Owning premium domain names is like owning a piece of prime real estate. Let’s face it, before the internet bubble burst, there were people that made a lot of money squatting on domain names and selling them for thousands in some cases millions of dollars. This led to other extensions being created like .net, .us, .tv, .info, .biz, etc. So is the .co the next .com? Highly unlikely, I think domain name resellers are banking on the fact that it resembles .com so much, which makes sense (hence the current inflated price for a .co domain name extension).

However, the biggest problem is that .com is so dominant and will be very hard for people to adopt a new extension. Even if people remember your business name, chances are that they will automatically put a .com at the end of it when doing a search. This can potentially be hurtful to your business should your competitor own the .com extension.

But what about Overstock.com, I saw a new commercial of them advertising O.co, if big companies are doing why shouldn’t I? Unless you already own the .com of the new .co domain you are trying to buy, I wouldn’t buy one otherwise. Overstock.com is using O.co as a form of marketing research, to track their visitors. Just like I always advise companies to use a different phone number on their website to track leads. Lets face it, O.co is also pretty smart and easy to remember, just like those who registered cho.co or mexi.co. Ultimately when was the last time you saw .net, .biz, .us on the first page of a search engine like Google. Even when searching “Overstock” on Google O.co is nowhere to be found.

To be “bigger than Google” in the tech world is a pretty big feat. But for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, it’s something that he can officially mark off of his “to-do” list, if he’s got one.  Facebook, the world’s largest social-networking site, surpassed Google’s search engine in weekly hits to become the most-visited Web site in the U.S. for the first time, according to the research firm Hitwise.

The statistics aren’t an airtight victory for Facebook However, when all of Google’s properties are considered — such as YouTube and email, for instance — Google still reigns as the most visited site at 9.9 percent between January and November 2010. Facebook follows at 8.9 percent.  While the numbers put up by Facebook are impressive by any standard, they likely are not the start of any meaningful trend or the dethroning of Google as many are proclaiming. Surely, one could find similar reports from a few years back that state similar claims about Myspace taking over the world. Everyone knows how that worked out.

So I haven’t posted any new photography work, I shot this Twin Turbo G35 a few months ago and I just wanted to post up some teaser shots.  Let me know if you want to see more of this awesome ride or other photography work?

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Well, I am sure you have seen our lack of updates and I apologize for that.  Back in September we acquired a new facility and are expanding our operations.  We are excited to have 2 locations to serve our customers and welcome you to visit us during work hours.

Our new location is located in Ontario, California and features 2 awesome conference rooms and houses our graphic design team and also accounting dept.  We are still finalizing all of our workspace so stay tuned for updates.  In the meantime, here are some pictures.

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Google has always been helpful in providing proper SEO techniques, Google’s mission is to provide the most relevant results to their users.  This guide helps your site can rank properly according to Google’s algorithm.  About 2 years ago Google published their first “SEO Starter Guide” which I have encouraged many people to read it.  They have now updated this useful guide, some of the new updates are:

• Glossary to define terms throughout the guide
• More example images to help you understand the content
• Ways to optimize your site for mobile devices
• Clearer wording for better readability

You can download the new version here (PDF).  Remember, making Googlebot happy will help your site rank higher organically and in turn bring in more traffic.

Google just announced search results that update while you type, “Google Instant”.  Their ambitious effort to speed up searching will forever change the way we get results, but did they kill SEO?

There’s been quiet a bit of buzz going around about how SEO is dead. It’s not the first time we have heard this before, specially when Google launches a huge algorithm change and I’m sure it won’t be the last.  So should you be afraid of Google’s new Instant Search?  The answer to that is yes and no, let me explain.  First off, lets talk about how Google’s new Instant Search works.  Let’s say you live in Orange County and you are having plumbing issues.  Your not sure if you need to hire a professional or you can do it yourself.  It’s fair to assume that “plumber in Orange County” would be a search query that one would type prior to Google’s new Instant Search.  It’s also fair to assume that plumbers that service the are in Orange County would optimize their website for a search query of “plumber in Orange County” and of course others related to their service area and services they provide.  Well, with Google’s new Instant Search, as you start typing your search query it immediately starts bring up relevant results even before you finish typing anticipating what it is your looking for or even suggesting other phrases that you may or may not of thought about.

