3rd & final follow-up to the weird search engine results article

Posted on February 19, 2007
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Weird Results from Google

Posted on February 16, 2007
Filed Under Diary | 1 Comment

I’m summarising this story right at the top because it turned into a long, rambling, ranting kind of thing… who’s got the time to read it?

One of my blogs — Bali Belly — has yet to show up properly indexed in Google even though it’s been there a couple of years. And, believe me, I followed all the right steps at the start… content is king, friendly urls, pinging updates, technorati… all of that jazz. What do I get. Nada in Google and a decent indexing in Yahoo (if you pick the correct combination of twenty or so words to build up a complex search phrase with quotes around it).

So here I am, this morning, trying to organise my new server (I just moved away from my old host) and setting up a play domain where I can try stuff out — Indonesia Woodcraft — without ruining my business and, just for the heck of it, I searched indonesia woodcraft in Yahoo — nothing except an obscure reference towards one of the test pages on Indonesia Export but the same phrase in Google… first place. It’s actually indexed. Even the phrasing is indexed.

WTF?

I don’t know whether to jump for joy or just toss my laptop out the window.

[Here’s the full article]

I’ve got a few websites to my name… nothing strange about that — I’ve been consistently online since Netscape 1.1 was the bee’s knees and Fetch was fading into a distant memory.

For the past ten years or so, most of my time has been taken up with one domain in particular — Indonesia Export. If she was a lady, she’d be my main squeeze but, truthfully, she’s no lady… she’s my business and behind the (even if I do say so myself) glossy blue veneer, there lies a sprawling building, staff sitting at computers, team of guys in the warehouse and network of carvers all across Indonesia.

So, this domain, Indonesia Export, is my company. The dot com aspect is my lead generator, my forum, my 24/7 tv ad.

I’ve been running the ad for ten years and, during that time, the site has changed and grown.

I started on a Mac (Powerbook 5300 with a crappy screen); I made the HTML with BBEdit (I wonder if that’s still around… probably is) and the uploaded the static pages via FTP — at that time, in Bali, a painfully slow process: 14.4 kb if you were damned lucky.

Then I switched to Homesite.

Then Dreamweaver which I still use.

Along the way, I ditched static for dynamic (no more copy & paste) and jumped into MySql.

And, the site was always there in the search engines. Yahoo first… I don’t remember Google at all in the early days. Just Yahoo and maybe AltaVista.

As the years went by, the site grew in size (2 Gigs+ of images; BIG database) and competitors arrived.

The competition changed from just one or two websites in the Yahoo index to, well, many…

Then the arms race began.

At first, it was fairly easy to control — there were only a few sites and the competition was about who had the most products, the best pictures, the most frequent updates and the best prices. Tough but not impossible. Fair, you might say.

We watched what our competitors did. Held meetings. Compared pricing. Tried to keep everything in line. We didn’t go out there to beat every price but just checked regularly to ensure we didn’t look silly.

More domains and companies arrived. More price checks. Different presentations, different concepts. We adapted and we stayed towards the top of the search engines.

Then, we dropped out completely. Gone. Business slowed to a crawl (at least from the website end). I scratched my head (boy, I wish I hadn’t — I’m 36 now and there’s nothing left on top) and did a little research…

…META TAGS — damn meta tags — does anyone else remember that unholy mess? Ok, the idea was straight-forward… you bury a bunch of data into the code of a standard HTML page. This buried data tells the search engine spider (why do they call them spiders?) who made the page, what it is about, what the key words are… etc.

Problem for me, at that point, was that if you didn’t have meta tags there already, you had to go back, edit your pages and re-upload (on a 14.4 connection).

Then people started abusing the system and everybody threw up their hands to say, “Damn these people for abusing the system.” I also threw up my hands at the same time but, if I remember correctly, it was to say, “Finally, people are abusing the system — took them long enough.” I mean, is there any system in history that hasn’t been abused?

I guess the biggest irritation with the MetaTag system was that people and businesses with little or no experience could reach the top of the engines almost immediately. All that time I’d spent… all those hours; all those images… and then back to square one. Well, whatever: business is partly about adaptation. Not a crisis but an opportunity. We did our tags and reappeared in the engines. Excellent.

Shortly after that, we dropped out again.

Turns out the rules had changed and our tags were not good enough.

Re-did the tags and reappeared in the engines. Excellent.

And dropped out again — tags were no longer a factor.

New terms appeared… word density and blah, blah, blah and then I found out Google wouldn’t follow into frames or past question marks (this has since changed) but did I have at that particular time? Right: a 2 gigabyte website based on mysql and php (question marks everywhere you look) in a framed format. Bollocks.

Then came Pay-per-click and blogging. So, we switched to pay-per-click and blogging. That means, I pay x hundred bucks a month to talk with 3 or 4 people and my blogs rarely if ever show up close to the top in a search engine where I want them.

