments</a> }</p>
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		<title>Productivity and Sheer Will</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/productivity-and-sheer-will/</link>
		<comments>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/productivity-and-sheer-will/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:55:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[If I had a dollar for every productivity/time management product or book I had read/tried/experimented with - I would be a much wealthier woman.  I always come back to the same thing <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/productivity-and-sheer-will/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=16&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I came across the following whilst dabbling in google reader today -</p>
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<p>Entreprenuer Gary Vaynerchuk <a href="http://twitter.com/garyvee/status/12139931429">tweeted the following</a> several months ago:</p>
<blockquote><p>Screw productivity and productivity products, I win with sheer will ….I know I am dumb <img src="http://www.keenerliving.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" width="15" height="15" /></p></blockquote>
<p>In other words, he is saying he will not whittle away his life reading productivity blogs and books, but will overcome the resistance of getting things done by sheer will power.</p>
<p>Good old-fashioned will power can be very effective. Seems to me it’s in short supply, though, as people look for easy answers. For many things, there are no easy answers, and will power is the only way to work through the resistance.</p>
<p>&#8211;&gt;</p>
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<div class="posterous_quote_citation">via <a href="http://www.keenerliving.com/productivity-and-sheer-will?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+keenerliving%2FhBOQ+%28Keener+Living%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader">keenerliving.com</a></div>
<div class="posterous_quote_citation"></div>
<div class="posterous_quote_citation">If I had a dollar for every productivity/time management product or book  I had read/tried/experimented with &#8211; I would be a much  wealthier  woman.  I always come back to the same thing &#8211; a list, whether it be  electronic or written with pencil and paper.   Stuff goes on, stuff gets  crossed off &#8211; the work gets done.  The fancy systems are great &#8211; if you  don&#8217;t have any work to do other than maintain them.  List and will  power &#8211; it&#8217;s all you need!  If anyone sees me dabbling in any more time  management systems &#8211; kick my ankles &#8211; hard!</div>
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		<title>How News Consumption is Shifting to the Personalized Social News Stream</title>
		<link>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/how-news-consumption-is-shifting-to-the-personalized-social-news-stream/</link>
		<comments>http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/how-news-consumption-is-shifting-to-the-personalized-social-news-stream/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:54:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>flaminglacer</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[I thought this was an incredibly interesting article &#8211; it is something that I have maintained for quite a while.  More and more people are abandoning the traditional news media and creating their own personal news channels.  With the advent &#8230; <a href="http://flaminglacer.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/how-news-consumption-is-shifting-to-the-personalized-social-news-stream/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=flaminglacer.wordpress.com&amp;blog=14681406&amp;post=13&amp;subd=flaminglacer&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<p>I thought this was an incredibly interesting article &#8211; it is something that I have maintained for quite a while.  More and more people are abandoning the traditional news media and creating their own personal news channels.  With the advent of the mobile web, they can carry this with them and dip into it whenever it suits, rather than than the traditional &#8216;Six o&#8217;clock news&#8217; &#8211; at least in the UK.  Whether it is a good or a bad thing for society as a whole remains to be seen.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.idgknowledgehub.com/products/amplify/index.php?utm_source=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_medium=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_campaign=Mashable_8.10.10"><img title="IDG Amplify small" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/IDG-Amplify-small.jpg" alt="" width="110" height="52" /></a></p>
<p><em>In honor of Mashable’s five-year anniversary, this <a href="http://mashable.com/tag/social-media-retrospective-series">series</a> is supported by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.idgknowledgehub.com/products/amplify/index.php?utm_source=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_medium=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_campaign=Mashable_8.10.10" target="_blank">IDG</a>. Join social conversations to market your brand with IDG’s social advertising platform, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.idgknowledgehub.com/products/amplify/index.php?utm_source=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_medium=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_campaign=Mashable_8.10.10" target="_blank">IDG Amplify</a>. Learn more about how it works <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.idgknowledgehub.com/products/amplify/index.php?utm_source=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_medium=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_campaign=Mashable_8.10.10" target="_blank">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><img src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/news.jpg" alt="news" width="260" height="190" />The social network of a reader is quickly becoming their personalized news wire. That’s because in the last five years, a revolutionary shift has taken place in the way we consume news. We have gone from consuming news through traditional media and news websites to having the news broadcast to us by our social network of friends. In fact, <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/social-networks-source-news/">75% of news consumed online</a> is through shared news from social networking sites or e-mail. Social news is finding us.</p>
