If you haven't seen these things yet, go ahead and learn what they are and how to use them, because they are the next big thing. These two-dimensional barcodes can be read by a number of devices, but most importantly smart phones like the iPhone and Blackberry. A phone can quickly scan the QR Code (QR = Quick Response) with its internal camera, and that might translate into plain text or take the phone's web browser directly to a URL.

Why is this so important? For one, these square-shaped QR Codes are going to start showing up everywhere. Two, they are free to use and store a LOT more data than the typical bar code. Three, they can be used in so many different ways. Imagine watching a commercial and seeing a QR Code in the bottom corner of your TV. While watching, you might let your phone scan the code from where you're sitting and it could take your phone's browser to a web page with more information about the product, or directly to a screen to buy what you just saw. Or the QR Code could automatically have your phone call a certain number. No typing, just a quick scan and you're off. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of different applications for these things and ease of use and probable adoption by many industries will make it as common as displaying a phone number in the years to come.

Want to try it out? First, download a QR Reader for your smart phone (I use QR App on the iPhone). Then try these below.

Once again, I have reaffirmed the fact that Easy CGI has the stupidity market cornered to the point of monopoly. For the record, they were bought out by a room full of geniuses (EIG) in October of 2008. What once was great, turned disastrous post buy out. Also for the record, since Oct. 2008, they have completely destroyed dozens of accounts of mine, to which I have been slowly but surely moving those accounts to other hosts. If fact, for most of these sites I would even now settle for a bad web host, because that would be an extreme upgrade from EasyCgi.

I simply must share this latest support thread. I assure you, every ounce of this is true. The transparency of stupidity is simply astounding.

--------------------

06/18/2009 1:44 PM EDT Ticket Created
06/18/2009 1:44 PM EDT Matt Murph contacted EasyCGI
Subject: Site Down
Comment: Why is this site down?

06/18/2009 4:57 PM EDT EasyCGI contacted Matt Murph
Comment:
Hello ,

Thank you for contacting us. I apologize for the inconvenience that may have caused you.

I checked your website and I verified that the website is not loading. Did you make changes on your domain name smh.shoppas.com DNS settings or name servers? When was the last time this website is up?

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us through the support console in the control panel.

We are available 24x7.

Thank you,

Customer Support

06/18/2009 5:56 PM EDT Matt Murph contacted EasyCGI
Comment:
No, not to my knowledge, in fact if I ping smh.shoppas.com it resolves to your IP address. What's going on?

06/19/2009 3:52 PM EDT EasyCGI contacted Matt Murph
Comment:
Hi,

I did a whois and I noticed that the name servers are not pointing to us.Did you tried to contact your domain registrar if they did something on your domain? The name server should be pointing to ns1.easycgi.com and ns2.easycgi.com.Right now it currently pointing to cbru.br.ns.els-gms.att.net and cmtu.mt.ns.els-gms.att.net.And I think that is the reason why your website is not loading.

Thank you

Technical Support

06/19/2009 3:57 PM EDT Matt Murph contacted EasyCGI
Comment:
NO, the name servers do reside elsewhere, but there are ample DNS records so the SMH sub-domain routes to this account as it always has. You can ping smh.shoppas.com for confirmation.

06/19/2009 5:09 PM EDT EasyCGI contacted Matt Murph
Subject:
Comment:

Hi,

Yes, I just verified that your sub domain is pointing to 66.96.143.169.And with this, I decided that this issue should be escalated to a higher level of support. We need to investigate on this IP address 66.96.143.169. And I also verified that you have lot of account with us. Please give us at least 12 - 24 hours for this.

Thank you

Technical Support

06/19/2009 6:41 PM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
06/19/2009 6:44 PM EDT Resolved
06/19/2009 6:46 PM EDT EasyCGI contacted Matt Murph (Resolved)
Comment:
Hello,

I am writing in regards to your ticket # 6104796.

I noticed that the domain name 'smh.shoppas.com' is available for registration. If you wish to register the domain 'smh.shoppas.com', then please get back to us with the following information so that we can register the domain in your account.
Contact Information
First Name:
Last Name:
Organization Name:
Street Address:
City:
State:
Country:
Postal Code:
Phone Number:
Fax Number:
E-mail address:
Username:
Domain name:

Please update the Support Console with the requested information, so that we can assist you further.

Sincerely,

Domain Registrar Specialist

06/20/2009 10:38 AM EDT Matt Murph contacted EasyCGI
Comment:

First off, you do not REGISTER sub domains. The top level domain "shoppas.com" is registered until 2019, and the sub-domain resolves to YOUR ip address on this hosting account. So please stop asking questions and start fixing problems. The site has been down since Wednesday. See for yourself... you can PING "smh.shoppas.com" and it resolves to your server. The account is up to date and paid for. Please bring this site back up!

