The Many Happenings
Stuart Piazza’s Official Blog
hi.
I am Stuart Piazza. I am an idealist, creator, writer, graphic designer, IT administrator, student, photographer, gamer, friend, and CEO of Buogo, Inc. I love music, movies, Twitter, and tea. As you see, I also seem to love comma separated lists. I hope you enjoy my blog.
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I Really Like Bing, But I Want to Love It
Microsoft has been pissed off for quite some time now. Though their share of the software market is way beyond any other company’s dreams, their online presence has been an utter fail since the beginning. Live.com was launched to drive people away from Google, and as most of us know, since none of us used it, it was a failure as well. This is why Microsoft is starting over with their new and improved search engine, Bing, which just launched a few days ahead of schedule. Has Microsoft finally convinced me to come over to their side from my love of the Google side? No, but they’re close.
I'm not obsessed with dogs.
In many ways, Bing has some pretty cool features that Google doesn’t. The first new thing you may notice is the related search categories on the left sidebar. If you do a simple search for “dogs“, instead of pages displaying in the search that only have the word dog in them, Bing creates some extended options for you such as “Breeders” or “Toys”. Well, Google has this too, but you have to enable it.
When looking at your search results, Bing will find the most popular pages or categories within the site and display them for you. You can also roll your mouse over and preview some text from the homepage before you decide to head to that site or not. Some sites have reported that these “popular pages” aren’t totally accurate, but I’m sure in time Bing will become propagated correctly and things will sort themselves out. I love this feature of Bing.
Another thing you may notice right off the bat is the speed of Bing. Whether you are changing to a search category or going to another page on Bing, the load time is almost instant. This shows that Microsoft has really improved their architecture and optimization of the platform over their previous attempts, and overall the experience is a bit quicker than that of Google. This is something that I want in a search engine, and quick speeds is a must.
I like Bing Images better than Google Images. After all these years of searching Google for images, I think I may make my switch over to Bing when in need of someone’s body to Photoshop one of my friend’s heads on, or any other purpose of searching for an image out there that I may not be aware of. Instead resorting to pagination, Bing displays most of the found images on a single page. There’s also no text or url, like there is on Google, so therefore it is truly an image search. You can instantly change the zoom of all of the found images, and it is easier to find the direct link to the image than it is on Google since it displays it immediately after you click on the image.
Searching for Videos is pretty intuitive as well, as it searches for videos on any site, rather than videos only on YouTube on Google Videos. Google’s video search right now is mostly video results mixed with regular results, and though it works, it’s still not a dedicated video search. On Bing, there is also a preview of the video that you can watch by rolling your mouse over the thumbnail. Though this is cool, don’t try to preview a video at work if NSFW is in the title.
Shopping, maps, and etc are the same they were on Live. Though they aren’t bad, I don’t see myself switching from Google Maps or Google Earth anytime soon. Also, I don’t know what is with Microsoft’s fetish of defaulting to annoying hot air balloon or forest backgrounds throughout the search bar and results. I want simple, and this makes it still feel like the old Live.com, which I hated. Also, if you try out Bing on your iPhone or mobile web device, it just forwards you to Live Mobile, which just isn’t cool.
The unique features, speed, and intuitiveness of Bing makes it a good competitor towards Google. It is definitely Microsofts best attempt, but it still falls short in the beautiful simplicity that Google offers. There is no web app, annoying backgrounds, it still needs to be propagated correctly. Though Bing is a vast improvement of Live and I will be checking it out every now and then, I’ll still use Google for all of my searching needs. Microsoft is close, and competition is good, but there are still some things that need to be worked out. I really like Bing, but it has yet to win my love. I look forward to seeing Google’s reaction to this, and can’t wait for future builds of Bing.
Technorati Tags: Bing, Microsoft, Google, Search Engine, Search, Live
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Weekly Blogroll: Contest #1
Would you like to have a free five-week text link in my sidebar? Well, every week you’ll get a chance to get one! It will work like this:
1) Each week I’ll post a simple contest with the possibility of one winner.
2) The winner of that week will get the #1 slot of the text-link in my sidebar. There will be up to five total slots.
3) If the contest is a question, those who get it right will be mixed up in a virtual hat and be randomly selected. If the contest isn’t a question, then the one person from the bunch who answer will be randomly selected.
4) To enter, reply on the Weekly Blogroll post of that week with your answer and the URL that you would like to be placed. The link should be no more than 30 characters.
5) If you don’t have a link you would like to share and just want to enter for fun, that is perfectly fine! Just please, no adult content or inappropriate material.To be the first winner and get your link improving SEO and traffic of your site, simply subscribe to my RSS feed, comment below saying you did, and provide the link you would want if you win. Please use a valid email when commenting so I can contact you if there is an issue. Thanks, and good luck!
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Why Your Next Site Should be Based on the Twitter API
Though no one knows what Twitter’s business model is, there are still new sites every day that are built solely on the Twitter API. Why? Because people can profit themselves from the platform right now, and only hope for good things for the future. However, if Twitter were to shut down there servers tomorrow, there would be thousands of sites rendered useless. What keeps them going, and why shouold you get into the action? New to Twitter?