<p>Readers who still actively seek out the news want, and almost expect, it to be personalized and customized to their tastes and interests. News organizations, social networks and technology companies are all attempting to respond with sites and tools that address this changing shift toward a <em>personalized social news stream</em>.</p>
<h3>Personalization of News and the New Social Editors</h3>
<p>The shift toward personalization of news is in many ways a response to the problem of noise, but also a shift from trust in news organizations to the individual people you know who now often act as curators.<a href="http://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu" target="_blank"> Jay Rosen</a>, New York University journalism professor and media critic said, with credit to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Shirky" target="_blank">Clay Shirky</a>, that “there’s no such thing as information overload, there’s only filter failure.”</p>
<p>“The social stream is a means to filter success. Relying on friends and a personal network to filter the news and point out the best stuff solves that problem Shirky identified,” Rosen said.</p>
<p>Also, the trust that readers place in people they know isn’t the same as the trust they place in news organizations, Rosen said. But prior to the evolution of the web to its current social state, people who you know couldn’t be news sources the same way that big media companies could. But now in a sense they are able to, he said. That’s because people have an influential voice in the new and social distribution model, and are just as integrated into the conversation around the news as the news makers themselves (and many times they are the ones to make the news too).</p>
<p>“People can use the [Facebook] news feed and their Twitter streams as their editors,” Rosen said.</p>
<h3>Friends as Your News Wire</h3>
<p>News organizations that see this shift are hoping to enlist users as their “editors” by making it easier for them to engage their content on social platforms. Some companies, like <a href="http://www.npr.org/" target="_blank">National Public Radio</a>, are starting to pay attention to their audiences in the social space and are investing resources to learn about their consumption habits.</p>
<p>After having a presence on <a href="http://mashable.com/category/facebook">Facebook</a> for more than two years, NPR decided to take a closer look at its more than 1 million Facebook fans with a survey. <a href="http://twitter.com/acarvin" target="_blank">Andy Carvin</a>, senior strategist at NPR, said he had a certain hypotheses, including one that stemmed from his own reliance on his <a href="http://mashable.com/category/twitter">Twitter</a> and Facebook friends for news: Do people really use their social network to get news? After more than <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/gofigure/2010/08/02/128928306/results-from-our-survey-of-npr-facebook-fans" target="_blank">40,000 responses to the survey</a>, 74.6% said that Facebook was a major way in which they received news and information from NPR, and 72.3% said they “expect” their friends to share links to interesting information and news stories with them online.</p>
<p>“It’s not that people have lost interest in the news, it’s that they have shifted platforms,” Carvin said.</p>
<p>Realizing the shifts in consumption behavior, Facebook is beginning to partner with, and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media" target="_blank">provide resources</a> for, news organizations and publishers to more effectively use the platform. Most noticeably, you can now see what your Facebook friends have “liked” or “recommended” on sites like CNN or Washington Post. Washington Post, for example, has prominently integrated Facebook’s <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/plugins" target="_blank">Social Plugins</a> into its site for a social news experience:</p>
<p><img style="display:inline;" title="WaPo newstream" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/WaPo-newstream.png" alt="" width="500" height="199" /></p>
<p>Your friends’ recommendations on news sites get connected back to their social profiles, showing up in their “recent activity,” so you can see what your friends are reading without going to the news sites themselves. <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/osofsky" target="_blank">Justin Osofsky</a>, who leads media partnerships for the Facebook Developer Network, said news organizations are using these plugins to not only drive traffic to their sites, but also to provide readers with tailored and targeted content.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of value in having a personalized experience. It makes the experience more rich,” Osofsky said.</p>
<p>Now publishers are able to use some of Facebook’s tools to add a social element and deliver targeted content to the right audiences, on and off Facebook. For example, publishers now have the ability to publish relevant news into the streams of fans in a specific location, instead of just blasting news to all their fans. As news consumption evolves on Facebook, it’s news feed is likely to become more focused and targeted.</p>
<h3>A Customized News Homepage</h3>