End thread

--------------------

Now, I just called them (6/22/2009 11:30 AM EDT) to recap the ridiculousness noted above, only to find out they moved the site and did not feel like telling anyone. So not only did I get an array of ignorant support reps, and even a comment from a Domain Registrar Specialist, who very obviously is far from Specialist status, they were just fresh out of ideas on a very basic issue. And please not the time stamps. At times they waited nearly 24 hours to respond with more stupidity.

I had more than 40 accounts with them before the Oct 2008 buy out… now I am down to just under 20, all of which will be migrated off their platform when time permits. And hats off to the new parent company, EIG (Endurance International Group). They really have done a superb job turning a great hosting company into trash. Just check out ( http://www.easycgireviews.com/ ), 1 positive and 62 negative reviews at the time of this posting. Unbelievable.

Churches need to run (not walk) away from using stock photography for people, facility, and environment photos on their website. Those pesky stock photos do not give anyone the slightest idea what it might be like to attend a service there.

Click here to watch.

I may be slightly biased here, but the domain LarryNorth.com has very recently been graced by an incredible new website. Take a click around, and enjoy the unprecedented online access into the world of Larry North, his fitness clubs, and all things health, fitness and weight loss.

I met Larry a few years ago through a mutual friend, and we immediately started working on some small projects together. But just a few months ago, Larry sat me down for the "our website isn't cutting it" conversation. We started meeting almost weekly, brainstorming and putting ideas together. Larry is one of those guys, that every time we meet, he has 10 brand new ideas, all of which already have teams commissioned to carry out. You can't blink, or you'll miss something huge. He's authored several books, been the guest on top rated news and talk shows, and created one of the top infomercials of all time, "The Great North American Slim Down", which grossed more than $120 million! To be honest, I personally love his approach. Naturally, you have to eat right and exercise, that part isn't rocket science. But his customized execution of that most obvious concept is what turns people into fat burning machines, instead of food depraved, diet slaving, weight loss failures. Have one conversation with him, and you'll feel like you just took a massive adrenaline shot to the chest.

But on to the website, you can see the old version here:

And the new version here:

For the first time ever, there are an excess of club photos, which allow anyone to see the inside of his clubs without being a member. Having visited nearly all of them, I can tell you, calling them top notch, is an understatement. And I'll have to come clean on one assumption. It's actually not that expensive to join membership. I've always assumed when driving by a Larry North Fitness, "That's where the beautiful, mega rich people work out". That assumption, which I know many people carry, is a bit misguided.

Also for the first time ever, is the ability print off a free one week pass and try the clubs out for free. That's a pretty sweet deal. I have to say, I have joined other gyms before, and they are great at selling you a membership before you've so much as finished the tour or had a sip from the water fountain. Working out commitment free for a week gives people the chance to try it out without putting down money out of pocket. And I'm sure this will shock you; Katie and I are members at Larry North Fitness now.

Soon we'll be adding an online store, a new blog, and quite a bit more really. But for now, check out the site when you get a chance. And as always, feel free to share any feedback! Visit LarryNorth.com.

Folks, if you think Google Maps and Traffic is only for people with the new BlackBerry phones, think again. I have a Treo 650 (almost 2 years old now), and stumbled upon Google Maps on my Treo web browser. In a matter of seconds, I had the application downloaded and working right in the Palm of my hand (pun intended).

This is certainly one of the most helpful free services I can think of. Katie and I were heading to Fair Park (Dallas) last night to catch Camelot (which was incredible), and came upon some traffic while nearing downtown. Those of you in Dallas know there are many options to traversing across or around the downtown area. I picked up the Treo, punched the Google Maps icon (because we Treo people have a touch screen.... take that CrackBerries), and in less than 10 seconds I had an overview of the downtown area. Just a simple glance at the color coded roads told me traffic on I-30 was far better than the Woodall Rogers overpass. We also have a Garmin Nuvi (another extremely helpful device), but Garmin asks you to "subscribe" to traffic data.

Google Mobile Maps/Traffic is incredible. It's fast, it's free, and it's extremely helpful. Get it at www.Google.com/gmm.

I'm almost dangerously addicted to Google Earth. I was browsing Google Earth yesterday, scanning Grand Cayman for vacation research purposes, and I found these little blue circular icons ( ) spattered across the map area. These little icons are from Panoramio, and allow people like you and I to map our photos.