Why? Abuse. We’ve all come full circle to trying every trick we can to put ourselves at the top and the whole system has turned full circle so that the usual suspects end up on top of the pile but legitimate businesses end up wasting considerably more money and time to compete with them.

Brilliant. Thank you Google. Thank you Yahoo. Kisses.

So, I bought a few more domains, set up a few more blogs, wasted one hell of a lot more time (on search engines rather than new products) just so people can find our handicrafts when they’re looking for them.

Meanwhile, every day, I see yet another website domain coming online (usually using our pictures, our text or some part of what we do) and coming up ahead of us. Enough to make a grown man tear out his hair in frustration (been there, done that, got the Google t-shirt).

One of my blogs — Bali Belly — has yet to show up properly indexed in Google even though it’s been there a couple of years. And, believe me, I followed all the right steps at the start… content is king, friendly urls, pinging updates, technorati… all of that jazz. What do I get. Nada in Google and a decent indexing in Yahoo (if you pick the correct combination of twenty or so words to build up a complex search phrase with quotes around it).

WTF?

I don’t know whether to jump for joy or just toss my laptop out the window.

checking fonts from live writer…

Posted on February 14, 2007
Filed Under Biz | Leave a Comment

And…

…another category…

And more fonts:

FontsFontsFontsFontsFontsFontsFontsF

ontsFontsFontsFontsFontsFontsFontsFo

ntsFon

tsFontsFontsFontsFontsFontsFontsFo

ntsFontsFontsFontsFontsFontsF

ontsFontsFontsFont

sFontsFontsF

ontsFontsFontsFontsFonts

Testing one more category…

Posted on February 14, 2007
Filed Under Diary | Leave a Comment

Here’s a different category.

HERE’S SOME BOLD TEXT

Here’s some FONT PLAY

Sean

Testing Indonesia WoodCraft

Posted on February 14, 2007
Filed Under General | 1 Comment

Repost… to all categories… larger font on first paragraph.

This is just a very simple test page to get the new version of Wordpress up and running through its paces.

Here’s a link to Indonesia Export

Here’s an ordered list of links to other sites:

Here’s an image:

Here’s another image but aligned to the right with a whole bunch of text repeating over and over and over and over and over and overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand overand over again.

Here’s some styled text in a numbered list:

Bold.
Underlined.
Italicised.
Colored.
~~Struck Through.~~

Sean

Bali Metal Candle Lanterns, Salty Air and Rust

Posted on January 21, 2007
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We’ve been asked what our Metal Lanterns are made from and how well they might stand up to outside weather conditons (particularly when close to the ocean.

Here’s a short summary of what we know:

The Metal Lanterns are made from Iron (Fe) mixed with Zink (Zn).

The metals are�mixed together�at high temperature and then molded as a plate — the plate can be anywhere from 0.3 mm to 1.2 mm thick. (Our metal lanterns�are usually between�0.35 & 0.4 mm thick.)

There should be little or no problem using the lanterns outdoors even in a salty climate because…

Each�lantern is�cleaned inside and out with Phosphoric Acid (H3PO4), base coat is then applied followed by the top coat (usually an antique finish).

Long story short: as long as the paint / coat is still there (meaning it doesn’t get scratched off to reveal the iron underneath), these products shouldn’t give you any rust problems.

You can see the stuff I’m talking about by going to:

Indonesia Export - Metal Candle Lanterns

By the way, Bali�has a very salt rich climate and, so far, we haven’t had any problem with these products.

Afternoon,

Sean

Havoc and Handicrafts on the Island of the Gods, Bali - Indonesia

Posted on January 21, 2007
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Seemed like a mad, stressful kind of day in Bali

Posted on January 20, 2007
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Well, maybe not as bad as all that.

Busy, certainly.

The business processing and planning started, as usual, with the second cup of coffee. I’m out of the decent Toraja Kalosi (from Excelso) so it was the local “bubuk-in-a-bag” stuff. Bubuk is powder; looks like instant coffee but it isn’t — more like very fine ground (bashed, probably). I call it cowboy coffee because when you get to the bottom of the cup, you’ve got gritty sludge and that’s what I imagine the cowboys drank… I’m probably way off base with that.

The problem: we’re busy. Not a bad thing, certainly, but when you’re only mid-way through February and people are starting to look strained and stressed, it’s worth paying attention to systems and how the new people are integrating.

By the time I arrived at the office, I hadn’t come with any specific plan but at least I had an idea of how to approach the situation — a combination of redefining job descriptions (cut and paste responsibilities); a dab of sympathy and some rearranging of furniture.

A quick phone conversation with one of our American clients.

On to the email (30 real messages — a couple hundred junk mails).

Talk to the bank.

Hold.

Call the bank back.

Shout at the bank.

Listen to dial tone.

Call the bank back, apologize, finish.

Shout about the bank.

Upload some new bamboo containers — a small update because my database was acting tricky. Details of those below.

Take some photos of jewellery with the new G7.

More photographs of an order we’re about to pack and ship (I want the client to get a better look at the pieces before they get to the port).

Rejecting some lousy paintings.

