50 Fantastic Favicons: Episode 9

Sven Lennartz — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:21:27 +0000

Every now and again we showcase fantastic favicons, those tiny pieces of art that you’ll find in your browser’s address bar or when rifling through your bookmarks. These little gems are important because they serve as visual indicators to help visitors easily identify content in their browser. That aside, favicons are just nice to look at, and way too many websites don’t make use of them. We want to change that, which is why we are presenting what is now the ninth episode in our favicons series: a small article with tiny images and fast loading time… for a change.

We’ve written numerous articles about favicons in the past. If you’d like to find out more, feel free to look at these posts:

Any picture’s merit is debatable. But notice that these favicons were chosen not simply for their beauty and originality; it was important to us also that each fit the overall website design and logo. Pay attention to the details of the design.

All favicons are linked, of course, to the websites from where they were taken (if they still exist). Click on them to get more insight into how favicon design relates to overall layout design. The order here does not indicate any ranking.

	Tableau Public
	Gnash Project
	Top Roundups
	Elastic Tabstops
	i-on interactive
	Arc Technology Group
	Kodingen
	Sound Light Vision
	Highcharts
	Faces
	Photoscape
	London Reviews
	Open Faces
	RocketTheme
	Techbridge
	Soft eXpansion
	Screwturn Wiki
	Nimbupani
	Spoonjuice
	Universität Freiburg
	Paragon Software
	iMasters
	TechEBlog
	FitBit
	DropBox
	Axialis
	Swebapps
	Acquia
	Snipt
	MIX Online
	Second Market
	Open X
	Filemail
	55Eleven
	Onehub
	Projectbubble
	Projektwerk
	Medienlab
	Iconshock
	Splitweed
	Goby
	M1 Design
	PageStat
	Commadot
	Babbelblog
	Tammy Hart
	Toufee
	Lion Framework
	High Beam
	Mixxt
	CMSExpo

And finally, all the favicons in one picture:

(al)

http://www.smashingmagazine.com

Saturday Link Round Up (03-13-10)

SMMdotcom — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:00:16 +0000

In the continuing battle for strong online presence, Twitter is by far the most important weapon in your social media arsenal. More than half the world uses the social media platform. To be able to successfully tap into that community can make all the difference for your brand or business. For this week’s Saturday Link Round Up, we’ve assembled a list of great articles that can help your get Twitter working for you, from the best way to compose your tweets to proper use of hashtags .

How to Write the Perfect Tweet

Remember that Twitter is still considered more as a personal microblogging platform than as marketing medium. Send off the wrong vibes and you just might end up being ignored, even rejected, rather than followed. Twitterism provides some great advice on how to write the perfect tweet.

How to Retweet: A Simple Guide

Retweets and @replies breathe life into your Twitter. They make your account more personal and approachable. In excess, however, they reflect the opposite image. AJ Vaynerchuk’s tips, though old are not outdated. Except maybe, “RT” is more practical to use than “Retweet:” as a label.

HOW TO: Use Twitter Hashtags for Business

Mashable has always been one of our favorite sources for social media news and wisdom. Here, Mashable contributor Josh Catone sheds some light on the popular function known as hashtags and how they can be utilized to build your business.

How to Use Twitter “Follow Friday” Effectively

One hashtag twitter trend that has turned into an entity all its own is #FollowFriday. Michaelé Harrington presents how participating in the cult trend can help boost your online presence.

To Schedule Tweets or No? Two Reasons You Should.

There are pros and cons in scheduling tweets. The cons only show up when you exploit the function too much. Here, Kiesha Easley shares here solution for scheduling tweets without the risk of losing followers.

http://www.socialmediamarketing.com/blog

Do Top Students Get to Pray in Google Church?

Search Engine Watch — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:01:00 +0000

Competitive spaces require creative methods for getting well ranked. But are big PPC spenders given SEO leeway? ...

http://searchenginewatch.com/

Bing and – Facebook? – Up in comScore February 2010 Rankings

Nathania Johnson — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:37:45 +0000

February is always a weird month for search data.

Click to read the rest of this post...

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 9, 2010

rustybrick — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:29:21 +0000

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

http://www.seroundtable.com/

Don’t Over Optimize Your Site

Search Engine Watch — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:01:00 +0000

SEO is a best practices game. Understanding how not to over optimize is an important part of the mix. ...

http://searchenginewatch.com/

How Fortune 100 Companies Leverage Social Media

JD Rucker — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:11:27 +0000

While there’s something that can be said about “size doesn’t matter” in social media, there is one case in which it definitely does. The larger companies of the world have always had an advantage in resources over their smaller competitors but are finding that social media is more about strategy and proper use of engagement and conversation than sheer budget.

