The Four-eyed Journal » Search Engine Optimization

R.I.P. 103bees.com - I'll miss the odd and funny search results

jhay — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:00:51 +0000

While testing this blog’s new page load times to see how using Amazon S3 + Cloudfront has improved it, I’ve noticed a significant lag was caused by the tracking script from 103bees.com.

It’s one of the most popular analytics sites/services a few years ago when the blog-o-sphere was still obsessed with SEO and making money of the ‘the long tail’ of search.

I signed up to keep track of this blog and the results were quite interesting, providing me information that formed the basis of some of the great posts in the Archives.

Some of the last funny queries on 103bees.com

What I really like about 103bees.com is the “Odd Search Queries” feature in which it reports on the strange and funny things visitors search on a user’s blog/website.

So when the tracking script was causing some lag, I thought 103bees.com have made some updates so I decided to log in to my account.

Lo and behold, the homepage won’t load. Checking the site using downformeoreveryone.com, it says that the site is indeed down. A Google search gave the same results, each link to 103bees.com would lead to a dead end. They have closed shop.

A snapshot of their blog is available on Google cache, taken August 5, 2010 04:11:21 GMT. It shows that the last blog post was made last February of 2009!

Strange that 103bees.com closed down without even an announcement or being reported in the tech news. Then again, little was heard of from the site or the team behind it, they simply faded into the background and silently went under.

I had my share of those funny queries and it really left me scratching my head, not before leaving me almost laughing my head off. Ade also had a pretty amazing collection of this, I believe. So long 103bees.com, it was fun while it lasted.

invisibleSHIELD.com is now ZAGG.com

jhay — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:06:12 +0000

Just received an email from the makers of the invisibleSHIELD, they have moved to their new home on the web:

If you haven’t visited us recently, we invite you to check out our new website. We have completely revamped the site’s design to give it a new look and feel, and we’ve moved our store to our new home: www.ZAGG.com

User videos, Reviews from Bloggers, and Media Coverage are just the beginning of the new features we’ve added to the site. Soon, you’ll be able to upload your own videos, comment and vote on other user videos, participate in our forum and read blog posts from Robert Pedersen, our CEO.

The last time I visited their website was December of 2007 when I ordered an invisibleSHIELD for my Sony Ericsson K800i. Installed it on my phone last January and up to now, it has done a pretty good job of protecting my phone from scratches.

What bothers me is why they moved from invisibleshield.com to the now www.zagg.com? Their product has been very successful and they’ve even sold 1 Million units already. Heck, even John Chow used the invisible shield on his MacBook Pro and he didn’t even mentioned it was by ZAGG.

The point is that people are more familiar with the name “invisible shield” as compared to ZAGG. So naturally, they’d be using it for their searches instead of the obscure “ZAGG” as a keyword whenever they want to know more or buy an invisible shield for their gadget.

Then again this could be part of their bigger plan to better leverage themselves in the market. In fact, their old domain www.invisibleshield.com now redirects to www.ZAGG.com. Hopefully it will pay-off because the invisible shield is one good product. This may not be a paid review or write-up, but I’d recommend them to anyone wanting to protect their gadgets.

What if Google had an office in the Philippines?

jhay — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 13:35:42 +0000

The question in my title is actually asked by Philippine SEO guru Marc Macalua, in the Philippine SEO community’s mailing list. He had another ‘eureka’ moment and things went on from there. Along with the main idea espoused in the title above, he had the following setting drawn up in his mind:

Pretend for a minute that Google had a Philippine office and was very
active in the local webmaster/SEO scene. Imagine meeting one of the
Googlers in the next SEO Philippines EB.

1- What questions would you ask him?
2- What gripes/complaints would you raise?
3- What suggestions would you give?

Hmm..pretty interesting and exciting isn’t it? A lot of the members in the mailing list have already pitched in their clever questions-answers to the three mentioned above. You have to join the mailing list in order to find out what they answered and I’m telling you, it would be well worth your time and effort.