Meet a Swiss guy who’s here in Bali building his own client base back home.

Check on a domain I switched over for a friend yesterday.

Off to the airport to pick up my wife’s sister.

Take the scenic route home and then kicked myself for being so bloody stupid… Bali + Scenic Route = Traffic(RoadWorks-Squared).

Home, to pull out the laptop and pop a short blog article for the Indonesia Export News & Updates page drawing attention to the containers we just uploaded.

Walk the dog, drink my tea, smoke ten cigarettes and watch Arsenal make mincemeat out of Hamburger… irresistable, isn’t it?

Update my diary.

Good enough.

Another Day in Paradise… Life’s a Beach and all that.

– Here’s that little update on the Bamboo Containers —

�Here are some more of the colorful woven bamboo containers — you’ll find these in use in most of the local restaurants around Bali to keep flies off food and so on.

http://www.indonesiaexport.com/frame.php?category=Bamboo+%26+Wood+Containers

Enjoy,

Sean

Copper, Aluminium &amp; Stone Products from Indonesia Export

Posted on January 20, 2007
Filed Under Biz | Leave a Comment

New products uploaded at Indonesia Export — Here’s a copy of the update article:

“We haven’t made many updates over the past few weeks — Spring Cleaning… that’s our excuse and we’re going to stick to that story… like glue.

Here’s a new range of vases, candleholders and decorative dishes.

This stuff is mainly from Java — not a Balinese product line — but a very pleasing, slightly more modern range of items made from copper, aluminium or stone. We’re not absolutely sure what type of stone is being used — the maker calls it “fossil stone” but that seems a bit of a misnomer to me… let’s just call it really old, polished stone — looks like marble.

See the whole line by going to:

http://www.indonesiaexport.com/frame.php?category=Stone%2C+Copper+%26+Aluminium

Enjoy,

Sean”

Taking Xanax Everyday For

Canon G7

Posted on January 19, 2007
Filed Under Diary | 1 Comment

Just bought a Canon G7 to back up our aging Fuji camera (which has been failing bit-by-bit over the past few months).

First impressions:

Well, a bit of new kit is rarely as exciting as the hype makes out but I like it.

First, the bad news:

No RAW format. Well, for Indonesia Export this is not such a bad thing… as much as I like the idea, our approach to product photos just doesn’t allow us to spend too long on each photo or overcomplicate the production / editing stage. In other words, we shoot a few pics, check it on the monitor (never, never ever on the built in LCD) and if there’s a problem, we adjust and then take a few hundred photos.

We’re strictly for the web and, on that level, the G7 probably represents overkill.

I did however want to play around with RAW format just for the hell of it so it is a little disappointing.

Also, no power adaptor with the package — I mean, you can’t plug it in.

Odd that: it’s got a hotshoe (mount for external flash) and the little screw-hole for a tripod… suggestive of studio work but no adaptor for mains. Goofy, really. And, over here, to get the adaptor, we need to order from Jakarta… a pain in the butt and expensive (nearly US$100.00 just for the adaptor).

Good things:

Image stabilisation is something I’ve wanted in a camera since I found out about cameras. Brilliant. I’ve been drinking coffee all day but I can still zoom in from a few meters away and get off a decent shot.

Not much noise. I had a 5mp Fuji snapshot thingie (not for the office, it was�a birthday present for my wife) and I expected it to take fab photos right out of the box — it never did. The images were always speckled or noisy. What a pain and what a waste of money. Presumably, the genius at Fujifilm had decided we all want print while, in fact, most of us are keeping the images on our computers because even though memory costs and storage costs and laptops and desktops and high speed cpus are price dropping like wounded buffalo, print costs keep going up. So for an ordinary Joseph like myself, seeing noisy images on screen are a complete no-no. The G7 is fine, just fine.

Color fidelity is good… maybe right on the money or so it seems.

Heft is perfect, feels like it’s made of steel so if I end up being chased down the street for taking photos, I should be able to turn around at some point and fetch my pursuer a decent clip about the ear. More importantly, I don’t have to worry about it falling apart in my hands. A real concern when I take into account the sheer number of photos being taken and the camera is not just in my hands but passed person to person.

Also, although I’ve seen a few moans about the flimsy lens, I love the fact that it contracts completely — when it’s switched off there’s no problem with scratches, etc. In other words, I just stop worrying about it.

That’s about it. I may follow up when I’ve taken a few hundred more shots with it but for now, I like it.

Amoxil

keep looking »

3rd & final follow-up to the weird search engine results article

Weird Results from Google

[Here’s the full article]

checking fonts from live writer…

Testing one more category…

Testing Indonesia WoodCraft

Bali Metal Candle Lanterns, Salty Air and Rust

Havoc and Handicrafts on the Island of the Gods, Bali - Indonesia

Seemed like a mad, stressful kind of day in Bali

Copper, Aluminium &amp; Stone Products from Indonesia Export

Canon G7

First impressions:

First, the bad news:

Good things:

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