Now in 2010, many of the social media woes of the past are starting to be rectified. Larger companies are realizing that throwing a ton of money at social media without a strong strategy is foolish. As a result, they’ve learned their lessons and started getting stronger at it.

The infographic below from Flowtown tells a compelling visual story of how things are getting better in corporate America.

http://soshable.com

5 things I learned about social media from marathon training

KristinaProctor — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:00:29 +0000

When you are making new resolutions to train for a marathon, eat better or to improve your mile time, do you wake up the day after you start with all your goals met? No? Why not?

During training you experience pain, sore muscles and how some trainning is trial and error. Socail media is the same. It takes practice, repetition, dedication and the understanding that not all the same tactics will work for everyone.

Before you start tweeting or facebook fan page-ing why don’t you take a step back and ask yourself some questions:

1. Where do you want this to take you? This could mean your company, a product or service. Make sure to be specific. If you are a small business that is trying to promote a new service options, make sure that you have messaging that’s right for your audience.

2.What are your current resources?

3. How does/can social media efforts help me?

4. What BOUNDARIES do I need to set? -This is critical. When you are working out- you can’t just decide to run 13.1 miles after not running since your 5th grade mile run challenge. You have to set a pace and boundaries. It’s important to recongize a great running day. Instead of running yourself into the ground, take a step back, appreciate the victory and keep moving.If you have 50, 100 or 1,000 facebook fans can be terrific milestones. By just thinking that you need more is losing the point.

When you are making new resolutions to train for a marathon, eat better or to

improve your mile time, do you wake up the day after you start with all your

goals met? No? Why not?

During training you experience pain, sore muscles and even failure. Socail media

is the same. It takes practice, repetition, dedication and the understanding

that not all the same tactics will work for everyone.Before you start tweeting

or facebook fan page-ing why don’t you take a step back and think about some

things:

1. Why? That’s right, why? What are some solid reasons you are wanting to jump

into the social media landscape. Make a list, then do it again with other

members of the company. It helps you realize where you should start.

2. What are my goals? Meaning, where do I want to be in my training in 2 weeks, a month, six weeks. Make sure to be specific and realistic. If you are new to social media, don’t expect to have the fan page up and ‘fanning’ in 2 hours. That strategy takes time and effort. Take a peek at other companies in your field and your area. Anything you want to mirror?

3. Do you need a gym? In social media it’s important to know all of the

resources available. Do you need a Hootsuite account and Tweetdeck on your

desktop? Do your reasearch, know what’s available. Tryout some tools and see

what works with and for your needs (see what tools best align with your budget and goals-see above).

4. What BOUNDARIES do I need to set? -This is critical. When you are working

out- you can’t just decide to run 13.1 miles after not running since your 5th

grade mile run challenge. You have to set a pace and boundaries. It’s important

to recongize a great running day. Instead of running yourself into the ground,

take a step back, appreciate the victory and keep moving.Remember that 50, 100 or 1,000 facebook fans can be terrific milestones. By just thinking that you need more all the time can get you clouded on the reason why you started in the first place (see #1).

5. Don’t be afraid to fail. This is the most important. Trial and error are equivalent to growing pains, they will be worse for some and not too bad for others. Embrace your failures and learn from them. Don’t bury them as if you were ashamed for trying. Social networks like facebook, myspace and the microblogging site Twitter take some time. Accept it and move on.

I remember the saying ‘if at first you don’t suceed, try and try again.’

What are you doing to gain endurance and a steady pace in the social media world?

photo by teamtinybike

When you are making new resolutions to train for a marathon, eat better or to improve your mile time, do you wake up the day after you start with all your goals met? No? Why not?

During training you experience pain, sore muscles and even failure. Social media is the same. It takes practice, repetition, dedication and the understanding that not all the same tactics will work for everyone.Before you start tweeting or facebook fan page-ing why don’t you take a step back and think about some things:

1. Why? That’s right, why? What are some solid reasons you are wanting to jump into the social media landscape? Make a list, then do it again with other members of the company- especially with other departments. It helps you realize where you should start and you see additional issues or problems that social media could address.

2. What are my goals? Meaning, where do I want to be in my training in 2 weeks, a month, six weeks. Make sure to be specific and realistic. If you are new to social media, don’t expect to have the fan page up and ‘fanning’ in 2 hours. That strategy takes time and effort. Take a peek at other companies in your field and your area. Anything you want to mirror?

3. Do you need a gym? In social media it’s important to know all of the resources available. Do you need a Hootsuite account and Tweetdeck on your desktop? Do your research, know what’s available. Tryout some tools and see what works with and for your needs (see what tools best align with your budget and goals-see above).

