Preakness

As a side note I attended Preakness over the weekend. It was a great time and my first experience going to a horse race. Tough luck for Street Sense but it was a good race and a fun day all around.

Final Wiki edit

For my last Wiki edit I edited the Gorham High School page. When I went on the age I noticed that the picture I put up for my previous edit was missing. I can only assume the picture was deleted because it was copyrighted material I put up. I deleted the line of hypertext that referred the the picture. Next I added the grades that GHS serves (9-12). I did this because not all highs schools have the same grade structure and it might be good to know. Lastly I added another external link to a page that had some more information (principal contact info, office hours, etc.) that a person can access if they wished.

Over the semester this article did not change substantially, mostly only with personal edits, save for the deletion of the picture. The page is pretty sparse, but I have laid a good base for someone to come in and add greater detail to it. It was a good experience building my own page from scratch, but it was difficult at the same time. I began, similar to how you suggested making a web page, by copying someone else's page and tweaking it to make it my own. The hardest thing I did was add a picture and the easiest was making the incremental edits. I hope someone from GHS finds the page and adds to it or maybe another GHS alum can do the same.

stiuqxela

Since there seems to be an individual who has made it his personal quest to win a contest he has no stake in, seeking glory he has no right to, this is my feeble attempt to freeload off his misguided efforts and use the Google algorithm to increase my ranking. Since he has already endorsed other bloggers in his article The Mystery Behind Stiuqxela, I may still be handicapped but its worth a shot.

Adsense

Today I added an Adsense element to my blog. While a classmate of mine went to the Google site to sign up for the program, I did it through the Blogger site. The ad that was selected for me advertises a relief fund set up for Katrina victims. I'm not sure how this is going to make me money but I'll see if the ad changes in the coming days.

Wiki eddit 11

Today I made my final Wikipedia edit for Mykonos, Greece. For the edit I moved the location of a picture. As it stood the picture offset the formatting of the page and created a big white space. By moving the picture, which may have been misaligned by another editor, I was able to restore the proper layout and aesthetic to the page.

Over the semester this page has not changed substantially. There have been random edits to the sections of "Nightlife" and the "External Links" but the only major changes to the content of the pages has been done by yours truly. The "Attractions" section that I created has had several edits done to it but the integrity of the section has remained. I do not foresee many changes in the future for this site, save for incremental changes created by vacationers like myself who want to shed some light on the little island of Mykonos.

SEO

On Monday we had a guest speaker come in to talk about his business, SEO by the Sea, which is a search engine optimization company. We covered some major strategies in SEO in class on Friday. These strategies include relevant keyword identification, matching pages to keywords, embedding keyword into the body of the page, and having appropriate ingoing and outgoing links. The whole point of SEO is to have your page rank higher on a Google, yahoo, or MSN search than others. Higher ranking means more views, clicks, and for businesses, more revenues.

For SEO by the Sea the process to SEO for a client begins with a conversation about what the client would like to achieve with their site. When a goal is established the focus is then put on identifying the company's major competitors, drafting a list of target keywords, and composing a basic SWOT analysis. One of the most strategic moves a site can make is to categorize the different element the site offers. The categories begin very broad, like clothing, as the speaker suggested, getting more and more specific. So the categories may descend from clothing to men's apparel, to dress shoes, to brown leather dress shoes. At each level the key words get more specific, indicating a more refined search. While this stratification is good for new sites, it may be more difficult for older, more established sites with an ingrained structure. This can be surmounted by adding content and pages to the main page of the site.

As we learned in class, the main strategy of SEO is to put the key words in strategic locations; in the title, in the context, and in the anchor text of links to and from other sites. All of these measures improve the sites probability of being picked up when certain key words are searched. It adds Google Juice to the page. The overriding feature of SEO is to be persuasive. A site wants as many people to visit it as possible and it must persuade, overtly or covertly, people to click on its link. This means matching it with the right key words so when the searcher sees the page it is the exact one they want. On top of this the page must be optimized so that if there are others like it, serving the same needs, the site is selected over others.