<p>Despite news consumption shifting toward social streams, media sites are learning some lessons and are experimenting with ways to provide readers with a customized experience. The <a href="http://www.latimes.com/" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a>, for example, worked with <a href="http://my.visualdna.com/" target="_blank">VisualDNA</a> to create <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/newsmatch/" target="_blank">Newsmatch</a> – a visual quiz users take that learns their personal tastes and interests and creates a personalized page of content that they are likely to be interested in. After a reader takes the quiz, the site remember them and offers a page of personalized content for their reading.</p>
<p>LATimes.com Managing Editor Sean Gallagher said the quiz helps readers discover content they’re looking for, but may not have known the site has. “The homepage is just the tip of the iceberg, and this helps them find the journalism they’re interested in,” Gallagher said. He said that the “holy grail” of news personalization is the recommendations model that sites like Amazon.com have built, but something like that will be possible as news sites are able to generate more data about their readers.</p>
<p><img style="display:inline;" title="Latimes personalize news" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Latimes-personalize-news.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="464" /></p>
<h3>Consumption Control and Aggregation</h3>
<p>Before news sites began offering any elements of personalization like that of the Times’s Newsmatch, technology companies like <a href="http://mashable.com/category/google">Google</a> were looking for ways to offer users control of their consumption habits through products like <a href="http://mashable.com/tag/google-reader">Google Reader</a> and <a href="http://mashable.com/tag/google-news/">Google News</a>. More recently, Google News has <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/06/30/google-news/">gone through some transformations</a> in design and functionality that shift the product from aggregated news search and discovery to include personalized consumption.</p>
<p>Now the site includes an aggregated local news section and a “News for you” section that enables you to add news topics based on your interest and adjust how often you read these topics. It also lets you switch how news is presented visually on the page. And of course, now users can share the news on various social platforms. The shift has taken place as a result of changes in consumption by users, said <a href="http://twitter.com/chrisbeckmann" target="_blank">Chris Beckmann</a>, product manager of Google News. The limitations aren’t the number of sources available for users, but finding content that is relevant to them, he said.</p>
<p>“We want to present news that is most relevant to readers,” Beckmann said. “We’ve just really begun in terms of personalizing news that we present to users.”</p>
<p>But with all the personalization that’s taking place in presenting content to users, Beckmann said that it is balanced with serendipitous content – news that readers don’t know they might be interested in but are then able to discover.</p>
<p>“People want to know more about what they care about, but they also want to know about new things that haven’t happened before,” Beckmann said. This is why Top Stories are still shown prominently on the Google News page, with the personalized section directly below it.</p>
<p><img title="Newsforyou" src="http://mashable.com/wp-content/themes/v6/_base/img/blank.png" alt="" width="500" height="201" /></p>
<h3>Serendipity in an Age of Personalization</h3>
<p>The question is how serendipity and personalization will work together in users’ consumption habits. Though users want news that is tailored to their interests, the consumption through a social recommendation is perhaps an example of how serendipity works with personalization. Users receive content from their friends who know them and understand their interests, but also refer them to content they may not have been aware of.</p>
<p>Perhaps a telling example of this is one from a different kind of consumption: Music. Long before news companies were considering personalization, <a href="http://twitter.com/timwestergren" target="_blank">Tim Westergren</a> was thinking of how to solve the personalization and discovery problem for music. The result was the Music Genome Project and <a href="http://mashable.com/tag/pandora">Pandora Radio</a>.</p>
<p>Westergren, founder of Pandora Radio, said the problem is people have a limited amount of time and there is an enormous amount of music out there. So how do you find the signal in the noise? Pandora’s technology helped solve the problem with relevancy to the users’ taste. Sound familiar? Serendipity and discovery of good content is a key part of the service, Westergren said. It’s not a popularity contest of bands. It is completely level and helps users discover bands they didn’t know they would like, he said.</p>
<h3>Visualizing Social Content</h3>
<p>The area that perhaps needs the most exploration and room for innovation is how to visually present social and personalized content to readers. Many of the social streams, for example, are quite text-heavy in their design and yet images are often effective in drawing a user’s attention to a piece of content.</p>
<p>We’re starting to see some attempts that effectively present this content specifically on iPad devices through news apps like Pulse, Apollo News and Flipboard.</p>
<p>Akshay Kothari, co-founder of <a href="http://www.alphonsolabs.com/" target="_blank">Alphonso Labs</a>, said the idea for the <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/02/pulse-posterous/">Pulse iPad application</a> was inspired in part from his own frustration in consuming mobile content. He was getting news from multiple sources, including mainstream, blogs and social content.</p>