4. What BOUNDARIES do I need to set? -This is critical. When you are working out- you can’t just decide to run 13.1 miles after not running since your 5th grade mile run challenge. You have to set a pace and boundaries. It’s important to recongize a great running day. Instead of running yourself into the ground, take a step back, appreciate the victory and keep moving.Remember that 50, 100 or 1,000 facebook fans can be terrific milestones. By just thinking that you need more all the time can get you clouded on the reason why you started in the first place (see #1).

5. Don’t be afraid to fail. This is the most important. Trial and error are equivalent to growing pains, they will be worse for some and not too bad for others. Embrace your failures and learn from them. Don’t bury them as if you were ashamed for trying. Social networks like Facebook, MySpace and the microblogging site Twitter take some time. Accept it and move on.

When I was growing up I’d always hear:

‘If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.’

What are you doing to gain endurance and a steady pace in the social media world? What have you failures have you learned from? What have you done that’s really worked?

Kristina is based in the Twin Cities and eats and breathes social media. Her love for technology’s influence on culture can be found here.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/2873238365_756f6fd31c.jpg

http://www.socialmediamarketing.com/blog

Yahoo! at SMX West and Real-Time Search

Administrator — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:16:55 +0000

We had a great time at the SMX West conference this past week in Santa Clara, CA. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked things off with his keynote speech, where he addressed several questions on the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance. Yahoo! participated in several different panels throughout the week, including Thursday’s keynote “The State off the Search Union” roundtable featuring David Roth, Director of Search Engine Marketing. (You can check out the full recap of this at Search Engine Land’s live-blog post.)

One of the hot topics discussed was real-time search, and I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel about that subject, titled “Real Time Search & the Major Search Engines.” Among other things, we discussed the real-time features we’ve rolled out for Yahoo! Search, like tweets in Yahoo! search results and getting the freshest information on developing news as well as some of the challenges and opportunities in this space.

In our down time I visited Yahoo!’s popular booth on the show floor – everyone loved our free coffee! Check out some of the highlights in the video below.

SMX Highlights @ Yahoo! Video

Ivan Davtchev

Yahoo! Search

http://www.ysearchblog.com

How to Break Into the SEO Clique

Nick Stamoulis — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:00:44 +0000

If you are in the search engine optimization industry or you are trying to break into this incredibly saturated industry to make a name for yourself you might have a difficult time getting excepted into the circle of friends at the top of the food chain. The “elite” group that has been in the industry since day one and think they are the all mighty of the industry. The SEO industry leaders have become a tough group of individuals to become friendly with and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. All the “gurus” at the top that think they know every about everything seem to feel that they run this industry like they own it. The SEO industry is kind of like an open source program that should be treated like a group effort. There is plenty of business to go around. Lots of businesses out there that need help promoting themselves in the online space. People need to participate, communicate and get involved to make it a better place for everyone. One person tries something that works well they write about and things spread leading to better online marketing efforts.

I have been actively working in the internet marketing industry for over 12 years, have built Brick Marketing for 5 years successfully and have helped hundreds of clients in the field of SEO yet my educational comments that I leave on certain search engine marketing blogs get deleted, why do you think this happens? Leaving all names aside a certain someone contacted me not too long ago and asked me to stop commenting on a certain blog. Yes, I left a comment on each blog very frequently but isn’t that the whole purpose of starting a blog. These where all well written comments that where generated with real thought process adding to the overall message the blog post was trying to convey. Isn’t the whole idea of a blog to get the community interacting in your conversation? Since when is it bad to leave an educated comment on someone’s blog? Even if the frequency was high it shouldn’t really matter. I have seen this occur with other websites as well. I have seen the tone of this click with others trying to make a name for themselves in the industry and I often see a certain nastiness resonating in the tone of a variety of online discussions. Don’t get me wrong I understand this is a tough industry and if you spend some time in it you get beat up a little but that doesn’t mean you have to be nasty to your colleagues and peers around you especially if they own and operate a successful search engine marketing firm. I apologize if I have not visited you at the trade shows and stroked your ego like many people do. Is it that I don’t kiss the asses of every individual in the “cool group”?

There is plenty of room in the school yard for everyone to get along. Is it because I am a threat to them or the industry? Sometimes I feel like this industry is a lot like high school all over again. You got your cool kids that think they are too good for everyone else and you got everyone else trying to shine in front of their eyes. I by no means want to break into the “cool” click and become one of those has to have their ass kissed by everyone else.

Why is it so hard for people in this industry to come together and work as a team? I understand that everyone is trying to grow their own business but there is no reason why so many internet marketing professionals have to have such a cold shoulder towards each other. We are all in the same game and we do the best we can to provide our clients with great service.

If you are an internet marketer or SEO person do you feel like our industry is heading in this direction as well? Please leave your comments and any related experiences or stories below!

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com