This is the perfect example of the internet's ability to provide instant, and endless information at it's finest. You can search areas for vacation spots, and even see a slew of pictures that people have take from specific spots!

Next time you are in Google Earth, check the box in the left panel that reads "Geographic Web", and that will enable the Panoramio picture spots.

Check out my Panoramio map of the Cayman Islands.

There is a long list of pros and cons when you run your own business. In fact that list is so long (mostly pros in my opinion), it would take me 5 hours to build a blog post around it. From a business perspective, there is one thing that really puts spring in my step, (or adrenaline in my code slinging). And that one thing is happy customers. You just can't beat it with a stick. When there are established organizations that are happy to pay for services; that probably serves as the best form of professional affirmation I can think of. I am immeasurably thankful for the word of mouth (my one and only marketing campaign), and the clients who turn into happy customers. Finance departments cut check after check after check. To stop and handwrite "Thanks Matt!" is like an early Christmas present.

A couple days ago I met with a company who has very recently been the victim of data theft. I can't mention the name of the company here, but to give you an idea of the scale, they have 1,000 employees and about 1,000,000 customers. We'll call them Company X.

Credit Card Theft - It's a time bomb that is waiting to go off for nearly every company that collects credit card numbers for customer account purposes. If you have not read my article about the new EV SSL (which has spread through cyberspace far more than I ever imagined, and has even been quoted by Website Forge), you might want to play catch up. A section of that post talks about the difference between the data transaction and data storage. They are two very different things. In a nut shell, technology systems should transact the data securely, and store the data (if need be) even more securely.

I walked away from the meeting that morning with a depressing feeling of, "there goes another one." There goes another company who had a truck load of credit card numbers stolen from them. It wasn't a hacker this time. No one phished the customer base for account access. No one tapped the line and cheated the system for sensitive data. This time it was an employee.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that I've heard from the horse's mouth that a given company is more concerned with theft from the inside, than the outside.

If you can't trust your own people, who can you trust?

Advice: If you have employees that actually have access to credit card information, put them on a strict security privacy contract. And if you can't find room in the budget to pay for the lawyer fees on drafting such a contract, I'll give you a template right here - for free.

**********************************

I, [full name] (Employee), submit to [name of company] (Company), to the extent that Company can do anything they want to me if I am caught stealing, distributing, or discussing any sensitive information linking to Company's customers. This sensitive information includes but is not limited to credit card numbers, social security numbers, personal financial information, or any information linked to the identity of a customer. I understand that the first offense is punishable by the removal of one my kidneys (to be sold for Company profit), fines not exceeding $1 billion dollars, and a ten year sentence to picking up trash in Company's parking lot while wearing the Scarlet Letter "T" (for Theft) on my outer garment.

Signature: ___________________ Date: __________________

**********************************

It's really that simple. I think that is more than fair.

At least that is what the teenagers of today are saying, according to the Washington Post. In their article (click to read), they go on to say that some are moving away from MySpace and Friendster over to social networking sites like Facebook.

I laughed when I read the article because it reminded me of a college party. Not one in particular, but all of them really. You know the scene. You've got an old house, a couple hundred people, and enough alcohol to float the QE2.

At the college party, it starts off with everyone inside, trying to make it to the living room where the music is. But in 30 minutes or so, everyone is going to the backyard, because that's the place to be now. When the back yard grows old, everybody goes to the kitchen to watch the rugby player shotgun a litre of cheap beer. And this goes on and on… the mass moving from one room to the next, inside and out.

It sounds just like the MySpace party to me. The party got real big then the shine lost its luster. So now it's time for the party goers to move over to Facebook, the new party.

Poor advertisers. They're spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to target ads to the youthful eyes. It looks more like they are trying to play pin the tale on the donkey. But this time the donkey is fast and fickle, and hard to predict.

We're going all the way back to the basics today. I think some of you think you know how to surf the web, and maybe you do; but hopefully after digesting this material, you will be a better web surfer. I feel compelled to write this "how to" guide, because I have been witnessing way too much bad web surfing out there.

For the purposes of this article, I am going to speak primarily to PC users surfing with Internet Explorer (IE). Unfortunately, that category of users is still the majority, and it just so happens that every time I witness bad web surfing, it is by someone on a PC using IE.

The first step to becoming a better web surfer, is understanding what you are actually interacting with. We'll call it the browser window. The browser window is what you view web pages through. The browser window has several components to it, and I want to make sure you understand all of them.