A final element to discuss is the issue of SEO ethics. By optimizing a site one is essentially manipulating the site to be more desirable to the search algorithm. As the speaker put it to the class; "When we type in the key word Nike, should Nike.com be the first site to come up or should it be a critique of Nike?"

wiki edit #10

For my final edit of the Pi Kappa Phi page I added the address of the national headquarters. This will help people if they are interested in contacting the fraternity or visiting its headquarters without needing to go to the official website.

Over the course of the semester this site changed only in certain areas. For one, an individual tried to add a complete list of chapter names , which lasted for a little while before someone moved it to another page. Also the notable alumni section seems to be growing daily, which may continue until it gets too large. I focused on the history for my edits and that has remained unchanged. At this point the site is fairly complete. Most of what is public knowledge is already on the site and any future changes are predicted to be editorial in nature.

Wiki edit 9

This is my final Wikipedia edit for Dumb and Dumber. I added a fact to the trivia section. I feel trivia gives life to a movie by providing information about the production and characters that we as viewers would otherwise never know.

This Wikipedia article had a lot of people looking at it, making incremental changes, however, it did not change drastically all that much over the course of the semester. The parts that were added when I was working on it were the Trivia section, the Soundtrack section, and lastly the Unrated Version section. All other sections had minor updates with people adding or subtracting information. My first edit, the quotes section, however short-lived, showed the response rate of the people watching the site. Some people didn't mind it and made changes to improve it, while others thought it best somewhere else and removed it from the site.

Classmate Comment

Since most of my teammates have been focusing on their Wikipedia edits for blog entries, i decided to look at other classmates blogs to find one to comment on. I happened to look at Lauren Pittaro's blog. She had posted an article about an independent radio station in Russia that, under new management, will report 50% positive news. The article caught my eye because I had head it mentioned on the Colbert Report the night before. Lauren made a good point when she brought up the issue of freedom of speech. I don't know what the conditions are in post-communist Russia but I can imagine the press and citizens do not enjoy the amount of freedom we do in America. It seems to me that the new managers of the station are looking to gain favor from the government by taking this approach. Since it is technically an "independent" radio station I assume it has minimal direct control from the government. this lack of control may be at the cost of certain benefits the new managers are seeking to achieve by promoting this positive media policy.

While I do not believe the coverage of positive news stories is outright propaganda, it does raise questions if in the pursuit of this goal the station manipulates facts, omits details or ignores stories all together in the hope to make the news more positive. Someone who posted a comment on the original article stated that news of a derivation from the norm, which tends to be a negative deviation. Based on the logic of this individual the majority of bad news is news and positive happenings are not as noteworthy. Another individual commented on how news stations love bad news because it sells and the public are gluttons for disasters and negative stories. I believe this is true which makes it harder for us to understand the idea behind positive news. We are so conditioned to turning on the 5 o'clock news and seeing murders and rapes that we doubt the significance of the world of positive things going on.

The part about the article, which Lauren mentioned, that bothered me the most was that the radio station will portray America as the enemy. Our foreign policy is already in shambles and to think this station may be turning potential allies into enemies is a disturbing thought. Freedom is speech and public dissent are one thing, but this sort of propaganda is how blind hatred and international distrust form.

Wiki edit # 8

This is the second time I edited the Wikipedia page I created for my high school, Gorham High School. For this edit I added a picture of the school. This was a slow and deliberate process since I had to prior experience. Once I figured out what I was doing the process made sense and the rationale behind the tags became clear. This might be something go to go over in class.

By adding the picture someone accessing the site will be able to see what my high school looks like.

Google Acquires DoubleClick

I recently read in the Wall Street Journal that Google had acquired the firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion dollars. Having read this I was interested in seeing what any of the required blogs had to say about it. I found such an article on click Z. The purchase of DoubleClick was the biggest in Google's history and signaled a huge consolidation of power in the online marketing industry, combining the largest search engine with an original and still biggest ad management firm. Sources have sited a large factor inhibiting Google's growth has been its reluctance to work with third party ad servers, electing to keep advertising tracking and reporting in-house. With the DoubleClick acquisition Google will overcome this barrier and will have the necessary technology to manage accounts more effectively. Theoretically the advertising community should benefit from the consolidation which will improve service for both Google and DoubleClick's customers.

