I’ve never understood why Microsoft decided to brand its next-generation online tools under Live.com, and not Start.com

I mean - ‘Start’ is already what so many users do when using Windows - it is the gateway to all the applications on their computer. It also has a very nice sense of it - Start.com = where you start on the web. Live.com = where you live on the web? The thing is that the beauty of Google always was that once they helped you find the information you wanted, they pushed you right off. Ala what Start signifies - not Live.

Just something that has always boggled my mind. With the recent news that iGoogle is Google’s rising star it ties even more into the idea of using ‘Start.com’ as the brand - your personalized page where you start when you load the computer (and even possibly making it IE8’s home page).

I just find Start.com far superior intuitive-wise - your thoughts?

Don’t know if that is a word, but frankly don’t care

I went CRT-free 5.5 years ago, and went dualie 4.5 years ago. Best idea ever - my eyes thank me, and having two screens is great for segmenting work.

I just ran into Ultramon, and I can’t believe I wasn’t using this app.

Beyond the various features it does have, each screen has its own taskbar (this is Windows only). It already feels much better

Is gonna be full of SSD drives in RAID (specifically look for the ‘IOMeter’ test).

Just thinking gets me all excited

I like my Wii. I got it on the day it came out - I lucked out and arrived at Kmart roughly an hour early. Two kids (+mom) had camped the night, and with three Wiis for sale - I got quite lucky.

So I’ve been following with certain interest as the hypemeter on the Wii goes through the roof. Reading the Techcrunch post on internet searches for the ‘Wii’ I couldn’t help and marvel at the spam accumulating in the comments trying to hawk Wiis.

While they were the typical bundle, one caught me eye - $400 for Wii + 15 games + 2 controllers. That sounded quite sweet.

Until you actually see what they are offering:

The SOBs are considering Wii Sports (already bundled) as 5 games and Wii Play as 9 different games (and it comes with the controller already).

Sometimes I wonder about karma and if people like this get their just desserts.

1. Build up popular free software - eg b2 Evolution.
2. Contain multiple links back to your site that are big keywords (eg - web hosting)
3. Due to lots of backlinks (all in the footer while having no ‘context’ with web hosting combined with your initial authority (almost 3 million backlinks according to Yahoo), rank very high for keywords like ‘web hosting’
4. Build an absolutely crap page that is nothing more than a bunch of affiliate links.
5. Profit massively.

For all this talk of how smart Googlers are and what not - this is just one example of a crap site using footer links to rank very high for a very competitive keyword. You will find the exact same in all the big keywords.

Eight days ago I talked about how I hate marketplaces for the riff-raff that you find contained in them.

Today I get an email from SitePoint with their new ebook - “How to Flip Web Sites for Profit”

Incidentally one of the writers is Peter T Davis - I have a long history with that fellow, but that is for another day. He had written an article for SitePoint about site flipping - and one of his conclusions was:

Be careful about what you disclose.

He could have worded it ‘Hide things’ but I guess that would be the non-rhetorical way of saying things.

I’ve always been uncomfortable with the amount of influence corporations have in dictating government policy. I think people like us (on the technological forefront) are more aware than most due to issues that affect technology.

Regardless of ideology, I’ve always seen the internet as the great equalizer. A floating body of knowledge, where things not pushed by the mainstream media can be inspected, dissected, and discussed.

So yesterday’s Ron Paul moneybomb was amazingly fascinating.

The previous one-day record had been $5.7 million - set by John Kerry at the election cycle. And here they brought in over $6 million using nothing but the internet. Even more amazing (to put it in context) is that the amount Ron Paul (who started off pretty much purely as an internet sensation) has raised this quarter is more than any of his Republican peers. And these are the guys who are professionals at raising money.

Again - this is not about ideology. This is about someone raising a crapload of money, and beating out all of his peers (who are part of a group well known for their money-raising abilities). Rather astounding.

It seems like Intel isn’t happy with its visual branding, and (trying) to take a hint from Target (bullseye), Nike (swoosh), Apple (apple), and so forth, is pushing out its own ‘evolution glyphs’

The glyphs were created from recurring shapes that were found throughout the microprocessor’s features as the silicon is processed. They’re hoping that the glyphs help make the Intel brand more recognizable like Target’s red bullseye and Nike’s swoosh.

See for your self:

And the new tune/video for the end of Intel ads: click here.

I gotta be honest - I don’t get it. Target has one image. Nike has one image. Apple has one image. NBC has one image. And so forth and so forth. How do 16 glyphs equal that level of recognition? Perhaps the 16 glyphs could be used as secondary elements, but still have a dominant image associated with the brand.

Then again, I’m not a million-dollar consultant.

Pretty sure this isn’t public yet - so be sure to digg it.

No really:
pages in Google.

What I saw:

- Little discussion on authority SEO. The owner of the site I mentioned found this site.

- I talked to a company that services SMBs today about publishing the data they have on iBegin Source. The pitch is simple - they provide us with the data, and we help their advertisers get more exposure.

The person I was talking to was taken aback - he was expecting some sort of revenue-sharing deal.

I think that statement right there elucidates the difference between us and the other guys. While trying to squeeze money out of everything (even at the cost of more accurate data), we are focusing on core quality.

- New homepage for iBegin.com. Toronto et all are no longer mentioned.

- Whitepages.com going quasi-wiki. I find this very interesting - and I feel for them the pain of letting users contribute #s etc. Businesses are a headache enough - I can’t imagine consumers. We have full US WP data (117 million listings), and while we do wholesale deals (alongwith that for UK Australia etc), putting it under the full quality control of iBegin is a nightmare waiting to happen.

- I am finally getting into domains again. Mostly through joint-purchases - they find deals, we provide the funding. So my time spent every day on it is <15 minutes. While most are private, I did publicly disclose two of them. Should have some other ones to note later on.