First, click the image adjacent to this paragraph. It will open up the full size image in a new window, and hopefully you can glance at it while continuing to read. Take note of the red arrows and descriptions they are attached to. You need to know this stuff cold, and understand what they are, so you can then understand what they do.

We're going to start with the URL / Web Address Bar. This is the granddaddy of them all. It contains the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), or Address of where you are in cyber space. That thing can also get pretty long, but don't worry, we mainly care about the Domain Name, which in this case is "google.com". HTTP and WWW are not a part of the Domain Name, but they are used to "Resolve" a domain name, so they are still important. If you are confused about how to identify the domain name of any given site, simply take away the HTTP:// (or HTTPS://), and what ever comes before the next slash (/), as in something dot (.) something, that should be top level domain name.

Why is it important to understand how to locate the domain name? Because you don't know where you are going if you don't know where you are. If you are logging into PayPal, or Ebay, and the you don't recognize PayPal.com or Ebay.com as the domain name, you could be going somewhere you don't want to be. Let's take a test. Locate the domain name in the following URLs.

URL 1: http://www.mattmurph.com/myblog/photo/?i=7

URL 2: http://search.stores.ebay.com/guitar_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoaction

URL 3: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

URL 4: https://paypal.zibbleha.com/paypal/bin/?cmd=secure-login

Answers:
URL 1: mattmurph.com
URL 2: ebay.com
URL 3: paypal.com
URL 4: zibbleha.com

Again, you don't know where you are going, if you don't know where you are. Where are we in URL 4? We are somewhere within ZibbleHa.com. True, we see all kinds of things that might make it look like we are somewhere on PayPal.com, but we're not. The first sighting of PayPal in URL 4 is a potential sub-domain (not good enough), and the second sighting of PayPal is after the slash, so that is just a directory. Other text in that URL all looks pretty good and tempting, but ultimately you're on ZibbleHa.com and we don't know what or where that is, so we certainly should not interact with the site... and most certainly not type anything in like user names, passwords, SS#, or so much of even your favorite brand of coffee (which of course should be Aah Coffee, but that's beside the point).

We will continue our discussion in Part 2. But from here on out, you should always know where you are online.

I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the results of the experiment I've been running. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a quick glance at the experiment post and catch up.

Now, I've analyzed the data, and I've assessed the situation. I can say that I will base my conclusion on results from 3 critical categories.
1. Web traffic to www.AcuraTLforSale.com
2. Potential Buyer Inquiries (phone and web contact).
3. Whether or not the car sold

Based upon the fore mentioned areas of quantifiable results, I can conlude.... (drum roll please)...

This experiment was not only a horrible failure, it was a complete and total waste of time, effort, and web space.

Now that I can acknowledge that my experiment was a horrible and unprecedented failure of unmatched proportions, I can begin to understand why. One, the letters on the back windshield were simply not big enough. Reading the URL was only legible from up to 15 feet away. For proper awareness to be made, I would need MUCH bigger letters in hopes to capture a 50 foot reading distance. Two, the car was never in heavy traffic. In fact, unless you consider driving down a suburban street one mile to a grocery store "traffic", the back windshield advertisement never saw any traffic of any kind. This would also explain why web traffic to the URL was less than pathetic. If we compare the time period's traffic from AcuraTLforSale.com versus traffic from MattMurph.com, you can easily see that the results to the Acura site were absolutely pathetic. This would also explain why I didn't receive one credible contact inquiry... which would determine the most quantifiable of results: the car did not sell.

So, that's that. My hopes and dreams of selling a car hassle free have been crushed. So now it's time to implement phase two: Cars.com and AutoTrader.com. Wish me luck.

If you could wotch the x-ecut!on vid eo, would you? After hearing the news roll in last night, I turned my TV to Fox News and my laptop to the popular TV station for that region. But soon after digesting a plethora of news coverage, I think I've decided that I've seen enough. I don't need to see the actual event. I feel sure that I don't need that image burned in my brain. Watching that kind of thing in a movie is a whole other deal. Something about knowing that special effects and actors are used in movies removes brain stain for me. But the potential of seeing the real thing happen to a real person (which is arguable I know), is something I think I can do without.

But all major political events aside, I am truly amazed to find that it is easier to watch TV on the internet from a station on the other side of the globe than it is from a station here in the country. Even without understanding the language you can easily navigate to the web media coverage on the foreign media provider. Try to do that with one our stations here and you'll subject yourself to tons of pop-ups, commercials, extra plug ins, and what-ever else process interruptions they can throw at you.

Though the recent news from Microsoft and the CA Browser forum leaves me shocked and almost speechless, now is no time to remain silent. This time, Microsoft is wrong.