I begin to start typing “plumber” on Google, every keystroke will immediately begin to bring search results even before I finish typing the whole word.  So thinking I knew what I was searching for, Google has now redirected me to a different phrase.  As I start typing “plumb…” Google begins to recommend “plumbing” instead of “plumber” and I quickly change my mind and go with “plumbing instead.  Now, I begin to see “plumbing inspection” and even “plumbing issues” which is what I have.  Google has now redirected my search, the problem here is if your website was highly optimized for “plumber in Orange County” and nothing else, you just lost a potential customer.

So what can be possibly good with that?  Well, everyone searches. Google said today that they get 1 billion searchers a week. People search a lot. So it’s important to be visible in search if you want to connect with your audience.  Sure, searchers may tweak their queries in real time, but they aren’t going to fundamentally change what they’re looking for. If I’m looking for a restaurant in Los Angeles, I’m not going to see results for “relaxing vacations in Mexico” and decide to go to Cancun instead of out to dinner.  I’ve always advised looking at audience needs and building a site that addresses them holistically rather than fixating on ranking for a single keyword phrase.

So is SEO dead?  No, and I don’t think it ever will be.  But the reality is that building valuable sites that meet searcher needs will only continue to grow in importance.  If you would like to learn more about Search Engine Optimization and how we can help optimize your website don’t hesitate to contact us.

I was in search for a large capacity portable hard drive, I wanted it to be small and not require an external power source.  I do major research before buying any product, and it wasn’t any different here.  After looking at every manufacture and reading just about every review, I had my eyes set on a Seagate 1TB Free Agent GoFlex portable drive.  It was small, sleek and offered everything I needed.  What I really liked most was the ability to change the interface adapter and it make it into a USB 2.0, eSata, FireWire 800, and even USB 3.0 compatible which is really fast!  Those that do major transfers know that a 200GB transfer on an ancient USB 2.0 can take up to 4hours, so having that flexibility is convenient, specially if you like to share with friends and family and move your drive a lot.

I was sold on this hard drive no questions asked.  However, in my search I also found what is possibly one of the best products out in the market today.  It is the Seagate Free Agent GoFlex Net, which is a docking station for this hard drive.  But it isn’t just a docking station, it allows you to access your files from anywhere by using the Pogoplug technology.  But what makes this product really shine, is the ability to access your files through your mobile device using an iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and even Palm Pre.  All you have to do is download the Pogoplug app (which is free) and just like magic you have a personal cloud based server.  You can stream your music, easily view photos, watch movies all from your smart phone and even share your content with your friend and family.

I purchased both items, the GoFlex ultra-portable drive and the GoFlex Net docking station.  Installation was very easy, the docking station has an Ethernet port that connects to your router (comes with a small cable too which was nice).  I didn’t know this at the time of purchase, but on the right side you have an extra USB port for an additional storage device.  Meaning, you don’t need to use their GoFlex hard drive.  If you already own a portable hard drive that uses a USB2.0 connection, say a Western Digital My Book.  All you do is connect it to the back of the docking station using a USB cable and it will work the same.  Of course using their GoFlex drive along with an extra storage device will allow you to have up to 6TB of HD space which is a lot of data storage.  So after easily installing the docking station I then mounted my new hard drive to the docking station and activated the product online.  You must activate the product or you will not be able to use the docking station, this does not directly connect to your computer, but rather  your network.

Once you activate your account, you can now begin to transfer files to your hard drive using Pogoplug’s web based user interface, or you can download their application for Mac or PC application that will allow you to easily access your hard drive without the need of using a web browser.  I thought this was brilliant, on my PC it shows up as a “P:” drive inside my computer folder next to my C: and D: drive.  I think the P: was purposely done for the name Pogoplug which was pretty cool.  Using Mac OS X Snow Leopard it shows up as an icon that once you click on it, opens up all of your folders.  Using the OS application allows you to drag and drop files like you normally would do on external hard drive.  I find downloading the application for the operating system is the best way to manage your files.  I installed it on my laptop and was quiet excited to see that I can access all of my files by just seeing the drive letter P: as if my drive was actually on my laptop.

Conclusion:
So after using it for about a week I find this device to be such a powerful tool.  Not only can I stream over 200GB of music to my smart phone and have access to all my files anywhere I go.  I like the ability be able to share specific folders, videos, musics and files with friends and family.  It’s the little things like me taking a picture with my phone and automatically sending my photos to my hard drive that make the Seagate GoFlex Net combined with the Pogoplug service a powerful device.  You also have a folder in your hard drive called “Files shared with me” which is a folder from all of the people that are giving you access to their pictures, videos, music and files.  The internet has always been about sharing, and I have no doubt that this will revolutionize the way we share content.

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