All About Content

I’ve successfully made the case at my company that content is the key to our ongoing SEO success. So now I’m recruiting for two writing positions at work to help maintain and develop content for our microsites, and to help me launch some new web properties. So here’s my gripe: where are all the good writers?

Remember English Composition 101: Show, don’t tell. But if you can’t show, then at least try telling. I’m advertising that I’m looking for a writer. Yet I’m receiving lots of applications from individuals who not only don’t bother to demonstrate their writing skills (either through well-crafted cover letters or writing samples), but who also neglect to make any mention of writing skills or experience in their CVs.

So here are some tips: Having two years of work experience doesn’t warrant a five-page résumé. More is not better when it comes to being a good writer. A five-page résumé is excessive for an executive; for two-years of experience it just looks desperate. Even worse if you’re a writer — who should know better than anyone that good writing is about judicious, not copious, use of words.

Tip #2: When a job ad asks you to include supporting documents (e.g., writing samples), include them. General rule of job applications: it’s good to follow instructions.

Tip #3: If you’re applying for a mid-level writing job, don’t tell me all the details of how you organized catering for your sorority’s annual ball or how you were in charge of a project to move your company’s files into off-site storage. It’s irrelevant and I don’t care.

Sorry to be cranky, but that’s the way it is. Wouldn’t you rather know the truth so you can prepare a better application the next time?

Quotables
Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good. – attribution unknown

I’m sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter. – Mark Twain

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people – Thomas Mann

There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I’m greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed. — John Kenneth Galbraith

This week has been all about International CES, the year’s largest consumer electronics trade show. It’s pretty much par for the Google course that anywhere it goes, it’s the headline attraction - but in this case the fact that Google and Yahoo are headlining this show ought to be noteworthy. CES is a consumer electronics trade show — something which neither company actually produces.

You can find comprehensive coverage pretty much everywhere on the Web — it was this week’s BIG DEAL. Yahoo News has a section devoted to CES coverage, featuring photos from Flikr.

Gates, Semel and Page keynote at CES

Video from CES at ZDNET

Some search-related highlights:
Yahoo Go - Yahoo Go, which will be offered by Nokia, Motorola, and Cingular Wireless. Yahoo Go will store all of a user’s useful information, such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and other contact information, and basically allow it to be accessed through any Internet interface imaginable. (Canada.com)

Google Pack - Google Pack, a downloadable package of Google-branded and third-party software, such as a Web browser and a media player, considered essential for most computer users. The availability of the software, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, could diminish Microsoft’s control of the computer desktop, seen by many as a key tool for driving people to use online services. (San Jose Mercury News)

Google Video Store - The service will act as a marketplace and lets the content providers decide in what capacity and for how much they want to sell their content, Page said. “Content producers are in charge and they can decide if they want the videos for rental, download or other things,” he said. (Linux World)

Motorola integrates Google icon - Motorola announced a partnership with Google to provide consumers access to Google content on Motorola handsets. Under the agreement, which was announced Thursday, Motorola will integrate a Google icon onto select devices that permits one-click access to Google search technology. These “Internet-optimized handsets” will be distributed some time in the first quarter of 2006 to select customers worldwide, according to Motorola. (Forbes.com)

The next version of Windows - New York Times technology reviewer David Pogue: If I seem to be laying on the “stolen from Apple” language a bit thick, you’re darned right. Ordinarily, I’m careful about making accusations like this, because I know I’ll get hammered by Apple bashers. But in this case, there’s not a shred of doubt: most of the features Microsoft demonstrated last night were pure, unadulterated ripoffs from Mac OS X. I could hear actual whispers of recognition from the audience around me. More about Windows Vista features, some actually original like thumbnail tabbed browsing for IE, here.

Other News:
Yahoo TV Demo a No Go
Gates Pitches CES Crowd on Vista’s Content Handling
InfoWorld interview with Steve Ballmer
Gates shares his vision of the digital lifestyle

Bigdaddy is a new Google data center live at 66.249.93.104 and 64.233.179.104.

It’s not an algo update, it’s not a data refresh. It’s a new infrastructure. Matt Cutts promises “It should be much more subtle/gentle than an update.” Bigdaddy is going to be the default source of web results in about 1-2 months.

Dogpile.com, the meta-search that combines results from Google, Yahoo, MSN Search and Ask.com, yesterday patted itself on the back while keeping tongue firmly implanted in cheek.

The company celebrates its 10 years combining search results by publishing a list of highlights and lowlights in the history of combinations: Spork - good. Bennifer - bad. Liger - good. Turducken - bad.

If I remember correctly (again with that pesky fact-checking), Dogpile was the first one to give us a look into the search-o-sphere (I made up a new buzz word - start spreading it around) with SearchSpy. The site was and continues to be daring enough to publish both a clean and an uncensored version.

In addition to SearchSpy and the regular Dogpile search engine, SEOs might be interested in the Search Comparison Tool.

Google’s new Music Search is stirring up the hornets’ nest again. Even though song lyrics and tablature have been posted practically since the beginning of the Web, music publishers and producers are now seeing this content as a bigger threat. That’s because Google Music Search makes this even easier to find, they claim.

Unlike some controversial services, which aggregate information that, though public, is hard for the average person to find — like if you wanted to View Criminal Records of your neighbors, for example — I don’t think Music Search is that much better than what anyone could easily find using any regular search engine. It’s not the next Napster by a long shot… or Google Print for that matter. It didn’t take any advanced searching skills to find lyrics before, so the fact that the Music Publishers’ Association and National Music Publishers’ Association are just now raising a stink about it strikes me as funny. Just plays into that pervasive misconception that Google is The Internet, or at least that things aren’t worth paying attention to unless Google is paying attention to them.

But I’m a big fan of consistency, and I appreciate the issue of intellectual property rights, so I’m not saying the publishers aren’t justified. Just about a decade too late figuring out that they’ve completely lost control over the publishing of lyrics.

Maybe Google can change the name of Music Search. After the much maligned Google Print became Google Book Search, it seems like the scanning controversy dropped off the radar as far the mainstream media are concerned. Maybe if they change the name to Song and Album Search, everyone will just forget the whole thing.

Om Malik, senior writer at the magazine Business 2.0, predicts 2006 is going to present challenges to Google’s AdSense program. Click fraud, which some in the industry are estimating to be 30%, especially is going to become a major issue. AdSense is at the core of GOOG’s advertising business, so major setbacks are going to make investors unhappy.

Read How Click Fraud Could Swallow the Internet in the current issue of Wired Magazine.