Microsoft is soon implementing a new feature in IE 7 (Internet Explorer Browser v. 7), that will "attempt" to give its end users a better feeling of personal online security. I think we should all take a look at what they are doing, and why they are doing it.

What is Microsoft doing?
Coming soon to an IE browser near you, is a little security patch from Microsoft. This patch will update your MS browser to include all kinds of fancy functionality to recognize the new EV SSL (Extended Validation SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. Now if that last sentence sounds like it was written in Mandarin Chinese, stay with me - I'll explain.

Internet sites install an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) on their site to make your data transactions secure. When you are on a site and the address (URL) starts with "HTTPS", that means you are on a site that has proactively applied and paid for the installation of an SSL certificate. This means the people that own the site care about your personal online security and they are processing the information that you submit through various web forms over a secure connection. To the end user, it's one letter (S), but if "S" comes after "HTTP", that one letter makes a big difference. It means encryption. It means secure data transfer. It means your form submission is safe (the actual data transaction). But that isn't enough for Microsoft anymore - hence the reason why they are on board to invent a new level of security. They have decided that SSL isn't good enough anymore, and the whole world now needs EV SSL. And when their IE 7 sees an EV SSL, it will turn the address bar green, which to Microsoft means "safe". How thoughtful of them.

These efforts to enhance user safety and security are BADLY misguided.

Why is Microsoft is doing this?
The rise online fraud? Identity theft? Phishing scams? You bet. Phishing is the problem most commonly sited. After all, Phishing is a one of the easiest ways for crooks to obtain sensitive and personal information from someone.

So let's all agree together that this is a problem. It's a big problem, and it needs a solution. Microsoft says EV SSL is the solution. But I say that is no more a solution to phishing and online safety than wearing a second condom is to safe sex. What?!? What was that? Yes. Safe sex. That's essentially what we're hearing from Microsoft and their partners. According to Microsoft, an SSL (read "1 condom") isn't good enough, so we need an EV SSL (read "additional, more expensive 2nd condom") to make the transaction safe.

Question:
What has happened over time concerning safe sex? Think back to the 80's with the rising concern of AIDS. Take it to the 90's when hundreds of other STD's were found to exist. How about here in the new millennium where experts say that most people with an STD, don't even know they have one. What have we learned as a culture? Well, we learned that we can invent all the tricks, pills, products, patches, shots, condoms, and caps we want... but in the end, education is key. Isn't that where we are at with the whole safe sex thing? Education? That is the primary concern now.

EV SSL is nothing but a second condom. And as such it is being pitched as the solution to make internet users safer. Sure it's more expensive and it's harder to apply for. As of now, only incorporated entities can apply for the EV SSL. As a result, small businesses (sole proprietorships, partnerships, etc... ) are presented with yet another series of hurdles to jump over, only to be followed by a finish line made of expensive red tape.

The introduction and critical mass buy-in of the EV SSL will aid big businesses in edging out their small business competitors. Why? Because small businesses that choose not to incorporate, can't get the EV SSL. The integration of the EV SSL is meant for people to better trust the site their on. But what does it (the EV SSL) actually do? Well, other than turning the address bar green in IE 7, not much. Oh wait, it will attach the name of the incorporated entity to the address in URL bar. Well I'm sure we'll all feel much safer now. Big business gets the edge, my address bar turns green, and I feel safer. Whew, thanks for that.

Oh I apologize, but we must dig deeper.

The EV SSL turns the address bar green, and displays the name of the incorporated identity associated with the site. So this means when you are on a site like www.paypal.com, it might display something like "PayPay, Inc." noted in the URL bar. Now that might give some end users a slightly heightened feeling of warm and fuzzy, but their transaction is no safer now, than it was with the traditional SSL.

Back to Education
I'm going to preach loud and proud here that educating internet users and businesses is a far better agenda than inventing a new certificate. So that leads me to this question: whom do we educate, and what should the curriculum include?

First, educate the users. We all learn the basics of public transportation laws and automobile operation before we drive don't we? So shouldn't we then learn a little about the internet before racing around and submitting our SS number and credit card information online? Of course! If you are going to buy something, you should see the "HTTPS" in the address bar, and you should recognize the address in URL. Example: If you get an email "from" PayPal to update your information, then by clicking the link provided you are taken to a site where the URL address bar reads...

http://secur.x43.zible.ju/paypal

...should you continue? No! Where's the HTTPS? And even if it was there, what in the world is "secur.x43.zible.ju"? "Ju" is the domain extension, and what is that? "zible.ju" is the domain name, and what is that? This is the typical approach of phishing. They'll make a site "look" just like what you're expecting, but they can't trick you out of where you actually are in cyberspace. Read and recognize the address bar! ! !