As for my answers to this fancy dream-come-true scenario I have the following to say..err ask to one of the Google guys:

What questions would you ask him?

Will Google open its own social bookmarking site?
When will Gmail be open for public sign-up?

What gripes/complaints would you raise?

How come Gmail doesn’t have smilies??? The same goes to Gtalk.

What suggestions would you give?

Make AdSense ‘understand’ content, particularly blog posts, written in Filipino or Tagalog better so that Public Service ads wouldn’t be displayed all the time.

How about you? What questions would you ask to the ‘Google Philippines’ (sana nga) guys or gals?

My Isulong seoph experience – a Pinoy Blog Carnival Special

jhay — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 04:36:57 +0000

It has been a long long while since the lastest edition of the Philippine Blog Carnival (dubbed PinoyBlog Carnival by Jong) has come out. Now it comes back to celebrate one if not the biggest upcoming event in the Philippine cyberworld; the Awards Ceremonies Night for the Isulong seoph contest launched last June 2006. (Of course there’s the Philippine webbies then again..I’d stick to the Isulong seoph contest)

On this night of all nights for the Philippine seo community, especially the participants, months of tedious seo campaigns, linkbaits, link hunting and bargaining, discussions, controversies, frustrations and dreams will finally come full circle and the new generation of Philippine SEO practitioners will be born while acknowledging the best in their class, which is the winner of course.

In this spirit, I am inviting the participants to come up with a sort of “testimonials” a story or summary of what it has been like for the past months since joining in the Isulong seoph contest, and subit the links to those blog posts as contributions to this special edtion of the Philippine Blog Carnival themed; “My Isulong seoph experience.” I believe it will be fitting way to wrap up your journey so far in search engine optimization. It will also be a last hurrah to garner more link loves for the fabled “Isulong seoph” keywords.

Tell stories of sleepless nights and stolen working hours just to push on with your campaign. Dare to share your secrets, lessons and techniques for search enginge optimization. You could even dare to present your acceptance speech just in case you become the winner of the Isulong seoph contest.

Non-participants are also more than welcome to join this upcoming edition of the Philippine blog carnival. You’re free to submit blog posts under any other topic you choose.

Submissions are now open, simply fill out the submission form here, all you have to do is supply the link to your “My Isulong seoph experience” post, once you’ve written and posted it in your own blog or site of course, (you could come up with your own title, it’s just the theme)and I’ll take care of the rest. Deadline for submission will be on September 29, 2006, while the consolidated blog carnival edition/post highlighting and linking back to your “My Isulong seoph experience” will come out the following day, September 30, 2006 hours before the main Awards Night ceremonies.

For information about what a blog carnival is, you can visit the FAQ here. For questions and suggestions, feel free to post them in the comments thread below or shoot me an e-mail via my contact page.

Goodluck to everyone! Isulong ang seo sa Pilipinas!

Isulong seoph – I’m on page 1?!

jhay — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 11:45:43 +0000

I was browsing the sites of the many Isulong seoph contestants, when without giving much thought, I decided to search the much coveted key phrase on http://www.google.com.ph to see who’s currently in the number 1 spot since there’s almost a month left to go before the big winners are crowned.

Go-ogle.com.ph is in the number 1 spot, kudos to them! Then I reached the bottom of the first page and WTF?! I’m in! I’m in the 1st page of the Isulong seoph search result. OMFG!!!

Below are the screenshots I took of this little seo victory of mine.

I am not a contestant in the Isulong seoph competition, even though this free .com.ph domain Iâ€™m using is fully qualified to join. I opted not to join but still went on to learn and deploy SEO tips and techniques for the benefit of this blog of mine and to promote various causes, (a very good one would be the PayPal for the Philippines). I opted to be a supporter and audience of the contest instead, and so far it has been an equally rewarding and fun experience. Today, those experiences, efforts and lessons learned have finally paid off. Of course, Sir Angelo Racoma of the J Spot deserves the most credit for this.