Digg has it’s share of viewpoints, but this error message is an argument in itself.

I am beginning to get an eerie feeling when I visit social bookmarking sites. The feeling is part nostalgia, part de ja vu, and part dread. It’s actually more than just a feeling. When SMO Bookmarking in Delicious, Magnolia or Mister Wong, I hear a voice that whispers: remember me… It’s sort of the same sense you get when you hear a new tune on the radio and recognize the guitar chord progression–”Hey that’s “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynard Skynard, but the band doesn’t even realize that they have subconsciously plagiarized those chords. They think they wrote the melody themselves!

Once upon a time, there only a few web directories. Moment of silence for Yahoo, DMOZ, Zeal (I miss Zeal), et. al. Then, over the years, we all know what happened. Directory scripts proliferated. Submission software blossomed.  These and the other original directories that remain have all been spammed into commercialization (paid directories), dormancy or death. I shut down submissions to my own directories quite a while back. Then Google deprecated web directories in search results.

Social bookmarking sites have cool features that traditional web directories never really incorporated. There are many differences. These are two very high level differences I see:

• Community  - I like seeing what my friends are bookmarking. I like adding friends to my profile.
• Organization - I am all but done with browser bookmarking. It’s unwieldy. Delicious will probably be around longer than my current PC hard-drive that I didn’t back up. I like tagging. I like checking out the highest rated sites.

Now, here we are in the Web 2.0 era with AJAXy social bookmarking sites showing off their frontends: clean rounded corners, gradient reflective logos, speech bubbles, rss icons like freshly waxed aerodynamic sports cars. And, unlike in the directory days, they are offering you more than a link. They offer a network of friends. They offer friends’ links to scour, bookmark and improve your Internet life. They give users a reason to come back (other than to submit another link, haha). But, look underneath the surface. Do you see what I see?

• Submit/Add Link = Save/Post
• Categories = Tags
• Comments = Notes
• Recent = Newest Links
• Auto Submit = Import XML File

Do you get the same eerie feeling?

Well look what I just found! I was playing around with the new Digg.com profiles when I had the urge to take a peak inside the source. And what did I see? A big ol’ fat nofollow attribute mocking my link. Tell me it ain’t so. Not the democratic, user-driven Digg.

Well, turns out it’s not your usual garden variety nofollow. It’s a “me nofollow,” instead. But you get the point don’t you? The presence of nofollow in the Digg link syntax portends that outbound links will not be carrying voting weight.

There has been much angst over the nofollow attribute since it was initiated. There was speculation that this would occur after Wikipedia added nofollow to their links earlier this year. Since then, many webmasters began adding nofollow to their Wikpedia links.

Does this mean you should add the nofollow attribute to all your links to Digg? I think not. The new profiles give Digg users a chance to add any links they want to the right side of their profiles. Spammers would have a hey day exploiting this feature. Digg would be crazy not to nofollow the profile links. I certainly wouldn’t allow users to create free-for-all links pointing to where ever they want on my site. Would you?

What about the other links on Digg.com? From what I have seen, the news story links are still naked. I seriously doubt that Digg would block these links, since they are so big on crediting sources. Yet, Digg’s spam problem seems to lie squarly in submission gaming. Hmm… Digg, you wouldn’t would you?

BKV’s Will Fleiss examines the evolution of search engine optimization in this white paper

I decided to take a break from skimming Digg top ten lists and surfing MyBlogLog profiles to actually read a full length article about SEO in these changing times we live in. This SEO white paper was put together by Will Fleiss and entitled SEO in the Web 2.0 Era. Will is an Organic Search Specialist who works for Bennett Kuhn Varner, Inc. (BKV), a direct response ad agency and the sister company of the SEM/SEO firm that I am proud to work for in Atlanta, GA, USA: Response Mine. I have been fortunate enough to have worked with Will on several projects and have been impressed with his research and insight into the search industry. With his first white paper, Will is propelling BKV into the future of search engine optimization. By the way, Will is also a graduate of Emory University where he majored in psychology. He says it is his fascination with human behavior leads him to pursue SEO. Rumor has it that Will has reserved a few domains. I can’t wait to see what he’s up to.

This is truly a time of great and wonderful changes for search. Many of us who rely on organic search are nervous about what the future holds. Will traditional SEO morph into something an AOL user can do (I couldn’t resist that one, Mom)? Will SEO disappear into the rising tides of social media and personalized search? It was refreshing to take a step back and observe SEO from it’s inception and imagine where the industry may be going.