Second, educate the businesses. The problems that businesses open themselves up to, far exceedingly dwarf the severity of individual phishing scams, and/or any scam aimed at the individual internet user. What's that, you need real world examples? I'm glad you asked.

Boeing Laptop Stolen
Personal data, including social security numbers for 382,000 workers were among the contents of the stolen laptop. Question: Why was that data locally stored on a laptop? Why wasn't that data encrypted? Why did similar events happen again and again to the same company? Only a month earlier, 160,000 workers personal data was compromised. Proper data collection techniques might have proved to be useful to Boeing. I would think that a little education for the technology department should be on the next P.O.

Veterans Affairs - Hard Disk Stolen
26 Million personal data records exposed. I'm not going to ask the same questions again.

Data Breach at UCLA
800,000 users' personal data exposed

Starbucks Laptop Lost
60,000 records of personal data at risk.

GE Loses Laptop
50,000 Employees and retirees records at risk

I promise you, the list goes on and on. But let me ask you. Where is the problem? Is a new brand of SSL certificates going to fix the security threats of today? Should we burden businesses to make already secure transactions a little more secure, when the data transaction isn't actually the problem? I would think the most immediate need would be user education and the improvement of big business technology practices.

In 2005, 84% of the people polled in a Forrester Research study said they don't think retailers are doing enough to protect their customers online and 24% did not make purchases online due to security concerns.

Is the problem in the transaction, or is the problem in the data collection? Do you think these people in the poll are worried about their data transaction or the security of their data after the transaction? SSL technology exclusively protects the data transaction, not the collection and storage. We already have a solution to protecting data transactions, it's called SSL.

The EV SSL is a solution where only Microsoft and their partners will benefit from the integration of it. The introduction of the EV SSL is nothing but a scam. Microsoft is trying to gain market share in the browser market and the Certificate Authorities will be charging all their customers over 300% more ($400 SSL to $1300 EV SSL ~ Verisign) for the same security. The problem and the solution simply don't match up.

Further Reading
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/26081
http://blogs.msdn.com

I ran across an interesting situation involving my pay-per-click ads and the new user tracking system I use.

A user from Riverside, California went to Ask.com and searched the phrase [ watch a "woman giving birth" online free ]. Hmmm, interesting.... I won't even elaborate my thoughts on that query. Where the situation goes from really strange to completely questionable is when the Easy Tithe ad comes up at the top?!?!? To make matters worse, the user clicked the Easy Tithe ad!?!?

So let me get this straight.... Some dude (or dudette) wants to watch a video of a woman giving birth for free.... And decides to click on an ad result that speaks directly to online giving for churches, site integration, $0 start up and what not. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that is one heck of a mismatch on search and click.... and just as much as a mismatch for search and ad placement. I have a real hard time figuring out what online giving for churches has even the slightest bit in common with watching a woman give birth online.... for free?!?!?!

And further more.... Ask.com's commercials boast how their search is better than Google, and how their results are more intuitive and bla bla bla whatever. The very fact that the Easy Tithe ad appears for that most unique search query only leads me to believe that Ask.com uses Google for their sponsored ads? Hmmm... there's something strange about the whole situation of: We're better than Google, because we are smarter, and Google is our competition, but we feed them millions of dollars by depending on them for sponsored search ad results.

None of this is making sense to me.

One of the things I love about the internet is its ability to keep organizations accountable. Throughout my college years, my friends and I took pretty well to the McDonalds Monopoly game and marketing campaign. Just between a few of us, we were able to eat at McDonalds and quickly accumulate more than 100 Monopoly game pieces. The sad news is that we never won anything. We were always hopeful, but never victorious.

Fast forward to 1999. As I was further developing my web developing skills (sounds funny I know), I decided to put a little website together to get to the bottom of the whole McDonalds Monopoly thing; the thing about how I never won, never knew anybody who won, and never heard of anyone winning. I built a tiny little website that allowed people to simply post who they were and what Monopoly game pieces they had acquired. Ahhh, the beauty of the internet. Over the fall of 1999 when the game was being promoted for that year, over 140 people logged in and posted their pieces. As I expected, even with a pool of over 1000 Monopoly game pieces, there were no matching sets to produce any of the grand prizes. Shocking I know.