<p>“You get news from so many sources today. Gone are the days when I would spend an hour on The New York Times website and that was it,” Kothari said.</p>
<p>The idea was to combine these elements into one place where users can personalize their consumption and sharing. But more importantly, the stream of content is more visually appealing with a focus on images tied to content. With it’s new “My Pulse” feature, users are also now able to get a stream of what other users they choose to follow are sharing.</p>
<p><img title="pulse-posterous-top" src="http://mashable.com/wp-content/themes/v6/_base/img/blank.png" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></p>
<p><a href="http://mashable.com/2010/07/21/flipboard/">Flipboard</a> is the iPad’s “social media magazine” application. It specifically focuses on visualizing the information in users’ social streams, while at the same time enabling you to select other popular news sources to create a total package for a personalized social news stream.</p>
<p>Carvin from NPR said there are some unexplored solutions to making the social information we consume more readable, visually attractive, and a design that gives the user more visual control. “A lot of these services are trying to imitate the online newspaper, but I don’t think this is the best solution,” he said.</p>
<h3>What’s Next? A Credibility and Trust Index</h3>
<p>Though news is increasingly social and user-generated, the persistent fear is one of credibility and a flaw in measuring a curator’s knowledge on or interest in a topic. This problem could be improved by enabling users to develop more targeted news feeds on personalized topics of interest, but also by identifying specific sources and curators of information as more or less credible than others.</p>
<p>Rosen, of NYU, describes this as news curators with  “levels” of knowledge attributed to them, analogous to player levels in game design. For example, if you’re  just coming to news about the “fight over immigration in Arizona” and you have heard mostly noise but know nothing about it, you’re a level one user, Rosen describes. This would provide readers with more focused news that is tied to their knowledge, and help filter through the noise on a specific topic.</p>
<p>Carvin said he’d like to see a similar model applied to sources sharing news as well. Not only who is sharing the information, but who is knowledgeable, he said. This could also include sifting sources based on whether they are eye-witness to an event or are experts on the topic, both of which add value in their own way, he said. Such a model could then help establish a credibility index among users as sources, helping consumers better decide what information is credible.</p>
<p>Solving such a problem will be crucial as we move toward a more social consumption norm. In the next five years, it very well could be that you’ll be more likely to have news find you through the social graph than consuming news through traditional means of TV, radio and even news websites.  Consumption itself is almost no longer the sole focal point, but instead the focus is also on the way readers can share, repackage, and customize new to fit into their personalized social news stream.</p>
<p><strong>Series supported by IDG</strong></p>
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<p><em>In honor of Mashable’s five-year anniversary, this <a href="http://mashable.com/tag/social-media-retrospective-series">series</a> is supported by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.idgknowledgehub.com/products/amplify/index.php?utm_source=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_medium=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_campaign=Mashable_8.10.10" target="_blank">IDG</a>. Join social conversations to market your brand with IDG’s social advertising platform, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.idgknowledgehub.com/products/amplify/index.php?utm_source=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_medium=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_campaign=Mashable_8.10.10" target="_blank">IDG Amplify</a>. IDG Amplify gives advertisers a way to amplify their brand messaging by tapping into the power of social conversations. Learn more about how it works <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.idgknowledgehub.com/products/amplify/index.php?utm_source=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_medium=Mashable_8.10.10&amp;utm_campaign=Mashable_8.10.10" target="_blank">here</a>.</em></p>
<h3>More Social Media Resources From Mashable:</h3>
<blockquote><p>- <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/07/20/last-5-years-social-media/">A Look Back at the Last 5 Years in Social Media</a><br />
- <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/10/social-media-web-comics/">5 Funny Social Media Web Comics [PICS]</a><br />
- <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/09/track-twitter-unfollowers/">5 Useful Tools to Track Twitter Unfollowers</a><br />
- <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/09/freelancers-social-media-future/">How Freelancers Might Use Social Media in the Future</a><br />
- <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/06/twitter-mapping-tools/">5 Terrific Twitter Mapping Tools</a></p></blockquote>
<p><em>Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/mashableoffer.php" target="_blank">iStockphoto</a>, <a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=546548" target="_blank">enot-poloskun</a></em></p>
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<div class="posterous_quote_citation">via <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/10/personalized-news-stream/">mashable.com</a></div>
<p>Been saying this for months &#8211; if not years &#8211; and the mobile web is increasing the trend</p>
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