Cooking Up SEO
I’ve been a heavy internet user since 1995, when my parents got a “club internet” subscription. It was love at first sight. So much so that I tried to create a few websites using frontpage. They never really attracted many visitors. I did not know yet about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO is about improving the visibility of your website or web page in search engines. The higher your site rank in the search engine result page, the more visitors will visit it. The following vido is a good introduction to the basics of SEO.
What I have grown to respect a lot about SEO is that while the web is ever changing, malleable and on the move, the basics of SEO remain the same. A bit like in cooking. The good recipes all share the same basic principles: fresh ingredients, quality products, and good craftsmanship.
Over the years, I’ve learned most of these basics. Today, if I can not claim to be a three star chef a la Danny Sullivan, Aaron Wall or Rand Fishkin, I know enough to play around the kitchen, cook most of the basics on a daily basis, and throw in a grand dinner once in a while 
Creativity and time…
Daylight Saving Time
One of the thing I am grateful for in Malaysia is that we don’t have “Daylight Saving Time” schemes. Being on the equator, it would be kind of silly… Still, every year, I have to remind myself that my French family and friends have go through the pain of adjusting their clock by one hour, and I along with them so I can call them on time.
I never understood why we have to change the time. Instead of going through this whole shenanigan every year, why not just change the time we do things? Those who like the “extra” hour of sunlight can always start and finish their day an hour earlier.
Time to get rid of this bad idea.
Refreshingly true
Connect The Dots’ comment to the Personal Technology Special Report from the Economist:
People are addicted to Gadget Pornography. They have to have the latest smart phone, tablet computer, music player, notebook computer, and media device within days of its release. Apple stores have hundreds queing after the release of a new gadget. If something is two years old, it is considered prehistoric.
My mother still has a 40 year old, land-line, dial phone. And it is good enough for her purposes. I wear a 15 year old Casio digital watch made in China purchased cheap. I want it to make it to 20 years. My child wants a new iPhone5 when her iPhone is less than a year old. “There are new killer apps!”
This is the Consumer Materialism that most troubles me. Technology is rarely the solution to happiness. Apple Computer potentiates addicts just as any street crack dealer.
Cheap can be good, long lasting and durable. I strive to be simple.
Why I use Duck Duck Go !
I discovered www.duckduckgo.com a few months back and I love it.
I’ve switched after viewing Eli Pariser’s Beware online “filter bubbles” TED talk (which you can watch here under).
The Facebook, Google and other web juggernauts of this world have been tailoring our news feed and search engine results page for some time now. The logic is that by customizing our online experience they will be able to “push” the best links, photos or products our way; the ones we really “want”. Unfortunately, this trend has a major drawback. We end up in limited bubbles of information where we only gets exposed to news and articles that confirm our world views and pre-conceptions.
I switched to DuckDuckGo because it is a general purpose search engine with way less spam than Google, Bing or the other main ones, and because it does a great job of protecting my privacy by not recording my browsing history. This means that I do enjoy less clutter in my search results, and the search engine results pages are not personalized. No “filter bubbles” for me. Thanks.