Now, I am fully aware that a 21-million dollar fraud was eventually uncovered, and McDonalds did "everything" they could to right the wrongs. They passed out a couple prizes, settled out of court, and 51 people were indicted who were behind the scenes of the fraud. (Clap clap clap... hooray for them... I'm so happy.... but where's my PT Cruiser?) Google: McDonalds Monopoly Fraud

New Year, New Game.

It's Monopoly time again, and as such, I have built another bulletin board so all who play can post their pieces.

Continue to the McDonalds Monopoly Bulletin Board

I love it when the entrepreneurial culture of America starts running out of real words. As a result we get words like Wii, Woooo, Zune, or most notably Google. These names are the result of a scenario that plays out probably a thousand times a day.

Person "A" is starting business "B" names it "C" and needs a domain name "D" to build a website. To quote Tommy Boy, "I've seen it a hundred times."

We sure seem to be running out of domain names these days aren't we? You can pretty much mash your hands on the keyboard, then type ".com" after it, and sure enough, there's a website there.

Stay with me... I'm going to make a point eventually here, and I think it is worth considering.

So let's run a little exercise and test that noggin of yours. In this example, you are starting a business. Can you put these general steps in the right order?

____ Establish funding
____ Write a business plan
____ Obtain a DBA from the County Clerk
____ Determine the proper business entity type
____ Learn that you can't actually get that SBA loan you wanted
____ Buy the best suited domain name
____ Conduct relative market research
____ Register/Copyright your Marks, Tags, Name
____ Contact The Murph Group to build a legendary, most stunning, head-turning, value-producing, traffic-garnering internet presence
____ Obtain federal EIN
____ Choose a bank to hold your larger-than-life profits

Go ahead and mentally put those in order. I would tell you there are no wrong answers, but that just isn't the case. What is step one? Which one should you consider first? If you answered "Buy the best suited domain name", then run to the kitchen and grab yourself a cookie, sing yourself a song of celebration, and enjoy your rightness. With that said, here is my advice on domain names:

Buy first, ask questions later

Buying a domain name is easier than buying a gallon of milk. You typically have to drive somewhere, walk around a store, and lug the jug back to the counter to buy milk. You can buy a domain name in less than 1 minute, and you don't even have to go anywhere (see Google: buy domain).

If you and your partners decide to name your new business the "Purple Paper Clip", stop what you are doing and buy "purplepaperclip.com" right now (which at the time of this post, is shockingly still available). Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. It costs you less than ten dollars to hold onto the domain for a year. Do not sit there and consider any of the following:
- Will people like it
- Will people misspell it
- Will our name offend people in other countries
- Who's Will (I threw that in for you Airplane movie lovers)
- Should we wait until we hear back from the US Copyright Office
- Let's wait to receive our Articles of Incorporation
- Let's wait until we have our funding;
- Let's wait until we actually know what we are doing.

Don't make me drive over to your place of residence to slap you with the stupid stick. Those are all very bad things to even think about before buying a domain name that you might potentially use and market. Buy first, think later. If you buy a domain name and wind up not using it.... wow.... you're out 10 bucks. Hopefully that won't sink your operation. If you drag your feet on this and delay the purchase of your domain name, then chances are it won't be available any more and you will be forced to three options:
1. Buy it from the owner for a price tag TBD, most certainly more than $10.
2. Choose an alternate, less desirable domain name
3. Try to enforce the Anti Cybersquatting Consumer Protection act. (good luck with that).

In closing, I hope you can see that it makes perfect sense to buy first, and ask questions later. Under no circumstance, should you delay the purchase of a domain name. Well... I suppose if the rapture occurs and you are still here, then perhaps delay all you want... you'll probably have bigger fish to fry... with the whole Armageddon, tribulation, hell-on-earth thing. But other than that, do not delay.

1. Writing a sentence or an entire paragraph in all capital letters does not add emphasis; it just makes it a lot harder to read.

2. Displaying an image that encompasses the drop-shadow, bevel, inner/outer glow, and the stroke... all in the same image... does not tell the user that they are looking at a professionally produced image, it just tells them someone just acquired Photoshop for the first time and went crazy in the effects section.

3. Hits really don't mean anything. Advertising that a site receives x-million hits is not only misleading, but it is a terrible use of data. Remember: information consists of helpful data..... not just data. You might try and report actual information. You know... sessions, visitors, unique visitors... stuff like that. It actually carries water.

4. Black on white is easy to read... white on black is not. I'm not trying to be racial or anything.... just delivering the facts.

5. Displaying "As Seen on TV" doesn't really help a reputation. Anyone with an IQ over 25 should take caution when that phrase is used.