The deal is not without scrutiny though. Both Microsoft, who had been in talks with DoubleClick prior to Google, and Time Warner are urging the US government to apply antitrust legislation to the deal. With Google's 60% share in Internet search and DoubleClick's high market share in advertising, the threat of monopolistic behavior is present. While the outcry from Microsoft may be a result of its not-so-long-ago antitrust court case, it is becoming evident that as Google grows it is doing so under greater scrutiny.

DealCatcher

I have spent the past hour or so on the site dealcatcher.com. This site is an unbelievable resource that I was never aware of until now. The site has a number of features including coupons you are able to download, print, or use online, ads to price compare and shop for bargains, and forums to communicate with others about specials all over the retail world. Besides the overwhelming amount of merchandise offered, it is the prices that are the most significant. While not all stores the site is connected with carry exhaustive inventories, if you are able to find something on one of those sites it is not uncommon to find it listed for 25% or more below the retail price. Many of the deals are valid for the day of the search only, so impulse buys may be required, but if you are one looking for the right price on an item you have been shopping for, this may be the place to get it.

The site is essentially an aggregator of deals from a number of different retailers found online. Instead of searching all over the Internet on different sites for the same items and looking for the best price, you can come to this site where it does all the work for you. All you need to do is scroll through the many options the search returns and compare.

An interesting thing I found was the nature of prices. For example, when I searched for the book Titan, a book about John D. Rockefeller, on dealcatcher it returned several amazon results with the lowest price being right around $2.50. When I ran the same search from the amazon.com homepage, it returned the same book but at the lowest price of $8.50. This may be a result of price discrimination on amazon's part or the result of an agreement worked out by amazon and dealcatcher. Either way it pays to use dealcatcher if you are looking for a specific item and the best possible price today.

I am looking forward to the presentation on Friday when the people behind the site are coming to discuss it. I'm interested in how they got the site up and running and their method for aggregating the deals they find.

Wiki edit 7

I just edited the Mykonos page in Wikipedia for the second time. this time I Switched a Mapquest map of the island, which did not have any detail available with one that showed the streets and labeled a majority of the attractions the town (island) offers. This should aid researchers by allowing them to see the layout of the town and the relative proximity of the attractions within it.

Microsoft accused of bait-and-switch

According to a post on Slashdot, a class action lawsuit has been filed against Microsoft corp for deceptive marketing practices. The suit claims that Microsoft allowed PCs to be labeled Windows Vista compatible when the PC was only able to support Windows Vista Home Basic, a stripped down version of the software that excludes features like the "Aero" on-screen appearance, Media Center PC interface, and Flip 3D window-switching. Consumers were led to believe they had purchased a PC that had the capabilities to handle all the new features of Windows Vista which Microsoft has been advertising in their unprecedented marketing campaign for the system. Microsoft contends that it went above and beyond to try and communicate the computer specifications necessary to run the new system but the lawyer representing the plaintiffs indicates that this information was not conveyed in the "Windows Vista Compatible" stickers.

This lawsuit could do a lot of damage to the Microsoft image the company has been working so hard to improve. Any time there is a new product launch there is the need for positive publicity to ensure the product does well on the market. A lawsuit like this will surely cast a shadow over the company and the new product, especially if Microsoft loses the dispute.

This is similar to the case of Intel which we read about in Naked Conversations. They realized their new chip was not compatible in a small number of computers but chose to ignore the issue. When this was discovered the small problem became a big one and the product suffered immensely. I do not foresee this happening to Microsoft to that extent but consumer confidence will surely be affected by the negative press. Robert Scoble had better be ready.

Wiki edit #6

I edited the Pi Kappa Phi wikipedia page for the second time. I added the date the PiKapp was incorporated, a significant date in the fraternity's history. There has been a lot of activity on the page since I began editing it. Several items posted by others have been taken down, cited to be nonfactual or illegally cut and pasted from other sites. It appears there are many eyes on this page.

stiuqxela experiment

As part of the class experiment I am linking to the Packer's site via the word stiuqxela. The experiment will use Google's PageRank algorithm to show how a site can gain "Google Juice" by having links connected to it. I hope I win the prize.