To easily answer that question, check out this graph. It’s based on Twitter’s traffic for the past six months.
Though the graph fluctuates and dips every few months, it is continually rising. In fact, Twitter has continued to surpass sites almost every month that are ranked under 100 in Alexa, and that takes a lot of increased traffic. Sure, Alexa isn’t totally accurate, but it’s the closest thing we have to officially ranking sites. Twitter’s traffic may even be greater than what Alexa picks up, but only the company and their investors know. Either way, we can see that Twitter is continuing to rise per month, and if you wait around too long, there may not be room for your Twitter-based App.So what should you do? Purchase a Twitter domain…now. Think of something, preferably with Tweet or Twit, bird, or Twitter in it, and purchase the domain. Buogo, Inc. is sitting on a number of Twitter domains only to be used for with our own apps or sell them in the future. We have already launched our first Twitter-based site, TweetMyLink, and there will be more to come.
You may be asking “Aren’t you creating competition for yourself by encouraging people to create Twitter-based sites?” Yup, and we love it. Twitter needs sites like these to continue to grow and hopefully in the future profit. Sites like these need competition to improve on their game and offer more to the internet than they ever did before. Competition, especially on the web, is a good thing.
If you are indeed worried that Twitter may go out of business and your site will go with them, then come up with something that can still be used afterward. Perhaps loosely base it around the API, or create something that is marketed towards Twitter users but everyone can use it. Like TinyURL, yFrog, TwitPic, eggURL, or any other web app that is beneficial to both someone using Twitter and those who are missing out.
I predict that now is the best time to start on your tweet-action. Whether it’s a highly followed account, an app based on the Twitter API, or something mobile that you have in mind, get a start on it. If you are a web developer I highly recommend that you get into this game. You’ll love it, you’re users will love it, and in the long run, Twitter will love it because you are improving the power and publicity of their platform. Oh, now I see what their business model is.
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SEO Samurai - Have a New Startup? Tell These Sites
The SEO Samurai asks, “Have you just launched your new site and are in desperate need of exposure?” I’m sorry to break this to you, but telling your mom and friends just won’t cut it. Your site needs to be revealed by other sites, increasing SEO and building a reputation for your name. Before your site is successful, you will need hundreds of sites and communities buzzing about your latest web app.
Though getting your site or content on Digg or Reddit is a great way to start, it’s not always possible. Write up a summary of your site and send it to these following sites. Each link will directly send you to their contact page:
1) KillerStartups: KillerStartups reviews 15+ sites a day, and displays basic information about your site and company to the world. Getting reviewed by them is a little tougher than some other sites, so make sure you have a “killer” site.
2) MakeUseOf: MakeUseOf is a large directory of web apps, with over 60,000 subscribed via e-mail or RSS. This can drive great amounts of traffic to your site, and is very beneficial in the long run.
3) FeedMyApp: Almost any Web 2.0 startup sent here will be published. Users can rate and comment on your site, and some good traffic is generated.
4) TechSnack: TechSnack is a blog type site listing new websites on the internet. They are pretty good about checking your submission out, so you should submit your app and see what happens.
5) Post on forums. Don’t be annoying and make it sound like a commercial, just casually tell them they may enjoy using your site and that they should check it out. Also, make sure to tell them to comment and critique it, so they will be inclined to actually check it out. There may be more of a chance of a “flame war” on some sites rather than others, but if you have already have a good reputation on a forum, you should be fine.
There are a million web directories and review services out there, but these are the ones that have worked for us in the past and helped out with new startups. Merely getting reviewed on one of the first four sites may spark other sites to review you, and in no time you will have 15-20 links to your site. Your users will be happy, the internet will be happy, and most importantly, you and your company will be happy as well.
If you know of a site that has worked better for you and I didn’t include, list it in the comments.
Technorati Tags: Seo Samurai, Advice, SEO, Tips, Startup, Exposure
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Win My Battlefield Heroes Beta Key
I just got an official Beta Key for Battlefield Heroes, a new and free to play shooter based on an updated version of the Battlefield Engine. The game is currently in closed beta, and this key grants you access to create and account with EA Servers and download the game client. I however, am too busy to enjoy the game and be a true beta tester for this game, so I decided to give it to my blog readers.
If you haven’t heard, we just launched the beta of eggURL, one of the fastest, easiest, and funnest ways to shorten your large and annoying URLs. So, in order to win my beta key, all you have to do is go to eggURL, create a shortened link, and paste it in a comment here. Make sure to provide a valid email address when posting your comment so that I can contact the randomly drawn winner. (Also, if you have anything nice to say about eggURL that is greatly appreciated too.)
That’s it! I hope you enjoy eggURL, and I hope the winner enjoys his/her beta key.
Technorati Tags: eggURL, EA, Battlefield Heroes, Contests, Beta
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