NVI blog: SEO, web design and social media

I’m both impressed and frightened when I see brick and mortar businesses asking their patrons to check them out on Facebook, but I do believe that whether it be QR codes or Google Goggles, we’re just scratching the surface of the mixing of online and offline worlds and the (most welcome) end of the designation [...]

Imagine two libraries competing to house the world’s knowledge. People from across the land contribute their own volumes towards the growth of these institutions, and while there is a rivalry, in truth, everybody wins.
Then one of the libraries acquires the other, and strangely decides to burn their original building to the ground, without moving [...]

Google recently launched their +1 button, rightly considered by most to be a close mirror of Facebook’s ‘Like’ Button. This gives the atypical impression of Google following in another company’s footsteps, but we can see a social interaction with web pages as being an inevitable step forward, and as such, following suit with something ‘like’ish [...]

This afternoon, I delivered a session at Podcamp Toronto 2011 called Drinking Kool-Aid, Peeing Snake-Oil. This presentation was the product of bookmarking some of the most interesting stats I’ve come across over the last 6 months.
Essentially, this presentation is slide after slide of stats on how search, social media, and online advertising has evolved and [...]

The following are a set of drinking games for anyone to play, with some extra games specifically for SEOs. Since many rely on search suggestion, and since search suggestions are customized to users’ past searches, make sure you’re not signed in under any Google account when you begin the game.
For each round, winning can mean [...]

In a capitalist economy, individual prosperity is measured by individual wealth accumulation. Communal prosperity (the health of the system) is measured by communal wealth accumulation and currency changing hands — i.e. cash flowing frequently and in legitimate, natural ways.
In the pagerank economy, individual prosperity is measured by individual pagerank accumulation. Communal prosperity (the [...]

When it comes to net neutrality, Google’s position has shifted rather considerably over the last five or so years. What was an initial CEO declaration of fighting the good fight has devolved into a compromise with Verizon.
Google would probably stand by their organic, unpaid listing as in the spirit of an open web. But is [...]

This is an interview with Andrew Currie, blogger at OpenAttitude.com. In this clip Andrew discusses some recent trends mobile technologies.
For Andrew, the significance of mobile lies in its personal experience — not only in how we customize our phones and apps, but in how they become part of our physical daily experience. Andrew also shares [...]

Last fall, I attended the Oxford Social Media Convention 2009, where Technorati founder Dave Sifry proudly announced that SEO is snake oil, and that if anyone in the audience was approached by someone offering SEO, they should run. The audience chuckled and moved on. I think I must have been the only optimizer listening, because [...]

With the end of one year and the beginning of a new one, there are always so many top 5 and top 10 lists, as well as predictions for the year to come. Well, Deloitte Canada is holding a contest where participants make a technology, media, or telecommunication prediction for 2010 by submitting a 90 [...]