What about this Web 2.0 stuff? From Will’s SEO white paper:

This second generation of the Internet, often referred to as Web 2.0, has moved away from the old model — based on static websites, clicks, and impressions — and burst onto a cyber playing field built around communities, participation and open cooperation towards better products and services.

Technical advancements in web navigation and design, as well as increased penetration of high-speed and broadband connection, make the new Web a foreign landscape compared to its older version.

In Web 2.0, a fully comprehensive linking strategy must spend more time producing quality, viral content and less time submitting to directories, buying links, and reciprocal linking.

 And what might the future look like for SEO?

There is no doubt that SEO has undergone, and will continue to undergo, a certain level of compartmentalization. As different areas of SEO continue to experience the growth of specialized services, such as blogging, widget baiting and social networking, the future SEO will spend a large part of his or her time moderating and collaborating with more outsourcing opportunities that are not, by themselves, SEO related. In the end, however, SEO is a sum of its parts, and from the perspective of a company looking to pay for SEO services, all methods of driving organic traffic will reside under the umbrella of Search Engine Optimization.

Another insightful prediction which I agree with:

The SEO’s level of understanding of both human and computer behavior will distinguish how effective they are at achieving high rankings and driving organic traffic to websites.

Read more of this post »

Not so long ago, Digg was banning sites it didn’t like. I was amazed at how quickly Digg founder, Kevin Rose reversed his position to “respect these rights and to comply with the law” and no, not sipped, but guzzled the kool-aid of anarchists, crackers, DOSers and spammers, some of whom believe that they have a “right to freedom of speech.” Kevin actually posted the HD-DVD key in the title of his post. Hey, you’re hosting a Web site, not a WTO convention.

Apologies to Atticus Finch, Leonidas, et al.

Some questions for Kevin Rose and Digg:

• Can anyone now post anything on Digg?
• Is it now okay for anyone to violate Digg’s TOS?
• Will all banned users and stories be restored?

Let’s see what happens. All eyes are on you.

Update: Some good and lengthier discussion of the recent Digg phenomena comes from bloggers Mark Blair of SMOBlog and Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim.

Update 1/24/08: There appears to be yet another Digg revolt in progress which is being tracked by Lyndon Antcliff aka Lyndoman. Apparently the plebians aren’t getting enough Digg bread and circuses from the patricians. Spammers are lurking at the gates as well.

I like this definition of inaccessability from the Wordweb dictionary:

The quality of not being unavailable when needed

Over the past week or two, I have noticed several of my favorite social sites I routinely visit not “not being unavailable when needed.” To put it plainly, I had difficulties accessing Digg, LinkedIn and TechCrunch for a brief time. I know what you’re thinking. It’s my fault. I should contact my ISP. However, the errors appear to be related to the sites themselves.  I am not going to try and analyze them and speculate as to the cause, but I am willing to bet they were all related to traffic spikes. It’s a reminder of how important web hosting and network connectivity is for all of us site owners.

I have been wanting to blog my thoughts about MyBlogLog, a social networking site that seems to cater largely to search marketers, bloggers and tech enthusiasts. I filled out a profile for the free service at MyBlogLog.com about a month or so ago when I noticed it on TechCrunch. I have signed up to test a great many social networking sites and have found only a few that I am willing to invest time into. MyBlogLog exceeded my expecations.

Here’s how it works. Every member sets up a profile with an avatar and any info they want to show about themselves including physical address, IM id’s and links to their profiles on other social media sites like digg, Flickr, MySpace, etc. MyBlogLog members can add sites and blogs they author onto separate MyBlogLog pages. Each site page becomes a community on MyBlogLog.com that other members may join and interact actively or passively with widgets (comments, rss feeds, top links). You can view stats on the number of visits to your community page on MyBlogLog and also page views to any sites you have setup there.

None of this sounds very new, but hold on and you will see the magic behind it. The avatar image that links to your user profile follows you around, both on MyBlogLog.com and on any user who has the MyBlogLog JavaScript pasted into their site. So if you visit Michael Arrington’s profile, your avatar now appears on Michael’s page. Everyone sees your image on Michael’s page and suddenly you feel cool. If you see a fellow MyBlogLogger’s profile appear on your page, you know for sure that they have actually seen your site. You can shoot them a quick message saying thanks for visiting and tell them what you like about them. Now you are connected.

I have seen several well known bloggers and marketers who have set up MyBlogLog profiles. What ends up happening is you start browsing through the profiles and checking out other user sites, leaving your trail. Other bloggers see your image on their site and curiosly click over to check out your site. I have connected with some interesting people that I otherwise probably never would have met. I’ve also run into an existing friend or two there. Read more of this post »