6. Displaying "under construction" is not a good idea for about a thousand reasons. There's no time to go through all 1000, but here's a couple. It could mean that you publish unfinished work for the whole world to see. It could mean you don't have actually have a plan. It could mean you're stuck in 1995 and can't find your way out? If so, call AOL and sign up for dial up service.

7. "Coming soon" is almost as bad as "Under Construction". Though "coming soon" can occasionally be helpful if you are building a buzz about something.... and assuming that soon actually means soon.

8. Busy backgrounds are like digital headaches.

9. Using all kinds of color on varying sized text written in multiple font styles should only be the product of a novice web developer under the influence of heavy narcotics. ...and that's still not an acceptable excuse. Frankly, there are no excuses for failing at font consistency. If your body copy is in Times New Roman, and the rest of the site (navigation, headers, footers) uses Tahoma ... call the police and tell them to lock you up. You can't be trusted behind a keyboard.

10. The Flash Splash Page - Please. Pretty please with cherries on top. Please in the name of all that is good and holy and worthy of the web... please delete the useless animated splash page. The page is a nuisance nine times out of... nine. That little skip button might get you out of jail, but you're still on probation. The best action plan is loose it... forever.... and never turn back... be strong... you'll learn to move on without it.

The term Web 2.0 reminds me of the word eBusiness. But at the same time it also reminds me of the words Jet Ski, Coke, Kleenex, and the like. The point? People will use words in context however they want to, even when the true definition doesn't suit the need. The use of the word naturally becomes more frequent as it reaches the coveted "buzz word" status. This is mainly because the use of the word can make the author (or speaker) sound more intelligent, up-to-date, or like they are virtually living and operating on the razor's edge of technology.

Web 2.0, like eBusiness (may it rest in peace), is an emergent word that turns heads. The word will come and go just like Vanilla Ice and Y2K. But for the time being, the phrase will find its way into marketing pitches and many people will use the word and give themselves a virtual pat on the back for sounding cool and credible.

I must say that it does drive me crazy when the phrase is used in the context of visual design. Web 2.0 sites are all about web based service offerings, not design trends. They are about usability, not bold colors, white space and bigger text boxes. You may argue that there are common design elements across many web 2.0 sites, but really that just means that we are finally getting to a phase of functionality driven (or purpose driven) designs, and moving away from design driven functionality. Bottom line, keeping "functionality first" is something that is long overdue for the web world. But know that "functionality first" includes the site's scope for content. After all, getting a user to the appropriate content is a matter of functionality and navigational flow. Content is King, and always should be. Think of functionality as the King's cabinet (or the knights who carry out the King's wishes). Design in the merely the house they live in.

If I most go on... what makes a potentially great site magically terrible is when design elements drive navigation concepts and functionality. Hear me now; that is backwards. That would be like hiring a landscaping company to give your front yard a make over, and never showing the landscapers the yard. Items like the size of the yard, amount of grass, location of the driveway, sidewalk, and existing trees, might prove to be useful before blindly marrying into a landscape concept.

In closing, we should all let Web 2.0 be what it is. It's a term to encompass the natural evolution of the internet towards using the web as a platform. Concepts such user importance, stickyness, and building for mass scalability are all part of the party, but the whole world need not throw around the term like it's the latest lyric in a popular song.

How do we make our blogs better? I pose this question because I've already digested Jakob Nielsen's "Top Ten Blog Mistakes" and Brian Bailey's "Building a Better Blog", and I am thirsty for more. When I started blogging, I simply copied everything that Brian and Terry did and worked from there. But what now? I see a lot of bloggers come and go... and I am still here which might suggest that I actually enjoy it and am passionate about it. So there is no doubt that I am anxious for the next wave of "do it better" ideas. Thankfully, my blog looks (and acts) nothing like Brian and Terry's anymore (not that that's bad), meaning I've nestled into my own blogging identity over time... which is bound to happen to anyone bearing any hint of uniqueness.

James Reggio got me thinking this morning with his Quality vs. Quantity post, and it reminded me of some of the popular better blogging concepts. I'm not sure who said it, but my favorite nugget of blogging advice goes something like this:

The calendar as a method of navigation has got to be the coolest yet most worthless and non-usable piece of functionality in the world.

I laugh at that every time I think about it. But all joking aside, if you have any new revelations on making blogs better.... speak up... and be a part of the Better Blogging Bureau.

1. Bonus points to whoever spots the Seinfeld reference in this post
2. The Better Blogging Bureau is not a real organization and has no real governance over the blogging community and is fore mentioned only in a hopeless effort to promote creative juices in those with the capacity for creativity. (read in your best, post- infomercial disclaimer voice)