Internet Advertising

Describe how Internet advertising has impacted your web experience:

For the most part Internet advertising has had little impact on my web experience. More often than not however, it is a negative one. While most ads are on the sides of the page, not conflicting with my view of the page, some are blinking or contain animation (like the home mortgage ones) so they end up being distracting. I'm aware that this is a way for them to attract attention, but if the ad takes away from my experience with the site I may be less inclined to return. There are also ads that appear in the middle of my viewing area. Sometimes there are buttons to close the ad, but other times there isn't and I must click on the ad and then close the window that opens. A final type of ad I come across is the one that appears in between web pages when you click on an internal link. These are not too much of a bother, and I immediately click through them. Overall I am able to navigate the Internet with blinders on, not paying too much attention to the advertising found among its pages. When I do notice it however, it is often a nuisance and detracts from my online experience. While in some instances the ads may be annoying, I fully understand their place on the Internet and will continue to tolerate the dancing bear trying to sell me a low-interest mortgage.

Wiki edit # 5

I just edited the Dumb and Dumber article for the second time. I added the amount that the film grossed at the US box office as well as worldwide earnings. I found this to be good information to add since there was already information about the film's budget in the article and this would be a way to show the vast difference in revenues and cost.

VALS Survey

I just took the VALS Survey that we discussed in class today. The survey consisted of 40 questions that asked about your curiosity, desire to make things yourself instead of buying them, being a leader, and fashion sense. The survey ends with several demographic questions to put your previous answers in a context.

The results of my survey concluded that my primary VALS type is an Innovator and my secondary type is Achiever. Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. Because they have such abundant resources, they exhibit all three primary motivations in varying degrees. They are change leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.

Motivated by the desire for achievement, Achievers have goal-oriented lifestyles and a deep commitment to career and family. Their social lives reflect this focus and are structured around family, their place of worship, and work. Achievers live conventional lives, are politically conservative, and respect authority and the status quo. They value consensus, predictability, and stability over risk, intimacy, and self-discovery.

I feel that the survey was accurate in its analysis. I feel that I exhibit the characteristics of an achiever the most, but agree that I exhibit characteristics from the other types as well. I have learned about the VALS survey in other classes but this is the first time I've taken it myself. It was interesting to see the questions they ask and how they relate to the output. I didn't consider myself to be on the innovative side of the spectrum but based on the criteria they use, it appears I am.

Wiki edit #4

Today I created a page on Wikipedia highlighting my high school, Gorham High School. There are other schools around Gorham that are on Wikipedia and I feel that Gorham should be represented as well. I found it much more difficult to create a page from scratch than to edit an existing one. It was a stretch to know what some of the language means, but definately a learning experience. I had trouble finding the page from the Wikipedia home page after I created it, so I may have to work out a couple more bugs. I'll keep you posted to let you know if it gets deleated or not.

Aftermath revisited

In regards to Tricia's blog posting about Internet regulation, I couldn't agree more. The down side to having an international medium such as the Internet is that there is little accountability. This is made harder my the anonymity the Internet provides. People are able to commit harmful actions and hide in the commotion of cyberspace, eluding authorities and prosecution. Because of the infancy of the Internet, legislation and regulation are bound to lag behind, and there will always be those out there that abuse the system. But as Tricia stated and I agree to, there needs to be a greater push to organize a set of regulations dealing with jurisdiction, punishments, and accountability for actions online.

Wikipedia edit 3

I just edited my third article on Wikipedia. The article I edited was Mykonos, Greece. To the article I added an "attractions" section, to highlight the various sites there are to see on the island. I feel this will be helpful for people who are perhaps searching for places to go on vacation. If they look on Wikipedia they will see some suggested places the island has to offer and this may help them decide where to go or where not to go if the sites are/are not what they are looking for.

Wiki article 2: Pi Kappa Phi

I just edited the Wikipedia article Pi Kappa Phi. In the article I amended the history section, adding that the Nu Phi's were trying to gain positions in the Chrestomathic Literary Society.

I feel this is an important edit because it sheds more light on the reasons the founders created the fraternity and with my future edits I intend to paint a fuller picture of the events and circumstances leading up to the founding of Pi Kappa Phi.

On another note my first Wikipedia entry has been removed. I added quoted to the page and apparently there is a Wikiquotes page that contained the same material. Live and learn.

NBA and YouTube Partnership

I found a great article in ClickZ, one of the required blogs for the semester. The article highlighted a new partnership between the NBA and the Internet site YouTube, which is owned by Google. YouTube subscribers are asked to submit video clips of themselves showing off their moves. The videos will be judged and the top ten will be showcased on the site throughout the rest of the 2006-2007 season. "Under the partnership, the NBA is also working with YouTube parent Google to test the distribution of syndicated NBA video content across Google’s AdSense network. The test will allow publishers to receive syndicated clips of NBA games and other content, paired with advertising and served by Google." According to an NBA spokesman, "Our key thing for doing this deal is it's a great opportunity to provide our fans the ability to share in their passion for the game with their best moves on YouTube. It's a unique way to reach our fans."

This partner demonstrates the trend of marketers going online to reach customers. The Internet with sites like YouTube that have cult-like followings is the medium of the 21st century. With TV viewership down and other forms of advertising yielding spotty results, the Internet is quickly becoming a surefire way to connect with customers. The fact that an organization as old as the NBA is partnering with an Internet site less than two years old, speaks to the power and opportunity these sites hold. Today businesses (the NBA is as much a business as it is a sports league) are looking to connect with customers on a personal level. The mass marketing of the 1950's is out, requiring marketers to tailor their product and marketing strategies to the individual. The Internet allows a company, like the NBA, to do this. By creating fan involvement and showcasing their enthusiasm for the game, the NBA is connecting with fans on a whole new level and utilizing the most important medium to come along since television.

Open Source Products

While looking through the updated blogs under the 'required blogs' list, I came upon an article titled Upping the Hackability. I immediately thought the article was about some software or website that was losing its edge against hackers, but what it really talked about was a new wave of "open source" products that are hitting the market. The article highlighted two products, Open Cola and Free Beer, whose producers have made the ingredients and recipes available to the public, allowing consumers to manufacture the beverages themselves. This may be counter intuitive for most marketing oriented people, as the companies are essentially creating their own competition. However, the consumer involvement that the products generate is something buyers are flocking to.

This concept of consumer involvement is something that we explored in BUAD 473, Consumer Behavior. Today's consumer is more informed than ever before (thanks in large part to the Internet). As a result of this information control, consumers are looking to become more involved in their product consumption, whether this means pumping their own gas, ringing up their own groceries, or any other range of activities. "Open source" products offer a new level of participation that involves the consumer from start to finish. While this does not mean McDonald's is going to start telling customers how to make their own Big Mac or Whirlpool is going to instructing buyers on how to build their own washing machine, certain companies have found a niche in making the consumer a part of the value chain.

Dumb and Dumber edit #1

Today I edited my first Wikipedia article, Dumb and Dumber. For my edit I created a "Quotes" section in the article. I decided to add this section because Dumb and Dumber is full of great quotes which people, including myself, use and joke about all the time. I hope this is well received by the community. There were several other edits done to this article, made in the recent past, that were similar to mine. As a side note, it took a little while to get the hang of the format, especially HTML. I still have some work to do before I get to be comfortable with it, but I'm sure by the end of the semester I will be fully accustomed to the format. Tip: Use the tools the site provides.

Blog Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to create a forum for discussion regarding the class BUAD 477, Information Technology Applications in Marketing. The scope of the class is to familiarize us with the new direction technology, the internet especially, is taking the field of marketing. I feel the class will be a great benefit and will give us an edge in the job market when it comes to applying the skills we acquire. I am excited to learn more about this topic and to bolster my abilities using the technology we'll be discussing.

Entry with Link

Since I didn't include a link in my first entry, here it is.

Test Entry

Test: 843 pm